Reading slump + reading update

I've been on a reading slump lately that lasted over a month. I think it started because I wanted to read one of my many unread books with latine protagonists for Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month, and I think just the concept of "having to" read a specific type of book triggered my brain's ADHD* mental block against reading in general.

 

I did actually read one book (very slowly) during this time: this cute little book about historical and designer purses, which was actually very interesting and informative. I've always loved purses and fashion history, so this was a fun and interesting book to read. It was originally published in 2001, so the book only has purses up to that point, and has kind of a gap for the 1990s (too soon ago at the time to be considered historical). The writing is very similar to fashion editorials like they have in Vogue; lots of glowing praise for the fashion designers' creativity. My only quibble is that I wish she'd put the prices for the designer handbags. I don't remember if she put a works referenced list in the back of the book (another usual quibble of mine when it comes to nonfiction books). I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes purses and fashion history. ★★★★

 

In desperation, I decided to actually bring a physical book with me (safe in its padded book sleeve) to work, where surely the boredom of working the Thursday night shift would force me to reach for the book and read it, thereby breaking my reading slump. It didn't, but it did make me start reading an ebook on my Nook app (my second, sneakier reason for bringing a physical book to read)!

That book was A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by K.J. Charles, a sequel to The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (flash-reviewed here). This book is about brand new earl Rufus d'Aumnesty, whose hostile formerly-estranged family is fighting tooth and nail against this "interloper", taking any and every reason to question his legitimacy as earl, which brings us to the other lead, Luke Doomsday, whose mother may or may not have married Rufus' ho dad before he married Rufus' mom. Luke was a very young teenager during the events of TSLoCG (he's the smuggler chief's nephew), and he grew up to be a secretary (Gareth the baronet from the first book gave him an education). Rufus needs help sorting out the truth, his office, and the family books (which are all as fucked up as the estates and the family), so he hires Luke as his secretary. They're both super attracted to each other, fight it a bit due to the whole boss/employee thing, and fall in love. Luke helps Rufus with being an earl and dealing with his family, but he has secrets of his own, and his own agenda for being at the estate... This book was excellent, with a bit of a Gothic flair towards the end, and actually settled a mystery that began in the first book. ANG2SaS has the same themes of healing from childhood trauma as its predecessor. Luke has a facial disfigurement (scar from an attack), and Rufus is demisexual and dyslexic. ★★★★ 🌶🌶🌶  DM me for trigger warnings

As is usually the case, this broke me out of my reading slump and I started reading again like it was going out of style. As it was still Ace Week (my reason for picking the above book), I decided to finally start on the Murderbot Diaries, which I had bought (along with several other Martha Wells ebooks) during a charity bundle purchase thing. I'd been wanting to read the Murderbot Diaries ever since I first heard about them, and I'd really been looking forward to reading them ever since the trailer for the Murderbot Apple TV+ series came out (it looks so good. I need to get a free month of Apple TV+ code or get someone I know who has Apple TV+ to let me watch it). I love stories about sentient robots making friends. I was going to start reading them through Libby, but my public library doesn't have them on ebook :((( I started reading these books on Friday afternoon, and as of writing this (Sunday evening), I've read the first six books in the series plus a short story, and that's that I couldn't read for most of Saturday. I lied when I told you I was reading like it's going out of style; it's more than that: I've INHALED them. I am obsessed. They are so freaking good, and I love Murderbot (it/its pronouns). It's anxious and depressed and autistic (hates eye contact etc.) and aroace and nonbinary (duh, it's a robot) and deeply funny and sarcastic. Murderbot (Murderbot is its private name; to others it goes by SecUnit, which is somewhere between a human being going by "Human" and going by their occupation title instead of a name) dislikes humans but also can't stop caring about them. It'll be deeply annoyed by them then be like, "Is anyone else gonna protect these stupid humans and keep them alive?" and not wait for an answer. When its friends make it experience an emotion, it has to turn and face a wall. I love it so much. I need eleventy thousand more books in this series; I'm preemptively mourning running out of them. I recommend this series to anyone who likes sci fi action stories with a touch of mystery, and stories about robots gaining sentience and friends and dealing with what it means to be a person.  ★★★★ DM me for trigger warnings 

I'm writing this blog post instead of reading them because the epub ebooks are all on my computer, and Apple Books didn't transfer them over to my Apple Books app on my iPhone. Ugh. I'm counting down the minutes of this ref shift until I can go home and keep reading the series. This is basically me right now:

 Update: I made some Murderbot memes and posted them to my Instagram (I forgot to include the one above tho). My IG handle is in my Social Media note. 

*undiagnosed, but like let's be real

Flash book reviews for the last three months

 I am soooo behind on book reviews ugh. Comment or DM me for trigger warnings and more info.

 

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen - K.J. Charles is an insta-buy author for me, so I snapped up this ebook when it went on sale. This is a Regency historical romance with plenty of action and suspense, and I couldn't put it down. A baron who recently inherited his title and estate in Kent learns that the local smuggler chief was his anonymous hookup back in London. There's a lot of friction between them as they parted on bad terms, and the baron almost testifies that he saw the smuggler chief's sister smuggling, but they can't stay away from each other. They go on cute bug-finding dates in the marsh and have to team up to save each other's families from bad men. While not related to KJC's other regency romance series, the theme of healing from childhood trauma is also present. I thought it was interesting that the smuggler chief's grandpa was a formerly enslaved man from the US.  ★★★★  🌶🌶🌶

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibberts - I've had this author's books on my mental to-read list for a while since a lot of bookstagrammers said they were really good. Despite my initial surprise that the book is set in England and consequently all of the characters are English, I was sucked in and devoured this book.  Chloe goes through a near-death experience (a car almost hits her on her hot girl walk) and she consequently decides to change up her whole life, since when it flashed before her eyes, it was really boring. She makes a list of things to do, like camping and 'meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex'. After her apartment building's hot super, Red, helps her get out of a tree while rescuing a cat, she enlists him to help her go through her list 👀 He's down bad for her so he agrees. Chloe is chronically ill, hence not having done many things in her life, and Red has trauma from his last rich upper-class girlfriend (which Chloe is, uh-oh) being horrible and classist to him. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a romance novel this much! This is definitely a kicking-your-feet-and-giggling book, but with a good amount of depth. I need to read the rest of the books in this series, which are about Chloe's sisters. ★★★★.5  🌶🌶🌶

 

I reread How to Keep House While Drowning since, well, guess. It's just as good and helpful as ever. I last flash-reviewed it here. 

