Reading List for September
Sep. 30th, 2019 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brokenmnemonicAnother month, another reading list. I'd hoped to read a bit more, but I've been trying to get to grips with the background research and work I need to do if I'm going to take part in NaNoWriMo this year, and that's giving me so many headaches.
<471. Amazing Spider-Man #9 by Nick Spencer ★★★
472. Amazing Spider-Man #10 by Nick Spencer ★★★★
473. Amazing Spider-Man #11 by Nick Spencer ★★★
474. Amazing Spider-Man #12 by Nick Spencer ★★★
475. Amazing Spider-Man #13 by Nick Spencer ★★★
I think I'd have enjoyed this series more if I was a long-term reader and invested in J. Jonah Jameson.
476. Saving April by Sarah A. Denzil ★★★
477. The Forbidden City by Deborah A. Wolf ★★★★
This was good, probably as good as the first novel, but felt rather more brutal; lots of the characters make choices with horrible consequences that are in character, but it feels like this is the book where all the nations or powers of the world are torn down ahead of some climatic war or questing in the next volume.
478. The Dreaming #13 by Simon Spurrier ★★★
479. Star Trek: Aftermath #1 by Kirsten Beyer ★★★★
I already like this series much more than the other Star Trek: Discovery comic tie-ins, as it's primarily about Spock and Pike. It actually feels like an interesting story, although I'm not particularly interested in the Klingon stuff (again).
480. Amazing Spider-Man #14 by Nick Spencer ★★★
481. Amazing Spider-Man #15 by Nick Spencer ★★★
482. The Princess Who Flew With Dragons by Stephanie Burgis ★★★★★
This is a really good book for older children, I think - it's the third (and I think final) volume in Stephanie Burgis series of tales that began with The Dragon With the Chocolate Heart, and it's all about female characters - a dragon, a princess, a street urchin, etc - solving mysteries and problems and learning who they want to be. Sadly, chocolate isn't a big theme in this one, unlike the previous two, but this one is all about philosophy, giants, and the things we do for family.
483. A Study In Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★★
I haven't read the Sherlock Holmes stories in decades, and I discovered my library has the audiobook series narrated by Stephen Fry, which I've been listening to at work as a way of drowning the rest of the world out. His foreword is quite interesting, as it hadn't occured to me that for many of his readers Conan Doyle was the first introduction to mysterious groups like the Mormons. I wonder if the average Victorian reader's reaction to the Mormons was the same as mine?
484. You Were Gone by Tim Weaver ★★★★
If I stopped to think about this one more, I'd probably decide it was an unlikely mystery, but it was an entertaining read - it moved pretty quickly, the protagonist spent some of his time doubting his own sanity (but not so much, for so long, that the book became all about the inside of his head) and it was fairly satisfying seeing the villain taken down.
485. House of Whispers #13 by Nalo Hopkinson ★★★★
486. The Beauty #29 by Jeremy Haun ★★★
This was hard to grade, because in some ways, it was really good - the conversation between the two protagonists had me chuckling several times, and felt very real, but the comic is also one long break-in that felt like it could've been faster.
487. X-Men Gold #26 by Mark Guggenheim ★★★
I didn't have many comics waiting for me this week, as more and more of my regular titles are ending, so I picked up a half-price bundle of 7-8 X-men comics detailing the events around Colossus and Shadowcat getting married. I have a soft spot for both of them, particularly Colossus, and it was on sale. Reading X titles for the first time in years and years kind of emphasised that a lot of things don't change, but it's nice to know that characters I liked are back in the X-universe again, even if it looks like they're going through some of the same stories again. Ironically, in the earliest X-men comics I remember reading, Colossus and the other X-men had gone through the Siege Perilous, and Colossus was living as an artist in an apartment in New York with the queen of the Morlocks. Around the time I stopped reading, he was about to sacrifice himself for a cure to the Legacy Virus. Lots of circles going on here.
