Is Florence reading again?

Hi All,

My name is Florence, I am 58 years old and living in Paris, and after a long hiatus I am trying to get back to Club Read again. I have no idea where this thread will go, assuming it goes anywhere.

I went through a long reading dry spell, which I managed to escape through a humongous binge of cheap romance reading. That was fun (and still is) but a bit shameful, which explains why I made myself scarce around here. Now I am running out of werewolf and vampire romance series to read, and cautiously dipping my toes again in more serious stuff.

Actually I never completely stopped reading serious stuff. But I guess I had sort of kept myself away from the fun stuff out of snobbishness or something, and that probably played a role in the aforementioned dry spell. Now I'm clearly overbalancing in the other direction, we'll see how long that lasts.

My first serious read of the year was a book by Trollope. This is an author that I discovered thanks to Club Read. I read the Barsetshire series almost in its entirety (didn't finish the last one as I was unable to connect to any of the characters), and now after a few months' pause I am starting on the Palliser series. The first book is Can You Forgive Her?. I think this one is my favorite of all Trollope's books I have read so far. I understand that Lady Glencora is a general favorite and I liked her, but I also liked the clueless Mr Palliser. I felt for the two women who are prisoners of their social roles, but especially for Alice Vavasor who is politically minded and would like to be useful to society, and is almost driven to marry a worthless would-be politician because clearly, she couldn't go into politics on her own. I kind of resent the fact that Trollope's idea of a happy ending is to convert John Grey, whom she loves but is reluctant to marry because of his retiring proclivities, to politics, especially since he doesn't do that as a result of a serious discussion with her (heaven forbid!) but under the influence of Mr Palliser. But I did enjoy the book very much, and again Trollope surprises me by making a subject that should be entirely unappealing to me (British Victorian politics) interesting.

And to conclude this first post, I feel compelled to point out that today is 02.02.2022, which is an interesting date but not as exciting as 22.02.2022, which will be a palindrome!

Welcome back, Florence!

I think The Eustace Diamonds is in the Pallisers cycle. So you have a treat ahead of you!

I get the book snob urge. During a dry spell such as you describe, the Joe Pitt vampire hour got me through, and that kind of squelched some of the snobbery.

This year I am wallowing in True Crime. A lot of them are not that good. But I loved Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

>2 avaland:
Thanks!

>3 nohrt4me2:
Looking forward to The Eustace Diamonds :-)

Welcome back, Florence! It's amazing how many dedicated readers had dry spells in the last few years. I rejoined last year after several years away. Unfortunately I didn't read much at all during that time, but my guilty pleasures were these military-romance-thrillers by Suzanne Brockman.

Welcome back :)

Victorian reading? Come join us at the Victorian Tavern: https://www.librarything.com/topic/337959 :)

Nothing wrong with cheap romance novels - either as comfort reading or any other way. If that's what your brain needed, that's what your brain needed (plus they are much cheaper than drugs (especially the good ones I am told) so... ;)

I've read the first three in the Palliser series, and really want to get back to it since I was enjoying it very much. Right now I am listening to The way We Live Now, a Trollope stand-alone which is also very good.

So good to see you back here. Looking forward to your reading.
The Eustace Diamonds is on my list for this year.

>5 labfs39:
I guess dry spells happen to all of us. Maybe more in the internet era, when there are so many distractions. I know that during mine I never stopped reading online.

>6 AnnieMod:
Lady Audley's Secrets sounds very tempting! I'll try to find a decent electronic version. (The problem with these public domain books is that you never know what you will find. I first bought the Penguin edition of Can You Forgive Her and it was full of mistakes. Midway through the book they ran out of apostrophes and I had to buy another version from Oxford Classics).

>7 arubabookwoman:
OK, adding The Way We Live Now to my wishlist. Trollope always comes up with these surprising titles.

>8 SassyLassy:
Thanks, good to be back!

>9 FlorenceArt: The two quarterly leads are bonus - the Tavern is for any Victorian reading so even if you do not read one of the selections, feel free to drop in and talk about whatever Victorian you are reading.

As for errors and typos and so on... yeah... sometimes it is weird. Surprised about the Penguin though - not that they cannot be a pain (and so can be Oxford) but I rarely see too bad editions in their main series...

>7 arubabookwoman: Well, pretty much anything by Trollope is good :)

Good to see you here! I also had a book/LibraryThing hiatus from 2016/17-2020 or so. Lots of doomscrolling and panicking over the news. I read a few books that were "normal reads" for me, but I also read/watched a bunch of semi-shameful things: cartoons, 80s/90s kids movies that my sister and I watched growing up, fanfiction (bad and good), and children's books that I read growing up (I had a sort of excuse that I was supposedly reading them to see if they held up for my nephew, but he's pretty young now--can't read).

I also love Trollope so will be interested in your comments. I'm hoping to read something by him for the Victorian theme read--considering Lady Anna or The Claverings for my next Trollope.

>9 FlorenceArt: >10 AnnieMod: >11 DieFledermaus: What I really like about The Way We Live Now is the part about financial speculators driving up the price of stock in a basically nonexistent railroad. (I'm still less than halfway through--it's very long). I had read that the story had parallels to the 2008 financial crash, making it particularly relevant nowadays, and I'm finding that to be the case. In my limited Trollope reading I've also enjoyed how intelligent he makes many of his female characters.

>11 DieFledermaus: Glad to see you too! Doomscrolling, yeah I get that.

>12 arubabookwoman: That does sound interesting. Yes about female characters, I always feel that he is very sympathetic to women. But they are not helpless victims, far from it, they are strong and smart, sometimes cunning.

>9 FlorenceArt: >12 arubabookwoman: The Way We Live Now was my comparison read after Zola's The Kill, both dealing with nineteenth century speculation and society. I don't think financial interests have ever really ever progressed past either of those, so parallels with 2008 make sense. After all, there's Jeff Bezos and his yacht to prove that!

I’m really happy to see your thread here. Glad you’re reading whatever you’re reading. Would love your thoughts on Trollope and other Victorian stuff as carry on.

>9 FlorenceArt: “Midway through the book they ran out of apostrophes“

?? Maybe they had a limited supply?

>14 SassyLassy: Interesting parallel between Zola and Trollope. And Bezos, ugh.

>15 dchaikin: Apparently they did. I wonder where they get them from. There's shortages of lots of things now because of Covid, but apostrophes are a little unexpected.

I'm glad to see you back here, Florence!

17> Hi Kidzdoc, thanks, glad to be back!

I said I never stopped reading online. To be precise, what I mean by that is reading articles, which I most often download via getpocket.com and read offline on my Kobo reader, or if they are PDF on my iPad. The subjects I read about are environmental science (climate and biodiversity and how we mess them up), political and social issues, philosophy, art, plus various interesting sounding subjects.

