The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon - and the Journey of a Generation Sheila Weller, 2008 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read a biography (not memoir or autobiography) Premise: This joint biography of three iconic female singer-songwriters tells the story of being a woman in the music industry during the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Unlike most biographies I’ve read, I went into this one with very little prior knowledge of any of the subjects. Music history, particularly popular music, has never been a strong suit of mine. Erin sometimes despairs at my feeble guesses as to which rock group plays such-and-such a song. If it isn’t classical, showtunes or from a small group of celtic/folk artists, I probably have no clue about the people behind a piece of music, even if I recognize the song. The positive of this approach was that the book was potentially full of surprises. I knew all three women had been successful, I recognized their names...

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide Nicholas D. Kristof, and Sheryl WuDunn, 2009 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read a book about politics, in your country or another, fiction or nonfiction Premise: Two New York Times journalists lay out the arguments why people should care about oppression of women worldwide and what people can do about it. I wanted very much to enjoy this book, but while I think it is well written and deals with important subjects, it left me rather cold. This book hasn’t been out for ten years yet and yet it feels dated. The biggest reason is that this is from before the largest spread of mobile and social media that has drastically changed communication and social movements across the globe. There’s a tossed off line near the end that implies that their case for girls’ education being a paramount solution (built throughout the book) may be a good tactic, but the spread of television may be ...

Ender’s Game Orson Scott Card, 1985 Hugo Winner - 1986 Premise: Years after a catastrophic attack, the world military tests and trains children in an attempt to find and mold a mind smart, fast, and flexible enough to lead the fleet against a galactic force of creatures that think nothing like humans. You know this book, it’s the one where they teach kids to fight wars with video games unironically. Let’s deal with the elephant in the room first. Orson Scott Card is an asshat who has said a lot of despicable things and supported heinous organizations . I have heard nothing but terrible things about his recent work, and I wouldn’t pay money for anything with his name attached unless he were to publicly change his tune drastically. I was dragging my heels to read this book, ending up borrowing it from the library. But I read Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide years ago, and I remembered them as not awful. So I tried to give the book a fair shake, and foun...

Lumberjanes: Volume Two: Friendship to the Max Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen, 2015 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read a non-superhero comic that debuted in the last three years Premise: Follows Beware the Kitten Holy . Collects Lumberjanes #5-8. Counselor Jen and the girls of the Roanoke cabin are still trying to figure out why supernatural things keep happening around them. But Jo is hiding the artifact she found, and another camper is taking an interest in them… Dinosaurs! Mythical Beings in Disguise! Capture the Flag! It’s all just part of the camp experience. This volume completes the initial plot arc, and while I can’t say that I expected the directions that the plot went in, I still very much enjoyed it. The writing and art tighten a little for these issues, and the great blend of humor, pathos, and action from the first volume continues. I laughed out loud fairly often. Really, it’s all about teamwork and friendship. Jo a...

Silver on the Road Laura Anne Gilman, 2015 Premise: Isobel has grown up in the Territory, working in the saloon in the town of Flood. In the Devil’s West, life is what you make of it, if you choose to make a Bargain. Fantasy Western? YAY! I picked up this book out of curiosity, because fantasy western is a subgenre that I enjoy, but don’t see that often. And I loved it. I have pre-ordered the sequel. I love the setting. In this world, everything from the Mississippi to the Spanish colonies is the Territory. The Native nations co-exist with small settlements from outside, all governed by the Agreement: give no offense without cause, and the Devil protects his own. Magicians and marshals both ride the roads, and crossroads are places of power and danger. Who is the man who runs the Territory? It’s unclear, but Isobel has grown up in his saloon, under his teachings, and as she comes of age she is given the choice what to make of her life. Her choice sends her out to ride...

Saint Peter’s Fair/The Leper of St. Giles (Brother Cadfael, Books Four and Five) Ellis Peters, 1981 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read a book of historical fiction set before 1900. Premise: (Follows, although requires no knowledge of, Monk’s Hood . ) The annual fair has returned, after being disturbed by civil war the year before. A clash between the abbey and the merchants of the town raises tension, but are the resulting deaths due to commerce or more secret agendas? Then, an expensive wedding is to be held at the abbey, but the match seems poor. That would be all there is to it, if there were not also secret loves, hidden identities, and a mysterious wanderer at the St. Giles asylum. These are both solid entries in an enjoyable series. St. Peter’s Fair , like One Corpse Too Many , deals significantly with the civil war in England at the time. According to Wikipedia, this war is sometimes called ‘The Anarchy.’ In short, it revolved around who shou...

Neuromancer William Gibson, 1984 Hugo Winner - 1985 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read a book originally published in the decade you were born Premise: Case used to be a hacker, until a job gone wrong caused an angry client to damage his nervous system, making it impossible for him to interface with cyberspace. He’s picked up by a new patron, though, who wants his particular skill-set, and drawn into a mission beyond earth and beyond humanity. The first line of Neuromancer is extremely evocative, and I’ve heard it cited as such many times. But, it now occurs to me: Disregard the issues of which technologies in this book have come to pass, which are functionally similar and technically different, and which are still strictly fiction. Instead, consider what color “a television tuned to a dead channel” is, how that has changed and is still changing, and how long that phrase will have meaning. This is another one of those books that is more import...