My free time has been starkly limited these past few months. I’m unsustainably busy– I blink and lose a week. So let me try a new thing, to counter this sinkhole consuming my memory; I’m going to keep a record of the fiction I manage to read. Journaling’s not my thing, but this exercise will let me reap some of the benefits of deliberate self-reflection. And will also help me find things again later.
Rules: I’m only listing stories I finished, or at least read a substantial chunk of. Most of the ongoing serialized things I’m reading don’t count. I’m also not counting unpublished fiction, because I don’t have permission to talk about my friends’ WIPs. And this month, I’m not listing microfiction, because oops! I forgot to save links and can’t remember those titles.
I think this list makes it pretty obvious that I do most of my reading on my phone, while at the office. Shh, don’t tell my boss. Until linkrot strikes, you can find these stories by clicking through.
Short stories
“Nine Billion Turing Tests” by Chris Willrich
A very human take on a near-future world with AI. The ending got me.
“You Came to the Tower” by Shaenon Garrity
Probably my favorite short story forever. This was a reread. I will be rereading this one multiple times a year for the rest of my life. It’s about two sisters who carefully maintain the ecosystem on a satellite ark, and what happens when the outside world intrudes.
“Jeeves Takes Charge” and “Extricating Young Gussie” by PG Wodehouse
Way funnier than I thought they’d be, even knowing Wodehouse was famous for his humor. I didn’t expect these stories to hold up so well, considering how seldom I’ve seen them hyped. My understanding is that Wodehouse’s reputation was irreparably tarnished by his appearance on Nazi radio in 1941.
“Angelfall” by André Geleynse
A writer buddy’s favorite short story. She looooves this one to pieces, so of course I had to read it.
“The Machine Stops” by E. M. Forster
This is such a covid story, despite being written in 1909. In the far future, humans live inside a massive, subterranean machine that takes care of their every need, to the point of obviating in-person relationships. And then it starts to break down.
Novels
Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Woods by Catherynne Valente
The one physical book I read this month. A completely original fairytale. Fun, inventive, and heartwarming. Osmo Unknown’s mother has killed the queen of monsters, and now, under the terms of an ancient treaty, he must travel into the afterlife of the Eightpenny Woods and wed her ghost. This one was actually a covid story.
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes. You know who he is. I did not expect the novel debuting Watson and Holmes to feature so many Mormons.
Comics
Nevermore by Kit Trace and Kate Flynn
I LOVE this story!!! Two women are pitted against each other at an occult university. The twist? They, and their classmates, are ghosts. The prize? Resurrection. The catch? The women were probably lovers in life, but only Annabel Lee remembers. She’s maybe my favorite heroine in anything ever: a fantastic, gorgeous, sly, conniving, hopelessly besotted chessmistress, who’s manipulating everyone in a plot to save her beloved Lenore. The problem? Annabel fell in love with Lenore for her gallantry– She’s just too damn moral to approve of Annabel’s machinations. Every move Annabel makes drives a wedge between them, because Lenore wants to save the chessmistress’s pawns. With her record of defying adversity, you’ll hope that she can. Except you know she’s fallible; death’s already come for her once. The tension is great, the central relationship is STELLAR, the extended cast is amazing, and the art is incredible. I would rec this comic to anyone. It’s still ongoing.
Serena by Ina
This one’s interesting. It’s an arranged marriage drama set in a nonmagical secondary world. Another complex heroine here, the titular Serena, who’s fighting to come into her own as the heiress to a luxury hotel after the death of her immediate family and a forced marriage to a man she can’t trust. The pacing can be slow, but that’s part of the charm. It’s a good bedtime read– If you like romances with a political focus, which I do. The story is still ongoing.
Not Even Bones by R Schaeffer and Starpiper
The comic adaptation of the Market of Monsters series, a trilogy of paranormal YA books. Nita dissects the supernatural beings her mother kills to sell their bodies on the black market– Until she’s victimized and sold herself. The degree of black-on-black morality and gore in this series continually surprised me. Nita’s forged-in-fire friendship with a murderous “zannie” who feeds on pain was compelling. I can’t think of a book available when I was a teenager where the protagonists were allowed to be this flawed. At times, they’re outright evil.
Time Roulette by SN and Bae302
A fantasy comic about a Korean law student who’s given a divine time-traveling roulette that assigns him missions in the past, where he assumes the role of historical figures, in exchange for granting wishes. The pacing was kind of all over the place, so ngl, I mostly read for the inhuman guide who comes with the roulette. He was cool.