June is Over!

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How was your June? Did you do anything for Pride Month? I made a goal to read more queer or LGBTQ books, but I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. I have really dropped off in my book reading as I’m reading SO MUCH FAN FICTION. (Which is really pretty gay, I must admit. So if that counts, then count me in!) Here’s what I did manage to read in June.

2 books by Sarah Gailey: River of Teeth and Upright Women Wanted.

River of Teeth (book description)

“In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true.

Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two.

This was a terrible plan.

Contained within this volume is an 1890s America that might have been: a bayou overrun by feral hippos and mercenary hippo wranglers from around the globe. It is the story of Winslow Houndstooth and his crew. It is the story of their fortunes. It is the story of his revenge.”

So why does this count for Pride? Because 1- The author identifies as non-binary, so I think that’s a valid enough reason right there, but also 2 – there are multiple sexualities in the characters of this story. Winslow is gay (or maybe bisexual? It’s been a minutes since I read this.) and there’s at least one more LGBTQ character. It’s a great story too – very violent, including death of an animal and death of a child, so be warned about that – but I thought it was super engaging, a great tale of adventure and vengeance as well as a quick read.

Upright Women Wanted (book description)

“In Upright Women Wanted, award-winning author Sarah Gailey reinvents the pulp Western with an explicitly antifascist, near-future story of queer identity.

“That girl’s got more wrong notions than a barn owl’s got mean looks.”

Esther is a stowaway. She’s hidden herself away in the Librarian’s book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her—a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda.

The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.”

This was such a mix of everything! While River of Teeth was an alternate history, this is (I hope) an alternate future. Why did I include it for Pride? 1 – same author, 2 – LESBIAN LIBRARIANS IN THE WEST. What more do you want? How about some badass fighting across the mountains? Yep, that too. Loved our little MC, loved the librarians, and the resolution was very satisfying. Another quick and very fun read.

1 Black Girl Magic Book (with a little queer thrown in but not that much, sorry)

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn.

Book description: (kinda long)

“After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.”

My thoughts:

Honestly, if I could find a good way to rewrite the book description I would. I feel like it gives away too much of the story. If it sounds good, add it to your TBR and then forget about it for a year. It’s better not knowing what’s going on. Why does it count for Pride? 1 – Multiple LGBTQ+ characters. That’s it really, and the main character is straight. So this is kind of a stretch. But I did like the representation that was there. Bree’s best friend is a lesbian and an Asian and with Bree as a Black girl, they both fight a lot of negative stereotyping and microaggressions. It is an Own Voices for Black representation, which added a lot of authenticity for that. But this is better for another month. I just needed something fun to read, and it did count a little bit. It’s also freaking suspenseful and exciting. Book 2 comes out in November and I’m super excited. My kid listened on audio and says that that version is also great.

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So that’s it, 2.5 books for the challenge. It’s not ideal, but like I said, I haven’t been reading that many actual books. What did you read for Pride? Anything you want to recommend for next year? Let me know in the comments.

3 Audiobook Reviews

3 books from Audible

I’ve had a lot of time to read or listen to books lately, so here are three that I’ve tried from Audible.

Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi by John Scalzi

I mostly love John Scalzi’s writing. Redshirts is my all-time favorite, although I also loved Lock In and The Dispatcher. This collection was offered as a free listen to Audible Prime members and it was not a new favorite, but overall it was quite good. It includes many of his works I’d never heard of before, even a not very good poem at the very end. My favorites were the science fiction related stories, many involving daily life with alien races. I even listened to my favorite stories more than once. Scalzi himself narrates on of the stories, a brief look at a high school for at risk troubled adolescents of various races. He even reads the lunch menu for the day, which includes options for the “obligate carnivores” and more.

Sheepfarmer’s Daughter by Elizabeth Moon

This was a complete gamble. Audible thought I would enjoy it, and based on the book description, it sounded like my kind of thing. It’s about a humble farm girl who joins the army and becomes chosen by a god to save the world. Sure, it’s a cliché, but it’s one I like. But along with a really, really long section describing every minute aspect of her military training, there’s an entirely gratuitous sexual assault, which comes up over and over again. Lots of victim blaming and entirely too many recurring references to rape. I couldn’t finish it, and I’m taking this series off my list.

The Dressmaker’s Gift by Fiona Valpy

This was a last minute substitute for our book club and I’ll admit, I was not too keen. Although it got some good reviews, it also had some bad ones, and I’m a little tired of more World War II books about women being strong. This was a dual timeline book set in Nazi-occupied and modern France, both involving French fashion. I was really close to giving up on the book, but when I switched to the audio, I found the narration made the character come alive enough that I wanted to continue. It was still full of coincidences and average writing, but I did finish it and we wound up having a pretty good discussion. I don’t think I’ll try anything else by this author though.

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So that’s it for me today. What have you been listening to? Are you enjoying it? Let me know! I just finished my audio and I need a new one. Happy reading!

Throwback Thursday

Since I’m still not unpacked, today I’m sharing one of my reviews from 2010.

