What readest thou?

[Lily of Archenland]

I just finished:
-a poetry anthology, mostly devotional literature, by a former online acquaintance
-part 2 of a graphic novel series retelling a scifi saga
-children's illustrated of an adventure inspired by Inuit legend. Very nice painterly illustrations.
-a reworking of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairytale.

[Lily of Archenland]

Update:
-a teen superhero origin story
-a series compendium of weird, sardonically funny, and occasionally grim space opera stories
-a children's illustrated about a vegetarian dragon
-an art history book focusing on the creation and legacy of Van Gogh's sunflower pictures

[Lily of Archenland]

Setting aside the great big in-progress pile for now to focus in on an online friendly acquaintance's newly published baby. A nice chunky fantasy novel. Took me a couple of chapters to get properly into it but I'm starting to really enjoy myself.

[kristi]

Gonna try a middle grade story about a magical bakery. It's called Bliss. And there's another one that's self-published but seems to have a lot of positive reviews and be likened to Narnia, so I'll give that a try and post the title if I like it.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

Do let us know, Kristi!

I suppose I could say I’ve been beta-reading a friend’s book for the second time. I really should stop procrastinating on the one sitting on my desk though.

[Lily of Archenland]

Still on acquaintance's fantasy novel, as I have been very distracted by art things lately. Also started in on some promising poetry.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

I stopped procrastinating on the aforementioned book. I’m now… about 4/5 through it. Fascinating WWII stuff, but can’t recommend due to some language and brief references.

[kristi]

Still working on the novel that was compared to Narnia. I'm deep enough in that I think I'm comfortable referencing it by name. It's called A Soul as Cold as Frost. After a teenage girl has a glowing orb shoved into her hands on the street, she finds herself able to see another wintry world peeking in through the cracks of our own. Soon she's caught up in a race to get the orb to its destination and reveal the truth within before she's caught and forced to battle to the death against an evil queen.

Described as an allegory, you can see hints of Christianity peeking through, but the worldbuilding is fresh and detailed. She over-metaphors sometimes, to my taste. On the other hand, when she describes a character, I know exactly what they look like. And she's also got some lovely ideas, like a character saying "I've wondered for a merry measure what this would be like." What a delightful idiom for a wintry tale!

Apart from a little awkward quasi-swearing (depending on your definition) in the first chapter, it's been clean, too.

I'm not sure I'm as engaged as I should be, but I blame that on listening to it on audiobook. The reader's voice isn't one I particularly enjoy, and every time I actually read without listening I'm much more engaged. I should probably try to read more of it the old-fashioned way just so I can give it a fair review.

[Lily of Archenland]

Kristi, that sounds really intriguing actually. Let me know if it wraps up well.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

Yeah, I’m curious to know whether the ending sticks the landing!