This week I finished In The Woods by Tana French. I liked it and had no idea where is was going, but was a little unsatisfied with the ending. Definitely want to check out the rest of the series, though.

Just started reading Beartown by Fredrik Backman today and I’m only about 100 pages in. I like it so far, but I wish everyone would stfu about how obsessed with hockey the town is and just get on with the story already.

So I started In the Woods, by Tana French. I tried reading it but the narrator began annoying me only a few pages in. He's exactly the sort of smug, superior bastard whose POV I can't stand. So now that book is on hold until I gather enough patience to give it another try.

Was in the mood for sci-fi so I began Consider Phlebas, by Iain M. Banks. I haven't really tried space opera outside of watching Star Trek but it's interesting so far.

Finished In the Woods, by Tana French Pretty good police procedural set in Dublin.

Started Barkskins, by Annie Proulx Great so far! She has long been one of my favorite writers. Postcards and The Shipping News are really great, in particular.

Only 100 pages (of ~550) to go in my reread of In the Woods, by Tana French. It's as wonderful as I remember. What sets French apart from most of the mysteries I've read is her focus on the detective(s) involved in the case. Each novel features a pivotal case in a detective's career. It can be their first, their last, a case that solidifies the bond with their partner, ends their partnership, alters their perspective on life or their understanding of the past. This close to the end of In the Woods I think my memory of whodunnit is correct!

I just started the audiobook for A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers. It's a loosely connected sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. This sequel focuses on a freshly initiated AI that was transferred to an illegal body kit (basically the AI now has a human appearance instead of being locked to a stationary computer). The AI is under the wing of a tech guru of sorts. It seems like the book is going to explore the idea of AIs as sapients and navigating life without a backlog of knowledge to pull from. It'll be interesting to see how everything unfolds. It's very different from the first novel.

Just finished In the Woods, by Tana French. Great mystery/procedural/thriller story. I didn't know anything about it going in, picked it off some "Top 10 mystery blah blah blah" list. Looking forward to trying some more books in the series.

Also currently reading Invisible Planets, translated by Ken Liu. After the Three Body Problem, my interest in Chinese scifi was piqued, and this collection is really hitting out of the park. The titular short story is excellent, and there have been no real disappointments.

In the Woods, by Tana French

Rereading for the first time in almost 10 years. All of French's books (so far) follow a detective from the Dublin Murder Squad. She focuses on pivotal cases in their careers that shape who they are and may be the start/end of their careers. This specific novel focuses on a detective returning to the neighborhood he grew up in to investigate the death of a young girl. When he was a kid he ran off in to the woods with two of his friends and his friends were never seen again, but he has no memory of the events of that afternoon. The case is set to dredge up uncomfortable memories. I don't remember much, but I think I remember some. It'll be interesting to see if I'm correct!

A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab

I'm not sure if I like this book or not. This is my current audiobook and I'm about halfway through. The characters are coming across as fairly flat. The idea of worlds existing in parallel, each with its own perspective on / amount of magic is interesting, but seems poorly explored.The actual plot is still pretty vague. I guess we'll see how it goes.

In the Woods, by Tana French

French is my favorite mystery writer. I haven't read In the Woods since around it's release (~2008ish). My book club picked it for this month and I can't wait to read it again. I've finished the first few chapters and I'm in love all over again. French writes outstandingly well. Her novels always focus on pivotal cases in her detectives lives, making them as much about the detectives as the mystery.

Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren

This is my current audiobook and I've got some mixed feelings. I work in science so I was interested to see another person's perspective. It's true that women in science face challenges that men do not. She states she has to work twice as hard as any of her male colleagues. Hopefully it's an exaggeration but she makes is sound like she works 80 hours while all the men work 40. It also doesn't get at where the bias actually lies. Men are more likely to get grants. With all the time she spends focused on funding, you'd think she'd bring it up. Given two equal grant proposals with one coming from a man and one from a woman, the man will get the money. It's outrageous. It could also be that I just don't like her for feeding her dog hamburgers and candy.