As I posted a few weeks ago, I’m planning to do the Book Riot 2017 Read Harder Challenge. I probably would have gotten a lot of the tasks checked off just in my own reading life anyway, but I wanted to make it official. I also like to make lists. I’m weird. Mostly I like to cross things off of lists. I am also lazy and I don’t want to have to think about things when it is time to make a decision. Having a list I already made ahead of time saves me from having to make a decision or do more research. I can just pick the book!

So I did a lottle research (which was really a lot but it was kinda fun because I’m a nerd, so it only felt like a little, thus a lottle) and came up with the below list for the 2017 task list.

I don’t feel stress about the list, either, because I reserve the right to change my mind about a book on the list. So there.

1. Read a book about sports: Wild (Cheryl Strayed). Hiking is totally a sport in my world.
2. Read a debut novel: Cinder (Marissa Meyer)
3. Read a book about books: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (Katherine Howe)
4. Read a book set in Central or S. America written by a Central or S. American author: House of Mist (Maria Luisa Bombal)
5. Read a book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative: Funny in Farsi (Firoozeh Dumas) or maybe Kabul Beauty School (Deborah Rodruguez)
6. Read an all-ages comic: Phoebe and Her Unicorn – DONE
7. Read a book published between 1900 and 1950: I Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith); The Door in the Wall (Marguerite DiAngeli); And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie); 1984 (Orwell); House of Mirth (Edith Wharton)
8. Read a travel memoir: Gorge (Kara Richardson Whitely)
9. Read a book you’ve read before: undecided. 2017 was going to be my year of rereads, so…
10. Read a book set within 100 miles of your location: for me, one of these will do. I’ll probably pick a Kingsolver or maybe a Hillerman I’ve never read his stuff.
11. Read a book set more than 5000 miles from your location: Flirting with French [Provence] (William Alexander); The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones [London] (Jack Wolf); The World We Found [Bombay] (Thrity Umrigar); Wave [Sri Lanka] (Sonali Deraniyagala); The Light Between Oceans [Western Australia] (ML Stedman)
12. Read a fantasy novel: Miranda and Caliban (Jacqueline Carey) – DONE
13. Read a nonfiction book about technology: Innovating Women (Vivek Wadhwa); Rise of the Rocket Girls (Nathalia Holt); She’s Such a Geek! (Annalee Newitz); Dot Complicated (Randi Zuckerberg)
14. Read a book about war: The House of Splendid Isolation (Edna O’Brien); One of the Guys (Tara McKelvey)
15. Read a YA or middle grade novel by an author of color who identifies as LGBTQ+: Tell Me Again How A Crush Should Feel (Sara Farizan)
16. Read a book that has been banned or frequently challenged in your country: The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
17. Read a classic by an author of color: Lakota Woman (Mary Crow Dog)
18. Read a superhero comic with a female lead: Captain Marvel (Kelly Sue DeConnick)
19. Read a book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey: Ceremony (Leslie Marmon Silko)
20. Read an LGBTQ+ romance novel: Tipping the Velvet (Sara Waters)
21. Read a book published by a micropress: Deer Woman (Elizabeth LaPensee) – DONE
22. Read a collection of stories by a woman: Interpreter of Maladies (Jhumpa Lahiri)
23. Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love: Old Norse Women’s Poetry (Sandra Balif Stranbhaar)
24. Read a book wherein all point-of-view characters are people of color: A Bollywood Affair (Sonali Dev); The Association of Small Bombs (Karan Mahajari); might be time to read another Amy Tan…

I seem to be on some kind of Shakespeare kick lately. I’ve read two adaptations of The Tempest in the last month, which certainly is more than I have read in the past few years. The newest one I read was Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood.

****Here be spoilers below. You have been warned.**** Continue reading “Hag-Seed” →

This is my own version of a post that I contributed to on Book Riot. 

One of the books I am most looking forward to in 2017 is Beren and Luthien.  Continue reading “Most anticipated books of 2017” →

I have mixed thoughts about this novel. On the whole, I liked it. But it was like two very different stories in one, which I kind of think would have been better told as separate to themselves.

One was the story of a teen girl, Allison Jeffries, who thinks she is mentally ill and may have murdered a classmate. Sweet! A story discussing mental health and its care, especially as it pertains to teenagers, would be excellent and interesting reading. Such is how this novel started. Learning about synesthesia, which is a real sensory condition and NOT a mental illness, was interesting and I wanted to have more of that. I wanted to have more about Allison’s time in the psych hospital, learning about her condition, how to cope with it, and learning that she is not insane despite a lifetime of being told the contrary.

Then enter storyline number two. The girl Allison is accused of killing, Tori Beauregard, is still alive and is, in fact, an alien. So is the neuropsychiatrist who had been helping Ali with her synesthesia. Tori had been snatched back to the mothership or something to get healed when Allison injured her (non-fatally, obviously) in a fight. The plot points of this particular story arc are really fun and would make an awesome sci-fi novel of its own. But added into the existing plot of mental health, it just felt disjointed to me.

