Then and Now #9 (9/20 - 9/26)

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted @ Caffeinated Reviewer. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.  It is hosted weekly over at Mailbox Monday and every Friday they do a round-up of some of their favourite, shared reads! 

Last Week

Another week of classes behind me! The lecturers are already dropping casual hints about assignments and presentations, so that is fun! I didn't get around to a whole lot of fiction reading this week, which is a shame, but I did have quite a busy social schedule so that explains it. One of my friends has moved to Ireland to start her PhD, and then I had catch-up dinners with others. On top of that a landlord visit and, since yesterday, a broken washing machine, and now I'm pooped! All of it was really fun though, except perhaps the washing machine, and I had some amazing food, but I'm also looking forward to doing nothing today!

I also finally saw Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings in the cinema! My friend accidentally booked a 4D screening, which means our seats kept moving every time someone stepped in a car, swooshed along with fight scenes and occasionally blasted me with water or air. It was an EXPERIENCE. Not mad at it, but I may need to re-watch the film without all those added bells and whistles. It did inspire me to finally sign of to Tai Chi lessons! I've got a "taster session" at Beginner level next week, am very excited to see how it will go. 

What I posted this week:

• Review: Girl A by Abigail Dean, narr. by Holliday Grainger
• Review: Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
• Friday Friyay: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Recommendations

I've been listening to Classic FM, a British radio station that plays classical music and sometimes the occasional soundtrack, A LOT. I got into it while I was in the Alps with my dad and his girlfriend and since then it's become a perfect accompaniment to work. The hosts are all lovely as well. You can listen to it online anywhere and making an account is also free, although I don't think an account is required the first few times you listen.

Aside from that, when I feel like not working or studying, I have been watching Our Planet on Youtube, via Netflix. They have put all the episodes up there which I think is great because its message of looking after our planet and getting to know its beauty should be open to everyone. Below is one of my favourite episodes, cause it features bears, 'Fresh Water'!

Mailbox Monday

Battle of the Linguist Mages by Scotto Moore (Macmillan-Tor/Forge; 1/11/2022)

Isobel is the Queen of the medieval rave-themed VR game Sparkle Dungeon. Her prowess in the game makes her an ideal candidate to learn the secrets of "power morphemes"—unnaturally dense units of meaning that warp perception when skilfully pronounced.

But Isobel’s reputation makes her the target of a strange resistance movement led by spellcasting anarchists, who may be the only thing stopping the cabal from toppling California over the edge of a terrible transformation, with forty million lives at stake.

Time is short for Isobel to level up and choose a side—because the cabal has attracted much bigger and weirder enemies than the anarchist resistance, emerging from dark and vicious dimensions of reality and heading straight for planet Earth!

This looks utterly delightful! I can't wait to see what Moore does with the medieval VR and I'm always up for some weird time-bending/alternate universes/worst timeline-type books!

Persians by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (Perseus Books; 4/12/2022)

A stunning portrait of the magnificent splendor and enduring legacy of ancient Persia 
 
The Achaemenid Persian kings ruled over the largest empire of antiquity, stretching from Libya to the steppes of Asia and from Ethiopia to Pakistan. From the palace-city of Persepolis, Cyrus the Great, Darius, Xerxes, and their heirs reigned supreme for centuries until the conquests of Alexander of Macedon brought the empire to a swift and unexpected end in the late 330s BCE. 
 
In Persians, historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the epic story of this dynasty and the world it ruled. Drawing on Iranian inscriptions, cuneiform tablets, art, and archaeology, he shows how the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the world’s first superpower—one built, despite its imperial ambition, on cooperation and tolerance. This is the definitive history of the Achaemenid dynasty and its legacies in modern-day Iran, a book that completely reshapes our understanding of the ancient world.

The Persians are a people, culture and empire about which I hardly know anything! A guy in my class did a presentation on them last year and that really piqued my interest, so I'm very excited to learn more through this book. 

The Watchers by A.M. Shine (Aria & Aries, 10/14/2021)

You can't see them. But they can see you.

This forest isn't charted on any map. Every car breaks down at its treeline. Mina's is no different. Left stranded, she is forced into the dark woodland only to find a woman shouting, urging Mina to run to a concrete bunker. As the door slams behind her, the building is besieged by screams.

Mina finds herself in a room with a wall of glass, and an electric light that activates at nightfall, when the Watchers come above ground. These creatures emerge to observe their captive humans and terrible things happen to anyone who doesn't reach the bunker in time.

Afraid and trapped among strangers, Mina is desperate for answers. Who are the Watchers and why are these creatures keeping them imprisoned, keen to watch their every move?

Whose ready for some spooky, potentially actually terrifying, reading fun?! It's almost Halloween month and I'm seriously considering putting together a spooky reading list for myself, with a good mix of horror, domestic thrillers, some Victorian spookiness, and other good (read: terrifying) things!

Reptile Memoirs by Silje Ulstein, trans. by Alison McCullough (Grove Atlantic; 3/15/2022)

Liv has a lot of secrets. For her, home is the picturesque town of Ålesund, perched on a fjord in western Norway. One night, in the early-morning embers of a great party in the basement apartment she shares with two friends, Liv is watching TV, high on weed, and sees a python on an Australian nature show. She becomes obsessed with the idea of buying a snake as a pet. Soon Nero, the baby Burmese python, becomes the apartment's fourth roommate. As Liv bonds with Nero, she feels extremely protective, like a caring mother, and she is struck by a desire that surprises her with its intensity. Finally she is safe.

Thirteen years later, in the nearby town of Kristiansund, Mariam Lind goes on a shopping trip with her eleven-year-old daughter, Iben, who angers her mother by asking for a magazine one too many times. Mariam storms off, leaving Iben in the shop and, expecting her young daughter to find her own way home, heads off on a long calming drive. When she returns home in the evening, her husband is relieved to see her but terrified that Iben isn't also there. Detective Roe Olsvik is assigned to the case of Iben's disappearance; he has just turned sixty and is new to the Kristiansund police department. As he interrogates Mariam, he instantly suspects her—but there is much more to this case and these characters than their outer appearances would suggest.

A biting and constantly shifting tale of family secrets, rebirth, and the legacy of trauma, Reptile Memoirs is a brilliant exploration of the cold-bloodedness of humanity, and the struggle to mend broken lives and families.

I was utterly intrigued by this blurb! I'm also in the process of falling in love with Norway so of course I'd want to read its fiction as well. This sounds like the perfect blend between slightly odd and deeply realistic.

And that's me! What did you get up to last week?