ergative

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

For #DecRecs 18, allow me to DecRecommend Ed Yong's book 'An Immense World', which is a fascinating exploration of how animals perceive the world, and what sensory perception is, anyway. I picked it up a year and a half ago, because I LOVED 'I Contain Multitudes' and respect Yong's work as a scientific journalist enormously. But I've never cracked it until now, and I don't even regret delaying, because now it means I get to enjoy his work over this break!

@bookstodon #bookrecs @amReading

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

Happy #DecRecs 17, my friends! Today's recommendation is 'Scales and Sensibility', by Stephanie Burgis, a delightful regency romp with magic, imposters, romance, and of course dragons. Incontinent dragons.

@bookstodon #fantasy #romance #bookRecommendations

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

Happy #DecRecs 16th, y'all!

Today's recommendation is the Raven, Fisher, and Simpson series, by Ambrose Parry. Set in 19th century Edinburgh, it follows the crime-solving adventurers of a medical apprentice and a housemaid, both of whom work in the household of Dr James Simpson, a real historical obstetrician who also discovered chloroform.

Very well researched, well-written, atmospheric books. Start with 'The Way of All Flesh'.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/5aba1d46-ae02-4357-a962-fde2a0f925b4

@bookstodon

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

[Belated] DecRec #14 is A 'Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry', by C. M. Waggoner. Again, it's something I haven't finished yet, but so far it's a delightful sapphic romp in which a street con artist joins a corps of wizardly bodyguard protecting an upper crust young lady from assassins. The plot itself is nothing special, but the narrative voice, with its linguistic playfulness*, is a delight.

*Dog-carts, for example, are misnamed, being drawn by horses and entirely unendoginated.

@bookstodon

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

I haven't finished The Virtu yet, so today's entry in #DecRecs is Labyrinth's Heart, book 3 of the Rook and Rose trilogy by M. A. Carrick (half of whom is @swan_tower )

Oh, you haven't read the first two? Lucky! You get to read all three for the first time! The only thing I so much as reading that trilogy for the first time was re-reading books 1 and 2 in preparation for book 3 when it dropped this year.

Start with Mask of Mirrors.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/924306a0-aaaa-4456-a6c5-2953282d9048

@bookstodon #fantasy #sff

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

Oh, forgot to mention--my review of 'The Betrayals' by Bridget Collins (which I've RAVED about on here--you may have seen some toots) is up on Nerds of a Feather!

Heroes do The One Right Thing. With rising fascism, sometimes The One Right Thing doesn't exist; and usually heroes don't either. In this book, we see what happens when weak, flawed people do a small, right thing.

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/12/review-betrayals-by-bridget-collins.html?m=1

#fantasy #sff #BookReview @bookstodon #amReading #bookRecommendations #bookstodon

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

Good morning, Mastodon! Today's entry into #DecRecs isn't quite a #BookRecommendation as it is a report:

I started Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette)'s 'Melusine' yesterday, stayed up late reading, and got up early to finish it this morning. I was utterly engrossed. Enthralled. Captivated.

I also read several 1* reviews on Goodreads and, to be honest, I kind of agree with them all.

I still bought the other three in the series, though.

Anyway. Thought y'alls should know.

@bookstodon

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

Happy 10th of #DecRecs, my friends! Today's is the Countess of Harleigh mystery series by Dianne Freeman.

Is it sophisticated and nuanced? No.

Is it clever and witty with a twisty twiney mystery plot?
Not as much as Freeman thinks

Is it reliable fun, with friendly characters, comfortable interiors, and an appropriate appreciation for Hollywood-Victorian vibes?

You betcha.

Start with 'A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder', and go on from there.

#mystery @bookstodon #BookRecs #BookReview

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

#DecRecs No.8 is 'Just Like Home', by Sarah Gailey. A woman goes home to look after her mother in her last days. Dark secrets in the woman's past surround something horrible that her father did (no, nothing sexual, relax). Her house, built by her father, is really super creepy. True-crime loving weirdos swarm all over it. But sometimes we must love monsters, no matter how monsterous they are. What is a monster, anyway?

Creepy and vibey.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/e8b7bb26-c5b3-485d-9db8-09b806cbbde2

#horror #sff @bookstodon

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

Good morning! On this day, The Fifth of #DecRecs, allow me to suggest The Library of the Dead, by T. L. Huchu.

Set in parallel modern-day Edinburgh, where magic is part of life, living cheek-by-jowel with iphones and podcasts, and serves as yet another domain in which societal iniquities can play out. This version of Scotland is in rough shape, following vague Catastrophes, and young Ropa is just trying to look after her sister and gran, and kick ass.

@bookstodon
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/548b9788-939d-47cf-9c5b-c815fcc825ea

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

The thing I like so much about #DecRecs looking back over all the terrific books I read over the past year.

