Radiance: A Novel | 
so-soThis book was a struggle, so close to DNF. One chapter would totally excite and captivate me, and then the storyline would switch topics, discarding what interested me.
It‘s a fun mix of sci-fi and old Hollywood but by the end I was just straight up confused 🤣
"You're not in Wonderland anymore, but you positively reek of rabbit"
so-soI was excited for this mostly based on the unique formatting and the promise of mystery, but I feel like the author relied too heavily on the format to make the book interesting and dragged it out far too long. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
so-soThis was about a three star book for me. It was longer than it needed to be at 400+ pages, and the ending wasn't worth the payoff. However, it did have some beautiful imagery and was well-written. #BookSpin
1. Radiance - a most unusual book
2. The Appeal
3. More reading. Maybe hanging out at the dojo. :)
@rachelsbrittain #WeekendReads
First complete sentence: “Being unable to retrace our steps in Time, we decided to move forward in space.“
What are you reading this weekend?
I love the way the story is told with regular narration, snippets from magazines, production meeting notes, etc.
It‘s taken me WAY too long to get to this novel that first caught my attention and made it onto my shelves in 2017, but here we are at last!
I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join the fun if you want.
This is day 54 #bookstoread #tbrpile #bookstagram
bailedI gave it 100 pages but it wasn't for me. I found all the characters of a negative mind set, either angry, frustrated and/or bitter. Not for me at this time.
pickAfter reading this and Space Opera, I am in awe of Valente‘s imagination. She writes the most surprising things with such daring and confidence. Radiance is a unique book — I‘ve never read anything like it. Because of that, it took me some time to get my bearings while reading it. But it is well worth reading because the setting is achingly gorgeous and fascinating, the story is beautiful and bittersweet, and the writing is wise and clever.
1. Radiance by Catherynne Valente, The Last Time I Lied By Riley Sager, and The White Album by Joan Didion
2. Ravenclaw
3. Steven Universe
#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain
Starting this one next. I had my first encounter with Valente last summer with Space Opera and found it delightful, so I‘m excited to read something else of hers.
pickIt took a little bit to get into this book, particularly since I thought Severin was pretentious. But the mystery draws you in and it was a race to the finish!
I rec‘ed this to the Spouse, but he took forever getting past the first few chapters so I was getting worried. (The beginning is hard going, and he‘s been fatigued from work.)
But he insisted he would finish it and in the end declared he was happy he had persisted. The verdict is that this is some of the best sci-if he has read in a long time. Up there with his fave, China Mieville, (strong praise indeed) but also reminiscent of Peter F. Hamilton.
But you begin where you begin, and hope - even if hope is a pickpocket with both fists full - to go, somehow, further and higher
"How many beginnings can a story have, Daddy?"
"As many as you can eat, my lamb. But only one ending. Or maybe it's the other way around: one beginning and a whole Easter basket of endings."
Last day of my long weekend....and what will surely be a stressful and grueling 3 weeks of work.
I‘m not actually reading this yet, but Cat Valente‘s responsible for the blueberry vanilla goat cheese and cinnamon sugar pita chip action I‘ve got going on here. Also revisiting my fried chicken to turn it into delicious sandwiches based on this recipe: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/tyler-s-fantastic-fried-chicken-sandwich
#staycation #audiocooking #myfemmekitchen #summer #stonefruits
pickThis book is strange, and probably not for everyone. For the first 60 pages I wasn‘t sure it was for me. In the end I loved it and was sad to emerge from it. Radiance is part Gothic silent movie, part that bewildering scene at the end of the film adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It has a dash of Noir, a touch of carnival and comics, more than a hint of fairytale, and a liberal dollop of secret ingredient.
“I‘ve come to think you only get so much bravery in one lifetime, and if you spend it too soon, you‘re all out of ‘fuck it all to hell‘ by the time you really need it.”
"The stories were stowaways: they hid in the ships with the settlers, only coming out to breathe and stretch when absolutely necessary. And when the ships made landfall, the stories, having conserved their energy, burst free and ran wild, changing into local clothes and dancing up on stages and wearing flowers in their hair. Stories are like that."
Yeah, I‘ve had mornings like that. He really should have gone for black coffee. There is no failure in black coffee, only the bleak bitterness of the void.
Ok, on second thought, maybe the tea isn‘t the problem here.
Catherynne Valente's books are always weird, like everything took a lateral leap somewhere and ended up slightly out of phase with what you'd expect. In Radiance we have space travel and a fully populated solar system, but no "talkies" - only silent movies, due to patenting laws.
Morning reading featuring my #literarytattoo and more Cat Valente
This is Day 6 of the 7 Days of 7 Book Covers Challenge!!!! Y'all know what to do. #7days7bookcovers
The thought of cassowary-esque creatures tracing young children basic Mandarin really tickled me! I've really been struggling with this book but this whole chapter has drawn me right back in!
Photo challenge time - #sunmoonstars is today's challenge for #newyearreads by @bookloo and @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
I am looking forward to reading all these on my TBR. Thanks to @teebe 😍 I now own Radiance. Yesss❣
It's arrived!!!!! Thank you so much @teebe for my #secretsantagoespostal #ssgp #wintersolsticebookexchange parcel. Posted in mid-December it arrived today. I think it must be a record. Such wonderful gifts. I love each and every one. I will search for your book recommendations too. Such kindness. A big, big thank you.
@Avanders @MrBook @BookBabe
And thank you once again to @squirrelbrain for your wonderful #ssgp gift too.
Love to you both.
pickAnother staggeringly original, twisty, layered, genre-melting fanfare of a novel from Valente. It would be utterly pointless to describe it except to say that it is brilliant. Utterly brilliant and unlike anything else I've read. Tagging a short break now while I get up and decide what is next! #24in48
This is so great. I love Valente's imagination. I think you'd really like this @TobeyTheScavengerMonk #24in48
Eating off my knees because it's cold and the table is TOO FAR from the radiator ❄️❄️
pickI read this one yesterday and have some complicated feels. I really enjoyed the style, even though I found it a bit confusing most of the time. I enjoyed the way the characters were developed. The story itself seemed very confusing, until the wrap-up that happened in the last 20 pages. I think I really enjoyed it?
Daniel got me this novel for Christmas. It is described as a “decopunk pulp SF alt-history space opera mystery set in a Hollywood-and solar system-very different from our own.” I don‘t really know when I‘ll get around to reading it, but I am certainly intrigued.
1. I'll set my Goodreads goal at 50 because I hate falling behind, but will probably try to read significantly more than that 😂
2. Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente, The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis, The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
3. Favorite is magical realism or speculative fiction. I try to read all genres
4. Never done one!
5. I never pay attention to litfluence 😂
I can't believe I'm bailing on a Catherynne Valente... but I have to save this book for later. The only copy I could find through the library was an audiobook, but I feel like I have to read this story in print. This narrator is absolutely lovely, but I have a difficult time following epistolary stories on audiobook.
Does anyone else out there feel like certain stories should be experienced in a specific format and only that format?
#septembowie #day7 - #lifeonmars
*falls on knees, raises fists to the sky*
"I'M BRINGING IT BACK!"
-
Seriously, I've sung this book's praises so much, I should probably schedule a reread, just to make sure it's really that good (spoiler: it is).
I found the "stars" part of #starsandstripes! #jubilantjuly
