pickInteresting space opera set in a solar system where a reunified Korea is the dominant space power. There's a fair amount of action, but it's pretty character-centric, with themes of found family and queer love. It appears to be the first of a series, and I'm interested to see where it goes.
pickI‘ve had this on my shelf a long time, and I wonder if it would have hit the same if I‘d read it back when I first bought it. A story about a person seeing a rotten system and actually tearing it down has a certain extra catharsis in 2024, I think.
pickWhether horror or post-apocalyptic, these stories are all pretty unsettling. Not quite the right fit for my taste or current frame of mind but they were certainly effective.
pickIt‘s always surprising—pleasantly so—to read a story in a familiar subgenre that feels like something you‘ve never read before. Multiverse stories all (or almost all) have in common an exploration of identity, of what makes us is. And this one does that, of course, but it stands out for the distinctive voice of its protagonist, and the way she moves not just between worlds, but within the world she inhabits.
pickI thought this book worked really well both as a thought experiment about the American carceral system and as a coming-of-age and family story. It was interesting reading it as both someone who believes in prison abolition and who is a parent to teen and tween kids. The story rightly focuses on the kids in the family, but you get a strong feel for their parents and extended family, too. I‘d love to know how this story hits with teen readers.
so-soI think a lot of what these poems are doing is lost on me, simply because I don‘t have the right frame of reference. Some felt celebratory to me, some fearful, some defiant. I think I appreciate them even if I don‘t fully understand them.
so-soIf I‘m being honest, I did not understand these poems very well, if at all. I probably need to reread them. And maybe do some research to see if I can understand more of the references.
pickI am always a sucker for a coming-of-age story; this one is also a murder mystery and a YA romance. And it‘s a story about intolerance and division and the specter of war, and reading it in 2024 definitely makes it feel urgent in a way that I‘m not sure it would have at a different time in my life.
pickThis is the third Becky Chambers book I‘ve read and I think it‘s safe to say she‘s become one of my favorite writers. This book is just so decent. It feels loving, both to the characters and to the reader. It‘s exactly what I wanted and needed right now. I will absolutely be reading the rest of the series.
Next
pickMan, this was great. I‘m coming to realize I‘m a bit of a sucker for an epistolary story, especially a romantic one. There‘s just something about the form that, done well, makes the chemistry between the leads so sparkling and palpable. And, funny thing, the speculative element of the premise actually made the necessary separation between the characters feel not only sharper but somehow more plausible. I loved it.
pickI have to admit, I was surprised by how strongly and quickly I turned to liking this book, after spending the first two-thirds or so really disliking both MCs. But in the end the slow burn paid off, with both characters growing in very satisfying (if quick) ways. And where it really shined, IMO, was in the MCs‘ respective family relationships.
so-soI don't really know how to talk about a book like this, but it was entertaining? And very smutty. Tbh, I found myself skimming the sex scenes after a while, but the rest of the story was a lot like watching a popcorn romcom, except most of the main characters are wolf people.
Next. (Was not expecting to be reading an omegaverse book but my girlfriend handed this to me when she was done with it, so here we are.)
pickSo, this book was creepy and disturbing as all get-out, which I mean as a compliment. It's dedicated "to everyone who has ever loved a monster." What I think Gailey does so well is to trouble what it means to be monstrous.
pickThere‘s so much in this book that I want to quote. Maybe the reason is that I, too, am someone who thinks about the relationship between self and story. Maybe I‘m looking for a new way to understand the world and the self and the boundary between them, or lack thereof. “Everything survives,” Rojas Contreras writes, and it‘s both a comfort and a warning. I‘m gonna be thinking about this one for a while.
pickThe title suggests both a callous world, unheeding of the catastrophes borne by others, and a persistent world, one that survives. The poems hold both of these worlds, and, through them, so does the reader. We walk with Choi through the grief of past endings and the terror of those unfolding now. Yet we also find comfort in the ones who provide aid now, and those who come after us. I think I needed this book.
pickSomething I particularly enjoyed about this one is that there isn't really an antagonist, just a family working through some changes and struggles, partly in parallel and partly together. I don‘t read enough middle-grade fiction to know whether this is part of a larger trend in that market segment but I like that there are stories for younger readers that are centered on something besides animus or violence.
pickThis was an entertaining read, but somehow the romance elements almost entirely missed me in this one, as compared to how surprising and engaging I found them in the first book. I kept skimming the sex and romantic angst to get back to the adventure plot. Which, honestly, makes me feel embarrassingly basic bro-ish. Though, to be fair, I did very much enjoy all of the other character relationships and arcs.
pickThere is so much this book did that I liked and that moved me—on the level of nostalgia, for sure, but also in form, and in how it thinks about games and gaming. But what I‘m thinking about most right now is how the structure is so much like a romcom, and yet the central relationship is rooted in friendship and collaboration. There is something deeply lovely about how it shows the power and impact of love outside of romance.
pickThis book was lovely. I don‘t really know what else to say about it.
pickI‘ve been following this series since before the first book was published. Back when it all started, Ty and Daniel assured me that they would stick the landing. They even knew what the last line would be. After thirteen years and nine books, I have to say: I think they did it.
pickReading this a few years into my own divorce process was an interesting experience—resonant, cathartic, challenging at times. I was struck, too, by how different this book felt from Smith's previous work. It‘s more formally experimental, messier in structure, and darker, more raw in tone, all of which befits a divorce memoir. Throughout, Smith presents a series of impossible questions, and though there are no answers, there is still resolution.
pickAll in all, the trilogy was quite satisfying. Things felt just a little bit rushed toward the end of this third book but I liked it, and I think that the series as a whole is structured such that everything makes sense.
