We're going to need a bigger blog
Or clock! Sorry about how late this has been, but I have actually been feeling well again! So, I've been doing very productive things and not stuck on my couch for quite so long a time. It has been glorious, but has gotten me behind on my book reviews. So without further ado:
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
(ATY: A book related to the lyrics for the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music, PopSugar: A book by an Indigenous author, ReadHarder: Read a genre novel by an Indigenous, First Nations, or Native American author)
I want to read this because it was highly recommended on the message boards.
This was such an excellent book! What an amazing debut! It was a perfect blend of supernatural, mystery, and a little horror (but not too much!). Elatsoe lives in a world just like ours except with magic woven into the fabric of the everyday. She has the power to summon spirits of the dead and uses her power to keep her dog Kirby as a companion. However, she knows that her power must NEVER be used to summon spirits of human beings which are terrible things. (Don’t worry the story is not going where you think it’s going.) When her cousin dies in a car accident Elatsoe and her family are caught up in the mystery of how he died which leads to a heinous discovery! I really liked the character of Elatsoe and how supportive her family was. Her parents were amazing. I wish more junior and young adult books showed strong, supportive bonds like these between caregivers and young people instead of painting them as opposition. I also liked how the story in the present was interspersed with stories about Six Great. I’m pretty sure I could read a whole book about her adventures! I wish there had been a better narrator for the audio book, but the story was fantastic and I can’t wait to read another book by this author!
Great Mouse Detective: Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus
(ATY: A book whose title and author both contain the letter "u")
I want to read this because it is so short, I love the movie, and it was a freebie borrow on Hoopla.
This was cute, but nothing like the movie. It wasn’t amazing, but it was a tidy little mystery and probably would be good for beginner readers. Basil lives under the home of the great Sherlock Holmes and often listens in when he talks about his cases with Watson and has thus gleaned many of the famous detective’s techniques to solve crimes. He’s already well established as the Sherlock Holmes of the mouse world and has a faithful assistant just like Holmes. When two kiddos from his own home (which has a few different mouse families living in it) are kidnapped it’s no surprise that the parents turn to Basil for help. Off he goes on an adventure, hot on the kidnapper’s trail. It’s not as good as Enola Holmes, but it would be a great stepping stone into that series for younger readers.
Aesop's Fables by Aesop
I want to read this because it is a classic and it was a freebie borrow on Hoopla.
This took me a super long time to get through. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. Some of the stories were familiar and some of the lessons I had heard before and was surprised they had their origins in Aesop. However, a lot of them were undecipherable to me and some of them I didn’t agree with at all. It did make me want to look up a list of the fables so I could wrap my head around them more thoroughly. It might be a fun project someday to go back and study more closely all the different morals taught or maybe to read commentary on them by some expert.
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia HIbbert
(ATY: A book by a new-to-you BIPOC author, PopSugar: A book featuring three generations (grandparent, parent, child), ReadHarder: Read a fat-positive romance)
I want to read this because it is a romance and I want something light and fun.
This was fucking fantastic! Absolutely Brilliant! My cheeks hurt because I was grinning so much while listening to it. Chloe Brown has a “near death” experience while out on a walk one day and as tends to happen with near death experiences she re-examines her circumstances and decides to change her life. She makes a list because, of course she does! That’s the kind of character she is and I love it! She starts by moving out of her parents home and into a flat all her own. There she meets Redford Morgan who is the handyman and superintendent and oh what a story they make! We don’t se them meet, we just hear about it from the characters. So, they start off with a very firm dislike of one another. I loved the interaction between the two characters, and I loved the cute-ness of the whole story. However, what I loved most of all was the explicit and very real portrayal of someone living with a chronic illness. The compassion and support that Chloe receives from her family and supporting characters is AMAZING! I loved how gently both characters came to understand each other. Normally when it comes to romance and the more steamy scenes I like a bit of fluffy language. Not full on purple prose or anything, but I don’t care for it to be crude. This book goes for it and uses tits, cunt, cock, etc and it works! It didn’t detract from my enjoyment at all, which was an unusual experience for me. I am going to read the next in the series and I really hope it’s as enjoyable.
