Month: December 2023

bookish things · lists · Reading Challenges

A Guide to Books for Completing Her Grace’s 2024 Reading Challenge

kristen2 Comments

Since I decided to make my own reading challenge for 2024, I figured it is a good idea to figure out which books I might want to use to complete the tasks. I’m going to see how many of my own TBR books I can use, first, and how many I can do with women/LGBTQ+/BIPOC authors for as many as I can. Below are some suggestions for each task. Double-dipping is totally allowed!

Also, as I researched for books to complete these tasks, I learned that I need better definitions for some things, or that some others could be worded differently, or be defined in a broader way. Sorry about that! I will try to do better for next year’s tasks.

If you have any suggestions for any of the tasks, please share them in the comments! I love book recs!

A title longer than 6 words: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Catherynne Valente)
Written by an author with your initials: Katherine Mansfield for me
The MC is an animal: The Bees (Laline Paull) or Hollow Kingdom (Kira Jane Buxton)
Takes place underwater: The Mountain in the Sea (Ray Nayler), Startide Rising (David Brin), A Darkling Sea (James L. Cambias)
Doesn’t have the letter “e” in the title: Hollow Kingdom (Kira Jane Buxton) or Loki’s Ring or any number of others on my list, I reckon. Or Gadsby by Ernest Vincent Wright if you want to read an entire book that doesn’t have an E anywhere.
By or about being a refugee: Downbelow Station (C.J. Cherryh), Girl at War (Sarah Novic), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Michael Chabon), or American Dirt (Jeanine Cummins)
In translation: The Little Paris Bookshop (Nina George), The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu), Walking Practice (Dolki Min)
A cover featuring neon colors: The Ultimate Cyberpunk Anthology
The MC is a non-human entity (robot, alien, etc.): Murderbot! I plan to read the whole series this year. Other options are The Last Unicorn (Peter Beagle) or The Bees (Laline Paull).
Set in space: Since I mainly read sci-fi, any number of books will complete this task. The first one that comes to mind is Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh. Another option is The Best of All Possible Worlds (Karen Lord).
Written by an Indigenous/Native American/First Nations author: Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer), Walking the Clouds (ed. Grace L. Dillon), or anything by Stephen Graham Jones.
An anthology: Walking the Clouds or The Ultimate Cyberpunk Anthology
Released in your birth month: March: Loki’s Ring (Stina Leicht), Infinity Gate (M.R. Carey), The Mimicking of Known Successes (Malka Older), Walking Practice (Dolki Min), A House with Good Bones (T. Kingfisher)

The title is a question: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (PKD) or How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? (NK Jemisin)
The MC or author is transgendered: Light from Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki), Pet (Akwaeki Emezi), The Memory Librarian (Janelle Monae), or Bang Bang Boddhisattva (Aubrey Wood)
The weather plays a significant role: The Maddaddam trilogy (Margaret Atwood), Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler), The Broken Earth trilogy (NK Jemisin), or The Road (Cormac McCarthy)
Has an unusual format (epistolary, choose your own adventure, etc.): Me Being Me Is Exactly As Insane As You Being You (Todd Hasak-Lowy, told in lists); Horrorstor (Grady Hendrix, told in Ikea catalog format)
The protagonist is a plant: Semiosis (Sue Burke), Legacy of Heorot (Larry Niven), the Dragonriders of Pern (Anne McCaffrey), or the Southern Reach trilogy (Jeff VanderMeer)
2024 adaptation: The Salt Path (Raynor Wynn), The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu), or Mickey7 (Edward Ashton)
You have no idea where you got this book: I mean, this is the majority of my TBR. I look at some of them and wonder where the fuck this book came from.
The MC has a phobia: The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman), Murderbot Diaries (Martha Wells), or Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell)
Set during your favorite holiday or event: A lot of sci-fi books have holidays such as a “Founder’s Day” or something similar. Pern has Hatching Day, so I might go with that. Or Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury)
A one-word title: Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer), Anathem (Neal Stephenson), or Fingersmith (Sarah Waters)
The MC is a time traveler: Long Division (Kiese Laymon), Door into Summer or Farnham’s Freehold ( both by Heinlein), or How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional World (Charles Yu)
By or about a person who is asexual: The Sound of Stars (Alecia Dow) or Guardians of the Dead (Karen Hawley)
A color in the title: The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins) or Red, White, and Royal Blue (Casey McQuiston), or Red Mars trilogy (Kim Stanley Robinson)

