I am around! I know I haven't posted anything but my Yuletide letter in the recent months. I'm sorry about that, I haven't forgotten this place and I hope nobody's been worried, given the year we're having. I've been fine, and so have the people close to me. Just cooped up and isolated, as I'm sure we all know. This disappearance of mine wasn't intentional, I've just been swept away by RL stuff, as well as my fannish engagement in the indie podcast Discord communities I've joined, because my brain has mainly focused on podcast dramas all year. Also, in November I was busy writing a new novel manuscript, theoretically as part of NaNoWriMo, though I was nowhere near the 50K-word goal by the end. Fell just shy of 25,000, but I was very pleased with that, and just happy to get that story going.

Personal updates (in locked entries) will hopefully follow soon, but now I'm just making a little update about what I've been reading in the past months. I was going to do a whole set of what culture I've been enjoying, but you know what, I'm just doing books now so that I can actually post this tonight. I'll do podcasts on another day, since there's a lot. I'm not listing all of my read books here either, just some highlights. Just want to get back into the swing of writing about things here.

Books

I read the fifth and last Raksura novel by Martha Wells, The Harbors of the Sun, and loved it at least as much as I loved the fourth book. The whole series is wonderful, but I especially have a lot of love for that final duology. I think it was in September that I read it? Anyway, at some later point I borrowed the first of the Stories of the Raksura short story collections, and only after that realized it actually comes between books three and four, so I could have read it and the other story collection before I started reading books four and five. But it's all right, most of the stories take place before the book series anyway. I've yet to read the other short story collection, I'm saving it a bit since it really will be the last of the Raksura series I haven't read yet. Of course, once that happens I'm just going to have to start buying the books and rereading them!

I haven't had as much trouble focusing on reading as I had in the spring, but I've still been reading less than is normal for me. One reason is that I've started a lot of things I didn't like or care about enough to finish them. But anyway, I've read some science books and some poetry. I reread Tove Jansson's novel Fair Play which is one of my favorites among her fiction for adults, and the probably the queerest one. It's about two female artists sharing their lives together, and it's got that wonderful Tove Jansson quality where she makes stories worth telling about everyday life and they somehow crystallize so much about people, life, and the world in a few sentences or paragraphs.

Currently I'm reading some nonfiction space books, as well as a recent short story SFF collection called The Book of Dragons which has lots of stories about dragons, and it's really good so far. Short story collections are difficult for me because I'll love some stories, not care for others, and really dislike some, but so far I've enjoyed most of these, and only had to skip two or three. I'm not quite 1/3 of the way through, so we'll see how it continues, but it's nice to be able to read a short story collection since my attention span isn't the greatest.

I'm also reading a couple of Finnish novels, and haven't gotten bored of either one yet, it's really quite impressive. (I love my language, but our novelists don't have a good track record of holding my attention and interest for long. I always love it when I find exceptions!) One of them is a YA book that has dragons. Yes, we have a bit of a theme going on.

I'm going to try to get to other forms of culture (mainly podcasts, let's be honest) soon, but let this be it for tonight.

Hey, let's have a recent culture & media round-up since I've actually got stuff to report for, and I feel like posting something! It's also very rainy here, which feels like the appropriate mood for some cultural posting. I think I'll start calling these recent culture round-ups rather than "culture consumed" which stuck to me from some fannish podcast but doesn't really work for me.

Books

Very promisingly, it seems that my reading block might be lifting! Since I last posted about books, I finished The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, which I enjoyed quite a bit. I also read two novellas: Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather, which is nuns in space and living spaceships and other cool space biology stuff, as well as an f/f subplot, and it was good; and Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis, which is the first of her alternate historical fantasy of an England where men are mages and women rule politics, because that whole thing with Boudicca and the Romans went rather differently than it did in our universe. It was really enjoyable, a sweet bit of feel-good escapism that still wasn't too fluffy or insubstantial. I really look forward to reading the rest of the series, and the third novella is going to be an f/f romance. This one was m/f romance, but for once it was an m/f pair I totally adored and enjoyed! Yay!

Currently I'm reading Yoon Ha Lee's Dragon Pearl, which is middle-grade space opera science fantasy and it's totally, totally awesome. I'm not even finding it as easy as before to read middle-grade or YA books, but here it all totally works for me, while I'm sure it also works for younger readers and damn would I have liked to have something like this to read when I was a kid. If someone's curious to try Yoon Ha Lee's work but is scared to dip into the Machineries of Empire series for whatever reason, this could be a good one to try!

I've also started reading Justina Ireland's Dread Nation, which is alternate history steampunk-ish historical-fantasy-horror with black girls being badass at killing zombies. I'm not great at reading about zombies without getting squeamish, so this is progressing more slowly than it deserves - the writing is great and the story super engaging. Anyway, this means I'm currently reading about two Very Bad Teenage Girls who it would be a horror to be in any way responsible for. I'm finding this very empowering.

Podcasts

In non-fiction podcasts, I continue to enjoy Exolore's exploration of fictional alien planets and the life that could develop on them. I have listened to other shows as well, but my mind's a bit of a sieve.

In fiction podcasts:
In The Penumbra Podcast, I finished Juno Steel and the Long Way Home (very exciting ending, and I cried a bit at a certain point, and I look forward to the next story but need to be in the right mindset for it) and I also listened to the Second Citadel Story The Spiral Sage, which was awesome. I in particular enjoyed Rilla's speech in the courtroom, hee. *squees a bit* Not saying more here because of spoilers - at some point I should do a proper spoiler-cut post just about the Penumbra. Anyway. This means I've only got two stories of each left before the end of S2 - it's actually in sight! Two Juno stories, each of them two episodes, and two Second Citadel stories, one of them two episodes and the other five (!) episodes, plus a one-episode special for the Second Citadel. Very exciting!

