Wednesday reading meme

What I just read:

A Stranger in Solondria, by Sofia Samatar. I liked this, for the language and world-building and for the ways that the narrator is genuinely trying to figure out what's going on around him. The scale of what's at stake also worked for me: he's mostly dealing with his own life and safety, and not always aware of how or even whether it's going to affect things beyond him. Also, I was surprised by some aspects of the ending, but it makes sense in terms of the character. Recommended, though I am having trouble saying much sensible about it.

Thicker than Water, by Mike Carey. Fourth in a series about an exorcist in a not-quite-our-future London, because I liked the previous ones. Somewhere on the spectrum between noir detective and horror; the narrator is fighting literal demons, as well as dealing with things from his childhood and family. This is an "if you like this sort of thing, he does it well," and it's dark enough that I may not read the next volume.

What I am reading now:

Mount Rainier: Active Cascade volcano, a report by the National Research Council. I was looking for a book about the mountain, and checked it out from the library without realizing that it's "What do we need to learn in order to protect people" more than history and geology of the mountain. No idea if I will finish this.

What I am likely to read next:

Banner of the Damned, by Sherwood Smith

The Man Who Found Time, by Jack Repcheck, a biography of the geologist James Hutton.