Published in the year of a big historical event in your lifetime: 1986: Count Zero (William Gibson) or The Physician (Noah Gordon) or Howl’s Moving Castle (Diana Wynne Jones)
The protagonist has a weird job: The Ravenmaster (Christopher Skaife), The Trauma Cleaner (Sarah Krasnostein), or Ancillary Justice (Ann Leckie)
A MC who collects something unusual: Keeper of Lost Things (Ruth Hogan)
A book that has won an LGBTQ+ literary award: Dhalgren (Samuel Delany), The Female Man (Joanna Russ), or The Sparrow (Mary Doria Russell)
Over 400 pages: Anathem or Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson)
A novella: Murderbot, The Seep (Chana Porter)
Written by an author who shares your zodiac sign: Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Dan Simmons, Life on Mars (Tracy K. Smith)
Features 24 (a 24-year-old MC, or was published 24 years ago, etc): 1999: Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson), Flashforward (Robert Sawyer)
Women in STEM/ Girl coders, etc: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin), The Calculating Stars (Mary Robinette Kowal), Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer)
An attention-grabbing title: Noor (Nnedi Okorafor), Cyteen or Downbelow Station (C.J. Cherryh), or Thistlefoot (GennaRose Nethercott)
Author or MC is HIV positive: The Immortals (Tracy Hickman), Push (Sapphire), or Darker Proof (Adam Mars-Jones and Edmund White)
Takes place in a haunted house: Possibly Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer), Revelation Space (Alastair Reynolds), and there’s always The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson)
Title starts with G: Gateway (Frederik Pohl), Glory Road (Heinlein), Gnomon (Nick Harkaway), Goliath (Tochi Onyebuchi)

A book of poetry: the witch doesn’t burn in this one (Amanda Lovelace), Anne Sexton’s fairy tale poems, Life on Mars (Tracy K. Smith)
A microhistory: An Informal History of the Hugos (Jo Walton), Extra Virginity (Tom Mueller)
By or about a neurodivergent person: Ninefox Gambit (Yoon Ha Lee), The Speed of Dark (Elizabeth Moon), Rules (Cynthia Lord), A Girl Like Her (Talia Hibbert), or Happiness Falls (Angie Kim)
Book with a main character over 60 years old: Remnant Population (Elizabeth Moon), Old Man’s War (John Scalzi), The Adventures of Amina-Al-Sirafi (S.A. Chakraborthy)
It has a pretty cover: The Hazel Wood (Melissa Albert), The Last Unicorn (Peter Beagle), The Sparrow (Mary Doria Russell)
MC has a strange hobby: The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant (Drew Hayes), Mostly Dead Things (Kristen Arnett), The House of Small Shadows (Adam Nevill), The Taxidermist’s Lover (Polly Hall)
Set in a city you’ve never visited: The House of Shattered Wings (Aliette de Bodard), The Little Paris Bookshop (Nina George)
By or about a person with a mental illness: The Devil in Silver (Victor LaValle), Planetfall (Emma Newman), Outside (Ada Hoffman), Stormlight Archives (Brandon SAnderson)
A title that rhymes: Eye in the Sky (PKD), Wed, Read, and Dead (V.M. Burns), To Brie or Not to Brie (Avery Aames)
Set in a parallel universe: The Space Between Worlds (Micaiah Johnson), Ilium/Olympos duology (Dan Simmons), Interworld (Neil Gaiman and Michael Reeves)
Published in your birth year: Dinosaur Planet (Anne McCaffrey), The Persistence of Vision (John Varley), Gateway (Pohl), Lucifer’s Hammer (Niven and Pournelle)
Indie or small press published: Ancient Oceans of Central Kentucky (David Connerly Nahm), Alien Stories (E.C. Osondu), Winterset Hollow (Jonathan Edward Durham)
By or about a person on the autism spectrum: Outside (Ada Hoffman), The Speed of Dark (Elizabeth Moon), 600 Hours of Edward (Craig Lancaster)

bookish things · lists · Reading Challenges

Dive into Our Inaugural Annual Reading Challenge!

