The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Crossposted on Mainlining Christmas Christmas Holiday William Somerset Maugham, 1939 I had been reading a number of brand new holiday books that feel as though the authors hope they'll be turned into movies, so I felt like switching gears to try a much older book that was actually adapted for film. If you read our review of the movie , you may remember that Erin mentioned that a lot of aspects were changed in the adaptation. The largest is that in the movie, the main female character gets the most emotional development, and her story, told mostly in flashback to the ostensible point-of-view lead, gets the most screen time.  The novel, on the other hand, actually has a main character. Charley Mason is not an American GI with anger issues, but a British dilettante. His wealthy parents have pretensions of being knowledgeable about art, and at one time he wanted to be an artist himself. At the time of the novel, he's been talked out of that, and instead, he has been preparing to ta...

Crossposted from MainliningChristmas.com   Three Holidays and a Wedding Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley, 2023 New Release! A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for the purpose of review.  I joke sometimes about how modern romance novels of a certain type are more movie pitches than books. This one definitely started out that way, but by the end, it was at least a corny movie I think I'd enjoy. I guess the authors know what they're doing there, both have had projects optioned for film or TV according to the bios in the back.  In the first chapter, we meet Anna. Anna is ready for her perfect Christmas with her boyfriend's perfect family, she has to be. Otherwise her perfect boyfriend's perfect family won't be happy if everything doesn't go perfectly.  If you guessed that Anna's boyfriend is like a parody of "the guy who is bad for our heroine," you'd be right. But after a whole scene of me wincing at everything he says, he leaves ah...

Crossposted from MainliningChristmas.com.  The Christmas Swap Talia Samuels, 2023 New Release! A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for the purpose of review.  Margot and Ben are driving to Ben's family home for the holidays. So far, so normal. Except Margot and Ben met through work a week ago and aren't actually dating, but are planning to lie to Ben's family so his parents will stop making him feel bad for being single. The story gets even wackier once Margot starts to actually fall for Ben's sister Ellie. Meanwhile, Ellie can tell something is weird about Margot and Ben's supposed relationship, but she jumps to a lot of downright farcical conclusions.  This new holiday romance was quite good, although not exceptional. The characters do a few very dumb things that cause some painful miscommunications and misunderstandings, and those made me cringe. I've described the premise, and you need to be ready to suspend your disbelief a lot early on to get on ...

Nettle & Bone T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon), 2022 Hugo winner - 2023 Premise: Marra was a mediocre princess and an average nun, why does she think she can rescue her sister from a prince?  Of course I grabbed this from the library as soon as it won the Hugo (this review may be delayed). I was a little unsure when I got it. I knew the author also writes children's books, and I had the impression her other work was more YA. This isn't YA. At all. It's not inappropriate for kids, but it's a fairy tale for grownups, for people still finding themselves in their 30s, for adults struggling in a society set against them.  In short, it's spectacular, absolutely worth picking up if you have any love for fairy-tale-inspired fantasy.  I loved all the characters, I loved Marra's narrative voice, and I loved the magic. I loved how dreamy everything felt while also seeming completely grounded and tangible.  The writing is gorgeous. Lovely, creative descriptions that te...

This Is How You Lose the Time War Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, 2019 Premise: Red and Blue are enemies - agents working for opposite sides of a war spanning throughout a complex timeline. Until one of them reaches out, first as a dare, but soon their correspondence changes into something more.  I understand why this was on so many people's favorites list and won so many awards, but it didn't completely work for me. It was an enjoyable read, but I found it both too long and too short.  It's part-epistolary: each chapter/section includes a mission that Red or Blue is on and how she finds a message from the other, and then the text of the message follows. The complicated, bizarre pasts and futures that Red and Blue contend with are really cool and interesting to read about, and they were probably my favorite part. I liked learning bits about the organizations they work for, although these are kept somewhat vague throughout.  The writing is poetic and emotional and lovely...

