What Are You Reading?

[Beebo Brink]

The Ways of Magic (3 book series) by Delia Marshall Turner

I'm starting the 3rd book of the trilogy, which has just been released after a very very long wait. The first book, Nameless Magery, was originally published back in the 1990s, and Of Swords and Spells followed a few years after. They are stand-alone novels which share the same universe, so readers weren't left hanging, but it's wonderful to finally see the full complement of stories intended to be told.

The female protagonists are quirky and strong-willed, and in the universe of the Thousand Worlds, magic is actually sentient.

A few years ago, Turner bought back the rights to the first two books from the publisher and released them on Amazon e-books for $1.99 each, with the third book now selling for $2.99, so you cannot get a better bang for your buck than this series! My paperback copy of Nameless Magery is about to turn to dust, so I'm relieved to have a Kindle copy as backup.

From the blurb: First published by Del Rey in 1998, Nameless Magery is the first book in the Ways of Magic series. It was issued with its sequel as a Science Fiction Book of the Month Club offering and was nominated for two awards.

 

[Isabeau]

Finally got my hands on a copy of the Graphic Novel “Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands” by Kate Beaton. So happy.

Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark A Vagrant fame, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beatons, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. After university, Beaton heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush, part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can't find it in the homeland they love so much. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, what the journey will actually cost Beaton will be far more than she anticipates.

Arriving in Fort McMurray, Beaton finds work in the lucrative camps owned and operated by the world’s largest oil companies. Being one of the few women among thousands of men, the culture shock is palpable. It does not hit home until she moves to a spartan, isolated worksite for higher pay. She encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet never discussed. Her wounds may never heal...

 

[Arilynn]

A Little Life

From the Amazon listing:
”NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE

A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.”

 

[Isabeau]

Arilynn! Nice to see you!

 

[Arilynn]

The ending of a Little Life made me sob more than any book I’ve ever read.

I’m now reading Matrix by Lauren Groff. It’s about a French gender-transgressive lesbian who ends up the prioress of an English abbey and is set in the 1100s. So far not exactly the rollicking fun I expected, but it’s interesting, well written, and a good post-Barbie balm.

 

[Free]

I've been re-reading the 5th book in Frank Herbert's Dune series (Heretics of Dune), but I've put that on hold for today because I just learned Martha Wells has put out Compulsory, a short story in her Murderbot series.

An abbreviated version of the story was published years back by Wired magazine:

The Future of Work: Compulsory, by Martha Wells

“My risk-assessment module predicts a 53 percent chance of a human-on-human massacre before the end of the contract.”

www.wired.com

(I'm just biding my time for the publication of System Collapse (book 8!) in November.)

 

[Isabeau]

I've been re-reading the 5th book in Frank Herbert's Dune series (Heretics of Dune), but I've put that on hold for today because I just learned Martha Wells has put out Compulsory, a short story in her Murderbot series.

An abbreviated version of the story was published years back by Wired magazine:

The Future of Work: Compulsory, by Martha Wells

“My risk-assessment module predicts a 53 percent chance of a human-on-human massacre before the end of the contract.”

www.wired.com

(I'm just biding my time for the publication of System Collapse (book 8!) in November.)

Just downloaded the first in the series. Maybe it’ll get be back into reading mode which I havent been in since before COVID.

 

[Isabeau]

Ok, I really like the Murderbot series. There's just something about robots/androids stories that I love.

Reserved the next ones at the library cause I know I'll zip through the series and I'm not prepared to spend almost 100$ for novelettes. I did get Compulsory, but it was basically the same as the Wire article. Nice artwork, though.

 

[WolfEyes]

Did I post my current read in the wrong thread?

 

[Free]

Did I post my current read in the wrong thread?

It no matters.

 

[detrius]

One of the last books I read was "Heaven's River" by Dennis E. Taylor. It's a sci-fi story that's largely about encountering and exploring a megastructure, following the tradition of "Rendezvous with Rama" and "Ringworld". In this case, it's a topopolis.

I'd strongly suggest starting at the beginning of the book series, though: "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)", from the same author.

