By Slanted Light

The last time we saw our intrepid reader, it was the start of June and she'd read 43 books so far this year. It's now nearly the end of August, and I've read 57, though it might be a few more cos I'm pretty sure I've forgotten a few night-rereads...

I'm afraid my Mount TBR hasn't advanced at all. I was on 10/24 when I posted last, and I still am. I'd really better get on with that - I'm not halfway, and we're rather more than halfway through the year now! I keep getting distracted... *g* Lj Book Bingo is going a bit better, though!


I'm invoking a Category Substitution, because I'm never going to read a cookbook or food memoir (just, why...?!), and I'm using A book set in the future, which is Emma Newman's Planetfall (and in fact the three sequels, After Atlas, Before Mars and Atlas Alone). As you can tell from the fact that I then read the three sequels, I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It's original science fiction! It's not blokes (or women written to be blokes) going around the universe killing other beings, it's thoughtful and its interesting, and I can completely see the future that Newman imagines not too far away! Will we one day be printing all our food (or willing to spend above the odds to eat actual real, fresh food)? Will our houses be built like that (I wish!)? Will....? Well no, you should go and read it! *g*

So I've got another line too - Bingo! *g*

I also realise that another book I read fits a square - not one that I'd ever have imagined for this book though - apparently there are some places (guess which country...) where this is a banned book, because it includes "discussion of alcohol, poverty, bullying, violence, sexuality, profanity and slurs related to homosexuality and mental disability" (the main character has hydrocephalus, and is both teased about it and has learned to joke about it himself). It's not an easy read, because the harsher details read as very true, but it's an ultimately uplifting read, I thought. I've always liked Sherman Lexie's books, and this is his first Young Adult book. Totally worth reading - especially when people want to stop us being able to!


Another square substitution - this one I'm going to use my first Wildcard on! I tried to read a graphic novel/comic - I actually took a bunch out of the library, ages ago, but I ended up taking them back unread, because if I'm faced with a pile of fiction and a pile of graphic novels, I'm afraid I'm always going to read the fiction. And I have piles and piles to read, so... *g*

Oh and wheeee, that's another Bingo! too! *g* Remarkable Creatures was a book group book, and although I didn't make it to that book group, what with being in Switzerland at the time and all, I really enjoyed the book. It wasn't what I expected actually, with a healthy dollop of speculative romance in the middle, and also from the pov of Elizabeth Philpot (who I now see was another palaeontologist of the time), but good and readable and interesting!

So - five book bingo squares left (and two are almost certainly going to be my other allowed category substitution, and my other wildcard) and fourteen Mount TBR books to read.

As soon as I've finished the ones I'm reading at the moment... *vbg*

One of the things I've done as I unpacked my new place, is to start putting all the books I've not read yet on bookshelves by my bed. There's quite a few of them...(Okay, there was supposed to be a photo of them here, and I know I took some, but can I find them...? I'll add it in later!(And actually there are probably still quite a few on the other shelves too). So I've decided to sign up for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge. My Mountain To Be Read could definitely be a Mount Olympus (Mars!) trek, but I think I'll commit to Mount Blanc (24 books) but keep on going if I manage that. I know what I'm like about finding new books and reading them instead of the ones I've got, so I shall be wary!( Challenge instructions and rules from Bevs page )

I know gilda_elise is playing, but would anyone else care to join us? *g*

1. Helstrom's Hive by Frank Herbert

Covent Garden, 1814: a centre of vice to which rich and poor alike are drawn by the promises of gin, ale and other carnal diversions. In opulent private rooms, several fashionable young men have been found murdered, each wearing a satyr's mask, each behind a locked door. Constable Charles Horton of the River Police Office is called in to investigate and soon finds himself at Thorpe Lee House in Surrey, where accusations of witchcraft have swept through the village. What connects these London aristocrats in pursuit of pleasure and a country backwater suddenly awash with folklore and talk of burning witches? In this strange, captivating world, it is savage magic indeed that holds its victims in its thrall.

Now there's a blurb! I bought this book after reading the author's The Poisoned Island last year, which I loved. That was also a blend of folklore (from Tahiti this time) and Victorian London, and it was readable and interesting and different.

( Savage Magic... )

So yes - jolly good, and if you like twisty plotty edge-of-magic-and-supernatural books that are actually based in the grim real world, this could be for you!

My next book for two challenges! I bought this sometime last year, so it's the fourth book for my Mount TBR challenge (reading the books you've previously bought rather than buying new ones and reading those - I was doing quite well, but fell down in February...)

And I'd say it fits the folklore category for the The Once Upon a Time Challenge! So - I've completed The Journey, and I am now setting out towards Quest the Second - "Read at least one book from each of the four categories. In this quest you will be reading 4 books total: one fantasy, one folklore, one fairy tale, and one mythology."

1. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (fantasy)
2. Savage Magic by Lloyd Shepherd (folklore)