Title: Thornhedge Author: T. Kingfisher Publisher: Tor Books Publication date: August 16, 2023 Length: 128 pages Genre: Fantasy Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.
Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling, to return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?
But nothing with fairies is ever simple.
Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He’s heard there’s a curse here that needs breaking, but it’s a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…
This slim novella is a fabulous fairy tale retelling… and at this point, the fact that T. Kingfisher has written yet another amazing story should come as no surprise to any of her fans.
In Thornhedge, we get the Sleeping Beauty story, but turned inside out and sideways. The main character is Toadling, a kind-of human (or is she a fairy?) who can shapeshift into a toad. She’s described as:
… the greenish-tan color of mushroom stems and her skin bruised blue-black, like mushroom flesh. She had a broad, frog-like face and waterweed hair. She was neither beautiful nor made of malice, as many of the Fair Folk are said to be.
Mostly she was fretful and often tired.
Toadling is a character who waits, always remaining near the thorn and bramble-covered castle as generations of people come and go across the barren lands nearby.
But Toadling was originally a human child who was stolen off to the world of faeries and replaced by a changeling baby. Toadling was raised with loved by a family of scary sea monsters, but eventually she’s called back to deal with the changeling who replaced her.
Years later, a kind knight stumbles across Toadling and the abandoned keep, and wants to solve the mystery of the girl in the tower — but once Toadling shares her story, it’s clear that waking the princess may not lead to the fairy tale ending everyone expects.
This is such a creative spin on the Sleeping Beauty story, and I loved it! At novella length, Thornhedge makes use of every word and chapter to let us know Toadling, her worries, her struggles, and her sorrows, as well as her memories of a loving childhood and her desire for a different future.
There are scary beings and horrific moments too, but overall, this is a lovely story about a highly unusual fairy tale heroine.
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2023.
There are so many books I’m looking forward to! Here are some highlights that I’m excited to read during the 2nd half of 2023… trying not to repeat the books highlighted in last week’s summer TBR post (except for the October Daye books, because those are absolutely at the top of my “most excited for” list this year!!).
The Wake-Up Call by Beth O’Leary
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
Sleep No More (October Daye, #17) by Seanan McGuire
The Innocent Sleep (October Daye, #18) by Seanan McGuire
California Golden by Melanie Benjamin
Dreambound by Dan Frey
Saga, volume 11 by Brian K. Vaughan
The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub
What new releases are you most looking forward to? Please share your links!
My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.
Life.
I went back to the office this week — big milestone in my post-COVID days! It actually felt pretty good to be back, although by each mid-afternoon, I was craving naptime.
And here’s this week’s moment of cuteness with our little houseguest Benji:
What did I read during the last week?
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano: Sad, powerful, impossible to put down. My review is here.
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw: A fun little foray into drama! I really enjoyed reading this play (which is the basis for My Fair Lady) — and it was interesting to see how the story here is different from the story in the musical.
The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray: Clever concept, but my attention wavered quite a bit. My review is here.
The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren: I think I’ve found my new favorite by this author duo! My review is here.
Hello Stranger by Katherine Center: Fascinating, funny romance with a unique premise. My review is here.
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher: This Sleeping Beauty retelling is a fast but totally engaging read. Review to come later this week!
Pop culture & TV:
Loving the new season of Outlander! We’re two episodes into Season 7, and the show is absolutely delivering. I love how they’re wrapping up dangling plotlines from previous seasons and propelling the story forward. This week’s episode covered a lot of ground, but also had incredibly powerful character moments.
I’m still making my way through Manifest over on Netflix. There are a LOT of episodes! I’m about halfway through season 2 at this point. I roll my eyes a lot… but I also want to see where the story goes, so I’m sticking with it.
Fresh Catch:
No new books this week.
Puzzle of the week:
I just started this one yesterday — it’s going to take a while.
What will I be reading during the coming week?
Currently in my hands:
Longshadow (Regency Faerie Tales, #3) by Olivia Atwater: This e-book was available to borrow from the library right when I needed a new book. I enjoyed the first two books in the trilogy, so why not got ahead and finish?
Now playing via audiobook:
The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rochon: Another spur-of-the-moment library find! I really enjoyed the first book in this series, and since #2 was downloadable right when I was ready for a new listen, I grabbed it. I’m at about 35% — really good so far!
