#look at me i'm going crazy and referencing greek myths

[thatonethimbo]

someone help me, my blorbos are dragging me out of bed with an idea every time I try to sleep

ninjago fam i'm looking at you

[blorbo thoughts below]

I ask that my blorboposting is not derailed.

[veliseraptor]

June Reading Recap

Heaven Official's Blessing: vol. 6 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. BOOK FOUR OF TGCF BABY, WE LOVE A DOWNWARD SPIRAL

I'm not saying that book four and all of the continuous trauma and misery that comes with it is my favorite part of TGCF as a whole, but I am saying it's very good for me personally and has some of my favorite moments.

Urban Jungle: The History and Future of Nature in the City by Ben Wilson. I read Darwin Comes to Town some years ago and was very struck by it (drove people around me crazy by referencing it constantly in conversation), so when I saw this book on a new releases table I immediately put it on my to-read list. I ended up being...not dissatisfied with it, but not really satisfied, either. A solid 3-star read, for some interesting stuff around how cities have and are dealing with the question of nature in an urban environment. Read interestingly paired with Fuzz by Mary Roach, which I also read recently.

I felt like in some places the author veered a little more into apologetics for why cities are good for nature, actually, than I found strictly convincing. But I'd say if you've got some spare time and any interest in urban infrastructure and the natural world, it's worth a read.

Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati. A second book in recent memory that was a retelling of a Greek myth and didn't make me actively angry! I don't know that I'd say I recommend it either, though. There were things I liked about it, and it was certainly interesting to see an iteration of the story of Clytemnestra that makes use of the version where Agamemnon was her second marriage and she had a previous husband and child. I think what I lost with that version, though, was that it ended up with an Agamemnon who was never anything but nasty and brutish, which, while I don't necessarily mind that as a version, I think makes for a slightly less compelling story. A genuine betrayal is always more fun than vindication of existing hatred, don't you know.

If you're as obsessed with Clytemnestra specifically as I am then I'd say to read this even though it's not the best work of Clytemnestra lit I've read, but otherwise I don't think I'd recommend it more broadly.

Superior: The Return of Race Science by Angela Saini. I checked this one out from the library and was deeply self conscious as the librarian was looking at the title, because boy could that go a lot of directions. Ultimately, I appreciated a lot of what this book was doing, and learned a great deal, but I don't think I'd say I enjoyed it, even in the sense that one can enjoy a book like this. I felt like it dwelt a lot more on the history of race science than I was expecting it to, and didn't dig as much into the current (as in, past 10 years) resurgence as I would've liked. She got into some of it, but it felt like most of the book was more about the 20th century than the 21st. Still, though, a compelling and thorough overview of the history of race science in Europe and North America.

The Gathering Storm / Towers of Midnight / A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan. I feel like I have no way of objectively assessing Wheel of Time as a series because it is so intensely intertwined with a whole bunch of really strong emotions and I recognize that. That being said, I did cry during A Memory of Light so I was obligated to give it five stars by my own rule, even if overall I don't think it's one of my favorites. I spent too much time during this readthrough thinking about Brandon Sanderson-isms and I would have appreciated if I hadn't been doing that, but I wouldn't have been doing it if it didn't feel so obvious to me.

I think of these three The Gathering Storm is my personal favorite. Reading Rand in it got really rough, though, and I think I'm sort of in the minority in not hating the catharsis on Dragonmount at the end. I can see peoples' points with it, but for me personally I don't think the tension could've gone on any longer and I don't know that I have a tone-consistent way of releasing it that I would've written.

That's all for June, which was a pretty slow reading month...probably going into another one for July. Currently I'm reading Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder (a historian I've read before and really liked); I'm not sure what I'm going to read next but leaning toward one of the SFF new releases waiting for me on my shelf. Maybe Witch King by Martha Wells. I do want to try to finish QJJ this month, also - I'm very close to the end, just need to sit down and read the rest in ~an hour or so.

Also: taking horror novel recommendations, I've been feeling a hankering lately.