Book Review: Fatalities and Folios by ACF Bookens

Who knew that finding a rare book would also involve running for her life? 

When Poe Baxter fled her job as an English professor, she was thrilled to be launching into her career as an antiquarian book dealer with a trip to Edinburgh. But she soon finds that her queries into a particular book's provenance are drawing some less desirable attention to her and her best friend Beattie. Not everyone is interested in sharing this particular story. 

Will the women be able to discover the book's origins without bringing about their own ends?

This was a free ebook that I downloaded for obvious reasons. Bookish mysteries are my kryptonite. I was hyped for the rare books angle, which was interesting enough, and enjoyed reading about Edinburgh (I really want to visit it now). I liked the fabulism angle with the Scottish folklore book making its owner see sea monsters in every reflective surface and liquid, but it wasn't delved into much. Overall, I found the mystery only serviceable, the villain kind of obvious, and the reason for murder kind of stupid. The only characters I actually liked were Beattie (who actually has common sense and is fashionable, cool, and trans) and Poe's rare books librarian love interest (smart and nice if rather boring). I like that Poe and Beattie are middle-aged, but Poe acts like a steampunk-obsessed teenager. Why did she think it was a good idea to wear Victorian men's cosplay to her flight to Scotland? Why is she clumsy and always blurting out things she shouldn't? She feels like every female protagonist in a mediocre-ly written independently published mystery (I've read several, due to my love of free ebooks). Poe doesn't seem to know much about antiquarian book dealing, which she's only doing because her rich uncle hired her to do the book dealing for him. For instance, Poe doesn't know that books above a certain age (1800s? and older) have sewn pages, not glued. Being an English professor does not make you an expert in rare books. Poe has a pet hamster she ascribes a diva personality to which is not at all annoying to read about (sarcasm), and she takes him everywhere, which is a little weird (but not as weird as saying that the hamster's giving her judgy looks). Poe's librarian love interest's brother is Beattie's love interest. Their relationships (insta-attraction, wouldn't you know) are not interesting and don't really add anything to the story. You could have gotten the rare books librarian involved just out of his professional interest, rather than making him and Poe an item. The mystery should have been dwelled on more; the plots are kind of not enough.

Overall, this was a mostly fun way to while away time at the reference desk. I'm not mad I read it and wouldn't mind reading more books in the Poe Baxton series if they are all free and about rare books. I wouldn't spend money on them though. The FaF ebook is still free as of this posting. I really like the cover for this book; I wish the book were that good.

Score: ★★★ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 0 out of 5 chilies (just kissing)
Read in: April 25
From: Barnes & Noble/Nook

Representation: trans woman secondary character, middle-aged characters

Trigger warnings: murder, blood, guns, being held at gunpoint, past transphobia mention, nice cop character

What my nearly 2 year old nephew calls his family members and why, second nephew edition

my first post on my first nephew

his mom: mami

his dad: papi

The difference having an older sibling makes. Nephew M has been listening to his brother talk for most of his life, so his pronunciation is arguably better than his brother's was at that age. If you don't feel like clicking through to my previous post, Nephew C (the oldest) said mama and dada at this age. I know it's 1 letter off, but mami and papi are the correct words.

his brother (3 years): Cistian (he cannot pronounce Rs very well yet)

his maternal grandmother (my mom): mom (in a Spanish accent). This is because whenever my mom is around him, he's always hearing me, my siblings, and his parents call my mom Mom. It's hilarious. My family has more or less given up on getting the kids to call my mom anything other than Mom, plus their paternal grandparents have usurped the abuelito/abuelita titles (although they do add their first names to them).

his maternal grandfather (my dad): Lito, sometimes 'ito (see previous post for explanation)

his aunt (me): Tia Amy. Readers of my first post in this series will remember that my older nephew C called me Tia and called all his other aunts Otra Tia (other aunt) at this age. Karmatically, M will only ever call me by his other maternal aunt's name (my sister-in-law). This is because there is a Lovevery book where the child protagonist goes to the doctor and the nurse is called Nurse Amy, and also because Amy is easier for him to say than Michelle. He fully 100% means me. (In case you're wondering, my older nephew C will only call me Michelle these days, despite calling his other aunts Tia [name]. I like to think it is because of our bond.)

