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What I read: February 2024


LHC #236: "The animals in that country" by Laura Jean McKay. I thought I knew what I was getting into with this, but I did not. Wow. It's like a pandemic addiction memoir but with talking Australian animals who are not as insightful as we'd like. 

"The Power" by Naomi Alderman. I watched the TV show (season 1? will there be another?) last fall. The TV show was amazing, except the end didn't quite work for me. Alex went to a signing with the author, and I got this. I quite enjoyed it, the ending was much more satisfying. 

 LHC #236: "Armistice" by Lara Elena Donnelly. Audiobook. I found MRK's reading sort of a downer, wondering if that was on purpose. Or too wistful maybe. Also, Makricosta sounds really old as read, I went looking for fan art to get a better sense. I found surprisingly little, maybe I don't know how to search anymore. 

LHC #237: "The Marigold" by Andrew Sullivan. Near future horror set in Toronto. Needed more past perfect tense. Not sure how enjoyable it would be for a non-Toronto area person, a lot of in jokes.  It does seem appropriate that the Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council would fund a book about condo towers where the raccoons eventually win. 

LHC #238: "The Iron Dragon's Daughter" by Michael Swanwick. I'll be honest, I was guessing at this point, but I read his blog, I've never read one of his books, it makes sense I would put one on my list? Plus, everything I was more sure about had a waitlist and this did not, so here we are. I loved the language, the juxtapositions of faerie and 90's tech. 

On Feb 25, joyous of all days, I was able to look at my holds list again. #s 232, 234, 237 and 238 were not on it! I'm leaving them anyway. I did manage to read 10 books off that list in the four months it was down. 

LHC #239: "A Deadly Education" by Naomi Novik. In juxtaposition to "Fourth Wing," I'd describe this as "grumpy times at well thought-out magic school."  After the first few pages where I had to get used to the voice, I loved this book. Will totally read the sequels. 

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What I read: March 2024

  LHC #240: "Vita Nostra" by  Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko. Translated by Julia Meitov Hersey. All I knew going in was dark academia. This was a neat thing to read after A Deadly Education last month. The students can leave this school at summer and winter break, but maybe they shouldn't. Also, interesting education method, providing Sasha with a CD player and punishing her if she leaves it in the mode where it plays all the tracks in sequence.  "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman. When I finished Ragnarok by AS Byatt (last month? January?) I was thinking it might have made more sense if I had any knowledge of the subject matter. The boy had left this lying around, and it was not a tough read.  LHC #241: "Science on a mission: How Military funding shaped what we do and don't know about the ocean" by Naomi Oreskes.  I deferred this once because it was so long. History of science is challenging for me to read, because of the need to get a grasp on dispr...