Ongoing reads:
My longer-term reading commitments:
Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon: Over at Outlander Book Club, we’re doing a group read of BEES, reading and discussing two chapters per week. Coming up this week: Chapters 138 and 139 (of 155).
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons: My book group’s new classic read — we’ll be reading and discussing two chapters per week, ending late summer. We’re off to a good start!
The Tempest by William Shakespeare (No Fear Shakespeare edition): I saw a stage version of The Tempest last year, but have never read it. I thought it might be fun to give the “no fear” edition a try. I’m enjoying reading the original text, then comparing it to the “plain English” version on the facing page. This week, I read Acts I and II.
Title: Hello Stranger Author: Katherine Center Publisher: St. Martin’s Press Publication date: July 11. 2023 Length: 336 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction/romance Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Love isn’t blind, it’s just little blurry.
Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.
But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into—love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?—with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.
If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.
Hello Stranger has one of the most instantly interesting set-ups I’ve read recently. Sadie, a portrait artist, is diagnosed with a problematic brain vessel that requires immediate surgery. But when she wakes in the hospital post-surgery, the world looks very, very different.
Sadie has a condition called acquired prosopagnosia, otherwise known as “face blindness”. There’s nothing wrong with her eyes — it’s her brain that can’t make sense of the faces around her. The surgery has left her with swelling near the brain center that processes faces, and there’s no telling whether this is a permanent or temporary condition. For anyone, this would be distressing. For a portrait artist, this is also potentially career-ending — not that Sadie’s career was going all that well. In fact, right before the surgery, Sadie learned that she was a finalist in a competition that could finally give her her big breakthrough — but if she can’t see faces, how can she paint them?
Sadie’s life was already messy before the surgery — barely making ends meet through her Etsy shop, estranged from her father, stepmother, and truly evil stepsister, living in a rooftop shed that she officially is only supposed to use as a studio.
Now, with face blindness, the entire world has changed for Sadie. She literally cannot understand faces — she sees basically pixelated messes. Sure, she can focus in and see an eye or a mouth, individual features, but she has no ability to make sense of the whole. She can’t recognize people by face at all, and has to rely on hair, clothing, and other cues to figure out who she’s talking to. When dealing with kind people, that can still be okay, but not everyone around Sadie is kind (I did mention the evil stepsister, right?), and the cruelty of some of these encounters is pretty astonishing.
Without going further into the plot, I’ll just say that Sadie’s situation is both fascinating and incredibly difficult to comprehend. I fell down quite the Google rabbit-hole searching for examples of face blindness and how it’s experienced, and learned that there’s a difference between hereditary prosopagnosia (where people have it all their lives, and often don’t even realize it, since that’s how they’ve always experienced the world) and acquired prosopagnosia, usually an aftereffect of traumatic brain injury or illness. After reading stories of people who walk right by their own children without recognizing them or wonder why a strange woman is staring at them before realizing it’s themselves in a mirror, I gained a better understanding of Sadie’s new world too.
Another fascinating element here is Sadie’s conversations with her neuropsychologist about confirmation bias:
Dr. Nicole paused for a good definition. “It means that we tend to think what we think we’re going to think.”
I added all those words up. “So… if you expect to think a thing is true, you’re more likely to think it’s true?”
As Dr. Nicole goes on to explain:
“Basically we tend to decide on what the world is and who people are and how things are — and then we look for evidence that supports what we’ve already decided. And we ignore everything that doesn’t fit.”
As Sadie fits back into her life and tries to find a new approach to understanding the world around her, her assumptions and facts are repeatedly challenged by the need to rethink what she sees and question whether what she understands is true.
Hello Stranger is also a romance, and yes, the romantic plotlines are very good — but for me, it was Sadie’s unique situation and how it impacts every aspect of her life that made this book so compelling to read.
The backstory around Sadie’s family life is the hardest part of the book to accept, because it’s awful and tragic (and yet another great example of confirmation bias and its consequences). I felt so angry on Sadie’s behalf, yet by the end, could kind of see how the situation unfolded from the different characters’ differing experiences of the same events.
The book does explain that face blindness doesn’t necessarily mean the inability to understand expression (which is apparently handled by a different brain area), yet occasionally there’d be lines like:
The smug look had most definitely faded from her face
… that made me question whether this was something that Sadie could actually see or process, or if this was a glitch in the writing continuity.
