Andrea's 2017 Challenge

"Goulds Book Arcade BookStack" By Toby Hudson

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I'm sticking with my Keep-It-Simple scheme from last year, since that worked well enough for me. I didn't quite reach my goal of reading 70 books in 2016, so it seems like a good number to work toward in 2017.

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Newbies – Books Published in 2017 – 10/10
A few from 2016 would also be acceptable.

Awards Winners – Hugo/Nebula/Tiptree/Printz/Etc. – 4/10

Expanding the Cannon - Books by Women, POC, and other Marginalized Folks – 6/10
Most likely genre (scifi/fantasy/horror), but could be any genre.

Nonfiction – Writing, Critical Analysis, or Anything Interesting – 4/10

Poetry – 4/10

Graphic Novels – 9/10

Miscellany – 7/10

Screenplays – 3/10

TOTAL: 48/80

Newbies – Books Published in 2017
A few from 2016 would also be acceptable.
1. Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor (*****)
2. The Evil Wizard Smallbone by Delia Sherman (****)
3. Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez (*****)
4. Hadriana In All My Dreams by Rene Depestre (****)
5. Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (*****)
6. In Calabria, by Peter S. Beagle (****)
7. Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (****)
8. The Stone Sky (Broken Earth Book #3) by N. K. Jemisin (*****)
9. Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire (****)
10. Tender: Stories by Sofia Samatar (*****)

To Read:
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente

Awards Winners – Hugo/Nebula/Tiptree/Printz/Etc.
1. Lizard Radio (audio book) by Pat Schmatz (****) - Winner of the 2015 Tiptree Award
2. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (****1/2) – 2016 Hugo/2016 Nebula Award (Novella)
3. Bone Gap (audio book) by Laura Ruby (*****) – winner of the 2016 Printz Award
4. The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne (****) – co-winner of the 2014 James Tiptree Award
5. Alif the Unseen (audio book) by G. Willow Wilson - winner of the 2013 World Fantasy Award (DNF)

To Read:
2011 Hugo/2010 Nebula - Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
1987 Hugo/1986 Nebula - Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
1984 Hugo/1983 Nebula - Startide Rising by David Brin
1979 Hugo/1978 Nebula - Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre
1973 Hugo/1972 Nebula - The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov

Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson - Won the 1994 Hugo, nominated for the Nebula
Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson - Won the 1997 Hugo, nominated for the Nebula

2014 Tiptree Award - My Real Children — Jo Walton
2016 Tiptree Award – When the Moon Was Ours by Anna M. McLemore

Postcards from No Man's Land, by Aidan Chambers - 2003 Printz Winner

Expanding the Cannon - Books by Women, POC, and other Marginalized Folks
1. A Tale for the Time Being (audio book) by Ruth Ozeki (*****)
2. The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin (****)
3. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (audio book) by Shirley Jackson (*****)
4. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter (*****)
5. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters (****)
6. Orlando by Virginia Woolf (**1/2)

To Read:
Rashomon and Seventeen other Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks
Of One Blood by Pauline Hopkins
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
A STRANGER IN OLONDRIA by Sofia Samatar
AN UNTAMED STATE' BY ROXANE GAY
'NONE OF THE ABOVE' BY I.W. GREGORIO
'IF YOU COULD BE MINE' BY SARA FARIZAN
'THE GIRL FROM THE WELL' BY RIN CHUPECO
'AMERICANAH' BY CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
Maryse Conde’s I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem
Cotton Goes to Harlem - Chester Himes
Helen Oyeyemi's The Icarus Girl
Edwidge Danticat, Untwine
Rabih Alameddine's An Unnecessary Woman
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
The Tragedy of the Street of Flowers by José Maria De Eça de Queirós

Nonfiction – Writing, Critical Analysis, or Anything Interesting
1. Tim Burton: Essays on the Films, edited by Johnson Cheu (***1/2)
2. Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living, edited by Manjula Martin (****)
3. Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race (audio book) by Margot Lee Shetterly (****1/2)
4. Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma by Melanie Brooks (****)

To Read:
Too Far From Home: A Story of Life and Death in Space by Chris Jones
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
Horror Movie A Day: The Book by Brian W. Collins
Apocalypse Postponed by Umberto Eco
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine's Journey Through Myth and Legend by Valerie Estelle Frankel
The Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks
Writing Poetry from the Inside Out: Finding Your Voice Through the Craft of Poetry by Sandford Lyne

Poetry
1. Shopping After the Apocalypse by Jessie Carty (*****)
2. The 2017 Rhysling Anthology, edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel (****)
3. Your Hand Has Fixed the Firmament by Kolleen Carney (*****)
4. Let it Die Hungry by Caits Meissner (*****)

To Read:
The Weight of Snow by B.L. Bruce
The Princess Saves Herself in this One by Amanda Lovelace
Field Guide to the End of the World by Jeannine Hall Gailey
Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda Poems by Pablo Neruda
Cloud Pharmacy by Susan Rich
Today Means Amen by Sierra DeMulder
Come Late to the Love of Birds by Sandra Kasturi

Graphic Novels
1. Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (****)
2. Yvain: The Knight of the Lion by M.T. Anderson (****)
3. Bitch Planet: Volume 1: Extraordinary Machine, written by Kelly Sue Deconnick, illustrated by Valentine De Landro (***)
4. The Island of Nose illustrated by Jan Marinus Verburg, written by Annie M.G. Schmidt (***)
5. The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures by Phoebe Gloeckner (DNF)
6. Bitch Planet: Volume 2: President Bitch, written by Kelly Sue Deconnick, illustrated by Valentine De Landro (***1/2)
7. Foiled #1, written by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Mike Cavallaro (***)
8. Locke & Key: Small World, written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodríguez (***1/2)
9. Locke & Key: Heaven and Earth by written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodríguez (****)

To Read:
Good as Lily by Derek Kirk Kim
Saga: Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples
Hark! A Vagrant by Katie Beaton

Miscellany
1. The Liminal People by Ayiz Jama-Everett (****)
2. The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde (****)
3. A Wrinkle in Time (audio book) by Madeline L'Engle (****1/2)
4. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger by Stephen King (*****)
5. The Drawing of the Three: The Dark Tower #2 (*****)
6. A Wind in the Door (audio book) by Madeline L'Engle (****)
7. The Waste Lands by Stephen King (***1/2)

To Read:
Wool by Hugh Howey
Couch by Benjamin Parzybook

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Screenplays
1. La La Land, written by Damien Chazelle (****)
2. The Promise (unproduced script in audio format) by Chris Salmanpour (****)
3. The Gauntlet of Phillip Montega (unproduced script presented as an audio movie) by David Gay (***)

To Read:

Yay, Andrea's here! Hidden Figures is on my list as well. Looking forward to your thoughts on it. Also, hurray, Kate Beaton!

Looks like some great reads!

It looks like a great lineup for 2017. I've seen Norse Mythology on several people's lists. Nice to have something to look forward to. Have a wonderful year!

Welcome back! Looking forward to seeing what fills your 2017 reading!

Happy reading! Your lists look very interesting!

Great to see you all set up for 2017, Andrea. I'm looking forward to following along.

A lot of good books on your list so far for this year!

Hi, guys, Thanks for all the welcome messages.

January was a slow reading month for me. I didn't finish one book. Not one — which is so weird for me. Mostly I was busy with a lot of other projects and a lot of writing. Sort of left me with not much time to read, or hang out on LT.

I've got a lot of catching up to do on everyone's threads, too. Heh.

Joining in on the book meme, with my 2016 version. :) The fact that I read less books last year, makes this a little harder this time around.

Describe yourself: Creativity Inc.

How do you feel? Every Heart a Doorway

Describe where you currently live: A Step from Heaven

If you could go anywhere...? Forest of Memory

Favorite form of transportation: Gateway

Your best friend is: An Animal I Can't Name

You and your friends are: The Dragons of Heaven

What's the weather like? I'll Give You the Sun

Your favorite time of day is: The First Part Last

What is life for you? The War of Words

You fear: Ghosts

Best advice: Get in Trouble

Thought for the day: The Lifecycle of Software Objects

How you would like to die: Burn Baby Burn

My Soul’s Present Condition: All the Birds in the Sky

1. Tim Burton: Essays on the Films, edited by Johnson Cheu (***1/2)
Category: Nonfiction – Writing, Critical Analysis, or Anything Interesting

This collection of academic essays presents a variety of views on Tim Burton's films, analyzing the cultural implications of his work. Some of these were so densely academic they were hard to follow. The more readable ones were great, providing some new perspectives on movies I've loved as well as on some of his movies I only thought were so-so.

