Author: Tim Scheidler

Marion:  I’m currently reading Indelible City; Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong, by journalist Louisa Lim. Lim grew up in Hong Kong. Her book is written in confessional journalism style where she centers herself in the story. Starting with the demonstrations for democracy in 2019, she traces the history of the city back to before the common era. Lim’s work is well-researched, and her prose is personal and immediate. I’m engrossed.

Bill: Since our last status I read Kelly Barnhill’s dark The Crane Husband (lovely sparse language,

Marion:  I finished Mary Robinette Kowal’s “Nick and Nora Charles in Space” mystery, The Spare Man. It was fun. Continuing my William Gibson re-read, I’m about one-third of the way through Count Zero.

Sandy: Moi? I recently finished reading a book by Robert Silverberg that I had not even heard of until lately, and that book is Conquerors From the Darkness, which was first released in 1965. I was fortunate enough to find the 1968 Dell paperback.

Marion: I reread Robert Jackson Bennett’s DIVINE CITIES series, and it was as good as I remembered. The day before Christmas a friend lent me Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, a YA fantasy adventure. I enjoyed it, although I think a young reader would enjoy it far more. While I liked the sixteen-year-old MC, it reminded me that one of things I’d especially enjoyed about the Bennett books was mature protagonists!

Bill:

This past week I read:

• An excellent genre novel — The City We Became by N.K Jemisin  (halfway through the sequel)
• An excellent genre novella — Arch-Conspirator,

Marion: I’m trying to read Scotto Moore’s The Battle of the Linguist Mages, a fantasy book many people loved, and one I should be enjoying thoroughly based on the premise and the back cover blurb. Sadly, for me it’s heading for DNF territory. I’m having trouble figuring out why. Is it the narrative voice of the MC? This is a kind of voice many readers adore. Is it the certain knowledge that, since the shape of the plot is a video game, the book is going to take me through Every Single Level?

Marion: I finished The Winter People, a supernatural thriller by Jennifer McMahon. I enjoyed it with only a few quibbles up until the last 25%, when it got so outlandish I could no longer suspend disbelief. Now I’m dipping into an abridged version of The Tale of Genji,  edited and translated by Royall Tyler. This is the 2001 version, Penguin edition. While I’m not loving it, it’s an interesting window into 10/11th century Japan, storytelling, and fan service.

Bill: These past two weeks (and the next one) I’ve mostly been reading student papers.

Marion: I read The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach. I enjoyed it while I was reading it; I don’t know what I think of it yet though. I finally started a 2019 Hugo winner, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, and I’m so glad I finally did! This is everything I love in a book so far! And, apart from genre, Empty Shells, The Story of Petaluma, America’s Chicken City is helping me learn more than I ever thought possible about incubators,

Marion: In spite of internet issues and vehicle issues, I found time to read this week. I finished N.K. Jemisin’s second book in the GREAT CITIES duology, The World We Make. It’s vivid, action-packed and full of fun. I bought C.LPolk’s novella Even Though I Knew the End the day it came out. I love her depiction of 1940’s Chicago, especially the lesbian bar Helen the protagonist and her girlfriend Edith met at. The plot was familiar but the book is fast-paced and lovingly captures a detective-noir voice.

Marion: I read a few things this week since we went to a secluded inn on the coast for a couple of nights. I re-read The Hourglass Throne, third book in THE TAROT SEQUENCE  by K.D. Edwards because I remembered that I hadn’t ever reviewed it! A review will follow soon. I also meandered through an anthology  of weird and spooky stories compiled by Melissa Edmundson, Women’s Weird Two; More Strange Stories by Women. The tales span a publication period from 1891-1937 featuring ghosts,

Marion: On Wednesday, I finished up a stunning gothic horror novel Little Eve by Catriona Ward. It had the two-stage horror good gothic gives me; the initial shock and dread, and the deeper shock and dread after I finished it and started thinking about what life was really like for those girls in the ruins of that isolated Scottish castle. The book I’m reading now is a disappointment. It’s a Flametree Press anthology called Bodies in the Library. Flametree books are beautiful to look at. This assortment of excerpts from late 19th century works and some original fiction has failed me on three levels.

Marion: The primary read this week was Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Daughter of Doctor Moreau; an original tale heavily inspired by the H.G. Wells novel. Now I’ve started Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars.

Sandy: Moi? I am currently reading a collection of “weird menace” horror stories by author Ralston Shields, released by Ramble House in 2014. The collection is entitled Food for the Fungus Lady and Other Stories and consists of tales culled from the pulp magazines Horror Stories,