I've started listening to S4 of Wolf 359. Extremely exciting! I've listened the first three full episodes plus the minisode after the first episode. All very intense stuff. I was amused / surprised by Zach Valenti's intro to the season, though, because it turns out there's absolutely no difference between hyper-excited Eiffel and hyper-excited Zach Valenti, at least in how they speak. Heh.

I finished listening to the Far Meridian minisodes, and am now waiting for S3 with queer longing.

Other stuff

I've actually watched some things! I watched the recording of the Globe Theatre's A Midsummer Night's Dream that was available on YouTube for about a week after Midsummer. Then I also watched the National Theatre / Bridge Theatre version of the same. I of course had to watch both just before the time to watch them ran out because I'm like that. But anyway, I enjoyed them both, but found the NT/Bridge Theatre one particularly great, it really did something unique with the play and the characters, and I felt the changes they did worked, and made sense in the context of the production, which is more than you can say for many other reworked productions of classics, and they dealt really well with some aspects of the play that are... rather uncomfortable if you think about them. I was so excited by this experience I might actually get around to watching more of these theatre recordings online as they're available. We'll see! It would be nice. I used to be such a theatre nut, and it's been bothering me that I haven't been able to take advantage of all that's been offered online for free in the past months. Though I do wish I could afford to donate. Maybe later.

I'm wondering if I need to start including a section for gaming... Not that I've got a wide range of games I play, but this year I've started playing a few mobile phone games, mostly for distraction and comfort during stress and bad times. I've been playing too much Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp since I started it a couple of months ago, but it does make me feel good. Anyway, this week I learned about a game called June's Journey, where you play a 1920s lady who ends up having to investigate the suspicious deaths of her sister and brother-in-law. You alternate between solving mystery scenes by finding clues etc. and restoring and building up the fancy estate she's now in charge of. It's extremely pretty and atmospheric, the gameplay is really good and the balance between the different aspects works for me, and the main character looks very Miss Fisher-like, which makes me want to watch some Miss Fisher. I might do some of that next. I'm also mostly managing not to call her Juno instead of June, which I think is very good of me.

The world is being scary in lots of ways, and I'm not the right person or in the right state of mind to talk about it, I'm just going to talk about the recent culture I've consumed/enjoyed/whatever is the right word. Look, I'm actually managing this on a Reading Wednesday! I don't manage that often.

Books

I am reading, even if not as much as I used to, back in the old days. But since my last post like this, I've finished the Finnish space book I was reading, and I read the first book of K.J. Charles's A Charm of Magpies series, The Magpie Lord. I found it mostly a delightful gay historical fantasy romp with interesting characters and lots of sex in various English settings; though at times a touch too violent for my liking, and the relationship & sex dynamics in this one aren't the kind I often go for. But it was good and interesting, and a light enough read to manage with my quarantine brain in a reasonable amount of time, and I do want to continue reading the series.

I also finished a volume of translated Chinese poetry from more than a millennium ago, which I much loved, and which I've been reading for a long time.

I continue to read and enjoy The Priory of the Orange Tree; I'm nearly 90 % through it, so it shouldn't take terribly long, it's just the quarantine brain that makes it slow. I'm also rereading This is How You Lose the Time War, because I want to, and rereads of a favourite and hopeful and beautiful f/f book are probably one of the best things for quarantine brain and anxiety brain.

I'm planning to DNF and return to library a bunch of books that, let's face it, I don't want to read enough to actually finish them. I don't know why I've had weird guilt about not-finishing books lately, I'm usually pretty merciless at that - life is too short to waste on books you don't like. Seriously this is not a time to feel obligated to read anything that isn't working for me, regardless of how many prizes it won or how much I liked the author's previous book or how many months I've already had it from the library or even how I really should read more from non-English-speaking parts of the world. Also, a lot of these books were started/borrowed/placed on hold before the pandemic, and we all know that was about 72 years ago at least, so ugh, who cares. I've got books around I actually want to read.

(I do wish people from my country were slightly better at writing books I want to finish, though. Non-fiction still seems to go all right, though, and sometimes poetry works.)

Podcasts

I've somehow calmed down in my "only consume podcasts" frenzy of the early isolation days. But I finished my re-listen of The Strange Case of the Starship Iris, and aaah I love it so much, even more the second time around, and I have so many feelings and thoughts about the characters, and especially this time around I was hit by Massive McCabe Feels. And generally Agent Feels but especially McCabe feels. I want to write fanfic about this show. (Let me know if you're a native English speaker who'd like to beta such fanfic, if I get it written. Though I generally need to do a beta call for "hey who can help me with all these tiny fandoms I seem to have picked up".)

In other podcast-listening news, on the Penumbra Podcast I finished Juno Steel and the Monster's Reflection, which was not an easy story, but damn it was significant and damn it was good. I also cried my eyes out after finishing it because just so many feelings, how dare they, it was good.

I finished re-listening to Midnight Radio, and I've continued re-listening to S2 of The Far Meridian. It's got a few recent bonus minisodes released, but I figure I'll finish my re-listen first and then listen to them so it goes in sequence. Mind you, it's trying my patience a bit to keep seeing them on my podcast feed!

