Books we've read in 2021

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:41 pm

Books Kyle finished in 2021:
Severance- Ling Ma
The Only Good Indians- Stephen Graham Jones
Network Effect- Martha Wells
The Devil in Silver- Victor LaValle
Frankenstein in Baghdad- Ahmed Saadawi
When My Heart Joins the Thousand- A. J. Steiger
My Heart is a Chainsaw- Stephen Graham Jones
Change of Seasons: A Memoir- John Oates
Mongrels- Stephen Graham Jones
All These Bodies- Kendare Blake
The Haunting of Tram 015- P. Djeli Clark
All Systems Red- Martha Wells
Exit Strategy- Martha Wells
Artificial Condition- Martha Wells
Rogue Protocol- Martha Wells
My Sister, the Serial Killer- Oyinkan Braithwaite
On the House- John Boehner
In Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth about America's "Deep State"- David Rohde
The Hunting Party- Lucy Foley
The House at the Bottom of the Lake- Josh Malerman
Ring Shout- P. Djèlí Clark
The Loop- Jeremy Robert Johnson
The Black God's Drum- P. Djeli Clark
No One is Too Small to Make a Difference- Greta Thunberg
On Juneteenth- Annette Gordon-Reed
Fearsome Journeys- Johnathan Strahan, ed.
The City in the Middle of the Night- Charlie Jane Anders
The Guest List- Lucy Foley
Harrow- Joy Williams
Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA- Amaryllis Fox
Elevation- Stephen King
We Have Always Lived in the Castle- Shirley Jackson
Food of the Gods- Cassandra Khaw
The Bible's Cutting Room Floor- The Holy Scriptures Missing from Your Bible- Joel Manuel Hoffman
The Grief Keeper- Alexandra Villasante
Survive the Night- Riley Sager
The Sun Down Motel- Simone St. James
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires- Grady Hendrix
Dead Daughters- Tim Meyer
Zombie Bake Off- Stephen Graham Jones
Cold in July- Joe R. Lansdale
Flirt- Laurell K. Hamilton

Mike's lists (alphabetically by author)

The Best of the Best
Parable of the Sower -- Octavia E. Butler
Bury What We Cannot Take -- Kirsten Chen
Piranesi -- Susanna Clarke
The Echo Wife -- Sarah Gailey
The City We Became -- N. K. Jemison
The Only Good Indians -- Stephen Graham Jones
Circe -- Madeline Miller
Oona Out of Order -- Margarita Montimore
The Sudden Appearance of Hope -- Claire North
The Murderbot Diaries (All 6 books) -- Martha Wells

Whole-heartedly Recommend
Parable of the Talents -- Octavia E. Butler
The Haunting of Tram 015 -- P. Djeli Clark
Ring Shout -- P. Djeli Clark
Fortunately, the Milk -- Neil Gaiman
The Space Between Worlds -- Micaiah Johnson
Exo -- Fonda Lee
An Ocean of Minutes -- Thea Lim
All Our Wrong Todays -- Elan Mastai
The End of the Day -- Claire North
I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter -- Erika Sánchez
The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume Thirteen -- Jonathan Strahan (ed)

Flawed but Worthwhile
The Ten Thousand Doors of January -- Alix E. Harrow
Vagabonds -- Hao Jingfang
The Three-Body Problem -- Cixin Liu
Riot Baby - Tochi Onyebuchi
Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science -- Stuart J. Ritchie
You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey -- Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar
From a Certain Point of View -- Various

Don't Bother
Temper -- Nicky Drayden
Zombie Bake-Off -- Stephen Graham Jones
Later -- Stephen King
The Future of Another Timeline -- Annalee Newitz

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:49 pm

Dead Daughters- Tim Meyer. Yeesh. What a way to start off the new year's reading project. I chose this book because I thought it was good horror genre fare. The premise on the blurb was: A husband and wife receive a picture in their mailbox of their 7-year old daughter just after she's been murdered in a grisly, awful fashion. But when they look up from the kitchen table, she's there. Unharmed and no idea what the picture is about. So I'm thinking, "Hmmm. This sounds interesting and light horror! I'm in!" After introducing the premise, the book quickly moved from horror to crime thriller. Ugh. I do not like crime thriller. And as they puzzle through it, there's a series of crazy twists- some really stupid and some only kind of stupid, which ultimately lead to a tired, blah ending. The writing was fine (a little clunky at parts when the author felt the need to overexplain the character's surroundings), but it had too many bad plot problems: characters making decisions that made no sense but were necessary to move the story along; having a character read a letter that explains the entire mystery 75% of the way through; and a Lethal Weapon type "Everyone back off! This is just him and me!" that was really stupid. Didn't like it. Just didn't like it. I'm going back to my diverse reading list.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Thu Jan 21, 2021 2:42 pm

When My Heart Joins the Thousand- A. J. Steiger. An interesting book, but a hard read, at least for me. It focuses on an autistic girl with no parents trying to become emancipated, form human relationships, and find purpose. It's a tough read, but also extremely well-written. It's layered with symbolism related to the lead character's struggles trying to simply survive in a world that doesn't accept her. It was particularly difficult for me because the way the character's Asperger's presents itself includes pretty severe sensory and OCD symptoms. Being a person that suffers from OCD (sometimes bad, sometimes not), a lot of the tribulations presented in this book hit a little too close to home for me. However, it is really a beautiful story that is beautifully told, so I highly recommend it.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 3:42 pm