Lately I've been reading a lot about trans issues. This came about following repeated posts by Massimo Pigliucci on his blog andTwitter accounton cancel culture (which is something else that I have been reading about) and the TERF wars.

His comments are basically along the line that no matter how strong we disagree on these issues, this is no reason to try silencing the other side, especially if it's through threats of violence. Which I can only agree with, of course. I am strongly suspicious of any attempt to curb free speech, although I do admit that there has to be a limit to it. I also think that free speech is currently under attack, although come to think of it, it may be a reflection of the fact that speech, for better or worse, has probably never been freer than it is today in western democracies, with the result that some of the opinions you may find abroad on the internet are deeply disturbing to me. Still, it doesn't do to drop our guard and we should be, I think, extremely wary of approving of attacks on free speech even when, or especially when, the attacked is somebody we disagree with.

But the more I read on the subject of cancel culture (and I must admit that my reading has been mostly on the left side of the issue), the more I feel that the free speech argument is much too often wielded by people who have no qualms themselves on attacking free speech when it's not speech they want to hear. And that although cancel culture may be a thing, it exists on both sides, but it seems that the way it is reflected in mainstream media is decidedly slanted toward the left attempting to canceling the right, and condemnation thereof. And to close for now on this subject, I think that for the moment I agree with Julia Serano's take on it.

So. Trans activists and TERFs (aka gender critical feminists).

Pigliucci mentioned several times J.K. Rowling, who is known for her controversial views on trans rights. I was troubled by this, because her concerns as they were quoted seemed rather reasonable to me, but on the other hand I wondered why these comments triggered so much anger and even hate from some trans activists. So I tried to get information on the views of the trans side. It turns out, J.K. Rowling' s concerns are just as reasonable as the concerns of those "I'm not anti-vaccine, but what about..." people. That is, those concerns that are legitimate have been answered by science already, but that doesn't stop some people from repeatedly "just asking" the same "questions" while steadfastly ignoring the answers that are there.

Of course the analogy has its limits, as all analogies do. Trans science is much younger than vaccine science and I assume there is less certainty on some issues. Still, the thing is, when you start digging you find that the concerns voiced by Rowling and others turn out to be either legitimate concerns that have perfectly satisfying answers already, or overblown fears based on cherry-picked information or outright lies.

Which obviously does not justify harassment strategies and even less threats of physical harm on anybody who is part of this controversy or their family. Unfortunately that does happen, and I can't stress enough how wrong that is.

My intention when I started writing this was to detail some of the arguments and counter arguments in the debate, but honestly others did this much better than I could, so I will just finish with links to some of the stuff I read.

My (ultimately frustrating) twitter conversation with Pigliucci
https://twitter.com/mpigliucci/status/1480465700363943938?s=21

The article that started the conversation
https://www.philosophersmag.com/essays/260-the-gender-wars-and-academic-freedom

The very long article by Alice Dreger on the controversy around the book The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-007-9301-1

Julia Serano's answer to Dreger and take on TMWWBQ
http://www.juliaserano.com/av/Serano-MatterOfPerspective.pdf

"Dear Philosophers, You Can Trust the Feminist Consensus: Gender-Critical Radical Feminism is Bogus"
https://majesticequality.wordpress.com/2019/07/25/dear-philosophers-you-can-trus...

And in the course of my research I found two great youtubers:

ContraPoints makes extremely sophisticated and entertaining videos exploring trans issues
https://youtube.com/c/ContraPoints
Her take on J.K. Rowling: https://youtu.be/7gDKbT_l2us

Jessie Gender is less sophisticated and more emotional. I found it difficult at first to follow her very rapid speech, but she is worth following I think. Also for her Trekkie vids :-)
https://youtube.com/c/lostrekkie
Her take on TERFs: https://youtu.be/gDNQoZObOh4

>19 FlorenceArt: Thank you for this thoughtful post, Florence. I have been reading through the articles you mention, trying to educate myself better on the issues. In particular, I am trying to formulate the best response when people say, "But free speech!"

>20 labfs39: Thanks! This free speech issue is much more complicated than it seems at first sight. As I mentioned, maybe our problem is not really that free speech is endangered but that it is actually granted to people who never had a chance to be heard before, and especially to be heard outside the narrow circle of those who already agreed with them.

And numbers is a huge problem. If someone disagrees with me loudly at the dinner table, it’s one thing. I actually enjoy this kind of confrontation. If you wake up one morning and find that 10000 Twitter users loudly disagree with you, it can be a bit traumatic. Even if every one of them stays within the confines of an animated dinner table discussion (which , let’s be realistic) it’s not the same thing.

It’s complicated.

>21 FlorenceArt: maybe our problem is not really that free speech is endangered but that it is actually granted to people who never had a chance to be heard before

There certainly are a lot of white, straight, Christian men who are feeling threatened, and they are not the only ones, but perhaps one of the most vocal at the moment in America. Why? Because they are no longer the only voices being heard?

One of the points in Julia Serano's article that I am thinking about is that free speech has never been absolute. Every group and every person has a boundary as to what they think should be allowed and beyond which is unacceptable, the idea of "constitutive intolerance."

>22 labfs39: Yes, and also when public expression of opinion was the privilege of a small group of people who were similar in their social background, religious belief and education, there was an implicit agreement on what was acceptable and what was not, and it was rarely challenged. Now as a result of converging trends (wider education, migrations, globalization, and of course the internet) we hear the voices of very different people who all have their own opinion on what is acceptable. And in a way that is progress, as much more diverse people have access to public talk, but it's very stressful for all, and especially for the privileged (myself included) who used to take for granted that their own standard of constitutive intolerance is the only valid one, maybe even the only one.

Just finished An Impossible Impostor, number 7 in the Veronica Speedwell series, which is one of the less shameful of my shameful readings. It can also be read as a detective story, and it’s also a « Victorian » series that probably has some minimal level of historical realism. I enjoyed this one very much and will be waiting impatiently for the next installment.

>24 FlorenceArt: I'm a couple behind, having recently read A Murderous Relation. I think these are lots of fun. I really like Veronica and Stoker, both individually and together.

>25 rhian_of_oz: Yes, they are very likable.

Noirs en France is a documentary co-directed and narrated by Alain Mabanckou about, well, black people in France. It’s very well done and illuminating about their experience, from rank racism («Why are you black, do you eat shit?») to subtle and not-so subtle ways to keep them within their accepted roles («We don’t teach hip-hop here» to a girl who came to register for classical dance lessons). It helps me to understand how some of them can feel about things that appear benign to me, because I have never lived this kind of experience.

