Coronation Ceremony

If the end of the fiscal year doesn't get you, the allergies will. Life has been miserable for going on two weeks now...

What I Just Finished Reading

The Parable of the Sower – Octavia Butler
I never connected emotionally with any of the characters, but the book was an interesting exploration of how new religions are founded.

Monstress vol. 2 – Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
The art continues to floor me and the storyline is as inventive as anything in recent memory. It's going to be a battle not to break down and start buying individual issues instead of waiting for the next TPB.


What I Am Currently Reading

The End of Your World – Adyashanti
An interesting exploration of what happens after a meditator has her first “opening” or “enlightenment” experience. (Spoiler alert: the work is just beginning.)

The Waking Land – Callie Bates
Thirty pages in, our main character has been taken hostage by the king after her family either failed in, or was framed for, an attempted coup. The world looks to be built of equal parts Renaissance Europe, British Isles, and Grimm's fairytale, with a bit of medieaval witch hunting thrown in. A lot of attention has been paid to a ghostly woman's repetition of the phrase mo cri, mo tire, mo fiul, which any reader with a basic knowledge of Scots Gaelic will recognize as “my heart, my land, my blood.”

Farenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
The premise is rightfully famous, but Bradbury's prose is clunky and his execution cartoonish.

China: A New History – John Fairbank & Merle Goldman
Truckin'.

The Sleeper and the Spindle – Neil Gaiman & Chris Riddell
Another Gaiman cash cow, largely redeemed thus far by Riddell's gorgeous illustrations.

Melusine – Sarah Monette
I'm only a chapter in so far, but woah, this is dark.


What I'm Reading Next
I just got my hands on a copy of Linnea Hartsuyker's The Half-Drowned King, as well as the first two volumes of Saga.

これで以上です。