Month: November 2021

Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson

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Started: 11/17/21
Finished: 11/18/21

What do you do when you’re about to have a baby but the zombies are attracted to the smell of blood? Isolate and hope you survive! Link: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/badass-moms-in-the-zombie-apocalypse/

Helicopter Story by Isabel Fall

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Started: 11/16/21
Finished: 11/17/21

A really interesting take on the trans experience, using a meme to start with and providing a nuanced view of it. Not my favorite short story, but still a good one. (The internet exploded on the author, and the internet was wrong, from what I can tell.)

Finna by Nino Cipri

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Started: 11/12/21
Finished: 11/14/21

Maybe I just don’t like stories set in Ikea-like stores. I almost put this one down, but it’s a Hugo-nominated novella, so I powered through. And it was interesting – aftermath of a failed relationship, alternate universes – but something about the fake Ikea setting put me off. I gave up on the only other book I’ve read with a similar setting, too.

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

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Started: 11/8/21
Finished: 11/12/21

Next in the Wayward Children series, nominated for a Hugo like all the others because, well, it’s good. This wasn’t my favorite, but I’m happy to see the series move forward. I like the installments that serve as backstories to characters we’ve met, too, but knowing there’s a big picture arc is satisfying to me.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

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Started: 10/28/21
Finished: 11/7/21

First in a series, YA, some of it was predictable, and some of it was very not predictable, and I liked it a lot.

The only thing I wasn’t crazy about it a thing that a lot of YA books do: the characters, teenagers all, never act like teenagers. Or, not never, but even kids faced with a ton of responsibility are still going to act like kids sometimes. I don’t think these kids did. So I was occasionally taken out of the story when I remembered that, hey, this character who said he made a super-serious decision “years ago” is only 18 right now, and then it turns out he made this super-serious decision when he was 12. Uh huh.

That aside, I really liked it, and I LOVED where it took the plot.

Why?

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The “why” phase of toddler development officially began this week. LOTS of “why?”, sometimes pursued, sometimes abandoned. I’m trying to gauge when he’s actually asking vs when it’s the start of an objection and he doesn’t really care why unless the answer is “okay, you’re right, you can do or have <insert toy or food here>”.

I’m happy to follow him down the why rabbit hole, though. Twice, just this week, with completely different starting points, our journey took us to an explanation of how time is linear. Coincidence? Maybe, but I plan to pay attention and see how often this happens.

I don’t remember the start of the second conversation, but the first one started on our way home from a playground. He had kicked his shoes off. “Mommy, can you get my shoes?” “Not right now, sweetie.” “Why?” “Because I’m driving the car.” “Why?” I wish I had recorded it – I’d really like to remember how we got to time, but it was perfectly logical then.

If it happens again, I might publish.