>27 FlorenceArt: Hello Florence, and welcome (back) to the group! I joined after you left, so we did not have a chance to virtually meet, but now that we are both in CR, I'll be looking forward to your reading!
I've watched Noirs en France as well, really liked it and would recommand it widely. I watched it with my two teenage ratons, who do not fall into the white category, and it definitely rang a bell.
The documentary was quite optimistic about how the society evolves, probably too much, but I actually liked this optimistic tone, that was so refreshing. All in all, a great watch!

>28 raton-liseur: Hi! Yes, it should be recommended to every one. I watched it with my mother on recommendation from one of my sisters.

>27 FlorenceArt: I wonder if I can find a subtitled version...

>30 labfs39: French subtitles only so far. It’s brand new, maybe there will be some kind of international distribution later?

Making Black Women Scientists under White Empiricism: The Racialization of Epistemology in Physics.

I read this article as a result of a new conversation started by Massimo Pigliucci. His blog post The E.O. Wilson controversy: racist, defender of academic freedom, or what? is a reaction to The Complicated Legacy Of E. O. Wilson.

The original Scientific American article is frankly appalling, making a jumbled and completely unsupported argument that Wilson was a racist (which according to Pigliucci he may have been, but you won’t find any shadow of a proof of it in the article). However I did find that some of her hints were worth researching, and this is how I ended up reading Making Black Women Scientists under White Empiricism: The Racialization of Epistemology in Physics.

At first sight you may wonder what racialization can have to do with physics. At least I did. And I’m still extremely skeptical about some of the claims in the article. Maybe some of it is due to my white point or view, and I am not saying this sarcastically. Lately I have become more and more aware of how my position in society, as a white upper middle class woman, unconsciously influences my view of the world. This is something I felt once again while watching Noirs en France.

Anyway. Some parts of this article really made me cringe, but other parts made me think, and on the whole I finished it with a decidedly less negative opinion of her theories than when I began. I found the notion of “white empiricism”, which I had not encountered before, extremely interesting. Although I’m still not sure it is relevant to physics.

As I understood it, white empiricism is the implicit assumption that the white male is the default setting of the human race (why do we say human race anyway, isn’t human rather a species?), the neutral state so to speak. Which leads to assuming that results from studies including only white males will also apply to everyone else, and if it doesn’t, it’s their fault they’re not normal. Well, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but you get the idea.

White empiricism also leads to the assumption that only white males are rational and objective enough to do science.
"Black students have their capacity for objectivity questioned simply because their standpoint on racism is different from that of white students and scientists who don’t have to experience its consequences”.

Anyway I’m sure I will investigate this idea further in the future.

I feel rather uneasy with the parts of the article that deal with string theory, because I can’t see any connection to her main argument, except as a provocative joke to underscore her point, but I don’t get the feeling that she is joking.

“In string theory, we find an example wherein extremely speculative ideas that require abandoning the empiricist core of the scientific method and which are endorsed by white scientists are taken more seriously than the idea that Black women are competent observers of their own experiences.”

Another thing that I find mildly annoying is the idea that encouraging racial diversity is a good thing because it will help science. I’m not denying that it might, but does it matter? The real problem is the rank injustice of denying black women (and other minorities) access to scientific education, funding and jobs.

I encounter this kind of situation all the time, where instead of arguing for something because we feel it is morally right (like for instance “we should protect ecosystems and biodiversity because it is our responsibility as the most destructive and powerful species on the planet, and we don’t want to feel bad about all the destruction after it’s too late to avoid it”) we try to find other arguments to “sell” the idea to reluctant or indifferent people (“we need biodiversity for food, or for ecosystemic services”). I think it can be dangerous, because if one of those secondary arguments turns out to be incorrect or exaggerated, our whole point can be weakened. But mostly I think it’s dishonest and I feel uneasy about this kind of argument. I do get that it’s not easy to debate moral issues when not everybody has the same moral imperatives. Maybe I don’t really have a good answer to that.

I’ll finish with another thought-provoking quote:
“Making aggressive behavior a requirement for academic success is especially harmful to Black women, since Black women are demonized for engaging in behaviors that even hint at aggression.”

And this one is a follow-up to the discussion in >19 FlorenceArt:

“There is no such thing as free speech”: an interview with Stanley Fish

>32 FlorenceArt: very interesting. Thanks for the quotes.

>34 ffortsa: Thanks, glad you found it interesting.

One Good Turn
Kate Atkinson is another author I learned about here on CR. I read the first Jackson Brodie book a few years ago, and this one is even better. I love the funny and often moving internal monologues of her characters.

>33 FlorenceArt: Interesting link to the Stanley Fish conversation.

I just finished the latest series on the Méta de choc podcast: En terres païennes. As usual, this is a deep dive into the personal experience of a recovered believer. A fascinating and unsettling reminder of how widespread and dangerous pseudoscientific beliefs are, including in the academic and medical worlds. Also, interesting to learn how much of that stuff, if not all of it, harks back to the 19th century.

And a reminder to myself that beliefs are OK as long as you are not too attached to them and are willing to ditch them in the presence of contradicting evidence. I am someone who loves to learn and know things, and show off how much I know, especially if it goes against commonly accepted opinions. So it’s important to keep in mind that just because an idea sounds like something I’d like to believe, and/or the person expressing it sounds reliable, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.

I can only recommend this podcast highly to any French speaking interested (or even not interested) person. It’s a bit of an investment for someone like me, who doesn’t particularly like the podcast form, as each interview runs over three to five 1-hour episodes, but it’s worth it. Really.

>38 FlorenceArt: enjoying all your thoughtful posts here. The language barrier keeps me from looking into this, but it sounds interesting

Quantum physics is one of these subjects that I can never hope to understand but that I read about once in a while, because who can resist all the mystery? I get the impression that physics is going through a crisis (well, who isn't?) because of the impossibility, so far, or reconciling general relativity, which works fine to explain the world as we see it, and quantum theory, which is great at describing what we can't see: protons, photons, and all these newfangled particles, you know, like bosons. Not that I can understand relativity any better than I understand quantum stuff. And string theory, just forget about it.

This article didn't clear things up for me, and the author doesn't seem especially enlightened either. This guy Fuchs has a theory about quantum physics that doesn't seem to explain much. But what do I know, really. The article doesn't really expand on the theory itself, and if it did I would probably not understand it.

"Fuchs is a physicist at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the leading proponent of QBism, one of the newest and most controversial of quantum theory’s many interpretations. It goes something like this: Quantum mechanics, the theory physicists use to predict the behavior of elementary particles like electrons and photons that make up matter and light, doesn’t actually pertain to particles, but rather to the _beliefs_ about them of whoever is using the theory. And if several people are using it at the same time? Then QBism says that each of them is entitled not only to their own beliefs, but to their own facts."

My Quantum Leap

Some additional thoughts about the article above. It's not so much about quantum theory or even QBism as it is about physicists and what motivates them. The journalist, Bob Henderson, went into this fields seeking certainty and explanations in an uncertain world. Fuchs on the other hand seems motivated by his childhood dreams and wants them to remain possible, even when the laws of physics say that warp drive ain't gonna happen.

