Wandering Thoughts

Reading Dates: July 3, 2024 – July 15, 2024 To be completely honest with you, short story collections are not my favorite things to read. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but I always feel kind of impatient with them. Which is a little ironic considering they get to the point faster than a full-length novel. I’m not entirely sure why I have more than one of these books in my…

Reading Dates: June 19, 2024 – July 14, 2024 This was a fun book. It’s for a middle grade audience, but I enjoyed this quite a bit. The author will often interupt the story to interject a few thoughts of his own: “Are there any small children in the room? If so, it would be best if we just let them think this really is the end of the story and hurried them off to bed. Because this is where…

Between life happening, an unscheduled lack of motiviation, and a brief (slightly insane) stint of wanting to be outside, it appears I have not posted to two months. I have some lost time to make up for.

“As bad as things are , we have to keep trying .”

Reading Dates: April 28, 2024 – May 2, 2024 I ate this book up. After reading Stormqueen! this book was a relief. It had an easy-to-follow plot, characters that were complex enough to not be completely dull, and just a little bit of spice. While bad things did happen to the characters (otherwise there’s no plot, right?) none of it felt unnecessarily horrible. This story uses Nordic myths and…

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”

Reading Dates: April 13, 2024 – April 27, 2024 This was a hard read. Stormqueen! is the 12th published book in the Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It was published in 1978 by DAW. The series up until this book focused on the struggle between the Terrans and the planetary inhabitants. This is the first book published to take place in Darkover’s distant history. Some of the planetary…

“Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency. I’d rather climb back into Hostile One’s mouth.”

“I liked the imaginary people on the entertainment feed way more than I liked real ones, but you can’t have one without the other.”

Reading Date: September 3, 2023 I love the opening sentence to this book: “I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites.” Basically: “I could have become a serial killer – but then I discovered Netflix.” That is top-tier character introduction. The story…

“But Deirdre showed no interest in the company of any man except her brother, and she would not cooperate in the slightest with Aunt Imogen’s attempts to feminize her. . . . and I thought that Aunt Imogen’s quest could only end in despair, for the wild delight in Deirdre’s face told me that nothing would ever please her more than spite, no beau ever approach the incomporable joys of trying to…

Reading Dates: September 13, 2023 – September 20, 2023 I really enjoyed this book! It’s a high fantasy trilogy that takes its inspiration from native American myths. It’s always a breath of fresh air to read stories inspired by different cosmologies.   The story is mostly told from about four different points of view: Xiala, a Teek woman who has been exiled by her people. She can sing the…

“Imagine being a god, she thought, and still needing to tell everyone how impressive you are.” Medusa, about Posiden

Reading Dates: March 3, 2024 – March 17, 2024 I feel like I’ve been doing a good job reading outside of my normal genre this year. The Murder of Roger Ackoryd is my first Agatha Christie novel. I’ve seen a couple of her movie adaptations but I’ve never actually picked up one of her books. I did really love her Doctor Who episode. This is a Hercule Poirot story – which threw me a little at…

“True contrition had to be more than words. Remedio was expecting him to somehow mend the world he himself had thoughtlessly fractured.” Anotnio Sonoro

“No two men die the same way.” Casoose

February 11, 2024 – February 18, 2024 This is my second book from the Book of the Month Subscription Box. It also came with another book, The Fox Wife. I’m really looking forward to reading that one. This book is listed as ‘Romantasy’. Expanding the reading horizons – but only by a little bit this time. The story is told from two POVs: Rune and Gideon. Rune is a witch in hiding. When she was…