Murderbot May

I reread all of The Murderbot Diaries (TMBD) series by Martha Wells in order to prepare for the newest book, Platform Decay, coming out on May 5. I read them all last year and have been obsessed with them ever since. I made a "Michelle's guide to the Murderbot Diaries" Canva carousel and posted it on my bookstagram in lieu of a May wrap-up, as the only books I read that month were the TMBD series. You can see it here. I am tempted to post all the slides here in this blog entry, or replicate the information on the slides, but I'll hold off. The IG post has general information about the series, such as genres, themes, and reading orders (for which I relied heavily on Book Series in Order but also made my own suggested reading order list). The last slide is my Murderbot moodboard. 

You can read my general summary for the series in my TMBD guide slides. Here are my flash summaries of each book; flash reviews would be useless because they'd all be "I love this book and Murderbot" etc. I've given each book 4 stars. No chili peppers as there's no spice, although some references to sex are made. 

BOOKS

The books are Murderbot's personal logs and are in first person POV. 

All Systems Red (TMBD #1) - We meet Murderbot, a SecUnit (security construct that is part human, part robot, completely sentient) that hacked its 'governor module' so that it is no longer forced to follow orders and is free! ...to continue pretending to be a regular governed SecUnit, since it can't figure out how to escape or what to do with its life. At least it can watch as much television as it wants. Murderbot is on a planet guarding an environmental survey group called PresAux, who are all nice to Murderbot (very weird, after having been treated like property for so long), when suddenly they're all thrown into danger... 

Artificial Condition (TMBD #2) - Murderbot is on its own for the first time and on a mission to find out the truth behind a tragedy it was in... or behind. To get to the planet where it happened, Murderbot hitches a ride on an unmanned cargo ship, whose bot pilot turns out to be very different than it expected. With guidance from its new friend ART, Murderbot takes a job protecting some humans while they attempt to get some stolen work back from their ruthless ex-boss on that planet. Can Murderbot pass as an augmented human, keep its clients safe, and find out the truth?

 

Rogue Protocol (TMBD #3) - Its own fact-finding mission over, Murderbot decides to travel to an abandoned mining station to find out what GrayCris, the company behind the murders in All Systems Red, was doing there, hoping that that information can help its PresAux humans. It gets roped into helping a different survey team there, which consists of more humans (some nice, some with unknown intentions) and a human-form "pet" bot that might be able to see through Murderbot's "human security consultant" cover story. 

 

Exit Strategy (TMBD #4) - Murderbot learns that Dr. Mensah, the PresAux leader and its favorite human, has been kidnapped by GrayCris. It travels to the planet where she's being held prisoner and reunites with some of the other PresAux humans in order to help free Dr. Mensah and get them all off that planet safely. 

 

Network Effect (TMBD #5) - Murderbot is helping its PresAux humans on a mission when a big transport vessel shows up out of nowhere and kidnaps Murderbot and Dr. Mensah's teenage daughter Amena. The people on the ship don't seem quite human and have strange, unhackable tech, while the ship seems really familiar... Can Murderbot keep Amena safe and figure out how to help ART and its crew?

 

Fugitive Telemetry (TMBD #6) - This book takes place before book 5, on Preservation station (the space station above Preservation, the planet the PresAux humans are from). There's been a murder, and detective Murderbot is on the case! This means having to work with Station Security, who suspect it of the murder and limit its technological access, and having to talk to humans and bots (ugh). Can Murderbot solve the case? Will the Station Security humans finally trust it?

System Collapse (TMBD #7) - This book takes place right after Network Effect, on the same planet where everything goes down in book 5. Murderbot, ART's crew, and the PresAux humans are trying to help the planet's human colony, as a corporation called Barish-Estranza is trying to use their ignorance of capitalism to trick the humans into entering corporate slavery. Murderbot is also dealing with PTSD after the events of book 5. Can Murderbot, ART, and their humans figure out how to save the colonists from corporate slavery, and themselves from Barish-Estranza's retaliation?

