Books
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Book Review: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Marketing material for Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow describes it as YA Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid’s Tale. The author’s website has a “Bonus Summary for Weebs” that pulls on even more pop culture references to describe the book. And while you may need these comparisons to sell the book, and I have no doubt the author was influenced by all the media she referenced, Iron Widow stands on its own as a great coming of age story where the hero is a girl you can both love and hate. However, to go continue with comparisons for one brief moment, it ranks right up there with Naomi Novik’s Uprooted…
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Book Review: The Dying Sun by LJ Stanton
Last summer, I attended Narrativity, a convention (vaxxed, masked, socially distanced) for storytelling. While there, I became friends with LJ Stanton. Because of that friendship, I purchased a copy of her first book, The Dying Sun, when I got home. I finally got around to reading it in January. If I had not met LJ, there is a good chance I never would have picked up this book, mostly because I would never have heard of it. But the book, a fantasy set in a desert empire, is totally up my alley, so I was excited to read it. My favorite thing about the book were the characters. They all…
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100 Word Book Review – Some things I still can’t tell you by Misha Collins
The point of poetry is to speak directly to another’s heart, and that can be done regardless of whether or not the poems are technically good. I say this because I do not think that Collins is a technically good poet, but his poems did speak to me. Each one was a small piece of everyday life. There was no big philosophy, the things he still can’t tell are not the secrets to love or what happened after we die, but instead mundane pieces of his life he is not quite ready to share and perfect in their own way.
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100 Word Book Review – Stacked by Joe Saul-Sehy and Emily Guy Birken
Stacked bills itself as a Super Serious Guide to Modern Money Management, which should let you know that this is not a book that takes itself seriously. Or, I should say, it takes its subject matter seriously but understands we all learn better when we are having fun. I am not a beginner when it comes to personal finance, but the information in the opening chapters was still useful. I love the idea of the pages to print out and hang on the fridge to track progress. I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed Joe and Emily’s personalities shining through.
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Narrativity Take 2 – a review
It has been 10 months since I last posted here. The question of “do I even blog anymore?” is a legitimate one. (And one I hope I can answer with a yes, going forward.) What can bring me back to the blog after 10 months away? Why, Narrativity, of course. I recommend you go read my review of the first Narrativity, because pretty much everything I had to say then is still true. Narrativity is a conference about storytelling. Much of the focus is on novels and short stories, but the goal is to bring in all forms of storytelling – theater, television/movies, video games, art, dance, music, etc. Story…
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Book Reaction: So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
The thing is, I do not want to talk about race. I want to talk about culture and heritage. I want to learn about the people around me. I want to connect over little things like strict mothers and escaping into books and being obsessed with horses. I want to learn about different traditions and celebrations. I want my country, its people and institutions, to recognize the harm that was done to black people by slavery, to Native people by land grabs, to Japanese people in internment camps. I want us to admit this. I want us to own this, to teach it to our children in all its awfulness…
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100 Word Book Review – The Abacus and the Cross by Nancy Marie Brown
Pope Sylvester II is my favorite Pope. (I am not Catholic.) My favorite book about Gerbert of Aurillac is Ars Magica by Judith Tarr, but it is a fantasy novel. The Abacus and the Cross is a non-fiction book that looks just as closely at the world around Gerbert as it does his life. It uses primary sources, including Gerber’s own letters, as much as possible. I found it incredibly relaxing to learn about making books in the 10th century or about Gerbert’s abacus. If you have any interest in the history of science, this is a book for you.
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Book Review: Agency by William Gibson
Dear Mr. Gibson,I love your work. I have been a huge fan ever since someone first handed me a copy of Neuromancer. I even own No Maps for These Territories. And I get that you have always been writing near future, though perhaps with Neuromancer and Johnny Mnemonic we did not realize exactly how near. But now, like Bigend at the end of Zero History, with The Peripheral and especially Agency, we are looking just moments into the future. And I have to tell you, you are killing me. Killing me. When can we expect the next book? And now onto standard book review format. Agency is William Gibson’s latest…
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Rejected Book Reivew: The Last Queen of Scotland by Ray Barron-Woolford
I read The Last Queen of Scotland by Ray Barron-Woolford in order to do a review for the Online Book Club. The author, I think, was unhappy with how long he had to wait for a reviewer to choose to read it (it had been sitting for at least a month when I claimed it), that he was paying for the review (that is a choice, many authors submit their books for review where the only thing reviewers get is a free copy of the book), and that he did not get to read my entire review before determining whether or not to approve the payment. One thing the Online…
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Month of Books – Day 30
