A bunch of books I’ve read lately

The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft
A bunch of translators get together to collectively translate the latest bestseller by an odd, reclusive novelist. Then dies or disappears or something? It’s all very hazy in my memory of it. An odd, disarming book, that I wanted to like more than I did. Now, so much of my memory of it has already faded. (I read it in a bit of a rush, because it was due back at the library.) Mostly I remember half falling asleep while reading it on the couch. That doesn’t help with memory either.

Inverted World by Christopher Priest
There’s a group of people and they live on a city-sized train that slowly crawls across the countryside, fleeing at a snails pace an environmental, existential horror that follows them. Only a select few are allowed outside of the city/train to deconstruct and then build the tracks that it travels upon. A strange, delirious dystopia. Has some intense, timey-wimey elements to it. I found the creativity in the writing refreshing and delightful.

Rejection by Tony Tulathimnutte
The meanest book I’ve read in a long time. Harsh satire that gets pretty meta by the end. This author can write some pretty hilarious sentences, but you’ve got to wade through some real nastiness to get there.

The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
Another train book. This one is an Orient Express that travels across a monstrous Siberian wasteland. Only maybe the wasteland is inside the train after all? I enjoyed the way this story was put together with multiple point of view characters. A compelling read.

Assassin of Reality by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko
A sequel. What if Harry Potter but the school was taught by inhuman creatures corrupted by the infinite power of reality-bending magic. There’s no upside to being a student in this school of magic. The magic is basically turning reality into parts of grammar and such. Mind-bendingly weird. I dug it, but I think I liked the first one better.

Somna by Becky Cloonan
A comic book about a woman accused of witchcraft, but maybe she’s actually consorting with the devil or maybe she’s just a little crazy? Witch hunts are no good. It’s a simple theme but the art was pretty great. The story had nowhere left to go.

Gone by Jock
A science fiction story about a spacecraft stowaway in a far future galaxy. A comic book. The art was a bit muddy and hard to follow at times.

They Called Us Exceptional: And Other Lies That Raised Us by Prachi Gupta
A heartbreaking story about a woman coming to terms with her mentally unstable, abusive father and the way it distorts and corrupts her relationship with everyone else in her family. A tough read.

Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition by Frances A. Yates
Explores the origins of the Western occult tradition. A fascinating look at some historical characters who existed on the fringes of acceptable religious thought and ultimately often paid the price for it. Yates is a fantastic writer of history and she brings some order out of what can often feel like rampant gobbledegook.

The Waning of the Middle Ages by Johan Huizinga
Another exceptional historian. Huizinga writes with empathy and clarity about the ways in which the Middle Ages differed from our own. I highly recommend this one.

The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman
Sometimes you just want a fun, clever read. This is book four (I think) in this series and I’m happy to keep riding the ride.

Strange Pictures by Uketsu
Japanese murder mystery stories that eventually end up interconnecting in unexpected ways. Pretty creepy, clever mysteries.

The Last Man by Mary Shelley
I hadn’t heard of this book by Shelley until about a month ago. It’s about a plague that afflicts all of humanity. It’s impossible to spoil the ending because of the title, but I think it’s worth the journey. A more mature book than Frankenstein.