Monthly Archives: July 2018

Friday 56 – The Guns Above

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the guns aboveThe Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice. The rules are simple – turn to page 56 in your current read (or 56% in your e-reader) and post a few non-spoilery sentences.

This week’s quote is from The Guns Above, a Steampunk book about Airships.

As they approached the squat medical building, Bernat saw the crew prospects teeming at the door. “If this business is so dangerous,” he asked Jutes, “why are there so many volunteers?”

“You have to die of something, don’t you? And if it’s gonna be in the army, might as well be the Aerial Signal Corps, where the pay’s high and the girls in town hang on every word of your war stories.” He grinned. “Besides which, promotion here is faster than anywhere else in the service, on account of positions opening up so often.”

Full review up next week!

 

Book Review: Spinning Silver

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spinning silverSpinning Silver
by Naomi Novik
Fantasy/Fairy Tale Retelling
466 pages
Published July 10, 2018

I had previously read Uprooted, and adored it, so I was eager to get my hands on this book as soon as it came out. I was very excited to see it as a Book of the Month choice for July, and quickly made it my pick!

I received the book last weekend while I was at Anthrocon, so I didn’t get a chance to sit down with it until yesterday. (It officially came out Tuesday.) I proceeded to read straight through the entire book because it was SO. GOOD. Novik writes absolutely ENTHRALLING fairy tales. And in Spinning Silver, she has written fae as beautiful, alien, capricious, and as absolutely bound by rules as they should be. Doing a thing three times, even by normal means, gives one the power to ACTUALLY do the thing; in Miryem’s case, turning the Staryk’s silver into gold (by creative buying and selling) means she gains the power to LITERALLY turn silver into gold. Which then gets her into the trouble the rest of the book is built on.

One of my favorite lines was very near the end of the book, about the Staryk palace:

The Staryk didn’t know anything of keeping records: I suppose it was only to be expected from people who didn’t take on debts and were used to entire chambers wandering off and having to be called back like cats.

My only real quibble with the book is that it shifts viewpoints between at least five characters, and doesn’t start their sections with names or anything, so it takes a few sentences to figure out who’s talking. It never takes too long, but it did occasionally make me go “Wait, who is this….ah, okay.”

The plotlines weave in and out of each other’s way for most of the book before all colliding into each other at the end and showing how everything connects. I was definitely confused on occasion, but it was that enchanting Alice-in-Wonderland kind of confusion more than actual puzzlement. The book is, by turns, a mix of Rumpelstiltskin, Tam-Lin, Winter King vs Summer King, Snow Queen, and a little Hansel and Gretel. I love seeing elements of so many fairy tales woven together and yet still remaining recognizable.

And the ending! Oh, the ending was absolutely, marvelously perfect.

I loved this book, just as much as I loved Uprooted. I can’t wait to see what fairy tales Novik spins next!

From the cover of Spinning Silver:

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty – until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold.

When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk – grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh – Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. Set an impossible challenge by the nameless king, Miryem unwittingly spins a web that draws in a peasant girl, Wanda, and the unhappy daughter of a local lord who plots to wed his child to the dashing young tsar.

But Tsar Mirnatius is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and her two unlikely allies embark on a desperate quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power, and love.

Channeling the vibrant heart of myth and fairy tale, Spinning Silver weaves a multilayered, magical tapestry that readers will want to return to again and again.

 

Library Loot and Book Haul!

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20180710_1527168871367756358219549.jpgIf you’ve been following my Twitter, you know there were some hijinks this last weekend! I went to Anthrocon, one of the biggest Furry conventions, to help a friend of mine sell leather masks. (We also sell at the Maryland Renaissance Faire every year.) This was my second year going to AC, but her 16th. I spent most of the weekend in the “Dealer’s Den” but that doesn’t mean I didn’t find anything bookish to do! There were several tables selling books, and Ursula Vernon was one of the Guests of Honor this year!