I have not heard M address or talk about his other aunts or any of his uncles (my brothers live out of state and are not around much), so no idea for those. Ditto for his other grandparents. He calls his cousins by name. He is so cute and smart like his brother, but with a mischievous streak. I love those kids.

Antique book poem by Emily Dickinson

I was going to post a poem I came across while reading my old book of Emily Dickinson's poetry, but another Blogspot posted it and wrote (or shared) a commentary on the poem. I encourage you to read it here:

http://bloggingdickinson.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-precious-mouldering-pleasure-tis.html

 

Side note: I remember buying my copy of Emily Dickinson's poems from the Scholastic Book Fair when I was in elementary school, like I specifically have the distinct memory of being 7 or 8 or 9 at the Scholastic Book Fair and browsing the shelves, being drawn to Emily's face and picking the book up, but I just checked the copyright page and this is a small paperback from 2002. I was in the ninth grade in 2002; perhaps because I was homeschooled that year, I was able to go to my younger siblings' SBF and buy the book then? I have no memory of that, but I definitely would have gone then. I'd go today. I miss the SBF.

Book Review: An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer

On the eve of battle, passions are running high... In the summer of 1815, with Napolean Bonaparte marching down from the north, Brussels is a whirlwind of parties, balls and soirees. In the swirling social scene surrounding the Duke of Wellington and his noble aides de camp, no one attracts more attention than the beautiful, outrageous young widow Lady Barbara Childe. On their first meeting, dashing Colonel Charles Audley proposes to her, but even their betrothal doesn't calm her wild behavior. Finally, with the Battle of Waterloo raging just miles away, civilians fleeing and the wounded pouring back into the town, Lady Barbara discovers where her heart really lies, and like a true noblewoman, she rises to the occasion, and to the demands of love, life and war...

This is the second book I've read from Georgette Heyer (here's the first), and I've found her to be a writer of solid historical Regency romances. I've just found out by looking this book up that An Infamous Army is the third book in a trilogy, which is not mentioned at all in my 1970s copy. To be fair I skim or ignore everything before chapter one. The title comes from a phrase the Duke of Wellington wrote in a letter complaining about how ill-prepared and -uniformed his army was. 

Basically this book is Barbieheimer, if the Barbie part were a historical Regency romance novel and the Oppenheimer part were a dry, grim Napoleonic war novel. Actually, I just remembered the heroine's name is actually Barbara so that works perfectly! She's a young widow who is so beautiful and bewitching that she's constantly surrounded by enthralled lovesick men. She's scandalous because she flirts with all of them and paints her toenails gold like a Parisian prostitute!! Quel horreur!!! Alexa, play "Maneater" (either version works fine). The hero is Colonel Audrey, a dashing handsome man who is boring sensible and respectable; this is contradicted in the text by him falling in love with Barbara at first sight and proposing like the second time they meet, as well as him being stupid enough to think Barbara will stop being such a scandalous flirt after they're engaged, despite her telling him straight to his face that she won't stop and will keep doing whatever she wants. He's like "no you won't" and then gets all surprised Pikachu face when she does. Who could have foreseen this??? I don't get why he had to be so much older than her (about ten years). GH really had a thing for older male love interests; in The Nonesuch her hero was like 35 (like Audrey) and her heroine was 28. The gendered double standards re: aging are annoying to me.

The war half of this book is about the Duke of Wellington planning/preparing for war, which mostly seems to consist of him writing letters during the day and then going to balls and dances at night. He's basically the third main character of this book. Audrey is one of his aides, and other aids and their love interests are side characters. This part of the book is very dry and boring; when we get to the Battle of Waterloo it's very violent and sad with all the deaths and injuries. The injured survivors basically crawl to the town where the civilians are staying and the ladies bind up wounds etc. as best they can. The two halves of the book are very inharmonious and the nonexistent transitions between the two are jarring. It'll be like: "Her eyes flashing, Barbara bounded away. [paragraph break] The Duke of Wellington sat down to write a letter..." Heyer really did her research (she has a bibliography in the back of the book; take note, nonfiction writers) and did her best to write about the Duke of Wellington and the Battle of Waterloo in an accurate way, but it would have been better if she'd split the two books up. Pick a lane, Heyer. Don't go chasing war-terfalls; stick to the rivers and the balls that you're used to. Barbarloo was not fun; at least Barbieheimer was two different films so you could choose to skip one. Oh, and the ending was so abrupt I turned the page and was shocked to find it blank. Did they lose a page? Or did Heyer really think the best way to end the book was to have, you guessed it, the Duke of Wellington sit down to write a letter? 