I also reread The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick since I rewatched the webseries for the first time in a decade. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it! The webseries (really a transmedia series, as the characters also tweeted and used various social media to add to the story) is a really fun modern retelling of Pride & Prejudice. This book is the book version of that webseries, as Lizzie's actual diary, and it goes through the same stories as the webseries, with more behind-the-scenes stuff that didn't make it into the YouTube videos. For instance, Lizzie's tour of San Francisco with William and Gigi Darcy is described. It's such a great retelling that left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling, but I suspect someone who's never seen the TSDoLB webseries wouldn't be getting the same story out of it. I still recommend it, though. ★★★★

Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond - I got this book from the thrift store. It's set in Oklahoma in 2013 (aka before gay marriage equality). Amy is a lesbian and a baker who is in the closet at her Christian bakery job. Somebody outs her and she gets fired, so she starts working as a bridesmaid-for-hire since she loves wedding romcoms and is great at problem-solving. She also meets this cute lesbian engineer, Charley, but their dates are really sporadic due to Charley's demanding job, and Amy isn't sure where they stand. There's also friend drama and ex drama, and Amy struggles with her people-pleasing tendencies, being closeted at one job while bartending at the queer bar as her second job, and being true to herself. This book was not as fluffy as it looked, and there is tension with Amy having to go through lots of straight wedding drama while being unable to marry herself (hang in there Amy! 2015 is so close!). I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it. ★★★★  🌶🌶

Women's Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery

I bought this during Barnes & Noble's half-off sale since I had a giftcard. Here's the summary; this book is about the residents of a women's hotel, the Biedermeier, in New York in the 1960s. There's not much plot, and the chapters are loosely connected. Lavery has that retro chatty informative tone down perfectly, and he's an excellent writer. While I enjoyed this, a lot of the women's stories were anywhere from a little to very sad, and the last story is rather horrible (the epilogue softens it). I'd recommend this to anyone who likes reading slice of life stories, mid-twentieth-century books, and how New York was in the past. I'll give this away due to lack of shelf space. ★★★★

Book Review: Fire Spells Between Friends by Sarah Wallace & S.O. Callahan

London, 1813—fae and humans alike are abuzz whenever Torquil's Tribune drops a juicy new tidbit. At the center of the gossip is handsome fae, Emrys Wrenwhistle, heir to his family's fortune. As speculation over his prospects grows, the search for a suitable spouse begins.

The trouble is, Emrys can't find anyone who measures up to the person he's been secretly seeing for years: the Tribune's witty society writer.

Torquil Pimpernel-Smith is accustomed to using the force of gossip to pull the strings of social influence. So when they are offered a position as the Council's first fae-human member, they readily accept.

However, their first project plunges Torquil into upper class circles rife with snobbery. Facing prejudice head-on is hard enough, without having to hide their true feelings for the eligible Emrys.

As the line of suitors starts to form, the Wrenwhistle family is intent on making a worthy match. Emrys and Torquil's passion burns perfectly in private, but navigating society together will determine if their love is a blaze—or in danger of being extinguished.

I adore Sarah Wallace's Meddle & Mend series and also really liked the first book in this series (despite my criticisms lol), so I snapped this ebook up when it went on sale. (I reread Breeze Spells and Bridegrooms first before reading this one, of course.) This book takes place right after the events of BS&Bg, so you do need to read it first as Roger & Wyn and their rubrics feature heavily in this book (yay!). Emrys is Wyn's older brother, and Torquil is the gossip columnist/editor who, in book 1, was like:

you know what would be hilarious? and posts that [Wyn & Roger] are engaged. They of course visit the editor to demand they retract the engagement announcement, but [Torquil is] like "no + deal with it + you two are cute together :)"

Poor Torquil, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, faces so much racism (speciesism?) because they're half fae, half human. They and their parents were shunned from society and disowned by Torquil's fae mother's rich and influential family; both the human and fae schools refused to accept them or test their magic, so they're basically without status or prospects in this magic-based society. My first paragraph in my BS&Bg review talks about this world a bit more and includes my thoughts. Torquil is poor and used to being alone and looked down on/discriminated against. 

By contrast, Emrys is the heir to his rich, influential elf family, one of the most eligible gentlemen in society, and wants for nothing... except that he can't put off his enterprising mama who will accept nothing but the best (aka rich and from a good family) spouse for her son, and keeps setting him up and making him go on dates even though he's less than enthusiastic. I was sort of surprised at Emrys having grudgingly-yet-long-accepted that his marriage would be arranged for him, instead of hoping to marry for love (I guess that's pretty common in this era). The way Torquil and Emrys meet (plus a short backstory for Torquil) is detailed in a short story (free if you sign up for the authors' email newsletters); basically they've been hooking up for years in a no-strings-attached to friends-with-benefits situationship. They both know they're from different social classes and financial situations, and that there's no way they could marry. 

Torquil is asked to join the Fae-Human Relations Council as its first fae-human member, and accepts in order to hopefully better things for themself and other fae-humans. However, they have to deal with prejudice from several council members and society folk, as being on the Council gets them invited to society events (Wyn's grandma gets them  the invites and makes them join society, much like she meddles in Wyn and Roger's lives). Roger and Wyn's new human and fae magic (respectively)-measuring rubrics are accepted, and it is decided a new rubric is needed for children like Torquil who have one fae parent and one human parent. Consequently, Torquil, Wyn, and Roger are entrusted to test out Torquil's magic and figure out a rubric that is both similar to the fae & human rubrics and that will work for the magic abilities of human-fae people. 

There's that classic SW "a character is cared for/given gifts against their will" thing, and that thing from book 1 about a newlyweds' wedding spell showing how much they're in love/compatible is expanded on in an ~interesting~ way. Much of this book takes place during December/Yule/Generic Winter Holiday That Is Definitely Not Christmas (Except It Totally Is) and would be perfect for a cozy winter/winter holidays read. I think I'll reread this in December for that reason. 

Some spoiler-y thoughts I want to talk about (highlight to read): I thought it was sad how Torquil's parents had zero qualms about buying Toquil the press and bouncing. They left them alone! :( I was so happy for Torquil when they got letters from other fae-humans like them, showing how they weren't the only one! I was shocked by that bombshell that Torquil's grandma actually didn't want to disown her daughter for marrying a working-class human but had to pretend to go along with it and wait until her husband/Torquil's grandfather died to publicly accept them as their family! Poor Torquil grew up thinking their grandmother hated them and wanted nothing to do with them.  I think it was wrong of Torquil's mom to keep that from her child; at least, she should have told them before she and Torquil's dad left for the continent. But at least they're not alone anymore, and being part of the rich and influential Pimpernel family means they can marry Emrys after all! We love to see an alone/unloved character end up with so much love and loved ones. However, I did find it kind of ridiculous that even after Torquil is publicly part of the Pimpernel family again, they and Emrys are still like "we can never be together" because of Emrys' social standing-obsessed mother. Hello? Torquil is a catch now that they're a Pimpernel officially. Get it together, kids. I'm a bit sad that Torquil had to give up their gossip newspaper, but at least it's in good hands. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and rooted for the two romantic leads to end up together. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series!

