<–The State of the Reader: 6/13/21         The State of the Reader: 7/14/21–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

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Purchased: 3

• Love Kills Twice by Rien Gray (Fatal Fidelity) – $3.99 @ Amazon Kindle
• Rosewater by Tade Thompson (The Wormwood Trilogy) – $0.99 @ Amazon Kindle
• She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan (The Radiant Emperor) – $0.99

Total: $4.98

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Books Finished: 1

Title: Black Helicopters
Series Title: Tinfoil Dossier
Author: Caitlín R. Kiernan
Date Added: April 19, 2021
Date Started: May 31, 2021
Date Finished: June 30, 2021

Media: eBook/Kindle

I think the author lost a bit of the thread in the gimmick.  I could tell she was going for a meta sort of narrative where the presentation was just as muddled and strange as what was happening within.  Each chapter took place in a different time, place, and focused on a different character from the last.  The problem with this is in trying to show the lack of cohesion, the novel suffered from the same.  Where Agents of Dreamland bounced between around two perspectives and times and did a good job with its Lovecraftian mythos, this did too much to be scattered.  There was one chapter where the characters’ dialogue was all in French.  I was able to understand a little of it, but there was no translation provided, and this was common throughout for other things.  I get the desire to have a sense of being unmoored, but there’s a difference between making a novel obsucre and making the presentation such.  I hope I’ll be better able to clarify when I review, because (fittingly or ironically), I’m having trouble making myself clear lol.

The last book in the trilogy apparently returns to the Signalman of the first, which is what I was hoping this one would do.  But despite a one chapter cameo, he’s missing from this installment.  I’m not going to pick it up and read it next though.  I’d like a pallet cleanser for my next Kindle read.

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On Hold: 1

Title: Psychology and Alchemy
Series: Jung’s Collected Works
Author: C. G. Jung
Date Added: July 20, 2019
Date Started: April 9, 2021

Media: Paperback
Progress: 8%

I stopped at the end of the first chapter.  I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to do the cycle, but I started another research book.  Maybe I’ll do one of two or three; I’m really not sure.  I might read a chapter of Ireland’s Immortals and then go back to this.  I haven’t really figured out the method.  It’s been a while since I’ve been in school, and I’m pretty much just muddling through and taking copious amounts of notes.

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Currently Reading

Title: Women, Monstrosity and Horror Film: Gynaehorror
Author: Erin Harrington
Date Added: July 20, 2019
Date Started: June 29, 2021

Media: Paperback
Progress: 1%

I paid a pretty penny for this book, but it proved its worth after only three pages.

“Utilising and critiquing psychoanalytical theories that explore the relationship between the mother, her child, and the construction of the self, Creed offers a powerful account of feminine monstrosity that draws from Julia Kristeva’s exploration of the function of abjection in her 1982 book Powers of Horror. In doing so , she links the abject’s sense of liminal disgust , the breaching of boundaries between corporeal and conceptual, and the potential trauma of the child’s individuation from ‘his’ mother to archetypal modes and expressions of female monstrosity that center upon woman’s reproductive functions. These include the figures of the witch, the monstrous womb, the possessed pubescent body, and the archaic, all-engulfing mother.”

Yeaaaaaah, I can definitley use this for my essays.

Title: The Oedipus Trilogy
Series: The Theban Plays
Author: Sophocles
Date Added: July 25, 2020
Date Started: March 18, 2021

Media: Paperback
Progress: 37%

I finally finished the first part/play and am wading into the uncharted waters of Oedipus at Colonus.  I’ve only ever read Oedipus Rex so this reread was a good refresher.  Now the blind, disgraced king is being led around by his daughter/sister Antigone and seeks rest and asylum at the titular Colonus.

Title: A Sky Beyond the Storm
Series: An Ember in the Ashes
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Date Added: November 1, 2020
Date Started: March 17, 2021

Media: Hardback
Progress: 39%

I already know this isn’t going to be a simple story of humans vs. jinn.  Tahir hinted that in the last book.  There’s a dark history of the wrong and the wronged, and I don’t think anyone is going to escape unscathed.

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I’m getting my Pfizer shot this weekend.  If you were paying attention, you’ll notice I said this last update.  Yeah.  Anyway I’m getting it this weekend, so I doubt I’ll be doing anything for 4th of July, you know that American holiday where you celebrate your country’s freedom by blowing up a small part of it?  I remember I caught a Twitch stream around this time a few years ago from one of my friends across the pond, and I mentioned it was 4th, and she was like “Ah that’s right.  Don’t worry; we’ll get you back one day.” And I thought that was wicked hilarious.  Considering I’ve been bouncing between British LPers for the past few months (and it’s probably the best accent I can do), I don’t know how much I’d complain.

It’s also hot as freaking blazes here.  I’m sitting in front of an AC and I’m still warm.  My poor cats are melting into puddles; Garnet isn’t even begging to go out onto the balcony, and Cid’s fat belly has been on permanent display.  This heat is just disrespectful.

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<–The State of the Reader: 6/13/21         The State of the Reader: 7/14/21–>