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[ninja-muse]

So I like Kate Quinn. I love the way she writes unsung women in history—not just that she writes them, but that she takes the time to flesh out their historical context. Women (people) don't just wake up and suddenly find out that they're a spy or a code breaker or an opera singer, after all. They're shaped by their time and their culture and their upbringing, and they have to navigate their present, at its best and its worst. Quinn makes sure that's true for her novels.

I also love that Quinn has a way of pulling you gently along so that suddenly you look up and you've finished the entire book. Her prose is strong, her plots are great, and her characters are compelling, but they never feel fast. There's time taken to build things up and build them up, to give small details and day-to-day lives. It's immersive without being grim. And yet, like I said, I get addicted. The longest I think I've taken to read one of her books is three days. Usually it's two.

Which is why you should listen when I say this is one of her best.* The vibrancy of the characters is a notch up. The topics she's tackling are wider ranging and so the research feels deeper. Her ability to look at the 1950s, see how complicated they were, and encapsulate that in the boarding house setting was marvelous. The structure was a step up too. And the way she spun the characters off each other and developed their friendships? She's always been good at that but again….

The basic plot, for those who haven't had this on their TBR for six months, which is probably most of you: it's 1950 in Washington, D.C., and a new woman has moved into a depressing boardinghouse in a seedy neighbourhood. Over the next few years, she brings the residents together through a secret dinner club, and then somebody is killed. (They all have secrets; it could be anyone, and anyone might have done it.)

The other boarders shine light on facets of the era: the British army wife, the Hungarian refugee, the pro-McCarthy Texan, the athlete, the plus-sized secretary who grew up in a Hooverville, the cop's daughter who's turned her back on her family, the imaginative teen son of the landlady and his kid sister, the young widow. (Not to mention the side characters who all drift in and out of the women's lives.) They shouldn't have anything in common and they shouldn't like each other, and yet there is so much found family in this. So much wholesome comfort and people helping each other fix problems. So much arguing and so much unity.

(It surprises me not at all that this book was Quinn's reaction to the fear and anger that was 2020–2021.)

And I've waxed on enough. Quinn's hit a home run, to use one of Bea's sports metaphors, not only in terms of setting and character and plot, but also in general everything else. It balances the darker parts of the 1950s with their hopefulness for the future and the found family of the house. It talks about a lot of stuff that gets glossed over in the standard pop culture '50s, and while it doesn't dig as deep into some (marginalization) issues as it could, I understand why Quinn left the depth of those tales to people with lived experience.

If I say more, I'll be truly spoiling the experience of reading this, so please, if you're going to read a Kate Quinn book this summer, make it this one.

Out July 9.

*Of her 20th century novels; I haven't read her Romans and Borgias.

[ninja-muse]

March was a productive month, and not just because I read a good number of books. I also started writing again after a bit of a slump, and I managed to unhaul 37 books from my home library, though some of them have not actually left the house yet. The used bookstore I went to didn't take everything so I have to decide which one I'm hitting next. Or if I'm dumping the bulk on a thrift store because let's be honest, most used bookstores aren't going to want what's left either.

Can you tell I got rid of that many? Only if you saw the state of things before. My shelves are neat and tidy with no books wedged on top of other books to make things fit.

And I was so, so close to ending the month without buying more books! I really thought I was going to manage it! And then, well, I mentioned the used bookstore, right? I've been meaning to read Delaney but few bookstores stock him, and Lincoln's Dreams is one of the only Connie Willis novels I don't own. (That shop also had stickers, and a cute bookmark I can't show you because whiting out the identifying features would ruin the effect.) Under the Smokestrewn Sky was a rescue, of sorts. Why return it to the publisher when you could just buy it, right?

Anyway, in terms of books read, there were some really good ones! And only one that was not so great. I think I'm done reading and collecting Rat Queens and might need to include those in the next unhaul. And don't get me wrong about the Evie Dunmore. It is a Good Historical Romance Novel. There's just something about it that didn't work for me.

Click through to see everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

I Love Russia - Elena Kostyuchenko, translated by Bela Shayevich and Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse

Portraits and memories of the unsung Russia—the poor, the broken, the marginalized.

10/10

🏳️‍🌈 author

warnings: so many, including but not limited to misogyny, homophobia, genocide, violence, sexual violence, drugs and alcohol, abuse, child death, suicide

reading copy

True North - Andrew J. Graff

The Brechts move to Michigan to restart a rafting business. They hope it’ll save their family, but it might do the opposite.

7.5/10

Menominee secondary character

library book

Sociopath - Patric Gagne

As a child, Patric knew something about her was off and kept countering a lack of feeling with dark acts. As a young woman, she learns the definition of “sociopath” and it changes everything. Out in April.

8/10

neurodivergent author

To a Darker Shore - Leanne Schwartz

When the invention that should have guaranteed Alesta's future fails, her best friend takes the fall and is sacrificed to the demon besieging their kingdom. To rescue him, Alesta must descend into hell, where she learns truths about her society—and her gods. Out in April.

8/10

fat protagonist, autistic main character, major autistic secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters, autistic author

warning: classism, strict religion, autism-related ableism

reading copy

The Temple of Fortuna - Elodie Harper

Amara’s living as a courtesan in Rome but misses her lover and daughter in Pompeii. When she returns to the city, her needs and desires are sent into turmoil—and Vesuvius has started to rumble.

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic), Ethiopian secondary characters

warning: misogynist society, sexual violence, slave society

Funny Story - Emily Henry

What do you do when your partners dump you for each other? Move in together, of course! Out in April.

7.5/10

Iranian-American secondary character, Black secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic)

warning: toxic relationships, mainly in backstory

reading copy

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop - Hwang Bo-reum, translated by Shanna Tan

Tired of fulling expectations, Yeongju opens a bookshop. She’s not the only one to find happiness there.

7.5/10

Korean cast, Korean author

library ebook

Aftermarket Afterlife - Seanan McGuire

The Covenant has started actively pursuing the Prices and their allies, and all Mary wants to do is protect her family.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (lesbian, gay, bi man), Korean-American secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: canon-typical violence, bigots

library ebook

Knife Skills for Beginners - Orlando Murrin

Paul Delamare is filling in for a friend at a cooking school when a body is found on the premises.

6.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), Black British secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic)

reading copy

Let Them Tremble - Wolf Epley

The revolution is brewing and both the workers and the government refuse bend. Throw in a destroyed print shop, ghosts, and malfunctioning Shroud devices, and you know things won’t end well.

7/10

major disabled character (partial blindness, limp, hand disfigurement), cast largely of non-racialized colour

won/digital reading copy

The Gentleman’s Gambit - Evie Dunmore

Catriona needs to avoid distractions to write her book but is pressed to help her father’s new colleague around Oxford. Elias needs her help if he ever hopes to smuggle antiquities out of the Ashmolean.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi woman), Lebanese love interest, Lebanese secondary character

warning: colonial/orientalist characters

library book

Rat Queens, Vol. 5 - Kurtis J. Wiebe with Owen Gieni (illustrator)

Palisade’s problems continue, including hallucinations, a hipster bar, and a sinister wizard.