Score: ★★★★.5 out of 5 stars (Blogger, return to me the half star special character! 😠)
Spice score: 🌶🌶 
Read in: May 14
From: B&N Nook

Everything from this point on is spoilery 

Tropes: forbidden romance, "society would never accept our love", rich x poor, outcast x rich/famous/society darling etc., proud poor character who won't accept gifts/money from their rich lover, catching feelings during what is supposed to be a sex-only arrangement, "this perfect-on-paper suitor leaves me cold but I can't stop thinking about my forbidden lover", "I'll hide how I'm in love with them because we can never marry, never", rags to riches, long-lost/previously unknown rich family/family member who shows up and makes the character part of their family and fixes their social/financial situation, hurt/comfort (sick/comfort?), that thing where one character collapses and their "secret" lover freaks out making it super obvious he's in love with them, secret couple think they're hiding their secret relationship/feelings successfully but their loved ones suspect something/become aware/totally know

Representation: nonbinary character who uses they/them pronouns, bisexual/pansexual characters including both main characters, I think Roger and his family are Hispanic/Latinx, probably some other characters of color, queernorm, non-sexist & racism-free society; poor character

Trigger warnings: racism/speciesism, including microaggressions and bigoted language;  classism, poverty, a man in his mid-thirties briefly courts an 18-year-old girl who is into him (he's not into her. Several people point out their age gap is gross and he breaks up with her), hunger/food insecurity. (the authors give trigger warnings at the beginning of the book)

Flash Fiction Reviews for November and December

Fortune's Flower by Anthea Lawson - ebook, historical romance  ★★★⯪   🌶🌶🌶

A botanical illustrator and a poor adventurer try not to fall in love (and fail) while looking for a rare flower in Tunisia. I want to say this was maybe the 1830s or '40s? Definitely in the Victorian era. She's looking down the barrel of an arranged marriage to a rich snob to avoid spinsterdom once the trip is over while he needs to find the flower to win his grandfather's inheritance before his jerk cousin does. The setting and trip were interesting and at times exciting (I want to visit Tunisia now), but I felt that the villain didn't get nearly enough comeuppance. Still, a good read. I actually read this one as part of a free historical romance omnibus ebook.  Trigger warnings: adult man flirts with a teenage girl to get her to fall in love with him so he can use her in his nefarious plan and forcibly kisses her, forced marriage threat, period-typical sexism, Orientalism & racism

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl - paperback, middle grade, low fantasy   ★★★⯪

This one is an old childhood favorite. I was so into the Roald Dahl books. I just had to reread my childhood copy after watching the Fantastic Mr. Fox movie by Wes Anderson (good but its own thing, not necessarily a good adaptation even though some lines are lifted verbatim from the book). A fox constantly steals poultry from three local farmers and it enrages them to the point that they sink tons of time and money into trying to kill him. How Mr. Fox gets himself, his family, and their burrowing animals community out of that situation is still very fun to read. I was shocked to see how short the book is; it's practically a short story! It was over so soon. I feel like I spent hours in that book as a kid. Oh well. Great story but Dahl's usual fatphobia and lookism rears its head: it is possible to make villains that aren't fat or ugly or super skinny or whatever, you know. One of the villains is a Little Person, which is also problematic; Dahl focuses way more on the other farmers' appearance though. Trigger warnings: animal mutilation, hunting/attempted murder of animals, starvation, the word dwarf is used for a Little Person, fatphobia, lookism

The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall - ebook, YA, coming of age/romance   ★★★★⯪

Hollis, a quiet, overlooked fat girl, joins an all-girls' Dungeons & Dragons (called Swords & Sorcery in this book) group in an attempt to get closer to her loser boyfriend because he and his even worse friends won't let her join their group due to their no-girlfriend rule. The way the boys overlooked and treated her made my blood boil, but she and the girls in the S&S group (most of whom are LGBTQ+ and/or neurodivergent or mentally ill) become fast friends, and she gains self-esteem and blossoms. She and one of her friends, Aini, start shipping their characters and flirting in-game as their characters, but it's just for the game, right? 👀 I loved this book so much, but I felt like the awful boys didn't get the comeuppance they deserved, hence the half star. Highly recommended! Trigger warnings: homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, on-page anxiety attack, ableism, internalized ableism, sexism, bad boyfriend (ask me for specifics)

Christmas Crime in Kingfisher Falls by Phillipa Nefri Clark - ebook, mystery, adult  ★★★⯪

Charlotte moves to Kingfisher Falls, a small Australian town, to work in a bookshop she will eventually take over when the owner retires. She witnesses the first in a string of Christmas tree thefts and falls afoul of the corrupt sheriff, who suspects her and starts stalking her. A solid and twisty mystery, but the small town drama and decades-long grudges, plus the corruption of the sheriff and town governance, made me angry. Weird writing style that felt sort of careful and old-fashioned and didn't work for a modern-day mystery, I felt. Charlotte is in her early? forties and feels simultaneously like an old lady and an older teenager (not letting herself date a guy she's attracted to, which kept being brought up for some reason). I did not enjoy this. Trigger warnings: stalking, a woman is nearly choked to death by a man, police intimidation, police corruption, smash and grab-type theft, bullying and scapegoating, poverty, asshole Karens

Otherworldly by F.T. Lukens - ebook, YA, fantasy, romance  ★★★★

Ellery, along with their cousin and her girlfriend, gets swept into the orbit of Knox, a magical immortal teen guy that Ellery accidentally saved from wraiths, in a land that is always winter but never Christmas. They have to figure out how to stay safe from supernatural beings, keep them from dragging Knox back to the Other World, and figure out why it's stayed winter for five years. This book is set in a world much like ours (malls and smartphones) but also has gods and goddesses in a way that feels kind of like Greek and Roman mythology; very American Gods vibes. The latter fourth of the book also has Orpheus and Eurydice vibes. Despite all that supernatural drama, teens stay teen-ing crush-wise. I liked this a lot! Trigger warnings: stabbing death, magical and physical violence, magical murder, religious trauma

Finally Fitz by Marissa Kanter - ebook, YA, romance  ★★★★

Influencer Fitz is psyched to follow her girlfriend Dani to New York for a fashion designer workshop and to be with her in NYC, but Dani dumps her for focusing on her content creation instead of Dani. Heartbroken, Fitz stumbles into Levi, her estranged childhood best friend, on the subway. Levi is kind of in the same boat, so Fitz suggests faking a relationship to get back at both their exes. Fitz and Levi are having fun going all over NYC on cute 'dates', but Fitz is struggling to come up with project ideas for her fashion workshop. This book also deals with mental health, burnout, social media obsession, sibling relationships, "Jewish feelings" (direct quote), estranged childhood best friend who stopped talking to you feelings, etc. Levi is such a cinnamon roll. Also there was a character named Em Rojas, which is basically M. Rojas. I liked this bi4bi romance very much. Trigger warnings: depression, burnout, mental illness, feeling like you're not enough

Make My Wish Come True by Rachel Lippincott & Alyson Derrick - ebook, YA, romance, Christmas

Cute sapphic Hallmark Christmas movie with fake dating romcom on the outside, more estranged childhood best friends feelings plus they've been in love with each other the whole time and one of them is a neglected and abused teen actress AKA super sad on the inside. Whew. I did not expect the sad stuff so I was unprepared. I liked the small Hallmark Christmas movie-y town and the cute holidates though, and the happy ending. The horrible [spoiler] should have been thrown in jail though. Spoiler-y trigger warnings: neglect, an adult controls, isolates, and manipulates a vulnerable, neglected teen; adult gives teen alcohol & drugs or at least just facilitates their underage alcohol and drug use

I also reread Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories by L.M. Montgomery and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, as is my custom every holiday season.

