Currently reading Penric's Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm glad I'm reading it after The Curse of Chalion, since that provides a lot of context the novella format doesn't have space for.

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Finished The Ways of Khrem by D. Nathan Hilliard (secondary world urban fantasy mystery adventure novella collection) | bingo: short HM, x of y, steppin' up HM

A master thief turned honest bookseller is strongarmed into helping a Captain of the Watch solve cases.

At first I was kind of whelmed by this, as the world and characters felt very generic (maybe a nod to classic stuff I haven't read?); nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it by the end. I would have put a sequel on my TBR, except there isn't one. D:

Just finished Martyr! and now I'm reading Neuromancer.

Martyr! was good, though I didn't really enjoy the last couple chapters. It felt rushed to meet a deadline.

I'm only about 20% through Neuromancer. It's good so far. Sci-fi is my go to.

1984 now, and then probably Fahrenheit 451 as another short one before I go back to Malazan with book 5. I am absolutely loving Malazan.

A perfect pick for this time of year: Him by Geoff Ryman. The story that asks: what if Jesus, but trans? Im 80% through.

Young Maryam is informed by the angel that she will be made pregnant with the avatar of God. She's thrilled when she gives birth to a girl, because women need more spiritual attention #girlgod.

She's dismayed when the kid is old enough to insist he is a boy and demands to be called Yehush. Maryam (and some of her other kids) is quite transphobic. But almost everyone else in the book is readily accepting of Trans Jesus. The story follows all the same well-known Bible beats but form Maryam's perspective. Once Yehush begins the preaching phase of his life, Maryam accepts and follows him.

This book is for;

• Anyone interested in a Bible story seeped in female perspective, Ala The Red Tent.

• Anyone interested in a humanized telling of Jesus, Ala Jesus Christ, Superstar.

• Anyone interested in a trans-focused historical fiction.

This week, I started reading 'Hegel' by Kostas Papaioannou.

Just finished Mikhail Bulgakovs Heart of a Dog. I don’t really know what to think if this. It’s kinda great but also kinda hard to judge because of my lack of knowledge of the cultural and historical background. This makes the satirical elements a lot harder to understand. I liked it though. It has a lot of similarities with Frankenstein, Faust or the Physicists in the questions it asks, paired with commentary on the ideal soviet citizen. The story is about a scientist, who implants some organs of a lowlife human into a dog, which transforms the dog into a human. Chaos ensues. Overall I’d recommend it, it’s a short read.

Taking a second shot at The Brothers Karamazov.

The first time I cracked it open I had just finished Moby Dick and it was just too arduous. I’m coming back to it now off the heels of various more digestible books and am enjoying it much more now as a result. I love the characters and th setting and plot are enticing to the max!

Marcus Aurelius "Meditations", quite profound and relevant today, even though it is nearly two millennia old!

I finished reading Book one of the Bounty Hunter Wars (Star Wars) and knee deep in “Asimovs Mystery’s” a short story collection from 1968. It includes his first ever story, but what I want to point out is this

Always interesting to see how our information and therefore how narrative are written has changed through the years.

In this story, Mercury always being in the dark was the clue. The killer left film outside a window, and the assumption was anyone with regular light times would not have made that mistake. So the whole story point would be lost if updated.

When I’m done this it’ll be to book two of the Bounty Hunter Wars, which so far has revolved around Boba Fett and Dengar after episode 6. So I’m hoping maybe there will be some Book of Boba Fett lore in this trilogy.

Still working my way through Fyodor Dostoevsky's Demons. So far it's ok, but certainly not one of my favorite books from Dostoyevsky. Like with many Russian classics, I have some trouble understanding the mores of 19th century Russian society.

On the side I'm listening to a local radio play adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It's pretty good, but I find myself not liking HG2G as much as I once did. Adams is a funny writer, but perhaps I find the plot weak, and that matters to me more these days. Still, some bits are hilarious, and the cast does a great job.