Kathleen's bookshelf: read-in-2021 en-US Sat, 28 Sep 2024 19:19:31 -0700 60 Kathleen's bookshelf: read-in-2021 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Secret of Shadow Ranch (Nancy Drew, #5)]]> 6438341 202 Carolyn Keene 1440673683 Kathleen 3 4.20 1931 The Secret of Shadow Ranch (Nancy Drew, #5)
author: Carolyn Keene
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1931
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/22
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: fiction, mystery, childrens, read-in-2021
review:
A phantom horse and property destruction are being used to drive people away from land, but why? Nancy Drew is on the case! Despite an unfortunately named dog, this book is action packed and perfectly appropriate for the target audience. With rock slides, galloping palominos, and rising rivers, every page is full of adventure. The kidnapping felt a little tacked-on, but I suppose simply finding treasure didn't feel like high enough stakes for all the trouble Nancy, George, and Bess go to.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Mystery at Lilac Inn (Nancy Drew, #4)]]> 6627944 191 Carolyn Keene 1440673675 Kathleen 3 4.20 1930 The Mystery at Lilac Inn (Nancy Drew, #4)
author: Carolyn Keene
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1930
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/04
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: childrens, fiction, mystery, read-in-2021
review:
Between skin diving, specters, and submarines, this book has all the adventure that a kid could want, along with a few interesting facts and a relevant lesson or two. I liked it.
]]>
Messenger (The Giver, #3) 9834117
This ebook includes a sample chapter of SON.]]>
169 Lois Lowry 0547345895 Kathleen 3 4.10 2004 Messenger (The Giver, #3)
author: Lois Lowry
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2021/06/23
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: childrens, fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Girl in the Green Silk Gown (Ghost Roads, #2)]]> 36384411 The second book in the Ghost Roads series returns to the highways of America, where hitchhiking ghost Rose Marshall continues her battle with her killer--the immortal Bobby Cross.

For Rose Marshall, life began when it ended. She has friends, a home, and a purpose in the strange twilight where she spends her afterlife. Sure, she's an urban legend who didn't live to see her eighteenth birthday, but she's had time to adapt, and while things could be better, she's pretty happy with her lot in death.

At least until Bobby Cross--the man who killed her in the first place--plays his ultimate card in the hole, resulting in her untimely, unwanted resurrection. Suddenly breathing and worse, suddenly mortal, Rose must find a way to solve the riddle she never wanted to contend how does a living dead girl make it back to the ghostroads without actually dying?

Her quest will make allies out of enemies and enemies out of allies as she runs from the lands of the living to the lands of the dead, trying to find a way safely home...and safely back to her grave.]]>
384 Seanan McGuire 0756413826 Kathleen 3
As completely appropriate as it is for this novel to be more linear, especially with the journey in question, I did miss the ghostly feel of Sparrow Hill Road. Those lightly interconnected stories had a drifting quality that gave the twilight ambiance. Since this book is all about intersections between life and death, crossing the border into daylight, it is no surprise to find that it is less of a ghost story.

Even so, it is a very good story about a ghost, and I highly recommend it to readers interested in the further tale of Rose Marshall.

Merged review:

A true hero's journey, traveling dark roads with an adamant spirit despite the weaknesses of the flesh, this is a beautiful modern fantasy novel. It really builds out the Incryptids universe in interesting ways, as well, given the particular Ghost Roads that are taken by Rose and her companions.

As completely appropriate as it is for this novel to be more linear, especially with the journey in question, I did miss the ghostly feel of Sparrow Hill Road. Those lightly interconnected stories had a drifting quality that gave the twilight ambiance. Since this book is all about intersections between life and death, crossing the border into daylight, it is no surprise to find that it is less of a ghost story.

Even so, it is a very good story about a ghost, and I highly recommend it to readers interested in the further tale of Rose Marshall.]]>
4.21 2018 The Girl in the Green Silk Gown (Ghost Roads, #2)
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2021/09/02
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
A true hero's journey, traveling dark roads with an adamant spirit despite the weaknesses of the flesh, this is a beautiful modern fantasy novel. It really builds out the Incryptids universe in interesting ways, as well, given the particular Ghost Roads that are taken by Rose and her companions.

As completely appropriate as it is for this novel to be more linear, especially with the journey in question, I did miss the ghostly feel of Sparrow Hill Road. Those lightly interconnected stories had a drifting quality that gave the twilight ambiance. Since this book is all about intersections between life and death, crossing the border into daylight, it is no surprise to find that it is less of a ghost story.

Even so, it is a very good story about a ghost, and I highly recommend it to readers interested in the further tale of Rose Marshall.

Merged review:

A true hero's journey, traveling dark roads with an adamant spirit despite the weaknesses of the flesh, this is a beautiful modern fantasy novel. It really builds out the Incryptids universe in interesting ways, as well, given the particular Ghost Roads that are taken by Rose and her companions.

As completely appropriate as it is for this novel to be more linear, especially with the journey in question, I did miss the ghostly feel of Sparrow Hill Road. Those lightly interconnected stories had a drifting quality that gave the twilight ambiance. Since this book is all about intersections between life and death, crossing the border into daylight, it is no surprise to find that it is less of a ghost story.

Even so, it is a very good story about a ghost, and I highly recommend it to readers interested in the further tale of Rose Marshall.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Secret of Red Gate Farm (Nancy Drew, #6)]]> 6565062 202 Carolyn Keene 1440673691 Kathleen 2
I have noticed a general trend in these books where people Nancy likes tend to be good, innocent, and deserving while people who drive foreign-made automobiles are baddies. Still, it's interesting to delve into the canon a little and get to know the characters. This one does have both George and Bess, and they are pretty much exactly what I expected them to be, which is fun. ]]>
4.21 1931 The Secret of Red Gate Farm (Nancy Drew, #6)
author: Carolyn Keene
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1931
rating: 2
read at: 2021/02/15
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: fiction, childrens, read-in-2021
review:
This one is a little iffy. The mysterious cult, the counterfeit money, and questionable snake bites are all adventurous enough for a children's book, certainly. However, the set up is really, really, really a product of its time. It's basically "a shop clerk of Chinese descent is rude to Nancy's friends and might have two jobs, what a mystery!" And then there is a mystery, so, uh...

I have noticed a general trend in these books where people Nancy likes tend to be good, innocent, and deserving while people who drive foreign-made automobiles are baddies. Still, it's interesting to delve into the canon a little and get to know the characters. This one does have both George and Bess, and they are pretty much exactly what I expected them to be, which is fun.
]]>
Lost in Summerland: Essays 58087448 Barrett Swanson sets out on a personal quest across the United States to uncover what it means to be an American amid the swirl of our post-truth climate in this collection of critically acclaimed essays and reportage.

Traversing the country, Barrett Swanson introduces us to Americans who are contending with the aftermath of political and economic collapse and considers how the end-of-history preoccupation with wellness and consumerism has led to spiritual desolation and new forms of fascism.

A trip with his brother to a New York psychic community becomes a rollicking tour through the world of American spiritualism. At a wilderness retreat in Ohio, men seek a cure for toxic masculinity, while in the hinterlands of Wisconsin, anti-war veterans turn to farming when they cannot sustain the heroic myth of service. And when his best friend’s body washes up on the shores of the Mississippi River, he falls into the gullet of true crime discussion boards, exploring the stamina of conspiracy theories along the cankered byways of the Midwest.

At a moment when grand unifying narratives have splintered into competing story lines, these essays document the many routes by which Americans are struggling to find stability in their lives, sometimes at dire and disillusioning costs.]]>
304 Barrett Swanson 1640094199 Kathleen 2 Letters from a Target Rich Environment to be particularly insightful commentary on the type of hyper-vigilance that coming of age with Columbine and 9-11 is likely to induce. "It has become easy to mistake fatalism for relief," indeed. Okay Forever is an intensely personal, deeply relatable essay about Swanson's relationship with his hospitalized brother. It's a compelling story about connections, missed and made; and it makes a number of good social points in the process of telling that story. Meanwhile Calling Audibles is a cringe inducing tale of football and fathers that attempts to generalize a disconnected adolescence to instant messaging services and the othering of people only experienced through words on a computer screen.

There were any number of points at which I almost gave up on this book entirely, especially when we were slogging through his spiritual quest with literary criticism of autofiction and cynical derision, but overall the collection is worth reading for the occasional well phrased insight. ]]>
3.92 2021 Lost in Summerland: Essays
author: Barrett Swanson
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2021/10/29
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: biography, non-fiction, political, read-in-2021
review:
Like all essay collections, this one has its hits and its misses. I found Letters from a Target Rich Environment to be particularly insightful commentary on the type of hyper-vigilance that coming of age with Columbine and 9-11 is likely to induce. "It has become easy to mistake fatalism for relief," indeed. Okay Forever is an intensely personal, deeply relatable essay about Swanson's relationship with his hospitalized brother. It's a compelling story about connections, missed and made; and it makes a number of good social points in the process of telling that story. Meanwhile Calling Audibles is a cringe inducing tale of football and fathers that attempts to generalize a disconnected adolescence to instant messaging services and the othering of people only experienced through words on a computer screen.

There were any number of points at which I almost gave up on this book entirely, especially when we were slogging through his spiritual quest with literary criticism of autofiction and cynical derision, but overall the collection is worth reading for the occasional well phrased insight.
]]>
<![CDATA[Over the Woodward Wall (The Up-and-Under, #1)]]> 49808460 If you trust her you’ll never get home�

Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning, to the way he completes his homework � without complaint, without fuss, without prompt.

Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own way. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable.

They live on the same street.

They live in different worlds.

On an unplanned detour from home to school one morning, Avery and Zib find themselves climbing over a low stone wall into the Up and Under � an impossible land filled with mystery, adventure and the strangest creatures. And they must find themselves and each other if they are to also find their way out and back to their own lives.]]>
197 A. Deborah Baker 0765399261 Kathleen 4 Middlegame. It is also a highly enjoyable fantasy novel.

Here is a map for the Improbable Road, which always changes and can therefore never be mapped at all. Here is a picture of the Impossible City which is beyond depiction or imagination. Here are the Crow Girls, the King of Cups, the Page of Frozen Waters, all somehow exactly as we knew they would be while also being just as strange, unnerving, and frightening as only the characters in a children's book can be.

Naturally, readers of Middlegame will get something different from this novel than others might, but it's also a really solid story for readers of the appropriate lexile level. I think young readers will enjoy it. ]]>
3.93 2020 Over the Woodward Wall (The Up-and-Under, #1)
author: A. Deborah Baker
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/14
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: childrens, fiction, fantasy, read-in-2021
review:
I adore when authors take the time to actually write the stories that appear in their other books, and Seanan McGuire is particularly good at it. This has every hallmark of being the silly nonsense children's story, with philosophical ideas and aspects that stand in opposition to the lessons of the Oz books, exactly as it is described in Middlegame. It is also a highly enjoyable fantasy novel.

Here is a map for the Improbable Road, which always changes and can therefore never be mapped at all. Here is a picture of the Impossible City which is beyond depiction or imagination. Here are the Crow Girls, the King of Cups, the Page of Frozen Waters, all somehow exactly as we knew they would be while also being just as strange, unnerving, and frightening as only the characters in a children's book can be.

Naturally, readers of Middlegame will get something different from this novel than others might, but it's also a really solid story for readers of the appropriate lexile level. I think young readers will enjoy it.
]]>
Gathering Blue 9743801
As she did in THE GIVER, Lowry challenges readers to imagine what our world could become, how people could evolve, and what could be considered valuable. Every reader will be taken by Kira's plight and will long ponder her haunting world and the hope for the future.]]>
175 Lois Lowry 054734578X Kathleen 3 4.01 2000 Gathering Blue
author: Lois Lowry
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2021/06/23
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: fiction, childrens, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Bungalow Mystery (Nancy Drew, #3)]]> 10401836 204 Carolyn Keene 1440673667 Kathleen 3 4.24 1930 The Bungalow Mystery (Nancy Drew, #3)
author: Carolyn Keene
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1930
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/28
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: childrens, fiction, mystery, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Last Night at the Telegraph Club]]> 53808128
But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.]]>
404 Malinda Lo 0525555269 Kathleen 4
Given the time period, this novel can't end with happily ever after, which makes the conceit of the book so perfect. The entire story is a time line, and we skip backward on it in certain chapters. In so doing, we see the romance of Lily's parents develop, mirroring her own young love. We meet Lily's Aunt Judy in scenes from Lily's childhood, seeing their relationship more fully than we might from stories told in Lily's high school years. We move along a time line with no real beginning or end, and in so doing, we learn a more complete, contextualized history than we would otherwise be privy to. It's incredibly well done, and it really gentles the inevitable heart break of a lesbian high school romance set in the 1950s.

I also have to say how much I appreciate Lily's dramatic foil Shirley being a fully realized character. She's a mean girl, and a best friend, and a Chinese American dealing with intense social pressures. The fortune cookies may have been a little on the nose, but Shirley isn't over the top or comically evil. She and Lily have fun together. They are genuinely friends. People don't have to be villains to hurt each other. And villains in the real world are just people.

For a story that is almost as much about two future rocket girls as it is about high school romance, the complexity of Wernher von Braun being a Nazi and the popular face of rocket science was particularly well addressed. ]]>
4.23 2021 Last Night at the Telegraph Club
author: Malinda Lo
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/02
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: history, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
Bitter sweet, thoroughly researched, and deeply touching, this is a coming of age story set in a fully realized picture of the 1950s. When naturalization papers can be taken from a man refusing to point out another member of his community as a communist. Where Chinatown had distinct borders and just walking beyond them carried the air of risk (how different our modern cities). In night clubs that might be raided for indecency on a rumor, with women who could be arrested for wearing the wrong clothing.

Given the time period, this novel can't end with happily ever after, which makes the conceit of the book so perfect. The entire story is a time line, and we skip backward on it in certain chapters. In so doing, we see the romance of Lily's parents develop, mirroring her own young love. We meet Lily's Aunt Judy in scenes from Lily's childhood, seeing their relationship more fully than we might from stories told in Lily's high school years. We move along a time line with no real beginning or end, and in so doing, we learn a more complete, contextualized history than we would otherwise be privy to. It's incredibly well done, and it really gentles the inevitable heart break of a lesbian high school romance set in the 1950s.

I also have to say how much I appreciate Lily's dramatic foil Shirley being a fully realized character. She's a mean girl, and a best friend, and a Chinese American dealing with intense social pressures. The fortune cookies may have been a little on the nose, but Shirley isn't over the top or comically evil. She and Lily have fun together. They are genuinely friends. People don't have to be villains to hurt each other. And villains in the real world are just people.