I’m always fascinated by stories about unusual neurological conditions (such as the novel Left Neglected by Lisa Genova, or any of the writings of Dr. Oliver Sacks, who himself suffered from hereditary prosopagnosia) — but this is my first time reading such a tale in the context of romance.
Sadie’s story is fascinating, and the romance elements add welcome joy and hope to a story that also includes loss and dislocation. Sadie’s romantic escapades can be quite silly, but she’s such a great character that we can’t help but cheer for her. I don’t think I’ve ever read a romance novel quite like Hello Stranger, but it absolutely works.
Title: The True Love Experiment Author: Christina Lauren Publisher: Gallery Books Publication date: May 16. 2023 Length: 416 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction/romance Source: Library Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Sparks fly when a romance novelist and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the perfect Hollywood love story and take both of their careers to the next level—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script.
Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.
Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?
Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.
The True Love Experiment is the book fans have been waiting for ever since Fizzy’s debut in The Soulmate Equation. But when the lights come on and all eyes are on her, it turns out the happily ever after Fizzy had all but given up on might lie just behind the camera.
Christina Lauren books can be counted on to deliver zippy dialogue, great chemistry, entertaining characters, and unexpected plot points… and The True Love Experiment exceeds expectations with all of these! In fact, The True Love Experiment might just be my favorite Christina Lauren book yet.
Fizzy Chen is a character we’ve met before — she’s the main character’s zany best friend in The Soulmate Equation. Apparently, fans have been clamoring for more Fizzy ever since the earlier book, and now she gets her own chance to shine!
Fizzy is a very successful romance author in her late 30s, who’s reveled throughout her adulthood in her casual, open-to-anything approach to sex and dating. But as The True Love Experiment opens, she’s realizing that she may finally have just plain run out. She’s never been in love, and (in a very funny scene) she explains to best friend Jess that she may in fact have now dated every single man in San Diego. With these eye-opening revelations, Fizzy hits a major writer’s block — how can she write compelling romance when she’s not sure she actually believes in it anymore?
We also meet Connor, a gorgeous guy (whom Fizzy initially categorizes as romance tropes Hot Millionaire Executive, Hot Brit, and DILF) who’s a completely devoted divorced dad and the producer of environmentally-conscious documentaries. When his boss gives him an ultimatum — produce a money-making new dating show to save the production company, or be out of a job — Connor has to weigh his professional integrity against the reality that if he loses this job, he’ll have to move to LA to find work, which means giving up his role in his daughter’s daily life. Reluctantly, he commits to the dating show concept.
When Fizzy and Connor meet, they initially rub each other the wrong way… but we know that won’t last, because there are instant sparks amidst the bickering and button-pushing. Between them, almost as a dare to see who can come up with the craziest concept, they develop a framework for the new show: Fizzy will be the star, and the show will cast “heroes” who fit into defined romance archtypes — the bad boy, the hot nerd, the cinnamon roll, the one who got away. Fizzy will date each of them, the audience will vote on her true soulmate each week and determine who gets eliminated, and in the end, the audience will select a winner who’ll receive a cash prize. But there’s another twist: Fizzy and all contestants will also take the DNADuo test (see The Soulmate Equation for more info), a genetic screening test that identifies relationship compatability and defines matches on a scale (Base, Silver, Gold, Diamond, etc). At the show’s finale, the DNADuo match results between Fizzy and the finalists will be revealed, and then Fizzy will get to decide who she truly wants to be with.
As you might expect, all does not go according to plan. How is Fizzy supposed to fall in love with one of the show’s heroes when she’s distractingly attracted to Connor? The more time they spend together, the clearer it becomes that this isn’t just a matter of physical connection — but falling in love isn’t an option when (among other reasons) it would breach her contract with the show.
Okay, that’s the basic plot outline. What that doesn’t tell you is the insanely great connection between Fizzy and Connor, the absolutely hilarious dialogues that occur throughout the book, Fizzy’s amazingness as a person, and how utterly loving Connor is, as a dad, a friend, and a person who’s mad for Fizzy.
The book is told through both Fizzy and Connor’s POVs, so we know what’s going on inside and out. There’s the obligatory big obstacle that seems to tear the two apart late in the book, and I was very frustrated at first — but getting to hear from both characters why the incident blew up the way it did, how it triggered them and what past issues it brought up, and how internally conflicted they were in the aftermath helped me accept what had happened, even if I disagreed with how both of them behaved in the moment.
