rachelmanija: (Books: old)
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For Your Next Reading Wednesday...

( May. 15th, 2019 11:35 am)
A column in Publishers Weekly by a bookseller objects to YA books depicting girl warriors. To bolster her case that this is TERRIBLE, she includes a graphic showing a bunch of book covers showing badass girls, many of whom are people of color in books written by writers of color, and two of whom are not holding a weapon at all but does have a super cool prosthetic arm or is riding a phoenix. (Girls! Just say no to prosthetic limbs and the dangerous sport of phoenix riding!)

Anyway, those books look great! I would like to read some of them, and I bet you would too. Anyone want to join me in buying or getting a couple from the library, then reviewing them (good, bad, or indifferent) to give them more visibility?

(Also, it took me fricking forever to put this post together, so please make me feel like my time wasn't unwisely spent.)

It's still very hard for writers of color to break into YA publishing, and it's still unusual for girls of color to be featured on book covers at all, let alone genre book covers showing them as totally awesome rather than pregnant and in a gang. So thanks, column author, for bringing these books to our attention given that many of them are unlikely to have a big marketing budget and booksellers like you won't sell them, thus contributing to publishers' beliefs that those kinds of books don't sell.

I haven't read any of them, so please let me know if you have and what you thought. I promise to buy and review whichever books get the most votes in comments. You can vote for more than one. If a series book other than # 1 wins, I will start with # 1 of that series.

Rage: A Stormheart Novel, by Cora Carmack. Princess or adventurer. Duty or freedom. Her Kingdom or the Stormhunter she loves.

Beasts of the Frozen Sun (The Frozen Sun Saga Book 1), by Jill Criswell. Burn brightly. Love fiercely. For all else is dust.

Deathcaster (Shattered Realms Book 4), by Cinda Williams Chima. Warrior Alyssa ana’Raisa would do anything to protect her home, the Fells, and her legacy, the Gray Wolf line.

Princess Ninjas, by Dave Francini (author) and Eduardo Garcia (artist). When the kingdom is under attack who do we turn to? The king and his guards? A knight of myth and legend? Or the prophesized, chosen Princess Ninjas who battle evil and will save the day? I think we all know who! [They have an adorably fierce turtle-bear sidekick!]

The Afterward, by E. K. Johnston. Romantic high fantasy from the bestselling author of Star Wars: Ahsoka and Exit, Pursued by a Bear.

A River of Royal Blood, by Amanda Joy. Set in a North African-inspired fantasy world where two sisters must fight to the death to win the crown.

The Triumphant (Valiant Book 3), by Leslie Livingston. The final book in the Valiant series takes Fallon and her warrior sisters on an epic journey from the corrupt Roman Republic to the wonder of the ancient world: Alexandria, Egypt.

War Girls, by Tochi Onyebuchi. Two sisters are torn apart by war and must fight their way back to each other in a futuristic, Black Panther-inspired Nigeria. [This is the one with no weapons, but a cool prosthetic arm.]

Crown of Feathers, by Nicki Pau Preto. A debut fantasy novel about a girl who disguises herself as a boy to join a secret group of warriors that ride phoenixes into battle.

Dealing in Dreams, by Lilliam Rivera. The Outsiders meets Mad Max: Fury Road in this fast-paced dystopian novel about sisterhood and the cruel choices people are forced to make in order to survive.

Sorcery of Thorns, by Margaret Rogerson. An imaginative fantasy about an apprentice at a magical library who must battle a powerful sorcerer to save her kingdom.

Trinity of Bones, by Caitlin Seal. The much-anticipated second title of the Necromancer's Song trilogy. Naya Garth will do whatever it takes to bring Corten back from the shores of death.

Bright Star, by Erin Swan. The girl who was once an outcast must somehow become the leader Paerolia needs. But she is stronger than she believes—and with the help of a fiercely loyal dragon, she may just be the one to lead them all to victory.

Red Mantle: The Red Abbey Chronicles Book 3, by Maria Turtschaninoff. An epistolary novel told through the letters Maresi writes back to her friends and mentors at the Abbey. Turtschanino has been awarded the Finlandia Junior Prize, the Swedish YLE Literature Prize, and the Society of Swedish Literature Prize

Shatter the Sky, by Rebecca Kim Wells. A determined young woman sets out to rescue her kidnapped girlfriend by stealing a dragon from the corrupt emperor. [KIDNAPPED GIRLFRIEND. STEALING A DRAGON.]

Ship of Smoke and Steel (The Wells of Sorcery Trilogy Book 1), by Django Wexler. In the lower wards of Kahnzoka, the great port city of the Blessed Empire, eighteen-year-old ward boss Isoka enforces the will of her criminal masters with the power of Melos, the Well of Combat. [That is a whole lot of capitals, I have to say. But it also says "She doesn't expect to have to contend with feelings for a charismatic fighter who shares her combat magic, or for a fearless princess who wields an even darker power" so maybe there's FF?]

The Girl the Sea Gave Back, by Adrienne Young. For as long as she can remember, Tova has lived among the Svell, the people who found her washed ashore as a child and use her for her gift as a Truthtongue.