For a story that is almost as much about two future rocket girls as it is about high school romance, the complexity of Wernher von Braun being a Nazi and the popular face of rocket science was particularly well addressed.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew, #2)]]> 6438343 In seeking to solve the mysterious happenings in an old stone mansion, Nancy uses her courage and powers of deduction and tackles a situation that would have appalled a far older person.

]]>
192 Carolyn Keene 1440673659 Kathleen 3 4.16 1930 The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew, #2)
author: Carolyn Keene
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1930
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/16
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: childrens, fiction, mystery, read-in-2021
review:
This book opened with me thinking that Nancy's father was surprisingly close and a good parent, unlike his usual laissez faire approach, so the actual mystery was not surprising at all. That said, this is a pretty great one for the target audience. The facts about colonial houses and the varying levels of villainy among the criminals were pretty well presented.
]]>
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie 54508524 Marie Benedict, the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room, uncovers the untold story of Agatha Christie’s mysterious eleven day disappearance.

In December 1926, Agatha Christie goes missing. Investigators find her empty car on the edge of a deep, gloomy pond, the only clues some tire tracks nearby and a fur coat left in the car—strange for a frigid night. Her husband and daughter have no knowledge of her whereabouts, and England unleashes an unprecedented manhunt to find the up-and-coming mystery author. Eleven days later, she reappears, just as mysteriously as she disappeared, claiming amnesia and providing no explanations for her time away.

The puzzle of those missing eleven days has persisted. With her trademark exploration into the shadows of history, acclaimed author Marie Benedict brings us into the world of Agatha Christie, imagining why such a brilliant woman would find herself at the center of such a murky story.

What is real, and what is mystery? What role did her unfaithful husband play, and what was he not telling investigators?

A master storyteller whose clever mind may never be matched, Agatha Christie’s untold history offers perhaps her greatest mystery of all.
]]>
292 Marie Benedict 149268273X Kathleen 3 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd before opening this book.

Frankly, if you haven't read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd yet, it should be next on your to-read list regardless. ]]>
3.94 2020 The Mystery of Mrs. Christie
author: Marie Benedict
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/21
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: fiction, mystery, history, read-in-2021
review:
This is a fine piece of historical fiction detailing the rise and decline of a marriage as well as the heroic measures required for a woman to retain any sort of dignity in the eyes of society through a divorce in the 1920s. I recommend it, but IF AND ONLY IF YOU HAVE ALREADY READ CHRISTIE'S BOOKS. This novel spoils several of the Poirot books in a truly significant manner, so read those first if you haven't. I suppose the author felt it was a safe gamble, as most readers intrigued by this book will already be fans of Christie, but just to be on the safe side be absolutely certain that you've read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd before opening this book.

Frankly, if you haven't read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd yet, it should be next on your to-read list regardless.
]]>
<![CDATA[Angel of the Overpass (Ghost Roads, #3)]]> 55025050 Lady of shadows, keeper of changes, plant the seeds of faith within me, that I might grow and flourish, that I might find my way through danger and uncertainty to the safety of your garden. Let my roots grow strong and my skin grow thick, that I might stand fast against all who would destroy me. Grant to me your favor, grant to me your grace, and when my time is done, grant to me the wisdom to lay my burdens down and rest beside you, one more flower in a sea of blooms, where nothing shall ever trouble me again.

Rose Marshall died when she was sixteen years old and on her way to her high school prom. She hasn’t been resting easy since then—Bobby Cross, the man who killed her, got away clean after running her off the road, and she’s not the kind of girl who can let something like that slide. She’s been looking for a way to stop him since before they put her body in the ground.

But things have changed in the twilight world where the spirits of the restless dead continue their “lives.� The crossroads have been destroyed, and Bobby’s protections are gone. For the first time, it might be possible for Rose to defeat him.

Not alone, though. She’ll need every friend she’s managed to make and every favor she’s managed to add to her account if she wants to stand a chance…and this may be her last chance to be avenged, since what is Bobby Cross without the crossroads?

Everything Rose knows is about to change.]]>
320 Seanan McGuire 0756416914 Kathleen 4 The Girl in the Green Silk Gown without something changing. Nor could she have a real relationship with a car. Not to mention the way Annie's work with the Crossroads affects the very structure of her reality.

I like the choices made here, even as we have firmly left the dreamy ghost story of [Book: Sparrow Hill Road] behind for a more traditional hero's journey. I highly recommend this trilogy, firmly entwined with the Incryptid books as it has become. It's a midnight ride through haunted places, and perfect for this time of year. ]]>
4.41 2021 Angel of the Overpass (Ghost Roads, #3)
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/26
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
The thing about roads, even ghost roads, is that they usually lead somewhere. This was both an expected destination and an interesting turn for the series to make. Naturally Rose could hardly make a katabasis to get her death back as she does in The Girl in the Green Silk Gown without something changing. Nor could she have a real relationship with a car. Not to mention the way Annie's work with the Crossroads affects the very structure of her reality.

I like the choices made here, even as we have firmly left the dreamy ghost story of [Book: Sparrow Hill Road] behind for a more traditional hero's journey. I highly recommend this trilogy, firmly entwined with the Incryptid books as it has become. It's a midnight ride through haunted places, and perfect for this time of year.
]]>
<![CDATA[Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search, Part 1 (The Search, #1)]]> 18658691 80 Gene Luen Yang 1621156702 Kathleen 4 4.53 2013 Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search, Part 1 (The Search, #1)
author: Gene Luen Yang
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/16
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: comics, childrens, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
As it answers one of the outstanding questions of the show, this comic also addresses the great tragedy. I look forward to seeing how it plays out.
]]>
<![CDATA[Shadow of the Fox (Shadow of the Fox, #1)]]> 36672988 One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos.

Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn.

Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.

There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.

With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself.]]>
454 Julie Kagawa 1488097224 Kathleen 3
Kagawa has a terrific handle on her mythology and this story is very well told. I must admit that I found the inclusion of Japanese exclamations in ordinary speech somewhat distracting. Generally, in a fantasy novel, the reader's natural assumption is that a detour into another language is a detour from some commonly spoken tongue. In this novel, I presume that all of the characters are speaking Japanese, and I very much enjoyed the flavor of names like Hotaru Kawa instead of Firefly River or the sword Kamigoroshi. However, when a character opens a sentence by saying Nani and then continues the rest in English, the reader is forced to wonder if they said "What" in Japanese and then continued in some other unknown language. And if so, what that language might be and what the history of Iwagoto might be such that Japanese is an ancient seed language of learning, place names, and swearing.

As I say, it was distracting.

Other than that, however, this is an adorable story and I look forward to the other books. ]]>
4.00 2018 Shadow of the Fox (Shadow of the Fox, #1)
author: Julie Kagawa
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2021/11/04
date added: 2021/11/04
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
Stop me, won't you, if you've hear this one before. A young girl with the mischievous spirit of the fox suffers a great tragedy and embarks upon a sacred quest. She is joined, in no particular order, by a shinobi, a ronin, a noble prince, and a shrine maiden. Despite demons, hungry ghosts, and imperial audiences, she pursues her quest doggedly. But by the end of the first book, new enemies are revealed and the story as a whole is just beginning.

Kagawa has a terrific handle on her mythology and this story is very well told. I must admit that I found the inclusion of Japanese exclamations in ordinary speech somewhat distracting. Generally, in a fantasy novel, the reader's natural assumption is that a detour into another language is a detour from some commonly spoken tongue. In this novel, I presume that all of the characters are speaking Japanese, and I very much enjoyed the flavor of names like Hotaru Kawa instead of Firefly River or the sword Kamigoroshi. However, when a character opens a sentence by saying Nani and then continues the rest in English, the reader is forced to wonder if they said "What" in Japanese and then continued in some other unknown language. And if so, what that language might be and what the history of Iwagoto might be such that Japanese is an ancient seed language of learning, place names, and swearing.

As I say, it was distracting.

Other than that, however, this is an adorable story and I look forward to the other books.
]]>
<![CDATA[Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship]]> 23164968 A thrilling new adventure of danger and deep-sea diving, historic mystery and suspense, by the author of the New York Times bestseller Shadow Divers

Finding and identifying a pirate ship is the hardest thing to do under the sea. But two men—John Chatterton and John Mattera—are willing to risk everything to find the Golden Fleece, the ship of the infamous pirate Joseph Bannister. At large during the Golden Age of Piracy in the seventeenth century, Bannister’s exploits would have been more notorious than Blackbeard’s, more daring than Kidd’s, but his story, and his ship, have been lost to time. If Chatterton and Mattera succeed, they will make history—it will be just the second time ever that a pirate ship has been discovered and positively identified. Soon, however, they realize that cutting-edge technology and a willingness to lose everything aren’t enough to track down Bannister’s ship. They must travel the globe in search of historic documents and accounts of the great pirate’s exploits, face down dangerous rivals, battle the tides of nations and governments and experts. But it’s only when they learn to think and act like pirates—like Bannister—that they become able to go where no pirate hunters have gone before.

Fast-paced and filled with suspense, fascinating characters, history, and adventure, Pirate Hunters is an unputdownable story that goes deep to discover truths and souls long believed lost.

Advance praise for Pirate Hunters

“A great thriller full of tough guys and long odds . . . and: It’s all true.�—Lee Child

“Action and adventure on land and sea—you can’t ask for more. But Robert Kurson raises the ante in Pirate Hunters with an array of mystery and a fleet of colorful characters spanning four centuries. This is a great summer read!�—Michael Connelly

Pirate Hunters is a fantastic book, an utterly engrossing and satisfying read. It tells the story of the hunt for the rare wreck of a pirate ship, which had been captained by one of the most remarkable pirates in history. This is a real-life Treasure Island, complete with swashbuckling, half-crazy treasure hunters and vivid Caribbean settings—a story for the ages.�—Douglas Preston

“A terrific read. I was pulled in from page one. Kurson brings us face to face with some of the most swashbuckling pirates ever to sail the Caribbean, even as he takes us underwater on a high-tech quest to discover the relics they left behind.�—Daniel James Brown

“There’s nothing in the world like buried treasure—and people hungry and obsessed enough to risk their lives for it. Pirate Hunters isn’t just a good story—it’s a true one. Searching for the souls of its explorers, it takes you to the far tip of the plank and plunges you deep to the bottom of the ocean.�—Brad Meltzer

Pirate Hunters is a gripping account of two courageous divers� quest to uncover the shipwrecked vessel of Joseph Bannister, one of history’s most infamous pirates. Robert Kurson will keep you on the edge of your seat in this high-stakes journey around the globe that ultimately teaches these explorers about much more than an old ship.�—Sen. John McCain

“Kurson’s own enthusiasm, combined with his copious research and an eye for detail, makes for one of the most mind-blowing pirate stories of recent memory.�Publishers Weekly ]]>
275 Robert Kurson 1400063361 Kathleen 3 3.99 2015 Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship
author: Robert Kurson
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2021/11/01
date added: 2021/11/01
shelves: history, non-fiction, read-in-2021, travel
review:

]]>
Dawn of X, Vol. 1 48614029
COLLECTING: X-MEN (2019) #1, X-FORCE (2019) #1, MARAUDERS #1, EXCALIBUR (2019) #1, FALLEN ANGELS (2019) #1 and NEW MUTANTS (2019) #1.]]>
272 Jonathan Hickman 1302921568 Kathleen 3 3.91 2020 Dawn of X, Vol. 1
author: Jonathan Hickman
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/29
date added: 2021/10/29
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
An intriguing direction for mutant-kind. Let's see where it leads!
]]>
<![CDATA[Steven Universe: Punching Up (Vol. 2) (2)]]> 35606618
Steven, the Crystal Gems, and the whole Beach City gang embark on new Steven and the Gems enter a wrestling league, get lost in a haunted corn maze, and find a mysterious beach house.

Join writers Melanie Gillman and Grace Kraft with illustrators Katy Farina ( The Amazing World of Gumball ) and Rii Abrego for the ongoing exploits of Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe.]]>
112 Melanie Gillman 1684151341 Kathleen 3 4.02 2018 Steven Universe: Punching Up (Vol. 2) (2)
author: Melanie Gillman
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/27
date added: 2021/10/27
shelves: comics, childrens, fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:
From a Lion lazing to corn maze mysteries, these stories are sweet little adventures that any fan of the show would enjoy.
]]>
<![CDATA[Steven Universe (2017-): Fusion Frenzy #1]]> 44422284 42 Nicole Andelfinger 1641445998 Kathleen 4 4.29 Steven Universe (2017-): Fusion Frenzy #1
author: Nicole Andelfinger
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/27
date added: 2021/10/27
shelves: childrens, comics, fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:
Fan service at it's finest, here we have a collection dedicated entirely to short stories about fusions. It's adorable.
]]>
<![CDATA[Steven Universe: Warp Tour (Vol. 1) (1)]]> 34227999
In all new adventures in the world of Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe , Steven helps a baby songbird find its mother, takes part in a food truck competition, attends a Renaissance Faire, and visits possibly the scariest place of all--the Prom!

Writer Melanie Gillman ( As the Crow Flies ) and artist Katy Farina ( The Amazing World of Gumball ) team up for the start of new adventures with Steven, the Crystal Gems, and all of Beach City.]]>
112 Melanie Gillman 1684150337 Kathleen 3 4.22 2017 Steven Universe: Warp Tour (Vol. 1) (1)
author: Melanie Gillman
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/27
date added: 2021/10/27
shelves: childrens, comics, fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:
Stories about maturity, growth, and the liminal space that is being a teenager.
]]>
<![CDATA[Steven Universe: Find a Way (Vol. 5)]]> 42201546
Head on down to Beach City and see what’s shakin� with Steven Universe and the gang! You can check out what happens when Steven introduces Peridot to her first video game and her competitive side completely takes over (seriously, it’s scary), or you can take a trip down memory lane as the Crystal Gems tell the story of building their Beach City home...and how it almost came crashing down. Everywhere you turn, there’s summer fun for everyone! Writer Grace Kraft (Ornithia) and artist Rii Abrego (Rick & Morty) deliver nonstop fun and adventure, expanding the world of Cartoon Network’s hit show Steven Universe.]]>
112 Grace Kraft 1684153875 Kathleen 3
As ever with Steven Universe, "Balance is the key." Strength requires precision, work is good but so is fun, and working together is best of all.

