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What are you reading in June?
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FeminineFantastique
Posted 2014-06-05 1:30 AM (#7896)
Subject: What are you reading in June?



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Off to a good start so far, having read Mary Doria Russell's Children of God in two days, plus Veronica Schanoes' Burning Girls. The latter is probably my favorite author I've discovered this year alongside Caitlin Kiernan; she writes dark fairytale retellings grounded in Jewish mythology and mysticism. Great stuff.

Right now I'm reading the Women Destroy Science Fiction! issue of Lightspeed Magazine, which is not for any challenges but I read two sexist dudebro reviews of it and was just, No.

Tentative reading plans include three of the short story collections nominated for Locus awards this year (Okorafor's Kabu Kabu, Kiernan's The Ape's Wife and Other Stories, and Valente's The Bread We Eat in Dreams) as well as two 2014 novels: The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine, a retelling of "The Twelve Princesses" set in the Jazz Age, and Memory of Water by Emmi Itranta, a post-apocalyptic novel originally published in Finnish.
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-06-05 7:30 AM (#7897 - in reply to #7896)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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Location: UK		At the moment I'm doing some Hugo reading; currently Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne Valente, one of the novella nominees.

I'm not really sure what else I'm going to read. I'd like to make some progress in the short categories for the Hugos, but I kind of struggle with short fiction and might feel like diving into a proper novel. I think my problem is that short stories are more dictatorial with my time than longer forms. You more-or-less have to read a whole story in one go, and it lasts as long as it lasts. If you have too little time, you feel a bit foolish, and if you have too much time, well, tough, it's finished. With a novel, you just read as many pages as you feel like, and you are in control. Novellas are more-or-less the same as novels in that respect. They just don't last as long.

I'm ahead of schedule on my challenges, but I don't want to rest on my laurels, so I'll probably read something this month. I just don't know what.
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daxxh
Posted 2014-06-05 11:33 AM (#7898 - in reply to #7897)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		I finished We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I didn't like it that much and don't see why it was nominated for a Nebula since it's not really scifi/fantasy. It's more a fictionalized account of experiments with chimps that already happened. This book reminds me of The Little Friend, The Sea and The Sense of an Ending, all of which got rave reviews. The last two were Mann Booker Prize winners. I didn't like any of those.

I also finished Harbinger of the Storm, Aliette De Bodard's second Obsidian and Blood book. That was excellent. I can't wait to read the third one, Master of the House of Darts, and am sad that there aren't any more in that series.

I am just starting the last of the Nebula nominees - A Stranger in Olondria. I've read the rest of the nominees and unless this book is exceptional, Ancillary Justice will remain my favorite and in my opinion, a well deserved winner.

I also plan on reading the Hugo nominated short fiction that I downloaded the other day. I may also finish Ash and read Grass to finish the WoGF challenge.
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FeminineFantastique
Posted 2014-06-05 12:15 PM (#7899 - in reply to #7896)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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Speaking of Hugo-nominated shorts and Aliette de Bodard -- dudes, "The Waiting Stars" is magnificent.

