I’m still waiting for my copy of “Ballad of Sword and Wine”. It has been delayed so I’m reading “My Happy Marriage” until it arrives, but I’m itching to return to danmei 🌸
My #bookreview is brief/won't spoil, to spread good, great, & spectacular #horror#books far & wide.
THE TRUEST SENSE showcases Laura Keating's unique & deftly scary stories: some sneak up quietly- some gleefully go full-throttle into nightmares- but all 15 tales are atmospheric & vivid, with an aura of permeating horror that provides an imaginative, satisfying journey into the Weird.
Highlights were a most unusual read in Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton, getting to review Going Zero by Andrew McCarten and starting in on a couple of excellent #AusCrime books - one part of a series, the other a debut.
Technology based thriller which worked for this reader (they often don't). Surveillance contest between tech bro and a book reader that goes down the wire with heaps at stake for both parties.
@kcfromaustcrime@bookstodon I like that not only is it a thriller, but also it is an examination of how much intrusion we are willing to allow. I live in the fifth highest surveilled city in the world, so that had resonance for me.
You make a very good point. It is an interesting question, although I sometimes wonder how many people actually think about how they are tracked constantly, online or in real life.
Book Review: The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter An improbable invention leads to a journey to see how far the rabbit hole goes. @sciencefiction @bookstodon#sciencefiction#bookreview
I hated the level of writing skill present in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Upsetting because I really loved A Psalm for the Wild-Built, also by Becky Chambers. I ended up finishing TLWtaSAP waiting for it to get better. It did not. My first 2/5 star completed read in a while.
Dialogue was often awkward and unnatural. Transitions between locations and events were absent. A sense of time in the book is almost completely missing - if you aren't paying attention to dates for each chapter (I often flipped back to the prior chapter to get a sense of time), you will have little to no idea how much time is actually passing. This means that within chapters, it feels like a fever dream where time loses all meaning.
I'm sure this is an enjoyable read for people who enjoy the characters who get a lot of page time. I would've enjoyed them more if their reactions to one another and the world around them were more consistent and organic. The dialogue really killed any affection I had for them. It seemed the characters were stereotypical tropes and if you recognized the trope, you'd know everything about the character and what they'd do. But this meant that on the rare occasion where they break out of the trope to monologue - essentially infodumping on the reader and not really communicating with another character - it comes off as really insincere and not true to who they are.
@emeraldzak@bookstodon I had some of the reactions you did and mostly enjoyed nevertheless… however… I suspect you’d like the other books in the series better. There is some overlap with the first but they mostly function as standalone novels in the same universe.
I finally finished The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh. I meant to finish it during AANHPI month, but I got busy and distracted, so there’s that. I wanted to finish it by mid-June though, so I could start reading queer novels for Pride Month.
I’d give this book 4 stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As the first person in my family to be born in the U.S., it was interesting reading the perspectives from the different generations of women (the refugees who fled to America during the Vietnam War and the first generation Americans who grew up having to toe the line between assimilating into American society and respecting familial traditions).
I learned some new Vietnamese words that I didn’t know before. For example, đặc biệt means special. In the book, someone’s mom always called her special in a demeaning way. I know đặc biệt from ordering rice and noodle dishes at Vietnamese restaurants.
My #bookreview is brief/won't spoil, to spread good, great, & spectacular #horror#books far & wide.
💙📚 You may presume you'll know the story that unfolds in I THINK I'M ALONE NOW, but you'll be wrong as hell. I read this novella in a single sitting: Ali Seay has written a thoroughly enjoyable, vivid, violent, deliciously dark chunk o' horror set in the 80's that's, like, totally rad. (Grindhouse Press)
@bookstodon Another really good graphic nonfiction book I've read recently, and recommend, is WE HEREBY REFUSE, regarding the Japanese-Americans forced into concentration camps in WWII.
The story addresses a common victim-blaming response to the plight of others: "Why didn't they fight back?" It's almost always the wrong question, even though indeed, they did fight back. Victim-blaming is a pernicious permission structure, allowing us not to care about terrible events that happen to other people.
@kimlockhartga@bookstodon Most Japanese Americans & Asians (in US & outside of it) called them concentration camps - not internment camps. Colonial, racist governments called them internment camps in US & Canada but that's a dishonest word for them. Internment camps are for military personnel. Japanese & Asians(anyone who looked Japanese) were rounded up & imprisoned in colonial concentration camps. Many died in them.
@kimlockhartga@bookstodon There are likely many who did try to oppose, and others who believed it was wrong but didn't know what to do, were afraid, or hopeless. All these stories would be good to study and learn from.
@kcfromaustcrime@bookstodon thanks for the tip on Dead Trilogy. Never read anything by Barrett, and now, since you mentioned it, I have read 4 of the Eddie series and 2 of the Roger Trilogy. Thanks, and I’ve got 6 more waiting on my Kindle so I am in forensic heaven. Great leads!
@NerdsofaFeather@ergative@bookstodon really enjoyed this one (and this review), and “Things get very lively. There is a certain degree of dismemberment.” is a perfect summation.
My #bookreview is brief/won't spoil, to spread good, great, & spectacular #horror#books far & wide.
💙📚 HOT DEMON BITCHES NEAR YOU from J.E. Erickson is an exuberant blast of gore & grue. The Horrors are heavy here, but balanced with deliciously devilish delights & a LOT of heart. (Lots of OTHER body parts, too.) You'll be disturbed, delighted, horrified- but also cackling. HELL, yeah! (Self-published)
@bookstodon@horror@horrorbooks HOT DEMON BITCHES NEAR YOU (dear Sweet Satan, do I love that title) by J.E. Erickson has cover art by Christy Aldridge of Grim Poppy Design, and is available now from all the places you get books from: