Bookish Thoughts

Like most of the nation, I heard Amanda Gorman read this poem at Biden's inauguration. I was inspired and moved hopeful for the future. When I saw this book at the used book store, I had to grab it. It's a quick read, but it remains an inspiring and healing one. And I'm glad to have it on my shelf so I can revisit it whenever I feel the need.

I grew up watching Buffy. It premiered when I was in fifth grade. I didn't watch right from the beginning, but I did catch up with reruns that summer so that beginning with season 2, I was a devoted watcher. Every week I tuned in, and the next day at school I'd dissect the episode with my friends. It was there for me through middle school and high school, and it's been there for me ever since, whenever I needed it. I can't tell you how many times I've rewatched the series in it's entirety, or my favorite episodes in particular. I can quote nearly all of it, have come up with head canons to fill in all the plot holes, can determine which season a still is from based on Buffy's hair style, and will still happily spend hours dissecting the minutiae with anyone willing. I learned a lot from Buffy. One of the most important things Buffy taught me is that the world is not simply divided into black and white, good and evil. As the series progresses, Buffy learns th...

Here's the thing. When I was reading Radiance or The Curse of Chalion earlier this month, all I wanted to do was read. I was neglecting other areas of my life so that I could read just one more page. And while I enjoyed Fleishman is in Trouble, I didn't feel that same urgency with it. I wasn't compelled to keep on reading at the expense of the rest of my life. It was enjoyable, but if I wasn't reading this for book club I probably would have abandoned it pretty quickly. Ultimately, I'm glad I stuck with it. Once I got to the last section of the book, where Fleishman's wife finally gets to tell her side of the story, I did become engrossed and ended up staying up way too late to finish the book. But it was a bit of slog to get there. This book tells the story of a divorce, mostly from Toby Fleishman's point of view. He and his ex-wife share custody, but then one day she leaves the kids at his house and disappears. It sets Toby up as the sympathetic party, as ...

 Now this is what I want from a Sanderson story. An interesting and sympathetic protagonist, a bit of a mystery and a problem to solve, a fascinating magical system with new applications around every corner, and hints of a much larger world around the edges of this self-contained story.  Sanderson has taken to writing these novellas between the much larger Stormlight novels, and it's a great way to dip back into the world and get reacquainted with it before committing to one of the massive tomes in the series proper. These stories follow side characters and side quests, making the world feel even more fleshed out and immense. This one in particular follows Rysn, first introduced as a minor character in The Way of Kings as she leads a mission to explore a forgotten island. Rock's daughter, Cord, and Bridge Four alum, Lopen, are included in the mission, and each has their own secondary goal that complicates things. But this isn't about people at odds with each other. It'...