how do they rise up

1. The last book I read:

My sister loaned me her copy of How to Fake it in Society, KJ Charles's new book (my library hold is weeks and weeks out), and it was, as always, excellent. If you haven't read KJ Charles, you should. One of my all-time favorite authors.

2. A book I’d recommend:

Well, now I guess I should recommend a KJ Charles? Let's say Band Sinister if you prefer your romance novels without any dead bodies, and Any Old Diamonds if you prefer them with.

3. A book I couldn’t put down:

I recently got to read an ARC of Daggerbound, T Kingfisher's long-awaited (to me, anyway) sequel to Swordheart. I started it late at night after coming home from Chicago's Independent Bookstore Day (I made it to eleven bookstores) and stayed up until 2am finishing it. I was exhausted, and I did not care. It was SO good.

4. A book I’ve read twice or more:

In honor of tomorrow being the Glorious 25th of May: I try to reread Terry Pratchett's Night Watch every year during this time, because of course I do. Remains my favorite book of all time; I have a tattoo.

5. A book on my TBR:

I currently have The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez out from the library for like the third time since it came out, and it goes back in two days, and I'm worried I'm not going to get to it AGAIN. Someday I'm going to read this book! I read The Vanished Birds, and had complicated not-sure-I-liked-it feelings about it, but in a way where I really wanted to read more by Jimenez anyway, and multiple people have told me Spear Cuts Through Water is great, but I keep just hitting the timing wrong.

6. A book I’ve put down:

The reason I'm not sure I'm going to get to Spear Cuts Through Water before it goes back to the library is because I had like five other library holds all come in at the same time! The thing I was reading when that bounty descended upon me was Ocean's Godori by Elaine U. Cho (someone else had it out on a shared library card), and I was about fifty pages in and pretty quickly decided that I was not going to have time to read that, its sequel (also out on the shared card), and everything that had come off hold. So while I usually give books until the halfway point to either grab me or not (unless they're doing something that makes me really crazy), I dropped that just to get to my next book. I might to back to it at some point; it didn't really make an impression in those few pages, either good or bad.

7. A book on my wishlist:

Very honestly, I buy surprisingly few books because of the whole working at a library thing. But I love these hardcover editions of the Discworld novels, and they're only available in the UK. My sister got me a copy of Night Watch when she was traveling a while back, but I'd love some others.

8. A favorite book from childhood:

More love for Tamora Pierce's underappreciated Emelan series! Sandry's Book was a huge favorite when I was a kid, and so was every other book in that universe.

9. A book I’d give a friend:

I recently loaned my copy of Swordheart to @acommonrose? It's a great book, the sequel is about to come out (as I said), delighted they read and enjoyed it.

10. A book of poetry or lyrics I own:

Um. Hmm. I might not? As I said, I don't actually buy a lot of books, and I'm not really a poetry person. How do we feel about plays? I recently bought a copy of the late, great Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

11. A nonfiction book I own:

Also not a huge nonfiction person, so we're limited to cookbooks and crafting books for this one! I'll plug How to Embroider Texture and Pattern by Melissa Galbraith, which I first randomly found at the library when my friends decided to institute a regular craft day and I suddenly needed to develop a craft. (They swear they started a craft day partly because I kept saying I WANTED to craft, but no, I said I wanted to be the KIND OF PERSON who crafts. Very different! I now craft exclusively at craft day.) Anyway, it was a great book! I love the patterns, it's very good at explaining the stitches in a way that's super easy to understand and replicate, and I bought it immediately. 10/10, would recommend if you're trying to get into embroidery.

12. What I’m currently reading:

Well, technically I finished How to Fake it in Society about half an hour before starting this, so... But actually, I am doing a very leisurely reread of Mo Du/Silent Reading by priest (while reading other books, because it's very long and quite heavy), so that!

13. What I’m planning on reading next: