Books

The State of the Reader: 11/18/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 1 Comment

<–The State of the Reader: 11/4/20         The State of the Reader: 12/2/20–>

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.

Purchased: 1

Title: The Snow Queen
Series Title: The Snow Queen Cycle
Author: Joan D. Vinge
Date Added: December 11, 2014
Date Started: September 22, 2020

Cover of the Snow Queen by Joan D. VingeMedia: Hardback (Library)
Progress: 82%

Sparks is the most useless man ever like oh my god I’m so glad I’m reading this now and not when I was some moony teenager who would’ve been into that.  Dear god I hope Moon realizes he’s not worth her time.  I need to hurry up and finish this because it’s due December 9 and I don’t have any more renewals left.  I plan to buy the novel anyway as well as the sequel, though it’s a bit more expensive than most.  I thought this was one half of a duology with The Summer Queen (whom I’m assuming is going to be Moon), but there are apparently four novels in the Cycle.  According to the friend who put me onto this, they have more to do with the Blues aka space police that Moon and Sparks interact with, but I like those characters so I’m okay with that.

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The State of the Reader: 11/4/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 6 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 10/21/20         The State of the Reader: 11/18/20–>

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.

Purchased: 4

Title: The Snow Queen
Series Title: The Snow Queen Cycle
Author: Joan D. Vinge
Date Added: December 11, 2014
Date Started: September 22, 2020

Cover of the Snow Queen by Joan D. VingeMedia: Hardback (Library)
Progress: 61%

I like this better than Dune.  There.  I said it.  I don’t dislike Dune, and I feel like I want to do a comparison of the two novels when I’m done, but that’s my feeling at the moment.

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The State of the Reader: 10/21/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 2 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 10/7/20         The State of the Reader: 11/4/20–>

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.

Purchased: 3

Title: The Snow Queen
Series Title: The Snow Queen Cycle
Author: Joan D. Vinge
Date Added: December 11, 2014
Date Started: September 22, 2020

Cover of the Snow Queen by Joan D. VingeMedia: Hardback (Library)
Progress: 46%

I’ve renewed this once and I have one more before I have to return it.  I plan to purchase this book anyway, probably along with it’s sequel.  The more I read the sadder I am that it was never made into a movie or rather series.  I’m already thinking of my dream cast.  Maybe Emilia Clarke for Moon/Arienrhod, but that could just be because she’s done the silver-blonde thing before with Danaerys, so I’m just stuck on that.  Obviously, the same actress would play the two characters since Moon is a clone of the queen (it’s in the blurb so it’s not a spoiler), though I suppose if you found two similar looking people or twins that would work, too.  I haven’t hashed everything out yet lol.

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The State of the Reader: 10/7/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 6 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 9/23/20         The State of the Reader: 10/21/20–>

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.

Purchased: 5

Title: The Snow Queen
Series Title: The Snow Queen Cycle
Author: Joan D. Vinge
Date Added: December 11, 2014
Date Started: September 22, 2020

Cover of the Snow Queen by Joan D. VingeMedia: Hardback (Library)
Progress: 26%

I’m getting really into this.  It reminds me of Dune, but with a more interesting and female main character lol.  I’ve been talking to the friend who lugged this book around with her all through high school, and she had a friendly “I told you so” about my Dune observations (it’s also another reason why she has no interest in Dune).  I’ve read Dune, which I enjoyed, but I wish I’d been into sci-fi back in high school because I would’ve loved this.

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The State of the Reader: 9/23/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 4 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 9/9/20         The State of the Reader: 10/7/20–>

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.

Purchased: 3

Finished: 2

Title: The Twisted Ones
Author: T. Kingfisher
Date Added: August 26, 2020
Date Started: September 7, 2020
Date Finished: September 15, 2020

Cover of The Twisted Ones by T. KingfisherMedia: eBook/Kindle

Holy shit, I couldn’t put this down, but I had to at night because I’m a fraidy cat.  Foxy is the greatest fucking character ever written, and this is up for my Book of the Year competing with Pestilence.  I did not understand why this has a rating under 4 stars on Goodreads, and reading the comments, I still don’t understand.  Apparently, some people found the mood whiplash to be unrealistic, like how Mouse would be making jokes in the most dire of circumstances.  Do these chuckle fucks not understand morbid/gallows humor?!!  That is EXACTLY how my terrified ass would be acting!  I am definitely reading more T. Kingfisher.

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The State of the Reader: 9/9/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 10 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 8/26/20         The State of the Reader: 9/23/20–>

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.

Purchased: 2

Finished: 2

Title: Dracula
Author: Bram Stoker
Date Added: May 16, 2015
Date Started: February 13, 2020
Date Finished: August 30, 2020
Reading Duration: 199 Days

Cover of DraculaMedia: eBook/Kindle

Definitely see how this could’ve inspired/influenced GRRM’s Night King along with other malicious hive-minded entities that could have your friends spying for the enemy.  This novel was wild from start to finish in all the best ways possible, and its cultural influence cannot be understated.