Book Review: Breeze Spells & Bridegrooms by Sarah Wallace & S.O. Callahan

Fae and humans alike are returning to London for the Season, but the excitement is marred by the growing poverty rate among humans with low magical scores.

Tenacious Roger Barnes proposes a new rubric for testing magic to the Council, hoping to resolve the predicament for his fellow humans. But when he is paired with Wyndham Wrenwhistle, a dashing fae who has disliked him since childhood, the project seems destined to fail. Even after reaching a tentative truce, their fragile partnership crumbles due to malicious lies.

Adding to the disarray, a popular gossip column unexpectedly announces that Roger and Wyn are engaged. Obliged to go along with the falsehood to save their families from scandal, they are forced to reconcile their differences for the sake of the rubric — and for their impending marriage. As the project bleeds into their wedding plans, the pressure to flawlessly execute both mounts even higher.

Together, they have the chance to solve a crisis decades in the making — but they'll need more than magic to succeed.

One of this book's co-authors wrote the Meddle & Mend series, which I adored, so I snapped this book up when it went on sale for 99 cents.  It's set in a similar universe as the Meddle & Mend series (Regency England but magical & queernorm as well as non-racist) but with the addition of a fae population probably around the same size as the human population. They coexist fairly well, but rarely intermarry. Magical ability is very important, and inheritance goes to the child with the highest magical score rather than going to the oldest son (oh yeah, the society is non-sexist too). Humans with low magical scores are usually ignored by suitors and passed over for jobs. Low-magic humans are sometimes kicked out to starve by their parents as soon as they reach adulthood. This is very sad and pretty jarring for an otherwise-cozy fantasy book. Roger is trying to change this by implementing a new scoring rubric so children are less likely to score low, but to me it's the society that needs to change. They should stop caring how people score on a hugely important magic test they take once at age twelve that determines the rest of their lives. Roger scored low because he was nervous, and to me the test and its grading are hugely unfair. It was kind of whiplash-y to read about such a prejudiced society and then have the rest of the book basically be like "anyhoo, on to the cute romance!!"

Roger is paired with former classmate Wyndham Wrenwhistle, a fae who also scored rather low on the fae magic test, which is supposed to be similar/analogous to the human test, hence why they have to work together. They don't like each other, mostly because Wyn is and has been a huge jerk to Roger, but Wyn's grandma (who is on the fae-human relations council with Roger's dad) makes him do it. It's obvious that she did that because she thinks Wyn's into Roger. They're trying to work on the rubric but keep clashing, and in their anger both write disparaging letters about the other to the gossip paper. The editor of the paper is like, you know what would be hilarious? and posts that the two are engaged. They of course visit the editor to demand they retract the engagement announcement, but they're like "no + deal with it + you two are cute together :)"

Since it's Regency England, the two dummies can't say they aren't engaged because Wyn made the huge mistake of gifting Roger a nice teapot since he only has one non-cracked one, and you can't bring gifts to boys you're not engaged to, the scandal!!! Also almost everyone is super into them being together because a fae-human marriage is So Good For Our Society since historically fae-human marriages were/kinda still are frowned upon. Imagine being forced to marry your childhood bully (sort of) because It Will Change Society For the Better. Yikes. Don't worry, they start falling in love for real! 

I dislike the "it's okay when people set you up/force you to spend time together with someone because they think you like each other/would be cute together and because they think it's in your best interest" sentiment of this book. It also showed up in Wallace's latest book The Spellmaster of Tutting-on-Cress, where everyone kept trying to set up the heroine with this guy she obviously liked even though she explicitly asked them all to not do that and respect her wishes re: not being set up because it's cringey and embarrassing. The whole "it's for your own good! otherwise you'd be single forever!" excuses being used to ignore said wishes just felt gross. It's the lack of respect and ignoring of consent for me. 😠 The lack of apology and/or realization that the setting-up was being pushed on people without their consent is very annoying to me. And the whole smug "see? I was right!" thing when the couples invariably ended up together used to justify it! Ugh. It's not cute or funny, and it smacks of amatonormativity. Not everyone needs to be paired up, and single people aren't tragic!

Anyway, I really enjoyed this book and found the romance to be very sweet. They're very gentle and kind to each other (even Wyn once he mellows out). Sarah Wallace is an insta-buy author for me, and I'll have to check out more of what S.O. Callahan has written. 

Score: ★★★★ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 🌶🌶 out of 5 chilies
Read in: October 24-25
From: B&N Nook

Tropes: close proximity, betrothed against their will/we have to get engaged to avoid scandal, assigned engaged by gossip column (is that a trope?), fake dating (sort of), "we have to sell this relationship/act like we're in love", rivals to lovers, rivals to friends to lovers, childhood bully romance (sort of), opposites attract, everyone ships them, family/friends meddling, being meddled into a relationship, slow burn, height difference (smol & tol), I'll Take Care of You, socialite x academic, fashionista x academic, popular x nerd, flirty x flustered, whatever it's called when they knew each other since childhood and one or both of them kinda liked the other ever since then, the magic of love/love makes magic stronger or whatever

Representation: gay MMCs, demisexual MMC, nonbinary character who uses they/them pronouns, sapphic minor character, neurodivergent MCs (both ADHD and autistic vibes imo), anxiety rep, fat MMC, Roger looks Hispanic to me but that might be due to his passing resemblance to Harvey Guillen, I think there's other side characters of color but the physical descriptions are a bit lacking, aesthetic attraction is mentioned

Trigger warnings: prejudice built into the unequal system that leads to othering & poverty, a prejudiced character is vocally negative about a human and fae marrying, mild stalking by an ex

Flash reviews for books I read last month

Bookshop.org had a summer reading challenge where you could win a contest if you read for at least 28 days straight, so I read the unheard-of amount of 15 books!!!! Forget pre-pandemic reading levels, that is junior high reading behavior!!! Anyway, I don't really want to write out full reviews for all of them, so I'm just writing flash reviews. 

