Books of 2020- Installment #8

36. A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones
This is a new series by Darynda Jones, and I love it!! The main character is a newly elected sheriff in her hometown of Del Sol, New Mexico. She was abducted and impregnated as a teen. Despite all that trauma she is an amazing funny woman who is bent on finding her abductor and bringing him to justice. But man oh man does she have a rough first day at work!!

37. Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold
Oh, wow!!! What a book!! So fairy tales are very interesting and they say something about society and culture but Little Red Riding Hood is the fairy tale that fascinates me. In particular it is the references or portrayals of this fairy tale in culture. Does Little Red Riding Hood get portrayed as a child? An adult? Innocent? Sexual? Violent? Empowered? Victimized? Because in the end this story is so much about how females interact with the world. This book is definitely about how females interact with the world.

38. A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell
This is a great YA science fiction and fantasy anthology featuring authors of color. You get all kinds of stories in this collection from the past to the future. And in everyone of them protagonist is a deeply relatable girl or woman, making her way through the world. I think I was a little older than the target audience but I really enjoyed it!! I love reading science fiction and fantasy by people-not-white men! So thank you for that!!!! And as an interesting side note, I think my favorite story in the book (though that's a tough call to make) is the one by the editor, Patrice Caldwell- hello vampire story!!!

39. The Sound of Stars by Alecia Dow and read by Joy Sunday and Christian Barillas
Listening to audiobooks is not my favorite way to read. I am a too easily distracted person. Actually sitting down with a book is the best way for me to still myself enough for a story. Still, when the library only has certain options... well, audio it is. This is a really nice YA sci-fi/romance book, and let's be honest, sci-fi could use a little more romance as well as authors/protagonists of color, especially of the non-male variety, which this book has!! So yay!!! And the fact that the main alien is purple didn't hurt at all!! No, semi-sentient hair though....

40. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying by Grady Hendrix
I love vampire books and Grady Hendrix so this was a no-brainer! Luckily my pandemic reading lethargy was not a factor in this book!! I devoured it!! Scared sure! But that's to be expected!!! Some moms in a little southern town- Old Village- form a not-really-a-book-club book club and read all the classic true crime books!! Then a stranger moves in and bad things start to happen. Are they going to be like one of the people in their true crime novels who ignore all the signs and say nothing bad could happen here? Or are they going to Miss Marple his ass?

I've read 40 books and 33 were by woman, 5 were by men, 1 was an anthology by both women and men, 1 was by a nonbinary author, and 3 were translations. My year of reading lots of women and at least 12 translations is going well in that I've read mostly female authors, but as the world is going through a pandemic, it's not going that well. I can't complain about my personal situation, but it is rough going out there. And I look forward to the day that people stop hoarding, but maybe that day won't come again. I don't know. I think of all the people in the US that have a fridge with a freezer and another fridge and how they are always full. It seems like a leftover of the Great Depression.What will this global health crisis leave us with? Only time will tell. But I hope it is a greater sense of community. I hope all of this isolation leaves us wanting to reach out more.

Books of 2020- Installment #7

31. The Return by Rachel Harrison
This was such an engrossing thrilling book!! I devoured it!!! A group of college friends go through some upheaval when one of them goes missing. Our narrator believes she's just doing this for attention but the others believe she's passed. And that's just the first couple of pages. What happens next kept be gripped and reading!!

32. To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Becky Chambers does so amazing science fiction and this novella is no different. This book follows a group of astronauts explore a handful of planets and that was interesting in of itself, but Becky Chambers manages to take this somewhere I didn't foresee and loved and by the end when the title suddenly becomes clear, I was in tears! So moving!

33. Finna by Nino Cipri
This novella shares some DNA with Grady Hendrix's Horrorstor, but it is not the same. It was a delightful portal story. A grandma disappears into a wormhole that opened up in a IKEA-esque store and two employees, the least senior employees, are required to go through and try to bring her back!!! What follows is a great adventure with some commentary on our society in general and capitalism in particular! Loved this!!

34. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune & read by Daniel Henning
This story was a delight and since I finished it, I have missed the characters!! This is the highest compliment I can give a book!! I'm missing them so!! This is a novel follows a case worker for a bureaucratic group that overseas magical youth and he's assignment to investigate a specific orphanage for a small group of extremely unique magical youth. It starts out pretty dystopian since it's in this depressingly bureaucratic organization that reminded me of the movie Brazil, but once he's out of the office and with the magical youth, it is magical! A delightful breath of fresh air and hope!! And I loooooooooooooooved how Daniel Henning read it!!

35. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
This is an amazing nonfiction book about our relationship with nature. The author is an indigenous scientist, mother, and American citizen, so she draws on these aspects of her identity to address these issues. It's deeply interesting and thought provoking. I had to take this book out from the library twice in order to be able to finish it because I needed to sit with her thoughts. I couldn't zoom through it. But it is a fantastic read and I have been recommending it to people. I think it is especially beautiful to read now during the pandemic. She talks about caring for each other (and by each other so most definitely also means the other inhabitants of the Earth both large and small, both mobile and seemingly immobile.