kristen2 Comments

Greetings, friends! This year I thought I might try something new – creating my own challenge for 2024! I always participate in annual reading challenges. My favorites are the ones by The Nerd Daily, Book Riot, and PopSugar. It looks like The Nerd Daily hasn’t added their reading challenge for 2024 yet, so keep an eye on that site if you look forward to that particular one as much as I do.

For this year, as I did last year in the challenges I participated in, I am going to try to complete this by shopping my own TBR first. I have an unimaginably huge TBR – seriously, I think it’s about 500 books. So I am trying to pare that down and also still have some fun with reading challenges. I try, too, to make it more challenging by reading only women, BIPOC, or LGBTQ+ authors. It’ll be interesting to see if I manage to complete my own challenge. I haven’t completed a challenge in a couple years, though I did hit my Goodreads goal to read at least 50 books.

If anyone decides to try this reading challenge out, it would be awesome if you left a comment below or tagged me in one of the social media places! 💖

Also, I’ve been super into junk journaling lately, so I designed the PDF of the challenge prompts to look similar to a junk journal page. Thank you, Canva, for making design easy!

Here is a link to a basic Word doc with the prompts as well, if anyone wants that.

Her Grace’s Reading Challenge 2024Download

Happy Reading!

book review · sci-fi · Star Trek

Boldly Exploring Home: A Review of Somewhere to Belong

kristenLeave a comment

A book cover featuring the title 'Star Trek Discovery: Somewhere to Belong.' The cover showcases a cosmic backdrop with the iconic Starfleet insignia, a vibrant blend of blue and purple hues, and the silhouette of a starship soaring through the stars. There are 4 people on the cover. The largest is the face of a young Black woman with long braids. The other 3 are in a semicircle around her and depict a young white woman with curly hair, a young Hispanic man with goatee and short hair, and a cleanshaven white man with blonde hair.
Image from Goodreads

Somewhere to Belong (ST: DSC) by Dayton Ward
Genre: sci-fi
I read it as a(n): paperback
Length: 333 pp
Her Grace’s rating: 2.5 stars

Spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the show.

Now that the threat from the Emerald Chain is dealt with and the source of the Burn has been identified and corrected, Burnham and the crew of Discovery are able to take some down time to reflect on what the implications really are for them now that they’ve arrived in the 33rd century. Dr. Culber had been standing in as the counselor for the crew, but now that they’re at a starbase, a temporary replacement counselor has been assigned. Then they all get sent out to continue their mission of reconnecting with formerly allied planets that had been cut off from the Burn. They answer a distress signal and discover a ship of Xaheans, staunch allies of the Federation in the 22nd century. Only now, the Xaheans have by necessity become a wandering society and are isolationist on the verge of xenophobia. Capt Burnham has to try her hand at diplomacy to resolve a potentially deadly situation from exploding, and taking her ship and crew with it.

I have never taken so long to read a Star Trek book in my life. I was carting this around with me for the better part of a month! It was barely 300 pages, it should have taken me maybe a week even with work. It was. So. S L O W. I have never DNFed a Trek book but I came very close to doing so on this one. It was so out of character for Dayton Ward’s novels that it was kind of shocking how fucking bored I was with this one. It felt like he wrote himself into a corner and had no options for resolution other than cheesy and unbelievable ones. 

The overarching theme in the story is, of course, finding where one belongs. Ward explores the topics of what makes a home, how we create a found family, if home is a place or a feeling, and so on. At times, the exploration was a bit ham-handed. It felt sermony, which is usually reserved for Burnham although she managed to refrain from sermonizing this time. 

