libraryperilous continues to turn the pages of her own books in 2022

Happy 2022, everyone!

I'm Diana, and I read mostly sci-fi, historical fantasy, and middle grade fantasy. I also dabble in marine science, historical mysteries, and YA fantasy.

My reading goals for 2022:

Read more of my own books
Ignore my TBR account

Happy New Thread and a wonderful 2022.

>2 pgmcc: Thank you, Peter.

2021 Top Five

I could have made a top ten from middle grade books alone!

5: Bright Star (Morales): a hope-filled picture book that shows children it's okay to be angry about social injustices—and that it's okay to be hopeful for change. I loved the way Morales ties together conservation and immigration reform.

4: A Rush of Wings (Weymouth): a fresh and salt-sprayed YA fantasy that retells "The Wild Swans" in Scotland during the Jacobite rebellion. I loved the briny seaside locale and the author's exploration of how to organize against injustice while staying true to yourself and your strengths.

3: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Chambers): we say goodbye to the Wayfarers series with a slice-of-life story set in a stopover planet's travel mart. I loved this quiet and kind story of old misunderstandings, new friendships, and the little touches of home we rely on when traveling.

2: Tamsin (Beagle): a low and slow ghost story; an accurate glimpse into fierce teenage devotion; a tale of two cats; a vivid Wild Hunt—and not a sentence amiss or unnecessary. I loved this and read it slowly over several weeks to draw it out. This would have been my number one, were it not for my number one.

1: Hollow Chest (Sandstrom): Charlie and his cat, Biscuits, go on a quest to save Charlie's big brother from the war wolves. I loved this: one of the finest middle grade novels I've read in ages; a fresh and unique spin on fantasy adventures. My heart broke for both Charlie and the ageless, ever-hungry war wolves. One of those books that reminds you of why you love to read and puts your heart back together in a new way when you finish it.

Happy New Year and Happy New Thread!

What >2 pgmcc: and >5 clamairy: said.

Happy New Year! See you next year! (I can still say that as it's 11:36 pm on Dec. 31 where I am.)

>5 clamairy:, >6 haydninvienna:, >7 Storeetllr: Thank you!

Happy new year, Diana! Looking forward to receiving many more book bullets from you this year :)

>4 libraryperilous: Wasn't Tamsin lovely?

Happy New Year!

Happy reading in 2022!

Happy new year! May it bring you good fortune and great books!

>4 libraryperilous:, >10 Marissa_Doyle: Tamsin is one of my favourites too.

>9 curioussquared:, >10 Marissa_Doyle:, >11 Narilka:, >12 Sakerfalcon: Thank you!

>9 curioussquared: I shall do my best to spray you. :)

>10 Marissa_Doyle:, >12 Sakerfalcon: Such a lovely story. I thought Beagle captured the surliness of young teenage Jenny well. He absolutely nailed the world-weary, older teenage looking back on her younger years.

Happy New Year.

Glad you loved Galaxy, I know not everyone did, but I thought it the highlight of the series. Wings sounds fun.

Inspired by Natalie (curioussquared), I'm going to 'count' my reads this year, instead of doing a weekly wrap-up.

I will not count picture books, DNFs, or browsing books, such as cookbooks.

1. You Sexy Thing: a space romp that features a bioship exploring its feelings, a tight-knit crew of former soldiers turned restaurateurs, and a creepy pirate enclave. Yes, the bioship is named after the Hot Chocolate tune. The story takes a bit of a grim turn toward the end. Alas, the restaurant doesn't really factor into the story, but I found the snippets about food and cooking interesting. I enjoyed getting to know each character, and I cared about all of them. I hope the book sells well enough for Tor to publish more adventures. The ending leaves open the possibility of a food truck in space. Four stars.

>14 reading_fox: Thank you!

I really enjoy slice-of-life stories set in outer space, so Galaxy hit the spot. I agree with you that it was the highlight of the Wayfarers books.

I didn't find A Rush of Wings too YA trope-y, so it felt unique among the retelling trend.

>15 libraryperilous: This sounds great! I've read some of Rambo's short fiction and enjoyed it so I'll definitely try to find this one.

2. The Witness for the Dead: Thara Celehar, in quasi-exile, ekes a living as a Witness for the Dead in the city of Amalo. When the body of an opera singer turns up in the river, Celehar finds himself embroiled in the city's politics and an opera house's melodramas, all while also investigating a cold case at the behest of a petitioner. Celehar is a fundamentally decent person in a decadent city. His honesty and clarity of purpose have netted him few acquaintances and even fewer friends. As he investigates the singer's murder, Celehar finds himself with some new allies. Will it be enough to overcome the egos and machinations of Amalo's elite?

This is set in the same world as The Goblin Emperor, but it's more a quiet character study than a lesson in good government. Celehar is a fine detective, prioritizing the truth and the needs of grieving loved ones over the city's nobility and their egos. We'll see Celehar again in this June's The Grief of Stones.

Four stars.

>17 Sakerfalcon: It was super fun! I think you would like it. I do wish I could find a slice-of-life book about a restaurant in space. I tried The Sol Majestic, but it wasn't quite what I thought it would be.

Well, you hit me with three book bullets for only two reviews. You can be proud of your aim, my friend!

Happy New Year from over here!

Are you going to host a film thread again this year?

>15 libraryperilous: Happy to inspire! And >18 libraryperilous: I really must get to The Goblin Emperor.

>20 Storeetllr: Pleased to hear my machine gun is spraying well. :)

>21 -pilgrim-: Thank you! Happy new year from across the pond! I didn't really maintain the film thread. You're welcome to start this year's. I'll make sure to pop in for your reviews.

>22 curioussquared: I think you would love it!

>18 libraryperilous: I read The witness for the dead last year and enjoyed it too. Celehar is a great protagonist and I enjoyed his further adventures. I’m looking forward to the next one. Addison does write great characters.

3. Small Things Like These: It's the holiday season in small town Ireland in 1985. Bill Furlong owns a fuel supply company. When he delivers a load of coal to the local convent off schedule, he uncovers grim evidence of a Magdalen laundry. Bill's wife and the local publican urge him to ignore the convent, which has its fingers in every local pie.

This was marketed in the US as an uplifting Christmas novella. I succumbed to the buzz, and, even though the story is 70 pages long, it was a chore to finish. There are too many dropped strands, including a brief hint that one of Bill's daughters is being sexually abused. The end result is a novelette (short story?) that explores nothing of significance in a meaningful way.

Additionally, by wrapping Bill's actions in his melancholy over his childhood and his current midlife crisis, the author glosses over the real story of the Magdalene laundries' victims in favor of a male savior plot. Furlong is one of the most egotistical men I've encountered recently in fiction. This clearly is not the author's intention. She wrote him as a genuine hero. "To whom and for whom?" one is tempted to ask.

I really should know better than to read literary fiction, especially of the kind that gets marketed as socially important. Two stars.

Edited: vocabulary

>24 Athabasca: I'm a huge Sherlock fan and picky about retellings. I even enjoyed Addison's Sherlock pastiche, The Angel of the Crows, because she's just so good at creating decent, likable characters.

>26 libraryperilous: Already on my TBR pile:)

>4 libraryperilous: looks like a fun list! Since my daughter stopped reading YA I rarely know what's good anymore.

>28 Silversi: I prefer middle grade, so when I do find a YA novel I love, I'm always a teeny bit surprised.

>18 libraryperilous: A new book in that series, I didn't know we were expecting one! That's good news.

>I didn't know either, so I was excited!

4. Music for Tigers: Louisa is not excited to spend summer with her uncle, Ruff, at his remote cabin in Tanzania's Tarkine rainforest. She'd rather spend the summer practicing her violin for an important youth orchestra audition. Louisa feels like an outsider in her family of biologists and naturalists. When she reaches the rainforest, she discovers a history of music in her family, stands up for a new friend, and realizes she may hold the key to rescuing a Tasmanian tiger.

I loved this middle grade conservation adventure, especially because it was a gently hopeful story of what the author calls 'black swan species'—species thought extinct but still surviving in remote areas. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Tasmanian tiger turns out to be one here in the real world? The Tarkine, with its beautiful myrtle and eucalypt trees, its wild rivers, and endangered wildlife, sounds amazing. One more for the travel spreadsheet!

Five stars.

5. Daughter of the Moon Goddess: Xingyin is the daughter of Chang'e, the immortal Moon Goddess who's been punished by the Celestial Emperor. When Their Celestial Majesties get wind that Xingyin might exist, she goes on the run, searching for a way to break her mother's punishment. She befriends the crown prince, Liwei, and the mysterious Captain Wenzhi. Hiding her parentage from her friends, she seeks glory in the Celestial Army, searching for a way to catch the emperor's eye and bargain with him for her mother's freedom. She seizes her chance when he offers her a quest: retrieve four pearls from four imprisoned dragons. But the Celestial Emperor, as greedy as he is petty, may have his own plans for the pearls, and Xingyin must decide where her loyalty resides.

The action in this is nonstop, as Xingyin goes from one peril to another while navigating romance, court politics, and her own secrets. Yet the fantasy remains cozy, focused on Xingyin's personal quest and her tumultuous feelings. I hope the forthcoming second book explores the political conflicts in more detail. They're set up nicely in this novel, which wraps up its main story with no cliffhangers.

Tan states that she wrote a crossover novel. The action reads more like an adult fantasy novel. The love triangle is straight out of YA. I found all three characters compelling, and I hope the second book explores more of Captain Wenzhi's particular talents.

I raced through this in two days, even though it's 500 pages. It was such a pleasure to read it, and the dragons were wonderful. I also appreciated that Tan would foreshadow things and then the expected event would occur 25 or so pages later. This is a super fast book.

Five stars.

You've had a few good reads lately! Adding your most recent to my list :)

6. Letters from Cuba: 1938. Esther, a twelve-year-old Polish Jew, joins her father in Cuba. Esther works hard to help him raise money for the rest of the family to join them. Esther misses her sister, Malka, and writes regular letters that she saves for Malka to read when the family in reunited.

These letters tell of Esther's talents as a tailor, the friendships she makes in Havana and the countryside, and of the xenophobia she sometimes encounters. In particular, I liked the way Behar shows the power of unions to engage in cross-solidarity. When the sugarcane workers strike to protest their owner's anti-Semitism, he also is forced to pay them better wages. Behar shows the established community of Jewish immigrants helping newer refugees, even when there are tensions between faith and secularism or differences of opinion about the definition of home. Throughout, those who have a little bit more give to those who have a little bit less: drops in the bucket that make so much of a difference in the end.

Esther falls in love with her new home in Cuba, finding unique ways to integrate Jewish traditions with her new friends' diverse backgrounds. Cuba comes alive through Esther's joy at experiencing new things. Behar based the story on her grandmother's experiences as a Jewish immigrant in Cuba.

Five stars.

After a run of good books, I've DNFed three titles that were well-written but not quite right for me as a reader:

The Midnight Girls has a fascinating, wintry backdrop. But it's very YA and also has unlikable protagonists. I read about 50 pages and then lost interest. I think it would work better for fans of YA or people who enjoy reading stories sympathetic to villains.

The Crystal Cave: I read about half of this one and then DNFed. I just don't like Arthurian legends enough to slog through five books. Also, I did not find Merlin to be a particularly sympathetic main character. I wish Mary Stewart had written historical novels set during a different time period. Her attention to detail reminds me a bit of Sharon Kay Penman.

A Memory Called Empire: this one was DNFed after I was quite far because the author's messy and hypocritical politics annoyed me, as did her main character. We are told that Mahit is a brilliant, young diplomat who did well on all her tests and knows lots about the Empire's culture. However, the author chooses to make her naive and ignorant of basic information (such as the emperor's line of succession) in order to do a bunch of info dumping.

>36 libraryperilous: This makes me think that I might like Stewart's other titles. The Crystal Cave is the only one of hers I've read and I thought it was just OK at best, so I was discouraged.

>36 libraryperilous: and >37 curioussquared: I have The Crystal Cave on the wishlist as someone told me I'd love them - now I'm not so sure based on your comments.

>36 libraryperilous:, >37 curioussquared: & >38 Peace2: *raises hand* I loved them! But I read them when I was a teen, and then listened to the audio books last year. I did stop after the 3rd book, though. I remembered not enjoying the 4th very much, so I didn't want to revisit it.

>36 libraryperilous:, >37 curioussquared:, >38 Peace2: They're well-written and full of interesting details. I just don't care enough about Arthurian legends, I guess.

>38 Peace2: If you like historical fiction about King Arthur, I do think the series is worth trying. The only Arthurian retelling I've ever loved is The Idylls of the Queen. I wish Stewart had written about a different era!

>37 curioussquared: Her adventure novels are very different, I think. She also has three novels I'd label cottage tales. One of these, Thornyhold, reminds me a bit of Robin McKinley, if McKinley wrote shorter fairy tales and focused on domesticity.

