What I’m reading: Vol. 110.

Hello, my darlings, and happy new year! 

I still don’t think 2020 sounds like a real year, but I supposed I’ll just have to adjust now that it’s here. 

I haven’t done a What I’m Reading post for a while, so I thought it was time! I have been reading a whole lot – that’s sort of what I do in winter. If you follow my IG story you saw my desperate race to reach 200 books read by the end of 2019, which I am delighted to say I did achieve with just a handful of hours to spare. Very exciting. 

I hope to post a bit more in 2020, but I am still taking things very much one day at a time, so we’ll see how it goes.

BTW: I keep teasing you with hints that I’m about to sell a whole batch of pieces from my personal jewelry collection and I’m finally just about ready to move forward on that. Stand by!

xoxo,
Becky

What I’m reading:

 Kushiel’s Chosen by Jacqueline Carey: This series is fascinating. I read the first book, Kushiel’s Dart, a few years ago and I loved it but I felt like I needed more time to digest it before I went on book 2, and I’m only now getting back to it. I finished Kushiel’s Dart again a few day ago and it blew my mind just as much as it did before. Incredibly complex, skillful worldbuilding, unique characters, and an enthralling plot are only the starting points of this series. It does involve a lot of sex – the main character is a courtesan who specializes in submission – so be aware of that if you decide to check it out. It is fiercely feminist and the main character is a powerful woman with agency, but, like almost any story with sex work, it touches on issues of consent. 

High Wizardry by Diane Duane: my health issues mean I don’t sleep well, so I often listen to audiobooks at night as a way to let my body rest even if my mind is awake. I’ve been revisiting a lot of books I loved as a child this way, which is what brought me back to this Diane Duane series. I loved the first two books – So You Want to be a Wizard and Deep Wizardry – as much as I ever did, but this third book is a weird one. There are aliens and sentient computers and space travel; it basically goes full SciFi, which is not really my cup of tea. Great series, but this book isn’t my favorite. 

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden: a novel written in the style of Russian fairy tales, The Bear and the Nightengale is beautiful, dreamy and arresting and peaceful all at the same time. I’m only a little way through this one, but I’m really enjoying letting the story unfold before me. 

Internets:

 Artist Encases Incredibly Detailed Miniature Worlds Inside Antique Pocket Watches.  

How Medical Researchers Used to Party: There’s always been some fuzziness in our distinctions between medicine and recreational drugs. Just look at nitrous oxide.

The Restoration of the Tomb of Tutankhamen Is Complete.

The most beautiful library you’ve ever seen? Perhaps.

25 Inspiring Margaret Atwood Quotes.

How the Great Recession influenced a decade of design: Examining the inextricable, complicated relationship between the economy and how things look.

4,300 Years of Typography and Letters Found Online.

All of Moira Rose’s Wigs on Schitt’s Creek, Ranked. I’ve recently become a Schitt’s Creek superfan and this is magnificent. 

This post contains affiliate links.