Tag: science fiction

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September 2023 Books

Books Reread

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
CW: racism, slavery, cannibalism
See my post, the Überbook, for more on my Big Summer David Mitchell Reread.
5/5 moon-gray cats

New Books Read

Holt

Friday by Robert Heinlein
CW: gang rape, torture
This is one of my dad’s favorite books and he’s been trying to get me to read it forever. I finally did. I didn’t love it. Artificial person and courier Friday must hide her enhanced abilities as she navigates the social and political conflicts of a Balkanized 21st century North America. Overall it doesn’t really have a plot, so it was tricky to write that little blurb. I chose not to hide any of this review for spoilers, and this is because I don’t recommend reading it. Read my review and don’t bother. This book is unique among sci-fi from the 80s in that it has a female protagonist. I’m sure that were I reading this in the 1980s, this would impress me very much. As it is, I’m a 21st century girl, used to 21st century female representation. Friday was such a male-gaze female character. It was awful; I felt like Heinlein was trying to convince me the whole time that he knows what it’s like to be a woman (he doesn’t, and I also hated all the female characters in the other book I’ve read of his). Maybe because she’s an artificial person, she’s supposed to read as an approximation of a female designed by men? But then that undermines Heinlein’s thesis that artificial people (or people genetically engineered in a lab and not born) are just as human as “purebloods.” There was also too much sex for my taste in the book. I get that Heinlein was trying to show a society whose attitudes toward sex and family were very different from the mainstream in 1982, but I don’t personally want to read about that much casual sex. Then we also need to talk about the gang rape. Friday is gang raped in the second chapter as part of being tortured for information about something that she carried as a courier. In the scene, Friday is able to use her training to not really suffer and even enjoy herself during the rape, and she experiences no trauma from this. To me this is misogynist and also reads kinda victim-blamey. Like oh, if you just have enough mental fortitude, then you won’t be bothered if you get raped! Ew. And then at the end of the novel, Friday reencounters one of the men who raped her and he’s like, “Oh, sorry, I was ordered to rape you and I didn’t really want to, but also you’re so hot I basically couldn’t help myself.” And Friday forgives him! And let’s him join her open polysexual relationship with several other people! Excuse me while I go throw up. Heinlein has a couple interesting ideas in the book as far as infrastructure in the future, and it’s nice that in the future society families and relationships can take non-nuclear shapes. Heinlein also has a good quote about the marks of a sick society that rings eerily true with regard to our own current society in the United States, but I would recommend Googling the quote instead of reading the whole book.
1/5 artificial people

National Geographic Books

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
CW: plague, death of children, infidelity
I’m a big fan of the new (?) genre of the imagined history novel. Hamnet follows William Shakespeare’s wife and children in Stratford while he’s off in London writing plays. We know almost nothing about them, other than their names and rough birth and death dates. O’Farrell’s writing is so lyrical and the way she created these characters is so lovely. She gives agency and personality to these women whose stories are lost to history. I didn’t like it quite as much as The Marriage Portrait, but it might possibly be because it’s hard to read about plague after you lived through one, and I was really interested in the art history aspect of The Marriage Portrait.
4.5/5 second-best beds

Pan Macmillan UK

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
CW: child abuse, bullying
This was so delightful. I saw an ad for it on Facebook which said it was a cross between Red White and Royal Blue and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and since I love both those books, I immediately checked it out from the library. It did not disappoint. Discovering magic exists after a managerial error that led to his government job, Robin Blythe must team up with magician Edwin Courcey to unravel a plot that threatens all magicians in Britain. It’s gay and it slaps.
4/5 magic snowflakes

National Geographic Books

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
**Book Hangover Alert
I love John Green. I love all his novels, but I was a little like, “eh not sure I want to read a nonfiction book.” But it was excellent! Green’s essay about seemingly disparate things (Kentucky blue grass, Canada geese, ginkgo trees, teddy bears, air conditioning) all speak to the wild, amazing, terrifying, beautiful, horrible experience of being a human. He does a wonderful job of blending personal stories, history, and science to examine what it means to be a human in this world. I loved it. I’ve also apparently watched enough of John Green’s videos that when I read the book, I heard the whole thing in his voice in my head.
4/5 teddy bears

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo***
Acevedo’s adult debut, Family Lore, retains the the poetry-informed lyrical prose of her young adult work while delving into magical realism and examining more mature content and themes. After seeing a documentary, Flor decides to hold a living wake for herself, and, as someone with prophetic dreams that predict upcoming deaths, this troubles her family. Flor’s sisters, one with the ability to discern truth from lies, one with an affinity for plants and herbs, and one without an uncanny ability, only a passion for dancing, orbit Flor in the weeks leading up to the wake, though no one can make her reveal if she’s seen her own impending death. Flor’s sisters, daughter, and niece all play a part in helping to plan the wake, while balancing emotional upheavals in their own lives. The story skillfully skates between the family’s past in the Dominican Republic and present in New York City as Ona, Flor’s daughter and an anthropology professor, works to document her family through the lens of an ethnographer, afraid that this might be the last chance she has to understand her mother better. With heart, humor, and subtlety, Acevedo explores themes of family and legacy, immigration, and tradition and culture. 
4/5 limes

Six Creepy Sheep by Judith Ross Enderle and Stephanie Gordon Tessler, illustrated by John O’Brien
I went on a writing retreat at the Highlights Foundation campus in the Poconos with my MFA program, and it was so lovely. This book was in my cabin, and one of the prompts of the StoryGraph genre challenge this year was to read a children’s book you’ve never read before. It’s spooky season so this seemed perfect. It’s super cute! I liked the art and the simple rhyming prose.
3/5 creepy sheep

Simon and Schuster

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: destruction of art and cultural heritage
This book was a wild ride from start to finish. It’s a true crime tale of Stéphane Breitwieser, the world’s most prolific art thief. Breitwieser and his girlfriend stole more than 300 art works and artifacts from museums in France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria in the 1990s and 2000s. It was fascinating to read about Breitwieser, the only known art thief who stole things just to have them in his room–not for any economic gain. Finkel attempts to unravel Breitwieser’s psyche and examine how two people could have gotten away with so many heists before Breitwieser was finally caught.
4/5 priceless Renaissance oil portraits

Tor Publishing Group

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake
I enjoyed this book; it was fun. Death’s godson, Fox D’Mora, must save his godfather and all of humanity in the gambling game played by the immortals. With the help of a demon, a vampire, a ghost, a demigod, an angel, and a reaper, chaos ensues. I enjoyed a lot of the characters and the premise of the book. There was a little too much arguing, which is rarely interesting to read. I also listened to it and sometimes there weren’t quite enough dialogue tags to follow who was talking when we had big group scenes. I also really wanted to root for the romance between Fox and Brandt but I felt like all they did was argue and lie to each other. I wanted to see a little more tenderness or just happiness or fun between them. There was also too much use of the f-word. It just get’s tiresome and loses its power if it’s used too often in novels. But overall I enjoyed it.
3.5/5 immortals

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: slavery, racism, death of a parent
This book was so great. After her mother’s tragic and suspicious death, Bree Matthews joins the mysterious Order of the Round Table, determined to find out if their magicians had anything to do with her mother’s death. Learning about the magic the Order practices, passed down by King Arthur and his knights, Bree begins to understand the magic that has lain dormant inside her and the legacy of her ancestors. This book was excellent. I love an Arthurian retelling, and this one was so fresh the way it also examined the legacy of slavery and generational trauma. I loved getting to know the characters, and I was right there with Bree as she unraveled the mystery. I’m excited to read the next one!
5/5 scions of Arthur

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! First a caveat: I have decided that simply having queer people or people of color in a book is not enough to qualify it for the Books for a Social Conscience distinction. That sets the bar too low. So while in the past I would have marked A Marvellous Light and Masters of Death as Books for a Social Conscience, I have decided that the only way they are subverting dominant narratives is by having queer people and people of color in them. We love representation! Don’t get me wrong, but honestly at this point if you don’t have queer people and/or people of color in your book, like what are you doing? Maybe I should start marking books that I read that only have straight, white people in them.

Anyway, read Family Lore for a magical immigrant family. Read Legendborn for an interrogation of the legacy of slavery in the context of Arthurian legend.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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The Überbook

Or The Big Summer David Mitchell Reread

Of the people I know and the BookTok people I see on the internet, I’m the only one obsessed with David Mitchell. This baffles me. For example, it shocks me that there is almost no useful information on the David Mitchell fandom wiki.

I adore David Mitchell’s books. I love the rich, complex characters; I love the vivid historical fiction; I love the splash of fantasy and science fiction; I love the clear-eyed predictions of our future as a species and society. But my very favorite thing is that all of Mitchell’s books take place in the same universe. This leads to characters waltzing into and out of his various novels, recurring themes, and fun Easter eggs.

