Constituent Service (by John Scalzi)

I bought this (fancy signed edition) as a Christmas gift for my child, who loved Agent to the Stars so much that I felt confident she would also enjoy this novella, about a human who goes to work in city services for a cosmopolitan district where she is pretty much the only human around.

Mina adored this. "I love this so much, tell John Scalzi to write more, I need more, I just want to live in this world, I love it, I love it, I love it."  So please turn this into a series, John.  

It's very fun, light, fluffy, and unfortunately quite alien-poop-centric which is not my favorite type of humor but obviously it did not bother my child. So I'll have to decide which to try next - Starter Villain? Redshirts? Old Man's War? We shall see!

Glaciers (by Alexis Smith)

I have another goal this year, to get through some of my unread books on paper, and probably Glaciers is the book I was thinking of when I made this resolution.  I bought this novella a dozen years ago from a display at Powell's Books - deckled edges, matte blue color, lovely cover,  pleasing form factor, and published by Powell's imprint - who could resist?  And yet somehow, I never managed to actually read it.

Once I did determine to read it, it went  fast! It's a novella about a day in the life of our main character, Isabel. Very Mrs Dalloway in its interiority, and how Isabel's reminiscences of childhood flesh out the narrative. It reads very "this is my MFA thesis" in that it's consciously poetic, very writerly, as opposed to organic, and is more about mood than any major plot happenings. 

I truly don't know what took me so long to read this - I hope whoever discovers it in our Little Free Library enjoys this poetic little novella.  

Iceland Books

I got a bit caught up on my reading goal and finished six books while I was on vacation. As per usual, here they are in vacation roundup format. 

We Solve Murders (by Richard Osman) 

My friend sent me a picture of this book on the recommendation shelf of a local independent bookstore, because it's written by Richard Osman, who has been on Taskmaster UK, a show he introduced me to. This is the moment I realized the Taskmaster Richard Osman is the same Richard Osman who wrote the Thursday Murder Club series! We Solve Murders is the beginning of a new series from him, and thanks to my friend, also meets the criteria of "a staff pick from an indie bookstore" for the Read Harder Challenge. Apart from that, it's a great kickoff to a new series - funny, unpredictable, cozy, with charming characters. If you liked Thursday Murder Club, you'll enoy this one too.

Shampoo Unicorn (by Sawyer Lovett)

The novel is about a queer podcast in rural America, shown from three points of view. I think the exploration of small town homophobia and transphobia will resonate with its audience, but it was not quite successful for me. Of the three point of view characters, one is kind of shoehorned in unsuccessfully, and another is in second person for seemingly no reason. More a book I'm glad exists for today's kids than one which landed with me.

Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic Over Role-Playing Games Says About Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds (by Joseph Laycock)

As the title suggests, this one is pretty academic and definitely reads like someone's published thesis (not that there's anything wrong with that). Read this for the RHC category "a book about a moral panic."  I did find it very interesting, as Laycock talks about how fantasy serves similar functions to religion in society and how that overlap can lead to moral panic. It also talks about how the secret to averting a theocracy is allowing people to explore imaginary worlds and alternative frameworks like art, fantasy, science, and religion (apart from the hegemonic one). A slow read but enjoyable.

Leo Martino Steals Back His Heart (by Eric Geron)

A queer YA, of course. On the plus side: had a real story of self-discovery that felt authentic, and wasn't formulaic.  On the negative side: the tone is confusing, a lot of plot is unresolved (like okay, his dad is a cartoon-like cheater and abuser, but his mom's family takes the dad's side? And that's not ever explained or resolved?), some of the side characters seem more like plot devices than actual people with motivation, and the central romance didn't work for me. So, an author with a ton of potential but a book that didn't quite work. 

A Psalm for the Wild Built (by Becky Chambers)

Sci-fi novella for the category "a queernorm book."  To me, reads like the prologue of an actual book. This is about a discontent "tea monk" named Dex who meets a sentient robot and they become friends and set off on an adventure. It's a classic Becky Chambers cozy sci-fi in a casually queer world but really feels like the story has barely begun. 

