Castle Waiting Vol II by Linda Medley
Started: 3/14/21
Finished: 3/16/21
Volume 2 of a graphic novel full of NICE fairy tale mashups. I really really hope there’s a 3rd volume.
What I’ve Been Reading
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Started: 3/13/21
Finished: 3/15/21
I tried one of her other books and gave it up fairly quickly, but this one grabbed me right from the beginning. I’m glad to realize it was content (I don’t always have patience for capricious gods on earth stories (that was the other book of hers I tried)) and not style. This one was horrifying and strange and gross and GOOD.
Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear
Started: 3/6/21
Finished: 3/13/21
Book 3 in the Maisie Dobbs series. Any pretense that she isn’t somewhat mystical is gone, and since the pretense is gone, I feel like I can relax about it. It does remove a little of my enjoyment of the mystery aspect, though. Still great characters and good stories, so I’m in the for long haul with the series.
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Okinyan Braithwaite
Started: 3/3/21
Finished: 3/6/21
I wasn’t sure, using the title as my only clue, if this was going to be about actual killing or not, and I’m not going to tell you. But I will tell you that this was really good. I have plenty of sympathy for the main character (not total, for reasons), and I both hate and understand her sister. Sort of understand. Enough to understand the main character’s actions. Anyway, it’s good. You should read it.
A Sudden Wild Magic by Diana Wynne Jones
Started: 2/27/21
Gave up: 3/3/21
People LOVE Diana Wynne Jones, but it appears I am not people. I tried one a while back – it was okay. I tried this one about British witches saving the world in the early 1990s – what’s not to like? But I feel very meh about it, so I gave up. She wrote Howl’s Moving Castle, and it’s supposed to be amazing, so I will try that sometime, but if I don’t like that one, I think I might have to be done with her.
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Started: 2/21/21
Finished: 2/27/21
This one starts out weird, gets fascinating, then turns dark and fascinating. And, despite the fact that it took me a full week to finish it (I had ZERO time to read), it’s short!
Castle Waiting, Vol I by Linda Medley
Started: 2/17/21
Finished: 2/21/21
I heard about this one in a Tor.com article about re-imagined fairy tales. This is a graphic novel with a fairy tale premise and references to ALL the fairy tales. I just finished the first volume, and I’m looking for the next one. It’s telling the back stories of these characters who have moved into Sleeping Beauty’s castle, long after Sleeping Beauty woke up and moved out. What’s appealing is that, so far, these are good people, and they have such nice stories with happy endings.
When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord
Started: 2/14/21
Finished: 2/16/21
Weird, kind of horror – I can’t say for sure that I liked it. There was a bit too much musing on the nature of humanity and the thin veneer of civilization. Having teenagers literally run wild, like wild, was an interesting idea, but there wasn’t enough about why the main character was different, if she was different – I’m not even clear on whether I’m supposed to think she was different! Did she just think she was different and so she acted like it? I finished it last night, and the more I think about it, the more dissatisfied I am. This isn’t the good kind of post-book musing.
One Second After by William R. Forstchen
Started: 2/12/21
Gave up: 2/14/21
Ugh. Retired military, super-capable, gentlemanly know-it-all has to save his town after an EMP takes out all modern amenities. I have read this book before. I have read better versions of this book. This one feels like a non-writer decided to fictionalize his What To Do In Case Of An EMP report, hoping it would get his point across better. It’s all tell, no show, and Mr. Only I Am Making The Right Decisions is going to be proven right. AND it’s the beginning of a series, so he’s probably going to end up saving the world. I’m sitting this one out.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
Started: 2/8/21
Finished: 2/12/21
T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon when she’s writing kids’ books) is one of the guests of honor at this convention I’m (virtually) attending this weekend, so I figured I’d read her next to most recent book before then. I’ve read three before this and loved them, and I love this. I love it when I find a new favorite.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Started: 2/4/21
Finished: 2/8/21
A fiction recommendation by Sarah Gailey (still kind of obsessed). This guy writes horror. Sort of funny horror? He’s VERY good at immersing you in the setting. This is 1980s Charleston, and the 80s is very 80s, and the teenagers are very teenager-y, and the horror is mostly gross. I liked it, but only as much as I ever like horror. There’s one scene I wish I could forget.
Entangled Life By Merlin Sheldrake
Started: 2/3/21
Gave up: 2/4/21
Non-fiction recommendation by Sarah Gailey (I’m kind of obsessed). It’s about fungi. Why would I read (or like) this book? It’s so not me. Except, dude, the author’s name is Merlin Sheldrake. And supposedly, he’s funny in that dry British way. And there are footnotes!
