Reading:A House with Good Bones, by T. Kingfisher. Due to a housing issue, a woman returns to her childhood home for a long stint & quickly realizes that there’s something weird going on. Currently, she’s working on ruling out all of the logical reasons she’s seeing the things she’s seeing, but I’m pretty sure she’s about to come to the conclusion that I have: WITCHCRAFT (maybe?). Enormously enjoying it—which is not a surprise—and feel like I could be RELATED to the heroine, because we share a LOT of personality traits and Opinions, heh.
Watching:Jury Duty. On a whim, I put the first episode of this one on last night. We proceeded to blow through five episodes, and are very much looking forward to watching the remaining three tonight. It’s filmed documentary-style, and follows a set of jurors over the course of a specific court case. The twist is that everyone involved is an actor—it’s all pretend—EXCEPT one juror, who thinks he’s taking part in a documentary about the jury duty process. We love it.
Thinking: For no real reason I can identify, I have Had It with this week, and I am infinitely relieved that it’s almost the weekend. On the plus side, we’re going to see some friends we haven’t seen since last year, so that’s exciting!
What about you? Where are you at in any or all of these departments?
I’m currently reading the League Of Seven series be Alan Gratz for the 11th time and just finished it right now. I wish Alan Gratz could make another book for the series, the last book just makes me want so much more to the characters and the story. (Maybe Archie can find love in that book)
A House with Good Bones is on my TBR, but given it's T. Kingfisher, I'm pretty sure it will be great. Have you checked out What Moves the Dead by the same author? I read it last year and it was really well written and super creepy!
Yes! I loved it—both as a retelling of Usher and as a story on its own. About halfway through, I started thinking a lot about Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic, which is ALSO a Gothic that deals heavily with fungus—and then I hit the Author's Note & found that Kingfisher had written quite a bit about it there, heh. ANYWAY, all of that is to say: You might totally like that one as well if you haven't already read it.
I agree, it does stand as an exquisite story on its own. In fact, I had never read the Fall of the House of Usher before it, but I went back to read it after I was done with What Moves the Dead. It is a pretty great retelling because I loved how she took the broad version of events and gave it her own twist with the unsettling rabbits + interesting characters.
Ah, I see where the similarity came from! Although I haven't read any of Moreno Garcia's work, I do have The Doctor of Daughter Moreau on my TBR (I was adamant about reading it after the original, The Island of Doctor Moreau.) I think retellings are one of my favourite genres because I love to watch authors put a spin on events from a completely new perspective. I haven't read many stories featuring fungi as such a central element, which is why I found this one so fascinating. Mexican Gothic sounds interesting, I might check that one out too!
Mexican Gothic remains one of my tippy-top faves of the last bunch of years—if you get to it, I hope you enjoy it! I still haven't read Daughter of Doctor Moreau, but it's on my list as well.
I'm also a fan of retellings, but especially the way that Kingfisher does them—taking the bones of the story & the feel, but then expanding out & out in different directions. Such fun. Lately, when I read a retelling, I'll go back and listen to the original via audio format while I'm walking—there's something about engaging via different formats that I really enjoy, but I haven't put my finger on exactly what it is yet. Brains are weird, heh.
Hope I can start reading Mexican Gothic soon! I just wrapped up a looong fantasy series some time ago (A Chorus of Dragons by Jenn Lyons), leaving me itching for a shorter read. Perhaps I'll go with this one or A House with Good Bones.
I agree, Kingfisher has a pretty unique take, plus I'm blown away the most by her writing - it just hits you in the places you don't expect it. In fact, after reading one book from her, I'm ready to read anything she publishes next :)
Listening to books in an audio format sounds pretty compelling - in fact, I've been thinking of doing that during my daily commute to save some time. I do wonder though, does the audiobook manage to paint the same pictures of the tarn, the wild countryside, and the Usher house the way the book did? I'm a bit concerned about switching to a different format since I worry I might not feel as engaged.
Everyone is so different in that respect—if I'm really into the story, it doesn't matter what the format is, my brain translates the language into images and it's like I almost stop seeing/hearing words, and have a movie playing in my head. (This is why I can't listen to narrative while driving, I've learned that it's such a distraction for me that it's genuinely not safe for me or anyone else on the road with me.) But I've definitely talked to library patrons who only get that with specific formats, and sometimes even ebooks vs paper books can make a difference.
