Books of 2019- Installment #11

51. A Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu
I loved this book! A Sri Lankan American woman living in Massachusetts grapples with her sexuality being at odds with her family's values and how to find fulfillment balancing these conflicting parts of her life. I really think the author did a beautiful job of showing the different pulls in her life even though I did not always agree with her choices!

52. Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
I was so interested in this book when I first heard about it, but I didn't read it right away. Then a long time later I got a free copy of it from Tor.com, which made me read it right away! And wow!! I love it!! I love it!! Beautiful!!

53. A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson
I was so excited to get this book when I got Passing Strange. It's gotten rave reviews and the cover is gorgeous!! I loved his article The POC Guide to Writing Dialect in Fiction. This story though was a little hard for me to fall into. I definitely felt like I was walking into a full developed world that I didn't know anything about and didn't speak the language. I googled the story and found a book review that mentioned that it is set in the same universe as The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, which confirmed my feelings. So while feeling a bit lost, the love story was beautiful!

54. The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy
I had seen this book on Tor.com but for some reason I found the cover and title off-putting and had no intention of reading it. Then I got it from Tor.com as part of their celebration of pride month, so I decided to give it a chance. Well, I loved it! Instantly! Danielle Cain is an anarchist, hitchhiking around. After a friend's suicide she finds herself going to a town he described as being pretty utopian. From there a mystery unfolds.

55. The Barrow Will Send What It May by Margaret Killjoy
So... I wanted to spend more time with Danielle Cain, so I immediately bought this book. And put it this way, if there were a third book, I would have bought that one too! I love Danielle Cain. I love the way Margaret Killjoy writes. I want to spend way more time in this world!!

I've read 55 books so far and 39 were by women, 13 by men, and 3 anthologies with both female and male authors two of which were mostly female authors. My year of reading lots of women is still going strong!!

Books of 2019- Installment #10

46. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
This book has been getting so much positive praise that I had planned on reading it. Then books came to me and this one receded. Then suddenly I put it on hold and got it. The day after I got it (but before I started it), a friend said, "I'm reading a young adult book titled the Hazelwood. I really like it and would recommend!" Clearly the time to read this book was now. And so I did! And I love it!!

47. Time Salvager by Wesley Chu
I'm not sure how I heard about this book, but I'm sure the fact that it is a time travel novel is what caught my eye. It's an interesting dystopian novel set far into the future, where time travelers mine the past for resources, making sure to protect the integrity of the timeline. A little violent in places for me and a little male for me in places but overall really enjoyable!

48. Invited by Jennifer McMahon
This is a ghost story set in Vermont. Nuff said!! Sign me up!! Then I stated reading it, and the book is broken up into sections like foundation, framing, insulation and drywall, floors and trim, and finish work (there are more but this is just a list of examples). Well, as I'm in the middle of garage conversion where everything was completely demo'd and then built from the pouring of the foundation up, I found this element of the book way more compelling than I could have ever foreseen. The book opens with Hattie and then she dies. I was completely bummed because I love Hattie, but it's a ghost story so someone has to die to have a ghost...

49. An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten and translated by Marlaine Delargy
I heard about this book on All the Backlist and just had to check it out! It is a super fast, fun read. It is a short collection of short stories about an elderly lady that has a penchant for murder!! I especially loved the first one, An Elderly Lady has Accommodations Problems, but I also liked the fact that two of the stories are totally related.

50. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
I got this book for free from Tor.Com and I guarantee I would have not have picked this book up otherwise. I'm trying to read mostly women, horror is not my go-to-genre, and I'm really not enthralled with HP Lovecraft. But this book was great!! I really enjoyed it! I didn't feel it was horror until near the end and I was already hooked! I loved Victor LaValle's depiction of NY in the '20s, and I just felt the main character Tommy Tester was someone I would want to know.

I've read 50 books so far and 35 were by women, 12 by men, and 3 anthologies with both female and male authors two of which were mostly female authors. My year of reading lots of women is still going strong!!