I've been trying to slowly check out some new shows, but it's really hard to focus on anything new, anything that isn't either continuing an existing favourite or re-listening to something I've already heard. I also might need to stop my subscriptions to short-story podcasts because I can't seem to listen to any of those. Except for Toasted Cake, it's apparently short enough (it's delightful SFF flash fiction, for those who don't know it).

Other

Hmm, I really shouldn't subscribe to streaming TV because I'm still making my way through Gentleman Jack though I really like it. I'm, uh, almost halfway through (for reference, it's 8 episodes long), but then it turned out I wasn't in the right mindset for working conditions of 19th century English coal mines. Hmm, I also managed to somewhat make use of all the free arts and entertainment online, by watching the first act of Swan Lake by English National Ballet, but then I failed to continue to the rest of the ballet before it went offline. Still, it was beautiful! Maybe I'll manage to catch some other ballet and actually watch all of it. It could be relaxing!

Some things are opening up in my country, so there exists a chance I might go to visit an actual physical museum at some point.

Okay, I've been meaning to manage these "culture consumed" posts for a while. Seriously, I'm probably just going to have to go back to trying to do a Reading Wednesday and then pick other days for doing other forms of culture because I apparently find it too much work to list them all at once. And then I delay for weeks and then it especially is too much work. But I just want to chatter about culture things so now I'm doing it.

Books

This is going to be fast, because I'm not managing to read much now. Pretty much ever since the whole global-pandemic-with-lockdowns-and-social-distancing thing started, my concentration has been really bad for reading. I don't know why. Normally reading is my way of escaping from bad stuff, of comforting myself when things are hard, but now I mostly can't. It's not like I can't focus on anything at all, either, but somehow reading isn't working, or only works for small amounts of time. When I try to read for a long time, or when I'm too anxious, I can't focus, or I just get so tense it's awful. I'm really envious of everyone who can keep reading through this because I miss that.

This is to say that since I last posted about books, the only books I've managed to finish are T. Kingfisher's The Raven and the Reindeer and a re-read of Martha Wells's second Murderbot novella, the latter because I figured rereads might work better. The evidence about that is inconclusive, because it's a 150-page novella, and I took at least a week to read it. Pretty sure that the first time around I read through it in a day, and I had high fever then. But I did generally enjoy it, in the small bits I managed to read it in. However, there was maybe a bit too much, uh, murdering going on for my current state of mind. Maybe the next reread should be a Becky Chambers or Red, White, and Royal Blue. But now I've started reading a Finnish YA fantasy novel by one of the only current Finnish authors that I love just as much as my favourite foreign ones (Siiri Enoranta). I really like it, and it's in my own language, so I'm hoping that makes it easier to read.

To go back to The Raven and the Reindeer for a bit, it's a feminist f/f retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, and I enjoyed a lot. I mean, it's a feminist f/f retelling of The Snow Queen, so we're doing pretty well already, and it had awesome animals, like a proper smart-ass raven and reindeer some magical flying otters. But I got inordinately distracted by the fact that there were a lot of hints she was setting it in the Finnish culture, or a Finnish-based one - references to uniquely Finnish folklore and myths, especially - but wasn't aware that in Finnish, we don't have gendered third-person pronouns. Whether someone is "he" or "she" is not a conversation you can have in Finnish. (Of course you can otherwise have conversations about whether someone or something is male or female, but they wouldn't rise out of conversations that the he-or-she question would rise out of. Also, it seems weird, if we assume they're speaking/thinking in Finnish, that a raven would not like being called "it" because "it" is a totally proper pronoun to use of animals even if we think of them as intelligent and personable, for example with pets, and it wouldn't feel particularly demeaning/objectifying. In fact, in colloquial speech we use that pronoun for humans as well, because, huh, I don't know, we just do. I tend to always feel I'm being particularly official or excessively "proper" if I even use our word for he/she about a person in conversation. But I don't know if this was the case in the sort of time the story seems set in.)

Sorry, that's a long aside, and probably would literally only bother Finnish readers like me, but it just made me really confused about where I was supposed to locate this mentally, because every now and then it was telling me to locate it in my country, but then it also was clear Gerda was thinking in a language that doesn't match with the culture. Also Gerda isn't a Finnish name, but we do have plenty of Swedish names in use so that's not as much of a problem. As for Kay, though, that's not how we spell that name. But the names probably just come from the English renditions of the original tale.

Uh, I've been waiting to get that off my chest for a couple of weeks, thank you for reading this chapter and we'll move on now.

Podcasts

While I can't focus on books, you know what I can focus on? Podcasts! So many podcasts! In a time when I can't really meet anyone in person other than the occasional grocery store worker or a neighbour I pass by at the yard from a proper distance, it feels comforting to have some voices accompanying me, I guess. I've especially dived maybe even deeper into my podcast drama obsession, so I seriously need to trim this to just the main things. So I'll do those.

So, uh, maybe a month ago I started listening to Wolf 359. ( Rambling for a few paragraphs, mostly not spoilery but a bit. I've listened until the mid-season Three. )

So anyway, I've got a new fannish obsession there and it's... quite something.