488. X-Men Gold #27 by Mark Guggenheim ★★★
489. X-Men Gold #28 by Mark Guggenheim ★★★
490. X-Men Gold #29 by Mark Guggenheim ★★★
491. Red Sonja #7 by Mark RUssell ★★★★
492. Red Sonja #8 by Mark Russell ★★★★
493. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★★
494. X-Men Gold #30 by Mark Guggenheim ★★★★
495. No One Home by Tim Weaver ★★★★
496. Star Trek: Year Five #6 by Jody Houser ★★★★
497. James Bond 007 #11 by Greg Pak ★★★
498. X-Men Wedding Special by Mark Guggenheim ★★★
499. Firefly #9 by Greg Pak ★★★
500. Vampirella/Red Sonja #1 by Jordie Bellaire ★★★★
I don't know much about Vampirella, but this was actually a really interesting setup - she's investigating some dark secret in an area involved in the early Soviet Space programme in the 1960s, a secret involving multiple deaths in the mountains possibly involving some kind of supernatural beast. Lots of potential for a gripping story there, with a backdrop I'd like to see more of.
501. Call for the Dead by John le Carré ★★★★
I really enjoyed this; it was more of a murder mystery than a spy thriller, but Smiley's an engaging protagonist, and someone who seems like the ideal kind of intelligence operative because of how little he looks like an intelligence operative, while having a steel trap for a mind... and the effect of things like his time operating in Germany and his wife leaving him but still being in love with him open up flaws in his character and thinking that make him more interesting. He's someone who I think would be dismissed by everyone who sees him on the street, and he's intensely frustrated by the 1960s bureaucracy in the intelligence service, but at the same time, he's respected by the peers he trusts because he clearly has the right instincts.
502. On Basilisk Station by David Weber ★★★★
I enjoyed this more than I expected to; it's a military sci-fi space opera, but it hit a lot of the right buttons for me. It felt in some ways like a Jack Campbell novel, but with better characterisation. I've seen a lot of criticism of the series by people who clearly think it's lowbrow with a Mary Sue lead, but I actually found it really entertaining; fast-paced, well-written action scenes, a lead character with integrity, a six-limbed cat as one of the characters... it was a lot of fun.
503. Livewire #8 by Vita Ayala ★★★
504. Livewire #9 by Vita Ayala ★★★
505. Livewire #10 by Vita Ayala ★★★
506. Come Marching In by Seanan McGuire ★★★
I can't put my finger on exactly why I didn't like this as much as a lot of the other shorts, but something didn't sit right with me about it.
507. Xena: Warrior Princess #5 by Vita Ayala ★★★
508. The Honor of the Queen by David Weber ★★★★
This was a good sequel; the stakes were a little higher, and there was a lot more politicking in it. One of the things that impressed me is that it managed to have two worlds populated by what were originally protrayed as religious fanatics, and it humanised one of them remarkably well; it created a backdrop for an intensely patriarchal society that made a kind of sense, and more than that, it had one of the leading figures from that world highlight self-awareness about why change was so uncomfortable and what it meant, why it was being resisted. The other world remained more of a cliche, but at the same time, that world was used to humanise the big plot villain nation. It was again a much better novel than I'd expected.
509. Xena: Warrior Princess #6 by Vita Ayala ★★★
510. Elvira: Mistress of the DArk #9 by David Avallone ★★★★
It's Elvira, and I'm a sucker for the movie references, particularly the B-movies.
511. The Crow: Hack Slash #1 by Tim Seeley ★★★
I actually read this a couple of months ago, when it first came out, but evidently forgot to record it on Goodreads.
512. The Crow: Hack/Slash #3 by Tim Seeley ★★★
513. Fearless #3 by Seanan McGuire
514. The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★
Not the best Sherlock Holmes novel, sadly.
515. Aliens: Rescue #3 by Brian Wood ★★★
516. Star Trek: Discovery: Aftermath #2 by Kirsten Beyer ★★★★
The Klingon story isn't that interesting - but I'm definitely enjoying the Pike and Spock storyline.
