my recent reading

 * I finished "Singing in the Shrouds" a few nights ago (A Ngaio Marsh "Inspector Alleyn" mystery). I admit I was slightly disappointed - or perhaps I'm losing my taste for mystery? - the victim was someone who absolutely did not deserve to die, the murder was....well, they were a serial killer, which seems weirdly worse and more unpleasant than the, say, wronged-lover or jealous family member. (Or perhaps: too many serial killer stories in the news from my formative years? And so it feels a bit too real?). Also no real sense of "resolution" in that "rightness will be restored" at the end, as some mystery novels have. (One reason I like the Inspector Gamache novels I've read - they accept and acknowledge that, yes, a terrible thing happened, yes, a hole has been torn in the fabric of a local community - and yet, there is some hope that there will be joy and relationship again).

* It is possible my taste in reading is changing; of late I've been enticed into buying some recent fantasy or fantasy-adjacent novels (or speculative fiction) after years of thinking I didn't like it. I just started "A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Becky Chambers), which is billed as "hopepunk/solarpunk" and I am finding it interesting and enjoyable. It centers around Sibling Dex, who sets off on their* own to be a "tea monk," which also has some element of being a counselor to it. They have an "oxbike" with a fairly large-sounding trailer (apparently the oxbike is powered in some way, though it seems the sources of energy people of this world have is a lot cleaner than fossil fuels - and the planet where they live is described as undergoing a 'rewilding'). 

(*Dex is, apparently, nonbinary - they use they and their pronouns, and they are referred to as "Sibling" by the other monks - some of whom are "Sister," and others, "Brother." I suppose it's possible this is a human-adjacent species where being a Sibling rather than a Brother or Sister has always been an accepted thing, I don't know. Or at any rate, this society seems to make zero deals about Dex being Sibling, so I presume the idea of being agender or nonbinary is more accepted than it is in our current society. It's interesting though, to me, because it's part of viewing a society different in some ways from my own)

I'm not very far in but I admit Dex' life has its appeals - they travel around on a circuit, people seem to value what they do, the trailer in which they live seems comfortable and pleasant. It'll be interesting to see where the book goes next, and I know there is at least one more in the series, so if I wind up liking this I will read the rest of the series as it comes out.

It also helps that the book's very clearly written; it is not "hard" in the way some of the classic literature I read is "hard" (that is: thorny syntax where you have to pay attention lest you get lost). I can tell my attention and reading comprehension are still not great, so having a book where the flow of the story carries me without having to trace back through a long sentence to remember who did what to whom helps.

It also feels like - and was presented as - a HOPEFUL book, and man, do I need that right now.

* I *did* enjoy "Piranesi" when I read it this summer, and that's more a fantasy novel than anything. But I also enjoyed Clarke's first novel (the enormous "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell") and it could be the thread is more "good and absorbing writing and interesting characters" than the actual style, I don't know.

I do also want to re-read Piranesi some time, I'm sure I would get things out of it on a second reading I missed the first time. 

* I have started periodically scanning the Tor.com blog as a possible source for future reading, and a few things I've seen recommended by people I follow on Twitter and that's kind of nice. I like seeing people I follow whose taste in books seems interesting going "I enjoyed this" and I can go "hmm maybe I will enjoy it, too" and it feels like a tiny moment of connection, which is something I've missed this past year and a half a lot. 

* I have a few other "soft" or "pleasant" novels ahead - the second Skunk and Badger book (I read the first last year, but I guess I never wrote about it? It was kind of sweet and fun - yes, definitely aimed at the YA set, but sometimes frazzled adults need that too). And the novel form of Kiki's Delivery Service (which I think came before the movie, and sounds like it's more complex/has more backstory). And Under the Whispering Door, which I think I saw somewhere as another example of "hopepunk." And Cloud Cuckoo Land, which feels more like a gamble to me than those other books, but who knows, I might like it. If not, I might be able to pass it on to someone else.

*I'm also thinking of eventually delving into the Discworld novels. I have never read any! I admit I'm a bit baffled as to where to begin - do I pick one towards the beginning of the cycle and start there, or do I choose one that many people really like to see if I can get into it? I know in the past some fantasy, especially "high fantasy," has not been for me, but it seems some of the speculative fiction short stories I've read lately have hit a good place for me, and like I said, I'm enjoying the sci-fi-adjacent "A Psalm for the Wild-Built."