Out of my pre-existing podcast obsessions, I've been slowly going through Season Two of The Penumbra Podcast, and it seems like I finally got through one really rough phase of the Juno Steel storyline (I'm sure there are still other rough things to come, but at least one arc arrived to a conclusion) and I was rewarded by a more hopeful, and truly excellent tale in Juno Steel and the Time Gone By. While there still was dark stuff in it, too, there also were some lovely things, and let's just say that I've now got a new f/f ship that I adore madly already. I might have to really write a separate entry about this, because I have lots of feelings and maybe even thinky thoughts. We'll see if I managed that!

And still with The Penumbra, today I listened to the Second Citadel story The Moonlit Hermit, both parts, because it was just so good and I couldn't stop. I love Rilla so damn much. I could honestly just listen to Rilla's research logs for ten hours, I wouldn't even need a plot, though I also enjoyed the plot and the character interactions immensely. But Rilla is brilliant.

You know, I'd rather love for all these scientist ladies from different podcasts to get together and solve some sort of a problem. I could just imagine Rilla, Violet Liu from The Strange Case of the Starship Iris, Dr. Eurys from Tides and Nora from The 12:37 getting together and being really amazing at sciencing at a problem. (Though Nora would probably be pretty unsettled since she doesn't do so great without her normal circumstances. But Rilla's good at dealing with Damien's anxiety, so she'd probably be help there, too.)

In terms of re-listening to old favorites, I've recently listened to S1 of We Fix Space Junk for the second time, and had even more fun than the first time. I've moved to re-listening to S2 of The Far Meridian, though I'm still in the early episodes - this part is a bit heavy listening, so it isn't the best time in the world for it, and I'm taking it slowly. And... I finally started re-listening to The Strange Case of the Starship Iris, and oh my goodness it's so good it's so good. I'm loving it even more this time around, maybe because now I already know everyone and I know what's generally going on and can just get more into it. I remember the first time I took a while to warm up to Arkady, but well, now I know how much I adore her, so I don't mind her being, oh, well, her general Arkady-ness. *waves* I've already listened to the first two episodes today, and I have a feeling I'll be going through it pretty fast this time around.

As I said, I've listened to plenty more podcasts, but I guess this covers the main things that I'm the most obsessed with.

TV Shows

Recently I got an HBO subscription for a bit - I'm still in the free trial period, but since I'm not a very fast watcher, it probably won't be enough. I'd been wanting to watch His Dark Materials and Gentleman Jack, and I've now watched the first episodes of both.

His Dark Materials is really excellently made and exciting and beautiful and seems to be superbly cast so far. But I remember the books pretty well, especially the first one because I read it many times while waiting for the sequels as a wee geeky girl-child, and well, now I'm watching it with this dreadful sense of foreboding because I know what's coming up, and it's especially bad with all the child characters because I know some bad things are coming and... I'm not sure if I can actually watch something like this at this time period. But at the same time it's so beautiful and well-made and it has beautiful music.

Gentleman Jack, though, is a delight, and doesn't give me the same difficult feelings. I have a feeling it won't take me long to watch it, the first episode was already so, so good. Of course there's complicated stuff that doesn't feel good, because history is history and the English class system is the English class system and yeah, that would be a whole essay. But it's more usual stuff that is easier to deal with than more epic danger. I'm going to have to write more about it when I've watched more of it. But it's really, really good.

And now I really have to stop and get on with other stuff before it's midnight in my time zone again.

I hope you all are okay and so are all that you know. To keep myself distracted from the news, and to possibly get some interaction in this time of isolation, here is a Reading Wednesday update! I meant to do the whole culture consumed thing, but since I've let this pile up, I've got way too much to put in one post, so I'll just post about podcasts and Other Things later, I hope.

Recently Read

Since the last time I posted, I've read at least:
- Pocket Apocalypse (Incryptid, #4) by Seanan McGuire. Alas, I didn't like this one anywhere near as much as the other books in the series so far. Doesn't help I'm not a fan of werewolves and it was too gory for my liking. But also the story wasn't particularly engaging, and besides Alex and Shelby all the other characters were flat caricatures. I also don't find it such a great aesthetic that in the one book where they go abroad (to Australia) pretty much all the local characters are horrible bigots and their motives and behaviour don't make any sense, and the American and his expat girlfriend are the enlightened ones, and I honestly would have expected better of Seanan McGuire. And seriously, what kind of a father is like that about his adult daughters? Is it normal enough in the US that it's presumed to be possible to happen without everyone thinking the man is certifiably insane? (In that case, I'm once again so glad to be Finnish.) Or was it just another assumption that countries that aren't the US are backwards like that? Oh well, at least the next book in the series will go back to Verity, she's fun. (Though I enjoyed Alex well enough when he was surrounded by his family members and we didn't have any "let's go to see the backward and bigoted foreigners" thing going on. He's not my favourite, but I didn't dislike him the way many readers seem to.)

- The True Queen by Zen Cho, the second book in her Sorcerer Royal series, which takes place in alternate history Regency England with magic, dragons, and people of colour. Though this one also takes partly in Malaysia and the Fairy (the series' spelling of what I usually see referred to as the Faerie in fantasy novels). Anyway, it was delightful and just what I needed at that point. The main character is Muna, a Malay girl who is not magical but her sister is, and neither of them remember their past. They're staying with Mak Gengang, an awesome powerhouse witch we already met in the previous book, but they end up travelling to England via Fairy to figure out what's happened to them, and shenanigans happen. We meet lots of characters from the first book, a lovely f/f romance develops, sisterhood is explored, magic is made, stuffy old Englishmen do not get their way, Prunella bosses people around as expected, and Rollo of Threllfall is as adorable as before. We also spend time with Rollo's formidable aunt Georgiana Without Ruth, powerhouse dragon ladies for the win. (How can you not love books that include a dragon aunt called Georgiana Without Ruth? It's impossible, I say.)

