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I'm in for 75 and the booklord again.
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Jan 9, 2024 22:54
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Wait, it's February? 1. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman - The most recent Thursday Murder Club. I really enjoy these. 2. The Council of Animals by Nick McDonnell - After the Calamity animals meet to decide the fate of the remaining humans. This wound up pretty mid. It is illustrated though and a very quick read. 3. This is Salvaged by Vauhini Vara - Saw this on a best of '23 list. A collection of short stories, many centered around women, focusing on grief and connections. Generally enjoyed this. 4. The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey - Julie is a 30 something addict scraping rock bottom who also happens to be a sort of ghost buster. People call her in, she exorcises the spirits, often in a very gruesome sort of way. Her former partner has become a big Wall Street d-bag at a shady firm working for the other worldly Proctor, a Lovecraftian demon sort. He's more than willing to throw Julie a job she needs from time to time, but naturally takes all the credit. But, something big is coming that threatens to destroy at the very least all the characters in the story, maybe more. This is the first of a duology. I've seen this sort of thing as campy fun or maybe just a little light. Gruesome is a good word here. There's a lot of blood, teeth, bone shard, flaying, even some tentacles and whatnot in here. It was surprisingly long, but didn't seem draggy to me. It really gives the sense of a deep "world" if you will with more going on than you realize. This was generally good and I'll read the second. 5. The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu - Another 400+ pages here. A spaceport on another world is ruled by the rather repressive Tiger Clan. Power is shared in part by corporate oligarchs and crime bosses. There's poverty, oppressed populace, and bot fights. Our protagonists are a brother and sister from a family who were reputed to be revolutionaries, traitors to Tiger Clan and are under heavy surveillance. This was an interesting one. I liked a lot of it, but there's some big shifts throughout as it transitions from espionage and bot heists to political theory, and finishes with all of it together + a romance. It's not so much the transitions as lack thereof. Just Bam, you're now going to spend 100 pages on the best way to proceed with a revolution if you've got power. 6. Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop - Read this because I enjoyed "At Night All Blood is Black" by Diop a couple years ago. This is about Michel Adanson, who as a young man visited Senegal to research botany. There he hears the story of The Revenant, a woman who returned to Senegal after being sold into slavery. He feels compelled to learn about her and seek her out. As you might imagine there's a lot about French colonialism and slavery. This was good. DurianGray posted:[b]
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Feb 5, 2024 17:59
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Man, totally forgot March, so two months worth here: 7. Exordia by Seth Dickinson - First contact, mil-scifi, big dumb object. Classic sci fi tropes. Here used in the sort of rebuttal to Blind Sight of what if consciousness, and indeed a soul, were not flukes, but inevitable. This was real good! I anticipate it being nominated for things. 8. Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by TL Huchu - The follow up to Library of the Dead, which I kinda forgot I'd read. This was a pretty enjoyable read with a historical treasure hunt playing it's role. 9. The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler - In the future mammoths have been brought back from extinction, but are having a hard time surviving because they don't know how to be mammoths. The premier game warden protecting elephants has her brain scan uploaded (?) into a matriarch mammoth to try to help. This is short and interesting. 10. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez - Because I really enjoyed The Friend by Nunez whenever that won awards some years ago. This is a novel of the lockdown, with an older woman keeping a friends parrot while said friend was stuck in California unable to return. It's meditative, with digressions on all sorts of topics, but particularly writing. Enjoyed this. 11. Blackman's Coffin by Mark de Castrique -A middle east vet recovering from losing a leg to an IED tries to solve a murder mystery, which seems linked to a diary from 1919. The historical mystery twines with the more modern day. Solid read. The protagonist was surly in a good way and it was interesting. I tend to like this sort of deal with historical and present day mysteries linked. 