In a note at the end of The Bone Clocks, Mitchell addresses his recurring characters saying if he were to create a mega-book of all his works, he would call it The Überbook (hence the title of this post). Mitchell discusses how the recurring characters started off small, partly as a way to not have to invent whole new people every time he needed another character (why not borrow an already created character from one of this other works?), but continued as he likes to imagine all of his characters living in the same universe. You do not have to read all of his books or read his books in a certain order to understand what’s going on. Each book stands alone. I do not believe Mitchell wrote all eight novels with the intention that they be treated like the Marvel Cinematic Universe in timeline order. This did not stop me.

I decided this summer to reread all eight of Mitchell’s novels. But not just reread them; I organized the sections and chapters of each novel into chronological order and I read them in that order, ping-ponging between books where necessary. I also began a big spreadsheet, where I attempted to track recurring characters and themes and keep all the insights I had doing this project.

I had great fun with my nerdy little project. The only problem was that I began this project knowing there were connections, but not really knowing what I was looking for during each reread. This, along with changing the way I entered information into the spreadsheet part of the way through, has led to some inaccuracies in my spreadsheet and the feeling that I need to start over and read everything again. I also am writing this post after I’ve moved. I read all the books before I moved and I left them at my parents’ house, so I’m writing this post with aid of my spreadsheet, but without the aid of the copious notes I took in my copies of each of Mitchell’s books.

But for now, I’ll share with you what I have so far.

I realize that the embedded spreadsheet is difficult to look at on this webpage. I don’t know enough about WordPress to fix that, so here is the link to look at in Google Docs.

About each book

I think it might be useful here to give a super-duper brief summary of each book for those who haven’t read all of them.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
In 1799 a young Dutchman working for the East India company lives in Deijima, where the Dutch are trying to establish trade with the Japanese. Jacob de Zoet fights Dutch corruption and navigates xenophobia from both the Dutch and the Japanese. He falls in love with a young midwife and medical student named Orito Abigawa. In the mountains near Nagasaki, the sinister Abbot Enemoto is running a secret cult. When Orito is abducted it’s up to Jacob and Uzaemon Ogawa, one of the Japanese translators, to save her and stop Enemoto.

The Bone Clocks
The Bone Clocks follows Holly Sykes, who on a fateful day in 1985, offers sanctuary to a woman she meets on the road. The woman’s soul sleeps dormant in Holly’s psyche until Holly can help a group called the Horologists, whose souls remember all their past lives, defeat the Anchorites, a group who consume others’ souls in order to be immortal.

Ghostwritten
Made up of ten interconnected vignettes, Ghostwritten explores the world and its interconnections. It follows a terrorist in Okinawa, who calls a music shop in Tokyo where two young people fall in love and move to Hong Kong, where they are seen by a businessman, whose maid’s grandmother lives on a mountain in Sichuan Province, China, and was host to a disembodied soul, who searches Mongolia for where it belongs, and on its journey is hosted by a KGB operative, who stops a museum heist in St Petersburg and kills a man whose friend in London is having his life biographied by a ghostwriter, who saves a physicist from getting hit by a car, who goes on to invent an advanced AI, that talks to a late night radio host, who also speaks to the terrorist from the beginning. And I know that was like the worst run on sentence ever. Fight me.

Cloud Atlas
Six interlocking stories examine reincarnation and the circularity of time. The stories follow a young lawyer on a sea voyage from New Zealand to San Francisco in 1849, an ambitious composer working as an amanuensis in 1931 in Belgium, a shrewd journalist investigating a report on a new nuclear power plant in 1975 near San Francisco, a publisher who through a wacky chain of events ends up incarcerated at an old folks home in Hull in 2012, a clone trying to lead a revolution in 2145 in Seoul, and a young tribesman living in a primitive society 106 Winters after the Fall, or some kind of nuclear catastrophe.

Utopia Avenue
In the late 1960s a folk rock band is formed of bassist Dean Moss, guitarist Jasper de Zoet, pianist Elf Holloway, and drummer Griff Griffin. The novel follows their formation, hand chosen by manager Levon Frankland, and their origins playing in clubs to their meteoric rise to fame. Don’t worry, there are disembodied souls and Horologists in this one too; it’s not just your average rock’n’roll narrative.

Slade House
Soul carnivores Norah and Jonah Grayer live in Slade House and hunt an unsuspecting person once every nine years. Once they’ve entrapped their prey, they consume the person’s soul, so that they can live on indefinitely.

Number9Dream
Number9Dream is the coming of age of Eiji Miyaki, who moves to Tokyo hoping to find his father, whose identity is unknown to him. Eiji must learn to let go of the grief and guilt associated with his twin sister’s untimely death and his anger at his mother who abandoned him and his sister, and to find new love and connection. And if that sounds relatively normal compared to the other Mitchell books, I assure you, weird shit does happen.

Black Swan Green
The coming of age of Jason Taylor in the village of Black Swan Green in Worcestershire, England. Jason must deal with a stutter, middle school bullies, and his parents’ crumbling marriage by having the courage to stand up for what is right and take responsibility for his own actions. This one is probably the most ‘normal’ of Mitchell’s books, but don’t worry, there are still recurring characters and some weird dreamy sequences (not as weird as the dreamy sequences in Number9Dream, but still).

Music in Mitchell’s books

One thing I realized I should be doing as I read, was making a Spotify playlist. Mitchell is a music enthusiast. Many of his characters are musicians or composers (Robert Frobisher, Marco, Satoru, the band Utopia Avenue, etc.), and it’s clear from the way he writes that he loves music. Many songs are referenced throughout Mitchell’s works. If I’d thought of it earlier, I would have made a playlist that featured every song mentioned in one of his books. But this will have to be something I do on the next read-through. For now, here is a playlist compiled from ones other people have made on Spotify pertaining to several of his books and added to by me.

Something else to note is Mitchell’s auditory style of writing. Certain sections contain heavy use of rhythm, rhyme, onomatopoeia, and alliteration. This most often happens when the POV character is a musician but notably appears a few other places. In the “Sloosha’s Crossing” section of Cloud Atlas, for example, Zachry’s voice represents a future where humans have regressed to small primitive tribes after a nuclear fallout. Mitchell’s use of rhythm, rhyme, onomatopoeia, and alliteration in this section signals a return to oral storytelling and more primitive living, underscoring the theme of the circularity of time in Cloud Atlas.

Throughout Utopia Avenue we get a lot of onomatopoeia, which makes sense because all of the POVs are musicians uniquely concerned with sound, but in Jasper de Zoet’s POV this is heightened. Hidden in Jasper’s psyche is a noncorporeal being, the soul of Abbot Enemoto from The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Enemoto is always knocking in Jasper’s mind, intent on killing him in revenge for his ancestor’s defeat of Enemoto in 1800. The constant onomatopoeia of the knock-knocks serves to heighten the tension throughout the novel.

In Number9Dream, in the chapter called “Study of Tales,” Eiji Miyaki stays in the house of a deaf author and he reads some of her short stories. The short stories are about an anthropomorphic goat named Goatwriter, and they are full of linguistic playing with rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration. Goatwriter also has a stutter which contributes to the rhythm of the language. There are several notable things about this section, I think. First is that the author (Mrs. Sasaki’s sister) is deaf, but through her writing creates auditory patterns. There’s also Goatwriter’s stutter, which is a recurring theme; Jason Taylor from Black Swan Green also has a stutter, and David Mitchell himself grew up with a stutter. Though Jason works on overcoming his stutter, Goatwriter leans into it to create the unique rhythm of the stories. Then there is the name Goatwriter, which can’t help but bring to mind the word ghostwriter. Ghostwritten is obviously the title of one of David Mitchell’s other books, in which one character, Marco, is a ghostwriter (working for Timothy Cavendish in the London section). I don’t know that Mitchell necessarily meant for that to be a connection, but I do think in Eiji’s coming of age by the end of Number9Dream, he has learned to write his own story, so to speak.

Locations in David Mitchell books

Something else I love about David Mitchell books is their global nature. Several of his books take place in a series of related locations, and locations reappear in multiple books. I decided to plot important locations on a Google Map. Once again, this map is not exhaustive, as I’m sure I forgot some locations. Each book is on its own layer and its pins match the color coding in the spreadsheet. Locations that appear in multiple books are in yellow.

If you’d like to visit the map and turn on and off the layers, you can see the map here.

Recurring animal friends

Apart from recurring characters, Mitchell has a few recurring animals. The moon-gray cat is the first one I noticed. The moon-gray cat is an omen, signaling good or bad luck for the character that sees it. For example, the moon-gray cat leads Orito Abigawa to safety in The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. It saves Ed Brubeck’s life in The Bone Clocks when his hotel in Bagdad is bombed. It appears to Jason Taylor from Black Swan Green before he successfully completes the Spooks. Whenever the moon-gray cat appears dead though, it’s a bad omen. Jason Taylor sees it dead before he breaks his grandfather’s watch. Nathan Bishop from Slade House sees it before he is killed. Dean Moss from Utopia Avenue looks for it, but can’t find it shortly before he is killed. I’m sure this isn’t an exhaustive list of the moon-gray cat’s appearances, because I didn’t know I was looking for them.

