Beyond Reality discussion

Please let us know what you are reading this month (November 2023).
Like it? Not so much? Please share!

All genres are welcome in this topic thread!

Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages is so much fun so far I'm going to hold off until I visit my mother so that I can share it with her.

And to think that I randomly discovered it in a thrift store. :)

#SciFiMonth so I'm starting with Century Rain
and rereading House of Suns!

I think I'm in for House of Suns this month. I just finished Chasm City about a week ago - it was probably my 2nd favorite Reynolds that I've read so far, after Century Rain, but I anticipate really liking HoS.

I'm currently reading Generation Ship, a new release. It's my 5th of 6 Mammay novels (I missed last year's, but will read it sometime). His first in 3rd person and there are five points of view - it's quite enjoyable so far and shows growth as a writer.

I need to read Connie Willis's A Lot Like Christmas soon - it's due back in a few weeks. I desperately need to read more Willis - she is awesome and smart and funny and I own a lot of her books and have even been personally chastised by her (for not wearing a Hawaiian shirt to the Locus Awards).

To continue work on one of my personal mini-goals for 2023, I plan to read Touching the Void. Never seen the movie.

And, as always, hopefully more!

I am slowly reading Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Just a very busy time right now but hope to get back to it next week.

This is SciFi month for book bloggers, so here are my humble plans. And I'm half way through the first book:
https://wordsandpeace.com/2023/10/19/...

I finished All the Light We Cannot See which I enjoyed and am now reading The Choice

Almost done with Hellspark. Brilliant, chock full of ideas, would love to reread for an active discussion thread.

A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett

The Fiancee Chosen by the Ring Vol. 2
The Fiancee Chosen by the Ring Vol. 3
The Fiancee Chosen by the Ring Vol. 4
by Jyun Hayase

Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen 1 byHiromi Satō

The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher

Mary wrote: "The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher"

My copy arrived this week and sadly, I'm not going to get to it for awhile.

So far, I've finished The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England and Circe. I'm actively in the middle of Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood, Night's Master by Tanith Lee, The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuire, and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson. I should probably get back to one of the several non-fiction reads that I've abandoned over the summer, too.

It's been a crazy few weeks and I've had very little time and energy for reading, sadly. I finally managed to scrape up the motivation to start House of Suns; I'm only a chapter in and not sure what's going on yet but I'm confident it will make sense later.

Villains Are Destined to Die, Vol. 5 by Gyeoeul Gwon

1st half of the month:
Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 9.5/10, comments in the discussion thread about this book (in the Previous BotM Discussions folder).
Uprooted by Naomi Novik, 10/10, again, comments in the discussion thread abotu this book (in the Previous BotM Discussions folder).
A Survivor's Lens: A Metastatic Breast Cancer Survivor’s Focus on Faith and God’s Word by Sheila Marie Johnson, 5/10. I know Shelia, the author; she is an amazing advocate & an inspiring woman. Her book, however, is less about her journey with metastatic breast cancer & her advocacy work & more about her faith journey. That’s fine—that’s the book she meant to write. I just think so many more women could be reached without that being the main focus. Women of a different faith tradition or non-religious women may well find this book a bit preachy.
Resurrection Row by Anne Perry, 8.5/10, A truly original (at least to me) mystery. Interesting, unpredictable sub-plots, too. (A Charlotte & Thomas Pitt mystery)

I reread The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and thoroughly enjoyed it again.

Who Made Me a Princess Vol. 1 by Plutus

Reading https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... by Shannon Chakraborty. It's the final book in the Daevabad trilogy and the whole trilogy is utterly wonerful

Loving my fourth (!) read of The Bees. The audio is best, but I get different things from it whenever I read a different edition.

I also highly recommend the speculative fiction short stories in Amaryllis and Other Stories. Do not judge Carrie Vaughn by her Kitty the Werewolf series!

I finished reading The Dark Half by Stephen King. And the Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (Book #10 of the Wheel of Time). It’s been called the sloggiest of the novels of the series. It felt slow, but the writing was great. And Starter Villain by John Scalzi. A fun adventure from the point of view of a Bond-like villain. And the The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson. It is the fourth novel of four in his secret novel series. Probably the best of the series with lots of action and plenty of Cosmere goodness. I am reading Assassin's Apprentice (Book #1 of the Farseer Trilogy) by Robin Hobb. I plan to read System Collapse (Murderbot Diaries #7) by Martha Wells next.

Second half of November:
Chimaera by Ian Irvine, final book in his Well of Echoes series, 8/10. Very detailed, as are the other books in the quartet, but an intricate story with many plot lines and fascinating characters. The conclusion was darker than I had hoped.
Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi, 7/10. This was a difficult book for me to read, describing a world, my world and yet so not-my-world, the world of Black America, especially from the early 1990s through the present into the future. There is a speculative/science fiction element, but (to my disappointment), it was not examined or explained, only employed in the story by the two main characters, Ella & Kev (especially Ella). The portrayal of police brutality and systemic racism is searingly powerful. This is an angry story, an uncomfortable story for those of us in the white world; it made me feel, it made me think. Why only 7/10? I wanted more about Ella’s (and Kev’s) Thing—that which makes this story science fiction or speculative fiction. I saw it as a device for the author to find a unique way to show us the backstory and future story of various characters and to explore Ella and Kev’s reactions to their living conditions, but I wanted more about their unusual abilities. And the ending was rather abrupt—are they going to initiate revolution?
Rutland Place by Anne Perry, 8.5/10. This was pretty slow going for a while as the mysteries were laid out, but the second half of the book picked up considerably and the ending was tragic but fit perfectly.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, 10/10. A classic, an award-winner, and for good reason. The human characters are so believable and relatable. The story can be read as a straight adventure, but the insights and truths are deep, thought-provoking, and timeless. I read this to fill a challenge prompt for a Newberry award winner. While this was a reread for me, have never read the rest of the Time Quintet and will likely do that over the next few weeks/months.
I’m starting The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle tonight but may not finish it before we get into December.

Well, I did finish The Ballad of Black Tom, 9/10. A quietly intense book that builds to an explosive climax, with a definite Lovecraftian underpinning.