Platform Decay (TMBD #8) - Murderbot must rescue and lead 3 kidnapped members of Dr. Mensah's family through a huge Corporation Rim space station to safety. The mission is made even more complicated by the addition of another kidnapped family to protect and wrangle. Murderbot must keep its humans safe while navigating the huge space station ring, all of the various corporations that own parts of it, the lack of consistent  transport, air pirates, corporate warfare, and clingy children. All while posing as an augmented human, of course.

    This is the only one I'm bothering to do a review for as it's new. I really enjoyed this book, while also not enjoying it because it was so suspenseful the whole time. Even so, I read it twice, basically back to back. This is similar to Network Effect in that Murderbot is entrusted with Mensah's family members who don't even like it but it has to keep them safe. Farai is nice but struggling to understand SecUnit and her wife's bond with it, and Naja (her grandmother, I think) is one of my favorite things in the world, a badass old lady. The third family member is Mensah and Farai's daughter Sofi, whose age isn't given (Murderbot refers to all children and teens as juveniles), but I think she's a tween, somewhere between 9 and 14 years old. Murderbot's growth is really shown in this book; it's actually installed a mental health program (!) and does frequent emotion checks (!!), and its main reason to avoid giving its humans a gun is because it's afraid shooting people will give them trauma! What a change from its previous reason for withholding guns from humans (because it was afraid of being shot by them)! It's also making a real effort to incapacitate instead of kill. I'm so proud of Murderbot :')  ★★★★

 

Martha Wells said in an interview that she's on contract to write one more book, which may be the last one in the series 😭

SHORT STORIES

"Compulsory" - published on Wired.com - This is a TMBD prequel that takes place before book 1. Newly rogue Murderbot decides to disobey its orders and save a human worker.

 

"Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory" - This short story takes place on Preservation after Exit Strategy and is told from Dr. Mensah's point of view. Mensah is struggling with PTSD after having been kidnapped, and takes comfort in knowing Murderbot is there for her and will protect her.

 

"Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy" - This short story takes place after Artificial Condition (book 2), but we don't meet most of the characters until book 5. It's told from Iris (ART's "sister" and favorite human)'s point of view. ART's crew is on a mission on a planet undergoing a hostile corporate takeover. Iris notices ART is acting unusually, moping like it misses someone...

 

"Obsolescence" - published in an anthology called Take Us to a Better Place (free on most ebook platforms) - I kind of hesitate to add this one, as none of TMBD characters are in this, but it does take place in the TMBD universe, only way earlier (still hundreds of years in the future for us). In one of the later books, Murderbot mentions having started watching a historical TV show about rovers exploring and terraforming planets, and this short story centers rovers (which are like cyborgs I guess). This does have a lot of overlap with TMBD books and stories: human/bot hybrids, augmented humans, precocious children, murder mystery, the themes of capitalism exploiting humans and treating them like things, what it means to be human, etc. This was very sad and rather horrifying and I did not enjoy reading it, but it's very thought-provoking. 

 ~

Trigger warnings for this series: violence, murder, death, gore, corpses, blood, body horror, torture, slavery, kidnapping, that thing of constructs being forced to obey by being electric-shocked by their governor modules and forced to hurt and kill (SecUnits) or have sex with humans (ComfortUnits), Murderbot makes references to having been forced to record humans having sex in the past, inferred threat of gendered sexual violence (Platform Decay only; Murderbot stops it), PTSD, anxiety, depression, trauma, capitalism, constructs and bots not having full sentient person rights and being treated like things/property

