October began in Florence and ended in Chicago, with excursions by train to Milan, Strasbourg, Cardiff, and Edinburgh. I went to the Stranimondi convention in Milan, which was a ton of fun. I read fourteen books, many of them on trains and some of them on the plane back across the Atlantic, and some of them were great.
Curse of Bronze — Tansy Rayner Roberts (2020)
Cosy fantasy in which a girl inherits a house from her cursebreaking aunt and shenanigans ensue. Very clearly the beginning of a series, fun, light, enjoyable.
The Cider House Rules — John Irving (1985)
I’ve never read any Irving before, and I fairly recently saw an interview with him that made him seem like an interesting person, so I picked this up when it was on sale. First, it’s really, really well-written, with close-up focus on people and places and events of the kind that’s just unbeatable. Second, it’s about orphans and abortions, in rather more detail than you might want in that kind of focus. Third, though it’s got a good story in it, it’s really just a pattern of incidents, there’s no real reason for it to start and end where it does, rather than just keep on going forever. It’s also really long and took me a long time to read. I wouldn’t say it was fun, and I’m not sure I’ll ever pick up another Irving, but it was absorbing and the characters and incidents, even the cartoonish ones, felt larger than life in just the right way. It couldn’t really happen, it’s less likely than any science fiction novel, it’s Dickensian grotesque, a mode of its own. I’m glad I read it, and that there’s a ton more Irving out there in case I ever feel like more of this.
The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien — J.R.R. Tolkien (2024)
Giant book, not so much a poetry collection as a collection of every version of every poem Tolkien ever wrote, edited by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond. More for scholars than people who just want to read poems. I sort of enjoyed this, because I like some of these poems a lot, and others were new and interesting, but it also felt like a slog and I resented the footnotes. I liked the poetry but disliked the apparatus. And I don’t need multiple versions of everything, I’d prefer just the final version.
Hellburner — C.J. Cherryh (1992)
Re-read. Indeed, I’ve written about it here before. I just felt like reading it, and raced through it. You could call it MilSF, since every character we see is in the military, and it’s about building a new kind of spaceship for war, but interestingly, it’s a book about making a team and getting the people in the right positions for the team, and it’s also about a team (rather than a lone genius) making a technological thing work. The happy ending here does very much depend on stopping where it does, despite the fact that Cherryh had written books set later in the same timeline, so we know more about where the characters are heading than they do. I love this complex universe that feels like real future history, this situation with so many sides, even this partial victory.
Carry On, Jeeves — P.G. Wodehouse (1925)
I think Jeeves just isn’t for me. It’s mildly fun, and certainly having an intellectually challenged POV character is interesting, but it feels like a waste of time. Last time someone said the novels are better. If I give one a try, which should it be? But it may be that this is another example of me not enjoying comedy.
Hexarchate Stories — Yoon Ha Lee (2019) Not actually book 4 of the trilogy the way it says it is. This is in fact a large number of very short stories set in the universe of the Machineries of Empire trilogy, a few reasonable length short stories, and one long novella. Despite the fact that this contains the story that got me into the universe in the first place, the whole collection felt superfluous. I didn’t much care for it, and would have preferred to have left the characters and the situation as they were at the end of Revenant Gun.
Reading Shakespeare Historically — Lisa Jardine (1996)
Interesting book about comparing women and situations in Shakespeare to microhistorical situations in his time, along with a lot of feminist consideration of his women and agency. Very interesting thoughts on Gertrude and how we think about her and why we think about her that way. A little old fashioned, as you’d expect from a thirty-year-old book, but still very much worth reading.
Downbelow Station — C.J. Cherryh (1981)
Re-read. I wanted to read it after reading Hellburner, I was caught up in the universe and wanted more of it. This is in many ways the central book of the Alliance Union universe, set at the moment the Alliance is coming into being, with many points of view and a lot happening, taking place in a few months at the end of a long war in space. Full of ethical dilemmas, people doing the best they can, and all in the claustrophobic world of ships and stations out away from Earth. Great aliens. When I write about Cherryh I always use the word “complex” approvingly, because history is complex and people are complex and her situations are always complex in the way history is, and her characters make the kinds of decisions people make, which are seldom clear or uncomplicated. This book can be confusing the first time you read it, there’s a lot going on. But it’s really worth giving it the attention it needs. And, like Cato, I repeat my perennial whine: Why is there no ebook of Cyteen?
Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise — Katherine Rundell (2019)
Not really a book, more the length of an article, but I bought it as a book and read it as one. Rundell wrote the brilliant Donne biography, and a number of children’s books, and here she’s arguing for the value of children’s books with an interlocutor who isn’t me—I agree with her, and you probably do too. She quotes Le Guin a lot. This would be useful to give to someone who might change their mind, I guess, but if you already see the value in children’s books there isn’t much here that isn’t already obvious.
Rich Girl Summer — Lily Chu (2026)
Weakest of the Chus I have read so far, alas. The heroine plans memorial celebrations of life, the hero loves spreadsheets and workflows; after a memorial goes spectacularly wrong, she ends up being hired as a fake daughter to investigate the whereabouts of the rich guy’s real daughter. The rich family were obnoxious, the details of the summer too idyllic, and the progress of the romance too obvious. Having said that, Chu is a very good writer or I wouldn’t be bothering to nitpick. But don’t start with this one.
The Renaissance Rediscovery of Intimacy — Kathy Eden (2012)
When Petrarch found Cicero’s letters, he also found a template for friendship through writing, which then was spread by Erasmus and Montaigne. I like reading letters, and Erasmus is the only one of these people whose letters I haven’t read, so I’ll put them on the list. Neat book.
More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity — Adam Becker(2025)
The subtitle says it all, really. Fascinating book about the way people like us can go wrong and become bizarre cultists who believe in a coming AI god. It teases out the roots of these movements and shows a lot of how we got in this mess. A fast read, and useful to understand where these things are coming from. The belief systems amount to a weird new religion. Jon Evans’ Exadelic turns out to be closer to reality than I’d imagined.
The Harlequin Tea Set — Agatha Christie (1997)
An interesting odd collection of stories, all of them fine, and then the last one, the title story, which connects back to her stories of Mr Satterthwaite and Mr Quin. The original Quin stories were written at the beginning of her career, and this right at the end—it was her last published short story—and it makes me wish she could have written more of these odd edge-of-genre things. Since she didn’t, it also makes me wonder why she wrote this one; at the time when she was providing completion for Marple and Poirot, she felt a desire to revisit these characters even though they didn’t have the same kind of fanbase. Anyway, I was delighted to see Mr Quin again.
Revolution in the Heart — Jonathan Strahan (2026)
An anthology of stories in tribute to Ursula Le Guin. Absolutely wonderful standout stories from Karen Joy Fowler, Ann Leckie, Kelly Link, Premee Mohammed, Sarah Pinsker, and Molly Gloss, and also a bunch of other very good stories by Charlie Jane Anders and a bunch of other people. Remarkably high quality overall. Very interesting to consider what in Le Guin they were reacting to in their different ways. There were a lot of stories here I’d expect to see on award ballots next year, and overall, this is a stellar collection that everyone who likes SF should read.