6/10

major Black character, major 🏳️‍🌈 character (lesbian), 🇨🇦

off my TBR shelves

Children’s Books

Penelope Rex and the Problem with Pets - Ryan Higgins

Mittens hogs the bed, eats from the trash, and causes all kinds of trouble—and Penelope didn’t even want them!

Currently reading

I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons - Peter S. Beagle

Robert doesn’t want to be the country’s dragon exterminator on the best of days, but then Princess Cerise meets Prince Reginald. Out in May.

reading copy

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin

A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 12 Yearly total: 32 Queer books: 4 Authors of colour: 1 Books by women: 8 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1 Classics: 0 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 3 ARCs acquired: 5 ARCs unhauled: 7 DNFs: 0

January February

[ninja-muse]

2024 Release TBR

🏳️‍🌈 - queer MC     🇨🇦 - Canadian author    ⭐️ - BIPOC MC 📘 - have an ARC bold - newly added

The Secret History of Bigfoot - John O'Connor (travel/history) - February 6

Ending the Pursuit - Michael Paramo (sociology) - February 8

Remedial Magic - Melissa Marr (fantasy/romance) 🏳️‍🌈📘 - February 20

The Butcher of the Forest - Premee Mohamed (fantasy) - February 27

Tomorrow’s Children - Daniel Polansky (post-apocalypse) - February 27

Wandering Stars - Tommy Orange (fiction) - February 27 ⭐️

The Deerfield Massacre - James L. Swanson (history) - February 27

The Baker and the Bard - Fern Haught (YA cozy fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈- March 5

The Tower - Flora Carr (historical fiction) 📘 - March 5

Parasol Against the Axe - Helen Oyeyemi (literary fiction) ⭐️📘- March 5

Those Beyond the Wall - Micaiah Johnson (science fiction) ⭐️📘 - March 12

The Mars House - Natasha Pulley (science fiction/romance) 🏳️‍🌈 - March 19

The Floating Hotel - Grace Curtis (cozy science fiction) 🏳️‍🌈 - March 19

The Angel of Indian Lake - Stephen Graham Jones (horror) ⭐️ 📘- March 26

Setting His Cap - Aaron Rosenberg (cozy fantasy) - April 1

This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances - Eric LaRocca (horror) 📘- April 2

Catchpenny - Charlie Huston (science fiction) 📘- April 9

Dear Wendy - Ann Zhao (YA contemporary) 🏳️‍🌈 - April 16

A Letter to the Luminous Deep - Sophie Cathrall (cozy fantasy) 📘 - April 23

The Tomb of the Mili Mongga - Samuel Turvey (memoir) - April 16

The Demon of Unrest - Eric Larson (history) 📘 - April 30

The Library Thief - Kuchenga Shenjé (historical fiction) ⭐️ - May 7

The Honey Witch - Sydney Shields (cozy fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - May 14

I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons - Peter S. Beagle (fantasy) - May 14

Every Time We Say Goodbye - Natalie Jenner (historical fiction) 🇨🇦 - May 14

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying - Django Wexler (fantasy) - May 21

A Gentleman From Japan - Kevin Lockley (history) ⭐️ - May 21

Dreadful - Caitlin Rozakis (fantasy) - May 28

Tidal Creatures - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - June 4

Running Close to the Wind - Alexandra Rowland (fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - June 11

Echo of Worlds - M.R. Carey (science fiction) - June 25

The Briar Club - Kate Quinn (historical fiction) - July 9

Navola - Paolo Bacigalupi (fantasy) 📘- July 9

Bury Your Gays - Chuck Tingle (horror) 🏳️‍🌈 - July 9

Peking Duck and Cover - Vivien Chien (cozy mystery) ⭐️ - July 23

Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop - Emmeline Duncan (cozy mystery) - July 23

Nicked - M.T. Anderson (historical fiction) 📘 - July 23

The Pairing - Casey McQuiston (romance) 🏳️‍🌈 - August 6

A Sorceress Comes to Call - T. Kingfisher (fantasy) - August 20

Radiant Sky - Alan Smale (science fiction) - August 27

The Salmon Shanties - Harold Rhenisch (poetry) - September 10🇨🇦

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society - C.M. Waggoner (fantasy) - September 20

Right Hand - Natalie Zina Walschots (superhero fiction) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 - October 1

The City in Glass - Nghi Vo (fantasy) - October 1

Swordcrossed - Freya Marske (fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - October 8

Shoestring Theory - Mariana Costa (fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - October 8

Sorcery and Small Magics - Maiga Doocy (cozy fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - October 15

The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door - H.G. Parry (fantasy) - October 22

Usurpation - Sue Burke (science fiction) - October 29

The Improvisers - Nicole Glover (historical fantasy) - November 5 ⭐️

October Daye #19 - Seanan Mcguire (urban fantasy) - date unknown

My Love, in Stitches, Vol. 1 - Emily Gossman (contemporary fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦 - date unknown

[ninja-muse]

March was a productive month, and not just because I read a good number of books. I also started writing again after a bit of a slump, and I managed to unhaul 37 books from my home library, though some of them have not actually left the house yet. The used bookstore I went to didn't take everything so I have to decide which one I'm hitting next. Or if I'm dumping the bulk on a thrift store because let's be honest, most used bookstores aren't going to want what's left either.

Can you tell I got rid of that many? Only if you saw the state of things before. My shelves are neat and tidy with no books wedged on top of other books to make things fit.

And I was so, so close to ending the month without buying more books! I really thought I was going to manage it! And then, well, I mentioned the used bookstore, right? I've been meaning to read Delaney but few bookstores stock him, and Lincoln's Dreams is one of the only Connie Willis novels I don't own. (That shop also had stickers, and a cute bookmark I can't show you because whiting out the identifying features would ruin the effect.) Under the Smokestrewn Sky was a rescue, of sorts. Why return it to the publisher when you could just buy it, right?

Anyway, in terms of books read, there were some really good ones! And only one that was not so great. I think I'm done reading and collecting Rat Queens and might need to include those in the next unhaul. And don't get me wrong about the Evie Dunmore. It is a Good Historical Romance Novel. There's just something about it that didn't work for me.

Click through to see everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

I Love Russia - Elena Kostyuchenko, translated by Bela Shayevich and Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse

Portraits and memories of the unsung Russia—the poor, the broken, the marginalized.

10/10

🏳️‍🌈 author

warnings: so many, including but not limited to misogyny, homophobia, genocide, violence, sexual violence, drugs and alcohol, abuse, child death, suicide

reading copy

True North - Andrew J. Graff

The Brechts move to Michigan to restart a rafting business. They hope it’ll save their family, but it might do the opposite.

7.5/10

Menominee secondary character

library book

Sociopath - Patric Gagne

As a child, Patric knew something about her was off and kept countering a lack of feeling with dark acts. As a young woman, she learns the definition of “sociopath” and it changes everything. Out in April.

8/10

neurodivergent author

To a Darker Shore - Leanne Schwartz

When the invention that should have guaranteed Alesta's future fails, her best friend takes the fall and is sacrificed to the demon besieging their kingdom. To rescue him, Alesta must descend into hell, where she learns truths about her society—and her gods. Out in April.

8/10

fat protagonist, autistic main character, major autistic secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters, autistic author

warning: classism, strict religion, autism-related ableism

reading copy

The Temple of Fortuna - Elodie Harper

Amara’s living as a courtesan in Rome but misses her lover and daughter in Pompeii. When she returns to the city, her needs and desires are sent into turmoil—and Vesuvius has started to rumble.

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic), Ethiopian secondary characters

warning: misogynist society, sexual violence, slave society

Funny Story - Emily Henry

What do you do when your partners dump you for each other? Move in together, of course! Out in April.

7.5/10

Iranian-American secondary character, Black secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic)

warning: toxic relationships, mainly in backstory

reading copy

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop - Hwang Bo-reum, translated by Shanna Tan

Tired of fulling expectations, Yeongju opens a bookshop. She’s not the only one to find happiness there.

7.5/10

Korean cast, Korean author

library ebook

Aftermarket Afterlife - Seanan McGuire

The Covenant has started actively pursuing the Prices and their allies, and all Mary wants to do is protect her family.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (lesbian, gay, bi man), Korean-American secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: canon-typical violence, bigots

library ebook

Knife Skills for Beginners - Orlando Murrin

Paul Delamare is filling in for a friend at a cooking school when a body is found on the premises.

6.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), Black British secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic)

reading copy

Let Them Tremble - Wolf Epley

The revolution is brewing and both the workers and the government refuse bend. Throw in a destroyed print shop, ghosts, and malfunctioning Shroud devices, and you know things won’t end well.

7/10

major disabled character (partial blindness, limp, hand disfigurement), cast largely of non-racialized colour

won/digital reading copy

The Gentleman’s Gambit - Evie Dunmore

Catriona needs to avoid distractions to write her book but is pressed to help her father’s new colleague around Oxford. Elias needs her help if he ever hopes to smuggle antiquities out of the Ashmolean.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi woman), Lebanese love interest, Lebanese secondary character

warning: colonial/orientalist characters

library book

Rat Queens, Vol. 5 - Kurtis J. Wiebe with Owen Gieni (illustrator)

Palisade’s problems continue, including hallucinations, a hipster bar, and a sinister wizard.

6/10

major Black character, major 🏳️‍🌈 character (lesbian), 🇨🇦

off my TBR shelves

Children’s Books

Penelope Rex and the Problem with Pets - Ryan Higgins

Mittens hogs the bed, eats from the trash, and causes all kinds of trouble—and Penelope didn’t even want them!

Currently reading

I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons - Peter S. Beagle

Robert doesn’t want to be the country’s dragon exterminator on the best of days, but then Princess Cerise meets Prince Reginald. Out in May.

reading copy

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin

A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 12 Yearly total: 32 Queer books: 4 Authors of colour: 1 Books by women: 8 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1 Classics: 0 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 3 ARCs acquired: 5 ARCs unhauled: 7 DNFs: 0

January February

[ninja-muse]

I'm not going to write a big long review for To a Darker Shore, but it comes out next month and you should add it to your list! YA fantasy with Laini Taylor vibes and unexpected directions, and also autistic protagonists, a revenge quest into Hell, and some really cool monsters and magic. So good! (And just look at that cover.)

[ninja-muse]

I'm not going to write a big long review for To a Darker Shore, but it comes out next month and you should add it to your list! YA fantasy with Laini Taylor vibes and unexpected directions, and also autistic protagonists, a revenge quest into Hell, and some really cool monsters and magic. So good! (And just look at that cover.)

[ninja-muse]

I Love Russia by Elena Kostyuchenko is an incredible book about terrible things. It's devastatingly sad. It's traumatic. It's enraging. It's terrifying. It's thoroughly real and absolutely necessary.

Every chapter of this book looks at another aspect of Russian life that doesn't make the official news or at a segment of society that's marginalized. Often it's both. Most of this is portrayed in real-time, memoir-style recounting so you're right there with Kostyuchenko as she's going places and talking to people. There's relatively little factual research outside her experiences and relatively little opining, but also there doesn't need to be. This is plenty powerful without that and her points come across clearly.

And the point is that life is Russia is awful for a lot of people. Kostyuchenko talks to street kids casually discussing abortion options at 13, spends a shift with a shack of sex workers, visits a toxic dump site and an Indigenous Siberian community with a high suicide rate, lives two weeks in a facility housing the disabled and mentally ill, and that's just some of it. It probably goes without saying, but there are a lot of content warnings in this book. It took me two weeks to read because I could only manage 20-30 pages at a time.

The other point is Russia is a country we should be worried about. There's a real sense here of how tightly wound and corrupt and apathetic the government is, of the complete distrust so many people have in it, of the double-speak and cover-ups to maintain control, of the ways all of it dehumanizes and disenfranchises people, of how hard it is to fight back and do the right thing in the face of it all. It's not a country anyone should want to live in, and a system too many countries are sliding towards. This book is a warning.

I want to recommend this book to everyone because it's important and it's excellent, but it's too emotionally difficult for that. Instead, I'll simply say please read it if you're interested and think you're up for it, and recommend it to whoever you can. It's also a book I'm breaking my usual habits for: this is a 10 out of 10, no question.

[ninja-muse]

I Love Russia by Elena Kostyuchenko is an incredible book about terrible things. It's devastatingly sad. It's traumatic. It's enraging. It's terrifying. It's thoroughly real and absolutely necessary.

Every chapter of this book looks at another aspect of Russian life that doesn't make the official news or at a segment of society that's marginalized. Often it's both. Most of this is portrayed in real-time, memoir-style recounting so you're right there with Kostyuchenko as she's going places and talking to people. There's relatively little factual research outside her experiences and relatively little opining, but also there doesn't need to be. This is plenty powerful without that and her points come across clearly.

And the point is that life is Russia is awful for a lot of people. Kostyuchenko talks to street kids casually discussing abortion options at 13, spends a shift with a shack of sex workers, visits a toxic dump site and an Indigenous Siberian community with a high suicide rate, lives two weeks in a facility housing the disabled and mentally ill, and that's just some of it. It probably goes without saying, but there are a lot of content warnings in this book. It took me two weeks to read because I could only manage 20-30 pages at a time.

The other point is Russia is a country we should be worried about. There's a real sense here of how tightly wound and corrupt and apathetic the government is, of the complete distrust so many people have in it, of the double-speak and cover-ups to maintain control, of the ways all of it dehumanizes and disenfranchises people, of how hard it is to fight back and do the right thing in the face of it all. It's not a country anyone should want to live in, and a system too many countries are sliding towards. This book is a warning.

I want to recommend this book to everyone because it's important and it's excellent, but it's too emotionally difficult for that. Instead, I'll simply say please read it if you're interested and think you're up for it, and recommend it to whoever you can. It's also a book I'm breaking my usual habits for: this is a 10 out of 10, no question.

