book

Rated Barnyard Battle 7/10

<div>Read this (possibly a reread?) for a "Childhood Fav" category in a reading challenge I've been doing this year. I read every Sweet Valley book I could get my hands on in elementary school, and these characters still felt quite familiar 30+ years later. Lila sucks as a friend! The boys have early 90s misogynistic ideas! Jessica is a bit of a brat! I had also completely forgotten they have an older brother.<br><br>Read it all in about 90 minutes. Not a terrible way to spend an evening.&nbsp;</div>

Rated Clay's Ark 8/10

<div>This was a strange, but interesting one. I'm unsure yet how it fits in with the previous two books in this series, but we'll see with the last book. All the content warnings though, whew.</div>

Rated Dalek Empire I: Chapter Four - Project Infinity 8/10

In the end, this series ended up being pretty enjoyable. Not one of my favorite Doctor Who universe[s] stories, but worth listening to via Spotify.

Rated BASQUIAT, A QUICK KILLING IN ART, BY PHOEBE HOBAN 6/10

While I enjoyed some of the art gossip and New York history, this book too often describes Basquiat as an exotic, wild 'other.' Some quotes about him are straight up racist, and the book does little to analyze that. <br><br>Overall, just ok.

Rated Bernice Summerfield: Many Happy Returns 8/10

Wants to read Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book

Rated C.O.W.L. Volume 1: Principles of Power by Higgins, Kyle, Siegel, Alec (2014) Paperback 8/10

Wants to read Big Mushy Happy Lump

Wants to read Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories by Edith Pearlman

Rated Bloody January 8/10

<div>A really solid, suspenseful mystery, but WHEW is it GRIM.</div>

Rated Broken Ground 7/10

<div>This one's not quite as good as some of the others, but it was fine. The research seams show too much, and I wasn't as invested in the case.</div>

Rated Come Away 8/10

Good, with lots of wonderfully written passages, though some bits felt incomplete in a way I haven't yet been able to put my finger on. Review forthcoming.

Rated Doctor Who: Short Trips Rarities: An Eighth Doctor Collection 8/10

<div>Solid little collection. The narration is good.</div>

Wants to read Birds of Paradise

Rated Bruja 10/10

How appropriate to finish this book on Halloween (and also its official release date).<br><br>This book easily disproves the commonly heard refrain that hearing about other people's dreams is boring. BRUJA is certainly not boring, and is instead a surreal trip through art, anxiety, motherhood, California, and more. I loved it.<br><br>Particularly amusing to me were dreams involving cats... My cat dreams are usually hella weird.<br><br>Fuller review to come (she says with optimism because I've been slow about review writing this year).

Finished reading Daleks: Mission to the Unknown

Wants to read Blood Crime

Rated By Nightfall 8/10

<i>By Nightfall</i> poses questions about success, how we define love and beauty, and what our basest instincts say about us when we are in peril. Michael Cunningham is an exceedingly good writer, more than deserving of the accolades he’s received over the years. I love any book that makes me identify and sympathize with a character through his/her bad decisions and confusion, since when we are truly honest with ourselves, we know we are capable of the very same things.<br><br>(Full review appears on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2011/02/by-nightfall-by-michael-cunningham.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)

Wants to read Citizen

Wants to read Born Survivors

Rated Companion to an Untold Story 8/10

Not every writer would be able to pull off a book like this, and I don't know how much attention Aldrich has received for her effort — apart from winning the AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction — but I suspect that it isn't what it deserves. Yet, <i>Companion to an Untold Story</i> is not a project that set out wishing for accolades. (Let's be honest, writers, we won't turn down praising-recognition of our work.) Though I can only infer her intentions, it seems to me that Aldrich wanted this book to be the best way she could memorialize her friend, and in that, find some acceptance. That others may identify and find value in it, I imagine, is but a wonderful gift.<br><br>(My full review can be found at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2012/12/companion-to-untold-story-by-marcia.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)

Reviewed Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery

<a href="https://smus.com/books/asimovs-chronology-of-science-and-discovery">Full review on smus.com</a>

Rated Radio On: A Listener's Diary 4/10

Rated Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism 10/10

Wants to read Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay Original Edition by Proulx, Annie, McMurtry, Larry, Ossana, Diana