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Hi everyone,

Hope you are all having a good week! I got my covid booster this week, still having a bit of a sore arm and feeling a little run down, but not too bad. Been doing my Mab's Drawlloween Art, so keeping busy.

This week I finished:

A Marvellous Light- Read this for an online book club. I liked it quite a bit, sort of historical fantasy mystery romance. I will warn, it has a LOT of not-closed-door spice for those who aren't into that.

Mika in Real Life - My IRL books and brew club pick. I was kind of on the fence in this one. It was an easy read, easy to get through. But Deliberate false identity/fake life/lies type plots really give me secondhand anxiety. I kept putting the book down going "that's a dumb plan, stop that's not going to work. This is going to blow up in your face." There were a few other things that bothered me as well. That being said, I did like the relationships between Mika and Penny and THomas, as well as her friendships.

Lessons in Chemistry - I liked listening to this a lot. Was very engaging. That being said, it kind of felt more like a wish-fulfillment story than an actual historical fiction.

A Restless Truth - The next book in the Last binding Trilogy , sequel to A Marvellous Light. I liked this one quite a bit too, once again quite a big of open-door spice if that is not people's cup of tea. The last book is out in early november, I already have a hold on it in my library although I'm #9 so it might be a while. Maybe my library will decide to get additional digital copies, or some people will skip their place in line.

Currently reading:

I just finished A Restless Truth so I haven't really started anything, but The Weaver and the Witch Queen is next up.

For audio I am doing The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It's ok. I got recommended it with glowing recommendations, and several people on my list gave it 5 stars, so I'm not sure if it's just a lackluster reader or what. But I keep finding my attention wandering, or dozing off while listening to it. Lessons in Chemistry featured rowing so I thought it'd be a nice segue into this.

QOTW:

Borrowing from popsugar again: Are there any books in particular that you still intend to read before the end of 2023?

I still have a few new releases coming up I hope to get in. Bookshops & Bonedust, Stealing from Wizards: Volume 3: Kidnapping, System Collapse are probably at the top of the list. The aforementioned Last Binding book too, but if i'm 9 on the hold list, not sure I'll get it before end of year or not, that might be a first book of the new year sort of deal.

I had a pretty busy week but am now on vacation! Time to read a lot of books and try not to think about what it will be like when I go back.

Braiding Sweetgrass - This was probably worth reading, but I have to say I liked Gathering Moss better, not necessarily because it is the better book, but because I am personally more interested in learning new things about nature than in meditations on motherhood or reclaiming Native identity. (Also I like moss.) I recognize I am likely in the minority here.

What Moves the Dead - I read this under my working assumption that I like T. Kingfisher when I like the source material. The answer to the title is pretty obvious from the cover art, and the first page of the book basically confirms it. There are parallels to Mexican Gothic, which are acknowledged in the author's note where she says she'd written a significant amount of this book before reading that one, so I guess it's one of those "must've been in the zeitgeist" coincidences. I felt there were also some Dracula parallels: a beautiful woman being slowly drained of life, a motley bunch of people with diverse skills coming together to fight back, the reader wanting to scream at them about what's obviously going on... I give Dracula more of a pass on that, on the assumption that it's more obvious now only because the book itself brought its vampire lore into the culture. This book is just obvious.

I don't normally post about reading in progress, but this year I have access to A Night in the Lonesome October and am doing the one chapter a day thing (except I already messed it up, because I went to check it out on the 1st and the library Hoopla limit had already been reached, so it's a "more or less" sort of thing). So far the chapters are very short, so it feels very slow.

QOTW: Stealing from Wizards here as well, and then I have a couple things picked out for Native American Heritage Month, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's Eve.

A Night in the Lonesome October picks up after the first few chapters, don't worry! :)

My two finishes this week were both outside of my usual genres - Fortune by Ellen Won Steil was a free Kindle First download, and it was just ok. Intriguing premise that got way too complicated and improbable. It was a first novel and you could tell.

The other was The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni. This was a three-star read - enjoyable, didn't rock my world but it was fun. If you liked The DaVinci Code, you'll like this - it was very similar, and in fact the author cites it as a major influence in her acknowledgements.

QotW: I'm waiting for the next October Daye book, which I've pre-ordered and should be out in a few weeks. I have some other random books lined up but I tend not to plan my reading too far in advance because I'm such a mood reader.

Finished:
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - 3.5 stars. I enjoyed the stories overall. I don't know if it's the translation, but the stories are told in a very sparse style that was a little hard to connect to.

Comics & manga:
Shortcake Cake, Vol. 11
Shortcake Cake, Vol. 12

Currently reading:
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford - I've already cried once during this.

Upcoming/Planned:
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

QOTW:
Definitely Starling House, since I have it from the library.
Also looking forward to Bookshops & Bonedust and System Collapse in November.
Aside from those and some new manga volumes, I'm just going with my mood and what the library-hold gods give me for the rest of the year. :)