[ninja-muse]

February was a pretty good month! I read some books I really loved (and a couple that were simply meh), I got in a father-daughter visit and had really good luck at Scrabble, the weather was mostly not awful, and even if inventory at work took longer than expected, I survived it without brain mush, which has happened before. I am still the fastest scanner! My title holds.

Regular readers will be unsurprised to learn that Eve by Cat Bohannon and Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse were my top reads of the month, or that What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher ranks third. My T. Kingfisher problem is at least a year old, after all. (Also I read a couple delightful picture books, so be sure to click through to find them!)

I'm personally more surprised by my lowest picks, because they both sounded so up my alley but fell flat for nearly completely different reasons. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store ended up feeling disjointed and like it was trying for a theme it couldn't quite grasp, and A Market of Dreams and Desires hit all kinds of tropes I love, right down to random Dickens references and weird steampunk machines, but tied everything together a little too neatly for me. Ah well.

And right in the middle of my list is my sole physical TBR read of the month: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. This managed to tick off "Canadian author" and "classic" at the same time, so I get triple points. (This might have had a hand in me picking it.) Duddy has aged surprisingly well, in that it's still pretty fast-paced and amusing and also in that Richler wrote it with the understanding that scam artistry, hypermaterialism, and misogyny were bad and y'know what? They still are. I would recommend if you're looking for a Canadian teen anti-hero, more than anything. Duddy is a trainwreck and you can't look away.

I managed to get through the month with only three books hauled. (We won't talk about ARCs but the book fairies were kind.) The Unfortunate Traveller and Under a Pendulum Sun were bought during the habitual father-daughter bookstore date, and both because I never thought I'd see them and figured I might never see them again. The Unfortunate Traveller is essays and travel writing by a guy who co-wrote with Shakespeare and I didn't know it even existed. Under the Pendulum Sun was recced to me somewhere (here? bookish website algorithms?) and since it's essentially a gothic novel with properly weird fairies, it's been on my list.

The third book was a total surprise. Apparently I helped crowdfund it in 2019 and they've only just managed to get it printed and also I said I wanted a physical copy? The things we learn. Anyway, it's essays on aromanticism, agender identity, and asexuality so that tracks.

And I know I said I wasn't going to talk about ARCs but I got some good ones this last month and also in January, and there's a lot of them that are out or soon to be out and I'm having that problem where I want to be reading all of them at once. March is going to be interesting and probably a little panic-inducing.

Click through to see everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

Eve - Cat Bohannon

A history of human evolution, through the lens of the female body.

8.5/10

warning: touches on sexism, mental illness, suicide, miscarriage, and rape

reading copy

Mirrored Heavens - Rebecca Roanhorse

The fractures following the eclipse have deepened and no one can see a way back to peace that doesn’t involve bloodshed. Out in June

8/10

Indigenous cast, 🏳️‍🌈 POV characters (bisexual, third gender), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (third gender, sapphic), Black-Pueblo author

warning: war, torture, mentions of child abuse

reading copy

What Feasts At Night - T. Kingfisher

Alex Easton has returned to kar hunting lodge to relax. Unfortunately, the locals claim there's a monster on a property.

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (third gender), protagonist with PTSD

Library ebook

The Twilight Queen - Jeri Westerson

Will Somers, jester to Henry VIII, is caught up in another mystery, this time of a corpse in Queen Anne’s bedchamber.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 main character (bi), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (gay)

digital reading copy

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Mordechai Richler

A delinquent teen grows into a hustler, against the backdrop of mid-century Jewish Montreal.

7/10

largely Jewish cast, Jewish author, 🇨🇦

warning: racial slurs, misogyny

Off my TBR shelves

The Woman With No Name - Audrey Blake

Lonely and craving war work, Yvonne signs up to be the first female spy for the Allies in Vichy France. Out in March

7/10

half a 🇨🇦 author

reading copy

The Frame-Up - Gwenda Bond

Ten years ago, Dani turned her art thief mom in to the Feds. Now her mom’s mentor has given Dani an offer she can’t refuse: use her magic to pull an impossible heist, get her life back.

6.5/10

Black secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic)

reading copy

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - James McBride

The Black and Jewish residents of a Pennsylvania neighbourhood are (mostly) in it together, not least of when the government decides to take a local Deaf kid to an asylum.

7/10

Jewish and Black cast, major character with chronic illness and a limp, secondary Deaf character, Black author

warning: ableist characters and institutions, racist and anti-Semitic characters, sexual assault and molestation, (largely) reclaimed slurs

library book

The Market of Dreams and Destiny - Trip Galey

Deri may have a chance to buy out his indenture early when he meets a princess looking to sell her destiny. But in the goblin’s Untermarkt, nothing’s ever easy.

6.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 main character (mlm), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (mlm, genderfluid), British Indian secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: child abuse, enslavement

borrowed from work

Picture Books

No Cats in the Library - Lauren Emmons

Cats aren’t allowed in the library but that’s where all the books are!

🏳️‍🌈 author

Read at work

Family is Family - Melissa Marr

Chick gets a note before kindergarten, telling him to have his mom or dad walk him to school. Except that Chick has two moms.

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters and themes

Read at work

Currently reading

Knife Skills for Beginners - Orlando Murrin

Paul Delamare is filling in at a cooking school when the resident celebrity chef has a, erm, "accident."

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), Black British secondary character

Reading copy

True North - Andrew J. Graff

The Brechts move to Wisconsin to restart a rafting business. They hope it’ll save their young family, but it might do the opposite.

library book

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin

A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character, occasional secondary Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 9 +2 Yearly total: 11 Queer books: 4 + 2 Authors of colour: 2 Books by women: 6 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1.5 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 3 ARCs acquired: 6 ARCs unhauled: 4 DNFs: 0

January

[ninja-muse]

2024 Release TBR

🏳️‍🌈 - queer MC     🇨🇦 - Canadian author    ⭐️ - BIPOC MC 📘 - have an ARC bold - newly added

Let Them Tremble - Wolf Epley (steampunk) 📘 - January 12

True North - Andrew J. Graff (historical fiction) - January 16

The Secret History of Bigfoot - John O'Connor (travel/history) - February 6

Ending the Pursuit - Michael Paramo (sociology) - February 8

Remedial Magic - Melissa Marr (fantasy/romance) 🏳️‍🌈📘 - February 20

The Butcher of the Forest - Premee Mohamed (fantasy) - February 27

Tomorrow’s Children - Daniel Polansky (post-apocalypse) - February 27

Wandering Stars - Tommy Orange (fiction) - February 27 ⭐️

The Deerfield Massacre - James L. Swanson (history) - February 27

Aftermarket Afterlife - Seanan McGuire (urban fantasy) - March 5

The Baker and the Bard - Fern Haught (YA cozy fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈- March 5

The Tower - Flora Carr (historical fiction) 📘 - March 5

Parasol Against the Axe - Helen Oyeyemi (literary fiction) ⭐️📘- March 5

Those Beyond the Wall - Micaiah Johnson (science fiction) ⭐️📘 - March 12

The Mars House - Natasha Pulley (science fiction/romance) 🏳️‍🌈 - March 19

The Angel of Indian Lake - Stephen Graham Jones (horror) ⭐️ 📘- March 26

Setting His Cap - Aaron Roseberg (cozy fantasy) - April 1

This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances - Eric LaRocca (horror) 📘- April 2