This is a very cute comic, both for the target audience and anyone looking to smile. ]]>
4.09 2019 Steven Universe: Find a Way (Vol. 5)
author: Grace Kraft
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/27
date added: 2021/10/27
shelves: childrens, comics, read-in-2021, fiction, science-fiction
review:
This is a book of small adversities. Upon losing Lapis, Peridot loses herself in a video game. Can Amethyst find a teaching style that Pearl will approve of? How did the gems manage to build Steven's Room in the first place? Will Connie reconcile the fact that her own diligent training doesn't necessarily result in the same meteoric power bumps that Steven gets?

As ever with Steven Universe, "Balance is the key." Strength requires precision, work is good but so is fun, and working together is best of all.

This is a very cute comic, both for the target audience and anyone looking to smile.
]]>
The Starless Sea 43575115 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.]]>
498 Erin Morgenstern 038554121X Kathleen 4 3.82 2019 The Starless Sea
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/28
date added: 2021/10/27
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021, horror
review:

]]>
Venus in the Blind Spot 49081449 No Longer Human—each chilling tale invites readers to revel in a world of terror.]]> 272 Junji Ito 1974715477 Kathleen 4 4.12 2019 Venus in the Blind Spot
author: Junji Ito
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/04
date added: 2021/10/27
shelves: comics, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction, short-stories, horror
review:
This phenomenal collection of horror comics is great for anyone looking for a truly disturbing read. Like most readers familiar with the genre, I've seen "The Enigma of Amigara Fault" in other collections, but it definitely holds up on a second reading. The other stories were all new to me and extremely horrific. Ito is a master, and I highly recommend this book.
]]>
<![CDATA[Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 1]]> 52757827 When children begin to go missing in the town of Archer’s Peak, all hope seems lost until a mysterious woman arrives to reveal that terrifying creatures are behind the chaos - and that she alone will destroy them, no matter the cost.

IT’S THE MONSTERS WHO SHOULD BE AFRAID.

When the children of Archer's Peak—a sleepy town in the heart of America—begin to go missing, everything seems hopeless. Most children never return, but the ones that do have terrible stories—impossible details of terrifying creatures that live in the shadows. Their only hope of finding and eliminating the threat is the arrival of a mysterious stranger, one who believes the children and claims to be the only one who sees what they can see.

Her name is Erica Slaughter. She kills monsters. That is all she does, and she bears the cost because it must be done.

GLAAD Award-winning writer James Tynion IV (The Woods, Batman: Detective Comics) teams with artist Werther Dell’Edera (Briggs Land) for an all-new story about staring into the abyss.

Collects Something is Killing the Children #1-5]]>
128 James Tynion IV 1684155584 Kathleen 4 The Woods to the next level. Creepy, visceral, and vicious, this opens up a deadly world that I can't wait to read more about. ]]> 4.15 2020 Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 1
author: James Tynion IV
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/07
date added: 2021/10/27
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021, horror
review:
Tynion has a marked flare for horror and this book takes what we saw in The Woods to the next level. Creepy, visceral, and vicious, this opens up a deadly world that I can't wait to read more about.
]]>
<![CDATA[After the Rain: A Graphic Novel]]> 51075396
During a violent and unexpected storm in a small Nigerian town, the destiny of a Nigerian-American woman named Chioma is revealed . . . and her life is changed forever. She answers a knock at her door and is horrified to see a boy with a severe head wound standing at her doorstep. He reaches for her, and his touch burns like fire. Something is very wrong. Haunted and hunted, Chioma must embrace her heritage in order to survive.

John Jennings and David Brame’s graphic novel collaboration uses bold art and colors to powerfully tell this tale of identity and destiny.]]>
128 Nnedi Okorafor 1419743554 Kathleen 4 3.62 2021 After the Rain: A Graphic Novel
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/23
date added: 2021/10/27
shelves: comics, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021, horror
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 2]]> 51323358 Erica Slaughter may have slain the monster terrorizing the small Wisconsin town of Archer’s Peak, but now she sets off deeper into the woods -- because the monster she killed was a mother� and now she needs to kill its children.

EVIL NEVER DIES...UNLESS ERICA SLAUGHTER KILLS IT.

Erica Slaughter may have slain the monster terrorizing the small Wisconsin town of Archer’s Peak, but the horror is far from over. As her mysterious handler arrives in town to clean up her mess and quarantine the townsfolk, Erica sets off deeper into the woods -- because the monster she killed was a mother� and now she needs to kill its children.

GLAAD Award-winning writer James Tynion IV (Batman, The Woods) and artist Werther Dell’Edera (Briggs Land) present the next chapter of the critically acclaimed series that showed the world a new kind of horror.

Collects Something is Killing the Children #6-10.]]>
144 James Tynion IV 1684156491 Kathleen 3 4.26 2020 Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 2
author: James Tynion IV
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/06/09
date added: 2021/10/27
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, horror
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Steven Universe: Playing by Ear (Vol. 6)]]> 51032094
FOREVER FRIENDSHIPS …ACTIVATE!

It’s never a dull day for Steven and The Crystal Gems in this collection of all new adventures! Peridot looks to Steven and Greg for help in learning about the power of music; Vidalia and Onion try to cheer up Steven; Cat Steven needs Connie to help Steven learn to be a better owner; and Pearl helps Steven try to find the perfect birthday surprise for Connie!

Writer Grace Kraft and artist Rii Abrego (Adventure Time�) present all new stories from the world of the Cartoon Network Emmy® Award-nominated series featuring all your favorite characters!

Collects Steven Universe� #21-24.]]>
112 Grace Kraft 1684154898 Kathleen 3 4.18 Steven Universe: Playing by Ear (Vol. 6)
author: Grace Kraft
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/27
date added: 2021/10/27
shelves: childrens, comics, fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:
Guitar lessons for Peridot, a visit with Vidalia, kitten basics between Connie and Garnet, and a grove of lunar blossoms with Pearl: this book explores some small side quests. The unifying theme of these stories being that we have to work for what we want, not just let things come to us passively. Very sweet, and very appropriate for the target age group.
]]>
<![CDATA[Steven Universe (2017-2020): To Be Happy (Vol. 8)]]> 51323349 112 Sarah Gailey 1684156262 Kathleen 3
Which could possibly be the thesis of Steven Universe and is certainly a comforting theme for a comic on a windy afternoon. ]]>
4.21 Steven Universe (2017-2020): To Be Happy (Vol. 8)
author: Sarah Gailey
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/27
date added: 2021/10/27
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, childrens, science-fiction
review:
This is the ultimate low-fi Steven Universe. Pearl assumes too much responsibility and has a freak out, everyone helps her. Amethyst experiences some of her classic depression, so Steven makes her a sad nest and is sad with her. Sadie is sick, so Steven and Greg make her soup. The problems feel big, but it turns out they're manageable with friends.

Which could possibly be the thesis of Steven Universe and is certainly a comforting theme for a comic on a windy afternoon.
]]>
The Sandman: Act I 53406893 Los Angeles Times Magazine as “the greatest epic in the history of comic books�, The Sandman changed the game with its dark, literary world of fantasy and horror - creating a global, cultural phenomenon in the process. At long last, Audible and DC present the first-ever audio production of the New York Times best-selling series written by acclaimed storyteller Neil Gaiman (who also serves as co-executive producer). Adapted and directed by multi-award-winner (and frequent Gaiman collaborator) Dirk Maggs, and performed by an ensemble cast with James McAvoy (It, Parts One and Two, X-Men: First Class, Split) in the title role, this first installment of a multi-part original audio series will transport you to a world that re-writes the rules of audio entertainment the way that The Sandman originally re-defined the graphic novel.

When The Sandman, also known as Lord Morpheus - the immortal king of dreams, stories and the imagination - is pulled from his realm and imprisoned on Earth by a nefarious cult, he languishes for decades before finally escaping. Once free, he must retrieve the three “tools� that will restore his power and help him to rebuild his dominion, which has deteriorated in his absence. As the multi-threaded story unspools, The Sandman descends into Hell to confront Lucifer (Michael Sheen), chases rogue nightmares who have escaped his realm, and crosses paths with an array of characters from DC comic books, ancient myths, and real-world history, including: Inmates of Gotham City's Arkham Asylum, Doctor Destiny, the muse Calliope, the three Fates, William Shakespeare (Arthur Darvill), and many more. 

A powerhouse supporting cast helps translate this masterwork into a sonic experience worthy of its legacy, including Riz Ahmed, Kat Dennings, Taron Egerton, Samantha Morton, Bebe Neuwirth, Andy Serkis, and more. Setting the stage for their performance is an unprecedented cinematic soundscape featuring an original musical score by British Academy Award winner James Hannigan. Fans will especially revel in a new twist for the audio adaptation: Neil Gaiman himself serves as the narrator. Follow him as he leads listeners along a winding path of myths, imagination and, often, terror. Even in your wildest dreams, you’ve never heard anything like this.

The Sandman Act 1 adapts volumes 1 - 3 of the graphic novel series.]]>
11 Dirk Maggs Kathleen 5 4.39 2020 The Sandman: Act I
author: Dirk Maggs
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/10/24
date added: 2021/10/26
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021, horror
review:
I didn't think it was possible, but this is a true, honest, well done adaptation of the comic. Naturally there's a certain amount of color lost in a change of medium, but I know the comic so well that there's something lovely about listening to it read aloud. It is also an excellent horror story to indulge in at this time of year.
]]>
<![CDATA[Steven Universe: Our Fearful Trip (Vol. 7)]]> 52758247 Steven Universe�, featuring an all new story about Lars.

TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO GEM HAS GONE BEFORE!

From slinging donuts in Beach City to swashbuckling his way across the galaxy in a stolen spaceship, Lars has come a long way. And now with the Off Colors as his dependable and devoted crew, he’ll travel even further into the cosmos. But how deep is this newfound confidence? And what happens when the entire crew’s lives depend on him? Blas and Bagnoli blast us into hyperspace for an out-of-this-world journey into a mysterious nebula that forces our daring cast of gems, humans, and fusions to confront their deepest, darkest fears.

Acclaimed writer Terry Blas (Hotel Dare) and artist Gabriele Bagnoli reveal Lars and the Off Colors� hidden truths, as Steven and Connie join them in space for a mind-bending adventure no fan can miss.

Collects Steven Universe #25-28.]]>
112 Terry Blas 1684155606 Kathleen 3
The art was the usual delight that one expects from Steven Universe, and I especially liked the cover gallery with the Xiao Tong Kong fusion covers, which were beautiful. ]]>
3.94 Steven Universe: Our Fearful Trip (Vol. 7)
author: Terry Blas
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/26
date added: 2021/10/26
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:
Captain Lars and the Off Color Gems continue their space adventure, dodging Emerald as they race toward Earth. With a care package from Beach City brought by Steven and Connie who help the crew through dire circumstances, this is a fun slice of the long journey only hinted at in the cartoon.

The art was the usual delight that one expects from Steven Universe, and I especially liked the cover gallery with the Xiao Tong Kong fusion covers, which were beautiful.
]]>
<![CDATA[Any Way the Wind Blows (Simon Snow, #3)]]> 52190991 Carry On, Simon Snow and his friends realized that everything they thought they understood about the world might be wrong. And in Wayward Son, they wondered whether everything they understood about themselves might be wrong.

In Any Way the Wind Blows, Simon and Baz and Penelope and Agatha have to decide how to move forward.

For Simon, that means deciding whether he still wants to be part of the World of Mages -- and if he doesn't, what does that mean for his relationship with Baz? Meanwhile Baz is bouncing between two family crises and not finding any time to talk to anyone about his newfound vampire knowledge. Penelope would love to help, but she's smuggled an American Normal into London, and now she isn't sure what to do with him. And Agatha? Well, Agatha Wellbelove has had enough.

Any Way the Wind Blows takes the gang back to England, back to Watford, and back to their families for their longest and most emotionally wrenching adventure yet.

This book is a finale. It tells secrets and answers questions and lays ghosts to rest.

Carry On was conceived as a book about Chosen One stories; Any Way the Wind Blows is an ending about endings. About catharsis and closure, and how we choose to move on from the traumas and triumphs that try to define us.]]>
579 Rainbow Rowell 1250254337 Kathleen 4 4.11 2021 Any Way the Wind Blows (Simon Snow, #3)
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/26
date added: 2021/10/26
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Steven Universe (Greg Universe Special #1)]]> 25921079 What’s to Love: There’s a lot of heart in Rebecca Sugar’s Steven Universe, and a big part of that comes from the relationship between Steven and his dad, Greg. We’ve gathered some top indie talent for a collection of Greg-centric shorts that are sure to warm your heart.

What It Is: Steven Universe and the rest of the Crystal Gems are bonafide heroes, saving Beach City day after day. But you know who else is a hero? Greg Universe! Steven’s dad might not have Crystal Gem powers, but he’s a valuable member of the team, too! This oversized collection of shorts features father-and-son fun, as Greg teaches Steven some valuable life lessons.

]]>
33 Jeremy Sorese 1681595656 Kathleen 3 4.28 2015 Steven Universe (Greg Universe Special #1)
author: Jeremy Sorese
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/08
date added: 2021/10/08
shelves: childrens, comics, fiction, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Tangled Webs (The Black Jewels, #6)]]> 997846 Anne Bishop's national bestselling and critically acclaimed Black Jewels series has enthralled readers with its lavish blend of "the darkly macabre with spine-tingling emotional intensity, mesmerizing magic, lush sensuality, and exciting action." Now readers can return to the violently passionate world rules by the Blood, a race of witches and warlocks whose power is channeled through magical jewels....

The invitation is signed Jaenelle Angelline, she who had been both Witch and Queen.

It summons her family to an entertainment she had specially prepared. Surreal SaDiablo, former courtesan and assassin, arrives first. But as she and her escort enter the house, the door disappears. Surreal finds herself trapped in a nightmare created by the tangled webs of Black Widow witches - a nightmare where the monsters are too real. And if she uses Craft to defend herself, she risks being sealed in the house forever.

But Jaenelle did not send the invitation.

And now Jaenelle and her family must rescue Surreal and the others inside without becoming trapped themselves, and they must also discover who created such an evil place and why. Because there is one thing they all know about this house: No matter who planned it as a way to kill members of the SaDiablo family, only one of the Blood could have created the trap....

Includes the Black Jewels short story "BY THE TIME THE WITCHBLOOD BLOOMS"]]>
368 Anne Bishop 0451461606 Kathleen 3
Letting the party's fighter lead the way is a natural answer, but it's still good fun getting there. ]]>
4.05 2008 Tangled Webs (The Black Jewels, #6)
author: Anne Bishop
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/05
date added: 2021/10/08
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
An interesting thought experiment. Trapped in a house with thirty doors, each use of magic will close a door. To shield from attacking demon dead, to protect the children you invited into the haunted house, to send messages, to find your way, your greatest resource is magic. What do you do?