The Girl King, by Mimi Yu. Two sisters become unwitting rivals in a war to claim the title of Emperor in this richly imagined, Asian-inspired fantasy. [Hey! This is only $1.99. BOUGHT.]
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rachelmanija: (Books: old)
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The Grounding of Group Six and other strange YA novels

( May. 1st, 2019 11:06 am)
iknowcommawrite has a great review of The Grounding of Group Six, a deeply peculiar YA novel which I bet at least some of you read and were boggled by, and which I loaned her if she'd post on it. Go forth and discuss! (The Grounding of Group 6 on Kindle.)

coffeeandink solves a decades-old mystery for me by naming the book whose name I could never remember, The War Between the Pitiful Teachers and The Splendid Kids, and asks about subversive children's literature.

What books have you read where you thought, for reasons other than that it sucked, "How in the world did this get published?"
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Debunking food, fat, and fitness myths

( Apr. 24th, 2019 01:03 pm)
I would like your best recs for in-depth articles, studies, or books on the most cutting-edge current knowledge about nutrition, body weight, and health.

I am NOT interested in basic articles about very well-known ideas like fat will kill you, carbs will kill you, meat will kill you, anything your grandma wouldn't recognize as food such as everything but cabbage and turnips will kill you, etc.

I am also NOT interested in articles with a primarily political bent (i.e., "pushing diets on women is based on sexism/capitalism not science;") I agree with that, but I'm looking for stuff where the meat is science and the politics is the side dish rather than the reverse.

I'm looking for more in-depth, up-to-date information on topics including but not limited to...

- Do we actually know anything about nutrition, given the every-five-year swings between "eggs are cardioprotective/eggs are a heart attack on a plate," "fat is the Devil/carbs are the Devil," etc? If so, what is it and how do we know it?

- What is the actual science on grains (and no, I don't mean Wheat Belly)?

- What is the best and most cutting-edge knowledge on gaining strength?

- What is the actual science on the causes of Type 2 diabetes, why its prevalence has risen so much, and its association with obesity?

- What is the actual knowledge of the diet and health of "cavemen?"

- What is the actual science on being fat, thin, and in-between in terms of health? For instance, is it better to be fat and active than "normal weight" and sedentary? (I know the answer but I'm looking for something that goes into this in-depth.)

- What is the deal with "calorie reduction makes you healthier and live longer" vs. "dieting is bad for you?"

I'm already familiar with Michael Pollan, Barbara Ehrenreich, Mark's Daily Apple, Diet Cults, Body of Truth, and The Starvation Experiment. And lots more but those are the things I get recced a lot already.
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rachelmanija: (Books: old)
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Tucson Book Haul, Part I

( Mar. 2nd, 2019 03:06 pm)
I bought a lot of books in Tucson, which is blessed with many bookshops. In fact, I bought so many that I had to mail three boxes back to me (Layla mailed one back to herself), and this is not even the complete list of what I bought. It does not, for instance, include any of the books from Bookman’s, a huge used bookstore. The register had Trump’s book Art of the Deal standing up. I turned it over so I wouldn’t have to look at his face. The woman at the register righted it, explaining apologetically that she’d get a bonus if she managed to unload it on someone!

From Book Stop, a used bookstore which proved to be a treasure trove of children’s books, some from my childhood which I lost and then never saw again for 30 years:

Haunting of Cassie Palmer, by Vivien Alcock. Ghost story recommended to me on DW.

The Fire Eaters, by David Almond. Magical realism, I think. I really liked his novel Kit’s Wilderness.

Project Cat, by Nellie Burchardt. Kids find a lost kitten. I hope it doesn’t die.

Winged Colt of Casa Mia, by Betsy Byars. FLYING HORSIE. I hope it doesn’t die.

Katie John and White Witch of Kynance, both historicals by Mary Calhoun. She wrote two of my favorite children’s books, The House of Thirty Cats and Magic in the Alley.

The Lost Star, by H. M. Hoover. (On Kindle.) I’ve never read anything by her but lots of people have fond memories of her books. Her books all seem to be on Kindle now.

Veronica Ganz, by Marilyn Sachs. (On Kindle.) Written in 1969, I remember this book as a serious look at bullying from the perspective of a girl bully, but what I was mostly interested in was the then-current but by my time of reading (early 80s) now-historical details of daily life.

From Antigone Books, a new indie bookstore:

The Chicken: A Natural History, by Joseph Barber. A gift for my step-mom, who raises chickens, but I’m going to read it first.

Pirate's Fortune (Supreme Constellations Book 4), by Gun Brooke. They had a shelf of F/F romances by Bold Strokes Books, which I don’t often see in their print incarnations, and I was so excited that I bought three of them.

Notorious pirate and mercenary Weiss Kyakh works as a reluctant double-agent for the Supreme Constellations. Her mission is to infiltrate a cutthroat band of space pirates along with a sentient bio-android, Madisyn Pimm.

Hopefully the books in this series are standalones because I have not read books 1-3. The prologue had Madisyn waking up in an android body and begging for death, but I’m guessing things look up from there.

Cool in Tucson (A Sarah Burke Mystery) , by Elizabeth Gunn. A mystery set in Tucson which Layla recommended; heroine is a cop.

Ghost Trio, by Lillian Irwin. An F/F Gothic! With a somewhat less-than-scary mansion name.

Lee Howe, a professional pianist, believes that if she can see the site where her beloved Devorah met her death, she will begin to accept that she must move on with her own life. Devorah Manikian had been rehearsing for a starring role in Carmen and was living in Eggerscliffe, a 1920s-style pseudo-castle belonging to wealthy and eccentric impresario, Annajean Eggers. Devorah was gone only a few weeks before Lee was notified that she was dead—killed in a tower fire at Eggerscliffe. But as Lee stands alone below the castle, she hears Devorah singing...