- Dead Djinn in Cairo and The Haunting of Tram Car 015, both by P. Djéli Clark, in this alternate history early 20th century Egypt where the Djinns and other magical beings are in our world and making fantastical inventions and changed the course of history so that Egypt was never colonized, and all kinds of awesome stuff. Dead Djinn in Cairo (a novelette, I think? probably not long enough to count as a novella?) has an awesome lady detective who dresses in exotic English men's garb and investigates the mystery of a dead djinn and flirts with a gorgeous woman along the side. She's sadly not the main character of The Haunting of Tram Car 015 but she does appear there, and the duo of male detectives in this novella are also very entertaining to follow. I love the world that Clark has created, the writing is delightful to read, and I love how it centres on a variety of non-Western cultures. I'd love to read entire books about this universe! The Haunting of Tram Car 015 totally went on my Hugo nominations list for Best Novella.

- Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen, a YA novel from the world of The Bright Sessions. It's a queer love story between two high school boys, one of whom is a powerful empath ie. he can feel other people's emotions (and gets therapy to help him deal with this from Dr. Bright, a therapist who specializes in individuals with special powers), the other having no special powers but he's super-smart and depressed. Caleb and Adam are definitely among the most popular characters of the show, and I love their story, and was excited to learn there would be a novel about them. I really enjoyed it! I'm not a big fan of first-person present tense, which seems to be near-ubiquitous in YA these days, but it worked fairly well here, I soon stopped noticing it. Probably it helps that the characters are constantly so confused about what's going on, so it makes sense they're not narrating from some vague point in the future. Anyway, I loved getting to know more about their story, including many parts the podcast can't tell us about at least directly. I'm pretty sure it works also for readers who don't know the podcast. Though it does end before the end of the podcast, so it's probably noticeable all threads haven't been followed to the end.

Although this is a part of a series, the other two books are not going to focus on Caleb and Adam's further story, but will feature other protagonists. I'm very curious about both of them as well; the second book will be Damien's origin story, and I'm really curious as to how she's going to pull that off, especially given that it can't really have a wholesome happy ending in a typical sense, and that you are not supposed to end up sympathizing overly much with the protagonist. Anyway, the third book will be about Rose, who I really wanted more time with during the show, so I'm happy the book will explore her story - especially as it means another YA book with a lesbian main character.

Currently reading

I've got too many books as usual that are technically being read, but most actively, I'm reading the sixth Flavia de Luce book by Alan Bradley, and Mythic Dream, a collection of short stories based on myths around the world, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe. Authors like Ann Leckie, T. Kingfisher, JY Yang, Arkady Martine, Naomi Novik, and Amal El-Mohtar. I admit, I already sneaked ahead to read Amal El-Mohtar's feminist and f/f Blodeauwedd retelling, Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers because I was so curious about it and wanted to see if I'd want to nominate it for the Hugos before the nominations closed. (I did.) Besides that, I've so far enjoyed T. Kingfisher's story (The Labours of Hercules from the point of view of a bird!) and JY Yang's stories best, but I've still got several to go.

Not trying to make guesses about what I'll read next, because I just stress myself unnecessarily if I do say that I'm going to read this or that. I'm such a creature of mood and whimsy when it comes to reading, I'll read what I want to read at the time. I do want to read more in my own language again, though. Well, now that I'm mostly expected to stay at home with my overflowing bookshelf, there should be plenty of time for reading.

Feel free to chime in, about these books or others, or anything else related!

I thought I'd try a thing where, in place of the standard Reading Wednesday that goes around, I'd have a general What Culture I Have Been Consuming Lately feature. That'd also get me to handily talk about the podcasts and TV episodes and things like that which I've been into, without needing to have the energy to do a Proper Post about them otherwise. We'll see how this turns out! And I know it's not Wednesday now, hush.

Books

It feels like in the early weeks of the year, I've been reading but not progressing. But recently I got properly back on the reading track again. I've started the year with a couple of f/f romances - Melissa Brayden's Back to September, a contemporary romance, and Olivia Waite's The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, a historical romance with science women. I enjoyed both of them very much. I had some writing-related issues with the latter, but on the other hand it was full of stuff I'm crazy about - f/f, early 19th century history, history of science, women doing science, women supporting one another, and women's crafts. And the writing-related issues didn't keep me from enjoying the story, it's just that it could have been even better if some of those had been fixed. Stuff like pacing - the romance develops a bit too fast for my liking - and some POV issues and overuse of epitheths.

Now I'm just planning to get back to Tasha Suri's Realm of Ash, which I've neglected too long when trying to finish other books, because it's amazing and I want to focus on reading it properly.

Though I feel like I haven't read a lot of books, I have been reading an awful lot of fanfic lately. Especially in the podcast fandoms! Should maybe get into the habit of rec posts.


Podcasts

I've been listening to so many things! I finished The Bright Sessions early this year (other than the post-series specials, which I haven't yet started listening to because I need a breather) and that definitely still needs its own proper post. I love it deeply, though.

There has been more podcast-finishing and podcast-catching up recently. I finished S1 of The Strange Case of the Starship Iris and S2 of Moonbase Theta Out slightly before Christmas, and I think I finished S2 of The Far Meridian in early January. Just recently I finished Midnight Radio, which is a beautiful one-season, ten-episode complete story in 1950s radio show format, with queer women, and I love it so much and find it unfair there's hardly any fic. I should probably write some. And I need to do a proper mini-review or rec post on it so I can get other people to listen to it and talk about it with someone. I already started listening to it again because it's just so lovely.