I particularly liked essays like Elizabeth Leigh Scherman's examination of typical and a-typical bodies in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Pamela Krayenbuhl's look at how both adaptations of Charlie and the Chocolate factory – Stuart's in the 70s and Burton's in the 00s – are directly tied to historic cultural perspectives of the times at which they were made; the examination of gender transgression and star power in Deborah Mellamphy's essay on Ewdward Scissorhands; among others.

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2. Lizard Radio (audio book) by Pat Schmatz (****) - Winner of the 2015 James Tiptree Award
Category: Awards Winners

Fifteen-year-old Kivali is a young girl who has never fit in, having been treated as an outcast most of her life for being a bender (someone who doesn't neatly fit into either the male or female gender binary). She's survived her loneliness and fear of being sent to Blight by escaping into her mind and listening to "lizard radio," an internal broadcast that soothes her and makes her feel less alone. When she's sent to CropCamp in order to learn how to take her place in community, she discovers friendships and love beyond what she's known inside her own head.

Schmatz has created an interesting world in Lizard Radio, a world that can seem utopian if your considering it from the point of view of those who fit within the boundaries of its parameters, with it's emphasis on community. However, for those who don't fit in, benders, samers, and other outcasts, who are sent to live in Blight, the world would feel more dystopian. (Interestingly, being transgender is acceptable within this world, provided they fit neatly within either the female or male binary.) People can also vape in this world, a form of vanishing entirely, which could also be seen as good or bad depending on one's perspective.

I wouldn't really call this world realistic, but I don't expect that it's intended to be, at least not in the sense of being a world that could really exist. Rather, I think it's more designed as a way to examine the theme of ambiguity.

Nevertheless, the characters throughout the book are believable in how they think about and act in the world, and their relationships to each other provide a means of connecting to a story. I really enjoyed reading this.

3. Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (****)
Category: Graphic Novels

A beautifully illustrated collection of scary stories, involving ghosts and wolves and other stranger monsters. The art uses bright vivid colors with a mixture of line styles to create a sense of tension and unease while reading — some scenes are vividly terrifying.

>18 andreablythe: So glad to see you back among us Andrea! I liked your meme answers!

>22 VictoriaPL:
Hah. Thanks. :)

I liked your meme answers too!

And I'll take a book bullet for Lizard Radio - sounds intriguing!

>24 LisaMorr:
Hi, Lisa. I had a hard time figuring out how to sum up the world of Lizard Radio (and I'm still not sure I did it quite right), but it's definitely a book to make you think. I hope you enjoy it. :)

>21 andreablythe: Through the Woods looks like a good one, must add this to my list.

>26 DeltaQueen50:
I hope you like it. Some of the stories are seriously creepy.

4. Shopping After the Apocalypse by Jessie Carty (*****)
Category: Poetry

In this collection of prose poetry, the narrator begins a journey across an apocalyptic landscape. Contemplative and beautifully written, each poem builds on the next forming an interconnected story of isolation in an abandoned landscape. The result is a more contemplative exploration rather than the violence and terror expressed in most apocalyptic storylines.

I really enjoyed this collection, so much so that I interviewed the poet about her writing process. It's available to read on my blog, for anyone interested.

Sooo, a total of 4 books read in February and a total of 4 books for the year.

This challenge is starting off sloooooowwwwwww....

Just remember - Slow and steady wins the race.

>29 andreablythe:
My year has started slowly as well - we'll get there in the end!

>31 -Eva-:
Thanks, Eva!

>29 andreablythe: The drumming fingers are quite hypnotizing!

>33 rabbitprincess:
haha. yeah, I thought so, too. :)

5. The Liminal People by Ayiz Jama-Everett (****)
Category: Miscellany

The Liminal People is a scifi crime novel centered on Taggert, a man with the power to heal or hurt the people around him. He serves a ruthless man and has done terrible things in the course of his work. Although he dislikes it, he has made peace with his life — until an ex love asks for his help to find her daughter. The search for the girl leads him into a face-off with others with enough power that they seem to walk the borderline between human and god.

Taggert is an interesting character, bordering a line between hero and anti-hero. He's capable and willing to be cruel and violent, but his cruelty is mostly associated by the way he's been trapped into his current life by his master, Nordeen. Taggert also acts to protect the people he cares about, even if it means personal danger to himself.

The novel is a great crime/action thriller that sets up an interesting world, in which powerful people have the ability to manipulate the world (which kind of makes us ordinary humans feel rather small) Being both on the shorter side and fast paced, it's a quick read (perfect for where my head has been at lately). I'm looking forward to checking out the other two books in the trilogy, The Liminal War and The Entropy of Bones.

>35 andreablythe: Sounds interesting and seeing as I seem to enjoy SF crime stories I will have to keep an eye out for this one.

>29 andreablythe: - Love the gif... the drumming fingers and then the eye roll. Perfect! giggles

>37 lkernagh:
I'm glad to amuse. :)

>35 andreablythe: I'll take a BB for The Liminal People too.

6. Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez (*****)
Category: Newbies – Books Published in 2017

The stories in Things We Lost in the Fire are dark, unsettling and powerful. Mariana Enríquez uses horror and the uncanny to explore women's lives, from schoolgirls to grown women, some impoverished, some wealthy, most reaching for levels of independence or to carve out some space for themselves in the world.

One story tells of three friend drink and drug their way through their young years, a partying haze. Part of the beauty "The Intoxicated Years" is the breathless quality of the prose, moment rushing into moment as the girls rage through their days. At first, it seems a story of reckless freedom, but it becomes clear that all of their adventures are underpinned with a growing viscousness that's beautifully powerful and raw.

In "Spiderweb," a woman feels bored and trapped by the marriage she rushed into, and when she brings her husband to visit her family, she's embarrassed and repelled by him with every passing moment. One a trip with her cousin Natalia and her husband to Asunción (an open market offering mostly knockoffs or illegal items), her frustration comes to the surface. I love the way this story builds on the feeling of being stuck by the choices you've made.

"No Flesh Over Our Bones" is the story of a woman finds a human skull, rings it home and names it Vera. The woman becomes more and more obsessed with the skull, desiring to make it whole again. The story approaches the realm of body horror as it explores women's relationships to their bodies.

In "Under the Black Water," Marina is an attorney who works with the people who live in impoverished in the slums of Buenos Aires. She learns that strange things, including a dead man coming up out of the water, are happening in the slums. When Marina investigates, events grow more and more disturbing in a way that feels Lovecraftian. This is one of my favorite stories in the collection. I love the main character and how the story is both grittily realistic and strange in the ways it explores poverty and environmentalism.

Among the most disturbing and powerful stories for me was "Things We Lost in the Fire." Body horror is a key trope in this story, in which women claim their own lives and bodies by setting themselves on fire and living in the world with their scars proudly shown. The scars are presented by this movement of women as a new kind of beauty, with fearlessness and a fervor, and yet.

I'm looking forward to reading more work by Enríquez.

Note: This book was provided as an ARC by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

7. The Evil Wizard Smallbone by Delia Sherman (****)
Category: Newbies – Books Published in 2017

An eleven-year-old boy runs away from his abusive uncle only to find himself trapped by an evil wizard, who calls him an aprentice — although it really feels like servitude. This is a fun middle grade novel, full of humor and wer-coyote biker gangs and a town full of not-so-ordinary people. I love stories about characters who find family with strangers, stories with humor and heart. I also really love the bookstore, who isn't passive like many bookstores, but is actually quite helpful when it has a mind to.

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8. A Tale for the Time Being (audio book) by Ruth Ozeki (*****)
Category: Expanding the Cannon - Books by Women, POC, and other Marginalized Folks

“A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.”

I delighted in this novel, the audio book of which is read by the author herself, who does a wonderful reading. The novel is told from two points of view — Ruth, a writer on a remote island who finds a mysterious packet in a Hello Kitty lunchbox, containing a journal and letters and other items, and Nao, living in Tokyo, whose story is told through the journal itself.

There are so many layers to my love of this novel. The characters and their stories captivated me. Nao, who has faced such levels of bullying at school and sorrow at home, relates her decision to end her life in a straightforward manner. To her it is the only logical solution to what she's been through (and she's been through a lot). In her journal, she presents her life with a sense of self-depreciating humor. After all she's been through, and despite her resolution, there is an underlying strength to her. It's an interesting balance between depression, sorrow, and enjoyment of small moments.

Ruth is also fascinating to me. Her life is marked by less overt drama, and her story relates more of the small moments, the routines of her life that both provide her with contentment and feel like traps. As she explore's Nao's story through the journal and tries to seek a way to help this girl who lives across the sea, she finds certain threads of her own life loosening, creating their own minor havocs.

This novel is also meta, with multiple meanins available from different aspects of the story. One could start with the writer character, Ruth, who shares her name with the author of the book, which suggests the potential of the autobiographical slipping in even if none of it actually is such. Even the title A Tale for the Time Being has double meaning — as in both, a tale for a person who lives in time, and also a tale for right now. I don't want to get too much into the ways this is a meta narrative, since a lot of it comes at the end, but I will say that it had me thinking about the creation of art and degree to which the reader participates in the creation.

I think this is one of those books I'm going to have to reread from time to time, and I'm especially interested in reading the book on the page for the different experience from audio book (for example, "Nao" and "now" sound the same when they're read aloud, creating an interesting interchangeability to the meaning, which I wouldn't have gotten right away if I had read it in print first).

I've got Things We Lost in the Fire on deck for this month, and now I'm even more excited to read it :) I'm also taking a bb for Tale for the Time Being, though...

>42 whitewavedarling:
I hope you dig both of them. :)

9. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (****1/2)
Category: Award Winners – 2016 Hugo/2016 Nebula Award (Novella)

Binti is a brilliant mathematician, able to calculate complete equations in her mind. She is the first of the Himba people to be accepted to Oomza University on the other side of the galaxy and she's thrilled at the opportunity to go. Due to her families disapproval, she sneaks away in the night to board the spaceship to her new life. On her journey to university, she is brought into the heart of an old conflict.

In this brilliant novella, Nnedi Okorafor offers an inventive space opera. It's a story of a woman seeking her place and an exciting tale of survival. I loved Binti as a character. She is intelligent and holds true to herself and her heritage, despite her emotional conflict about leaving home. Love this.

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10. Binti: Home by by Nnedi Okorafor (*****)
Category: Newbies – Books Published in 2017

A year after the events of the first book, Binti returns home with some changes to her physical form and a Meduse friend coming along. Another fantastic story from Okorafor. I especially loved learning Oomza University and how it accommodates a multitude of species within its campus. It's amazing to me how Okorafor can pack so many layers of culture and characters into such a slim book.

Hi Andrea, I have a couple of books by Okorafor on my shelves, Binti and Zahrah The Windseeker. Sounds like I need to get to them!

>45 DeltaQueen50:
Her work is really fabulous. Zahrah The Windseeker and I'll definitely be picking that one up.

Hi, all, I've been away from the internets for quite a bit, traveling for work and fun to Dubai, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. It was way too hot in all those places for me, but it was an amazing experience. I'm sharing a few photos here (I have more on my website).


In Dubai, I went on a desert safari (Platinum Heritage, which I recommend) and got to ride a camel over the sand dunes. The safari included a falconry demonstration and a Bedouin style dinner at a campsite.

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Inside the cloud forrest at Gardens by the Bay, showing the misting of the live plants. Lit up at night made this the structure and walkways look like something out of a scifi movie.

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The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur features a phenomenal collection of beautiful manuscripts, ceramics, metalwork, jewelry, textiles, architectural models, and other art from Islamic culture around the world.

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One of my favorite moments of the trip was a visit to Batu Caves, just outside Kuala Lumpur. There are 270 steps to climb in order to reach the main Hindu temple inside the cavern.

>47 andreablythe: Nice! Looks like you had a wonderful adventure. Thanks for sharing with us!

>48 VictoriaPL:
It was quite an amazing trip, lots of play mixed in with the work.

Wow, amazing photos! I have a friend who is travelling around the world and who was just in Kuala Lumpur, so it is nice to think about two people I know independently of each other being in the same city :)

I've got quite a few books to catch up on and not much time to review them in, so here are some short thoughts. Feel free to ask if you want more info on any one of them. :)

11. The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin (****)
Category: Expanding the Cannon

I absolutely adored The Fifth Season, the first book in the trilogy which presented a world constantly facing destructive (apocalyptic) seasons. This sequel not only reveals what happens to the characters in the first book, but also expands the universe in brilliant and startling ways. It's powerfully written and thrilling — compelling in all the best ways. I can't wait for the third and final book to be available.

12. Yvain: The Knight of the Lion, written by M.T. Anderson, illustrated by Andrea Offermann (****)
Category: Graphic Novels

I read the original Chrétien de Troyes stories about King Arthur and his knights. This fantastic graphic novel illuminates one of these classic tales with beautiful artwork from Offermann. The story is of a young knight who sneaks off to face a knight drawn into battle by a magical storm. It includes strong-willed ladies, knights in disguise, madness, and giants. The graphic novel does a brilliant job of relating this tale in a way that keeps the elements of adventure alive, while enhancing the ways it challenges the roles of women in the Arthurian world.



13. Bone Gap (audio book) by Laura Ruby (*****) – winner of the 2016 Printz Award
Category: Awards Winners – Hugo/Nebula/Tiptree/Printz/Etc.

This subtly speculative novel about two brothers facing loss and a young woman fighting for her freedom from a kidnapper is absolutely gorgeous. I love the way each of the characters are portrayed and the magical realism of this small town, where everybody knows everything about everyone, even if they always get the story wrong.

14. The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde (****)
Category: Miscellany

Picked this up on recommendation from another LTer and I'm so glad I did. It's charming ghost story about a ghost that can't quite figure out how to haunt the new American family that has come to his home — with many hilarious shenanigans that ensue. It's such a quick read and so much fun. A great book to recommend to young people as an introduction to the classics.

15. Hadriana In All My Dreams by Rene Depestre (****)
Category: Newbies – Books Published in 2017

A classic of Haitian literature, Hadriana In All My Dreams is a vibrant and sensual tale about Carnival in Jacmel, the magic of Voodoo, the mystery of zombification, a lascivious butterfly, lots of sex (with a multitude of creative words and phrases for describing genitalia), and a young woman's death on her wedding night which sends an entire town into mourning. The story is written with lush, beautiful sexy language that brings Haitian culture to life in a way that's haunting and powerful.

16. The 2017 Rhysling Anthology, edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel (****)
Category: Poetry

The Rhysling Anthology pulls together science fiction and fantasy poems nominated for a Rhysling Award presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. As such, these poems represent many of the best works published in journals throughout the year. A multitude of forms, styles, and themes fill these pages, revealing some surprising, powerful, and gorgeous work. Always worth a read.

>47 andreablythe: Your trip sounds amazing. Love the photos!

Those countries would all be too hot for me as well, but what an amazing trip you had!

Looks like a wonderful trip! So jealous.

>52 virginiahomeschooler:, >53 DeltaQueen50:, >54 LittleTaiko:
It was a fantastic trip, definitely some memories that are going to last.

>47 andreablythe: - Love the pictures! Thank you for sharing them here, Andrea. Looks like you had a fabulous trip.

Even though my reading rate has been super low this year (only 17 books and it's JUNE), I added another category to my reading challenge: screenplays.

Why? Because I've teamed up with a couple of people and I'm in the process of trying to write episodes of a web series. As with any kind of writing, it's a helpful part of the learning process to read work in the style or form you're trying to do. Reading is a lesson in formatting and style, as well as a vital lesson in how to create a full character and tell a story through only action and dialog.

Hence, screenplays. Fortunately, screenplays tend to be fairly quick reads and they are readily available on the internet through a variety of sites as free pdf downloads.

Since the project I'm working on is a musical web series, it should be no surprise that my first screenplay read is:

17. La La Land, written by Damien Chazelle (****)
Category: Screenplays

If you've seen the movie, then you know the story — a jazz musician and a young actress fall in love while each trying to follow their own dreams in Hollywood. The script I read must have been the shooting script or something, because it seemed to follow the movie almost exactly (as opposed to an early script prior to edits or changes).

I didn't particularly love La La Land when I saw it in theaters — don't get me wrong, it was good and all, but the hype was too big for the experience I actually received. Having now also read the script, it's easy to see the charm of the film come clearly through the pages of the script. Even though the story as a whole still doesn't quite click with me personally, this is great some great writing.

Stylistically, it was interesting to note how the script handled the musical aspect. It would essentially just say something like "Mia breaks begins to sing" and would loosely describe her actions, but would not include the lyrics — which I assume were shared with the readers separately. It makes sense to do it this way, since song lyrics, without knowing the melody, can be awkward on the page, and it's important to keep the reader invested in the progression of the characters and story.

18. Bitch Planet: Volume 1: Extraordinary Machine, written by Kelly Sue Deconnick, illustrated by Valentine De Landro (***)
Category: Graphic Novels

In this dystopian world, women who fail to conform to the standards society sets — being a perfect beauty, perfect girlfriend, perfect wife, perfect mother — are condemned as Non Compliant and are sent off to a prison world, nicknamed Bitch Planet. While in prison, the men in charge decide to enter a number of the female prisoners into playing a ruthless game, which will be televised.

The graphic novel explores the ways women are punished for being themselves, as well as media and prison culture. It also seems to be responding to "women in prison" exploitation movies that were popular in the '70s, both pushing against the tropes those films presented and at the same time feeding into them. The women are often drawn naked in the panels, a literal illustration of their vulnerability, and yet the women are rarely timid or weak. Though exposed and in prison, they are defiant and they fight back.

So far, the main focus seems to be in setting up this world and setting up the sports game that's going to be an important element. Less time is spent developing the multitude of characters presented. Kamau Kogo (a female athlete) seems to be the lead, the one the story always returns to — but there are so many characters and some presented so quickly that I'm having a hard time connecting with any of them.

It's an interesting book, and I'll check out the next volume, but I'm not in love with it yet.

>57 andreablythe: A musical web series! Sounds like fun. Enjoy working on it!

>57 andreablythe: - "I've teamed up with a couple of people and I'm in the process of trying to write episodes of a web series."

How cool!

>59 rabbitprincess: and >60 lkernagh:
Thanks, rabbitprincess and Lor! It's fun going through the process. Hopefully it all comes together the way we imagine. :)

What a fabulous project! That sounds like something I'd love to watch.

>62 LittleTaiko:
I hope so! At the rate I'm writing episodes, and with the time to produce it, edit it, and get it going – the project is likely to launch next year. Assuming all the pieces fall together.

I hope you'll let us know once your musical web series is ready to launch -- sounds like something I'd love to watch!

>64 christina_reads:
Certainly, Christina. And I'll share some of the progress along the way, if I can. :)

Thanks for sharing your tip pics and good luck with your musical web project. And I'll take a BB for Hadriana in All My Dreams. You've got me interested in Bitch Planet also - although I may see what you think of volume 2 first!

>66 LisaMorr: Hi, Lisa, Hope you like Hadriana. I'm hoping to get the second Bitch Planet from the library soon, so it'll be interesting to see if I want to keep reading beyond that. :)

Well, I've got quite a few books to add to the list that I've fallen behind on, but with good reason — as I've recently completed another two week trip. My sister and I traveled to Peru, Chile, and Argentina over the course of two weeks.

We started off in Peru, flying into Lima, then heading out to Cusco, the sacred valley and Machu Picchu — all of which was stunningly gorgeous. Machu Picchu is beautiful not only for its Inca ruins, but for the phenomenal mountains surrounding it, some of the most beautiful in the world in my opinion. One of the great things to do while there is to hike one of the many trails starting from the archeological site. My sister and I hiked Machu Picchu mountain, an incredibly strenuous climb consisting of hundreds of uneven stone stairs all the way up. But the views were gorgeous and it was worth it, even though we were sore for days afterward.




(Views of Machu Picchu.)

Cusco and the sacred valley are also gorgeous, and the sacred valley is filled with more archeological sites than a person can physically see in the few days we were there.

All of the people were incredibly nice in Peru, as well, from the locals we met (and sometimes spoke broken Spanish with) to the many travelers from around the world we ran into.

From Peru, we traveled to Chile, which I insisted on including in the trip for the sole purpose of visiting the home of my favorite poe, Pablo Neruda. I adore his words and the passion he had for his country. It was an honor to visit two of three of his homes that have been converted into museums.

One of the homes is in Santiago and the other is in Valparaiso, an industrial coastal city that's rather gritty around the edges but has some beautiful street art. On our way back to Santiago, we stopped off in Casablanca, one of the main wine producing regions in the country for some a wine tour and tasting.


(La Chascona, Neruda's Santiago house.)



(Valparaiso.)

We flew from Santiago to Puetro Montt, which is heading far south and the start of the Patagonia region. From there, we drove across the border into Argentina to visit the Lake District, which is full of many more amazing views and hikes — as well as giant steaks for dinner.


(On the road to Argentina.)


(Lake district.)

Altogether this was a phenomenal trip, in which we packed a lot of places into a very short amount of time. I would go back to Peru and Argentina in a heartbeat and want to explore Chile some more, as well. It would be interesting to go back and spent more time in a single location, in order to really get more of a sense of it, instead of country hopping so much. But I wouldn't change anything. It was fabulous.

This is my last big trip for a while and I'm looking forward to mostly being closer to home for some much needed rest.

Wow, what beautiful scenery. That was a trip of a lifetime - and you did it all in two weeks! You and your sister are supergirls!

Beautiful pictures! Sounds like a fabulous trip!

Gorgeous pictures -- thanks so much for sharing them with us!

What a wonderful trip!! Love the photos.

Thanks, all! It was amazing. Quite a quick paced adventure. :D

Saw an article to make everyone's TBR list grow: Most Iconic Book Set in Every Country. Plus there's maps!

Love this list though I don't agree with some of the title choices. Even better having the map!

Trying to catch up on threads! You have been enjoying fabulous trips! Your travel photos are wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

Just so you know, that link totally sent me down a rabbit hole of starting to add all the books to my wish list in Goodreads. I made it through the the G countries. Maybe I'll make Iconic books a category for next year so that I actually read some of them. :)

>74 LittleTaiko:
I totally agree with you on some of the choices. There were a few where it seemed like they were picking "iconic" books from a Western POV instead of from the POV of the country (which is what I'd prefer). I still love the list, though.

>75 VivienneR:
Thank you!

>76 LittleTaiko:
LOL! I can see the list towering over your head. Adding a category for next year is a great idea. Maybe I'll do the same. :)

Wow, great pictures! Seems like you had an amazing trip with your sister! And thanks for the link to that list, there are some very interesting books on it, indeed...

Loved seeing the photos from your journey!

>78 Chrischi_HH:
Thank you! And I'm glad you're enjoying the list. :)

>79 VictoriaPL:
Thanks, Victoria. It was such a great trip. :D

So, I'm quite behind on reviews...

19. Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (*****)
Category: Newbies – Books Published in 2017

I love vampires and I love Mexico City, so I had to buy Certain Dark Things. The world Moreno-Garcia has created features vampires of many species that live out in the open with humanity. Though vampires have been ousted from many countries around the world, they've gained a stronghold in Mexico, forming powerful and dangerous cartels — with the exception of Mexico City, which exists as a vampire-free zone due to the strength of the human gangs.

The novel is told from point of view of multiple interesting characters — Domingo, a garbage-collecting street kid; Atl, a descendant of Aztec blood drinkers on the run from a rival vampire gang; Rodrigo, a human servant of vampires hunting Atl; Ana, a cop who becomes wrapped up in events when bodies start turning up.

Certain Dark Things is a brilliant crime thriller full of vampires and gangsters and femme fatales. This novel together with Signal to Noise makes Silvia Moreno-Garcia one of my writers favorite writers. Looking forward to reading more of her work.

20. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (audio book) by Shirley Jackson (*****)
Category: Expanding the Cannon - Books by Women, POC, and other Marginalized Folks

Shirley Jackson was a phenomenal writer, and We have Always Lived in the Castle is evidence of her skill. She masterfully captured the voice of Merricat, the younger of the two Blackwood girls, who relates the unsettling history of the Blackwood family and who herself is fanciful and a bit unsettling. Captivating from the start, this novel is a work of brilliance.

21. In Calabria, by Peter S. Beagle (****)
Category: Newbies – Books Published in 2017

In Calabria presents a lovely story of an ornery old farmer and unicorns who choose to take up residence on his land. A miraculous event that unsettles his quiet life as visitors come from far and wide to get a taste of the miraculous themselves. While it did not quite have the same level of wonder for me as The Last Unicorn, this was beautiful in its own way.

