I always like Jason Kottke’s end-of-year books recommendations. His list for this year has a few that I’ve read, a few I have wanted to read, and several that weren’t (yet) on my list.

Revised my /now page over the weekend. I’ve been replacing the old notes entirely, but wonder if I should keep it as a running log, instead.

I finished my listen of Harrow the Ninth today. Its predecessor novel, Gideon the Ninth, was a sort of haunted house puzzle box body horror costume drama comedy of manners; Harrow maintains much of that, but sharply changes the narrative structure, shifting between narrators, perspectives, and points in time, in addition to stretching out to a massive, universe-wide scale. It’s disorienting and byzantine and I think it’s kind of brilliant, not only in its own right, but in the abrupt pivot in style that Tamsyn Muir pulls off in writing it.

edit: Oh! How could I have forgotten to call this out? The reading of both novels, by Moira Quirk, is absolutely wonderful.

Today I learned that Libby has this fantastic sync feature that lets you copy library cards and info to another device. I wanted to read a book that Libby can’t send to Kindle, and this worked elegantly to make it available on an iPad.

📚 The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Often gory adventure in a mysterious fantasy world that reminded me of the Dishonored setting. CW for violent treatment of women in particular that makes me reluctant to recommend, even though I enjoyed the intricate heist-like plots.

📚Finished The Stars are Legion. It’s a wild, inventive story of warring factions of women aboard giant living spaceship-worlds, weird organic everything (including monsters and cephalopod cannons), and an intriguing plot.

📚Finished Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches by John Hodgman yesterday. A fun set of essays on being an adult and figuring out grown-up friendships. Hodgman balances these with touching, insightful passages about grief and learning to say goodbye on the early passing of his mother.

📚Finished The Changeling by Victor LaVelle. Compelling (maybe a little long) read mixing family legacy, race, social media and … monsters.

📚 The Newcomer by Keigo Higashino. This is an intricate mystery, and while it makes me interested in the detective at its core it doesn’t really tell me much about him (beyond his brilliant detective-ing), and it reads sort of distant.

📚Finished Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft. Not sure what I think? Rich world with lots of potential and a protagonist who I get more sympathetic with through the story, but who is ultimately still pretty bland. First in a series; might continue it?