Today's DecRec is 'How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse', by K. Eason.

Imagine that the fairy tale fantasy land of fairies granting wishes at christenings, and magic and alchemy, moved forward in time and developed spaceships and interplanetary trade alliances. This is that. Quirky and fun, with a dry wit and terrific characters.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/22aa9db2-bb98-41dd-8897-4f1b0b90995d

@bookstodon #fantasy #sff

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

Day 3 of #DecRecs! Get yourself a copy of Alix E Harrow's newest, 'Starling House'. Southern gothic at its finest, which I raved about at length here on @NerdsofaFeather: http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/07/review-starling-house-by-alix-e-harrow.html

#books #bookRecommendations #fantasy @bookstodon

ergative, 6 months ago to bookstodon

Happy 2nd day of #DecRecs to those who celebrate! Today's recommendation is 'Even Though I Knew The End', by C. L. Polk. A thoughtful, wistful Chicago noir about a supernatural detective making deals with demons to sell (or redeem) her soul. Wonderful setting, clothes, mood, vibes; and a bittersweet approach to demon bargains that feels more real, somehow, than more traditional tales of this nature.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/382f3d45-8f80-4925-9b19-f37685946359

@bookstodon #bookRecommendation #fantasy #lgbtqbooks #lgbtq

ergative, 7 months ago to bookstodon

Sitting here thinking about how Mr Rochester spends an important chapter of Jane Eyre in full drag.

@bookstodon

ergative, 7 months ago to bookstodon

BRIDGET COLLINS YOU MAGNIFICENT GENIUS, YOU GOT ME! I FELL FOR IT!

Guys, 'The Betrayals' by Bridget Collins is SO GOOD! I've said it before, but it bears repeating. IT IS SO FUCKING GOOD!!

@bookstodon #bookstodon #books #amReading #fantasy #BookRecommendation #bookRecommendations #BookRecs #JustFuckingBuyAndReadThisBookAlreadyGoddammit

ergative, 7 months ago to bookstodon

Good morning, @bookstodon , just popping in to remind you that 'The Betrayals' by Bridget Collins is FUCKING BRILLIANT.
(Still only half done, but I have never resented needed to go to work as much as I do this morning.)

#amReading #BookRecs #BookRecommendation #fantasy #books #Reading #JustFuckingBuyAndReadThisBookAlreadyGoddammit

ergative, 8 months ago to bookstodon

FYI, the third book in Julie Schumacher's Payne series, 'The English Experience', is a work of equal genius to the preceding two books.

We had to import it at ruinous expense through a private contact in the US, because the philistines here in the UK, ironically, are unable to manage publishing it on time.

#amreading @bookstodon #academia

ergative, 8 months ago to bookstodon

Here's a terrific, out-of-print book, which seems to consist entirely of exquisite, Ernst Haeckel-esque natural history drawings of birds, reptiles & amphibians, and their intersection--which is, naturally, dragons.

https://archive.org/details/gri_33125013920190/page/n57/mode/2up

#fantasy #naturalHistory #dragons #art @bookstodon

ergative, 8 months ago to bookstodon

Dang, Seth Dickinson's 'Exordia' switched genres real fast there!

We started with an introspective, meditative ontological-philosophical character-based meeting of minds, and now suddenly aliens are dropping bombs and EMPs are razing civilization to the ground and we're in a military sci-fi rah rah defend against the invading aliens hoo-wah! thriller.

And I'm only 9% of the way in.

My my my.

#amReading @bookstodon #scienceFiction #sff

ergative, 8 months ago to bookstodon

PSA: 'Dear Committee Members', by Julie Schumacher, is a perfect book. If you are an academic of any sort, you must read it. If you are a non-academic, it may not charm you in the same way, but since it is a perfect book you must read it anyway.

Please observe the obscene number of hashtags I have put below, in the attempt taht as many people as possible see this message.

@bookstodon #AmReading #BookRecommendation #academia #books #reading #literature #TBR #bookitybookbook #epistolarynovels

ergative, 9 months ago to bookstodon

Good Monday, Mastodon! My review of Jas Treadwell's 'The Infernal Riddle of Thomas Peach', in which I praise the typography and narrative voice alike to the skies, is live on Nerds of a Feather.

Seriously, do not let this book escape your notice. It is a gothic delight.

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/09/microreview-infernal-riddle-of-thomas.html

@bookstodon #bookstodon #sff #fantasy #BookReview #BookRecommendation @NerdsofaFeather

ergative, 9 months ago to bookstodon

Friends! Romans! Countrymen! Do you want to read about a century of pronouns in science fiction, from David Lindsay's 'Voyage to Arcturus', through to Ann Leckie's most recent 'Translation State'?