Endurance: My Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, by Scott Kelly. A space memoir by Gabby Gifford’s husband.

The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South, by Michael W. Twitty. The bookshop person said the author had done an event there and was really nice.

You Make Me Tremble, by Karis Walsh. F/F romance.

Animal rescue worker Iris Mallery thinks she has created a stable and secure home for herself, but when her small town is battered by an earthquake, Iris needs to rebuild not only her own life, but the lives of the displaced dogs and cats now filling her shelter.

The last book I read by her inspired me to go to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and I had a wonderful time. Hopefully this one will not inspire an earthquake.

Anyone read any of these and/or have opinions on what they’d most enjoy seeing a review of?
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rachelmanija: (Books: old)
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I'm in the mood for fluffy F/F. Help me pick one to read and review!

( Feb. 1st, 2019 12:51 pm)
Poll #21256
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 88

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I want you to read and review this F/F book!

View Answers

Deadline, by Stephanie Ahn. Paranormal about a disgraced witch in NYC.
20 (22.7%)

Blissfully Blindsided, by Robin Alexander. Blaze Sonnier made national news while dressed as the Easter Bunny in a brawl where she was trying to defend herself, and earned the moniker Bitch Slap Bunny.
14 (15.9%)

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy, by Alyssa Cole. F/F spinoff of a series about fictional (modern) African royalty. Can I read this without having read the earlier M/F books?
38 (43.2%)

Chicken Run, by Alma Fritchley. Lesbian chicken farmers in Yorkshire solve a mystery.
38 (43.2%)

Colorblind, by Siera Maley. YA about a girl who can see how old people will be when they die.
5 (5.7%)

Rising From the Ashes, by Caren Werlinger. I started this a while back and the tone was very serious. However, the heroine was raised by telepathic badgers.
27 (30.7%)

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rachelmanija: (Books: old)
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Lost Books

( Jan. 14th, 2019 12:13 pm)
I recently read Talisman, a graphic novel about Marcie, who has a book she loves as a child, loses it, forgets what it's called, and goes on a quest first to find and then to recreate it, which ends up changing her entire life.

I had multiple books like that. Children tend not to register author names or titles, and I travelled and moved often, including between the US and India, so I might lose a small-press book only published in India and never find it again. Some I have managed to rediscover, while some remain lost.

I have ascertained that Dariba the Good Little Rakshasa, about a kid demon who keeps getting in trouble because he's nice when he's supposed to be wicked, exists but seems unavailable. My most recent rediscovery was Mystery of the Witches Bridge; the beginning of the review explains how it was rediscovered. It was as much of a delight as when I'd first read it.

I used to read a children's magazine, Chandamama, which had a serialized fantasy story which I read in scraps and pieces, as I often missed issues and then found old ones in a friend's house, and so it felt beautiful and dreamlike. It had beautiful illustrations in a classic Indian style. When Lucy reads the story "for the refreshment of the spirit" in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and can then only remember that there was a king and a hill and a cup and a sword, and she'd give anything to be able to read it again, I think of my lost serial: there was a princess and a flying chariot and a Goddess and a lotus and a kingdom in the air, and I'd give anything to be able to read it again.

Another that haunted me was a book of fairytales from many lands. I think they may have been adapted by different authors as they had very different styles. They were more adult than usual. A tale from France had a rose who turned into a man; he raped a woman, felt guilty, and became a rose again. A Scandinavian tale had a young man tending a red bull for three sisters; there was one who was beautiful and seemed kind, but when she parted her hair he saw a third eye in the center of her forehead. He and the bull fled into a blizzard, and I think it was ambiguous whether they survived or not. Another tale, I think from either Africa or New Guinea, had a man and a woman in a boat on the ocean, and they ate yams in three colors, white and purple and black.

No one has ever been able to find this book. I found a fairytale that's similar to the one with the bull, but it's not quite the same story. I sometimes wonder if I dreamed it. But think it was real.

Did you have a lost book? If you found it, did it capture the same magic you felt as a child, or was it disappointing? Did it change your life?
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rachelmanija: (Books: old)
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Please vote on books for me to read in the cabin in the woods.

( Dec. 9th, 2018 11:53 am)
I am more-than-usually likely to actually review what I read, though reviews may be delayed as I need to lug my laptop to my parents' house to actually post them. However, the recent influx of reviews are mostly books I read while in the cabin last time, wrote up while there, and have been doling out ever since, so...

If you've read or heard of any of them, please tell me what you think (without spoilers).

Poll #20872
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 133

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While in the cabin, you should read and review this nonfiction book on solitude and/or nature.

View Answers

ccidents in North American Climbing. Annual accident report; what it says on the tin.
14 (13.5%)

The Cloister Walk, by Kathleen Norris. A married woman becomes a Benedictine oblate
41 (39.4%)

A Gift From the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindberg. I think it's a classic about sea and solitude?
29 (27.9%)

The Solitary Summer, by Elizabeth Von Arnim. Hopefully what it says on the tin.
21 (20.2%)

Riding Rockets, by Mike Mullane. An astronaut's memoir; the first sentence is about a tube getting put up his butt.
34 (32.7%)

While in the cabin, you should read and review this mystery.

