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What I read -- July 2021

You can't see what I'm reading in this pic, alas. It's over on the floor.

LHC #127: "The Bonjour Effect" by Julie Barlow & Jean-Benoit Nadeau. This probably wound up on the list because one of my main characters in Persephone speaks French and not English, and I spend a lot of time on Duolingo. I didn't really enjoy this book. It made me feel icky. I think it was the whole "we" thing and then the authors referring to one or the other of them in third-person, which sort of reminded me of "The New Basics Cookbook" from the 80s. 

There's also the problem of the inclusive vs. exclusive We (which I read about on Lingthusiasm a little while ago). 

LHC #128: "The Screaming Staircase" by Jonathan Stroud. Hard copy. I loved the Bartimaeus books. It took me about a day to read, very fun.

LHC #129: "The Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goudge. Hard copy. Maybe because of Terri Windling? It was sort of ridiculous, in a 1940's way. 

LHC #130: "A Conspiracy of Truths" by Alexandra Rowland. eBook. She had a controversy last year, and when I heard about it I was amused to see that this was already on my list. The voice didn't totally work for me and it seemed to go on and on. I wanted to know more about the interauthor. 

"The Karate Way" by Dave Lowry. It's karate grading season! When I was trying to figure out if I'd read this one before, I discovered I'd read a different one twice, several months apart, without realizing, and thought it was a little bit "the same." Oh dear. I could find no evidence that I've read this one before, but it sure felt like I had.

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