Ring Shout- P. Djèlí Clark. What a great read. I almost don't even know how to describe it. An alternate history where the KKK is coopted by extra-dimensional monsters and are fought off by black women, some of whom have extra-spiritual powers. Set in the 1920s. I really don't want to get into more detail than that. It's almost like HP Lovecraft horror meets black revenge fantasy. I know that doesn't make sense, but it will when you read it. It's also steeped in parable and symbolism related to traditional African culture and the the southern Br'er Rabbit folk tales. Look, stop listening and just read it. It was great. The only criticism I had- and it's a big one- was that it was too short. It felt rushed and I wanted to book to live in its characters more. A freaking amazing world is created, clearly with an eye to additional stories arising in it, but it just seemed like 50% of the book was written and then edited out- and I wish it wasn't, because it was that good.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Mon Mar 01, 2021 11:53 am

The Loop- Jeremy Robert Johnson. Another "Survive the Night" horror novel-- although technically I believe it's closer to 36 hour or so. But that's not a bad thing! In the same way that I love "seige" movies (where the protagonists know the big bad is coming for them, so they fortify where ever they are), I also love "survive the night" books and movies (I don't know if I've ever read a "seige" book, or if I'd like it). The premise is that a scientific experiment goes on and teens start turning into hive-minded blood thirsty murders- kind of like smart, fast zombies. Our hero is a 16 year old girl and her love interest. But this isn't a YA book. It's super gory. I mean... holy shit. It's super gory. When you find out what "scraping" is, you'll know what I'm talking about. I don't know that the book offered anything groundbreaking or mindblowing, but it got all the little things right. The voice of the young characters were authentic. The writing was very good, and didn't linger on stupid details, but did linger on all the right details. The pacing of the book was quick, but you didn't feel like any parts of the characters or plots were being neglected. The horror was real and was truly horrifying. So while this isn't going to go into future literature courses- it's exactly what you want in a horror novel. It's fun, it's fast-paced and it's scary. Such a great read.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Thu Mar 18, 2021 9:40 am

Change of Seasons: A Memoir- by John Oates. I loved it. Read about how much I love it in this thread dedicated to the book.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:09 pm

I was just pondering out loud the other day, wondering how Kyle manages to read so many books and still have time to get things done in his life. I feel ashamed that I don't read nearly as much as I used to. But then I realized that between Kindle and Libby, I can easily access my own reading lists, and it turns out, I actually DO read. I just forget about it later. So to copy a good idea from my brother, I'm going to start tracking them here.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:21 pm

Oona Out of Order - Margarita Montimore
Easily my favorite so far. This was so much fun! Premise: Oona's birthday is January 1st. So on New Year's Eve, 1982, Oona is just about to turn 19. When the clock strikes midnight, she finds herself in January 1st, 2015 as her 51 year old self. A helpful assistant (and a note from 2014 Oona) reveals she is living her whole life out of order, 1 year at a time. Such a fantastic premise! How does one navigate such a life? How do you form friends? Relationships? Family? How do you handle having knowledge of the future while living in the past and never knowing when you'll be next January 1st? Despite the sci-fi premise, this is a very human story about a girl becoming an adult and answering all of these questions for herself as she navigates some very difficult circumstances. I love it. If you weren't hooked by the premise, then I don't know what else to tell you. It's wonderful.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:30 pm

I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter - Erika Sánchez
I read this one, because Kyle recommended it so highly, and it turns out he was completely right. So good! Julia's parents came to Chicago from Mexico before their children were born. 21 year old Olga was the perfect Mexican daughter, but she was killed in a traffic accident a year ago, and 15 year old Julia feels like she can never live up to that legacy and wouldn't want to if she could. It's a coming-of-age story about Julia finding out who her sister was, and in the process discovering who her parent were/are and ultimately who she herself is. It is extremely heartfelt and powerful. There is a lot in there about being the child of immigrants, about having family in two worlds, about being poor and undocumented in America... but those are all just background to inform Julia's journey. Really really good.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:02 pm

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey - Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar
Amber Ruffin is one of my favorite people. As she will tell you herself, she is a goddam DELIGHT. She is a writer for Seth Meyers' show, and when she was hired in 2014, she was the first black woman to work as a writer on any late night talk show. Lacey is her sister, and according to the book, Lacey is just a magnet for very weird stories. So this book is them telling the best of these stories.

The unifying theme is racism. The book is small and easy to read, and it looks like any humorous book written by a stand-up looking to cash in. And it IS funny, but it's about racism. The first chapters ease you into it. These are light stories about white people saying very offensive things and having no clue what they're doing. White people who think they are helping or complimenting when they are not. But as the book goes on, the stories get progressively worse. And here's the thing, Amber and Lacey are from Omaha (where Lacey still lives), and they are a few years younger than me, so when they tell stories from their childhoods, they're telling stories of horrible racism from a place I lived... while I was living there. Oof.

By the end, they don't work to make huge overarching points. I think this is an approachable book written to give some education and context to a white audience. And it does well at that.

I assume the inspiration for this book came from Amber sharing her own run-ins with police on The Late Show during the height of the BLM protests over George Floyd. Watch the video below to see a compilation of all of them. The book is about Lacey, but all of the tales below also make it in.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:46 pm

Temper - Nicky Drayden
I wanted so bad to like this book, but I didn't. I ultimately gave up on it 30% of the way through. I like Drayden's short stories, and her novels look so appealing, but they just don't work for me. She creates these incredible visions of future Africa. They are futuristic and sci-fi but also maybe magical and imbued with African spiritualism. I love the settings. It's just that the characters don't do it for me. They are deep and well developed, but I don't find them appealing and I'm not invested in rooting for them.

