CJ's projects and challenges (Comments welcome)

[CJ]

Excellent! I do like her. A little outside of my usual fare, but she is a very interesting author.

[Cathy]

I liked A Sorceress Comes to Call a lot, but I like T. Kingfisher in general. And even if you know Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm (I do), the similarities are mild, so don’t worry that it’s labeled a retelling… 😏

[CJ]

I haven't started A Sorceress Comes to Call yet. I was hoping it would work with the April combat prompts but it doesn't look like it will. Oh well. It's a library loan that has a waiting queue for it so I will have to read it in the next couple of weeks.

For the April combat prompt, my tentative reading list is:

Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
This World is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
If We Were Villains by ML Rio
Demon Daughter by Lois McMaster Bujold

By the way, this will be the 3rd Penric book I've read for these monthly prompts. At this rate I will have read a good chunk of the series by the end of the year.

I have 2 more prompts from the OG combat prompts to go, and already have books planned for those. I should be able to read both the BotMs for April for power points, but my library hold on To Shape A Dragon's Breath may not be in before May.

I finished the 2025 Philip K. Dick award shortlist. I cautiously will make the prediction that either Samatar's The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain or Chung's Your Utopia will win. My personal favorite was Alien Clay by Tchaikovsky, but my favs rarely ever win.

I was going to read the 2024 PDK award shortlist next but a couple of things have come up. One, I joined the Trans Right Readathon and pledged 4 books by trans authors. I'm currently reading Màgòdiz by Gabe Calderón for that. I had started with Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender but it was way too YA-ish for me, so I DNF'd it and replaced it on my list with Jordan Kurella's I Never Liked You Anyways which has been sitting on my TBR for a year. But the readathon is only from March 21-31 so I need to focus a bit on that for the rest of March.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and Canada, and I want to read some poetry, since I told myself I would read more poetry this year and have so far read exactly one (1) poetry book. So I hope to be spending some of my April reading time on that.

[CJ]

The announcement of the Philip K Dick award was pushed back to April 18, so I'm still waiting on that.

The Hugo noms are out today and since I've either read or have attempted to read all the novels nominated, that's one less distraction for me. Weird that Tchaikovsky got 2 noms in the same category but I guess if the rules allow it, then cool. There are a couple of the novellas I haven't read yet, but it's doubtful I'll get to them any time soon.

I am very interested in reading Tchaikovsky's Tyrant Philosophers series which got a Hugo nom for best series.

I'm having to cut back on some other planned reads with other groups and BRs for this month so to focus on fewer books that I'm more interested in at the moment. I started the month off with a chemo treatment, so right now my energy levels are not great. Plus I have several doctors appointments this month and I need to be careful to not overextend myself.

[a.g.e. montagner]

Nice of them to announce the PKD Award on my birthday! :D

[DivaDiane]

Sorry the chemo is beating you up.

If you want any poetry recommendations just hit me up (I’m VP and membership chair of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association).

Take care of your self!

[CJ]

I appreciate the offer, Diane, but I already picked out what I thought would be a month's worth of poetry reading, and I'm now down to the last two. I am mostly reading more recent publications available at my library, and there is plenty for me to choose from still if I decide to read more. But it's been a nice little project. I think it's helped me get out of the funk I was in from reading some more disappointing SFF works. My favorite of the ones I've read has been Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd. Not only a deeply moving work on a human level, but as poetry itself it's easily one of the best works I've read in a good while.

I'm currently working through the Nebula shortlists for novelettes and short stories, and it's been quite fun. With the short stories so far, I thought "The Witch Trap" by Jennifer Hudak was fantastic, "We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read" by Caroline M. Yoachim very creative, poetic and thoughtful, and "The V*mpire" by PH Lee a sharp take on trans experience online. Funny enough the one that I've seen hyped the most, "Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole" by Isabel J. Kim, has been my least favorite so far. I felt like it didn't really engage with Le Guin's original work that well, using it more for the name recognition, and that "The V*mpire" did a better job with critiquing online culture that it did.

With the Philip K Dick award announcement looming, I suppose I should make a prediction: I think Samatar's The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain is likely to win.

[CJ]

OMG, the winner of Philip K Dick award is Time's Agent by Brenda Peynado!