This is a subject that I've been interested in for years. For a long time we assumed (and that is still an implicit assumption for many) that because scientific theories are grounded in sound logic and facts, the men producing them (and I do mean men, specifically white men, see >32 FlorenceArt: above) have to be perfectly rational people. Whether or not they are later confirmed by logic and facts, scientific theories often start with a boy (or hopefully now, a girl) seeking refuge from the uncertainties of life, or dreaming that he can one day explore the galaxy in an Enterprise-class starship.

Isn't that fascinating, Mister Spock?

>41 FlorenceArt: You might be interested in When We Cease to Understand the World.

>42 ELiz_M: Intriguing!

>41 FlorenceArt: Perhaps there are two types of scientists: what I tend to think of as the plodders, the logically minded scientists who apply science through rigorous and meticulous testing; and the dreamers, those who imagine new possibilities and create theories which the rationalists then prove or disprove. Of course this is an oversimplification, but it's how I often think of it.

The Visitor: A Wild Cards Story
The Kobo recommendation engine keeps pushing Mark Lawrence books at me, but I was skeptical about his writing, so I downloaded this free story to get a taste. Well. It’s a nice story, full of good intentions, but nor very well written. I don’t think I will try one of his novels.

Article: Why Are Right-Wing Conspiracies so Obsessed With Pedophilia?

A bit old (2019) but a very good analysis I think.

>46 FlorenceArt: Thanks for posting that "old" but very timely article, Florence. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson was unfairly vilified by several Republican members of the Senat Judiciary Committee during this week's confirmation hearings for handing out soft sentences to people convicted of sexual abuse crimes. None of this was brought up during her previous appearance before this committee when she was nominated to join the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 2012, although she came under fire for several rulings against former President Trump. The tired and ludicrous claim that there is a secret pedophile ring in the Democratic Party somehow still rings true with the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party.

>47 kidzdoc: Yes, that's true. I had saved this article a few weeks ago but it was the news about Jackson that made me read it. I found in while reading about transphobia. There is this trend of hypersexualizing some minorities to make them look sub-human and stoke fear. This happened with black people and with gays, and now with trans people.

OK, time to get out of the closet with one of my shameful reads: Nalini Singh. I have sadly run out of novels of hers to read (breathlessly waiting for the next one), but I just finished a short story/novella collection: Wild Embrace: A Psy-Changeling Collection. Yes, it's as bad as the title implies. Werewolf romance, yay! What can I say, it works for me ;-)

To be fair, the writing is not that bad. The romance part is very formulaic but as I said, it works for me. The world building is not bad, and there is an interesting overarching intrigue across the series. If you're into that kind of thing, obviously.

Since I am temporarily out of urban fantasy / werewolf / vampire romance series to read, I decided to finally make an effort to finish Red Country. It was an effort not because it's bad, but because this is exactly the kind of book I am trying to flee from by reading cheesy romance.

I discovered Joe Abercrombie a few years ago with The Blade Itself, which turned out to be the first book of a trilogy (had to be a trilogy of course) called First Law. The first book was great and relatively easy to read, the next ones were great too but progressively more difficult. Red Country, which turns out to be the last of a pseudo-trilogy (because, yeah) of stand alone books set in the same world as First Law, was the most difficult yet.

It's all about the characters. It's traditional to call this kind of character "flawed", but the truth is, these are just ordinary people trying to survive in a violent world. This involves a lot of cowardice, betrayal and actions that are often morally appalling and occasionally heroic. In a word, these people act just as anybody would under the circumstances. They are likable and despicable, just like you and me. That's what makes reading these books so uncomfortable.

I think I'll go back to vampires in love now. But I might pick up another Abercrombie book one of these days, and take months reading it because when it becomes too much I just have to pick up a fluffy werewolf or three.

Right now I feel a bit sad that it's over. Go figure.

>50 FlorenceArt: I have The Blade Itself sitting on my TBR shelves. I take it that isn't one of those trilogies where the individual books stand reasonably well on their own? Just wondering if should I maybe make sure I have the next two on hand whenever I finally get to it.

>50 FlorenceArt: Couldn’t swear to that but I seem to remember that The Blade Itself does stand reasonably well on its own, though the next two are more connected. I’m pretty sure that there is no cliffhanger at the end of the first one. But then, I tend to forget all about a book as soon as I put it down, so…

The Witness for the Dead

I love everything Katherine Addison writes. I first encountered her writing as Sarah Monette with the Doctrine of Labyrinths series: Mélusine, The Virtu, The Mirador and Corambis. Great characters, lots of drama and a BDSM angle that was a bit disturbing to me but not enough to ruin the enjoyment, and it does work with the story.

In Katherine Addison's books the style is more low key and the drama is hinted at more than told over the length of the book, but it's no less touching. This one has been sitting on my Kobo reader for several months as it kept being (unjustly) pushed down by vampire erotica. I'm glad that the lull in werewolf love led me to finally pick it up.

For those interested, this book loosely follows The Goblin Emperor which was also great, but the two can be read separately.

>52 FlorenceArt: Boy, do I know the curse of forgetting the stuff you've read... Thanks for the (tentative) info, anyway!

A Closed and Common Orbit

This is a sequel to The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet which I read some years ago and found OK. I mean, I did finish it but it felt a bit dumb. We have an expression in French, un monde de bisounours (a carebear's world), meaning a fictitious world where everyone is so nice and caring. That's a bit how I remembered that first book, and at the time I felt no compulsion to read the next one.

But lately it occurred to me that a carebear book might be exactly what I need in my current mindset, so I bought this one.

I'm still not completely convinced, but I have to admit the book grew on me after a frustrating beginning, and I will probably read the next one.

The first source of frustration was the writing. It feels like a child's book, with very simple sentences, no difficult words, and a kind of fake innocence in the writing that grated a little.

The characters are frustrating too, but they are also what made me finish the book. At first they felt unbelievable, but they grew on me. They do have depth, but it's like she took normal human beings and removed all the bad bits. They are all so nice and caring. A bit like carebears I guess, though I never watched the show. But I ended up caring about them myself, and yes, maybe this is the kind of reading that I need right now.

The Sharing Knife, Volume One

It's been a while since I read anything by Lois McMaster Bujold. I read a few of her Vorkorsigan series, starting with Mountains of Mourning which I loved, but after a while I grew tired, quite literally. Miles Vorkorsigan is a very likable character but he is much too high-strung for me. Her writing is nothing to write home about but it doesn't get in the way, and her characters are, as I say, very likable and lifelike. So when Kobo started pushing The Sharing Knife in the recommendations section, I decided to give it a try. I was not expecting a typical fantasy romance, but that was a rather happy surprise as I am still stuck in that groove for now. I devoured the first volume and started the second one immediately. I would not recommend it for its literary qualities but, again, I like the characters and the story is interesting.