Temper is a future Africa (alternate Africa?), and in the specific culture of our protagonists, children are all born as twins. And at birth, the parents divide up the seven virtues between their twins. If one twin gets a virtue, the other twin gets the corresponding vice. One gets patience, the other temper. One gets chastity, the other gets lust. Etc. But not everyone believes and not everyone wants to be restrained by such a system. So the book (so far) leaves it open as to how real this magic is and how much is just superstition and belief. Our protagonists are teenage brothers, one of whom has been given 6 of 7 virtues (a rarity), and his unfortunate brother who is the bad boy. Man, I wish I had enjoyed this more. It sounds like exactly my style.

The last book I read by Drayden was Prey of the Gods which was the about the intersection of AI and old gods with some psychodelic drugs that "transform" people into their spirit animals... sorta? And again, the protagonist was a teenage delinquent caught between the old world and the new, and I just didn't connect with him. However, this one had plenty of interesting secondary heroes who I found more sympathetic (even when they were being very bad themselves). At least I made it all the way through that one, but in the end it felt like it had too many loose ends.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:56 pm

Mike wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:30 pm I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter - Erika Sánchez
I read this one, because Kyle recommended it so highly, and it turns out he was completely right. So good! Julia's parents came to Chicago from Mexico before their children were born. 21 year old Olga was the perfect Mexican daughter, but she was killed in a traffic accident a year ago, and 15 year old Julia feels like she can never live up to that legacy and wouldn't want to if she could. It's a coming-of-age story about Julia finding out who her sister was, and in the process discovering who her parent were/are and ultimately who she herself is. It is extremely heartfelt and powerful. There is a lot in there about being the child of immigrants, about having family in two worlds, about being poor and undocumented in America... but those are all just background to inform Julia's journey. Really really good.

Yeah- I really loved this book as a personal, human story.

I'm going to add Oona to my list, but I'm currently in the middle of a super depressing near future sci fi book (I'll post soon), and I've got a werewolf book someone recommended to me I have to read next. AND THEN I have to read the Andrew Ridgely memoir (ala the John Oates memoir I posted about).

And you should know- I don't read a lot. I listen to audiobooks whenever I'm in my car. And I'm in my car a lot. It's not that impressive.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:01 pm

Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science - Stuart J. Ritchie
Non-fiction. The title tells you exactly what's going on. It is an engaging read, and the author has a great voice that pulls you in and keeps you engaged through (most of) what could have wound up as a very dry analysis. And he keeps coming back to the root cause of everything flawed in current scientific research: perverse incentives. Our current system rewards huge overblown claims. It rewards positive results. It rewards statistical significance. It rewards citations. It rewards "prestige" publishing. And each section delves into how these incentives lead to everything from unconscious bias to unethical manipulations of the system to outright fraud.

But at the same time, he's doing this because of his love for science. He believes in science and wants to help improve systems that guide our current science. He even uses science itself to expose the flaws in it. Which is a bit of a sticky wicket, but he navigates carefully and ultimately the book was very engaging and persuasive and informative. The final chapter is maybe a bit long, once I realize we have all the evidence we're going to have and now I have to read to the end as he lays out arguments that I think were already clear before this... but he's being thorough, and the rest of it was very much worth it.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:06 pm

Kyle wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:56 pmAnd you should know- I don't read a lot. I listen to audiobooks whenever I'm in my car. And I'm in my car a lot. It's not that impressive.

I guessed that might be the case, but didn't want to make any assumptions.

I've just recently discovered the Libby app, so I can check out e-books and audio books from my library. So of the seven books I've listed above, 3 were audio books, because my job has a lot of windshield time. And the other four were ebooks (and I didn't read all of Temper, so that doesn't count).

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:57 pm

Looking forward to your review of Octavia Butler! Literally just bought that same book for myself a few weeks ago!! Look forward to reading it hopefully at least by May.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 4:15 pm

Phoebe wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:57 pm Looking forward to your review of Octavia Butler! Literally just bought that same book for myself a few weeks ago!! Look forward to reading it hopefully at least by May.

Then let's not waste time...

Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler
Simply amazing. This is a dystopian future created by a woman billed as one of the founders of Afrofuturism (I just learned that). I was introduced to Octavia Butler through Levar Burton Reads and was thrilled that my library had one of her novels available. In Sower, Lauren is a teenage girl in a gated Los Angeles community in a post-apocalyptic seeming world ravaged by climate change, crime, runaway capitalism, etc. I was shocked that it is set in 2020, because I would have assumed it was written recently, since all the topics are so timely to today's news, but Butler penned this in 1993. And this ravaged world is not due to any huge calamity, but rather is the natural result of everything wrong with the world in 1993 and no one taking decisive action on anything until it is far too late. That's one of the biggest lessons here, is that the "safe" road always leads to ruin eventually.

Anyway, Lauren is a bright, strong, capable girl in a world of trouble. This is about survival and about community and so much about empathy. Lauren is a "sharer". She has a psychosomatic condition caused by her mother's drug use that causes her to physically feel the pain of those around her. What would be like if people were forced to feel what others feel? Lauren, and people like her, give us a taste of that.

And so much more! There's god and religion. There's race and there's slavery. There's so much. I can't wait to find other books by her. She intended Parable to be a trilogy, but sadly, only got through two books before writer's block turned her to other novels, and then she passed away.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Mar 24, 2021 9:03 am

The End of the Day - Claire North
Interesting background: Catherine Webb is a British author. She started writing young adult fiction at the age of 14. After 8 novels, she transitioned to adventure series, and her publisher rebranded her as Kate Griffin. After a half-dozen of those books, she wrote The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August which eventually went on to win a bunch of awards, and was much more mature than her previous work, so her publisher rebranded her again as Claire North. Catherine Webb is now 34 and has 21 published novels to her credit. Harry August is a contender for my favorite book of all time, so I will read anything else of hers I can.