Score: 3 out of 5 stars
Spice score: 0.5 out of 5 chilies 🌶 (just kissing)
Read in: March 30-31
From: a used bookstore called Griffeys' Book Emporium

Trigger warnings: death, dismemberment, limb loss, war, violence, fighting, animal (horses) death, period-typical sexism, period-typical sex shaming, teenage girl forced to marry much older man (past, off-page), infidelity I think

Book Review: The Thread that Binds by Cedar McCloud

At the Eternal Library, books are more than the paper, ink, and thread they're made from--they're full of spirits. Only a handful of people will ever be invited to the Bindery to learn the craft of Illumination: the magical creation of intricate illustrated manuscripts, bound with a secret that will make them last forever.

Tabby is a dreamwalker, a witch who escapes into the stories of sleep to avoid a birth family that's never loved em enough. Amane is a cartomancer, a medium who speaks for the Unseen, but doesn't know how to speak her own needs. Rhiannon is a psychic, an archivist who can See into the past, but only has eyes on the future.

Their stories intertwine as they discover the secrets of Illumination, the Library's archives, and those of their mentors--the three of whom are competing to be the next Head Librarian, the Speaker for all the books. How do you know who's truly worth being part of your family? Sometimes we must forge connections in order to heal; other times, those bonds must be broken...

I bought this ebook from Nook/Barnes & Noble when they were having a sale. You know I'm a sucker for any kind of book about a library and/or books, and this one sounded really interesting. I read it for the Trans Rights Readathon. 

The world this story is set in is a queernorm one, with LGBTQ+-ness being completely normal and most people not having a gender at all. Eir/em pronouns are used for a lot of characters, which takes a bit of getting used to. Just about every letter in the acronym is represented, including aroace rep. The worldbuilding is very well done, with fairytales and folklore from the countries being a theme. The world felt real and lived-in, and I really want to visit the Eternal Library. The magic system is varied and interesting, and the idea of magical books is so cool. You know I enjoyed all the bookbinding etc. stuff. 

Trust, healing, and relationships (especially found family) are big themes in this book. While it deals with some heavy topics, it still feels somewhat cozy. Overall I really enjoyed this book, and would definitely read more books by this author, especially if they were set in the same world.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Spice score: 0.5 out of 5 chilies 🌶 (just kissing)
Read in: March 29
From: Barnes & Noble/Nook  

Representation: just about every letter in the QuILTBAG, nonbinary, asexual, aroace, polyamory, Black characters, queerplatonic relationship, racial and body diversity

Trigger warnings: domestic abuse, abusive parents, controlling parents, emotional manipulation, magical torture, that's all I can think of. Cedar McCloud has a list of trigger warnings in the beginning of the book

Book Review: Mer Made by S.T. Lynn

Erika, who has to hide being a trans woman, sneaks on deck in her mother's dress in the dead of night and a superstitious deckhand throws her overboard from the ship. But drowning at sea isn't how Erika plans to die. She cuts a deal with a sea witch for more than her life--for the first time, she is transformed into the woman she's always known was inside. Her dress becomes a mermaid tail, and all it took was her voice.

However, the witch is on the hunt for the undersea throne, the seat of power. Ariel, the last daughter of the king, must marry in three days or the first place Erika has ever called home will be destroyed. The magic of true love is the only thing that can save them now.

This was an ebook that I downloaded for free and read on the Nook app. As you know, I am a sucker for any and all kinds of fairytale retellings, especially LGBTQ+ ones. Obviously this is a The Little Mermaid retelling, but specifically a retelling of the Disney version of the story (Erika = Eric). I read it for the Trans Rights Readathon in late March.

