mesozoic

• Interim Errantry 2: On Ordeal by Diane Duane
• Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
• Surrealia by Miguel O Mitchell
• A Pirate's Life for Tea by Rebecca Thorne
• Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake
• Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail by Ashley Herring Blake
• The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis
• Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws by Kate Bornstein
• Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
• The Swifts by Beth Lincoln
• The Song of the Lioness: Book 1: Alanna: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Tamora Pierce with Sam Beck and Vita Ayla
• Iris Kelly Doesn't Date by Ashley Herring Blake
• Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle
• Tea You At the Altar by Rebecca Thorne
• Alchemy and a Cup of Tea by Rebecca Thorne
• Stealing the Elf-King's Roses by Diane Duane
• The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch
• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
• Husband Material by Alexis Hall
• Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection by Deepa Iyer
• The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold
• Sirronde's World: The Span/Parting Gifts by Diane Duane
• Uchenna's Apples by Diane Duane

• Redshirts by John Scalzi
• When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
• The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune

Recent reads include “A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking” by T. Kingfisher, “The House in the Cerulean Sea” by TJ Klune, “Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding” by Maia Kobabe and Sarah Peitzmeier, “Chivalry” (graphic novel) by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran, and “In Universes” by Emet North.

“A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking” was a good introduction to the T. Kingfisher books. I have read that Ursula Vernon uses this pen name for books that are darker or messier, harder to publish for the young adult market. There were a few gross things and good people die in this book, but it still felt like a coherent story with compelling characters. I like the message that magic isn’t about genre or raw power, it’s about the creativity and moral compass of the person wielding it. I also like when the characters acknowledged that sometimes authority can’t be trusted and sometimes even good authority figures let us down. 

“The House in the Cerulean Sea” was as good as everyone told me it would be. I hadn’t liked the first TJ Klune book I read, so I was reluctant, but I’m a fan now. It reminded me of the movie “Joe Vs. the Volcano” except with more ethics and magical creatures. 

“Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding” is a graphic novel-style long pamphlet with personal stories and reliable information about using garments or similar exterior interventions for reshaping chest tissue for a flatter (some would say more neutral or more masculine) silhouette. There are personal stories from amalgamated interviews, safety tips, and information from a survey. Most of the information wasn’t new to me. I appreciated the diverse stories that helped validate the different identities and reasons among people who bind.

”Chivalry” wasn’t at the top of my to-read list, but they had it at the library the other day so I checked it out. Colleen Doran’s illustrations are very sweet. They switch back and forth between a narrative style and a more manuscript style for legends and dreams. I want to read it again before I return it.

”In Universes” was a Balticon purchase after hearing the author on a panel. It is a series of vignettes of characters, one in particular, and how their lives would be different with a nudge in the timeline here or another nudge there. Later in the book, the timelines are more speculative or absurd, and I think these are the best chapters. There are true things about trauma and grief that come through. I think the author intended some kind of structure or theme to make the book hang together, but it didn’t cohere for me. Maybe the ending was supposed to provide some resolution, but it didn’t feel authentic or earned. The main character could not let go of the wish for a different past, and even though I wanted some character growth from that, my feelings about the main character’s limited capacity to learn or to change were informative. 

I’m trying to balance personal reading with professional development reading and I have an ambitious agenda for both, so stay tuned.

"Legends and Lattes" and its prequel, "Bookshops and Bonedust" by Travis Baldree. "Legends and Lattes" is like a warm hug. There is enough plot to be interesting, but not in a stressful way. It's like the author created his very own coffee shop alternate universe. There is mystery, there is political problem-solving, there is a slow-burning romance (not really any sex, though), there are the friends the characters make along the way.

"Bookshops and Bonedust" has slightly more peril, but since it's a prequel, the stress was manageable. Again with mystery and characters I care about and romance that adds a dimension but not explicitness. There was a part in the middle where it stalled a little bit for me, but I'm very glad I pushed through to the exciting conclusion.

Books aren't binary, so I wouldn't say that the other book I just read is the opposite of the first two, but it was super duper different.

"Camp Damascus" by Chuck Tingle is a horror novel that combines the real-life horror of Christian conversion "therapy" camps (the kind that is supposed to make kids stop being gay) with transdimensional slasher horror. It has a solid plot, it's cathartic, and I was frightened for what the characters were facing. I don't usually read horror novels or watch horror films. The violence In "Dread Nation" and "Deathless Divide" helped me to see that I could tolerate some gore, so I decided to give this one a try, and I'm glad I did. There is social commentary, but the plot and characters come first. I thought it was well done.

I think I forgot to post here about "Deathless Divide." One of the reviewers on GoodReads compared "Dread Nation" to a blockbuster theater release and "Deathless Divide" to a gritty Netflix reboot. That's about the size of it. I think the second book had to be told in a completely different way, and Justina Ireland did a good job of telling a very different story in its own way.

I also listened to a book I have read before, "Imprudence" by Gail Carriger, the second book in the Custard Protocol series. I needed something pleasant for my drive to New Jersey, and the library had this audiobook available. There was a lot more sex in it than I remembered from reading it before. Not as much sex as in the "San Andreas Shifters" series. But if you want tame Gail Carriger, stick to the Finishing School series. The peril in this story ties it together and keeps it moving.

Did I tell you about "Beetle and Hollowbones," the graphic novel by Aliza Layne? That was super cute. I really liked the plot, and the art was fun.

Oh! And I finished "Games Wizards Play," which is the actual conclusion of the main series in the Young Wizards books by Diane Duane. It resolves all of the things that were left hanging in "A Wizard of Mars." The series feels complete now, though I'm sad about that. But it wouldn't have been a Young Adult series anymore following the same characters, so it's a good place to wrap up. And, as I said before, there are short stories in the universe, some of them focusing on cats who are wizards.

 

I listened to all four books in Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series. This was at least my second encounter with the series, though it’s been awhile and I had forgotten a lot of the details. 

The books are “Etiquette and Espionage,” “Curtsies and Conspiracies,” “Waistcoats and Weaponry,” and “Manners and Mutiny.” They are about a girls’ finishing school in an alternate, steampunk, vampire/werewolf version of Victorian England. The school is secretly training the young ladies to be assassins and spies as well as the more typical finishing curriculum of comportment, dancing, and etiquette.

I like the world building, the constant action, and the ties to other books by the author. The author made some sensitivity mistakes, which she acknowledges, and I I can mainly live with them given what she has said about it.

The Finishing School series is aimed at Young Adults. She has romance novellas about three of the grown up students that are aimed at adults, and a gay romance series set in this universe 150 years later that is REALLY adult focused. Then there are the original Parasol Protectorate, set about twenty years after the Finishing School, and the Custard Protocol, set another 20 years after that. Those are adult-focused but fairly tame. Then she decided to create a new universe in the spacefaring genre, and that’s another post. Point being there is plenty of Gail Carriger writing to go around.

The final book in the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers, “The Galaxy, and the Ground Within” is about strangers (none human) who get to know each other during a travel delay. It’s also about colonialism and longing and taking the risk to be known. 

One of the characters appears in earlier books, but the books are loosely tied together and you could probably read them out of order without a problem.

Becky Chambers had to create multiple worlds for this book, one for each character. I cared about all of them.