Another animal that appears periodically is the Fat Rat. This is another one that I wasn’t looking for and only realized too late that I should be keeping track of. Fat Rat appears when a character appears to be hallucinating, or dealing with something particularly traumatic. Characters see Fat Rat and hear the Fat Rat responding to them, either their spoken words or thoughts. Orito Abigawa speaks to Fat Rat in the shrine on Mt Shiranui, where she is being held captive. Zachry also speaks to Fat Rat in the Sloosha’s Crossing section of Cloud Atlas after the Kona have attacked and destroyed most of Zachry’s village. I want to say Fat Rat appears in Number9Dream too, in the chapter “Reclaimed Land,” but I’m not certain.

Recurring themes

The most obvious of Mitchell’s themes are reincarnation and the circularity of time, the idea that we cross and recross paths with each other. But another one that comes up often is the futile search for Paradise or Utopia. Mitchell also fights back against the idea of basic human nature as “dog eat dog.” Many characters throughout his books share the idea that “the weak are meat, the strong do eat,” or a kind of Social Darwinism that is used to justify all kinds of atrocities. Mitchell is always pushing back against that idea that this is basic human nature. Almost all of Mitchell’s books deal in some way with racism or xenophobia or other types of prejudice.

Questions I still have

I’ve now read Cloud Atlas 5 times, Ghostwritten, Black Swan Green, and The Bone Clocks 3 times each, and all of his other books twice and I still feel like there’s more to find. If I was stuck on a deserted island, I’d take David Mitchell’s collected works. I still have questions:

Who is Hilary V. Hush? In Cloud Atlas, each segment is discovered by the protagonist in the next segment (Adam Ewing’s journal is found by Robert Frobisher, whose letters are found by Luisa Rey, whose story is read by Timothy Cavendish, whose memoir is turned into a movie watched by Sonmi, whose story becomes the religion of Zachry’s people). But Timothy Cavendish reads Luisa Rey’s story in the form of a crime novel written by Hilary V. Hush. Who is that? Why didn’t Luisa write it? It makes it seem like Luisa is a fictional character written by this person, but Luisa appears as a successful journalist in Utopia Avenue and Ghostwritten. In the movie, the submitted manuscript is written by Javier, Luisa’s neighbor’s son. So who is Hilary V. Hush?

When is the Night Train segment of Ghostwritten set and how long does it last? And to that end, when is the entirety of Ghostwritten set? I estimated 1999 which is when the book came out, but it is never actually mentioned. The “Night Train” section does take place over several years, as the Zookeeper calls in about once a year. Bat Segundo states that he’s been running the show for eight years on the night of the apocalypse, so are we meant to believe that section runs from 1999-2007? And let’s not forget, Bat was on the radio back in 1968 when he interviews Utopia Avenue. Dwight Silverwind appears in this segment and is killed by the Zookeeper. We know Dwight Silverwind is alive in 2004 when he meets Aoife Brubeck in Cloud Atlas, so at least that part and everything after it in “Night Train” has to take place after 2004. And this of course begs the question of when the very last segment in Ghostwritten takes place. It appears right after “Night Train,” so I would assume it takes place after.

How does the Mongolian heal Jasper de Zoet if they never go to Europe? In the Mongolia section of Ghostwritten, the Mongolian tells the reader about all the places they have drifted as a soul without a body between 1937 and 1999. The Mongolian states that they never went to Europe. But in the 1960s, Jasper de Zoet is helped by the Mongolian, who helps subdue Abbot Enemoto for a time inside Jasper’s head. I think this is just a plot hole. I think Mitchell just forgot that he had said that about the Mongolian in Ghostwritten, as that was written long before Utopia Avenue. We know there are other noncorpora out there (one calls into Bat Segundo’s show) but I doubt we would have more than one who calls themself the Mongolian.

Why is Meronym the only character in Cloud Atlas who has a comet birthmark but is not the POV in her section? This is interesting because in the movie, Zachry has the birthmark. Also on the subject of the movie, are we to assume that Zachry and Meronym leave earth for the moon at the end? And if so does that mean Meronym is an alien? Because I don’t get any of that from the book. At the end of their section in the book, Zachry leaves his decimated village and goes to live with the remaining people from Meronym’s community on another of Hawaii’s islands. But Meronym’s people come from Prescience Isle, formerly known as Iceland, as we learn from The Bone Clocks.

So I guess now I’ll go fix the David Mitchell fandom wiki???

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July 2023 Books

Books Reread

I won’t be reviewing these two David Mitchell books in this blog post because they are part of my Big Summer David Mitchell Reread, which will have its own blog post.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
**Book Hangover Alert
4/5 moon-gray cats

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
**Book Hangover Alert
4/5 moon-gray cats

New Books Read

Hodder & Stoughton

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
Little Thieves book 1 of 2
I’ve been wanting to read this mostly because it has a nice cover. It was fun; I enjoyed it. Little Thieves is a retelling of the Goose Girl fairytale and it’s very fresh. There’s a heist, a curse to be broken, dark magic to beat, low gods to satisfy. I liked the world and the folklore a lot. I wasn’t as into it in the first half, because I found Vanja a bit unlikable, and it was frustrating that it took her so long to realize that the only way she would be able to break her curse would be to work together and make friends. Once she started being friends with Gisele, Ragne, and Emeric, I was much more into it.
3.5/5 castle kobolds

Macmillan Publishers

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
Fractalverse book 1 of 2
CW: war, attempted genocide
Like many people who were young in the 2000s, I loved the Eragon books. Then it seemed like Paolini kind of dropped off the face of the earth for a while. Now he returns with an epic sci-fi saga. Surveying an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. When it binds itself to her, she, and all of humanity, is pulled into an intergalactic war with more than one alien species. On top of that, Kira has to learn to live in symbiosis with the alien presence that has bonded itself with her. I did read the whole thing and at 32 hours on audio, that is recommendation in and of itself. However, I wasn’t that into it. I was interested enough to finish but I don’t know that I’ll read the second book. I did like the characters of the crew of the Wallfish and I thought the concept of the ship minds was interesting.
3/5 jellies

Little, Brown and Company

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
**Book Hangover Alert
I’d heard good things about this book, but I was a little underwhelmed by Jamaica Inn by du Maurier. But I love a gothic horror so I had to check Rebecca off the list. Working as a companion for an older woman in Monte Carlo, the young, unnamed narrator meets the widower Maxim de Winter and they impulsively get married. When she returns to his estate with him, she finds the whole household and community and Maxim himself still haunted by his dead wife Rebecca. It was really good. I’m still thinking about it. The beginning was just a little slow but du Maurier has fabulous tension building and created such interesting contrasts between our unnamed narrator and Rebecca. It was so interesting how even though Mrs. de Winter is our narrator and point of view character, she fades in comparison to Rebecca who looms so large over the story, despite being dead for the whole thing.
4/5 fancy dress balls

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

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June 2023 Books

Books Reread

The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians book 3 of 5
Last month I read Riordan’s new book about Nico so it was nice to reread this one to remember how it all began. Baby Nico is so cute! In this installment of the Percy Jackson series, Percy and Grover must team up with the Hunters of Artemis to save both Annabeth and Artemis herself in a cross-country adventure full of monsters, gods, good friends, and bad jokes.
4/5 dam store t-shirts

New Books Read

Indian No More by Traci Sorell and Charlene Willing McManis***
CW: racism
Regina and her family are moving off the Umpqua rez and 10-year-old Regina isn’t sure why. Her mom says the government doesn’t recognize them as Indians anymore. Her dad says it will be a great opportunity for them to move to the city and become real Americans with better opportunities. Regina has to balance fitting in in her new home with holding onto her history and identity that her grandmother passes down to her in the form of stories. This is a great middle grade read for anyone looking to learn more about Native Americans, particularly the Indian termination policy of the 1950s.
3.5/5 neighborhood kids

Dry by Jarrod Shusterman and Neal Shusterman
CW: climate change, natural disaster, attempted rape
This book was frighteningly plausible. In a near future climate crisis, the water in Los Angeles is shut off as the Colorado River is diverted from flowing into California. All the nearby lakes, rivers, and reservoirs have already dried up. The book follows four teens and one child as they try to navigate an increasingly desperate situation. I really liked this book; I think everyone should probably read it. I liked the way the authors gave the reader several archetypes of the kind of people who emerge in natural disasters like these: the kind of end-of-the-world preparer type, who of course will never really be prepared enough, the opportunistic capitalist who knows they can make a few dollars off everyone else’s desperation, the one who is just trying to survive, the one who keeps their humanity and wants to help others, and the sort of everyman, who is trying to balance being a leader who can keep their group alive with difficult decisions they might not be able to live with. I thought it created a really interesting dynamic in the group.
3.5/5 water bottles