I thought it was well-written, although there were some errors (shined used instead of shone. I myself had to add several commas to the summary above). While I understand that the sailor throwing Erika overboard needed to happen so the story could happen, I thought it was kind of ridiculous. Obviously I know about the superstition that a woman on board a ship is bad luck, but for a sailor to be so superstitious that he sees a woman on board, grabs her, and throws her overboard??? No one would do that. He would be in such big trouble for drowning a passenger, especially one connected to the governor (Erika's transphobic dad). Sailors might be superstitious but they are practical. I liked Atlantis (that's what the merpeople city was called, right?) and thought the worldbuilding was well done; I want to visit it.

The problems were all solved kind of quickly and through magic: Erika is saved from drowning by Ursula who turns her into a mermaid (fair), Erika's voice being stolen from her by Ursula is solved by Ariel magically copying and pasting her knowledge of sign language into Erika's brain, plus the big issue at the end of the book that I won't spoil for you. I did like how diverse Atlantis is; there's tons of physical diversity, so Erika (who is Black with dark skin) fits right in, and there are enough deaf merpeople that everyone learns sign language by default, which is cool. It's also a queer-norm society, so I'm not sure why the Rule/Prophecy or whatever specified that Ariel needed a husband. I thought Erika and Ariel's friendship and then mutual pining was cute; the whole thing about them falling in love while trying to find Ariel a husband in three days for The Big Issue was a bit silly and done before. Overall, though, I did enjoy this short cute retelling of The Little Mermaid and would recommend it. S.T. Lynn has written at least one more Black trans fairytale retelling that I'd like to check out. 

Mer Made aesthetics moodboard

Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Spice score: 0.5 out of 5 chilies 🌶 (just kissing)
Read in: March 27
From: Barnes & Noble/Nook  

Representation: Transgender, trans woman, Black, character with dark skin, sapphic (lesbian, bi/pan/omni etc. women), mute character, sign language usage, mentioned deaf rep (no named characters)

Trigger warnings: transphobia, near-drowning, misogyny, sexism, mentioned past physical abuse, abusive parent, parent death, grief, instead of having Erika agree to sign away her voice for a pair of legs mermaid tail, Ursula just took it without asking, which, hello, consent!

Short books update for February through now

 I don't feel like writing up reviews for them, but the other books I read in February include Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and The Great Divorce (all by C.S. Lewis, of course). I have now finished my CSL class but I feel like rereading Til We Have Faces (the grad student-only read that I skipped as I enrolled in the class as an undergrad), which I only read once at least ten years ago. We'll see if I get around to it. 

I have still not finished reading bell hook's All About Love: New Visions, which I started back in early February. She writes so well, beautifully as well as straightforward, and I am interested in the topic, but I keep dragging myself through one chapter at a time and then not reading again for days if not weeks. I don't know what the issue is. I will say I tend to have this problem with nonfiction over fiction, even if the book topic interests me (remember how I started reading that nonfiction book about the linguistics of/on the Internet right before the pandemic, and never finished it?). I don't want to abandon it; maybe now that I've finished my CSL class I can finish this book. 

I dread going to my [none of your business] doctor for obvious reasons, but I also love it when I have an appointment, because just a block or so away from the building there is a quiet little street that has a cute trendy indie coffee shop where I buy an oat milk latte (mocha or chai or seasonal but always sweet) and then go across that street to an Assistance League thrift store and browse for a while. It's heaven. I bought a khaki mini-skort, two half-priced scarves, and three books, all five dollars or less. The books were 50 cents each (!); one was a Pike Place Market cookbook that I gave my sister (she used to live near Seattle and we visited there once), and the other two were for me: The Eyre Affair and The Daughters of Artemis. I had heard of the Thursday Next series (of which The Eyre Affair is the first) from back when I was reading author blogs (remember blogs?), but I never started it because it felt daunting or something. It's a bookish series that is maybe mysteries and maybe fantastical; I'm not really sure. It being bookish is enough to recommend itself to me. The other one sounds like a thriller mystery book, and judging by the title and summary, I suspect it is sapphic.

This online indie bookstore started by two of my college friends had an International Women's Day sale on their female authored books, so I bought two: Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterton, who I've read and liked before, and Bookshop Cinderella, a romance novel that is also a Cinderella retelling set in a bookstore. I find the title kind of obvious, but it worked on me, so. Tanglewreck looks like a time travel sci fi book. 

The March Disneybound challenge has been taking up all my free time, so I haven't posted anything about books since February. Also, me reading nothing but C.S. Lewis has been uninspiring for bookstagram posts, even though I love him. Ah well.

