susan’s Comments (group member since Jan 04, 2017)

susan’s comments from the 2022 ONTD Reading Challenge group.

I read The Devourers by Indra Das, a queer werewolf horror/fantasy set in 17th century and present day India. It hit so many of my buttons (monsters, complex parent/child relationships, queer gender identity and sexualities), and the writing of the setting, present day and historical, was so vivid and gorgeous. Really made me want to visit Agra and New Delhi lol

I'm picking The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean by David Abulafia, because it's been on my shelves for 5 years now. I doubt I'm going to finish it this month because it's MASSIVE but I can only try

I read up a Cat Sebastian romance marathon lol (I do enjoy romance but I AM picky, so sticking with an author I know I’ll like was a good choice)
- The Lawrence Browne Affair and the The Ruin of a Rake, books 2 and 3 in her M/M romance Turner series. They were nice, inclusive and well-written but also not very memorable, so just a solid 3 stars
- And then It Takes Two to Tumble and A Gentleman Never Keeps Score, her the Seducing the Sedgwicks books, which I enjoyed IMMENSELY more bc they played into all my favourite romcom/histrom tropes

I read Artemis Fowl too and 100% agree with the other comments - I just didn't connect to it, and I know I would have if I was still a kid. The story was clever and fun, but, never really got me y'know?

Trying to get through Little Women too, l but I'm finding the exact same problem - would have loved it as a kid, but right now I'm soooooo booooooored.

I read:
Unfit to Print by KJ Charles, M/M historical romance featuring a mystery and the Victorian pornography industry, REALLY loved it.
Point of Knives by Melissa Scott, second 'book' in the Astreiant series, a fun mystery where the heroes of the first book finally get together.
A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson, beautifully written fantasy romance-with-a-twist with amazing worldbuilding.

Also read Wilson's The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, which, though excellent, and marketed as a novella, was well over 200 pages - yeah I definitely call it a novel lol

I feel like I've read sooooo many novellas this year already omg what do I have left on my to-read list even.

My library has Kai Ashante Wilson's fantasy novellas, which I'm VERY impressed by and have already reserved for this challenge. Very curious about The Ballad of Black Tom too!

I actually have a lot of books to read this month, so many dystopias I've wanted to check out, but man I've been left exhausted by the mystery challenge lol we'll see if I get through them

Definitely want to try Station Eleven and The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. Might start with Player Piano bc Vonnegut is so good at providing some levity for these subjects haha

Got through a few this month! a bunch of mysteries I've been meaning to read for AGES as I branch out into the genre, this month was a good excuse.

The Blue Place - was good, Griffith has beautiful prose and really beautifully drawn characters - it was really less about the mystery than about the protagonist, American-Norwegian tall incredibly sexy butch detective Aud. I had to think for a hot second to remember how the mystery was actually resolved LOL

In the Woods - was also good, but it's just so damn descriptive it really took me a good while to get stuck into it. I was fascinated by the main, current-day murder mystery, and less so about Rob and his past, and was frustrated when so much of the middle part was so very much not about Katy lol. Yet also, although absolutely infuriating, Rob was a really well written portrayal of slow destruction and PTSD. French is a damn good writer and I'm keen to read more!

Confessions - not done yet but damn it's good.

Picked up The Blue Place bc I love Nicola Griffith's writing and need more lesbian fiction in my life. I'm absolutely going to check out the Dublin Murder Squad books. SO keen to see what everyone else picks up, I need more mystery recs!!

I read Experimental Film by Gemma Files, a horror mystery about a film critic/lecturer discovering the lost films made my the first female Canadian filmmaker. I adored the writing, and the film aspect was interesting - about more indie, experimental filmmaking and the study and history of film rather than Hollywood, with bits of folklore mixed in - really different, creative, really enjoyed it!!

I read/listened to The Convenient Marriage narrated by Richard Armitage - the romance is probably my least fave Heyer to date but the side comedy plot and Richard Armitage's voice ohhhhhh man A+

and I reread Howl's Moving Castle for the first time since I was 11, and still really liked it! It was easy and charming and silly - but yeah, it totally does just drift around seemingly unconnected for the most part lol.