Recently I started listening to The 12:37, which is a new show involving a time-travelling train and lots of queer folks including an f/f ship, and honest treatment of mental illness. So yeah, lots of things I'm so there for. There's one season out and I already finished it. In probably less than a week? So, so much recommended! Also, it's British, which is a nice change, as most shows are US-made with US actors, and my ears are a bit more comfortable with British accents.

I also started listening to The Pilgrimage Saga, which is a small-cast spacefaring show about a spaceship on a mission to return humanity to the Earth after humans had to flee to another planet when Earth became uninhabitable, and this new planet is already inhabited by aliens. I've listened to five episodes so far, and I find the characters and their interactions delightful, and there seems to be some kind of a plot cooking up and I'm curious about what it'll be. Also, it has gorgeous music.

I've started on S2 of The Penumbra Podcast. Though I'm taking it a bit slow because the Juno Steel stories nearly always find a way to break me a bit. There are more Second Citadel stories in this season, and they're starting to find their voice and are getting delightful. I've recently encountered Sir Damien, Rilla, and Lord Arum, and if anyone who listens to the show is reading, I'm sure they know just how delightful that is. I hope I get around to doing a proper spoiler-cut Penumbra post where I can just ramble and rave about the episodes I've heard lately.

Also, I kind of got going with EOS 10 after all. It turned out that after the first couple of episodes, the alcoholism/addiction content dropped to a level I was okay with (I'm fine with people being messes and having bad ways of dealing with stuff, I just don't like plots being focused on addiction/alcohol). By "I kind of got going" I mean that I've already made it through the first two seasons. In about two weeks. Oops. I think I'm taking a break now before going on to S3. Anyway, I find the characters' relationships delightful, and the quirky humour is mostly starting to find its mark for me. I love the bickering relationship that's grown between Ryan and Dr. Urvidian, and I just love Jane. Jane is fabulous. I also rather love that her name is Jane, because Janes of fiction aren't often badass powerhouses.

Most recently I started listening to Ars Paradoxica. I'd had the first episode saved for a while, and after getting through The 12:37 far too quickly, I decided I needed more time travel shows. I've only listened to one episode, but I really enjoyed it.

I continue listening to S1 of Tides, which is a show about a scientist who lands on an alien planet and explores the life there while trying to get in touch with her spaceship crew again. It feels like a podcast version of Becky Chambers's To Be Taught, If Fortunate; it has that same degree of "OMG isn't life and xenobiology amazing, let's just talk about how weird and fascinating life could be and how weird and fascinating it is even on Earth" and I love it. It's not really something to binge the way some of these other shows, but I listen to roughly one episode per week or thereabouts.

Also, I've already started to re-listen to Kaleidotrope, and am through the first four episodes again. It works excellently as a comfort feel-good listen the second time around, too.

Okay, I went on for so long about the podcast dramas that I'm not even going to mention non-fiction stuff. Maybe I'll do those on occasion, too, if I get around to doing this regularly enough that I don't have a million things to update at once!


TV and films

Most weeks I won't include films in this part, because I'm not a big film watcher, but this time I actually have one! I recently watched Ocean's 8 - had borrowed it on DVD from the library. I'm really bad at watching films, so I hadn't got around to this one either. But it was lots of fun! Loved the characters and the hijinks. Such a breezy fun heist story.

As for TV, I've mostly been watching the newest Doctor Who season, as you maybe can tell. But I also have started a little on S2 of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. That show is so pretty and fun, and usually has the perfect-for-comfort-viewing ratio of gorgeous 1920s outfits, and flirty banter to sleuthing and mysteries. But the end of S1 got kind of dark - the second-last episode creeped me out so much I couldn't continue for months, and when I tried watching the last one, it was too violent for me, so I just read the summary to know where the overarching plot was going. But I seem to do all right with the second season.

Other

I can't often afford going to the theatre these days, and also I don't always have the spoons for it. But last night I got the opportunity to see some theatre for free, so I took it. It was a preview of a new production of Wuthering Heights. It was… very good, in that it was extremely intense and powerful, and it did not romanticise the story. Ever since I actually read the book, I've not been able to understand people who think Wuthering Heights is some kind of great tragic romance. But this one treated it as it should, that is, a story about terrible people being terrible and making each other more terrible in the process. It was extremely powerful as such. On the other hand, it made for really uncomfortable watching seeing as I was recovering from a couple of not-so-great mental health days. The director's style is very powerful, visceral and weird, and I think it's a good match for the story but it was too much for me. I had to look away from the stage sometimes, and it still left me feeling quite dire.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed how they used music in the play, though it was no musical. Also, the actors and visual design were great. But when I got home, I had to spend quite a lot of time eating cheap chocolate and reading fluffy/comforting fanfics before I trusted myself to feel calm and balanced enough to go to sleep. Well, I'm all right now, after sleeping the night. But I think I want to see something fluffier the next time I go to theatre!

ETA: I'm a bit behind on comments once again, sorry about that, and I haven't commented on other people's posts much. My brain hasn't been helpful with that kind of stuff lately - it took me long enough to get this written. But it's still easier to just babble about media I've enjoyed that it is to respond to other people in a way that makes actual sense. I'll try to get there!