Milkweed Editions

The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling***
CW: rape, rape of children, slavery
This book is stunningly unique and thought provoking. In an imagined history of one of the most celebrated Native American women in history, Earling fills in the gaps of what history knows about Sacajewea. Everything we know about her comes from accounts of white men: Lewis, Clark, Sacajewea’s “husband” Charbonneau (who let’s not forget purchased her as a 13-year-old, forced her into a nonconsensual marriage and raped her). So Earling’s book takes the reader on a journey of what it may have been like to be Sacajewea. The most arresting part of Earling’s narrative is the style in which she writes. She uses rhythm and sound and repetition in a way that makes the whole narrative almost an epic prose poem. It’s challenging but also visceral and immediate. Earling doesn’t shy away from the horrifying parts of Sacajewea’s story–in fact the history we learn of Sacajewea is almost devoid of horror, despite the known facts of her kidnap, slavery, and rape as a child, so Earling’s narrative reminds readers that Sacajewea was a human and however great her contributions to history, geography, science, and this nation, she was a child who was wronged.
4/5 horses

Crown

The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama***
Every year former president Barak Obama shares a list of the best books he read. This book topped his list in 2022—though he may be a little biased. Following her gorgeous memoir Becoming, The Light We Carry walks the line between a memoir and a self-help book. Obama shares fresh stories from her life and uses them to impart wisdom and insight on living through increasingly uncertain times. Since her first book, the world has faced a global pandemic, political turmoil, economic and climate insecurity. Obama offers practical advice on understanding and using fear, caring for relationships with friends, partners, and children, and what it truly means to “go high.” Compassionate, compelling, and inspiring, Obama’s book oozes with sincerity and conviction. Obama also reads her own audiobook which I highly recommend.
3.5/5

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia***
CW: forced marriage, murder, infanticide
I rescued this book, along with Dry and Indian No More from the trash room at my apartment complex. They deserved a better home. I really liked this book. Noémi, a young socialite in Mexico City, receives a concerning letter from her cousin, married to an Englishman in a remote part of Mexico. Noémi travels to the dilapidated manor where her cousin and the Englishman’s family live in the ruins of their wealth from a now closed mine. It doesn’t take long for Noémi to realize something odd is going on. Is the house haunted? Is it driving her cousin mad? Is it driving her mad? Is her cousin being poisoned? And worst of all, will the house let her leave? I very much enjoyed this. It was dark, it was mysterious. Noémi was plucky and smart. It was a treat for anyone who loves a good old Victorian gothic novel.
4/5 mushrooms

Scholastic Inc

Solitaire by Alice Oseman
CW: depression, eating disorders, homophobia
This book follows one of my favorite characters from the Heartstopper series: Tori Spring, Charlie’s older sister. Tori Spring is just trying to figure out how to survive high school; she doesn’t have the time to figure out how to be happy. Two new boys join her year: Lucas, who was a childhood friend, and Micheal, whose reputation as a prankster precedes him. At the same time, a mysterious individual or organization named Solitaire begins to prank the school. Tori isn’t really interested in finding out who’s behind the pranks…though they all seem to be connected to her. I really enjoyed this book. I read a review that compared it to Catcher in the Rye and I do see the similarities, but Tori Spring is just so much more likable than Holden Caulfield. It’s a timeless exploration of coming of age, friendship, and finding happiness and purpose as a teenager.
3.5/5

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee***
CW: AIDS epidemic, rape, sexual harassment, trauma, death of a parent
Undoubtedly one of America’s best writers, Chee constructs intimate windows into his life in the form of personal essays. Each essay stands alone, but taken together in this book, the essays become a mosaic of a queer writer’s life. Chee writes about his mixed-race identity, the particular challenges of being a writer in the industry, the experience of being a gay man during the AIDS epidemic, the long shadow of trauma, and much more. My favorite essays included “The Querent,” about how to believe in or trust what isn’t visible or easily explained, and “Rosary,” an essay about growing a rose garden, but also an essay about creating something out of barren ground, about being shaped in turn by this thing you’ve created. Chee writes with searing honesty about extremely personal subjects, and yet the universality of his essays is apparent. They are relatable and resonant, contemplative and insightful, and I can’t recommend them enough.   
4/5 roses

I reviewed this book for Under the Sun. You can read the full review here.

Pan Macmillan

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes***
CW: rape, victim blaming
I will never not be obsessed with feminist retellings of Greek myths. A retelling of the myths of Medusa and Andromeda, Haynes conducts the reader through the myth from only female perspectives, changing a story we thought we all knew–how Perseus slew the evil gorgon Medusa and then used her severed head to kill the monster that was menacing the Princess Andromeda–and showing us that we never really knew it at all. Haynes gives us an arsenal of complex and interesting female characters and writes with an intimate and casual tone, evoking a bedtime story told by a grandmother. I was a big fan.
4.5/5 stones

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read Indian No More to learn about Native American history and how Native identities were erased by this policy. Read The Lost Journals of Sacajewea to finally hear about the great journey of Lewis and Clark from Sacajewea’s perspective–even if it must necessarily be speculative. Read The Light We Carry to become a better person. Read Mexican Gothic for a diverse and anti-colonial take on the Victorian gothic horror genre. Read How to Write and Autobiographical Novel to learn more about a gay man’s experience living through the AIDS epidemic, and about navigating the world as a mixed race child of immigrants. Read Stone Blind for Greek myths but make it feminist.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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May 2023 Books

New Books Read

Simon & Schuster

The Last Hero by Linden A. Lewis***
Book Hangover Alert**
The First Sister Trilogy book 3 of 3
CW: fantasy racism, oppression, scientific research and testing without consent, prostitution
The stunning conclusion to the First Sister Trilogy, this book is a whirlwind of war, politics, and resistance. I won’t say too much because I don’t want to spoil anything for those who haven’t read the first two books. I enjoyed the final book, though I do feel like the pacing was relentless in that every chapter we switched character POVs and every chapter the POV character was in mortal danger. It was exhausting as a reader. The book is already pretty long, but I felt I need some places to rest when the characters could breathe. But I found the series conclusion satisfying.
4/5 synthetics

River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer***
CW: slavery, n-word, racism
I wanted to like this book more than I did. In Barbados just after the end of slavery, a mother searches for her children who were sold away from her plantation. She discovers freedom in the long shadow of slavery. While I was interested in learning more about the history of slavery in the Caribbean and about the legacy of slavery, particularly how it continued with the ‘apprenticeships’ after the legal end of slavery, I didn’t feel like I connected with any of the characters. I also felt that the protagonist’s journey was almost too easy. She actually does find out what happened to all of her children which seems sort of unlikely. I also found the way the dialogue was written to be rather jarring. I’m sure it was probably historically more accurate than writing the dialogue like we speak today, but it pulled me out of the story.
3/5 rivers

Hellbent by Leigh Bardugo
Book Hangover Alert**
Alex Stern book 2 of at least 2
I was utterly useless for three days while I sat and read this book, doing everything one handed and complaining about going to work. Alex Stern, agent of Lethe, the oversight agency of the secret societies at Yale, continues her quest to rescue her mentor Darlington, ready to go through hell and back to bring him home. It was excellent. Perhaps even better than the first one. There are a few pretty traumatic events in the first book, and this one was in my opinion less traumatic. We also got to spend more time with characters we already love, so that’s why I think I enjoyed it even more than Ninth House.
5/5 rituals to open a portal to hell

Temeraire LLC

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Scholomance book 1 of 3
This book was very enjoyable. In an odd way, it reminded me of Gideon the Ninth in that it was a fantasy with a complicated magic system and world building with a protagonist with a very distinctive voice. Unlike Gideon the Ninth though, I liked it. I liked El’s distinct voice and how she grew over the novel. It was a little hard to understand the magic system and world at first but it was very unique and worth the effort to understand it.
3.5/5 mals

Disney Hyperion

The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro***
Companion to the Percy Jackson series
CW: trauma
We’ve all been waiting for Uncle Rick to give us a book about Nico and Will and it’s finally here! Nico, son of Hades, and Will, son of Apollo, must undertake a quest to Tartarus to rescue a friend. Along the way, they’ll learn just how much they mean to one another. This book was good. It was enjoyable and I’m grateful to Riordan and Oshiro for writing it because it think there are some teenaged queers that need to see themselves represented in fantasy. I didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped; I didn’t love it as much as the first two series of Percy Jackson books. There was a lot of working through trauma and developing healthy relationships, which are of course good things, but sometimes you just want demigods making jokes and killing monsters.
3.5/5 nightmares