517. Love and War in the Appenines by Eric Newby ★★★★
Eric Newby was apparently something of a prolific author, producing more than a dozen assorted books, many of them travalogues about the experiences he and his wife had. This book covers a relatively short period of time - the events leading up to his capture while serving with the SBS in Italy in 1943, through his first period of captivity and his escape until his recapture in 1944 - but also details how he met his future wife, a Slovenian woman named Wanda living with her father in an Italian community. What makes this such a good book is his feeling for the people he interacted with, and their lives. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and will be poking around in my local library for any others I can find.
518. Hairy Maclary, Shoo by Lynley Dodd ★★★
I was going to feel guilty about recording the books I listen to being read out to my nieces, but partway through this I realised that I remember having it and the other books in the series read to me when I was very young, so consider this a retrospective read-through! The names of the characters in this series about the dog Hairy Maclarey and his friends are delightful:
"Schnitzel von Krumm
with a very low tum,
Bitzer Maloney
all skinny and bony,
Muffin McLay
like a bundle of hay,
Bottomley Potts
covered in spots,
Hercules Morse
as big as a horse
and Hairy Maclary
from Donaldson's Dairy."
519. Ghost-Spider #2 by Seanan McGuire ★★★★
The low-key nature of this story has me hooked; it helps that Gwen's relationship with her father reminds me a little of that between Veronica Mars and her father - and actually referencing Veronica Mars in the text gets bonus points from me.
520. The Death-Defying Devil #2 by Gail Simone ★★
I don't know if this comic is part of a wider comics universe, or requires me to have read volume 1 to know what's going on, but I haven't got a clue what's going on in this story.
My plan for this next month is to carry on working my way through the Sherlock Holmes novels and shorts that my library has availabel as audiobooks, as I can listen to them while I'm at work, which is a good way of stopping me from saying things I might otherwise regret. I'm going to have to re-read a stack of BattleTech sources to get to grips with NaNoWriMo, and that's not as exciting a prospect as I'd hoped it'd be :/
<471. Amazing Spider-Man #9 by Nick Spencer ★★★
472. Amazing Spider-Man #10 by Nick Spencer ★★★★
473. Amazing Spider-Man #11 by Nick Spencer ★★★
474. Amazing Spider-Man #12 by Nick Spencer ★★★
475. Amazing Spider-Man #13 by Nick Spencer ★★★
I think I'd have enjoyed this series more if I was a long-term reader and invested in J. Jonah Jameson.
476. Saving April by Sarah A. Denzil ★★★
477. The Forbidden City by Deborah A. Wolf ★★★★
This was good, probably as good as the first novel, but felt rather more brutal; lots of the characters make choices with horrible consequences that are in character, but it feels like this is the book where all the nations or powers of the world are torn down ahead of some climatic war or questing in the next volume.
478. The Dreaming #13 by Simon Spurrier ★★★
479. Star Trek: Aftermath #1 by Kirsten Beyer ★★★★
I already like this series much more than the other Star Trek: Discovery comic tie-ins, as it's primarily about Spock and Pike. It actually feels like an interesting story, although I'm not particularly interested in the Klingon stuff (again).
480. Amazing Spider-Man #14 by Nick Spencer ★★★
481. Amazing Spider-Man #15 by Nick Spencer ★★★
482. The Princess Who Flew With Dragons by Stephanie Burgis ★★★★★
This is a really good book for older children, I think - it's the third (and I think final) volume in Stephanie Burgis series of tales that began with The Dragon With the Chocolate Heart, and it's all about female characters - a dragon, a princess, a street urchin, etc - solving mysteries and problems and learning who they want to be. Sadly, chocolate isn't a big theme in this one, unlike the previous two, but this one is all about philosophy, giants, and the things we do for family.
