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What I read -- May 2018


“Timothy and Two Witches” by Margaret Storey. Someone, probably Kelly Link, lamented on Twitter that this is OOP. Toronto has a great kids’ collection, so I went down there to read this one. It was so fun! One of the great things about kids’ fantasy is there isn’t the need to explain how everything works. Sometimes we get a little too overwrought with the logic of our magic systems, etc.

I hadn’t ever tried out the Osborne Collection, so that was fun too. There was an exhibit there about Little Red Riding Hood, which is dear to my heart because one of the greatest workshops I ever went to had a juried entry, and I got in based on my LRH film treatment targeting 18-35 yo males.

“The Vor Game” by Lois McMaster Bujold. I needed something small to carry on the bus. For some reason this was at my mother’s house, though she wasn’t an SF reader. Maybe it was my stepfather’s? I’ve heard a lot about the Miles Vorkosigan series, and this is one of those so I read it. Miles is a great character. I hadn’t realized this won the best novel Hugo in 1991 until I was half-way done, and… well, it’s certainly well-written. Barrayar attitudes towards women seem sort of backward, but Elena gets to do lots of fun stuff, so… I don’t know. I liked it. I’ve read one other LMB (fantasy) book, I feel like it had “Knife” in the title, though I feel like it might have been “The Curse of Chalion”.

Library Hold Challenge #9:  “Impro: Improvisation and the theatre” by Keith Johnstone. Acting exercises. Every week at work I submit a status report, and I put a quote at the top (I thought no one cared until I forgot one week and I got notes of complaint from my peers). As I read this book, I came across a quote I’d used before! And I have another quote I’ll be using soon. The status section was good, and the narrative section, but the part about masks didn’t have much for me.

LHC #10: “Moonglow” by Michael Chabon. Fiction! Of all the MC books at the library, for some reason I’d requested this one. I wish the website had a spot for notes, so I could explain my logic to my future self but it does not, and I probably would just assume I’d remember anyway and never use it. I wish it was all true. I laughed a lot. The Werner Von Braun parts were awesome.
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