Macmillan

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
CW: domestic violence
I love Barnhill’s work. In the near future, a teenaged girl’s mother falls in love with a man who is sometimes a crane, and sometimes a man. The crane soon becomes an abusive and menacing presence, demanding the mother, a talented weaver, create a masterpiece for him. The protagonist is then left to care for the house and her younger brother alone without the income from her mother’s work, and unable to convince her mother of the evil of the crane. The novella is a dark fantasy reimagining of the crane wife folktale from Japanese mythology, and it does a wonderful job of examining domestic violence, generational trauma, and the patriarchy.
4.5/5 cranes

Hachette Book Group

The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart***
**Book Hangover Alert
The Drowning Empire book 3 of 3
Another conclusion to a trilogy this month. Two years after the conclusion of book two, Emperor Lin is struggling to hold her empire together as the governors grumble, resistance factions spring up, and the secrets of the Alanga threaten to tumble her rule. Sometimes I feel like writers give their characters too much adversity. I realize the story would be boring without it, but at this point I just want Lin and Jovis to be happy. The conclusion to the series was bittersweet and satisfying, which is really the most I can ask of any book.
4/5 ossalen

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz***
CW: homophobia, hate crimes
This book gets a lot of hype on BookTok, and I’ll be honest, I thought it was going to be more gay. In this coming of age novel, Mexican-American Ari and his best friend Dante learn how to be themselves in a world that’s not always kind. The book is compulsively readable but I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it. Ari has a lot of self loathing to work out, which is a relatable experience for many queer teens, but is not always enjoyable to read. I have one other qualm but it’s a spoiler so read on at your own risk. Read More: SPOILERS AHEAD

Throughout the book, Ari is obsessed with knowing more about his brother who has been in jail since he was young and no one in his family will talk about him. Ari eventually finds out that his brother committed a homophobic hate crime, murdering a trans person. And that doesn’t really seem to bother Ari that much? Which I thought was odd? Ari is irate when he learns Dante is beaten to within an inch of his life for being gay, but he seems to feel no anger that his brother committed that crime. And I understand that Ari is worried about becoming like his brother because he also has anger issues and likes to fight. But he chooses to put up photos of his brother and wants to write to him in prison and while I’m all for forgiveness and healing, I didn’t understand why he wasn’t more upset that his brother MURDERED someone, specifically a trans woman.

3/5 birds with broken wings

Me trying to be as cool as Claude Cahun with her self portrait photography

Exist Otherwise: The Life and Works of Claude Cahun by Jennifer L. Shaw***
CW: antisemitism, homophobia
This lovely coffee table book details the life of Claude Cahun, an artist and writer active in the Surrealist movement of the 1920s. Cahun and her partner Marcel Moore also resisted fascism, running a sophisticated anti-Nazi propaganda movement on the occupied island of Jersey during WWII. The book is fascinating and full of photographs of Cahun and Moore’s work. Moore was an artist in her own right and she and Cahun collaborated on much of their artistic work.
3.5/5 surreal collages

Flatiron Books

Atalanta by Jennifer Saint
CW: victim blaming, rape
Jennifer Saint is one of my favorite writers of mythological reimaginings. Atalanta follows the titular character from her abandonment on a mountain as a baby, her childhood being raised by bears and nymphs of Artemis, and her involvement in the Argonaut’s quest for the golden fleece. The champion of Artemis and the only woman on the quest, through Atalanta’s eyes we get to experience the myth of the golden fleece anew through a feminist lens. I adored it.
5/5 bears

Lake Union Publishing

Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan***
CW: genocide, slavery, antisemitism, war
Based on a true story, this novel follows the experiences of Pino Lella during WWII as he helped refugees flee across the Alps from Italy to Switzerland and then became a spy for the resistance in the Nazi high command by driving for General Hans Leyers. The book was definitely very engaging and interesting. I didn’t know much about the war in Italy. That being said, there have been some rumblings on the internet about how much truth there is in this ‘true story.’ The author’s note states the following:

“Due to the document burning, the collective amnesia, and the death of so many characters by the time I learned of the story, I have been forced in places to construct scenes and dialogue based solely on Pino’s memory decades later, the scant physical evidence that remains, and my imagination fueled by my research and informed suspicions. I have also comingled or compressed events and characters for the sake of narrative coherence and have fully dramatized incidents that were described to me in much more truncated forms.

As a result, then, the story you are about to read is not a work of narrative nonfiction, but a novel of biographical and historical fiction that hews closely to what happened to Pino Lella between June 1943 and May 1945.”

-Mark T. Sullivan

So perhaps it’s more constructive to think about this book like a movie based on a true story–as we know movies always “Hollywoodize” the true story. Several different people on the internet have made different claims about the veracity of several pieces of the narrative. So I guess I would say to read the book, enjoy it, learn more about the broad strokes of WWII in Italy, but treat the book more as a historical fiction.
3.5/5 cathedrals of God

Weyward by Emilia Hart
CW: domestic violence, abuse, trauma, rape
I enjoyed this book. It was my March BOTM pick. The novel follows three women from different generations of the Weyward family as they discover their affinity with nature, survive abusive men, and come into their own power. I found all three narratives compelling and I liked the way they were all woven together. I did find the writing style a little choppy and featuring too many em dashes (which contributed to the choppiness) at least in the first half of the book. It didn’t bother me as much in the second half, either because I got used to it or the writing flowed better later on.
3.5/5 crows

HarperCollins

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang***
The Poppy War book 1 of 3
CW: genocide, extreme body horror and mutilation, rape, war, addiction, colorism, racism, human experimentation, self harm, slavery
I loved Babel by Kuang so I was really excited to read this book. The start to an epic fantasy trilogy, the story follows Rin, an orphan from a remote part of the Nikara Empire who tests into the elite military academy Sinegard where she attempts to prove she belongs there. Along the way she discovers her own shamanic powers and begins to unravel the mysteries of her past. The book is inspired by Chinese military history from the mid-20th century but set in a world closer to the Song Dynasty of the 13th century, with fantastical elements. It’s an incredible work of fantasy to be sure. I didn’t love it, and it isn’t because it wasn’t good. It was good. All the characters, but especially Rin, were so complex and interesting and flawed. It was so fresh and new and I’ve never read anything like it. But it was a little too dark for my taste. It was a little too gory. The atrocities were more gruesome and horrifying than I wanted to read about. I’m not very knowledgable about Chinese and Japanese history, so it’s possible that some of the atrocities described by Kuang are inspired by actual events, in which case I think it’s important to learn about those things, however, I didn’t necessarily pick up this book because I wanted to read 101 ways humans can desecrate other humans. That being said, I’ll probably still read the rest of them.
4/5 poppy seeds

HarperCollins

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang***
Book Hangover Alert**
CW: racism, microaggressions, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts
I can’t stop thinking about this book. And I’m not sure I’ve thought about it long enough to form a coherent review of it. Yellowface follows June Hayward, a white author who steals an unfinished novel draft from her Asian-American author friend after her untimely death. June finishes the novel and passes it off as her own and we watch as everything spirals out of control. This book reminded me of Self Care in it’s page-turning, watching-a-train-wreck quality. And June reminded me of the protagonists in Self Care, who were the same kind of white woman (we all know the one). Kuang’s biting satire of the publishing industry brings up a lot of important issues like who should be able to tell what kind of story, what is cultural appropriation, how the publishing industry treats writers of color, how privilege operates in the industry, how white women weaponize their own victimhood. It was so good. I might have more to say later, but I’m still in the lie-on-the-floor stage of the Book Hangover.
5/5 stolen manuscripts

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read The Last Hero for disability, LGBTQIA+ rep in sci-fi. Read River Sing Me Home to learn about the legacy of slavery in Barbados. Read The Sun and the Star for LGBTQIA+ rep in fantasy. Read The Bone Shard War for an Asian inspired fantasy with LGBTQIA+ rep. Read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe for a Mexican-America, gay coming of age story. Read Exist Otherwise: The Life and Words of Claude Cahun to learn about a forgotten female, lesbian artist and her heroic resistance against the Nazis. Read Beneath a Scarlet Sky to learn more about WWII and the atrocities committed in Italy. Read The Poppy War for a fantasy inspired by Chinese and Japanese history. Read Yellowface to learn more about racism and microaggressions in the publishing industry.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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March 2023 Books

New Books Read

A Venom Dark and Sweet by Judy I. Lin***
The Book of Tea book 2 of 2
I really enjoyed this one too. I read the first book last month and all the things I liked about it continued in this one. This one is a little more focused on the political issues of the empire than the first one was, but I thought it was really well done. I liked learning about the gods and the mythology of the world Lin created.
3.5/5 relics from gods

Pan Macmillan

A Victorian Flower Diction: The Language of the Flowers Companion by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and Mandy Kirby
I read this book as research for the novel I’m writing but I did find it both interesting and very helpful. The book talks in depth about 50 flowers, sharing their meaning for the Victorians and sharing art and poetry that uses these flowers as symbols. The book also contains a longer list of dictionary entries for more flowers and their basic meanings. I haven’t read The Language of the Flowers, the novel that this dictionary is a companion to, but the book was very helpful for my purposes.
3/5 chrysanthemums