My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile by Isabel Allende
(ATY: A book with six or more words in the title, ReadHarder: Read a memoir by a Latinx author)
I want to read this because I really wanto to like Isabel Allende, but I’m a little apprehensive at how academic her books are treated.
The language was so beautiful. I thought this might be difficult to get through and full of painful recollections, but it was amazing! I felt like the author would be someone easy to talk to and even better to listen to. She made a lot of the experiences she talked about really relatable and her descriptions of Chile were a freakin’ love letter. One of my favorite parts was this description of some construction workers relocating some palm trees. She was describing how the dirt from the original plot stayed all tangled up in the roots of palm and so no matter how many times it was moved it still carried pieces of the original land with it. It was a metaphor I related to on a personal level and I think that’s the magic of this book. It holds appeal for such a wide variety of people because the author is such a skilled storyteller. I’m not sure if it makes me want to read other books by her though. I’m still worried about the difficulty finding enjoyment in books about people in really unfortunate situations and I know that I really didn’t like Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I realize he’s Columbian, but they both write about family and in the magical realism style. I’m worried I will find it too…. inaccessible for me. I might give it a try though.
Peace Talks by Jim Butcher
(ATY: A winner or nominee from the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards)
I want to read this because it is the next in the series!
OOOOOOOooooo this was so good. I loved the little glimpse we get into a semi-”normal” life for Harry. His daughter is ADORABLE and he’s an AMAZING dad. His relationship with Murphy and his relationship with his brother both going well. Man, it was such a great opening. Of course, it didn’t last. A meeting between the signatories of the Unseelie Accords means it’s going to be another LOOOOOONG day for Harry. The throwback to Sue and the delightful interplay between Sanya and Butters made me so happy! I was very concerned with Mccoy’s odd behavior, and I hope that gets explained in the next book. Alas, the cliffhanger was a killer! Chicago is in great peril and Dresden must fight the most dangerous battle yet to save it! I am a little worried about the large-ness of the foe revealed at the end and presumably the star of the next book which will pick up IMMEDIATELY where this one leaves off. Of course, I can’t wait until the next one!
Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson
(ATY: A book whose title refers to person(s) without giving their name, PopSugar: A book set in multiple countries, ReadHarder: Read a food memoir by an author of color)
I want to read this because it sounded like I might relate to the author through also being adopted.
This was way more enjoyable than I thought it would be. A food memoir seemed like a strange prompt when it came up on the reading challenge. I'm not usually into memoir unless it's written by a comedian and sometimes not even then. (I’m looking at you Ellen DeGeneres and Eddie Izzard). I'm also not a fan of refined cuisine. (I have a palate suited to Velveeta cheese, for example). However, this book was AMAZING. Listening to Marcus Samuelsson talk about his experiences growing up in Sweden, what drove him to become a chef, and his ridiculous amount of hard work he put into becoming the best was really interesting. His writing was engaging and his explanations were clear. I realized I had no idea how a professional kitchen worked and was structured. I had no idea how chefs became "Chefs." I just thought they went to cooking school and then came out chefs. I didn't realize there was so much of a master/apprentice dynamic involved and how important it is to be able to cook alongside already established chefs. This was a particularly difficult challenge for the author because of his skin color, but it’s amazing he’s working to change that. I loved the way that Marcus talked about "chasing flavors" and how he used his different world traveling experiences to inspire his dishes. It really made me want to eat at his restaurant even though I'm pretty sure I'd never be able to afford it. He got personal as well as professional, but I definitely loved more of his talk about the professional side. His challenges as a person of color were sad, but I was fascinated to hear about his journey. I also related to some of his feelings about being adopted and having incredible parents, but also wanting to connect with your birth parents without that reflecting any sort of judgement on your adoptive parents.
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
(ATY: A book published in 2021, PopSugar: A book that's published in 2021)
I want to read this because it is the next book in the series!
This was delightful! It’s not the best Murderbot yet, but it was still full of lots of good stuff. We even get to see how Murderbot is developing its relationships with the humans. I love that Dr. Bharadwaj has become Murderbot’s de facto therapist. The story was a classic murder mystery. Well, sort of classic. It does take place in the future and in space and in a galaxy far, far away, but other than that, total classic murder mystery. There was even a moment where the word “bonked” was used without comedic effect. It was fantastic. I can’t wait for the next one!
