not quite wednesday reading

• What are you reading?

Bitter Seeds, by Ian Tregillis. For the book group that meets tonight. Not going to finish it, partly because I kept losing it but mostly because it is so boring. I just found it again, though, so I will read some more before book group so I can make a better statement of what is wrong with this book. Although I think the what is wrong showed up in the first pages: We've got ravens, atrocities, the aftermath of war, special children, atrocities performed on special children, the First World War setting the stage for the Second, British class issues, and demon-summoning. There's a little girl, a special little girl, with Gypsy blood in her. The first action we see her take is to surreptitiously trick a towheaded boy into coughing, so the mad scientist decides that he's not healthy enough, has him disposed of with a shovel, and chooses her and her brother for experiments. I realize that Tregillis could be setting up a sneaky tricksy female Gypsy trope in order to knock it down, but it hasn't happened yet.

ETA: When I flipped to the end to learn how many pages of boring there were (428) I discovered that this is the first book of Ian Tregillis's Milkweed Triptych.

• What did you recently finish reading?

Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. You know how everyone has been telling you how good this book is? It really is.

• What do you think you’ll read next?

And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini, for the book group that meets Sunday.


Since I got back from Wiscon I've been trying to comply with a Weed Violation Notice from the city. I think I have fixed it, but the way you find out whether the city is satisfied is by not getting a ticket, so... we'll see. Also I learned that the raccoons that were banging on my roof late winter have torn off some siding and moved into the attic. So I feel even more like the ladies of Grey Gardens than usual, even though I'm not putting out food for them. Technically my neighbors aren't putting out food for the raccoons either; they're putting it out for the feral cats. Fortunately I do not live in one of the states that says trapped raccoons can't be relocated, only euthanized.

Unexpected Declaration of Love Day!

I am very glad I went to book group today, even though I did not finish or like the book, because I got to tell everyone that we don't need to choose a substitute for The Cloud Roads, because it is being reprinted -- and maybe it was our bookstore's query as to why their order hadn't been filled that tipped the publisher over to reprint! -- and also because one of the other book group members told the story of how her brain fused and poured out of her mouth this morning, when she interrupted trying to finish the book for book group to call the book store where we meet to ask about bringing books in to sell, and someone who sounds exactly like me answered the phone at the same time that she (the person telling this story) got email from her least favorite client, so suddenly she was expressing how much she loves me to the person who answered the phone-- except-- the person who answered the phone wasn't me. Because I don't actually work at the book store.

I know she likes me -- it's implicit in the way we laugh at each other's jokes and support each other's points -- but I doubt I would ever have heard her say it if I hadn't gone to book group tonight. And that is really nice to hear! So if you like someone, tell them!