Babel by R. F. Kuang***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: racism, racial slurs, death, Imperialism
I adored this book. If you’re not interested in linguistics and language and the academic theory surrounding language, this book is probably not for you. I thought it was fascinating, and I loved the setting of magical Victorian Oxford and the dark academia vibe. It reminded me a little of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, but with more likable and diverse characters. I also loved the exploration of Imperialism and racism and the difficult pull and push between one’s homeland and one’s adopted homeland, especially when one’s adopted homeland is exploiting one’s homeland. I love that this book is an anti-Imperialism, labor union book. It’s a very niche genre but one I love. My only criticisms are that I wished it had a happier end (though I’m not sure a happier end would have been believable), and I wished Ramy and Robin had a little happiness together.
5/5 silver bars

Penguin Publishing Group

Homicide and Halo-Halo***
Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mysteries book 2 of 4
CW: PTSD, trauma
This book has an author content warning at the beginning, so make sure to read it for a full list of triggers that may be in the book. I enjoyed this book too. The first book in this series was my book of the month a couple years ago and it’s a super enjoyable cozy mystery full of delicious food. This one continues in the same vein. I loved learning more about Filipino cuisine and I loved the beauty pageant aspect of the plot. We love mysteries (or really any books) with excellent female and BIPOC representation.
3.5/5 Filipino baked goods

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, translated by Kencho Suematsu
CW: pedophilia, grooming of a child
This book is considered one of if not the first fiction novel ever written. This translation is supposedly one of the first translations of the book into English, however it only translates the first 17 chapters and not all 54. I don’t know why they didn’t translate the whole thing, but I must say, I’m grateful because 17 chapters was more than enough. Of course this book is important historically in that it is one of the first fictional novels ever written and it was written by a woman, so that’s cool. But that doesn’t make it good. It was not good. It was actually quite awful. It had no plot and no interesting characters. Prince Genji, the main character, was just the worst, a womanizer and a pedophile. It was also confusing for someone who has no knowledge of Japanese court structure, life, or customs in the year 1000. I hated it.
1.5/5 ladies named after flowers (I have to give it more than a 1 because I did finish reading it)

Alfred A. Knopf

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
I loved it. This book reminded me a bit of David Mitchell, one of my favorite authors. I loved how the story weaved through time and created such a neat, satisfying well resolved ending. I don’t want to say too much because spoilers, but I adored it. I read it in basically one sitting.
5/5 moon colonies

Penguin Random House

Spare by Prince Harry
CW: PTSD, trauma, death of a parent, suicide, suicidal thoughts
Prince Harry’s memoir was fascinating. We all know a little about the royal family and we all know a little about Princess Diana and her death, but getting to see the royal family and Princess Diana through Harry’s eyes was very interesting and also heartbreaking. Harry reads the audiobook which was cool to get to hear it in his voice. I was left with the conviction that the monarchy is no longer relevant and continues to be a harmful institution, and with the conviction that the way the press dehumanizes and commodifies famous people is disgusting. I wish only the best for Harry, Megan and their children and only the worst for everyone else in the royal family.
4/5 tabloids

Cursed by Marissa Meyer
Gilded book 2 of 2
CW: death of children, loss of bodily autonomy
This was a month of reading second books in series apparently. Cursed is the sequel to Gilded, and the duology is a retelling of Rumpelstitskin. I don’t think I liked this series as much as Meyer’s first fairytale retelling, The Lunar Chronicles, but it was still very enjoyable. I really liked the world she created and the magical creatures and gods in it.
3.5/5 golden chains

Lion Forge Comics / Oni Press

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe***
Book Hangover Alert**
CW: body dysmorphia
I tried to buy this book for Banned Books Week last year and it was sold out so I still don’t have a copy, but this month for Trans Rights Read-A-Thon, I thought I would go ahead and get it from the library. It was great. You know I’m always trying to find more ace representation and Kobabe’s graphic memoir explores eir experience as a nonbinary asexual person. My complaint on the last book I read with ace rep (Loveless) was that it didn’t reflect my experience as an ace of not really wanting romantic or sexual relationships. I felt Kobabe’s experience of discovering asexuality more closely mirrored mine, although I identify as a cis woman. I hope everyone can read this book and more books like it. Stop banning books, you cowards.
5/5 pronouns

W. W. Norton & Company

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
CW: slavery
Two translated books and one book about translation this month. I’ve read parts of The Odyssey before from other translations but this is the first time I’ve read it straight though. Emily Watson’s translation is quite new and comes with a more feminist lens which was super interesting. I enjoyed it. I liked that she kept it as a metered poem, which it is in the original Greek. Other translations translate it to basically a prose poem, keeping the line breaks, but losing the meter and form. I do think it’s a little too long and there’s too much time spent between Odysseus returning to Ithaca and finally confronting the suitors. Also I didn’t realize how much help he had from Athena. Like Odysseus had a great reputation for being so smart and a great warrior, but really he just had a lot of help.
3/5 wine-dark seas

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read A Venom Dark and Sweet for a lush Asian inspired fantasy with LGBTQIA+ rep. Read Babel for anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, immigrant experiences and LGBTQIA+ rep. Read Homicide and Halo-Halo for BIPOC rep, strong ladies, and LGBTQIA+ rep. Read Gender Queer for experiences in self discovery and LGBTQIA+ rep.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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February 2023 Books

New Books Read

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin***
The Book of Tea book 1 of 2
I won’t lie, I definitely bought this book for the gorgeous cover. And then I discovered the gorgeous end papers and the adorable teapot under the dust jacket. But I really enjoyed it! What’s not to love about magical tea brewers in a competition to be the court tea magician? I loved the female friendships that developed throughout this book. I thought Lin’s world building was excellent; I got the sense of a great and varied empire with different traditions and regions and customs, without being bogged down by too much information. Looking forward to reading the next one.
3.5/5 magical teas

Audible

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
CW: imprisonment of disabled person
I really enjoyed this. Even though I pretty much knew what was going to happen, because this book has been out since 1847, so spoilers, I still felt compelled to keep reading. I liked the character of Jane a lot and I liked that even though she ends up married in the end, a position that ostensibly transferred a woman’s ownership from her father to her husband, Jane manages to do it in a way that subverts male power structures of the time. When she is first affianced to Mr. Rochester, she chafes against him buying her things and exercising the power he has over her because of his social and financial standing. Later, when Mr. Rivers proposes to her, part of the reason she does not want to marry him is the way he tries to force her to play the part of a dutiful missionary’s wife. She retains her own agency and when she eventually does mare Mr. Rochester, it is only after she receives a large inheritance and he loses half his property, putting them on equal footing financially, and he also loses his sight and the use of one of his hands, putting him physically in need of her help and support. In this way Jane keeps her agency and power even in her marriage. Now we have to talk about how Mr. Rochester is literally the worst and in no way should be excused from the fact that he locked up his mentally ill wife in the attic and pretended she didn’t exist, even if he never loved her and she wasn’t a nice person. Brontë signals to the reader that Mr. Rochester is suffering the divine punishment of being disabled (losing his sight and the use of one hand) for these sins. But of course, this is ableist also. Having a disability is not a divine punishment for a moral failing.
3/5 moody walks on the moor

Roc Hardcover

Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
The Dresden Files book 8 of 17
I don’t have much to say about this one. All of the books in this series are pretty good. This one had kind of a lot of soul searching and Harry having serious conversations with other people that are necessary, but aren’t as fun as fighting monsters. I’d also like to point out that Harry does not get any nice guy points for not being a pedophile. Like that’s the bare minimum. You don’t get an award for not being a pedophile. It just seems weird that every time Harry saw a young hot girl, he’d be like “and she had a very womanly figure but she was obviously still a child and I’m not a pedophile even though I am horny” (paraphrased, obviously). Like stop making it weird, dude.
3/5 horror movie monsters

Audible

Wally Roux: Quantum Mechanic by Nick Carr
This was another of those free audible original audio plays. It was fine. Definitely better than Life Ever After. I liked the concept of the multiverse and fixing rips in spacetime, but otherwise it was a pretty standard coming of age story.
2.5/5 anti-gravity basketball courts

HarperCollins Publishers

The Fire Endless by Rebecca Ross
**Book Hangover Alert
The Elements of Cadence book 2 of 2
Stunning. Gorgeous. Amazing. I adored it. I really liked the first book in this series, but I think I liked this one even more. I loved all the characters and the magical world of the faeries. I think the only thing I would have added is one or two more characters from the West who weren’t related to Jack and Adaira and weren’t assholes. I needed some more people from the West to sympathize with and show me that the West was worth saving.
5/5 wind spirits

