Sounds like a good amount of progress, well done! Checking off squares by reading naturally is an excellent way to do it.

They’re definitely not for everyone, but that’s ok! We’re still glad to have you around.

I’ve been finding more time to read this year, so I already finished one card and am almost halfway through another. (This is less impressive than it sounds, as I think ~13 of those squares are works under 200 pages.) The first card is all hard mode (sans the Cozy Read square), and the one I’m working on now is (almost) all normal mode. (I didn’t want to read Harry Potter or A Man Called Ove, so those two squares are going to default to hard mode.)

Normal-only is surprisingly challenging in places (LGBTQIA+ Lead without a significant romance? Steppin’ Up with an MC that does become a ruler?).

Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer. I loved Annihilation, but Authority, while not bad, was so different (and slow) that it killed my momentum through the series. I’m maybe 1/3 of the way through Acceptance, but every time I try to go back to it, I just put it back down after a couple of pages.

Currently reading Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud, sequel to last year’s Crypt of the Moon Spider that I liked so much.

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Finished The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes (weird fantasy with body horror elements) | bingo: different continent, minority author, orange, x of y, LGBTQIA+, new

In a glamorously tattered city, a debt-ridden exterminator hunting a dangerous bug and an ailing perfumer in upper-class society each navigate a season of political and cultural revolution.

The setting of this reminded me vaguely of the Cemeteries of Amalo series: steampunk-ish but not (and plant- and bug-based in Vermin), low magic, large class divides, lavish fashion, and a focus on opera. Vermin is, however, much less soft and gentle: violent regime changes are practically expected every generation; character deaths on stage are real, not simulated; and poor people being exploited is par for the course. Even the perfume is laced with a reality-warping toxin that, in strong enough potencies, can remodel entire buildings or cause terrible mutations.

The blurb for this made me expect the bug extermination would be the main plot (with much more emphasis on horror), but that’s actually just a small piece of a grand epic with two alternating story lines. I wish I had known better what I was diving into, and that it was less slow-paced, but I liked it.

I’m about 80% of the way through The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes. I’m enjoying it, but I’m also ready to be finished with it; unlike Leech (their first book), which picked up in the latter half, this has been a bit slow for me the whole way through.

Totally fair. It’s impressive you’ve kept reading so far into the series; I’ll grit my teeth through one book with pacing that doesn’t work for me (and complain the whole time), but not much beyond that.

Reading The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes, which I’ve been looking forward to. So far, so good.

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Read Harrow County, Volume 1: Countless Haints by Cullen Bunn (writing) & Tyler Crook (art) (southern gothic folk horror comic, issues 1-4) | bingo: short HM, steppin’ up HM

A teenager becomes tangled up in her community’s witch-murdering past.

Picked this out for spooky season, since my current read isn’t horror. This volume tells a complete story arc, so while I’ll probably read more of it at some point, I’m satisfied for right now. It’s fun, though, and the art is gorgeous.

The show definitely condenses/changes stuff (mostly in a good way), although weirdly I found the seasons with the Marco Inaros drama to be more grating than the book versions.

Have you liked any of plot lines so far, or has it been a slog all the way through?

Started Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell, although I think I’ll be reading it in chunks.

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Finished The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper (culty cosmic horror) | bingo: creature, minority author, short, LGBTQIA+ lead HM, steppin’ up HM)

While searching for their missing partner, a homeless person stumbles onto a doomsday cult.

MC seemed well done, interesting ending. Overall, though, I think this was just “fine”, and probably won’t be reading the sequels.

True! Agreed. Hemlock & Silver’s MC is also pragmatic and middle-aged, btw, which is nice.

I’ve only read a few of her books, so that’s probably a better question for @JaymesRS@literature.cafe, honestly. I started with Nettle & Bone, though, which is probably as good a place as any. One note: her MCs seem to generally all have a very similar “plucky heroine” kind of voice, which may affect how well her horror novels work for you, if you’re thinking of starting there (I’m not a fan, but I do still have What Moves the Dead on my TBR pile).

I’m reading The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper, and then (hopefully) starting All of Us Murderers by K.J. Charles, which came out today.

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Finished Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher (fantasy with mild horror elements) | bingo: folklore, new, steppin’ up HM

This was billed as a retelling of Snow White, but while it certainly uses elements from that story, it’s mostly its own thing. If you like T. Kingfisher’s other fantasy/fairy tale stuff, you’ll probably like this, too.

The American Library Association posts “most challenged” lists, unfortunately not by state. Here is the top ten for 2024, and if you scroll all the way down, there’s also links to the top 100 from each of the past 3 decades (if you want historical data). The ALA has an Office of Intellectual Freedom that absolutely collects all the challenged/banned book data, but I couldn’t find it posted anywhere (closest is this, but more recent years are missing… can probably supplement with here).

Working on the new T. Kingfisher, Hemlock & Silver.

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Read since last time:

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy (fantasy horror, novella) | bingo: creature, minority author, short, LGBTQIA+ lead, alliterative, cover

A wanderer visits an anarchist commune that’s protected by a preternatural being.

I think I’d put this in the “fine” category; not sure if I’m interested in the sequels.

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard (space opera-ish mystery, novella) | bingo: creature, different continent, minority author, orange, short, award

A prickly detective and a sentient ship discover and investigate an unusual corpse.

Intentional Holmes and Watson vibes. Cute enough, but the mystery felt a bit secondary.

I’ve put the spy thriller I was trying to read on hold for now, since I just haven’t been in the mood for it.

Instead, I read:

The Formidable Miss Cassidy by Meihan Boey (cozy-ish historical urban-ish fantasy) | bingo: another continent, award (hard), minority author

A Scottish governess helps out two families with their mundane and supernatural issues in 1890s Singapore.

This was cute, and I’ll be putting the sequels on my list of things to read when I need some light fluff. Recommended, but don’t go into it expecting the kind of thing that features modern inserts flouting society left and right: the characters generally do what’s expected of them, even when they’re frustrated by the limitations and injustices of their world.

Thank you for all that you do!

I didn’t get much reading done this week either; still reading My Name is Nobody by Matthew Richardson.

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Read DuMort by Michelle Tang (gaslamp horror, novella) | bingo: minority author, short, new, steppin’ up

In a city where even speaking the names of the dead is a punishable blasphemy, an upper-class woman seeks out an occultist to help rid her of an angry ghost.

I wanted something compelling to get me back into my reading groove, and this helped, I think? It definitely had some cool ideas and the world-building was strong for the length, but it was also a little too yearn-y for my taste, and I would have liked more description of what went down at the end. Enjoyable, though.

Welcome aboard!

Barely read this week, but I started My Name Is Nobody by Matthew Richardson.

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Finished A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (YA/middle grade fantasy, somewhat cozy) | bingo: indie HM, award HM, steppin’ up HM, cozy

When a teenage baker with magical influence over dough finds a dead body in her bakery, she is pulled into sinister plots that threaten the whole city.

This was cute. My only complaint is that all the palace stuff was very thin; having the answer to “how was this allowed to happen?” boil down to “whoops, our bad” was kinda disappointing.