Catchpenny - Charlie Huston (science fiction) 📘- April 9

Dear Wendy - Ann Zhao (YA contemporary) 🏳️‍🌈 - April 16

A Letter to the Luminous Deep - Sophie Cathrall (cozy fantasy) 📘 - April 23

To a Darker Shore - Leanne Schwartz (YA fantasy) 📘 - April 30

The Tomb of the Mili Mongga - Samuel Turvey (memoir) - April 16

Funny Story - Emily Henry (romance) 📘 - April 23

The Demon of Unrest - Eric Larson (history) - April 30

The Honey Witch - Sydney Shields (cozy fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - May 14

I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons - Peter S. Beagle (fantasy) - May 14

Every Time We Say Goodbye - Natalie Jenner (historical fiction) 🇨🇦 - May 14

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying - Django Wexler (fantasy) - May 21

Lies and Weddings - Kevin Kwan (contemporary fiction) ⭐️📘 - May 21

Dreadful - Caitlin Rozakis (fantasy) - May 28

Tidal Creatures - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - June 4

Running Close to the Wind - Alexandra Rowland (fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - June 11

Echo of Worlds - M.R. Carey (science fiction) - June 25

The Briar Club - Kate Quinn (historical fiction) - July 9

Peking Duck and Cover - Vivien Chien (cozy mystery) ⭐️ - July 23

Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop - Emmeline Duncan (cozy mystery) - July 23

The Pairing - Casey McQuiston (romance) 🏳️‍🌈 - August 6

A Sorceress Comes to Call - T. Kingfisher (fantasy) - August 20

Radiant Sky - Alan Smale (science fiction) - August 27

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society - C.M. Waggoner (fantasy) - September 20

Right Hand - Natalie Zina Walschots (superhero fiction) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 - October 1

Swordcrossed - Freya Marske (fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - October 8

Sorcery and Small Magics - Maiga Doocy (cozy fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - October 15

The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door - H.G. Parry (fantasy) - October 22

Usurpation - Sue Burke (science fiction) - October 29

The Improvisers - Nicole Glover (historical fantasy) - November 5 ⭐️

October Daye #19 - date unknown

[ninja-muse]

February was a pretty good month! I read some books I really loved (and a couple that were simply meh), I got in a father-daughter visit and had really good luck at Scrabble, the weather was mostly not awful, and even if inventory at work took longer than expected, I survived it without brain mush, which has happened before. I am still the fastest scanner! My title holds.

Regular readers will be unsurprised to learn that Eve by Cat Bohannon and Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse were my top reads of the month, or that What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher ranks third. My T. Kingfisher problem is at least a year old, after all. (Also I read a couple delightful picture books, so be sure to click through to find them!)

I'm personally more surprised by my lowest picks, because they both sounded so up my alley but fell flat for nearly completely different reasons. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store ended up feeling disjointed and like it was trying for a theme it couldn't quite grasp, and A Market of Dreams and Desires hit all kinds of tropes I love, right down to random Dickens references and weird steampunk machines, but tied everything together a little too neatly for me. Ah well.

And right in the middle of my list is my sole physical TBR read of the month: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. This managed to tick off "Canadian author" and "classic" at the same time, so I get triple points. (This might have had a hand in me picking it.) Duddy has aged surprisingly well, in that it's still pretty fast-paced and amusing and also in that Richler wrote it with the understanding that scam artistry, hypermaterialism, and misogyny were bad and y'know what? They still are. I would recommend if you're looking for a Canadian teen anti-hero, more than anything. Duddy is a trainwreck and you can't look away.

I managed to get through the month with only three books hauled. (We won't talk about ARCs but the book fairies were kind.) The Unfortunate Traveller and Under a Pendulum Sun were bought during the habitual father-daughter bookstore date, and both because I never thought I'd see them and figured I might never see them again. The Unfortunate Traveller is essays and travel writing by a guy who co-wrote with Shakespeare and I didn't know it even existed. Under the Pendulum Sun was recced to me somewhere (here? bookish website algorithms?) and since it's essentially a gothic novel with properly weird fairies, it's been on my list.

The third book was a total surprise. Apparently I helped crowdfund it in 2019 and they've only just managed to get it printed and also I said I wanted a physical copy? The things we learn. Anyway, it's essays on aromanticism, agender identity, and asexuality so that tracks.

And I know I said I wasn't going to talk about ARCs but I got some good ones this last month and also in January, and there's a lot of them that are out or soon to be out and I'm having that problem where I want to be reading all of them at once. March is going to be interesting and probably a little panic-inducing.

Click through to see everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

Eve - Cat Bohannon

A history of human evolution, through the lens of the female body.

8.5/10

warning: touches on sexism, mental illness, suicide, miscarriage, and rape

reading copy

Mirrored Heavens - Rebecca Roanhorse

The fractures following the eclipse have deepened and no one can see a way back to peace that doesn’t involve bloodshed. Out in June

8/10

Indigenous cast, 🏳️‍🌈 POV characters (bisexual, third gender), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (third gender, sapphic), Black-Pueblo author

warning: war, torture, mentions of child abuse

reading copy

What Feasts At Night - T. Kingfisher

Alex Easton has returned to kar hunting lodge to relax. Unfortunately, the locals claim there's a monster on a property.

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (third gender), protagonist with PTSD

Library ebook

The Twilight Queen - Jeri Westerson

Will Somers, jester to Henry VIII, is caught up in another mystery, this time of a corpse in Queen Anne’s bedchamber.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 main character (bi), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (gay)

digital reading copy

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Mordechai Richler

A delinquent teen grows into a hustler, against the backdrop of mid-century Jewish Montreal.

7/10

largely Jewish cast, Jewish author, 🇨🇦

warning: racial slurs, misogyny

Off my TBR shelves

The Woman With No Name - Audrey Blake

Lonely and craving war work, Yvonne signs up to be the first female spy for the Allies in occupied France. Out in March

7/10

half a 🇨🇦 author

reading copy

The Frame-Up - Gwenda Bond

Ten years ago, Dani turned her art thief mom in to the Feds. Now her mom’s mentor has given Dani an offer she can’t refuse: use her magic to pull an impossible heist, get her life back.

6.5/10

Black secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic)

reading copy

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - James McBride

The Black and Jewish residents of a Pennsylvania neighbourhood are (mostly) in it together, not least of when the government decides to take a local Deaf kid to an asylum.

7/10

Jewish and Black cast, major character with chronic illness and a limp, secondary Deaf character, Black author

warning: ableist characters and institutions, racist and anti-Semitic characters, sexual assault and molestation, (largely) reclaimed slurs

library book

The Market of Dreams and Destiny - Trip Galey

Deri may have a chance to buy out his indenture early when he meets a princess looking to sell her destiny. But in the goblin’s Untermarkt, nothing’s ever easy.

