Livre d'Or

Recently read: The pomegranate gate by Ariel Kaplan. (c) 2023 Ariel Kaplan; pub Solaris 2023; ISBN 978-1-78618-824-3. Someone around DW recommended it and it really sounded like my sort of book, so I put it on my wishlist and it showed up as a late December present. It is gorgeously written and original, but ultimately quite depressing.

( detailed review, very generic spoilers )

Currently reading: Menewood by Nicola Griffith. Long-awaited sequel to Hild, which I absolutely adored. hatam_soferet lent it to me so I didn't have to wait for it to be officially released in the UK. So far I'm not loving it quite as much as the first volume, but equally I have devoured more than half the 700 page tome in about a day.

Up next: I got lots of books as Seder presents as usual. I think the one I'm most excited about is The last watchman of old Cairo by Michael David Lukas.

Recently read (Actually on holiday a couple of weeks ago, so not very recent, but I'm disorganized about updating.) Being seen by Elsa Sjunneson. (c)2021 Elsa Sjunneson; pub 2022 Simon Element; ISBN 978-1-9821-5240-6

Lots of people had really strongly recommended it so I put it on my wishlist and lovely cjwatson bought it for me. And I packed it for my travels the other week, and it's not exactly holiday reading because it's quite depressing, but it's also incredibly readable so I devoured it and then ran out of reading material. Oh well. On balance I'm glad I did make time for it.

( detailed review )

Currently reading The Archimedes Codex by Reviel Netz & William Noel. This was a loan from hatam_soferet, it's a non-fiction account of how a lost manuscript of Aristotle was recovered from a palimpsest. The writing is not the most amazing and sparkling ever, but the subject matter is really interesting and I'm getting on well with it.

I'm on a non-fiction kick, which is good because I really do need to start seriously tackling my pre-college reading list. So up next is probably something along the lines of The way into Jewish prayer by LA Hoffman.

Recently read Well, recently-ish, last couple of months, anyway.

The Orchard by Yochi Brandes. (c) 2011 Yochi Brandes, translated Daniel Libenson, Pub Gefen Publishing House 2017, ISBN 978-965-229-930-7. This was recommended by TheRaDR whose online Torah seminar I've been following. I gave it to cjwatson for chanukah and after he read it he wanted to talk about it, which is always a good sign, so I borrowed it back.

The Orchard is a novelized biography of R' Akiva. It has some very interesting positions on the creation of post-Temple rabbinic Judaism, it's not perfect but it's cool that it exists.

( The Orchard )

your blue-eyed boys by lalaietha. I read this because I was away for a week during the extreme heatwave, and I hadn't brought many books with me because I intended to do fun tourist things but then it turned out it was too hot to do anything except sit on the beach and read. Thanks to sfred for reminding me about this series.

YBEB is basically fic of Captain America: The Winter Solider written by someone who knows quite a lot about trauma recovery. Lots of my friends are huge fans of the series, and I procrastinated on reading it because although I admire Feather's writing a lot, I am really uninterested in MCU. Anyway, yes, this is just as good as everybody says it is, I really love the characterization, and the commitment to taking the 'hurt' part of hurt/comfort seriously, and there's great snark and banter and it's really pacey and the sex scenes are as well written as the rest of it. I read all the main storyline up to the absolutely brilliant ending of daylight could be so violent. So yes, really glad I did get round to reading this after all.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. (c) 2021 Xi Ran Zhao, Pub Rock The Boat 2022, ISBN 978-0-86154-209-3. This was a present from ghoti_mhic_uait and I'd heard lots of big hype, and was excited to get to it. It's definitely unputdownable, but in the end I concluded that it's id-fic for someone with a very different id from mine.

( Iron Widow )

Borne by Jeff Vandermeer. (c) 2017 VanderMeer Creative Inc, Pub 4th Estate 2017, ISBN 978-0-00-815917-7. I received Borne in a book-swap organized by ghoti_mhic_uait a few years ago, and kept being put off reading it because the setting is very crapsack world post-apocalypse. But when I did in fact sit down and read all the way through on a long train journey, I was glad I did, and I feel that the book-swap achieved its aim of bringing something to my attention that I wouldn't have picked up spontaneously.