~

TELEVISION SHOW - Murderbot

I don't think I've ever talked about the TV show, only that I wanted to watch it! I broke down and paid for 6 months of Apple TV+ (they had a pretty good deal for Black Friday) and have probably watched it 3 times at this point. It's a fairly faithful adaptation, although they trimmed down the PresAux crew and kind of dumbed down/simplified everybody a bit. Like show!Pin-Lee is way less confident than books!Pin-Lee, and they made Ratthi a himbo. Casting Alexander Skarsgard as Murderbot feels a little uninspired, but he's actually so good in the role; he constantly looks like he's seconds away from vomiting from anxiety, which is perfect. The first (and currently only) season adapted All Systems Red (book 1), and it's a pretty decent adaptation. They added and changed things unnecessarily, of course (I wish we could read the feed stuff that pops up better as it's a little too translucent, and the cubicle's design is ridiculous to the point that it's not a cubicle anymore, and don't get me started on Labeebee), but I really like it. They've greenlit a second season, which will adapt books 2-4!! They're novellas, and all part of a story arc, so it makes sense to do them all at once. I can't wait. Murderbot and ART's friendship is so important to me, and I hope the show does it justice. 

Classic literature books reimagined as eyeshadow palettes: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

 previously in this "series"

I'm wearing my The Very Hungry Caterpillar T-shirt, face mask, and tote bag today (I love a theme), and it struck me, while thinking about the VHC's iconic meals, how easy it would be to make a makeup palette of this book. As always, the outside of the eyeshadow palette would look like the picture book itself, with the front cover being the front cover (duh), and the inside could have Eric Carle's iconic tissue paper collage art as the interior. I'm thinking we'd put the image of the VHC as a butterfly in the bottom right corner of the mirror. The names of the food it eats would be the eyeshadow shade names, with the round eyeshadow pans being set into the foods illustrations the way the holes are punched through the illustrations in the book (not the same size or to scale with the holes, though). 

one apple - warm red

two pears - soft yellow-green

three plums - dark blue 

four strawberries - cooler reddish pink

five oranges - orange

chocolate cake - matte dark brown 

ice cream cone - light pink

pickle - bright green 

Swiss cheese - matte yellow

salami - marbled reds and browns glitter

lollipop - swirled blue and yellow, with the swirled imprint

cherry pie - duochrome tan with reddish pink shimmer flip

sausage - matte hot pink

cupcake - matte light tan

watermelon - swirled pinky red and green

green leaf - satin darker emerald green 

 

16 eyeshadows in a palette is not usual, so you could eliminate the green leaf shade to make it 15, but I don't really want to. Another option is to make the cherry pie a bronzer/blush duo in the palette. 

Here is the mockup I made in Canva. I had to forgo the green leaf, as that would have required even more egregious image cropping. As it is I've spent way too much time on this.

 

Cute, right? Call me, Eric Carle's estate!

Book review: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

I started rereading The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) by J.R.R. Tolkien back in February (!) and read it with the usual characteristic slow reading and frequent (often weeks- or months-long) breaks I do/take with very long, thick books, even ones I like and want to read (look how long it took me to reread JS&MN). I had downloaded the ebook from Nook during their shocking free ebooks drop last year; it is 1,371 pages long! I finally finished this book on May 13; it took me 85 days to read. Part of it (this time) is that the endnotes system Nook ebooks have is very tedious and annoying; I usually have to enlarge the text every time I want to tap on a superscript number or symbol, and half the time it just takes me to an endnote that's just like "*page 146". Which A) is not helpful, and B) I know that if I click on that secondary hyperlink, I won't be able to get back to my place in the book. Ugh. I confess I skimmed the appendices, only really reading what interested me, and skipped the indexes. There are family trees, and past histories that didn't make it into the text of the story. JRRT 1000% has to have been autistic. 

The first time I read the series I was in college, before I had this blog or probably tracked my reading. I read this mass-market paperback trilogy set that did not have foot- or endnotes (that I can remember), and I only discovered after I'd finished the whole LOTR story that there was a lot of useful information about the characters and places and whatnot in the appendices and indexes in the back/end of The Return of the King. I actually gave away that LOTR set; I had no intention of ever rereading the book/s, until I downloaded the ebook. Shelf space is at a premium in my house, and every public library has the books anyway. Maybe I'll reread this in another 15 years.