The Wilderwomen by Ruth Emmie Lang
This was my Book of the Month for November. It was pretty good. It held my interest, and it was easy to read. It reminded me a lot of Other Birds. I liked meeting all the different characters who had special abilities like Finn and Zadie. But I didn’t feel like I was really satisfied by the answer of why the girls’ mother disappeared. And I guess after they found her Finn was fine???
3/5 birds

Bloomsbury

This Wicked Fate by Kalynn Bayron***
**Book Hangover Alert
This Poison Heart book 2 of 2
I love a good duology. I loved the first book in this series and the second book did not disappoint. I loved that there was not a single white character in the book. It was very refreshing. And I loved that there were so many lesbians. I also always love a mythological retelling, and this one had a really fresh feminist, Black-centric spin on it.
4.5/5 sirens

Books I did not finish

Tor.com

Gideon the Ninth by Tasmyn Muir***
The Locked Tomb series book 1 of at least 4
Judging by the reviews for this book (the majority are 4+ stars out of 5), I am in the minority because I thought it was awful. I mean lesbian space necromancers really does sound like a win. I made it about 80 pages in. I felt like I didn’t understand what was going on and I didn’t understand the world Muir was trying to create. Every time I thought I was starting to get into the world, the language Muir used pulled me right out again. Her word choice and humor didn’t work at all for me and jarred against the world. There was a lot of gratuitous swearing and sexual jokes that weren’t funny and also weird slang that felt really out of place in the world. This phrase is really in this book: “…which she could not have noped at harder.” I mean seriously. Maybe if this book was set in a high school in 2018. And there were also references to things like pizza and comics and I didn’t understand how those things fit into the world of necromancers in space on a planet that isn’t earth. Also I didn’t find Gideon or Harrow likable or sympathetic at all.
1/5 skeletons

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read A Magic Steeped in Poison for an Asian inspired fantasy. Read This Wicked Fate for LGBTQ+ and Black representation in mythological fantasy. A lot of people really liked Gideon the Ninth, so read that if you want more LGBTQ+ representation in space fantasy.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQ+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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January 2023 Books

Books Reread

Disney Hyperion

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians book 1 of 5
First, a moment of silence for the lost art of chapter titles. I reread this as a Buddy Read on StoryGraph, which I highly recommend. It’s super fun if you want to read with a group of people, but don’t want to do the traditional bookclub thing. You’re able to make comments about certain points in the book and then when your buddies have reached that point, they can unlock your comments, which is super fun and motivating. Now back to the book. I love this book. It’s so good. I forgot how good this series is. I loved revisiting where it all started and being reminded how far Percy, Grover, and Annabeth have come since this first book.
5/5 magic flying shoes

Disney Hyperion

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan***
Percy Jackson and the Olympians book 2 of 5
Another great installment in the series. This book introduces Tyson, Percy’s cyclopes half brother. This isn’t something I picked up on the first time I read this book, but I think it actually does a really good job handling disability. Tyson has a cognitive disability, or at least in the novel he stands in for a disabled character (he is othered by his peers in the same way a child with Down’s syndrome might be). And Uncle Rick doesn’t put him in for tokenism and he doesn’t rely on any disabled tropes or stereotypes (i.e. Tiny Tim is in the story to make Scrooge a better person, and disabled/deformed villains are disabled/deformed to signal to the audience that their disability represents a moral failing as well). Tyson is a rounded character with thoughts and motivations and interests and talents that are separate from his disability. The whole disabled-person-as-monster metaphor is a little on the nose, but at least he’s using it to prove that disabled people AREN’T monsters (a la Frankenstein). I also love how Percy is written in relation to Tyson. Percy’s and Tyson’s relationship is complicated with all of Percy’s worries about what his peers will think, and I think that’s a really real reaction that kids with disabled siblings have. At first Percy feels pity for Tyson when they’re at school together, then shame when he finds out they’re brothers, then love, appreciation, and acceptance. He underestimated Tyson and then revises his opinion and I love it so much. 
3.5/5 hippocampi

New Books Read

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson***
Vespertine book 1
We love that ace representation. This book was cool. I liked the magic system. I liked Artemisia a lot, who read to me as both ace and autistic. I also liked the revenant who also read as ace to me, though he’s a non-corporeal spirit so I’m not sure it counts. I loved seeing Artemisia’s friendships develop. I’m excited to see what the rest of the series looks like.
4/5 spirits

Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater***
**Book Hangover Alert
Dreamer Trilogy book 3 of 3
Stunning. Gorgeous. I adored it. Hennessey was a bit annoying in this one, but it’s part of her journey and she works through it. I love that for her. The ending was such a lovely note to leave this world and these characters on.
10/5 homemade sweetmetals

Penguin Random House

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner***
CW: death of a parent, illness
I don’t always read memoirs, but when I do, for some reason they’re about women whose mothers have died. Okay that’s an exaggeration, but one of the most memorable memoirs I’ve ever read was also about this subject. I enjoyed Zauner’s memoir. Maybe enjoyed isn’t the right word. It was of course very sad. I loved how she used food to explore her relationship with her mother and also her relationship with Korean-ness. Hers is a journey that many mixed-race and immigrant children will relate to. I liked that Zauner didn’t shy from examining her complicated relationships with both her parents and her culture.
3/5 delicious Korean foods

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
CW: child abuse, mental illness
This was my September Book of the Month. I enjoyed it. It was very readable, and I liked how all the threads tied up at the end. I did think it was a bit unrealistic that literally every character had terrible parents. And I didn’t love that Charlotte, a white girl, made a living doing henna for other white people. There’s a brief mention about how all the symbols in henna mean something, but it isn’t explored or really acknowledged that this is a very important cultural and traditional practice in India with a long history. It was used more as a way to make Charlotte seem arty and like a hippie. But I liked that everyone was happy and became friends at the end.
3.5/5 invisible birds

Loveless by Alice Oseman
This month was all about ace rep! I enjoyed this book a lot. I did wish that Georgia wasn’t so obsessed with wanting a relationship, but I guess it’s just because I don’t really want a romantic relationship, and I want this book to reflect my exact experience. I loved the Shakespeare references and all the characters. I loved that we get to celebrate friendship as much as romantic relationships.
4/5 thirsty plants

Victor Gollancz

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
Discworld book 13 of 41
We love a good Terry Pratchett Discworld novel. This one satirized religion and it’s very funny and insightful. I loved how Brutha was characterized as kind of slow at the beginning of the book, but developed into a thoughtful and powerful character. I would have liked to see a single female character somewhere in the book, but some of the older fantasy novels are pretty lacking in female representation. Pratchett does have good rep in some of the other Discworld novels, just not this one.
3/5 turtles

Bravely by Maggie Stiefvater
This book is a novel companion to the movie Brave. It takes place a few years after the movie, and explores Merida’s quest to save her family and her kingdom. It was very enjoyable. I didn’t like it as much Maggie’s other books (some of my favorite books of all time), but I still liked it. I liked that we got to see Merida’s brothers get a little older and develop unique personalities. Read on for a spoiler.

Read More: SPOILERS AHEAD

One thing I didn’t love was that Merida has to fall in love and break her heart to change. The movie establishes that Merida has no interest in love, and in my opinion she is an ace queen and I don’t want her fall in love or have a relationship. Other than that I really liked it.


3.5/5 bears (although there could have been more bears in this book)

Audible Original

The Mystery of Alice by Lee Bacon
This was another of those free Audible books. It was enjoyable. I liked the sort of dark academia vibe. It was kind of a child safe version of The Secret History. I don’t know that it was super believable, but I still enjoyed it. I wish Emily would have made a real, actually good friend. I would like to argue that Nathan was still not a good friend, even though it’s proven (spoiler alert) that he isn’t the bad guy. He’s still a stalker with anger issues who was never a good friend to Emily.
3/5 spy necklaces

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
CW: anti-black racism
Not to be a snob, but both this book and Crying in H Mart were on Obama’s favorite books of the year in 2021, and though both were good, I don’t think either will make it on my favorite books of this year. In fact none of the books I’ve read on his 2021 list made my list the year I read it. I guess we just have different tastes. I liked this book. It was interesting and very readable. The characters were interesting and distinct. I did think Billy didn’t read much like an 8 year old; he acted and spoke like a much older child, apart from his naïveté. I thought Duchess was a really interesting, well-done morally gray character. I didn’t love the ending. It felt kind of callous. I also felt like Towles wrote this book and then his editor was like “there is not a single female character in this book.” And so Towles went back and added Sally’s chapters (Sarah doesn’t count because she’s basically a non-character). But Sally seemed really unnecessary to the plot.
3.5/5 studebakers

Hachette Book Group

The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin***
**Book Hangover Alert
Great cities book 2 of 2
CW: racism, ICE
I love these books so much. I adored The City We Became and I loved this one too. I do wish there could be more books, but I also respect Jemisin’s reasons for not writing more. As a writer, I don’t even know how she managed these two books. I still love all the characters, especially Padmini. I liked seeing Aislyn’s development. I would have loved to see a little more Neek and Manny, but I am still satisfied with the ending.
5/5 boroughs of New York

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read The Sea of Monsters for disability in fantasy rep. Read Vespertine for LGBTQIA+ rep in fantasy. Read Greywaren for LGBTQIA+ rep in fantasy. Read Loveless for LGBTQIA+ rep in romance. Read The World We Make for diversity and LGBTQIA+ rep in sci-fi.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

(I stopped being able to change text color. I don’t know why.)