Update: I was promised footnotes! There weren’t any. I must have been thinking of some other book. Also, not that funny. I cannot get excited about fungi, no matter how lyrical prose. Possibly because the lyrical prose.
I gave up.
When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey
Started: 1/30/21
Finished: 2/3/21
I love Sarah Gailey and everything they’ve written. This is their first YA book – it’s about friends with magic, and it starts dark. The main character is pretty insecure ways that feel real even though they’re not how any of my insecurities work. I’m not totally crazy about how the magic works. I mean, it’s not explained and I don’t think it has to be, but the friends seem to be so convinced that this one thing will work, and I don’t know why they would think that. Except it’s likely they are trying to convince themselves it’ll work. Anyway, I liked it, I enjoyed it, and a lot of things about it were really good. I’m just not sure it’s really good.
Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear
Started: 1/22/21
Finished: 1/30/21
Book 2 of the Maisie Dobbs series. She’s still mostly perfect, but her detective work has a woo-woo element that I’m not sure I’ll like long-term. I was expecting pure investigation and deductive reasoning, with maybe some insight, but she practically has visions and gets feelings about things. I’m interested, but I’ll have to see where this goes.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Started: 1/23/21
Finished: 1/26/21
I’ve been meaning to read this for years, but I guess better late than never. This book is so good. Young adult can be hard to read. If it’s bad, it’s cringe-y bad, and I’ll usually put it down. This is good. And it’s hard. I cried, I got angry, I felt helpless, I cried some more, and I got angry some more. And then I cried again. I was so emotional, nearly the whole book, that I stopped reading it in bed. I switched to a friendly murder mystery before going to sleep because I’d be more able to wind down and fall asleep. I’m not going to tell you the plot, even the beginning – it’s easy enough for you to find that. And as awful as it is to know what prompted this book to be written, it’s so much worse knowing how much worse things have gotten since this book was published not even four years ago.
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Started: 1/19/21
Finished: 1/22/21
I’d heard of this series, but I didn’t start it until Jess recommended it. I LOVED this book by the time I was only 30 pages in, and I raced through it (as much as I can during the work week these days). I’m thrilled there are 15 more books so far. She’s a private investigator of sorts in England in the period between the world wars.
The only thing I’m hoping gets addressed later on is that she’s kind of perfect. Like, she has no flaws, she has lots of useful skills, and everyone loves her. I mean, I love her, but she needs to have SOMEthing to improve on, right? She did one not great thing, but a) we only find out about it at the end of the book, and b) we find out about it as she’s doing something to correct it.
Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller
Started: 1/17/21
Finished: 1/18/21
I can’t say I liked this book. It was recommended by Sarah Gailey, whose writing I LOVE, and I can understand why they would have enjoyed it, but it’s not for me. First, I’m not that into memoirs, which is sort of is, but it’s also a book about David Starr Jordan, a scientist and head of Stanford who discovered and categorized thousands of fish for the first time.
Spoiler alert: don’t read the next paragraph if you plan to read this because I’m about to give away the whole journey.
First, he’s a misunderstood little kid who finds solace in science and categorization, and you feel sorry for him. Then he’s an adventurer/explorer/scientist and a superstar university administrator, and you want to celebrate his success. But then he’s possibly a murderer (!), and then he’s a big proponent of eugenics (!!), and all through this I’m finding it hard to care about the author’s troubles, which are being sprinkled through the details of Jordan’s life. Mostly, I can empathize with her, but I don’t understand her obsession with this guy, and I bounced off.
And yet, I didn’t put it down (although I considered it), and I read it in less than two days. So…read it? Don’t read it? I don’t know.
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Started: 1/11/21
Finished: 1/17/21
This is the first book I have re-read in years. It’s technically science fiction (it involves time travel and historians trying to figure out how not to break the space-time continuum), but it’s mostly a light, funny, mystery/romance.
Sword and Pen by Rachel Caine
Started: 1/3/21
Finished: 1/11/21
Last in the Great Library series. It ends well, but there’s a magical element that feels…not shoehorned in exactly, but maybe not as well-developed as everything else. These books have a lot going on, and I think the series could have ended without it. BUT I liked them very much, and I’m planning to read some of the author’s other stuff.
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
Started: 12/27/20
Finished: 1/2/21
NOT what I expected. I mean, the book cover says straight out it’s a Victorian/Regency novel but with dragons, and it would be ridiculous to expect dragons to behave exactly like humans even with that premise, but a couple of things still took me by surprise. Good surprise, if these two genres are your thing (and they are mine).