I realize I haven't given a summary, so here it is: a young hobbit learns that a family heirloom is really a magical ring of immense, evil power, and that it must be destroyed before its maker, an immortal evil entity, can use it to take over and destroy the world. The quest to destroy the One Ring is joined or allied by many other people from different fantasy races (including humans), and it all culminates in war. It's a wonderful story, so magical and fantastical yet so, so, SO grounded (JRRT basically created the world, history, and languages of the books before writing the stories, so at times it feels like you're reading a book of history rather than fantasy fiction). The writing/language is so beautiful, and there's a solemnity you don't really get anymore from fantasy stories. Sincerity is also endangered, I feel; there's a tendency to wink at or mock everything nowadays, and this story takes itself and its values as seriously as the grave. I really do understand why it is so beloved and enduring, although I still think it's still too unnecessarily long. The Hobbit has been one of my favorite books since I was seven or eight years old (!), but it took me until college (!!) to be able to actually finish LOTR (there's just so much fucking walking, and SO many characters to keep track of). I do better at reading sprints than I do reading marathons. Everyone who likes fantasy at all needs to read LOTR at least once; its influence on the genre is still felt to this day, although most of it is thrice (or more) removed; influenced by those influenced by those influenced by LOTR, etc. 

It has its issues, of course; there are so few named female characters, and even fewer who are actually important (basically just Eowen and Galadriel. My memory of the films was stronger than my memory of the books, so I was surprised to see that Arwen is hardly even mentioned at all). I feel like all the time JRRT spent talking about Numenor (which doesn't even come into the story and isn't particularly important to it) could have been spent developing some more female characters. There is, interestingly enough, plenty to see with shippers' eyes; I was shocked and delighted to read JRRT himself comparing Sam's defense of Frodo during Shelob's attack to any small animal defending its mate (!!!) against a much-larger predator's attack. Gandalf's interactions with Saruman and Denethor can be viewed through a "toxic old man yaoi" lens, if desired, and of course there's Legolas and Gimli. No yuri due to the aforementioned lack of speaking, named female characters who interact. I don't have the time or energy to get into the hierarchical class structure or racism/xenophobia; better minds than mine have already written about them. This was written during the 1930s (and before?) and it shows. Still, recommended. Just know what you're getting into. 

Some of the best LOTR quotes and excerpts

Score: ★★★★ out of 5 stars
Read in: February 18-May 13
From: B&N Nook

Genres/classification: fantasy, high fantasy, epic fantasy, classic fantasy, classics, swords-and-sorcery

Representation: not really. Sam is described as having 'brown hands' which suggests brown skin, plus he's working class and very important to the story 

Tropes: ordinary person thrust into a starring role in something much bigger and important than themselves, fire-forged friends, hereditary enemies become friends, a woman dresses up as a man to fight in the battle, prophecy bypass/no man of woman born, the rightful king returns and set everything to rights, immortal person giving up their immortality to be with a mortal/human (Arwen and Aragorn in the appendices)

Trigger warnings: murder, gore, violence, kidnapping, death and dead bodies, racism and xenophobia (the human villains are all men of color that are described racistly while the human heroes are all white men, plus having evil/good fantasy races), sexism, classism, Grima Wormtongue creeping on Eowyn (no actual actions but def. creepy vibes)

Books I read in April: singles

I probably could have put all the books I read in April in one post, but it felt too long with just four; hence, the split. These books were chosen for Autism Awareness Month (MZGTG), Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) Heritage Month (TIHYLTTW), and Lesbian Visibility Week (both).

 

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone - science fiction - hardcover, my library (TBR)

I bought this book nearly five years ago and finally read it; please clap. The premise of this book is that there's a Time War being fought between two factions, and two soldiers, one from each side, chase each other across timelines and eras, leaving behind letters for each other that are taunting and then passionate as they fall in love. Both soldiers are women, although I don't really think the people from the deeply futuristic? factions are human or possibly ever were. This is definitely science fiction, but it's also partially epistolary and very poetic, rather genre-bending. The writing is so beautiful; this is such a lovely, puzzling, fascinating, romantic book. When I finished it I felt the impulse to immediately flip to the beginning and start again, something that rarely happens. I have so far been able to resist the impulse, although I keep thinking of this book. Highly recommended. ★★★★¼  TW for violence, gore, body horror