A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore Ursula K. LeGuin, 1968, 1971, 1972 Premise: The boy Ged becomes a wizard, becomes a man, then continues to shape the destiny of Earthsea.  I read A Wizard of Earthsea years and years ago but had no real memory of it. I picked up this trilogy cheap at some point, so this post is another in this year's "reading the unread books on the shelf" project.   I deeply respect LeGuin, and I knew these were beloved, but for some reason, I didn't expect the books to be awesome. But of course, they are.  From the start, this is a cool world. A complex area of islands and archipelagos bounded on all sides by the unknowable seas. Steeped in myth and mystery, but still grounded with the everyday details of farming, fishing, sailing.   All three books have cool stories. They are often marketed as YA; the first one in particular is accessible to young readers without pandering to them, and it's not limited to their...

Seams Like Murder (Grace Designs Mysteries) Tilly Wallace, 2023 Premise: Grace is hoping that things are about to turn around for her struggling boutique, but when she's accused of a client's murder, everything gets more complicated.  I picked this up cheap on Kindle on a whim. Every so often I try a new historical cozy mystery in hopes of discovering a new obsession. They are usually underwhelming, and I often don't even bother to review them. This book was good, but it didn't quite scratch that itch for me. It's set in 1920 in New Zealand, and the setting puts me in mind of Phryne Fisher, but Grace is no Phryne (probably for the best). She has a minor supernatural ability which seemed less important than I felt like it should have. She has a complicated and slightly mysterious past having to do with the truth about her deceased husband-who-she-probably-wasn't-married-to that I didn't enjoy; it was teased constantly and then not actually spelled out in this...

The Dragon and the George Gordon R. Dickson, 1976 Premise: A man jumps mentally into a medieval fantasy world in search of his fiancee. I picked up a copy of this off a dollar rack ages ago because I knew it was the (partial) inspiration for the animated movie The Flight of Dragons, a staple of my childhood. This background knowledge meant that I finished the book despite an extremely lackluster opening section. The beginning reminded me, negatively, of Connie Willis' Oxford time travelers books, in that the characters are unlikeable, insufferable academics. Jim and his fiancee Angie are poor, depressed adjuncts scrabbling for enough work and money to buy a home. Jim feels quite hard done by, by his boss, his landlord, and the world in general. He idly wishes that he lived in a time when you could use physical force against those who wronged you, thinking this would somehow be simpler. As a historian, he should really know better. He also has a weird obsession with Angie's abi...

Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book 1 Kevin Hearne, 2011 Premise: A nigh-immortal druid gets into trouble with some gods and other supernaturals in modern-day Arizona. This was another one of the books that had lingered on my shelves for ages. I think we may have won this copy in a raffle or part of some online contest? Something like that. I honestly don't recall. So I finally read it, and it's (drumroll)... fine.  Good, even. Perfectly adequate and enjoyable urban fantasy. Smooth, readable writing, funny characters and scary villains, twisty plot with a strong ending. Very workmanlike and well-done. Had I read it when it came out in 2011, I might have read more in the series. And that's not a slight on the book, that's a look at how different my life is now, with a full-time job and a young child. If book one is enjoyable, but not outstanding, there had better be some compelling reason to pick up another. If I were particularly drawn to the protagonist, or the w...

The Song of the Lioness Series Tamora Pierce, 1983-88 Premise: Four YA books about a young woman who disguises herself as a boy to become a knight. This is awkward, because these books were a staple of many of my contemporaries' childhoods. But not of mine.  I have read, and enjoyed, later books by Tamora Pierce, so I had this series on my shelf, snapped up some time ago at 0.50 cents a book. But I'd never read it. Until now.  These books are not, largely, bad books. They are fine, even good books burdened with bad/painful/awkward/dated parts.  My quick reactions: Alanna: The First Adventure (1983) This is fun. Some of the character introductions are clunky or weird, but it's easy to overlook. The characters are mostly fun, the structure of the story works. The gender-bending is fairly well done, although there's a bit much of "she'll always be a girl" for today's audience. It's fine if she's a girl despite pretending for specific reasons to be...

She Who Became the Sun Shelley Parker-Chan, 2021 Premise: As a child, Zhu was told her fate was nothing, while her brother's fate was greatness. When circumstances give her the chance to change that, she steps onto a path that leads to the future. I read this book to take a break from reading older books that had been on my bookshelf forever; I wanted to sort of recalibrate my brain with something current. And this was a great choice.  This is based loosely on the life of the Hongwu Emperor in the 14th century. We assume that he was not, in historical fact, AFAB, but Zhu is, and she struggles throughout the book with the tension of this secret. Zhu assumes that if anyone discovers that she "stole" her brother's identity, that she will not achieve the greatness she burns for.   And she does burn. (Side note: I waffled briefly between using "she" or "they" for Zhu, as she feels somewhat beyond gender by the end, but the narration uses "she"...

