Hi, it's Maija here, and today I'm just going to be talking about my current reads. But
first I want to make a shoutout to this new channel that I found quite recently.
The channel is called ONYX Pages and it is run by Njeri, and she will focus
mostly on Afrofuturism on her channel, but also science fiction, fantasy, and
magical realism. She already has quite a few reviews up,
she has her own rating system, and she has reviewed books by Nalo Hopkinson and
Samuel Delaney, for example, already. So go and check her out. I'd also like to
mention that you might have noticed that I haven't done a wrap-up since June, so I
think I will do a week where I will post all the Wrap-Ups: July, August, and
September. That's either two or three videos. Normally I wouldn't bother with
July at this point, but I actually have it filmed. I've had it filmed for a
while now, but it's so long because I rambled on for so long that I haven't
had the will and effort and time to go and edit it. But now I only need to film
my August and September wrap-ups - most of that was stuff for The Reading Quest - so
look forward to reviews of all of those books that I have read during the past
three months. So, what am I currently reading? I am still reading The Stone Sky
by N.K. Jemisin, the third book in the Broken Earth
trilogy, and no, I haven't been reading this all the way from the Friday Reads
video that I did with this, because I actually had a false start and then I
caught the flu and couldn't continue, and after the flu I just started it from the
beginning. Now I'm, I think, two-thirds of the way through; I have about a 100 pages
left. I just haven't found a good enough chunk of time to really focus on
finishing this, because I feel like the finale is starting to roll around and I
want to read the whole last chunk during one day. But I just haven't had the time
to focus on this. I also have been reading it a bit slower than usual,
because I find that every chapter, that is not Essun's chapter, has so much new
information for me to focus on that I need to read it slowly and assimilate all
that new knowledge before continuing. So I've been reading it for, like, one or two
chapters at a time. And the reason why I haven't really been able to focus on
it and spend my time on finishing reading it is because
Inktober is also happening this month. So Inktober is drawing an ink drawing every
day in October, and I've been doing that, even though right now I am one day
behind. But drawing takes a lot of time from my reading and it takes a lot of
focus from my reading, so that's why I haven't been focusing on The Stone Sky. I've
been instead reading a few other things on my Kindle. And I'm currently reading A
Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson, which is the second novella set in the world
of Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, which I quite enjoyed, but I think I'm liking
this one even better, even though I'm only about 30% of the way through. So
this is a world mixing science fiction and fantasy, with gay or bisexual main
characters. I'm so far really enjoying this. And the final thing that I'm currently
reading is The Fire's Stone by Tanya Huff. This was written all the way back in
1990 and it's quite a classic fantasy story about the Fire's Stone, this magical
relic that is stolen, and the main characters have to get it back. But there
are a couple of things that make it stand out from the regular high fantasy.
One of those is that it seems to be a standalone, which is quite well done in
my opinion, and the second one is that the two main male characters are
bisexual. Well, one is bisexual and I'm not quite sure yet if the other one is
bisexual or gay, but that's still very good LGBT representation all the way
back from 1990. And so far I find this really, really fun. I've read about 30% of it
and the plot is only just now getting started. I found it so entertaining that
the first 20 percent of the book were spent by this foreign thief's
relationship with this old dying woman, and his idea of going to the king's
palace to steal something. The foreign character's name is Aaron and he has red
hair - I'm not quite sure what sort of kingdom this is set in, but I think it's
somewhere around Middle East that is taken as inspiration for this world. And
the other main character is this prince called Darvish. He's the third son of the
king of Ischia, and he feels like he doesn't have a place in the royal
succession and there's nothing that no one wants him to do or needs him for, so
he spends his time trying to keep himself drunk and
in bedmates so that he doesn't have to focus on his father
issues and his feelings of uselessness. And the focus is on these two for the
first 20% of the book. After that the third character is introduced: she is a
princess from another kingdom and she has been promised to Darvish to marry,
sort of unify their kingdoms, a completely political marriage that
neither of them is really excited about. The princess would like to just focus on
her studies of magic - she is a wizard and she wants to continue being a wizard and
not ever get married, which of course doesn't flow well with her father. And
that's where we are currently. The fire's stone has just been stolen, so the plot
is getting started, but so far I'm really enjoying this. Apart from one fact, which
is that this is rampant with fatphobia. Fatness seems to be linked with greed
in this book, and this one greedy character's body is constantly being
described whenever he is in a scene. So that's a big minus. So Inktober is really
slowing down my reading, but I'm also taking part in 30 Day Book Binge, which
is something being run by Misty from The Book Rat, which is just about reading
every day in October. So I try to draw and read every day in October, even
though I've been reading in quite small chunks. I would really like to get these
books finished so that I could move on into more October-y reads. After I finish The
Stone Sky I would really want to move on to reading Generation Loss by Elizabeth
Hand. If you can remember, I picked up the second book in this mystery/thriller
series, Available Dark, from the library because it mentioned the Finnish death
metal scene, so I really want to start reading this one. I feel like it's a good
October read. And also I would like to read from my own books The Raven Boys by
Maggie Stiefvater. And from ebooks the one that I would like to read next is
the vampire book Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. So that's all that I'm
currently reading and what I want to read next. Stay tuned for my wrap-ups, and
also Top 5 Wednesday has a lot of great topics this month, I would
really like to take part in those. I missed the witch one already which I
wanted to make. Maybe I'll do my top five witches just to celebrate
Halloween. I'd also like to do a Halloween recommendations video - I have
so many ideas and so little time to actually film them, because I need to
draw and I need to read. Let me know in the comments how you are doing and I
will see you in my next video. Also, I'm wearing my Worldcon T-shirt, I forgot to
show this to you in my Worldcon haul. Anyway, bye for now.
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