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Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story, by Leonie Swann. Sheep try to solve the murder of their shepherd.
37 (32.5%)

Idylls of the Queen, by Phyllis Ann Karr. Murder in King Arthur's court!
48 (42.1%)

The Monk, by M. G. Lewis. Really a Gothic more than a mystery; I've been told it's absolutely bonkers. (And you know I like that!)
34 (29.8%)

The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins. I'm not looking up a summary for fear of spoilers.
35 (30.7%)

River of Darkness, by Rennie Airth. Detective is a WWI vet with PTSD. (And you know I like that!)
26 (22.8%)

While in the cabin, you should read and review this children's book.

View Answers

The Giant Under the Snow, by John Gordon. Classic British children's book, presumably what it says on the tin.
14 (14.0%)

Charlotte Sometimes, by Penelope Farmer. Classic timeslip novel.
47 (47.0%)

Girl on a Wire, by Gwenda Bond. A girl joins the circus.
29 (29.0%)

Horizon, by Scott Westerfeld. Kids with powers stranded on a planet.
18 (18.0%)

Fog, by Caroline Cooney. 80s YA gothic.
24 (24.0%)

While in the cabin, you should read and review this fantasy you seem to have acquired without knowing anything about it.

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Lord of the White Hell, by Ginn Hale. Fantasy boarding school? Love the author.
27 (23.7%)

A Wind from the South, by Diane Duane. Scandinavian fantasy? Love the author.
42 (36.8%)

A Shadow All of Light, by Fred Chappell. No idea but I like his short stories.
4 (3.5%)

A Face Like Glass, by Frances Hardinge. The world is made of cheese apparently.
58 (50.9%)

The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black. Literally all I know about this is the author.
27 (23.7%)

While in the cabin, you should read and review this historical or faux-historical novel.

View Answers

Chanakya's Chant, by Ashwin Sanghi. I think this is one of those "history affects the present" books and I assume involves Chanakya.
12 (12.4%)

When Women Were Warriors, by Catherine Wilson. I believe this is F/F in a society where women are warriors.
37 (38.1%)

A Famine of Horses, by P. F. Chisholm. Recced by Sholio! I think Lymond era?
23 (23.7%)

Watch the Wall, My Darling, by Joan Aiken. Napoleonic war-era gothic; probably completely bonkers.
44 (45.4%)

Wet Grave (Benjamin January # 6, since I keep stalling out on # 5, Die Upon A Kiss)
20 (20.6%)

I would like to nominate a completely different book for you to read and review.

View Answers

I really do and I will describe it in comments.
2 (2.2%)

Nope, I think you've got plenty already.
81 (89.0%)

I wandered in accidentally and don't care about books.
0 (0.0%)

I'm just here for the stories where something catches fire. Please read less and watch the flickering flames of the wood-burning stove more.
8 (8.8%)

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rachelmanija: (Books: old)
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I just wanted to show you all my used bookshop finds...

( Sep. 17th, 2018 12:57 pm)
I set up all my books to be be photographed. But before I could do so...



I dumped Alex off the sofa and tried again:



I dumped Alex more forcefully off the sofa and tried again:



Multiple blurry cats-on-books-pics later, I finally achieved this. Enjoy it, because it only lasted for as long as it took me to hit the button:

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rachelmanija: (Books: old)
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Fling, Marry, Kill: Mainstream Edition

( Aug. 8th, 2018 01:04 pm)
Hope springs eternal. But I just bought two new bookcases, just in case.

If you're joining late, fling means "read now and see if you like it," marry means "keep for later because you surely will," and kill means "it sucks/you won't like it, toss unread."

If you're familiar with any of these, let me know what you think!

Poll #20317 Fling, Marry, Kill: Mainstream Fiction
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36

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Take Three Tenses: A Fugue in Time, by Rumer Godden. Three generations in the same house, seen simultaneously. (Who am I kidding, there is no way I would ever kill this.)

View Answers

Fling
7 (30.4%)

Marry
14 (60.9%)

Kill
2 (8.7%)

The Steep Approach to Garbadale, by Iain Banks. Mainstream novel about a family that has a video game empire? Banks' books are very unpredictable for me in terms of whether/how much I'll like them.

View Answers

Fling
9 (47.4%)

Marry
2 (10.5%)

Kill
8 (42.1%)

The Magician's Assistant, by Ann Patchett. A magician's assistant and also widow discover surprising things after his death or maybe faked death.

View Answers

Fling
11 (64.7%)

Marry
2 (11.8%)

Kill
4 (23.5%)

People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks. An ancient Haggadah uncovers mysteries. The premise sounds great but I read something else by Brooks and really disliked it.

View Answers

Fling
11 (55.0%)

Marry
0 (0.0%)

Kill
9 (45.0%)

And the Ass Saw the Angel, by Nick Cave. Nick Cave's southern gothic. I have taken a few cracks at this and never gotten far, but I love his music. Might just need more sustained concentration.

View Answers

Fling
10 (55.6%)

Marry
1 (5.6%)

Kill
7 (38.9%)

Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson. A woman repeats her life in multiple variations. I love this premise.

View Answers

Fling
11 (45.8%)

Marry
9 (37.5%)

Kill
4 (16.7%)

Ladder of Years, by Anne Tyler. A wife and mother runs away and starts a new life. I often like Tyler but I'm having a knee-jerk "Did she let her kids think she was DEAD???" response to this one.

View Answers

Fling
9 (47.4%)

Marry
1 (5.3%)

Kill
9 (47.4%)

The Tiger Claw, by Shauna Singh Baldwin. Novel based on Noor Inayat Khan. Possibly depressing.