The End of the Day is the story of Charlie who has just gotten a job as the Harbinger of Death. Death walks the earth, coming for people and things and ideas that may die. Sometimes Death claims them, sometimes she passes them by. But the Harbinger is the one who comes before, sometimes as a warning of what might come to pass, and sometimes merely as a courtesy before the inevitable. But the Harbinger always brings a gift from Death. And there's a central office that coordinates travel and hands out assignments and handles payroll and expense accounts. And people of the world are aware of all this. A world just like our own, except Death walks the earth, and everyone just accepts that as part of reality. The premise is a bit weird, but the book plays it completely seriously. And it's really glorious. [One small tease: if you were a national government, and you knew Death was an actual entity, and you further knew that the Harbinger comes before and is just an ordinary human with a passport and everything, how would you handle it every time you knew the Harbinger of Death was entering your country?]

So we follow Charlie as he learns his role as Harbinger and as his understanding of what he does and what his boss does forms and evolves. Like Harry August and Touch (the only other Claire North novels I've read so far), the stage for this tale is the entire world, and the vibrant detail that goes into every scene is unreal. Charlie encounters dozens and dozens of minor characters throughout the story, and every one of them is fully formed and interesting.

Straight up, though... I was a bit dissatisfied by the end of it. I feel like I might have missed some stuff, and I don't have the brain power to tie all the threads together. There are obvious running characters and themes throughout the book, and I don't fully grasp how some of them factor in by the end... what was the meaning of all of it? I can't stop thinking about it, which is a good sign. I know I won't read it a second time, so if I haven't puzzled it out a couple weeks, I may just go look for an analysis online and see if someone else can solve this riddle for me.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:24 pm

I want all these books. With a few exceptions, my book list is so boring in comparison.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:37 pm

Phoebe wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:24 pm I want all these books. With a few exceptions, my book list is so boring in comparison.

My library app told me Butler's Parable of the Talents was available on audiobook, so I listened all day as I drove. From chapter one, I could already tell I would like this even more than Sower.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:38 pm

Also... Is your reading list mandatory, or are you allowed to add some of these in and mix it up?

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:30 pm

The Grief Keeper- Alexandra Villasante. It's not that this wasn't a decent story. It's not that it wasn't well written. It was extremely well written and a decent story. It was just too hard to read. Look, when I started writing my novels, about a 14 year old imbued with powers of Nordic gods through runes branded into her skin (and did I mention a dwarf plucks her eye out)- I had concerns that it was going to be weird torture porn or just so much dread to get through- which isn't what I wanted. And I think I struck a decent balance with it. This book is just one dreadful monstrosity after another piled onto the main character. So here's the premise- a 17 year old from El Salvador hires coyotes to smuggle her and her 14 year old sister into the US so they can make a claim for amnesty. After bouncing around detention centers, they are taken to a secret facility to participate in a top secret project. They put a "receiver" cuff around the 17 year old's leg and tell her that a PTSD-stricken vet will have a "transmitter" cuff on his. Then when he starts suffering waves of grief and despondency, all those negative emotions will be taken from him and transferred to her. So that's the premise. And you think that this book is about how we dehumanize foreigners and undocumented people. And it is, but that's not the main thing it's about. And I can't tell you the main thing, because that's a spoiler. But as the story goes, it just gets worse and worse and past tragedies are revealed that are just even worse and even worse. It's just too much. I wanted to quit the book a couple of times because it was making me miserable and unhappy. It's a good book. It's extremely well-written, but it's just not for me. It was just too much for me.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:40 pm

Mongrels- Stephen Graham Jones. When I started this book, I mistakenly though Stephen Graham Jones was the "genius" behind Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. So I really didn't want to read it. But a friend of mine (who I truly trust their taste) told me I had to read it. It's a coming of age werewolf book about truly, fundamentally poor people that make their way back and forth across the South to keep from being detected. I didn't realize it was a coming of age story when I started it, and I thought it was written by a guy I don't like, and so I was really set against this and kept asking myself, "Where's the story? When's it going to start?" But about halfway through I turned around on it. The characters are so well done and complex. The werewolf mythology and (for the book) reality is well thought out and feels complete. And it's just written so well. There's an attention to southern poverty that I don't think someone could capture so authentically without having experienced it. And by the time it ended, in what I thought was an extremely satisfying way, I felt bad that I had to leave the world. Only once I was done with it did I realize that this guy is not the same jerk that wrote that other stuff. So I wonder if I would have liked it even more if I hadn't gone into it with such a negative mindset. Anyways, a great fun read.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Apr 12, 2021 3:44 pm

Parable of the Talents - Octavia E. Butler
Great book, but this had some difficult sections. Talents picks up directly after Sower and continues the story of Lauren Oya Olamina and her newly founded community as they continue their struggle against the dangers of a failing nation.

The first book was always hopeful, and this one is too, in its own way, but the middle chapters take us through some serious darkness first. CONTENT WARNING!!! This gets into the gritty day to day details of oppression, racism, sexism, slavery, rape, humiliation, and more in a system augmented by modern technology that makes escape nearly impossible. It was super-dark, and I put the book down for almost a week, not knowing if I could go back to it. But once I did, it finally turned a corner, and I couldn't put it down straight through to the end. I'm glad I made it through, and I think it is an amazing piece of fiction, but this book will not be for everyone.