I've really been enjoying Kingfisher's contemporary horror—all three that I've read use the same basic premise (woman goes to place connected to an older relative, dark fantasy/horror ensues), but they all go in such different directions!
Makes sense! In a way, it sounds like what songs to do to me. Perhaps I will give this new medium a try!
Also, strongly agree! Haunted houses with a dark secret + complex family dynamics make for one of my favourite tropes, I'm always up for a new spin on them :)
This weekend it’s mostly about the new Zelda game...I haven’t been gaming much at all lately and since it’s the big new release, I want to be one of the cool kids to play it first. Aside from working tomorrow, that’s pretty much what I will be doing. Possibly supplemented with some Star Trek - we’ve been revisiting random episodes of Voyager mostly, but I’m starting random Enterprise and DS9 episodes, too.
Oh, man, all of this Zelda business has me *this much* closer to finally buying a Switch. If we ever become a two-console household, it'll be the Switch that does it. We're so off-and-on about gaming, though, and just tend to play a TON for a week/month and then not play at all for six months, so I've never been able to mentally justify the purchase? Keep me posted on how it goes. (Also if they ever release a new Pikmin game, all of my dithering will go out the window & I'll buy one THAT DAY, hahaha.)
LOL. If you end up getting one, don’t worry about getting the newest OLED version if you are just planning on playing on TV. It just has a different screen for the portable. You can probably find the original model at a decent price used too.
I have likely commented this on some post of yours before, but The Twisted Ones was quite possibly the creepiest thing I have read in AGES. Like leave the light on to go to sleep creepy. In other words, I adored it. I'll definitely have to check out A House with Good Bones.
Reading: Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid. At the moment, it's slow going. I think I'm just not in the mood and need to swap over to something else. (I read Wolf and the Woodsman and don't seem to recall the author's abiding love of simile. )
Watching: Patriot (Amazon Prime series from 2015). How did I miss this when it first came out? I'm not even sure I'm following the plot, but it's hilarious enough that it doesn't matter. And also simultaneously melancholy? Hitting the spot.
Also, Eurovision. I'm as surprised as anyone that I enjoy it, but somehow it's incredibly entertaining and always seems to come around when things in my life are incredibly stressful and I need some pure escapist silliness.
Thinking: Being a middle-aged adult with aging parents flat-out sucks. (Hence Eurovision.)
AbsoLUTEly agree on The Twisted Ones—the sequence towards the end where she's walking up and up through what I gradually realized was a giant wasp nest, GAHHHHHHHHHHHH. It prompted a couple of (minor) nightmares and I loved it so much.
The degree to which mood affects what I want to read, PHEW—this is why our coffee table currently has four piles of distinctly different kinds of books on it, heh.
Thank you SO MUCH for reminding me about Patriot! I've been meaning to watch it since it came out—so, eight years of meaning to get to it, yikes—and had entirely forgotten about it. We finished Jury Duty last night, and it's always nice to have something comedy-ish in the rotation.
Eurovision as distractor from the aging stuff makes complete sense to me—Josh and I have been talking a lot for the last few years about how our generation is starting to hit the point where most of us are dealing with it in some way. It's so hard, and in so many different ways. My heart is with you.
READING: I just finished ONCE THERE WAS, by Kiyash Monsef - and I'm still... it weirdly reminds me of Markus Zusak's THE BOOK THIEF, with Death as this matter-of-fact narrator. There's no Death here, but the magic exists in the breath and under the skin, alongside the mundane world, and it's just... a meditation on death, among other things. Such a neat book, and it's apparently a MG! I just ...read it. As a book.
Anyway.
Just starting Vivian Shaw's, THE HELIOS SYNDROME. I'm reading it because I LOVE, love, loved her Dr. Greta van Helsing character in the STRANGE PRACTICE series (which might be due a re-read, because, did I mention LOVE???) - I have no idea what it's about, but it's next.
WATCHING: Absolutely nothing, because,
THINKING: I have no bandwidth. This revision is killing me, and that said, I should get back to it. If you hear someone screaming WHYYYYY from the West, know that it is I, and I have done this to myself...
I'll order Once There Was for my library, I love narrators who are outside of humanity, but still invested/interested in it. I think of The Book Thief in that way for sure, but also the narrator in Tom McNeal's Far, Far Away? I should revisit that, it's been a long time & I really wonder how it would hold up. Also Bartimaeus, but in a very different way.
