The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Green Mars (Mars Trilogy, Book 2) Kim Stanley Robinson Hugo winner - 1994 Premise: Sequel to Red Mars . Scientists, settlers, and their children fight over the future of Mars. For better and for worse, this was more of the same from the book before. In other words, different sections follow different characters, and together the stories show the next stage of Martian technology and politics. The first two sections introduce two new central characters. The first is Nirgal, the son of some of the original scientists. His section started interesting - being raised in a hidden colony by a group of geniuses will make your childhood trippy - but I got bored with him before the end of his section. The second was Art Randolph, a Terran sent from one of the super-powerful corporations to try to make an alliance with the underground. This story might have been better if I'd cared at all about him. Ugh, this book is hard. Not hard to read, but hard to be compelled by. It ex...

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, Book 1) Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, 2015 Read Harder 2018 Challenge: The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle-grade series Premise: When a remote mining colony is attacked, teenagers Kady and Ezra are among those picked up by a rescue ship. Before they can reach a civilized part of the galaxy, though, they'll have to not only outrun their pursuers but also deal with whatever is causing problems with the warship's AI. I really wanted to like this book. It's so pretty! The gimmick is that the book is a dossier put together after the fact, chronicling an "incident." Said incident involves an attack on a remote mining facility by a rival corporation. The documents follow the specific experiences of Kady and Ezra from their initial interviews after the attack to psychological assessments to their communications with each other and with others onboard their respective ships, and the story is expanded with other perspe...

Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America Edited by Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding, 2017 Read Harder 2018 - an essay anthology Premise: Twenty-three powerful, intersectional perspectives on feminism and women in America today. Last year I tried reading a few books of reactions and essays on the current political situation, and I kept getting bogged down in things I already knew or perspectives I didn't appreciate. This is the book I was waiting for. I don't agree immediately with every point that every author has to say, and some of them contradict each other. On some level, that is the point. This is a book that personalizes a broad cross-section of women's experience, including women of every color and creed. Women who are afraid for their healthcare and women who are afraid for their children. Women who work in global health or reproductive rights. Women who face racism, misogyny, or transphobia personally, or try to...

Jane, Unlimited Kristin Cashore, 2017 Premise: Jane is grieving the loss of her Aunt Magnolia, the woman who raised her. She dropped out of college and doesn't know what to do with her life. Maybe that's why she accepts when an acquaintance invites her to stay at her family's creepy mansion. But eventually she'll have to make a choice. Wow. This was a very unique book, and very well-written, and intriguing. I didn't love all of it, but I did find it extraordinary and striking. I have to talk about the plot in order to explain. The first part of the book is lovely. It's dreamlike. Jane stumbles around the big strange house observing the strange behavior of its various inhabitants. There is clearly something going on. People sneaking around in the dead of night, oblique references and whispers in the walls, none of the family members or friends seem to like each other that much, a dog that won't leave her alone but doesn't like anyone else. ...

H is for Hawk Helen Macdonald, 2014 Read Harder Challenge - A book about nature Premise: A memoir about grief, falconry, English history, and a human connection with the natural world. I was in the mood for something different recently, so I tried out this well-reviewed memoir. It's a fascinating piece, although not (in my opinion) perfect. After her father's sudden death, the author retreated into her lifelong obsession with birds and raised and trained a young goshawk. The book includes not only the story of her relationship with Mabel throughout a year of grieving and perspectives on modern falconry but also a parallel story of T. H. White's book about training a goshawk, and his relationships with both animals and people. The writing is beautiful. I can't say that enough.The descriptions are deliciously tangible and her explanations of her emotions are tremendously vivid. I loved her descriptions and musings on her relationship with her hawk and with...

Doomsday Book Connie Willis, 1992 Hugo Winner -1993 Premise: In the near future, an Oxford academic is sent back in time to study day-to-day life in the middle ages. When illness strikes in both the future and the past, she may never see home again. I really struggled with this book. This might be an example of a book in which I would have been better off reading the description. This is not a book with a great plot or great characters. It's an examination of suffering, hope, and human connection, as well as an awkwardly forced repeated metaphor for God. My problem was that I didn't know that going in, and so I kept looking for the plot. The time travel isn't important. The people in the present/future aren't that important or interesting either. I kept spinning theories about what the big reveal was going to be, and then there wasn't one. The writing is compelling and nuanced, which is why it kept frustrating me that I couldn't figure out wha...

A Natural History of Dragons Marie Brennan, 2013 Premise: Being the first part of the memoirs of Lady Trent, natural philosopher and biologist, notable dragon researcher. This book is obviously up my alley from the premise. It's written in the style of a classic memoir from the 1800s. It's set in a fantasy world; the characters are from an analogue of England (empire, aristocracy, etc.) The main character Isabella is wealthy and high-class, which means that as she grows up, her interest in science and exploration is squelched by a family who wants her to marry well. However, her parents aren't just stereotypes. Instead, her father quietly encourages her to find a husband who would appreciate her intelligence. Her romance with Jacob is complicated and understated. I liked that the author was able to find the balance with Isabella being an extraordinary person with extraordinary drive and dreams without making her unaffected by her upbringing and culture. Event...