Then and Now #24 (3/28/22 - 4/3/22)

Happy Sunday! 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

Happy April! The gift we got for April? Layers of snow and freezing wind. It honestly gave me a bit of weather-whiplash because how did we go from me wearing shorts because it was warm to me shivering? So that was interesting! I had an ok week, bit stressed here and there, as I realised that I had something weird going on with my right knee. Turns out my main thigh-muscle was majorly tense and it made my knee tick whenever I walked up or down the stairs. I went to a physio though and she gave me some exercises and I already feel like it's getting better. Who knew I'd enjoy massaging my thighs with a tennis-ball, despite the pain of it xD 

I haven't got around to a whole lot of work this week, not sure why I was putting it off, or if I was just taking time to ponder things and let them sink in. But I'm back in my favourite cafe today to do some serious writing, with a big pot of mint tea next to me. I do have a pretty busy week coming up with loads of university events and thesis meetings. Fingers crossed my knee continues improving so I can attend all of it without worries. I've also worked on my "prevention plan" for therapy, which is meant to cue me in on how I'm doing based on my behaviour and thoughts to prevent me from sliding back into major anxiety. I think it'll do the trick, just wondering whether I want to share it with friends and family as well.

Recommendations

I'm still listening to Third Eye by Florence and the Machine, which I shared last week, on repeat. So I was wondering quite a bit on what to share. And then it came to me. I binge-watched Bridgerton's second season with my housemate this week and we looovveeed it. The yearning, the thirst, the 'I'm a gentleman' statement accompanied by the horniest of stares I've ever seen. It's honestly everything I could have asked for. The only complaint: I wanted more of it all.

 

Mailbox Monday

Aspects by John M. Ford (Macmillan-Tor/Forge; 5/4/2022)

At last, the final work of John M. Ford—one of the greatest SF and fantasy authors of his time.

Enter the halls of Parliament with Varic, Coron of the Corvaric Coast.

Visit Strange House with the Archmage Birch.

Explore the mountains of Lady Longlight alongside the Palion Silvern, Sorcerer.

In the years before his unexpected death, John M. Ford wrote a novel of fantasy and magic unlike any other. Politics and abdicated kings, swords and sorcerous machine guns, divination and ancient empires—finally, Aspects is here.

I haven't actually read anything by John M. Ford before, or even really heard of him (oops), so I'm exciting to dig into this. The praise for this book is quite something, and if Neil Gaiman is writing the introduction it must be interesting!

And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin (Macmillan-Tor/Forge; 4/12/2022)

In the tradition of Mira Grant and Stephen Graham Jones, Malcolm Devlin’s And Then I Woke Up is a creepy, layered, literary story about false narratives and their ability to divide us.

In a world reeling from an unusual plague, monsters lurk in the streets while terrified survivors arm themselves and roam the countryside in packs. Or perhaps something very different is happening. When a disease affects how reality is perceived, it’s hard to be certain of anything…

Spence is one of the “cured” living at the Ironside rehabilitation facility. Haunted by guilt, he refuses to face the changed world until a new inmate challenges him to help her find her old crew. But if he can’t tell the truth from the lies, how will he know if he has earned the redemption he dreams of? How will he know he hasn’t just made things worse?

I love a false narrative, a story that plays with stories. But I'm mainly intrigued by the idea of a disease altering how we view reality. What I'm hoping for is that And Then I Woke Up is something of a commentary on recent times, on the way in which we're siloed into our own little bubbles and therefore do witness different realities from one another.

So that's it for me this week! How are you doing?