Wayward Bookshelf

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett This book has been on my TBR list for YEARS, and with the upcoming release of the TV series on Prime, I figured I'd better finally get around to it so I could enjoy the book before watching the show. Oh boy, I should not have waited so long. If this is on your TBR & you like that hilarious whimsy that British fantasy writers have a particular knack for, with a generous splash of religious mythology, move this book to the top of the pile. It's fantastic. I won't be going into the plot too much to avoid spoilers, but I most definitely have a little bit of a crush on Crowley - and not just because he's being played by David Tennant in the show (squee!) - and I want to be best friends with Arizaphale, if for no other reason than all those antique books. There's a whole host of characters beyond our main two, the horsemen of the apocolypse are particularly well done, the sat

Yvain: The Knight of the Lion by M.T. Anderson I honestly wish I had this book when I was in my British lit survey in college, not because I didn't enjoy reading the epic poems out of my Norton Anthology, but because the illustrations are terrific, and really gave this old poem some new context. (And because this graphic novel includes some pretty great commentary on the poem at the end of the volume.) As I said, the illustrations really made this book stand out, to the point that it caught my eye from the shelf at the local library, which is why I ended up reading it. Andrea Offermann is the illustrator, and she does a wonderful job at pairing the medieval origins of this poem with the comic book panel style illustration. I especially enjoyed the images on the couple pages that read like a tapestry, the opening and closing with the eagle, and the time Yvain spends lost and half-crazy in the wilderness. Another thing that this format does is allows the story to convey more t

Deerskin by Robin McKinley When I added this to my TBR list, I had a few friends reach out and let me know that it was a really good book, but had some brutal moments. I appreciated those warnings because I did some research and then waited to read it until I was in a good mental place. So I'm starting this review with a trigger warning. This book has some really tough stuff in it. If rape or incest are triggers for you, be aware and take care of yourself. This is a retelling of Donkey Skin, a fairy tale published in the 1600's that has mostly faded into history, for understandable reasons, but McKinley handles it very well. Lissa is our main character, and her growth through the events of the story, and the conversation this book has around healing from trauma, are so authentic. There is some very real imagery of Lissa's body purging the wrong done to her at the end of the book, and they are powerful, painful and beautiful. While there are definitely fairytale and mag

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab Someone in my bookish group of friends recommended this one to me, and I can't remember who it was - so if it was you, THANK YOU! Show me a story with parallel worlds and intriguing forms of magic, and I'll almost always show up for it, but on top of that, this book had some great world-building, terrific villains, dark forces at play, and a great wildcard in the form of Lila Bard. Kell is an Atari, a blood magic worker, one of just two that are known to exist. This allows him to move between the worlds - and as such he is basically a messenger between the crowns of these parallel Londons. When one of his errands lands him with a particularly dangerous artifact, he finds himself in some real trouble. . . And while he's pretty cool, he's not my favorite character, that would be Lila. She's confident and strong while still being relatable. She's pushy and bold enough to find, shall we say, creative solutions to the pro