The Maid and the Mansion: A Mysterious Murder (book 1? of series) by Fiona Grace - ebook - another murder mystery where a maid does the investigating. Enjoyed this although I read "the men are coming back from war so there's no jobs for women" and assumed it was World War I and not II, leading me to be confused over several things including how she was able to run and fight in long skirts (nope, at/below the knee skirts). Trigger warning for sexual harassment from boss at work (he dies, yay!!) plus the usual stuff (murder, blood). 3.5 stars, would read the rest of the series if they're free

Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly - ebook - absolutely amazing, one of my favorite reads this year. So sad and hard to read at times but so important, with the internal plot mirroring thoughts I've had re: coming out and balancing authenticity with safety, etc. Also there's cool book restoration/making stuff. Genderqueer, queer and lesbian rep. Lots of trigger warnings including homophobic hate crime attacks, transphobia (also internalized), homophobia (also internalized). 4 stars, 2 chili peppers

How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis - hardcover book - I follow her on IG and bought the book at McNally Jackson bookstore in NYC to support her and because I need it. This book is for people who struggle with keeping up with housework--ADHD havers, depressed people, chronically ill people, etc. The non-shaming gentle parenting around cleaning that I never got, and lots of useful tips. She gets us because she's one of us. Highly recommended. 4.5 stars.

Recipe for Confidence by Samantha Picaro - ebook - I think I follow this author on IG as well. Her book was promoted by bookstagrammers I follow, and I bought it on sale because the main character is aroace. The teenage MC is autistic as well and feels like she always has to mask and act happy to please everyone around her. I'm afraid I did not enjoy this book; the writing wasn't very good and neither were the parents, and there was stuff that made me angry. I think I need to stop reading books about and for teenagers. 3.5 stars. 

The Meddle & Mend series by Sarah Wallace - ebooks - This is a cozy found family fantasy series set in a magical, queernorm Regency England where racial diversity is also the norm. I ADORED this series! I downloaded the first one because it was free and one of the bookstagrammers that I follow is always promoting the series, and it was so good I downloaded the next one to read immediately, doing that for each book. I inhaled the whole series in like a week. One of the books, The Education of Pip, is about a character who is groomed into an unequal relationship that turns into forced sex work, so trigger warnings for that (there is a happy ending for him).  DM me if you want more info. There is representation for just about every letter of the queer alphabet, plus anxiety and PTSD rep. There are also characters of color (the society is also non-racist). I highly recommend these books and cannot wait for the next one. 3.5 (affectionate)-4 stars varying, amount of spice varies by book but it's usually just kissing or off-page (some Pip stuff does bleed into other books)

A Charm of Magpies series by K.J. Charles - ebooks - I loved this author's Will Darling Adventures trilogy and downloaded their other free ebooks a while back but never got around to reading them. These books are set in a magical gaslamp Victorian England and are about a tattooed duke with strong magical ancestry and a short magician who fall in love, fight magical crimes, and have extremely adult activities. They have to hide their relationship because it's illegal to be gay in Victorian England. The duke and his manservant lived most of their lives in China (which apparently was fine with gay people back then? That sounds wrong but I don't know enough to dispute it, plus KJC probably did their research).  The magical crimes (which are mostly grisly murders) make this series horror in my opinion; they were far too scary for me  but I couldn't stop reading them because they were so good. 3.5 stars (but a high 3.5) and probably 4.5 out of 5 chilis (very spicy).

I reread Lady Susan because it was the Enchanted Book Club pick for July, enjoyed it per usual, and had a lot of fun discussing the book with other book club members over Zoom. I also rewatched Love & Friendship afterwards, naturally. 

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev - paperback book - I bought this ages ago (not sure from where) but didn't get around to reading it. This was a really interesting loose retelling of P&P (duh) where the heroine is an Indian American brain surgeon and the hero is a Somali-Indian British chef, and both leads took on different aspects of both Lizzy and Darcy. It was really good but really sad, with the Wickham-Georgiana storyline being really dark. To be honest, I didn't get why the hero would really come around to being in love with the heroine when she was kind of an awful mess. Understandable, though, when her family was so terrible to her. I do recommend this book even though it made me sad (and hungry, the food sounded so amazing). Trigger warnings for a character being drugged and raped (past), cancer/terminal illness, police racial profiling, racism, xenophobia, miscarriage (past), manipulation, classism. 3.5 stars, 2 chilis due to a rather unnecessary scene at the end

What an Heiress Wants by Gemma Blackwood - ebook - This is part of a Regency romance series, of which I read one previously and liked it. The heroine wants to get back at this guy who led her on, so she concocts a fake flirting/courtship/engagement with her best friend's brother. You already know where this is going. This book has low spice (only kissing and lustful thoughts) and I enjoyed it, even though it got a bit dramatic at the end. 3.5 stars, 0.5 chili

Whew. I truly cannot believe I read so much. So many great reads this month as 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

Catch-up Book Reviews

For Pride month I picked up the copy of Sappho that I'd found in a thrift store: The Love Songs of Sappho, translated by Paul Roche. Roche has both an introduction and translation notes in the back of the book, which were wordy and long and talked about the difficulties of translating poetry and how he tried to capture not just what she was saying but how she said it, the lightness and music of her songs. However, he chose to translate the famous "sweet mother I cannot weave" poem/fragment 102 as the speaker (Sappho herself?) longing for "a stripling lad". Ex-fucking-cuse me??? For that shameless bit of straightwashing he is dead to me, and I'm fistfighting him in hell. 3.5 stars, selling or giving away.  TW for suicide mention in the introduction

I bought The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser at The Book Loft in Columbus, OH. Such a wonderful bookshop; you could literally be lost in it for hours. You can read the book summary here. I read this book in the airport and on the plane, twice (I wasn't able to read much while visiting my sister; her boys are a handful). It was just the right kind of read for a vacation; it's interesting and fun and mostly lighthearted, and even a bit cozy at times. The book is told from Thea's point of view, and you see her fall in love with the small Scottish village she moves to and her Grumpy™ bookseller boss. I couldn't help but see him as David Tennant (who is also Scottish and great at playing grumpy), which meant I started seeing Olivia Coleman as Thea. This would be such a great chick flick. The tropes are there in this book (Edward is jealous of every man Thea talks to when they're just friends), but they're handled differently. There's also nuanced handling of Thea's and Edward's traumas as they start to build a relationship. They're both in their mid-forties, which helps ground the book. I enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone who likes modern-day romance novels with a bit of depth. I only wish we saw more of the house remodeling! I love that sort of thing. 3.5 stars (affectionate), 3/5 chilies, tentatively keeping. Aesthetics moodboard  TW for infidelity, physical fighting, grief, some possessiveness, vomiting mention, man shuts woman in a room with him (he doesn't hurt her but yikes), blood mentions

 

Netflix finally made a Nimona movie! I loved it a lot, which is unsurprising considering I was a fan of the book and read it back when it was an online webcomic, ages ago. Naturally, I reread Nimona by N.D. Stevenson. I was pleasantly surprised to see what little details and scenes made it into the movie, such as the not-Monopoly scene. It's such a good graphic novel and I really recommend it. I recommend the movie as well. 4 stars, permanent collection. Aesthetics moodboard  TW for murder, torture, violence, limb (arm) loss, explosions, experimentation on sentient living being, electric shocks, othering

Book Review: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Summary from Barnes & Noble for a different version than my copy:

A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker's epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.