I think my main issue with the novel was that by having aliens be the deus ex machina, it relegates some very real mental health issues to something of a silly role. Oh, you’re not crazy, aliens did it. I’m sure that is not what the author intended, but that’s kind of how it felt. Mental illness is a real problem, not something that can be handily fixed or explained by aliens, even though that second plot was fun and I would have loved to see it as its own separate, hard sci-fi book. Nor is mental illness itself a prop to be used as a way to solve the trouble the characters are in and hey look, I just happen to have a rare condition that everyone thinks is a mental illness and only I can get us home using my weird sensory abilities that are actually almost driving me insane. That part really hit me wrong.

Format: hardcover

Source: public library

Publisher: Carolrhoda Books

Pages: 312

I adored this book. I’m a sucker for a good back story, and Miranda and Caliban rang that bell but good. With her typical skill at building magical worlds, Jacqueline Carey crafts Prospero’s island, a place abandoned by people yet filled with spirits and mystery. She brings Miranda to life, a sweet and innocent girl who has no idea that her father is not all he seems. Caliban, a feral child who learns to speak but not to comply, shows a side of himself and of Prospero that throws an entirely new light on The Tempest.

I loved seeing Miranda through her growing up and how she changed throughout the book. At the opening, she was barely six and her thoughts reflected her youth. She had pet chickens that had names and she was devastated when her father made her kill one to eat because it stopped laying. She was delighted by her birthday present, which was a sewing kit. It is interesting to see her grow and change as she takes on the mantle of teacher when Prospero gives the teaching of Caliban into her care. She takes her role seriously but she still adds many elements of play, because she and Caliban are both still children.

Caliban himself is a rich and interesting figure. He hates Prospero, not because he is a warped person as depicted in Shakespeare’s play, but because he sees Prospero clearly. He knows Prospero is not a kind or good man, he hates how he treats Miranda, and fears for his friend’s safety. Caliban is supposed to be a wild and savage person, yet is the kindest and most compassionate one of the book, the one who sees the most clearly and the most honestly.

As they grow up, Miranda and Caliban are their only friends, literally the only people they could turn to on the island since Prospero is not a person to whom anyone would learn to trust. Through heartbreak and betrayal, we see these characters play out a new version of events that put a whole new light on The Tempest, one which I find remarkably sad and realistic and human. I can’t really say how much I loved this book.

This novel was full of gorgeous imagery and writing, which is only to be expected from Carey. Little Miranda explaining to still-mostly-wild Caliban that there are qualities other than speech or clothing that make us civilized was one of my favorite scenes. Later, when Miranda got her first period, I loved her thought about how gods generally are not kind to women who eat fruit. I also loved the comparison of sunlight to goodness throughout the book. That might not be a terribly unique interpretation, but it made for some lovely scenes and lines. “You in the sunlight” will always make me feel bittersweet and sad and hopeful from now on.

Format: e-galley (though I loved it so much I preordered a hard copy for myself)

Source: Netgalley.com

Publisher: Tor Books

Pages: 352

Source: WHY I LOVE BERNARD CORNWELL

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A super cute graphic novel about a little girl who accidentally finds a unicorn. The unicorn grants her a wish and so Phoebe asks for the unicorn, whose name is awesomely Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, to be her best friend. Marigold does this and is able to travel about with Phoebe because she casts a Shield of Boringness over herself so no one thinks it’s particularly weird or interesting to see a real unicorn. 

Really fun, lots of girl power, and enough humor to keep adults amused as well. I loved this one.

Wow. This collection of speculative fiction short stories by Alexander Weinstein is set in the near-future and deals with all manner of issues that make me think. It is dark, sad, funny, and feels very eerily prescient in many ways.

The first story, “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” reminded me a lot of the various Star Trek episodes that dealt with the issue of free will, personal rights, and the sentience of androids and other artificial life forms. It made me sad that the family never really thought of Yang as part of their family, not really, until he was gone. Did Yang know that? Did it hurt his feelings? Did he ever think about leaving to make his own life but couldn’t because he didn’t have the legal standing to do so? I am glad his family came to realize just how big a part of their life he was, and that he was his own unique person even if he was an android. Data was an android and I cried just as hard when he died as I did when Wash died on Serenity. Androids are people, too!

“The Cartographers” is the second story, and I think my second favorite in the collection. It deals with a man who works for a company that sells invented memories. Can’t afford to travel? No problem! For $99 you can beam a memory of a perfect family vacation to the Bahamas directly into your brain! Sounds pretty good, until you get to the edge, where the memory runs out and you find the white light. Or until you start beaming so many invented memories in that you lose the ability to distinguish reality from invention. Then you’re pretty fucked.

The titular story, “Children of the New World,” show readers an older couple who are new to their world of being logged in all the time. In their virtual world, they have everything they never did in their real life, including children. But what happens when the virtual world gets infected with a virus? This one was my favorite of the collection. It gave me all the feels. I don’t want to say more about it because I want everyone just to go read it themselves.

The entire collection is so well-crafted, so thought-provoking, and so close to home that it is unnerving. I thoroughly loved this even while it made me uncomfortable and anxious.

I read it as a: paperback

Source: public library

Pages: 229

Publisher: Picador

(This post originally ran on Book Riot.)