>39 clamairy: I had thought I'd be interested in the fourth book, as I do have a soft spot for Mordred. I may try it again someday.

>40 libraryperilous: I think of myself as someone who enjoys Arthurian legend retellings and it still didn't work for me. Oh well. My library doesn't have any digital copies of Stewart's other works, so it might be a while before I try anything else by her.

>40 libraryperilous: & >41 curioussquared: I'm not sure it would have worked for me if I had not already read them once. My only real beef was the massive amount of sexism. I assumed (perhaps wrongly?) that this was written into the character of Merlin to show him as flawed and a creature of his time. But now I feel the need to do some Googling.

Edited to add: Yeah, not just me! Most of the people pointing it out were rereading it as adults and noticing it for the first time, too.

>42 clamairy: I saw a number of reviews that mentioned the sexism. Boo!

7. Eye of the Shoal: a journey underwater to visit fish, their survival tactics, evolutionary lineage, and unique talents. I didn't know that fish make sounds. In fact, it had never occurred to me to wonder. That is the point of marine biologist Scales' book. She wants us to recognize fish as the integral and interesting part of the ecosystem they are.

She writes of damselfish that aggressively garden their reefs, fighting off intruders the way a blue ribbon gardener might. Dragonfish make red light, unusual for fish, which mostly use blue. The slender filefish puts on a fashion show, catwalking through up to 16 outfits to color coordinate with the local scenery.

Scales' book does feel a little like a trivia game at times. I found myself wishing for more background on some of the scientific breakthroughs or longer passages about unique evolutionary features. There also are tantalizing anecdotes about Scales' diving trips. I'd love to read a travelogue about them.

My main takeaway from this book is that I should become a dedicated fishwatcher. I love visiting aquaria and the ocean, and I find it soothing to watch, e.g., whale sharks swimming or the traffic in coral reefs. Why haven't I already started a life list? It also is a low-conflict book. Most marine science books cover climate change in pessimistic detail—understandably so. Scales touches on overfishing and pollution, but only occasionally when discussing specific fish. She lets readers connect most of the dots. For this particular book, Scales clearly hopes you'll find the fish kingdom cool enough to want to protect it.

Four stars.

8. The Hummingbirds' Gift: interesting account of a woman who rehabilitates hummingbirds. Montgomery travels to her California home to assist with the rehab of two baby Allen's hummingbirds. The birds must be hand-fed every twenty minutes from from around 6 am to 8 pm. The process of preparing them to leave the nest can take a month or so. The diligence and patience of wildlife rehab! And, of course, the obsession the rehabbers have for the animals they help.

The book gets a little woo at the end, but it mostly is about the dedication that wildlife rehab requires and the marvel that are hummingbirds. These tiny birds have nine air sacs in them, hearts that can beat over 1,200 times per minute, and they must constantly sip nectar or eat bugs to maintain their high metabolism. They also are little jerks. The birds have evolved to defend their food territories fiercely. Anna's hummingbirds, which often kick their opponents in midair during fights, also will taunt other birds with rude tail gestures that mimic the kicks. Survival is a constant battle for resources, although Montgomery notes that people who create bird gardens often are successful in using abundance to convince multiple birds the territory is all their own.

The birds are majestic little jewels. "A hummer will also bathe on leaves slick with dew or rain. It will slide down the leaf, moistening its breast and shaking its feathers while still in motion. It must feel lovely" (70).

This previously was published in 2010 as a chapter in Montgomery's book, Birdology. As such, it feels a bit incomplete. I wanted more science about the birds and a discussion of their place in the ecosystem. However, this is meant to be a gift book. There even are two sections of color plates, including a gorgeous photo of a booted racket-tail and a purple-throated woodstar sipping from the same flower. Montgomery's new introduction indicates she wanted the story of rehabbing these vulnerable, delicate birds to inspire people during the pandemic and a time of human-induced climate change.

Four stars.

>44 libraryperilous: That's a classic case of nominative determinism! Wonderful!

I think you got me with Eye of the Shoal! Just found it in my library system so will have it sent to a branch for pick up. I also see she wrote several others on fishy subjects so that's nice if it turns out I like her style. I couldn't get through the hummingbird book when I got it a few years ago. Too touchy-feely and not enough science.

>44 libraryperilous: I read her book The Brilliant Abyss last year and loved it. Will put this on my OverDrive wishlist.

>45 libraryperilous: Wow, two bullseyes in a row! Haha...

>46 Sakerfalcon: Isn't it fabulous? She's such a water sports geek, too. She swims, surfs, snorkels, and dives. Basically, I want her life.

>47 Bookmarque: I hope it hits the spot for you. I liked it well enough to borrow the seahorse and seashell books. Sy Montgomery has been woo for a long time, which is a shame. Her book about her pet pig was quite charming.

>48 clamairy: I own a copy of that one. I've put off reading it because I suspect it will be depressing. Sorry about the double hit! :)

9. The Confidence Men: two officers are imprisoned in Turkey during WWI and stage an elaborate spiritualist con game in order to escape. This is the second Margalit Fox book I've read, and it's the second one that should have been a magazine article.

I also found it hard to muster sympathy for the con men. Their con game was cruel, and it duped not just their captors but their fellow POWs. Fox seems to view them as more courageous than other prisoners who escaped by different means or did not attempt to escape. I don't think that's a fair assessment of either risk tolerance or the psychology of captivity.

In fact, Fox spends time exploring the psychology behind the dupe, but she is unwilling to explore the single-minded obsession of the con artists themselves.

Three stars.

10. A Game of Fear: the latest Inspector Rutledge historical mystery. Rutledge's petty supervisor sends him to an Essex salt marsh town to investigate a murder with no body committed by a man who's been dead for several years. Rutledge, of course, finds something real, creepy, and criminal. From there, the plot becomes contrived, and Haldane and his mysterious espionage connections even show up. This series' insistence to tie every crime to WWI often creates these kinds of implausibilities.

One of the things I like about the Rutledge books I've read is Rutledge's patient, methodical detective work. There was less of that in this entry, although Rutledge certainly visits crime scenes and speaks to witnesses. But it all feels incidental to the coincidences that drive the resolution. I liked the ending, which opens up new professional avenues for Rutledge. I'll continue with the next volume in this series if one is published.

Four stars.

11. Miss Dior: billed as a biography of Catherine Dior, there isn't enough direct information about her to sustain an article. She isn't even on the front cover of what is marketed as her biography. Instead, the book juxtaposes Paris' idle rich and their collaborationist activities with what little is known of Dior's experiences as a resistant in one of F2's Paris cells and her 1944 deportment to Ravensbrück. She was later sent to three other camps and finally on the Death March, from which she made a successful escape attempt in April of 1945. Picardie relies heavily on eyewitness accounts from other women who were imprisoned in the same camps to summarize what Catherine went through. (Catherine, like so many F2 cell members, was betrayed by an informer who had infiltrated the cell. She was tortured by the notorious Berger gang before being deported.)

The second half of the book examines her brother Christian Dior's postwar, nostalgia-tinged New Look fashion designs. Catherine's postwar life was less glamorous. She became a seller of fresh-cut flowers to the shops in Les Halles. Catherine seems to have been a naturally reserved person, and she did not often refer to her wartime resistance work or her deportment to the concentration camps. She also, like any returning deportee, was compartmentalized by a postwar world eager to move on from the war. It's not just that Picardie can't find much about Catherine's life. It's that she seems disinterested once the 'glamour' of resistance work and deportation has faded. To be scrupulous, the author does not refer to either of these things as glamorous, but there is the inescapable scent of it in the telling. In reality, life as a member of the Resistance was full of stress and danger and often ended in torture and death.

Catherine remained close to her famous brother and advocated for his legacy after his early death in 1957. Certainly, Christian had used his Nazi and upper class contacts to try to save her from deportation, and he also allowed her to use his apartment for resistance work. I don't think it's reasonable to conclude that Dior would have been a full-on collaborationist had Catherine not been in his life. But I do think it's fair to examine Christian Dior's looser ethics, especially the way his nostalgia for a carefree prewar life influenced his fashion designs and his personal and professional choices. Picardie was given exclusive access to the Dior archives for this book, and her refusal to interrogate Christian Dior's postwar motivations or his own wartime choices is obvious. E.g., at one point, she dismisses Francine Du Plessix Gray's incisive critique of Dior's New Look in one sentence.

Miss Dior works best when it exposes the collaborationists' odiousness and the threads that bound Paris' couture houses to them. At other times, Picardie opts for the fast fashion approach to history, to the detriment of her subject. In the end, I wasn't haunted so much by Catherine's absence from her own biography, or even by Picardie's frequent narrative intrusions about 'ghosts.' What haunts this story is the corrosive, collaborationist thrum of access: a journalist refusing to dig a little deeper into her subject; the Parisian upper class' willful annexation of more luxury and power during the occupation; Christian Dior's postwar connections to former (once and always?) collaborationists as he grew his business; the US government's desired postwar access to Germany's industrial power. And so on, until the end result is that life goes on as if the war had never happened. What must Catherine Dior and other surviving victims of the Nazis have thought of that?

This is a beautifully produced book-as-art-object: printed on thicker cream stock and with b&w and color illustrations throughout. I wish publishers would use this lookbook technique on nonfiction more often.

Four stars.

12. Patience and Esther: sweet graphic novel about two women who work in service and form a friendship, then a romance. Lucky breaks give the women the opportunity for independence, and they luck into a charming group of understanding, subversive friends.

I enjoyed the gentle support and acceptance that run through this book. It's similar to K. O'Neill's work in that regard.

Three stars.

13. The Hatmakers: In a slightly magical Georgian London, five rival guild families Make clothing with magical ingredients. Eleven-year-old Cordelia Hatmaker can't wait to receive her hatpin and begin designing hats. After her father is lost at sea, Cordelia decides he can be found. She finds a secret map in his telescope, but her search for her father is waylaid when the Peace Hat is stolen. Cordelia and her friends uncover a greedy plot to start a war with France, and the villain may know what happened to Cordelia's father.

I loved this delightful, old-fashioned children's adventure with a fresh magic system and plenty of details about the magical ingredients and charming hats. Cordelia is clever, kind, and just a little bit naughty. I don't often read books set in the Georgian era, so that added to my interest. A sequel will be out this spring.

Five stars.

>54 libraryperilous: Oh, this sounds right up my alley. Going on the list!

>54 libraryperilous: I've taken a bullet on The Hatmakers, too!

>55 curioussquared:, >56 tardis: It's fast-paced and full of children running around while the adults are too busy to notice. I hope you both enjoy it!

14. Baking Bad: The English village of Toot Hansell has a reputation as a sleepy backwater near Leeds, but that's only because people haven't met either members of the local Women's Institute or the local dragons. When the vicar is poisoned with a cupcake, the formidable ladies of the WI become the prime suspects. Undaunted, they launch their own investigation. Local dragon lord Beaufort Scales also is determined to defend his friends, who've done so much to protect the hidden dragons, but his investigations keep going awry. And the DI assigned to the case might have the ability to see the dragons.

This is an odd book. It's more of a village story with dragons than an actual mystery. The killer is quite obvious from the start, and the story requires everyone clever ignoring glaring clues for about 225 pages. The story is twee and features slapstick investigations. I did enjoy the dragons, their talent for smelling human emotions, and their adaptations to modern life. I don't think I'll read further books in this series, but it was an enjoyable way to pass the time on a couple of flights.

Three stars.

>13 libraryperilous: Not usually a fan of middle-school books, but this one sounds fun.

>52 libraryperilous: Good review. I find I tend to stay away from that horrifying era (I don't mind dark and gruesome in novels but not irl), but this one sounds worth making an exception.

>59 Storeetllr: The Hatmakers is super fun! It also is a quick read.

>59 Storeetllr: Thank you. I tried to make my review of Miss Dior as fair as possible. I love Dior's clothing, but his nostalgia for prewar femininity + the eau de collaboration lurk in the background. It was fascinating to read a book about the Dior family's WWII experiences, even if I did want more criticism from the author.

15. The Castle of Tangled Magic: Anderson returns to Slavic folklore (and food) to tell the story of Olia, a girl who lives in her family's 500-year-old castle with thirty-four domes. Olia can see hints of magic in her home, and she goes through one of the castle's domes to the elemental domes of The Land of Forbidden Magic. The land is magical and beautiful, but it was created by Olia's royal ancestor as a prison for spirits. Olia's on a quest to save the castle from being blow apart during a storm. The storm is caused by the magic, trying to escape its gilded prison, and Olia is faced with a choice: save her castle or free her new friends.

Olia is a milquetoast for parts of the book, but she learns to trust herself. Her newfound magical friends are brave and charming, and Olia tries to match them. I enjoyed Anderson's friendly spin on Slavic spirits like the rusalki and the vily. There's also a fox domovoi and a talking cat. I liked this quite a bit by the end, especially Koshka the kitty.

Four stars.

