I’m currently reading Sword and Citadel, which is an omnibus of two books by Gene Wolfe; The Sword of the Lictor and The Citadel of the Autarch. They are the 3rd and 4th books in his series the Book of the New Sun.

It tells the odyssey of a man named Severian, traveling a world which is very old, very new, and utterly strange, on an evolving spiritual quest surrounding a mythical figure called the Conciliator. It’s a dense book, and the way Gene Wolfe writes makes you feel like the text is undulating in your hands while you read it, so a passage you read a moment ago may have shifted since you last read it. Not unlike the way you can feel a snake move when you hold it. It’s steeped in biblical and historical references, has wildly imaginative fantasy and strange-technology elements, and while I have needed to regularly look up a lot of new words, it’s been a fascinating adventure.

The Immune Mind by Dr Marty Lymon, about how the nervous system and Immune system work in concert to keep us healthy.

What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher. Just started, so no opinion yet, but I loved The Hollow Places.

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania. What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves. Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.

And I needed a physical book to read on the beach, so I’ve also just started All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld, and I’m really impressed by the prose so far.

Jake Whyte is living on her own in an old farmhouse on a craggy British island, a place of ceaseless rains and battering winds. Her disobedient collie, Dog, and a flock of sheep are her sole companions, which is how she wanted it to be. But every few nights something—or someone—picks off one of the sheep and sets off a new deep pulse of terror. There are foxes in the woods, a strange boy and a strange man, rumors of an obscure, formidable beast. But there is also Jake’s past—hidden thousands of miles away and years ago, held in the silences about her family and the scars that stripe her back—a past that threatens to break into the present.

I just finished Susannah Cornwall’s Constructive Theology and Gender Variance: Transformative Creatures. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/121678665-constructive-theology-and-gender-variance

Along a similar vein, now I’m reading Linn Marie Tonstad’s Queer Theology: Beyond Apologetics. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41114054-queer-theology

Just started “The Ottomans” by Baer: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/22/the-ottomans-by-marc-david-baer-review-when-east-mixed-with-west

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

I’m trying to read more non-fiction this year however I wouldn’t consider myself a history buff by any means but this book has me hooked. Like I kinda knew but I also live in the United States so I’ve been so removed from anything like this my whole life. It’s wild how 1984 it actually is.

Not a big novel reader myself but I grabbed Dune oft my shelf after it sit for over a year. Gotitt in Christmas 2023.

I’m taking a break from reading Mad Hatters and March Hares to read Persuasion, since I just watched the movie 2 days ago.

I really like the idea of short stories, and loved reading them as a kid–but as an adult I struggle with them. Getting into a new story before I’m invested in the characters is the slowest/most effortful part of reading for me, so anthologies feel like continually trying to restart a car when the engine keeps turning off. And when the stories are good, I’m usually annoyed that there isn’t more about those characters or in that world (but standalone novels don’t normally evoke that response and I don’t know why).

I’m considering picking another book for my “Judge a book by its cover” square, since The Tangled Lands is also an anthology.

Just finished Let Me In, by Claire McGowan. I found it very nicely written, a good page turner for my vacation week.

Now started something completely different, a non-fiction science popularization book: How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch, by Harry Cliff. Popularization on particle physics. As of now, I find it very nice with large historical background and clear explanations.

Just finished a re-“read” of Neuromancer by William Gibson, audiobook form this time. I hated the way the reader performed, especially his shitty attempt at a Jamaican dialect for the Zionite characters. Book still rules though.

Now I’m onto How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, read by the author. Picked it up in physical form last month but never got to it. The audiobook is based on the paperback version, with edits and notes that are helpful and further enlightening. Great stuff.

I read about 3 chapters of “Infinite Jest” by Wallace and put it down. Maybe someday. So I just finished “The fire next time” by Baldwin instead.

I’m continuing on Let This Radicalize You which is full of great hands-on practical “right now” tales and advice on creating the change you want to see in the world. It’s so recent yet still reads like a million years away before the second Trump term and such. But it’s solid although very detailed in its recounts of mutual aid stories, sometimes a bit needlessly I thought, but I’m already radicalized in a way so I guess some people might still need these horror stories of state abuse in such realistic grim detail.

Just finished ADD Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life. Pretty good, there are better books but it’s a good addition to the better books.

Reading Managing Neuro Diverse Workplaces and Wind and Truth. I thought I was falling out of love with Brandon Sandersons work but this book has me back in, hook line and sinker.

• The City & the City by China Miéville
• Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I kinda hate Children of Time.

The City & the City is amazing, however. If you like Disco Elysium, I highly recommend reading China Miéville.

Listening to “The Republic of Thieves” by Scott Lynch for the second time. Just started reading “Artemis” by Andy Weir for the first.

I’m reading Neuromancer in anticipation of the Apple TV series. I’m impressed with Gibson’s writing. It’s quite a stylistic change from the last book I read (Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindvquist).