Reply to February 2026 - What are you reading?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m in a noncommittal phase so partway through several:

Story of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang. I’m about 1/2way and may DNF because I don’t enjoy short stories or the genre, but I’ve read enough to understand why people praise him so highly. By coincidence, I read somewhere this week that he’s a technical writer in his “day job,” and I can see the influence. The stories show vivid imagination but combine that with a clarity and simplicity of language that I really appreciate.

Martyr!, by Kaveh Akbar. This was passed on by my high schooler, who said several teachers saw her reading it and commented on how much they liked it. I’ve barely started and have no idea where the plot will go (I like it that way so don’t read blurbs if the book came well-recommended) but the narrative voice sucked me right in.

Astonish Me, by Maggie Shipstead. Kindle says I’ve read this before but I SWEAR that’s not true!!! Only a few chapters in, but I suspect it will be good. Her book Great Circle was one of my favorite reads last year.

Garments Against Women, by Anne Boyer. This is a small book of prose-poems. Very much NOT my usual thing, but I read an excerpt on “not writing” in Celine Nguyen’s Substack and loved it so much I had to read more. And I’m loving this one so much that today I also ordered her more recent book. (Side note: Celine Nguyen is much more highbrow than I will ever be, but I adore her posts and highly recommend her Substack to any readers who are highbrow or highbrow-curious. Come to think of it, her most recent article may be where I read about Ted Chiang’s day job.)

And because that all sounds fancier than my usual, I just finished Murderbot #3 (my favorite so far!) and Katherine Center’s The RomCommers, which was sweet and fun. 
[/quote]
I just read “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang. I agree - he writes very well, and has very interesting ideas, but the lack of emotional investment you can develop in the characters makes it hard going.[/quote]

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