Wayward Bookshelf

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid This book is really well done. It deals with tough issues of racial inequality, ignorance of that inequality, and how that has big effects on individual lives, while being a great fictional read. The characters are excellent, some are terribly flawed, but still manage to be relatable enough that you don't forget they're human. They're complex, the way that real people are. It reminds us that good people can do bad things, insensitive things, hurtful things while thinking they're doing the right thing. It reminds us that interpersional situations are multi-faceted, intersectional and complicated. Emira and Bri definitely take the spotlight. They are both fantastic, Bri is a 3 year old who says exactly the thing that is on her mind. Emira is her 25-year-old baby-sitter who gives her room to interact with the world, pays attention to her thoughts and questions and loves her for exactly who she is. Their relationship is just beautiful. Em

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett Continuing my way through Discworld, and starting the Witches sequence in which: I get to meet Granny Weatherwax, Esk and learn a bit more about wizards, witches, and The Librarian. I really liked Granny Weatherwax. She actually reminded me a lot of Marilla Cuthbert in her matter-of-factness about how the world works, as well as her acceptance of how things just go outside of those rules sometimes. As a result, I mostly pictured Granny Weatherwax as Geraldine James, the actress who plays Marilla in Netflix's 'Anne with an E.' Anyways, I loved how loyal she is to Esk and where that takes her, and that she seems to be low key sitting on a some seriously powerful witch-y abilities that she can pull out when she wants to. I also enjoyed getting a little more back story on The Librarian when Esk spends some time with him at the Unseen University, and am hoping for more on both Esk and The Librarian in future books. I know that's a pret

Meat Cute: The Hedgehog Incident by Gail Carriger THIS STORY IS SO MUCH FUN! Not that I should be surprised, just about everything this author-beast writes is great. This book came at the perfect time, I had just finished two heavier books that underwhelmed me during the first part of the month, and then -bam!- this little book is getting delivered to my kindle app promising to bring some cheer to my month's reading round up. We FINALLY learn about the infamous hedgehog incident. It's adorable, Connal in particular is so endearing in his big Scottish way. Alexia is of course un-phased by anything, and it's why we love her. It's been a while since I read Soulless et. al, and I enjoyed seeing Alexia before her elevated status being just as Alexia as ever. *tiny spoiler warning* One thing I did not expect were cameos from Soap & Sophronia (though they are unnamed, it's 100% them). And that seriously made me happy. After the Finishing School series we h

The Binding by Bridget Collins This may be an unpopular review, but this book was pretty 'meh' for me. It had so much potential, the premise of the book binding and what goes into that and how it makes books valuable/dangerous is really interesting and really could have gone somewhere. . . instead it went a bit trope-y with sexual abuse. Very problematic sexual abuse like pedophilia, denying victims' agency and ick. The description of the book asks what you would do if you could erase grief, so I expected us to get into a discussion about grief and loss. Sexual trauma does not equal grief. I get that the author was trying to depict certain practices around the corruption of the book binding power as monstrous, I just wish that it wasn't at the expense of the majority of our few female characters. Which also means this book DEFINITELY does not pass the Bechdel test either. Ok, so now I got what I didn't like out of my system, here's what was good about the b

The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh I did really like this one. Koh's voice is fresh and unique. The presentation in this book is beautiful. The cover is gorgeous and inside between chapters Koh includes hand-written letters from her mother that really make this book feel personal. This book is a story about generational pain, and how that can flow through family lines in ways we don't fully understand until sometimes it's too late to change it, or we can just hope for better the next generation. The stories told are of Koh, her mother and her grandmother, and how their lives fed into one another, both as sources of power and strength as well as conduits for that generational trauma. It's an insightful book, and because the author is writing about her own experience and her own family, the depictions feel very poignant. The only difficulty I had reading it is that the book doesn't work through Koh's life in a linear fashion. It does sort of make it