16. A Tryst by the Sea: Penelope and Gill, married for ten years and unhappy for nine, both find themselves at the Siren's Retreat, a seaside inn that promises romance and was their honeymoon hotel. Can nine years of small talk, hidden feelings, and scheming relatives be overcome with a second-chance honeymoon?

The explanations Burrowes offers for the strained relationship don't really explain the nine-year estrangement. This is one of those "Why didn't you just talk to each other?" kinds of stories. The inn, alas, is a mere backdrop for this sweet, but talky, novella. I like Burrowes' breezy writing style. She reminds me of a clever gossip columnist, but one who likes her subjects and is rooting for them to succeed.

Four stars: an enjoyable distraction and a quick read.

>62 libraryperilous: Hmm, I'm a little tempted but not quite hit :)

Hope all is well with you!

>63 curioussquared: It took around two hours to read on my Kindle, so I'd recommend it for that kind of reading day. It wasn't super angsty, despite the back story, so I appreciated that.

I hope your job search is going well!

Ugh I've been diagnosed with breast cancer.

I am so pissed off.

>65 libraryperilous: Well that's a kicker! I hope that treatment and recovery from treatment go smoothly!

>65 libraryperilous:
I am sorry to hear that. I hope treatment and recovery are rapid. I will be thinking of you and wishing you well.

>65 libraryperilous: I'm so sorry to hear that and am sending good thoughts and healing vibes and the hope that treatment is as easy and swift as possible!!

>65 libraryperilous: I am so sorry. That is NOT something that I am glad to have in common with you.

>65 libraryperilous: What Peter said.

>65 libraryperilous: Oh, no! I'm so sorry to hear this. Like others, I'm sending you healing vibes and virtual hugs now and as you battle with this. {{{Diana}}}

Thank you, everyone! I'm meeting with the surgeon tomorrow and the oncologist Monday, so I should have a treatment timeline set up soon. Looking forward to the end of it all!

So far, everyone has been kind and really informative. Fingers crossed that this continues. My heart breaks for -pilgrim-, who has not always been treated with kindness and respect by doctors.

>72 libraryperilous: I am so very sorry. I am wishing you strength and a quick pain-free effective course of treatment.

>72 libraryperilous: {{{Diana}}} and {{{pilgrim}}}

>65 libraryperilous: Wishing you full and complete healing, and wonderful books to help you through it.

Oh well that's a kick in the guts. I'm so sorry and I hope you have a good outcome.

>65 libraryperilous: So sorry to hear that. I hope treatment goes well and your recovery is complete.

>65 libraryperilous: Oh no, I am so sorry to hear this. I pray that you will have kind, wise and caring doctors who will guide you to a full recovery.

>65 libraryperilous: Horrible news. I wish you well in your treatment and recovery.

I’m so sorry to hear this. Wishing you a swift and speedy recovery.

Thank you again, everyone!

I (very naively) thought this would be simpler than it is. Instead: lots of appointments and tests!

I'm going to curl up with some books this weekend. Happy reading to us all!

>82 libraryperilous: You may not want to think about this now, and would prefer disappearing from reality for the weekend, but if you are the sort of person who wants to understand as much as possible, then I recommend The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer: How to Feel Empowered and Take Control, by medical professionals who have themselves had breast cancer.

It was of limited use to me, since it assumes that one has some agency over what happens to one. But it is very useful explaining about what doctors want to do and why.

>65 libraryperilous: I'm so sorry to hear this! Wishing you well with your treatment and a speedy recovery.

>65 libraryperilous: Very sorry to hear that, I hope your treatment and recovery go well and quickly.

>83 -pilgrim-: Thank you. This looks very helpful.

Thank you again, all! I'm still waiting on a couple more test results before they have an official treatment plan. So many tests! I'll give everybody an update in a couple of weeks when I know more. For now, I'm trying to focus on reading and job hunting, rather than going down dismal Google rabbit holes.

17. Jenny and the Cat Club (reread): the adventures of Jenny Linsky, the shy little black cat with the red scarf, around New York City. She learns to ice skate to join the cat club. She faces the snobbery and jealousy of the famous cat dancer, Alice Featherlegs. She faces the dastardly Rob the Robber and his nefarious Den of the Dogs. Finally, she learns to share her home and her beloved Captain Tinker's heart with her new brothers. For a tiny, shy cat, she is both brave and bold.

I just want to be Jenny Linsky when I grow up.

Five stars, as always.

>88 libraryperilous: Jenny sounds a bit like Library Cat, who used to live in Edinburgh, mostly in the University library. I think I'd almost rather be a Thinking Cat, but would recommend Library Cat to you, and that you make up your own mind on the subject.

>89 hfglen: This looks lovely. Perhaps we should all settle for being a Cheshire Cat?

18. The League of Gentlewomen Witches: Charlotte Pettifer, witch, has grown up self-contained and proper. She longs to break free of her sheltered life as appointed heir to a coven. Opportunity arises, literally, when she stows away on an Irish pirate's battlehouse and flies to the seaside to hunt for a stolen amulet. Romance follows, along with madcap jokes and a bit of action.

This is the bookish equivalent of watching a performance of a Victorian melodrama in the middle of Fortnum & Mason's lingerie department. There's little in the way of real plot, and the romantic leads don't have much depth. Still, I finished and enjoyed it.

Three stars.

Edited: changed star rating

>91 libraryperilous: I tried to read the first in this series and totally bounced off it, which is pretty rare for me. It seemed like the kind of thing I would like but it just didn't work 🤷‍♀️

>92 curioussquared: I think I would have DNFed it if I hadn't been trying to get myself back in the swing of reading with something fluffy. Even the sexy times in the book were arch, and the prose was sooooo flowery at all times. You aren't missing much. :)

19. Yesterday Crumb and the Storm in a Teacup: Yesterday Crumb has bright red hair, silvery skin, and fox ears. She lives a lonely, caged life as a circus attraction until she's rescued by a tea witch, Miss Dumpling, and given a home at Dwimmerly End. Dwimmerly End, a traveling teashop on flamingo legs, is full of wondrous magic: flying teapots; magical cakes and teas; and Pascal, the tea spirit, who looks like a turtle with a teapot shell.

Yesterday loves her new home, but she's nervous about working magic. There's also the matter of the villainous Mr. Weep, who left a shard of ice in Yesterday's heart that will kill her at sunset on the Winter Solstice. Yesterday and her new family set off on an adventure to save Yesterday's heart before it turns bitter: "Don't let heartbreak turn you into something cruel. Let it simmer into a taste for wonder and justice."

I enjoyed this cozy and sweet middle grade fantasy adventure. I look forward to Yesterday's continuing adventures: "She was reasonably sure the journey would be full of tea and cake and magic." Who doesn't like that kind of trip?

Four stars.

20. The Mapmakers: sequel to The Hatmakers. This time, Cordelia and her best friends must find a way to save magic itself. As Cordelia runs around London trying to find the key to a map her father left her, she discovers that magic isn't just for Makers.

I loved this! There's quite a bit going on, and it does get a bit jumbled, but it touched on so many things I enjoy. There's a magical map that references both the sea and my favorite London river. There are hints of magical materials used in the hats. There's a secret, underground library. It veers into madcap a bit, and I suppose an editor could have fixed that. I thought it was delightful from start to finish.

One quibble: this felt less like Georgian London and more like a generic historical London. Apparently, I'm a fan of Georgian London. Perhaps I'll try a romance or historical fantasy set in the era?

Five stars.

Edited: corrected spoiler

21. When the War Came Home: Natty and her mom live in a small village in Wales. When Mam's activism costs her a factory job, they move to a relative's farm near a new village. Natty is angry that she has to start over, and she's frustrated that her mom wants Natty to be a fellow activist. When Natty befriends three soldiers recovering from the trauma of WWI, she realizes she can help her new friends by listening to them. Natty and her cousin Nerys also organize a strike for school lunches. Natty realizes it's okay to be a quiet leader, not a rabble-rouser like her mom. "It feels like something's changing. Something we made happen. If this is what it's like to stand up for your rights, then I understand why Mam does it."

Lesley Parr is fast becoming one of my favorite authors of middle grade historical wartime fiction. The Welsh locations and words offer a fresh spin on this popular subgenre. Par writes thoughtful stories of hope and acceptance, yet her resolutions feel historically accurate.

Five stars.

22. The Secret Perfume of Birds: fascinating account of biologist Danielle Whittaker's research on dark-eyed juncos' use of odors. For decades, scientific wisdom has said that birds who scent odors or use scent-markers are exceptions, not rules. Whittaker and a number of other scientists have challenged this with clever fieldwork and lab analysis.

This was fascinating! Each tiny breakthrough Whittaker has leads to more questions. Her research findings don't always go the way she thinks they will, but she always follows where the research takes her. While Whittaker, et al, have made progress in showing birds are not anosmatic, there are still many unanswered questions. As always, when I read about scientific research, it's clear that a sense of wonder, serendipity, and collaboration are important tools.

Five stars.

23. Cress Watercress: When bunny Cress' Papa doesn't return from an overnight honey collection, Mama moves Cress and her little brother, Kip, to an apartment in a run-down tree. The landlord is curmudgeonly, the super is nosy, the squirrels above them are boisterous, and Cress misses Papa. But adventures with new friends await, and the sadness begins to come and go. Can Cress help Mama make this new place their new home?

This is a gentle, occasionally wry, forest friends adventure. The small delights of the quotidian help Cress begin to heal. Every day can be an adventure! It reminded me of Audrey (cow), the Heartwood Hotel series, and The Littlest Voyageur. I love a well-told forest friends tale.

I've DNFed every other Maguire title I've tried. I can't confirm that this one is different from his other novels. Cress Watercress certainly felt less cynical. The wryness was whimsical, not curmudgeonly.

Five stars.

Happy Opening Day!

>97 libraryperilous: I'm putting this on my OverDrive wishlist. I'm still working my way through The Genius of Birds, and there is so much we don't know!

>98 libraryperilous: I haven't loved the other McGuire I've read, but I'm definitely intrigued by this one!

>100 clamairy: It's fascinating. Plus, they're dinosaurs!

>101 curioussquared: It was sweet and a quick read. I recommend trying it if you like forest adventures.

24. Because of Winn-Dixie: Opal moves to a small Florida town with her minister father and struggles to make friends. She finds a stray dog in the local grocery store and the two have adventures around town. The tales grow taller as the summer grows hotter. DiCamillo, as always, explores the power of stories to guide and comfort us.

My mom recommended this as a quick read and a heartwarming story. It's an enjoyable summertime adventure, although it can't compete with The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

Four stars.

Quick health update:

The pre-surgery cancer staging is IIA. I start hormonal therapy this week to shrink the tumor a bit. I'll have a lumpectomy in about 6 weeks. Then, I'll have radiation and return to the hormonal therapy. My oncotype score was only a 10. I likely will avoid chemo unless the tumor doesn't shrink under the hormonal therapy.

I'm lucky. This was caught early and I have a caring team of doctors in whom I feel confident. I wish that for everyone who has this jerk disease, and I hope for vaccines and easier treatments someday soon.

Thanks again, everyone, for all your kind and supportive words!

>103 libraryperilous: Winn Dixie was my intro to DiCamillo, way back when it came out and I was actually the right age for it ;) I still need to get to Edward Tulane!

>104 libraryperilous: Glad to hear you have a set treatment plan and that you should be able to avoid chemo, and that you're confident in your care team. Fingers crossed all continues well!

>104 libraryperilous: Well, that sounds hopeful! No chemo would be a huge plus. Best of luck with the hormone treats. Still keeping you in my thoughts.

>104 libraryperilous: That's a great prognosis. Hope your treatment goes according to plan.

>105 curioussquared:, >106 clamairy:, >107 Narilka: Thank you! I'm excited to move forward. It's been a long month of tests and appointments.

25. A Magic Steeped in Poison: Ning lives in a rural village and is the daughter of a physician father and shénnóng-shī (tea master) mother. Terror is striking the Dàxī empire. Someone is poisoning tea bricks in an attempt to destabilize the princess' nascent reign. Ning's mother is dies of this poisoned tea, and Ning's sister clings to life. Ning heads to the imperial capital to take part in a competition to be the princess' personal tea master, in the hopes that winning the competition will help her cure her beloved sister.

From there, things get complicated. Ning makes some new friends, but she constantly runs afoul of court etiquette. She battles impostor syndrome and her own prickly personality. And there's a mysterious boy who may or may not be involved in a plot to overthrow the empire. At the imperial palace, everyone double crosses everyone. Ning finds herself in the cross-hairs at the same time as she realizes that she has the skills to be a powerful shénnóng-shī.