The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer
I want to read this because it is the next book in the series!
This might have been the best book in the series yet! One of the worst criminals in fairy history escapes and enacts a plan of revenge on her foes. Commander Root, Captain Holly Short, Foley, and Artemis Fowl (who can't even REMEMBER the fairy world)! Somehow Holly is going to have to avoid getting killed, somehow get Artemis and Butler to REMEMBER, and catch the evil culprit. It was awesome from start to finish! There was such a great story with lots of action, but also, so many feels! The world really comes alive with the details that the author includes. The specific facets of fairy technology and so many excellent snippets of fairy history and how it has intersected with human history are just some of the bits that bring the world of Artemis Fowl to life. I don’t know how the story is going to progress going forward and I’m a little nervous about that, but I love Holly more and more with each book. I am really looking forward to the next one.
New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color Edited by Nisi Shawl
(ReadHarder: Read an SFF anthology edited by a person of color)
I want to read this because the forward is by LeVar Burton who’s podcast I’ve listened to a bit and I’m hoping the stories are similar to the ones he reads.
Some of these stories were down right AMAZING! Some were so-so and some I didn’t understand at all. I enjoyed most of the stories but one story in particular reads like a historical analysis of a fictional event and really stuck in my head and has probably changed my perspective forever. It’s about two translators who purposefully mistranslated their leaders' interactions to avert a devastating war. I’m going along reading and really enjoying the story because of course the translators fall in love with each other, but at the end, there is a reply to the “historical analysis” from a significant other of the author. It brought up several criticisms of the author's interpretation of the historical facts. CRITICISMS that should be lobbed at every single interpretation of historical events in real life, but are absolutely “conditioned” out me as a reader. It completely blew my mind and made me angry at myself for enjoying this “historical” story without EVER questioning the way it was told like I should have. For example, the author repeatedly says that women of the time were just not recorded and so he has no real information about the female translator and the critic explains that he could have looked here and here for more evidence to find information about her and he could have read between the lines to draw likely conclusions. The critic also points out that the author draws no conclusions about the woman from her letters though he draws many about the male translator from his letters. Also, the author just assumes the female translator returned the love of the other translator, but the critic questions whether this was true. The questions the critic asks are SO valid to so many explorations of human history and I hope that I will be able to think of them when I am attempting to read something historical with a critical eye. On a side note, I listen to a podcast called Encyclopedia Womanica and I’m constantly amazed that they are able to present SO many women from history. For so long, I have simply accepted the line that women are absent from history because of their low position in society in many cases. Now I see, that’s simply not true and this story further expounds that idea by prompting me to ask how hard have historians been trying? Certainly women don’t need to be as invisible as they have been, and I hope I (and others) can demand better from our history books. I hope we don’t just accept the tired line that women haven’t historically done this or that, but that women have done all kinds of interesting things in history and we need to stop erasing them! The whole book was worth it just for that piece, but also, the whole book was pretty great. I also learned that I LOVE DARCI LITTLEBADGER and want her to write so much more because she is mind blowingly good! Her story was about a person who goes to places and helps guide the “breaths” of dead people out. Just like Elatsoe there are so many snippets mentioned off hand that make me want to read more of this word! I want whole serieses to take place in these worlds so I can learn the various roles and rules of the inhabitants. I crave it unlike any series I’ve experienced in a long time. I didn’t even feel this way about Dresden’s universe. I just kind of accepted it for what it was and didn’t feel like it was intriguing, but these two stories from Darci Littlebadger (not in the same universe, but with similar themes) have sparked curiosity! It’s fantastic and I can’t wait for there to be more!!
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
(ReadHarder: Read an own voices YA book with a Black main character that isn’t about Black pain)
I want to read this because it was recommended on the message boards.