Fear not! I've got you covered, on today's Nerds of a Feather:

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/09/lindsay-leckie-and-leguin-century-of.html

#bookstodon @bookstodon @NerdsofaFeather #sff #scienceFiction

ergative, 9 months ago to bookstodon

Does your life need more floating cannibal bureaucrat witch nuns who spread monster-creating STIs through their government-controlled prison brothel?

Because if it does, Kerstin Hall's 'Star Eater' has got you covered.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/1842577c-0788-443e-a450-86bb46bd8ef2

@bookstodon #bookstodon #fantasy #sff #BookRecommendation #bookRecommendations

ergative, 9 months ago to bookstodon

I say, Mastodon, 'The Star Eater', by Kerstin Hall, is quite imaginative and has a rollicking plot, but there is a lot of cannibalism in it.

I mean, fully justified cannibalism, well incorporated into the world-building and magic system. But still. Goodness. People slurping down gobbets of flesh left and right. Yum yum yum.

@bookstodon #fantasy #sff #bookstodon

ergative, 9 months ago to bookstodon

I have just had the pleasure of finishing Jas Treadwell's 'The Infernal Riddle of Thomas Peach,' and I must say, I can't think of a time when I enjoyed a narrative voice more: prickly, pedantic, impatient with uncooperative readers, delighted by such modern inventions as chapter breaks and scene cuts ('we thumb our nose at those unities of old Aristotle'), and perfectly willing to pick fights in the footnotes. ('You will die, sir, and come to dust . . . good day, sir').

@bookstodon #fantasy

Jennifer, 9 months ago to bookstodon

I finished this book last night and loved it. It's set in an alternative Victorian-era world where magic is real. The world is like ours though in that women can't vote and the lowers classes have pretty crappy lives. This book is about three sisters who decide to try to use witchcraft to get the vote for women, but the story turns into way more than that. Fun magic system. It explores family dynamics, power, and is super feminist. Highly recommend. @bookstodon #Bookstodon #Fantasy #Witches

ergative, 9 months ago to bookstodon

Hello, Mastofriends! @Princejvstin has today's review over on Nerds of a Feather, of a historical biography of Suleyman the Magnificent, constructed to feel reminiscent of a fantasy narrative, with a rich and textured sense of place and time and politics and power, even if the actual rendering of Suleyman himself is less developed.

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/09/review-lion-house-coming-of-king-by.html

@bookstodon #bookstodon #BookReview #BookReviews #history @NerdsofaFeather

elmyra, 9 months ago to academicchatter

Boosting this for @academicchatter: #academia friends, a question: I've been asked to peer review a book manuscript and offered an "honorarium in books". I don't work for for profit companies for free so I'm not doing it. They have also asked me to recommend other potential reviewers if I can't do it. I'm on the fence as to whether to do that because, again, they'll be asking for free labour. What are your thoughts?

ergative, 10 months ago to bookstodon

Dear Hollywood, for the sake of Clever Natalya, please settle your labour dispute and immediately adapt M. A. Carrick's Rook and Rose trilogy into a twenty-eight-part series so I can see the costumes realized on people.

Anyone else: I don't know actors, but if you want to cast Vargo, Ren, Grey, Tess, Varuni, and the rest of them, I would be THRILLED to see some pictures.

#BookRecommendations #bookRecs @bookstodon @swan_tower

ergative, 10 months ago to bookstodon

Went back to reread the Rook & Rose trilogy from the start to prepare for the arrival of Book 3 in my e-reader this month.

Very good life decision. I'd forgotten how great these books are!

(Start with Mask of Mirrors, by MA Carrick).

@bookstodon #bookrecs #BookRecommendations

ergative, 10 months ago to bookstodon

I have dutifully reviewed my latest reading experience on Goodreads.

The book was Chuck Tingle's 'Pounded by the Pound: Turned Gay by the Socioeconomic Implications of Britain Leaving the European Union'.

As I've mentioned before, my mother reads my goodreads reviews. She was moved to comment on this one. Her comment read, in full,

'Oh my'.

@bookstodon #bookstodon #BookReview #BookReviews

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5752110281?comment=264385033

ergative, 10 months ago to bookstodon

Hallo, shop! Yesterday I didn't much care for 'The Cartographers', but today you can read about why I LOVED Starling House, by Alix E Harrow, on Nerds of a Feather!

Look, just do what the nice sentient house wants, all right?

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/07/review-starling-house-by-alix-e-harrow.html

@bookstodon #BookReview #BookRecommendation #sff #fantasy #NerdsOfAFeather

ergative, 11 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon #BookRecommendations #BookReview

The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman: This was great! I really enjoyed the narrative voice and careful cultural hand-holding to ensure that the reader understands the nuances of insults and cursing across the different languages. The legacy of the goblin wars and loss of horses was very well portrayed, which made the hints at the ending about a possible restoration work extremely well.

Terrific cat.

Not entirely persuaded by the romance.