Also, this is kind of a weird observation. To be fair, I haven’t read every Trek book Ward has written so I could be wrong. But this book makes me think that he does not know how to write gay male characters. Stamets and Culber were definitely not right in this book. They were always saying something petulant or acting moody. Even though the characters recognized that and corrected it, it was still the first thing that was described. None of the other characters were handled that way. Maybe he just doesn’t like Culber or Stamets, which is fine if so. We don’t have to like all the characters. But I hope he figures out how to write those two characters better if he writes more Discovery books in the future. And I DO hope he does! He wrote Drastic Measures, which is one of my favorite Disco books, partly because it focused mainly on a young Lieutenant Gabriel Lorca, and he’s played by Jason Isaacs who I’m in love with. And partly because of that little tidbit at the very end that was obviously a confused and scared Prime Lorca stuck in the MU and I want to read that story!

book review · sci-fi

Exploring Otherworldly Tales: A Review of The Ghost Machine, Generations (in the Firefly Series), and My Best Friend’s Exorcism

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A book cover with a dark haired young woman in the background, a man with brown hair in the middle ground, and a black haired woman wearing a necklace in the foreground, with a spaceship in front.
Image retrieved from Goodreads

The Ghost Machine (Firefly) by James Lovegrove
Genre: sci-fi
I read it as a(n): hardback
Length: 336 pp
Her Grace’s rating: 3.5 stars

The crew of Serenity are hired by Badger to ship a device to a client on one of the outer worlds. Mal, though, gets a real bad feeling about it and declines to take it on board his ship. That doesn’t stop Jayne from bringing it on himself. Unfortunately for all, it is a device that attacks brainwaves, sending people into a coma-like sleep in which they have vivid hallucinations. They start out like everyone’s greatest dreams come true, but gradually change to their worst nightmare. Only River seems able to enter into the others’ visions, which she does in a desperate attempt to wake someone up before the ship crashes into a moon. 

I enjoyed this one, even though I don’t remember tons of details about it. It only took me 2 days to read. I liked it because it gave us a “what if” glimpse into what the crew’s secret desires are, though some are not hard to guess. The thing I seriously disliked was that Lovegrove seemed not to know what to do with Shepherd Book and Inara, so he shipped them off on an errand off-ship and they didn’t come back until the crisis was averted. I think he missed a great chance to fill in some of Book’s backstory in particular.

Book cover with a man in brown shirt with brown hair pointing a gun in front of him with a dark haired girl in the background
Image retrieved from Goodreads

Generations (Firefly) by Tim Lebbon
Genre: sci-fi
I read it as a(n): hardback
Length: 281 pp
Her Grace’s rating: 2.5 stars

Mal wins a strange star map in a game of poker and immediately the bad luck begins. Someone else tries to steal it and kill everyone in the process, River gets crazier because of something in the map, and there’s a Big Bad Secret that the Alliance has hidden in orbit around a far-outer planet. But, if the crew can manage to get there and back in one piece, there is a trove of historical relics worth a fortune on the black market. X marks the spot, I guess.

This one wasn’t as well developed as the previous three Firefly books. The characters seemed less complex and we didn’t really get a good view of things from River’s POV, even though she was the main protagonist in this one. Also, if I’m being honest, it was kind of slow. Not much actually happened. Probably my least favorite Firefly book so far, but I still enjoyed it because I will take Firefly in any way I can.

Book cover with a blonde girl with red eyes, owls and bats in the background, a clock tower, and 2 little girls holding hands
Image retrieved from Goodreads

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Genre: horror
I read it as a(n): audiobook
Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller
Length: 10:11:00
Her Grace’s rating: 3 stars

Abby and Gretchen are best friends and have been ever since Gretchen saved Abby’s 10th birthday party from being a total disaster. The girls are inseparable until high school when, after a weekend spent at another girlfriend’s house, Gretchen starts acting strange. She stops washing or changing her clothes, she is cruel, and she dumps Abby in favor of richer friends. Abby eventually figures out that Gretchen is possessed by a demon and sets out to help her. Of course no one believes her.