 

[Isabeau]

I've been re-reading the 5th book in Frank Herbert's Dune series (Heretics of Dune), but I've put that on hold for today because I just learned Martha Wells has put out Compulsory, a short story in her Murderbot series.

An abbreviated version of the story was published years back by Wired magazine:

The Future of Work: Compulsory, by Martha Wells

“My risk-assessment module predicts a 53 percent chance of a human-on-human massacre before the end of the contract.”

www.wired.com

(I'm just biding my time for the publication of System Collapse (book 8!) in November.)

Did you read the short story she gave out that’s set between books 4 and 5? I’m halfway through Exit Strategy (4).

iBooks call it book 7 and they and Amazon both sell it for $2.99. I was just about to buy it when I saw that the publisher offers it here

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory - Reactor

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory was originally given free to readers who pre-ordered Martha's Murderbot novel, Network Effect. The story is set just after the 4th novella, Exit Strategy.

www.tor.com

Anyway, you‘ve probably already read it, but just in case.

 

[Free]

Did you read the short story she gave out that’s set between books 4 and 5? I’m halfway through Exit Strategy (4).

Yeah. I don't know if one needs to read it but it's pretty interesting, especially since it's written from Dr. Mensah's viewpoint, not Murderbot's. And Tor provides it for free, so...

 

[Isabeau]

Good short sci-fi story you can read during your lunch break taking place in not too distant future.

The Job at the End of the World - Reactor

A weary resilience worker should know better than anyone: no one is safe when the world is always ending...

www.tor.com

 

[Essence Lumin]

Good short sci-fi story you can read during your lunch break taking place in not too distant future.

The Job at the End of the World - Reactor

A weary resilience worker should know better than anyone: no one is safe when the world is always ending...

www.tor.com

So many tor's. Tor is an imprint of McMillan, it is also a browser. This seems to be independent of both of them.

 

[Free]

So many tor's. Tor is an imprint of McMillan, it is also a browser. This seems to be independent of both of them.

No, correct on the first one. From the footer on the page:

© 2023 Macmillan

 

[Myradyl Muse]

Currently reading an excellent non-fiction book about the healing journey from trauma to recovery:
'What Happened to You? - Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing' by Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey.
It reframes the usual question of 'What's wrong with you?' to the non-blaming compassionate question of 'What Happened to You?' instead.
CAUTION: there may be trigger points for anyone with a history of trauma

 

[Isabeau]

Amazon.ca

Was on the book bargain list .99 The first in a series.

Cameron Coral, the author, says she writes about futuristic worlds, strong female characters, and robots. Couldn’t resist., of course.

Her book Steel Guardian about a post-apocalyptic CleanerBot was awarded second place in the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC).

In the book, there’s a link to her blog (or something, I forget) and when you ask to receive info, she sends you two more novels as a thank you. She just seems very nice and cool. Even asks you to email her and tell her a little about yourself.

Anyway, I haven’t started it yet, just wanted to share.

 

[Cat Fratica]

Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman - Half way through... mixed feelings so far. Keen to move on to:

DELIO. Phase One. (The Hive. Book 1) by RR Haywood

and

The Running Grave: Cormoran Strike, Book 7 by Robert Galbraith

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

My Body by Emily Ratajkowsky

This was actually the first book I read cover to cover in a while. I have a long history of starting nonfiction books then dropping them once the material gets less novel and more drawn out. I thought this book was consistently compelling. It can be a bit depressing and gut wrenching at times but I expected that. It's a good book to read for people like me who envied "beautiful people." A lot of the content is specific to models but the major themes are things any woman or empathetic man should be able to relate to.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters by Richard Rumelt

This is a good example of the kind of nonfiction book that I like but am not sure I'll actually get around to finishing... It's worth reading for the first few chapters but it eventually seems to run out of truly original points but still has to stretch out it's content over the rest of the book...

I was asked to start reading this one by my boss at the time because they were all reading it. It is legitimately interesting and gives a great perspective into why some bosses are terribly ineffective. I've certainly worked for some people who could only offer very bad strategy before...