Rated The Best Small Fictions 2015 8/10
review forthcoming
book
Rated The City We Became 10/10
This book was so interesting and inventive, with so many great details. I love how we're plonked right down into the bewilderment of the characters, figuring it out while they do. (This is the sort of book Neil Gaiman wishes he could write, but would be unlikely to do a good job.)
Rated The Calculating Stars 4/10
<div>I just did not vibe with this one, though the beginning of the book made me hopeful that this would be an enjoyable exploration of an alternate history space program. In this version of Earth, a meteorite has wiped out much of the east coast in 1952, and Elma, our protagonist, is the one who notices that this will be a slow-moving extinction level event, and since her husband is an engineer in the fledgling space program, she gets an audience with the people who can do something about it. I mean, sure we could also hear about how everyone is getting their food after a long winter and other apocalyptic considerations, but aside from briefly mentioning it in the beginning, she is barely troubled by it.<br><br>Her husband is always perfect to her, always supportive, represses his anger with others through grimaces and tight fists. We hear a lot about it when someone is mean to his wife. Because 1950s misogyny still abounds, but nary a thought like that passes through sweet lil Nathaniel's head. Barf. And I am of course not against sex scenes in books, but these are SO cheesy. PLEASE I do not want to hear rising rocket puns every time you two get a moment alone.<br><br>Everything else is hamfisted 2010s white feminist #Representation. Of course she's friends with a diverse group of pilots who all get such personalities and depths as .... being pilots. From other countries. They pepper in, ah, how you say, phrases from their native language. The French lady's last name is Lebourgeois. The most misogynist astronaut is named, I shit you not, STETSON PARKER. (Apparently we have Brandon Sanderson to blame for that character, according to her acknowledgements, and believe me, I will blame.) Elsa and Nathaniel are Jewish, but their last name is York, for some reason.<br><br>And just when you think, hey maybe we'll hear about some interesting space stuff, a real alternate history besides the stuff in the beginning... No! Not really! We're mostly going to hear about Elsa's struggles with ~aNxIEtY~ because poor genius mathematician and WASP pilot barfs if too many people look at her, see. Reporters are scary and therefore we must spend the majority of the book hearing about her stomach issues anytime someone mentions them.<br><br>And if you know enough about space to know why people need to be quarantined beforehand, then why are you having non-quarantined people interact with astronauts if their mission was only temporarily delayed??<br><br>Just so much bugged me, and I am baffled that it won so many awards in 2018. I will not be reading the next one in the series. Next season of For All Mankind can't come soon enough.</div>
Rated Doctor Who: The Dalek Generation 10/10
I loved this, and what a treat to have new Ninth Doctor content again. The tone of these stories is very much in line with his televised stories, even with them occurring pre-Rose.
Rated The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents 8/10
<div>My First Pratchett, believe it or not. My library happened to have the audiobook available and it seemed like a standalone enough story that I could jump into Discworld without too much trouble. This take on the Pied Piper tale is funny, smart, and full of great character names.</div>
Rated The Art Forger 8/10
I picked up this novel on a whim from the new books section at the library, and it was a lovely surprise. Using the real life art heist from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990, B.A. Shapiro has created a fictionalized story about a disgraced painter, Claire, who has been asked by a famous gallery owner to copy a Degás — the same Degás stolen from the museum. However, the more time Claire spends with this ill-begotten painting, the more she suspects that it may also be a forgery.<br><br>Because I’m a sucker for heist stories and because I’m quite interested in visual art, I enjoyed unraveling the mystery of what had really happened during the time of the theft and in the 19th century when the painting was originally created. There’s a whole side-plot about why Claire has a poor reputation in the art world that is also quite interesting, and though I could work out some of the twists on my own, the complete ending still held plenty of surprises.<br><br>(This review originally appeared in <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/2013/08/22/5-book-recommendations-for-your-reading-pleasure/">Persephone Magazine</a>.)
Rated The Collective 4/10
I suppose the argument could be made that <i>The Collective</i> is a story about how we can never completely know another person, and that even our closest friends are capable of surprising us. I just wanted to hear about it from someone else. If we could see the inner workings of Joshua, rather than speculate, and juxtapose those thoughts with his outward behavior, I might have enjoyed the novel more.<br><br>I understand that creative people are often not the most stable — myself being one of them — and while I sympathized with these characters' causes, I just couldn't quite connect with them. I'm certainly not sorry I read it, but especially now going back through it, I wish the story could have been framed in a more effective way. Like Eric, it has potential, but I wanted better.<br><br>(My full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-collective-by-don-lee.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Wants to read The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait
Rated The Beautiful Anthology 8/10
Most everything in the book is quite good. It's wonderful, thought-provoking, and worth passing along to anyone else who might be grappling with their own definition of "beautiful."<br><br>(My full review appears on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-beautiful-anthology-edited-by.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated The Burning House: What Would You Take? 6/10
Overall, this is interesting and thought-provoking, but perhaps a bit heavy on the Apple-fetishists and vintage camera wankery.<br><br>My full review appears on <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/2012/10/11/book-review-the-burning-house-edited-by-foster-huntington/">Persephone Magazine</a>.
Rated The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis: 8 Book Box Set 8/10
My 10 yr old son and I read all of this together, and it had been since I was probably his age that I had read any of the Narnia books (and even then, I don't think I had read them all). They're great adventures, though I am not in it for the Christian subtext (and definitely not for the racism against the Calormenes). It's hard to pick a favorite story, but it's between The Horse and His Boy (the horses are quite funny) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (for all the different places they go).<br><br>So, yes, worth a revisit as an adult.
Rated The Committed 8/10
<div>Just as good as its predecessor and really sticks the landing.</div>
Rated The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act 8/10
I Iiked this a lot, though I suspect I'll glean even more by rereading it. Lovely art, great characters.
Rated The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home 10/10
I loved this, though I highly recommend getting the audiobook so you can hear Mara Wilson narrate. One does not need much prior Welcome to Night Vale knowledge to enjoy this book, as the story mostly takes place long before The Faceless Old Woman lands in Night Vale. It's a story of adventure, love, and loss, and I'm very glad to have read it.