Letting the party's fighter lead the way is a natural answer, but it's still good fun getting there.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Last Graduate (The Scholomance, #2)]]> 55559887 A budding dark sorceress determined not to use her formidable powers uncovers yet more secrets about the workings of her world in the stunning sequel to A Deadly Education, the start of Naomi Novik’s groundbreaking crossover series.

At the Scholomance, El, Orion, and the other students are faced with their final year—and the looming specter of graduation, a deadly ritual that leaves few students alive in its wake. El is determined that her chosen group will survive, but it is a prospect that is looking harder by the day as the savagery of the school ramps up. Until El realizes that sometimes winning the game means throwing out all the rules . . .]]>
388 Naomi Novik 0593128869 Kathleen 4
Galadriel's story begins with a maw-mouth. That monster of all monsters. The gaping horror so terrible that the only advice for fighting one is to choose a different death if at all possible. Her father sacrifices himself to one so that her pregnant mother can escape the Scholomance in the first place. In a very real way, she's raised by a too-young single mother to be the person she is because of a maw-mouth.

El's story in A Deadly Education turns on the fulcrum of a maw-mouth. When she not only gives up an impossibly tempting advantage, but essentially walks into certain death to keep one from the student dormitories, she becomes the hero she never wanted to be. The hero she disparages Orion for being.

And Orion, who was just learning to want things, who was just learning that he could be something other than completely selfless and still be himself, apparently ends here with a maw-mouth.

In a way, this is the classic second book of a trilogy. All hope is lost. Nothing will ever be okay again. Because how could it be with Orion spiraling off into nothingness. If El decides to unspool the fabric of the universe and all of this has simply been the villainous origin story everyone expected her to have, I for one will be cheering from the sidelines. But I still won't forgive the final moments of this story. I'm not sure how she will, either. ]]>
4.20 2021 The Last Graduate (The Scholomance, #2)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/02
date added: 2021/10/08
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
It is impossible for me to talk about this book at all without talking about the ending.

Galadriel's story begins with a maw-mouth. That monster of all monsters. The gaping horror so terrible that the only advice for fighting one is to choose a different death if at all possible. Her father sacrifices himself to one so that her pregnant mother can escape the Scholomance in the first place. In a very real way, she's raised by a too-young single mother to be the person she is because of a maw-mouth.

El's story in A Deadly Education turns on the fulcrum of a maw-mouth. When she not only gives up an impossibly tempting advantage, but essentially walks into certain death to keep one from the student dormitories, she becomes the hero she never wanted to be. The hero she disparages Orion for being.

And Orion, who was just learning to want things, who was just learning that he could be something other than completely selfless and still be himself, apparently ends here with a maw-mouth.

In a way, this is the classic second book of a trilogy. All hope is lost. Nothing will ever be okay again. Because how could it be with Orion spiraling off into nothingness. If El decides to unspool the fabric of the universe and all of this has simply been the villainous origin story everyone expected her to have, I for one will be cheering from the sidelines. But I still won't forgive the final moments of this story. I'm not sure how she will, either.
]]>
<![CDATA[Takane & Hana, Vol. 1 (Takane & Hana, #1)]]> 36081707
The meeting between Takane and Hana ends in an explosive manner, and Hana is convinced that she'll never have to see that awful Takane again. But Takane actually seems interested in Hana! Exasperated by Takane's immature attitude, yet amused and intrigued despite herself, Hana wonders if her hilarious rivalry with Takane just might lead to love!]]>
200 Yuki Shiwasu 1421599007 Kathleen 2
Still, some fun moments that kept me reading to the end of the book. Your tomato may not be my tomato, and that's okay. ]]>
3.96 2015 Takane & Hana, Vol. 1 (Takane & Hana, #1)
author: Yuki Shiwasu
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2021/10/08
date added: 2021/10/08
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
Hana is witty and entertaining, but I just cannot get past the premise of this book. Ten years is a huge age difference when one of you is a high school student. While their dates don't have a predatory tone, it still makes me uncomfortable as a reader.

Still, some fun moments that kept me reading to the end of the book. Your tomato may not be my tomato, and that's okay.
]]>
I Am Not Starfire 56120074 Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass) and artist Yoshi Yoshitani (Zatanna and the House of Secrets) comes a story about Mandy, the daughter of super-famous superhero Starfire, and her desperate attempts to get out from under her shadow.

Seventeen-year-old Mandy Koriand’r is not her mother. Daughter of Starfire and high school outcast, Mandy is constantly trying to get out from under the shadow of her bright, bubbly, scantily clad, and famous mother. Dyeing her bright orange hair black and sticking close to her best friend, Lincoln, Mandy spends her days at school avoiding Teen Titans superfans and trying to hide her feelings for the gorgeous, popular, and perfect Claire. And while Mandy usually avoids spending too much time with her alien mother, she’s been particularly quiet as she’s keeping one major secret from her: Mandy walked out of her S.A.T.

While Mandy continues to tell Lincoln her plans of moving to France to escape the family spotlight and not go to college, she secretly hides a fear of not knowing her identity outside of just being the daughter of a superhero and who she will become. But when she is partnered with Claire to work on a school project, their friendship develops into something more and a self-confidence unknown to Mandy begins to bloom. Claire seems to like Mandy for being Mandy, not the daughter of Starfire.

But when someone from Starfire’s past comes to disrupt Mandy’s future, Mandy must finally make a choice: give up before the battle has even begun, or step into the unknown and risk everything. I Am Not Starfire is a story about mother-daughter relationships, embracing where you come from while finding your own identity, and learning to be unafraid of failing, if it was even failing in the first place.]]>
166 Mariko Tamaki 1779501269 Kathleen 4 3.38 2021 I Am Not Starfire
author: Mariko Tamaki
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/26
date added: 2021/09/26
shelves: childrens, comics, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Middlegame (Alchemical Journeys, #1)]]> 35965482 New York Times bestselling and Alex, Nebula, and Hugo-Award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces readers to a world of amoral alchemy, shadowy organizations, and impossible cities in this standalone fantasy.

Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story.

Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math.

Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realise it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet.

Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own.

Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]>
492 Seanan McGuire 1250195519 Kathleen 3 4.01 2019 Middlegame (Alchemical Journeys, #1)
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/09/14
date added: 2021/09/14
shelves: fiction, fantasy, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Black Jewels Trilogy: Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, Queen of the Darkness (The Black Jewels, #1-3)]]> 47953
Now the Dark Kingdom readies itself for the arrival of its Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But she is still young, still open to influence--and corruption.

Whoever controls the Queen controls the darkness. Three men--sworn enemies--know this. And they know the power that hides behind the blue eyes of an innocent young girl. And so begins a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal, where the weapons are hate and love--and the prize could be terrible beyond imagining...

--back cover]]>
1204 Anne Bishop 0451529014 Kathleen 3
This fantasy is goth as fuck. Delightfully so.

One thing about the world building just didn't work for me personally. I'm a Gattaca girl. In a strict caste system where a person's destiny is defined by their birth, I want to see the people who fight the system. I like a triumph of human spirit over destiny, and here the people who have tried to gain more power than what is granted them by Birthright and the powers that be in the Darkness are perverting the order of the world. And when I say perverted. CW: there is a lot of rape in this book. And pedophilia. A lot of it. YMMV

So that said, it cannot be a surprise that my favorite character in this trilogy is Surreal. No fate or grand destiny for her. She's an orphan assassin who makes good money murdering assholes and every page she dances across sparkles. In the third book, she gets a wolf best friend and does not know what to do with that because she's a grown ass woman. It's hilarious and charming that the most down to earth character in the books is Surreal.

This is a fun trilogy for readers who will not be put off by the adult content. None of the sex is explicit, but a lot of the world is based in BDSM tropes. Caveat lector. ]]>
4.39 2003 The Black Jewels Trilogy: Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, Queen of the Darkness (The Black Jewels, #1-3)
author: Anne Bishop
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2021/09/05
date added: 2021/09/05
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
A warm, dark psychodrama this trilogy is the story of a badly abused girl, neglected by her family, perversely mistreated by medical institutions, who is much more than what she seems. Told through other characters, we see that she was never small, never helpless, and she grows into Witch, the savior-dream of all downtrodden people. Three of the main storytellers are iterations of Satan, Lucifer, and Demon, all of whom lived for over a thousand years in a state of waiting for her to arrive. All of whom exist to love her in a different way, as Father, Brother, and Partner.

This fantasy is goth as fuck. Delightfully so.

One thing about the world building just didn't work for me personally. I'm a Gattaca girl. In a strict caste system where a person's destiny is defined by their birth, I want to see the people who fight the system. I like a triumph of human spirit over destiny, and here the people who have tried to gain more power than what is granted them by Birthright and the powers that be in the Darkness are perverting the order of the world. And when I say perverted. CW: there is a lot of rape in this book. And pedophilia. A lot of it. YMMV

So that said, it cannot be a surprise that my favorite character in this trilogy is Surreal. No fate or grand destiny for her. She's an orphan assassin who makes good money murdering assholes and every page she dances across sparkles. In the third book, she gets a wolf best friend and does not know what to do with that because she's a grown ass woman. It's hilarious and charming that the most down to earth character in the books is Surreal.

This is a fun trilogy for readers who will not be put off by the adult content. None of the sex is explicit, but a lot of the world is based in BDSM tropes. Caveat lector.
]]>
Lois Lane Enemy of the People 53188794
After a press briefing at the White House--and carrying a secret that could disrupt Superman's life--Lois Lane embarks on a harrowing journey to uncover a threat to her husband and research that reaches the highest levels of international power brokers and world leaders. Critically acclaimed and bestselling author Greg Rucka and master storyteller Mike Perkins team up for a tale of conspiracy, intrigue, and murder that tests the limits of tough-as-nails investigative journalist Lois Lane.

Collects LOIS LANE #1-12]]>
304 Greg Rucka 1779504748 Kathleen 4 comics, fiction, read-in-2021
While there's plenty of action, this is a Lois Lane book, so the focus is very much on the journalism. Following leads, dead end investigations, and eventually writing a story with a thousand spelling errors: that's the main plot. Superman zips through, he is her husband after all, but he has about as much time on the page as Jessica Midnight. When he does come by, he's the Superman I loved and missed during so much of the New 52 stuff.

I highly recommend this book for fans of crime fiction and comic books. ]]>
3.58 2020 Lois Lane Enemy of the People
author: Greg Rucka
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/04
date added: 2021/09/04
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
Stories that resolve continuity crises are always difficult, and this one takes on the added challenge of addressing some of our real world issues. Rene Montoya, Lois Lane, and the rest of their allies are up to the challenge.

While there's plenty of action, this is a Lois Lane book, so the focus is very much on the journalism. Following leads, dead end investigations, and eventually writing a story with a thousand spelling errors: that's the main plot. Superman zips through, he is her husband after all, but he has about as much time on the page as Jessica Midnight. When he does come by, he's the Superman I loved and missed during so much of the New 52 stuff.

I highly recommend this book for fans of crime fiction and comic books.
]]>
Lady Killer, Volume 1 23995491 Lady Killer #1�#5.

“A level of violence that can only be described as Mad Men’s Betty Draper meets Dexter.”—Comic Book Resources

Lady Killer somehow manages to perfectly incorporate the quaint concept of the 1950s TV housewife with blood-fueled antics of vicious killer for hire.”—IGN]]>
136 Joëlle Jones 1616557575 Kathleen 4 read-in-2021, fiction, comics 3.97 2015 Lady Killer, Volume 1
author: Joëlle Jones
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/04
date added: 2021/09/04
shelves: read-in-2021, fiction, comics
review:
I love, love, love the art in this book. The silly ads for the homemaker who also happens to have a career in making other people dead. The midcentury modern vibe. The bold lines and background details. This is a beautiful book. And the story of an assassin trying to find that work-life balance is charming and well executed.
]]>
<![CDATA[Canto Bight (Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, #1)]]> 35798468 295 Saladin Ahmed 152479953X Kathleen 3
I picked this up for the Mira Grant, but all four stories are strong. I highly recommend this novel for fans of the Star Wars universe beyond the exalted conflicts of the Jedi, and really anyone looking for some light science fiction. ]]>
3.38 2017 Canto Bight (Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, #1)
author: Saladin Ahmed
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/30
date added: 2021/08/30
shelves: fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction, short-stories
review:
These four interconnected novellas are exactly the sort of light-hearted criminality that one wants to see from gamblers in a Star Wars novel. We see hostage situations, high stakes business deals, assassination attempts, and gamblers trying to game a system stacked against the player. With a little chicanery, a lot of luck, and friends both old and new, everyone tumbles through the glitz and glamour of Canto Bight. Winning may be a matter of life or death, but that doesn't mean how you play the game matters any less.

I picked this up for the Mira Grant, but all four stories are strong. I highly recommend this novel for fans of the Star Wars universe beyond the exalted conflicts of the Jedi, and really anyone looking for some light science fiction.
]]>
<![CDATA[Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation]]> 28818221 I lost an arm on my last trip home.

Home is a new house with a loving husband in 1970s California that suddenly transformed in to the frightening world of the antebellum South.

Dana, a young black writer, can't explain how she is transported across time and space to a plantation in Maryland. But she does quickly understand why: to deal with the troubles of Rufus, a conflicted white slaveholder--and her progenitor.

Her survival, her very existence, depends on it.

This searing graphic-novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's science fiction classic is a powerfully moving, unflinching look at the violent disturbing effects of slavery on the people it chained together, both black and white--and made kindred in the deepest sense of the word.]]>
256 Damian Duffy 141970947X Kathleen 4 4.19 2017 Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
author: Damian Duffy
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/25
date added: 2021/08/25
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:

]]>
The Baltimore Atrocities 21929159 259 John Dermot Woods 1566893798 Kathleen 2 2.33 2014 The Baltimore Atrocities
author: John Dermot Woods
name: Kathleen
average rating: 2.33
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2021/08/25
date added: 2021/08/25
shelves: fiction, mystery, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Sawbones Book: The Hilarious, Horrifying Road to Modern Medicine: Revised and Updated For 2020]]> 54482249
Newly revised and updated for 2020, this new Paperback edition of the bestselling Sawbones Book gives you a fascinating, horrifying, funny and memorable tour through centuries of medical experimentation and practice (and sometimes malpractice). Learn about trepanation, the COVID-19 pandemic, Norovirus, Chickenpox, Diabetes, and more, all inspired by Sawbones 300+ podcast episodes.