12. A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens by Raul Palma - Hugo Contreras is a widower haunted by guilt and by debt. He works in a botanica often exorcizing spirits, though he is not himself a believer. The debt collector offers to forgive Hugo's debt if he will clear up the entirely nonmetaphorical haunting. Solid read with a lot to say about guilt and debt. 13. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride - This won an award, so I'm assuming it was nominated as part of that process. Set in eastern Pennsylvania, just outside of town. The town used to be mostly Jews, but as more Blacks moved in, many Jews moved off the hill and into town. The overarching narrative here is of these oppressed groups coming together to rescue a kid. It's told primarily through anecdotes, so you may read about a temple meeting that sort of advances part of the narrative, but obliquely. Mainly it's about a disruptive bullfrog. The story goes on and weaves a rich tapestry of the town and its inhabitants. Really liked this one, it's a standout of these 2 months. 14. The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Ann Older- The sequel to Mimicking of Known Successes. A sci-fi, sapphic, murder mystery. These are quick reads with decent mysteries and some philosophy of a post Earth humanity. Good. 15. As She Crawled Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem - Weird satire type thing about a humanities prof whose girlfriend falls in love with a anomaly of physics. A "lack" which initially defined by which particles it "consumed" and which it did not. 16. Burglars Can't Be Choosers by Lawrence Block - Saw this recommended somewhere. It's about a burglar framed for murder who tries to solve the murder, and thus get himself out of hot water. Lightly comedic, decent mystery. My big qualm is that sometimes some evidence is hidden from the reader. I really want to know if I'd have found the correct solution had I gotten the final piece that made it click. Will read more of the series though. 17. Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - The sequel to Gideon the Ninth. Entirely different in tone, though not bereft of memes. Hard to review much otherwise because it feels like spoilers would be needed. Good Read. I'll get to Nona someday. 18. Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan - Set in London in the 90s, a newpaper man named Tom sets out to get the dirty backstory on a horrific child murder. He puts the family of the perpetrator up in a hotel to try and gain the confidence. And her it delved into backstories of family members. It critiques out taste for tragedy in news and lays out that for the most part tragedies are just the result of ordinary human failings. Ben Nevis posted:1. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
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Apr 5, 2024 22:39
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And we're onto May. I'm convinced I lost a book somewhere, but I've no idea what it might have bee. Oh well, read harder I guess. Decent, if unspectacular month. 19. Float Up, Sing Down by Laird Hunt - A set of linked stories exploring the day to day life in a small town. Where they get interesting is sort of revealing the things links and patterns that aren't really talked about so much. It's a pretty good book, but maybe not one I'm telling people to run out and grab. 20. Burglar in the Closet by Lawrence Block - 2nd Bernie Rhodenbarr. Shorter, quicker read than the first, but enjoyable nonetheless. 21. The First Bright Thing by JR Dawson - A circus running around after WWI, but a WWI in which some people got magic powers. There is some distrust for the "sparks" who are more than human. It is an X Men metaphor. Our circus is sort of a queer found family. The competing circus is awful, but people are compelled to go. Also our heroes are trying to stop WWII, by circusing harder. A lot of pieces I like, but it didn't gel. The bad guy is just so evil. The task set is so great. Just didn't land like I hoped. 22. Say Hello To My Little Friend by Jennine Capo Crucet - Ismael, Izzy, is a young man in Miami who has lost his way. When his side hustle as an unlicensed Pitbull impersonator gets c&d'd he decides he needs a plan. The Scarface plan. Dress better, get a henchman, find a shady job where can excel, get the girl, etc. Izzy also has a mystical connection with the orca at the aquarium. In his quest for a shady gig, he starts interviewing people who rode with him on the raft over from Cuba, thinking maybe he can get into that line. The blurb says Scarface meets Moby Dick. I'm tempted to say Fight Club meets Free Willy. I'm really underselling the whale in all this. It's a good one. 23. River Mumma by Zalika Ried-Benta - Three friends must recover the gold comb belonging to the River Mumma. All while being chased by duppy and dealing with visions. A story perhaps of Jamaican diaspora in Toronto. Also mostly a quick moving urban fantasy type thing. Solid read. Ben Nevis posted:1. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
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May 2, 2024 16:38
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