WOH! I am blown away by this book. It was SOOOOO good. Most importantly it was fresh in the YA genre which has A LOT of recycled tropes. Don’t get me wrong those tropes work, but this book didn’t revert to well used tropes to keep the story compelling and relatable. Liz is getting out of her midwestern hometown and is headed to a prestigious college to become a doctor, (insert squealing brakes sound here) her financial aid falls through! BUT her hometown is obsessed with prom to the extent that prom king and queen both earn significant scholarships. Liz sees hope to keep her dream alive, she just has to endure weeks of prom nonsense, including the company of the “cool” kids and mean girls, social media attention all the time, and falling for the wrong one at the wrong time! As much as this sounds like a throwback to some ‘80s teen drama movie with Insta, trust me. It’s not. The feeling and depth that the characters are written with really shows a deep connection to the characters from the author. Time and again I found myself caught off guard with characters who acted in unexpected (but not wonky out of character) ways! I felt for Liz on so many levels and I appreciated her struggle to just get through it to see the bigger goal, but she also grew in unexpected ways and I loved her for it! I wanted a Liz Lighty in EVERY high school to shake the world up and reinvent it more beautiful and amazing! This was a glorious read and another awesome product of my reading challenge. Not something I would have picked up on my own, but SOOO glad it came into my life!
Battle Ground by Jim Butcher
I want to read this because it is the next in the series and will get me all caught up on the Dresden Files!
OY! This was tough to get through because it really is all about the BATTLE. I was exhausted listening to it. Like most Dresden books it has unexpected humor that relieves the tension a lot. Unlike the other Dresden books it made me sob while I was driving down the road. DANG IT, FRIENDS, I NEED A WARNING FOR SHIT LIKE THAT SO I’M NOT A DANGER TO MYSELF AND ALL THE OTHER CARS AROUND ME! This story had it all. Happiness, sadness, joy, despair, revenge, repentance, realization of what REALLY matters in life, but also…. A big fat cop out that made me want to stop reading the books. I’m not going to say who, but one of the mainstays of the series has a big reveal that… pissed… me… off. *deep breaths* Why did Butcher take that route?! How long ago did this happen?! He was FINE AND INTERESTING THE WAY HE WAS! At this point I’m begging for a classic Dresden story where Harry is a detective again. I’m getting sick of just reading about all the ways he can acquire injuries and how many hot bad babes he can resist having sex with and face down their evilness. Give me a really good Dresden mystery for a couple of books before you blow up the universe again. I’m not looking forward to the next one as much this time.
The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit by Werner Holzwarth
I want to read this because I think it will fit Shelly’s poop themed storytime!
My husband just called this little mole my spirit animal and... I'm not saying he's wrong. Cute and clever with a laugh out loud ending. I highly recommend!
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
(ATY: A book related to the lyrics for the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music, PopSugar: A book by an Indigenous author, ReadHarder: Read a genre novel by an Indigenous, First Nations, or Native American author)
I want to read this because it was highly recommended on the message boards.
This was such an excellent book! What an amazing debut! It was a perfect blend of supernatural, mystery, and a little horror (but not too much!). Elatsoe lives in a world just like ours except with magic woven into the fabric of the everyday. She has the power to summon spirits of the dead and uses her power to keep her dog Kirby as a companion. However, she knows that her power must NEVER be used to summon spirits of human beings which are terrible things. (Don’t worry the story is not going where you think it’s going.) When her cousin dies in a car accident Elatsoe and her family are caught up in the mystery of how he died which leads to a heinous discovery! I really liked the character of Elatsoe and how supportive her family was. Her parents were amazing. I wish more junior and young adult books showed strong, supportive bonds like these between caregivers and young people instead of painting them as opposition. I also liked how the story in the present was interspersed with stories about Six Great. I’m pretty sure I could read a whole book about her adventures! I wish there had been a better narrator for the audio book, but the story was fantastic and I can’t wait to read another book by this author!
Great Mouse Detective: Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus
(ATY: A book whose title and author both contain the letter "u")
I want to read this because it is so short, I love the movie, and it was a freebie borrow on Hoopla.
This was cute, but nothing like the movie. It wasn’t amazing, but it was a tidy little mystery and probably would be good for beginner readers. Basil lives under the home of the great Sherlock Holmes and often listens in when he talks about his cases with Watson and has thus gleaned many of the famous detective’s techniques to solve crimes. He’s already well established as the Sherlock Holmes of the mouse world and has a faithful assistant just like Holmes. When two kiddos from his own home (which has a few different mouse families living in it) are kidnapped it’s no surprise that the parents turn to Basil for help. Off he goes on an adventure, hot on the kidnapper’s trail. It’s not as good as Enola Holmes, but it would be a great stepping stone into that series for younger readers.
