Categories
Books

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton & Jodi Meadows

My Lady Jane

My Lady Jane! A better title would have been Teens Messing with Henry VIII’s Succession Plans. Lady Jane Grey is a rather tragic figure in English history: ruled England for only 9 days before she was beheaded by her cousin Mary Tudor in the Tower of London. (And then Mary was overthrown by her half-sister Queen Elizabeth.)

The authors decided to give this an alternative history spin, with magic and humor. This is how the succession feud should have gone on. The split between the Roman Catholic Church and Church of England became the split between Eðians (people with shapeshifter abilities) and the non-Eðians.

Continue reading “My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton & Jodi Meadows”
Categories
Books Starred Recommendations

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

Tooth and Claw

Oh, what an absolute gem of a book. Quiet and unassuming on the surface, yet so utterly charming and thought-provoking.

Bon Agornin dies one day, leaving behind two sons and three daughters. His sons, Penn and Avan, are in the clergy and government respectively, and his eldest daughter, Berend, is the matron in a wealthy family. The youngest daughters, Haner and Selendra, are unmarried, and are forced apart when their patriarch dies. Much of the story is about Haner and Selendra being uprooted from their old home and settling down in their new environment: Haner with Berend and her husband, and Selendra with her parson brother Penn.

The real pivot of the story?

They are all dragons. And dragons have a singular custom — that of eating dragon flesh of the deceased, because that is the only way they can increase in power and sustenance. Walton gives them other dragon-like characteristics and rituals too, but at the heart of the story is the grim truth that dragon eats dragon to flourish. It is to Walton’s credit that she makes dragon customs like these feel real but empathetic.

Continue reading “Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton”
Categories
Books Memes

If You Like: Kitsune Lore

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every Tuesday, you pick ten books on that week’s topic. This week, a very interesting theme: Books I Loved that Made Me Want More Books Like Them. So here we are, talking about some kitsune lore.

Once upon a time, I used to be obsessed with this trope — all thanks to the gorgeous Japanese anime show Kamisama Hajimemashita (lit: I Became a God), based on a manga of the same name. Unfortunately, while werewolves and dragons are all too common, the sly Fox doesn’t get much mention.

Kamisama Tomoe

I’m cheating here because I am taking these from an older post, but it’s such a fun topic!

Continue reading “If You Like: Kitsune Lore”
Categories
Books Miscellany Music & Poetry Watchlist

Monthly Wrap-Up: May 2021

May 2021 was a slow reading month for me. I blogged much more than I read, which was unusual, but all thanks to the wonderful Wyrd And Wonder challenge. The link has all the posts for that challenge, most of these being SFF rec lists, but one standout read was Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi.

Aside from that, here’s a wrap-up for the month.

Lang Leav’s The Universe of Us

A very short book, with poems of varying length. These are all love/ heartbreak poems, but I think we can view them from a non-romantic lens too. I’m sure we’ve all had friends and loved ones with whom we had a parting, Lang’s poetry would ring true for those relationships as well. Rating: B–

Continue reading “Monthly Wrap-Up: May 2021”
Categories
Memes

Ten Things About Book Villains

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every Tuesday, you pick ten books on that week’s topic. This week, we have a freebie. And I’m choosing to go with book villains!

What are some traits of the book villains we all love to hate? Here’s my count-down of some of the worst villains from reading life, and what makes them tick.

Continue reading “Ten Things About Book Villains”
Categories
Best of List Books Starred Recommendations

Five Star Reads in Five Words Each #WyrdAndWonder

(PEGASUS IMAGE CREDIT: Svetlana Alyuk on 123RF.com)

It’s time to wrap-up the wonderful Wyrd and Wonder challenge. The rule for this last prompt is to describe your five-star reads in five (or near five) words each. Well, I do keep a running list of all my favorite SFF reads HERE, but trying to describe them each in a phrase or less was a completely new exercise!

Continue reading “Five Star Reads in Five Words Each #WyrdAndWonder”
Categories
Books Starred Recommendations

The Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Bulfinch Encyclopedia of Mythology states that the twelve most illustrious knights of Emperor Charlemagne of the Holy Roman Empire were called Paladins. Lois McMaster Bujold took this term and applied it to the hero of her 2003 book, The Paladin of Souls, for which she got her fourth Hugo Award. 

Paladin of Souls is a fantasy work set in Chalion, a land where religious practice is split among the Five Gods: Father of Winter, Mother of Summer, Son of Autumn, Daughter of Spring, and the Bastard (God of Death). The Five Gods put a curse on Chalion a long time back, and people still suffer from the after-effects. The mythological world-building in this book is absolutely gripping.

Continue reading “The Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold”
Categories
Best of List Books Memes

Top 10 Funny Book Quotes

Top 10 Menhirs!

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every Tuesday, you pick ten books on that week’s topic. This week’s topic was book quotes by any theme. I’m choosing to go with some of the funny book quotes. Because laughter is the best medicine, you know.

Continue reading “Top 10 Funny Book Quotes”
Categories
Art & Illustration Best of List Books Memes Watchlist

Desert Island Reads #WyrdAndWonder

(PEGASUS IMAGE CREDIT: Svetlana Alyuk on 123RF.com)

For the Wyrd & Wonder challenge, throughout May 2021 we have a series of challenge prompts. I’ve managed to tackle most of these by now, and our favorite Desert Island Reads are next on the list. You choose 8 (audio)books, 1 piece of media, and 1 artifact.

As our hosts put it: “Imagine yourself cast away with nothing to do but read. Okay, so this doesn’t sound entirely awful – but choosing our limited island library is the real challenge. We’re not going to worry about solving the challenge of survival, just how to while away the days (weeks? months?) until we’re rescued.”

Continue reading “Desert Island Reads #WyrdAndWonder”
Categories
Books Starred Recommendations

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi is fantasy fiction but at its heart, it is a mystery. And what a mind-boggling, thought-provoking mystery it is.

A house with at least 7000 halls, giant statues, sea tides and migratory birds has only 2 inhabitants: Piranesi and The Other. Where have all the other humans gone? Does the House leave secret messages for Piranesi, even as he struggles to record all that he sees there? And why is The Other searching for secrets of immortality and other occultist knowledge?

Continue reading “Piranesi by Susanna Clarke”