483. A Study In Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★★
I haven't read the Sherlock Holmes stories in decades, and I discovered my library has the audiobook series narrated by Stephen Fry, which I've been listening to at work as a way of drowning the rest of the world out. His foreword is quite interesting, as it hadn't occured to me that for many of his readers Conan Doyle was the first introduction to mysterious groups like the Mormons. I wonder if the average Victorian reader's reaction to the Mormons was the same as mine?
484. You Were Gone by Tim Weaver ★★★★
If I stopped to think about this one more, I'd probably decide it was an unlikely mystery, but it was an entertaining read - it moved pretty quickly, the protagonist spent some of his time doubting his own sanity (but not so much, for so long, that the book became all about the inside of his head) and it was fairly satisfying seeing the villain taken down.
485. House of Whispers #13 by Nalo Hopkinson ★★★★
486. The Beauty #29 by Jeremy Haun ★★★
This was hard to grade, because in some ways, it was really good - the conversation between the two protagonists had me chuckling several times, and felt very real, but the comic is also one long break-in that felt like it could've been faster.
487. X-Men Gold #26 by Mark Guggenheim ★★★
I didn't have many comics waiting for me this week, as more and more of my regular titles are ending, so I picked up a half-price bundle of 7-8 X-men comics detailing the events around Colossus and Shadowcat getting married. I have a soft spot for both of them, particularly Colossus, and it was on sale. Reading X titles for the first time in years and years kind of emphasised that a lot of things don't change, but it's nice to know that characters I liked are back in the X-universe again, even if it looks like they're going through some of the same stories again. Ironically, in the earliest X-men comics I remember reading, Colossus and the other X-men had gone through the Siege Perilous, and Colossus was living as an artist in an apartment in New York with the queen of the Morlocks. Around the time I stopped reading, he was about to sacrifice himself for a cure to the Legacy Virus. Lots of circles going on here.
488. X-Men Gold #27 by Mark Guggenheim ★★★
489. X-Men Gold #28 by Mark Guggenheim ★★★
490. X-Men Gold #29 by Mark Guggenheim ★★★
491. Red Sonja #7 by Mark RUssell ★★★★
492. Red Sonja #8 by Mark Russell ★★★★
493. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★★
494. X-Men Gold #30 by Mark Guggenheim ★★★★
495. No One Home by Tim Weaver ★★★★
496. Star Trek: Year Five #6 by Jody Houser ★★★★
497. James Bond 007 #11 by Greg Pak ★★★
498. X-Men Wedding Special by Mark Guggenheim ★★★
499. Firefly #9 by Greg Pak ★★★
500. Vampirella/Red Sonja #1 by Jordie Bellaire ★★★★
I don't know much about Vampirella, but this was actually a really interesting setup - she's investigating some dark secret in an area involved in the early Soviet Space programme in the 1960s, a secret involving multiple deaths in the mountains possibly involving some kind of supernatural beast. Lots of potential for a gripping story there, with a backdrop I'd like to see more of.
501. Call for the Dead by John le Carré ★★★★
I really enjoyed this; it was more of a murder mystery than a spy thriller, but Smiley's an engaging protagonist, and someone who seems like the ideal kind of intelligence operative because of how little he looks like an intelligence operative, while having a steel trap for a mind... and the effect of things like his time operating in Germany and his wife leaving him but still being in love with him open up flaws in his character and thinking that make him more interesting. He's someone who I think would be dismissed by everyone who sees him on the street, and he's intensely frustrated by the 1960s bureaucracy in the intelligence service, but at the same time, he's respected by the peers he trusts because he clearly has the right instincts.
502. On Basilisk Station by David Weber ★★★★
I enjoyed this more than I expected to; it's a military sci-fi space opera, but it hit a lot of the right buttons for me. It felt in some ways like a Jack Campbell novel, but with better characterisation. I've seen a lot of criticism of the series by people who clearly think it's lowbrow with a Mary Sue lead, but I actually found it really entertaining; fast-paced, well-written action scenes, a lead character with integrity, a six-limbed cat as one of the characters... it was a lot of fun.