 I'd picked up The Color Purple from the thrift store. I'd of course heard of it before as it's a classic, but it was (unsurprisingly) the queer relationship plot line that piqued my interest. Also, purple is my favorite color. As is usual when reading when reading Black/African American stories from before the 1980s, I steeled myself for a super sad story, and was right to do so. Celie goes through so much abuse from her father and husband, as well as the systemic racism and misogynoir of her time. Major, major trigger warnings for rape and abuse (the full list is of course at the end of this post). I felt for her and was so glad that she got to be in a loving relationship and eventually became a respected member of her married-into family. Even her relationship with her husband Albert developed from abuser/abusee to friends, which was nice to read, although I would have been fine with reading that he died in a fire or something. The scene where Celie stands up for herself and calls Albert well-deserved names made me cheer! Almost all of the men suck in this book, unsurprisingly, but it is clearly due to the sexist, misogynistic culture they live in and the way they are brought up. Even the one character (Sofia, Celie's step-daughter in law) who seemingly is unaffected by and does not buy into misogynoir and racism is severely punished for it. There are so many heartbreaking family estrangements in this book: Celie and Nettie, Celie and her children, Sofia and her family, etc. Nettie has her own story that is fascinating to read. I did find it interesting how the family included mistresses and everyone helped raise everyone else's babies.

It's Shug Avery who first gives Celie the ability to dream. Celie finds her photograph (Shug is a famous singer and "bad girl") and falls in love with her immediately. They meet because Shug and Albert were in love and have an on-again, off-again thing, and he brings her home because she is very sick, making Celie take care of her. Celie and Shug become friends and then more, and Celie is inspired by Shug's openness about sexuality and spirituality. I think it's pretty clear that Celie is a lesbian and Shug is bisexual, although of course those terms aren't used. Surprisingly little to no homophobia; heteronormativity is of course there but everyone just accepts Celie and Shug's relationship. That they are able to make a home together in Celie's abusive 'father's' house after he dies is beautifully symbolic. I'm so glad Celie got to have the love she deserved.

This book was so sad and hard to read but so necessary, and Celie gets her happy ending. This is a very important book that I think most people should read, but if you cannot read about rape or abuse or incest, do not read this. 

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: February 9
From: thrift store
Status: giving away

Trigger warnings: rape, rape of a child/teen, parental rape, spousal rape, parental abuse, spousal abuse, domestic abuse, physical abuse, incest, misogyny, misogynoir, racism, hate crimes, off-page lynching in the past, murder, death, a character is beaten severely for being "uppity" to whites and fighting back, verbal abuse, teen forced into marriage/slavery, character's children from rape taken away from her without her consent, a character is imprisoned, prison, a jail-connected official rapes a character as payment for getting the imprisoned character out of jail, said jailed character is forced to work for free for a white family (slavery again), adult man forcibly kisses and pursues/stalks a teen girl, imperialism, colonialism, Christian missionaries, xenophobia, non-Western customs and culture looked down on and tried to change by missionaries, African tribe forcibly displaced by English colonizers, religious abuse via promoting white supremacy, slut-shaming, and ignoring domestic violence; physical fights, sex/slut-shaming, illness

Book Review: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister—dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere—and risk it all—in the name of love.

As you know, I'm reading solely Hispanic/Latine books for Hispanic Heritage Month. This one had been on my radar ever since it blew up in the late 2000s. I bought it from a thrift store a few years ago and I hadn't read it until now. The thing about non-children's (and even some children's) Latine books is that I know they're going to talk about sad and hard things, because the reason we're Latin America is because of colonization and all the hard things that entails. There isn't a single LatAm country that isn't still feeling the effect of colonization. Diaz realizes this, and the narrator realizes this, and so we are told not just Oscar's story, not just his family's story, but the Dominican Republic's story, including the long shadow of Trujillo. Oscar and his family's stories are impossible to tell apart from that. 

For this book ostensibly being about Oscar's life, we don't dwell on it much. Oscar grew up steeped in machismo and was a pint-size Casanova until he got his heart broken when he was 7. He discovered science fiction and fantasy soon afterward, and became the kind of geek who says "hail and well met" unironically to obviously non-geeky people. Oscar's weight gain, desperation, depression, low self esteem, not being able to see women as people, and heavy incel energy keep him from finding love or getting laid. Like the narrator, Oscar's roommate Yunior, you want to shake him by the shoulders. Snap out of it! It is difficult to understand an undateable person's despair and loneliness if you have not experienced it yourself. We are told nearly from the beginning that Oscar dies young. It is not from his suicide attempt, but being murdered after falling in love with a taken woman.

Oscar's sister Lola is a Dominican goth and the only daughter, which should give you a window into her suffering. Her mother is incredibly cruel to her, and she rebels by cutting out the criada stuff and then running away. She's the nicest to Oscar, and has a short thing with Yunior at one point. I felt for her, as hers was not an easy life. I know she's not real but I really want her to be happy. She ends up with a husband and kids, but we don't learn about them.

Beli is Oscar & Lola's mother, and her life is harder than her children's put together. Her family is assassinated by Trujillo's people for a minor reason, and she's basically a slave as a small child until her father's distant cousin adopts her and acts as her mother and as Lola & Oscar's grandmother. Beli becomes very attractive and curvaceous during puberty, incurring lots of male attention, including that of a married gangster she falls in love with. His wife has her beaten in the same cane fields her son will be beaten and killed in years later, but she's saved by a guardian spirit mongoose. She's sent to the US to escape, and meets her husband and has her children there. She gets breast cancer later, but outlives her son. She loves her children, but her hardships made her a hard person.

The writing in this book is superb, lyrical and slang-y and conversational. There's a lot of Spanglish and untranslated Spanish words, so I feel like you can't really get this book if you don't speak Spanish. There's probably stuff I didn't get because I'm not Dominican. This book has a lot of footnotes, especially in the beginning. I like footnotes so I don't mind this. There's constant N-word use, which seems to be part of Dominican American slang (used the way I use 'dude'). There's also mention of racism against Haitians (which is wild to me because they're both on the same fucking island. How are you going to hate your sibling-neighbors.). While it was difficult to read, this book was just so interesting and well-written that I couldn't put it down. I literally read it at work instead of working, which I never do. This book's Wikipedia page has a good breakdown of the themes, motifs and parallels in the stories. I learned a lot about Dominican history and the Trujillo regime, which I hadn't known much about.