Butler's writing is amazing. The story is told as a series of journal entries, mostly from Olamina, but the framing device that holds them together is that these are compiled by her daughter, who makes it clear she does not like her mother at all. Fascinating to pull that off. Every character in the book is fully fleshed out. The details of this future failing America are strikingly close to home. The most obvious example to anyone reading today is Senator Jarrett, who appears in the news quite often. Jarrett is an extreme conservative who is running for president and has promised to "Make America Great Again". He embraces the religious right and violent right wing extremists. He uses his position and charisma to run roughshod over the law. People who follow him who find out the horrible things he's done come to the conclusion that "He's a flawed man, but his message is still true and right." The parallels between Jarrett and Trump are numerous and uncanny, and again... she wrote this is 1998.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Wed Apr 21, 2021 10:03 am

The Sun Down Motel- Simone St. James. So here's the thing. I looked up "Best horror novels of 2020" and this book was on all the lists. I read the synopsis, which made it seem like it was a murder mystery and not a horror novel, but SO MANY places recommended it to me, so I broke down and got it. Premise: Girl in 2017 goes to small down in upstate New York to investigate the disappearance of her Aunt in the same town in 1982. It's not a horror novel. It's a murder mystery. And look, that's fine. I actually like murder mysteries. I took a course in college that was dedicated only to murder mysteries. But y'all... this one wasn't good. It had the dual and unusual problem of having completely unnecessary characters for absolutely no reason--- and the characters that you knew were important were included just to move forward the plot in an unnecessary and contrived reasons. Was there an unnecessary love interest that you knew was only included as a gratuitous love interest and he didn't move the plot forward or do anything at all? Yes. Were there numerous ghosts that were included in the story to make it "horror" even though they did absolutely nothing and had no effect on the plot? Yes. Was every other character included in only a predictable way where you thought, "Oh, I bet this cop is here because she needs her to do X later," and then "X later" happens? Yes. I just didn't enjoy it. But here's the thing- this book wasn't written for me, so I'm not going to give it too much crap. It was written for true crime lovers. You know the people that get together in groups and try to figure out cold cases? That's who this book is for. And the author even dedicates the book to them, calling them "Murder Girls." And that's fine. I don't begrudge people for their interesting hobbies. And those people probably LOVED this book because it was about a "Murder Girl" investigating the disappearance of her Aunt who was ALSO A MURDER GIRL! It just wasn't for me. It was predictable, plainly written (every time a character entered the scene, they were described by their clothing in excruciating detail) and a bit boring.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Fri Apr 30, 2021 1:12 pm

The Only Good Indians- Stephen Graham Jones. This is my new favorite horror author (he also wrote Mongrels, above). This book is just a horror novel unlike anything I've read before. Jones (who's native american) tells this story about a quartet of Blackfeet Indians who, while living on the reservation, shot up a herd of elk they weren't supposed to. Ten years later, they are haunted (metaphorically and literally) by their actions. I don't want to give too much away, because I think people should read this. It's just so good and unique from what I typically read. First of all- a story about native americans, from their perspective, but not about them being native americans (or is it?!?). Jones is such a great writer, too. The kind that make me jealous when I see some of his similes and references. He has this knack (just like he did in Mongrels) for establishing a look and feel just with a few words describing something mundane to the scene. The only habit he has, which annoys me when he does it, is that sometimes he switches perspective in the middle of scenes. I can't tell if this is a product of his writing, or just because I'm listening to it via audiobook (like how sometimes a person's perspective switch is shown through italics or other indications that I won't get from the audiobook). But it's a minor quibble. The other thing that I like about Jones's stories is that they feel so authentic. And I don't mean- Oh! He's native american and this feels so true to that experience! No, I mean when he writes about people living in poverty or living in the margins, you really get the feeling that he's been there and experienced it. That may not be true- and frankly I don't care if it is- the fact that he imparts that feeling is so good and so powerful in service to the stories. But also, you pick up on references that make you go "Oh shit. He must play D&D because only D&D people say that" or the same thing with comic books and other horror nerd stuff. Anyways, I digress. Love this book. You should read it.

Post by **Mike** » Mon May 03, 2021 4:00 pm

The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume Thirteen - Jonathan Strahan (ed)
I've been reading sci-fi "best of" volumes like this since I was a kid. I love them. And this one was no exception. A couple dozen or so stories. Each one anywhere from 17 minutes to 2 hours of listening. It's great driving material.

This year in sci-fi/fantasy? The planet is really hot in the future, 60% of future protagonists are gay, AI always has unexpected results, and people LOVE fairy stories.

And almost every story was a keeper. Hands down, "The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" was the runaway standout for me. I want to game in this world. Each tooth is a vignette that describes a life and hints at a larger and deeper world beyond. So good.

"Field Biology of the Wee Fairies" had me moved to tears at the end.

"The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society" made me laugh out loud all alone in the Culver's drive-thru (and made me love Rose MacGregor).

So much good in here. There were a couple I didn't finish... one about glowing elephants and the last Earthsea story by Ursula LeGuin. I failed to engage with either one after multiple tries, and so I skipped them.

But overall, very good stuff.

Post by **Mike** » Wed May 05, 2021 5:16 pm

Zombie Bake-Off -- Stephen Graham Jones
I fucked up! Kyle has been raving about Mongrels and The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. Both titles are wait-listed at my library, but in the meantime, there's one available by Jones called Zombie Bake-Off, and the audiobook is a mere seven-hour listen. So I gave it a shot.

