What I've Read and Liked Lately: Murderbots, Social Workers, Goblins, Ancillaries, and Claire

My July TBR stack might be a little overlarge, oops.

 Most of my recent favorite books have been part of a series, and I love nothing better. My favorite way to read is to find a super-long and complete series of books that I can dive into for the foreseeable future (see: Master and Commander).

My second-favorite way to read is smack-middle in an ongoing super-long series of books, re-reading the entire run every time a new book comes out, because otherwise, what if I miss a reference or an inside joke or I don't completely remember every minor character's backstory?

See: Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone.

I love living in the Outlander world, although I'm a little picky about whom I associate with there. I skim the Lord John Grey, Willie, and Roger and Brianna stuff so hard that I sometimes have to go back and re-read them when I realize that I've actually missed a plot point. Like, all I'm truly interested in is following Jamie and Claire around as they live their lives. I don't even care if anything exciting happens to them--I'd happily read 900 pages of them puttering around their homestead day after day after day.

And... that might be what I did here? I loved this book, couldn't put it down, even dutifully ran my eyes over the doings of my less-preferred characters--I even finally got interested in Brianna and Roger!--but later, when a friend asked me what it was about, I was all, "Uh... Claire gets a beehive, and she does doctor stuff. Jamie's doing something political, I think? Their house sounds awesome." I didn't notice the absence of plot, and I didn't miss it, not when there were too many other things to be preoccupied with, like what will Claire make for dinner, and does the floor need sweeping, and what's the gossip with the neighbors, and what's going on in the garden. It's a very cozy book, and one I could happily pick up anytime, at any page, and read again.

Alas that the Montague Siblings books will remain a trilogy, not a forever-long, unwieldy series. But the Goblin got his own book!

I haven't loved any of the other two books in this trilogy as much as I love The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, but I do love continuing the ride. I love how the author can write so realistically about young people while incorporating fantastical, magical elements and high adventure. It makes living in that fantastical, magical world feel absolutely real, because if you're going to have madcap adventures with a gang of adventurers, then yes, realistically at least one of you absolutely has terrible anxiety.

Discovering a brand new-to-me series and getting to start it from the beginning is just as exciting as reading a new installment of an already beloved series. Will handed me the first book of the Murderbot series--

--and I related to Murderbot SO HARD.

Murderbot is all, "I'd rather ride in the cargo hold and watch TV than sit with you humans and connect emotionally. Also, I am putting forth absolute minimum effort at my job."

Same, Murderbot. Same.

The book gives off a lot of Bucky Barnes fanfic vibes, which is not a bad thing. The story of how a person who's not treated like a person claims and then negotiates autonomy is compelling, and invites conversation about what it even means to be autonomous, or have personhood.

Even better if you get to explore space and fight a lot!

So, what I just said could also be the plot of this other book series that Will gave me and that I absolutely love, but I promise that they're very different! The Ancillary series plays a lot more with gender and language, making it clear how artificial and arbitrary each is, and even halfway through the third book I'm still guessing about what "biological" sex some of the main characters are:

But all this philosophical stuff is also in there with some excellent sci-fi, all "this is how the spaceships think" and "this is how the space station works" and "here's a really sophisticated gun that the entire plot hinges on." AND there's world-building, with a colonizer race with a fleshed-out worldview and religion, and colony races also with fleshed-out worldviews and religions, and other sentient creatures that give hints of the same but are also beyond the scope of our characters' ability to comprehend.

Just, there's a lot going on. Read these if you like books where there's a lot going on.

Not to be outdone by her sister, Syd recommended T.J. Klune to me, specifically The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door:

I connected with both of these books probably more than the kids did, because the protagonists of each are middle-aged, bumbling fools, which is what I feel like most of the time. I like the fantasy elements and world-building of The House in the Cerulean Sea better, and the way that the main character develops over the course of the book is so sweet and wholesome, AND the literal son of Satan is one of the most wholesome characters--okay, I just requested it from the library again, along with all of TJ Klune's other books.

I need to get back in the habit of pairing my escapist fiction with some non-fiction reads, because I think my brain might be starting to deteriorate. Does that start to happen when you're 46, or do you think I got an undiagnosed case of COVID sometime and now I have brain fog?

Okay, off to work a crossword puzzle and then read some non-fiction!