It's so NICE to just... read something, as a book? Not for work or for research? Just... for PLEASURE? I've been doing that so much more lately, for the first time in YEARS, and I've missed it so much. Also, you STINKER, I just bought both of those Shaw books because they sound awesome and I have no self control.
Sending ALL the support across the country to you and your revision process. You'll get there, but I do understand the drowning in stress/deadline/jellified brain thing. <3
I’m currently reading the League Of Seven series be Alan Gratz for the 11th time and just finished it right now. I wish Alan Gratz could make another book for the series, the last book just makes me want so much more to the characters and the story. (Maybe Archie can find love in that book)
A House with Good Bones is on my TBR, but given it's T. Kingfisher, I'm pretty sure it will be great. Have you checked out What Moves the Dead by the same author? I read it last year and it was really well written and super creepy!
Yes! I loved it—both as a retelling of Usher and as a story on its own. About halfway through, I started thinking a lot about Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic, which is ALSO a Gothic that deals heavily with fungus—and then I hit the Author's Note & found that Kingfisher had written quite a bit about it there, heh. ANYWAY, all of that is to say: You might totally like that one as well if you haven't already read it.
I agree, it does stand as an exquisite story on its own. In fact, I had never read the Fall of the House of Usher before it, but I went back to read it after I was done with What Moves the Dead. It is a pretty great retelling because I loved how she took the broad version of events and gave it her own twist with the unsettling rabbits + interesting characters.
Ah, I see where the similarity came from! Although I haven't read any of Moreno Garcia's work, I do have The Doctor of Daughter Moreau on my TBR (I was adamant about reading it after the original, The Island of Doctor Moreau.) I think retellings are one of my favourite genres because I love to watch authors put a spin on events from a completely new perspective. I haven't read many stories featuring fungi as such a central element, which is why I found this one so fascinating. Mexican Gothic sounds interesting, I might check that one out too!
Mexican Gothic remains one of my tippy-top faves of the last bunch of years—if you get to it, I hope you enjoy it! I still haven't read Daughter of Doctor Moreau, but it's on my list as well.
I'm also a fan of retellings, but especially the way that Kingfisher does them—taking the bones of the story & the feel, but then expanding out & out in different directions. Such fun. Lately, when I read a retelling, I'll go back and listen to the original via audio format while I'm walking—there's something about engaging via different formats that I really enjoy, but I haven't put my finger on exactly what it is yet. Brains are weird, heh.
Hope I can start reading Mexican Gothic soon! I just wrapped up a looong fantasy series some time ago (A Chorus of Dragons by Jenn Lyons), leaving me itching for a shorter read. Perhaps I'll go with this one or A House with Good Bones.
I agree, Kingfisher has a pretty unique take, plus I'm blown away the most by her writing - it just hits you in the places you don't expect it. In fact, after reading one book from her, I'm ready to read anything she publishes next :)
Listening to books in an audio format sounds pretty compelling - in fact, I've been thinking of doing that during my daily commute to save some time. I do wonder though, does the audiobook manage to paint the same pictures of the tarn, the wild countryside, and the Usher house the way the book did? I'm a bit concerned about switching to a different format since I worry I might not feel as engaged.
Everyone is so different in that respect—if I'm really into the story, it doesn't matter what the format is, my brain translates the language into images and it's like I almost stop seeing/hearing words, and have a movie playing in my head. (This is why I can't listen to narrative while driving, I've learned that it's such a distraction for me that it's genuinely not safe for me or anyone else on the road with me.) But I've definitely talked to library patrons who only get that with specific formats, and sometimes even ebooks vs paper books can make a difference.
I've really been enjoying Kingfisher's contemporary horror—all three that I've read use the same basic premise (woman goes to place connected to an older relative, dark fantasy/horror ensues), but they all go in such different directions!
Makes sense! In a way, it sounds like what songs to do to me. Perhaps I will give this new medium a try!
Also, strongly agree! Haunted houses with a dark secret + complex family dynamics make for one of my favourite tropes, I'm always up for a new spin on them :)
This weekend it’s mostly about the new Zelda game...I haven’t been gaming much at all lately and since it’s the big new release, I want to be one of the cool kids to play it first. Aside from working tomorrow, that’s pretty much what I will be doing. Possibly supplemented with some Star Trek - we’ve been revisiting random episodes of Voyager mostly, but I’m starting random Enterprise and DS9 episodes, too.