Here's a quick Reading Wednesday-No-Thursday-Actually post, because I should be doing useful things and I don't want to! (Perhaps I need to make more tea first. More tea is often the answer.)

What I've Read Recently

The last book I finished was A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland, which I enjoyed a lot. Deliciously rich and detailed worldbuilding (though I'm a bit iffy about so many names directly from our world's languages appearing in a complete fantasy world), lots of things about storytelling and narrators and the power of stories for the good and the bad, everyone is super queer. I really look forward to getting my hands on the second book, especially as that'll feature my favourite character as the narrator.

What I'm Reading Now

A lot of things! I'm rereading The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet for the Xth (maybe 4th?) time because why not, and that books keeps making me very happy and comforted. Otherwise, all my library holds insisted on coming at the same time, so I'm a bit swamped, but I've finally started Gideon the Ninth so that I have time to read it before I have to take it back to the library. I'm not far into it enough to say what I think of it yet. It seems entertaining but maybe has more reanimated corpses than I strictly like? I really want to get back to Empress of Forever which I enjoy a lot but which I requires more of my brain than the others do, which is why it's been slow. I've recently been reading some Finnish poetry to enjoy things in my own language as well.

What I'm going to read next

Well, the library books with a definite due date to them include The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri, and Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. I'm not convinced I can read all of them in the time I've got left, but I can't decide which one to take back to the library without reading, because I super much want to read all of them. Wish me luck, or something. Anyway, once that situation is done, we'll see, but I might want to tackle some of my own books for a change, and I have a bunch of stuff I want to reread, like the Imperial Radch books and In the Vanishers' Palace. Oh, and there are lots of history books I want to get down to. I've realized I've spent too much time in the 19th century Europe and would really like to read more about other historical periods.

So, trying to keep up with new, recently published stuff is turning out difficult for me. Maybe I should go back to being late for each and every book and fandom? That's usually more my style. Then again, I've discovered some fabulous books by keeping up with the current releases, so ah, it's hard to know what to do.

Okay, I'm going to stop procrastinating for real now.

I haven't done a book post in a while! And I've actually read lots of books I enjoyed lately. In lieu of a Reading Wednesday post on a Wednesday, I'm now going to list and briefly describe a bunch of books I've enjoyed particularly in the past weeks.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. (First in her Teixcalaan series - the second volume will be out next year, but the first is also a self-contained story, you're not left at a huge cliffhanger with nothing resolved.) This is a really interesting science fiction story about a space empire and a woman who arrives there as an ambassador from her home station to find out what happened to her predecessor. It's more political science fiction than space opera, since it mainly stays in one planet and looks at the space empire and its conquests mainly through political machinations in the capital. I liked it a lot, in particular the fascinating worldbuilding, the richness and detail with which the empire's culture was described, the delightfully weird mind-implant technology that is in the centre of the plot, somewhat reminiscent of Ninefox Gambit yet not at all like that (you'll know what I mean if you read it), and great characters. I loved the main character as well as sooo many supporting characters. Mahit, the main character, is lots of fun, a very active, curious and determined character who's sure to keep the plot moving and keep things interesting. Lots of queer characters and relationships. The main character is a lesbian and there's some f/f content, although it's not a romance-centric story and you shouldn't expect that; also she shares her head with a delightful disaster bisexual guy.

I also really enjoyed how this book explored the themes of empire, culture, cultural imperialism and colonization. The description of what it is to love a culture that threatens to drown your own while you know it felt like the author knew what she was doing. I'm saying this as someone who's far too in love with many British and North American cultural products while also conscious of the hegemony and what it's doing to smaller cultures, including my own.

Okay, on to the next book.

Siren Depths (Book #3 of the Books of the Raksura) by Martha Wells. I'm turning into quite a fan of this series! I started reading it last year when I was voting in the Hugos for the first time and it was a nominee in the series category. I didn't manage to read enough in the category to vote for it, but I stayed interested in the Raksura, and continued reading the series this year. Anyway, it's a fantasy series about these shapeshifters called the Raksura who are sort of human/reptile people/dragon shapeshifters with very particular social structures, matriarchy, no concept of monogamy, very different gender roles than we do, fascinating culture, and lots of arguments with each other. The main character is a sardonic loner who suddenly becomes a part of a very social community and doesn't know how to trust people or believe he belongs, and the characters are lovely. I thought this book was the best yet, I was riveted and loved it all so much. And oh, all the feels! There are still two more novels, and some short stories, and I look forward to them all.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It's alternate 1920s Mexico, Mayan gods, and a girl on a heroine's journey. This was a bit of an uneven reading experience, and there were parts in the middle where I had trouble staying into the story, maybe because of some pacing issues. But overall I really loved diving into this colourful world, and I loved the heroine a lot. I also enjoyed how it handled the romance aspect of the story. I often have issues with het romances in books and other media, as I've mentioned before, but I had no problems with this one, it worked well enough for me.

Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee. It's a collection of short stories set in the universe of the Machineries of Empire novels as well as a novella taking place after the last novel of the series, Revenant Gun. The short stories were fun and/or interesting glimpses into the world, characters, and history of the novels. The novella, Glass Cannon, just, OMG OMG!!! So much what I was left wanting after finishing Revenant Gun, and also wonderfully over-the-top, and a really satisfying resolution for the main characters. And ended in such an exciting place, OMG. I want the non-existent sequel right now. I may have to yell and flail about these books properly in a separate spoiler-cut post at some point.

