The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm reading Kay Chronister's Appalachian-set folklore-type story, set for publication October 1, The Bog Wife; I'm listening to the first in Danielle L. Jensen's Norse-inspired fantasy duology, A Fate Inked in Blood; and I'm reading Becky Chambers's science-fiction novella To Be Taught, If Fortunate, about futuristic space exploration.
What are you reading these days, bookworms?
01 The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
In Kay Chronister's Gothic-feeling Appalachian-set folk story The Bog Wife, the Haddesly family has tended the cranberry bog for generations and has enjoyed its sustenance.
In a complex series of pledges and sacrifices, the family offers up its patriarch and receives a "bog wife" in return.
But the bog refuses to produce the wife, and the family's future feels in danger. The five siblings don't agree on how to address their problem, and the uncovering of a dark secret threatens everything they've believed in.
I'm reading The Bog Wife courtesy of NetGalley and Counterpoint.
For other books set in Appalachia, please check out these Bossy reviews.
02 A Fate Inked in Blood (Saga of the Unfated #1) by Danielle L. Jensen
A Fate Inked in Blood is the first book in Danielle L. Jensen's Norse-inspired fantasy duology, and when the book begins, Freya is yet again gutting fish alongside her brutish, cruel, selfish husband.
But things get worse: her husband's foolish bluster causes Freya to have to fight to the death against Bjorn, the firstborn son of the jarl. In the heat of battle, Freya discovers that the secret her late father had been holding in order to try to keep her safe is that she is a shield maiden. The drop of a goddess's blood she possesses means she can repel any attack.
Now those who would control her want her to do their bidding, and her people's enemies want her dead. Only the irritatingly handsome, arrogant Bjorn may be able to team up to keep Freya alive--allowing her to discover and fulfill her true destiny.
I'm listening to A Fate Inked in Blood as an audiobook.
03 To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
It's the twenty-second century, and in Becky Chambers's novella To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Ariadne O'Neill and three crewmates are exploring a planetary system many light years from their home. They're working to determine whether human life can be sustained on one of the four planets there.
Through a technique called somaforming, human space flight has been revolutionized; synthetic supplementations allow humans to travel to otherwise deadly environments.
As Ariadne documents the dangers and promise of her mission, the murky, complex moral issues involved in the exploration become clear.
Becky Chambers is also the author of A Psalm for the Wild-Built, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, and other books.
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