Belated reading Wednesday

[sabotabby]

 Is this a thing now? We post what we're reading on Wednesdays? Because I like that idea and two of you just posted about what you're reading and I only now noticed the pattern. In fairness a lot of the time I'm reading and posting half-awake. So.

Just finished: Vita Nostra by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko, which I'm still obsessed with. It's a magical boarding school (well, university) novel in the vein of The Magicians, if every professor in the school was Mayakovsky only less warm, and they never actually told you that you were learning magic. Our protagonist has plans of her own for her life that do not involve this, and she's dragged into her new world kicking and screaming, under threat of some mysterious harm befalling her family. I fell utterly for Sasha and the world as a whole. There are two other novels but they haven't been translated into English, and according to my friend are also hard to find in Russian. But they're apparently not about either Sasha or the school so I guess I can wait.

Currently reading: Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. I've had a hold on this forever, as in since before it came out, but then a friend bought me a copy for my birthday so yay! It's supposed to be the African Game of Thrones, which, ish? In that it is a grimdark epic fantasy. Apparently he pitched it as such as a joke. But it is much more on the magical end of the fantasy spectrum, and tbh had me at "mud mermaids." It's about a tracker named Tracker and a shapeshifting hunter named Leopard who are recruited to search for a boy who disappeared three years earlier. The worldbuilding is just phenomenal, rich and detailed and imaginative, though I am halfway through and there haven't been mud mermaids yet.

Massive trigger warnings for both. If that's a thing for you, I can tell you.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

"X is the [adjective] Game of Thrones" would make it less likely that I read the book, I think. That book sounds awesome, tho.

[sabotabby]

Really, the only similarity so far are that it's quite long and grimdark fantasy.

[nyctanthes]

I think reading Wednesday has been a thing for a few years now. :P

I've been wanting to read Marlon James for years, but his previous books are uber violent, and I haven't had the oomph to go there. I'm interested in this latest one for sure. Are there a lot of "peek through fingers" kind of scenes?

Vita Nostra sounds amazing, and I'm going to check it out.

Yay for you joining reading Wednesday!

[sabotabby]

I'm out of it, haha. I'm sure it has. Anyway, it's likely to be the same book next Wednesday too as it's very long.

So, like, most of the scenes are "peek through fingers." It's completely brutal, and I'm not easily disturbed.

[frenzy]

yayyy join us!

[sabotabby]

It'll probably be the same brick next week but I'm in.

[frenzy]

Yeah the past few weeks its been the same book for me too. It makes me feel weird about posting but i think once a week is the perfect amount. No one would consider it spam

[lapinlunaire]

I'd never heard of Vita Nostra, it sounds great. I'll have to look it up!

I really want to read Black Leopard, Red Wolf. I'm glad it's really as good as it sounds! EXCITING. I love fantasy that isn't set on some version of Medieval Europe.

[sabotabby]

I think you'd love Vita Nostra. Or if you don't, don't tell me. :)

Medieval Europe this is not. The setting is So. Fucking. Cool.

[kore]

Readsday, yay yes! I love it, I get updates on what everyone's reading and book recs and it's like getting a peep at peoples' bookshelves. Some people do big writeups, some people do summaries, it's pretty loose. There's one format with a series of three questions but I don't like it.

[sabotabby]

I don't work well with formats. But I should up my book-blogging because I honestly need escape from my life right now.

[kore]

Yeah, that one is just "What did you just finish reading? What are you reading now? What will you read next?" and the "What will you read next?" part both baffles and annoys people.

[mistersmearcase]

I need to tell the tv to fuck off and get back to reading this sort of interesting Rachel Cusk trilogy.

[sabotabby]

I'm not proud of watching less TV this year but I've been watching less TV this year.

[ironed_orchid]

I used to do reading Wednesdays but like most blogging related stuff I fell out of the habit.

[sabotabby]

I'm incapable of committing to any ongoing commitment so we'll see how it goes.