The Ethics of Belief
Article by William K. Clifford

This text, apparently a philosophy classic, was mentioned by Massimo Pigliucci on Twitter. His recommendations are of uneven value, but I found this one to be a very clear and convincing explanation on why we are morally responsible for our beliefs and should do our very best to make sure they are as close to the truth as possible.

The text is short and concise so it's hard to pick a quote, but here are the two passages I highlighted:

"The question of right or wrong has to do with the origin of his belief, not the matter of it; not what it was, but how he got it; not whether it turned out to be true or false, but whether he had a right to believe on such evidence as was before him."

"It is the sense of power attached to a sense of knowledge that makes men desirous of believing, and afraid of doubting."

(The deliciously quaint language and rather less endearing gender assumptions can both be explained by the fact that the article was published in 1877.)

Ironically, I stopped following Pigliucci because I feel that he failed to follow Clifford's recommendations on some issues and is taking some very questionable opinions as fact. Maybe though, the reverse is true and I am the one who is holding beliefs that I have I insufficiently verified. We all have an amazing ability to severely fact-check things we already hold to be untrue.

Betty (Bragan) mentioned the Vlad Taltos series on her thread, and it sounded like the kind of light reading that could appeal to me right now, so I decided to give it a try and bought Jhereg. Well, in fact I bought The Book of Jhereg, which contains the first three books of the series, since that was apparently the only way to get it on Kobo. I had to make a decision early on whether I was going to put up with the rather heavy handed writing style, but after that I found the book reasonably enjoyable. Since this is the first published book of the series, I'm hoping the next one will have less stopping in the middle of the action to explain things and introduce characters, or that at least it will be done with more skill. But I will certainly read the next one soon.

>58 FlorenceArt: I have to admit that I love the Vlad Taltos books. One of my absolutely top favourite series. I've listened to them all on audio which works very well.

>59 SandDune: I think the series might grow on me in time, but I hope the writing will improve. I was thinking I could alternate between this and the Sharing Knife series but maybe not, I felt a little disoriented when I got back to the Sharing Knife after finishing Jhereg. Maybe I’ll finish Bujold first.

Just stopping by. Enjoying your posts. Interesting about Clifford and belief. I don’t know anything about Vlad Taltos.

>60 FlorenceArt: I liked Taltos - it is a fantasy candy in a way but I like the world building and most of the characters. I probably should dig my books and reread the whole thing... But then I freely admit that I would overlook a lot of issues with the writing style when the world-building is solid and works for me.

>50 FlorenceArt: "Since I am temporarily out of urban fantasy / werewolf / vampire romance series to read,"

How? I mean... I have probably 100+ of those waiting for me to get around to them... they seem to breed on my kindle/shelves sometimes :)

>55 FlorenceArt: Apparently I am not the only one not liking Becky Chambers - any of her books I read feels like an overly sugared confection. :( They can be addictive, I probably will read them all but... I am not sure why people consider her one of the better writers today.

>49 FlorenceArt: "one of my shameful reads: Nalini Singh"

Why shameful? She may not be the best wordsmith in the world but her books are readable...

>45 FlorenceArt: Writing in a shared universe is different from writing your own worlds and characters. Just saying.

You know, when I read your thread I wonder why you always feel like you need to apologize and explain when reading something that is not High Literature (however one defines that). You like some of the lighter genres? So what? I know you probably have your reasons for needing to do that but it always gets me a bit surprised. :)

>62 AnnieMod: Well, it's certainly true that I'm a bit of a snob, and that has stopped me at times from enjoying low-brow stuff.

But really, the part I am ashamed of (or rather, embarrassed about) is the romance part. And a big part of it is simply that it's socially embarrassing. The smaller part is that in most cases it's extremely formulaic, but to be quite honest, that doesn't really diminish my enjoyment. And the sex part are even more embarrassing but not unenjoyable.

You're right about Nalini Singh, her books are very readable and I do like her world building and how all the stories link together.

"How? I mean... I have probably 100+ of those waiting for me to get around to them... they seem to breed on my kindle/shelves sometimes :)"

Well, I'm sure I haven't found them all but I am a bit picky and quite often decide that a book is not for me, based on the writing. I am slowly learning though that sometimes this can be overlooked, if I like the characters and story (but mostly the characters I think) enough. Anyway if you have suggestions, I'll be happy to check them out!

Authors I have "exhausted" so far (as in read almost everything published):

The "shameful/embarrassing" list
- Ilona Andrews
- Nalini Singh
- Christine Feehan
- J. R. Ward

Others that I am not ashamed of:
- Seanan McGuire's October Daye series
- T. Kingfisher (just started her latest, Nettle & Bone)
- Deanna Raybourn

I just finished volume 4 of the Sharing Knife series, which turns out to be the last. For some reason I expected it to go on for much longer. A very quick and satisfying read, with good world building and many believable and likable characters. I will miss them.

>63 FlorenceArt: Yeah, well, formulaic or not, if you enjoy them, they are fun :) I stopped caring what the society things awhile back (plus society finds the Fifty Shades acceptable apparently and these are a lot more dreadful than almost any paranormal romance IMO). If I enjoy a book, I read the book - warts and all. :)

Off the top of my head for recommendations - you may want to check Patricia Briggs - her Marrok World connected Series (some of her the others are straight fantasy - even these are more on the urban fantasy side than the paranormal romance side but not by much) or for a more on the romance side Jeaniene Frost (the Night huntress series and its off-shoots later). These days I am working on Devon Monk whose books I enjoy a lot (albeit them being low-brow literature-wise indeed).

>65 AnnieMod: Thank you for the recommendations!

I read two Mercy Thompson books by Patricia Briggs and liked them, but on the other hand it looked like the heroin was going to keep hesitating between her two suitors indefinitely, and that made me reluctant to continue. Maybe I could try some of her other books.

I haven't tried Jeaniene Frost yet, I will download an excerpt on my reader. Same for Devon Monk.

>66 FlorenceArt: Nah, Mercy does make a choice pretty soon. As with a lot of other long series, the current issue is that there are just too many secondary characters to sustain so some are missing from books when you really wish they were not (although some had died lately so there is that). If your biggest issue was the triangle, I’d say to try the next couple of books.

Neither Frost, nor Monk can be accused of being high literature but I enjoy them as book-candy. :)

>67 AnnieMod: Oh, that’s good to hear! I may get the third book then and see how I like it. I think I liked the first two but maybe not loved them.

Finished Nettle & Bone.

I love everything T. Kingfisher writes, and this was no exception. I love her fumbling and clueless heroins and often just as fumbling and clueless heroes, the tender and not formulaic romance (or at least the formulas are her own) and the humor. I think I like her clocktaur world better than her pseudo-fairy tales, but this was still very nice.

