You might look up ‘linked stories’/‘novel in stories’: they’re single-author collections that have all the stories set in the same world, often with shared characters, sometimes with an overarching or background narrative. Might be a good middle ground?

Currently reading Golden Terrace: Volume 1 by Cang Wu Bin Bai. Not my normal fare, but I was lured in by the description: historical Chinese PG-13 M/M arranged marriage romance with lots of court politics. I’m not super convinced by the romance so far, but the political aspect seems solid. I am getting a little lost with how many characters have already been introduced to the plot, but hopefully that’ll settle down once all the important stuff’s been established.

__

Finished London Rules by Mick Herron. Basically more of the same as far as the Slough House series goes, and fun enough. Herron’s bad guys are never really fleshed out or nuanced, which is fine, but I found the ones in London Rules to be especially one-dimensional stereotypes, to the point it was a little off-putting.

It did: they gave Drummer Michio Pa’s story in the last couple seasons.

I had an idea last year for a challenge mode that was basically “how few books can you read to cover every category?”, but it didn’t really fit the goal of reading more lol. Might still be a fun side thing to try, though!

Just like last year, we’ve pre-seeded the Storygraph challenge with ~500 (mostly fiction) books from various genres, if you’re looking for ideas (no account required to browse!).

ETA: The returning categories have different book suggestions from last year, so for even more ideas for those squares, check last year’s Storygraph, too.

Thank you both. :)

My first thought is maybe a magnolia flower bud? Not sure it’s the right fuzzy though. You might see if you can identify the park trees.

The show’s done the usual cutting, streamlining, or tweaking that adaptations do, like making Lamb less of an offensive jerk and River a little more competent than in the books. Otherwise, I think they’re pretty similar, tbh; same story beats, very snarky, fairly quick-paced. There’s something about the first 3 that I liked better than the next couple (which is why I put this one on pause), but I can’t put my finger on it.

Ooh, awesome! I hope you end up enjoying Relic. It wasn’t my favorite book ever, but I thought it was fun.

Thanks for the recs!

Finished Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. Discworld books are always a delightful read.

Currently reading London Rules by Mick Herron, which I put down about halfway through, a long time ago, and never got back to. I’m trying to kill time til new bingo starts, and this is going to be the new season of Slow Horses, so I figured now was a good time to finish it. It’s fun.

I don’t see people mention the Budayeen series very often, but I remember it being great!

Not sure how good these are (or how truly cyberpunk-y they are), as I haven’t read them, but here you go:

• Club Contango by Eliane Boey (Singapore)
• Stormblood by Jeremy Szal (Australian by nationality, Middle-Eastern/Slavic ethnicity)
• House of Gold by C.T. Rwizi (Zimbabwe/South Africa)
• The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan (India)

It’s on my watch list, although I’ll probably end up waiting til it’s streaming to see it. Glad to hear it’s good!

( !horrormovies@lemm.ee and/or !horror@lemmy.world might appreciate this post, too.)

Nice! You could move AltC to 4D and 2C to 5D (or just use your substitution square and put AltD in there), and get D column. (Demon Crown’s military thriller + scifi might count as unusual for 4D hard mode, idk.)

I looked up some of these because of your summaries. Did you have a favorite?

Ivara was my first main stealth frame, so I’m so used to using her for spy and conservation that I’ve never bothered using the better options. I do think she’s still excellent for fishing. Otherwise, you’re not wrong, though.

(Thank you for continuing to do these posts!)

Did you end up liking The Butcher of the Forest? I thought it was wonderful, even though the last couple of pages felt very tacked-on.

Any clear least favorite from your reads?

John Le Carré is on my list, but I haven’t read him yet. What did you think?

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was great. I can also recommend Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, although I bounced off the sequel (YMMV, ofc).

Here’s my list:

• 1A: Older Than You Are - The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
• 1B: Water, Water Everywhere - The Bell in the Fog by Lev AC Rosen
• 1C: What’s Yours is Mine - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
• 1D: Family Drama - Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
• 1E: It Takes Two - Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
• 2A: New Release - Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud
• 2B: Plays With Words - Dark Star by Oliver Langmead
• 2C: Independent Author - There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm
• 2D: Bookception - Malice by Keigo Higashino
• 2E: Disability Representation - Death in the Spires by KJ Charles
• 3A: Eazy, Breazy, Read-zie - Hold the Dark by Frank Tuttle
• 3B: Stranger in a Strange Land - On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers
• 3C: FREE SPACE: One Less - A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
• 3D: There is Another… - Auberon by James S.A. Corey
• 3E: LGBTQIA+ Lead - Weak Heart by Ban Gilmartin
• 4A: Now a Major Motion Picture - To Catch a Thief by David Dodge
• 4B: It’s About Time - The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
• 4C: Award Winner - Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
• 4D: Mashup - City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
• 4E: Local to You - Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
• 5A: Debut Work - Neuromancer by William Gibson
• 5B: It’s a Holiday - Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge
• 5C: Institutional - Relic by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
• 5D: Minority Author - The Spite House by Johnny Compton
• 5E: Among the Stars - The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August

Stats I thought were interesting: 10/25 were off my TBR pile; 18/25 hard mode. Most read category: horror, followed by scifi (including multi-genre works).

This was fun!

It’s not there if you’re trying to do professional printing: I still see people complaining about messed up color profiles, exporting, etc. Otherwise, I’ve found it fairly ok, although pelespirit’s right about the clunk here and there.

Reading Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. 'Nuff said.

Finished The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison. Set in the world of–and very similar to–her Chronicles of Osreth series; in other words, if you want more Goblin Emperor or Witness for the Dead, this is a nice little tidbit. Works as a standalone, but the societal naming conventions will probably confuse you if you start here.

Just started The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison, as a palate cleanser. I expect it’ll be cozy.

Finished Fever House by Ken Rosson. This started very fast-paced, but (imo) got bogged down by (interesting) flashbacks. I enjoyed it, but would have liked it to be shorter, somehow. Not sure I’ll read the sequel, since this one swerved into a sub-genre I don’t usually go for.