 

Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl by Sara Waxelbaum and Briana R. Shrum - young adult contemporary romance - ebook, Libby/my public library

I realized I hadn't read anything with autistic rep this month, so I looked up books with both autistic and lesbian rep (TIHYLTTW's rep is unspecified sapphic) and found this book available on Libby. Popular straight-A student Margo realizes she's a lesbian during a fateful spin-the-bottle game at a party. She's used to using her autistic hyperfocus to study things until she's an expert, but she has no idea where to start with the gay stuff. Margo marches up to Abbie, an out bisexual girl, after their swim practice and asks her for lessons on how to be gay. Skater girl Abbie is failing US history and desperately needs to get her grade up in order to keep her admission at the college she wants to go to after she graduates. Thus, the girls strike up a partnership: Margo will tutor Abbie in US history, and Abbie will tutor Margo in Gay 101. No, not like that! Well... 👀 Margo has to deal with her newfound identity (is she too femme to be gay? etc.) and how it conflicts with the persona she's crafted for herself, and Abbie has to deal with her terrible neglectful parents, biphobic friends, and realizing she has ADHD. This book was so good and funny, although some of the Gen Z girls' jokes and pop cultural references were suspiciously Gen X/older millennial. It was also kind of sad due to Abbie's home situation, but the girls get a happy ending. Lesbian, bisexual, autistic, Jewish (both girls), and some ADHD rep. ★★★★, 🌶½ (spicier than most YA books)  TW for some homophobia, biphobia, parental neglect & emotionally immature parents 

Books I read in April: series

I read quite a few books this month! I finished the two series I've been reading on Libby thanks to my public library, and will write about the other books I read in another post. As always, DM me for trigger warnings.

 

Role Model (Game Changer #5) by Rachel Reid

Remember how there were some jerks on Ryan's hockey team who were mean to him? The main one is accused of serial sexual assault, and his second in command, Troy, wakes up to what a bad dude his best friend is and how bad he's being as well. Someone leaks a video where Troy yells in his ex-best friend's face, calling him a rapist, and Troy's team lets him go because the league cares more about protecting their star players than the fact that they have been accused of sexual assault. Ugh. Troy is now a pariah with a reputation for being a sexist, homophobic jerk, and the only team that wants him is the worst one in the league, the Centaurs. Oh, and he's secretly gay and has just been dumped by his secret boyfriend, and he can't talk to anyone about it. Luckily the Centaurs have a very nice coach, our boy Ilya, and Harris, a super friendly, out and proud social media manager. Harris is basically the opposite of Troy in every way, but he helps Troy come out of his shell, and they're drawn to each other. The main romance in this is very sweet, but the real highlight of this book for me was how much time we got to hang out with Ilya! He's the star player of the Centaurs, obvs, and they get better under his captaincy. There's also an adorable puppy that Ilya spends 90% of his time in the book playing with. ★★★★  🌶🌶🌶

The Last Devil to Die (The Thursday Murder Club #4) by Richard Osman

The nice antique dealer friend of Stephen's who helped track down some rare books to reveal who their buyer/Elizabeth's blackmailer was back in book 2 is murdered over a package of drugs he hid, and naturally the Thursday Murder Club wants to find out who did it and bring them to justice. Drug dealers and art forgers and academics, oh my! Also one of their friends (not the fab four) is getting scammed by a love-frauder, so they need to sort that as well. SPOILERS, highlight to read: Ibrahim comes out to a new friend (maybe the rest of the TMC already knew? It's not really stated) who seems like a potential new love interest! Took the series long enough; I already knew that since Ibrahim (played by the incomparable Sir Ben Kingsley) introduces himself as a "confirmed bachelor" in the TMC movie, and that's old people-speak for gay. Not sure why Osman dragged this out, but a lot is always happening in every book, to be fair. I hope Ibrahim does get a boyfriend and is happy; he deserves it! Ron also got a girlfriend a book or so ago but I care much less about that. Poor Stephen finally realizes he has Alzheimer's, and ends his own life via lethal injection (that seems to happen a lot in this series). Poor Elizabeth, she loves him so much :( Anyway, excellent and funny and fascinating as always.  ★★★★