The Black List Table Reads is a podcast that takes unproduced movie scripts and turns them into "movies for your ears" — or in other words, they present these unproduced scripts in audio with a full cast of actors. Some of them are pretty fantastic, and they are great for getting a sense of pacing in screenwriting.

And it occurred to me recently that, since I count audio books on my list of reads for the year, it makes sense for me to count these Table Reads, as well.

22. The Promise (unproduced script presented as an audio movie) by Chris Salmanpour (****)
Category: Screenplays

Salmanpour's The Promise is loosely based on the story of his grandfather, who was imprisoned during the cultural revolution in Iran in the early 1980s. One of the guards running the prison, recognizes the grandfather as the man who once saved him as a child. Feeling the weight of a great debt toward this prisoner, the guard vows to find a way to set him free. It's a tense, compelling thriller, well worth a listen to and one I sincerely hopes becomes an actual movie.

23. The Gauntlet of Phillip Montega (unproduced script presented as an audio movie) by David Gay (***)
Category: Screenplays

Two former military men, working for a Mexican cartel are sent on a job to collect a valuable item from the U.S., which turns out to be a bigger challenge than they bargained for. The Gauntlet of Phillip Montega is a fun, buddy movie, action comedy romp with lots explosions and ridiculousness. Quite amusing.

>82 andreablythe: That's a cool idea to turn unproduced movie scripts into essentially radio dramas! (And definitely count them!)

>83 rabbitprincess:
They're super fun to listen to, and they bring in known movie actors to read the scripts. Really well done all around. The only sad part is that they have stopped doing them for the time being due to the high costs involved in the production of each one.

>82 andreablythe: - I love radio plays! Sounds like I need to look into the Black List Table Reads.

24. Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (****)
Category: Newbies – Books Published in 2017

“There are worlds built on rainbows and worlds built on rain. There are worlds of pure mathematics, where every number chimes like crystal as it rolls into reality. There are worlds of light and worlds of darkness, worlds of rhyme and worlds of reason, and worlds where the only thing that matters is the goodness in a hero's heart.”

Jacqueline and Jillian are twins born to parents who never really understood or wanted children, parents who believe children are objects to be shaped to their desires. But the world is full of doors to other worlds and Jacqueline and Jillian find their way to a place of darkness and death, where they suddenly have the ability to choose.

Seanan McGuire seems to be getting better and better with every book she writes. The writing in this book is beautiful, often taking on the "fairy tale" tone of an outside narrator as a separate character relating the story.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones is a standalone story in the Wayward Children series, and as such, you can read the books in the series in any order. Although if you really want to know what happens to Jack and Jill, then I recommend reading Every Heart a Doorway, which chronologically comes after this one (even though its the first in the series).

In general, I'm hoping there are many, many more books in this series, because I'm loving it.

25. The Island of Nose illustrated by Jan Marinus Verburg, written by Annie M.G. Schmidt (***)
Category: Graphic Novel

More of an illustrated story than a graphic novel, but the art is a key aspect of what makes this book great. A young boy with large ears goes on a journey to help his uncle on the Island of Nose, and his travels take him on a surreal adventure with monster cars, dragons, bizarre parties, and other oddities. The story itself is fun, but art makes it come a live in a way that is vivid, strange, unsettling, and beautiful.



26. The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures by Phoebe Gloeckner (DNF)
Category: Graphic Novels

Diary passages are combined with art to tell the story of a 15-year-old girl who hooks up with her mother's boyfriend. I didn't finish this one. Although it's well written and I really enjoyed the art and comics passages, it was not clicking with me and I kept feeling like I wanted to move on to reading something else, so I did.

>85 lkernagh:
Then, I think you'd dig the Blacklist Table Reads quite a bit. There's a wide range of "ear movies" on the list, from historical romances to action adventure to scifi to wacky comedies. Definitely possible to find something you love.

28. A Wrinkle in Time (audio book) by Madeline L'Engle (****)
Category: Miscellany

I am super stoked about A Wrinkle in Time coming out as a movie next year and I have high hopes that Ava DuVernay will do an amazing job directing the film. The trailer alone looks amazing. So, in preparation, I decided to reread the book, which I first read as an adult. Listening to the audio book version was great and I enjoyed the book even more the second time around than I did the first. I love that it's a science fiction, but the science feels so advanced it's almost like magic to us and I love the creativity of the planets and worlds and people the kids interact with. It's a wonderful novel, and I'm planning to read the sequel sometime soon.

29. The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne (****) – co-winner of the 2014 James Tiptree Award
Category: Awards Winners – Hugo/Nebula/Tiptree/Printz/Etc

For some reason I thought The Girl in the Road was going to be an entirely different book than what it was — I'm not sure why. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the story about two very different women making long journeys, both escaping from danger (perceived or real), both looking for hope at the end of the road. One makes her journey as a young girl by sneaking aboard a truck crossing Africa, the other walks along the snakelike spine of the Trail, an energy generation system spanning from India to Ethiopia. This story is richly textured, with complex characters and explorations of sex, self, and sanity. A great read (although I really didn't understand the epilogue and if someone wants to explain it to me that would be awesome).

30. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger by Stephen King (*****)
Category: Miscellany

So..., I wrote a whole long post (about 1800 words) about rereading The Gunslinger with memories and spoilery bits and other stuff, which I don't know that I should cross post in its entirety here. So here's the short version:

The Gunslinger is the only book in The Dark Tower series that I still own. It's the original copy I read in the '90s, with . So, even picking the physical book up again, with its black and purple cover, brought a feeling of nostalgia as I flipped through and rediscovered pencil underlines and pages folded over to marking certain places in the story.

I opened the book. "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed" — and I followed with him. The gunslinger Roland Deschain is tenacious in his plodding through the desert, facing the cruel traps the man in black leaves behind. In the lonely hours, he memories comes back to him of his youth and the bodies he has left in his own wake. He almost no one in the desert, just a near-crazy man and Jake, a lost young boy from another world who joins Roland in his pursuit.

Roland is described as not having much imagination, not being particularly clever, but he is graceful in the wielding of his guns, skilled in the art of killing. It is the steady, unwavering way in which he pursues his goal — even when he doesn't fully understand his goal or what it will mean, even when that pursuit damages himself or the people around him — that enables him to succeed. As a mixture of knight errant and western cowboy, Roland is a character that still appeals to me after all these years. He's is flawed and determined, holding true to his oaths and willing to sacrifice the things and people he loves to achieve his goals. And we learn how he came to be this person in the flashback to his youth, which are no less filled with violence and blood.

King has created an interesting world for Roland to have grown up in, a world winding down, falling apart bit by bit. As with the character Roland himself, the society feels like a mix of camelot and the dusty western frontier and apocalypse. It feels like an olden days world, with magic and archaic technology, and yet, Roland refers to an even older society that had once been more technically advanced — a world very much like ours, perhaps, a world that left behind its memory in the form of classical music, like "Hey Jude." The reader is left wondering if Roland actually exists in our own future, that is, until they learn that his world is just one of many.

It was in this world building that made the act of reading The Gunslinger again feel as though I were looking back onto a younger self. I had loved this world that King created. Although I still like the concept of this world with the way it merges cultural references, reading it again, I see how the pieces don't fit as neatly together as I remembered, the seams showing. The mentions of pop culture were probably the most jarring for me, shoving me out of the story momentarily while I absorbed the information. It took many pages for me to get used to it, even on a reread.

31 Bitch Planet: Volume 2: President Bitch, written by Kelly Sue Deconnick, illustrated by Valentine De Landro (***1/2)
Category: Graphic Novels

Continuing the story of a prison world, nicknamed Bitch Planet, houses women who fail to conform to society standards for beauty, motherhood, etc., volume two kicks off with a flashback that provides insight into the life of Meiko Maki. One of my minor complaints about the first volume was that I didn't know enough about her, and this flashback helped. The story then proceeds from the events in volume one, with the prisoners meeting daily met with brutality and continuing to find their own forms of resistance, as well as introducing other who are participating in the resisting against the men in charge. I was definitely more invested in the story this time around as I got to know the characters more and have more layers of the world unveiled.

A couple of panels from the comic:





Apparently, there are only two volumes of the series so far, so I can't really keep reading from here at this time, which is disappointing.