The show itself is lots of fun, although I question whether a show like this would be as successful in real life as it is in the story. The show starts with eight heroes and unfolds over just six episodes — is that really enough time to find true love? (OK, I need to admit here that I have never watched a single episode of The Bachelor or other dating shows, so I take anything of this sort with heaps of grains of salt).
I listened the audiobook, which has different narrators for Fizzy and Connor, and they were both wonderful! The downside of listening to the audiobook is not being able to highlight the parts that made me laugh out loud (there were plenty!) and share them here.
The True Love Experiment is so engaging, charming, and funny. I love that the characters are clearly amazing people, and that we get to see them in other roles (parent, aunt, best friend, daughter) to get a view of their lives outside the relationship as well. Fizzy and Connor are each fantastic on their own, and their connection together is not only full of physical chemistry but also based on emotional honesty and empathy.
Overall, The True Love Experiment is a joyful, entertaining read, with plenty of humor but also sincerity and intelligence. Highly recommended!
Title: The Murder of Mr. Wickham Author: Claudia Gray Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Publication date: May 3, 2022 Length: 386 pages Genre: Mystery Source: Purchased
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
A summer house party turns into a whodunit when Mr. Wickham, one of literature’s most notorious villains, meets a sudden and suspicious end in this mystery featuring Jane Austen’s leading literary characters.
The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a house party, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances—characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered—except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.
Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect, so it falls to the party’s two youngest guests to solve the mystery: Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey; and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcys’ eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. The unlikely pair must put aside their own poor first impressions and uncover the guilty party—before an innocent person is sentenced to hang.
The Murder of Mr. Wickham has a very clever concept as its central premise: Not only does it star Jane Austen’s leading characters, but it creates a society that includes all of these characters at once. Whether as distant cousins, visiting guests, acquaintances from travels, or friends of friends, in this mystery novel, the Darcys, Knightleys, Bertrams, Brandons, and Wentworths all end up in close quarters at a country house party… and things do not go well.
When the Knightleys invite their guests for a month at Donwell Abbey, they absolutely do not expect the notorious George Wickham to make an appearance. It’s been over twenty years since Elizabeth and Darcy were married, but they’ve unfortunately had to deal with Wickham’s wicked ways across the years due to his marriage to Elizabeth’s (now deceased) sister Lydia. But it’s not only the Darcys who have such strongly negative feelings toward Wickham — as it turns out, each visiting couple has at least one reason for hating the man.
As is obvious from the title, Wickham ends up dead, and this happy little country house party turns into a miserable situation of forced companionship, as the guests are unable to leave until the investigation is done, but no one is really in the mood to enjoy card games, walks in the garden, or piano recitals.
The two youngest guests, Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney, find themselves intrigued by the mystery, and begin their own secretive (and highly improper) investigation. Will they discover the true murderer… or will their reputations be destroyed first?
The Murder of Mr. Wickham has such an enticing set-up that I was immediately drawn in. The author gives a rough timeline at the start of the book to explain the sequencing of these characters’ primary stories, so while Elizabeth and Darcy have been together for over twenty years, Marianne and Colonel Brandon are more or less newlyweds. It’s such fun to see the initial gathering and see how the author creates connections between the varying characters and their separate worlds.
I’m not generally much of a mystery reader, so perhaps that’s partially why I felt less engaged as the story progressed. The premise and the intermixing of the characters is great fun, but I found myself less interested in the clues and possible motives the longer the story went on. The pacing is uneven as well — there are some entertaining scenes that feel like Austen set-pieces, but because we get sections visiting with each and every one of the couples, there are just far too many points-of-view and marital challenges to keep track of.
I also found it challenging to accept the character depictions here as compared to what their personalities are really “meant” to be. Granted, they’ve all grown up over the years, but Emma doesn’t come across as very Emma-ish to me, and likewise it was hard to reconcile this portrayal of Anne and Captain Wentworth to the characters I know and love from Persuasion. (As for Fanny and Edmund Bertram, while I’ve read Mansfield Park, it never really stuck with me, so I felt like I had no frame of reference for them at all).
Jonathan and Juliet are engaging new characters. Jonathan is neuro-atypical, and I felt that the author portrayed him sensitively and yet also made him someone to really root for, and I liked how his relationship with his parents was depicted too. Juliet is spunky and adventurous, but felt a bit more cookie-cutter to me, not necessarily distinct from similar young, intelligent women placed into Regency romance tales.
