Just two books this week – Queen of Ruin, the sequel to Grace and Fury, and The Rage of Dragons, which looks to be an amazing debut fantasy by an author of color. I had to slow down after last week’s haul!
Library Loot Wednesday
Author Archives: Goddess in the Stacks
TTT – Cover Redesigns
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is my Top Ten Favorite (or least Favorite) cover redesigns. I have a feeling this is going to be a lot of “and then the movie came out and we got this godawful movie tie-in cover” but we’ll see!
So I think I’m going to do five I liked, and five I didn’t like.
Five I liked:
The whole Rebel of the Sands trilogy. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the first three covers too, but the redesign – unf. It’s AWESOME.
Gender Outlaw. I think the new cover (on the right) illustrates the mood of the book so much better.
And I recognize this one is an amazingly minor quibble, but give me the red and black cover for The Power any day. I strongly dislike the white one.
I guess technically that last one belongs in the next category, as I think the black and red was the first cover, and the white was the redesign. But I’m having trouble finding redesigns I like, so I’m leaving it.
Cover Redesigns I Hated:
Here we have the first cover I remember of this book, and Goodreads’ default cover. Give me the first one EVERY day. That redesign is – ugh. Makes it look like the whole book is about Smaug. I’m sure it’s largely nostalgia, but I loved those old 70s covers.
Another travesty of a redesign – most of Marguerite Henry’s books were re-released with terrible covers, I’ve found. The Mustang cover especially – the original’s art was gorgeous.
There have been a lot of covers of Pride and Prejudice, but this one is absolutely the worst. (I told you I’d get a movie tie-in cover in here!)
That’s ten for me!
Book Review: Unmentionable
Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners
by Therese Oneill
Nonfiction / Comedy / History
305 pages
Published 2016
This is a hysterically funny guide to what to expect in the Victorian era, assuming you are a 21st century woman who has been time-traveled there by some unidentified means. The author disabuses us of any romantic, Austen-like notions of what that era was like, instead talking about the real issues, like the lack of tampons or pads (or privacy!) or the infrequency with which you’d be allowed to bathe. She explains why; water was hardly clean at the time, sanitation was not exactly a well understood science back then!
Oneill manages to convey the differences between that time and ours in a unique voice that made me laugh out loud at points, even if it was slightly horrified laughter. Why does one wear uncomfortable boots instead of house slippers when one walks outside? Because you WILL step in crap, darling, and it might not always be animal in origin, either! She covers a wide range of topics, from your dress (don’t expect your outerdress to EVER be laundered!) to diet (don’t be too thin or too fat, and diet pills often have cocaine in them) to manners (don’t be caught alone, or with only a man, or with only an unmarried lady unless you are married yourself, no, best to just stay home, really) to how to relieve yourself (there’s a reason your bloomers are crotchless). Every chapter comes complete with quotes pulled from writers of the time, and period-appropriate illustrations, whether they are ads from newspapers or woodprints, photos, and other sketches.
Oneill does assume you’ve been brought back to a well-off family; she briefly mentions that things would be much worse if you were of a number of lower classes, but even a high-class life is a lot to get used to coming from the 21st century.
If you’ve ever thought you were born in the wrong era, read this book and remember just how good our modern conveniences and cultural attitudes are. (And giggle your ass off doing it!) I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and definitely learned a lot of trivia that I did not know before.
From the cover of Unmentionable:
Finally, a scandalous, illustrated guide to The Secrets of Life as a Victorian Lady, giving you detailed advice on:
- What to wear
- Where to relieve yourself
- How to conceal your loathsome addiction to menstruating
- What to expect on your wedding night
- How to be the perfect Victorian wife
- Why masturbating will kill you
- And more
Book Review: Tell Me How You Really Feel
Tell Me How You Really Feel
by Aminah Mae Safi
Young Adult / Romance / LGBT
309 pages
Published June 2019
This book was alright. There was a lot of hype around it before it released and I…don’t really agree. I liked both characters. I enjoyed the plot. Okay, I enjoyed the entire book, except. Except. Rachel BLINDLY hates beautiful people. Which is ridiculous, given (at least on the cover) she’s far from ugly herself. I just don’t get her blind hatred of beautiful people. She’s spent the last three years hating Sana because, what? Sana had the guts to ask her out while being pretty? That plot point just kept pulling me out of the story. Which was otherwise really good! But two pretty girls on the cover and one of them hates pretty people but has no self-awareness that she is ALSO pretty? I don’t recall the text actually saying whether Rachel is pretty or not, but Sana obviously thinks so.
This might be an issue with whoever designed the cover not understanding the plot of the book; I know authors don’t always have full control over their covers. But it REALLY made that particular plot point confusing.