I did NOT enjoy this. Not even a little. It's an action horror comedy, and it reads like a script for a potentially fun movie, but it mostly bored me. At the Lubbock Colliseum, the annual baking/cooking expo is well underway when the evening's entertainment, a WWE-style pro-wrestling event shows up several hours early and starts looking to force the cooking ladies out and set up shop. So now we contrive to lock everybody inside the arena and introduce a bakery truck full of zombie-tainted donuts... and we're off to the races!

See? Great idea! Compress it down to 90 minutes of glorious gory slapstick, and I'm all in. But stretch it out to seven hours of describing it shot by shot in words...? No thanks. Just not my style. Jones is a good writer here (mostly), but much of the tension and humor relies on the visuals of each scene, and I found I was spending way too much brainpower trying to imagine schematics of exactly where the zombies and heroes are in relation to the cage and the door and wherever that firehouse is connected to. Way too much mental effort for something that should be light and pulpy.

Also, a lot of the characters were very two-dimensional. Which again would have worked in a movie, but here I had way too much time to think about it. There were hints at depth in a couple of the wrestlers, but many of them were just stereotypes where their persona reflected who they were as a person. And the rivalries were real. Dumb stuff like that. Plus, the term "soccer mom" was used several thousand times as shorthand for the group of ladies from the cooking expo, which removed any individualism from the characters. By the end of the show, I could have had a wide variety of lady zombies, young and old, rather than, "Just then, another soccer mom leapt from the stands..."

I never listen to stuff speeded up, but I set the last three hours of this to double speed just to get through it. I was ready to quit at the two hour mark. For the life if me, I can't think of why I didn't.

Post by **Mike** » Thu May 06, 2021 7:42 am

Mike wrote: ↑Mon May 03, 2021 4:00 pm The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume Thirteen - Jonathan Strahan (ed)
"The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society" made me laugh out loud all alone in the Culver's drive-thru (and made me love Rose MacGregor).

Here is an excerpt I found from the opening of that story. Five or six fae folk are gathered together, commiserating over beers.

The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society by T. Kingfisher wrote: “She was supposed to pine,” said the slim-hipped faerie glumly. “They always pine. You make passionate love to them and then you vanish and they pine away and die of love.”

“Ha!” The faerie next to him poked the fire with a stick. “Not our Rose. Did she give you the line about the lost sheep, too?”

“That sheep gets lost a lot,” muttered a third one. He had darkly tanned skin and shocking green eyes. “I’ve my doubts that it ever really existed.”

“We looked for it for three weeks,” said the slim-hipped faerie. “I had to stop looking. I couldn’t keep up.”

The other fae raised their beers in silent tribute to the stamina of the absent Miss MacGregor.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Thu May 06, 2021 9:57 am

I really like the writing style of T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Thu May 06, 2021 2:17 pm

I'm in the middle of Zombie Bake Off- so I'll wait to read your review until I'm done.

Post by **Mike** » Sun May 09, 2021 8:55 pm

Damn son! I cannot tell you how much I love great acting and great production values in an audiobook. And when you are N.K. Jemison, they clearly spare no expense. Wow. I mean just... Wow. I picked up The City We Became, and the prologue is an adapted version of her short story "The City Born Great" on which the novel is based. It is amazing. The reader is truly gifted. The writing is genius. I am so moved.

I'll give a full review when I finish the whole thing.

Post by **Mike** » Tue May 11, 2021 7:19 pm

Mike wrote: ↑Sun May 09, 2021 8:55 pm Damn son! I cannot tell you how much I love great acting and great production values in an audiobook. And when you are N.K. Jemison, they clearly spare no expense. Wow. I mean just... Wow. I picked up The City We Became, and the prologue is an adapted version of her short story "The City Born Great" on which the novel is based. It is amazing. The reader is truly gifted. The writing is genius. I am so moved.

I'll give a full review when I finish the whole thing.

I'm only halfway through, but the narration of this book has blown me away. She is SO good. I had to look her up, and it turns out, when you are N.K. Jemison, you get Robin Miles, who is considered to be the very best in the business, both as a narrator and as an audiobook director. Her accent work is flawless. This may be my favorite book so far this year. We'll see how it ends.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Wed May 12, 2021 11:07 am

Zombie Bake Off- Stephen Graham Jones. I saw Mike reviewed this, but I haven't read what he posted yet because I didn't want it to influence my opinions. This is a terrible book. It's not even as much a book as it is a written comic- or maybe the expansion of a screenplay. I loved the other books I've read by Jones (Mongrels and The Only Good Indians)-- those books had an authenticity and complexity to the characters that really made the stories amazing. This book lacks all of that. The one criticism I've had of those other books is that I didn't like the way he would jump between perspectives of the characters mid-scene. It always bugged me and took me out of the story- sometimes (particularly when it was an action scene) he would write a movie in his head- not a story about these characters. Take that thing that bugs me? And it's this entire book. I sincerely feel like this was a movie script that he cranked out into a novel. It's weirdly hyper-real- everyone is just a little "too much" of their stereotype. Wrestlers really wrestle. Bad ass moms beat the shit out of other moms and their daughters. Cops are so dumb and incapable. And here's the big thing- I just didn't care about any of them. This is a "one bad night" story- but if you don't really give a shit if any of them survive, then the story is just boring. And I don't want to give any spoilers away, but the culmination of how they fight back in the end (hint- bad brains) is so ridiculous and stupid, I almost turned off the audiobook with thirty minutes left. Read Jones's other books that I've reviewed, but give this one a hard pass.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Wed May 12, 2021 11:09 am

Mike wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 5:16 pm Zombie Bake-Off -- Stephen Graham Jones
I fucked up! Kyle has been raving about Mongrels and The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. Both titles are wait-listed at my library, but in the meantime, there's one available by Jones called Zombie Bake-Off, and the audiobook is a mere seven-hour listen. So I gave it a shot.