Aesop's Fables by Aesop
I want to read this because it is a classic and it was a freebie borrow on Hoopla.
This took me a super long time to get through. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. Some of the stories were familiar and some of the lessons I had heard before and was surprised they had their origins in Aesop. However, a lot of them were undecipherable to me and some of them I didn’t agree with at all. It did make me want to look up a list of the fables so I could wrap my head around them more thoroughly. It might be a fun project someday to go back and study more closely all the different morals taught or maybe to read commentary on them by some expert.
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia HIbbert
(ATY: A book by a new-to-you BIPOC author, PopSugar: A book featuring three generations (grandparent, parent, child), ReadHarder: Read a fat-positive romance)
I want to read this because it is a romance and I want something light and fun.
This was fucking fantastic! Absolutely Brilliant! My cheeks hurt because I was grinning so much while listening to it. Chloe Brown has a “near death” experience while out on a walk one day and as tends to happen with near death experiences she re-examines her circumstances and decides to change her life. She makes a list because, of course she does! That’s the kind of character she is and I love it! She starts by moving out of her parents home and into a flat all her own. There she meets Redford Morgan who is the handyman and superintendent and oh what a story they make! We don’t se them meet, we just hear about it from the characters. So, they start off with a very firm dislike of one another. I loved the interaction between the two characters, and I loved the cute-ness of the whole story. However, what I loved most of all was the explicit and very real portrayal of someone living with a chronic illness. The compassion and support that Chloe receives from her family and supporting characters is AMAZING! I loved how gently both characters came to understand each other. Normally when it comes to romance and the more steamy scenes I like a bit of fluffy language. Not full on purple prose or anything, but I don’t care for it to be crude. This book goes for it and uses tits, cunt, cock, etc and it works! It didn’t detract from my enjoyment at all, which was an unusual experience for me. I am going to read the next in the series and I really hope it’s as enjoyable.
My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile by Isabel Allende
(ATY: A book with six or more words in the title, ReadHarder: Read a memoir by a Latinx author)
I want to read this because I really wanto to like Isabel Allende, but I’m a little apprehensive at how academic her books are treated.
The language was so beautiful. I thought this might be difficult to get through and full of painful recollections, but it was amazing! I felt like the author would be someone easy to talk to and even better to listen to. She made a lot of the experiences she talked about really relatable and her descriptions of Chile were a freakin’ love letter. One of my favorite parts was this description of some construction workers relocating some palm trees. She was describing how the dirt from the original plot stayed all tangled up in the roots of palm and so no matter how many times it was moved it still carried pieces of the original land with it. It was a metaphor I related to on a personal level and I think that’s the magic of this book. It holds appeal for such a wide variety of people because the author is such a skilled storyteller. I’m not sure if it makes me want to read other books by her though. I’m still worried about the difficulty finding enjoyment in books about people in really unfortunate situations and I know that I really didn’t like Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I realize he’s Columbian, but they both write about family and in the magical realism style. I’m worried I will find it too…. inaccessible for me. I might give it a try though.
Peace Talks by Jim Butcher
(ATY: A winner or nominee from the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards)
I want to read this because it is the next in the series!
OOOOOOOooooo this was so good. I loved the little glimpse we get into a semi-”normal” life for Harry. His daughter is ADORABLE and he’s an AMAZING dad. His relationship with Murphy and his relationship with his brother both going well. Man, it was such a great opening. Of course, it didn’t last. A meeting between the signatories of the Unseelie Accords means it’s going to be another LOOOOOONG day for Harry. The throwback to Sue and the delightful interplay between Sanya and Butters made me so happy! I was very concerned with Mccoy’s odd behavior, and I hope that gets explained in the next book. Alas, the cliffhanger was a killer! Chicago is in great peril and Dresden must fight the most dangerous battle yet to save it! I am a little worried about the large-ness of the foe revealed at the end and presumably the star of the next book which will pick up IMMEDIATELY where this one leaves off. Of course, I can’t wait until the next one!
Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson
(ATY: A book whose title refers to person(s) without giving their name, PopSugar: A book set in multiple countries, ReadHarder: Read a food memoir by an author of color)
I want to read this because it sounded like I might relate to the author through also being adopted.