Book reviews: C.S. Lewis's Space/Ransom trilogy

The Space Trilogy (or Ransom Trilogy) is C.S. Lewis' only other fantasy (under the guise of science fiction/scientifiction) series, and when I read them the first few times, I loved them so much that I listed them among my favorite books. I've reread them now for my C.S. Lewis class, and my feelings about the books have changed. 

 

Out of the Silent Planet (description) - The first book in the trilogy remains my favorite. The fascinating planet and its inhabitants, their language and Ransom's learning of it, and the way Lewis marries science fiction with fantasy and Christianity makes this book so enjoyable to me. The opinions CSL promotes in this book are of the "we should not colonize other planets/don't be obsessed with furthering the human race to the point that we lose our humanity" variety, which is slightly surprising until you remember he's Irish. On the whole I agree with him; I think I enjoyed the other books in the trilogy less because I don't agree with the beliefs he endorses there. A couple things I found funny are that Dr. Ransom (a philologist) is based on J.R.R. Tolkien, and the space travel science is completely silly. Anyway, I really liked this book but I don't think I count it a favorite anymore. 4.5 out of 5 stars, permanent collection. Trigger warnings: everything you should expect from a male-written 1940s sci fi book, murder, death, animal abuse and killing mention, ableism, kidnapping, guns/shooting death, colonialist genocide mentions

Aesthetics moodboard for Out of the Silent Planet

Perelandra (description) leans almost completely outside of the science and into fantasy. The medieval cosmology he folded into his science fantasy is much more dwelled on, and I love the mythological references Lewis added to the story. Perelandra is new, lush, and beautiful, and I enjoyed spending time in it. I did not enjoy the spiritual horror that threatened it through one of the antagonists from OotSP. I also wasn't crazy about traditional/old fashioned gender beliefs being shoehorned into the story through the planet gods. Lewis was nonplussed that most people didn't pick up on the Christianity in the first space book, so he really hammered it in here. I gave this one 4 stars. Trigger warnings: murder, death, violence, cosmic/spiritual/supernatural horror (demonic forces), demonic possession, body horror, zombie if you squint, animal abuse and murder, blood, gun, a huge bug-like creature shows up for a bit

Aesthetics moodboard for Perelandra

That Hideous Strength is the last book in the trilogy and takes place entirely on earth. Ransom is no longer the main character/focus; instead, we have alternating POVs from Jane and Mark, a young married couple who are bored with their lives and each other. Jane's dreams of the future bring her into Ransom's circle, and Mark's desire to be in the inner ring/popular & intellectual group brings him further into a shadowy organization (ironically called N.I.C.E.) that wants to control the universe. There's an exciting subplot with Arthurian fantasy and more medieval cosmology planetary influence stuff that I really enjoyed. There's also spiritual/supernatural horror in this book, albeit less direct that in Perelandra, but still creepy because an organization like N.I.C.E. could really exist and take over cities with police control and make bad people evil. There's a so-bad-it's-almost-funny butch lesbian cop stereotype who is written to be monstrous and evil. Lewis hammers in even more nonsense about gender roles and how it's an "erotic necessity" for the woman to obey her husband, which, like, your k!nks are not universal, babe. Just because you feel that way doesn't mean it's a natural law. Jane is not a very likeable character (Lewis is famous for being sexist, at least until he met his wife), but almost all the men are dicks to her in this book. It's not her fault her husband sucks and neglects her by eating all his meals at the university and then ditching her for weeks and weeks to live at the Institute. Jane never asked to get future dream visions or (spoiler, highlight to read: be part of a bloodline that was supposed to end with her birthing a future warrior for God or something, which no one told her about!) Justice for Jane! One thing I did find kind of funny is that Lewis posits there are seven genders because of the seven heavens/planets. Kind of based? 3.5 stars. Trigger warnings: murder, animal attack + massacre, gore, rape, torture, body horror, cosmic/spiritual/supernatural horror, police violence, town placed under police control and people driven from their homes, mob violence, animal abuse and experimentation (vivisection), guns and shooting deaths, eugenics and ableism mentions, genocide mentions, homophobia, homophobic stereotype character, misogyny and sexism, gender roles, homelessness, sex mentions

Aesthetics moodboard for That Hideous Strength