6.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 main character (mlm), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (mlm, genderfluid), British Indian secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: child abuse, enslavement

borrowed from work

Picture Books

No Cats in the Library - Lauren Emmons

Cats aren’t allowed in the library but that’s where all the books are!

🏳️‍🌈 author

Read at work

Family is Family - Melissa Marr

Chick gets a note before kindergarten, telling him to have his mom or dad walk him to school. Except that Chick has two moms.

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters and themes

Read at work

Currently reading

Knife Skills for Beginners - Orlando Murrin

Paul Delamare is filling in at a cooking school when the resident celebrity chef has a, erm, "accident."

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), Black British secondary character

Reading copy

True North - Andrew J. Graff

The Brechts move to Wisconsin to restart a rafting business. They hope it’ll save their young family, but it might do the opposite.

library book

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin

A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character, occasional secondary Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 9 +2 Yearly total: 20 Queer books: 4 + 2 Authors of colour: 2 Books by women: 6 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1.5 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 3 ARCs acquired: 6 ARCs unhauled: 4 DNFs: 0

January

[ninja-muse]

In case anyone was wondering, this stuck the ending!

[ninja-muse]

I've found my first review-worthy book of the year!

Eve by Cat Bohannon is a female-focused history of human evolution and a synthesis of pretty much every research field as it pertains to women. It's also readable and witty and one of those rare science books where I actively had to stop myself reading because I had to, say, go to bed.

Simply taking all the scientific research and turning it into layperson language would get this book praise. (You should see how many studies get cited.) Taking that research, relating it readably, and then drawing overarching conclusions? For instance, studies on how and when cis-female bodies produce sex hormones, and studies on how sex hormones affect neurology, and then saying something like, "this is why pregnant people are moodier"? That takes the whole thing to another level.

And it covers so much! It starts with the first mammals, moves through early primates and hominins, draws in studies of mice and apes and history and economics, talks about language and aging, and ends with the evolution of social relationships and thoughts on the future. There's a lot that I found enlightening, engaging, and validating, and a lot of moments where she reframed something and changed my thinking. And she's very comfortable calling out cultures and researchers and ways of thinking (and ducks and chimpanzees) for how they treat their species.

But like all books, it isn't perfect, though with such a subject, it probably couldn't be. For instance, because Bohannon is focusing so much on the average (i.e., cis-perisex) female body, trans and intersex folks don't come up much, though she's very clear that trans women are women, trans men are men, and intersex conditions are not problems. (Also, I'm sure the lack of info correlates strongly to a lack of studies, but she only mentions this a time or two.) *

More importantly, though, given that this is science writing and one expects scientists and writers to back up their claims, she doesn't always. Most of the time when she doesn't, it's clearly speculation or synthesis or some form of "if X, then Y" but sometimes it's less clear. I keep going back here to her statement that the first hominin culture with midwifery had exclusively female midwives. I would absolutely buy this, especially based on some of her points later in the chapter, but she never says why there couldn't have been the odd male. After all, later in the book she also mentions how men-who-help-women could have shifted the dynamics of the band/tribe/group closer to what we see today and that this probably started around the same time. To be fair, jumps like this are fairly rare but they do make me question if there were others I missed or more statements I should have questioned.

So basically, I'm saying this is an important book, and a good book, and a book that should be read by a lot of people, but also a book to read a little critically. Bohannon makes a lot of really great points and relates a lot of intriguing facts and tells some compelling stories about who we are and how we got here. She's done good work with this book and should be proud of it. But also, there might be some spots where her arguments could be tighter. *she also prioritizes words like "she" and "mother" and "woman" over words like "parent" and "person", which I can see not being great for some trans people even though I understand that she's trying to upend the notion that the average human is a cis male and show that female/afab bodies are pretty important.

[ninja-muse]

I've found my first review-worthy book of the year!

Eve by Cat Bohannon is a female-focused history of human evolution and a synthesis of pretty much every research field as it pertains to women. It's also readable and witty and one of those rare science books where I actively had to stop myself reading because I had to, say, go to bed.

Simply taking all the scientific research and turning it into layperson language would get this book praise. (You should see how many studies get cited.) Taking that research, relating it readably, and then drawing overarching conclusions? For instance, studies on how and when cis-female bodies produce sex hormones, and studies on how sex hormones affect neurology, and then saying something like, "this is why pregnant people are moodier"? That takes the whole thing to another level.

And it covers so much! It starts with the first mammals, moves through early primates and hominins, draws in studies of mice and apes and history and economics, talks about language and aging, and ends with the evolution of social relationships and thoughts on the future. There's a lot that I found enlightening, engaging, and validating, and a lot of moments where she reframed something and changed my thinking. And she's very comfortable calling out cultures and researchers and ways of thinking (and ducks and chimpanzees) for how they treat their species.

But like all books, it isn't perfect, though with such a subject, it probably couldn't be. For instance, because Bohannon is focusing so much on the average (i.e., cis-perisex) female body, trans and intersex folks don't come up much, though she's very clear that trans women are women, trans men are men, and intersex conditions are not problems. (Also, I'm sure the lack of info correlates strongly to a lack of studies, but she only mentions this a time or two.) *

More importantly, though, given that this is science writing and one expects scientists and writers to back up their claims, she doesn't always. Most of the time when she doesn't, it's clearly speculation or synthesis or some form of "if X, then Y" but sometimes it's less clear. I keep going back here to her statement that the first hominin culture with midwifery had exclusively female midwives. I would absolutely buy this, especially based on some of her points later in the chapter, but she never says why there couldn't have been the odd male. After all, later in the book she also mentions how men-who-help-women could have shifted the dynamics of the band/tribe/group closer to what we see today and that this probably started around the same time. To be fair, jumps like this are fairly rare but they do make me question if there were others I missed or more statements I should have questioned.

So basically, I'm saying this is an important book, and a good book, and a book that should be read by a lot of people, but also a book to read a little critically. Bohannon makes a lot of really great points and relates a lot of intriguing facts and tells some compelling stories about who we are and how we got here. She's done good work with this book and should be proud of it. But also, there might be some spots where her arguments could be tighter. *she also prioritizes words like "she" and "mother" and "woman" over words like "parent" and "person", which I can see not being great for some trans people even though I understand that she's trying to upend the notion that the average human is a cis male and show that female/afab bodies are pretty important.

[ninja-muse]

So, as you can probably guess by this post, I've decided to continue posting wrap-ups after all, but not necessarily a review every month. (This month, for instance, I read a bunch of good stuff but nothing I wanted to rave about.) I'm still tracking this stuff for my own edification and I like coming up with snappy one-sentence summaries, so if I'm doing 90% of the work already…. You'll also notice that this year, for spice and transparency, I'm adding in where I got the books from, in case people somehow though I was buying everything.

Anyway, I've had a good start to my reading year, all told. Sadly I've already had a DNF—it's a great fantasy if you're moving from YA to adult, but I wanted something more—and one book that probably should have been a DNF but I pushed through to find out what was causing the horror stuff and … didn't get a good answer. But everything else was good!

