Books of 2019- Installment #14

66. Unraveling by Karen Lord
I read a Karen Lord novel, The Best of All Possible Worlds, a while that was quite good, so I was quite interested in reading another of her novels. This book is ostensibly a supernatural serial killer story. There are human and undying actors in this story and it is about the unraveling of the murders and corollary unravelings. I can tell you the plot points, and that the writing was good but that I didn't really get this book.

67. Everything Belongs to the Future by Laurie Penny
This novella is ostensibly about a future were the rich and the "deemed-worthy" can live for decades without aging. So one of the central questions our this story is what does a drug that halts ageing do to society... or rather what do we do with such a drug and how does that change society. But this book it's clearly a product of its time as is the author. She is clearly a woman and clearly not American and just as clearly British. So she examines the way women are treated and certain aspects of British society. I found this tiny novella packs a powerful and engaging punch! 

68. The Taiga Syndrome by Cristina Rivera Garza

I had this book on my TBR for quite a long time. I don't know if I never looked to see if the library had it or not our if I wanted to wait until I could put it on hold (I almost never check out a book of it is available. I prefer to just get whatever comes to me from my holds list. Yeah, it's weird.), I never left myself a trail of breadcrumbs. But I finally read it, and like The Luminous Dead it is very atmospheric . It's got some amazing ideas in it, but for the most part, I'd say I don't know what I just read. I can tell you some plot points ( a female detective who cannot be described as being the most accomplished detective is hired by an ex-husband to find his former wife who ran off to the taiga  with another man. She travels with an interpreter on her quest through this fairy tale land. But after that... I'm not so sure...  

69. Lost Books and Old Bones by Paige Shelton
I love the main character Delaney Nichols!! I love her bookstore (well, it's Edwin's), her boyfriend, and her bookish voices. So this book was a pleasure to read and spend time with her even if I learned some rather gruesome Scottish history. This particular mystery centers around a medical student, and I couldn't help but recall my trip to Edinburgh when my friend and I were eating lunch and some medical students sat at our table (the restaurant had one tiny table), talking about cutting up corpses!

70. Mandelbrot the Magnificent by Liz Ziemska
So when I was in college fractals exploded! Everybody was interested in fractals. Since I was a math major in college, I was caught up in the fractal craze as well and wanted to know more about chaos theory and fractal geometry. So how could I not be interested in reading about Benoit Mandelbrot? This novella had my name written all over it. Henri Poincare noted mathematicians are born and not made, and I learned in college that I was not a mathematician. But Liz Ziemska does an amazing job showing us the mind of a mathematician! This is a fabulous look inside the mind of a great mathematician who also happened to survive Hitler's terrifying destruction across Europe.

I've read 70 books so far and 49 were by women, 18 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 #13

61. Unnatural Habits by Kerry Greenwood
I love Phryne!! I love Phryne!!! This was a wonderful Phryne story! Made me so happy!

62. The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
I loved this story about a woman's journey exploring a series of caves for an employer that has dubious reasons for sending people into these caves. I really had no idea where this story was going or why the employer was motivated to send explorer after explorer into these dangerous caves. This book was described as claustrophobic and atmospheric. And I would say for the first half of the book, I couldn't understand why it was claustrophobic. Atmospheric- yes, claustrophobic- no. Then there was a shift, and I was like, "Yeah, okay. Got it."

63. Forest of Memory by Mary Robinette Kowal
I am reading a bunch of books right now but they are large tomes that, while interesting, aren't grabbing me. So off I went in search of some Tor.com novellas. This is the first one that I landed on, and it's amazing. No surprises there since Mary Robinette Kowal is amazing!!! This is an abduction tale that takes place in the near future. Technology and nature mingle in interesting ways and there's a central mystery that is not completely resolved, which I loved!! Oh, this is neither here nor there, but she wrote the story with intentional typos, which I loved!!

64. Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You by Scotto Moore
My next Tor.com novella was Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You. It was a little bit horror, a little bit humor, and a whole lot of obsession with music. It scratched the itch that I thought We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix would. Don't get me wrong- I really enjoyed We Sold Our Souls.
Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You is just the book that I thought We Sold Our Souls was going to be- that's all.

65. The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson
I saw this book on Tor.com a lot when it was new (2017), but the cover and title creeped me out. I had no intentions of reading this novella. Then last week while I was in Canada Tor.com gave it away for free. Oh, boy I hesitated!! But the problem is I read Rosewater and loved it, so now I know I enjoy Tade Thompson's writing! I downloaded and read it because I'm in the middle of a Tor.com-novella-reading-fest I had to do it! It is exactly as creepy and bloody as I imagined but mysterious and captivating too!! What does it mean that Molly's life is the way it is? What is happening in this world that seems like ours but might not be?

I've read 65 books so far and 44 were by women, 18 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 #12

56. Exhalation by Ted Chiang
OMG!! I love Ted Chiang! I love Ted Chiang!! This short story collection is amazing!! Amazing!! I can't tell you how much I love his writing! He takes this really interesting philosophical questions and creates an incredibly interesting and realistic world around it.

57. August by Romina Paula
I sent in a request to Get Booked by Book Riot, and this was one of their recommendations. I was looking for an amazing book in translation. This is a definite win! I really enjoyed the style, the narrator, the cat, and the setting. The narrator travels back to her hometown in Patagonia for the cremation of her best friend, who did 5 years prior.

58. Black Mad Wheel by Josh Malerman
I loved Bird Box and was so excited to read this book. And even though that was like 2 years ago, I just got to it. I think that was a good thing because I really enjoyed this book when others didn't. I think that they didn't because this book, unlike Bird Box, isn't a gripping-holy-crap-what-happens-next?!?!?!?! book. It's set in 1957 and 4 men in a band who were also in the army together (as a band) get sent by the army to Africa to investigate a mysterious sound. It was so good!

59. Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden
This is not my cup of tea. I do not read much nonfiction, and I really don't read books about torture. So, why did I read this book? It was my book club's choice, and so I read it. Was it good? Yes. Was it informative? Yes. Was it an important book? Yes. Was it relevant? Yes. Did I enjoy it? No. Should you read it? You'll have to decide that for yourself.

60. An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew by Annejet van der Zijl
I am sometimes an anxious traveler. And for my most recent trip (to Canada) I was extremely anxious. I couldn't rest and I couldn't read anything alarming. So I read this book that I downloaded for free when Amazon was celebrating translated books. It was perfect! I didn't know anything about Allene Tew and so wasn't particular interested in her, but I learned a lot and this book was a perfect balm to my frayed nerves. Two nonfiction books in a row was unexpected but I really enjoyed learning about her fascinating life and getting a European perspective on America was fascinating!

I've read 60 books so far and 41 were by women, 16 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!!