The Examiner (by Janice Hallet)

I loved the premise of this one - like The Appeal, a novel told through text messages and emails being reviewed by a third-party - in this case, an examiner (a grade-reviewer) for a master's degree art course populated by some deliciously unlikeable characters.  Also one of them might be dead.  First half of this was terrific, up to the first twist (which I loved) and then the denoument ended up being super long and convoluted, and I didn't quite follow everything that was even going on, what people's motivations were, or what the Maguffin even was. Maybe it was just because I was jetlagged by this point but I saw similar feedback on Goodreads so I didn't feel too alone. 

Orbital (by Samantha Harvey)

This novella won the Booker Prize this year, and is basically a short meditation on earth from the perspective of six astronauts and cosmonauts on a space station.

I tend to zone out on descriptions of scenery, as you may remember, and this is basically all descriptions of scenery. (Yes there are characters, there is slight tension about a typhoon in the Philippines, but basically it's just descriptions of scenery.)  True, the scenery is the entire earth and it's being viewed from space so it's at least more interesting than average! Still, I found this boring. 

I chose this one off the longlist first because it won the Booker and because it was short but I actually took a break and read a second book in the middle of it because IT IS BORING.  I'm sure there are people who loved the prose and the perspective of Humanity in the Vastness of Space and the Care we should Have for our Planet, Mother Earth and blah blah.  But I'd rather watch a video taken from the space station and meditate on it all myself.

To Be Taught, if Fortunate (by Becky Chambers)

This book marks the halfway point in my Read Harder progress this year, a sci-fi novella. It's about a group of four astronauts who are exploring other planets in between rounds of "torpor" and being adapted for the next environment via enzyme patches, and is narrated by the engineer, Ariadne.

It's very creative about what kinds of other planets and life forms may exist, and I think hinges on a sort of "Choose Your Own Adventure" ending.  But ultimately I didn't really love the characters, could have done without all the bed-hopping, and wished for this to be better fleshed out as a story.  The ending could have hit better if it was better developed. Ultimately a meh for me.

& This Is How to Stay Alive (by Shingai Njeri Kagunda)

This won Best Novella in 2022 in the Ignyte awards, and thus qualifies for the category "read any book from the Ignyte awards shortlist/longlist/winner list."

It is a novella about a woman in Nairobi whose brother dies by suicide, and her efforts to travel back in time and save him. I think I made a mistake in not reading this all in one shot, since I didn't appreciate it nearly as much as others did. I was left feeling confused and wishing for more. Part of it may have been the novella format but most of it I think it was me failing as a reader. 

If I get a chance before the end of the year, I may try and read it again.

Whereabouts (by Jhumpa Lahiri)

Whereabouts is another Camp ToB selection. It's a novella by Jhumpa Lahiri originally written in Italian and translated by her.  There isn't much of a plot, per se, more a series of vignettes from the life of a melancholy narrator, living in an Italian city.

There's something spare and meditative about this very interior story. Something about it resonated despite the fact that not a lot happens; I enjoyed spending time in this richly drawn world.

Their Troublesome Crush (by Xan West)

I'm so sorry to read that Xan West has passed away. This is #ownvoices rep like never before! The main characters are metamours (meaning they are both polyamorous, in a relationship with the same third person) and I have to pull all the representation from the description or I'll miss something: Ernest is a Jewish autistic demiromantic queer fat trans man submissive, and Nora is a Jewish disabled queer fat femme cis woman switch.  

Mostly this is like a geeky queer kink scene come to life, complete with Ernest singing showtunes. Xan West was an autistic queer fat Jewish genderqueer writer, so represented themselves in lots of dimensions. I would have loved to continue reading the series if it had continued.  Sorry to those of you who knew Xan; may their memory (and their writings) be a blessing.

Two More YA Books

Chaos on CatNet (by Naomi Kritzer) 

So excited to learn there was a sequel to Catfishing on CatNet! The original book in the series is an absolute gem. This has the same sparkling characters and fun speculative fiction elements, handling all its queer teenagers (and its poly adults) in an affectionate way.  The plot isn't quite as gripping to me as the plot of Catfishing on CatNet but that book is near-perfect so I can't really complain.  I hope the fact that this is "CatNet #2" means there will be a CatNet #3! (Disclaimer: I tagged this "I know this person" because although we've never met, Naomi and I are friends on Facebook.)