I did NOT enjoy this. Not even a little. It's an action horror comedy, and it reads like a script for a potentially fun movie, but it mostly bored me. At the Lubbock Colliseum, the annual baking/cooking expo is well underway when the evening's entertainment, a WWE-style pro-wrestling event shows up several hours early and starts looking to force the cooking ladies out and set up shop. So now we contrive to lock everybody inside the arena and introduce a bakery truck full of zombie-tainted donuts... and we're off to the races!

See? Great idea! Compress it down to 90 minutes of glorious gory slapstick, and I'm all in. But stretch it out to seven hours of describing it shot by shot in words...? No thanks. Just not my style. Jones is a good writer here (mostly), but much of the tension and humor relies on the visuals of each scene, and I found I was spending way too much brainpower trying to imagine schematics of exactly where the zombies and heroes are in relation to the cage and the door and wherever that firehouse is connected to. Way too much mental effort for something that should be light and pulpy.

Also, a lot of the characters were very two-dimensional. Which again would have worked in a movie, but here I had way too much time to think about it. There were hints at depth in a couple of the wrestlers, but many of them were just stereotypes where their persona reflected who they were as a person. And the rivalries were real. Dumb stuff like that. Plus, the term "soccer mom" was used several thousand times as shorthand for the group of ladies from the cooking expo, which removed any individualism from the characters. By the end of the show, I could have had a wide variety of lady zombies, young and old, rather than, "Just then, another soccer mom leapt from the stands..."

I never listen to stuff speeded up, but I set the last three hours of this to double speed just to get through it. I was ready to quit at the two hour mark. For the life if me, I can't think of why I didn't.

My review: http://www.nerdprideradio.com/babble/vi ... 4918#p4918

Ha! We wrote almost the exact same review!

But seriously- read the other books. They're freaking great.

Post by **Mike** » Wed May 12, 2021 1:19 pm

Kyle wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 11:07 am Zombie Bake Off- Stephen Graham Jones. I saw Mike reviewed this, but I haven't read what he posted yet because I didn't want it to influence my opinions. This is a terrible book. It's not even as much a book as it is a written comic- or maybe the expansion of a screenplay. I loved the other books I've read by Jones (Mongrels and The Only Good Indians)-- those books had an authenticity and complexity to the characters that really made the stories amazing. This book lacks all of that. The one criticism I've had of those other books is that I didn't like the way he would jump between perspectives of the characters mid-scene. It always bugged me and took me out of the story- sometimes (particularly when it was an action scene) he would write a movie in his head- not a story about these characters. Take that thing that bugs me? And it's this entire book. I sincerely feel like this was a movie script that he cranked out into a novel. It's weirdly hyper-real- everyone is just a little "too much" of their stereotype. Wrestlers really wrestle. Bad ass moms beat the shit out of other moms and their daughters. Cops are so dumb and incapable. And here's the big thing- I just didn't care about any of them. This is a "one bad night" story- but if you don't really give a shit if any of them survive, then the story is just boring. And I don't want to give any spoilers away, but the culmination of how they fight back in the end (hint- bad brains) is so ridiculous and stupid, I almost turned off the audiobook with thirty minutes left. Read Jones's other books that I've reviewed, but give this one a hard pass.

Wow. You're right: we wrote nearly the same review.

I'm still going to read the other two.

Post by **Mike** » Sun May 16, 2021 2:50 pm

The City We Became -- N. K. Jemison
I love everything I've read by Jemison, and this did not disappoint. The city of New York is emerging as a living being embodied in a single human being... no wait... in several beings. But there are forces beyond our understanding threatened by the living city that wish to stop it. It is a clash of near godlike powers within the framework of very human people with very human problems and motivations. And it examines all types of bigotry and the machinery of society that enables it. Jemison is a master of the craft, and this is a wonderful story.

But as I mentioned above, the audio narration is the best I've ever heard. Robin Miles is incredible.

I can't recommend this enough.

Post by **Mike** » Mon May 17, 2021 8:00 pm

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Hey look! I read a book again instead of listening. As soon as I started, Kindle told me I'd be done reading in 5 hours. That was dead on. So... novella, I suppose.

Read it! Read it! Read! It!

A man lives all alone in a massive house made of halls and giant rooms and courtyards that extend infinitely (as far as he can tell) in all directions, all filled with marble statues of all shapes and sizes. Okay, not entirely alone... he has the remains of those who presumably came before and occasional visits from the enigmatic Other. The mystery of this world is unraveled as the protagonist explores. It explores knowledge and identity and reality in a fantastical tale unlike anything I've ever read. I'm in love with this book.

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Tue May 18, 2021 11:30 am

Mike wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 8:00 pm Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Hey look! I read a book again instead of listening. As soon as I started, Kindle told me I'd be done reading in 5 hours. That was dead on. So... novella, I suppose.

Read it! Read it! Read! It!

A man lives all alone in a massive house made of halls and giant rooms and courtyards that extend infinitely (as far as he can tell) in all directions, all filled with marble statues of all shapes and sizes. Okay, not entirely alone... he has the remains of those who presumably came before and occasional visits from the enigmatic Other. The mystery of this world is unraveled as the protagonist explores. It explores knowledge and identity and reality in a fantastical tale unlike anything I've ever read. I'm in love with this book.

Absolutely in love with this book as well.

