Should be wrapping up The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold in the next day or two. I like it enough to finish it, but apart from a few sections, it’s much slower than I generally care for.

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Read:

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen

After an investigation goes sideways, a detective gets relegated to running a cold cases department with just one assistant. They end up looking into a politician’s disappearance from 5 years ago.

I enjoyed this (and it was a fast read), but the details of the disappearance are kind of gimmicky. I’ve since watched the Danish adaptation, which I found kind of disappointing for how much they stripped out and tweaked (although they did tone down some of the stereotyping, thankfully). Planning to watch the new series that came out last week as well (Department Q), to see how it compares.

Bingo squares: continent HM, motion picture, orange, x of y, alliterative, award HM, responsibility HM, jerk HM (maybe?)

Small Gods of Calamity by Sam Kyung Yoo

A detective that can see spirits gets involved in a case that’s connected to his past, and is forced to team up with someone he hates to defeat the soul-eating monster behind it all.

This was a fun little novella, incorporating elements of Korean shamanism into kind of an urban fantasy with horror elements. It’s well-paced, and manages to give you a decent sense of the main characters, despite being plot-heavy. I had a couple of small quibbles with it, but will gladly try more from this author.

Bingo squares: minority author HM, x of y, short, lgbtqia+

I don’t read on desktop, but I use Pocketbook Reader on my tablet. Free with no ads, and lets me use any colors I want, override terrible embedded fonts and cramped line height, change margins, etc. It does have a couple of quirks that annoy me from time to time, but I haven’t found a replacement I like better.

Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. I enjoyed the first two books (Cordelia prequels) in the author’s Vorkosigan Saga enough to want to try something else by her (since I’ve failed twice to get into the first Miles book). I think this is her only other big series? Anyway, it’s been sitting on my TBR pile for a long time now, and I finally picked it up to read for bingo.

I don’t mind a slow start, but IMO this had a very looooong slow start (~30%), to the point I put it down to read something else. Of course, it turns out I paused right before things started to pick up, so now I’m chugging along with it just fine.

You might have a look at Darebee workouts/programs. Can search by ‘upper’, ‘abs’, etc to cut out a lot of stuff your foot might have trouble with.

Currently in the middle of The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen. I’ve watched a lot of Scandinoir, but this my first time reading it! Too many flashbacks for my taste, but otherwise it’s engaging, and I’m looking forward to finding out if my theories are correct.

Also still reading No One Will Come Back for Us by Premee Mohamed. All the stories so far feel like the equivalent of art sketches, but I’m ok with that.

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Read River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey. Fun little novella that’s essentially a western, but with hippos instead of horses, set in the South. I saw some reviews that felt it wasn’t long enough or developed enough, but I thought it was fine. I enjoy plot-focused stuff, though, so YMMV.

Bingo squares: saddle up HM, lgbtqia+ HM, creature HM, minority author, x of y

I’ve seen the adaptation of The City & The City, but while I remember liking it, the concept seemed pretty gimmicky. Does it feel more natural/realistic in the book?

I’ve started No One Will Come Back for Us by Premee Mohamed, a collection of cosmic horror stories. I do love me some cosmic/eldritch horror, and The Butcher of the Forest was one of my favorite reads from last year, so I’m hoping I’ll enjoy this, too.

Despite not really being a short story person, I tentatively picked out 2 or 3 collections for bingo this year. My plan is to read them in pieces, between other things. We’ll see how it goes!

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Finished Golden Terrace, Vol. 1 by Cang Wu Bin Bai. I found this okay: the translation was pretty dry, the pacing was a bit rough, and I never got invested in the romance. I am interested in how all the political intrigue plays out, but I doubt I’ll get around to reading the second volume (nothing gets wrapped up at the end of Vol. 1). This is probably a good pick if you like romance-focused historical C-dramas (it’s got the vibes), but I don’t think I’d recommend it otherwise.

Bingo squares: different continent (HM), minority author, LGBTQIA+ (HM), political, jerk (HM)

Agreed! Although, I drop a ton of books within a few pages, and still end up with a lot of “okay” reads. I don’t super mind that; if I only read things I happily breezed through or couldn’t put down, I’d only end up finishing one or two books a year. Maybe I’m just hard to please?

You might look up ‘linked stories’/‘novel in stories’: they’re single-author collections that have all the stories set in the same world, often with shared characters, sometimes with an overarching or background narrative. Might be a good middle ground?

Currently reading Golden Terrace: Volume 1 by Cang Wu Bin Bai. Not my normal fare, but I was lured in by the description: historical Chinese PG-13 M/M arranged marriage romance with lots of court politics. I’m not super convinced by the romance so far, but the political aspect seems solid. I am getting a little lost with how many characters have already been introduced to the plot, but hopefully that’ll settle down once all the important stuff’s been established.

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Finished London Rules by Mick Herron. Basically more of the same as far as the Slough House series goes, and fun enough. Herron’s bad guys are never really fleshed out or nuanced, which is fine, but I found the ones in London Rules to be especially one-dimensional stereotypes, to the point it was a little off-putting.

PocketBook Reader lets you change the background color to whatever you want. You can also change the line spacing/font size/etc, and it’s possible to add fonts as well, if you need something specific. It can be a little convoluted to make it do what you want, though, and there’s not much documentation. (I’m happy enough with it, but YMMV.) Also, no automatic line highlighting that I can find.

I had an idea last year for a challenge mode that was basically “how few books can you read to cover every category?”, but it didn’t really fit the goal of reading more lol. Might still be a fun side thing to try, though!

Just like last year, we’ve pre-seeded the Storygraph challenge with ~500 (mostly fiction) books from various genres, if you’re looking for ideas (no account required to browse!).

ETA: The returning categories have different book suggestions from last year, so for even more ideas for those squares, check last year’s Storygraph, too.

Thank you both. :)

The show’s done the usual cutting, streamlining, or tweaking that adaptations do, like making Lamb less of an offensive jerk and River a little more competent than in the books. Otherwise, I think they’re pretty similar, tbh; same story beats, very snarky, fairly quick-paced. There’s something about the first 3 that I liked better than the next couple (which is why I put this one on pause), but I can’t put my finger on it.

Finished Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. Discworld books are always a delightful read.

Currently reading London Rules by Mick Herron, which I put down about halfway through, a long time ago, and never got back to. I’m trying to kill time til new bingo starts, and this is going to be the new season of Slow Horses, so I figured now was a good time to finish it. It’s fun.