Wondering whether eating powdered mummies might be just the thing to cure your ills? Tempted by those vintage ads suggesting you wear radioactive underpants for virility? Ever considered drilling a hole in your head to deal with those pesky headaches? Probably not! But for thousands of years, people have done things like this—and things that make radioactive underpants seem downright sensible! In their hit podcast, Sawbones, Sydnee and Justin McElroy breakdown the weird and wonderful way we got to modern healthcare . . . and some of the terrifying detours along the way.

Every week, Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin amaze, amuse, and gross out (depending on the week) hundreds of thousands of avid listeners to their podcast, Sawbones. Consistently rated a top podcast on iTunes, with over 15 million total downloads, this rollicking journey through thousands of years of medical mishaps and miracles is not only hilarious but downright educational. While you may never even consider applying  boiled weasel to your forehead (once the height of sophistication when it came to headache cures), you will almost certainly face some questionable medical advice in your everyday life (we’re looking at you, raw water!) and be better able to figure out if this is a miracle cure (it’s not) or a scam.

Table of Contents:

Part 1: The Contagious
Quarantine
The Deadly Parade
Detox
The Black Plague
Pliny the Elder
The Man Who Drank Poop
Parrot Fever

Part II: The Unnvering
The Resurrection Men
Opium
An Electrifying Experience
Weight Loss
Charcoal
Erectile Dysfunction
Spontaneous Combustion
Trepanation
The Doctor Is In

Part III: The Gross
Mummy Medicine
Mercury
The Guthole Bromance
A Piece of Your Mind
The Unkillable Phineas Gage
Phrenology
Robert Liston
Urine Luck!
Radium
Humorism
The Straight Poop
The Doctor Is In

Part IV: The Weird
The Dancing Plague
Curtis Howe Springer
Smoke 'Em if You Got 'Em
A Titanic Case of Nausea
Arsenic
Paracelsus
Honey
Self-Experimentation
Homeopathy
The Doctor Is In

Part V: The Awesome
The Poison Squad
Bloodletting
Death by Chocolate
John Harvey Kellogg
Vinegar
Polio Vaccine
The Doctor Is In]]>
232 Sydnee McElroy 1681886510 Kathleen 5 4.33 The Sawbones Book: The Hilarious, Horrifying Road to Modern Medicine: Revised and Updated For 2020
author: Sydnee McElroy
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2021/08/23
date added: 2021/08/23
shelves: history, math-science, non-fiction, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
Eight Perfect Murders 53441117 A chilling tale of psychological suspense and an homage to the thriller genre tailor-made for fans: the story of a bookseller who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation because a very clever killer has started using his list of fiction’s most ingenious murders.

Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack—which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders”—chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin’s Death Trap, A. A. Milne's Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald's The Drowner, and Donna Tartt's A Secret History.

But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes knocking on his door one snowy day in February. She’s looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the FBI agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. The killer is out there, watching his every move—a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal’s personal history, especially the secrets he’s never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.

To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects . . . and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn’t count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead—and the noose around Mal’s neck grows so tight he might never escape.]]>
304 Peter Swanson 0062838199 Kathleen 3
This is the second book recently that's spoiled The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. As someone who only came to Christie in my thirties, I have to say, read Christie before reading basically any modern mystery that is remotely referential. ]]>
3.70 2020 Eight Perfect Murders
author: Peter Swanson
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/23
date added: 2021/08/23
shelves: fiction, mystery, read-in-2021
review:
When I was leant this book it was described to me as a good beach read with teeth, which is absolutely true. It gains a lot from the great mysteries listed, so I really only recommend this one to serious fans of the genre. If you're familiar with the mysteries referenced, the novel follows along well foreshadowed lines to a natural conclusion. If you're not familiar with the mysteries referenced, I highly recommend reading those first.

This is the second book recently that's spoiled The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. As someone who only came to Christie in my thirties, I have to say, read Christie before reading basically any modern mystery that is remotely referential.
]]>
<![CDATA[A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)]]> 50548197
A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) � until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate� or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.]]>
320 Naomi Novik 0593128486 Kathleen 5
Or not. Because El's is the best kind of disinterested analysis: no life is worth more or less than any other.

This story is beautifully written and terrifically compelling. Many of the monsters are truly horrifying, and yet Novik manages to hang on to a great deal of British Boarding School Charm. From the question of popularity at a dining hall table, when sitting alone on the outer edge of the room means you're the most likely to be eaten during the meal, to being automatically shut out of a classroom in an apparently empty hall when the late bell rings, every aspect of boarding school is delightfully twisted in this novel. Everything except for the teachers. There are no teacher in the Scholomance, only monsters.

I appreciate that alteration from the traditional folklore about a school run by the devil where classes are taught by demons. Instead, the set up for the Scholomance is both more natural and more insidious. It's a beautiful bit of world building. ]]>
3.93 2020 A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/08/23
date added: 2021/08/23
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
El is my favorite kind of character to read from Novik. She's brilliant, ruthless, and heartlessly practical. Survival is a zero sum game in the Scholomance. The golden boy Orion is keeping the monsters who stalk the halls hungry by saving so many other kids, which hurts her own chances. Naturally, she must kill him for that.

Or not. Because El's is the best kind of disinterested analysis: no life is worth more or less than any other.

This story is beautifully written and terrifically compelling. Many of the monsters are truly horrifying, and yet Novik manages to hang on to a great deal of British Boarding School Charm. From the question of popularity at a dining hall table, when sitting alone on the outer edge of the room means you're the most likely to be eaten during the meal, to being automatically shut out of a classroom in an apparently empty hall when the late bell rings, every aspect of boarding school is delightfully twisted in this novel. Everything except for the teachers. There are no teacher in the Scholomance, only monsters.

I appreciate that alteration from the traditional folklore about a school run by the devil where classes are taught by demons. Instead, the set up for the Scholomance is both more natural and more insidious. It's a beautiful bit of world building.
]]>
<![CDATA[Rat Queens, Vol. 7: The Once and Future King]]> 52965491 ]]> 136 Ryan Ferrier 1534314660 Kathleen 3 3.66 2020 Rat Queens, Vol. 7: The Once and Future King
author: Ryan Ferrier
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/23
date added: 2021/08/23
shelves: comics, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
The tension between Dee and Hannah over whether or not Dee should use her god powers on the mortal plane is extremely well done. I found Gary the Now More Powerful Villain to be pretty meh, but he was fine as a vehicle for some nice team building moments. I particularly enjoyed checking back in with Violet and Orc Dave.
]]>
<![CDATA[Calculated Risks (InCryptid, #10)]]> 51800069 The tenth book in the fast-paced InCryptid urban fantasy series returns to the mishaps of the Price family, eccentric cryptozoologists who safeguard the world of magical creatures living in secret among humans.

Just when Sarah Zellaby, adopted Price cousin and telepathic ambush predator, thought that things couldn’t get worse, she’s had to go and prove herself wrong. After being kidnapped and manipulated by her birth family, she has undergone a transformation called an instar, reaching back to her Apocritic origins to metamorphize. While externally the same, she is internally much more powerful, and much more difficult to control.

Even by herself. After years of denial, the fact that she will always be a cuckoo has become impossible to deny.

Now stranded in another dimension with a handful of allies who seem to have no idea who she is–including her cousin Annie and her maybe-boyfriend Artie, both of whom have forgotten their relationship–and a bunch of cuckoos with good reason to want her dead, Sarah must figure out not only how to contend with her situation, but with the new realities of her future. What is she now? Who is she now? Is that person someone she can live with?

And when all is said and done, will she be able to get the people she loves, whether or not they’ve forgotten her, safely home?]]>
433 Seanan McGuire 0756411815 Kathleen 4
Is it any surprise that other members of the family made it there first?

I love everything about the alternate society, from their preying mantis ponies to their obsession with the incubus. The empty cuckoos were a nicely horrifying enemy to fill the transported college campus, reminding me very much of some of the fantastic Mira Grant novels with zombies lurching around corners. Beyond that, we get so much story in this book, and answers to some questions we've been asking for a while.

The added novella bringing us back to an earlier carefree comic book convention was a nice reminder that those stories are always there as well, despite the arc toward tragedy in this particular novel. ]]>
4.04 2021 Calculated Risks (InCryptid, #10)
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/05
date added: 2021/08/05
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
From the very beginning, the history of the Price family has included other planes of existence. We have always known that Cuckoos came to our earth through a tear in reality. And at last we follow our favorite psychic ambush predator Sarah to visit another one of these worlds.

Is it any surprise that other members of the family made it there first?

I love everything about the alternate society, from their preying mantis ponies to their obsession with the incubus. The empty cuckoos were a nicely horrifying enemy to fill the transported college campus, reminding me very much of some of the fantastic Mira Grant novels with zombies lurching around corners. Beyond that, we get so much story in this book, and answers to some questions we've been asking for a while.

The added novella bringing us back to an earlier carefree comic book convention was a nice reminder that those stories are always there as well, despite the arc toward tragedy in this particular novel.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Adventure Zone Vol. 4: The Crystal Kingdom]]> 54017829 The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom takes this #1 New York Times bestselling series to haunting new heights.

A desperate call for help interrupts holiday celebrations at the Bureau of Balance, and sends Taako, Magnus and Merle on a high-stakes mission to find and Reclaim a fourth deadly relic: a powerful transmutation stone, hidden somewhere in the depths of a floating arcane laboratory that’s home to the Doctors Maureen and Lucas Miller. An unknown menace has seized control of the stone, and is using it to transform the lab into a virulent pink crystal that spreads to everything it touches.

It’s only a matter of time before this sparkling disaster crash-lands, but in order to find the stone and save the whole planet from being King Midased, our heroes will have to fight their way through a gauntlet of rowdy robots and crystal golems, decide whether they can trust the evasive Lucas Miller, and solve the mystery of what—or who—has put them all in peril, before there’s no world left to save.]]>
272 Clint McElroy 1250232651 Kathleen 5
She saw seven birds.

...

I love this story so much. ]]>
4.56 2021 The Adventure Zone Vol. 4: The Crystal Kingdom
author: Clint McElroy
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/07/24
date added: 2021/07/24
shelves: comics, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
Everything starts coming together in the Crystal Kingdom. We meet Kravitz and Carey, who I love so, so much. We talk about deaths unknown and Maureen's vision.

She saw seven birds.

...

I love this story so much.
]]>
<![CDATA[Troy (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #3)]]> 53443339
In Troy you will find heroism and hatred, love and loss, revenge and regret, desire and despair. It is these human passions, written bloodily in the sands of a distant shore, that still speak to us today.]]>
414 Stephen Fry 0241424585 Kathleen 4 4.36 2020 Troy (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #3)
author: Stephen Fry
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/16
date added: 2021/07/16
shelves: fiction, history, non-fiction, humor, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2)]]> 36307674
The wolves are circling and a young king will face his greatest challenge in the explosive finale of the instant #1 New York Times-bestselling King of Scars Duology.

The Demon King. As Fjerda's massive army prepares to invade, Nikolai Lantsov will summon every bit of his ingenuity and charm—and even the monster within—to win this fight. But a dark threat looms that cannot be defeated by a young king's gift for the impossible.

The Stormwitch. Zoya Nazyalensky has lost too much to war. She saw her mentor die and her worst enemy resurrected, and she refuses to bury another friend. Now duty demands she embrace her powers to become the weapon her country needs. No matter the cost.

The Queen of Mourning. Deep undercover, Nina Zenik risks discovery and death as she wages war on Fjerda from inside its capital. But her desire for revenge may cost her country its chance at freedom and Nina the chance to heal her grieving heart.

King. General. Spy. Together they must find a way to forge a future in the darkness. Or watch a nation fall.]]>
592 Leigh Bardugo 1510109188 Kathleen 4 4.34 2021 Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2)
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/14
date added: 2021/07/14
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[King of Scars (King of Scars, #1)]]> 36307634 Face your demons... or feed them.

The dashing young king, Nikolai Lantsov, has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country's bloody civil war--and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, Nikolai must find a way to refill Ravka's coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha general, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren't meant to stay buried--and some wounds aren't meant to heal.]]>
511 Leigh Bardugo 125014227X Kathleen 4 4.16 2019 King of Scars (King of Scars, #1)
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/14
date added: 2021/07/14
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:

]]>
Son (The Giver, #4) 16080079
Son thrusts readers once again into the chilling world of the Newbery Medal winning book, The Giver, as well as Gathering Blue and Messenger where a new hero emerges. In this thrilling series finale, the startling and long-awaited conclusion to Lois Lowry’s epic tale culminates in a final clash between good and evil.]]>
255 Lois Lowry 0547928513 Kathleen 3 3.63 2012 Son (The Giver, #4)
author: Lois Lowry
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2021/07/14
date added: 2021/07/14
shelves: childrens, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children, #6)]]> 53205924 A young girl discovers a portal to a land filled with centaurs and unicorns in Seanan McGuire's Across the Green Grass Fields, a standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-wining Wayward Children series.

“Welcome to the Hooflands. We’re happy to have you, even if you being here means something’s coming.�

Regan loves, and is loved, though her school-friend situation has become complicated, of late.

When she suddenly finds herself thrust through a doorway that asks her to "Be Sure" before swallowing her whole, Regan must learn to live in a world filled with centaurs, kelpies, and other magical equines―a world that expects its human visitors to step up and be heroes.

But after embracing her time with the herd, Regan discovers that not all forms of heroism are equal, and not all quests are as they seem…]]>
174 Seanan McGuire 1250213592 Kathleen 3
I highly recommend this series. ]]>
3.78 2021 Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children, #6)
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/06/20
date added: 2021/06/20
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
In a lot of these books, the world beyond the door affects the wayward child in unfortunate ways. This novella explores the opposite idea, and it's beautifully done.

I highly recommend this series.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 9: Okay]]> 42835876
Collects THE WICKED +THE DIVINE #40-45]]>
168 Kieron Gillen 1534312498 Kathleen 5
"There were two girls in hell."

Beautiful. Cathartic. Satisfyingly answering all the questions the series brought up. ]]>
4.22 2019 The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 9: Okay
author: Kieron Gillen
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/20
date added: 2021/06/20
shelves: fantasy, fiction, comics, read-in-2021
review:
Just when you thought this series couldn't end well.

"There were two girls in hell."