I have not, however, done well on my goal of "buy fewer books". Mislaid in Parts Half-Known and the new Rivers of London comic were auto-buys, and The History of Magic is one I've wanted to read for a while but is now effectively out of print in Canada and unavailable at the library so when it showed up to work on sale…. My last book purchase was even more accidental; a semi-coworker reached out with their recent unhaul and asked if I'd like to take anything off their hands. I'd heard of Fantomina and it seemed up my alley—17th-century romance/erotic/feminist fiction—and the price was right.

Oh yes, and my work got Bookshops and Bonedust stickers. I had no choice there either.

And that's about it for updates! Click through to see everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

The Phoenix Crown - Janie Chang and Kate Quinn

An opera singer, an embroiderer, a painter, and a botanist are drawn together by a businessman with a love for Chinese art. Out in February.

7/10

main character with migraines, 🏳️‍🌈 main character (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic), Chinese-American main character, Chinese-American secondary characters, Argentinian secondary character, secondary character with permanent hand injury and PTSD, Taiwanese-Canadian author, 🇨🇦

warning: misogyny, anti-Chinese racism including slurs

Reading copy

Bunyan and Henry - Mark Cecil

When Paul Bunyan leaves the security of Lump Town on a quest to save his wife, he learns that the tallest tale of all might just be the American Dream. Out in March

7/10

protagonist with disfigured foot and chronic pain, Black and Chinese-American secondary characters

Reading copy

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands - Heather Fawcett

When Wendell’s past catches him up at Cambridge, Emily and he set out for Austria to search for his door. They know it won't be easy but they weren't expecting this.

7/10

🇨🇦

Borrowed from work

The Book of Doors - Gareth Brown

Cassie inherits a magical book that lets her travel anywhere. Other people will do anything to acquire it. Out in February

7/10

Black and Japanese supporting characters; fat, Chinese, and Egyptian incidental characters

Warnings for gore and violence

Reading copy

How to End a Love Story - Yulin Kuang

Helen’s YA series is getting adapted and she’s in the writer’s room. Unfortunately so is the guy involved in her sister’s suicide and she’s never forgiven him. Enemies to lovers. Out in April

7/10

Chinese-American protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, mlm), Middle Eastern-American secondary character, Chinese-American author

Warning: pre-book suicide, grief

Reading copy

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known - Seanan McGuire

When a student tries to force Antsy to work for her, Antsy and her new friends escape through a Door and begin a long trip home.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (multisexual, trans boy); Japanese-American, Black, Latino, fat, and albino secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 author

Purchased

Rivers of London, Vol 11: Here Be Dragons - Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel

Peter Grant investigates a series of UFO sightings that have … wings and claws?

7/10

Black-British main character, Black-British secondary character, Muslim secondary character

Purchased

In The Pines - Grace Elizabeth Hale

A woman realizes the story of her grandfather stopping a lynching may have been very untrue, and digs into Mississippi history to reckon with what actually happened.

7/10

focus on Black lives

warning: racism, lynching

Library book

Bryony and Roses - T. Kingfisher

When Bryony tries to take a rose from a mysterious manor house, the Beast who lives there makes her stay. And there might be a curse he wants broken?

6.8/10

physical TBR/Christmas gift

Heartstopper, Vol. 5 - Alice Oseman

Uni is on the horizon and Nick’s unsure what he wants for his future. Charlie wants to take their relationship to the next level, but is he really ready?

6.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonists (gay, bisexual), Black-British, Egyptian-British, Middle Eastern-British and Chinese-British secondary characters, Muslim supporting character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (trans girl, lesbian, asexual), 🏳️‍🌈 incidental characters (nonbinary), 🏳️‍🌈 author

Warning: author supports Israel

Borrowed from work

Bad Glass - Richard E. Gropp

Something horrifying is happening to the people of Spokane. A young photographer sneaks in to document it.

5/10

Indian-American secondary character, Black secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (gay)

warning: body horror, dubious consent

Library ebook

DNF

Sun of Blood and Ruin - Mariely Lares

Pantera fights to protect her city from Spanish colonists while hiding her true identity as a noblewoman. Unfortunately, the world might soon be ending. Out in February.

Indigenous Mexican protagonist and secondary characters, Mexican-American author

reading copy

Currently reading

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - James McBride

The Black and Jewish residents of a Pennsylvania neighbourhood get along (mostly) but tensions build when the government decides to take a local Deaf kid to an asylum.

Jewish and Black cast, major character with chronic illness and a limp, secondary Deaf character, Black author

warning: ableist characters and institutions, racist and anti-Semitic characters

Library book

Eve - Cat Bohannon

A history of human evolution, through the lens of the female body.

reading copy

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle Victorian detective stories

major disabled character

warning: racism, colonialism

Stats

Monthly total: 11 Yearly total: 11 Queer books: 2 Authors of colour: 1.5 Books by women: 7 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1.5 Classics: 0 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 4 ARCs acquired: 5 ARCs unhauled: 5 DNFs: 1

[ninja-muse]

2024 Release TBR

🏳️‍🌈 - queer MC     🇨🇦 - Canadian author    ⭐️ - BIPOC MC 📘 - have an ARC bold - newly added

The Twilight Queen - Jeri Westerson (historical fiction) - January 2 🏳️‍🌈

True North - Andrew J. Graff (historical fiction) - January 16

The Secret History of Bigfoot - John O'Connor (travel/history) - February 6

What Feasts at Night - T. Kingfisher (horror) 🏳️‍🌈 - February 13

The Frame-Up - Gwenda Bond (fantasy/contemporary romance) 📘 - February 13

Projections - S. E. Porter (fantasy) - February 13

Remedial Magic - Melissa Marr (fantasy/romance) 🏳️‍🌈📘 - February 20

The Butcher of the Forest - Premee Mohamed (fantasy) - February 27

Tomorrow’s Children - Daniel Polansky (post-apocalypse) - February 27

Wandering Stars - Tommy Orange (fiction) - February 27 ⭐️

The Deerfield Massacre - James L. Swanson (history) - February 27

Knife Skills for Beginners - Orlando Murrin (mystery) 📘 - February 29

Aftermarket Afterlife - Seanan McGuire (urban fantasy) - March 5

The Baker and the Bard - Fern Haught (YA cozy fantasy) - March 5

The Tower - Flora Carr (historical fiction) 📘 - March 5

Those Beyond the Wall - Micaiah Johnson (science fiction) ⭐️📘 - March 12

The Woman with No Name - Audrey Blake (historical fiction) 📘 - March 12

The Mars House - Natasha Pulley (science fiction/romance) 🏳️‍🌈 - March 19

The Angel of Indian Lake - Stephen Graham Jones (horror) ⭐️ 📘- March 26

Catchpenny - Charlie Huston (science fiction) - April 9

Dear Wendy - Ann Zhao (YA contemporary) 🏳️‍🌈 - April 16

The Tomb of the Mili Mongga - Samuel Turvey (memoir) - April 16

Funny Story - Emily Henry (romance) - April 23

The Demon of Unrest - Eric Larson (history) - April 30

The Honey Witch - Sydney Shields (cozy fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - May 14

I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons - Peter S. Beagle (fantasy) - May 14

