Anthony > Recent Status Updates

As confirmed by my friend who’s a DCC fan, I’m not alone in experiencing this installment of the series as a bit of a slog. The whole train system situation isn’t very compelling.

I’m enjoying being back in the company of this compulsively readable series.

Read Nicole Krauss’s fascinating “Switzerland,” which explores the vulnerabilities of young women who are just beginning to explore their sexuality and agency. Krauss does an excellent job of leaning into painful and frightening ambiguities, although she does veer toward moments of being a bit too much on the nose.

Been tough to carve out time to read (and listen) to this one. Erdrich’s pacing is a bit laconic at times, but her approach is steady and involving nonetheless. And there are, throughout, scenes of startlingly raw emotional intensity and authenticity that are quite powerful.

Finished Part II. I remain profoundly impressed and moved by Larry McMurtry’s clear-eyed, vivid, deceptively simple approach. Every page I’ve read of his is in the three Lonesome Dove books is thoroughly compelling.

Finished Part I. An excellent, bracing start to this novel. It’s fascinating to encounter Gus and Call as two green youngsters.

Very glad to be back in the strong storytelling hands of Larry McMurtry. He writes with an ease and clarity that are wonderfully involving.

It’s perfectly delightful, and the exploration of witches’ magic is a nice change of pace from the first three Discworld novels.

Read Jamil Jan Kochai’s incredibly powerful, hallucinatory “Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain”

Read Brandon Hobson’s “Escape from the Dysphesiac People,” an achingly hypnotic tale of a young Native man who’s forcibly removed from his home.

Read Jenzo Duque’s bracingly personal portrait of second-generation Latino young men finding their way.

I read the first couple Pern books several years ago, and then the more juvenile Harper Hall Trilogy more recently, so I’d almost forgotten how much horniness among dragons and their riders figures into the plot.

I really notice some writers’ habits and quirks. McCaffrey loves to talk about her many characters’ grins.

Even though McCaffrey’s pacing is, at times, a bit lackadaisical, I find it comforting to be in the presence of this world and its characters. It’s clear that McCaffrey knows the inner workings of both with a deeply intimate, intuitive sense that rings true.

Read Rita Chang-Eppig’s intriguing but uneven “The Miracle Girl,” which finds fresh ways to interrogate missionaries’ racist work; and Vanessa Cuti’s “Our Children,” which features one of the most effectively shocking, upsetting turns I’ve ever read in a short story.

Read Gabriel Bump’s “To Buffalo Eastward,” which authentically captures a heartbroken young man’s compulsive behavior on a long road trip.

I’m finding myself both intrigued and kept at a distance.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a mystery or noir, and I’m enjoying being back in that sort of milieu.

And here it is again, a quirk that is all-too-common among modern SFF writers: the recurrence of describing characters raising either one or two eyebrows as a lazy shorthand.

Like much of the rest of Clark’s work, this zips along nicely, with a welcome dose of wry humor.

It’s a very strong beginning.

Having a lot of fun with this, especially when listening to the audiobook, which is a nonstop delight as performed by Colin Morgan (with cameos by Bill Nighy and Peter Serafinowicz).

Finished Part Seven, which featured wonderfully surprising turns of events and tremendously moving passages.

Finished Part Four. Egan’s ability to get inside the conflicted, compulsive, vulnerable, and mysterious hearts of her various characters with a rare, authentic specificity, is really spectacular.

Finished Part Three, which ended with a scene at the sea that was very moving indeed.

Finished Part Two. I went into this almost totally blind; all I knew was that it’s a period piece and that I adored Jennifer Egan’s Visits from the Goon Squad. This is a quieter, more patient novel, and I’m very drawn in.

It remains very interesting. I’m trying not to parse every stranger detail, trusting it will come clear.

One minor quibble is that Leckie is guilty of a quirk I’ve seen all too often in the work of contemporary SFF writers: the over reliance on the very specific facial gesture of raising one eyebrow. Why are so many modern writers enamored of repeating this action over and over and over? Is Spock to blame?

I’m going into this very blind, just aware that it’s very acclaimed and won oodles of awards. Three chapters in, it’s chilly and intriguing. Leckie is clearly holding lots of cards very close to her vest in her approach.

Enjoying the ride so far. A nice breath of fresh air.

Finished Section II, which culminated in a stunningly powerful chapter. This novel is really coalescing into something that’s quite special.