The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

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...