Recently finished Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan.

It starts off by confusingly introducing a large number of characters at the narrator’s funeral, but gets good once 12 of them arrive in China for the Burma Road trip she organized for them. She joins them in spirit, but can only observe cultural misunderstandings she would have saved them from had she been alive, culminating in 11 of them going missing without explanation when their lake excursion never returned.

It’s surprisingly funny given the subject matter involving oppressive regimes and human rights abuses. It’s also entertaining and informative and gets a positive recommendation.

I scored it under Minority Author for bingo as she is Chinese-American. However, I think Amy Tan’s more interesting affiliation is as vocalist with the Rock Bottom Remainders, who I learned about after reading a good book by their guitarist.

Working on No One Will Come Back for Us by Premee Mohamed, since I started it in May.

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Finished:

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (science fantasy mystery) | bingo: number, different continent, LGBTQIA+, award HM, game, steppin’ up HM, late to the party HM, jerk HM

Necromancer heirs (and their cavaliers) from each of nine houses are invited to take part in a challenge: those that succeed will become the Emperor’s new elite.

I liked this more than I thought I would when I started, and I’ll probably read the sequels at some point. With that said, although I found the plot reasonably solid, the setup is kinda YA, and what little is mentioned about the wider situation/world building goes almost entirely unexplained. (Also: if you ever see it described as “lesbian necromancers in space”, there’s only, like, 5 seconds of space.)

Liar Game, Volume 1 by Shinobu Kaitani (thriller-ish seinen manga) | bingo: different continent HM, minority author, adaptation, orange, game

An unrealistically naive college student is forced to participate a mysterious game, which threatens to leave her in massive debt if she loses. To avoid this, she decides to enlist the help of a conman.

I enjoyed the drama adaptation of this back in the day, and this was pretty much 1-to-1 with my memory of the first episode, just more manga-y.

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny (non-scary horror) | bingo: creature HM. game

Jack the Ripper’s dog companion describes each day of October, as they–along with a variety of other Victorian horror characters and their familiars–prepare for a Halloween ritual.

This was fine, but it never super grabbed me. Might be fun to read a chapter a day leading up to Halloween.

I just finished The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker, which was such a nice and interesting book. The story was slow and well paced without feeling slow, and was clever in the use of seemingly bit characters weaving their way back into the plot. It was refreshing to have most of the conflicts and plot points be solved by expanded knowledge, rather than violence.

Next I’m going to read The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones, which has good reviews.

I’m on the last fifty pages of Ursala Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. Absolutely loving it. I’ve been on a scifi kick since reading Dune for the first time in January and this might be my favorite one yet.

finished Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. currently reading Everyday Is For The Thief by Teju Cole.

Read Dungeon Crawler Carl yesterday. It’s fun and silly. I’ll probably read more of the series.

I’m reading Wool by Hugh Howey, the first of the Silo series. I’m liking this book more than the show! It’s much faster-paced and makes the show feel needlessly full of fluff. Hoping the series stays this good but have heard it goes downhill.

Currently reading Personal Effects by Robert A Jensen. He’s headed up recovery efforts for natural disasters, plane crashes, mine collapses, and terrorist attacks; the kind of events that have between several hundred and several hundred thousand bodies. It’s a neat look at how those things are dealt with, and he’s an incredibly compassionate person.

Also reading Honeycomb by SB Caves. Won’t know how I feel about it until I see where it’s going, but it’s a very tense read.

After winning popular reality talent show Searching For A Star and a subsequent record deal at the age of 19, Amanda Pearson was the hottest thing in the UK. But as her short-lived fame started to fade, the cracks began to show stumbling on stage slurring during live TV interviews suspicious photos of her nightclubs with powder around her nostrils. The dream was over Amanda Pearson would forever be a one hit wondersix years later, after cleaning her act up, but failing to re-establish her career, her ex manager, informs her of an unexpected opportunity that will help alleviate her dire financial situation and potentially thrust her back into the spotlight. The proposal is simple, six strangers alone in a mansion, under constant observation for the duration of a week. Every day they take pill five people are taking a placebo, but one person will be taking an experimental drug, which they are assured has no adverse side-effects, the other participants, a dinner lady who moonlight as a comedian and eccentric theatre, actor, a popular YouTuber a dance choreographer and a car salesman all seem normal at first, however, as each day goes by that changes paranoia leads to violence who is taking the real pill and exactly doesn’t do it do. Amanda realises that this is no normal experiment she is trapped. The old mansion is rigged, and there is no way out.

Of my recently finished books, I recommend Dry by Neal and Jarrod Schusterman.

The drought–or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it–has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of don’ts: don’t water the lawn, don’t fill up your pool, don’t take long showers.

Until the taps run dry.

Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbors and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don’t return and her life–and the life of her brother–is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she’s going to survive.

I just finished Hail Mary Project which I started last week - really enjoyed it. It scratched a perfect itch for some optimistic sci-fi.

I just started This Is How You Lose the Time War. It seems fun at the 4% mark.

I have hit a mile stone, I’m just coming to the end of book 100 of Deathlands. A character that left around 50 books ago has returned in this one and I have been waiting for his return!

I’ve been thinking about it and that is about 650 hours or so of Deathlands in the last year and a half and I’m still enjoying it a lot! I think after this one however I may slip a couple of other books in.

The Sunlit Man is the last book I need to read out if his 4 “secret” books, still on the to do list :D

Just started today, Player of Games by Iain M. Banks.

I’ve read the entire series, and decided to re-read. Just completed Consider Phlebus yesterday and it was as good as the first time I read it.

Still reading If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller - still weird! 😁

day of the triffids, just started today so far so good.

Just started Isles of the Emberdark. Just realized that outside of manga I’ve been reading nothing but Sanderson novels for a good bit