MFAD's Current Reads - Topic of the day 7/12/25
What're you reading currently (whether fashion related or not)? What are you looking forward to reading soon? If you've finished something recently, what did you think of it? (see also https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1141111594160504963)
This topic will run for 2 days.
52 Replies
Read one piece
Reading another banger from the GOAT
Im currently reading rocannons world to my roommate.
As always I’ve been on a horror kick. Here’s some standouts:
The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan - solid epistolary weird/folk horror. I hesitate to call it lovecraftian because fuck lovecraft, but it’s v solid. A bit overblown sometimes, but solid.
The Cipher - Kathe Koja. I don’t wanna give anything about this away, just go read it. It’s dark, it’s wildly gritty, and it makes my skin crawl.
Piercing - Ryu Murakami: hahahaha fuck. This book slaps. Ryu does it again.
Bunny - Mona Awad - I don’t really know what I was expecting with this one, but it certainly wasn’t this. Hallucinatory, funny, and disturbing send up of Heathers/Clueless/Mean girls.
The Angel Maker - Alex North: a weird one, somewhere between se7en and 12 Monkeys.
Psychic Teenage Bloodbath - Carl John Lee: hoo boy. Extreme horror version of Carrie, basically. A better unofficial Carrie sequel than Carrie 2 was that’s for sure. If you’re squeamish I’d avoid this one, but it’s a lot of fun if you’re okay with gore.
I recently read god bless you mr rosewater by kurt vonnegut. Its a much less discussed book of his, but it was really phenomenal. Lots of insight in to the nature of wealth in the united states.
Very short too!
This is awesome i really want to get in to some horror reading
just finished some short stuff, the Vegetarian by han kang (horror, realistic) and All Systems Red by martha wells (sci fi)
todays library pickups
Added recs:
I’ve read these prior, but I always suggest them to folks who are looking for some horror stuff that isn’t Stephen King or Dean Koontz
Between Two Fires - Medieval, cosmic horror, historically accurate, and written by a literal renaissance faire jester (or something to that effect).
The Fisherman - This one is admittedly not for everyone but it’s a really solid slow burn, weird fiction take on grief, how we deal with it, and how we sometimes have the tendency to drown those around us in it.
The Grip of It by Jac Jemc - not a fan of haunted house horror usually, but this is a refreshing take on it.
Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Durham - This one takes some general suspension of disbelief but it’s got a great conceit and pay off
The Haar by David Sodergren - I fucking love this book so much. Really innovative folk horror done exceptionally well.
Bonus round, reverse recs—shit to avoid: there’s a lot of horror that I see rec’d ad infinitum and I can confidently say these suck so completely that it’s astounding they even got published. I’m a known hater, but some of this is just such garbage.
Anything by Grady Hendrix—homie does not know how to write a convincing human being
Anything by T Kingfisher—representation in horror is super important, but I’ve never met a LGBTQ person that is as annoying as any of the characters in a T Kingfisher book. Holy shit. Just a never ending stream of puns. Also worth noting that every book they’ve written seems to just be a “new retelling” of a classic horror tale. We don’t need that yall.
Anything by Nick Cutter—this dude is like the Colleen Hoover of TikTok horror. Insufferable. Difficult to read. Not worth the time.
Is the Martha wells book one of the killer robot ones? Those are a lot of fun
This is my fave Vonnegut book next to Cat’s Cradle!
yes its the first
sooooo funny
I think it’s getting made into a movie or tv show or something
One of the Skarsgards is playing the robot lol
yep first season is out
supposed to be good!
Breakfast of champions and then cats cradle for me!
As i slowly chip through his books im really amazed at how consistently good they aee
Very few misses from that man
If you want some horror recs lemme know! I feel like after running yall through 4(?) DnD campaigns I’ve got a solid grip on what sorta shit you like in a story @Weeg
Yeah hit me with em any time!!
Le guin is so great
I need to read more of her work
I've just started A Hero of Our Time, but I fear I picked the wrong season for it.
Possession was amazing and it's a book that made me want to read more and more and more so I could learn more and more and more about why it's told in the way it is.
Recent reads/currently reading/ next up
I’ve been reading and analysing Ansel Adam’s ‘Born Free and Equal’ for my dissertation, but recreationally I’ve recently been reading a book called ‘Who Owns The Moon’ which apply historical and contemporary doctrines and laws on exploration as a cautionary tale for space colonisation. i’m also reading Woody Guthrie’s ‘House of Earth’
Thank you for the deinfluencing. I really wanted to like What Moves the Dead, but was just bored the whole time. ive read The Troop which was just fine, but clearly so King inspired I have no reason to go back to Cutter. Maybe unpopular opinion but I'd add Stephen Graham Jones to the over hyped list. I really struggled with The Only Good Indians
Just finished Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat by steinbeck bc I got to depressed from crime and punishment. Got halfway through Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! but the humor is wearing thin - currently looking for some good new sf novels or short stories to check out
le guin!
i’m currently reading tombs of atuan, about 70% done
surprised how different it has been to wizard of earthsea so far
I just finished Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, now I‘m about to start The Vegetarian by Han Kang
Both are for research purposes for papers I have to write for uni but so far I‘m having a lot of fun!