Jeaniene Frost, the Night Huntress series, books 1 and 2
Halfway to the Grave
One Foot in the Grave

Well, this was not especially well written nor believable (I mean, even apart from the vampire stuff), and I hesitated to finish the book. And then when I did, I immediately bought the second one and read it in a day. I guess I'm hooked.

>70 FlorenceArt: Well, I told you it is not high literature. :) It is entertaining though - a friend gave me the first 3 or 4 at some point and that was enough to make me look for the rest (and then follow the new ones). Which reminds me that I have a few of the offshoots I had not read yet. :)

>58 FlorenceArt: "Reasonably enjoyable even if I don't always get on with the writing style pretty" much summarizes my own general reaction to the Vlad Taltos books, too. I honestly don't think the writing ever gets great, but he does at least mix the narrative style up some from book to book, so if one isn't really to your taste, the next one might be more so.

The worldbuilding really is great, though, and Vlad's smartass sense of humor is often good for a smile.

Anyway, glad you didn't hate what you've read so far, at least, after I inspired you to pick it up!

>72 bragan: Well, now I'm in the middle of the second book, and to be quite honest it's not getting any better, on the contrary. The writing is just not working for me. The characters are painted in such a cold and detached way that there is nothing for me to hold on to. Apparently Vlad has just fell madly in love with someone who is a total blank. Seriously, I don't know who she is, I can't "see" her. The only think I know about her is that she was hired to kill Vlad, which seems a bit light as far as reasons to fall madly in love go. I don't know, I will try to finish this book and maybe later I'll have a go at the third one since I bought the three as a bundle and the books are pretty short. I don't hate it (since I'm still reading it) but I much prefer vampire romance ;-)

The Book That Murdered JK Rowling

Another video by Jessie Gender about JK Rowling and TERFs. I strongly recommend watching the whole video or at least the first half, but I especially liked the part at 24:30 where she analyses the causes of the TERF anger.

Like many of the people who push the "cancel culture" narrative, these are privileged people who take as a given their right to publish their political views in mainstream media without any real contradiction. As a result, they feel hurt and threatened when others who do not, as a rule, have access to these mainstream media, point out that their views are hurting people. In many cases they paint as censorship what is in fact a (valid) critic of their views.

(Warning, tangent coming up, the below are my own thoughts and I may be the only one who sees a connection. They are certainly not what Jessie Gender says in the video.)

I think this is important to understand the whole right-wing backlash in general. What seems a privilege to disenfranchised people often is a normal part of life to the privileged, and when they feel that this is threatened, it can be a violent and traumatic experience. This is true of highly privileged people like the TERFs mentioned in the video, but it may be even more true for people who are near the bottom of the food chain and whose only claim to social value is that they are white and/or male. Take that away from them, and what is left? And between these two extremes are millions of people who feel threatened by changes in the economic and social status quo.

People like Trump, Boris Johnson or Marine Le Pen are all capitalizing on these frustrations and fears, so I think it's important to understand them. Although I have no idea what should be done about it. Obviously I'm not suggesting that we should go back to some mythical good old times where everyone knew their place and only a happy few had access to power and speech. But I do think that nothing can be gained by just ignoring or despising those who feel threatened or diminished by change.

And this reminds me of this old post by danah boyd, which I also highly recommend:

Failing To See, Fueling Hatred

I have a new video out. I've been working with musicians for several years and we improvise together, though this one was done at a distance with one of them. Putting the link here in case anyone is interested :-)

https://vimeo.com/712412053

>75 FlorenceArt: This is the first time I've watched one of your videos. Fascinating. Here's how my mind made sense of the images: fingerprints, started me thinking about how we humans leave our mark on everything we touch, and like fingerprints on glass we eventually muck it up so that it's hard to see through. When the ocean scenes came on I started thinking how that applied to our environment and climate. Then I started seeing faces, the owners of the fingerprints. By the time the voices came on and the tanker train, I had goosebumps. If this were a Rorschach test, I don't know how that would be interpreted.

>74 FlorenceArt: I've marked both of these links for later viewing. Thanks for making me think.

>75 FlorenceArt: I liked that a lot. The abstract elements made me think of those giant starling murmurations.

>76 labfs39: and >77 lisapeet:: thank you, glad you like!

Reading update:

Finished the second Taltos book, Yendi, which didn't do much for me. It was all about political intrigue while all I care about is the characters, who are there but tantalizingly elusive. Not sure what to do with this, but since I bought the first three books as a bundle, I will probably give it one more chance in the future.

Whooshed through the first 10 books of Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress / Night Huntress World series. Loved it but taking a break now.

Finished Death And Relaxation, the first book in Devon Monk's Ordinary Magic series, and started the second one. Lots of fun.

Also crawling through The Black Prism, which is excellent but I keep getting waylaid by the fun stuff above. I will try for a review after I've finished it, but it's really good.

Once in a while I read a short story from Some of the Best of tor.com 2021, a free ebook. I found the first story annoying and didn't finish it. The second one was great, and the third one started out in a very traditional way but ended with a nice twist, I liked it too.

>73 FlorenceArt: Ah, yeah, the romance in that one was deeply unsatisfying to me, too. Apparently I described it in my review as "one of those cases where it feels like the characters fall for each other solely because the author pointed at them and ordered them to," something I always find annoying. I think Cawti does get at least somewhat better characterization in some of the other books, for what it's worth.

I think the third one is the best of that particular volume, so I'd say it's not a bad idea to give it a shot, but if it doesn't grab you, either, it might just be that the series isn't really for you, anyway. I'm sure there are people who'll tell you you're really missing out if you don't stick with it, but I'm not one of them. There's enough in it that I'm enjoying that I'm planning on reading through to the end, but I honestly don't think it's a must-read, or even as good as its reputation indicates.

I finally got round to reading Piranesi and, Wow. It's a short and easy read, once I got past the strange narrative style that put me off after I bought the book. The story is wonderful and wonderfully told. Loved it.

>80 FlorenceArt: That one's on my TBR. I really need to order it from the library. I've heard so many good things!

What you said about the narrative style is how I felt when I started the first novel in N.K. Jemison's The Broken Earth trilogy, which I impulse bought while browsing at a bookstore while waiting for it to be time to meet my family for dinner across the street. I really had to push myself to keep going at first, but then I ended up loving it so much I immediately went out and bought the other two books as soon as I was finished with it. (Luckily, the whole trilogy had already been published by that point.)

I'm all for DNFing a book I'm not enjoying, and I think everyone should be able to do that without shame, but sometimes it's worth it to keep pushing a little longer. The trick is telling the difference between a waste of your time and a potential gem that you may end up loving if you just stick it out.

>81 Julie_in_the_Library: It’s the best book I’ve read in a long time, I think.