I want to talk about the misogyny in this book. Obviously there's a ton of machismo in Latin American countries and culture (reminder: I am latina). Oscar gets tons of praise for being a womanizer in 2nd grade or whatever, and he has an inability to see women as whole people, putting them on a pedestal and getting disappointed when they don't fall in love with him even though he's there. I've mentioned the incel energy, although Oscar doesn't feel like he's owed sex or romance and doesn't hate women. He does have a tendency to stalk them and ignore boundaries. Just about every female character, no matter how glancingly mentioned, has her body and looks discussed in a very specific and objectifying way. Yunior is a cheating womanizer and definitely sees women as objects. He's very flippant about the fact that Trujillo raped whoever he wanted. Both he and Oscar are deeply influenced by the machismo of their culture and upbringing. There's also rape culture, sexual assault, and a lot of talk of very young girls dating (being groomed/statutory raped by) much older men. For example, Beli is 14 or 15 when she gets together with the middle-aged gangster. This was very difficult to read. Junot Diaz has been accused of past sexual assault and sexism. I considered not reading this book, but I felt that I might identify with Oscar (I kind of did). You'll have to make the decision to read this book yourself. 

Trigger warnings: rape and sexual assault, child abuse, murder, characters beaten to death, suicide attempt, grooming, domestic abuse, assassinations, police brutality, misogyny, objectification of women and girls, miscarriage mentions, racism, colorism, genocide mentions, stalking, explicit sex, sexism, slavery (including child slavery), domestic slavery, gun violence, alcohol abuse, whorephobia, infidelity

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: October 5
From: thrift store
Status: giving away/selling

August books

 I bought and read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, which I think are the first two books in the series. I used to own the complete set, and I have no idea what happened to them. Did I give them away? I hope not. I got these from the thrift store. Anyway, both were fun to read, although they were way less about Mrs. PW and her cool upside-down house than I remembered, and more about the ineffectual WASP parents tearing their hair out over their undisciplined little brats' behaviors. Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, in particular, consists mostly of mothers phoning each other near tears about their darling angels' troublesome new habits, and being told to call Mrs. PW.  The books are less about the children, as I had seen it when I first read them as a child myself, and more about their despondent parents. In Hello, Mrs. PW, she is basically just a voice over the telephone; we don't ever see her. I was saddened during my rereads to find that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is not a friend and ally to the children; she is there for and on the side of the parents. 

I thought the kids were malcriados (meaning both brats and badly raised) even as a child, and even though I no longer think spanking is morally correct, there's got to be something from latine parents' bag of tricks that could fix those problems without resorting to magical medicine.  This article is worth reading, and has some interesting points, although I don't think Mrs. PW did what she did for control; many of the bad habits the children had were genuinely annoying or troublesome, and did need to be fixed. The article author acts like bullying or constant crying are fun creative things that should not be stamped out in children. I mean come on. 

Side note: I saw they made a spinoff of the Mrs. PW books: the new series features Mrs. PW's niece Missy Piggle-Wiggle (sigh) who apparently does the same thing. Anyway, I did enjoy rereading these books, and I hope I find the other two in the thrift store or my parents' house. 4/5 and 3.5/5, keeping for now. 

Trigger warnings for these books: spanking mentions, minor physical abuse including swatting, pinching, and kicking; physical and social bullying, verbal abuse, body horror (kid level), manipulation, bad parenting, magical pharmaceuticals doled out without a license or medical degree (probably)

The other book I read in August was another thrift store find, Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella. I brought it to read in Mexico, and finished it in two days. You can read the summary here. I read about it in a book enewsletter and thought the premise intriguing. This book was published in 2008 and it shows, what with the fashion and celebrity mentions (amnesiac Lexi is devastated to find out that Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt split up). It's also very Bridget Jones-esque, with the fashion brands and celeb dropping and stupid decisions (how did this bitch not catch on the second+ time that people were exploiting her amnesia?). However, the amnesia premise was interesting to me, and Kinsella is a good enough writer that I was engrossed with the book regardless. I was somewhat let down by the answer and the ending. Spoiler: Lexi ends up with the guy she was cheating on her husband with, and we're supposed to root for that? She ends up coming out on top of a business deal where she failed to save her department, allowing them all to get fired? Her motivations for becoming a total business bitch were just that her dad passed on his debts to her family and someone made fun of her teeth? She doesn't even really get her memory back? I'm not mad I bought and read this book, although I won't be keeping it. I actually left it behind in Mexico on purpose. 3.5/4 stars, gave away. 

 

Trigger warnings for this book: many mentions of dieting and exercising for weight loss, spit in food mention, sex mentions, car crash mentions, infidelity, corporate backstabbing and greed, neglectful parents, teenage delinquency, amnesia, classism, lookism (character is mocked for her crooked teeth)

Book review: The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

I'm mad at myself for buying this book at the thrift store. It's described as "poignant"; of course it's going to be unspeakably sad! Here's the summary; see if you can guess why I picked it up.

When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how record-breakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother's death in childbirth and was totally ill-equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister Serena Jane, the epitome of feminine perfection. When he, too, relinquishes his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated--Serena Jane to live a life of privilege and Truly to live on the outskirts of town, the subject of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of her peers.

Serena Jane's beauty proves to be her greatest blessing and her biggest curse, for it makes her the obsession of classmate Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of doctors for generations. Though they have long been the pillars of the community, the earliest Morgan married the town witch, Tabitha Dyerson, and the location of her fabled shadow book--containing mysterious secrets for healing and darker powers--has been the subject of town gossip ever since. Bob Bob Morgan, one of Truly's biggest tormentors, does the unthinkable to claim the prize of Serena Jane, and changes the destiny of all Aberdeen forever.

It is only when Truly finds her calling--the ability to heal illness with herbs and naturopathic techniques,hidden within the folds of Robert Morgan's family quilt, that she begins to regain control over her life and herself. Unearthed family secrets, however, will lead to the kind of betrayal that eventually break the Morgan family apart forever, but Truly's reckoning with her own demons allows for both an uprooting of Aberdeen County, and the possibility of love in unexpected places.

If you guessed it was the wise woman healing with herbs stuff, you were right. I was also somewhat intrigued by the main character's medical condition, which is a pituitary-caused gigantism. It's the opposite of what I have, almost, but I haven't heard of many books where pituitary conditions are discussed. Anyway, everyone is horrible to Truly, everyone close to her dies or goes away, and the entire thing was super depressing. The worst character who does the worst thing never really gets his comeuppance, apart from getting leukemia and dying a painful, wretched death, which happens to everyone anyway regardless of how nice they are (the death, not the leukemia). The second worst character got a lukewarm comeuppance, nothing like what she deserved. I'm mad that Truly never stood up for herself, but I guess with the upbringing she had it's understandable. I'm also mad at one of the deaths. There was soooooooo much fatshaming and fatbashing. Even though you get dates and the Vietnam war namedropped, the whole thing still feels like it takes place in the thirties or forties. I'm glad that the one LGBT+ character got a happy ending, even if his childhood sucked. Not nearly enough witch and healing stuff. Good writing though. Would not recommend unless you love depressing stories set in close-minded small towns in middle or southeastern America.