 

The Long Game (Game Changer #6) by Rachel Reid

We return to the most famous and beloved couple in the series, Shane and Ilya! This book basically takes place throughout books 4 and 5, but from Ilya's and Shane's points of view. They struggle with being closeted and not being able to share one of the most important parts of their lives with anyone, Ilya especially. Both men deal with their own mental health struggles in this book. SPOILERS: Ilya hates that they're out to Shane's parents and best friends, but he has no one who knows about him/them :( He comes out to Svetlana and I think one of the other hockey boys (Troy?) :) Our boys are outed, Shane's worst fear :( The commissioner is a jerk, and I cannot wait for his comeuppance! >:( Shane's team is actually pissed that he's with his/their rival?!?!? literally who cares, grow up 🙄 Shane's friends are mad he didn't tell them :( Shane gets to join Ilya at the Centaurs, the allyest/gayest hockey team there ever was! :) Shane and Ilya get married!! <3 At least our boys get a happy ending! To be honest, my favorite books are the ones that are about or have a healthy dose of Ilya & Shane; they're my favorites :) The next book in this series is also going to be about them but isn't coming out until June 2027 :(  ★★★★  🌶🌶🌶

 

The Impossible Fortune (The Thursday Murder Club #5) by Richard Osman

This book is different in taking place a year after the one before, instead of right afterwards or after a month or two. Joyce's daughter gets married, and the best man pulls Elizabeth aside to ask for help: he thinks someone is trying to kill him over a huge Bitcoin fortune. He disappears, and the fab four look into his business partner (who shared the fortune with him) and Joyce's own new son-in-law. Ron has to take in his grandson after his daughter's husband disappears after years of abusing her, with a grudge against the whole family. Ibrahim's favorite client, drug queenpin Connie, is out of prison, and is trying to follow his advice about giving back by influencing a young criminal... So much happens in this book, but all is resolved mostly satisfactorily. I hope Osman writes more books in this series; I love these old people so much. ★★★★

Reading goals update: first quarter

I posted my tentative reading goals for the year back in January, and I realized I've been keeping track of them on my bookstagram but not on here. So here's how I kept to my reading goals in January, February, and March. 

 

January

• a physical unread book that is sitting on my shelves - I joined a 'read your oldest TBR books' reading challenge on StoryGraph, and started reading the oldest unread book as listed in my LibraryThing library: a C.S. Lewis omnibus containing three of his books, The Pilgrim's Regress, Christian Reflections, and God in the Dock. I skipped TPR as I had just read it in December (if that's cheating, I don't care) and started reading Christian Reflections, which is mostly letters to the editor of Christian theology journals. They are very long, dry, and boring, and I stalled reading this almost immediately. I also read a few recently-purchased physical books, but as they were recently purchased and not sitting on my bookshelves, I'm not counting them for this bullet point. ✅
• reread an old favorite book or series - nope, everything I read this month was new to me.
• read something by a BIPOC author - I read A Piñata in a Pine Tree by Pat Mora and Magaly Morales. ✅
• read an ebook from Apple - I did not do this.
• read something thematic (seasonal, themed day/week/month etc.) - I read two Christmas-themed picture books before the Christmas season officially ended on January 6, three kings day. ✅
• read a library book - I read the first two books of Rachel Reid's Game Changer series on Libby thanks to my public library. ✅
• something that is not prose or a usual genre I read (poetry, comics/graphic novels, essays, short stories, etc.) - I'm counting the CSL omnibus as an essay collection, as that is mostly what CR seems to be (although TPR is a novel). I also read the two picture books but I feel like I read them often enough for them to maybe not count as a format I don't usually read. Counting it. ✅

 

