It's been a month since the previous reading post; I'm still doing a lot of reading and much less of other things, to spare my hands. Once again, it's tended toward light reading, and almost entirely fiction, that being what I seem to be up for right now. So, a list with a minimum of comment:
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel: I liked this a lot. Post-apocalyptic SF,
Trouble in the Brasses, mystery by Charlotte Macleod
Ice Blue and Blue Murder, police procedurals by Emma Jameson, about detectives working at New Scotland Yard. There's romance in these, but the characterization isn't limited to that, and more-than-cardboard characters who aren't part of the romance arc.
The Late Scholar, mystery by Jill Paton Walsh
Unnatural Death, by Dorothy Sayers: reread, and the suck fairy has definitely been here, in the form of very noticeable casual racism and anti-Semitism.
Magic for Nothing and "Every Heart a Doorway," by Seanan McGuire: the most recent InCryptid novel, fast-moving if not entirely plausible fantasy adventure, and a more serious life-after-the-portal-fantasy novella
Irrational Numbers, by George Alec Effinger (collection of short stories, many of them dark
The Hanging Tree and Foxglove Summer, by Ben Aaronovitch: numbers 6 and 5 in his "Rivers of London" series, read in the "wrong" order because I thought I had read Foxglove Summer, titles not being useful here. Reading out of order wasn't a big deal (though they both contain significant spoilers for the fourth in the series)
Roller Girl, by Vanessa North: lesbian romance about someone talked into roller derby by a friend who thinks she needs a social life after her divorce. Trans* heroine, treated sympathetically by the author and most of the characters.
The Infinite Sea, by Jeffrey Carver: third in the "Chaos Chronicles," a very-large-scale space opera
A Presumption of Death and The Attenbury Emeralds, by Jill Paton Walsh: authorized fanfic/continuations of Sayers' Wimsey/Vane stories, Walsh doesn't quite get Sayers' tone, but also without the casual racism of my most recent Sayers reread.
Oranges, by John McPhee: nonfiction, reread over a few weeks at bedtime
Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang: reread of almost all of this short story collection
Starfarers, by Vonda Macintyre: reread, still good (interstellar adventure, with significant bi and poly characters)
The Book of Night with Moon, by Diane Duane: a "young wizards" book, this one from a feline viewpoint, she keeps the action moving fast enough that you might be able to ignore the physical improbabilities (we tend to give writers a pass on FTL and time travel, though the combination really messes with causality, but Duane is also ignoring the second law of thermodynamics. There's also a certain amount of "make it didn't happen," though once you've got time travel…
Revisionary, by Jim Hines: also fast-moving adventure fantasy, with high stakes, though the "anything in a popular book can be used for magic" assumptions of this book make "impossible" effectively meaningless, which feels vaguely like cheating. Fourth in a series, I think: as with the Carver, Duane, Macintyre, and McGuire, better to start at the beginning of the series.
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel: I liked this a lot. Post-apocalyptic SF,
Trouble in the Brasses, mystery by Charlotte Macleod
Ice Blue and Blue Murder, police procedurals by Emma Jameson, about detectives working at New Scotland Yard. There's romance in these, but the characterization isn't limited to that, and more-than-cardboard characters who aren't part of the romance arc.
The Late Scholar, mystery by Jill Paton Walsh
Unnatural Death, by Dorothy Sayers: reread, and the suck fairy has definitely been here, in the form of very noticeable casual racism and anti-Semitism.
Magic for Nothing and "Every Heart a Doorway," by Seanan McGuire: the most recent InCryptid novel, fast-moving if not entirely plausible fantasy adventure, and a more serious life-after-the-portal-fantasy novella
Irrational Numbers, by George Alec Effinger (collection of short stories, many of them dark
The Hanging Tree and Foxglove Summer, by Ben Aaronovitch: numbers 6 and 5 in his "Rivers of London" series, read in the "wrong" order because I thought I had read Foxglove Summer, titles not being useful here. Reading out of order wasn't a big deal (though they both contain significant spoilers for the fourth in the series)
Roller Girl, by Vanessa North: lesbian romance about someone talked into roller derby by a friend who thinks she needs a social life after her divorce. Trans* heroine, treated sympathetically by the author and most of the characters.
The Infinite Sea, by Jeffrey Carver: third in the "Chaos Chronicles," a very-large-scale space opera
A Presumption of Death and The Attenbury Emeralds, by Jill Paton Walsh: authorized fanfic/continuations of Sayers' Wimsey/Vane stories, Walsh doesn't quite get Sayers' tone, but also without the casual racism of my most recent Sayers reread.
Oranges, by John McPhee: nonfiction, reread over a few weeks at bedtime
Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang: reread of almost all of this short story collection
Starfarers, by Vonda Macintyre: reread, still good (interstellar adventure, with significant bi and poly characters)
The Book of Night with Moon, by Diane Duane: a "young wizards" book, this one from a feline viewpoint, she keeps the action moving fast enough that you might be able to ignore the physical improbabilities (we tend to give writers a pass on FTL and time travel, though the combination really messes with causality, but Duane is also ignoring the second law of thermodynamics. There's also a certain amount of "make it didn't happen," though once you've got time travel…
Revisionary, by Jim Hines: also fast-moving adventure fantasy, with high stakes, though the "anything in a popular book can be used for magic" assumptions of this book make "impossible" effectively meaningless, which feels vaguely like cheating. Fourth in a series, I think: as with the Carver, Duane, Macintyre, and McGuire, better to start at the beginning of the series.