I’m glad I gave this Austen-esque mystery a try. It didn’t entirely work for me, but I appreciated the creativity and the joy of seeing older versions of some favorite characters. A second book in the series, The Late Mrs. Willoughby, was just released this spring. I don’t feel a need to read it any time soon, but I could see returning to it at some point down the road when I feel like revisiting this world.
Title: Dear Edward Author: Ann Napolitano Publisher: The Dial Press Publication date: January 6, 2020 Length: 340 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction Source: Purchased
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them is a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured vet returning from Afghanistan, a septuagenarian business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. And then, tragically, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor.
Edward’s story captures the attention of the nation, but he struggles to find a place for himself in a world without his family. He continues to feel that a piece of him has been left in the sky, forever tied to the plane and all of his fellow passengers. But then he makes an unexpected discovery–one that will lead him to the answers of some of life’s most profound questions: When you’ve lost everything, how do find yourself? How do you discover your purpose? What does it mean not just to survive, but to truly live?
After hearing so much about this book, I finally decided to give it a try. And once I started, I simply could not put it down.
Dear Edward is a powerful, sad, emotionally gripping story about unimaginable loss and how to rebuild a life. It’s the story of Edward Adler, who at age 12 is the sole survivor of a terrible plane crash, in which he loses his parents and older brother.
Edward is immediately adopted by his aunt and uncle and brought to live with them in their New Jersey home. He recovers from his physical injuries, but the damage to his heart and mind seems insurmountable. He’s lost everything and everyone, and while surrounded by kindness and support, has to figure out how to live the rest of his life when he’s completely lost and without direction.
It doesn’t help that people around the world have fixated on him as a “miracle boy”. He’s famous, but the attention can feel toxic, and certainly isn’t good for his fragile state. Fortunately, the 12-year-old girl next door, Shay, sees him merely as a boy and a curiosity, and becomes a key to his daily struggle to survive.
In interludes between chapters, we also see the events on the flight that fateful day as, hour by hour, the people onboard move closer to their deaths. We get to know individuals, their hopes, fears, and dreams, and each time these flight scenes come up, the looming disaster feels even more tragic and inevitable.
Without saying too much about the plot itself, I’ll just say that this book is so gripping that I read it pretty much straight through. I had to know what would happen next for Edward, and on top of that, the structure of the book means that we see snippets of the flight throughout, but don’t get to the awful end of it until close to the end of the book. And while we know that the plane will in fact crash, by giving us a close-up connection to so many of the passengers, when the end comes, it hits very hard and feels like a huge blow.
The writing is sensitive and well-structured, and the weaving together of the two main story elements keeps both moving forward with intensity. I came to love Edward as a character, as well as the wonderful people who come into his life at key moments and become central to his survival.
Dear Edward is an absorbing, emotional read with a strong plot and memorable characters. Highly recommended.
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books on My Summer 2023 to-Read List.
I’m hoping to get to a LOT of books already on my shelves… but I also have a bunch of new releases coming up that I’m really looking forward to, so the key will be finding the right balance of old and new!
For this list, I’ll just focus on some upcoming (and recent) new releases that I’m excited for:
Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
The Summer Skies by Jenny Colgan
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
With Love From Cold Word by Alicia Thompson
Infinity Gate by M. R. Carey
Ravensong by TJ Klune
The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner
Sleep No More (October Daye, #17) by Seanan McGuire
All the Dead Shall Weep (Gunnie Rose, #5) by Charlaine Harris
Thief Liar Lady by D. L. Soria
What are you planning to read this summer? Please share your links!
My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.
Life.
Getting better, bit by bit! After a couple of weeks of lingering COVID symptoms, I’m feeling mostly better at this point — I still get tired pretty easily, and my tastebuds aren’t quite functioning normally, but overall, so much better! I finally started getting out of the house, and honestly, that feels like a milestone!
I worked from home last week, but this week, I’ll be heading back to the office. Real life, here I come!
What did I read during the last week?
The Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman: My book group’s pick for June. Wonderful historical fiction. My review is here.
Lion’s Legacy by L. C. Rosen: Really fun YA adventure with positive messages. My review is here.
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano: Couldn’t put this one down once I started. Review to follow.
The Expert System’s Brother and The Expert System’s Champion by Adrian Tchaikovsky: A terrific sci-fi novella duology. My thoughts are here.
