(2021) Ten-year old Ant Joplin comes from a family of hard-core spades players, and he wants to defend the family reputation in an annual local tournament. But he's dealing with a lot at school and home. The plot touches on loyalty, responsibility, family, and addiction, with a generous helping of humor. I listened to this one on audiobook with Mrs. swynn, who has played spades since she was younger than Ant, and it gets thumbs-up from both of us.

(2021) It's a fantasy novella with a setting inspired by precolonial Vietnam. It's only ninety-something pages, which it turns out is enough for a satisfying story about political intrigue, romance, magic, generational conflict, and growing up. I would read more in this world.

"Flames Over Badun" (1965)

Rebels rescue Perry and friends from the Plophosers; but instead of returning the Terrans to Terra, the rebels smuggle them to a base in Badun, where they are ordered to work for the rebels or die. Meanwhile, the Plophosers are hotter on their trail than the rebels suspect. Although it ends with explosions, this one is short on action and credibility.

Aragorn sped on up the hill.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(2021) I picked this up for a shared "exvangelical" / "deconstructing" group read. I agree with Evans's view of god as radically welcoming; of god indulging questions and doubt; and of god as challenging us to be as open to others as it is of us. Some of the religious language does not speak to me in the way it once would have done, and I wish I'd encountered it or something like it thirty years ago.

(2021) It's a thriller about an artist whose husband disappears when the start-up he works for melts down in a financial scandal. The husband leaves a message, telling her to protect his daughter. It's an engaging premise, and the execution is rapid-fire. It does what a thriller is supposed to.

(1969) First in a series set in Annwn, a parallel Earth with late-19th century technology and magic, connected to our Earth by magical gates. In this one, parallel-England is invaded by a barbarian horde serving a soul-consuming god. Series hero Dylan MacBride teams up with a Celtic priestess and an arms dealer from Earth who offers a game-changing invention: the Gatling gun. It's fun, and I'm ready now for vol.2.

(1969) An interstellar jewel thief is hired to steal a stone that can maybe rule the universe, but first he has to avoid assassination by Death Dwarves, escape a space temptress, battle science wizards, and meet a cosmic god who has been sleeping for millennia.

It's less fun than it sounds. Or maybe I just wasn't in the mood for its random plot and misogyny. More Death Dwarves would have helped maybe.

And here's my #BookSpinBingo card for May. Feeling good about this one ...

Thanks again, @TheAromaofBooks !

#BookSpin and #DoubleSpin for May. The first is the next in the "Banned in Boston" project, though I hadn't yet decided whether to reread it because it's my very least favorite of the Faulkner oeuvre. I guess this settles it. TTI, on the other hand, are always worth a visit.

Thanks @TheAromaofBooks

(1965) I was in the fifth grade when a teacher put her own copy in my hands. And y'all, I was a reader before but this has been foundational to my taste and interests (for good and bad) ever since. I shouldn't have let thirty years pass between re-readings, but one advantage in delay is that it felt as fresh again as it did familiar. I loved this book and love it still. There are a couple more (you may have heard) and I'll get to them very soon.

There's my #BookSpinBingo card for April.

Four scores! One of my better months. Thanks for organizing this again. @TheAromaofBooks ! I look forward to seeing how the May card sorts out.

(2021) It's a YA fantasy about a girl who dies and discovers that the afterlife has been colonized by Alexa-like AI assistant software. I really want this premise to be a satire, but it's not: it's YA with the usual Very Special Heroine, love interests, regimented worldbuilding, and angsty first person narration.

It didn't work for me but I'm not the target audience, so take that for what it's worth.

When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(1965) "Gucky and the Blue Guard"

Perry Rhodan is still missing, but Terran authorities now (since ep. 182) know that he is still alive somewhere. The Mutant Corps, led by Gucky the mouse-beaver, travels to Plophos to learn Perry's whereabouts by any means necessary. They do not realize that Plophos's autocratic leader is expecting them...

It's fine, and gets its characters to where they need to be. But it still feels more like filler than story

Here's my list for #BookSpin #DoubleSpin #BookSpinBingo

(2021) Last one (today) I promise. Here's another from the list that Matt Krause wants banned from libraries. It's a notably even-handed discussion of recent political resistance movements, for an elementary-school audience. By "even-handed" I mean it includes impartial background on protests across the political spectrum, from the Women's March and protests against the Iraq War, to the Tea Party and protests against the ACA.

Read #BannedBooks

Here's another from the Krause list of books too dangerous for libraries. It has two parts: first, a message with bold layout explaining that there exist black authors, artists, athletes, and more, and that their lives have mattered and continue to matter; then, a collection of biographical sketches of 116 black historical figures. Dangerous stuff.

