Just finished A Woman of No Importance, by Sonia Purnell. As a French speaking Belgian, I never before heard about this resistance hero. I enjoyed very much this history book which is just very well written. On the story itself, it produced some thinking about why Virginia Hall is so lowly known. I therefore learned a lot with another point of view of WW2 than what the after-war propaganda wanted the people to retain and therefore what remained in history books. All about how she was badly considered just because she had not the right gender was very disturbing too. I advise anyone interested in history to read this book.

I’m going to start reading As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow, by Zoulfa Katouh.

Finished “a swim in a pond in the rain” by George Saunders. Quite good, sort of a writers analysis of Russian short stories. Reading “Mind the science” which is also pretty enjoyable.

Finished reading, “The Thrice-Bound Fool” by Christopher Buehlman. The ending to it was great, but I still think the “The Daughter’s War” was the best of out all three books out so far.

I’m almost finished reading, “The Maidens” by Alex Michaelides. It’s an interesting read so far. I enjoyed his previous work, “Silent Patient”

Been reading Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle, yes that one, it’s pretty good, I enjoy that autism is the thing that allows you to see demons. It’s genuinely sinister, especially knowing this evil isn’t imprisoned to the page.

I’ve finally started The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I’m not sure when I’ll finish it, but so far, it’s much better than I was expecting. At the very least, I hate Danglars and am hoping there’s not some stupid parable of Christian forgiveness at the end, because I want that guy to get destroyed.

I often have a hard time enjoying older books, but I’m surprised so far at how very human all these characters Dumas is writing feel. Aside from the obviously dated aspects of the novel, it feels very much like they could be anyone I know today.

Also recently finished Queen of Faces by Petra Lord, which I picked up by mistake thinking it was an adult novel for some reason, lol. But I gave it a chance since I had it, and stuck with the YA novel anyway because the world was somewhat interesting. Honestly, it felt like it should have been an adult book. It barely made use of the magic academy, which in hindsight should have been a redflag that it was indeed YA. The anime vibe was strange (they kept using ‘manga’ instead of ‘comic’ in a fictional world with no Japan, and their ‘unique’ magic had names). The characters were pretty flat, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to find Ori as the most interesting character. Also, the real villain of the story was obvious. If you like YA, it’s good enough. I’m certainly not the audience, but it was enjoyable for what it was.

To learn more about this fictional countryman of mine, I’ve started reading (only) the Hercule Poirot books by Agatha Christie. Currently in the middle of number 3: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

The chronicles of narnia.

Didn’t really think about it, but they are way more children’s book than I expected. Which is not the most entertaining I guess, but it’s also funny that you expect a twist behind everything an then there isn’t.

Seeds of Equanimity: Knowing and Being by Michael Uebel

Listening to the reworked Antimemetics book, after having read the original SCP story a while ago

It’s a bit weird with the SCP licence name changes, but still great

Love Beyond Monogamy by Brian Murphy, and Goldfinger by Ian Fleming.

Currently halfway through listening to a collection of short stories called Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar

And about 1/3 through We are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor

Enjoying both so far! Have already placed a request for the next Bobiverse book from the Library.

I read Sigyn’s Sigil by Megan Trotter. I’ll write a more thorough commentary here than I sometimes do because this is self published by a local (?) writer and I expect you’ll have difficulty sourcing you own copies. It wasn’t even listed on Storygraph until I added it myself.

Last time I left the used book sale with a self-published book like this, I complained here about offensive restrictions on the copyright page. No such objections can be made about this book, and that’s because it … well, it doesn’t have a copyright page. The front cover is nicely illustrated, the half-title page is autographed by the author, and then it’s straight into chapter one. Not even a list of the author’s other works, although I suspect this is a sequel to Sigyn’s Song.

Sigyn used to be a mermaid, possibly one heavily inspired by HCA’s Little Mermaid. Now in Sigil, she has fresh legs and lungs in her humanoid form. She also has the hots for the Norse god Loki, but is insecure about it because as a siren, she can make anyone fall in love with her and isn’t sure if Loki’s feelings are real or magic. Anyway, she and Loki are hanging out with Thor because he needs help getting his hammer, Mjollnir back from the giants. Apparently he mislaid it while whoring it up with some festival wench. The giant king is apparently willing to return it if Freya marries him, which isn’t going to happen. So Loki shapeshifts Thor into the form of the goddess Freya, and himself into her handmaiden and the three ‘girls’ set off to trade her for Thor’s hammer. Other than Sigyn’s involvement, this plot line is from Thrymskvidha in the Poetic Edda, portions of which are excerpted for the chapter headings. Amazingly, they manage to pull this ruse off, despite the gods’ unladylike behavior. Giant shaman Ymir knows the truth and doesn’t out them, but isn’t as helpful as they’d hoped although he seems to not want to get Sigyn killed for her part in this. They learn the hammer is hidden in the ocean, and Sigyn displays heroism and her mermaid background to recover it, while protecting the team from a deadly horse shaped water Nokk. Thor gets his hammer back and Ymir bestows Sigyn with a magic water sigil. They also liberated the Egyptian god, Set from Thrym’s dungeon and might be setting up for a sequel involving him.

Romantasy isn’t a genre I usually seek out, although I found this more humorous than erotic, and better writing and proofreading than some more commercially successful authors I’ve read. As appropriate for a polytheistic setting, the characters never say “goddamn”, it’s always “godsdamn”. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a book like this, but I think it satisfied my expectations anyway.

I finished up “The Nature of Predators”

We are the aliens. I liked the book. Book 1 is sorta short but the whole series is really long. Its on Amazon but the entire story is on Royal Road.

I started “Systema Delenda Est” its soo good! Im really enjoying the scifi elements meet fantasy elements. Literally head on in this case. It does a good job explaining the different tech and skills as well as enjoyable characters.

I’m finishing Alien: Inferno’s Fall before I get started with Revelation Space. Super excited. Also the Alien books are all pretty fantastic cannot recommend them enough.

No time yet this week, but I am in the middle of Legends & Lates as my cool down read after finishing Stormlight Archive. Its cute and simple, prefer the prequel (Bookshops & Bonedust) thus far but it is a cute read.