I enjoyed this unique YA fantasy, which draws on Imperial China's history and mythology. The magic system felt fresh—the art of tea brewing as a vessel for emotional connections. There are mouthwatering descriptions of the teas drunk and food consumed. The glittering, glinting court and its selfish intrigues make a suitable stage for villains. This reminded me a bit of the Tea Dragon books, Sherwood Smith's Court Duel, and Bridge of Birds, all rolled into one and flavored with a sachet of YA angst and romance. It ends on a cliffhanger, but the sequel is out this August.

Four stars.

>109 libraryperilous: This one is on my list already but I'm glad to see you enjoyed it!

>104 libraryperilous: I'm glad you have a good team taking care of you, and I pray that all will go smoothly with your treatment.

>109 libraryperilous: I've seen this and its companion advertised on tor.com, where the gorgeous covers caught my eye. I will definitely add it to my wish list having read your review!

>111 Sakerfalcon: Thank you! The covers are gorgeous, and A Magic Steeped in Poison is perfect when you're in the mood for a cozy YA fantasy.

26. The Last Mapmaker: Twelve-year-old Sai, apprenticed to a mapmaker, sets sail on a ship commissioned with finding new lands. The sailors are enthralled by stories of the Sunderlands and its sea dragon, the Slake. A charismatic passenger, Rian, is fomenting this interest. While on the voyage, Sai discovers secrets and betrayals. She begins to understand the greed that drives exploration and the price her homeland has extracted from the lands it has conquered.

Soontornvat was awarded a Newbery Honor for A Wish in the Dark, a Thai-inspired middle grade twist on Les Misérables. The Last Mapmaker seems to be Soontornvat's homage to seafaring classics, especially Treasure Island and Captains Courageous. It's a bit episodic in nature and wraps up too quickly. The story could have used more Slake. Still, I liked this and found the voyage entertaining.

Four stars.

Edited to correct book number

27. Spin the Dawn: Maia longs to be the imperial tailor, a position only men can hold. She disguises herself as her brother and enters a contest to design gowns for the emperor's unhappy and angry betrothed, Sarnai. Maia falls in with the court's enchanter, a boy named Edan who trades barbs with her but helps her win the competition. Alas, Sarnai has one last trick up her sleeve to delay the wedding, and Maia and Edan head off on a seemingly impossible quest to collect laughter from the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. Of course, they fall in love with each other, but there's a demon with a grudge against Edan and an angry emperor to whom Edan is bound in service. Everyone wants things of Maia and Edan, but no one cares what Maia and Edan want for themselves.

I did like this, and well enough to read the sequel. However, it's lighter on the fashion than I thought it would be. It also feels like two books. The first half contains the fashion competition and hints of court intrigues. The second half is pure quest. The story is quite trope-y, with Lim relying on readers' knowledge of YA fantasy to flesh out her worldbuilding.

Four stars.

>109 libraryperilous: Do you know that Sherwood has a new 5-book wuxia series out? The Phoenix Feather

>114 libraryperilous: I was so excited when this came out and everyone was pitching it as "Mulan meets Project Runway" that I think I was inevitably disappointed when I read it. Interested in what you think of the sequel as I never got around to it.

>115 Marissa_Doyle: Ooh! Shiny! Thank you.

>116 curioussquared: Yes. I was expecting a lot more backstabbing and sewing. Also, the cross-dressing is not really explored.

28. Witchlings: Twelve-year-old Seven Salazar flunks her sorting ceremony and finds herself a dreaded Spare, along with the town bully and a new girl. Spares are treated like outcasts in the town. Worse, when the girls try to close the circle of friendship to form their Spare coven, the magic fails. Now, they're cursed to stay witchlings and never come into their powers. In order to change their fate, Seven invokes the impossible task. She, Valley, and Thorn have three weeks to kill a murderous Nightbeast, or they'll be turned into toads.

The girls struggle to get along, but it turns out they each have useful skills. It also turns out that someone might be controlling the monstruo in an attempt to prevent the town council from passing new laws granting Spares rights. Can the witchlings unravel the mystery in time to save their town from the Nightbeast—and themselves from croaking?

I really liked this breezy, whimsical middle grade fantasy. Little touches make it unique: the spell words are Spanish; the girls' first names foretell their connected fate. I loved that Thorn's skill is fashion design. This will draw comparisons to the Morrigan Crow books, but it reminded me a little of The Mystwick School of Musicraft.

Four stars.

>118 libraryperilous: Good thing this one is already on hold at the library or I definitely would be hit!

>119 curioussquared: It did seem like it might be your style. :)

29. Nettle and Bone: Marra is the youngest of three princesses and not good at social cues. She's shipped to a nunnery, where she learns embroidery and midwifery. When Marra is summoned to her niece's funeral, she discovers that her sister's husband is an abuser. Marra goes on quest to free her sister. She's aided by a dog made of bones, a disgraced knight, a dust-wife who can talk to ghosts, and a fairy godmother straight out of a Disney movie. The motley crew bickers and magics their way to the Northern Kingdom, where they plan to pull off an assassination that might be "a fool's errand and we'll probably all die."

I really liked this. I have to be careful with Kingfisher's stories, because they sometimes have body horror. This one is a jauntier quest. There's some bite to the story, but it didn't put me off. After all, as the dust-wife notes, "fairy tales are very hard on bystanders." This is written as an adult fantasy and Marra is thirty. However, the story is in fairy tale cadence, so it feels a bit like a middle grade or young adult novel.

Four stars.

>121 libraryperilous: This sounds excellent! I need to read more Kingfisher.

>121 libraryperilous: This one has been on my radar too...

You're in for a treat! Her books are great.

I have Minor Mage on my TBR, and I'm interested in the paladin series too. She's such a creative author!

30. The Murder of Mr. Wickham: It's 1820, and some of Austen's heroes and heroines are gathered for a summer house party at Donwell Abbey. Young Juliet Tilney and Jonathan Darcy get off on the wrong foot when he makes what seems to be a rude comment while escorting her in for dinner. What promises to be a gay dinner takes a sour turn when the odious Mr. Wickham shows up—and it turns out he has dirt on everyone except Juliet and Jonathan. When Juliet stumbles on Wickham's body, she and Jonathan launch a clandestine, after-hours murder investigation. Everyone had a motive, but who really did it?

I loved this! One might quibble with the author's choices for some of Austen's beloved characters. Ah well, we all grow older. (You also can tell which characters are the author's favorites and which ones she wants to throttle.) Juliet and Jonathan are so interesting and fun. Juliet longs for adventure in a society that thinks women are incapable of handling them. Jonathan is neurodivergent and finds social settings difficult to navigate. They form a genuine friendship and also learn to talk to each other when they're frustrated. I hope the author writes further Juliet and Jonathan adventures.

Five stars.

>126 libraryperilous: Oh, interesting! Is the writing style decent?

>126 libraryperilous: Got me with that one. Looks great!

>127 clamairy:, >128 LibraryLover23: It was fun! I'd say the book is well-written popular fiction. It's pretty breezy, even though it deals with some heavier themes. I was a little distracted by the multiple POV, but it does take place at a house party.

31. The Perilous Gard: This is my favorite novel, and I love that I notice new things on each reread.

Five stars.

32. The Ordinary Princess: cute, but rather ordinary, story of Princess Amy, 'cursed' by a fairy godmother to be Ordinary. Her parents are distraught, but Amy quite likes the freedom from princess duty that being Ordinary brings. When her parents hatch a silly plan to find Amy a prince, Amy runs away to become a cook's assistant in a neighboring kingdom's castle. Who is this Ordinary boy she meets after a banquet? What will happen when Amy's old governess spots her?

This was fine. I read it at the beach. It has a cozy, nostalgic writing style that could remind people of their favorite fairy tales. However, I found Amy a bit of a bore, and I also didn't like the standard romance.

Four stars.

33. The Marvellers: Eleven-year-old Ella Durand lives in New Orleans and is a Conjuror, someone who grows plants and helps the dead cross over. Her father is the head of the Underworld, and Ella is known and respected throughout New Orleans. However, Conjure magic is considered dangerous by the Marvellers, who live in sky cities and practice the art and craft of using their magic to enhance already-made objects. Ella is accepted to the Marvellers' prestigious sky academy, where she faces racism, the burden of being first, and a school full of bullies and microaggressions. When Ella's favorite teacher disappears, she teams with her two new friends to solve the mystery, while she also tries to hold on to her spot at the academy when a mean girl lies and says that Ella assaulted her.

This book was a hot mess. It's derivative, by design, but it ends up backing itself into the same kinds of prejudiced places as HP. It's the same kind of binary, the same kind of classism, the same kind of stereotyping of people based on their sociocultural backgrounds. The series has potential, and the magic systems are super interesting. I hope the author and her publishing team can fix some of the messiness in future volumes.

Two stars.

34. Duet: Mirabelle the goldfinch loves to sing. She also loves to listen to the piano lessons her elderly neighbor, Mr. Starek, gives. Mr. Starek's latest pupil, eleven-year-old Michael Jin, is a prodigy who loves playing Chopin. He just needs a little push. Mirabelle accidentally finds herself dueting with Michael, and Michael finds her a most inspiring muse. Who's to say a bird and boy can't be friends? And if there happens to be a missing Pleyel piano, a connection to Chopin, and a chance to win a prestigious competition, well ... who's to say Mirabelle can't do a little investigating and helping in the background.

This was completely and utterly delightful: a joyous tribute to music, passion for your hobbies, and birds. Told in Mirabelle's irrepressible voice, this went on my all-time favorites list from about page one.

Five stars.

35. Otherlands: Armchair travel into extinct ecosystems, full of lots of scientific details and musings on the importance and resilience of ecosystems. The author has a large vocabulary, a taste for the poetic, and a PhD-level knowledge of this topic. The author begins in the Pleistocene and ends in the Ediacaran. Each chapter explores an ecosystem on either the cusp of extinction or evolution. It's sad to contemplate the fascinating, eerie lost species and landscapes—and draw parallels to the Anthropocene—but I found this mostly a hopeful book.

For fans of Patrick Leigh Fermor-style travelogues or people interested in paleontology and evolution.

Four stars.

Duet sounds very cute!!

>134 libraryperilous: I'm just back from Mpumalanga, and on Sunday saw the beginning of the Barberton-Makhonjwa Geotrail; spent some time this morning reading background. This makes Otherlands sound utterly mouthwatering. I'm about to post a picture in my thread, but in the meanwhile, feast your mind on the idea of pristine rocks from a time when a month lasted only 18 days, the average sea temperature was 70°C and there was so much volcanic and meteorite debris in the air that you wouldn't have been able to see your hand in front of your face!

>134 libraryperilous: That sounds pretty awesome! Thank you for shooting me. Seriously!

>136 hfglen: Your photo is gorgeous! And you paint a vivid picture of the time period. Halliday has lots of fun describing the ecosystems. Here, he describes a forest during the Triassic period: "It is cool in the shade of the Baiera tree, its ribbon leaves luminescent as they frame an inverted triangle of afternoon sunshine, steep forest slopes rising on either side of a mountain glen. ... In the distance, a gap in tree cover marks a lake edge, while a ragged line of darker vegetation traces the route of the narrow river that has excavated this valley. Mosses grow along the ground, where thick, black soils form a soft, fragrant carpet. To modern ears, the silence in this forest is unnerving and unnatural. There is no birdsong, for this is before birds."

>137 clamairy: I thought you, Hugh, and Marissa might be interested. 2/3 so far!

>135 curioussquared: It was delightful. After all, Mirabelle is an artiste.

Edited: a word

36. Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls: Twelve-year-old Cece lives with her family in the border town of Tierra del Sol. Each winter, the dark criaturas come spilling out of Devil's Alley, and each year, the citizens of the town repel them with police patrols, traditional ceremonies, and sun magic. Cece, who was 'cursed' by a criatura to be ocean magic, is treated like an outsider. There's not much to do in this border town, so the insular community has turned to vigilantism and prejudice.

When the criatura El Sombrerón kidnaps Cece's sister, Juana, Cece decides she must become a bruja in order to enter Devil's Alley and rescue her sister. There's just one problem. The town hates brujas even more than they hate criaturas. And Cece doesn't want to trap and enslave a criatura. As the story unfolds, Cece learns to use her unique talents in her own way. She learns that the humans' history of the criaturas and creation stories are one-sided. Cece meets the Great Namer, Coyote, and finds herself drawn to friendship with these mysterious, vital criaturas. The desert, considered a forbidding landscape by the townspeople, is shown to be a place of mysteries and marvelous criaturas who just want to be safe and welcomed.

This was such an awesome book. More middle grade fantasy adventures like this, please! Super compelling storyline, creative Own Voices mythology, an intrepid and kind heroine, and a plot with contemporary relevance. Bonus: loads of Spanish words, not italicized: Yay! I absolutely loved this and can't wait for the sequel.

Five stars.

>139 libraryperilous: Direct hit. Have just put a hold on it at my library!

>140 tardis: Ooh, fingers crossed you like it! I'll watch for your review.