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The State of the Reader: 8/26/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 8 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 8/12/20         The State of the Reader: 9/9/20–>

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.

Purchased: 1

Currently Reading

Title: The Luster of Lost of Things
Author: Sophie Chen Keller
Date Added: September 12, 2017
Date Started: July 22, 2020

Cover of The Luster of Lost Things by Sophie Chen KellerMedia: Paperback
Progress: 27%

I can see where this story is going with the landlord, and I love how Lucy called him out when he played the victim of the people he’s threatening to evict.

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The Last Thing You See by Marie Batiste (Rachel Dixon #1)

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 4 Comments

Title: The Last Thing You See
Series: Rachel Dixon
Author: Marie Batiste
Date Added: March 26, 2020
Date Started: June 23, 2020
Date Finished: July 9, 2020
Reading Duration: 16 days
Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural/Paranormal, Horror, Mystery/Murder Mystery

Cover of The Last Thing You See by Marie BatistePages: 185
Publication Date: February 5, 2020
Publisher: Self
Media: eBook/Kindle

Riley Green’s parents came home one morning to find their daughter missing and human organs in their dining room.

Following a ten-month suspension, forced rehab and a tumultuous divorce, New Orleans Detective Rachel Dixon is finally stitching her life back together when she is called to a strange crime scene. Joined by her new partner, Elias Crowe an intuitive elf dealing with discrimination in the department, Rachel starts the search for Riley’s killer.

Soon the investigation leads them to a series of strange murders not just in the city but across the nation. Desperate to find the killer the detectives seek help from an undead blood analyst, a standoffish necromancer, a tree spirit, and a living sculpture. But when the killer seems to have set their eyes on Rachel all the help and magic in the world may not be enough to catch the elusive serial killer.

Join the detectives as they maneuver through a familiar world stitched together with magic, blood, and animosity.

Rachel Dixon is a flawed but intensely likable detective who is being overly punished for the mistakes she’s made in the past.  The world merged with a magical one around twenty years ago, and the oddness and curiosity around this event is maintained throughout the novel as even the inhabitants of it remain clueless to the entirety of the effects.  The characters treat the world like their world (as you do).  There’s no info dumping; you’re given enough to understand how things work, and that’s all it is.  It’s like if you lived in a reality where magic existed, you wouldn’t bat an eye at it when it manifests, because it would be as commonplace as a smartphone.

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The State of the Reader: 8/12/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 11 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 7/29/20         The State of the Reader: 8/26/20–>

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.

Purchased: 1

Currently Reading

Title: The Luster of Lost of Things
Author: Sophie Chen Keller
Date Added: September 12, 2017
Date Started: July 22, 2020

Cover of The Luster of Lost Things by Sophie Chen KellerMedia: Paperback
Progress: 20%

This is one of those story’s you’ll enjoy if you love winding, whimsical writing with a heavy heaping of eloquence.  If that’s not your bag, you’d probably consider this too purple for your tastes, which is fine.  I don’t like how “purple prose” is used as a pejorative since it’s really just a stylistic taste.  If you like it, you like it; if you don’t, you don’t.

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Preacher, Volume 1: Gone to Texas by Garth Ennis (Preacher #1) (DNF)

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 5 Comments

Title: Preacher, Volume 1:  Gone to Texas
Series: Preacher
Author: Garth Ennis
Artist: Joe R. Lansdale
Date Added: September 13, 2017
Date Started: August 23, 2018
Date DNF: August 23, 2018
Genre: Graphic Novel/Comic, Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural/Paranormal

Cover of Preacher: Volume 1, Gone to Texas by Garth Ennis and Joe R. LansdalePages: 336
Publication Date: 1995
Publisher: Vertigo
Media: Paperback – Library

One of the most celebrated comics titles of the late 1990s, PREACHER is a modern American epic of life, death, love and redemption also packed with sex, booze, blood and bullets – not to mention angels, demons, God, vampires and deviants of all stripes.

At first glance, the Reverend Jesse Custer doesn’t look like anyone special-just another small-town minister slowly losing his flock and his faith. But he’s about to come face-to-face with proof that God does indeed exist. Merging with a bizarre spiritual force called Genesis, Jesse now possesses the power of “the Word,” an ability to make people do whatever he utters. He begins a violent and riotous journey across the country in search of answers from the elusive deity.

I love when I’m reading something and BAM, racial slur.  I was already on the fence about this and that sealed it for me.  This isn’t to say I’ve never read or never will read anything with slurs.  There are definitely valid reasons to use them in a work, so please don’t get it twisted and assume that’s the reason I shelved this.  It was more the final straw in a story I wasn’t that into in the first place.

This one of those narratives you’d think I’d be in love with: a small town preacher forcefully merges with a half-angel, half-demon being named Genesis and parts of the story takes place literally in Heaven with angels (Seraphi and Adephi), but it’s not really my style or aesthetic.  The story also jumps around so much, it comes off as frenetic.  I know it’s a big fan favorite (it has over four stars on Goodreads), but it’s not for me.