Blindness José Saramago, 1995 Premise: What happens to a small group of people during an unexplained epidemic of blindness. Content warnings, y'all. LOTS of them.  This is part of the "read the books already on the shelf" project, although I didn't pick this book. It was a gift, where "gift" means that if I remember right, an out-of-town visitor finished the book while visiting and didn't feel like bringing it home with them. (Not naming names here, just saying that I didn't choose this book.) I can see why it's an award-winning book, the style is interesting at first, and it feels like it's trying to say something about humanity.  Unfortunately, what it seems to be saying is that people generally suck, but women can somehow both bear horrific treatment and efficiently hold society together, but without actually getting any respect or sympathy.   It started out promising, but by the end, the style was oppressive and annoying to read, the fact...

Nine Princes in Amber (The Chronicles of Amber, Book 1) Roger Zelazny, 1970 Premise: Our main character awakens with no knowledge of who he is or where he's from, but soon he's on his way to challenge his brothers for control of the one true city of Amber. The Amber books have been on my radar for an incredibly long time, and I've had a giant omnibus on my shelf for quite a few years without cracking it open. I finally read the first one, and... I'm not sure how I feel. This book was intriguing, but I have a lot on my to-read list.  I really liked the beginning (despite its cliches) because it introduced us to the world in a surreal way without a ton of exposition. I was fascinated by Corwin's blend of insecurity and surety as he tried to navigate by his instincts in a dangerous situation.  But then he does some magic to get his (incredibly long) memory back, and all his powers, and... it was suddenly much less interesting to me.  The world is potentially very cool...

Tales from Watership Down Richard Adams, 1996 Premise: Stories in the world of Watership Down . Includes additional rabbit myths and legends as well as some continuing adventures. I was sure this wasn't going to be good.  How could it be? The author returns to his most famous book two decades later to write some spin-off material. When is that ever worthwhile? This time it is. To be fair, this book doesn't really stand alone. I think the stories would make little sense to anyone who hasn't read Watership Down . It doesn't have anything with very high stakes or long-term danger. It just gently extends the world a little bit around the edges.  I loved reading this. I found the stories that were probably Adams' attempt to make up for severely sidelining the does in the original book to be a bit obvious, but it was still enjoyable to get some of the female rabbits' own adventures.  This was another book I read because it's been on my bookshelf forever, but this...

Divided Allegiance and Oath of Gold (The Deed of Paksennarion 2 and 3) Elizabeth Moon, 1988, 1989 Premise: Sequels to Sheepfarmer's Daughter . The continuing adventures of mercenary Paks as she decides what kind of warrior she wants to be. Content warnings for torture and more, explained below. I had such mixed feelings about these books. I liked them, sort of? Despite the clunky way the story seemed to wander and skip important bits. Except then you have the climax and point of the third book, which.... nope.  I liked book two, on the whole. The mercenary company Paks is part of begins to be involved with some less-than-savory work, so she breaks off on her own. She has two separate adventures, which both point gently toward her being a destined hero, but from her perspective she's just trying to do right by her family and the communities she passes through. Finally, she ends up enrolling in paladin training and the second half of the book turns into "adventures at pal...

Sisters of the Vast Black Lina Rather, 2019 Premise: A novella about nuns in space. It's really good. I can't remember how this got onto my to-read list, but I'm glad it did. Somewhat in the tradition of many of the early Hugo winners, this novella explores the role of religion in an imagined space-faring future. And, of course, it also mirrors the problems of today. The women who live on the spaceship Our Lady of Impossible Constellations are Roman Catholic nuns, not members of some imaginary future religion. And like nuns throughout history, they don't always agree with the Catholic Church's stance, and don't always obey orders.  Just a few examples with a few minute's Google: The Nuns Who Defied Vatican’s Order to Be Silent: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-aug-05-mn-30832-story.html Vatican crackdown on U.S. nuns a long time brewing: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-vatican-nuns/vatican-crackdown-on-u-s-nuns-a-long-time-brewing-idUSBRE8...