This was way more enjoyable than I thought it would be. A food memoir seemed like a strange prompt when it came up on the reading challenge. I'm not usually into memoir unless it's written by a comedian and sometimes not even then. (I’m looking at you Ellen DeGeneres and Eddie Izzard). I'm also not a fan of refined cuisine. (I have a palate suited to Velveeta cheese, for example). However, this book was AMAZING. Listening to Marcus Samuelsson talk about his experiences growing up in Sweden, what drove him to become a chef, and his ridiculous amount of hard work he put into becoming the best was really interesting. His writing was engaging and his explanations were clear. I realized I had no idea how a professional kitchen worked and was structured. I had no idea how chefs became "Chefs." I just thought they went to cooking school and then came out chefs. I didn't realize there was so much of a master/apprentice dynamic involved and how important it is to be able to cook alongside already established chefs. This was a particularly difficult challenge for the author because of his skin color, but it’s amazing he’s working to change that. I loved the way that Marcus talked about "chasing flavors" and how he used his different world traveling experiences to inspire his dishes. It really made me want to eat at his restaurant even though I'm pretty sure I'd never be able to afford it. He got personal as well as professional, but I definitely loved more of his talk about the professional side. His challenges as a person of color were sad, but I was fascinated to hear about his journey. I also related to some of his feelings about being adopted and having incredible parents, but also wanting to connect with your birth parents without that reflecting any sort of judgement on your adoptive parents.
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
(ATY: A book published in 2021, PopSugar: A book that's published in 2021)
I want to read this because it is the next book in the series!
This was delightful! It’s not the best Murderbot yet, but it was still full of lots of good stuff. We even get to see how Murderbot is developing its relationships with the humans. I love that Dr. Bharadwaj has become Murderbot’s de facto therapist. The story was a classic murder mystery. Well, sort of classic. It does take place in the future and in space and in a galaxy far, far away, but other than that, total classic murder mystery. There was even a moment where the word “bonked” was used without comedic effect. It was fantastic. I can’t wait for the next one!
The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer
I want to read this because it is the next book in the series!
This might have been the best book in the series yet! One of the worst criminals in fairy history escapes and enacts a plan of revenge on her foes. Commander Root, Captain Holly Short, Foley, and Artemis Fowl (who can't even REMEMBER the fairy world)! Somehow Holly is going to have to avoid getting killed, somehow get Artemis and Butler to REMEMBER, and catch the evil culprit. It was awesome from start to finish! There was such a great story with lots of action, but also, so many feels! The world really comes alive with the details that the author includes. The specific facets of fairy technology and so many excellent snippets of fairy history and how it has intersected with human history are just some of the bits that bring the world of Artemis Fowl to life. I don’t know how the story is going to progress going forward and I’m a little nervous about that, but I love Holly more and more with each book. I am really looking forward to the next one.
New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color Edited by Nisi Shawl
(ReadHarder: Read an SFF anthology edited by a person of color)
I want to read this because the forward is by LeVar Burton who’s podcast I’ve listened to a bit and I’m hoping the stories are similar to the ones he reads.
