Self finished All Systems Red two days ago, which marked the end of her science fiction cycle and the beginning of a mysteries/thrillers cycle. She’s currently reading Dead Letters, by Caite Dolan-Leach, which is full-on family angst, involving twins. Talk about upping the ante.
She likes clustering her reading — sometimes by genre, sometimes by author.
For a few years, she read only books by women.
Another few years, she read only memoirs.
Another few years, she read only travel books.
Another few years, she read only books by African American writers.
One summer, she read only Henning Mankell.
There was a period of reading just history books.
And so forth.
For 2018, she read mostly novels. But these ranged from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials to science fiction. She adored reading science fiction, which she hadn’t done in a while. She read The Hunger Games, sure — but they don’t really count as science fiction, do they?
Anyhoo, she is sorry to let the science fiction genre go. It’s probably the most rapidly expanding literary genre at present. And, because in August she attended a talk by George R. R. Martin in Redwood City’s Fox, and picked up a few copies of Oakland-based Locus Magazine, her attention was immediately captured by an announcement of the World Fantasy Awards. One of her newly discovered favorite authors, Fonda Lee, whose Jade City self just finished reading, was a co-winner with Victor LaValle for Best Novel (Yay, Fonda Lee!)
They even had a category for Best Short Story, for which Fonda Lee was a finalist.
And there was also a category for Best Artist (Winner: Gregory Manchess). She really enjoyed looking up the finalists art.
Now, back to her reading/writing.
Stay tuned.
