Gav Reads

Tag: book-blog

  • Sunday Summary: 14 Dec 25

    Sunday Summary mainly functions as my personal record of book-related topics that have captured my interest over the past week. It also acts as a public memory prompt and bookmarking system.

    Books Read & Reading This Week.

    Finished:

    • Physical: When the Museum Is Closed by Emi Yagi [Trans. Yuki Tejima] [2023/2025] 

    This is about a woman who falls in love with a statue and has a full-blown conversations with it. If you’re into slightly surreal and weird fiction, this is 100% for you. I loved it.

    • Audiobook/e-book: The Devils by Joe Abercrombie [2025]

    For those who have been following along, finishing The Devils has taken me a while. It’s not the book, it’s the fact that it was an audiobook (I just haven’t found the right situations to listen to anything). Well, it was slightly the book; it’s episodic, so once you finish one block, there isn’t a hook into the next section. However, switching to the ebook, I picked up the pace and found the ending perfect for the story. I am really glad I made it to the end. I wonder what book 2 will bring?

    Currently Reading: 

    • The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

    I have picked this back up after Womble’s instance that it’s not what I think it is – I’m back into it and curious again – I wonder what’s going to happen?

    Book-ish Thoughts

    I do love the lists that prizes present, especially when they include books I might not otherwise encounter. The TFR Awards is one on them:

    The 2025 Longlist for Best Transfeminine Fiction (TFR Awards)

    I own, but have yet to read, Lessons in Magic and Disaster and Black Flame, and until checking the availability of Woodworking, I didn’t own that either, but I do know thanks to a silly ebook sale.

    Anyway, I’m intrigued by Stag Dance and A/S/L but I’m not sure that they are books I’ll end up reading.

    Here’s the 2025 Longlist for Best Transfeminine Fiction for you to check out:

    • Lessons in Magic and Disaster – Charlie Jane Anders
    • A Mask for the Sun – Kay F. Atkinson
    • Magica Riot: Full Bloom – Kara Buchanan
    • Disappoint Me – Nicola Dinan
    • Black Flame – Gretchen Felker-Martin
    • Keeping the Peace – Tris Husband
    • A Hungry Light – Zin Nabelle
    • Glitch Girl! – Rainie Oet
    • Stag Dance – Torrey Peters
    • Woodworking – Emily St. James
    • A/S/L – Jeanne Thornton
    • A Rotten Girl – Jemma Topaz
    • Machines of Consent – Sophia Turner
    • One of the Boys – Victoria Zeller

    Any that you’d recommend?

    If you want more information about any of the books, the post on The Transfeminine Review includes descriptions and other details for each.

    Books That Others Have Tempted Me With:

    Cover(s) of the Week

    Outro

    We’ve almost at the end of the year, which is making me reflective.

    I’ve kept track of my 2025 reading thanks to thestorygraph.com and updated my Read in ’25 page list. Of the 32 books, only 6 were published in 2025. 14 books were from 2024, so if this pattern continues, I’ll be catching up with 2025 next year!

    I’m still figuring out what I want to post in 2026, but for now, I think I want to keep doing these weekly posts, though they do take more time than you’d think. Not sure what I’m doing with reviews, though.

    Anyway, I hope you find time to do some reading despite the pre-Christmas week chaos.

  • Thoughts: Embracing the DNF

    This week, I have DNF’d (Did Not Finish), aka started but not finished the following books:

    • The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley [2024]
    • Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis [2024]
    • Extremophile by Ian Green [2024]

    And in May, I DNF’d:

    • The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn [2018]
    • Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami [2016/2025]

    And before that, I was struggling with the following:

    • Red Sonja: Consumed by Gail Simone [2024]

    That one actually put me in a reading slump. 

    Are they ‘bad’ books? Definitely not. They’ve got mainly positive reviews. A Womble, for example, enjoyed The Ministry of Time and Extremophile. Most of them are award-shortlisted, so someone has definitely advocated for them. 

    Do they work for my brain? No. At least, they didn’t work for me when I picked them up. And part of my brain won’t let go of them. Why didn’t I like them? Why did other people enjoy what I did not?

    It’s those kinds of spirals that cause a short circuit.

    I joked on Bluesky that the theme for the rest of 2025 is: 

    DNF With Gay Abandon.

    I am considering getting it printed on a t-shirt.

    A T-Shirt with a logo of a book in the middle. Above that is 'DNF' and below is, 'With Gay Abandon'
    T-Shirt Idea

    What I don’t want to do is put myself in the position of another reading slump. They are brutal. I am giving myself permission to DNF for the silliest of reasons without guilt.

    It might be the book, or it might be me, but I’m going to try not to read too much into it if you don’t? 

    Though I don’t understand how anyone made sense of Under the Eye of the Big Bird… 

    I’m leaving this post here before I get myself in trouble.

    But before I do, I’ve avoided a slump. I’m reading Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner [2024], and the narration is doing the right things for my brain.