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September 2022 Books

New Books Read

Europa Editions

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
CW: bullying, suicide, suicidal ideation
I really liked Breasts and Eggs by Kawakami so I was excited to read this. I was left with the feeling that I didn’t get it. I mean, I understood the fundamental struggle of humans to try to give meaning to our lives, particularly our strife, the idea that suffering has to mean something. But the whole thing just left me sad and dispirited, and I felt that I suffered with the characters through the novel and then was left with no meaning at the end. Which maybe was the point, that the characters suffer meaninglessly and the reader does too, but it didn’t leave me particularly satisfied. So did I miss something? Have you read it? What did you think?
2/5 letters

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: gun violence, suicide
This book was just so good. We love to see ace characters. We love to see deep friendship given as much consideration as romantic relationships. We love 90s and early 2000s nostalgia. This book had all of that, as well as being thought provoking and literary and haunting. I loved it.
5/5 Donkey Kong machines

Penguin Random House

Upgrade by Blake Crouch
CW: nonconsensual medical procedures
This book was definitely a page turner. I enjoyed the ethical question of the lengths we should go to if it means saving the human race. I was interested in the examination of gene editing, especially since that is something that might be within reach of current science soon. I wish Crouch had spent more time examining the ethical problem of whether we should edit genes, even if we have the ability to, and if it’s ethical to upgrade people without their consent.
3.5/5 upgraded vigilantes

St. Martin’s Press

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: war, genocide, rape, anti-semitism, torture
I’ve said this about every Kristin Hannah book I’ve read so far, but I love her female characters. I love how distinct they are from one another and how the both develop throughout the narrative. I learned a lot about World War II. I loved how Hannah managed to portray her characters with such empathy, whether they were choosing to keep their heads down to try to survive or whether they were resisting the Nazis in large or small ways.
4.5/5 ration coupons

Audible Original

Agent 355 by Marie Benedict
This was a fun little novella speculating on the identity of a spy instrumental in bringing down Benedict Arnold during the Revolutionary War. It was enjoyable and I liked Elizabeth’s plucky nature. But I could have done with more spying and less falling in love.
3/5 redcoats

Bloomsbury Publishing USA

House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas
Crescent City book 2
CW: fantasy racism
I do think this was maybe a bit too long and had too much graphic sex in it for my taste. But that being said I did really enjoy it and I will read the next one. I do still kind of think this story is a grown up version of Throne of Glass, but again that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I won’t explain more, because spoilers.
4/5 comm crystals

Tor Publishing Group

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire***
Wayward Children book 6 of 10
CW: bullying, fantasy racism
This is a stand-alone in the Wayward Children series and it might be one of my favorites from the series. We don’t get to see Eleanor West of the other children from the home for wayward children, which is a shame since I do miss them, but I loved Reagan and her story.
3.5/5 centaurs

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: racism, sexual assault
I adored this one too. I love the idea of epigenetic inheritance and the idea of reincarnation (although that’s not quite what’s happening here). It reminded me a lot of David Mitchell’s work, and he’s one of my favorite authors. It also reminded me a bit of The Bonesetter’s Daughter. I loved the way each woman’s story echoed into the next and how each was wrapped up. It was moving and poignant and just so lovely.
5/5 typhoons

Harper Perennial

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
CW: racism, ableism
Of 20th century dystopian novels, this one is not the best. It’s intriguing and I certainly agree with Huxley’s critique of consumerism and agree with the fundamental right of personal autonomy. But I didn’t love it. I think it was because I didn’t like any of the characters much, and I’m not really sure that you were supposed to. Bernard was shallow and cowardly and Lenina was also shallow, though that may have been a result of the conditioning of the World State. That left me with John, who I felt I was supposed to sympathize more with but I really didn’t much care for him either, even if his view of human nature and the natural order of the world is closer to my own. The caste system was interesting and frightening in its believability.
3/5 soma tabs

Tor Publishing Group

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire
Wayward Children book 7 of 10
CW: fatphobia, bullying
I was glad this installment of the series included both many of our old friends from the home for wayward children, and let us see Reagan again from the last book. I really enjoyed this one and liked that we got to see the Whitehorn Academy which has been mentioned before in the previous books.
3.5/5 mermaids

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow for LGBTQIA+, mixed race and immigrant, and female perspectives in the world of video games. Read The Nightingale to learn more about WWII and the suffering Jews and other minorities, as well as French resistance fighters faced, and the everyday struggles of the women of occupied France. Read Across the Green Grass Fields for LGBTQIA+ representation in fantasy. Read The Many Daughters of Afong Moy for a Chinese perspective on the past, present, and future.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQ+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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July 2022 Books

I was really busy in July so the reading was a little slow this month (also I wasted a lot of time on Revelation Space).

New Books Read

Namesake by Adrienne Young
Book Hangover Alert**
Fable book 2 of 2
I really enjoyed this series. I mean how can you go wrong with pirates? I liked all the twists and turns I didn’t see coming. I did miss Wes and the crew a little bit because they don’t seem to get as big a role in this one as the first one, but I still really liked it. I won’t say too much because I don’t want to give any spoilers for those who haven’t read the first one.
4/5 deals struck

Doubleday

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
This might be Bryson’s best book. I always enjoy Bryson’s humor and the way he weaves in history and science. I liked how Bryson captured the way hiking can be really not fun but still somehow enthralls you and keeps you coming back for more (we’ve always called that Type 2 fun). As an experienced hiker, it was very amusing to hear of Bryson’s and Katz’s experiences on the trail as fairly inexperienced hikers, especially because of the self-deprecating way Bryson tells the story.
4/5 thrown out supplies

Audible

The Man on the Mountain Top by Susan Trott, adapted by Libby Spurrier
I don’t know that this really counts as a book but this is my blog so I can do what I want. It’s an audible original that adapts two books by Susan Trott (The Holy Man and The Holy Man’s Journey) into an audio play. I enjoyed it. It was reflective and thoughtful and sweet. I liked the performances of all the actors.
3/5 treks up the mountain

Random House

The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida***
This is a great read for anyone who wants to understand a little more about the autistic experience. So often people assume that nonverbal autistics are stupid or don’t understand what others say to them, but this book, written by a nonverbal autistic 13 year old gives us a window into what it’s like inside his head. Of course experiences of anything, including autism, aren’t universal, but I think reading this book can definitely help people understand that brains can work in different ways and people can communicate in all sorts of ways and that’s okay.
3/5 happy flaps

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart ***
Book Hangover**
Drowning Empire book 1 of 3
This book was so good. So unlike anything I’ve read before. The world building was exquisite; I loved the Asian-inspired fantasy. I also liked the characterization of each of the main characters. I liked the tension created by each of their different goals and motivations, which set them at odds with each other. At the same time though, they were all compelling and I was rooting for all of them, even though they weren’t always working together. There were lots of twists and turns I didn’t see coming or only saw just before they happened, which was very satisfying. I also adored Mephi. I liked this book so much I immediately started reading the sequel.
5/5 constructs

Flatiron Books

Elektra by Jennifer Saint
Book Hangover**
CW: murder, rape, gore
I loved this. Saint did such a great job with each of her three main characters, Elektra, Clytemnestra, and Cassandra. Each woman was unique and nuanced and had a voice and perspective entirely her own. I feel like so often we see female characters who are pretty much indistinguishable from each other. I love the Trojan war and I’ve read several retellings before; I loved the fresh perspective this book brought. I liked Saint’s last novel, Ariadne, but I loved this one.
5/5 lion daggers

Books I didn’t finish

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
The last time I didn’t finish reading a book was July of 2020 (Tender Morsels). It’s rare for me to not finish something. I suppose I might return to this one someday. It has that quality that some science fiction books have where the first few pages you have no idea what’s going on and they’re using all this jargon that’s unfamiliar (Dune is one of these). Usually I just keep reading in the good faith that it will start to make sense eventually, and usually it does. But I read almost 100 pages of this book and it was still not making sense. I also thought it was boring and had too many characters, and the way it jumped around in time was confusing. So anyway, let me know if you’ve read this book and what you thought.
0/5 alien fossils

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read The Reason I Jump to get a better understanding of the experience of nonverbal autistic people. Read The Bone Shard Daughter for an Asian-inspired fantasy.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQ+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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