CJ’s Comments (group member since Oct 08, 2024)

CJ’s comments from the Beyond Reality group.

Well, I suppose these days, I read quite a bit of horror. Two recent 5 star horror reads for me: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones and The Cold House by AG Slatter. Both are the kind of horror I like, the kind that creatively draws from different inspirations, both within and outside of the horror genre, and has a very distinct tone and atmosphere. Other great recent horror books that are among my favorites include The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker, and The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper.

Other than that, I really like lit fic, which is and isn't a genre, in that it is a genre defined by not trying to be a genre. My current favorite lit fic author in Han Kang, the 2024 Nobel laureate for literature. I especially love lit fic that crosses into the realm of SF or spec fic, like In Ascension by Martin MacInnes and Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, two of my favorite reads from last year, and On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, That blending of lit fic with SF/spec fic just hits a sweet spot for me.

I actually use audiobooks to get to sleep, but it's only audiobooks of books I've read. I start them, set the timer and lie down. I'm usually asleep in 15-20 minutes.

My cancer and treatment has resulted in some physical limitations that make physical books uncomfortable or difficult for me to read now. Plus I do not want to acquire any more things at this point in my life. I usually only read physical books, which are almost always library loans nowadays, when I can't get them in ebook or audiobook format, like via Libby.

I would say close to 90% of my reading is in digital format now, either ebooks, audiobooks or both together (my preferred method when possible).

I have learned that listening to an audiobook attentively is a skill like any other, and in my early stages of my cancer treatment right after my dx, I had a lot of time lying in beds, at home and in the hospital, to practice that skill. So now I am very comfortable with it. But at home now I like to have something to do with my hands, since I'm not so sick now that I need to lying down as much. If I do not have the ebook to read along with it, I often play a video game that doesn't require a lot of mental attention from me, or some other repetitive task like folding laundry or cleaning a room. Most of the time I listen at 1.2-1.7 speed, which is usually slower than my eye reading speed, but I will only go faster if the narrator is very slow or I'm doing the audiobook equivalent of skimming. My slow year-long reads of classics I will read along with the book at regular speed since the daily reading is just one chapter, so I see no need to rush.

I really like ebooks despite their glaring drawbacks--like with audiobooks, you can't loan them easily or donate them, as you don't really own them in the same sense, and also Amazon sucks (change the cover of my copy of All Systems Red, that I bought in 2018, back to the original artwork instead of that Apple TV ad, you bastards)--and have been on board with ebooks since buying a 1st gen Kindle. They, with audiobooks, make reading for me with my cancer accessible, so I am very grateful for that. I love being able to adjust font size with my eyesight problems, the easy word search, easy quoting to posting on social media, and more.

I do generally try to read banned and contested books. My overwhelming experience with them is they:

1. represent experiences of characters who do not fall neatly into the straight, cis, white middle-class Christian/Western (predominately American) experience

2. allow people to explore topics that are regarded impolite or too sensitive/taboo to people who fall within the above categories, particularly about one's own body, from normal bodily functions/changes (in particular those relating to female sexual development) to sexual abuse to going outside of Christian/cishet sexual and gender norms

And to be blunt, I'm over this. I do not think other people should decided want we can read. And with people trying to ban books in schools, it's not up to them to override other parents' choices.

To me, banning books to just censorship intended to keep people ignorant and mentally easily to manipulate and control. It gets into so very troubling territory when we see it is particularly aimed at the experiences of BIPOC and queer/trans people, and at girls and young woman who may not have access to information about their bodies and about things like sexual abuse.

I've read and own most of the books topping these lists, especially ones published in recent years. Even those I personally didn't get a lot out of, like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I see no grounds for them to be banned and made inaccessible for their appropriate age groups. Especially when we see books like All Boys Aren't Blue being contested on disingenuous grounds, like multiple claims by book banners saying it's being shelved in elementary schools, which it is not because it is not being marketed for such young audiences.

Well, most recently it was Dungeon Crawler Carl. I love gaming, I love SF, I love the novels it clearly references, but wow, that one fell flat for me. It is a combo of my not liking the whole LitRPG format, it being to derivative and uninspired in its worldbuilding and it playing to the lowest common denominator for its audience. Dull and juvenile.

Annie Bot is another one that people seem to love. I felt deeply uncomfortable reading it because it just reeks of "This author needed to get therapy before writing this book" to me. I hate how condescending that sounds in an online comment, but it was my honest reaction to it.

Hyperion. I just cannot with that book and people who love it. It's the epitome of everything I grew to hate about SF in the 1980s and 1990s that led me to sour on SF as a genre for years. The hollow veneer of cleverness and erudition, the creepy obsessions of bigoted white Western men that don't register as creepy to too many people, the lackluster, unsatisfying storytelling. I'm embarrassed as a SF lover that this is considered by so many to be the best SF novel ever.