View Answers

Fling
15 (62.5%)

Marry
2 (8.3%)

Kill
7 (29.2%)

The Lords of Discipline, by Pat Conroy. Semi-autobiographical novel about military academy. I like the setting and I like Conroy, but for some reason I have never gotten far into this one. Try again?

View Answers

Fling
10 (43.5%)

Marry
1 (4.3%)

Kill
12 (52.2%)

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rachelmanija: (Books: old)
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Books set in Women's Shelters or other group homes

( May. 14th, 2018 11:13 am)
Can you mention some novels which are largely or entirely set in women's shelters or other types of group homes in which a group of unrelated people are staying there temporarily as a refuge from something and/or in order to have a space to get their lives back together? Right now I can only think of two, Rose Madder and Thendara House.

I'm not looking for books set in the type of institution where people are not allowed to leave, such as jails or mental hospitals where at least some people are involuntarily committed. I'm also not looking for something like Tales of the City or Spider Robinson's Callahan stories where people in a regular apartment building or hotel or bar or something find that it functions as a place of healing/introspection/community - those types of stories are much more common. I'm looking for ones where the explicit purpose of the institution is to be a refuge.
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rachelmanija: (Books: old)
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I have more!

( May. 13th, 2018 01:46 pm)
Poll #19954 What FF would you like to see me review?
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 85

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What FF novel would be interested in seeing me review?

View Answers

Top to Bottom, by Delphine Dryden. Drusilla Stasevich wants to leave the past behind. Returning to her hometown to open her dream kink club, Escape, seems like the perfect solution.
15 (17.6%)

Daughter of Mystery, by Heather Rose Jones. Lesbians in Ruritania.
50 (58.8%)

Runaway, by Anne Laughlin. A PI who grew up in a survivalist compound falls for her new boss while searching for a missing girl.
20 (23.5%)

From the Boots Up, by Andi Marquette. A woman trying to save her dude ranch falls for the reporter doing a story on it.
16 (18.8%)

Roller Girl, by Vanessa North. Love on a roller derby team.
29 (34.1%)

Fated Love, by Radclyffe. Soulmates in an ER.
14 (16.5%)

Passion's Bright Fury, by Radclyffe. Trauma surgeon/documentary filmmaker.
11 (12.9%)

Broken Trails, by D Jordan Redhawk. Iditarod competitor/wounded photojournalist covering race.
23 (27.1%)

Orphan Maker, by D Jordan Redhawk. Post-plague apocalypse.
17 (20.0%)

The Road to Wings, by Julie Tizar. Pilots at the Air Force Academy.
22 (25.9%)

Set the Stage, by Karis Walsh. Backstage hijinks at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
42 (49.4%)

The Wombat Strategy, by Claire McNab. Australian PI in Los Angeles, written by an Australian in Los Angeles
42 (49.4%)

Under the Southern Cross, by Claire McNab. Lesbian love and Australian scenery.
16 (18.8%)

Neither Present Time, by Caren J. Werlinger. Either a time slip or three generations of FF love,
19 (22.4%)

Rising From the Ashes, by Caren J. Werlinger. A fantasy about a girl raised by badgers.
41 (48.2%)



Anyone read any of these?
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rachelmanija: (Books: old)
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FF Friday book review poll

( May. 10th, 2018 11:42 am)
I am launching FF Fridays! See previous post for details.

I seem to have accumulated a whole lot of FF novels and samples of FF novels over the years. From that somewhat random assortment...

Poll #19942 FF Fridays Upcoming Book Reviews
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 72

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What FF novel would be interested in seeing me review?

View Answers

Criminal Gold by Ann Aptaker. 1949 noir about Cantor Gold, dapper dyke and art smuggler.
35 (48.6%)

Broken Wings by L. J. Baker. A blue collar fairy meets a celebrity dryad.
21 (29.2%)

High Impact by Kim Baldwin. A woman has a near death experience and goes to Alaska, where she meets an adventure outfitter and looks like they get stranded together.
13 (18.1%)

I am a Woman by Ann Bannon. Classic lesbian pulp, written in 1950s, about "immortal butch bar-dyke Beebo Brinker." (Literary immortality, not vampiric. I think.)
27 (37.5%)

Grave Silence by Rose Beecham. The super-cute cover made me think this was a cozy mystery, but reviews suggest it's quite dark and involves abuse and cults.
6 (8.3%)

Pegasi and Prefects by Eleanor Beresford. Magical girls' boarding school!
32 (44.4%)

Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas # 1) by Zoraida Cordova. Bisexual teenage bruja must rescue her family from the Underworld.
31 (43.1%)

Uptown Thief by Aya de Leon. "One smart, sizzling mami robs the rich and protects the exploited--until one heist too many puts everything at stake. . . "
15 (20.8%)

A Knight to Remember by Bridget Essex. "A librarian, a warrior woman, and a love story that's out of this world..."
30 (41.7%)

The Covert Captain: Or, A Marriage of Equals by Jeannelle M. Ferreira. Napoleonic cross-dressing.
35 (48.6%)

Desolation Point by Cari Hunter. Two women are stranded hiking in the Cascades with a killer on the loose.
9 (12.5%)

Snowbound by Cari Hunter. During a robbery in a snowstorm, one cop is wounded and taken hostage while another tries to rescue her.
14 (19.4%)

Heart Trouble by Jae. A waitress and an ER doctor get soul bonded.
13 (18.1%)

Second Nature by Jae. A romance novelist meets a werewolf!
9 (12.5%)

Deep Deception by Cathy Pegau. SF cop/criminal on a mining planet.
20 (27.8%)

Rulebreaker by Cathy Pegau. SF criminal/mob boss, on the same mining planet.
12 (16.7%)

Firestorm by Radclyffe. Smokejumpers in love.
14 (19.4%)

Trauma Alert by Radclyffe. ER doctors in love.
9 (12.5%)

The Devil Inside by Ali Vali. New Orleans mob boss/Wisconsin farm girl.
10 (13.9%)

Something else which you will suggest in comments.
2 (2.8%)



If you're familiar with any of these, please tell me what you think!
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Year in Fandom Meme

( Dec. 24th, 2017 11:23 am)
Polite request: If you hated anything I loved, here is not the place to share. Enjoyed with caveats is fine. Shared delight is welcome, and/or chime in with your own favorites!