20180710_1526116110021638115322219.jpgUrsula actually won the inaugural Leo Award from Anthrocon, which will be awarded every year from now on to exceptional works of literature in the furry fandom. She won it for Jackalope Wives and Other Stories, (writing as T. Kingfisher) which I picked up along with two fairy tale retellings – Bryony and Roses and The Raven and the Reindeer. She was kind enough to sign all three books for me!

spinning silverWhile we were gone at Anthrocon, my Book of the Month arrived, so I’ll be reading Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver ASAP, because it released to everyone else yesterday!

summer of jordi perez best burger los angelesAnd yes, there are some library books! Two books came in while we were out of town – Eden Conquered, which is the sequel to Dividing Eden, and The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the best burger in Los Angeles), an LGBT YA story.

TTT – Throwback to Favorite Bookish Sites, Groups, and Apps!

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Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl – you find a list of all the blogs participating on her page! This week’s topic was a Throwback Freebie to any topic they’ve previously done that I haven’t participated in. At some point in the last week it was changed to the best books you’ve read this year, but I’ve been busy and didn’t discover that until today, so this is what you get! After browsing the list, I saw “Favorite Bookish Sites, Groups, and Apps” and knew I’d found my topic. I spend a LOT of time online, and there are some sites and apps that take up most of my time. I’m going to move past the obvious ones like Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads, and list some you might not actually know about.

Litsy

First up is Litsy. Litsy is an app-only social network; it’s described as the love child of Goodreads and Instagram, and that’s pretty appropriate. You post pictures with captions, like Instagram, but you MUST tag a book on your post. It keeps the app book-centered instead of straying to other topics. It’s also one of the most positive online communities I’ve had the pleasure of being part of. It was recently bought by the owners of Library Thing, but hasn’t seemed to change much except behind the scenes coding and server migrations to help it work better. They do have some ideas, but so far they’ve been very good about listening to consumer feedback about what we do and don’t want. Because Litsy is very good as it is! It’s available for both Android and iPhone, though the iPhone version has more features. (That’s something Library Thing is working on correcting.)

Riveted Lit by SimonTeen

autoboyography

RivetedLit, by SimonTeen, is a site I was linked to last month, by the author of Autoboyography. She posted it on Twitter, because her book was free to read on the platform through the end of June. So was Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, so I got to read both. They have a selection of extended excerpts and full YA books available every month, it seems. This month their full book options are The Summer I Turned Pretty, The Museum of Heartbreak, and Alex, Approximately. I plan to read at least that last one.

Smashbomb

Smashbomb is one of the sites I cross-post my reviews to. It’s not strictly a bookish site, it’s a review site, but books are one of their biggest categories. You can also review Music, Movies, Apps, Podcasts, Tabletop Games, Tech, TV, and Video Games. Smashbomb is still fairly new; it launched early 2017. They don’t have all possible books in their database, but it’s fairly easy to add them yourself if they’re not there yet. I like seeing what other people have said about the book I’m reviewing, and I just like the way the site is set up.

Book Riot

Book Riot. Oh, Book Riot. I absolutely love Book Riot, for their newsletters (separated out by genre!), bookish news columns, columns about topics like “100 books you must read about <topic>” and giveaways. I won my first one last month! Some examples of recent articles are “10 Middle Grade Books About the Pioneer Era (That Aren’t Little House on the Praire)”, “Motherhood, Meet Dystopian Fiction (I Wish You Had Never Met IRL)”, “150+ Upcoming YA Books For Your July-September 2018 Radar,” “6 Transgender Novels by Trans Writers,” “Police Officers Challenge Books on a South Carolina Summer Reading List.” As you can see, they hit all kinds of topics, and they’re irreverent, fun, and topical. I really, really love Book Riot.

Bookstr

Bookstr is similar to Book Riot, with articles, bookish news, and Giveaways. They also have fun Bookish Quizzes, like “Do You Know These Famous Authors’ First Languages?” and “What Your Book Storage Habits Say About You.” I think the biggest difference is that Book Riot organizes by genre – their headings at the top of the page are Children’s, Comics, Mystery/Thriller, Romance, etc – while Bookstr organizes by type of content. Lists, Galleries, Quizzes, Articles, Videos, Giveaways. Both sites have lots of amazing content, though.

