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Hello Everyone,
I hope everyone had a good week. It is hard to believe January is already over. I am noticing the longer days now which is delightful.

This week I finished The Reunion Dinner, one of the Amazon short stories. It was only okay. Many of these short stories are only okay. They're great for filler times, flights and other times I don't want to go into anything too deeply. If they're good, it is enjoyable, and if they're bad, they're over very quickly so the pain is short.

I also finished There's Something About Mira. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would and I read it quickly. It touches on LGBT+ issues, and particularly combined with Indian culture. This was an Amazon's First Reads choice so it is new.

I started listening to Bookshops & Bonedust. That is enjoyable so far, but now I've put it aside...

...Because I had four books on order at the library, and all 4 came in on the same day this week! One of them is a "playaway" audiobook device of Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books. So I need to listen to that first before it is due back.

On my kindle I started reading Some Other Time. But now I need to pause that for a library book that I just got today.

Alton Brown's memoir Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations *just* came out and apparently I'm the first person to put it on hold at the library. As a brand new book, my time is more limited, so it goes first now!

QOTW:
What older books have or have not aged well?

I find a lot of books have not aged well. In particular, "contemporary" romance that was written 30-40 years ago is usually cringy. I think that isn't actually limited to romance either.

I cannot think of ones that have aged well. But I also haven't read anything from 40-50 years ago lately either.

Two reads for me this week.

Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters - this was fascinating. I'm a total neuroscience nerd and like to keep up with the latest thinking. It definitely gave me a new perspective on the purpose of memory.

The Unmaking of June Farrow - read this in one sitting this afternoon. I anticipated many of the twists but there was a big one near the end that I wasn't expecting. It's a beautifully written book.

QotW: I think I notice the outdated attitudes most in older science fiction - I mean, yes, the science is outdated too, but almost all "classic" scifi is written by white men and you can tell from the gender roles and female characters written for the male gaze.

I dunno, I kind of feel like it's been January for months.

I'm Sorry You Got Mad - Super cute! Jack writes many iterations of his apology note to Zoe, with occasional input from his teacher. He has relatable difficulty.

Love Triangle: How Trigonometry Shapes the World - Matt Parker is on YouTube as Stand-up Maths, where he does humorous math videos often involving location visits and/or silly contraptions. This is that, but a book.

QOTW: One that has particularly surprised me is children's books. I loved Bunnicula as a kid, but when I reread it, I was really thrown by the brothers calling each other "idiot" and such.

This week has been super busy at work, but I'm taking a short break to post and catch up on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ.

Finished:
Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis - 3.5 stars - Popsugar's book about space tourism. I mostly enjoyed this. I don't know if it was me being busy and not having a lot of time to read, but this felt like it took me forever to get through.

Comics & manga:
Chihayafuru, Vol. 27
Rainbow Days, Vol. 13
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc., Vol. 4
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc., Vol. 5

I am currently at 7/50 for Popsugar (6/40 and 1/10).

Currently reading:
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong - Popsugar's book with a happily single woman protagonist

The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel): Volume 11 by Natsu Hyuuga - no prompt

Upcoming/Planned:
Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - Popsugar's book of interconnected short stories

QOTW:
I agree with Shel, I see it a lot in classic sci-fi and fantasy. I also feel like a lot of books that go in heavy on pop culture references age poorly.

Hi all,

Didn't get a chance to post last week, got busy. I agree that it feels like it's been january forever. I just want spring to be here. At least then I can start going outside again. I have plans involving making queer art and sticking it out in public places as my own little act of resistance. but I don't want to do it while it's all snowy.

I finished:

The Ghost Bride - This was ok, not amazing. I liked the concept a lot, I wasn't really familiar with this concept of the underworld so it was interesting to have that feature a lot. However the main character was kind of annoying and some of the writing felt kind of flat, although that could have been a translation issue.

Compulsory - i needed something to fill the gap between books, so i just read a quick little murderbot short story. I liked it, as usual.

I'm posting late, so normally these next two would go on this week's post. but who knows if i'll get to this week's post or not, so might as well post now.

A Market of Dreams and Destiny - I've read several books involving a goblin market in some fashion, but this is the first time i think that focused more on the merchant side rather than the people looking for things to buy. It was an interesting change of pace. I also liked that it was a gay love story that was not a questioning/coming out story. Their sexuality was a given, just a little "...am i reading his signals right?" that's pretty typical with queer dating or even really dating in general.

Just Like Home - I saw they had a new book coming out and it reminded me that I never got around to this one and I'd wanted to. I listened to the audio, the narrator was pretty good. I liked it quite a bit. Creepy, unsettling, didn't quite guess where the story was going. Normally I hate books where I don't like the characters. But everyone was terrible in really interesting ways, so I still wanted to know what happened to them.

currently reading:

Service Model - usually i get annoyed when i see blurbs saying "oh fans of _____ book will love this! or this is a combination of _____ book and _____ book!" because if i've read those, and i read it, I find I'm often disappointed by the comparison. Either I find the comparison totally wrong, or I think they're comparing in a very superficial way and not in a "this is why people who like this would WANT to read something else like it" way. But this was described as Murderbot meets Redshirts and I can actually kind of see it. The main character is a robot who is finding themselves malfunctioning in a particularly murderous way, and they have to figure out just what is going on in the world that this came to pass. The writing style does remind me a bit of scalzi's humor, and while this robot isn't murderbot, I can at least see the comparisons and agree that fans of both scalzi and murderbot would like it. (which I am and so far i do).

I'll also probably be starting the audio book for A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance soon. If not today, then tomorrow.

QOTW:

I've seen plenty of books that haven't aged well. Whether from racism, sexism, language that makes you cringe etc. I think one book that really surprised me that it DID age well was Elizabeth and Her German Garden. It was published in 1898, originally published anonymously because her husband would have found it unacceptable for his wife to write commercial fiction. It was semi-autobiographical and makes snarky commentary on the bourgeois german society. I related a lot to her complaining about being expected to entertain GUESTS when all she really wanted to do was work in her garden. It actually felt relatable, when so often older fiction doesn't.

Service Model is on my list - I LOVE Adrian Tchaikovsky and haven't read that one yet.

Shel wrote: "Service Model is on my list - I LOVE Adrian Tchaikovsky and haven't read that one yet."
Just picked it up from the library after seeing it here!

Also trying to jump back in here a bit. I have been lurking and thank you for all recommendations, but have fallen behind in posting.

Just enjoyed Dungeon Crawler Carl. Aliens kill most of humanity but remaining ones have to compete against monsters to the death for the entertainment of intergalactic viewers. Seems a little grim from that description, but there's a talking cat and it's pretty funny, and Carl does feel bad about killing other creatures to survive. Getting close to my violence threshold for books. Originally self-published online, now published traditionally, and several more after.

Hard Time by Jodi Taylor is second installment of the spinoff St. Mary's featuring the Time Police. Also enjoyed this one, I'm really liking the same St. Mary's world but the Time Police version of things.

QOTW: When I read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, basis for Blade Runner, I was disappointed to see that while the author could imagine robots, the women characters were mainly secretaries.

A book that aged better than expected was Space by James A. Michener. It was published in 1982, and I reread in 2019 expecting to donate my copy after. But it hit a lot of points about science vs. faith that were still pretty relevant.

Thank you @sheri for the Service Model recommendation. Both my husband and I have added it to our TBR lists. I put myself on the hold list for the Libby audiobook. Or I will get it from the library as a physical book once I get through the 4 I currently have checked out.