Here the Whole Time (by Vitor Martins) 

This is translated from the Portuguese and set in Brazil, so qualifies as "a realistic YA book not set in the U.S., UK, or Canada."  I tagged it novella because it's very short. I looked down thinking I was maybe halfway in and I was almost done! This is about a fat, gay teen in Brazil whose handsome neighbor comes to stay with him for two weeks. Although he is dealing with profound own body image issues and they are handled sensitively and movingly, the book really lacks conflict.  I definitely was hoping for more out of this one.

Fugitive Telemetry (by Martha Wells)

Part of the Murderbot Diaries series, which obviously I have written about a lot (since this is book 6) and you probably already know if this is for you. This is another novella, and I love the scope of this one (basically Murderbot solves a murder).  It is, as always, clever and very funny. Murderbot is, as always, an incredible character. The worldbuilding is delightful. Really, a gem of a series.

Martha Wells is nominated for a Best Series Hugo and despite the fact that my friend John Scalzi's excellent Interdependency series is also nominated, I can't imagine anything winning other than Murderbot! (Sorry, John. Love you, John.)

Exit Strategy and Network Effect (by Martha Wells)

Murderbot is back! Exit Strategy is the fourth novella in the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells and kind of wraps up the first big plot arc. (Where does Murderbot belong, and with whom.) This was a really good one, with a conclusion that is both very satisfying and leaves the door open for a lot more. I immediately moved on to Network Effect, which is the fifth book and first full-length novel in the series.

It's great to have a novel-length Murderbot story; it works just as well on a larger scale, and I loved the relationships in this one. I saw some people (on Metafilter, maybe) saying this series was their favorite read of the year. I don't think it will end up in my very top, but then again maybe! It is really really delightful, if you're a sci-fi fan.

I so far have resisted the urge to start on Read Harder 2021, specifically the novel-length, really intriguing Killing Eve fanfiction I have discovered. Move over Johnlock, it's time for Villaneve!

Thanksgiving Reads

I read a bunch of books on our Thanksgiving staycation, and here now are those books.

By the Book (by Amanda Sellet)

A YA romance about a bookish narrator named Mary, who is delightfully awkward and literary.  Very light, but enjoyable. As you know I’ve read a lot of YA recently and it definitely stuck out that the characters here were for the most part very white. These days, most YA novels have a more diverse cast of characters.  Just an observation.

Rogue Patrol (by Martha Wells)

The next book in the Murderbot series and another enjoyable installment. I must confess I don’t quite understand the big picture conspiracy (probably because it takes a while for me to read each book in the series since the library hold list is long) but I loved the story here, especially the arc of Miki, another bot who Murderbot semi-befriends. How do you not love Miki?

Long Bright River (by Liz Moore)

The 2021 Tournament of Books longlist is out, so let the reading begin! This is an atmospheric, litficcy thriller about a police officer named Mickey who is trying to find her sister, an addict who has disappeared. There are twists and turns, and a compelling plot. A page-turner.

Full Disclosure (by Camryn Garrett)

Love the premise: a girl who is HIV-positive navigating first-time romance and figuring out how to disclose to her friends and new love interest that she is positive. There was something off about this though; many weird moments that didn’t feel quite real (starting with the opening scene, Simone being all sex-positive and asking questions of her gynecologist while one of her dads is in the room being controlling, except he’s a doctor and of all people should know better).  There are numerous jarring moments like this, or where what people say or do doesn’t quite work with what has been established about them previously.  A bit rough.

Her Royal Highness (by Rachel Hawkins)

Very witty writing and a fun plotline (Millie goes off to school in Scotland and falls in love with her roommate, a princess) but torpedoed by godawful pacing. There are three long chapters before she even goes to Scotland (like, come on, we know she ends up there, we don’t need a full journey) but then the climax and denouement happen so fast it seems like the author was on some kind of deadline at the end.  And it doesn’t even quite make sense how it unfolds. Not in a rush to read the other books in this series.

I Wish You All the Best (by Mason Deaver)

Another strikeout in the world of YA. (I keep checking them out thinking something is going to live up to the amazing YA I’ve read this year, like More Happy Than Not or Stay Gold or Amelia Westlake Was Never Here). This is about a nonbinary character named Ben, great! But they are so angsty and unlikeable from beginning to end that it makes the romance part not work. (What does Nathan see in Ben? Why are they even friends?) Ben is described towards the end as “kind” and I honestly can’t recall a single instance in this book of where they were kind to someone else or even had a particularly kind thought. I also can’t help but compare it to Stay Gold, where I emerged with a visceral understanding of the main character as trans, but here I didn’t learn much about what it means for Ben to be nonbinary, and I really wanted to! Disappointing.

