3 hours? That’s one tough chicken.

I’m reading Days by Moonlight by André Alexis. Literary fiction isn’t normally my jam, but this is very chill so far.

I’m still settling on a new book rn, but I went on kind of a reading binge last week.

Finished:

A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith (mostly cozy historical mystery with legal elements) | bingo: different continent, x of y HM, new, alliterative, cozy

The reclusive barrister from the first book is drawn into another mystery while preparing for a court case rife with scandal.

This was a little less cozy than the first book, but I liked it just as much. I do hope the next one will break the pattern of ‘seemingly separate court case turns out to be related to the mystery’, though.

Obscura by Joe Hart (scifi thriller with mystery and horror elements) | bingo: none!

A scientist working on a cure for an Alzheimer’s-like disease is convinced to travel to space to diagnose a team of astronauts with similar symptoms.

For as many issues as I had with this, it was still enjoyable. The horror/thriller/mystery parts were fun, but the physics were applied spottily, and I did a lot of eye rolling at the repeated railroading of the MC by others to avoid explaining the situation, only for them to later explain the situation.

Teacup Magic: The First Collection by Tansy Rayner Roberts (cozy fantasy of manners with romance and mystery elements) | bingo: different continent, indie, short HM, steppin’ up HM, cozy

A trio of novellas about an upper-class young woman falling into magical mysteries and adventures with her friends and love interest.

These were charming, fluffy fun that I will happily read more of. Skip if you prefer detailed world building, or acknowledgement of privilege.

I haven’t read Mieville yet, but while I was reading The Works of Vermin, I did wonder if there were similarities. Good to know!

Agreed, that prologue is fantastic. I wish the rest of the book matched that tone and intensity better, but I still enjoyed it.

Yeah, it’s just a fancy ampersand. The wiki article has examples of similar-looking ones, if OP wants to confirm.

I couldn’t help it, I picked up A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith, the sequel to the book I finished last week. Just as comfy as the first book so far.

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Finished Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell (fantasy/supernatural short stories) | bingo: short HM, orange HM

Semi-lighthearted collection of stories, each with a supernatural element, like ghosts, demons, or the undead.

Finally sat down and finished this one, which I started some months back. I have sort of a resounding ‘meh’ opinion of this collection, even though it was well-written and pleasantly surprised me in places. There’s really nothing I can point out specifically that I didn’t like, it just didn’t click with me somehow.

Trying to finish up Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell, which I started a few months ago and put down partway through. Obscura by Joe Hart is kind of on pause atm, haven’t really felt like getting back into it.

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Finished A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith (Edwardian-era historical cozy mystery) | bingo squares: different continent, alliterative, x of y HM, steppin’ up HM, cozy

A reclusive (neurodiverse?) barrister is strongarmed into investigating the murder of the chief justice, amidst preparing for a challenging court case.

This was delightful, felt just about the right length, and was well paced. I’ve already added the next book to my TBR pile.

Welcome! Impressive progress, especially for filling it in retroactively. Do you think you’ll try to do more, or call it good?

I’ll have a look at Health for All, thanks for the rec.

Other than reading for the community book bingo, my only goals are to read more authors of color (doable) and to cross off more titles from my TBR pile than I add (really unlikely).

I’m about halfway through Obscura by Joe Hart, the only book on my hundreds-of-books-long TBR list that seems to qualify for the regular mode center square for bingo. It’s a fast read, as one would hope for a scifi thriller, but the badly done science keeps making me grumble and put it down.

I also started A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith, which is fun so far.

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Finished Call for the Dead by John le Carré (Cold War spy murder mystery) | bingo: different continent, war, motion picture, short, political

When a routine security interview results in suicide, a secret service agent investigates the death with the help of a retired inspector.

Le Carré’s debut novel. I found it a little clunky and poorly aged in a couple of places, but thoroughly enjoyable overall. Smiley’s just fun to read, I think.

Nice!

I always have trouble picking favorites, so here are the three I most enjoyed:

• The Crows by C.M. Rosens - 90s chick lit crossed with eldritch horror: a young woman buys a house in a seaside town, unaware that some of the townsfolk are secretly eldritch monstrosities, or that the house is more than it seems. Suffers a little bit from self-published editing in places, but the awfulness + fluff combo works surprisingly well; I devoured this.
• Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko - dark academia fantasy with cosmic horror elements: a teenager is coerced into attending a mysterious institute, where the main coursework is incomprehensible, and nobody will explain what the students are learning. Despite this being much too slowly paced for me and not my typical subgenre, the magic system was fascinating.
• Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories by qntm - short story collection focusing on scifi technology. I’m not a huge short story fan, but I read a few collections for bingo, and this is the only one I liked as a whole.

What kinds of things do you enjoy reading? I’d rather recommend stuff you’re actually interested in.

Without being able to see it (and I’m no expert anyway), it’s hard to recommend anything specific, but whatever you end up using (glue, tape, etc.), make sure it’s labeled “archival”. That’ll ensure it won’t discolor or whatever down the line.

I’m between books again.

Finished Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold (fantasy, novella) | bingo: creature, short, steppin’ up HM

The youngest son of a minor noble house unwittingly becomes host to a long-lived magical being.

Set in the same universe as The Curse of Chalion. I’m not sure I’m interested in reading the rest of the series, but it was enjoyable, well paced, and managed to cram a good amount of story into its short page length.

Currently reading Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold. I’m glad I’m reading it after The Curse of Chalion, since that provides a lot of context the novella format doesn’t have space for.

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Finished The Ways of Khrem by D. Nathan Hilliard (secondary world urban fantasy mystery adventure novella collection) | bingo: short HM, x of y, steppin’ up HM

A master thief turned honest bookseller is strongarmed into helping a Captain of the Watch solve cases.

At first I was kind of whelmed by this, as the world and characters felt very generic (maybe a nod to classic stuff I haven’t read?); nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it by the end. I would have put a sequel on my TBR, except there isn’t one. D:

Tesseract is my favorite UI; thank you for continuing to work on it!

I spent most of the week craving a specific vibe, so I tried and put down a bunch of things that weren’t quite it. Ended up settling on The Ways of Khrem by D. Nathan Hilliard, even though it’s not what I wanted either; it’s holding my interest, though, so I’m satisfied.

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Finished The Secret Servant by Gavin Lyall (Cold War thriller) | bingo: different continent, motion picture, war, alliterative, steppin’ up HM, political

An Army Major is seconded to the Prime Minister’s office, where he’s directed to look into rumors surrounding a new member of the nuclear advisement committee.

Outside of the unusual premise, which I liked, this felt pretty bog-standard old-school spy thriller. Some chapters near the end could have been condensed into a few paragraphs, and a couple of bits haven’t aged super well (but no slurs, for a change!). Overall, I found this ‘fine’, but nothing I’d recommend.

If you’re not familiar with the creators, you’ve probably heard of their shows:

• Rebecca Sugar - Steven Universe
• Ian Jones-Quartey - OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes (I hadn’t heard of this one, but apparently he also wrote around half the episodes of Steven Universe)
• Pendleton Ward - Adventure Time
• Patrick McHale - Over the Garden Wall