(Quick) Mid-Month Reading Update

Plus a few good links from around the web

Hi, book friends.

Newborn life continues to be unpredictable, and reading continues to be slow (but steady!), so this newsletter will be relatively quick. Thanks for sticking with me through this chaotic season — I’m hoping to get back to my usual weekly-ish posts in September.

For now, here’s an update on what I’m reading and a few links I’ve collected over the past month.

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What I’ve read so far this month

Full reviews coming soon!

• The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera 📖🎧: This was my last novel from this year’s set of Hugo Award nominees. I respected it more than I enjoyed it, but I’m glad I read it! I do think it would have hit harder if I’d known more about the history of Buddhism and Sri Lanka — so definitely a me problem, not a book problem.

• Heir (Heir Duology, #1) by Sabaa Tahir* 📖: This was my most anticipated book of the entire year. It’s a new duology set years after the end of the Ember in the Ashes quartet, which is my favorite fantasy series of all time (yes, I said it!). And y’all, it was everything I dreamed it would be. SO FREAKIN GOOD. Ahhh. It comes out 10/3!

Currently reading

Many things, lol. (Mood reading, what have you done to me?)

• Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi*: This is off to a slow start so far (I’m ~70 out of 560 pages in), but I haven’t given up hope yet. I have an ebook via Netgalley that I can read on my phone while I’m nursing, so I’ll probably just keep chipping away at it slowly like that.

• A Song of Ash and Moonlight (Middlemist, #2) by Claire Legrand*: I wanted something faster paced to read in print during nap times, and this one — a he-falls-first, enemies-to-lovers romantasy inspired by the ballet The Firebird — was calling to me. It comes out 9/17.

• Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman**: A good friend not only recommended this, but lent me her copy. With an endorsement like that, how could I not?

• Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin**: I haven’t made any progress on this since I paused at the end of July, but definitely still planning to pick it up again soon!

*gifted to me by the publisher
**audiobook courtesy of PRH Audio

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A few good links

• Did You Know That Poetry Used to Be an Actual Olympic Sport? (And the First Openly Gay Olympic Medalist Was a Poet) — the reporting we deserve, from LitHub.

• 3 ways to overcome your eco-guilt: How to keep climate anxiety at bay when you need to get rid of things — a timely (for me, as I work on rebuilding my wardrobe postpartum) read from the always excellent

  Rebecca | Your House Machine
  .

• It was published a few months ago, but surfacing this excerpt from Heir, if you’re interested.

• With an announcement like this, count me in for Shakespeare in the Park in NYC next year — even if it means I have to donate a bunch of money to The Public to secure a ticket (a good cause regardless!).

• ICYMI, the Hugo Awards were about a week and a half ago. I read all the nominees for best novel, and here’s an Instagram post where I gave my thoughts on my favorite, who I thought should win, and who I thought would win. (It ultimately went to Some Desperate Glory. Here’s a full list of winners — I was glad to see To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose get the YA award!)

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Don’t forget: Booker of the Month!

ICYMI, I run a book club called Booker of the Month, where we read one book from the Booker Prize longlist each month. There are 13, so we double up just once, and by the time next year’s longlist is announced, we’ll have read them all.

We just got the 2024 longlist — which makes now the PERFECT time to jump in. Our first selection is James by Percival Everett, and the Zoom chat is on Monday. Sign up here and join us!!

And heads up: Next month’s selection is My Friends by Hisham Matar.

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As always, thanks for sharing your corner of the internet with me! It would mean a lot if you were to take a second to like this post. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, too.

Finally, if you like this newsletter, please send a few friends my way.

See you on Instagram!

— Deedi (she/her)