I stop reading books all the time, but in this case I bought it at the beginning of my reading slump, so I knew all along that the problem was not really with the book. I’m glad I finally decided to pick it up!

>82 FlorenceArt: Well now I'm really looking forward to it!

I found a new series, and it's very promising! Well it's new to me, but it's already complete with 13 books, and I hope they will all be as good as the first one, The Watchmaker's Daughter. The review quoted in the blurb pretty much sums up what I think:
"This story has everything I look for in a quality, entertaining piece of fiction. 1) A strong female lead, 2) a dark and mysterious male character (I admit, they are my weakness), 3) eloquent writing, and 4) lots of quirky humor and banter."

I will add that it’s another Victorian novel, which I would rather avoid because most of them feel like 21st century characters slapped on a more or less (rather less than more) accurate historical setting. But I keep stumbling on them and I do enjoy some of them. This one doesn’t seem to have too many historical inaccuracies, although I really don’t think the word gender was used with that meaning. And there are probably many more blunders that I didn’t catch, but what can I say, I liked the book and I just bought the second one.

>80 FlorenceArt: - Glad you liked that one! I heard great things when it first came out and was waiting for it to come out in paperback. And it's always nice when there's a new series that you're excited about!

>85 DieFledermaus: I’m loving the series so far. I just finished the third book and I'm about to start on the fourth. I really like the characters and the interactions between them.

I have several good books to finish but somehow I always manage to get lost in romance stuff. I need a lot of comfort reading right now. And so I just finished C.J. Archer's series "After the Rift", read all 6 books in a row even though it's not that great. The characters are very likable and that's probably what kept my interest, but the plot is not great and the author tends to use words she doesn't seem to know the meaning of. But it was fun anyway. Now I need to find a new one :-)

I haven't finished the first series by C.J. Archer that I started, Glass and Steele, but I'm not sure I'm going to. Or maybe later.

I'd like to finish The Black Prism, but there's a war going on in there and I'm afraid to pick it up. My Kobo says I have 1 hour left. And 4 hours to go on Vita Nostra, which is good too but there's no romance in it :-/

I have been neglecting this thread (and LT), mostly because I have nothing new to report, just crunching through the same series.

Still can't bring myself to finish The Black Prism although I only have 1 hour left according to Kobo. I'm still scared of going back to the grand finale battle. Right now I'd much rather read romance and nice books about nice people. I will finish this but I have no idea when.

I finished the Ordinary Magic series which was a lot of fun, although I learned a lot more than I wished to know (which, let's be honest, was absolutely nothing) about American weddings in the last book.

Also read a few series by C.J. Archer, which are OK although not very well written. Not sure I will finish the two I have still going.

Started a new series by Christine Feehan, which I'm ashamed to say I still enjoy even though there is so much wrong with her books, from gender stereotypes to New Age mystic. The first book, Water Bound, had very engaging characters, but the next ones seem to be basically a repetition of that first one.

What Moves The Dead was a bit of a disappointment, not because of the quality of the book which is up to T. Kingfisher,s usual standards, but because of the genre I guess, which is not really my cup of tea, plus I didn't realize when I bought it that it is based on The Fall of the House of Usher. I'm never crazy about this kind of thing (rewriting existing stories), but I still did reasonably enjoy the book.

Just finished Honey And Pepper, a nice little romance with nice likable characters and a happy ending, just what I need right now.

Which reminded me of Becky Chambers, so I bought the next book in the Wayfarers series, Record of a Spaceborn Few. But before that I think I will read The Grief of Stone, which I have high hopes for, having loved previous books by Katherine Addison.

Nevertheless, thanks for the update!

>89 labfs39: Thank, that’s kind of you to say :-)

The Grief of Stones was just as good as I hoped. It occurred to me that as different as they are, this and the previous book I read, Honey and Pepper, had something in common in that they take place in a city whose topology is part of the narrative. The characters in Honey and Pepper get around on foot, and those in The Grief of Stones by tram, and both make the city alive for me, even though I am so spacially challenged that I have no idea where all the different places are.

So I finally finished The Black Prism, and you know what? It doesn't end!

I knew there was a second volume of course, but I did think that there would be some kind of conclusion, even if only temporary, at the end of this book. There isn't.

I wonder why I keep reading these "realistic fantasy" (or whatever this genre is actually called) books. They have everything that makes reading difficult for me:
- tons of characters
- viewpoint changing every chapter between every single one of the million characters
- politics
- and worst of all, bloody battles!

And yet I keep coming back to them. There must be something that I enjoy there. I think it's the characters. There are too many of them, but they are all so damn relatable. That's certainly the case here anyway.

Well anyway. Now I have to buy volume 2, don't I. Grumble grumble. I wonder if there will be a third one.

lol

Terec and the Wild
Victoria Goddard

I picked this up without thinking too much about it, it was in my recommendation list at Kobo and included in my Kobo Plus monthly subscription. It's very short and not bad, but it would have been much better without the last chapter, leaving it with a more open ending.

Article
Why I am not an effective altruist
https://erikhoel.substack.com/p/why-i-am-not-an-effective-altruist

I discovered effective altruism a few years ago, and was very impressed by the idea of measuring the outcome of charitable actions to choose the most effective ones. I am now giving monthly to an effective altruism fund. However, I very soon started to have doubts about effective altruism as a life philosophy, as a movement trying to tell me what my goals should be, not just how best to attain them.

The article above helped me better formulate and understand one of the causes for my concern:

"Evils and goods are not what is called “well-ordered.” Mathematically, this means that they cannot all be ranked in a gigantic set, from greatest to least, objectively, and so be added and subtracted against each other. The reason is that there are qualitative, not just quantitative, differences between various positive and negative things, which ensures there can never be a simple universal formula."

As the article explains, this means that the assumption at the base of the effective altruism creed is wrong, and that makes the whole creed wrong, even though in its applications it can also do a lot of good.

Another thing that worries me, and that is only fleetingly mentioned in the article, is how much this movement adheres to the neo-liberal ideas which I have come to think are destroying our democracy. I'm talking about the implicit assumption that the only level of action/responsibility is the individual, ignoring the field of political and collective action as well as the huge power of corporations, and refusing any means of intervention to the public authorities. Pretending that humans live in a social and political vacuum and that all that we can and must do to make things better is earn as much money as possible (whatever the means) and then use it as efficiently as possible toward the goals we have individually selected. Basically we should all strive to be Bill Gates. Or Charles Koch, depending on your political leanings.

I'm afraid that I am not expressing this very well, and maybe that means my vague ideas are not worth much, but that's how I feel, more or less.

Anyway, an article worth reading if you are interested in effective altruism.

I think you've expressed yourself very clearly and I agree with your misgivings!