503. Livewire #8 by Vita Ayala ★★★
504. Livewire #9 by Vita Ayala ★★★
505. Livewire #10 by Vita Ayala ★★★
506. Come Marching In by Seanan McGuire ★★★
I can't put my finger on exactly why I didn't like this as much as a lot of the other shorts, but something didn't sit right with me about it.
507. Xena: Warrior Princess #5 by Vita Ayala ★★★
508. The Honor of the Queen by David Weber ★★★★
This was a good sequel; the stakes were a little higher, and there was a lot more politicking in it. One of the things that impressed me is that it managed to have two worlds populated by what were originally protrayed as religious fanatics, and it humanised one of them remarkably well; it created a backdrop for an intensely patriarchal society that made a kind of sense, and more than that, it had one of the leading figures from that world highlight self-awareness about why change was so uncomfortable and what it meant, why it was being resisted. The other world remained more of a cliche, but at the same time, that world was used to humanise the big plot villain nation. It was again a much better novel than I'd expected.
509. Xena: Warrior Princess #6 by Vita Ayala ★★★
510. Elvira: Mistress of the DArk #9 by David Avallone ★★★★
It's Elvira, and I'm a sucker for the movie references, particularly the B-movies.
511. The Crow: Hack Slash #1 by Tim Seeley ★★★
I actually read this a couple of months ago, when it first came out, but evidently forgot to record it on Goodreads.
512. The Crow: Hack/Slash #3 by Tim Seeley ★★★
513. Fearless #3 by Seanan McGuire
514. The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★
Not the best Sherlock Holmes novel, sadly.
515. Aliens: Rescue #3 by Brian Wood ★★★
516. Star Trek: Discovery: Aftermath #2 by Kirsten Beyer ★★★★
The Klingon story isn't that interesting - but I'm definitely enjoying the Pike and Spock storyline.
517. Love and War in the Appenines by Eric Newby ★★★★
Eric Newby was apparently something of a prolific author, producing more than a dozen assorted books, many of them travalogues about the experiences he and his wife had. This book covers a relatively short period of time - the events leading up to his capture while serving with the SBS in Italy in 1943, through his first period of captivity and his escape until his recapture in 1944 - but also details how he met his future wife, a Slovenian woman named Wanda living with her father in an Italian community. What makes this such a good book is his feeling for the people he interacted with, and their lives. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and will be poking around in my local library for any others I can find.
518. Hairy Maclary, Shoo by Lynley Dodd ★★★
I was going to feel guilty about recording the books I listen to being read out to my nieces, but partway through this I realised that I remember having it and the other books in the series read to me when I was very young, so consider this a retrospective read-through! The names of the characters in this series about the dog Hairy Maclarey and his friends are delightful:
"Schnitzel von Krumm
with a very low tum,
Bitzer Maloney
all skinny and bony,
Muffin McLay
like a bundle of hay,
Bottomley Potts
covered in spots,
Hercules Morse
as big as a horse
and Hairy Maclary
from Donaldson's Dairy."
519. Ghost-Spider #2 by Seanan McGuire ★★★★
The low-key nature of this story has me hooked; it helps that Gwen's relationship with her father reminds me a little of that between Veronica Mars and her father - and actually referencing Veronica Mars in the text gets bonus points from me.
520. The Death-Defying Devil #2 by Gail Simone ★★
I don't know if this comic is part of a wider comics universe, or requires me to have read volume 1 to know what's going on, but I haven't got a clue what's going on in this story.
My plan for this next month is to carry on working my way through the Sherlock Holmes novels and shorts that my library has availabel as audiobooks, as I can listen to them while I'm at work, which is a good way of stopping me from saying things I might otherwise regret. I'm going to have to re-read a stack of BattleTech sources to get to grips with NaNoWriMo, and that's not as exciting a prospect as I'd hoped it'd be :/
