Kat: I’m so busy at the beginning of a new academic year. I’m teaching an extra class this semester, a large freshmen-level general education course, so that’s taking a lot of my time. But since you heard from me last (it’s been a while), I’ve read Octavia Butler’s XENOGENESIS series (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago), three of Terry Pratchett’s DISCWORLD novels (Wyrd Sisters, Wintersmith, and Pyramids), Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, Stanislaw Lem’s The Cyberiad, and two books about meditation and mindfulness: Real Happiness by Sharon Salzberg and Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Wherever You Go, There You Are.
Bill: This week I read the The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Sainkova Gilmore, which didn’t I think meet its potential, and Best Barbarian, a fiercely fantastic poetry collection by Roger Reeves. Needing something easy to listen to when driving to Colorado and back, I picked Lindsey Davis’ first book in the Falco series of mysteries set in ancient Rome. As I might have guessed based on what happened when I read the series the first time, I got sucked in, and this week finished book three (Venus in Copper) and started The Iron Hand of Mars. In video, I’ve decided I’m giving House of Dragons one more episode to win me over and am hoping that the Rings of Power story starts to approach the quality of its visuals.
Marion: Over last weekend I read The Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix, and I plan to review it, although I don’t know when. It is a nice thriller, and he incorporates slasher movies into it well (which seems to be a fad right now). I’m making my way through Mary Roach’s Fuzz; When Nature Breaks the Law, another entertaining and educational nonfiction work by that excellent writer, and I’ve started Craig Laurance Gidney’s award-winning horror story collection, Nectar of Nightmares. So far I don’t know which is my favorite, the Harlem drag club story with the conjure-woman piano player, or the story featuring Emily Bronte. And I’m not done yet.
Sandy: Moi? I am currently reading another wonderful book from the enormous catalog of Ramble House, this one being the psychological horror novel The Shadow on the House, by Mark Hansom, initially released in 1934. The book has really sucked me in right from the “get” and I look forward to sharing some thoughts on it with you all very soon….
Terry: It’s been awhile since I last reported due to a couple of major life issues popping up. As always, though, books sustained me through a difficult time! By far favorite read of the last few weeks was Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, which isn’t science fiction but is science fiction adjacent, so I think I’ll review it for the site – it may be the best book I’ll read all years. I’m also continuing my exploration of modern romance novels with Heartbreaker by Sarah MacLean. I’m fascinated at how really explicit feminism is changing the genre; when I was a teenager, romances were very rapey, but that vibe is gone now, it seems, which is all to the good. Finally, I read A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow, which was a lovely follow-up to A Spindle Splintered.
Marion, I love Mary Roach and am part-way through listening to Fuzz — she is easily one of my favorite non-fiction authors