Trigger warnings I'd apply to this book: semi-graphic rape depiction/description, child abuse (physical and emotional), neglect, multiple suicides, fatphobia, ableism, cruelty, controlling relationships, alcoholism (at least one character), a character has PTSD, era-consistent homophobia, implied transphobia, era-consistent sexism

Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Read in: September 24-25
From: thrift store
Format: hardcover, with handy attached ribbon bookmark
Status: giving away

Book review: Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue Halpern

I bought Summer Hours at the Robbers Library because of the cover. I am a simple woman; if any book is about libraries, bookstores, librarians, or old books, I immediately want to buy it. Barnes & Noble had a buy 2, get 1 free deal going on, so what more did I need?

Requisite Amazon summary:

People are drawn to libraries for all kinds of reasons. Most come for the books themselves, of course; some come to borrow companionship. For head librarian Kit, the public library in Riverton, New Hampshire, offers what she craves most: peace. Here, no one expects Kit to talk about the calamitous events that catapulted her out of what she thought was a settled, suburban life. She can simply submerge herself in her beloved books and try to forget her problems.
But that changes when fifteen-year-old, home-schooled Sunny gets arrested for shoplifting a dictionary. The judge throws the book at Sunny—literally—assigning her to do community service at the library for the summer. Bright, curious, and eager to connect with someone other than her off-the-grid hippie parents, Sunny coaxes Kit out of her self-imposed isolation. They’re joined by Rusty, a Wall Street high-flyer suddenly crashed to earth.
In this little library that has become the heart of this small town, Kit, Sunny, and Rusty are drawn to each other, and to a cast of other offbeat regulars. As they come to terms with how their lives have unraveled, they also discover how they might knit them together again and finally reclaim their stories.

I expected this book to be heartwarming, a love letter to public libraries and their ability to transform people and build communities, and it was, but... it was really sad? Kit, the reference librarian, has fled from a tragic betrayal; Sunny's parents are anarchist vegan hippies who lie to and neglect her; and Rusty lost everything in the 2008 stock market crash and is desperately trying to see if this Riverton is the one that holds his grandmother's forgotten bank account. I could have handled the latter two storylines fine, but Kit's was too sad. I especially didn't like how the people who failed Kit didn't get a comeuppance.

The main story, the Riverton Library, is set in 2008 and told fairly straightforward. It is interspersed with Kit's journaling of what happened to her as well as Sunny's memories of her family life. Kit's journal entries are told chronologically, if I'm remembering correctly, and Sunny's memories jump back and forth in time. The book actually opens with the first of Kit's journal entries, although we don't know it yet. That first chapter is a recounting of Kit's sexual exploits, a jarring beginning that does not vibe with the rest of the book. I think the book should have started with Sunny's recounting of her juvie trial, not Kit's college love life. It makes the book seem atonal, since we keep going between the rather peaceful but economically troubled library/town life and the disturbing, painful and angry accounts of Kit's pre-Riverton life. The book ends with all of the primary characters opening up and letting each other in, and finally seeing Riverton as their home.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes books about libraries and doesn't mind sad/disturbing stories.

Score: 3.9 out of 5 stars
Read in: late July
From: Barnes & Noble
Format: paperback
Status: tentatively keeping

Book review: The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

The only book I read in June was The Passion by Jeanette Winterson. I picked it up because it sounded interesting. It's set during the Napoleonic wars, aka Regency times, and part of the book takes place in Venice, which I love and have been to. It also sounded kind of mysterious and magical. Here is the summary, from both the back of this book and Amazon:

Set during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars, The Passion intertwines the destinies of two remarkable people: Henri, a simple French soldier, who follows Napoleon from glory to Russian ruin; and Villanelle, the red-haired, web-footed daughter of a Venetian boatman, whose husband has gambled away her heart. In Venice’s compound of carnival, chance, and darkness, the pair meet their singular destiny.

Right off the bat, I can tell you that I don't like this summary. Whoever wrote it did not read the book that thoroughly. The most glaring example is that the summary says that Villanelle's husband gambled away her heart. This is not true: he gambled away her body. Because he lost at cards, the husband had to give Villanelle to his opponent to work as a "comfort woman" to Napoleon's troops. That is how she and Henri meet. Also, I don't think it's right to give away that Villanelle has webbed feet in the summary, when the book itself is very secretive about it. It gives away the surprise reveal in the last part of the book. The summary makes it sound like Henri and Villanelle meet by chance in Venice. They actually meet in Russia when both decide to run away from the doomed military enterprise (Russia in winter? Does no one ever think?), and Villanelle takes Henri to Venice to hide from Napoleon's men.

As you will have guessed, this book does not shy away from the ugliness of life or war. There was a lot of horrible stuff mentioned, and while I will not list it all, I would apply trigger warnings for explicit sexual scenarios (including non-consensual), forced prostitution, a mention of gang rape, murder, blood, gore, violence, mentions of abandoned feral children, starvation, animal death, and that's all I can think of right now. 

While I liked Henri and Villanelle individually, I don't think I really liked them together as a couple. Villanelle can do so much better than Henri, and she doesn't even feel that way towards him. I am tired of reading/seeing couple pairings that happen just because the guy is in love with the girl. I was also displeased at the ending. After all that suffering and misery, there is no happy ending for the two of them. Villanelle refuses to marry Henri (despite having a child with him) and he goes mad in an insane asylum. Like what? Why? 

However, this was really good and rather beautifully written. If you can stomach all of the ugliness listed above and like the historical setting and topics, I would recommend this book. I liked the Venice setting and events and magical fantasy stuff, such as Villanelle literally losing her heart to a married woman and Henri having to find it before Villanelle is held in thrall. The summary writer probably got this part of the book confused with Villanelle's husband's gambling problem. I also love Villanelle's name; it is a poetic form I learned about in college. (Parents, do not get any ideas.)

The above cover is the one my copy has, and it's ok. Obviously the cards are due to Villanelle's job before she's gambled away, and the mask is because it takes place in Venice. I don't think I've ever seen a book with the author's picture on the front (apart from important literary people like C.S. Lewis). I didn't realize this when I bought the book, but Jeanette Winterson is an important lesbian/LGBT+  writer. I'm not a huge fan of the cover art, but all the other covers were just as bad if not worse. A lot of them featured chickens since Henri works plucking and preparing chickens for Napoleon and apparently the artists only read up to that point in the book.


Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: early June
From: the thrift store
Format: paperback
Status: idk I might give it away at some point