Every Time We Say Goodbye - Natalie Jenner (historical fiction) 🇨🇦 - May 14

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying - Django Wexler (fantasy) - May 21

Lies and Weddings - Kevin Kwan (contemporary fiction) ⭐️📘 - May 21

Dreadful - Caitlin Rozakis (fantasy) - May 28

Mirrored Heavens - Rebecca Roanhorse (fantasy) ⭐️🏳️‍🌈 - June 4

Tidal Creatures - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - June 4

Running Close to the Wind - Alexandra Rowland (fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - June 11

Echo of Worlds - M.R. Carey (science fiction) - June 25

The Briar Club - Kate Quinn (historical fiction) - July 9

Peking Duck and Cover - Vivien Chien (cozy mystery) ⭐️ - July 23

The Pairing - Casey McQuiston (romance) 🏳️‍🌈 - August 6

A Sorceress Comes to Call - T. Kingfisher (fantasy) - August 20

Radiant Sky - Alan Smale (science fiction) - August 27

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society - C.M. Waggoner (fantasy) - September 20

Right Hand - Natalie Zina Walschots (superhero fiction) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 - October 1

Swordcrossed - Freya Marske (fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - October 8

Sorcery and Small Magics - Maiga Doocy (cozy fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - October 15

The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door - H.G. Parry (fantasy) - October 22

Usurpation - Sue Burke (science fiction) - October 29

October Daye #19 - date unknown

[ninja-muse]

So, as you can probably guess by this post, I've decided to continue posting wrap-ups after all, but not necessarily a review every month. (This month, for instance, I read a bunch of good stuff but nothing I wanted to rave about.) I'm still tracking this stuff for my own edification and I like coming up with snappy one-sentence summaries, so if I'm doing 90% of the work already…. You'll also notice that this year, for spice and transparency, I'm adding in where I got the books from, in case people somehow though I was buying everything.

Anyway, I've had a good start to my reading year, all told. Sadly I've already had a DNF—it's a great fantasy if you're moving from YA to adult, but I wanted something more—and one book that probably should have been a DNF but I pushed through to find out what was causing the horror stuff and … didn't get a good answer. But everything else was good!

I have not, however, done well on my goal of "buy fewer books". Mislaid in Parts Half-Known and the new Rivers of London comic were auto-buys, and The History of Magic is one I've wanted to read for a while but is now effectively out of print in Canada and unavailable at the library so when it showed up to work on sale…. My last book purchase was even more accidental; a semi-coworker reached out with their recent unhaul and asked if I'd like to take anything off their hands. I'd heard of Fantomina and it seemed up my alley—17th-century romance/erotic/feminist fiction—and the price was right.

Oh yes, and my work got Bookshops and Bonedust stickers. I had no choice there either.

And that's about it for updates! Click through to see everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

The Phoenix Crown - Janie Chang and Kate Quinn

An opera singer, an embroiderer, a painter, and a botanist are drawn together by a businessman with a love for Chinese art. Out in February.

7/10

main character with migraines, 🏳️‍🌈 main character (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic), Chinese-American main character, Chinese-American secondary characters, Argentinian secondary character, secondary character with permanent hand injury and PTSD, Taiwanese-Canadian author, 🇨🇦

warning: misogyny, anti-Chinese racism including slurs

Reading copy

Bunyan and Henry - Mark Cecil

When Paul Bunyan leaves the security of Lump Town on a quest to save his wife, he learns that the tallest tale of all might just be the American Dream. Out in March

7/10

protagonist with disfigured foot and chronic pain, Black and Chinese-American secondary characters

Reading copy

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands - Heather Fawcett

When Wendell’s past catches him up at Cambridge, Emily and he set out for Austria to search for his door. They know it won't be easy but they weren't expecting this.

7/10

🇨🇦

Borrowed from work

The Book of Doors - Gareth Brown

Cassie inherits a magical book that lets her travel anywhere. Other people will do anything to acquire it. Out in February

7/10

Black and Japanese supporting characters; fat, Chinese, and Egyptian incidental characters

Warnings for gore and violence

Reading copy

How to End a Love Story - Yulin Kuang

Helen’s YA series is getting adapted and she’s in the writer’s room. Unfortunately so is the guy involved in her sister’s suicide and she’s never forgiven him. Enemies to lovers. Out in April

7/10

Chinese-American protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, mlm), Middle Eastern-American secondary character, Chinese-American author

Warning: pre-book suicide, grief

Reading copy

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known - Seanan McGuire

When a student tries to force Antsy to work for her, Antsy and her new friends escape through a Door and begin a long trip home.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (multisexual, trans boy); Japanese-American, Black, Latino, fat, and albino secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 author

Purchased

Rivers of London, Vol 11: Here Be Dragons - Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel

Peter Grant investigates a series of UFO sightings that have … wings and claws?

7/10

Black-British main character, Black-British secondary character, Muslim secondary character

Purchased

In The Pines - Grace Elizabeth Hale

A woman realizes the story of her grandfather stopping a lynching may have been very untrue, and digs into Mississippi history to reckon with what actually happened.

7/10

focus on Black lives

warning: racism, lynching

Library book

Bryony and Roses - T. Kingfisher

When Bryony tries to take a rose from a mysterious manor house, the Beast who lives there makes her stay. And there might be a curse he wants broken?

6.8/10

physical TBR/Christmas gift

Heartstopper, Vol. 5 - Alice Oseman

Uni is on the horizon and Nick’s unsure what he wants for his future. Charlie wants to take their relationship to the next level, but is he really ready?

6.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonists (gay, bisexual), Black-British, Egyptian-British, Middle Eastern-British and Chinese-British secondary characters, Muslim supporting character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (trans girl, lesbian, asexual), 🏳️‍🌈 incidental characters (nonbinary), 🏳️‍🌈 author

Warning: author supports Israel

Borrowed from work

Bad Glass - Richard E. Gropp

Something horrifying is happening to the people of Spokane. A young photographer sneaks in to document it.

5/10

Indian-American secondary character, Black secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (gay)

warning: body horror, dubious consent

Library ebook

DNF

Sun of Blood and Ruin - Mariely Lares

Pantera fights to protect her city from Spanish colonists while hiding her true identity as a noblewoman. Unfortunately, the world might soon be ending. Out in February.

Indigenous Mexican protagonist and secondary characters, Mexican-American author

reading copy

Currently reading

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - James McBride

The Black and Jewish residents of a Pennsylvania neighbourhood get along (mostly) but tensions build when the government decides to take a local Deaf kid to an asylum.

Jewish and Black cast, major character with chronic illness and a limp, secondary Deaf character, Black author

warning: ableist characters and institutions, racist and anti-Semitic characters

Library book

Eve - Cat Bohannon

A history of human evolution, through the lens of the female body.

reading copy

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle Victorian detective stories

major disabled character

warning: racism, colonialism

Stats

Monthly total: 11 Yearly total: 11 Queer books: 2 Authors of colour: 1.5 Books by women: 7 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1.5 Classics: 0 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 4 ARCs acquired: 5 ARCs unhauled: 5 DNFs: 1