Author: Ryan

WWW Wednesday – June 1, 2022

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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

Son of a TricksterI haven’t been able to make a lot of progress in what I’m reading right now because I’ve been rather busy since last week, but I did manage to get a small start on both Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson and The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. For the latter, it’s pretty straightforward. After all, it’s a dictionary of made-up words, so I don’t think I’ll have any plot twists in store for me. The writing is lovely though and I’m enjoying it as a more leisurely book so far. I’m only a few chapters into Son of a Trickster, but I’m immediately intrigued by the contrasting ways the main character Jared is treated by his grandmothers. Hints of magic realism are making their way into the story already, which I’m looking forward to seeing expanded.

Recently Finished

Nothing this week!

Reading Next

Animosity Vol. 1Once again, I have no idea what I’m going to be reading next. With two books on the go, I’m not really focused on that right now. As far as graphic novels go, however, I think I will finally crack open the first volume of Animosity by Marguerite Bennett et al., which I first picked up years ago. It’s about animals suddenly gaining sentience and the ability to speak and the ensuing chaos from that. I feel like I’ve been neglecting a lot of my physical comics. At the moment, I’m also really turned off from reading my digital comics, as Amazon decided to burn Comixology to the ground for some reason, and the current Kindle app is horribly lackluster by comparison.

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

New Books & Novel Discoveries (May 2022)

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May was a surprisingly low-key month, especially compared to April. This was very nearly the first month since I’ve started writing these that I hadn’t purchased a new book at all, but I couldn’t resist letting one squeak through.

The greenery exploded into growth around where I live this month, which was a bit of a wonder to behold. At the start of the month, weather was still a bit chilly, keeping things brown and drab. The second the warm weather suddenly hit, it was like night and day. I hope this summer doesn’t get too unbearably hot too often.

Enough rambling, on to the books!Read More »

WWW Wednesday – May 25, 2022

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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 this week! I’m between books.

Recently Finished

SleepingGiantsOver the weekend I finished reading Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, and overall I enjoyed it a lot. I was surprised to find there was no dramatic turn focused on robot combat, even though it did find a way with the format to integrate more action-oriented sequences into the narrative. I wouldn’t have minded if things did turn out that way, but I respect the book’s commitment to taking such a pulpy concept as seriously as it does. I liked the sequel bait at the end too, which hints at things surprisingly more bizarre than we’ve encountered so far. I’m going to try to read the sequels sooner rather than later. The only thing that kept this book from being a five-star read was that the format, while interesting and unique, was a little too impersonal for me sometimes. I’ll try to have a full review up soon.

Reading Next

The Dictionary of Obscure SorrowsAs I’ve been saying for weeks, I’m going to start reading Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson next, I just need to set aside time to get some reading done. I keep thinking about trying to get a better handle on my reading challenges, though, so I think I’m going to try to go through a supplemental read at the same time, since it won’t make for a great read for long sittings on its own. This book will be The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, which is another book on my yearly to-read list. Since it’s a collection of word entries, I’ll probably enjoy reading this in shorter bursts anyway. I just hope I can manage to integrate it into my reading schedule in a meaningful way.

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

WWW Wednesday – May 18, 2022

Ryan2 Comments
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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

SleepingGiantsI’ve managed to make some decent progress in Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel since my drought last week. I’m coming close to having it finished, I just reached part five last night, which is nearly 80% of the way there. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but this novel really does a great job of balancing more exciting, escapist elements with real-world consequences. I would’ve thought a novel about building an ancient alien mech shaped like a person like this would have gotten pilots into the cockpit and fighting a lot sooner, but this story is really well considered. Since last week their inability to understand how it works had disastrous consequences, causing a substantial halt on research for the characters for the sake of preventing global war. I wonder if the trilogy preserves this tone throughout, or if it will turn a little Pacific Rim even by the end of this book.

Recently Finished

Berserk 35Over the weekend I read through volume 35 of Berserk by Kentaro Miura, which I enjoyed as usual but had me thinking about everything with a little less enthusiasm. The reason is that the story shifted focus back to Guts and company, which is great, but things kind of just boiled down to Guts swinging his sword around at a bunch of monsters and needing to use the Berserker Armour again, putting his mental state at risk. This is all well and good, but it all feels a little too similar to everything that just happened before they embarked upon their sea voyage. It’s not terrible by any means, I guess I’m just disappointed that things feel a little too formulaic at the moment. Perhaps this current skirmish will have compelling consequences and I just need to get there.

Reading Next

Son of a TricksterAt this point, I keep thinking I already made up my mind about what I’m going to read next between Springfield Confidential by Mike Reiss and Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson; I keep assuming I’d already decided on the latter, but apparently I still hadn’t made up my mind last week. I guess this means my subconscious chose for me, so I’m going to be reading Son of a Trickster next. Now I just need to settle on another comic to read next.

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

10 Books I Was SO EXCITED to Get but Still Haven’t Read

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book meme run by That Artsy Reader Girl. It probably says a lot about me that I find topics akin to this easy to answer. It’s hard not to get excited about certain books sometimes, so much that you just have to go out and get it, but with so many books to read and only so much time, there are a number that invariably get left to sit and wait. Here are ten books that I went out of my way to pick up quite a while ago that I still haven’t read yet.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – May 11, 2022

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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

Things turned out rather busy this past week, so I unfortunately did not find any time to read further into Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. Here’s hoping I’ll turn that around this coming week.

