Wednesday, November 30, 2022

2022 book 207

 Beth Brower's The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, vol. 1

Yes yes, I have a ton of 2022 books on my kindle I keep meaning to read, and there’s only a month left in the year, but I wasn’t in the mood for any of those and the narrative voice here gripped me right away! I was under the impression this was a historical fantasy series, and while there are a few hints of the unusual, this is a fairly non-magical Regency-era diary of a young woman trying to claim her inheritance—and deal with various relatives and the upcoming Season. But like I said, I was very into the writing style here and will be immediately starting volume 2. A/A-.

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

2022 book 206

 Laurie Colwin's A Big Storm Knocked It Over

I was talking earlier today about how I easily have fifty books on my kindle waiting to be read, so I thought I’d make an effort to read one (I bought this book in 2019, haha). I didn’t like this quite as much as the previous book I’d read by Colwin, but it was a pleasant read and I liked the narrative voice a lot. The protagonist is a thirty-something newlywed, adjusting to married life and contemplating a pregnancy, all while dealing with difficult colleagues at a publishing company. (There are some absolutely hilarious moments in her workplace, and some really sweet moments in her home life.) I will say that this was written in the 90s, so I was very shocked to see straight up racist slurs being casually thrown around, so be warned about THAT. B+.

2022 book 205

 Sharon Shinn's The Shuddering City

Shinn's latest is an stand-alone featuring an array of narrators—a former priest, who left the city ten years ago and is now returning; a young woman warrior who needs a job and suddenly has a child in her care; another young woman who may or may not have someone trying to kill her; and a guard whose charge is a woman on house arrest for mysterious reasons, famous for seducing her guards to help her escape. These stories come together in a really interesting way, though some of the reveals were way grimmer than I expected! Still, it’s Shinn, so I had faith things would work out in a satisfying manner. I always love her little details; here, everyone has bracelets that indicate their gender identity/sexual orientation, as well as other bracelets for family members, and everyone is forever lifting up sleeves to be like “here’s my deal” which I liked. A/A-.

Sunday, November 27, 2022

2022 book 204

 T. Kingfisher’s Illuminations

Normally a new T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon book makes my DAY, but this one took me a really long time to get into. It’s about a girl from a family of magical painters (I loved this concept), lots of great eccentric relatives, who finds a mysterious box in the basement and accidentally frees a monster. But then a lot of the story is “I can’t tell my family for Reasons” when there actually aren’t any reasons, which is very frustrating. I will say things do pick up eventually and I loved the last, like, third, but I did almost give up on this and I can’t say that’s ever happened to me with this author before. B. 

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

2022 book 203

 Victoria Goddard’s At the Feet of the Sun

So this is the much-anticipated sequel to a book I am into (and which a corner of the internet is feral for), and it’s over 1300 pages long, and SO MUCH happens, and I haven’t decided how I feel about all of it yet. Things start where one might expect, but soon Kip is having some mystical adventures of his own! I definitely liked how things ended up playing out, and I am very eager to see what happens next. Lots of very funny moments too. I guess A/A-?

Sunday, November 20, 2022

2022 book 202

 Victoria Goddard’s The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul

The book ends in such a way that it feels like being wrapped in a warm hug, and that is a feeling we need in spades these days, I think. I love this particular Goddard book for a) middle-aged adventurers b) giggling friendships (especially between women, when most of her books have featured men) and c) the general sense of humor. Perhaps too much meditation on scenery, but I enjoy that sort of thing. 

Friday, November 18, 2022

2022 book 201

 Victoria Goddard’s The Return of Fitzroy Angursell

Rereading more Goddard books in preparation for a new one coming next week! In this one, which follows the events of The Hands of the Emperor, infamous poet Fitzroy Angursell sets off on a quest, begins to reunite with some old friends, and learns the importance of a good pair of socks. This one always takes me a couple of chapters to get into, because the narrative voice can be (purposely) overwrought, but once the plot gets going there’s a lot of wry humor and nice feelings and friendship to carry me through.

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

2022 book 200

 Victoria Goddard’s The Hands of the Emperor

I didn’t intentionally reread one of my favorite books as my 200th read of the year, but the timing worked out nicely since the long-awaited sequel is out next week! It’s interesting to see which parts you notice more/resonate with when you’re rereading a book, especially one where as much stuff happens as this one! If you’ve never read it (or read any of my previous lil reviews), it’s the story of the secretary/head of the government for the Emperor, a man who is also a living god, and how he slowly changes the world for the better. It’s also the story of a bunch of middle aged men dealing with their repressed feelings and becoming FRIENDS. So many delightful and bittersweet and funny and triumphant moments. I am so excited to get to see what happens next (to Kip, as of course there are two other books that follow this but aren’t direct sequels).

Sunday, November 13, 2022

2022 book 199

 Rachel Neumeier’s The Sphere of the Winds

So I wasn’t as into this one. It just didn’t grab me at all, and I put it down a few times before deciding I might as well see what happened. By the back half I was more into it, there was some interesting political maneuvering. I can’t figure out why it left me a little cold. Too much plot, not enough emotion? The girl tending toward sulkiness? I dunno. B.