Edited by FeminineFantastique 2014-06-05 12:17 PM
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-06-12 11:08 AM (#7928 - in reply to #7899)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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Location: UK		All I have read so far this month are 2 detective stories and L K Hamilton's A Shiver of Light,a complete letdown and disappointment.Fans waited five years for what was supposed to be the climax of the series,and it was irritating,and boring by turn,and certainly didnt feel like a final episode. I rarely buy books (pensioner with a large family) but I always bought this series,but not this one..
My visitors from USA left yesterday,and while my husband is watching the World Cup matches I hope to get a bit reading done,including
P K Dick - Man in the High Castle,
A&B Strugatsky- Roadside Picnic
L M Bujold - Curse of Chalion
Christopher Fowler - Full Dark House
J R Ward - The King
Neil Gaiman - Stardust
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Dlw28
Posted 2014-06-12 4:52 PM (#7931 - in reply to #7928)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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I'm listening to Neptune's Brood-probably the wrong medium for this work as I keep having to 'rewind.' Also half way through A Calculated Life. I'm not quite sure what to think of it yet. The author builds up the plot a bit at a time.
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Rhondak101
Posted 2014-06-13 9:42 AM (#7935 - in reply to #7931)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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Location: SC, USA		It looks as if June might be YA month for me. I finished the massive Cryptonomicon over the end May/beginning of June. Since then I have read The Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin) and The Thief Lord (Funke). I am currently reading Gathering Blue (Lowry) and have Scarlet (Meyer), Summerland (Chabon), and The Hollow City (Riggs) near the top of the TBR pile. When I get tired of YA protagonists, I have The Golem and the Jinni and A Stranger in Oldandria that I want to finally get to.
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FeminineFantastique
Posted 2014-06-14 1:38 PM (#7944 - in reply to #7896)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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Just finished The Girls at the Kingfisher Club . Amazing. 2nd favorite novel I've read this year.
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pauljames
Posted 2014-06-15 4:45 AM (#7946 - in reply to #7944)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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Location: scotland		Crawling my way through Assassin's Quest. Reading less than a hundred pages a week on this book at the moment. Very very good though.
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Oaks Lab
Posted 2014-06-16 4:29 AM (#7948 - in reply to #7946)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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Location: UK		Finally getting around to reading A Dance With Dragons (part 1). Lovin' the current season
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daxxh
Posted 2014-06-19 2:17 PM (#7977 - in reply to #7948)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		Just finished all the Hugo nominated novelettes. I can't decide it I like The Waiting Stars or The Exchange Officers best. Has anyone else read these?

I am currently reading A Stranger in Olondria. I am not liking it much - it's very slow.
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-06-20 7:27 AM (#7978 - in reply to #7896)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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Location: UK		I've read the Hugo shorts, novelettes and 3.5/5 of the novellas. I think it's The Waiting Stars for me. I didn't think the Exchange Officers was that special, but maybe I'm a bit prejudiced by the Sad Puppy fiasco.

It's looking like a very slow month for me outside the Hugo reading. I'm currently plodding through The Stormcaller by Tom Lloyd, which I e-borrowed from the e-library because I was given a free copy of volume 2. It hasn't really grabbed me but it's not bad enough to give up on.
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Rhondak101
Posted 2014-06-20 8:20 AM (#7979 - in reply to #7977)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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daxxh - 2014-06-19 3:17 PM Just finished all the Hugo nominated novelettes. I can't decide it I like The Waiting Stars or The Exchange Officers best. Has anyone else read these? I am currently reading A Stranger in Olondria. I am not liking it much - it's very slow.

 Me, too. It is very slow. I'm at about 65% on the Kindle. I do like it (not love it) but can't explain why. 

 Rhonda

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daxxh
Posted 2014-06-27 12:36 AM (#8000 - in reply to #7896)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		I finally finished A Stranger in Olondria. I didn't really like that one - too slow. When I'd get really bored with it, I'd read the Hugo nominated short fiction or some other novella that I'd run across. I think I've read enough of those to have completed the Short Fiction Challenge, if all were actually in the database.

The Hugo nominated novellas and novelettes were pretty decent, but I didn't really like the short stories. I also downloaded and read Burning Girls by Veronica Schanoes because it was free. It was ok (glad it was free). I found The Mothers of Voorhisville by Mary Rickert on the Tor website while looking for Nebula nominated novellas and read that. What a creepy story. I still have visions of fat little cherubs with fangs flying around in my head. That is going to be my random pick for WoGF.

Edited by daxxh 2014-06-27 12:38 AM
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-06-27 9:49 AM (#8002 - in reply to #7896)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in June?



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Location: UK		I've finished all the Hugo short fiction, now. I really liked the novella "Wakulla Springs", but it barely grazes the edge of the field, and I think Rachel Swirsky's short "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love" (which I don't think was in the first version of the Hugo packet) misses it entirely. Should I just assume they've been passed as SF&F since they've made the ballot?

I also finished The Stormcaller, which was a bit uneven. I'm not sure I'll read the second one.

What I wanted to read next was my random pick for the Women of Genre Fiction challenge, but it's quite a long book, and I wanted to try to get another challenge book in before the end of the month, so I picked Jonathan Carroll's The Land of Laughs off my shelf, and I should finish it tonight. I've read some Carroll before, and didn't get much out of it - which is probably why this has languished unread for so long - but I like this one. Two-thirds of the way through there had just been mild oddness and I was wondering when the genre shoe would drop...
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