More YA Books

What's this, am I still reading LGBTQ YA books? Why yes, yes I am.

Love, Creekwood (by Becky Albertalli)

This is a fun little epistolary novella set in the same universe as Love, Simon and Leah on the Offbeat. Our main couples (Simon and Bram, Leah and Abby) are in college and navigating their relationships. The biggest tension here is that Simon and Bram are bad at long distance relationships. It's funny and fun and breezy and fast. Worth a read for Creekwood fans.

Only Mostly Devastated (by Sophie Gonzales) 

A young adult version of Grease, basically. Gay Grease. Ollie and Will have a romantic summer at the lake, then Ollie transfers to Will's school and finds out that popular, jock, closeted Will is not the Will he remembers. Extra points for a sensitive handling of a relative's illness and for bisexual representation! Negative points for being too on-the-nose with Grease references. Yes we get it, we don't need the words "hopelessly devoted" to tell us this is about Grease. But mostly super cute.

Murderbot and Meal

Here are two completely unrelated books that I read this week. (Well, one thing they have in common is that they are both short.)

Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries (by Martha Wells) 

The second book in the delightful Murderbot series! I was actually halfway through the third one and then my library checkout expired, so it will take a bit for it to come back around. But I love Murderbot and am excited to keep reading the series. If you know, then you know. 

Meal (by Blue Delliquanti and Soleil Ho)

Allow me to take a moment to point out how annoying it is when Bookriot creates a category for the RHC and then recommends books that don't fit.  The category is "A food book about a cuisine you’ve never tried before" and they suggest Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat? How does that make any sense? I hold myself to a higher standard.

It turns out I've tried a lot of cuisines so was stuck for a bit, until the Goodreads group recommended Meal, a graphic novel about entomophagy, aka eating insects. I once sat across from my husband as he ate crickets in a Oaxacan restaurant, and I had delicious chicken mole instead, because no. I enjoyed learning more about the tradition of entomophagy, even if I have a very typical White westerner reaction to the whole thing. The book was a quick read and the romance was cute.

I find it impossible to believe any restaurant would have a crowd outside excited to eat whole tarantulas, though.

Two RHC Books

Two quick reads that both qualified for the RHC this year: a debut novel by a queer author, and a sci-fi novella. Except I see I've already checked off sci-fi novella.  I'm bad at keeping track this year!

At any rate, I read two books and here are my thoughts:

London Calling (by Clare Lydon)

I enjoyed Before You Say I Do,  so I decided to check out Lydon's debut. This is about Jess, a woman living in Australia who gets cheated on and then moves back to London, and then has some lesbian adventures. This had the same problem for me as Before You Say I Do, minus the strength of having a strong plot. Namely, the two main characters fall for each other seemingly because they're both very attractive, and then that's kind of it. It definitely feels like infactuation rather than love, so the emotional stakes are missing. And then there's also no real plot to speak of. Add in a slur for transgender people and some editing mistakes, and it isn't something I'd recommend. It is a light read, and not terrible, but very forgettable.

All Systems Red (by Martha Wells)

Hearing great things about this series and as a sci-fi fan, I had this in mind for the RHC from day one and then I kept checking it out from the library and then forgetting to actually read it. As soon as I started it this time around I realized why: it opens with scenery description.  You know me and scenery description. But I pressed on and found a delightful story about Murderbot, a sentient, humanoid security robot whose "governor module" breaks and thus finds itself with free will.  I will definitely continue with this series because it is, indeed, really good.

Story of Your Life (by Ted Chiang)

This novella by Ted Chiang was turned into the movie Arrival.(which I never saw). A fast read that packs a huge emotional punch. I've never read any Chiang before that I can remember and I really enjoyed the harder sci-fi aspects (the linguistics details) coupled with the personal story here, of a linguist who has to decipher an alien language and also recounting the story of her daughter's life.

Would love to read more Ted Chiang based on this!

P.S. The new Blogger now inserts insane spaces between paragraphs. Why. Help. What?