February

• a physical unread book that is sitting on my shelves - nope, everything I read this month was an ebook.
• reread an old favorite book or series - I started rereading The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. ✅
• read something by a BIPOC author - I read two books by Black authors this month: Mules and Men and A Chance at Love. ✅
• read an ebook from Apple - I did not do this.
• read something thematic (seasonal, themed day/week/month etc.) - I read two books by Black authors this month, as it was Black History Month. Mules and Men, A Chance at Love ✅
• read a library book - I did not read any library books this month.
• something that is not prose or a usual genre I read (poetry, comics/graphic novels, essays, short stories, etc.) - I'm counting Mules and Men as it's a nonfiction travelogue, definitely not something I often read. ✅

March

• a physical unread book that is sitting on my shelves - I read Melissa by Alex Gino, which according to my LibraryThing, I've had sitting on my shelves since last year. ✅
• reread an old favorite book or series - I am still rereading The Lord of the Rings. ✅
• read something by a BIPOC author - I am not sure whether any of the authors I've read this month are BIPOC; their author bios do not state if they are.
• read an ebook from Apple - I did not do this.
• read something thematic (seasonal, themed day/week/month etc.) - I read three books for the Trans Rights Readathon for Trans Visibility Day. ✅
• read a library book - I read five library books, 4 ebooks via Libby (the Game Changers series #3 & #4 and The Thursday Murder Club series #2 & 3) and one physical library book (Julián Is a Mermaid). ✅
• something that is not prose or a usual genre I read (poetry, comics/graphic novels, essays, short stories, etc.) - I'm counting the middle grade books I read this month, as I don't usually read those. ✅

 

Overall, pretty good!

Narnia Bloggin': 2 Narnia books I've added to my collection, and 1 I didn't

previously in this series: The Curious Case of the Odd Omnibus

Following my (oft ignored) rule of posting a new Narnia Bloggin' post after every five posts. 

I went to my local Savers thrift store (dangerous) because I had been emailed a coupon for 30% off books & media (very dangerous), and I have no self control. I found a lot of great books, not least of which were two The Chronicles of Narnia (TCON) copies that I was staggered to find!

Remember me mentioning that Cliff Neilsen updated his digital art TCON covers? I had tentatively thought about collecting them when they eventually turn up in thrift stores etc. in the future, but I never thought I'd find one so soon! These literally just came out last year, and I found The Magician's Nephew (MN) with the new cover showing Polly coming up out of the pond! I like this cover a lot better than the old one, which looked too science fiction-y and scary. The new cover art is more whimsical and fantastical. My only quibble is that I like the position and look of the rings in the old cover better; they don't look as good flattened like that. Also some internet commenter said the 3 rings like that look like a Mickey head, and I can't unsee it. I wish Neilsen had just done 2 rings, 1 yellow and 1 green, interlocking; 3 makes no sense, as only 2 rings per child are used in the book. You can see the comparison of the old and new covers here.

 

Pretty decent summary, although my inner pedant doesn't like the inaccuracies (Polly was tricked into touching a magical ring which sent her elsewhere, and Digory was forced to go after her to bring her back. This summary is inferring that both kids went on "a daring quest to save a life".) Anyway.

When I went to put MN with the other Cliff Neilsen TCON copies I own, I found that I don't actually have the old MN cover, so it's good I bought this one! For some reason I thought I had them all. I think that if I come across the old MN cover, I may buy it just to have the entire original Cliff Neilsen digital art covers for TCON. It would have to be cheap but in a good condition, though. IDK. I def will buy the rest of the new cover art copies as I come across them in thrift stores and whatnot. 

 

In my more cover art for TCON blog post, I had shared pretty covers for TCON that I do not own. Halfway between the last 2 big images, I wrote:

I found some pretty medieval-inspired covers that I like a lot, via the C.S. Lewis editions website. To see the other TCON books' covers in that series, click on each book in the main TCON editions webpage. I would def buy these if I saw them at the thrift store etc. in good condition. I love medieval/renaissance-inspired art.  