Beautiful. Cathartic. Satisfyingly answering all the questions the series brought up.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 8: Old Is the New New]]> 40629242
Collects all six of THE WICKED + THE DIVINE's essential Specials.]]>
232 Kieron Gillen 1534308806 Kathleen 3 3.59 2019 The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 8: Old Is the New New
author: Kieron Gillen
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/06/20
date added: 2021/06/20
shelves: comics, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
These are single issues and stand alone stories, which shouldn't work in a series like this, but really does. Of course I enjoyed the fan-service issues with the characters we already know and love, but the histories do a truly beautiful job of illustrating why Ananke behaves the way she does with the Pantheon of our time. "And Then There Was One..." is basically a full novella, along with being a bit of a Christie parody, so I liked it very much, but all of these are beautiful.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 7: Mothering Invention]]> 38812875
Collects THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #34-39
]]>
208 Kieron Gillen 1534308407 Kathleen 4
This series is building toward an end, and it's going to be a good one. ]]>
4.15 2018 The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 7: Mothering Invention
author: Kieron Gillen
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/20
date added: 2021/06/20
shelves: comics, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
The mysteries of Ananke finally come into focus as the deeper work she was doing with the Pantheon is revealed. Baal is so ill-used that I ache for him. The story he's living contrasts so awfully with Laura's realization that she has the ability to tell her own story.

This series is building toward an end, and it's going to be a good one.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 6: Imperial Phase, Part II]]> 35651693
The bestselling, critically-acclaimed comic by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie and Matt Wilson reaches its most dramatic arc yet.

Collects THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #29-33
]]>
168 Kieron Gillen 1534304738 Kathleen 3
I like the progression of the story overall, and while the big reveal at the end of this story was not entirely unexpected, it was extremely well executed. This series is great. ]]>
4.08 2018 The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 6: Imperial Phase, Part II
author: Kieron Gillen
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2021/06/20
date added: 2021/06/20
shelves: comics, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
I never expected to like Dionysus as much as I do in this book. I always expected to feel as frustrated and sad about Sakhmet as I do in this book.

I like the progression of the story overall, and while the big reveal at the end of this story was not entirely unexpected, it was extremely well executed. This series is great.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 5: Imperial Phase, Part I]]> 33585540 ]]> 200 Kieron Gillen 1534301852 Kathleen 3 3.98 2017 The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 5: Imperial Phase, Part I
author: Kieron Gillen
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2021/06/20
date added: 2021/06/20
shelves: comics, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
"You do what you want. And then you try to live with it." could be the entire tag line of this series. This book opens up a lot of plot, and starts to bring the pantheon together in interesting ways.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers, #4)]]> 50209317
At the Five-Hop One-Stop, long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and get fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.

When a freak technological failure halts all traffic to and from Gora, three strangers—all different species with different aims—are thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, with nothing to do but wait, the trio—an exiled artist with an appointment to keep, a cargo runner at a personal crossroads, and a mysterious individual doing her best to help those on the fringes—are compelled to confront where they’ve been, where they might go, and what they are, or could be, to each other.]]>
336 Becky Chambers 0062936050 Kathleen 4 4.37 2021 The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers, #4)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/04
date added: 2021/06/20
shelves: fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:
A beautiful book to end the series on.
]]>
<![CDATA[A Killing Frost (October Daye, #14)]]> 45434007 368 Seanan McGuire 075641508X Kathleen 4 4.26 2020 A Killing Frost (October Daye, #14)
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/01
date added: 2021/06/20
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
The Nickel Boys 42273713 This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood's only salvation is his friendship with fellow "delinquent" Turner, which deepens despite Turner's conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.

Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.]]>
224 Colson Whitehead 0385537085 Kathleen 4 4.13 2019 The Nickel Boys
author: Colson Whitehead
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/24
date added: 2021/05/24
shelves: fiction, history, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Petals to the Metal (The Adventure Zone Graphic Novels, #3)]]> 46223324 New York Times Bestselling books The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins and The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited.

Our boys have gone full-time at the Bureau of Balance, and their next assignment is a real thorny one: apprehending The Raven, a master thief who’s tapped into the power of a Grand Relic to ransack the city of Goldcliff. Local life-saver Lieutenant Hurley pulls them out of the woods, only to throw them headlong into the world of battle wagon racing, Goldcliff’s favorite high-stakes low-legality sport and The Raven’s chosen battlefield. Will the boys and Hurley be able to reclaim the Relic and pull The Raven back from the brink, or will they get lost in the weeds?

Based on the beloved blockbuster podcast where three brothers and their dad play a tabletop RPG in real time, The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal has it all: blossoming new friendships, pining for outlaw lovers, and a rollicking race you can root for!]]>
272 Clint McElroy 1250232635 Kathleen 4
It isn't that the McElroy's don't stumble into problematic topes occasionally, but they always make a good faith effort to correct it, and I really appreciate that. ]]>
4.61 2020 Petals to the Metal  (The Adventure Zone Graphic Novels, #3)
author: Clint McElroy
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/23
date added: 2021/05/23
shelves: comics, fantasy, read-in-2021, fiction
review:
Love what they did with Sloane and Hurley in this one, so we don't need to wait for the big finale.

It isn't that the McElroy's don't stumble into problematic topes occasionally, but they always make a good faith effort to correct it, and I really appreciate that.
]]>
Adler: Volume 1 55922715
At the start of the 20th Century, Jane Eyre returns home to Britain after serving as a nurse during the Boer War. Grieving the loss of her sweetheart and left traumatized by the fighting, she finds her world upended when she is introduced to Irene Adler - and is propelled into a world of intrigue, espionage and murder! The duo is soon racing to stop the radioactive secrets of Marie Curie, intended for good, being turned into weapons of mass destruction!]]>
128 Lavie Tidhar 1782760717 Kathleen 3 2.93 Adler: Volume 1
author: Lavie Tidhar
name: Kathleen
average rating: 2.93
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2021/05/06
date added: 2021/05/06
shelves: comics, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Silent Voice, Vol. 7 (A Silent Voice, #7)]]> 26192732
Shoya’s life hangs on by a thread after he jumped just in time to save Shoko. Despite the despair, Shoko is determined to move forward and get back what she thinks she has ruined� But broken friendships can heal, too. Quietly, but surely, the disbanded crew finds their spirit � the show must go on! As the movie-making reconvenes, the kids begin to transform the world that had once been so cruel to them. What could the future hold for everyone?

Final volume!]]>
190 Yoshitoki Oima 1632362228 Kathleen 3 4.24 2014 A Silent Voice, Vol. 7 (A Silent Voice, #7)
author: Yoshitoki Oima
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/18
date added: 2021/04/18
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
A fine conclusion to the series. I very much like that this book isn't really about trying to fix the past, it's about learning to face it. While definitely melodramatic in places, I recommend it for the target audience.
]]>
<![CDATA[A Silent Voice, Volume 6 (A Silent Voice, #6)]]> 26067699
Time stands still for both Shoya and Shoko. Triggered by past traumas, Shoya coldly attacked his friends and burnt the bridges he first set out to rebuild. Shoko feels a deep responsibility for this disaster and attempts to pay for it by taking her own life. Meanwhile, each of their friends finally show their true colors. After everything has fallen apart, how will they mend their hearts and put the pieces back together?]]>
184 Yoshitoki Oima 1632360616 Kathleen 3 4.36 2014 A Silent Voice, Volume 6 (A Silent Voice, #6)
author: Yoshitoki Oima
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/18
date added: 2021/04/18
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
I loved the reveal of Yuzuru's artistic eye and that the reason for her photography was something more than just establishing her as a weird kid. The long, long awaited chapter from Shoko's point of view was well done, though some of the dramatics elsewhere in the overall plot felt more than a little exaggerated.
]]>
<![CDATA[A Silent Voice, Volume 5 (A Silent Voice, #5)]]> 25387768 190 Yoshitoki Oima 1632360608 Kathleen 3
You can't.

But also, you shouldn't have to do that with a new acquaintance who has only heard rumors of what you were like at your worst. ]]>
4.35 2014 A Silent Voice, Volume 5 (A Silent Voice, #5)
author: Yoshitoki Oima
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/18
date added: 2021/04/18
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
How can you prove you've grown as a person?

You can't.

But also, you shouldn't have to do that with a new acquaintance who has only heard rumors of what you were like at your worst.
]]>
<![CDATA[A Silent Voice, Volume 4 (A Silent Voice, #4)]]> 25241952
Once upon a time, Shoya was terribly cruel to Shoko, his elementary school classmate who couldn’t hear. To make up for his past sins, Shoya has devoted himself to repaying the debt of happiness he owes. So when Shoko faces a romantic setback, Shoya assembles some familiar faces from their past for a trip to the amusement park that may just change things for Shoya, too.]]>
190 Yoshitoki Oima 1632360594 Kathleen 3
The Nishimiya family history was interesting. It could have been justification for their mother's abuse, except neither girl really forgives her, so instead it's just an honest story about the real difficulties the family faces because of Shoko's disability. It didn't feel melodramatic or unrealistic, and I had been waiting for that dramatic haircutting scene for two volumes so I was happy to see it.

This is a great YA book, and I highly recommend it for the target audience.]]>
4.33 2014 A Silent Voice, Volume 4 (A Silent Voice, #4)
author: Yoshitoki Oima
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/16
date added: 2021/04/16
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
Trip to the amusement park! But this isn't filler or an OAV. This is a real exploration of Shoya's depression, his philosophy of friendship, and what it means for him to show genuine kindness to someone other than the girl he has a crush on.

The Nishimiya family history was interesting. It could have been justification for their mother's abuse, except neither girl really forgives her, so instead it's just an honest story about the real difficulties the family faces because of Shoko's disability. It didn't feel melodramatic or unrealistic, and I had been waiting for that dramatic haircutting scene for two volumes so I was happy to see it.

This is a great YA book, and I highly recommend it for the target audience.
]]>
<![CDATA[A Silent Voice, Vol. 3 (A Silent Voice, #3)]]> 23995508
Shoya’s decided to do everything he can to make up for how terribly he treated Shoko, his former classmate who can’t hear. But more than the challenge of learning to communicate, it means facing a past he thought he’d left behind forever. Now a reunion with old friends will transform Shoya, and his relationship with Shoko.]]>
184 Yoshitoki Oima 1632360586 Kathleen 3 4.27 2014 A Silent Voice, Vol. 3 (A Silent Voice, #3)
author: Yoshitoki Oima
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/16
date added: 2021/04/16
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
Ueno, a pretty typical mean girl, returns to the story. I like the complexity of her character, and she makes a fairly good foil for Shoya. We'll see how that progresses.
]]>
<![CDATA[Wonder Woman, Vol. 2: Love is a Battlefield]]> 48840533
Wonder Woman's mother is missing, and so is the goddess of love, Aphrodite's son! Together, they'll turn the world upside down to find them...but they must fight a pack of wayward Titans first and convince Diana's foe Dr. Doris Zuel, a.k.a. Giganta, to join the fight. After Steve Trevor joins to support Diana and Aphrodite, and they find Aphrodite's missing son, who might know the secret to reunite Wonder Woman with her long-lost family and home on Paradise Island...will Diana and her compatriots be able to survive the journey through the broken realm?

Collects Wonder Woman #66-#73]]>
160 G. Willow Wilson 1779500408 Kathleen 4
Antlantiades may be in the midst of a centuries long fight with their mother, Aphrodite, who has been helping Wonder Woman for several issues, but the team up comes quickly. I very much enjoyed the way Diana approached the mischief being caused by the demigod's cult and the personal conflict. Wisdom is a super power used too infrequently in comics.

This continues to be an extremely fun book. I highly recommend it for all readers. ]]>
3.55 2020 Wonder Woman, Vol. 2: Love is a Battlefield
author: G. Willow Wilson
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/16
date added: 2021/04/16
shelves: comics, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
Quests, destiny, and demigods, oh my! Starting strong with a traditional Suicide Squad villain team up, this book opens with Wonder Woman and Giganta fighting titans while the refuges from Olympus and their ordinary human friend encounter trouble on a camping trip. Thereafter we go to a small town where a great deal of trouble is being caused by Antlantiades, the child of Aphrodite and Hermes.

Antlantiades may be in the midst of a centuries long fight with their mother, Aphrodite, who has been helping Wonder Woman for several issues, but the team up comes quickly. I very much enjoyed the way Diana approached the mischief being caused by the demigod's cult and the personal conflict. Wisdom is a super power used too infrequently in comics.

This continues to be an extremely fun book. I highly recommend it for all readers.
]]>
<![CDATA[A Silent Voice, Vol. 2 (A Silent Voice, #2)]]> 23995507
It’s been five years since Shoya Ishida bullied Shoko Nishimiya so badly she left their elementary school, because of one simple difference between them: Shoya can hear, and Shoko can’t. In the intervening time, Shoya’s life has changed completely. Shunned by his friends, Shoya’s longed for the chance to make up for his cruelty. When it finally comes, will he find the voice to tell Shoko he’s changed? And will Shoko listen?]]>
192 Yoshitoki Oima 1632360578 Kathleen 3
Here we have Shoya's first apology, and a third perspective on Shoko's suffering. I believe that Shoya is trying to do better, but I'm glad that there are people in Shoko's life who aren't going to make apologizing easy for him. ]]>
4.29 2014 A Silent Voice, Vol. 2 (A Silent Voice, #2)
author: Yoshitoki Oima
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/15
date added: 2021/04/15
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
I was expecting this book to be from Shoko's perspective. If they leave that off too long, the series risks making her a little too angelic to be relatable, which can for sure be an issue in a manga like this. Nevertheless, I have heard such good things about this book that I'm willing to trust and keep reading.