32. Your Hand Has Fixed the Firmament by Kolleen Carney (*****)
Category: Poetry

Kolleen Carney's collection of poetry explores love, sex, and intimacy as the expansive and terrifying thing it is. There are pleasures of two people sharing time and space ("when I’d wake in the morning I would pour tea / and you would add two teaspoons of honey / and in the slant of the morning light we would hear / a very distant rooster") that carry a sweetness, but mixed in is a periphery of destruction ("Once you tucked a blanket under my body / and I thought, drunk and almost asleep / break my body, hold my bones") that highlights the vulnerability of love, the risk of opening up one's emotional space to the possibility of heartbreak and loss. This collection illustrates that continuously shifting balance of wonder and fear beautifully. In fact, I loved the collection so much, I interviewed Kolleen Carney on my blog.

Hi Andrea, both your review and the Tags used for The Girl in the Road are intriguing. I just checked and my library has a copy so onto the wishlist it goes!

Great reviews, Andrea!

>94 lkernagh:
Awesome. It's a really interesting book. I hope you like it.

>95 andreablythe:
Thanks, Lori!

I started reading The Drawing of the Three, the second book in King's Dark Tower series. Three pages in and I'm hooked — so much so that while having a nice dinner with my mom, I kept making lovey dovey eyes at the book, longing to get back to reading. I forget sometimes how much King used to suck me in.

I'm shy about sharing work I've written on here — but if you're interested, one of my stories got published at Drunk Monkeys. It's called "Missed Connections / Red Head at the House of Needles".

. . .

In reading news, I'm currently working on The Drawing of the Three the second book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series and I'm loving it all over again. So much so that while I was sitting at dinner with my mom, I kept drifting away from the conversation to stare longingly at my copy — and then snatched it up to read a few lines anytime she walked away from the table or looked at her phone.

Congrats on getting a story published!

Yes, congratulations!

>98 rabbitprincess: Andrea, I love your story! I would never have known that it was written by a woman if I didn't know beforehand, you absolutely nailed the male perspective. Congratulations on seeing it published. :)

>99 christina_reads:, >100 DeltaQueen50:
Thank you, guys!

>101 andreablythe:
Thank you! Glad to hear I got the voice right. :)

It's been hard for me to transition from writing poetry to fiction and I haven't completed many stories yet, but the work goes on and it's an honor to have it published.

>98 rabbitprincess: I almost missed this. Congratulations!

>103 andreablythe:
Thanks! ^_^

Congrats on the short story - I'm off to check it out!

And enjoy The Drawing of the Three, I soooo loved my re-read. I'm about to start The Waste Lands.

>98 rabbitprincess: OMG - that was awesome! I loved it!

>105 LisaMorr:
Thank you, Lisa! And I'm glad you enjoyed the story!

I just finished The Drawing of the Three and OMG, I loved it. Will be writing another epically long post. I have The Waste Lands at home, too. I'm dying to pick it up, but I also have a ton of library books to read and I know once I start on The Waste Lands, that's it – I'll be doing nothing but reading that for the next few days.

33. The Drawing of the Three: The Dark Tower #2 (*****)
Category: Miscellany

The Drawing of the Three opens precisely where the first book left off, with the gunslinger Roland alone, collapsed from exhaustion on the shore of a great ocean. As the tide rolls in, he is woken by the incoming tide (which douses his shells) and is greeted with horrors that drag themselves out of the water. These lobstrocities with their strange questioning sounds attack him as he's waking — and this attack, which happens in the first five pages, is brutal, leaving him catastrophically wounded.

Undeterred, Roland continues his long, plodding journey toward the Dark Tower. As walks up the beach, with infection from his injuries spreading, he discovers the first door, the first drawing.

In the first book, The Gunslinger, the man in black laid out Roland's future using a form of tarot cards, presenting three cards in particular that represent the people he would need on his journey to the Dark Tower — The Prisoner, The Lady of Shadows, and Death (but not for the gunslinger). Each door represents one of these cards. When opened, the doors reveal our own world at different time periods, from where (and when) he must draw out the people destined to join him in pursuit of the Tower.

In the afterward to The Drawing of the Three, King wrote, "This longer second volume still leaves many questions unanswered, but I feel that it is a much more complete volume than the first." And I am in agreement with this sentiment. I enjoyed my reread of The Drawing of the Three more than I did the first book. Where The Gunslinger felt a little disjointed, as though all the pieces didn't quite fit together, The Drawing of the Three feels whole. The storyline is simple on the surface, with the gunslinger finding three doors and opening them, but each door presents it's own complications in terms of how the gunslinger can obtain who and what he needs. As new companions are added to the story, things become increasingly character driven, with their flaws driving much of the conflict — as they tend to do in relationships. It makes for interesting character growth for all three of the main characters, and that growth more than anything else is what makes this such a great novel.

Because it's so long, the rest of the over 2,000 words on The Drawing of the Three is up on my blog, with a few spoilers and more in depth discussion of characters, writing style, and Easter eggs referencing other King books.

34. Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race (audio book) by Margot Lee Shetterly (****1/2)
Category: Nonfiction – Writing, Critical Analysis, or Anything Interesting

I actually read this one weeks ago, but forgot to share it.

Hidden Figures tells the story of the black women who played an integral part in the U.S. space race. Many worked in a segregated group as "computers", mathematicians who were sent mounds of data that had to be calculated and crunched into a form usable by the engineers working on any number of projects at the facility. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, these projects revolved around designing better, faster, more agile planes to support the war effort (at first) and then to support the commercial aircraft industry. In the late 1950s and into the '60s, the scope of research moved toward sending a rocket and eventually a human being into space.

It was fascinating to learn about the women and men whose efforts were mostly forgotten. The book, as expected, presented a much wider view of the people who worked there — the numbers being larger than a single film could contain. (It was interesting, too, to see how the film had compressed and altered bits and pieces of the history in order to make it into a story that suites the big screen.)

Although I enjoyed listening to this on audio book, I wish I had read it on paper, as there are so many names and dates to keep track of as the history is told. It's almost too much to absorb in audio format, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this look into a piece of untold history and it makes me want to learn more about these woman (as well as other people who contributions were lost to the mainstream storyline).

35. A Wind in the Door (audio book) by Madeline L'Engle (****)
Category: Miscellany

When her little brother Charles Wallace gets sick, Meg and her friend Calvin join with a cherubim named Proginoskes and other odd creatures in an effort to safe not just a little boy, but the universe itself from the Echthroi, who wish to un-name (destroy) all things. It becomes an epic battle on the minute scale, as the heroes travel inside deep into the mitochondria of Charles Wallace in order to save him.

A Wind in the Door is more of a companion novel rather than a direct sequel to A Wrinkle in Time — although the characters are the same (Meg, Calvin, Charles Wallace, etc.) and space travel and physics are at the forefront, the story makes no reference to the first book. For example, when the book mentions a darkness obliterating the stars, I immediately thought of the "dark planets" mentioned in in A Wrinkle in Time, but the characters themselves make no mention of their past adventures. It feels odd (and a little unnatural, because that's where my thoughts would go if I were Meg), especially after reading both books back to back. The only hint at past adventures is how unsurprised the characters are that strange or alien creatures and travel to the stars exists. This makes the book almost seem like a standalone story rather than a proper sequel, as reading the first book is in no way necessary to understand the references in this one.

One of the small annoyances with A Wind in the Door (as with the first book) was how conversations would often loop over how things work in this universe, explaining the scientific or world-building concepts over and over again. A teach would explain what a creature is, Meg would not understand, so the teacher would explain again in slightly different way, then another character would still not understand, and then a new version of the explanation would be given. As an adult with a vague understanding of how physics works, this started to bother me after a while. However, since the book is intended for a middle grade audience and since some of these concepts are mind-bending and difficult to grasp, the use of repetition makes sense (even if it wasn't as enjoyable for me).

L'Engle has presented another fantastic story with A Wind in the Door, one that stretches the imagination and expands the concept of what may be possible. Great characters, who work toward building love and life in the world, and a wonderful storyline.

36. Foiled #1, written by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Mike Cavallaro (***)
Category: Graphic Novels

Fun YA graphic novel about a girl who loves fencing and discovers a hidden, colorful layer of the world filled with magic and danger. The art is well done, moving from black and white into vibrant color to indicate the coming of magic. This was a light, breezy read. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue the series or not, though.

37. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter (*****)
Category: Expanding the Cannon - Books by Women, POC, and other Marginalized Folks

"The Bloody Chamber" is a well loved fairy tale retelling. People have been telling me about it for years — and now that I've read it, I totally understand why so many people love it. The story follows the Bluebeard fairy tale closely, a girl marries a rich man, who gives her the keys to the house telling her that she can open all the doors but one — a test she fails to nearly disastrous results. Carter takes the myth and brings it into the modern world (1970s, when it was first published) and provides more depth to the main character, giving her a history and motivation for the choices she makes. It presents servants that have personalities and her mother, who has fought in revolutions and can advice her over the telephone. The resulting story is at the same time grittily real and subtly magical.

One of my pet peeves about fairy tale retellings is that they often loose the magic when they are modernized. But all of the stories in Carter's collection present similarly gritty and unsettling takes on old fairy tales, while not loosing that original weirdness and magic. It's a fantastic collection.

>112 DeltaQueen50: Andrea, I read The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories a number of years ago and I still remember it vividly. She took most of the stories to a whole new level.

>113 andreablythe:
Agreed. I didn't have time to get into many of the other stories I loved, but it's an excellent collection in general.

Once again, I have fallen behind on all the things.

38. The Stone Sky (Broken Earth Book #3) by N. K. Jemisin (*****)
Category: Newbies – Books Published in 2017

The Stone Sky is a powerful conclusion to N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. Essun has grown into immense power and is determined to end the seasons (times in which the world tears itself apart), while her daughter, Nassun, with her own power and burdened by the memories of cruelty enacted on her and other orogenes, sets out to destroy the world for good. The character walk through an apocalyptic landscape of ash and cold, a world coming undone, each marching to their own destiny — and in the end a beautiful conclusion full of heartbreak, forgiveness, and ultimately love. The Broken Earth trilogy is brilliant from start to finish — one of my favorite reading experiences in recent years.

.

39. Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire (****)
Category: Newbies – Books Published in 2017

A young woman turned ghost works to earn her way to the otherside by serving on a suicide hotline and trying to save the lives of others, at least for a little while. McGuire presents an interesting take on ghosts, one in which they walk side-by-side with humans in corporeal form (when awake), becoming insubstantial wisps when they sleep. Ghosts can reach their deaths quicker by taking years from the living (making them younger) and placing them on themselves. It's a strange world that this novella presents, and fun to explore.

Stopping by to get caught up.

>98 rabbitprincess: - Congratulations on your story being published!

Great reviews! Looks like you appreciated Carter's spin on fairy tales/fables more than I did, but I must say, her writing is very imaginative.

Hi, Lori,

Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words on my story. :)

Yeah, I love Carter's imagination and style, which is a large part of why it worked for me.

Hi! I'm in catching-up mode here. I love the pictures of your summer trip. Machu Picchu was a dream of mine for ages. Sadly health reasons prevent me from making that trip now. Go while you can!

>81 andreablythe: I listened to We Have Always Lived in the Castle and it made my walks go by quickly indeed!

>98 rabbitprincess: Congratulations! I really enjoyed the language as you see kids type on their phones these days.

>98 rabbitprincess: Congratulations on your story being published!

>116 lkernagh: I'm glad to see you gave The Stone Sky 5 stars. I'm on the library's waiting list and am eagerly looking forward to it.

I hope you are having a lovely Thanksgiving, Andrea. :)

>119 mathgirl40:
Hi, mamzel, I'm sorry to hear that heath would keep you from going. It was an amazing experience.

Glad to hear you also enjoyed We Have Always Lived in the Castle. :)

>120 DeltaQueen50:
Thanks! The entire Broken Earth trilogy was phenomenal. Always great when a series wraps up so well. :)

>121 andreablythe:
Happy Thanksgiving! I'm spending time with family, though it's a smaller group than usual, since most of my siblings are traveling this year.

40. Tender: Stories by Sofia Samatar (*****)
Category: Newbies – Books Published in 2017

Sofia Samatar's collection of stories reveals human (or not-so-human) tenderness as the aching of a wound, or the gentle kindness from another, or the vulnerability of the young. It's a stunning collection of powerful stories with beautiful writing and many with creative ways of expressing the tale (essay format, journal entries, letters) that provides a unique depth and texture.

I love "Selkie Stories Are for Losers," a story in which a young woman comes to terms with her anger at the loss of her mother, sharing the stories with the reader, she keeps hidden within herself. The phrases "I don't tell" and "I won't tell" are repeated throughout, highlighting the need for new stories free of the pain and mistakes of the past.

On the flip-side of the relationship between mother and daughter is "Honey Bear," an affecting story of a woman and her husband driving to the ocean with their daughter. The story sings with love and compassion. The woman is ill, the husband frustrated and over protective. She holds to her daughter with such affection in a world that is slipping away, dying. The ending of this story — which I will not spoil — shattered me. Love is so powerful. So is hope, however small.

Another deeply moving story is "Walkdog," which is presented as an class essay about knowing one's environment. The author chooses to write about walkdogs, creatures said to steal people away, forcing them to walk behind them for years and years. The use of footnotes here are critical to the way the story unfolds, gaps of the personal slipping under the seemingly academic, building into a story about a bullied boy and the girl who loved him, but not enough to protect him — all culminating in a heartbreaking conclusion.

Power structures are often explored in these stories. "Ogres of East Africa" — which I've read three times now and the story grows with each readingfor — shares the story of Alibhai a servant to a white hunter looking to track and hunt an ogre. As he records stories of ogres for hig master, he records his own history in the margins, his story slowly moving to the forefront of the text.

In a similar fashion, "An Account of the Land of Witches" presents the story of a slave finding freedom in a strange land in which boundaries are meaningless. Later a woman in our modern world goes looking for the history of this land, basing her dissertation on the slave's letter and her master's refutation, only to have her efforts stopped when the borders are closed by war.

There are so many more lovely stories in this collection — both "Dawn and the Maiden" and "Cities of Emerald, Deserts of Gold" stand out for me in terms of their beauty of language. Take for example, this passage"

My love is a river. My love is a brink. My love is the bring of an underground river. My love's arms ripple like rivers in the moonlight when he unlocks the garden gate. — from "Dawn and the Maiden"

One could go one-by-one in an attempt to honor each story in its turn. But I'm afraid I don't have time, so I'll just say this is a gorgeous book, worth every penny in the cost of acquiring it.

41. The Waste Lands: The Dark Tower #3 by Stephen King (***1/2)
Category: Miscellany

Fair warning: Spoilers ahead.

The Waste Lands begins with signs that Roland Deschain, the gunslinger is slowly going mad. At the end of the previous book, he stopped the Pusher from shoving Jake (the boy who appears in the first book) in front of a car, thus preventing events from the first book from ever happening. This creates an interesting temporal paradox, in which the gunslinger begins to experience split realities — one in which Jake dies and one in which he never met Jake. As time goes on, his mind becomes more and more divided between these two realities.

Meanwhile, Jake in 1970s new york is experiencing a similar split — in one reality he lives his normal life and in another reality he traveled to the gunslinger's world where he died in a mineshaft. Like Roland, Jake's mind is being cleaved in two, unable to settle on one reality or the other.

It's only when Jake, with the help of Eddie Dean, makes the journey back to Roland's world (via one of the most terrifying houses ever) that the paradox is solved for both the gunslinger and the boy, saving each of them their sanity. It's a moment of pure joy when the two are reunited.

That's just one small bit of the novel — there are a lot of elements packed into this book — the giant, rotting, mechanical bear that was once a guardian; Eddie Dean's grappling with the memory of his brother's disdain and his own self worth; rescuing Jake; traveling in the path of the beam; reaching River Crossing, a small town full of elderly folks; finding a downed Nazi airplane; reaching the City, which bears its own horrors; and at last the introduction of Blaine the train.

Rereading The Waste Lands was a less satisfying experience than reading either of the first two books in the series. Part of this was that all of the elements put together made it feel like separate, distinct stories (all good on their own) had been put together into the same novel. In particular, the first half of the book about the drawing of Jake from our world felt like one story, while the travel through River Crossing and into the city felt like a separate story.

Another large part of my dissatisfaction was also based on how I read the book. I vividly remembered a few of the scenes from the novel (such as Jake's going mad, his essay on "My Understanding of Truth," his journey through the haunted mansion, and the climactic battle of riddles with Blaine the Train). My desire to reread these scenes caused me to rush through other portions of the book in anticipation of reaching those particular moments.