I really soured on King in my older age, but loved his stuff when I was college kid, which is when I read this series and loved it. I do not know how I will feel about it now. I have not enjoyed King's stuff in recent years, even his more praised horror works, but I recall this being very different from his usual fair. I still have vivid memory of favorite parts of the later books in the series, so I'm eager to reread this and see how it holds up for me.

But I understand other people not being into it. When the series was republished in the 1990s, when I read it, I recall there were people, including hardcore King fans, who did not like it as well. So you're not alone if you find it's not for you.

I definitely need to reread this series. It's been ages! I have the 1st book checked out and will be joining you.

A spew of library holds on Libby have come in over the last few days for me, and I'm trying to get through a bunch over the weekend and tomorrow.

Just finished We Do Not Part by Han Kang, as part of my attempt to read books for Women in Translation month and solidifying my opinion further that she really did deserve the Nobel.

Will be reading Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, also for WiT month, after I finish Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein, which I'm currently reading today for my Booker prize project. But I think I need to slip in some lighter reading in between those, so I plan to read a bit more of the media-tie novel Entanglement (Stargate Atlantis #6) by Martha Wells.

I'm plugging dutifully away at my slow reads for Les Misérables, Anna Karenina and Emma. I'm enjoying the first two but Emma is especially going slowly because I just do not like the titular main character and her nonsense.

My hold for The Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow finally came in after a several months' wait on Libby after having to cancel the hold at my local library because of their only copy going MIA and never replaced. I hope to find the time to start that either today or tomorrow. Also hope to get to On the Calculation of Volume II by Solvej Balle next as well--I loved the first book.

Oh and also reading Hungerstone by Kat Dunn, and so far it's living up to the hype. A nice gothic horror book to read after my last horror read, Grey Dog by Elliott Gish, another gothic-style queer woman-centric horror story.

Oh, last day of July! And I haven't really been posting in my various groups' What Are Your Reading threads this month so let me make up for that.

I reread nearly the whole Murderbot Diaries (again), inspired by the release of the latest Murderbot publication, the ART-centric short story/novelette Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy , and I reread The Parable of the Sower by the great Octavia Butler in anticipation of finally reading The Parable of Talents in August.

Some other note-worthy books I've read in July:

I read The Heart of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky, the 2nd book in his Tyrant Philosophers series, as well as the short stories "Woodmask" and The Heart of the Reproach, both set in the same universe as that series. I enjoyed them all, but the short stories lack the kind of grim humor you find in the novels. I'm currently reading Shroud which if you like Tchaikovsky's SF more than his fantasy, you'll likely like this. For me, it's a contender for one of the best works I've read by him so far, as someone who gave Alien Clay and Saturation Zone both 5 stars.

Finally read Among Others by Jo Walton. It's one of the oldest purchases in my Audible account that I'm trying to free myself from. It wasn't quite what I expected--it really dripped of autobiographicality (is that a word?) and sometimes slavish fangirling of various authors (although I agree about Dying Inside which I badly need to reread) but it was worth the read.

This evening I'm reading Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman. Some of the black humor doesn't quite land for me but I am enjoying the detailed backstory about the titular species.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas is an enduring favorite of mine. Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, too.

I read Solaris by Lem last year for the first time, the newer Bill Johnston translation, and that immediately went on my favorites list.

Just read On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle and loved it, but I want to read the whole 5-part series before I declare it a personal favorite. It's a contender.

I really enjoyed, if that's the right word, Earthlings and Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, but those are definitely not books for everyone. Same for Human Acts and The Vegetarian by Han Kang. Both are authors I want to read more by.

I read the first Legendborn and can highly recommend it. But it is definitely YA, if that matters to others.

I'm been wanting to try a reread of the Dark Tower series but have been hesitant. I devoured that series in the 1990s, but I'm a very different person today, lol.

Those Delaney books are intriguing.

Would there be any interest in the Elric series by Michael Moorcock? Not a formal nomination, just feeling the waters.

Just finished my reread of Childhood's End, so I'm on Earth watching all of our uplifted children take over the Earth.

Finally finished up Point of Hopes by Melissa Scott. It's not a fast read. The story overall was decent, but it was the intricate worldbuilding that I enjoyed the most. Also recently read Bate Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker and can say, it lives up to the hype. It does get pretty gory, though, so not typical of the kind of horror books I usually prefer.

Currently I'm rereading Childhood's End by Clarke with my classics reading group.

Also reading Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill and I think I know why Cargill isn't considered a major 21th century SF writer. So far, it's mid, with problems, at best. Or maybe Murderbot has spoiled me to the point where if I read something that tries to tackle the morality of robots as slaves, I expect more than a US middle school level grasp of chattel slavery and the Civil Rights Era.

