Wayward Bookshelf

Mort by Terry Pratchett Continuing my trek through the Discworld (I'm reading them chronologically because making any other kind of decision about where to begin proved to be too overwhelming), and so I have arrived at Mort. The first of the books about Death, who is very quickly becoming one of my most favorite Discworld characters. In this book, Death takes an apprentice named Mort; his first apprentice that we know of. Death also has a daughter named Ysabell and a very aged housekeeper/cook named Albert. These 4 comprise our main cast of characters. As Mort grows in his apprenticeship, Death decides to turn over all reaping responsibilities to him for a short time and go on a holiday. Things go sideways, as is to be somewhat expected when you put a teenage boy in charge of ushering souls to the afterlife. As is usual when I review installments in series, I'm just going to touch on some things I especially enjoyed (light spoiler warning, but no big plot points). Mor...

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...

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin I REALLY liked this book. I picked it up because I saw it recommended on an "if you liked Tolkein" bookstagram post. And while it's not very like Tolkein, it is a terrific, well-written fantasy based on a unique mythology. A couple things I particularly enjoyed was the practice of narcomancy, or dream magic, and how that factored into everything the society does: living, dying, healing, even some forms of fighting all rely on different unique humors of the dream magic. And two of our main trio are practicers of this narcomancy, while the third is a foreign diplomat. When Ehiru and his newly appointed apprentice Njirii are sent to gather Sunandi, she reveals the corruption of the system, setting in motion a chain of events that has them fighting to restore balance. Jemison is a masterful writer and world builder, so the city and society of Gujaareh are so fully fleshed out and understood that you can feel them form around you as you ...

The Lost Queen by Signe Pike This book was recommended to me by someone last year, and sadly I don't remember who, but it was someone I trusted enough to add it to my 'books to find' list, and I'm quite happy that I finally got around to doing just that! The Lost Queen is an Arthurian legend, specifically the story of a lost queen of Scotland named Langoureth and her twin brother Lailoken. I definitely have a soft spot for medieval legends, and it'd been a while since I read one, so this book was a welcome addition to this month's TBR stack. We begin with Langoureth & Lailoken as children just after the death of their mother, and around a time when there is a lot of unrest and upheaval in the surrounding kingdoms. Christianity is gaining some headway in Scotland, and at the same time there are still many who practice the Old Ways, causing some pockets of tension. A man named Emrys Pendragon is gaining notoriety in some of the contested parts of the land...

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett Well, it's official, I'm hooked on the Discworld. After reading Color of Magic last year, and watching The Hogfather miniseries over the holidays, I decided to continue reading the books with The Light Fantastic, which is the second in the series and continues the story of Rincewind the wizard, Twoflower the tourist & his Luggage. I'm not entirely sure what to share without giving away major plot points, so suffice it to say that I really enjoy all the whimsy, satire, and magic of the Discworld thus far. In this book we get to meet some Discworld druids and trolls for the first time, as well as a couple more heros, and several more wizards. Death is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters, and I had some legit laugh out loud moments in this book surrounding him, particularly when he is summoned by a group of wizards for a Very Serious Question, and is unprepared for said summoning. I was curious about the title so I l...

Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love by Jonathan Van Ness I went into this book expecting it to be amazing and bubbly and positive, and there were definitely moments of that. But there was also a lot of really tough stuff. Jonathan is incredibly candid about his journey so far, and the bumps along the way, that have brought him where he is now. As far as writing goes, the book is not 100% linear, and instead chooses important bits in a certain order to help frame something of a narrative and connect important, formative moments from his life together. It is also written in JVN's storytelling voice, to the point where I had to reread a couple passages in his voice in order to really understand them because my internal reading voice was not cutting it. (I imagine the audio book would be terrific for this reason.) As far as insight, this book provided a clear perspective into what it can be like to grow up gay in a small midwestern town, as well as the fallout that can happ...

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire Small Spoiler Alert - no major plot points, but I do talk about some of what's in the book. If you're planning to read it and want all surprises, maybe read this review later. While this book was really good, it didn't capture me quite as completely as a couple of the previous Wayward Children books did. It felt a little . . . fragmented? And not just because that's what Jack was experiencing, but because when the whole troupe goes on the quest to help one of their own, there are suddenly a lot of different interests and perspectives that we're supposed to care about (and we do! we really do!), but when I care in too many directions that pulls me away from the main thread of the book. Ensemble books have always been problematic for me for this reason, so within this series the even numbered books tend to be my favorite because they are the portal fantasies . . . Anyways, I always feel a little scatterbrained trying to revie...

Educated by Tara Westover Trigger warnings for this book: Domestic Violence, Gaslighting, Religious Extremism Impossible to put down, but very difficult to read, I read the majority of this book in one sitting. The first half in particular I was unable to stop reading, and had to keep pushing through to see Tara get out of the incredibly toxic family situation she grew up in. It felt like putting the book down would have trapped her there longer than necessary. Tara writes candidly and beautifully about her experiences growing up as the youngest in a fundamentalist Mormon family, with a father (and at least one brother) with severe, untreated mental illness that makes them erratic, violent, paranoid & deluded. While the memories she shares are shocking & troubling, as the book progresses who she becomes shines through, and you see her begin to grow out of the shell constructed for her by her family and their beliefs. An excellent read that doesn’t shy away from tellin...

It's been a minute since I've posted any reviews. Looks like my last review was in April of 2019. 😱 Life just got busy (good busy!) and as reading & blogging are hobbies, I don't force myself to do keep up when I'm not able to. And I like it that way. Books are my safe place to land. My escape from certain kinds of everyday cares. Recording & sharing my thoughts about them is something I enjoy doing, and not something to feel guilty about not reaching a goal or a deadline. At the same time, reading also provide avenues for growth & learning, for expanding perspective and reaching out to new possibilities, so I'm excited to get back to it again! As we wrap up this year, and get ready to head into the next, I'm looking back over my favorite reads, setting some new reading goals for 2020, looking ahead to some exciting new releases coming this year, and taking the opportunity to re-establish some of my beloved routines (like book reviews) that fell...

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire Holy Smokes, where do I start?! Part science fiction, part alchemy, part siblings coming of age, part ode to language and math, part rebellion, with a dash of horror, this book has so many components that come together in the seamless, chaotically beautiful way that belongs only to Seanan McGuire's writing. Roger & Dodger are twins growing up in their respective adoptive homes on opposite coasts of the US. They are constructs created for a singular purpose by an alchemist, but they don't know this yet. They are also human, relatable, and intent on choosing their own way. They are terrific characters who are readable and yet clearly something new & powerful. The roles that Roger & Dodger serve is partially explained with the fictional book series, the Up and Under . This embedded fiction was one aspect of this read that I particularly enjoyed. Its a story within a story, with enough passages shared & examined to be a tantalizin...

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...