Down the Rabbit Hole

By Peter Abrahams

Ingrid is a pretty typical junior high student. She’s noticed a few cute boys, she hates math, she doesn’t get along well with her big brother, she’s tired of her braces, she loves soccer.

It’s the soccer and braces that accidentally sort of get her into trouble. After an orthodontist appointment, she decides to walk to practice and winds up lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood. A friendly but odd woman invites Ingrid in to call a cab.

That would have been the end of the story, except that the woman is murdered later that night. Ingrid is afraid to tell anyone that she met the victim, since she’s not supposed to talk to strangers and she knows her mom will freak out. But she left her soccer shoes in the dead woman’s house and now she’s afraid they will lead the cops straight to Ingrid’s house.

But Ingrid is a little unlike most junior high girls I know in that Sherlock Holmes is her hero. What would he do? Ingrid decides to solve the case herself. Oh, and to get the leading role as Alice in the town play.

I really enjoyed this book. I started listening to it on audio, but when I found a paper copy at the library, I decided to take it home and finish it. I enjoyed both versions. One of the things that I found interesting about the book is that I could figure out some things that Ingrid hadn’t figured out yet and that didn’t get resolved. I don’t think I’ve ever read a mystery for teens where every issue did not get resolved. It looks like several of these issues about Ingrid’s family will carry over into the next book. Maybe a little on the light side, but since it is written for teens, I still think it rates four stars.

Book review: The Sound of Glass

The Sound of Glass by Karen White

Book Club read on Audible

Book Description

The New York Times bestselling author of A Long Time Gone now explores a Southern family’s buried history, which will change the life of the woman who unearths it, secret by shattering secret.

It has been two years since the death of Merritt Heyward’s husband, Cal, when she receives unexpected news—Cal’s family home in Beaufort, South Carolina, bequeathed by Cal’s reclusive grandmother, now belongs to Merritt.

Charting the course of an uncertain life—and feeling guilt from her husband’s tragic death—Merritt travels from her home in Maine to Beaufort, where the secrets of Cal’s unspoken-of past reside among the bluff mud and jasmine of the ancestral Heyward home on the Bluff. This unknown legacy, now Merritt’s, will change and define her as she navigates her new life—a new life complicated by the arrival of her too young stepmother and ten-year-old half-brother.

Soon, in this house of strangers, Merritt is forced into unraveling the Heyward family past as she faces her own fears and finds the healing she needs in the salt air of the Low Country.

My thoughts

This was my fault. I misread the book description. I was hoping for a moody, atmospheric thriller with maybe a ghost or a family curse, a brooding and dangerous love interest, and a decaying mansion at the center of it all. I got the decaying house, complete with a secret in the attic, but I also got a bratty main character who justified her ride behavior because of past trauma. Girl, get a therapist. You’re an adult in your thirties.

I’m the one who picked this for book club and I can only hope they enjoyed it more than I did. I also want to note that the audio version was fine. I probably wouldn’t have finished it if I had been reading it. Crossing this author off my list for the future.

Trigger Warning for physical and emotional abuse, plane crash, and death. (The last chapters were pretty upsetting for me.)

What are you reading?

Yay! I finished one of my Spring TBR list! Just finished Becoming by Michelle Obama last night. It was so good. I felt like it did drag in a couple of spots, especially toward the end, but I’m glad I read it. It made me so sad to think how quickly the progress we made under her husband’s administration was just erased by the current White House occupant. Wow, I miss the Obamas! I wish them nothing but good things from now on.

I also finished Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia. If you haven’t heard of this one, it’s under the imprint of Rick Riordan Present. This book features African-American folk heroes like John Henry and Brer Rabbit. I was really looking forward to this, because I’ve always loved the Brer Rabbit stories and I’m excited to see so many diverse stories being published now. But I struggled through this. I’m not sure what the problem was, but story just didn’t keep my attention. Maybe it’s just because I don’t enjoy middle grade fiction as much as I used to. I would still recommend this one for someone else; it just didn’t work great for me.

Then today I read When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka. This was a short novel about a family sent to the Japanese internment camps during World War II. In fact, they wind up at Topaz, which is just a couple of hours from my house. I really liked the style of this book. She uses multiple perspectives, but I felt like it worked well.

I hope you are all well and are doing all right with the quarantine. We are all healthy but a little anxious and bored at the same time. Still, I can’t complain. I’m just grateful that none of us are sick yet. Take care and happy reading.

Throwback Thursday – Nursing Home Murder

This meme is dedicated to reviews or posts that you published before, but feel deserve a second chance to shine.

Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh

Synopsis:

“When Britain’s Home Secretary complained of abdominal pains, it seemed like a simple case of appendicitis. But minutes after his operation, the ill-fated politician lay dead on the table. When Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives to dissect the situation, he finds many a likely suspect, including a vengeful surgeon, a lovelorn nurse, an unhappy wife, and a cabinet full of political foes.”

My thoughts:

Sir Derek O’Callaghan is in the middle of pushing through an important bill when he becomes ill with appendicitis. The surgery appears to be a success, but he dies soon after.

It sounds like an accident, but his widow is convinced that his enemies got him. The police aren’t convinced – until the post-mortem. And after they begin to invesigate, they find no shortage of enemies to choose from.

