Rated If I Survive You 10/10
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Rated One Day 10/10
One Day is an excellent book — one filled with as many funny moments as there are heart-crushing. One of the best books I've read all year.<br><br>(Full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/08/one-day-by-david-nicholls.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>)
Rated Doctor Who: The Forgotten Army 6/10
This is definitely a Doctor Who novel that is more suited for younger readers, since it's a bit more simplistic in both plot and writing style. Tell a kid, "The Doctor is investigating a prehistoric mammoth and tiny soldiers in New York," and I'm guessing they'd be on board immediately. As an adult, I still enjoyed it well-enough. However, Minchin tried a bit TOO hard to play up the contrary parts of Amy's character, along with some of the Doctor's more common turns of phrase, and they didn't quite ring true. So, not essential reading, but not wasted time either.
Rated Letter from the Birmingham Jail 10/10
Wants to read The Coming and Going of Strangers
Rated Memory's Legion: The Complete Expanse Story Collection 10/10
<div>I'd already read some of these stories in their novella form, but it was great to finally get the full collection. The story centering on Amos' origins ("The Churn") and "Strange Dogs" were probably my favorite, but they're all good.</div>
Rated Doctor Who: The Monsters Inside 8/10
Rated Lawnboy 6/10
Is it fair to compare one writer to another? Is the comparison ever quite right? Blurbs for <i>Lawnboy</i> compared Paul Lisicky to [a:Michael Cunningham|1432|Michael Cunningham|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1198584594p2/1432.jpg] (<i>The Hours, A Home at The End of the World</i>, etc.), and the cover even boasted a blurb from Cunningham himself. While certainly flattering, how does Lawnboy compare?<br><br>Non-straight characters? Check.<br>Coming of age/awakening type plot? Check.<br>Complicated romance? Checkity-check-check.<br><br>But couldn’t one say this about plenty of other books? Francesca Lia Block also had these things, but <i>Wheetzie Bat</i> and <i>Lawnboy</i> and <i>The Hours</i> are three entirely different books. Then again, it’s been a little while since I’ve read Cunningham’s work. Still, there is one clear way that Lisicky and Cunningham reminded me of each other: It took me the first third of the book to really get into it. That’s not to say I spent the first third uninterested; I just questioned how much I would enjoy the whole thing. Lawnboy is divided into three parts, and by Part 2, I became much more engaged in how things turned out.<br><br>I enjoyed <i>Lawnboy</i> well enough that I will keep an eye out for Lisicky’s other work. The lingering, awestruck descriptions of physicality, and the unabashed searches for affection were enough to make me want more. It doesn’t matter whether Paul Lisicky writes anything like Michael Cunningham — Let the man stand on his own.<br><br>(Full review can be found at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/07/lawnboy-by-paul-lisicky.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated Doctor Who: A Town Called Fortune 6/10
<div>Love Evelyn, but this story was just ok.</div>
Rated The Boxcar Librarian 7/10
<div>Okay, the research seams REALLY show during the first half of the book, but the research is good, so the "Yes, girl, we can see you searched a bunch of different words for storyteller" are not too distracting. Once the story gets cooking, the "Look at me trying hard to get it right" falls away, and we're more invested in what is happening to these characters specifically. Brianna Labuskes does seem to get a lot right about Montana, despite not being from here, and it's nice to have a story that is about books and workers' rights and not forbidden romance at the ranch. For awhile, I was more invested in Alice and Collette working together, so once we switched back to Millie's point of view, had literally forgotten who she was and needed half a page or so to remember. That's kinda on me, but also, Millie's importance doesn't come to the forefront until the end.<br><br>Also, I expected there to be more queer people? Or maybe I read certain characters that way, like Sidney, and kept waiting for the reveal and... I mean, it's fine! I was just surprised.<br><br>Still, I was invested in how this all shook out. It was a little tidy for my taste, but ymmv.</div>
Rated Doctor Who: Something Inside 8/10
Another "amnesia" story. Man, that whole "regenerating under anesthetic" thing is rough on a Time Lord! The brain worm seems like a precursor to the memory worm used on the show, and it's a little bit funny to hear things like, "It's the brain worm!" and take it seriously, but this is a pretty good story all the same.
Rated Don't Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers 6/10
This was ok. I liked the sections dealing with taking your work and your family seriously, but when she got into tattoos being detrimental to the souls of one's children, she lost me a bit. It's a lovely tribute to her grandmothers, but not all of it is practical advice.<br><br>(My full review can be found on <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/2012/07/06/book-review-dont-sing-at-the-table-by-adriana-trigiani/">Persephone Magazine</a>.)
Rated Emma 10/10
<div>Dare I say that this is my favorite Austen I've listened to this year? I listened to the version available through <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55873397.The_Jane_Austen_Collection_An_Audible_Original_Drama"><strong>The Jane Austen Collection: An Audible Original Drama</strong></a>, narrated by Emma Thompson and other actors doing much of the dialogue, and it's great. I also think this might be one of the books for which I've only seen one adaptation — not the Gwyneth Paltrow one, but the Romola Garai/Jonny Lee Miller BBC miniseries — unless we're also counting Clueless, which I do. (Much like I also count 10 Things I Hate About You as a Taming of The Shrew adaptation, which is probably the best one for that story.)<br><br>But yes, Emma's great. Funny, knowing, and at times, cutting. Not that the other books aren't, but this one is also paired with a little less "What will people think?!" Emma considers herself an expert in most everything until she's reminded otherwise, and it's fun to read that process of her figuring out how to be a better friend.</div>
Rated Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution 8/10
<div>The updated version of this book was published in 2017, and while it ends with a sense of apprehension about what's to come in the first Trump administration, it is heartbreaking to now know how much progress has been undone in the decade since. Still, as Stryker reminds us, the arc of moral justice is long, and there is still much work to be done. <br><br>I knew some of the history talked about here, but I also learned a lot. It does not go much into Native American trans people, but otherwise covers a pretty wide American history. The writing is very straightforward, fair-minded, and readable. If you haven't seen Stryker's documentary, <em>Screaming Queens</em>, about the Compton's Cafeteria riot, I definitely recommend. I also liked the questions for the reader at the end. A lot of leftie book groups could stand to read this history.</div>
Rated Doctor Who: Myths and Legends 6/10
This is a deeply nerdy book that I enjoyed, though I did not love. It fills in some of the blanks as to how certain stories came out, or the in-between times, explaining how the Doctor might be familiar with other planets/aliens based on the Time Lords' history. There are a lot of good callbacks, but if one is not as familiar with Classic Who, this isn't going to be the book for them. I got most references, but I felt like I was maybe missing a few things. The writing is just okay, and the myths/legends themselves are mostly interesting, but this isn't going to be a book for a casual fan.