Still reading The Twelve by Justin Cronin. Book 2 of The Passage trilogy. Enjoying it enough to not give up, but not enjoying it enough it enough to read it quickly, so it’s going slowly. Going to try to speed up and finish it quickly.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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I’ve been listening to 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. So far I’ve been enjoying it, even though I have no idea where it’s supposed to be going. I can’t imagine the current plot thread persisting through 28 hours.
It’s one of my all-time favorite books and I’m still not sure I could actually explain the plot to someone. In fact, I’m not confident there is a coherent plot rather than a bunch of related vignettes that just kind of happen, some of which tell a story and some not so much.
My brain just kind of spent so much time trying to understand what the point of any of it was that I eventually ended up with an interpretation that I loved to view the book through, and therefore I ended up loving the book.
I’m just finished This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone and am working through We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson
Time War was a book that I had tried to read multiple times in the past and could never get through finishing it even though I enjoyed it I would just peter out in reading. They both fill a couple of Bingo squares for me so I may shift them around in the future but for right now, they fulfill “family drama” and “it takes two” 
Just finished 'Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. It was enjoyable and I can see it’s influence on newer works of horror.
Up next is Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata and Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
I’m desperately trying to finish Neuromancer by William Gibson so I can move on to spooky season books. It’s not bad at all, I’m just not really clicking with it, so it’s been slow going.
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Finished Death in the Spires by K.J. Charles, a two-timeline mystery focusing on the unsolved murder of a member of a group of friends at Oxford. The author normally writes steamy romances, but this tastefully cut to black before anything got explicit. Something about the writing or story made it a very enjoyable, fast read; I haven’t devoured anything so quickly in ages.
Bingo squares: New Release; Disability Representation (hard); LGBTQIA+ Lead (hard); It’s About Time (hard); Mashup; Institutional; (alt) A Change in Perspective
I loved the first third of Neuromancer. The rest largely felt like it failed to deliver, and a bit like it went off the rails. Count Zero was a bit better in execution.
I liked the premise/vibe of Neuromancer a lot more than the actual narrative. Some of the dialogue was just painful.
Absolutely agreed. The narrative makes choices in a few places, and some of the second half seems kind of muddled.
Finished Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas, which was interesting but horrific. Was a bit disappointed that he didn’t detail his escape from bondage but it makes sense that he wouldn’t want to give details publically at the time of writing, since it could have been used against future runaways.
Also finished The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch which I enjoyed. I’ve only read that and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? from Philip K Dick, so I will probably check out more of his work soon.
Currently reading Dracula 🦇 🎃
