pedanther

Fiction books
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, tr. Archibald Colquhoun. The Leopard (e)
Arthur Upfield. Mr Jelly's Business (e)

In progress
Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice (e) (re-read)
L Frank Baum. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (e) (re-read)
Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo (e) (re-read)
Neil Gaiman, et al. The Absolute Sandman: Volume One (re-read)
RA MacAvoy. The Grey Horse (e) (re-read)

Non-fiction books
Glenn Fleishman. Not to Put Too Fine a Point on It (e)

In progress
AC Grayling. The Good Book
Hallie Rubenhold. The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (e)

( short, screen, and stage )
( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Arthur Upfield. Winds of Evil

1. Monument Valley 2 has just come out for Android devices (I think it's been out on iDevices for a while). Where the first game had a girl named Ida exploring the mysterious valley where geometry is more of a guideline than an actual rule, the second game has a woman named Ro and her daughter. The player only has direct control of Ro, with her daughter automatically moving to follow her; when the valley's whimsical geography separates them (which of course it repeatedly does), the player must not only figure out what path Ro needs to take to get to the exit but also what actions Ro must take to non-verbally nudge her child in the right direction.

In the Monument Valley tradition of never outright saying what's going on, the game doesn't (in my experience so far) say what connection there is between Ro and Ida, or whether this is a sequel or a prequel. It has not escaped my attention that the ghostly figure who occasionally appears to give Ro cryptic advice looks a bit like Ida -- but then again, when Ro puts her official hat on, she looks a bit like the ghostly figure who would occasionally appear to give Ida cryptic advice...


2. Another game I've been playing a fair bit lately is Crypt of the NecroDancer, in which you move around a procedurally-generated dungeon collecting treasures and whacking monsters -- and get a bonus if you do it all in time with the beat of the background music. I'd heard a lot about it, so I picked it up recently when it was going cheap in Steam's Halloween sale. I wasn't sure about it at first, but I think I'm getting the hang of it now.


3. Also out this month, Baen Books is publishing Down and Out in Purgatory, a collection of short fiction by Tim Powers, some of which has previously only been available in pricey limited edition chapbooks (or, if you happened to be paying attention at the right time, as somewhat less pricey limited availability ebooks). Of the stories in the collection that I have had a chance to read previously, I have particularly liked the title story, which is like a more compact version of one of his contemporary fantasy novels (the plot involves a man on a quest for revenge who decides he won't be put off when his target inconveniently dies before he can be killed); "Nobody's Home", a prequel to The Anubis Gates featuring that novel's main female character; and "The Way Down the Hill", a disconcerting story that might be a sequel to The Anubis Gates if you squint.


4. With summer coming in, I've started going to the pool of a morning to swim laps. It's going pretty well so far, and I might make it my main form of regular exercise in place of going to the gym. The gym, I've found, tends to set off my insecurities -- am I doing the right exercises? am I doing the exercises right? -- but swimming from one end of the pool to the other repeatedly is a lot more straightforward and I find it tends rather to calm me down.


5. Things I am not doing this month include Nanowrimo (doesn't really work with the way I write, to the extent that I have one), Yuletide (I don't mind offering to write for people, but I can never think of anything to ask for), and the ficlets I offered to write for that AU meme over a month ago (plain and simple procrastination, no excuse).

Fiction books
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener. Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science (e)
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener. Atomic Robo and the Flying She-Devils of the Pacific (e)
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener. Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X (e)
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller. Dragon in Exile (e)
Terry Pratchett. Small Gods (e) (re-read)

In progress
Terry Pratchett. Lords and Ladies (e) (re-read)

Non-fiction books in progress
Jung Chang. Empress Dowager Cixi

( short, screen, and stage )
( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Terry Pratchett. Men at Arms