Some of these stories were down right AMAZING! Some were so-so and some I didn’t understand at all. I enjoyed most of the stories but one story in particular reads like a historical analysis of a fictional event and really stuck in my head and has probably changed my perspective forever. It’s about two translators who purposefully mistranslated their leaders' interactions to avert a devastating war. I’m going along reading and really enjoying the story because of course the translators fall in love with each other, but at the end, there is a reply to the “historical analysis” from a significant other of the author. It brought up several criticisms of the author's interpretation of the historical facts. CRITICISMS that should be lobbed at every single interpretation of historical events in real life, but are absolutely “conditioned” out me as a reader. It completely blew my mind and made me angry at myself for enjoying this “historical” story without EVER questioning the way it was told like I should have. For example, the author repeatedly says that women of the time were just not recorded and so he has no real information about the female translator and the critic explains that he could have looked here and here for more evidence to find information about her and he could have read between the lines to draw likely conclusions. The critic also points out that the author draws no conclusions about the woman from her letters though he draws many about the male translator from his letters. Also, the author just assumes the female translator returned the love of the other translator, but the critic questions whether this was true. The questions the critic asks are SO valid to so many explorations of human history and I hope that I will be able to think of them when I am attempting to read something historical with a critical eye. On a side note, I listen to a podcast called Encyclopedia Womanica and I’m constantly amazed that they are able to present SO many women from history. For so long, I have simply accepted the line that women are absent from history because of their low position in society in many cases. Now I see, that’s simply not true and this story further expounds that idea by prompting me to ask how hard have historians been trying? Certainly women don’t need to be as invisible as they have been, and I hope I (and others) can demand better from our history books. I hope we don’t just accept the tired line that women haven’t historically done this or that, but that women have done all kinds of interesting things in history and we need to stop erasing them! The whole book was worth it just for that piece, but also, the whole book was pretty great. I also learned that I LOVE DARCI LITTLEBADGER and want her to write so much more because she is mind blowingly good! Her story was about a person who goes to places and helps guide the “breaths” of dead people out. Just like Elatsoe there are so many snippets mentioned off hand that make me want to read more of this word! I want whole serieses to take place in these worlds so I can learn the various roles and rules of the inhabitants. I crave it unlike any series I’ve experienced in a long time. I didn’t even feel this way about Dresden’s universe. I just kind of accepted it for what it was and didn’t feel like it was intriguing, but these two stories from Darci Littlebadger (not in the same universe, but with similar themes) have sparked curiosity! It’s fantastic and I can’t wait for there to be more!!
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
(ReadHarder: Read an own voices YA book with a Black main character that isn’t about Black pain)
I want to read this because it was recommended on the message boards.
WOH! I am blown away by this book. It was SOOOOO good. Most importantly it was fresh in the YA genre which has A LOT of recycled tropes. Don’t get me wrong those tropes work, but this book didn’t revert to well used tropes to keep the story compelling and relatable. Liz is getting out of her midwestern hometown and is headed to a prestigious college to become a doctor, (insert squealing brakes sound here) her financial aid falls through! BUT her hometown is obsessed with prom to the extent that prom king and queen both earn significant scholarships. Liz sees hope to keep her dream alive, she just has to endure weeks of prom nonsense, including the company of the “cool” kids and mean girls, social media attention all the time, and falling for the wrong one at the wrong time! As much as this sounds like a throwback to some ‘80s teen drama movie with Insta, trust me. It’s not. The feeling and depth that the characters are written with really shows a deep connection to the characters from the author. Time and again I found myself caught off guard with characters who acted in unexpected (but not wonky out of character) ways! I felt for Liz on so many levels and I appreciated her struggle to just get through it to see the bigger goal, but she also grew in unexpected ways and I loved her for it! I wanted a Liz Lighty in EVERY high school to shake the world up and reinvent it more beautiful and amazing! This was a glorious read and another awesome product of my reading challenge. Not something I would have picked up on my own, but SOOO glad it came into my life!
Battle Ground by Jim Butcher
I want to read this because it is the next in the series and will get me all caught up on the Dresden Files!
OY! This was tough to get through because it really is all about the BATTLE. I was exhausted listening to it. Like most Dresden books it has unexpected humor that relieves the tension a lot. Unlike the other Dresden books it made me sob while I was driving down the road. DANG IT, FRIENDS, I NEED A WARNING FOR SHIT LIKE THAT SO I’M NOT A DANGER TO MYSELF AND ALL THE OTHER CARS AROUND ME! This story had it all. Happiness, sadness, joy, despair, revenge, repentance, realization of what REALLY matters in life, but also…. A big fat cop out that made me want to stop reading the books. I’m not going to say who, but one of the mainstays of the series has a big reveal that… pissed… me… off. *deep breaths* Why did Butcher take that route?! How long ago did this happen?! He was FINE AND INTERESTING THE WAY HE WAS! At this point I’m begging for a classic Dresden story where Harry is a detective again. I’m getting sick of just reading about all the ways he can acquire injuries and how many hot bad babes he can resist having sex with and face down their evilness. Give me a really good Dresden mystery for a couple of books before you blow up the universe again. I’m not looking forward to the next one as much this time.
The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit by Werner Holzwarth
I want to read this because I think it will fit Shelly’s poop themed storytime!
My husband just called this little mole my spirit animal and... I'm not saying he's wrong. Cute and clever with a laugh out loud ending. I highly recommend!