Sisters of the Raven Barbara Hambly, 2002 Premise: The rains have never been this late before. Men's magic is inexplicably fading, but will the women discovering their own powers be allowed to take their place? (FYI: This is part of my current project to read all the books I bought cheap years ago and judge them mercilessly so as to free up bookshelf space.) This book is sort of weird to read now. It's not a bad fantasy yarn with a somewhat Arabian-Nights flavor - djinns and deserts and harems and a very sexist society. The women don't even have real names; it's a whole thing. Take from that what you will. The plot follows a group of women who are some of the first to discover that they have magic, just as the men who have always had magic are losing theirs. It's got a tense and scary plot, often brutally violent, with some surreal and weird turns.  Hambly's penchant for moderate, realistic characters means that this doesn't turn into a rousing girl-power f...

Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home Heather "Anish" Anderson, 2019 Premise: A memoir about losing and finding yourself on the trail. I think parts of this book will be with me for a while. A popular suggestion on lists of "books like Wild" or "memoirs about hiking" or "memoirs from outdoorswomen" (all lists that pique my interest), Thirst follows Heather Anderson (trail name Anish) on her attempt to set a record for hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in the fastest known time.  The story of that hike is beautifully interwoven with scenes from her life that lead up to it and reflections on her experience. At times Anish seems impossibly strong, at others foolish. Average people don't feel driven to run ultramarathons and walk for days on end. Her account feels honest, searching, vital.  She mentions a few times that she was chronicling her journey online in real time at the time, and sometimes I wished for a few more of those in-the-moment snippets. The n...

A Restless Truth (The Last Binding, Book 2) Freya Marske, 2022 Premise: Sequel to A Marvellous Light. Maud is sailing back home to Britain, escorting an elderly relation and her parrot across the ocean. Only she's not really a relation, and she's hoping Mrs. Navenby will help her brother and the small group allied with him to foil those who would find the pieces of the Last Contract and use them to steal power from all of Britain's magicians. Unfortunately, murderers and thieves are also on board the ship, and Maud's only hope of help might be a beautiful stranger. First off, I adored the first book in this series. This one I liked quite a bit, but didn't quite love. Were there more sex scenes in this one? It felt like it. They weren't bad scenes, but I like my adventure romances to be generally weighted slightly more toward the adventure. That's not to say I didn't enjoy Maud and Violet's whirlwind relationship. They are both complex characters with...

City of Bones Martha Wells, 1995 Premise: Khat is just trying to make a living in a city where he is unwelcome when powerful people decide they need his skills judging and discovering ancient relics. Unlike the pricey fragments Khat and his partner usually deal in, could these relics actually hold real power? This is the first book this year in a project called: "Read the unread books that are actually on my physical bookshelf because they were cheap at some point." I haven't bought physical books regularly in years, but I bought a bunch when we first moved to this coast. I recently decided I want to invest in hard copies of things I really love... and I also want to clean any random detritus off the shelves to make room. So, I need to read the books I've never read. I actually started this last year, but I got almost 1/3 of the way through The Prince of Nothing and decided I hated it, so that book went straight in the donate/recycle box. This book will likely end up...

Tooth and Claw Jo Walton, 2003 Premise: A dramedy of manners. But make it dragons. For both good and ill, this book is precisely what it says on the tin. It's an old-fashioned story of inheritance, marriage arrangements, minor gentry and the fates of their children, and a society where things are changing. Only all the people are dragons.  The fact that they are dragons both does and doesn't affect the plot. There might be other reasons that a person wouldn't feel that they could challenge their rich brother-in-law, it doesn't have to be that he might be big enough to eat you if provoked. But in this world it is.  The dark sides of the characters' draconic nature are there to highlight the classism and sexism of old stories in this style. Aristocratic landowners literally have the right to eat sick children, and eating other dragons literally increases their strength and power. How the rich get richer, so to speak.  Meanwhile, female dragons can be forced into a sta...

Well, I did it. I didn't think it would take eleven years when I started, but I read all 71 books that have won the Hugo Award for Best Novel to date . I am not counting and did not seek out the handful of "Retro Hugos" because those were awarded much later and part of the point of this exercise for me was seeing what books were celebrated in their first publication year, not by later audiences looking back.  It's been a long time in my life as well as the world, and so I wonder if any of my experiences of the first few books on the list would be the same now. My tastes and opinions have shifted and (I think) matured, partially through this very experience!  A few of the earliest books I read in their entirety in the gorgeous Rose Reading Room in the NYC Public Library, as they were "rare" copies that couldn't leave the building. The most recent books were read on the Kindle App on my phone, in my home on the West Coast.  It was interesting to watch vari...