I thought it had a very creative premise with its idea of pocket worlds outside of normal time and space, but really felt as a novel it suffered from a lack of narrative cohesion and coherency. But maybe the judges felt that creative premise put it above the rest. I can understand that.

Alien Clay won a special citation from the judges as well, which is really nice. It is my personal favorite on the shortlist.

I had such a busy day yesterday that I forgot all about the announcement for the award at Norwescon last night and only remembered this morning when I saw Tchaikovsky expressing thanks for the special citation on Bluesky.

I still want to read last year's PKD award shortlist, but will have to start it after April.

[CJ]

I feel I'm starting May off with an avalanche for a TBR. That's partly because April was a slow reading month for me and I still have 2 books--Count Zero and Children of Time--that I started in April that I haven't finished yet. And a bunch of digital loans from my libraries came in and now Libby is passive-aggressively informing me that there are other people waiting for nearly all of them. Thanks, Libby.

Fortunately I can take me time with Count Zero and Children of Time, as I own copies, so I will probably focus on my library loans more for now. It's just I hate it when my "currently reading" list on GR gets long. Which it is, again.

I have picked out books for all the May and Big Dumb Object prompts for Team Sci Fi, so that's 6 books (including the one I read last night, Convenience Store Woman by the brilliant and kind of scary--as in she might be a genius kind of way--Sayaka Murata):

✔️Convenience Store Woman
✔️Passage to Dawn
✔️Saturation Point
✔️The Travelling Cat Chronicles
✔️Heavy Weather
✔️Elric of Melniboné

The rest of my tentative May TBR:

✔️Under the Eye of the Big Bird -- library loan
✔️Never Whistle at Night -- library loan
✔️Walking to Aldebaran -- library loan
✔️City of Last Chances -- Hugo nom'd series, the only longer awards season read for me this month, probably
✔️The Terraformers -- for Books by the Dozens challenge
Point of Hopes -- BR for another group
✔️China Mountain Zhang -- for my cyberpunk project, plus SFFBC bookshelf reread
✔️City of Bones -- for Martha Wells Book Club
✔️Death in Venice -- Classics group read
✔️The Worm and his Kings - BR, reread for me, and it's short
✔️The Spy Who came in from the Cold - for Classics group's Bingo challenge
✔️Ocean's Godori - discord BR for API Heritage Month
✔️The Machine Stops by EM Forster - Classics group's May short story read
King John and Henry VIII by Shakespeare - for my Shakespeare project

And if I can, I'll get to other books for my cyberpunk project and my Books by the Dozen challenge.

I also need to get caught up on my Anna Karenina slow read, but at least I'm only one week behind the Reddit group. I'm a whole month and half behind on my Shakespeare project, so I hope to make some progress on that this month as well. And I want to get back to the Martha Wells Book Club, but I need to finish my current reread of Witch King first. Alex Brown just did a column for City of Bones, which I meant to read in April, so that will be next for me, and then I'll go back and read the rest of the Raskura books.

[Cheryl L]

Your May book list is scaring me. I usually only get through about 4 books a month. I loved A Drop of Corruption.

[CJ]

I honestly don't know if I can get to all of them, lol. I am retired, so that helps time-wise. I tend to have chunks of time during the day that I can just devote to reading, a morning block, an afternoon block and then an evening block. And then there's bedtime reading and the occasional insomnia reading.

[Cheryl L]

CJ wrote: "I honestly don't know if I can get to all of them, lol. I am retired, so that helps time-wise. I tend to have chunks of time during the day that I can just devote to reading, a morning block, an af..."

Your reading habits sound like Hobbit meal times. "Breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, etc, etc" I would like your reading schedule and the Hobbits' dining schedule.

[CJ]

I love that you drew that comparison, because my cat likes to interrupt my reading in the early day to get me to feed him and I joking say things like "Oh, is it time for second breakfast/elevensies?" One of his many nicknames is Bilbo Baggins because he eats like a hobbit, lol.

[CJ]

June! Almost! Very soon!

I had a very enjoyable reading month in May, got a lot done and got caught up/made progress on all my projects save my Shakespeare project (ugh--they're just plays, you'd think I would find the time).

I am still working on Count Zero, China Mountain Zhang and Point of Hopes from my May reads, and I don't know if I'll finish any of those before June 1st but I'll try.