And in one case, my memories betrayed me altogether. Because one of the scenes I was most anticipating is not even in this book. King ends The Waste Lands with the cliffhanger of all cliffhangers — the story sets up the epic game of riddles with Blaine the Train, which will determine whether everyone lives or dies, but then ends just as the game is about to start. This is incredibly frustrating, even when I know I can go and grab book four whenever I want to read the conclusion.

For all the frustrations and minor disappointments, though, The Waste Lands has some great moments. For example, the Mansion, which Jake has to transverse in order to find a door to Roland's world, is purely terrifying – an excellent example of how chilling King can be. "As soon as Jake saw the place, he understood two things first, that he had seen it before, in dreams so terrible his conscious mind would not let him remember them; second, that it was a place of death and murder and madness" (page 268).

Having the group meet the old people of River Crossing is also wonderful, although for completely different reasons. Although these people are aged and fading and, as such, slightly unsettling, they also provide a measure of human decency and kindness, a soothing reprieve in the face of horror and catastrophe. It also provides a space for us to see another side of Roland, who shows himself to be a skilled diplomat and honored member of a faded society.

It's also interesting that we discover in this book that the ka-tet (a group of people bound together by fate) comprises primarily Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, and Jake Chambers, and maybe the billy-bumbler Oye, as well. Although Roland has been central to the series from the beginning, he's somewhat peripheral to the ka-tet. Roland even says as much, "I am not a full member of this ka-tet — possibly because I am not from your world." It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

To close out, I just need to say that I want a billy-bumbler, which looks like "a combination raccoon and woodchuck, with a dash of dachshund thrown in for good measure." A billy-bumbler makes friends with Jake and it can talk, parroting words at first, and later learning to count. The billy-bumbler sounds adorable, and like he would make a great friend.

I'm looking forward to reading book four, Wizard and Glass. I'll get to sooth the wound from the painful cliffhanger, and will get to dive into Roland's past — which I remember being the main element from book four, even thought I don't remember many of the details.

>123 andreablythe: - That does sound lovely. I'll have to add that one to my wishlist.

>125 andreablythe:
It's divine. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

42. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters (****)
Category: Expanding the Cannon - Books by Women, POC, and other Marginalized Folks

Tipping the Velvet presents the life and times of Nancy Astly, an oyster girl, who falls in love with male impersonator Kitty Butler. After forming a friendship with Kitty, she follows her into the theaters of London, where she works as a dresser (helping Kitty with costumes) before becoming a performer herself. This beautifully told story is a sensual exploration of love and the ability of gender roles. Waters is a master of historical fiction and I loved this almost as much as I loved Fingersmith.

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43. Orlando by Virginia Woolf (**1/2)
Category: Expanding the Cannon - Books by Women, POC, and other Marginalized Folks

Woolf presents a satirical biography of Orlando, a young man who lives for over 300 years and has a mysterious transformation into being a women along the way. It's never clear how it is Orlando is able to gain this immortality (perhaps his obsession with thought, words, poetry?) or how it is that Orlando becomes a woman, which worked for the way the story unfolded.

I really wanted to be charmed by this, as I had been with other books by Woolf, but whereas the vibrancy of language and compactness of the stories in both To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway delighted me, Orlando failed to hold my attention.

Also, I was deeply bothered the racism within the book, particularly the opening scene (in which Orlando toys with the head of a nameless dead Moor), but also by the Orientalism in the scenes in Turkey and the portrayal of the "gipsies."

>127 lkernagh: - Here I was about to write how much I enjoyed Tipping the Velvet, only to discover that it is Fingersmith that I read and enjoyed. I still need to get around to reading Tipping the Velvet. ;-)

>128 andreablythe:
Haha. Yeah, Fingersmith is amazing, too! I'm excited to read more of her work, having been blown away by what I've read so far.

Looking at how behind I am on everyone's threads:

>130 Chrischi_HH: Great gif - I feel about the same. I just had to read 50 posts on years, my last visit was in August... Congrats on getting your story published, I enjoyed reading it.

>130 Chrischi_HH: - That's how I feel when I start looking at my TBR shelves at home. :)

>131 LittleTaiko:
Oh, my. That's a long gap to catch up on.

And thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

>132 andreablythe:
Haha. Yeah, my TBR list is far larger than even my catching up on everyone's threads.

Hi Andrea, stopping by to wish you and your loved ones peace, joy and happiness this holiday season and for 2018!

Thank you for the Holiday Greetings, Lori and Vivienne. Hope your holidays are also filled with joy!

44. Alif the Unseen (audio book) by G. Willow Wilson - winner of the 2013 World Fantasy Award (DNF)
Category: Awards Winners – Hugo/Nebula/Tiptree/Printz/Etc.

Alif is a young Arab-Indian hacker, who is paid to shield his clients from the security-state — until he is forced to go underground due to a series of unfortunate circumstances. It was quite a captivating and surprising adventure, so my not finishing it had nothing to do with the story itself. Rather, the CD player in my car decided to stop accepting the audio book discs, and I haven't had the chance to pick up the paper book yet. And it's been long enough that there are other stories I need/want to read first. So, I'll probably come back to this but it might take me a while.

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45. Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma by Melanie Brooks (****)
Category: Nonfiction – Writing, Critical Analysis, or Anything Interesting

"The worst story we can tell ourselves is that we are alone."

Melanie Brooks is trying to write a memoir about her father, who died of HIV due to an infected blood transfusion. Finding it difficult to approach a subject that was so personal and so painful, she began to seek out the wisdom of memoirists who had written about their own painful stories and shared them with the world. These interviews comprise the heart of this book, which unveils the process of juggling hard memories with the craft of writing a good story, how to tell one's personal truth, how to deal with the reactions afterward, and how sharing one's own specific story can connect with reader remind them and the author that they are not alone in their experiences after all.

For those wishing to start or continue writing a memoir, then this book might be a balm, a reminder that it can be done, providing insight into the processes of some masters of the craft.

For fans of memoirs, the book provides a backdoor look into how many of these amazing stories were written and the impact it had on the author's lives.

For me, this provided both while also increasing my TBR list, because dang if there's not a bunch of these memoirs that I need to read.

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46. Locke & Key: Small World, written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodríguez (***1/2)

Small World is a single short story that focuses on an event from the Locke family past, showing the building of a doll house that is meant to be a little girl's learning tool, but can also cause havoc when the key is turned. Quite entertaining, although it left me wanting more.

The book also includes a lengthy section at the end providing an in depth look at how Locke & Key is made from script to final illustrations.

47. Locke & Key: Heaven and Earth by written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodríguez (****)
Category: Graphic Novels

Heaven and Earth contains a few short stories, from various times in the Locke family history, including one particularly moving tale and a brief return of Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode as well. So great to be able to return to this world, even in such short tales. And I hope the creators do come out with a new full length series at some point, as they suggested in an interview. That would be amazing.

>137 AHS-Wolfy: Glad to see a couple of extra editions added to the Locke & Key world prove worthwhile. I shall have to get around to these at some point.

>138 andreablythe:
They're definitely worth a look for fans of the series.

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48. Let it Die Hungry by Caits Meissner (*****)
Category: Poetry

Let it Die Hungry includes powerful poetry, poetic comics, and writing prompts from a class she taught at a woman's prison. The combination and mixture of words and image and prompts makes for an engaging, fascinating read — one that I'll be perusing many times more to see what new delights I can discover.

I grabbed a copy of this book when I went to Caits Maissner's reading of the work, and she's an amazing performer and awesome person.

Welp, that wrapped up my 2017 reading with a total of 48 books for the year — quite low for me (about half of what I normally do).

I completed a grand total of ONE (1) categories, which was "Newbies – Books Published in 2017" — a category that provided me with some phenomenal reads.

Here are my top ten fiction reads for 2017 (I'm counting series books as one):

1. The Obelisk Gate & The Stone Sky (Broken Earth Book #3) by N. K. Jemisin
2. Binti & Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor
3. Tender: Stories by Sofia Samatar (my thoughts)
4. Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
5. Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez (my thoughts)
6. Bone Gap (audio book) by Laura Ruby
7. A Tale for the Time Being (audio book) by Ruth Ozeki
8. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (audio book) by Shirley Jackson
9. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
10. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters



Favorite Poetry Collections:

— Let it Die Hungry by Caits Meissner
— Your Hand Has Fixed the Firmament by Kolleen Carney
— Shopping After the Apocalypse by Jessie Carty



Favorite Graphic Novel

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

Here's my 2018 Thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/278904