What Are You Reading #2

This is a Re-read but on of the most impactful books that I remember reading, so I hope it is just as good this time - Horses Dont Lie by Chris Irwin.
 
I’m re-reading Order of the Phoenix but the illustrated version. Somehow it feels like I’m reading it for the first time again. I had this same experience when I read the Illustrated Goblet of Fire. I’m thinking about going back and purchasing the first three illustrated editions too!
 
nightshade
nightshade
I have them, but theyre so heavy! Mine are all hardback ones though
I don't know what to read next, which makes it sound like I don't already have about 10 books started! I have several physical books on the go, an audiobook, which I must get finished but no ebook.

However I need to finish my library book next, Carrie Soto is back. Its the last Taylor Jenkins Reid book that the library has, so I'll have to find a different author to read next.
 
Six of Crows from the library, I need to get into it as I have the second book reserved for me.
 
“Kick,” an autobiography about JFK’s sister by Paula Byrne.

coles-books.co.uk

Kick by Paula Byrne

The remarkable life of the vivacious, clever - and forgotten - Kennedy sister, who charmed the English aristocracy and was almost erased from her family history.
coles-books.co.uk coles-books.co.uk
 
Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice. This is a sequel to the excellent Moon of the Crusted Snow, about how a northern Canadian Native tribe copes with a global power outage. The sequel, which takes place 10 years later as they search for a new home and other survivors, is good, but much more plot- than character-driven, unlike the first book.
 
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. Very readable book that retcons the past to create an academic field of study of fairies (and also more women's equality), and follows the title character to a northern land to further her research.
 
Some comic book reads

  • Devil’s Reign by Chip Zdarsky - Hmm. I was a lot more lukewarm on this than I was hoping. This 6 issue series was the culmination of Zdarsky’s work on the Daredevil title up to that point, namely capping off the Mayor Fisk storyline (started by previous Daredevil writer Charles Soule). It ends really abruptly, feels really disjointed by the end, and didn’t feel all that impactful. Fisk basically enacts a law criminalizing superhero activity (because a Mayor can pass state-wide laws….?) and the event is about the heroes of New York City fighting back against him. Only, by the end it becomes this convoluted tale of mind control and Fisk killing Matt Murdock’s twin brother.
  • Sins of Sinister by Kieron Gillen - A much more enjoyable event than Devil’s Reign for me. Sins revolves around the eponymous Mister Sinister and his evil machinations that have been brewing for a century, with the kickoff of his latest scheme being to betray the ruling council of the mutant nation Krakoa. The series that led into this, Gillen’s Immortal X-Men, was already a pretty interesting political-style book that dealt with the Krakoan government, but this book really has fun with some of the players on the ruling council. Sinister is fun to read as always, always gleefully enjoying his own evilness.
  • Secret Warriors by Jonathan Hickman - What a great series. Basically a Nick Fury-based run that sees him forming a guerilla team in the wake of the dissolution of SHIELD. The story has some great espionage reveals (namely the early series reveal that SHIELD was Hydra all along) and is a fantastic spy-thriller, with the character work on Nick’s team of super powered but off-the-grid kids/teenagers is fantastic. If you’ve watched Agents of SHIELD, Daisy from that show is one of the main characters of this book and she’s really well done here. This is definitely the most approachable of Hickman’s work so far for me. I felt his Fantastic Four was, well, fantastic, but did get too cerebral for my tastes at times, and his Avengers run is grand and epic but again sort of goes too far with the metaphysical elements. Secret Warriors is just good old fashioned spy thriller.
 
Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (trans: Ken Liu). I'm finding it a little hard to get into, so I'm glad I saw the series first to know what's coming.
 
Plasma
Plasma
I’ve heard this is really good but heavy on the science. Will have to get around to it someday.
Started another 2 books, even though I have loads on the go already!

Lady Killers, a true crime book on women serial killers

Apple and Rain, grabbed as it was the first interesting looking one and the library was closing! So far it's an easy reading one that I might get bored of before I finish it.
 
The Dark Forest - sequel to Three-Body Problem.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Fairies
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands
Fun, quick reads about an academic researching fairies in an alt-reality early 20th-century.
 
Took a break from reading the absolutely “riveting” Talisman (causing me to contemplate my committal to reading all of Stephen King’s material) to read Star Wars Medstar I: Battle Surgeons

Such a great book. All about this group of military doctors and surgeons stationed on a planet best described as “Louisiana swamps during the summer heat”. There’s a pretty neat plot here about the pointless nature of the conflict (the republic and separatists are fighting over a miracle drug that is an economic boon) and what it is to be human (the lead doctor sort of has this great epiphany where he realizes that the clone troopers are actually real people instead of “flesh automata”). There’s also the great inclusion of padawan Barriss Offee, and her own quest to find her way to knighthood whilst quarreling with the temptations of the dark side.

Another big plus is the lack of indecipherable medical jargon. Whenever you tell some sort of medical or doctor focused story, I feel there’s a temptation there to just throw in a bunch of medical mumbo jumbo. “Give me 20ccs, STAT! He’s having a quadrutoplagical encephalitic episode!” This book has had exactly one moment where overly complex medical terminology is used: a scene where a character is reading a medical journal essay about treatment methods. The character actually has an inner monologue about how stupid and completely out of touch the author is and highlights how the facility is so under-equipped that it’s laughable to even suggest such radical treatments. Really liked that. It kept with the overall tone, environment, and logic of the novel while still feeling like the thoughts of a doctor.

The characters are all just really great and well drawn, and it’s a quick read. Having just started the other day, I’m already in the final 60-70 pages. Excited to read the second book in the duology, Jedi Healer.
 
NotASlayer
NotASlayer
Talisman is one of the handful of King's books I have actually read, but I read it because I had read the sequel, Black House, first.
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