37. The Great Cake Mystery, The Mystery of Meerkat Hill, The Mystery of the Missing Lion: Precious Ramotswe's early mysteries. Precious likes asking questions, is good at noticing details, and inspires confidence with her kindness and willingness to stand up for others. All skills that will help her grow up to be a detective. Right now, she is only nine and honing her skills while daydreaming about opening a detective agency.

I enjoyed these, but they're short, more like upper chapter books than middle grade novels. I'm counting all three of them as only one book. I liked the Botswana setting, Precious' sparkling personality, and the way that animals contributed to each mystery. The meerkat, Kosi, was delightful!

Four, five, and four stars.

38. The Stardust Thief: The relic merchant, Loulie al-Nazari and her jinn companion, Qadir, scour the desert outside Madinne for relics, illegal but infused with valuable jinn magic. The jinn are hunted by humans, and the jinns' silver blood has the power to bring life to the barren desert landscapes. The jinn have retreated from human settlements, but rumors of their fabled city in the Sandsea abound—as does the tale of a powerful lamp relic that will bring great power to the sultan's heir who finds it.

Loulie and Qadir run afoul of the sultan, who sends them into the desert to seek the lamp. They're joined by the sultan's eldest son, the merciless jinn hunter Omar, and Aisha, one of Omar's Forty Thieves. Everyone has secrets to keep, motives for revenge, and sorrowful pasts. The desert's forbidding sands hold ghouls, jinn relics of extraordinary power, and an enemy who's following their trail.

Abdullah peels back layers of her worldbuilding with lots of action scenes, visits to souks, stops at oases, and nods to the folklore of the One Thousand and One Nights. The sultan's youngest son, gentle and cowardly Mazen, takes up his mother's storytelling legacy. As our ragtag crew ventures closer to the Sandsea, they find that their perceptions of history are skewed and that legends might be more trustworthy than sultans.
Who conquers history? Those who control the stories. But how do you reclaim legends that don't want to be reclaimed?

The book feels a bit rushed in places, and I wanted even more information about the jinns' culture and history. This is the first in a planned trilogy and ends on a fascinating cliffhanger. I definitely will read the sequel. I loved that there are loads of Arabic words (non-italicized: yay!) sprinkled throughout.

Four stars.

>139 libraryperilous: This sounds awesome! I'll be looking out for a copy.

>144 Sakerfalcon: I think you would like it. The middle grade fantasy tropes all felt fresh yet familiar. The stakes are pretty high, too.

Icon. No notes.

>146 libraryperilous: Ooh!! I loved her first book!

Kitten ambush!

>147 norabelle414: Looks fun; I've added it to my TBR. I'm obsessed with >146 libraryperilous: cover. The hyena! The bite out of the i! The Schiaparelli-esque pink!

>148 libraryperilous: OMG cuteness!!! I would have taken them all home. (Actually I've seen a follow-up video - spoiler: he did!)

>148 libraryperilous: I saw the kitten ambush!! The cutest.

39. Why Sharks Matter: a conservation biologist details: the reasons sharks matter to ocean ecosystems and humans; science-based ways to protect sharks; how people can help the organizations and advocates working on shark conservation. Shiffman also debunks myths about shark conservation, shows how the media's 'if it bleeds, it leads' coverage endangers conservation efforts, and calls out Change.org for its useless, endlesssssssss online petitions.

This is a hopeful book. The seas are in serious trouble. We have science-driven solutions, and some good incremental progress has been made. The book highlights some scientists working to make marine conservation more efficient, accessible, and internationalist. Shiffman also looks at a handful of reputable conservation organizations who use effective marketing and advocacy tactics.

The book also spends time on the overlooked human side of marine conservation. Over 3 billion people earn a living off the sea, millions directly from fishing. Most of them don't want to overfish or pollute. It's the job of scientists, governments, and advocates to come up with solutions that help, not harm. Most importantly, fishers must be treated the same as other stakeholders and given a prime seat at policy-making tables. Scientists and environmental orgs are doing a better job of outreach to fishing communities in developing nations. But, the marine conservation movement still is disproportionately Euroamerican and white. I wish the book had focused a little bit more on changing this, instead of just noting that Euroamerican scientists and advocates are better at outreach now.

Overall, this is excellent overview of sharks, conservation solutions, and effective advocacy. Honestly, if you care about any sociocultural issue, the chapter, "How Can You Help Sharks? (Dos and Please Just Don'ts)" contains good advice for effective personal participation on any issue that requires political capital to effect change.

Five stars.

>149 Sakerfalcon:, >150 curioussquared: I saw a follow-up video on his Facebook. He gave them all baths and is 'fattening' them for adoption. :)

>152 libraryperilous: ❤️❤️❤️

40. The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle: After her London home and business are bombed during the Blitz, fashion designer Cressida Westcott travels to her family's country estate, where her spoiled niece, Violet, idles away wishing for a titled husband and sometimes shows up for a wartime sewing circle. At the circle, Cressida meets vicar's daughter Grace, who has a mousy personality but an excellent eye for fashion details. The three women eventually become friends and hatch a plan to alter old wedding dresses so that British brides don't have to wear dumpy uniforms or boring suits to their weddings during a clothing ration.

I liked this, but it does turn rather soppy in the last third of the book: lots of talk about soulmates and true love and love making the world go 'round. There weren't as many technical details about the alterations or fashions as I wanted. I wanted more about the sewing circle and less about the romances. Overall, it's an enjoyable, quick read, and I think fans of WWII homefront novels will find it comforting and familiar.

Four stars.

41. The Grief of Stones: We're back among the cemeteries, opera, tramlines, and districts of Amalo (a city that reminds me of fin de siècle Budapest) with Thara Celehar, Witness vel ama for the Dead. Celehar witnesses for a murdered marquise and finds a sinister plot at a foundling school. Amalo is not a just city, but Celehar does his best for his petitioners, including some bakers who need to find a missing scone recipe in order to save their bakery.

This is a slice of life story about a decent person trying to stay decent in a decadent city full of inequality and prejudice. It's also the story of a grieving person trying to move on with their life, only the grief, like stones, piles up. Small moments of grace, endless cups of tea, and loyal friends intrude on Celehar's sadness. It's a lovely and charming story, even though the underbelly of Amalo is grim.

We are not certain how we feel about the ending, especially because we do not see that a third volume has been announced.

Four stars. I bumped this up my TBR after reading tardis' review. Thank you, tardis!

>155 libraryperilous: You're welcome. Your little review is much better than mine, so I hope more people get hit with this bullet.

We haven't heard word of another book, either, but we very much hope there will be one.

I really must get to The Goblin Emperor! It's been on my bedside table for months; I don't know why I haven't picked it up yet.

>134 libraryperilous: sounds fascinating! I am looking for a copy to borrow.

>156 tardis: We thank thee for the compliment. We also hope an announcement about the next volume comes soon.

>157 curioussquared: It's one of my favorite novels: an intriguing blend of courtly intrigues and manners, plus a murder mystery, in this fascinatingly decadent culture.

>158 NorthernStar: I hope you enjoy it! The chapters are more like essays, so I dipped into it a couple of epochs at a time.

42. The Shelterlings: Holly Squirrel longed to see more of life than her forest's acorns and pines, so she traveled to the Moon Mirror and drank the water. The magical waters turn animals into familiars, and then they go through a series of tests to be matched with a wizard. Unfortunately for Holly, she flunked her test because her magical talent is ... conjuring pastries out of thin air. Instead, she's spent the last few years at the Shelter for Rejected Familiars, feeling like a failure but spending her days helping the other shelterlings feel like they're at home. Instead of whisking off on grand adventures with a wizard and saving the world, Holly encourages all of the other shelterlings to cultivate the talents they do have, including a porcupine who turns the opposite color he needs for camouflage and a cow who always tells opposite prophecies.

Charlie, her beaver friend and mentor, returns to their home with news that he's found a way to fix the Moon Mirror and become real familiars. Holly and the other shelterlings get caught up in quests for materials and their desire to fix their magic. Holly and her best friend Gus (an owl who can change into a granite statue) make some new friends on their materials quests, and Holly starts to realize that what's stopping her from having grand adventures isn't her misfit magic or wizards' prejudice.

Look, there are talking animals—with magical powers!—and an adventure. Of course I loved this. In her author's note, Durst writes that "I've always secretly suspected that there is no story that cannot be improved by the addition of a talking animal." Since I agree wholeheartedly, this book was my jam.

Five stars.

>155 libraryperilous: >156 tardis: I pre-ordered Witness for the Dead, but I've been holding back a bit on Grief of Stones. Thanks for the reviews, I'll move it up higher on my wishlist. I have a bit of a TBR backlog at the moment, or I'd get it sooner.

>161 Karlstar: While I gave them both the same rating, I do think The Grief of Stones is the stronger story. I hope you enjoy it whenever you get some TBR space for it.

A best friend is also your book stand

43. Minor Mage: Oliver is a twelve-year-old minor mage who knows three spells and has a snarky armadillo familiar. The villagers of Loosestrife form a minor mob after Oliver's mom leaves town. The mob wants Oliver to travel to the Rainblades and bring back rain to end the drought. Oliver and the armadillo (Eglamarck, if you must know, but he prefers Armadillo) head off on their journey. Oliver is in over his head but also is that peculiar combination of brave, kind, and reckless that makes children successful on their quests.

Oliver runs afoul of some hungry ghouls, ruthless bandits, and a power-abusing mayor. And why should it be Oliver at all? Really, Oliver is only a minor mage—and also only a child. Oliver is angry at the villagers for their betrayal, but he cares about them and wants to help. Most of all, he's disappointed in the world that creates such cowardice: "When kindness came from murdered ghosts and lost pigs, and the adults that were supposed to help you were monsters that walked like men ... What was he supposed to do? It wasn't right. He wanted the world to be different." Oliver and his armadillo then proceed to help make the world a little bit better in the acreage they're occupying at the moment. When Oliver does reach the Rainblades, the Rain Wife's bargain may cost him more than he's willing to spend, so he scrapes together a little more courage again ...

This is a poignant story underneath the humor and creepy Goosebumps moments. Children shouldn't have to be the adults in a bad situation. Oliver and his armadillo are BFFs, and the moments between them are adorable.

Four stars. Five stars for the armadillo and their relationship, but the book was a bit too R. L. Stine in places for me to love it.

44. Garden Princess: Princess Adela is much better at gardening than princessing. She'd like to travel the world collecting plant specimens, but her stepmother is determined that she traverse the court's balls and tea parties instead. Adela's gardener friend Garth is invited to Lady Hortensia's garden party, and snags a break from her stepmother's deportment lessons to go with him. Lady Hortensia's gardens are said to bloom year-round, but when Adela arrives she finds things blooming out of season and no sign of a greenhouse. Adela stumbles on Hortensia performing forbidden magic on one of the guests and must make an alliance with a thieving magpie to break the curse Hortensia has placed on the garden.

This was fine. I read it on a plane. It's geared toward middle grade readers, even though the protagonist is seventeen and there's a bit of romance.

Four stars.

45. A Mirror Mended: Five years have passed since Zinnia discovered the existence of the fairy tale multiverse. She's spent them rescuing as many versions of Sleeping Beauty as she can, but she's a bit bored with that. Also jealous of all the happy endings, when her own story will end in terminal illness. Zinnia thinks she is off on another Briar Rose rescue when she sees the face of an older woman in the mirror. But the older woman, with black hair and rose-red lips and a handheld mirror that shows her the truth, has something else in mind.

This was fine, and fans of fractured fairy tales will like it. Zinnia is a bit of a spoiled, rude brat, and I don't think Harrow successfully has solved that, even though she tries with this entry in the series. I'm not saying your characters (especially young women) have to be likable, but there's nothing to Zinnia except snark. I think A Spindle Splintered was a stronger story.

"I think unwillingly of all the other roles the queen was given: the ugly princess, the barren queen, the foreign monarch. A string of women with just enough power to be hated and not quite enough to protect themselves."

Four stars.

Edited to add star rating

46. Braking Day: The generation ship Archimedes approaches its planetary destination and prepares for Braking Day, the day it turns on its drive and heads down into the planet's atmosphere. Engineering cadet Ravi MacLeod prepares to graduate, but he's distracted by a cute girl in his class, his mischievous cousin's legal troubles, and a ghost girl who keeps trying to tell him something. Or is he hallucinating the ghost girl? Meanwhile, not everyone on the ship is happy about descending to the planet, and the shipboard tensions are mounting. The plot threads come together in a race to stop something disastrous and irreversible from occurring.

Generation ship stories are sci-fi bread and butter. The fun is in seeing what little touches an author adds. In Braking Day, Ravi's generation is afraid of the artificial sunlight, so he checks his radiation meter every time he's in the Homeworld simulation. Water is scarce on the ship, so people are paid in liters and you can smell the water on the rich folk—as in, they have a clean odor. I enjoyed this fast-paced sci-fi adventure, even though I found it a little bit too busy.

Four stars.