Here we have Shoya's first apology, and a third perspective on Shoko's suffering. I believe that Shoya is trying to do better, but I'm glad that there are people in Shoko's life who aren't going to make apologizing easy for him.
]]>
<![CDATA[A Silent Voice, Vol. 1 (A Silent Voice, #1)]]> 23128387
Shoya is a bully. When Shoko, a girl who can’t hear, enters his elementary school class, she becomes their favorite target, and Shoya and his friends goad each other into devising new tortures for her. But the children’s cruelty goes too far. Shoko is forced to leave the school, and Shoya ends up shouldering all the blame. Six years later, the two meet again. Can Shoya make up for his past mistakes, or is it too late?]]>
190 Yoshitoki Oima 163236056X Kathleen 3 4.47 2011 A Silent Voice, Vol. 1 (A Silent Voice, #1)
author: Yoshitoki Oima
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/15
date added: 2021/04/15
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
With a conceit like this Manga, I think it's probably very tempting to make the things that the bully character does initially relatively innocuous. This book does a great job of avoiding that trap with Shoya. It's clear that he's an idiot who does cruel things without realizing they'll hurt other people, and his classmates laugh right along with him, but the damage he wreaks is clear. This is a good set up, and I look forward to seeing where the series goes.
]]>
<![CDATA[Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You): A How-to Guide from the First Family of Podcasting]]> 53287275 Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy made their names as “advice giving brothers who have no business giving advice� (New York Times) on the hit podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me. But while they may not have the best relationship or workplace advice, they certainly make you laugh, and they do know a thing or two about podcasting.
In fact, the McElroy Brothers have spent the last decade making podcasts, including My Brother, My Brother and Me; The Adventure Zone; Sawbones; and more. From their start, independently producing and releasing the early episodes of My Brother, My Brother and Me, to their eleven currently available podcasts, the McElroys have become experts in creating successful podcasts. And now, they want to share what they’ve learned with you.
In Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You), the McElroy Brothers will walk you through the process of turning an idea into ear-candy for legions of fans, sharing their expertise on everything from deciding on an effective name (definitely not something like My Brother, My Brother and Me), what type of microphone to use (definitely not one from the video game Rock Band), to making lots and lots of money (spoiler: you probably won’t).
A must-read for anyone interested in podcasting, Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You) shares the keys to success as well as the mistakes to avoid and draws on the vast experiences of three of the funniest and most successful podcasters working today.]]>
272 Justin McElroy 0062974807 Kathleen 4
Plus, it's written by these good, good boys. I particularly enjoy the layout of this book. Rather than writing collaboratively, each little section is written in the voice of one of the brothers. If another brother has something to say about the topic, a little pop up box with their face appears to add the tip or ask, "Has anyone out there ever dreamed of watching a grown man pull several paragraphs of legal-sounding text out of his ass? Keep your eyes on my brother as he does exactly that!"

This is a fun, light read, and it is also a serious, step-by-step guide to creating a podcast. If that is something you want to do, this book has everything you need to know to get started along with really good advice on where to look for deeper research or more detailed tips. If that is something you never intend to do, it's still a good book to read. Because it never hurts to know how things work. ]]>
4.18 2021 Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You): A How-to Guide from the First Family of Podcasting
author: Justin McElroy
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/15
date added: 2021/04/15
shelves: how-to, non-fiction, read-in-2021
review:
I am one of the readers who will be meeting the McElroys in this exact spot ten years from now wearing a red carnation. Which is to say, I have no intention of starting a podcast of my own. I read this book because it is always interesting to read real experts discuss their subject. From preproduction through color-coding microphone cables to the important question of what kind of yacht you should buy with all the t-shirt money you make from podcasting, this book is a deep look at a very specific corner of modern media.

Plus, it's written by these good, good boys. I particularly enjoy the layout of this book. Rather than writing collaboratively, each little section is written in the voice of one of the brothers. If another brother has something to say about the topic, a little pop up box with their face appears to add the tip or ask, "Has anyone out there ever dreamed of watching a grown man pull several paragraphs of legal-sounding text out of his ass? Keep your eyes on my brother as he does exactly that!"

This is a fun, light read, and it is also a serious, step-by-step guide to creating a podcast. If that is something you want to do, this book has everything you need to know to get started along with really good advice on where to look for deeper research or more detailed tips. If that is something you never intend to do, it's still a good book to read. Because it never hurts to know how things work.
]]>
An Unkindness of Ghosts 34381254
Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot—if she’s willing to sow the seeds of civil war.]]>
351 Rivers Solomon 1617755885 Kathleen 4 3.95 2017 An Unkindness of Ghosts
author: Rivers Solomon
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/01
date added: 2021/04/15
shelves: fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:

]]>
The Sacrifice of Darkness 51601851 New York Times bestselling short story “We Are the Sacrifice of Darkness� as a full length graphic novel, expanding and further developing the unforgettable world where the sun no longer shines.

“When I was a young girl, my husband’s father flew an air machine into the sun. Since then, the days have been dark, the nights bright.�

Follow one woman’s powerful journey through this new landscape as she discovers love, family, and the true light in a world seemingly robbed of any. As she challenges notions of identity, guilt, and survival she’ll find that no matter the darkness, there remains sources of hope that can pierce the veil.]]>
128 Roxane Gay 1684156246 Kathleen 4
This is a beautiful book full of color and philosophical musings. I recommend it for readers in a contemplative mood. ]]>
3.49 2020 The Sacrifice of Darkness
author: Roxane Gay
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/15
date added: 2021/04/15
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:
Do we punish a son for the sins of his father? Yes, this book answers simply, and we should not. At heart, this is two love stories, interwoven with broader social questions of ostracism, alienation, and capitalism. How far can a person be pushed, and what is needed to repair old wounds?

This is a beautiful book full of color and philosophical musings. I recommend it for readers in a contemplative mood.
]]>
<![CDATA[Third Grave Dead Ahead (Charley Davidson, #3)]]> 12043770 310 Darynda Jones 1250001544 Kathleen 2 4.31 2012 Third Grave Dead Ahead (Charley Davidson, #3)
author: Darynda Jones
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2021/04/05
date added: 2021/04/05
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #3)]]> 7093952
But on the winter night when they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn't show. Frank took it for granted that she'd given him the brush-off--probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again.

Neither did Rosie. Everyone thought she had gone to England on her own and was over there living a shiny new life. Then, twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place, and Frank is going home whether he likes it or not.

Getting sucked in is a lot easier than getting out again. Frank finds himself straight back in the dark tangle of relationships he left behind. The cops working the case want him out of the way, in case loyalty to his family and community makes him a liability. Faithful Place wants him out because he’s a detective now, and the Place has never liked cops. Frank just wants to find out what happened to Rosie Daly-and he’s willing to do whatever it takes, to himself or anyone else, to get the job done.]]>
400 Tana French 0670021873 Kathleen 4 3.98 2010 Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #3)
author: Tana French
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/05
date added: 2021/04/05
shelves: fiction, mystery, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Ready Player Two (Ready Player One, #2)]]> 26082916 An unexpected quest. Two worlds at stake. Are you ready?

Days after winning Oasis founder James Halliday's contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything.

Hidden within Halliday's vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the Oasis a thousand times more wondrous—and addictive—than even Wade dreamed possible.

With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest—a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize.

And an unexpected, impossibly powerful, and dangerous new rival awaits, one who'll kill millions to get what he wants.

Wade's life and the future of the Oasis are again at stake, but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance.

Lovingly nostalgic and wildly original as only Ernest Cline could conceive it, Ready Player Two takes us on another imaginative, fun, action-packed adventure through his beloved virtual universe, and jolts us thrillingly into the future once again.]]>
370 Ernest Cline 1524761338 Kathleen 3 3.39 2020 Ready Player Two (Ready Player One, #2)
author: Ernest Cline
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/05
date added: 2021/04/05
shelves: fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Adventure Zone Vol. 2: Murder on the Rockport Limited!]]> 41812788
You know, the usual things you find on a train.

Hot on the heels of "The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins", the smash hit graphic novel that launched the series, "Murder on the Rockport Limited" picks up the saga where volume 1 left off. Both books are based on "The Adventure Zone," a tabletop RPG comedy podcast with downloads numbering in the tens of millions and an army of passionately devoted fans. With art and co-adaptation from Carey Pietsch, the McElroys are once again turning their raucous freewheeling D&D campaign into some damn fine comics.]]>
219 Clint McElroy 1250153719 Kathleen 5 4.60 2019 The Adventure Zone Vol. 2: Murder on the Rockport Limited!
author: Clint McElroy
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/05
date added: 2021/04/05
shelves: comics, fantasy, mystery, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation]]> 43908991 The follow-up to #1 New York Times ٲKindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, comes Octavia E. Butler’s groundbreaking dystopian novel

In this graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, the award-winning team behind Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, the author portrays a searing vision of America’s future. In the year 2024, the country is marred by unattended environmental and economic crises that lead to social chaos. Lauren Olamina, a preacher’s daughter living in Los Angeles, is protected from danger by the walls of her gated community. However, in a night of fire and death, what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny . . . and the birth of a new faith.]]>
266 Damian Duffy 1419731335 Kathleen 4 3.97 2020 Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
author: Damian Duffy
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/05
date added: 2021/04/05
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies]]> 39952040
Teenage Ellie has always had romantic ideas about drug addicts, those tragic artistic souls drawn to needles and pills have been an obsession since the death of her junkie mother ten years ago. But when Ellie lands in an upscale rehab clinic where nothing is what it appears to be... she'll find another more dangerous romance, and find out how easily drugs and murder go hand-in-hand.

MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES is a seductive coming-of-age story, a pop and drug culture-fueled tale of a young girl seeking darkness � and what she finds there. This gorgeous, must-have hardback is the first original graphic novel from ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, the bestselling creators of CRIMINAL, KILL OR BE KILLED, THE FADE OUT, FATALE, and INCOGNITO.]]>
72 Ed Brubaker 1534308466 Kathleen 3 comics, fiction, read-in-2021 3.60 2018 My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies
author: Ed Brubaker
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/10
date added: 2021/03/10
shelves: comics, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
Brubaker can be hit or miss for me, but this book is gorgeous. The story is about what one would expect from a crime comic, but in the telling it becomes a work of art. Perfectly paced, beautifully illustrated, and especially the uniquely gorgeous coloring by Jacob Phillips makes the whole comic an experience. I highly recommend it for readers of the genre.
]]>
<![CDATA[Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: The Just War]]> 50879993
When Wonder Woman rushes to eastern Europe to rescue Steve Trevor from a mission gone wrong, she’ll find herself face to face with a very new, very different God of War. It’s true, Ares has been reborn on Earth—but has he changed for the better? Of all the role models in the world, he seems to have chosen…Wonder Woman?! Diana and Steve Trevor better watch their backs, because Ares isn’t the only creature of myth to find his way to Man’s World…and he’s not the only resurrected Olympian either.

Collects Wonder Woman #58-65.]]>
192 G. Willow Wilson 1779503458 Kathleen 4
After some past disappointments from this title, I am really excited to follow this series for the first time in quite a while! ]]>
3.48 2019 Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: The Just War
author: G. Willow Wilson
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/10
date added: 2021/03/10
shelves: comics, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:
With a fresh, topical take on Ares, mythical creatures wandering around Man's World, and a mighty Aphrodite teaming up with Wonder Woman, this comic really finds its stride. The art is gorgeous. The story is both an interesting new mystery and exactly the kind of classic Wonder Woman plot line that fans want for the character.

After some past disappointments from this title, I am really excited to follow this series for the first time in quite a while!
]]>
<![CDATA[Light For The World To See: A Thousand Words on Race and Hope]]> 54655842 96 Kwame Alexander 0358539412 Kathleen 5 The Undefeated in a different publication, the eye catching arrangements here will hopefully attract new readers to Alexander's work. I certainly hope so. ]]> 4.28 2020 Light For The World To See: A Thousand Words on Race and Hope
author: Kwame Alexander
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/08
date added: 2021/03/08
shelves: non-fiction, poetry, political, read-in-2021
review:
Kwame Alexander is an excellent poet, and this book is art drawn with words. Much as I love Kadir Nelson's illustrations for the final poem in this collection The Undefeated in a different publication, the eye catching arrangements here will hopefully attract new readers to Alexander's work. I certainly hope so.
]]>
Catboy 34922266 138 Benji Nate 1945509155 Kathleen 4 Too cute. 3.92 2017 Catboy
author: Benji Nate
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/04
date added: 2021/03/04
shelves: comics, fiction, fantasy, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
Too cute.
]]>
Nameless 31808200 192 Grant Morrison 1534300937 Kathleen 3 3.54 2016 Nameless
author: Grant Morrison
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/04
date added: 2021/03/04
shelves: fantasy, fiction, comics, read-in-2021, science-fiction
review:
Pretty classic Morrison, with space ships and eldritch horrors, and I do like very much that this is a single, self contained story.
]]>
Phoolan Devi, Rebel Queen 50162467 224 Claire Fauvel 1681122510 Kathleen 5 4.39 2018 Phoolan Devi, Rebel Queen
author: Claire Fauvel
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/04
date added: 2021/03/04
shelves: comics, biography, history, non-fiction, political, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Second Grave on the Left (Charley Davidson, #2)]]> 9565045 307 Darynda Jones 0312360819 Kathleen 2 4.24 2011 Second Grave on the Left (Charley Davidson, #2)
author: Darynda Jones
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2021/03/04
date added: 2021/03/04
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021, romance
review:
After the big reveal of Reyes's identity at the end of the first book, particularly his mission, I would have liked to see a little skepticism from Charley regarding their relationship at last. No joy there in this novel, but the mystery was actually very compelling. I also really liked her fight with her father, the cause of it, and how quickly a room full of intelligent people came to the same conclusion. I'd like to see some resolution with her step-mother, not necessarily a reconciliation but some sort of explanation, perhaps.
]]>
<![CDATA[First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson, #1)]]> 8788554 This whole grim reaper thing should have come with a manual.
Or a diagram of some kind.
A flow chart would have been nice.

Charley Davidson is a part-time private investigator and full-time grim reaper. Meaning, she sees dead people. Really. And it's her job to convince them to "go into the light." But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (like murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she's been having about an entity who has been following her all her life...and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely. But what does he want with Charley? And why can't she seem to resist him? And what does she have to lose by giving in?

With scorching-hot tension and high-octane humor, First Grave on the Right is your signpost to paranormal suspense of the highest order.

]]>
310 Darynda Jones 0312662750 Kathleen 2 4.02 2011 First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson, #1)
author: Darynda Jones
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2021/03/04
date added: 2021/03/04
shelves: fiction, fantasy, read-in-2021
review:
I adore the set up and the world building of this novel, and the mystery was fine, but the romance hits a large number of my personal squicks. Call me old fashioned, but informed consent is more my speed and rape threats igniting a life long passion really turned me off to Charley as well as the romance story line. Since that was wound in to a lot of the rest of the novel, this one just wasn't for me.
]]>
If I Go Missing 45430039 If I Go Missing is derived from excerpts of a letter that went viral and was also the basis of a documentary film. In her letter, Jonnie calls out the authorities for neglecting to immediately investigate missing Indigenous people and urges them to not treat me as the Indigenous person I am proud to be if she were to be reported missing. Indigenous artist Neal Shannacappo provides the artwork. Through his illustrations, he imagines a situation in which a young Indigenous woman does disappear, portraying the reaction of her community, her friends, the police, and media.