So I got this one because I thought it would be funny. I mean, the title alone kind of implies humor. Also, demon possession is fucking hilarious. There are people who actually believe it’s real. But it was really not funny. It was a straight-up horror story, which is fine. I don’t usually care for actual horror because I can’t suspend my disbelief. See above comment about people actually believing in demon possession; I am not one of them. So that’s on me for not looking into it further before I got it. 

Mainly, though, it’s a story about friendship, growing up, and changing as you grow, which is a good enough theme. 

I listened to this on audio and the narrator, Emily Woo Zeller, did a good job, as usual. She may not be on my list of very favorite narrators but she is definitely good and I wouldn’t decline to listen to a book just because she’s narrating. 

book review

Unveiling The Earthly Blaze: A Review of Alice Poon’s Kung Fu Duology

kristen1 Comment

A young Chinese woman in kung fu fighting stance facing off with a dragon
Image generated with StarryAI


The Earthly Blaze by Alice Poon
Genre: fantasy
I read it as a(n): digital ARC
Length: 396 pp 
Her Grace’s rating: 4 stars

In The Earthly Blaze, author Alice Poon takes up immediately after the events of the first book of this duology, The Heavenly Sword. Jumping right into the thick of it, Sai’er, who is the earthly incarnation of the goddess Chang’e, and her friends struggle against the forces of Prince Zhu Di, the earthly incarnation of the evil Sky Wolf. The fighters form a sect to network and recruit new members, resist the wicked acts of Zhu Di and his government, and hone their skills in kung fu to aid them in their battles. Along the way, bonds between the group are strained and tested in ways none of them could have foreseen. Adding in betrayals and double agents makes the entire situation all the more fraught, burdening Sai’er, Sanbao, Binhong, Yinho, and the rest of the Sect with wavering morale and uncertainty about who is friend and who is foe.

I enjoyed this book even more than The Heavenly Sword. After reading that first entry, I realized that I actually had No Clue™ about kung fu/ wuxia in general beyond having watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and some Jackie Chan films, and even less about the literary genre. So I set out to learn a few things about it and lo and behold! I was rewarded by my new understanding with an even greater appreciation for the story as a whole and for the wuxia genre specifically. 

This action-packed book was rich in Chinese culture and mythology. I loved the attention to detail throughout. Everything from broad strokes such as landscape descriptions to tiny details such as decorations on a person’s clothes were included and helped to make a vibrant backdrop for the story. It made it feel like I was immersed and part of the action. Likewise, references to various deities and myths enriched the reading experience and, in a couple places, made me go off and look up a myth or character that was previously unfamiliar to me. The worldbuilding overall is excellent, and I also really loved the politics in this. They were complex, at times even labyrinthine, and provided some good insight into the social structures in real-life in earlier times. The legends, politics, and epic martial arts sequences mix together for an explosive adventure. 

I enjoyed getting to know Sai’er better. She was very much a mother figure to the Sect members and they looked up to her. She is not perfect, though, but her flaws and uncertainties make her relatable. It was fun to see how not only Sai’er grew as a person and how her celestial identity was resolved, but also how the others fulfilled their own roles, whatever those happened to be. Everything worked itself out the way it needed to, even when we lost characters along the way or wished that something had gone differently. One sign of a good story, to me, is when an author can take readers where they may not want to go but ultimately where they need to go; Poon does that exactly right.

Finally, a small point that nevertheless made a big difference. There was a recap of book 1 at the beginning! I had read and enjoyed the first book in this duology but, as with the majority of the books I read anymore, I forget most of the things about it as soon as I finish reading. The recap was greatly appreciated and was enough to jog my memory so that I could dive right into this one.

At the end of the day, this duology is a sweeping journey through a world filled with courage, destiny, and cosmic forces colliding in an epic battle of good vs. evil. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves kung fu, Chinese mythology, or just a rip-roaring, action-packed story.