47. Storm Horse: Twelve-year-old Flip moves to an island to live with his taciturn uncle on a farm. Flip rescues a large and skittish horse from drowning during a storm. As Flip draws closer to the horse, Storm, he finds a reason to love his new island home.

This is a cute boy-and-his-horse story. It wraps up a little too neatly at the end. I enjoyed the gentle friendship between Flip and Storm and the glimpses of island living in the story.

Four stars.

>166 libraryperilous: Oh, I might skip this one, then. The first one was fun, but I have so many other things I want to read first.

48. The Outermost House: Henry Beston spent a year in the 1920s living in a two-room house, dubbed the Fo'castle, on a remote Cape Cod beach. He took notes on the birds, tides, Coast Guard routes, and seasonal changes. "The beach at night has a voice all its own, a sound in fullest harmony with its spirit and mood—with its solemn, overspilling, rhythmic seas." This is a quiet book, but you also can feel the author's excitement at nesting birds and fierce Cape storms, as well as his admiration for the hardy coastal guards who beat a lighted path each night on a wild patch of shoreline where shipwrecks were a regular occurrence. And, always, the thrum of the waves upon the strand: "The surf here is broken; it approaches the beach in long intercurrent parallels, some a few hundred feet long, some an eighth of a mile long, some, and the longest, attaining the quarter-mile length and perhaps just over. Thus, at all times and instants of the day, along the five miles of beach visible from the Fo'castle deck, waves are to be seen breaking, coursing in to break, seething up and sliding back."

Beston switches from past tense to present tense, creating an immediacy as he sits at his table and reviews his notes. This is a portrait of Cape life that no longer exists, but the author's entrancement with the shoreline feels timeless. "At the ocean's very edge the air is almost always cool—cold even—and delicately moist with surf spray and the endless dissolution of the innumerable bubbles of the foam slides; the wet sand slope beneath exhales a cool savor of mingling beach and sea, and the innermost breakers push ahead of them puffs of this fragrant air. It is a singular experience to walk this brim of ocean when the wind is blowing almost directly down the beach, but now veering a point toward the dunes, now a point toward the sea."

Four stars.

Edited: typo

>169 clamairy: I was disappointed in it, alas, but it does set up a third volume that probably will end the series. It's a novella, so if you're in the mood for a short, quick read, it might suit.

49. Sudden Courage: Historian Rosbottom covers the 'youngsters' involved in the French Resistance. The Resistance, such as it was, never gained a large number of members, but around 34% were under twenty-one, and only 22% were over thirty. Many of the preteen and teenage resisters used bicycles to bypass checkpoints. The important grunt work often fell to young people. To collect enough paper and ink for forged documents, young resisters "could not walk casually into a stationary store and purchase colored ink, different types of paper, and pens; they had to visit different stores, buying paper a few sheets at a time and purchasing one color of ink in one store and another in one down the street ... or in a completely different neighborhood."

One teenager, Adolpho Kaminsky, was so adept at the chemistry of forgery—and so strong a believer in freedom—that he spent forty years after WWII forging documents for anyone resisting injustice. Anise Postel-Vinay was tasked with counting and identifying the German tanks outside of Paris. She had no prior experience with military weaponry, so she took a seamstress' tape measure with her, recorded the different tread sizes, and sent the information off to London. Ten-year-old Nano Hirsch was tasked by his father with delivering messages to and keeping track of the hiding places where dozens of Jewish children were being protected.

Many resisters originally joined the cause "not strictly from political or ideological motivations, but for social and personal reasons. A sense of adventure, the chance to belong to a group dedicated to a cause, and being treated with respect most adults did not give." As the occupation wore on, it became increasingly brutal. Resister Maroussia Naïtchenko noted in her memoir, "Never would one have believed that this blond youth who paraded impassively by us had been successful in defeating us in such a short time. Against this hated army, what would we be able to do? In a single instant, I finally understood the word, 'Occupation'." More people joined the Resistance out of a desire to make direct action against the occupiers and their collaborationists.

German policy treated anyone arrested for subversive activity as a hostage. These hostages could be murdered as revenge for assassinated German soldiers. Many of the murdered hostages were young people, and the effect of this was to shame many French people into passive support for the resistance. Acts of resistance remind people of two things: a different, better way of life and hope it will come again. In this, even youthful impetuosity, like jeering the Germans during newsreels or laughing at them on the street, had great value. The goal was not so much to win every battle, but to keep up the fight longer than the enemy—long enough to chip away at complacency and collaboration. (Despite the postwar glorification of the Free French, many French were active collaborators. French police rounded up "more than 90 percent of the Jews, communists, and other 'undesirables' targeted by the Occupational Authority and the Gestapo during the war years.")

I found this an engrossing and inspiring read, although it's a little bit heavy on armchair psychoanalysis. In particular, Rosbottom's research highlights both how so much of the Resistance relied on the French Left, especially Communists, but also how methodically the Nazis and Vichy regime targeted the Left and propagandized against leftists.

The reality is that no one knows how they will act during a terrible time until they're in it. But there isn't any doubt that young people, especially those whose brains have not fully developed, have a higher tolerance for risk and a more immediate sense of right and wrong. For Rosbottom, the increase in right-wing populism throughout the Euroamerican sphere is a warning. We ignore youngsters' moral clarity and passion for change at our own peril. "Who will resist the temptation to acquiesce to a radical return to those earlier, sterile, and more merciless times? Only the kids?"

Four stars.

50. Lark and the Wild Hunt: Really great, lengthy standalone middle grade fantasy featuring a fae realm, a magical border, a moonclock, shadowbred horses, and a Wild Hunt. Lark's brother gets trapped on the fae side of the border after the autumn Hunt. Lark rescues a strange raven near the border's waymark, and the raven introduces her to Rook, a fae prince who needs Lark's help in repairing the moonclock. As Lark digs deeper into the moonclock's history, she realizes many of the things she's learned about the fae and the border are half-truths. Someone is destabilizing the border on purpose and sowing deceit in both human and fae realms. But can Lark trust Rook with her siblings' lives when her sister also disappears into the fae lands? Can she learn to trust the fae in time to set things right?

I read and loved Jennifer Adam's The Last Windwitch in 2021. It also has a clever folklore and a lengthy adventure. I think Adam's writing has improved, although both books have slow builds and fast finishes. I'm eager to read what Adam writes next, and I like that she focuses on detailed standalone fantasies with lots of unusual twists on folkloric elements.

Five stars.

51. Under Fortunate Stars: When the ragged smuggling ship Jonah sends a distress call, the corporate research ship Gallion answers and tows the smaller ship to safety. There's just one problem: The ships exist 150 years apart, but they've both found themselves in a spacetime rift. In the past, there's a terrible war raging between humans and the Felen. The crew of the Jonah are shocked to learn they went down in history as heroes for negotiating a peace treaty with the Felen. As the coincidences mount up, it becomes clear that the presence of both these ships in the rift means something bigger and more important than just finding a way back to their own times.

One of those novels that reminds you of why you read science fiction: a gently progressive story of hope, humanity, and the way good people scrape together the courage to help each other. The puzzle of why the rift occurred is less important than whether or not the crews will grasp the chance the rift has thrown at them. There's an element of a locked room mystery, but the question is not 'who done it?'; rather, Hutchings asks, 'how to fix it?' This is a fascinating timeslip in space adventure with characters about whom I cared. I found myself swept up in their story and hoping for happy endings for all of them. Recommended, especially to fans of K. B. Wagers or Becky Chambers.

Five stars.

Edited to correct number. Thanks, Natalie!

Oof! I'm twice hit. Did you miss #51?

How are things aside from the books?

>175 curioussquared: Good catch! I numbered incorrectly. Thank you, and thank you for checking in on me!

I'm having my lumpectomy on Monday afternoon. Exciting! It will be a long day, as I have to arrive at 8 am for the wire placement and then have the dye injected at 10 am. The surgery will go off around 1:15.

I'm more nervous about the anesthesia than the procedure. I broke my arm about 18 years ago and had to stay an extra night in the hospital because they gave me too much anesthetic. I couldn't walk without getting dizzy and nauseated. I'm sure things have improved since then, lol.

52. Danger on the Atlantic: third in the Jane Wunderly mysteries, and better than the first entry in the series. Jane and her partner, the dashing Redvers Dibble—he prefers Redvers—are sailing from Southampton to New York, in search of a German spy. While aboard the liner, they discover that the spy's American contact also is on the ship. Jane also gets caught up in a mystery of her own. Her new acquaintance, the New York socialite Vanessa FitzSimmons, claims she boarded with her new husband. Her husband is nowhere to be found, and then someone starts gaslighting Vanessa about luggage, clothes, and suite numbers.

Things wrap up a bit too neatly, and I did think the shipboard locale could have been used to greater effect. I like Jane, but I find the mysterious Redvers a bit of a cad. Worth checking out if you like society mysteries set in the 1920s, but I don't think the series breaks any new ground.

Four stars.

>176 libraryperilous: Best wishes for Monday! I'm sure everything (including the anesthesia!) will go smoothly.

>176 libraryperilous: Best of luck with the surgery, and the meds. I will be keeping you in my thoughts.

>176 libraryperilous: I hope all goes well on Monday. I'll be thinking of you.

>176 libraryperilous:
Wishing you well for Monday.

>176 libraryperilous: Strength to you!

>178 curioussquared:, >179 clamairy:, >180 Sakerfalcon:, >181 pgmcc:, >182 hfglen: Thank you all very much!

I'm eager for this part to be over. A small bonus is that my mom is bringing a pile of library books for me to read. I'm short on science fiction on my own shelves, so I'll be catching up on some titles of interest during the week she is here.

53. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy: A monk and a robot travel around the countryside in a post-climate disaster world (now a preservationist's paradise). The monk and the robot are questioning their purposes and how to fulfill them. Kantian philosophical musings ensue, most of them the earnestly cheesy kind you'd hear at 3 am in a dorm room.

It sounds like I didn't like this novella, but I did—as travel fiction. Sibling Dex and Mosscap traverse Panga's diverse ecosystems, and the landscapes and villages feel fully realized and are interesting. Unfortunately, I was not nearly as interested in eavesdropping on all those philosophical discussions.

I like slice of life stories, and I love Chambers' Wayfarers series, so I really wanted to love this series. Three stars, bumped up to four because I liked the adventurous spirit that sometimes overtook the philosophical musings and psychobabble.

>176 libraryperilous: Good luck on Monday!

>185 Karlstar: Thank you!

54. Endless Novelties of Extraordinary Interest traces the HMS Challenger and its four-year voyage around the world to study the oceans. With the benefit of hindsight, the ship's scientists are viewed as founders of oceanography. Their multidisciplinary approach and variegated scientific backgrounds allowed the scientists to advance knowledge of marine science, including the deep sea, as well as dabble in island biogeography.

The author, a Scripps oceanographer, uses thematic chapters to provide information about the voyage and its discoveries as well as advances in science that have challenged or utilized these discoveries. Scientific advancement relies on curiosity, adventure, opportunity, and serendipity—and collaboration. The willingness of the Challenger's scientists to reevaluate and correct their theories based on new evidence is refreshing.

Such an interesting voyage! The book veers into the dry at times, and I found myself wanting a more high-spirited storyline. I enjoyed the journey and was fascinated by the patient, tedious diligence that went into answering even small questions. As Macdougall notes, questions raised during the voyage still have importance today, especially as climate change creates rising, warming seas.

Four stars.

>176 libraryperilous: Best wishes - I hope everything goes smoothly for you!

>188 LibraryLover23: Thank you!

Pleased to report the murderous tissue has been removed. So far, I'm not in too much pain, just discomfort. I'll receive the pathology report in a couple of weeks and find out whether or not the surgeon was able to get clean margins around the tumor. Fingers crossed!

I started a fun book at the hospital, but I only made it a couple of chapters in before they kept me too busy to read.

>189 libraryperilous: Glad to hear you're still with us!

Glad to hear everything went well!!

Hoping for continued good new for you!

>190 hfglen:, >191 curioussquared:, >192 Marissa_Doyle: Thank you! I'm glad to be here. :)

55. Legends and Lattes: Viv the orc pulls off one last, lucrative quest and then hangs it all up to open a coffee shop. Viv had discovered coffee, a gnomish delicacy, on one of her adventures and found comfort and enjoyment. She's proud when her new customers feel the same: "She found it in half-lidded eyes and a slow, deliberate swallow. In cupped hands around the warmth of the mug and the lingering enjoyment of the last taste." Along the way, Viv acquires a hob carpenter, a succubus server, and a rattkin baker (who makes the most delicious pastries). The coffee shop starts to feel like home, but Viv may not have hung up her past as successfully as she thought.