Your main fandom of the year?

I'm not sure I've really been involved in fandom per se this year. Yuletide? Black Sails? Stephen King?

Your favorite film watched this year?

Baahubali 2 and The Last Jedi. The former is available on Netflix, along with Part 1, and I recommend the hell out it.

Your favorite book read this year?

This was not a great year for me getting a lot of reading done. But I did read some new-to-me books that I loved. I'm probably forgetting some, but favorites that come to mind are The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King, The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Greg Sestero and Tom Bisson, and Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me by Bill Hayes - the latter highly recommended to get in hardcover, as it's a beautiful physical object. I am also listening to Bruce Springsteen's autobiography, Born to Run, on CD read by himself, and enjoying the hell out of it. I only wish I could have listened to or read it when I was much younger, because his desperation to make his skills match his ambition and fear that they never would really resonated with me.

Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?

The Low Highway by Steve Earle, and some Bruce Springsteen live albums, Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 (2CD) and Live in Dublin: Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band.

Your favorite TV show of the year?

This was a great year for new or new-to-me TV. I adored Better Call Saul, Black Sails, The Good Place, Legion, and The Punisher. (I have not yet finished Better Call Saul, Black Sails, Orphan Black, so please no spoilers for the final or latest season.)

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

The Punisher. I am not recommending this to anyone who thinks they'll hate it, because they probably will hate it. I am not recommending this to anyone who thinks it will anger and offend them, because it probably will. I will just say that given that the comics character is one of my least favorite ever, I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I loved the show and its version of Frank Castle. Sometimes things just get to you on an emotional and personal level, and this show really got to me.

Please do not comment to say that you can't see it because it will anger and offend you. Let's just take that as read.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

The Runaways TV series. The casting looked so great. The acting is very good. And the writing and directing is so, so inexplicably boring. I am baffled by how a creative team that got the casting so right could so utterly and completely miss what made the comics so fun, which was 1) the fact that they are fucking RUNAWAYS, 2) the premise that it's about kids who discover that their parents are supervillains, 3) it's about the CHILDREN OF SUPERVILLAINS, not their parents, 4) the speed at which events happen and plot twists pile atop each other. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to not have the kids run away, have half the show be about their parents, put in some mysterious conspiracy rather than supervillains, and pace the show at the speed of molasses in February?

I realize that very similar things are probably said by fans of Punisher comics, only "WTF is up with the ratio of talking to shooting people?" "Why is there so much talking about feelings, what the hell?" and "WHERE IS THE SKULL SUIT?" but I am not a fan of the comics so I'm OK with that.

Your fandom boyfriend of the year?

It feels very inappropriate to call Captain Flint my boyfriend, so Frank Castle. Honestly I think we would get along very well, though long-term relationship prospects look dim.

Your fandom girlfriend of the year?

REY. I love the women of Black Sails, but I also love my continued existence. I do realize this should also rule out Frank Castle, but sometimes you just have to live dangerously.

Your biggest squee moment of the year?

About one-fourth of the entirety of The Last Jedi and Baahubali 2, almost all of which is hugely spoilery. Pretty much every appearance by older!Devasena in the latter, but the moment she appears in the spyglass is probably my single biggest of the year.

The most missed of your old fandoms?

Saiyuki.

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?

Stranger Things and Dark Matter .

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?

Black Panther looks AMAZING. So does A Wrinkle in Time.
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(no subject)

( Dec. 19th, 2017 10:27 am)
Can you suggest some stories, in any media, with the theme of something huge or catastrophic going on, like a war or an apocalypse, in which the point is that an individual's personal struggle, triumph, or failure matters even if it doesn't affect the larger picture?

This theme shows up in Connie Willis a lot - in Doomsday Book, Kivrin's presence matters to Father Roche even though it doesn't alter the course of the plague, in "Fire Watch" it matters that Saint Paul's is saved that night even if it isn't saved forever, etc. It seems like a natural for time travel stories, but I can't think of other examples offhand.
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Mary Stewart thrillers and gothics cheap on Amazon!

( Nov. 16th, 2017 07:43 pm)
Old-school thriller/romance/gothic author Mary Stewart (possibly better-known for her Merlin trilogy beginning with The Crystal Cave) has a bunch of books on Kindle for cheap - possibly for a limited time. Nine Coaches Waiting and The Ivy Tree, Madam, Will You Talk?, Touch Not the Cat, and Thunder on the Right are $1.99 each, The Moon-Spinners and This Rough Magic, Wildfire at Midnight, Stormy Petrel, and Thornyhold are $2.99, and Rose Cottage, My Brother Michael, The Gabriel Hounds, and Airs Above the Ground are $3.99. Also a pair of short stories, The Wind Off the Small Isles and The Lost One, for $4.99.