After that I want to pick up sth by Banana Yoshimoto again, she’s my all time favourite author
@nowhereface thus book is fucking brutal dude
love that cover tho
Yeah I heard
I‘m reading it for a course on identities in East Asian literature, we had to pick one from a literature list to write an essay about and this was my pick!
My presentation was on Men without Women by Murakami, super interesting as well
The German cover I have at home is hideous sadly:nooooo:
I just wrapped up Worn: A People's History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser, and I enjoyed it for the most part, like a 2.5-3/5 from me. The title is a bit misleading and is more like a history of cloth/fabric, and it's a bit incoherent, and it's basically entirely Western/US-focused... but it's a decent high-level look at textile manufacturing history. Probably a good read for those just starting to get into clothing.
For fiction, I recently finished Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar and really liked it, like a 4/5. I had a lot of fun.
And speaking of Han Kang, I also recently finished Human Acts, and it just devastated me, 5/5. Fiction, but it's an incredibly haunting depiction of the Gwangju Uprising. When I was in Korea last year, I spent the majority of my time in Gwangju and walked through Democracy Square, Building 245, the memorial parks, etc. where much of the uprising and violence happened.
Just started reading Augustus by John Williams
Just finished :
The second book of The Expanse series, Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey (4.5/5)
All of the current books of A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin (5/5 but no ending)
And A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (4.5/5)
Recents have been:
On the Road by Jack Kerouac - Not great at all
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thonpson - alright, not too bad
Men without Women by Murakami - some good stories in there
Dispatches by Michael Herr - interesting read if you’re into the topic
Martyr by Kaveh Akhbar - almost amazing
On the Calculation of Volume 1-3 by Solvej Balle - amazing!
Now I’m reading the Heart is a lonely Hunter.
Jones’ short fiction is much better—if you haven’t read it check out Mapping the Interior. I can’t stand his long form stuff but his novellas and shorts are great
Yes, Mapping the Interior is the exception. It was the first thing I read by him and was excited for something longer then was super disappointed
Also re: Kingfisher. I tried the Hollow Places and have never hated a group of characters quite as much as every character in that book
Utterly unlikable
I was hoping something would happen with What Moves the Dead, cause I'm a weird pronoun freak and was promised an nonbinary protagonist and, while they were it didn't matter that much and felt strange. I can't put my finger on it, but something about it was off. I read Poe as a teenager so knew the Fall of the House of Usher but there was no real change or reimagining.
I'll stop complaining now. I'm about to start The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling and The Terror by Dan Simmons. and for nonfiction I'm very slowly working through Means and Ends by Zoe Baker and for something a bit faster Enemy Feminisms by Sophie Lewis
Honestly the pronoun thing threw me for a loop with that because it’s historical (sorta) which is fine, but I kinda expected the content to reflect a theme of some kind that at least sorta reflected dysphoria, or gender roles, etc but there was just like…nothing there
The Terror is phenomenal, I fear you’ll be disappointed by Luminous Dead
I definitely was
but I’m interested to know your take once you’ve finished it
Seems like we have similar horror taste lol
Ah boo about the luminous dead. Someone suggested it after I told them I like The White Vault podcast. Yeah horror is my preferred genre
Have you read Last Days by Brian Evenson? Or And then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin? Both short and very different but they are some of my favorites
Love Evenson! Devlin is on my list, I’m psyched to get to him
Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck and i never knew what time it was by David Antin
Blame is awesome start to finish
recent: Sophie Lewis, Enemy Feminisms; Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son; read Feminism Against Cisness a while back but keep revisiting certain essays as part of ongoing research
current: Diversity of Aesthetics, volume 1-3
Bangers
Just started this week
how was enemy feminisms!! how is diversity of aesthetics!
you have such good fucking taste in books
i love sophie, excellent book, it's very accessible and she's great about bringing a sense of levity to the horrors of it all in order to keep it engaging. but if you're not already into this shit on some level and/or familiar with her work and politics there is probably a need to really consciously open oneself to the arguments she puts forward
not too deep into diversity of aesthetics yet, but enjoying it immensely so far for producing an absolutely necessary intervention and strident critique of art institutions, including cultural criticism itself as an institution, in this moment (or like, the past few years as a moment)
Just finished On the Beach this week, honestly found it kinda therapeutic
reading Braiding Sweetgrass, so beautiful and poetic
I've been reading some Scifi recently. I finished Ubik by PKD and Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur Clarke. Really enjoyed the former. Also read The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter which was a collection of retold classic fairy tales. Her range of writing style shows through these stories.
Bloody chamber is a classic imo, hugely influential
I've had several people highly recommend T. Kingfisher to me, so I'm surprised/glad to see your reverse rec for her work. I'll temper my expectations before picking up one of her books. Appreciate the warning!
so close to getting the time to finish Extremely Online
next up is Hologram
reading too much nonfic lately
so after that I've gotta get back to weird fic that isn't just praxis fantasy
I got caught in the rain today and took shelter in a bookstore. They happened to have a physical copy of The Left Hand of Darkness, so that's my next read now.
Probably late for this but only just saw it, just finished the first three Elfhame books by Holly Black which my wife recommended and I somehow found myself kicking my feet over the romance
And then I'm going to start Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie as I read the First Law trilogy a long time ago and my wife recently read it and is ahead of me now in the series
Also in the background slowly going through The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, enjoying it but I'm just too tired lately to read much at a time (and Midnight's Children took me about 2 years despite loving it)