I have read a whole stack of books since my last post and acquired many other books that I’m looking forward to enjoying.
I finished C.L. Clark’s The Unbroken which was simply marvellous, and completed my reread of Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy. Currently, I’m really fixated on Provenance, which is an engrossing delight. I really admire how Leckie brings together so many complex concepts and ontological states of being while making even the extremely alien relatable. More importantly she does this without excessive exposition and it’s not even necessary. That’s some mad skills! I also managed to get my hardcopy of Translation State so I anticipate many more happy hours of being embroiled in Leckie’s science fictional universe particularly since right now I mostly just want to read science fiction and cyberpunk, and just want to watch police procedurals and spy shows. In part because I am writing multiple space opera short stories and a novella. But also because I find them more comforting than other genres right now.
In relation to heists and cyberpunk: I tore through Jennifer R. Donohue’s Run With The Hunted cyberpunk heist series one weekend when I was really ill from anaemia and blood loss. It was really comforting but also utterly captivating and unputdownable. I really enjoy how she’s divided each novella into different POVs amongst the heist trio, and with each set of three books (Book 9 will be coming out on the 31st of October), we get to see more layers peeled not just in their characters but in their complex relationship with each other. Donohue’s strength is in her complex characterisations but she also really knows how to hook the reader in the narrative.
I found Premee Mohamed’s The Apple-Tree Throne absolutely delightful and surprising in the best ways, and I have now a copy of Wickhills which I intend to devour. I’m quite certain that I’m going to wind up reading everything she’s written because her storycraft and worldvisions hook me.
In the coming weeks I suspect it’s going to be all Imperial Radch-verse and Galactic Milieu, although I did also stock up on some cozy books. I was curious to check out the Laurie Gilmore books, and I also got some other cozy romances since we are in cozy season (yes, even in the Equator, ha ha). Apart from that, I’m planning to fling myself into the Nghi Vo novels, another author I’ve been super fixated on reading this year!
My journey through books I enjoyed in my teenhood and early twenties continues. This time I’m rereading Julian May’s Galactic Milieu series. I enjoyed Intervention a lot when I first read it back in 1994 (I think?) and still enjoy it very much although some things maybe didn’t age so well with me. Now I’m rereading Jack the Bodiless. I also returned to Holdstock and reread both Mythago Wood and Lavondyss. In a sense I want to return to the books that influenced both my writing and my creative vision to unpack those influences but also to see what markers are problematic and need to be tweaked a bit. But I still really love the Holdstock books even though I did find Mythago Wood a bit male gaze-y upon reread but as I progressed through the read it made a lot of sense because Holdstock was writing about mythologems and then unpacking them. Lavondyss remains a sheer delight! I never finished reading all the books in the Ryhope Wood sequence and I feel this will be happening. This journey I’m on with these books will take years. I’m all in.
All up, I’ve read 82* books this year (so far) and I couldn’t be more thrilled. This is the best year for reading since my twenties. And I really hope this is my new normal because it’s been so good for me: as a reader, as an author, as a scholar and as a human being who is forever needing to recalibrate and seek that balance because life is finite and precious, and our peace needs to be protected/fortified.
*Why does counting mean anything at all? Hi, in case you didn’t already know, I’m Anita and I like numbers. Doesn’t mean I’m good at math, though. Quite rusty at it although I do miss that kinaesthetic thrill I got from doing math. Still, I love numbers and they figure strongly in my form of synaesthesia.
On the chess front, I’ve been a puzzle-solving monster but mostly just play with chess bots because somehow even when anonymous my introversion finds P2P chess socially exhausting. My ELO yo-yos here and there but I’ve been keeping up with my chess lessons and have been learning openings, middles and closings. Playing a more aggressive chess game now and getting the hang of several types of moves/strategies.
I did however revise my earlier idea that I would like to play chess IRL sometime after I retire. I don’t think I want to ruin the joy I derive from playing/learning chess by interacting with unknown variables (aka potentially belligerent human beings). As with most things, I enjoy learning best when self-directed, hands-on, and without the barrage of competitive souls impinging upon my peace. Playing chess agrees with me. Competitive humans? Not so much*.
*Even when playing chess anonymously online with other players, I’ve caused more than one to rage-quit when I checkmated them or gobbled up their pieces, ha ha. I don’t think I want to experience that IRL.