Inspector Alleyn is on the job. I really enjoyed this one and was stumped as to how it was done. Inspector Fox was also in this one, and I like him.

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Update: I still have a definite fondness for Marsh’s books. I love her frequent use of the theater as a backdrop for her stories, and I’ve always liked the quiet, erudite Inspector Alleyn. But when read today, the attitudes toward LGBT characters is just shocking. I’m not sure how this was viewed at the time they were written, mostly the 1940s & 1950s, but today’s reader will really be surprised. So I recommend caution. This book didn’t have anything offensive in that way (at least that I can remember) but be aware that it’s there. Also that element was really toned down in the video adaptation, and they were really well done. Maybe watch these instead.

 

 

Flashback Friday

This review has appeared previously.

Venom House by Arthur Upfield.

Most people are content to leave the Answerth family alone. Their mansion, Venom House, secluded on an island in the center of a treacherous man-made lake, doesn’t exactly lay out the welcome mat for prospective visitors. And there are the stories that Venom House is haunted by ghosts of aborigines slaughtered by Answerth ancestors to keep outsiders away. But when a couple of corpses are found floating in the stagnant lake, Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte has a sudden urge to get to know the Answerths and their charming home much better.

This almost read like a gothic novel–creepy atmosphere, troubled family, complete with faithful (?) retainer, mentally ill brother, dominant sister, etc. But it was really good. I enjoyed the setting a lot and the characters were well done.

The Bone Ships: A review

Thanks to Net Galley for providing a copy of this book for review.
The Bone Ships #1 by R J Barker

Synopsis:

A brilliantly imagined saga of honor, glory, and warfare, The Bone Ships is the epic launch of a new fantasy from David Gemmell Award-nominated RJ Barker.

Two nations at war. A prize beyond compare.

For generations, the Hundred Isles have built their ships from the bones of ancient dragons to fight an endless war.

The dragons disappeared, but the battles for supremacy persisted.

Now the first dragon in centuries has been spotted in far-off waters, and both sides see a chance to shift the balance of power in their favour. Because whoever catches it will win not only glory, but the war.

My thoughts:

R J Barker has created an extraordinary novel. It’s a story of redemption and suffering, of hope and betrayal. The characters are fully developed and fascinating. What really sets it apart, I feel is the worldbuilding. The author has created a world so different from our own and yet so detailed and logical.

There’s plenty of action as the crew of a condemned ship sets off on a secret mission to find and defend the last Dragon in their world. I was sucked in to the story and fully immersed in no time. I can’t wait to read more. Highly recommended.

Throwback Thursday: Men at Arms

This review appeared earlier, but I am sharing it again now.

Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

Someone has stolen something from the assassin’s guild, but they’re not saying what. The head of the Night Watch, Captain Vimes, isn’t really too worried about it – he’s more worried about his upcoming wedding/retirement. Maybe the new recruits will find out something. If an all-scale city war between the dwarves and the trolls doesn’t break out.

I enjoyed this one. It won’t make it to my list of all-time favorites, but I did like it. The Librarian makes an appearance towards the end of the book, which was fun, but it just wasn’t quite as funny as some of the others. I will say that I loved listening to these books. It made the story come alive!

Ranger’s Apprentice: A Review

The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger’s Apprentice #1) by John Flanagan

I just finished a reread of this one and I still love it!

Synopsis:

“They have always scared him in the past — the Rangers, with their dark cloaks and shadowy ways. The villagers believe the Rangers practice magic that makes them invisible to ordinary people. And now 15-year-old Will, always small for his age, has been chosen as a Ranger’s apprentice. What he doesn’t yet realize is that the Rangers are the protectors of the kingdom. Highly trained in the skills of battle and surveillance, they fight the battles before the battles reach the people. And as Will is about to learn, there is a large battle brewing. The exiled Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, is gathering his forces for an attack on the kingdom. This time, he will not be denied.”

Deviant art/Amarevia

My thoughts:

(Written after first reading it)

Will is an orphan, left to be raised by the Baron and then apprenticed to a skill when he turns 15. He hopes to become a warrior, but his small size means he is passed over. Then  Ranger Halt offers him an apprenticeship. Despite some doubts, Will accepts, and begins his training.

I think one of the reasons I bought this book is because I have a son named Will. But I also liked the idea of this sort of mysterious group working for the good of the kingdom, despite being misunderstood.

The book wasn’t exactly what I had expected, but in some ways, it was better. I really liked Will and his fellow apprentices. That dynamic seems to be something that will be explored even more later in the series. I also liked Halt and the Baron. The setting is good, but could be better, but again, maybe that will develop more later in the series. I am excited to read book 2.

Source: Tumblr/Araluen Stories

Update:

Yep, I still love it! Maybe unrealistic in the way Will is so quick to learn, so awesome at his training, but it is written for kids, and they will enjoy it. Will is not perfect, and he does learn & grow.

I love Horace too. He starts off as a big dumb bully, but he quickly develops into something more. The whole battle school section is really good.

So yeah, still love it!