Book of the Month

book of essie

Book of the Month is another one of my favorite bookish sites. It’s a subscription box, and at the beginning of every month they pick six hardcover books for you to pick one of. It’s $15 a month, and you can pick additional books for $10 each. For hardcovers, that’s a steal! You usually get them a few days to a few weeks before their release date, and they’re special Book of the Month editions. I love this box so much. So far I’ve received The Astonishing Color of After, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (which I haven’t read yet!), The Book of Essie, When Katie Met Cassidy, The Kiss Quotient, and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. (The latter being my July book.) If you don’t like any of the books being offered, you can simply skip a month and they won’t charge you. (I skipped May.) If you use my link, you’ll get an extra book free your first month. (And I’ll get an extra book free for referring you!

The Bi Writers Association

The Bi Writers Association is one of my favorite organizations – they do the Bisexual Book Awards every year, and I’m always interested in diverse reads! My husband and a lot of my friends are bisexual, so I have an interest in that flavor of the rainbow in particular. Reading through their past winners list made my To-Read list EXPLODE, so, fair warning on that.

Some bookish Twitter accounts that I LOVE:

We Need Diverse Books
LGBTQReads
YA Pride (dedicated to LGBTQIA+ YA Lit)
Micro SF/F stories (Tweet-sized stories)

Author Twitters:

Franchesca Ramsey (Author of Well, That Escalated Quickly, which is sitting on my desk waiting to be read)
Ursula Vernon
S. A. Chakraborty (Author of City of Brass)
Rebecca Roanhorse (Author of Trail of Lightning, which I really, REALLY need to get my hands on)
Heidi Heilig (Author of For a Muse of Fire, upcoming)
Anna-Marie McLemore (Author of Wild Beauty and Blanca & Roja)
Meghan Maclean Weir (Author of The Book of Essie)

A few of my favorite Blogs:

The Indextrious Reader, home of the Read Canadian Challenge
Novels and Nonfiction
Just One More Pa(i)ge
Books, Books, and More Books!

A collection of other bookish sites, groups, and apps that I find interesting:

Library Thing I’ve only just started using, so haven’t formed much of an opinion on yet. Goodreads and Instagram, of course. Libby by Overdrive is an app for borrowing ebooks on your phone. I haven’t used it much because I’d prefer to read on my Kindle. I use my library website all the time, but I doubt that would be helpful to you!

I’m always on the lookout for more online bookishness, did I miss anything obvious? What are your favorites?

Book Review: Before the Storm

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before the storm

World of Warcraft: Before the Storm
by Christie Golden
Video Game Tie-in/Fantasy
281 pages
Published June 2018

Christie Golden has written several World of Warcraft novels by now, including my favorite, Tides of War, about my lady Jaina Proudmoore. (I should mention my main is a human mage, so I am obviously biased toward the Alliance, and Jaina is my girl.) So when I heard she was writing the newest one, I was quite excited. Before the Storm was released in June, as part of the lead-up to the newest expansion of World of Warcraft, which drops in mid-August. It covers events that happen after the storyline of the current expansion, but before the storyline picks up in the next. There is not, however, much of an introduction, so if you’re not familiar with the video game, this book will lose you pretty much immediately.

Anduin became the King of Stormwind in the beginning of the last expansion, when his father died fighting the Legion. (RIP, Varian, you were pretty awesome.) As prince, Anduin often advocated for peace, often sneaking around and finding backchannels to communicate with like-minded people among The Horde, most notably Baine Bloodhoof, the high chieftain of the Tauren. As King, he’s continued to advocate for peace, but a bit more openly. Unfortunately, the leader of the Horde doesn’t necessarily feel the same way.

I loved Anduin’s scheme to foster understanding between the Forsaken and humans. I especially loved that it included Old Emma, who has been wandering around Stormwind in game for years. That’s actually something I love about the novels in general; often they’ll take those small, flavorful NPCs and actually give us the backstory, or use them in some new manner.

I also really loved the Goblin/Gnome pair who were tinkering with the Azerite, and I’m a little upset at the cliffhanger we left on in regards to them! Hopefully that will be resolved in the game itself.

