books

Finished reading The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. I loved this series; I don’t know if “cozy sci-fi” is a genre, but this would anchor it. Lots of explorations of family and community.

Finished rereading Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer, the second book of the series.

Interesting: When I started rereading the first book, I had forgotten most of it, but it came back to me as I was reading it. This book, though, I felt like there were whole chapters I was reading for the first time. Really enjoyed it, though! She undercut her “I am writing about only the best people” shtick at the end — a little later than I’d’ve liked, but I’ll take it. Looking forward to book three.

Finished rereading Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. Still has off-putting elements, but I’m charging ahead to the next book.

Musing about what it would take to turn the long walk journal into a print-on-demand book.

Finished God Cancer by Greg Stolze. I didn’t know I was looking for a short horror novel mashup of Lovecraft (At the Mountains of Madness–style) and cancer, but I sure was.

Finished A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine. A satisfying sequel to her first, not flawless but still very well executed.

Finished Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Short and unsettling and very, very good.

At the moment, this is what my notional stack of books looks like:

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
• The Will to Battle (but do I first need to reread the previous two books?) by Ada Palmer
• The Elusive Shift by Jon Peterson
• The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford

Interspersed in there are Web Typography by Richard Ritter, and various RPG books.

(Really, though, anything past the second is purely speculative, and even the first two aren’t locked down yet.)

Finished reading Cuisine & Empire by Rachel Laudan, a Christmas gift. Fascinating look at how ingredients, cooking techniques, and culinary philosophies have changed and spread over the millennia.

Got sucked into Ancillary Justice, and then reread Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy in short order. A couple thoughts:

• Of course the books are a criticism of imperialism and oppression, and a subversion of gender normativity. But Leckie also writes what strike me as neuro-atypical characters as well (Breq here, but possibly also one of the main characters in The Raven Tower).
• By the end of the series, I had grown tired of Breq’s near-omnicompetence.

Anyway, I finally got back to The End of Policing last night.

For years I’ve only read one book at a time. I’ve recently started alternating between two — one important, one fun. So, also currently rereading Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.

Now starting The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale.

Finished reading A Memory Called Empire. First impression confirmed; it felt more like Leckie’s and Chambers’s second or third books than their firsts. That’s a strong recommendation.

Recently started reading A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. First impression is that it sits somewhere between Ann Leckie and Becky Chambers.

Finished reading How to Be an Antiracist. It feels like more of a primer than a deep dive, but it’s carefully structured and methodical, and I’m sure I’ll be thinking about it a lot. I hope I put some of what I read into action.