Catfishing on CatNet (by Naomi Kritzer)

This book was the palate cleanser to a crappy week, and did its job perfectly. A speculative fiction young adult novel about a teen girl and her mom on the run, and an AI who befriends her.  Suspenseful, page-turning, and fun. And apparently there's a sequel, which I could really use right now, so type faster, Naomi!

Three Quick Reads

Going through books faster than I can blog about them, but to be fair, two of these were thrillers and those always go fast.

Binti (by Nnedi Okorafor)

Afrofuturistic space adventure featuring an amazing lead character, Binti! Won the Hugo and I think the Nebula award. Read for the category "A book by an AOC set in or about space." This is a novella and was a quick but super great read. Excited to continue with the series!

What the Dead Know (by Laura Lippman)

A fun thriller, albeit with an ending I saw coming about halfway through. I wanted more twists (I really enjoy being surprised) but enjoyed the read overall. 

The Silent Patient (by Alex Michaelides)

Now this is what I'm talking about! This one had a great twist and was a total page-turner! The ending makes no sense if you think about it, like, at all, but I don’t even care, I devoured this.

(Note: in both of these latter two books I highlighted some fatphobic content. Often mysteries introduce a lot of characters that have to be memorable, fast, and a lot of times "fat and grotesque" is a shorthand for these types of characters. Ugh, why.)

More Business Trip Reads

This time, it was short trip to Los Angeles, but it did involve airports and flights, ergo, reading, ergo, here are my reviews:

Closed Casket (by Sophia Hannah)

Airplane fluff for sure. This is an "authorized by the estate of Agatha Christie" mystery with Hercule Poirot at the center.  I saw it in the airport bookstore and then checked to see if it was free via my library app. IT WAS. (Still not over it.) So it was easy to take a chance on, and a fun, breezy mystery. It doesn't approach classic Christie (obviously) and really reads more like really excellent Poirot fanfic (yes, it exists).  But I enjoyed it enough to download the other Hannah/Christie novel, The Monogram Murders (see below) for the flight back.

City of the Lost Monkey God (by Douglas Preston)

A non-fiction pick for my work book club. This is the story of the search for a lost city in Honduras, the titular city of the lost monkey god. The author's time spent at the site (on two occasions) was fairly brief and the story wouldn't really work chronologically, so the narrative was choppy as a result, lacking the  tension, depth, or pacing of Into Thin Air. (I immediately downloaded and reread Into Thin Air, one of my all-time favorite books to reread, as you may remember.) It's interesting nonetheless, if ultimately depressing, and I did learn a lot about Honduras and the inevitability of a global pandemic. So that was fun.

The Monogram Murders (by Sophia Hannah)

The other fake Agatha Christie, and equally fluffy and enjoyable. I thought this plot was way too complicated; the reveal didn't have a fun "aha" moment because I'd lost track of who was connected with whom and what, and there was a bit too much going on with the final denouement. But it was a fun library book I read on an airplane, so in that sense, it was perfect! I will definitely gobble up any other entries in this series.

Joy (by S. Kay)

An old online journal acquaintance posted about her novella in our Faebook group, and I noticed that it had been published by a micro-press (Maudlin House), which enabled me to check out the book, support a former journaler, and check off one of the categories of the Read Harder Challenge, all at the same time. This is an enjoyable little novella that reads like a prose poem, with anti-heroine Joy at the center of it all.  Texts, tweets, blog posts, poems, all play a part in this work. I would have enjoyed this if it was many times longer, as I loved Joy, but the small size makes it easy to digest, ponder, and re-read. Thumbs up!

How Should a Person Be? (by Sheila Heti)

This was the love-it-or-hate-it book of the 2013 Tournament of Books (it knocked out Bring Up the Bodies in a big upset) and aych, the friend who leant it to me, hated it. Well I loved it. Loved it!

I understand why some people might not like it, might think it's too facile or McSweeney's or gimmicky, but I really loved it. It can be funny: "We live in an age of some really great blow-job artists. Every era has its art form. The 19th century, I know, was tops for the novel." It can be profound: "One thinks sometimes how much more alive such people would be if they suffered! If they can’t be happy, let them at least be unhappy—really, really unhappy for once, and then they might truly be human." 

I just loved Heti's writing, I thought it was original and energetic. If it came down to this or Building Stories in my own personal 2013 Tournament of Books, I might pick this one too. (But I wouldn't expect anyone to agree with me.)