My tentative June TBR:

✔️The Fireborne Blade - for Team SF, June antagonist prompt. and Pride month read
✔️The Sound of Stars - for Team SF, June protagonist prompt, Pride month read
✔️Split Tooth - for Team SF, June protagonist prompt, and Pride month read
✔️Catch-22 - for Team SF, June antagonist prompt and Classics Bingo
✔️Yesterday's Kin - for Team SF, helix prompt
✔️The Pomegranate Gate - SFFBC BotM, power point
✔️You Sexy Thing - SFFBC BotM, power point, Books by the Dozen read, Pride month read
✔️Elatsoe - Books by the Dozen read, Pride month read
✔️Even the Worm Will Turn - BR, Pride month read
✔️Mockingbird - other group's BotM
✔️The Annual Migration of Clouds - other group's BotM
✔️Mapping the Interior - other group's BotM
✔️Ubik - - Classics Bingo and SFFBC bookshelf reread
✔️Pygmalion - other group's BotM
✔️Eugene Onegin - other group's BR and Classics Bingo
✔️Childhood’s End - other group's BotM (reread for me)
✔️Zero Hour - other group's short story of the month
✔️The End of Eternity - other group's BotM
✔️Someone like Us - other group's BotM (if my library loan ever comes in)

Lots of books of the month for SFFBC and other groups. A number of them are short (under 300 pages) or are rereads for me, so this isn't as daunting as it looks.

Again, if I have time I'll try to read more for my cyberpunk project or for my Shakespeare project. I'd also like to continue my Elric reread or start the next Drizzt trilogy (Paths of Darkness).

[CJ]

June-August 2025 🌈 Pride Summer Reading Project

Reading mostly genre fiction by LGBTQIA+ authors over the next few months

Long works:

🟡The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow
🟡The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond
🟡Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
🟡You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo
🟡Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
🟡Even the Worm Will Turn by Hailey Piper
🟡Song of the Tyrant Worm by Hailey Piper
🟡Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard
A Fire Born of Exile by Aliette de Bodard
🟡A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert
Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault
The Brightness Between Us by Eliot Schafer
🟡These Vengeful Gods by Gabe Cole Novoa
Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao
Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson
The Fall is All There Is by CM Caplan
🟡Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
🟡They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran
🟡The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
🟡Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Short works:

🟡A Book is a Map, a Bed is a Country by Angel Leal
🟡Calved by Sam J. Miller
🟡To Rise, Blown Open by Jen Brown
Dick Pig by Ian Muneshwar
🟡Douen by Suzan Palumbo
🟡Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride by Christopher Caldwell
🟡If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You by John Chu
🟡Away With the Wolves by Sarah Gailey
🟡The Diner at the Intersection of Duty and Despair by John Chu
🟡Emotional Resonance by V.M. Ayala
🟡Signs of Life by Sarah Pinsker

I will most likely add and swap out titles as the project progresses but the titles listed here are ones I'm most committed to reading.

[CJ]

My July TBR and reading plans! A completed project! A (mostly) completed series! New projects!

July is Disability Pride month and while I haven't put together much of a list, I will be looking out for more disabled authors to check out.

My June reading so far has been great. I'm down to the last book on my June TBR and I should finish that before July 1.

I completed my Classics Bingo challenge and have started a new project focusing on reading shorter works by spec fic/SFFH authors. I added all the short works I've read this year so far for tracking and the dopamine rush.

Another new challenge for me will be a slow read of Les Misérables with r/AYearofLesMiserables which will be led by the same person who's leading r/yearofannakarenina which I'm also doing. The Les Mis slow read starts July 14 (Bastille Day!).

I also started a proper Pride reading challenge. There are just too many titles I want to get to for just one month so I made it a summer project.

And I have finished The Stories of the Raksura series by Martha Wells, save for one of the books of short stories which I'll get to eventually. I am knee-deep in The Tyrant Philosophers series by Adrian Tchaikovsky who just confirmed on social media that there'll be 5 main books plus "extras." I'm on book 2 and have recently read "Woodmask," a short story in Uncanny Magazine set in the same universe. Looks like I'm in for the long haul with this series.