A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan #2) Arkady Martine, 2021 Hugo Winner - 2022 Premise: Sequel to A Memory Called Empire. Mahit tries to go home, but there is no turning back the clock on everything she's seen and done. Meanwhile, Teixcalaan goes to war against an unknown (possibly unknowable) threat. I liked this book a lot, but not quite as much as the first one. The first book was almost entirely from Mahit's perspective, while this follows a large number of characters, switching off chapter to chapter. This makes a certain amount of sense given the structure of the climax and the themes around groups and perspective, but I didn't find the story as compelling that way.  I did like following Three Seagrass and getting both her and Mahit's complex perspectives on their relationship (as friends/co-conspirators/coworkers/lovers/??). The other viewpoint characters were each interesting people, but spitting the focus watered down the emotional impact a bit for me.  Mo...

Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries) Martha Wells, 2020 Hugo winner - 2021 Premise: Murderbot's relationships with both humans and AIs are tested in a dangerous new adventure. After four exciting and intriguing novellas, the Murderbot series continues with this full-length novel. It really does feel like a suitable continuation, one which takes all the themes of the shorter pieces and creates something bigger that feels like the right next step without feeling forced or overlong.  It combines all the best of the series so far: touching, subtle, exciting, and laugh-out-loud hilarious. There's more exploration of AI autonomy as well as human moral codes, especially as the people of Preservation who gave Murderbot sanctuary have to deal with people who live in the Corporate Rim.  It's a great example of how effective it can be to come at topics sort of sideways. Murderbot denies having soft emotions, but we see its reactions and can fill in the blanks. Murderbot also never ...

A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine, 2019 Hugo winner - 2020 Premise: The new ambassador from Lsel Station steps off of her transport and into more intrigue and moral conundrums than expected.  When was the last time I read something this fun, this exciting, this thoughtful, this inventive? It's been a while. This is an absolutely stellar sci-fi, complete with great characters, fascinating setting, and deep thoughts about identity (personal and political); in short, a classically great work of science fiction.  I loved all the characters. Mahit is smart, relatable, overwhelmed by the situation, insecure at times, and wrestling with the tension between her principles and her practical position. Just a great main character. The mysteries around the previous ambassador and the internal empire politics kept me guessing in the best way. A lot of the plot tension in the book concerns internal Texicalaan star empire politics and how they affect both the desire for Mahit's home stat...

Into the Riverlands (The Singing Hills Cycle #3) Nghi Vo, 2022 Premise: Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant travel into the riverlands, where the people tell tales while legends walk the roads.  I wasn't sure, at first, whether I liked this third novella as much as the first two in this series. I ended up reading it a second time, and while I still don't love it quite as wholeheartedly, it is a great book. This one is more about how stories are retold and twisted. The other characters Chih travels with either inspired great tales long ago or will inspire them in the future, but the stories that are told are far from reality and overlap in unexpected ways. At the same time, the stories still have value, both in themselves and in what each says about the teller. There's a lot to investigate and unravel here if you have a mind to. There's adventure and horror on the road as well as quiet moments for the characters, each of whom is fascinating.  The world gets more complicate...

The Calculating Stars (The Lady Astronaut, #1) Mary Robinette Kowal, 2018 Hugo winner - 2019 Premise: Elma York is a brilliant mathematician and a skilled pilot. But it's 1958, and the powers that be aren't ready for women to become astronauts until the space race becomes necessary for survival. Oh, how to talk about this book? The beginning is brilliant and the ending is brilliant, but some of the parts in the middle gave me anxiety. That's not necessarily a bad thing; it just made it a bit harder to read. Elma herself has severe anxiety from past traumas after years of trying to exist (attend college, serve in the military, etc.) around men as a smart, strong-willed woman. And I ached for her even as, from my position in the future, I was sometimes frustrated with her too. In this case, that just means she was realistically written. The writing is compelling, the historical research thorough, and the characters wonderful. Elma and her husband (also a rocket scientist) hav...