Month: March 2025

WWW Wednesday – March 26, 2025

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Making good on my intentions last week, I started reading Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson, the second novel in the author’s Trickster trilogy. I’m a little over 130 pages in at the moment. Despite it having been nearly three years since I read the first book, it has done a good job of easing me back into where Jared is at in life and the state of his relationships. All the same, I wish it was a little fresher in my mind. Though this is far more magical realism than a typical fantasy, I’m enjoying how this book continues to play with the fantasy trope of secretly having magical parents by having Jared realistically struggle with coming to grips with the otherworldly and sincerely just wanting to get his more mundane life on track. With him striking out on his own more in this book and connecting with extended family he’s never met, I’m curious to see what upheaval might be in store for him.

Recently Finished

Yesterday I read through Berserk Vol. 42 by Studio Gaga with Kōji Mori, the first volume in the series that has not been worked on by creator Kentaro Miura due to his unfortunate passing. Before resolving to wait for this volume, I had tried reading translations online and had worryingly found it to be quite bad. I maintained cautious optimism, however, and decided to just wait for an official publication. I’m happy to report that while it doesn’t feel precisely the same as Miura’s work, this volume was a very worthy continuation, especially in terms of the illustrations, which do not look dramatically different at all. I really liked how this volume finally puts Guts at odds with the reality of his adversary; the methods he’s always relied on simply will not work, at least not conventionally. I’m excited to see how this will develop and eagerly await the next volume. Who knows when that will come.

Reading Next

As it turns out, I have a few library books sitting in the wings waiting for me, so the next few reads will not be from my personal collection. For one, I decided to just go for it and requested Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, which is currently on its way to my closest library. I’ve been wanting to read it for a while but have balked at the price of it compared to its length, so I think this is the better compromise all around. I also found a random graphic novel at the library which immediately caught my interest, Frogcatcthers by Jeff Lemire, which I will probably read by next week. I really liked Lemire’s graphic novel Essex County and look forward to something a little more surreal.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – March 19, 2025

Ryan1 Comment
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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Nothing at the moment! I am momentarily between books.

Recently Finished

Last week I finished reading Pandora’s Jar by Natalie Haynes, which I’m not surprised I loved until the very end. It really had been a long time since I read any books about Greek mythology, and this was the perfect book for getting back into it. Although I’m now really curious about reading the author’s fiction, another book in a similar vein to this one, Divine Might, recently came out and I really want to read that one now too. I should read A Thousand Ships first, though, since I have a copy. Unsurprisingly, a big takeaway for me has been a newfound appreciation for the roles that women play in Greek mythology, especially in how they are often integral to different heroes’ successes, something that feels often overlooked or downplayed in more modern retellings.

I also read through Godhusk: Rebirth by Plastiboo, another art book in the form of a game guide for a game that never existed. Unlike Vermis, this book takes more of a science fiction approach and presents a game that seems to be very much in the Metroid-style action/adventure genre. Though I love the author’s Vermis books a great deal, I came away from this one desperately wishing that the game it depicts was real. The visual style, clearly inspired by the work of H.R. Giger, made for a captivatingly bleak world full of biomechanical horrors, and the lore was utterly engrossing. Beyond that, the game mechanic of swapping out different limbs of the player character’s “vessel” to augment how the character plays and interacts with the world sounds really cool as an idea. I could vividly imagine how the game would feel playing, so it’s a bit of a bummer that it’s only a work of imagination.

Reading Next

I have decided that I will start reading Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson next, so that I can finally continue the Trickster trilogy after having read the first book nearly three years ago. I really need to stop leaving book series hanging like this.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

Books on My Spring 2025 To-Read List

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book meme run by That Artsy Reader Girl. With winter already approaching its end, at least as far as the calendar is concerned, and a number of my winter to-read books completed, I thought now would be a good time to figure out what books I want to read in the coming springtime months. Though I have a lot more reading time now than I used to, my progress has been a bit slower than I would like, so I’m hoping more of a plan can help motivate me.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – March 5, 2025

Ryan1 Comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I’ve made some decent progress with Pandora’s Jar by Natalie Haynes, though my attention has been a little divided this past week, so I haven’t gotten as far along in it as I would have liked. There’s a dry humour to the writing I’m really enjoying; Haynes is doing a good job of injecting wry remarks here and there without the jokes detracting from the more serious analysis and examination of these figures and the different ways they’ve been interpreted. One of the biggest reminders about Greek mythology that this book hits you with is just how varied these stories really are; it’s hard to tell where believed-in myth ends and ancient art/literature begins, especially with some of the accounts covered being plays. Did the playwrights take artistic liberties or are they just adapting a version of the tale? Also, having just read the Medusa chapter, I have a new appreciation for just how much Perseus was some sort of maniac.

Recently Finished

This week I read through We Stand on Guard by Brian K. Vaughn and Steve Skroce, a graphic novel set 100 years in the future about the United States invading and occupying Canada in order to extract the country’s water resources, armed with giant robotic weapons of mass destruction. On paper, it sounds like a fairly compelling idea, but this was a surprising miss from an author whose work so often hits. Overall, it was a rather middling, pedestrian story about oppressive occupation, rebel fighters fighting the good fight, and light political commentary with a cast that felt more like cardboard cutouts and stereotypes than real people. The art was quite good, and there were some legitimately impactful moments, but overall this feels like a good idea that was rushed out before it was fully developed.

Reading Next

I’m not sure what I’m going to read next, as I’ve exhausted my line-up of library books and I haven’t settled on any comics that I actually own that I want to read next.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

Book Review – Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer

Ryan3 Comments

Acceptance is a 2014 science fiction horror novel by Jeff VanderMeer and the third novel in the Southern Reach trilogy. With the Southern Reach having fallen and the fate of the world unknown after Area X started to expand, Control and Ghost Bird embark upon their own expedition into this anomalous landscape in the hopes of reaching a remote island that they believe may hold the answers they seek. For Control, it’s the secrets behind Area X and how to stop it from expanding; for Ghost Bird, it is the fate of the biologist from the twelfth expedition, of whom she is a copy, in the hopes of gaining closure and a better understanding of who she is separate from her progenitor.Read More »