Just saying: Read #BannedBooks

(2021) I'm not in the target audience, but I picked it up because it's on the list of books that Texas legislator Matt Krause wants to remove from libraries. What's so offensive about it? Well, there's ....

I mean, read #BannedBooks, y'all.

(2020) James Strang was an American con artist, prophet, state senator, and self-coronated king in the early 1800s. He surrounded himself with collaborators just as colorful. This is an entertaining account of his career.

(1944) It's a juvenile WWII thriller, written during the war, after Pearl Harbor but before D-Day. It follows the adventures of Lorens van Norrys, heir to a Dutch jewel merchant's fortune, who flees the Netherlands when Nazis invade, then hops around the world while he works out his place in the war effort. It's an early work, with uneven pacing and a mild case of Mary Sue, but it kept me engaged and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

1. The King of Confidence by Miles Harvey
Black Water Sister by Zen Chi
The Sword is Drawn by Andre Norton

2. Yes please whatever is convenient

3. Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

#WeekendReads
@rachelsbrittain

(1972) First (in the sense of series chronology, not the first written) in the author's series about Elric, the world-weary reluctant emperor of a dying civilization who would rather brood over his books than lead a nation. (Mm, one sympathizes.) In this one, Elric deals with a usurper, rescues his love, and acquires the cursed sword Stormbringer. I tried this series when I was in high school, but bounced off. This time, no bounce: more please.

It is the color of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(1927) Two sisters come of age on a South African farm, then deal with betrayals by men they trust, and navigate social expectations and condemnation. It is of its time and sometimes too polemical. It was also unfinished when the author died so we don't get an ending. But what we do have is remarkable for its rhetoric which is rationalist, feminist, antiracist, and deeply humane. It's also a pretty good story, so rats on the ending.

(2017) Here's a good one, y'all. It's a novella about a bluesman with a deep blue soul that something from beyond mistakes for empty when it gives him a song with monsters in it. It's about justice and loss and the blues and the kind of weird dread that "Disciples of Cthulhu" should have been full of and wasn't. Second in Khaw's "Persons Non Grata" series, but it stands well on its own.

(2021) Wallace Price was a self-centered acquisitive little turd. Then he died. Then he came to a place where he learned how to live. It's excessively sentimental for my taste, but that's not really a criticism, just an aesthetic mismatch. What Klune is trying to do here I think he does really well.

(1965) "The Jungle Army"

Perry Rhodan and a handful of friends are held captive by Plophosers on the jungle-planet Greendoor. Back in episode 181, they attempted an escape into the jungle, but were quickly caught ... all except for one, Melbar Kasom, assumed dead. But Kasom is not dead. Instead, he makes contact with a resistance movement who soon realize what Perry Rhodan could mean for their cause. A daring rescue ensues.

(1976) It's a collection of nine stories by different authors, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's weird stories about ancient gods and monsters. It's a bit of a disappointment: a few stories are duds, and even the ones I liked suffer from mannered prose that I assume was intended to imitate Lovecraft's. Still the stories by Brian Lumley, Ramsey Campbell, and Walter DeBill made it worthwhile.

This was my #BookSpin for April.
@TheAromaofBooks

(2021) Scharf offers some provocative ideas about the "dataome": all of the information that humans have encoded (and are encoding) into our environment, and which, considered as an entity, has curious properties -- and maybe apocalyptic consequences. I love the sense of wonder here, and am intrigued about possible research, but too many arguments seem to me to rely on fuzzy definitions, shaky metaphors, and false equivalencies.

"Three from the Galactic Defense" (1965)

Perry Rhodan has disappeared, likely killed in a spaceship crash. Terran authorities suspect the involvement of bad actors from the colony world Plophos, so they activate Art Konstantin, a deep-cover secret agent acting as a chief of police on Plophos. Konstantin launches a high-risk operation to learn what he can about Perry's fate. Plot is okay, but also features some cringey misogyny.

(2018) Mason Burke is a middle schooler with learning disabilities dealing with bullies, grief, and the cop who suspects Mason is responsible for the death of his own best friend. He is also utterly charming. Extra points for (spoiler!) a dog of my favorite literary breed: the Dog-that-survives-the-entire-book-hound. It's a rare breed but (attention authors!) the *best*

Thanks @mandarchy for recommending this one!

