Elysium, Jennifer Marie Brissett, 2014. This one has been on my to-read list for awhile (about 5 years, says the list) and it's interesting stuff. I suggested it for book club which succeeded in getting me to finally read it but means I now have to write about it for book club, which I am stalling on by writing about it here. [SPOILERS] ( Read more... )

The Devil Comes Courting, Courtney Milan, het romance. I'm considering a plan where I read a romance novel every time I have to covid-test one of the kids. (Kid was negative.) The couple in this one was an easy sell for me: the heroine is terrible at names, the hero realizes this, and smoothly starts covering for her. Talk about your wish- ( Read more... )

A Snake Falls To Earth, Darcie Little Badger, 2021. I was excited to read this after Elatsoe (which I wrote about here), but I wasn't so into it. The pacing is weirdly... flat? or episodic? or something? I would not be surprised to learn that Little Badger developed it from a series of bedtime stories she had been telling her younger cousin, or ( Read more... )

I always lag so much more at writing anything about these than about books.

Watchmen. Clever and well-done, except for a few characterization details I just couldn't buy that clearly let them set up things they wanted to do. But I'm definitely glad we finally watched it.

Encanto. So pretty! Hair animation has come so far! The internet seems to be ( Read more... )

Major spoilers for the entire book! ( Read more... )

The Unraveling, Benjamin Rosenbaum, 2021. This novel is outstanding and it is my new favorite book of 2021. If you like Greg Egan or Madeline Ashby's transhuman/posthuman stuff, if you liked Charles Stross's "Lobsters" or Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom or Catherynne Valente's gonzo worldbuilding in Space Opera, if you like ( Read more... )

So, last year I took a look at what books were ranked as top priority on my giant possibly-read list, here, and I thought it would be fun to revisit that and do it again.

Last year I had seven: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters vol 2, Willowweep Manor, A Desolation Called Peace, Fugitive Telemetry, Alecto the Ninth, The Last Graduate, and Witness for ( Read more... )

Unnatural Magic, C.M. Waggoner, 2019. I was told I would like this book and I totally did, thank you recommenders! Second-world fantasy with fun, appealing characters - a math genius wizard girl! a half-troll lady who is very sure she is the "boss" gender in the troll gender system even though her mother disagrees! a sharpshooting soldier dude ( Read more... )

Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters, 2021 novella from Aimee Ogden. I nominated Ogden's novelette Blood, Bone, Seed, Spark in 2020 and her short story Never a Butterfly, Nor a Moth With Moon-Painted Wings this past year, so I was excited to see what she did with a little more space. This novella is a science fiction Little Mermaid retelling, and I did ( Read more... )

I've had this tab open with this subject line since the longlist came out, and just couldn't organize myself to write anything down. But! Some thoughts! ( Read more... )