I never really thought I would come across one of these at my thrift store, as I don't think they were published in the US (the UK, maybe?). But lo and behold, there was The Last Battle (LB) with its beautiful medieval illuminated manuscripts-inspired border and illustrated capitals spelling out NARNIA! This TCON series was published by Lions of HarperCollins in Glasgow, Scotland (I was right!); there seem to have been a couple of variants of these covers, as some of them were tie-ins with the BBC TCON miniseries from the eighties (just the books that the miniseries adapted: LWW, PC, & VotDT). In looking at the other TCON titles in this covers series, it looks like the illustrated borders are the same for all the books, and only the inside illustration changes for each book. 

It's so beautiful. I'm so happy :) This back of book summary is accurate, I feel. 

 

I did not end up buying and keeping a deluxe edition TCON omnibus after all, as the ones I looked at were all lightly damaged in some way and/or had very uneven page edges, unforgivable for such an expensive deluxe special edition with such pretty painted edges. I realize I hadn't really specified whether I kept the copy I exchanged or not, in that blog post. They all went back. I'll keep an eye out at bookstores for an undamaged copy with even, flat fore edges, but it's not a priority. Ah well. :/

March reads: Trans Rights Readathon books

The Trans Rights Readathon is March 17-31, and I've tried to read at least a couple of books for it each year ever since I heard about it. There's a bingo with prompts you can follow, but I didn't really look at them. Here are my TRR books for this year. Still no cover images as Google/Blogger continues to be stupid and act like they can't add cover by url when they could just fine last month.

 

George/Melissa by Alex Gino - earlier middle grade, thrifted paperback. Own Voices (trans author)

George is a closeted trans girl who hates when people refer to her as a boy. Her fourth grade class has read and is putting on a play of Charlotte's Web, and George desperately wants to be Charlotte—but only girls can try out for the part. The way George is able to be true to herself and come out to the people closest to her as Melissa made me so happy! I used both her names in my review as the book refers to her as George for most of it; the book was originally titled George (as my copy is), but it has recently been re-released with the title Melissa. TW for transphobia (including from Melissa's mother, who eventually comes around), dysphoria, bullying, and sexism/gender roles stuff. ★★★★

Both Can Be True by Jules Machias - later middle grade, thrifted paperback. Own Voices (trans author)

Ash has recently had to switch middle schools after getting bullied for being genderqueer. They're in girl mode but feel nervous about their impending boy mode: will people understand and accept them? Is their dad right about how they should pick a side? Daniel is dealing with his parents' separation and criticism from his family for being an overly emotional boy who cries at everything. He impulsively steals a dog that was supposed to be put down at the vet's office where he volunteers and turns to his photography class classmate, Ash, for help taking care of the dog and finding it a home. The 13 year olds like-like each other, but as Ash drifts into boy mode, will Daniel still like them? I felt for and rooted for these kids, and was so happy for them as they learned to embrace the things other people criticized them for. I wish I could punch Ash's dad, though. TW for transphobia, bullying (including physical), dysphoria, terrible parents, sick animals, animal death mentions, and sexism/gender roles stuff. ★★★★

 

Julián Is a Mermaid by and illustrated by Jessica Love - picture book borrowed from my library

I was at work thinking about what to read next for the TRR, and remembered my work library has this picture book (I had previously used it in a book display for Latine Heritage Month). Julián is a small child (fiveish?) who goes with their abuela on the subway and sees some women dressed up as mermaids. They imagine themselves being underwater with colorful fish as a beautiful mermaid with long hair. At home, they grab things from around the house to dress up, and tell their abuela, "I am a mermaid!" She gives Julián a necklace for their costume and takes them to the ocean-themed parade, where they march among the other mermaids and sea creatures. This book has lovely, colorful art and Afrolatine rep. I was happy that Abuela accepted Julián, but found it hard to believe that a latina abuela wouldn't lecture their grandchild about making a mess in the house, especially ripping the fronds out of a fern and pulling a curtain down (maybe it happened off-page lol). Given the art, Julián seems like a trans girl to me, although no terminology is used; I've used they/them pronouns for this reason. I'm not sure if this book is OwnVoices, as there is little personal information in the author's bio. ★★★★