Post by **Mike** » Tue May 18, 2021 1:19 pm

FlameBlade wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 11:30 am Absolutely in love with this book as well.

This makes me happy!

Post by **Mike** » Sun May 23, 2021 9:49 pm

Riot Baby - Tochi Onyebuchi
Another novella. 4 hour audio book read by the author. Kev was born during the Rodney King riots of 1992. His older sister Ella has uncontrolled psychic abilities... she has visions of the past and future, telekinesis, psychokinesis... more. This is the story of their family navigating the oppression of a black American family, but it is intertwined with the full history of racism in America as well as a very familiar looking dystopian near future.

Great premise, cool story, but I didn't fully connect with it. It was (appropriately) very very bleak and dark throughout and I had a tough time with that. The opening act set the scene of ghettos, poor folk, gang-bangers, drive-bys, etc that all felt to me like a stereotype of what middle-class America thought poor black urban neighborhoods were like back then.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. But maybe I'm not the best person to judge. This is Onyebuchi's first adult novel. I'm thinking of trying one of his YA books that are more pure sci-fi. War Girls looks promising. We'll see.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon May 24, 2021 8:16 am

I want to read the Piranesi book. I have to go on a trip where book reading will be possible and I am SO pleased. I already have the Octavia Butlers and will add this one.

Kid has read and enjoyed Amulet graphic novel series and a kids book by Neil Gaiman called Fortunately, the Milk, and I haven't read it yet but I know that phrase reoccurs because my kid took to shouting it out and screeching with laughter while reading.

Presently still reading Colette's Break of Day and The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See, appropriately named. Or she appropriately named her book. I like being able to read fiction for the heck of it.

Post by **Mike** » Mon May 24, 2021 9:57 am

I just put in a request for Fortunately, the Milk. I have no clue what it is, but I like Gaiman, and if it makes your kid laugh, I'm in.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon May 24, 2021 1:18 pm

I haven't read it yet myself but he finds it amusing. I guess now we're going to find out what sort of taste he has! My oldest is reading some different type of book by him - I don't know if it's a novel or what. She would have to communicate in a functional manner for me to determine that but I can't even get her to sit down here long enough to buy a darn sheet set. She has more important things to do like making henna tattoos all over her body.

Post by **Mike** » Tue May 25, 2021 7:19 pm

Ring Shout - P. Djeli Clark
I completely forgot that the reason I requested this book is because it's by P. Djeli Clark, the guy who wrote "The Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" from the anthology above. Here I am loving this book, and I go to see what else he's written, and I am pleasantly surprised that I already know him. I am going to tear through this guy's back catalog in no time. He's written like three or four other books. But they're all novellas. Maybe three four hours each. I can do that.

Ring Shout was great. In the year 1922 three black women are demon hunters. The demons are called Ku Kluxes and they infiltrate society breeding hate and fear. It's so good!
Of course it also delves into the history and pervasiveness of racism and oppression as well as examining fear and hate on a personal level. But on top of that, the author is an actual historian, so the setting and people feel authentic (inasmuch as I have any ability to assess a portrayal of Prohibition-era Georgia).

But here's the thing... I put lots of things on reserve with my library and then read them in the order of whatever is the first available when I finish the last book. So it was pure coincidence that I read this one and Riot Baby back to back. Both books have very similar themes, and both have black female leads with magical abilities, and both are (in part) a type of revenge fantasy. But Riot Baby I didn't enjoy, and Ring Shout I enjoyed very much. And I think the answer lies in the bleakness of the former. It was dark and joyless and (in my opinion) gives an incomplete picture of it's world. As Uncle William says in Ring Shout: "Even in the wickedest times, you gotta find some enjoyment, else you not gon' survive." And while also being dark and scary, Ring Shout gave us a look at the joy and pleasure people find even in a largely hard and painful life.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Wed May 26, 2021 5:45 am

I enjoyed Ring Shout, and only wished that it had been a full length novel.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Wed May 26, 2021 11:58 am

Frankenstein in Baghdad- Ahmed Saadawi. Oh man! I picked this book almost at random just based on the title. I didn't even read anything about it. I saw the title and that it was written by a middle-eastern man and I thought I'd give it a shot. What a great book! Here's the premise: in American-occupied Baghdad, an old junk dealer begins to collect the body parts of bombing victims and assembling them into a single body in his rubble-strewn house. That body comes to life and begins exacting its vengeance on the people responsible for the deaths of all the victims that make up his body. But here's the best part: it's not even really about that! While that's the story it tells, it's really telling the story of powerlessness and the stripping of authority, control and power from men. It's so good. You think you're in for this revenge tale, but the story turns that on its head and makes it almost an anti-action story. Note- this is a very man-centric book. Everything is told from the perspective of men, but the author does a great job of exposing the absurdity of toxic masculinity and male-expectation. My one regret is that I'm not more familiar with Iraqi culture. There's a stupendous section in the middle where the "monster" tells his story, and it's almost like a fairy tale, with zealots and wizards and sophists. I felt like this was a parable for something that I could draw connections to if I was more informed on Iraqi culture. But it didn't matter because it was still great. A definite recommend. I really loved this book.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Wed May 26, 2021 12:00 pm

If you're going to do this again next year- we should consolidate them and just have a single thread with both our lists in the first post.

Post by **Mike** » Wed May 26, 2021 1:12 pm

True dat.

Post by **Mike** » Thu Jun 10, 2021 9:17 pm

Well I merged them, but it's putting my title at the top for some reason

Post by **Mike** » Thu Jun 10, 2021 9:31 pm

Fixed it! I'm smart.