I was thinking of Everything Leads to You, since it's on my to-read already and looks like a cute romance for the potentially crazy month that August is going to be lol. I might check out a tell-all scandal book tho........

Also, would a book like Night Film be eligible?

I'm probably going to read Howl's Moving Castle since I've been meaning to do a reread since... 2015? I'm also eyeing The Convenient Marriage on audiobook because hellooooooo Richard Armitage. and I have to admit, I, Claudius has really caught my eye

I decided to go easy for this month and read Spinning by Tillie Walden. It's a young lesbian's graphic novel memoirs of her 12 years doing competitive figure skating, with coming of age, coming out stories all intertwined. It was really poignant and moving, but also a really quick, engaging read!

In 2015 I started Alison Weir’s The Life of Elizabeth I but I didn’t finish because in 2015 I ALSO started my Masters and any extracurricular non-fiction reading just about melted my brain. But it was quite good so I just put it back on the self as to-read for another time, when my brain was ready for it. Clearly, June is that time lol.

Edit: Actually, since it's Pride Month, does anyone have good LGBTQ+ biography recommendations? I'd love to read one of those too. I've had a look at the GR list but recs if anyone has them are always more helpful haha

I ended up reading Ginn Hale’s The Rifter series, which was a very classic style portal fantasy series with a central gay male romance. It was split up into 10 novellas/3 omnibus volumes but really it should have been one very long, 1000k fantasy doorstopper novel LOL (if only publishers would EVER accept that as a submission). I really loved it, the fantasy worldbuilding and plot was well done, I loved the characters and the romance and liked that it didn’t feel fetishistic. (I also appreciated that Hale is lgbtq+ and married to a woman. I know there’s still some complexity re: women writing gay romance but I feel like it makes a difference when she actually knows and understands these experiences on some level)

I also finished the last two of the six Penric and Desdemona novellas by Lois McMaster Bujold, as audiobooks. I’m SO sad they’re over, oh my god, I adore them, they have been wonderful comfort reads. I highly recommend any of the novels in her World of the Five Gods universe – the two Chalion novels are incredible too, really thoughtful fantasy with some unique fantasy protagonists.

Tiffany wrote: "Errlee wrote: "Would Carry On by Rainbow Rowell count? So many of the suggestions seem like "hard core" fantasy. I tried The Fifth Season but just could not get into it ... felt like I needed to ta..."

My brother did the same thing recently, and it was soooooo interesting to see his perspective, lol, totally free of nostalgia

Lea wrote: "Rivers of London is written by a man. Not eligible for the challenge."

LOLLL ah that's what I get for writing comments too early in the morning - I was thinking of series similar to HP. To thus redeem myself, if humans interacting with faerie realms are of any interest I also really liked Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown, set in the Regency era. It was really charming - similar to HP in that it features magic schools and magical society, but magic is widely known in the world, and it explores ideas of magic in other cultures as well!
Also, Seanan McGuire's October Daye books are similar contemporary fantasy, featuring modern San Francisco and magic coming from the faerie realms.

Both by women. I promise ;)

Carry On definitely counts! It's a homage to Harry Potter fanfiction so it's very reminiscent of HP - Wizarding school for teens on Earth, a teen Chosen One with a lifelong magical nemesis, but I felt like it became its own story quite well. Defs checks the LGBTQ+ box too!

Another fantasy series set in our contemporary setting is the PC Peter Grant series, where a young London police officer becomes inducted into the force's ~secret magical division, learns magic and solves crimes. I've only read the first book Rivers of London but I thought it was great fun, like a more adult Harry Potter and a BBC drama in one lol.

I read Code Name Verity which was an EXTREMELY excellent historical YA. The unreliable narrator aspect of it was done very well, clever but not gimmicky, enough to keep us wondering what's really true but not outlandish. And the story and the characters were so. damn good.