#recent reading

I said like a week ago I would post about recent stuff I've been reading! This isn't a full rundown but it's a start!

The Circle of Magic series, by Tamora Pierce

This past month I listened to all of the audiobooks in the first series in the Emelan universe. They're full cast audio, so Tamora Pierce reads the narration and each character has their own voice actor, and I was very skeptical of it going in but it turned out really good.

I always have a hard time explaining Circle of Magic in a way that captures all of its charms, but for me it comes down to the uniqueness of the setting. Pierce has said that, after writing several series set in a more typical western-European fantasy world and centering a lot of the plots on knights and warriors, she wanted to write something inspired by her research on medieval Mediterranean melting-pot cities and the Islamic Golden Age. She also wanted to write a sort of magic based on the care and expertise that goes into handcrafted art like textiles and metalwork. There's also a lot of emphasis on prioritizing volunteer work over combat: the monks in the temple where the stories take place are consistently doing humanitarian aid and disaster rescue, and combat magic is an absolute last resort.

As a kid they were absolutely foundational to my understanding of fantasy, which meant I was deeply confused when I started encountering more mainstream stuff. "Why are there knights everywhere? Where are the monks and the artisans? Why is everyone white? Why does the setting look like England? What's with all the swords???" With twenty years of hindsight, I stand by these questions.

And if you were wondering, these books still absolutely slap. They're really good at being novels for kids without feeling young, in a way that means they're still entertaining as an adult. They're also very respectful of their audience's maturity level -- good at bringing up or referencing dark topics in ways that kids can understand, without assuming that mentioning them would be too scary for the reader.

like, obviously he's asterion, not theseus. he's the minotaur in daedalus's labyrinth. the labyrinth doesn't hate him, and minos can't let him die. if piranesi is the minotaur, then raphael must be theseus, but not theseus alone. she's theseus and ariadne wrapped into one, ariadne who needs someone to rescue, theseus who needs a monster to destroy.

of course, piranesi is also adam in God's garden. the House provides, it always does, it responds to his needs and expectations: he sees a great stiff-winged white bird, and he names it, transforming an airplane into an albatross. he is tempted, mocked, led astray, but eve saves him and joins up with him against the serpent and his gun. and piranesi is rewarded with open access to eden, the freedom to step in and out and always be welcome, rewarded so much so that the House sends gifts to him in the form of his statues visiting him in the Old World, in the park.

he is eleanor in hill house. i am home. the House wants him, it needs him, who ever has loved and known and listened and belonged to the house as truly as nell? who is worth the price of blood and death, who has died and been reborn permanently in the House? who sees into the soul and the divine abyss and loves something that is so open, begging, yearning to love and be loved, except eleanor? who is the perfect victim?

the common element, of course, is that he is the Beloved Child of the House. he is loved and redeemed in a way the minotaur could not have been, because he is shown mercy and patience not only by the Eternal House, but by the people It sends to him. his needs are taken care of, always. the House even rescues him from immortality, from any possible vast powers he has no need nor want of. he is allowed to leave eden, he is allowed to survive hill house, because the Eternal House is not in another realm. it is in his mind, he is in the labyrinth always, and even when he is not at home, he is home. when the House has finished molding him, he can step into it as easily as breathing from anywhere, and it visits him as the labyrinth cannot, as eden cannot, as hill house cannot. he changes but remains the same, attuned, beloved. and, most important of all—

Oh, this book. This delightful and full of nonsense book. You might think this book is silly the entire way through. (not wrong (I loved the volume of silliness)) However, this book contains multitudes. Woven throughout there’s scientific discoveries, conversation/callouts of the problems inherent in massive religious institutions, possibly the invention of hot pants?, gorgeous world building, and so, *so* many puns. Sharing some not-spoilery snippets that tickled my fancy. I laughed and giggled and stared in delight at the words I was consuming.

Mae's Top Reads of 2025!

I wanted to put together a little highlight reel of the year's reads, so here it is!

The Masquerade series by Seth Dickinson: This series is is all fantasy politics. There's no magic or fairies or prophecies, just Seth Dickinson's invented world and the titanic machinations of Empire.  And it is electric...Baru herself is the epitome of ruthlessness. Her goals are noble—her desire to free her home, to end the tyranny of the Masquerade—but she will do anything to achieve those goals. She is a truly fascinating character, calculating, controlled, brilliant—and constantly tormented by the need to weigh her choices and the potential futures ahead.

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin: Le Guin captures truly great sci-fi because this work is so imbued with curiosity. Le Guin is asking questions at the heart of any great sci-fi work: What defines humanity? What can we achieve, and how is it done, and what does that mean for society? What is society? What does it mean to be alone? What does it mean to be part of a whole? To me, sci-fi can't be truly sci-fi without a measure of philosophy, and The Dispossessed has this in droves. 

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield: Armfield's writing beautifully illustrates this journey, and she does a particularly good job of doling out information a little at a time, so that the reader often share's in Miri's confusion and muddled state of mind.

The Originalism Trap by Madiba K. Dennie: Dennie does a great job making this book accessible to everyone...She doesn't stop at "here's what's wrong" either--she has proposal and suggestions for how to counter the outsized influence of this once-disfavored theory and what we as citizens can do to push back against it.

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter: The book is obviously well-researched, and Hofstadter does a thorough job of documenting his sources and influences, as well as recommending additional reading on a broad range of topics touched on in his own book. So much of what he establishes here makes perfect sense when looking at modern American society. He so neatly threads the needle between where we started and where we are now that at some moments, it felt like the fog was lifting on something I should have seen ages ago.

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez: Jimenez's writing is beautiful and vivid—for good or for ill, as there are some gruesome events that take place—and really sweeps you up in the events of the story. He also does a wonderful job capturing the emotional mindsets of the characters. In particular, I thought the way he handled the relationship of the two main protagonists, Jun and Keema, was very realistic given who they are, and the emotional payoff of his taking the time to work through that was so worth it.

And for the haters among us, below the cut are my most disappointing reads of 2025.