Beyond Reality discussion

As we finish up the year, let us know what you’re reading this month, December 2023. Holiday themes, winter (or summer) themes, wrapping up a series or a challenge… tell us all about them!

All genres welcome here!

After mostly enjoying News of the World, and hooking my mother on Paulette Jiles, I've finally started to read Simon the Fiddler. This one is so very much about music, though, and I know nothing about sharps & flats, key changes, etc.; it's probably more enjoyable to those readers who do play an instrument.

I've just started reading Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

Who Made Me a Princess Vol. 2 by Plutus

First book of the month: Miranda in Milan by Katharine Duckett, 7/10. I’m sure I would have appreciated this novella more if I remembered the story of The Tempest by William Shakespeare better than I do, for this book is an imagined “sequel” to that play. Still, I found myself rooting for Miranda and Dorothea, appalled and intrigued by the fate of Beatrice, and humbled by the power of love.

Since I last posted I finished House of Suns, read and loved The Book That Wouldn’t Burn several months late for the group discussion, and yesterday finished The Art of Theft, the fourth of Sherry Thomas's Lady Sherlock books (which are utterly delightful).

I just started Ink Blood Sister Scribe - my loan just came in so I'm reading a book early for once! And I was just notified that The Bees and The Collapsing Empire are waiting for me at the library, so those are next!

I finished Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear, and Evan and Elle by Rhys Bowen, and am now reading Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton -- which is a lovely book.

I'm still savoring The Bees. Of course I'm going to start Stars Uncharted soon, too. ;)

The Apothecary Diaries 10 by Nekokurage

Ghost in the Serpent by Jonathan Moeller

Ink Blood Sister Scribe was EXCELLENT. Can't wait to hear what everyone else thinks of it next month!

Heading into the beehive next :)

The Dark Ones by Thomas J. Doscher

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler, 10/10. I put some comments in our Book of the Month topic thread back from 2020, but I’ll summarize by saying it was raw and scary but also hopeful.

I Think I'm Falling Apart by Chris Dietzel, 6/10. A mystery that seems to involve time travel but might also be about mental illness. I’m just not sure what I think about it.

Currently working through SF titles:
The Tar-Aiym Krang and New Writings in SF-1

…as well as The Quarry, Essays by Wallace Shawn, and What We Owe the Future… and also the Spring 2022 issue of The Paris Review (pretty far behind on my lit mags!)

Yes, I always juggle six books at a time!

Cloak of Embers by Jonathan Moeller

How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe  by Thomas Cahill, 6.5/10. “How the Irish Saved Western Civilization” would maybe have been a better title… The author is first a storyteller and this history book is made more readable by his style. I found some chapters to be a little dry and somewhat irrelevant to the overall thesis, but that changed once the focus zeroed in on Ireland. I think my familiarity with Irish lore and the fact that I’ve visited many of the places in Ireland and Scotland mentioned in the book made Parts III through VII more enjoyable and more pertinent.
Bluegate Fields by Anne Perry, 8.5/10. This was different from the previous Charlotte & Thomas Pitt books in that a case actually went to trial and beyond. In addition, several unsavory aspects of Victorian life were explored. For once, Charlotte and her family were not put in danger, although Thomas did almost lose his job.
The Serpent's Tooth by Diana L. Paxson, 9.5/10. This is a retelling of the story of King Lear and his three daughters, placed in the early Iron Age and focused on the youngest daughter Cridilla (Cordelia). The author skillfully blends elements drawn from mythology and speculation with those rooted in archeological evidence. The result is a tale filled with human emotions and motivations amidst the details of daily life in prehistoric society, yet threaded with the power of gods, goddesses, and recurring universal themes.
A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle, 7.5/10. Certainly imaginative, with strong themes of identity and the harmony of creation.
Death in the Devil's Acre by Anne Perry, 7.5/10. Rather an abrupt ending and not a very full explanation of the crimes, which is typical of the author’s Charlotte & Thomas Pitt books. I read it in one sitting, so it obviously kept my attention.

I used to own a copy of the Serpent’s Tooth when I was in high school. I always laugh to remember it because when I started it I had JUST finished picking apart King Lear in the Shakespeare elective I was taking, and had just turned in a very long paper on it. I was DONE with King Lear and ready to read something different and picked up The Serpent’s Tooth, not realizing it was a retelling. I got a few chapters in before I realized it! Thankfully Paxson’s take is different enough from Shakespeare that it still felt like something new.

Shel wrote: "I used to own a copy of the Serpent’s Tooth when I was in high school. I always laugh to remember it because when I started it I had JUST finished picking apart King Lear in the Shakespeare electiv..."

Amazing coincidence! I have to admit my memory of Shakespeare’s King Lear is pretty fuzzy, so I really couldn’t even compare this book with it.

My last completed book of 2023 was The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi for our series read. My comments are in that folder.

Dust Of The Ocean by Dorothy Grant

Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece by Joan Breton Connelly

Got one more read in before the year ends - Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. Lovely!

Just finished before year's end, the anthology Life Beyond Us. Wholeheartedly recommend.
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