I've also been able to read and finish some beautifully written books in Finnish, which is really nice, as I often have trouble finding books I enjoy in my native language, other than modernist poetry and non-fiction.

And I finally bought myself the first Murderbot novella, All Systems Red, by Martha Wells, which I hadn't previously owned because I first read it from the library. And that meant I of course had to read it. I mean, I don't always read books immediately (or even reasonably soon) after buying them, but well, I opened it, my eyes fell upon the first sentence, and then I couldn't not read it. And now I'm all into rereading all of the Murderbot novellas soon. Well, this is a very appropriate time since the first Murderbot novel, Network Effect, is coming out next May. A whole novel of Murderbot! I was privileged enough to get into Martha Wells's reading in the WorldCon (ie. I and one of my friends went to queue early enough to fit into the room), and she read an excerpt from Network effect. It was brilliant and so much fun, and I can't wait to get my hands on the whole book.

Currently I'm reading Sarah Pinsker's first novel, A Song For a New Day. It's a interesting and largely well-written, but I'm bothered by some of the vagueness of the worldbuilding, because it just makes certain things not feel realistic. I may try to say more when I've finished it and know how I feel about the whole book.

Next, I hope to start with Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone - I've heard a lot about it, and after loving This Is How You Lose the Time War I want to read more of the authors' work. Also, I'm so much in the mood for badass lesbians in space, which this should deliver.

As I'm slowly crawling my way back towards health (damn this bug has been persistent! but I have a little bit more energy each day), LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT A BOOK I READ RECENTLY. Because it's wonderful.

When I first heard about Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's novella This is How You Lose the Time War, I knew I had to read it once it came out. Time travel! Two (female) time agents on opposing sides, exchanging letters! And f/f love! I was sold on those points alone.

Yet I wasn't prepared for how good it would be, and how unusual.

Here's the cover blurb: Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.

And thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more.

Except discovery of their bond would be death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That’s how war works. Right?

I'll try to avoid spoilers as I describe my experience, though if you don't want to know anything about a book you probably should skip the rest of the post. But oh, I loved it. I loved the exquisite poetry of the letters Red and Blue leave for each other across time streams. I loved the poetry of the increasingly impossible ways in which those letters were delivered. I loved the development of their relationship, and gradually learning to know their strange worlds through their letters, and how the book left much unexplained, for the reader to guess, or dream. I loved all the myriad time streams and the careful ways in which each side wove their own patterns in time and just, I don't know, everything. Including the multitudes of names Red and Blue call each other.

The book stole my heart and did exquisite things to it. I can't get Red and Blue and their world and their times out of my mind. And that's a good thing.

I hesitate to say more. Except, perhaps, that if you only want straightforward books which don't leave anything unexplained and do not enjoy poetic language at all, then this book may not be for you. But then again, it would be worth it to try, anyway. Maybe you'll discover that it is for you after all. But if you have any level of tolerance for the poetic and the unsaid and the inexplicable, I recommend this. Especially if you want awesome female characters and time travel and beautiful (f/f) romance, or at least some of those items. This a novella, so it won't take long to read. And it's so, so worth trying.

It came out in July 2019, so very very recent! I was lucky enough to get it from our library's e-books this soon, but I know I'll have to own it.

If you need to know more spoilery things before reading, or if you've read this and want to discuss it, drop me a comment or something! I can DM you or set up a spoilers-allowed post, whatever seems the most convenient.

I wanted to do the reading meme yesterday but I didn't have the required cooperation of the brain, so I'm doing it today.

What I've read recently

The last thing I finished was Tell It To The Bees by Fiona Shaw, which was really wonderful. I picked it up from the e-library by chance and turned out to love it. Before that, I've recently finished a few other books I want to mention, because I haven't done this meme for a few weeks. I finally finished This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, which has been reading in the long time, because I don't always have the headspace for reading about climate change and climate politics, but it's really great, important and also empowering.

I also read one of this year's Hugo nominees for Best Novella, P. Djèlí Clark's The Black God's Drums, which I loved very much and I want to read a whole book series from that universe, thank you very much. And I finally got around to reading Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, and oh my stars that was great, even if it took me some time to figure out well enough what was going on so that I could just focus on reading the story. But I gather that's a rather common experience.

What I'm reading now

I've been reading Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik for a while now. I really like it, though every now and then I need to read something else, either because I'm too worried about the main characters, or because the book is just thick and heavy physically. I do expect I'll be done with it fairly soon, once I have the right headspace to continue.

For lighter reading, both physically and mentally, I started book #2 of Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, A Local Habitation. Really enjoying it, and don't expect to take long with it.

In the non-fiction front, I've got my usual novel research books, but I also started reading Soraya Chemaly's Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger, because it sounded like something I wanted to read, and I was able to get the e-book from the library. It's great so far.

What I plan to read next

I'm really starting to feel the need to read some fiction in my own language dammit. I borrowed a couple of books to that effect from the library as I went there today (and filled my backpack with books, I should never be allowed into public libraries). Other than that, once I've finished Spinning Silver, I expect to read Catherynne M. Valente's Space Opera, or the Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee, whichever appeals to me more at the moment. Space Opera is a Hugo finalist for the best novel (as is Spinning Silver), and I need to read Raven Stratagem before I can read the third book in the series, which is also a best novel finalist. (Plus, the whole series is a Best Series finalist.) But I totally would want to read them both soon anyway.

And I do expect to read more October Daye in the near future, as well.