Recently Finished

Berserk 34I did however find some time to read through a volume of Berserk by Kentaro Miura last night. It continued the conflict between Griffith along with his demonic Band of the Hawk and the newly transformed Emperor of Kushan. It was really interesting to see humans and monstrous Apostles fighting together against a common enemy. I don’t trust Griffith, but I do wonder what this new world he seems to be forming will be like, if the fantastic creatures spawning will be entirely hostile or something the world can adapt to, and if he plans to bring all such creatures as well as people under his domain. I’m probably going to read the next volume soon, as I’ve got it on hand and I have many unanswered questions.

Reading Next

Son of a TricksterI still haven’t made up my mind whether I want to read Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson next or Springfield Confidential by Mike Reiss. I’m sure I’ll make up my mind as I get closer to finishing Sleeping Giants. As I said, I intend to read volume 35 of Berserk soon as well, which will also help push me along with my Goodreads challenge this year. Other than those, I’m hoping I can get a review written for The Crossroads at Midnight by next week. I don’t review every comic that I read, but this graphic novel is definitely worthy of it.

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

Book Review – A Black and Endless Sky by Matthew Lyons

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A Black and Endless Sky

A Black and Endless Sky is a recently published horror novel by Matthew Lyons. In it, Jonah Talbot’s life has fallen apart. After 12 years of marriage, the love between him and his wife has simply faded away, and the two have finalized their divorce. Jonah is left with no choice but to leave California and move back home to Albuquerque, accompanied on his drive home by his sister Nell. The two of them used to be inseparable but became estranged after he suddenly left town and got married all those years ago. Now, they hope maybe they can start mending their relationship on this road trip home. However, the open road has more in store for them than they can fathom, as a bizarre incident at an abandoned construction site in the Nevada desert results in Nell’s body playing host to an ancient, otherworldly presence.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – May 4, 2022

Ryan2 Comments

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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

SleepingGiantsI’m now at 131 pages in Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, and I’m enjoying it a lot. I didn’t get to read it as much over the last few days as I would’ve liked, but I wanted to finish writing a review finally. I should have that up soon. Anyway, Sleeping Giants is a lot of fun. I love how the story is taking its time slowly piecing together this giant robot, rather than rushing into something more formulaic. The cast is really strong, but after the last few chapters I’ve read I’m becoming especially intrigued by the nameless, enigmatic interviewer, who—perhaps unsurprisingly—seems to be manipulating developments even further than he is letting on. Or maybe I’m just being paranoid. I’m enjoying the sprinkling of politics too, highlighting how trying to covertly search for advanced tech like this buried all around the globe without causing an international incident would be a Herculean task.

Recently Finished

The Crossroads at MidnightOver the weekend I managed to finish The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard, which has now become another favourite horror collection. This collection really was something special, not a single story felt lacking or lesser than the rest, though I do have a favourite among them. “Our Lake Monster” was such a great play on the typical “a kid and their blank” type of story, this one about a family who used to tour a lake monster from their property around before it became too big. One of the daughters feels she has a bond with the creature and that the rest of her family just doesn’t understand it like she does. Another, “Mattress, Used”, will haunt me for a while. Really got under my skin.

Reading Next

Springfield ConfidentialI’m not sure what I want to read next, only that I want to focus more attention on my yearly list of 12 books, since it has been sorely neglected in 2022 thus far. So far, I think it’s a toss up between Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson and Springfield Confidential by Mike Reiss. The former is an author I haven’t read in a long time, so it’ll be nice to give another one of her books a look, and the latter is nonfiction about writing for The Simpsons. I couldn’t get enough of the early seasons growing up, and I’m hoping the book will be more about those than the last 20 years of newer stuff.

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

New Books & Novel Discoveries (April 2022)

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After a couple more modest months, it would seem April was a relative boon of new books. In part, it sort of just happened. At least half of these I didn’t plan on picking up, I just came across them randomly and decided to snap them up. I’m actually getting a little concerned about book space. I’m probably going to need to reorganize my shelves soon, and maybe get rid of some books I definitely don’t care to keep. That will be hard, and I’m sure I’ll put it off a lot.

Enough about getting rid, let’s move on to the new books!Read More »

WWW Wednesday – April 27, 2022

Ryan4 Comments
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 didn’t mange to make any further progress in The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard.

SleepingGiantsI did however manage to get a decent amount into Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. At the moment I’m 55 pages in, so I’m not especially far along, but I have an actual grip on the story now. I’m enjoying how strange and different the format for this novel is quite a lot. I had thought that the interview structure might make it a super-fast read, but I’m happy that it’s somewhere more in the middle, with characters’ answers functioning a lot like standard prose in some places. I’m finding the mystery really intriguing as the characters continue to unearth pieces of this seemingly robotic giant of possibly alien origins. I have no idea what the story is about beyond that core idea, so I’m really looking forward to discovering how things develop.

Recently Finished

Nothing this week. Boo to me!

Reading Next

I’m really not sure what I’m going to read next, as this past week barely counted towards any reading progress. I ended up getting a lot more editing work than normal over the weekend, which has kept me a whole lot busier than I was anticipating. I suspect that I may have more free time before next Wednesday, so I’m hoping I can put a better dent in things. I still need to review A Black and Endless Sky, which unfortunately fell to the wayside this past week, and maybe I can power through Sleeping Giants if given the opportunity.

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