The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Sunshine Robin McKinley, 2003 Premise: Rae is a baker with a career, a boyfriend, and a community. She knows not to go through the bad part of town alone. The lake near where her grandmother had lived should have been safe. There shouldn't have been vampires anywhere near there. This is one of the best damn vampire books I've ever read. It takes place in a fascinating world that is revealed only slowly and naturally. It's in first person, and there is almost zero info-dumping. Very little is revealed until it comes up directly, including important facts about the world and the characters' history. I loved the language in this book. Slang and conversation casually reflects the presence of everyday magic and myth. The world, as alluded to above, is a complex one. Vampires are the most dangerous paranormal critter, but not the only one. It's unclear how long they've been openly coexisting with humanity, only that there was a major conflict within livi...

I would have liked this book more. Archivist Wasp Nicole Kornher-Stace, 2015 Premise: Every year, Wasp fights to keep the position of Archivist, the chosen one who researches ghosts. She will fall sooner or later, but first she finds a ghost unlike any she has seen before. I feel some guilt about this review. This book was on my list because I'd read strongly positive reviews, but I didn't remember anything about the premise when I started. The beginning grabbed me. We're dropped into the middle of a fight to the death, and only catch glimpses of the culture and world until Wasp wakes later, recovering from her wounds. I also liked the ending. I liked some aspects of the story in between, but I felt as though it didn't earn its implied emotional impacts. It didn't explain enough for me to care when twists came along to upend things. I didn't feel the payoff of the ending as much as I should have because I never fully understood the characters or...

Darth Vader Volume 1: Vader and Volume 2: Shadows and Secrets Kieron Gillen, 2015, 2016 Premise: After the destruction of the first Death Star, Vader has to rebuild his power and influence within a changed Empire. Collects Darth Vader #1-6 and #7-12. This is a lot of fun, but I might advise people to hold out for the whole run. So, I know a lot of people who loved the end Vader scene in Rogue One. Myself, I didn't quite get it. I've been told that it was satisfying to see Vader be a threatening, unstoppable force. I say it felt pandering. (I had already kind of checked out of this movie by that point, to be fair.) I say, if you want to see Vader be Vader, read this comic. What I think is really well done here is the balance between comic-book conventions and cinematic conventions. Vader is a quiet, menacing figure. He doesn't get thought balloons or narration, which keeps him slightly aloof and cryptic. We see full panel images when we need a clue to what m...

Elite (Hunter, Book 2) Mercedes Lackey, 2017 Premise: Sequel to Hunter . Joy is part of the elite squad now, so she's under less public scrutiny but even more private pressure. She doesn't know who else might be behind the attempts on her life, or whether she might be targeted by political enemies of her uncle. Meanwhile, the Othersiders' attacks on the city are increasing... The first book in this series was a lot of fun, and this one followed suit. We learn a little more about the psychic cops and more about how human magic works. We don't learn much more about why Othersiders (aka, beings of myth and legend, apparently from another dimension) are attacking humans, or why Hounds have allied with humans to fight them. The book is simply more concerned with Joy's relationships with the other hunters and her status and life as a hunter than about metaphysics or interdimensional politics. White Knight, her "Christer" friend, plays a big role, as ...

Parable of the Sower Octavia Butler, 1993 Premise: The world outside is getting worse. Their neighborhood is safe for now, but it won't be forever. But who will listen to a young girl with a diary and some profound ideas? Wow. Now I completely understand why I've seen people referencing this book recently. The society in the novel isn't the society we have now, but it's a very plausible future on the way to a total breakdown. Corporate profit above all else, vast poverty, violence, and dangerous drug abuse, no infrastructure that individuals don't pay for, no social safety net for anyone but the wealthy. The main character lives in a walled neighborhood and records her thoughts in a diary. She is a teenager, but she recognizes that the world is not "going back to the way it was," the way the adults in her life hope. They have to figure out how to live in the world that will come. Part of her insight is practical, and part is religious. Th...

A Dragon of a Different Color (Heartstrikers, Book 4) Rachel Aaron, 2017 Premise: Julius finally has some pull in his clan and an alliance with the Three Sisters. Of course, that was before his favorite brother killed his favorite sister, the girl he loved apparently died, and the entire clan of Chinese dragons set forth to conquer the American clan, ostensibly to protect them all from the rage of a powerful lake spirit. Follows No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished After I was somewhat disappointed with Book 3, I'm happy to report that I loved this installment. I think there's only one more book in the series, but this managed to raise the stakes in a way that felt organic, set up for a grand finale, and deal with all the fallout of the last book at a breakneck pace that kept me reading. In case it's at all possible that the premise above wasn't clear enough, this would not be a good jumping-on point. The networks of character relationships are key to this one. W...

Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Non-Violent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World Srdja Popovic, Matthew Miller, 2015 Premise: The principles of nonviolent resistance, illustrated by practical examples of every scale from all over the world. I have been frustrated trying to read books about the current moment in politics. Popular politicians' hottest takes on how we should react to the darkening timeline we seem to find ourselves in leave me cold. But this. This is the book I needed. Maybe it is the book you need as well? It's not about dealing with today specifically. It's about changing the world. It's about overthrowing dictators, resisting oppression, fighting corporate policies, improving societies, and building social movements. It's also incredibly friendly and readable and has Tolkien references. The book lays out the principles that the people from the ...