Bookish Thoughts

Tana French isn't one to shy away from morally messy people. She likes taking complicated people, finding their buttons, and turning up the pressure to see whether they break or rise to the equation. I've liked a few of her protagonists, but most of them leaving me feeling off balance and a bit queasy. So it should be no surprise that Antoinette, narrator of The Tresspasser , is a difficutl character. She's angry and paranoid. The world has been hostile to her, and she responds by being hostile right back. Often proactively. It was hard to be in her head for an entire book. Honestly, her level of anger and defensiveness just exhausts me. She tries so hard to prove that she doesn't care that she ends up spending all of her time caring what people are thinking of her every minute. It's no surprise to the audience to learn that most of her squad doesn't think about her as much as she believes, and I had a particularly hard time believing that O'Neill was in o...

After I announced my pregnancy at my last book club meeting, one of the members insisted that I had to read this book. Getting good information about pregnancy isn't easy. In a lot of cases, this is because it isn't ethical to run the experiments (you can't deny a woman nutrients or insist she drink or smoke while pregnant). A lot of information is anecdotal and a lot of recommendations are conservative, because most people agree that it's better to be safe than sorry. But this wasn't good enough for Emily Oster (or, honestly, most women). She wanted to understand where the recommendations were coming from, gather as much information as she could, and make informed decisions for herself. Oster is aware that, given the same information, different women will make different decisions. Her goal with the book is to present as much information as she can, so her audience can make their own decisions. That said, every now and then it felt like she was pushing her own age...

This year tor.com has started releasing bundles of short fiction, free to download if you sign up for their newsletter. All the stories in the collection were eventually published on their website, but it was nice to get them bundled together and have access a few days before everyone else. Even if I didn't actually finish the collection until after they were all released. It's nice to be able to download these to my work computer and read a story over the course of a day (my work is such that I often have 15-20 minute chunks of time waiting for data to load or simulations to run, and it's a good time to get some reading in). Some of the stories were better than others, and most were excellent. They all used fantasy elements to tackle common relationships in new ways. A chef is trying to recreate his mother's signature recipe after her death, and it takes an encounter with his abusive sister to help him let go of the past. A man is dealing with the imminent death of h...

The second Shades of Magic book starts off a lot slower than the first one did. It takes it's sweet time getting to the action, choosing instead to spend time with Kell and Lila. They haven't seen each other since the events of the previous book, four months earlier, and they're doing their best not to think of each other. Lila has found a place aboard a pirate ship as thief and is starting to learn more about magic. Kell is trying to win back the trust of the king and queen. This book also spends a lot more time with Rhy, which was a nice surprise. It was fun to get inside his head and get to know him better. And also to get his perspective on Kell. The centerpiece of the book is competition for magicians, which helps keep the peace between the three main empires. It's a lot of fun and seems relatively low stakes, even with Kell and Lila both sneaking their way into the competition. It's a spectacle and a fun way to flesh out the world, while also bringing Kell...

I think some of the shine is wearing off this series. It might just be that it's so spread out. I go so long between volumes that I can barely remember who some of the characters are. That doesn't make it particularly easy to sympathize with them. But also, all this tragedy is getting a bit boring. Sure, they do a decent job of balancing it with hope and alternating happy endings with sad ones. And sure, the series is ultimately about war. But three characters died in this installment, and I barely felt anything. Maybe it would help if I actually went back and read the whole thing from the beginning, like I've been meaning to for a while now. I'm sure some of these hits would land harder if I could remember why I should care. Then again, the comic is now taking an extended hiatus, so who knows when the next volume will be released. By then I'll probably have forgotten it all again. At this point I think I'll wait until the series ends before investing any mo...

It won't be long before I've read everything Sarah MacLean has ever written. All but two of her books are sitting on my shelf waiting for me to get around to them. I've read enough of them now that I'm starting to recognize characters across the different books, which only makes me want to read more. I need to hear the stories of all these amazing women and how they found the loves of their lives. MacLean's second book focuses on Isabel, the destitute daughter of a deceased Earl who's trying her best to keep the estate running until her younger brother comes of age and can take a stab at a fresh start. She's proud and self-sufficient and definitely doesn't need to be rescued. (Except maybe financially.) When she crosses paths with Lord Nicholas, who has recently been named a "Lord to Land" in a popular magazine and is fleeing London until his infamy passes, sparks fly almost immediately. Isabel is an absolute delight, and I loved everything...

My main thought upon finishing this book was that I need to read it again. Which is what happens nearly every time I finish a Cat Valente novel and is the main reason I love her as much as I do. Unlike Radiance  and Palimpsest , the plot of this novel is obvious pretty early on. Aliens have become aware of the existence of humanity, and they're giving us a chance to prove our sentience and join the intergalactic community. There's a musical contest, based heavily on Eurovision (the book was initially conceived as "Eurovision in space"), and all we humans have to do is not come in last. They've gone through our musical archives and put together a list of possible contestants. Most of whom have died. The only one left standing is Decibel Jones, who was an international sensation before one member of his band died, resulting in an estrangement between him and the remaining band member. He's spent the last twenty years trying to recapture the glory of his yout...