Daily Reading (10th November)

[ironed_orchid]

What have you been reading today? Everything counts, from the user's manual to the back of the cereal box!

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[ironed_orchid]

So much twitter and facebook and various think pieces.

I also picked up The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch which turns out to be about rigging an election... perhaps not the best choice under the circumstances.

[nou]

CW: brief mention of rape.

Since last report, I have read:

• The Apex Book of World SF, edited by Lavie Tidhar. Didn't finish — I tried the first four stories and couldn't get into any of them, and none of the rest looked particularly appealing aside from the fact that one was by Aliette de Bodard, so I read that one and then gave up.
• The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. This is a very condensed retelling of the Mahabharata from the point of view of one of the main female characters. I haven’t read the original, and TBH am unlikely to, but I enjoyed much of this version and would give other retellings a go if someone recommended them.
• “The Closest Thing to Animals” by Sofia Samatar. It was OK. I found out at the end that the author also wrote A Stranger in Olondria, which according to my Kindle I have read at least some of, but I have no memory of this, and online reviews aren’t helpful in jogging my memory. I’m going to give it another go to try to work out why I can't remember anything about it.
• A Very English Scandal by John Preston. It was OK, but felt a bit lumpy in places, as if the author really really wanted to shoehorn in certain anecdotes however irrelevant they were. I also found it somewhat grating that there wasn’t a single use of the word “bisexual” in the entire book (even though more than one of the main characters had relationships with both men and women) and somewhat horrifying that the author never used the word “rape” for something that by his description clearly was.
• The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. It was OK, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as her Palace of Illusions. It got a bit too romance-novel towards the end, which felt incongruous with the rest of the book.

...that’s quite a lot of “meh” there, isn’t it. Hopefully my next report will be more positive!

[monkiainen]

Just the local newspaper. I have Othello waiting for me, but haven't had the time to pick it up today..

[bonnefois]

Since last update, I have finished:

Love by the Numbers, by Karin Kallmaker. It's the last print book of hers. Also I just heard from the friend I've been sending them to. She and her girlfriend are excited about them, and even sent me pictures of their cat enjoying the box.

I also read Once Upon a Wine by Beth Kendrick. (It was really cute)

Partially read, but not finished:
about 60-70 pages into Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs.
A lot more into Strange Neighbors. Up to...somewhere between 120-160. I don't have the book handy.
I also read some of The Hating Game. I don't remember the exact number <100, but other than that, IDK. (It's in the other room)