Julie > Recent Status Updates

Oh man this is bad timing. I'm in the middle of a book and this just came out. I have an ARC waiting for me to read and review. But what can I say? I love Tchaikovsky (not personally, just his writing) and this series is always very interesting, a different place in every book, usually a couple carry-over characters from previous books. Good stuff. Sigh. I need to read faster!

I'm supposed to be reading an ARC (I like to read and review them asap once I'm approved) but when I found out there was a new book in one of my favorite series I had to read this first. It's Skippy time, oh yeah!

Oh what a radiant book! I think it's written in 2nd person. I'll have to google it to verify. There's a narrator that sometimes talks to the reader, breaks down the 4th wall.

And it's got this quirky kind of subtle sly humor going on. Or maybe it's just me. I mean, they are on a planet called Aaa, and the main city is Ooiooia or something like that. Now how are we supposed to take this seriously?

Woo-hoo! I totally lucked out by getting an advance copy to read. Now that I'm finished with Isako I can delve into Ann Leckie new novel.

I'm not sure what to make of this book. I've never read this author before so I don't know their normal style. This book has a ton of info-drops. But given the world-building it has to give us this information or else we would be lost. But info-drops are boring. Plus it's about corporate politics=boring. +1 for having a middle aged character instead of a twenty-fire year old typical character.

I haven't gotten around to reading her trilogy that seems to get 4 or 5 stars everywhere yet. But I hope that means that this stand-alone novel will be good too. I got an advance e-copy from NetGalley (thank you so much whoever it was that told me about that place). I love NetGalley but it cuts into my planned reading schedule sometimes.

Interesting so far. Very good writing. We follow different characters doing separate things. Don't know if they will meet up or where the plot is going.

I got this thru Netgalley and am reading it on Kindle, but unfortunately GoodReads doesn't pick up my highlights. Bummer.

I'm having trouble reading this book. It might be just me because old age (I'm 53 but feel like 90) has turned my brain into swiss cheese. I'm having trouble when he switches POVs and then a few chapters later a character will be somewhere and I'm like "How did they get there? What was the last thing I read about this character?" and I can't remember. So the flow is choppy for me.

This book is really good, I'm glad I took a chance on it. Themes of slavery, of people who think this category of humans is better than that category. And a girl in her late teens stuck in the middle.

This starts out kind of meh but when it fast forwards to when there is a settlement on the moon and moon-born children then it starts to get interesting. The council are Earth-born and have nano things inside them that keep healing them so they are practically immortal. Whereas the Moon-born people are just like us, die after x many years. I foresee a future conflict between them because the council is using them.

This book is getting good. A gruesome seemingly impossible murder, plus possible conspiracy. There's something going on that we are just seeing the edges of right now. And I love the main character. He has a unique gift that gives him insight into what other people think and feel about a topic but that same gift is also a curse where he gets headaches and can't be around lots of people for long.

This one starts BAM! in a scene with characters I don't know anything about in a place I don't know anything about. Then a couple chpters later we get a huge info-dump about the characters and place. Not exactly a great beginning but an intriguing situation with a flawed character. I love a character with flaws, like major flaws. And they have to somehow work around their flaws.

interesting so far

This book has an interesting premise. A ex-cop reluctantly agrees to go undercover in a halfway house for people who have been released from mental institutuions but don't think they are ready to face the world yet. There have been several "accidents" that the owner finds out are not really accidents. For instance part of a ladder was sawn almost in half so when pressure is applied by a person's foot they fall.

One of my favorites of K. J. Parker. Ironically since there's not much action. But I love that the beginning tells you how the story ends and then we go back and see how everything unfolds. How a great man, in some ways, rises to power but one small mistake costs him everything in the end. I love it because it reminds me of Greek tragedies like Oedipus where it's about the hubris of man and how it leads to a fall

I'm stuck on a story with a main character I don't like. Or rather I'm 'meh' about him. I don't hate him he just doesn't do anything for me. So I'm taking a break and reading some other stuff.

I love Westlake for his Dortmunder books (so funny!) but he's also written serious stuff. This one is about a young guy who gets beat up and put in the hospital and from then on he has memory problems. And not like "where did I put my keys" but more like dementia patients. It's a fascinating read and I had to force myself to stop reading and go to sleep.

Ugh, just finished a really boring story. And it was really looooong too. But now I'm reading an interesting story. A Penny Royal story. I guess I'm not the only one who loves that character because the author said fans sent him messages wanting more Penny Royal.

This is a confusing story. It goes back and forth in time and it took me awhile to figure that out and that each one was about the same person.

Another ARC, this time by an author I regularly follow so I'm expecting some good reading ahead.

So far I'm not impressed. It's like science fiction lite. Like science fiction for those who read mainstream and have never read a science fiction book before. Sigh. Well, let's see what happens next.

This book is getting a lot of hype so I figured I'd check it out. Thankfully I was able to get it through Netgalley.

There are some really good stories in this collection and actually so far I have not found any "not so good", "meh", boring, etc. kind of stories. So that's a first for me because usually, even for good authors, a short story collection is a mix of really good, good, and just okay stories and I've not seen that with Tchaikovsky's collection.

Yes, be jelly my friends. I get to read this book before it's published. Squee!!! I didn't even know he had written short stories.

I've been reading a series straight through recently so it's weird to be reading a different author with a different style. And I miss the characters (some of them) from the series I just finished. But I love, love, love Tchaikovsky's writing. He's just....I have no words for how awesome he is. And I feel so lucky that my favorite author is sooo prolific!

I have no idea how far into the novel I am, I just guessed.

This author is a total tease! Are those two gonna get together or not? You can't keep doing this to us readers.

estimated percentage

Poor Karigan. She's still healing, physically and psychologically, from all the horrible stuff that happened in the last book and now she's got to try to get back into action again. She never gets a break.

Thank you Amazon for having Prime Days right when my old Kindle died and I needed a new one. Got one for less than $50! I don't care if it shows ads when it first turns on, I just swipe it away to get to my book. The only bad thing is it's bigger than my old kindle which means now I have to buy a new case.

Well change of plans. My Kindle is suddenly acting up and not letting me read my books. Grrrrr! So I had to go to the library and they didn't have book 6 but they did have book 5 so I was like "okay, I'll bite the bullet and read this one while waiting for inter-library loan of book 6 to come in"

A little past halfway we finally enter Blackveil, the deadly evil forest (of doom!)