The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy, Book 3) Kim Stanley Robinson, 1996 Hugo winner - 1997 Premise: Sequel to Red Mars and Green Mars . The people of Mars take the next steps in trying to create a new society while not abandoning the problems of Earth. The survivors from the first settlers learn how different life becomes when you live for hundreds of years. This book was long, and, much like its predecessors, it’s more a collection of connected stories than a novel. The book overall tells the story of the aftermath of the revolution, the creation of the new Martian government, and then the various ways people learn to live on Mars. Because each section follows a different character, you get a variety of perspectives, but that also means that some plot threads or ideas are dropped and never really picked up again. Overall I enjoyed this one because I enjoy Nadia and Ann, and both of them were important characters. Nadia’s section is all about the creation of the new government and...

Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong and What You Really Need to Know Emily Oster, 2013, 2016 Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy Angela Garbes, 2018 So, as you can probably guess, I have a good reason for letting this blog go semi-dark. We’ll see how much content I post going forward, especially once the new little one is due in June. In the meantime, I didn’t mean to completely stop posting, I just fell out of the habit. I’ve (naturally) been reading up on my current state, and here are the two books I liked the most so far. Expecting Better is a great book that risks being dated rather quickly. It’s by a journalist who took it upon herself to understand as much of the current research around getting and being pregnant as she could. Interspersed with anecdotes from her own pregnancy, she provides grounded recommendations. More than that, the book shares rational advice based on the actual science...

Spinning Silver Naomi Novik, 2018 Premise: Miryem's family was nearly starving until she took over her father's moneylending business. Irina may be the daughter of a duke, but she's not pretty enough to be a useful pawn. Wanda is the only person standing between her brothers and their drunken father. All three young women face marriage, and therefore, danger. Magic only complicates matters. This is a sister novel to Uprooted , in that it is a fantasy novel which takes inspiration from fairy tales (most obviously Rumplestiltskin) and emphasizes cultural traditions which are often neglected in commonly British-descended fantasy tropes. In this case, the country takes quite a bit from Eastern Europe, and Miryem and her relations are Jewish and face discrimination and danger because of this. I really liked so much about this book. I loved the three stories and the way they combined. I loved the use and reinterpretation of fairy-tale elements. I loved that tipping po...

An Unkindness of Ghosts Rivers Solomon, 2017 Premise: Aster lives in the bowels of the great ship Matilda. As a dark-skinned lowerdecker, she is constantly in danger from the people of higher classes who run the ship and the society. Then she discovers that an affliction suffered by the leader of the ship may have a connection to her mother's long-ago disappearance. This is a hard book to review for a lot of reasons. What's good about it is great, but what misses the mark for me personally threatens to derail the whole thing. The best part of this book was the worldbuilding, the characters, and the texture of the writing. I feel as though I could recognize any of these characters at a glance. I absorbed the brutality of the violence. I can picture the ship in all its complexity and horror. Most of the major characters are gender-fluid and/or LGBTQ and/or neuroatypical and/or suffering from severe trauma. Their complexity means that while they might not be "fun...

Princeless Books 1-3 (Save Yourself, Get Over Yourself, The Pirate Princess) Jeremy Whitley, et al., 2012, 2014, 2015 Read Harder Challenge 2018 - A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image Premise: Princess Adrienne can’t believe her father hired a dragon and stuck her in a tower. She’s had it with expectations and decides to save her sisters herself. I read the first arc of this book in issues back when it came out, and I had such fond memories of it that I picked up the first three collections. And it’s good, but my recollections were perhaps overly rose-colored. To sum-up: It’s got a great premise, but the execution is a bit rocky. The first issue and the first arc are fun overall, but a lot of the jokes rely on easy pot-shots at fantasy tropes or wordplay that’s only clever the first time. None of this is bad, just... one-dimensional, I guess? The plot meanders far too much. The first book is Adrienne getting out of the tower, heading home only to disco...

In Cold Blood Truman Capote, 1966 Read Harder Challenge 2018 - A book of true crime Premise: The true story of a multiple murder and its aftermath. True crime might be enjoying a recent popularity boost, but Capote’s classic is still one of the pinnacles of the genre. For this challenge, first I tried to read a more recent book, but I gave up under the weight of a well-researched but interminable narrative. This book, on the other hand, is tightly narrated and carefully structured to maintain emotional tension. Some responses to this “nonfiction novel” claim that not every bit of dialogue and nuance of character is truthful, but the research is clear to the reader without ever being overt. The various threads - the lives of the victims, the feelings of those left behind, and the psychology and history of the murderers - are skillfully interwoven to build a story with the kind of fully realized texture that is rare for any type of writing (fiction or non) to achieve. Much...

The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer Neal Stephenson, 1995 Hugo winner - 1996 Premise: In a world where people are bound together only by their philosophies and their nanotech, men try to control the future and girls raise themselves with the help of a special book. This isn't the worst Hugo-winning book I've read. That honor still belongs to Stand on Zanzibar. But this is one that I would not have finished reading if it weren't for this project. The beginning is very promising. Nanotech designer Hackworth is in an interesting position, faced with the puzzle of how to teach children raised in a wealthy coddled society to be innovators and leaders. His solution is The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, a "book" which operates as a highly advanced interactive teacher, using classical fairy tale tropes to encourage learning and independence. One copy of this book, smuggled into existence by Hackworth, intended for his own daugh...