(2021) This is a collection of four slasher novellas. (Not yet in Litsy ☹️.) The standout is Jeff Strand's Stoker-nominated story, "Twentieth Anniversary Screening," about a low-budget '90s slasher movie that inspired a copycat killer during its original release. 20 years later, a desperate theater owner books the film for an anniversary screening because *that* seems like a good idea. It's a delicious mix of morbid, funny, and over-the-top.

It's been about forty years since I read this last. And yeah, that's too long. The Recorded Books version is narrated by Rob Inglis, who does a lovely job of it.

(1965) "Captured in Central-City"

Captured by Plophosers, Perry & friends are taken to Greendoor, a jungle planet crawling with predatory flora like the drenhols, quasi(?)-intelligent mobile trees. Even if the Terrans can shake the guards, they'll be trapped in Greendoor's single human city because escape to the jungle would be suicide. Of course, Perry & friends attempt escape. The adventure delivers, but I especially like this episode's cover.

(1976) The sole survivor of a devastating space battle is stranded on an unknown planet, from which he can expect no rescue. He sets out to learn local customs and make a life for himself, but cannot avoid political and military conflicts. It's an early novel and Cherryh gets much better than this (it's only her second book, and first in the Alliance-Union series) but her talents for world-building and cultural conflict are already there to enjoy.

"In this instant, a precious one-second span out of the four and a half billion years Earth has existed as a bejeweled sphere of complexity and dynamism, I am gripped by one puzzle only: Can those really be tears glistening in the eyes of the museum guide standing in front of me?"

In other words, I might as well settle in because for the next 300 pages, word economy is out the window.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(1974) This was the bestselling novel in the US in 1975. It's a historical novel following events connected to a New York fireworks family in the early (prewar) twentieth century. Its loose plot covers the E. Nesbit sex-and-murder scandal and an invented scandal about the racist humiliation of a ragtime pianist and his revenge.

This kind of loose plot usually annoys me, but Doctorow's direct prose and layered narrative won me over. I loved it

"The Merciless Foe" (1965)

Perry's ship is attacked and forced to make an emergency landing on an unknown planet. Their attackers are descendants of a Terran colony on planet Plophos, who wish to break the power of the Terran-Arkonide empire. And capturing or killing Perry Rhodan would do much to achieve that goal. The manhunt ensues.

(2016) Lucy lives with her father and aunt in a historic mansion, where the family's livelihood consists of hosting rich-people parties. Then the cook dies, the aunt disappears, and Lucy's cousin starts hearing voices in the walls ...

It's a YA haunted house story with an ambiguous setting: clues about the story's location in space and time are so mixed that I expected it to end as Just A Dream. But it has its moments, and the ending delivers

(2019) This was author Thomas's follow-up to the terrific "The Hate U Give"; it riffs on similar themes, but focuses on a talented teenager trying to shape her own identity and relationships while also dealing with social pressures and prejudices, and trying to break into a predatory music industry. I found it powerful.

Also, if any audiobook publishers happen to be dropping by: keep hiring Bahni Turpin please and thank you.

(1976) First in Stableford's "Daedalus" series, featuring a ship whose mission is to visit colony worlds after a crisis on Earth cut off contact for generations. In this one they visit a planet which at first seems to be a paradise. But the Daedalus crew soon discover environmental and political crises in the making. The pace suffers from too much expository dialog but the ideas are intriguing and engaged me throughout

(2021) It's about how cults use manipulative language -- and how the same techniques are used by groups that you might not think of as cults, like Amway or CrossFit. It's an enlightening look at cult-ish group behavior, and Montell's snarky, cynical voice is a pleasure.

And there's my ,#BookSpinBingo card for April. Thanks again @TheAromaofBooks !

Well, it's another #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin and another pairing of two very different books. I'm not sure what a mashup would look like, but I wouldn't be surprised if Tim Powers already had a treatment sitting in a notebook somewhere.

Thanks for doing this again, @TheAromaofBooks

It started with a prayer.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

I expected to score a couple more, but at least I got one #BookSpinBingo in March. Feeling good about April ...

@TheAromaofBooks

(2021)

Well dang Cat Valente can I have my gut back now please?

(2021) Three teenagers wake up in and around a damaged spaceship, not knowing how they got there or why. Adventures and romance ensue. It's light (mostly) and moves fast (always) and I enjoyed it.

It's also another from the list of books that Texas lawmaker Matt Krause wants to remove from libraries. So thanks Matt for the rec and bless your little heart.

Read #BannedBooks , y'all!

(2022) Here's a good one, set in an African kingdom with a toxic government, where stories are outlawed and men are disappearing, and near the seat of power lurks a mad scientist who may not exactly be human. And oh reader the lovely vivid expressive prose. Must read more Eugen Bacon.