Where did last week go? It seemed like it was Sunday, then I went to a nearby state park to go hiking, and now it’s Sunday again. So I ask again: where did last week go?

But hiking!

So I got up a bit early on my day off and headed out to the park. I was a bit grouchy when I got outside because the sky was completely clear and full sun is not great for landscape photography- especially in the woods. But the farther I drove, the more clouds there were, and by the time I arrived at the park, it was fully overcast. It was great! Nice, diffuse light without harsh shadows. It was just about perfect.

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Obligatory Mina Photo:

Mina has decided (again) that she is too cool to hang out with me.

Until it’s time to play. Then she’s happy to spend time with me, because the wand toy isn’t nearly as fun to play with if I’m not there to flick the feathers around for her to chase. Her favorite thing to do is to ‘hide’ behind her scratching tunnel and wait for the feathers to reach just the right spot. Then she leaps over the tunnel and pounces on the feathers. She thinks its the best thing ever, and is quite proud of her amazing jumping ability.

The other thing she likes to do is to hop onto the bed after I’ve turned out the lights for the night. She’ll gently settle down next to the pillows and curl up to sleep with her head on my hand. It’s just about the cutest thing she does, and it makes me so happy. Even though she pretends that I am totally uncool the rest of the day.

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What I Finished Reading Last Week:

• A Master of Djinn by (The Dead Djinn Universe) P. Djèlí Clark, audiobook narrated by Suehyla El-Attar
• Body Work (A Rivers of London Graphic Novel) by Ben Aaronovitch, Luis Guerrero, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan
• Lies Sleeping (Rivers of London #7) by Ben Aaronovitch, audiobook narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
• A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1) by Arkady Martine
• Night Witch (Rivers of London Graphic Novel #2) by Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan

A Master of Djinn was so much fun! Sure, I solved the mystery a couple of chapters before Fatma did, but I didn’t mind. It was still fun to see Fatma puzzle things out, and there were plenty of things that caught me by surprise. I thoroughly enjoyed the resolution, too. That was completely unexpected. I think it’s a good resolution to the series, so if Clark decides not to keep writing in it, I’ll be okay. But I’d be thrilled if he decided to write more.

Body Work, Lies Sleeping, and Night Witch are parts of Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series. I had no idea that the graphic novels were actually part of the overarching series, but here we are. I finally know what the characters are talking about when they mention ‘the most haunted car in England’. Body Work is an interesting story, and the graphic novel’s art is good. It’s fine as an addition to The Rivers of London, but I wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise. Lies Sleeping is the penultimate book in the series, and seems to wrap up a major overarching plot for the series. But maybe not? Maybe it’s just leading to a new chapter in Peter Grant’s life? I don’t know. It was, again, fine. The highlight was Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s narration, and the snarky commentary on The Silmarillion. Night Witch is the second graphic novel in the series, and involved Peter investigating the disappearance of a Russian child. The girl’s mother swears she was taken by a Russian faerie, but Nightingale isn’t so sure, and mayhem ensues. This, too, was fine.

I finally finished A Memory Called Empire, and it was amazing! Easily one of the best books of the year for me. It deals with memory, identity, what it’s like to love a culture that is swallowing your people whole, and what it’s like to suddenly realize that you will never truly belong to this culture that you love. It has politics and complex worldbuilding and characters with so much depth. Mahit is fantastic, but I really love Three Seagrass and Twelve Azalea. Their friendship is top notch. I mean, how often do we get male and female characters who are best friends? Not often enough. I loved this book, and I’m looking forward to the sequel, A Desolation Called Peace.

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What I’m Currently Reading:

umm…. Nothing at the moment. I finished both A Memory Called Empire and Night Witch yesterday, and didn’t immediately start anything else.

Weird.

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What I Plan to Start Reading This Week:

• The Iron Wyrm Affair (Bannon and Clare #1) by Lilith Saintcrow
• The Hanged Man by P.N. Elrod
• Black Mould (The Rivers of London Graphic Novel #3) by Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan
• False Value (Rivers of London #8) by Ben Aaronovitch, audiobook narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

I still have those two steampunk novels to read, so I plan to start one of them today. It’ll probably be The Iron Wyrm Affair, but you never know. I might try The Hanged Man, seeing as how I haven’t actually read that one before. Black Mould and False Value are the next installments for me in the Rivers of London series. We’ll see if I complete the entire series in the next couple of weeks, as I have basically all of the graphic novels checked out from the library, as well as False Value. I just haven’t started them yet.

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About That Writing Thing:

Did I get as far as I wanted to in the editing process? No. No, I did not. Am I still way ahead of the game? Yes, I am. Why didn’t I complete the sections I wanted to? Well, I kept listening to audiobooks and wanting to get through them. I went out of town for a bit, and then on Friday night, the people on my Tolkien Discord server decided to have a watch party where we all put on our copies of The Fellowship of the Ring on and chatted together while watching it. It was fantastic. We’re planning to watch The Two Towers next Friday, which means I really need to focus on editing the rest of the week to get back on schedule.