Pop culture & TV:
I was so sad to hear of the passing of Treat Williams this week. I’ve loved him in so many roles (Everwood was a stand-out), but his portrayal of Berger in Hair will always be my favorite.
In other pop culture moments…
Outlander is back! Season 7 began this weekend, and it’s going to be so good! I’m glad that the show skipped past certain book elements that dragged on for a long, long time and got the story moving forward. This season should be great! It’s supposed to be 16 episodes in total, although these will be split into two halves. No matter — I’m just thrilled that it’s back!
Also, while I love the original version of theme song, I also love that it changes every season. This season’s version is sung by Sinéad O’Connor! Check it out:
As for other viewing — I finished season four of Never Have I Ever (Netflix), and thought the show did a really good job wrapping up the various characters’ storylines. I was floundering a bit trying to find something else to dive into, so I decided to give Manifest a try. I’ve only watched a few episodes so far, but the premise is definitely interesting!
Fresh Catch:
Oh dear… I completely gave in to my obsession with the Green Creek series by TJ Klune and bought all four books on Kindle:
Puzzle of the week:
My third Charley Harper puzzle. I love how many hidden details there are to find that aren’t obvious at the start (like the adorable little bear cub, an owl, and a snake).
What will I be reading during the coming week?
Currently in my hands:
I’m bouncing between two books right now:
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw: I picked up a paperback edition of this play earlier in the year, after seeing a production of My Fair Lady at a local theater. Just yesterday, I randomly took the book off my shelf and read Act I! I think I’ll read this in small pieces throughout the week.
The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray: I’ve had this in my Kindle library for a few months already, and decided to give it a try. I’ve only read the first chapter so far, but it looks like it will be fun.
Now playing via audiobook:
The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren: I’ve barely had time to listen, but now that I’m feeling better again and able to get back to long walks, I hope to make lots of progress.
Ongoing reads:
My longer-term reading commitments:
Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon: Over at Outlander Book Club, we’re doing a group read of BEES, reading and discussing two chapters per week. Coming up this week: Chapters 136 and 137 (of 155).
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons: Starting today! My book group’s new classic read — we’ll be reading and discussing two chapters per week, ending late summer. Interesting in joining in? Just let me know!
The Tempest by William Shakespeare (No Fear Shakespeare edition): I saw a stage version of The Tempest last year, but have never read it. I thought it might be fun to give the “no fear” edition a try.
Earlier this week, I shared a post with my list of books for the newest Classics Club Spin challenge (see it here), and today, this spin’s number was announced. (For those keeping track, it’s CC Spin #34, and for me personally, #6!)
Hosted by The Classics Club blog, the Classics Club Spin is a reading adventure where participants come up with a list of classics they’d like to read, number them 1 to 20, and then read the book that corresponds to the “spin” number that comes up.
For CCSpin #34, the lucky number is:
And that means I’ll be reading:
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (published 1915)
Synopsis:
A prominent turn-of-the-century social critic and lecturer, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is perhaps best known for her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a chilling study of a woman’s descent into insanity, and Women and Economics, a classic of feminist theory that analyzes the destructive effects of women’s economic reliance on men.
In Herland, a vision of a feminist utopia, Gilman employs humor to engaging effect in a story about three male explorers who stumble upon an all-female society isolated somewhere in South America. Noting the advanced state of the civilization they’ve encountered, the visitors set out to find some males, assuming that since the country is so civilized, “there must be men.” A delightful fantasy, the story enables Gilman to articulate her then-unconventional views of male-female roles and capabilities, motherhood, individuality, privacy, the sense of community, sexuality, and many other topics.
Decades ahead of her time in evolving a humanistic, feminist perspective, Gilman has been rediscovered and warmly embraced by contemporary feminists. An articulate voice for both women and men oppressed by the social order of the day, she adeptly made her points with a wittiness often missing from polemical writings.
This wasn’t necessarily the book I was most hoping for this time around, but I’m happy with the spin results regardless! I do think I may have read an excerpt from Herland for a women’s studies class way back in my college years — but I’m not 100% sure, so this will be a good chance to find out. This is a relatively short book (under 150 pages, in the edition I checked out from the library), and I look forward to diving in!
What do you think of my newest spin book?
Here’s my list of 20 titles for Classics Club Spin #34:
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne DuMaurier
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Peony by Pearl Buck
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Howards End by E. M. Forster
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Bookshelf Fantasies 