Reading

#24: Julie Leong, The Teller of Small Fortunes

This was a warm, if somewhat predictable, story about a lonely immigrant fortune teller who has learned not to linger in any one place too long because the minor fortunes that she sells always come true. She eventually happens upon some dedicated travel companions who are on a quest of their own, but their burgeoning friendship is threatened when her past inevitably catches up to her. There is also a cat, because it seems customary for stories of this sort to include a pet of some kind. At least it isn't a talking cat.

#23: Amal El-Mohtar, The River Has Roots

I almost missed this because my library shelved it under General Fiction instead of Fantasy, but I'm so glad I stumbled across it. A particularly lyrical and creative retelling of a familiar fairy tale (or perhaps folk ballad is more accurate) centered on two sisters who live near the border of Faerie.

#22: Matt Dinniman, Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl #1)

I decided to give this book a try because I wanted a change of pace. Several people that I follow were raving about it, and I can see why it's become a phenomenon. It's very compelling, and the protagonists are fun, but the humor is mostly pretty dark and occasionally the things they witness are just plain ghastly - basically what if the Hunger Games were a video game dungeon complete with levels and stats, but it's somehow still real life and there are aliens involved. The series is up to seven books and counting (the author has said it will be ten books "give or take"), so keep that in mind if you decide to start it.

Current Mood: okay

Entry tags:

books

How do you decide what to read?

I just finished watching John Green's latest video, in which he talks about the vagaries of the NYT bestseller list and how you will miss out on a lot of excellent books if you use that as your primary source of book recommendations. So that got me to wondering how other people discover the books that they want to read.

Personally, I am such a F/SF devotee that a huge number of the books I end up checking out are sourced directly from Tor's lists of new releases. They publish the lion's share of my current favorite authors and seem to be responsible for the majority of recent Hugo nominees.

I also rely heavily on my local libraries. There are two in particular with good F/SF sections and I am able to find most of the books that I want to read in their collections instead of having to purchase them. I also regularly browse their nonfiction new releases and recommendations for younger readers.

The other major source of recommendations for me is social media - mostly you all here on Dreamwidth, but also Bluesky, Facebook, and Discord. I'm always paying attention to what my friends are into.

Occasionally I'll see an interesting book on the shelf at Target or Barnes & Noble, but I'm not located near any independent bookstores, alas.

Rebuilding journal search again

We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

#21: Laura J. Mayo, How to Summon a Fairy Godmother (Fairies and Familiars #1)

This was a new twist on the Cinderella story - one of the few times that I've seen one of the stepsisters turned into a sympathetic character (the others being Cinder and the Drew Barrymore Ever After movie). Said stepsister is the protagonist here, and she has good reason to be hateful, but she's really not all bad. I don't know if I enjoyed it enough to continue with future installments in the series, but it wasn't boring.