Now, for my July TBR of my various groups' BotMs and BRs:

✔️Dead Silence - SFFBC BotM/power point
✔️One Hundred Years of Solitude - SFFBC BotM/power point
✔️House of Open Wounds - SFFBC summer combat prompt
✔️Among Others - SFFBC July combat prompt/Books by the Dozen
✔️We - SFFBC July combat Prompt
✔️All the Sinners Bleed - SFFBC July combat prompt
✔️King of Ashes - BR, SFFBC July prompt
The Man Who Saw Seconds - BR - DNF
✔️They Bloom at Night - discord BR

[Ellen]

C.J. you have a full month planned. I got some ideas for the combat prompts. I've already read some of the ones you're using. Like your cyberpunk list too.
The year long read of Les Misérables looks interesting.I'm going to check it out. I've been thinking about the book recently. Been a long time since I read it.
Are you going to go with eye read or audio book for Les Mis?

[CJ]

Yeah, I try to keep busy!

I am parallel reading the French and English text of Les Mis, with French and English text and the French audiobook

[Ellen]

CJ wrote: "Yeah, I try to keep busy!

I am parallel reading the French and English text of Les Mis, with French and English text and the French audiobook"

That is awesome. I'm stuck with English but I think I'm going to read it and listen to the audio.

[CJ]

I am reading the text along with the audiobook for Anna Karenina and that has worked out wonderfully for me (only in English, my Russian is barely beginner level). I often read other books like that when I have access to both text and audiobook, especially if they're denser or longer reads, like Tchaikovsky's Tyrant Philosophers series, which I'm on the second book of. It makes me read more slowly which I need in cases of books that warrant more deeper reading, due to my ADHD and some less helpful habits I've acquired over the years.

[Ellen]

I will often read the print version with the audio if I have the option. I am a visual learner but it helps me to understand the text better if I can see as well as hear the words. When I was in college I would read my notes out loud when I studied. Also sometimes with an audio book I'll get distracted and realize I've missed a bit.
Plus this is a pretty intimidating book for me. That's why I like the idea of reading over a year so I can absorb it and think about it. I'm reading the Christine Donougher translation and it's supposed to have a lot of footnotes in it and I would miss those in an audio (or not get as much out of them if they are included). I'm looking forward to starting it.

[CJ]

August reading plans! Subject to change!

July was productive but I admit to going off the rails halfway through the month because I finished up a lot of my July TBR quickly and kind of lost focus a little on my various projects. But I stayed reading! I even managed a quicky reread of the whole Murderbot Diaries save for System Collapse. Murderbot is my go-to insomnia read and I have been having a lot of insomnia this summer.

All the projects I've been working on I'm continuing in August except for my Shakespeare project. My interest just isn't there right now, so I'm officially dropping it for this year. I will continue with my Pride Summer Reading project until September, when I will switch over to my Spooky Season Reading project (and yes, I already have a TBR for that!).

Despite feeling burnt out on SFF-centric award shortlist/winners/losers, it's that time of year that I get overly invested in the Booker Prize and have been hyperfocused on that for the past week. It's a sickness, I need help. Anyhow, the 2025 longlist will be announced in a few days so that may intensify or squelch my interest. We shall see. [EDIT July 30: The longlist is underwhelming but I will read a selected number of them if I can.] I am very inconsistent with reading contemporary lit-fic, so I doubt I've read any of the books that will be on the longlist, although a few favorites among the bookish community are on my Libby hold list, most of which will not be available to me any time soon. But currently I am reading selected winners and nominees of past years, having just finished both The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022 winner) and On the Calculation of Volume I (2025 International Booker shortlister), both spec fic types of books. The Libby holds roulette will decide what I read next.

My August TBR:

✔️Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
✔️The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong
✔️Entanglement (Stargate Atlantis #6) by Martha Wells
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
✔️Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon
✔️Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn
✔️Grey Dog by Elliott Gish
The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi (reread)
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin - DNF
✔️Emma by Jane Austen
✔️We Do Not Part by Han Kang

There are other titles I hope to get to in August, but I'm waiting on library holds for. My current Libby holds section is a monster.

[Liz~In~Colorado]

OMGoodnessss!!!🤦‍♀️😯you two make me ashamed!!! I'm retired also, but am struggling under a pile or arc's I took on LOL and nowhere NEAR what you guys are doing!! But I do peek in and look at your lists... ok Im gonna go hide now...🫣
Book Blessings,
Liz🌹🌹🌹🌹

[CJ]

Hi, Liz, no need to feel bad. Reading isn't a competition. :) I just have a lot of time on my hands these days, and reading is my main hobby. Happy reading!