( Borne )

I'm happily working my way through this year's stash of Chanukah / birthday / Christmas presents

Recently(ish) read:

City of Brass by SA Chakraborty. (c) SA Chakraborty 2017, pub 2018 Harper Voyager, ISBN 978-0-00-823942-8. cjwatson, who is very enthusiastic about the series, gave me this. It's very much my sort of book, high fantasy in an original setting, and I found it quite unputdownable though I didn't like the central romance.

( detailed review )

Anyway, CoB is good, I can see what the hype is about, and I'm probably going to look out for the rest of the trilogy,

Rashi's daughters I: Joheved by Maggie Anton. (c) Maggie Anton 2005; pub 2007 Plume; ISBN 978-0-452-28862-1. So my little sister found this trilogy for me and correctly identified it as the most Liv-bait book it's possible to write.

( detailed review )

That aside, this book is absolutely perfect id-fic for me, even though I don't on the whole like historical romance as a genre. I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy, and much impressed with my sister for predicting my tastes so well.

Currently reading: The order of time by Carlo Rovelli. This is a slim, very poetic popular physics book, recommended to me by an English professor, so I put it on my wishlist and was duly gifted it.

Up next: The song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Another present.

Recently read: A couple of sequels to brilliant books which are both good but not quite as brilliant.

Aru Shah and the Song of Death by Roshani Chokshi. Pub Rick Riordan Presents 2020. I borrowed this from Judith and have now returned it to her so don't have the full details. Anyway, it's a worthy sequel to Aru Shah and the End of Time even if not quite at that level.

( detailed review )

A desolation called peace by Arkady Martine. (c) AnnaLinden Weller 2021; Pub 2021 Tor; ISBN 978-1529001624.

cjwatson and I managed to both give each other the same book for Pesach. And I finally got round to reading it because I brought it on holiday last week. I loved it but not quiiiiite as much as A memory called empire

( detailed review )

Recently read A memory called empire by Arkady Martine. (c) AnnaLinden Weller 2019; pub 2020 Tor; ISBN 978-1-5290-0160-0.

Basically everybody who even slightly shares tastes with me has been recommending me this. The rec that tipped me over the edge into actually getting hold of it was a comment by cjwatson that made me think, ah, it's a diaspora book. And then I was grumpy because several of my partners own it in annoying Amazon ebook format that can't easily be lent, and I didn't really want to re-buy it, or faff about breaking DRM and format shifting, but in the end I decided to stop being grumpy and just go out and rebuy it in non-Amazon format.

Anyway, I'm glad I did because A memory called empire is basically pure Liv-bait, and also very good.

Murderbot: Artificial condition by Martha Wells. (c) Martha Wells 2018; Pub 2018 Tor; ISBN 978-1-250-18693-5.

I enjoyed All systems red and I was excited to read the sequel, especially now there's a full-length novel out. This one I read by physically borrowing jack's Kindle, which works well for reading while I do my exercise.

Artificial condition is fun and short, a bit middle-of-trilogy-ish but generally worth reading.

( A memory called empire )

( Artificial Condition )

Currently reading The cooking gene by Michael W Twitty. This is non-fiction by an African-American man (who is also gay and Jewish) tracing his personal roots while investigating the various historical and culinary influences on contemporary African-American soul food. It's really well written and readable, and obviously the subject matter is quite depressing, but I'm finding it pitched in a way that I can learn from.

My only minor complaint is that it's written for an American audience and sometimes he's contradicting a commonly held simplification of history without explaining what it is I'm assumed to believe by default. This is especially an issue with the food history sections, because he'll say, everybody knows [dish I've never heard of].

Up next: My sister sent us a book she thought we'd like, Sea of Rust by C Robert Cargill. It's apparently about post-apocalyptic conflict between robots...

Having missed at least a dozen Wednesdays, let's see if I can catch up with some brief reviews.

Not-so-recently read: ( The boy on the bridge by MR Carey; CN zombies, ableism )

( Normal People by Sally Rooney; passing mention of domestic violence )

( Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach, by Nnm )

Currently reading: King of morning Queen of day by Ian McDonald. This is an early McDonald about fairies in Ireland around the time of the revolution. McDonald is very good at weaving the supernatural into real world history, and countering soppy American takes on Irish mythology.

I'm a bit tempted to DNF the book, though; I've put it down for several weeks and I'm disinclined to restart it. Partly because it is actually three books about three generations of half-fae women, and I didn't quite have the energy to start again with the second protag just when I'd got interested in the first.