This year, I missed my personal Chaucer Day celebration. Woe. It was on April 17, 1397, that Geoffrey Chaucer first told The Canterbury Tales at the court of Richard II. For medieval scholars, there are many things to love about Chaucer – his language, of course; his rich cast of characters; the glimpse he gives us into the lives of regular medieval people. I even had a shirt from the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ACMRS), which is run through my alma mater, that said, “The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.” Yay, Parliament of Foules! I wore that thing until it was in tatters and thoroughly indecent.

I know I am just a medieval geek and it takes really very little for the geek juice to come spewing forth and get all over everything. Sorry about that, I’ll clean it up. Yay, socially awkward. But honestly! Chaucer! He had such a rich and layered life. Civil servant to kings. A poet. Some even say spy, though we aren’t entirely certain of that one. I like to think he was. It makes sense: his first patron was John of Gaunt, and he was ransomed by Richard II when he was captured by the French. I am not a politician, but I’m not really sure why the king would do that for someone who didn’t do the espionage things.

When I was in school, I considered The Canterbury Tales to be one of the most perfect pieces of literature. I loved nearly everything about it. It was bawdy, it was holy…it was written in a Middle English vernacular I could actually figure out! I enjoyed the microcosm of medieval life it depicted, and the Tales sparked in me a lifelong love of medieval stories. I wanted to know more about Chaucer and the time he lived – what WAS it like to walk down the streets of London in the 1380s? I’ve walked down many of the same streets – alleys, really, to my modern sensibilities – as Chaucer did. Did he see any of the same stones in the buildings? Was that same cobblestone there, whole and new, when he walked the road as it was when I tripped over it, chipped and moldering, while gawping at St Paul’s Cathedral?  Did he actually know someone like the carpenter or his wife in The Miller’s Tale, or the Prioress, the Squire, or the Clerk? Did he worry about his kids’ school experiences like I worry about my daughter’s? Surely he was above such human concerns and never worried about feeding his family, never sat up at night with a sick child, never worried about work if he had a dick boss. Well, actually, he most likely did, and that is his appeal to me. I think he did all of these things and more.

But Chaucer is more than just another dead white dude and the so-called father of modern English. He was, in my opinion, a proto-feminist. There is a ton of debate amongst scholars about this, hardly any of which I listen to. I figure we cannot, and must not, judge a person or time by our own modern standards. As fun as it is to analyze his works in light of feminist theory, we really can’t expect him to have been a pillar of feminist thought by any modern standard. For a man writing in the 1380s, though, Chaucer had some very well rounded female characters, including a beloved, feisty woman who brashly spoke her mind, loved sex, wanted sovereignty, and didn’t care who knew it. I’m looking at you, Alisoun of Bath. Within the social expectations of medieval life, for a male poet to have even considered that a woman would want sovereignty over herself was quite progressive, in my opinion, and worthy of note.

Troubled Bones by Jeri Westerson. This is the fourth book in Jeri Westerson’s fantastically fun (yet very well researched) Crispin Guest medieval noir series, and Geoffrey Chaucer plays a big role in this particular novel. In this installment, he is the former best friend of Guest, disgraced-knight-turned-sleuth. Both men find themselves embroiled in a murder at Canterbury Cathedral surrounding the bones of the martyred Thomas Becket, on the hunt for both murderer and a hidden heretic, and Crispin is forced to wonder if Chaucer isn’t actually guilty of the crime himself.

If you haven’t yet discovered the Crispin Guest books, you need to get busy reading right now. The series starts with Veil of Lies and is the first of eight novels thus far. Chaucer makes appearances inTroubled Bones and Blood Lance, which is my favorite novel of the series so far.

A Burnable Book by Bruce Holsinger. This is a brilliant novel by medieval scholar Bruce Holsinger about a mysterious book which supposedly predicts the end of England’s kings. Chaucer, who is a main character in the novel, gets the help of fellow poet John Gower to find the missing manuscript, which has fallen into innocent hands. The poets must retrieve the manuscript before those innocent lives are lost, and before the life of the king is put at stake. Holsinger is a professor of English at the University of Virginia and it shows in his writing, which is rich with historical nuance and impeccable research. A Burnable Book and its sequel, The Invention of Fire, show Chaucer in his day job as a civil servant who happens to dabble in poetry…

Chanticleer and the Fox by Geoffrey Chaucer, adapted by Barbara Cooney. This is a wonderful children’s adaptation of “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” about the arrogant rooster Chanticleer and his encounter with Reynard the fox. I truly believe that everyone should know and love Chaucer, and that children should be exposed to great literature from a young age. The illustrations are beautiful and the story has anthropomorphized barnyard animals that the little ones will love. Of course, as with many wonderful children’s stories, it also has a great moral that parents can talk about with their spawn, for the betterment of society. We will read all manner of stories to our children anyway, so let this lovely book be one of them.

Please let me know what other books you’ve read that have Chaucer as a character, or which were influenced by his works!

I’m bumping my calendar of literary holidays, because it’s the new year. Today is Tolkien Day! Go read something of his and hoist a pint. Yes, it comes in pints!

A Year of Literary Holidays