This book is also another example of the cover description being misleading. Rachel doesn’t “realize” that Sana is perfect for the role and try to cast her; her supervisor informs her that Sana will be in that role and she’ll just have to make it work. It’s a bit of a different dynamic.
Sooooo I don’t know whether to recommend the book or not. It was good, but I was annoyed by that plot point. Rachel and Sana were the only developed characters; everyone else was only there to further their story. Which is not always a bad thing; but I generally like the supporting cast to be a little bit more developed. They are people too, they shouldn’t solely exist to drive the romance between the two main characters.
As a lesbian romance, this was great. As a well-rounded book, not so much.
From the cover of Tell Me How You Really Feel:
The first time Sana Khan asked out a girl – Rachel Recht – it went so badly that she never did it again. Rachel is a film buff and an aspiring director, and she’s seen Carrie enough times to learn you can never trust cheerleaders (and beautiful people). Rachel was furious that Sana tried to prank her by asking her out on a date.
But when it comes time for Rachel to cast her senior project, she realizes that there’s no one more perfect than Sana – the girl she’s sneered at in the halls for the past three years – to play the lead role. And poor Sana – she says yes. She never did get over that first crush, even if Rachel can barely stand to be in the same room as her.
Told from alternating viewpoints and set against the backdrop of LA in the springtime, when the rainy season rolls in and the Santa Anas can still blow, these two girls are about to learn that in the city of dreams, anything is possible – even love.
Friday 56 – Unmentionable
The 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 Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners, by Therese O’Neill. It’s a tongue-in-cheek book written for the 21st century woman who has time-traveled to Victorian times. It’s a riot.
Page 56 starts with a quote from George Napheys, the author of The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife, and Mother, published in 1888.
“Whatever stimulates the emotions leads to an unnaturally early sexual life. Late hours, children’s parties, sensational novels, ‘flashy’ papers, love stories, the drama, the ball-room, talk of beaux, love, and marriage, – that atmosphere of riper years which is so often and so injudiciously thrown around childhood, – all hasten the event which transforms the girl into the woman. A particular emphasis has been laid by some physicians on the power of music to awaken the dormant susceptibilities to passion, and on this account its too general or earnest cultivation by children has been objected to.”
Absolutely. Top hits of 1888 included such lascivious titles as John Philip Sousa’s “Semper Fidelis” march and the painfully overt “Where Did You Get That Hat?” Where, indeed. From the devil’s quivering loins, most likely.
Book Review: Technically, You Started It
Technically, You Started It
by Lana Wood Johnson
Young Adult Romance / LGBT
374 pages
Published June 2019
So the biggest reason for my recent hiatus was that I was having trouble reading. If I can’t read, I can’t review! And every time I tried to read a book, I fell asleep. I just couldn’t pay attention to pages of text. I knew, however, that this book had a demisexual protagonist, and I thought that might be enough to keep my attention. I opened the book, and found that the entire thing was written in text message format with speech bubbles, instead of giant blocks of text. Which was EXACTLY what I needed to hold my interest!
This is a precious book, told entirely via text messages between Haley, a demisexual girl, and Martin, a bisexual boy. Which, hi, that’s my life? Most of the bisexual men I’ve been reading lately have been in M/M relationships, so it’s nice to see a bisexual boy in a relationship with a girl. AND that they address the viewpoint of many people towards bi boys – that they’ll cheat. (That’s a biphobic attitude that is aimed at bi people of all genders, but it seems especially prevalent from women towards bi men.)
I love both of these characters; I love that they bring up that things can be so much easier to say via text than face-to-face. I love the far-reaching, random conversations the two have, and the in-jokes they create.
You’d think a romance would be hard to tell without description – only text is similar to only dialogue. But Johnson manages, and does it superbly.
This was the perfect book to break my reading slump, and I love it so much.
From the cover of Technically, You Started It:
Is This Haley Hancock from Mrs James’s US History class?
Yeah.
Who’s this?Martin Nathaniel Munroe II
Which one?
You’re both in my US History class.The good one.
When a guy named Martin Nathaniel Munroe II texts you, it should be obvious who you’re talking to. Except there’s two of them (it’s a long story), and Haley thinks she knows which one is “the good one.”
A question about a class project rapidly evolves into an all-consuming conversation. Haley finds that Martin is actually willing to listen to her weird facts and unusual obsessions, and Martin feels like Haley is the first person to really see who he is. Haley and Martin might be too awkward to hang out in real life, but over text, they’re becoming addicted to each other.
There’s just one problem: Haley doesn’t know who Martin is. And Martin doesn’t know that Haley doesn’t know. But they better figure it out fast before their meet-cute becomes an epic meet-disaster . . .
Goddess In The Stacks 