And mainly because it is rather too rapey for my tastes. I mean, bad things happen to male characters but they are things like being fooled by scams and losing their wealth and professional reputation. Girls and women get raped by fairies, and it veers a bit too close to the classic horror trope of being punished for being curious about sex, plus the descriptions are unnecessarily detailed.

Up next: Don't know, I'm rather bogged down in KoMQoD so I haven't thought much about the next thing.

Recently read: siderea made a post covering a topic I've been trying to articulate for a while, science fanboys who get all militant in the public sphere about the superior scientific virtue of modern, allopathic medicine over its supposed enemies of woo and superstition.

The focus of the post isn't quite where I would have put it. I don't think the main problem is putting medicine on a pedestal, exactly. And the connected post about pedestalization of teachers and school-based, institutional education I don't agree with nearly so much. But I do very heartily agree that there's a massive problem with rhetoric around science-based medicine. (We usually say "evidence-based medicine" this side of the pond.) Yes, actual medicine which has been rigorously proved to be effective is a thoroughly good idea, and yes, people selling woo and claiming that it's "alternative" medicine do a lot of harm. But there are also real problems in medicine and medical research, some due to error and some due to bias and abuse of power, and both of those classes of problems can be both systematic and individual.

(I would also add that it does a disservice to science to equate "scientific" with, always right and never to be questioned by non-experts. Because that's the opposite of science, that's dogma. The whole point of science is that you change your models in the light of new evidence, and empirical reality, not people who wield authority, is the arbiter of truth.)

Currently reading: Declare by Tim Powers. I'm about 2/3 of the way through, and it's suddenly switched viewpoint from a made-up protagonist to, er, Kim Philby who was an actual historical person. It's also gradually committed to unambiguously being set in a world where the supernatural is real and important in international affairs. I really like the portrayal of djinns, and the setting of a meta Great Game between humanity and the spirit world intertwined with the Cold War between different factions of humans. But it's a bit weird to have a real person as a viewpoint character in this AU. (I didn't mind when Philby was a minor character alongside TE Lawrence and Harold Macmillan.)

Up next: Not sure in terms of fiction, but definitely lots of course-related texts.

Recently read: Spinning silver by Naomi Novik. (c) Temeraire LLC 2018; Pub Pan Books 2019; ISBN 978-1-5098-9903-6

Pretty much all the Hugo reviews have been enthusiastic about this, and two of my partners both told me that I absolutely must read it because it's a fairy tale retelling with Lithuanian Jews. I ended up borrowing jack's Kindle, and reading it fairly fast during a road trip while jack was driving, so that I could return the device to him before he got too deprived of the books he was in the middle of. This is a very inconvenient arrangement and I really ought to figure out Calibre enough to be able to borrow Amazon ebooks.

I was not disappointed, I found Spinning Silver enjoyable and original and atmospheric, if a little superficial in some ways.

( detailed review, some spoilers )

Currently reading: The Storm Keeper's island by Catherine Doyle. I'm really enjoying this so far, the narrative voice which is tight third for an 11yo boy is absolutely gorgeous, just a bit sarcastic, and hilarious in a way that feels age-appropriate. Also lots of evocative descriptions of a magical landscape and of children being children.

Up next: Not sure, maybe Declare by Tim Powers, which has been on my to-read pile for ages and I feel I have energy for something complicated.

So I've just been travelling across half of Europe by train, which gave me lots of opportunity for reading. Thus:

Recently read

• Moonwise by Greer Ilene Gilman, (c) 1991 Greer Ilene Gilman; Pub Roc 1991; ISBN 0-451-45094-9
• Conversations with friends by Sally Rooney, (c)2017 Sally Rooney; Pub Faber & Faber 2017; ISBN 978-0-571-33313-4
• Out of the blue by Sophie Cameron, (c) 2018 Sophie Cameron; Pub Macmillan Children's Books 2018; ISBN 978-1-5098-5317-5
• The comfortable courtesan: Volume 1 by LA Hall (the_comfortable_courtesan), (c)2017 LA Hall; Pub Sleepy Wombatt Press 2017; ISBN 978-1-912481-00-2

( Moonwise )

( Conversations with friends )

( Out of the blue )

( The comfortable courtesan )

Currently reading / up next I haven't actually picked out what I'm going to read next. I'm hoping to borrow a cool YA book Judith read recently, The storm-keeper's island by Catherine Doyle.