Another week is in the books! (Ha….) The weather has cooled down a little (but still humid. Gross), it’s been quieter at work, and overall it’s been pretty laid back. And today, a book club meeting! A planned Target run! Because when you’re in your 30s, brunch and a Target run are super exciting things to do on a Sunday…. But then, sometimes doing ordinary things with your friends is the best way to spend your time.

I was out of town on Wednesday to hang out with family for the day. During some downtime, I wandered around to take some photographs:

So. Reading. I started out strong this week, but got bogged down in the last few days because of my first ARC approval from NetGalley. Robert Jackson Bennett’s Foundryside looked so interesting, but there were so many things that annoyed the hell out of me. So. Many. Things. I’ll have a review for it later, after I’ve had time to organize my thoughts and when it’s closer to the release date.

It’s unfortunate that I had a poor experience with Foundryside, because A) it had such promise, and B) I set other, more exciting books aside because I didn’t want to get caught up in something else and then not finish Foundryside. I didn’t want to not review my first approved ARC, so I pushed through, finished it, and managed not to throw my eReader across the room. But it’s done now, and I can go on to more exciting things!

What I finished this week:

• The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays by J.R.R. Tolkien
• A Sea of Love by Wilfrid Lupano, illustrations by Gregory Panaccione
• A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers #2) by Becky Chambers
• Havana Black by Leonardo Padura, translated from the Spanish by Peter Bush
• Foundryside (ARC) by Robert Jackson Bennett

After a bit of browsing on Tor.com, I found a series of short stories they commissioned for International Women’s Day back in March. The theme was, ‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’, and there’s a whole bunch of them by some phenomenal women authors. I read ‘The Ordinary Woman and the Unquiet Emperor’ by Catherynne M. Valente and ‘Our Faces, Radiant Sisters, Our Faces Full of Light!’ by Kameron Hurley. They were both fantastic, and I want to read more of them. Definitely check this series out, as the stories only take a few minutes to read, and inspire that Feminist persistence we all need.

I decided to put My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk aside for a bit. I have several library books I need/want to get through, and having My Name is Red sitting there in the back of my mind is not the best feeling.

I’m currently in the midst of the audiobook version of The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski, and so far it’s great! I had expected something akin to a grimdark story, and while there are definitely aspects of that, there is a lot of fairytale subversion and wry humor in it. The narrator, Peter Kenny, is excellent. I’m enjoying this collection of short stories, and will definitely be continuing the series.

What am I planning to read next?

• Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
• Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine
• The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

I kind of doubt I’ll get any other books this week, because these are a bit longer, and I need to get them done before they’re due back at the library. We’ll see, though. I’m looking forward to all of these, and if they’re as good as I’ve heard I’ll probably get through them pretty quickly.

I finally watched Annihilation this week. I had intended to see it in the theater, but like most movies, I managed to miss it. Fortunately the library had a copy. It is bizarre and visually astonishing, and it’s so fantastic to see a film with female characters who are smart and strong in their own right. I wish Hollywood would stop trying to pigeonhole everything into a generic genre in their marketing, because this didn’t get nearly as much traction in theaters as it should have. I hope it gets nominated for all the Oscars next year, because it is brilliant.

I also got Blade Runner 2049 from the library. I missed this one in the theaters, too, but was pleased to see that it won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects last spring. I hope it lives up to the hype because the director, Denis Villeneuve (who also directed the brilliant film, Arrival), is working on a two-film version of Dune, which is my favorite science fiction book of all time (and it’s notoriously difficult to bring to the screen, and I want him to succeed sooo much…). I’d planned to watch it last night, but it was too nice of an evening so I went for a long walk and listened to the audiobook of The Last Wish. So I’ll watch Blade Runner 2049 tonight. Assuming it’s not another beautiful evening that demands that I go outside.

So that’s been my week in books and movies! What have you been reading or watching?