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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: January 2024

"Morgan is my name" by Sophie Keech. Office book club selection. It gets exhausting to read about plucky young heroines who are terrible at needlework all the time. I should probably read some Jo Walton. I mean, you can be good at needlework and other things too! I didn't find this book very surprising. The first half was kind of boring, but it got better towards the end.  LHC #233: "The Shifter" by Janice Hardy. I read her writing advice website regularly, so I thought I should maybe read an actual book to find out if she was worth it. Oh my, the voice of this book grabbed me immediately. The worldbuilding seemed shady but the voice was solid. It wasn't very subtle, but I might not be the target audience.  LHC #234: "Ragnarok: The End of the Gods" by A. S. Byatt. At this point with my library account, I'm just guessing. I know there was something by Byatt there? I suspect there was. I did not know what to make of this book. Strange, but it w

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