>96 Dilara86: Thanks! On second thought I should add that I'm in no position to give moral lessons to anybody. I am one of these well to do people who can afford to give to charity but are too lazy and/or cowardly to consider participating in any real action. I guess part of the initial appeal of effective altruism was that it gave me a justification for my comfortable inaction.

Another article, this one doesn’t require a comment, the title says it all.

The Dangerous Populist Science of Yuval Noah Harari
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/07/the-dangerous-populist-science-of-yuval-n...

Fighting Syndrome
Viola Grace makes me smile. Her writing style is almost childishly simple (but at least she only uses words she understands), but the stories are fun and the heroins are always cheerfully courageous. Always good for a quick fun read.

Blood Kissed
Keri Arthur
Lizzie Grace series 1

Of course I had to pick up a book that has Blood in its title. Plus it's free with my Kobo subscription, so why not? Also, the author has the same last name as me.

It was nice enough, although her writing style is rather heavy handed. Hopefully that will get better as the series progresses. Otherwise it's the same stuff I still enjoy every time: werewolves, vampires , witches, magic, romance. Set in Australia for a change.

I started reading Hell's Bells, the next book in the Lizzie Grace series, but I don't think I will finish it. Something strange happened. Much of the plot revolves around the assisted suicide of a terminally ill woman, and it keeps being referred to as murder. Turns out I have a very strong reaction to this, which is something of a surprise. Not the reaction itself, but that it is strong enough to stop me reading a book that I was rather enjoying. Oh well.

Stargazy Pie
Victoria Goddard
Greenwing & Dart 1

Another one I picked up without the thinking too much about it due to it being free with my Kobo subscription. And what a nice surprise!

I didn't realize immediately that the author was the same Victoria Goddard from Terec and the Wild (see >94 FlorenceArt:). And I found out after a few pages that the two books are set in the same fascinating universe, called Nine Worlds. And now I'm drooling at the thought of catching up from the beginning. I'll probably follow the recommended reading order, more or less.

This book was very different from the first I read, and much better. It has a bit of an Agatha Christie feel about it, with mysteries piling on mysteries and where nobody is what they seem to be. It’s not usually the kind of books I enjoy much, but it works very well here with the great world building. I like the writing and I do want to follow the characters, so maybe I will continue with this series before I go back to the beginning with The Hands of the Emperor.

As usual, I am reading too many books at the same time. Some that will take me ages to finish, and lighter ones that I devour one after the other (which of course explains my slow progress with the first kind).

Currently under way:
The Blinding Knife
Brent Weeks, Lightbringer series book 2
Still as many characters and viewpoints as the first book. Lots of technical stuff about magic that I don't really understand. Loving it but keep getting distracted by easier books.

The Social Construction of What?
Ian Hacking
Bought this ages ago on paper, mainly because of the title and also I had read some comment about the author. Never read it because paper, but now I have it as an ebook. Not really what I was expecting, I guess you could say this is about the social construction of social construction, in a way. The writing is deceptively simple and easy to read, but I don't have all the references to understand it all. Lots of references to books I'd like to read, but since it currently takes me months to finish (or not) a single non fiction book, well.

Vita Nostra
Marina & Sergei Diatchenko
Found this via a mention on LT by bragan. I like it but it's not a comfortable read, hence the slow pace on this one too.

Recently finished:
Greenwing & Dart series
Stargazy Pie
Bee Sting Cake
Whiskeyjack
Blackcurrant Fool
Like the first book by Victoria Goddard that I read, this whole series was great until the end, which I could really have done without. And may I take this opportunity to mention that among the many things that I find disturbing in this genre is the obsession with immortality and life after death. Which of course echoes our cultures refusal of death. Which again I find extremely disturbing.
That said, I really enjoyed the series and I'm a bit sad it ended.

Storm Echo
Nalini Singh
Psy-Changeling Trinity 6
Excellent book in an excellent series. Too soon finished, and now I have to wait for the next one.

Bound Sorcery
Natalie Grey
Shadows of Magic 1
Good story. The writing style is a tad heavy-handed and the characters are interesting but maybe a bit lacking in depth. On the whole I enjoyed it and will continue reading.

Oops, Greenwing & Dart is not over, although the end of book 4 did feel a bit like an ending, but I’ll admit that it left a lot of questions unanswered. Anyway, I just got the next book, Plum Duff, and I guess I’ll start on it right away.

>103 FlorenceArt: "I like it but it's not a comfortable read" sounds entirely right for Vita Nostra! Glad you are liking it, though.

The Greenwing & Dart series is most definitely not finished, but I have read the last book published so far, Plum Duff. I am still uneasy about the mystical element (lots of talk about the afterlife) but I do want to know what will happen to those wonderful characters.

The Curious Case of Gina Adams: A “Pretendian” investigation

Very interesting article about what it means to have indigenous ancestry, and how to be "the right kind of Indian".

>107 FlorenceArt: Fascinating, both the issue of fraudulent identity and the impact of forced colonial education. As the author says, I didn’t recognize the gaps in my knowledge as the inevitable product of forcible assimilation. I saw them as a personal failing, a sign that I wasn’t Indigenous enough.

>108 labfs39: Yes, I think that’s the most interesting part.

This reminds me of another article on a related subject that I meant to mention here but forgot.

UK Welcomes Restitution, Just not Anti-Colonialism

Still up to my neck into fantasy romance of variable quality. Very variable. I'm so behind that I won't bore you with a list, especially since most of it is of a highly forgettable nature.

However, the series I just (sadly) finished stands out: Children of the Black Sun by Jo Spurrier. I gave it a try because it was recommended by Robin Hobb, and although the writing is way below Hobb's standard, it only bothered me for a short while before I got too caught up in the story to care. The world building is good and the characters are just wonderful. As far as I can see this is her first published work, so I'm hoping her writing will mature and get better in time. Anyway, even with the not great writing I would recommend it.

I forgot to mention the excellent trilogy that I finished a while ago, The Scholomance by Naomi Novik. Again, great story, world building and characters, and this time the writing is good, Novik is a much more experienced writer than Spurrier. I remember reading the first of her Temeraire series and not being very impressed, but her style has improved a lot since then.

Turns out Jo Spurrier has two more books published so far, A Curse Of Ash And Ember and Daughter Of Lies And Ruin. Her writing has improved on this series, but the story is not as gripping. Still, a very enjoyable read with, again, complex and likable characters. It sounds like more books are planned, which is nice.

Sorcerer To The Crown Was recommended by Naomi Novik via the Fantastic Fiction website. She compared it to a cross between Georgette Heyer and Susanna Clarke. I feel it's a bit unfair to Susanna Clarke. Just adding magicians to a Victorian setting is definitely not enough to be on par with her. I do agree with the Heyer connection though, I was reminded of her by the interactions between the main characters. Anyway, it's a fun book and I bought the next one in the series already.