Oops, a few days behind on this. I went a bit overboard reading in August and September is definitely slower. Almost all of these books were from my library since I wanted to keep participating in my summer reading program there, which is partially why my reading in September is slower. Also because my kids are back in school and all the Internet Archive discourse on Bluesky (not getting into it) was very annoying to me as well. Even the conversations around “real” libraries have been annoying and heavily focused on how libraries are good because they give authors money which, sure, that’s nice, but there’s lots of other reasons why they’re good.
This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar – After hearing this books described as a modern classic in the last few years I finally read it. It’s really good! Not a whole lot to say past that but I recommend it if you like gay time travel stories.
1984 by George Orwell – It’s weird having an opinion on this book after reading it for the first time. I’ve seen it referenced billions of times and the influence that it had on pop culture that I mostly knew it all anyway. But I think it’s good?
Orbital by Samantha Harvey – I really liked this one. It’s just about the lives of people in the last days of the International Space Station before it’s decommissioned. I absolutely love sci-fi stories that feel like they are heavy on vibes and there aren’t explosions and punching and this one delivers since there’s not really a “plot.” The novella did well with critics but it explains why opinions on places like Storygraph are more divided.
Welcome to Wine: An Illustrated Guide to All You Really Need to Know by Madelyne Meyer – Yep lol, I just wanted to know more about wine. This was a good intro to that and not too long.
Red Rising by Pierce Brown – Apparently this is a massively popular series but I didn’t really care for it. Not “bad” but nothing exciting to me either.
Some Are Always Hungry by Jihyun Yun – Just a really good collection of poetry by a local author in Ann Arbor. I picked this one up about a year ago at Booksweet, which has now changed ownership but still seems very good.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells – The second Murderbot novella. I’ve read this one before but just really like Murderbot and wanted to read it again. I think I’ve only read the first 3 books so I’m looking forward to getting to the new stories soon.
Captain Disaster: The Dark Side of the Moon by Dave Seaman – This is a short story novelization of his free point-and-click adventure, both are available on Itch. Fun, quick read. Most people should do novelizations of their games.
The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond – Very enjoyable fantasy novella. The middle drags a bit and it spends time setting up more interesting things in the sequel book instead of doing it here, but I had fun reading it.
Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch – Public domain read on my Kindle. I don’t know, shrug. I get why it’s important but don’t think I would recommend it to others.
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany – My first Delany book! Liked it but probably wouldn’t recommend the audiobook to others since I feel like you need to take your time with it and parts and possibly even reread things?
The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo – Another novella in the Singing Hills cycle. I’m glad I kept reading these. Wonderful series.
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros – Good book. Don’t have a lot to say about this one. It’s not really the kind of book I would normally read but checked it out since it’s popular and was part of a recommendation post from my library. Won’t read the sequels but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.
Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw – It’s fine. I like Cass Khaw but this didn’t work as well for me like their other books. Even my review seemed to be more positive than most on Storygraph, but I didn’t think it was bad. I think a lot of people felt pulled in by the fantastic cover art. Like everyone says, the characters are just kinda annoying, but not in a way that’s interesting. Oh well. Go read their other stuff though!
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne – I listened to the audiobook by Tim Curry and man, absolutely incredible. The story itself is good but Tim Curry really elevates everything.
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny – My first Zelazny book and it won’t be the last. I actually started reading this because we were playing Chronomaster in Adventure Game Club, which he worked on, and I wanted to actually read one of his books. Good stuff.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne – I guess I am a big Jules Verne fan and I’m fully onboard with Captain Nemo’s bullshit.
Tom Baker at 80 – Ok lol, this is an audio release I bought from Big Finish about 10 years ago and I have the signed cd. I finally listened to it. It’s fine! It’s just a 2 hour long interview with Tom Baker and his career. He’s still working with Big Finish and doing more 4th Doctor stories to this day!
Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo – There’s one more of these that I also read in September. Highly recommend the whole thing.
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket – Listened to this because Tim Curry does the narration. He’s great, I thought the actual book was whatever and then I read the Wikipedia page for the author and he seems very annoying so I don’t think I’ll do the sequels.
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie – Another story I listened to because of Tim Curry! He’s good in this and so is the story. It’s worth reading even if you’ve seen the Disney movie a bunch. It’s not drastically darker like some Disney source material is, but it is a little bit and it’s just interesting.
A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony – Oof, OOF. I read this because I eventually wanted to play the adventure game by Legend and wanted some context. I’ve even been warned about this book before, the AV Club famously has a very negative review of the book. I should have listened. It’s so frustrating. There’s some really fun ideas in here but it’s so aggressively sexist. It really can’t stop itself from saying something awful every once in a while once you think the book stopped being sexist.