I am poking through these and can't recall if I've read some or not. I know I haven't read them all. Which do you recommend or disrecommend?
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East of Midnight, by Tanith Lee; MagicQuest

( Aug. 11th, 2017 10:56 am)
Dekteon, a slave in fantasyland, escapes and blunders into a strange world between worlds where horses have bear paws and he gets hired by a man who looks just like him to guard him from the terrors of the night. At least, that's the excuse. But it turns out that his new employer has a much more sinister task in mind.

This odd fantasy has some very beautiful, striking images and scenes, and the first fourth or so has a wonderfully spooky, dreamlike atmosphere. Unfortunately, once Dekteon is sent to the matriarchy of cold, bitchy moon women and the sun men they rule, the magic falls away and is replaced by an annoying plot in which he gets the better of the entire society just by being a manly man and not doing what the women say. I'm not objecting just because it's sexist. I'm also objecting because it's dumb and boring.

Not one of Tanith Lee's best. Though I do love the cover, which is 100% accurately taken from the book. A woman with an ivory bow riding a horned lion is what I read fantasy for; wish she was in a better book.

It was part of the MagicQuest series, a fantastic YA fantasy imprint which reprinted (or originally published some?) books by Patricia McKillip, Jane Yolen, Diana Wynne Jones, Peter Dickinson, Robert Westall, Paul Fisher, and Elizabeth Marie Pope. They had great covers and sometimes also great interior illustrations, and I haunted libraries and bookshops for them - all were reliably worth reading, though I liked some more than others. (I never warmed up to Peter Dickinson, and the Pied Piper book was forgettable.) Except for the Westall book, I read all its books for the first time from that imprint; it introduced me to Diana Wynne Jones and Tanith Lee.

I wish the imprint had lasted longer, but it only put out 18 books. Looking them up now, I see that I never saw or even heard of The Last Days of the Edge of the World by Brian Stableford.

Anyone else read MagicQuest? What were your favorites and least favorites?
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Fling/Marry Kill: Oldie Children's Books

( Aug. 10th, 2017 12:56 pm)
Please comment if you've read any of these or others by the same author.

Poll #18676 Oldie Children's Books
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 38

View Respondents

Beginner's Luck, by Oriel Malet. Jenny is sure she'll be a famous ballerina. Victoria is sure she has no talent. James (9) writes a poem: "O venerable is our old Ancestor, to finance our first trip to the theater."

View Answers

Fling
10 (50.0%)

Marry
4 (20.0%)

Kill
6 (30.0%)

Cherry Ames, Army Nurse, by Helen Wells. An entry I haven't read in a series I loved as a kid; a young nurse helps her patients and sometimes also solves mysteries.

View Answers

Fling
12 (54.5%)

Marry
8 (36.4%)

Kill
2 (9.1%)

The Kelpie's Pearls, by Mollie Hunter. "The story of how Morag MacLeod came to be called a witch is a queer one and not at all the sort of thing you would expect to happen nowadays."

View Answers

Fling
16 (61.5%)

Marry
7 (26.9%)

Kill
3 (11.5%)

The Little White Horse, by Eleanor Goudge. When orphaned young Maria Merryweather arrives at Moonacre Manor, she feels as if she's arrived in Paradise.

View Answers

Fling
18 (62.1%)

Marry
8 (27.6%)

Kill
3 (10.3%)

The Magic Book, by Willo Davis Roberts. Apparently the only other sff novel by the author of "The Girl With the Silver Eyes," an old favorite of mine.

View Answers

Fling
14 (60.9%)

Marry
9 (39.1%)

Kill
0 (0.0%)

Otto of the Silver Hand, written and illustrated by Howard Pyle. A historical adventure by the author of fairy tales I used to love as a kid.

View Answers

Fling
10 (50.0%)

Marry
8 (40.0%)

Kill
2 (10.0%)

The Time of the Kraken, by Jay Williams. Thorgeir Redhair must go on a quest to save his people from the kraken, since they're too busy fighting another tribe to do anything useful. By the author of my old favorite, "The Hero From Otherwhere."

View Answers

Fling
12 (57.1%)

Marry
5 (23.8%)

Kill
4 (19.0%)

We Rode to the Sea, by Christine Pullein-Thompson. Horse story by an author of other horse stories I liked as a kid.

View Answers

Fling
13 (61.9%)

Marry
4 (19.0%)

Kill
4 (19.0%)

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FMK: Fantasy by Women

( Jun. 19th, 2017 01:57 pm)
Please feel free to comment! I have not read anything by any of these writers but Johnson.

Poll #18509
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 60

View Respondents

The Sword of Winter, by Marta Randall. In the cold and dangerous land of Cherek, emerging from an era of magic and confronted by technological advancements, Lord Gambin of Jentesi lies dying and chaos reigns.

View Answers

Fling
20 (55.6%)

Marry
6 (16.7%)

Kill
10 (27.8%)

A Rumor of Gems, by Ellen Steiber. Enter the port city of Arcato: an old and magical town set somewhere in our modern world, a town where gemstones have begun to mysteriously appear . . . gemstones whose mystical powers aren't mere myth or legend but frighteningly real, casting their spells for good and ill.

View Answers

Fling
15 (40.5%)

Marry
7 (18.9%)

Kill
15 (40.5%)

Travel Light, by Naomi Mitchison. The story of Halla, a girl born to a king but cast out onto the hills to die. She lives among bears; she lives among dragons. But the time of dragons is passing, and Odin All-Father offers Halla a choice: Will she stay dragonish and hoard wealth and possessions, or will she travel light?