This was a self-published novel that made the rounds on TikTok. Tor picked it up. I really liked it. It's a sweet, slice of life story about a coffee shop, with a little bit of tension about Viv's past. I'm fond of slice of life stories, and I would have been fine with this book if the only tension had been "Will the coffee shop make it?" This probably will get labeled the fantasy version of Becky Chambers, but I think Chambers' stories have more bite. This was more along the lines of an RPG adventure about opening a coffee shop. The author used to design RPGs. Recommended if you're in the mood for a gentle adventure or a quick fantasy read.

Four stars.

>194 libraryperilous: This one has been on my radar -- glad to see you liked it!

So glad to hear your good news! Keeping my fingers crossed for a good report!

I have Legends and lattes on my kindle, so I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I'm so happy that all went well. My fingers are also crossed. (And my thumbs held, as Busifer says.)

>189 libraryperilous: I am glad to hear that is over. Wishing you the best for the results.

>196 Sakerfalcon:, >197 clamairy:, >198 pgmcc: Thank you!

>195 curioussquared:, >196 Sakerfalcon: It's a relaxing read. Also, the familiar coffee shop pastries are described in enticing ways.

56. Stella: Beagle Stella is retired from bomb sniffing after a tragedy. She misses Connie, her previous human. Stella gets scared in confined spaces or when there are loud noises. She gets a last chance with dog trainer Esperanza and Esperanza's daughter, Cloe. Cloe (who smells like cookies and books) is patient and kind with Stella's PTSD. The two develop a happy daily routine, but Esperanza isn't sure Stella can be healed. When Stella scents sickness in Cloe, how can she make Esperanza understand? "All of a sudden, I realize I don't just want to be good anymore. I want to be brave again too."

Such a sweet story about doing your best, forgiving yourself for mistakes, and being brave enough to trust again: "Maybe love isn't something thata can be earned through good work or destroyed by bad mistakes. Maybe true love is trusting someone or something so much that you feel safe enough to be yourself with them."

Five stars.

57. Mystery on Magnolia Circle: Ten-year-old Ivy breaks her leg just before summer vacation starts. Then, her best friend's dog dies (or does she?). While she's stuck inside, Ivy sees Milton, a boy in her class, standing across the street and taking notes about the apartment building Teddy lives in, just before Milton jumps in a white van. A few days later, the apartment building is robbed, and Ivy decides to launch an investigation. But before she can solve the crime, she'll have to learn to stop jumping to conclusions. "Taking small, logical steps isn't nearly as fun as jumping to conclusions. But it feels more professional."

This is a fun book, very summer vacation-y, and it has a good lesson about not judging people by their circumstances: "Maybe we're all Trojan horses with secrets hidden inside of us, and we have no idea how heavy other people's secrets are." The happy ending relies a lot on coincidences and adults being nice to kids, but it's a quick fun read.

Four stars.

New ratings system is live!

Five stars: favorite
4.5 stars: great
Four stars: good
Three stars: cromulent
Two stars: bland
One star: obnoxious

58. What It Means to Be a Democrat: written in 2011, about a year before McGovern's death, this does what it says on the tin. It covers the Democratic party's core values and some key legislative goals, both progress toward and impediments to. Most of the chapters could have been written in 2022, and some of McGovern's preferred solutions have been in the news since 2016. It was soothing to sink into his plain talk for bleeding hearts and imagine an America with these policies in place.

McGovern could have provided more constructive criticism of the party, especially because some of his signature policy hopes have long been bipartisan failings: ending hunger, curbing wasteful Pentagon spending, and reforming immigration. It's good politics to criticize your political party!

The book has an overreliance on statistics and patriotic statements. You will convince zero voters with your data and perhaps one or two with your soaring rhetoric about America the great and good. Did you include a chapter on how to overcome the following five (5) problems: structural barriers in Congress; the media's both sides framing; the federal government's reduced capacity; capture of the Democratic party by consultants; and, an electorate that likes its incumbents too much? Books that lack this information can make people feel like elections are the only step. In reality, elections are the first step.

There's space in the Democratic party for McGovern's mix of bleeding heart liberalism, optimism about America, and faith in the Democratic party. I was comforted by his hopes and anger and his simple descriptions of policies that would offer comfort: It's something to work toward. But you have to give people the right tools to fix things so they can make progress on these Democratic priorities. Proactivity > wonkery.

Four stars.

>203 libraryperilous: Excellent review and analysis!

>204 clamairy: Thank you! I tried very hard to color (mostly) within the pub's lines. :)

59. The Littlest Library: Jess, 32, is laid off from her small town England librarian position a few months after her beloved and glamorous grandmother dies. Mimi saw every day as a potential adventure. Jess is the opposite. She thinks disaster always follows good things. She surprises herself by impulsively selling their home and moving from their small town to an even smaller English village. Naturally, she purchases a dilapidated, listed cottage with an even more derelict red phone booth in its yard and decides to Do Something with Books.

From there, everyone is nice to her, except the lady who circulates a petition to replace the new phone booth library with a defibrillator station.* Her new friends all are eccentric villager stock types. Jess gets drunk and cries in front of her new friends every night. The surly, hot neighbor is a jerk but becomes a love interest. There's a bat colony in her attic, but she's not allowed to have them removed because the house is listed, or the bats are, or it's a minor plot quirk that throws Jess and the surly, hot neighbor together. (He's the local bat colony manager in his spare time Of course he is.) The rafters have deadwood beetles, but this plot point never goes anywhere. Jess has fallen in love with the cottage and her new life, so I guess she'd be happy if the rafters fall on her.

*This was the most relatable plot point. People are petty. The eventual solution—putting in a defibrillator elsewhere—only happens after everyone on both sides has ranted, schemed, and petitioned. A little realism!

Two stars. I don't know why I finished this.

60. Six Wakes: The clone Maria Arenas wakes up in a vat of amniotic goo only to find she and the rest of the Dormire's six-clone crew have been murdered. Whichonedunit? From there, Lafferty's sci-fi mystery doesn't so much twist as it takes right angles, crashes into walls and bounces off them, and then ends up in a drawing roomgarden for the denouement. There's no locked room quite like a train, except a spaceship! You can picture Lafferty's glee as she queues up another turn of the tale's screw. It's best to hit all of these reveals as you're reading them, so I won't spoil the rest of the story.

I really liked this fast-paced story of clones, politics, betrayals, and a food printer nicknamed Bebe. There are big high-stakes themes about cloning ethics here, explored only briefly, but the story itself has low stakes. I found this a reasonable choice. The villain is the same either way: a rich jerk with too much money and power and way too much time on their hands.

4.5 stars and recommended to sci-fi fans in the mood for a fast-paced mystery with Orient Express vibes.

Lafferty has a new space station-set murder mystery out this fall, Station Eternity.

>207 libraryperilous:
I read Six Wakes in 2019. I quite liked the book, and I was interested in how Lafferty had played with the various meanings of the word, "Wake".

Shortly after reading it my brother died. Within a couple of weeks my aunt died, and around the same time a friend died. When at work a week later a colleague was sympathising with me for the loss of my friend and family members. He commented that these things come in threes and that I have had my quota. I said that would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that I had just read a book called, Six Wakes. He made a grimace and said, hopefully things will stop at the three. On the following Sunday morning I received a call telling me my colleague had died on Saturday night.

>207 libraryperilous: I thought this one was fun.

>208 pgmcc: Great story, but I'm a little confused. Was it yesterday that the colleague passed, or on a Sunday back in 2019?

>209 clamairy: 2019. I have edited to remove the ambiguity. Luckily, Wakes 5 and 6 did not appear.

>208 pgmcc: I'm sorry you went through that.

61. A Girl Called Justice: The Ghost in the Garden: Justice Jones is back for another mystery. She's a third form now, and she feels secure in her friendships with Stella and Dorothy. Highbury House, with its Gothic turrets and its isolated Romney Marsh location, is as full of lumpy porridge and prunish teachers as you'd expect. The autumn of 1937 sees a new girl, the Honorable Letitia Blackstock, join the Barnowls. She's determined to befriend Justice, but Justice prefers her old routines. That all changes when the Barnowls sneak out to the barn for a midnight feast and ghost stories—and are interrupted by a scream and a ghost in a white dress. When the girls get back to the dormy, one of them is missing.

I adore this series. It has such a vivid sense of place. It's a proper boarding school story, but it also feels fresh. The girls' friendship takes a bit of a backseat in this story, and I did miss the trio's escapades. However, we get not one but two midnight feasts.

Five stars.

>212 libraryperilous: These look cute! I recently bought one of Griffith's books for adults (The Stranger Diaries) and didn't know she wrote for children as well. Also, who doesn't love a midnight feast?

>213 curioussquared: I've read a couple of her Magic Men historical mysteries and liked them.

It was remiss of me not to post the contents of the midnight feasts, especially in a pub!

Feast #1, courtesy of a tuck box from Justice's father: fruit cake, biscuits*, sweets, tins of pineapple chunks, tins of sliced peaches

Feast #2, cream tea leftovers, brought back from the Hon Letitia's home: sandwiches, sausage rolls, scones with jam and cream, Victoria sponge, iced fairy cakes, chocolate éclairs

* biscuits = British; probably McVitie's or MacFarlane Lang, but let's say they were chocolate bourbons.

I received confirmation from the surgeon and oncologist that the tumor has been excised. I no longer have 'active' cancer. I'll have 4-6 weeks of radiation and be on the cancer medications for 5-10 years. I don't have to do chemo. I will have monthly lab draws and injections for those 5-10 years.

The oncologist said that recurrence is likeliest in the next 2 years, and I have around 90% odds that the cancer will not come back at all. I will not technically be cured of cancer until after five years with no recurrence.

I'm thankful to have received quick and thorough care and glad to be over this unexpected phase of my life. I've appreciated all of your kind comments and support. Thank you!

>215 libraryperilous: That's such great news!! 🥳

>215 libraryperilous:
I am delighted with that news. Wishing you all the best. Thank you for letting us know.

>215 libraryperilous: Congrats on the good news!

>215 libraryperilous: Excellent news!! May the treatments be easy and effective!

>215 libraryperilous: I'm so glad to hear this! I hope all continues to be well with you.

>215 libraryperilous: another voice in the chorus wishing you well!

>215 libraryperilous: What they all said, but even more!

>216 curioussquared:, >217 pgmcc:, >218 Karlstar:, >219 Marissa_Doyle:, >220 Sakerfalcon:, >221 hfglen:, >222 haydninvienna:: Thank you! I was so excited by the news that I ordered a book to celebrate. :)

>223 libraryperilous:
I cannot think of a better way to celebrate.

>215 libraryperilous: Excellent news!

>224 pgmcc: I added two more for good measure. :)

>225 Narilka: Thank you!

62. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet: the crew of the patched-together Wayfarer, a spaceship that bores jump tunnels, like their life. They mostly like each other, and they have plenty of time to stop for snacks, supplies, and visits with friends between jobs. They're selected to construct a jump at a faraway planet, and this time they'll have their expenses paid by the Galactic Commons. This jump is one that will connect a mysterious and belligerent species to the GC for the first time. There's a lot riding on this jump, but the crew also have their own lives to tend and grow.

I came late to science fiction, and this was one of the first sci-fi novels I read. I enjoyed it even more on this reread. It's a warmhearted story of a found family traversing the star-scattered deep. There are so many cool flourishes, like the Fishbowl with a fantastic view on the ship, or Port Coriol and its rusted out, reclaimed spaceship buildings and bustling markets. The crew of the Wayfarer and their assorted loved ones are friends you'd like to have. I'd forgotten about Dr. Chef and Ohan, so it was a pleasure to meet them again.

Of course, some big questions come up: What does it mean to be human? To be supported? To be content? What does it mean to be good to yourself and each other? At times, it can sound like a self-help book. Fortunately, the wonders vastly outweigh the lectures.

4.5 stars.

>215 libraryperilous: I am so relieved to hear this and extremely happy for you!

That's my favorite Becky Chambers so far.

>229 clamairy: Thank you!

NB: The first paragraph's spoilers reference events in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

63. A Closed and Common Orbit: After Sidra was rebooted and transferred to a body kit, she and Pepper head to Port Coriol, where Pepper works as a mech tech. The vibrant, multispecies city is a cacophony of noise and things that alert Sidra's processor. There's also the small matter that AIs aren't considered human and putting one in a body is hella illegal. Still, Sidra finds her new life interesting, if discombobulating. She makes a new friend, discovers she likes dancing, and enjoys drinking beverages, which trigger all these cool images that will help her processor understand what the experience is like for sapients who can taste: "Moonlight streaming behind a graceful white spider, weaving strand after strand of clear, strong silk".

Sidra's journey alternates with the story of Jane23, a ten-year-old who escapes from the robot Mothers at a factory and makes a new life for herself with Owl, a spaceship's AI, who is kind and nurturing. The two stories converge in a heist twist that doesn't contain too much action, because Sidra has a better idea.

I absolutely loved this, especially the ending: I want to visit this café. The title has a double meaning: We inhabit our own lives and also have things in common with everyone else inhabiting their lives in similar ways. And, we can find purpose in living a small, good life in a big, busy society. There are other things explored here, gently, and I think this entry reads less like a self-help book than The Long Way. Highly recommended, and it can be read as a standalone.