-- "Journal"]]>
64 Brianna Jonnie 1459414519 Kathleen 5 4.49 2019 If I Go Missing
author: Brianna Jonnie
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/22
date added: 2021/02/22
shelves: comics, non-fiction, political, read-in-2021, young-adult
review:
This powerful, beautifully illustrated comic is based on a letter Brianno Jonnie wrote to the police as a fourteen year old, and it pulls no punches. I highly recommend it.
]]>
Leonard and Hungry Paul 51838809
‘The figure in Munch’s painting isn’t actually screaming!� Hungry Paul said. ‘Really, are you sure?� Replied Leonard. ‘Absolutely. That’s the whole thing. The figure is actually closing his ears to block outa scream. Isn’t that amazing? A painting can be so misunderstood and still become so famous.�

Leonard and Hungry Paul is the story of two quiet friends trying to find their place in the world. It is about those uncelebrated people who have the ability to change the world, not by effort or force, but through their appreciation of all that is special and overlooked in life.]]>
247 Ronan Hession 1612198481 Kathleen 2 fiction, read-in-2021
Leonard and Hungry Paul are shy, late blooming, nice guys who are special in their own unique ways because everyone is special in some way or another. Only they deliver these page long screeds, one to a love interest and one to a concerned sister, that are basically scolding the women into treating them the way they want to be treated as opposed to the social norms that both women represent in the text. I don't tend to think of ranting as particularly shy, pleasant, or kind. Moreover, I felt a little betrayed by that point in the book because Hungry Paul delivered a big rant once before in a grocery story which was immediately proved to be incorrect and embarrassing. It gave me so much unfulfilled hope that the story would be about learning to blossom as opposed to the world suddenly shifting magically to reward the existing behavior of both men.

There is a character in Leonard's office who represents what we, the audience, are meant to think of as the Nice Guy type. A tech support bully whose main interests seem to be online pornography and making overt statements about other people's relationships. By contrast, we are meant to see that Leonard and Hungry Paul are truly nice. They aren't Like That. Which does a good job of misunderstanding what's problematic about the whole Nice Guy thing in the first place.

I picked up this book because I wanted some quiet, gentle reading. Unfortunately, Leonard and Hungry Paul are much louder than advertised. I wish the novel stuck with hospital visits, writing children's encyclopedias, and button boxes. As such, I cannot recommend it.

You may wish to note the above. ]]>
4.04 2019 Leonard and Hungry Paul
author: Ronan Hession
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2021/02/22
date added: 2021/02/22
shelves: fiction, read-in-2021
review:
This novel is someone's platonic ideal of a quarantine book, but not mine. Nothing much happens and everyone is perfectly normal in all the small, mundane, every day ways that our neighbors and family members are perfectly normal. It's very true to life in a pre-pandemic world, and I can definitely see that appealing to readers. Unfortunately, the underlying message of the story overreaches its scope.

Leonard and Hungry Paul are shy, late blooming, nice guys who are special in their own unique ways because everyone is special in some way or another. Only they deliver these page long screeds, one to a love interest and one to a concerned sister, that are basically scolding the women into treating them the way they want to be treated as opposed to the social norms that both women represent in the text. I don't tend to think of ranting as particularly shy, pleasant, or kind. Moreover, I felt a little betrayed by that point in the book because Hungry Paul delivered a big rant once before in a grocery story which was immediately proved to be incorrect and embarrassing. It gave me so much unfulfilled hope that the story would be about learning to blossom as opposed to the world suddenly shifting magically to reward the existing behavior of both men.

There is a character in Leonard's office who represents what we, the audience, are meant to think of as the Nice Guy type. A tech support bully whose main interests seem to be online pornography and making overt statements about other people's relationships. By contrast, we are meant to see that Leonard and Hungry Paul are truly nice. They aren't Like That. Which does a good job of misunderstanding what's problematic about the whole Nice Guy thing in the first place.

I picked up this book because I wanted some quiet, gentle reading. Unfortunately, Leonard and Hungry Paul are much louder than advertised. I wish the novel stuck with hospital visits, writing children's encyclopedias, and button boxes. As such, I cannot recommend it.

You may wish to note the above.
]]>
Love Lettering 48894113 Kirkus Best Fiction Book of 2020
PopSugar Crazy Popular Books of 2020
Amazon Best Romance of the Month
Top Ten Best Romances of 2019—Entertainment Weekly
Kobo Best Romance of the Year
Bustle 17 Best New Books Of December 2019
SheReads� Most Anticipated Books of 2020
HelloGiggles 8 Best New Books To Read In December


Meg Mackworth’s hand-lettering skill has made her famous as the Planner of Park Slope, designing beautiful custom journals for New York City’s elite. She has another skill too: reading signs that other people miss. Like the time she sat across from Reid Sutherland and his gorgeous fiancée, and knew their upcoming marriage was doomed to fail. Weaving a secret word into their wedding program was a little unprofessional, but she was sure no one else would spot it. She hadn’t counted on sharp-eyed, pattern-obsessed Reid . . .

A year later, Reid has tracked Meg down to find out—before he leaves New York for good—how she knew that his meticulously planned future was about to implode. But with a looming deadline, a fractured friendship, and a bad case of creative block, Meg doesn’t have time for Reid’s questions—unless he can help her find her missing inspiration. As they gradually open up to each other about their lives, work, and regrets, both try to ignore the fact that their unlikely connection is growing deeper. But the signs are there—irresistible, indisputable, urging Meg to heed the messages Reid is sending her, before it’s too late . . .]]>
350 Kate Clayborn 1496725182 Kathleen 3 3.77 2019 Love Lettering
author: Kate Clayborn
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/21
date added: 2021/02/21
shelves: fiction, read-in-2021, romance
review:
This was the OverDrive Together We Read book for February, and it is extremely cute. Letters and numbers intersect in a code for charm.
]]>
<![CDATA[Realm of Ash (The Books of Ambha, #2)]]> 43192642
The Ambhan Empire is crumbling. A terrible war of succession hovers on the horizon. The only hope for peace lies in the mysterious realm of ash, where mortals can find what they seek in the echoes of their ancestors' dreams. But to walk there requires a steep price.

Arwa is determined to make the journey. Widowed by a brutal massacre, she's pledged service to the royal family and will see that pledge through to the end. She never expected to be joined by Zahir, the disgraced, illegitimate prince who has turned to forbidden magic in a desperate bid to save those he loves.

Together, they'll walk the bloody path of their shared past. And it will call into question everything they've ever believed...including whether the Empire is worth saving at all.]]>
480 Tasha Suri Kathleen 4 3.95 2019 Realm of Ash (The Books of Ambha, #2)
author: Tasha Suri
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/21
date added: 2021/02/21
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Empire of Sand (The Books of Ambha, #1)]]> 39714124 A nobleman’s daughter with magic in her blood. An empire built on the dreams of enslaved gods. Empire of Sand is Tasha Suri’s captivating, Mughal India-inspired debut fantasy.

The Amrithi are outcasts; nomads descended of desert spirits, they are coveted and persecuted throughout the Empire for the power in their blood. Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor and an exiled Amrithi mother she can barely remember, but whose face and magic she has inherited.

When Mehr’s power comes to the attention of the Emperor’s most feared mystics, she must use every ounce of will, subtlety, and power she possesses to resist their cruel agenda � and should she fail, the gods themselves may awaken seeking vengeance�

Empire of Sand is a lush, dazzling fantasy novel perfect for readers of City of Brass and The Wrath & the Dawn.]]>
402 Tasha Suri 0316449695 Kathleen 4 3.84 2018 Empire of Sand (The Books of Ambha, #1)
author: Tasha Suri
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/18
date added: 2021/02/18
shelves: fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Magical Adventures of Phoebe and Her Unicorn: Two Books in One]]> 51101724
What could be more magical than having a unicorn as a best friend? For nine-year-old Phoebe Howell, it all started while she was skipping rocks across a pond and accidentally hit a dazzling but self-absorbed unicorn named Marigold Heavenly Nostrils. Together, the unlikely BFFs discover a world full of magical mysteries and adventure, taking on everything from cruel classmates to candy-breathing dragons. These beautifully drawn comics show that even when life isn’t all rainbows and glitter, every day is magical with your best friend.]]>
448 Dana Simpson 1524861774 Kathleen 3 4.39 The Magical Adventures of Phoebe and Her Unicorn: Two Books in One
author: Dana Simpson
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.39
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/18
date added: 2021/02/18
shelves: comics, childrens, fantasy, fiction, humor, read-in-2021
review:
A charming comic strip about childhood, friendship, and being fantastic. I particularly recommend this collection, which has a few added crafts and projects for children in the target audience to enjoy.
]]>
<![CDATA[Avatar: The Last Airbender - Team Avatar Tales]]> 38897137
Journey along with Team Avatar as they rescue a pumpkin farmer waylaid by monsters, go undercover in the Fire Nation, help an old rival with a hair-raising problem, and reflect on what it means to save the world. Featuring the work of Gene Luen Yang (Avatar: The Last Airbender--North and South), Faith Erin Hicks (The Nameless City), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), Ron Koertge (Vampire Planet), Dave Scheidt (Dreamworks Trolls, Wrapped Up), Sara Goetter (Dungeon Critters, Boozle), and more, this anthology features stories both hilarious and heartwarming.]]>
72 Gene Luen Yang 1506707939 Kathleen 3 3.82 2019 Avatar: The Last Airbender - Team Avatar Tales
author: Gene Luen Yang
name: Kathleen
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/16
date added: 2021/02/16
shelves: childrens, comics, fantasy, fiction, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Search (Avatar: The Last Airbender, #2)]]> 18631568 Immediately following the Avatar's adventures chronicled in The Promise, this remarkable omnibus that collects parts 1-3 of The Search, from Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko!

For years, fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra have burned with one question--what happened to Fire Lord Zuko's mother? Finding a clue at last, Zuko enlists the aid of Team Avatar--and the most unlikely ally of all--to help uncover the biggest secret of his life.]]>
240 Gene Luen Yang 1616552263 Kathleen 4 4.56 2014 The Search (Avatar: The Last Airbender, #2)
author: Gene Luen Yang
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/16
date added: 2021/02/16
shelves: comics, fantasy, fiction, childrens, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Aurora Burning (The Aurora Cycle, #2)]]> 40516960 Our heroes are back� kind of. From the bestselling co-authors of the Illuminae Files comes the second book in the epic series about a squad of misfits, losers, and discipline cases who just might be the galaxy’s best hope for survival.

First, the bad news: an ancient evil—you know, your standard consume-all-life-in-the-galaxy deal—is about to be unleashed. The good news? Squad 312 is standing by to save the day. They’ve just got to take care of a few small distractions first.

Like the clan of gremps who’d like to rearrange their favorite faces.

And the cadre of illegit GIA agents with creepy flowers where their eyes used to be, who’ll stop at nothing to get their hands on Auri.

Then there’s Kal’s long-lost sister, who’s not exactly happy to see her baby brother, and has a Syldrathi army at her back. With half the known galaxy on their tails, Squad 312 has never felt so wanted.

When they learn the Hadfield has been found, it’s time to come out of hiding. Two centuries ago, the colony ship vanished, leaving Auri as its sole survivor. Now, its black box might be what saves them. But time is short, and if Auri can’t learn to master her powers as a Trigger, the squad and all their admirers are going to be deader than the Great Ultrasaur of Abraaxis IV.

Shocking revelations, bank heists, mysterious gifts, inappropriately tight bodysuits, and an epic firefight will determine the fate of the Aurora Legion’s most unforgettable heroes—and maybe the rest of the galaxy as well.]]>
495 Amie Kaufman 1524720925 Kathleen 3 4.24 2020 Aurora Burning (The Aurora Cycle, #2)
author: Amie Kaufman
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/02
date added: 2021/02/15
shelves: fiction, read-in-2021, science-fiction, young-adult
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)]]> 5941114 466 Tana French 0143115626 Kathleen 3 4.06 2008 The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)
author: Tana French
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/01
date added: 2021/02/15
shelves: fiction, mystery, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life]]> 35187175 Storm in a Teacup is Helen Czerski’s lively, entertaining, and informed introduction to the world of physics. Czerski provides the tools to alter the way we see everything around us by linking ordinary objects and occurrences, like popcorn popping, coffee stains, and fridge magnets, to big ideas like climate change, the energy crisis, or innovative medical testing. She provides answers to vexing questions: How do ducks keep their feet warm when walking on ice? Why does it take so long for ketchup to come out of a bottle? Why does milk, when added to tea, look like billowing storm clouds? In an engaging voice at once warm and witty, Czerski shares her stunning breadth of knowledge to lift the veil of familiarity from the ordinary.]]> 288 Helen Czerski 0393355470 Kathleen 3 4.05 2017 Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life
author: Helen Czerski
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/12
date added: 2021/02/15
shelves: history, math-science, non-fiction, read-in-2021
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West]]> 52541042
“Brilliant . . . virtuosic . . . a master storyteller of a new order.”—Eliza Griswold, The New York Times Book Review (Editors� Choice)

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS

Oak Flat is a serene high-elevation mesa that sits above the southeastern Arizona desert, fifteen miles to the west of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. For the San Carlos tribe, Oak Flat is a holy place, an ancient burial ground and religious site where Apache girls celebrate the coming-of-age ritual known as the Sunrise Ceremony. In 1995, a massive untapped copper reserve was discovered nearby. A decade later, a law was passed transferring the area to a private company, whose planned copper mine will wipe Oak Flat off the map—sending its natural springs, petroglyph-covered rocks, and old-growth trees tumbling into a void. 

Redniss’s deep reporting and haunting artwork anchor this mesmerizing human narrative. Oak Flat tells the story of a race-against-time struggle for a swath of American land, which pits one of the poorest communities in the United States against the federal government and two of the world’s largest mining conglomerates. The book follows the fortunes of two families with profound connections to the contested the Nosies, an Apache family whose teenage daughter is an activist and leader in the Oak Flat fight, and the Gorhams, a mining family whose patriarch was a sheriff in the lawless early days of Arizona statehood.

The still-unresolved Oak Flat conflict is ripped from today’s headlines, but its story resonates with foundational American the saga of westward expansion, the resistance and resilience of Native peoples, and the efforts of profiteers to control the land and unearth treasure beneath it while the lives of individuals hang in the balance.]]>
281 Lauren Redniss 0399589724 Kathleen 3 4.18 2020 Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West
author: Lauren Redniss
name: Kathleen
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/15
date added: 2021/02/15
shelves: history, non-fiction, political, read-in-2021, travel
review:

]]>