View Answers

Fling
21 (40.4%)

Marry
24 (46.2%)

Kill
7 (13.5%)

Nemesis, by Louise Cooper. Princess Anghara had no place in the Forbidden Tower, and no business tampering with its secrets. But she did, and now the seven demons are loose and her world is cursed, prey to the wrath of the Earth Goddess.

View Answers

Fling
16 (40.0%)

Marry
6 (15.0%)

Kill
18 (45.0%)

Racing the Dark, by Alaya Dawn Johnson. Lana, a teenaged girl on a nameless backwater island, finds an ominous blood-red jewel that marks her as someone with power, setting in motion events that drive her away from her family and into an apprenticeship with a mysterious one-armed witch.

View Answers

Fling
34 (73.9%)

Marry
11 (23.9%)

Kill
1 (2.2%)

My Soul to Keep, by Tananarive Due. When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami.

View Answers

Fling
23 (53.5%)

Marry
10 (23.3%)

Kill
10 (23.3%)

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FMK: Mostly Award-Winning British children's books

( Jun. 11th, 2017 12:09 pm)
Poll #18480 FMK: Mostly Award-Winning British children's books
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 38

View Respondents

Kit's Wilderness, by David Almond. Kit's family moves to an old mining town, where he and another boy search the mines for the ghosts of their ancestors. Might be fantasy? Won the Printz Award.

View Answers

Fling
15 (44.1%)

Marry
10 (29.4%)

Kill
9 (26.5%)

Bottle Boy, by Stephen Elboz. An amnesiac boy and his brother are trapped in a life of crime. Author won the Smarties Prize but not for this book.

View Answers

Fling
10 (32.3%)

Marry
5 (16.1%)

Kill
16 (51.6%)

River Boy, by Tim Bowler. Jess's probably-dying grandfather is trying to finish one last painting; Jess meets a boy who might be the one from the painting. Possibly fantasy? Won the Carnegie Award.

View Answers

Fling
11 (36.7%)

Marry
7 (23.3%)

Kill
12 (40.0%)

Ghost in the Water, by Edward Chitham. Teresa and David find a gravestone from 1860 labeled "Innocent of all Harm" and find that the dead girl's life is mysteriously linked with theirs. Filmed by BBC.

View Answers

Fling
18 (54.5%)

Marry
7 (21.2%)

Kill
8 (24.2%)

A Little Lower Than The Angels, by Geraldine McCaughrean. A medieval boy joins a theatre troupe. Whitbread Best Book of the Year.

View Answers

Fling
18 (52.9%)

Marry
13 (38.2%)

Kill
3 (8.8%)

Stone Cold, by Robert Swindells. A homeless boy in London gets caught up in a mystery of disappearing street kids. Carnegie Medal

View Answers

Fling
15 (46.9%)

Marry
8 (25.0%)

Kill
9 (28.1%)



I have never read anything by any of these authors, and in most cases have only heard of them in the sense that I own one of their books. Anyone familiar with any of them?
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Welcome to Books: FMK

( May. 26th, 2017 01:08 pm)
[personal profile] melannen has been culling her bookshelves by playing "Fuck Marry Kill" via poll. In the interests of doing the same, and also getting back to posting more book reviews, I have decided to join her. (I am doing "fling" rather than "fuck" just because my posts get transferred to Goodreads and I don't want EVERY post of mine on there littered with fucks.)

How to play: Fling means I spend a single night of passion (or possibly passionate hatred) with the book, and write a review of it, or however much of it I managed to read. Marry means the book goes back on my shelves, to wait for me to get around to it. (That could be a very long time.) Kill means I should donate it without attempting to read it. You don't have to have read or previously heard of the books to vote on them.

Please feel free to explain your reasoning for your votes in comments. For this particular poll, I have never read anything by any of the authors (or if I did, I don't remember it) and except for Hoover and Lively, have never even heard of the authors other than that at some point I apparently thought their book sounded interesting enough to acquire.

Poll #18415 FMK: Vintage YA/children's SFF
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50

View Respondents

The Spring on the Mountain, by Judy Allen. Three kids have magical, possibly Arthurian adventures on a week in the country.

View Answers

Fling
19 (48.7%)

Marry
10 (25.6%)

Kill
10 (25.6%)

The Lost Star, by H. M. Hoover. A girl who lives on another planet hears an underground cry for help (and finds chubby gray cat centaurs if the cover is accurate)

View Answers

Fling
22 (53.7%)

Marry
13 (31.7%)

Kill
6 (14.6%)

The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy, by Penelope Lively. Lucy visits her aunt in Hagworthy and is embroiled in the ancient Horn Dance and Wild Hunt.

View Answers

Fling
27 (61.4%)

Marry
6 (13.6%)

Kill
11 (25.0%)

Carabas, by Sophie Masson. Looks like a medieval setting. A shapeshifting girl gets accused of being a witch and runs off with the miller's son.

View Answers

Fling
19 (46.3%)

Marry
12 (29.3%)

Kill
10 (24.4%)

Of Two Minds, by Carol Mates and Perry Nodelman. Princess Lenora can makes what she imagines real; Prince Coren can read minds, but everyone can read his mind. (Ouch!)

View Answers

Fling
22 (52.4%)

Marry
11 (26.2%)

Kill
9 (21.4%)

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