Saturday, November 12, 2022

2022 book 198

 Rachel Neumeier’s The Floating Islands

This was an enjoyable YA fantasy about a boy whose family (and city) is killed when a volcano erupts, and so he goes to the far-off islands where his mother is from to find her family, and becomes determined to becomes one of their magic-aided fliers. Meanwhile, his (girl) cousin likes to dress up as a boy to attend educational lectures. Soon both are caught up in magic and threats of war. I did like this a lot, I just wished the emotions went a little bit deeper? But I just discovered there’s a sequel and I’m excited to see what adventures they get up to next! A-.

Friday, November 11, 2022

2022 book 197

 Rainbow Rowell's Scattered Showers

So I rarely read collections of short stories unless they’re kind of telling a larger story, bc either a) I get annoyed and want to read a whole novel about the characters, or b) start to find them kind of same-y after a while. And I wish the story order was different here, bc there are SEVERAL in a row about angsty teens getting together with a romantic partner, and it was very same-y at a certain point (I did like the one about the 90s-era college student and the dude who keeps making her mix cds, very relatable lol). And of course some of these stories I had read before. Luckily the last few were newish, revisiting some of my favorite Rowell characters (Beth and Jennifer texting! Simon and Baz at Christmas! And I don’t even LIKE Christmas), and then one involving fictional characters incubating in their author’s mind. Fun stuff. I will say I did the special preorder to get the Simon and Baz AU zine solely because I thought I’d get to see Simon's mom doting on him (the title is “My Rosebud Boy” which is what she called him) but she is actually dead in that story too. Very cute AU but like GIVE ME LUCY DOTING! Anyway, it ended on a high note but took me a couple days to get through the first half. B+?

Wednesday, November 09, 2022

2022 book 196

 Rainbow Rowell's Any Way the Wind Blows

I DO love spending time with these characters! There are sort of three separate storylines split among five main POVs (and a few others pop up too): Simon and Baz dealing with their relationship, talking about feelings, and investigating a man claiming to be the true Chosen One; Penelope and Shepherd dealing with his curse; and Agatha trying to find her place in the world and dealing with a cranky vet and some goats. Lol. I really loved just being in this world with these characters, but the way the storylines all come together is really nice (and, finally, justice for Lucy).

Monday, November 07, 2022

2022 book 195

 Rainbow Rowell's Wayward Son

It’s a lot easier to enjoy all the lil mages' misadventures in middle America when you know there’s a third volume coming to resolve everything. :) So many good character moments in this one (particularly Agatha toward the end) as they deal with trauma, depression, and vampires. The depiction of tech bros remains prescient. Solid middle chapter that improves on rereading.

Sunday, November 06, 2022

2022 book 194

 Rainbow Rowell's Carry On

I’m rereading this series bc Rowell has a book of short stories out this week, and there's a) a new Simon Snow story, and b) a ZINE that seems to be an AU about Simon and his mom??? (Which is extra hilariously meta considering Simon started as a fictional character in a book that another fictional character was writing fanfic about, and then Rowell herself decided to write about about the characters from the book-within-a-book.) I am personally very excited about that bc I think I’ve written “Justice for Lucy” every time I’ve blogged about this book (uh, sorry, spoiler for a book from 2015 there). (Lucy's story breaks my heart EVERY TIME and in fact I am eager to get through the second book so I can reread the third, where there finally is a little bit of justice for Lucy.)

Saturday, November 05, 2022

2022 book 193

 Randee Dawn's Tune In Tomorrow: the Curious, Calamitous, Cockamamie Story of Starr Weatherby and the Greatest Mythic Reality Show Ever

This book has a GREAT premise—a struggling actress gets a job on a fake reality tv show run by fairies—but I just wasn’t super into it. There were some fun subplots—I was into the brownie employees staging a strike—but too much of the story was sunk into various unsatisfying romances and one-note villains. I don’t even have anything else to say about it. It was fine. B.

Thursday, November 03, 2022

2022 book 192

 Kristin Cashore's Seasparrow

Well, I really enjoyed this, even it was a hard read at times. It focuses on Bitterblue's younger half-sister/spy, who like many from their kingdom is still processing/dealing with/healing from major trauma. There is also a very harrowing journey that covers a lot of the book. But I loved her narrative voice, I love a sad girl who deal with her sadness by being cranky and bitchy, haha. There are also several adorable psychic foxes (but warning that there is some sadness with the foxes too). My only real complaint is that eventually the reader sees exactly where everything is going, and it just takes a little too long to get there. Still, a satisfying and hopeful kind of book. I’m glad to see Cashore exploring new things in this world. It kind of makes me want to reread them all but I remember the first two being pretty grim. Anyway. A/A-.

Tuesday, November 01, 2022

2022 book 191

 N.K. Jemisin's The World We Make

So an author's note at the end of this book explains that this planned trilogy became a duology basically because of ~waves hand~ the world situation burning the author out (I mentioned this in my reread review of the first one, but because real life has become more like her heightened world in the last few years, it was a much more stressful read the second time). So if the end feels a little rushed, that’s probably why. I did enjoy this enough to gulp it down in one sitting, but it didn’t feel like the strongest Jemisin work. I mean, if it was stressful to read, I'd imagine it was also kind of stressful to write. I think I wanted more catharsis, but the ending just didn’t leave space for that (I did /like/ the ending though). No major complaints, just the world sucking interfered with this story. I hope she gets to write something fun next. A-.