Oh, man, all of this Zelda business has me *this much* closer to finally buying a Switch. If we ever become a two-console household, it'll be the Switch that does it. We're so off-and-on about gaming, though, and just tend to play a TON for a week/month and then not play at all for six months, so I've never been able to mentally justify the purchase? Keep me posted on how it goes. (Also if they ever release a new Pikmin game, all of my dithering will go out the window & I'll buy one THAT DAY, hahaha.)
OMG JOSH JUST GOOGLED IT AND APPARENTLY PIKMIN 4 IS DUE OUT THIS JULY
WELP
LOL. If you end up getting one, don’t worry about getting the newest OLED version if you are just planning on playing on TV. It just has a different screen for the portable. You can probably find the original model at a decent price used too.
I have likely commented this on some post of yours before, but The Twisted Ones was quite possibly the creepiest thing I have read in AGES. Like leave the light on to go to sleep creepy. In other words, I adored it. I'll definitely have to check out A House with Good Bones.
Reading: Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid. At the moment, it's slow going. I think I'm just not in the mood and need to swap over to something else. (I read Wolf and the Woodsman and don't seem to recall the author's abiding love of simile. )
Watching: Patriot (Amazon Prime series from 2015). How did I miss this when it first came out? I'm not even sure I'm following the plot, but it's hilarious enough that it doesn't matter. And also simultaneously melancholy? Hitting the spot.
Also, Eurovision. I'm as surprised as anyone that I enjoy it, but somehow it's incredibly entertaining and always seems to come around when things in my life are incredibly stressful and I need some pure escapist silliness.
Thinking: Being a middle-aged adult with aging parents flat-out sucks. (Hence Eurovision.)
AbsoLUTEly agree on The Twisted Ones—the sequence towards the end where she's walking up and up through what I gradually realized was a giant wasp nest, GAHHHHHHHHHHHH. It prompted a couple of (minor) nightmares and I loved it so much.
The degree to which mood affects what I want to read, PHEW—this is why our coffee table currently has four piles of distinctly different kinds of books on it, heh.
Thank you SO MUCH for reminding me about Patriot! I've been meaning to watch it since it came out—so, eight years of meaning to get to it, yikes—and had entirely forgotten about it. We finished Jury Duty last night, and it's always nice to have something comedy-ish in the rotation.
Eurovision as distractor from the aging stuff makes complete sense to me—Josh and I have been talking a lot for the last few years about how our generation is starting to hit the point where most of us are dealing with it in some way. It's so hard, and in so many different ways. My heart is with you.
READING: I just finished ONCE THERE WAS, by Kiyash Monsef - and I'm still... it weirdly reminds me of Markus Zusak's THE BOOK THIEF, with Death as this matter-of-fact narrator. There's no Death here, but the magic exists in the breath and under the skin, alongside the mundane world, and it's just... a meditation on death, among other things. Such a neat book, and it's apparently a MG! I just ...read it. As a book.
Anyway.
Just starting Vivian Shaw's, THE HELIOS SYNDROME. I'm reading it because I LOVE, love, loved her Dr. Greta van Helsing character in the STRANGE PRACTICE series (which might be due a re-read, because, did I mention LOVE???) - I have no idea what it's about, but it's next.
WATCHING: Absolutely nothing, because,
THINKING: I have no bandwidth. This revision is killing me, and that said, I should get back to it. If you hear someone screaming WHYYYYY from the West, know that it is I, and I have done this to myself...
I'll order Once There Was for my library, I love narrators who are outside of humanity, but still invested/interested in it. I think of The Book Thief in that way for sure, but also the narrator in Tom McNeal's Far, Far Away? I should revisit that, it's been a long time & I really wonder how it would hold up. Also Bartimaeus, but in a very different way.
It's so NICE to just... read something, as a book? Not for work or for research? Just... for PLEASURE? I've been doing that so much more lately, for the first time in YEARS, and I've missed it so much. Also, you STINKER, I just bought both of those Shaw books because they sound awesome and I have no self control.
Sending ALL the support across the country to you and your revision process. You'll get there, but I do understand the drowning in stress/deadline/jellified brain thing. <3