Starting the 5th Raksura book, The Harbors of the Sun by Martha Wells and the 2nd Tyrant Philosophers book, House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky this morning.

While I enjoyed the LotR movies, I don't think they quite captured the books. The movie are their own thing. It's fine if some prefer the movies to the books, but the books are to me are special in their own way. And I say that as someone who's thoroughly sick of Tolkien's dominance over the fantasy genre.

For me personally, I would rather re-watch the TV shows of the The Expanse and GoT any day over reading the books. I just cannot with those authors.

I'm not a big TV or movies person, and as a general rule I would rather read the books, for a number of reasons. A main one is that TV and movies are, by their inherent qualities as audio-visual media, graphic, and that to me robs me a bit of my own imagination that I get to exercise when reading.

Dawn wrote: "I'm going to go with a couple books I have shelved as "perhaps".

"

Oh wow, The Imago Stage! I looooooved Georges' De synthèse. I haven't been reading much French language stuff recently so she kind of fell off my radar. I'm not sure of her writing having a wide appeal among Anglophones but I'd love to read another by her.

Cherie Dimeline is another author I'd love to read more by too.

They're so ubiquitous these days it's hard to avoid them. I enjoyed Countess by Suzan Palumbo, a queer, anticolonial retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, because I felt that it captured well the action and pacing of the original well, despite it being a mere novella compared to the sprawling original novel. But mostly I haven't enjoyed very many of the retellings I've read so far. Some just haven't worked, or felt too indulgent, or the author really just wasn't trying to do an actual retelling, just a sort of lazy juxtaposition to the original work, perhaps for a marketing hook.

I hate to sound so cynical but I just haven't found the whole retelling experience overly positive so far.

Hoping to finish this weekend:

Count Zero by William Gibson. Been doing a buddy read of the Sprawl trilogy and have let this one slide. Need to finish it up because I really want to get to the third book.

Yesterday's Kin by Nancy Kress. I'm so not a Kress fan. I'm just reading this for another group's challenge. At least it's short.

Even the Worm Will Turn by Hailey Piper. Another series buddy read for another group. A reread for me. Gave it 4 stars last time (this one is more exposition heavy than the other two), but still enjoying it. Another short read.

Also reading:

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. A long-due reread of an old favorite. Not a fast read due to the large number of characters and how they connect to each other that can be hard to keep track of.

Navigational Entaglements by Aliette de Bodard. Just read the short story by de Bodard in the latest Uncanny magazine and now onto this recent publication. After this I'll be reading her A Fire Born of Exile as a buddy read.

Vibes, mood, something critically wrong with the novel or writing, or just generally feeling it's not worth my time.

I don't have any hard rules I stick by, only to be kind to myself and not try to force myself to read things that negatively affect my mood or my overall reading experience. But even then I'll make exceptions, depending on the circumstance.

For example, when I was reading through the Nebula noms for best novel, there were 3 I DNF'd: one because I felt the author didn't even know the story they wanted to write, another because I thought the characters were cringe and poorly written, and the third because the writer's style was annoying to me (and the story veered off the tracks as well). Then there was another nom'd novel that I probably would have DNF'd if it weren't that it was nom'd and by an author who is very loved by her fans, so I just wanted to see if there was anything in this novel that would appeal to me (and no, there wasn't).

I'm a native of the southwest US so heat is just most of my life. Where I live we've been having temps in the high 90s Fahrenheit. Not to rub it in to those experiencing the cold snap, but since developing cancer, my tolerance for heat has cratered so I'm kind of envious of those living where it's cold.

I recently read Foe by Iain Reid, and it was a very intriguing SF/horror thriller. It's layered with a lot of subtle symbolism, and one is the narrator frequently talks about the heat in his rural home. At first it struck me like a normal descriptive thing about the novel's setting. It's a rural house, apparently there's no a/c, and he and his wife just seem to live with it the way rural people do. It's not until the end of the story, after a few plot twists and misdirects are revealed, that I thought over what symbolism of the heat likely meant.

From my philosophy grad school days, I recall Camus' The Stranger and The Plague using heat as symbolism for cruelty, apathy and oppression. Camus was an Algerian-born Frenchman, so you'd think he would have had more positive feelings towards warmer climes but apparently not.

Just finished The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Ariwaka. Heartwarming popular Japanese lit.

I started a long overdue reread of Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock. It's been about 30 years since I first read it and I had worried it would not have any appeal to me now, but I was wrong. I'm rather enjoying it. It definitely has Old School vibes, and is digging up plenty nostalgia, but it's also quite well-written (despite being a "fix-up" novel) and deliciously ambitious.

I hope to finish that, as well as City of Bones by Martha Wells today. City of Bones is Wells' second published novel, and it's decent but it definitely feels like an early work. Plenty of action, but lacking a bit in depth and pacing.