2023 book 55

 Emily Tesh's Some Desperate Glory

When I’m reading a book, a little part of my brain is kind of composing the little summary I end up writing here, and for the first chunk of this I was like “it’s a sci-fi book about a teen girl raised to be a soldier who totally buys into everything she’s been told, but when she and her brother's crush escape their space station to rescue her brother, she begins to realize she’s been naive.” And “I was eager to keep reading, even though I was occasionally annoyed by the main characters being teen dummies.” And then the second half of this book hits and I was ALL IN. This was SO GOOD. This was smart, and beautiful. I loved this. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.

2023 book 54

 Jeanne Thornton's Summer Fun

This was a very cool book about a young trans woman in New Mexico in 2009, writing to the lead singer/songwriter of the band she’s obsessed with—a character very much modeled on Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys—writing about her life, and the history of the band, etc. I am a sucker for epistolary novels and this didn’t disappoint! I did wish we had a little more insight into the narrator but on the whole I loved this story. A/A-.

2023 book 53

 Andrew Joseph White's Hell Followed With Us

So this is darker and way grosser than I usually go for, but the writing and story were so gripping that I had no problems getting through it. It’s the story of a trans teen boy, raised by a terrorist Christian group who caused some sort of apocalypse, and they’ve done something to turn him into a holy monster… only he’s escaped and found a band of queer teens to join! But terrorist Christians aren’t going to let go of him that easily. I’m glad the Trans Rights Readathon popped this up my to-read list because I definitely enjoyed it. A-/B+.

2023 book 52

 Chana Porter's The Seep

This week is the Trans Rights Readathon, so I’ll be reading books by trans/non-binary authors and donating 15 dollars for each book to the Transgender Law Center. I’m starting off strong with this one, which had AMAZING writing, I read it all in one gulp! It’s about a super chill and gentle alien invasion, as seen through the eyes of a Jewish and Native American trans woman, who’s dealing with grief after her wife decides to be reborn as a baby (you can do a lot of stuff like that in this alien invasion). Really beautiful and moving. A. 

2023 book 51

 Meg Howrey's The Wanderers

I chose this for book club this month to hit the literary/sci-fi spectrum, but it was slower and more philosophical than I remembered, and I’m very curious to see the reactions. (I liked it a little less this time, but I don’t have as much interest in literary/philosophical novels these days.) Anyway, this is the story of three astronauts in the near future training for a Mars mission, as well as the experiences of some of their relatives. Hits that For All Mankind spot. 

2023 book 50

 Emilia Hart's Weyward

This was… fine. It’s the story of three women from a family of women with a strong connection to nature—one in 2019, fleeing an abusive husband; one, a teenager in the 1940s, who wants to study insects; and one, in the 1600s, on trial for witchcraft. It was engaging enough that I kept reading, but it tended toward melodrama, especially in the 2019 story. Really hammering those points home. Content warnings for domestic abuse and rape. B.

2023 book 49

 Shannon Chakraborty's The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

This shouldn’t have taken me so long to read, but I’ve had a lot going on the past week (and that will continue till mid-April, and there are so many books I want to read but I have less time and concentration right now!). This book is about a middle-aged Muslim lady pirate in the age of the Crusades, who’s retired to raise her daughter, but comes back for ONE LAST JOB to rescue a kidnapped girl. And she has to GET THE BAND BACK TOGETHER. But obviously things are way more complicated and soon monsters and demons and creepy Frankish dudes are in the mix! I will say that once I hit the second half, I tore through this, and am hoping for a sequel for sure. A-.

2023 book 48

 Stina Leicht's Loki's Ring

I was in the mood for a fun sci-fi adventure, so I thought I’d check this out—it's about what happens when a captain on a ship receives a distress call from the AI she's raised as a daughter, and I’m here for sentient AIs and their families! But there are a lot of characters and corporations and political entities, and a lot of moving parts, and it didn’t really come together for me. B.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on March 28th.

2023 book 47

 Melissa Scott's Point of Sighs

The fifth book in this series is very slow, until the last ten percent, which is very tense. But I’m not even going to try to do a plot summary, because the plots/mysteries in these books, and especially in this one, are overly complicated. By the end of this one, I barely remembered what had started their investigation in the first place. Seriously! I liked all the stuff with the various fantasy cop groups and their politics, but that got subsumed in everyone wandering around all the time while more plot happened to them. Not to sound all grumpy about it! It was a fine book. I’m just frustrated. B.

2023 book 46

 Melissa Scott's Fairs' Point

The fourth book in this series finds our boys trying to solve a large mystery centered around dog racing—and of course Philip has recently obtained a dog from a dude who owed him money, and is once again conveniently on hand. There are missing people, mysterious thefts, jerky colleagues, and more. I wasn’t a hundred percent sold on the end of the mystery but I like this world even more when it has lil terriers running around. B+.

2023 book 45

 Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett's Point of Dreams

This volume in the Astreiant series finds our two dudes now formally a couple, working together to solve a bunch of murders at the theater! Solid mystery in this one, and I really enjoy this world (it is SO QUEER, which considering the first one came out in the mid-90s and this in 2001, is pretty cool. The authors were together for over 20 years until Barnett passed of cancer and I’m glad they could write a book like this together). A-.

2023 book 44

 Melissa Scott's Point of Knives

I think this is technically the third in this series,but it was written to fill in the gaps between the first two, so I read it in chronological instead of publication order. It involves the two dudes from the last book (who apparently were intermittently hooking up, but had to break things off as one is basically a cop and one works for a shady businessman) teaming back up to solve a double murder and track down some missing gold. But mainly it’s about them trying ti make their relationship work. Which is great, because the mystery here ends up being kind of blah, but I like these guys and was happy to spend time with them and their banter. B+.

2023 book 43

 Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett's Point of Hopes

I saw this compared to Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint books so obviously wanted to check it out. It is similar in that it has queer dudes with swords and some court politics, but it’s set in a less decadent sort of pseudo-historical fantasy world, where everyone is super into the stars and their horoscopes, there are guilds, etc. The main characters are a city watchman, investigating a large number of missing children, and a former soldier, new to town (there is no romance per se in this one, just hints they like each other, but I have hopes they get together in later books). This was a little bit slow but I did enjoy the world and characters, thought the mystery and resolution were pretty satisfying, and look forward to seeing what happens next. A-.

2023 book 42

 Rachel Neumeier’s Tano

The latest in the Tuyo series is from the point of view of Tano, the teen who was basically adopted by the protagonist of Tuyo and Tarashana, and starts right where the latter left off, with Tano figuring out his new place in the world, learning how non-abusive families function, etc. There is a lot here dealing with his abusive father, as well as some implied sexual abuse, so general content warnings. But despite that it’s still hopeful, just like its predecessors! Neumeier does the friendships and family relationships in these books so well—I love seeing Tano and the other three boys set off on a little quest, get into (serious) trouble, bond. The characters here talk a lot about generosity, and that feeling suffuses a lot of this book. Plus there’s a sweet lil PONY. A/A-.

2023 book 41

 Rachel Neumeier’s Tarashana

This is the book that actually introduces Tano, and I forgot how much actually happens in this book—not just family and other meaningful relationships, and politics, but journeys through the underworld, and magic, and a little mayhem. Just gripping stuff.