I thought it interesting that the book still showed the priests working together as one, and the shamans and druids doing similarly. The shamans and druids have always done that to a point; not every shaman was part of the Earthen Ring, but the druids have always worked together regardless of faction. But if the classes are still being cohesive, why are the factions fighting? That’s 3 out of 12 classes still working cross-faction. Mages, also, have a strong cross-faction tradition. If a quarter to a third of the populace are working together, why are we still fighting? I suppose it’s probably technically smaller than a quarter; civilians and NPC soldiers don’t have classes, so they probably outnumber those with them. So perhaps it’s still a small minority, despite what we see as players. Sylvanus goading her own people doesn’t exactly help.

Anyway. I loved this book, I thought it set us up for Battle For Azeroth quite nicely, I’m eager to see what a certain surprising character from the book ultimately does, and I’m looking forward to release day!

From the cover of Before The Storm:

Azeroth’s reckoning has begun.

Azeroth is dying.

The Horde and the Alliance defeated the demonic Burning Legion, but a dire catastrophe is unfolding deep below the surface of the world. There is a mortal wound in the heart of Azeroth, struck by the sword of the fallen titan Sargeras in a final act of cruelty.

For Anduin Wrynn, king of Stormwind, and Sylvanus Windrunner, warchief of the Horde and queen of the Forsaken, there is little time to rebuild what remains, and even less to mourn what was lost. Azeroth’s devastating wound has revealed a mysterious mineral known as Azerite. In the right hands, this strange golden substance is capable of incredible feats of creation; in the wrong ones, it could bring forth unthinkable destruction.

As Alliance and Horde forces race to uncover the secrets of Azerite and heal the wounded world, Anduin enacts a desperate plan aimed at forging a lasting peace between the factions. Azerite jeopardizes the balance of power, and so Anduin must gain the trust of Sylvanus. But the Dark Lady ever has her own machinations.

For peace to be possible, generations of bloodshed and hatred must be put to rest. But there are truths that neither side is willing to accept and ambitions they are loath to relinquish. As Alliance and Horde alike grasp for the Azerite’s power, their simmering conflict threatens to reignite all-out war – a war that would spell doom for Azeroth.

Book Review: Dread Nation

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dread nationDread Nation
by Justina Ireland
YA Fantasy (Alternate History)
454 pages
Published April 2018

So, as a general rule, I don’t read zombie stories. Zombies are the one monster that will almost invariably give me nightmares. This book, however, had such hype built up around it that I decided to bend my rule.

I should not have.

Before I start in on this, let me say it’s a good story. It’s well-written, the plot is paced nicely, and it’s entertaining. All that said, it’s quite problematic in many ways. I knew some of this before I read it; there was a Twitter thread about some of the issues, namely that in the Author’s Note she describes the Native American boarding schools (where the government forced Native American children to go, and tried to destroy their heritage and culture in the name of “civilizing” them) as “well-meaning.” The Twitter thread does an excellent job of dissecting that passage, and it’s worth reading.

There’s also the incredibly unrealistic scene where Jane gets flogged eleven times, walks back to where she’s staying, has a coherent conversation where she lays out a plan she has formed, and then puts a shirt on. That last part especially got me. Like, what? You’re going to be in more pain than that! Being flogged barely seems to slow Jane down. She asks for laudanum – for her plan. Not to take for the pain.

I don’t know. There’s a lot about the book that set my teeth on edge. There’s the absurd amount of racism, but the protagonist is a black woman and it’s civil war era, so that’s to be expected. And it’s coming from characters, not from narration. Jane lies. A lot. So it’s hard to trust that she’s even a reliable narrator.

I guess it’s okay. I didn’t care for it. I found it really hard to get past the author’s “well-meaning” comment about the Native American boarding schools. And the plot of “as soon as they’re old enough, black children get sent to combat schools.” Especially with what’s going on lately with the jailing of migrant children, it feels tone-deaf, ignorant, and genocidal.

One good point was the oh-so-casual mention of bisexuality (a female friend taught her “everything she knows about kissing”) but it was only two sentences and never mentioned again. Not nearly enough to make up for the rest of the book.

From the cover of Dread Nation:

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.