I've read 35 books and 29 were by woman, 4 were by men, 1 was an anthology by both women and men, 1 was by a nonbinary author, and 3 were translations. My year of reading lots of women and at least 12 translations is going well in that I've read mostly female authors, but as the world is going through a pandemic, it's not going that well. I can't complain about my personal situation, but it is rough going out there. And I look forward to the day that people stop hoarding, but maybe that day won't come again. I don't know. I think of all the people in the US that have a fridge with a freezer and another fridge and how they are always full. It seems like a leftover of the Great Depression.What will this global health crisis leave us with? Only time will tell. But I hope it is a greater sense of community. I hope all of this isolation leaves us wanting to reach out more.

Books of 2020- Installment #6

26. West of the Moon by Annie Bellet
I love Annie Bellet, so when I saw that this novella was available and I had to snatch it up!

27. The Deep by Alma Katsu
I absolutely loved The Hunger by Alma Katsu about the Donner Party, so when I heard about her new book The Deep about the Titanic, I had to read this!!

28. The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo
My husband has read several books by Zen Cho and loves her writing, so when I saw this novella was available, I just had to check it out!

29. We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
This book sounds up my alley! Teenagers in the late 80s decide to call upon the supernatural powers inherent in their town since their town is Salem Village- yes, that Salem!!!

30. Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing by Maryla Szymiczkowa & translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
This was a lovely mystery set in 1893 Cracow, modern-day Poland. Mrs. Mohr is something of a social climber and a snob but finds herself unable to leave a death alone and must investigate. I wasn't sure I was going to like her enough to follow her through the twisty trails of this mystery but it was a delight!! And I loved seeing a part of the world I've never seen and during a time I've never seen! Quite delightful and this is my second book translated from Polish and my second book translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones! So far I love Polish books!

I've read 30 books and 26 were by woman, 3 were by men, 1 was an anthology by both women and men, and 2 were translations. My year of reading lots of women and at least 12 translations is going well in that I've read mostly female authors, but as the world is going through a pandemic, it's not going that well. I can't complain about my personal situation, but it is rough going out there. And I look forward to the day that people stop hoarding, but maybe that day won't come again. I don't know. I think of all the people in the US that have a fridge with a freezer and another fridge and how they are always full. It seems like a leftover of the Great Depression.What will this global health crisis leave us with? Only time will tell. But I hope it is a greater sense of community. I hope all of this isolation leaves us wanting to reach out more.

Books of 2020- Installment #5

21.No Shit, There I Was edited by Alex Acks
I got this book ages and ages ago because I knew there was a Darcie Little Badger story in it. Okay, so it took me forever to actually pick it up after I bought it. It just sat there ignored on my kindle, and then I was like I guess I should give up on reading this. NO!! I bought it for the Darcie Little Badger story! I'm reading that if nothing else! Okay, so I read it and I looooooooooooooooved it!! Okay, so now that I've actually cracked open this digital book, I'll just look at the other stories. Turns out I loved almost all of them!!! So worth it!! Even though it took me a million years to actually read it. But you know, maybe I needed to be in the place I was to read it. I don't know but it is good!!

22. The 5th Gender by G.L. Carriger
I feel like I heard about this book in a BookRiot newsletter, perhaps the romance one Kissing Books... Wherever I learned about this book, I am sending out a thank you because I loved this book!!! It really scratched that sweet-not-end-of-the-world itch that the pandemic has enhanced! I hope there are more in this universe!! I love the two man characters and the interspecies romance!!!

23. Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi and translated by Marilyn Booth
This is the first book I've ever read about Oman. It was a very interesting and eye-opening book. I like to read books in translation to get the feel for another place, another culture, another people. This book did exactly that! I was transported to a new place and allowed to glimpse into places I've never been and to see things I never have before. And I learned a lot about Oman. This book is really a roller coaster ride and the translator's note at the beginning really helped me navigate this world.

24.The Vanishing Girl by Josephine Ruby
As I'm sure the cover gives away, this is a story about Daphne and Velma of the Scooby Doo cartoon. They solve a mystery of the vanishing girl and show that it wasn't ghosts. I'm sure all of that is obvious to you from the cover if you have any idea of who Velma and Daphne are!! What was new is their relationship to each other and to the boys in the Scooby gang! I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to the second book in the series!

25. Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by
This was a fun little romp in Massachusetts. There's a rich man who dies but makes a scavenger hunt for some of his treasure as part of the celebration of his life. But ultimately this is about relationships and coming together and supporting each other.

I've read 25 books and 22 were by woman, 2 were by men, 1 was an anthology by both women and men, and 2 were translations. My year of reading lots of women and at least 12 translations is going well in that I've read mostly female authors, but as the world is going through a pandemic, it's not going that well. I can't complain about my personal situation, but it is rough going out there. And I look forward to the day that people stop hoarding, but maybe that day won't come again. I don't know. I think of all the people in the US that have a fridge with a freezer and another fridge and how they are always full. It seems like a leftover of the Great Depression.What will this global health crisis leave us with? Only time will tell. But I hope it is a greater sense of community. I hope all of this isolation leaves us wanting to reach out more.