4.5 stars.

>231 libraryperilous: Glad to see you loved this one! It's on my list to get to this year. I think I had trouble letting go of the cast from the first book but I'm sure I'll love it once I get into it.

>232 curioussquared: I worried about that, too, but the story takes off quickly. I also enjoyed seeing the sights of Port Coriol, a place I would love to visit.

I had trouble getting into the Jane23 chapters, which veer into dystopian. However, Owl is adorable. You might find some of the Jane23 chapters difficult to read, because of the dogs.

64. The Spy at the Window: We find ourselves fast-forwarded two years to Highbury House in the autumn of 1939. Dorothy, in sixth form, has been made Head Girl. Justice is fifth form's sports captain (lol and ?!?!?!). Stella is worried that her brother will be called up to fight. The Hon is her usual prankster self, but she's not much of a presence in this story. The so-far phony war has England on the edge of boredom, but the girls get a change of pace when a London boys' school evacuates to Highbury. All seems strange but well, until Justice's father goes missing after the half-term holiday.

From there, the seaside village locale takes the stage. The girls and their new friend Henry try to figure out where Mr. Jones is being held, who is the mysterious face at the window, and why the wireless sometimes is left on in an empty sitting room. Justice misses her father, and her friends understand that solving his disappearance will distract her: "it wasn't a tragedy. Not yet anyway. It was a mystery. And mysteries were what Justice was good at."

One of my favorite tropes in middle grade historical fiction is a group of girlfriends solving crimes. I love sinking into their adventures and pretending I'm having a similar one of my own, even at my advanced age. This series makes excellent use of the boarding school and its location on the marshes near the seaside village. I did want more of the Hon. Letitia is my favorite character, and her brashness was missed. The tone of this entry was wistful, and I gathered from a line in the author's note that we've reached the end of Justice's adventures. Alas.

Five stars.

I'm late catching up on your thread, but wanted to wish you a dance with NED in 5 years. I remember mine. That was 7 years ago. Have been dancing since. (NED = No evidence of disease, a term often used in cancer treatment to define the 5 year cure).

>235 Bookmarque: Thank you. And, hooray for your NED dancing!

I signed up for The Storygraph to track my sci-fi reads and get some recommendations. I'm using the account specifically for sci-fi recs. I don't think LT's recommendations system is the greatest—at least, not for the way I use LT. I want to read more and more varied books in my favorite genre, rather than just relying on my TBR list, so Storygraph is useful at the moment.

So far, my Storygraph experience is mixed. The recommendations function is great, and you can be very specific. I entered a good combination of sci-fi terms and reading preferences, from 'generation starship' to 'political intrigue' to 'found family.' I'm interested in almost all the recommendations it returned. But there isn't a way to mark the recs as 'no' or 'already read.' You have to either remove the rec from your list or add it to your library if you want it to go away. Removing the books doesn't seem to update your recommendations list, either.

Adding books you've read is clunky, and you have to 'review' a book to rate it. You don't have to write a review, but you have to go to the review page to enter a star rating. And, your stats reflect how other people have marked the books. E.g., I reviewed a book as reflective, but it doesn't show up in my stats as reflective. The plus account may offer that feature. The stats also may be more useful after I've cataloged more titles.

The layout is pretty and uncluttered. For people who like charts and graphs, the Stats section is fun. The use of moods and pacing is helpful, especially for the recommendations. I like that you can use quarter stars and set up reading challenges. I joined a couple of sci-fi sub-genre reading challenges. All in all, I think it will be useful for finding books to read, which is what I wanted. I recommend it for that, but not for cataloging.

My Storygraph username is imperiledreader.

65. Record of a Spaceborn Few: A look at life in the Exodan Fleet, the Human spaceships now living in a colony out in the stars. Life on these ships, which originally departed a wasted Earth, are structured to resemble life on a planet, even though the memory of life on a planet is ancestral, at best, and kept alive by the Archivists. Nothing is wasted on the ships, including human bodies. The Fleet attracts restless Humans from planetside settlements, and it bleeds wanderers from its own population. The Fleet's seen better days, and there's both bitterness and pride.

The disparate threads of a few Fleet residents and a visitor form the basis of this entry in the Wayfarers series. It's the weakest entry in the series. We're meant to ponder exploration, diaspora, and progress. Instead of being thoughtful, it feels more like 'grass is always greener' arguments. The characters are good people going about their daily lives, doing the best they can, failing the way we all do. But something about this one just doesn't feel as cozy or immediate.

This was a reread, and I didn't like it any better this time. I liked it. It just didn't wow me.

Four stars, rounded up from 3.5 because I liked Ghuh'lolan.

I'm not counting "Signal Moon" in my totals, as it's a short story, but I enjoyed this book bullet from clamairy. It's a valentine to all the hidden figures of WWII who did the secret, unglamorous work of monitoring the Nazis' airwaves, working day and night to intercept, decode, and sort the wheat from the chaff.

I think I would have liked this a bit more if it had been a novelette. There would have been more room for the SFnal elements, which intrigued me. (However, since I have read The Rose Code, I suspect Quinn would have used the space for a soap operatic love story instead.)

4.5 stars. Recommended.

66. Looking for Emily: unique and gripping middle grade mystery set in a slightly faded English seaside town and featuring a museum to a missing girl, three incorrigible kid detectives, and stormy, wintry seas. I loved the town of Edge and its slightly shabby seaside promenade.

When Lily moves to Edge from the city, she's bored and angry. She gets lost on the way home and finds herself in the Museum of Emily, a fisherman's home turned into a collection of trinkets and favorites of the eponymous Emily. Lily finally manages to make two friends, and the three look for clues to Emily's last name, her story, and her possible whereabouts. But someone doesn't want them getting too close to the truth ...

This was so clever and good, the kind of story you can sink into. Some of the elements would be quirky were it not for the slightly creepy town, the salt-sprayed danger, and the incorrigibleness of the children. The children's mystery market has bored me of late. This one is a standout.

Five stars.

>238 libraryperilous: I have been stuck halfway through this one for a couple of years, I think. Might be time for me to jump ship. (Pun intended.)

>239 libraryperilous: I'm glad you liked it! I didn't realize The Rose Code was soap opera-ish. Maybe I'll bump it from my TBR. It has such a high rating hereon LT. Is it perhaps a high quality soap? LOL

>241 clamairy:
Rose scented, perhaps.

>242 pgmcc: No doubt!

>242 pgmcc:, >243 clamairy: At least lilac.

>241 clamairy: If you're stuck on the Chambers, I can confirm that nothing changes in the second half of the book. Something happens to one of the characters, but it doesn't change the pace or tone of the novel.

Re: The Rose Code, I'd call it well-written book club fiction. The drama in the novel mostly stems from interpersonal relationships and personal sadness, not from the friends' employment at Bletchley Park or the spy in their midst. I had expected more of an espionage thriller or a historical mystery. The details about the Blitz felt accurate and appropriately sad. I think Quinn's writing style is similar to Jennifer Ryan's, but with longer and less cheerful plots.

>240 libraryperilous: Ooh, Looking for Emily has been added to the list :)

>238 libraryperilous:, >241 clamairy: Record of a spaceborn few was by far my least favourite of the series. I didn't really connect with any of the characters or their stories. The galaxy and the ground within was a strong return to form though.

>246 Sakerfalcon: They don't have much to do or much connection to each other. Something definitely was missing from this entry in the series. Galaxy is my favorite and one of my all-time favorite novels.

67. Haven: A Small Cat's Big Adventure: When Haven's beloved Ma Millie falls ill, Haven ventures into the scary outdoors to seek assistance from their neighbor, Jacob. Haven is just a tiny cat with a big heart but not an ounce of bravery, and the forest is big and full of scary noises. She meets a fox who's bored and offers to help Haven reach the town. Their journey will see them through the forest's whispering trees, across its river, and down its ravine. As Haven learns to be brave, she worries that she won't get help for Ma Millie in time.

I liked this book, which, thankfully, does not have a The Fox and the Hound ending. However, this book doesn't send the best message to cat owners. That was disappointing, as Haven is a wonderfully drawn character, and so is her fox friend.

4.5 stars.

68. Secret of the Storm: Cassie rescues a kitten, Albert, from a dumpster after a fierce storm. It isn't too long before Albert displays some unusual, decidedly un-kittenish features: red, glowing eyes; smoking fur; burning nearby plastic; flying across the room. Cassie and her friend Joe connect a golden marking on Albert's chest with a notebook containing information on dragons. Cassie loves Albert, but he needs to find his way home. She and Joe dodge FBI agents and a creepy professor in their quest to help Albert.

I liked this. It ended on a typical middle grade cliffhanger, and the sequel isn't out until May 2023. This isn't anything special, but it's a fast-paced and enjoyable story. Albert is adorable.

Four stars.

Edited to correct numbering

69. Our Souls at Night: "And then there was the day when Addie Moore made a call on Louis Waters." She asks him, since they're both widowed, if he might like to spend nights at her place, just talking and sleeping next to one another. Louis is hesitant at first, but Addie tells him she no longer cares what others might think. Word gets around their small town of Holt, Colorado, and the scene where Louis and Addie don bright colors and parade up and down the main street had me cackling.

Addie's abusive son sends her grandson, Jamie, to stay for the summer. Louis, Addie, and Jamie form a family. They adopt a dog, go camping, head to the fair, and get root beer floats from the drive-in. The quotidian becomes the happy, not the lonely or the routine. Gene, Addie's son, is threatened by this happy home they're providing Jamie. He verbally abuses Louis and Addie for their relationship, and Addie must choose between her found family and her biological one. In the end, it's not conformity that kills Addie's happiness but her own complacency.

This is a beautifully written novel. I'm not spoiling anything by saying it's sad. The jacket copy calls it 'bittersweet' and the writer's foreshadowing is clear. I do wish domestic fiction would get away from its obsession with unhappy endings. Haruf might be forgiven this one, as he wrote this novel while dying of a chronic disease.

Four stars.

70. The Librarian Spy: Librarian Ava Harper is recruited to join the US Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal, helping the government collect and microfilm publications that might assist the war effort. In Lyon, France, Elaine Rousseau operates a printing press for a Resistance newspaper. Elaine meets a Jewish woman who wants to join her husband in America and has her toddler son with her. Other members of her cell are reluctant to help, so Elaine slips a coded message into the weekly broadsheet. Ava reads it a week later while scanning the newspaper and begins to look for ways to help.

On one hand, this is sloppily and floridly written book club fiction, designed to tug at one's heart strings, full of convenient coincidences, patriotic declarations about fighting the Nazis, and hopeful endings for its characters. A lot of the information about the French Resistance is dumped in conversations between resistants. People, loose lips sink ships. Both women also know men who pop up at convenient moments to help them.

On the other hand, I stayed up until 4 am reading it, caught up in both characters' stories. The author did not shy from either the US government's (entire world's) mistreatment of refugees or the dangers of Resistance work. She also regularly mentioned the US media's poor coverage of the war.

Overall, this is a good and interesting entry in the "Resistance woman" fiction that is popular right now. I'm just not sure that the genre is serving either its subjects or its audience the best possible stories. The genre feels soap operatic, and there's already pathos in the heavy and sad truths of the Resistance. As for the girl power message of the stories, I don't think they're wrong, per se: individual acts do often add up to something collective. But they can distract from how much hard work went into resisting: constant vigilance and searches for information; internecine battles and betrayals; arguments over the most effective strategies; the daily grind of the bureaucratic and sourcing details that kept the movement afloat. Civil rights battles are a long haul, and it feels like a missed opportunity to show readers that. Instead, publishers have gone for the cheaper and easier savior stories.

Four stars.

71. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches: Mika Moon, 31 and a witch, receives a job offer at Nowhere House, an out of the way mansion in seaside Norfolk. She's contracted to teach three earnest yet mischievous children how to control their magic. Magic is delightful and helpful, but witches have been persecuted for centuries. Since a powerful spell went awry a few centuries ago, England's witches have had little contact with each other—or with the rest of the world. The magic can cause untrained witches to do uncomfortably obvious things, like levitate, and where untrained witches are, magic will gather in large enough quantities to attract attention. Nowhere House is occupied by the three incorrigibles and their lovable adults, and Mika quickly finds herself feeling at home—something she's longer for her whole life. There's gaiety, comfort, and a sexy librarian! But things are not all they seem at Nowhere House, and Mika's upbringing makes it difficult for her to trust in happiness or coziness.

"the ever-present gold dust around her frolicked in pleasure. Magic did so love to be used. ... 'Magic is a witch's familiar. It likes attention. I've told you before about how it can be mischievous if it doesn't get the attention it wants, but most of the time, it's a loyal friend that tries to help.'"

I liked this cozy fantasy romance. It definitely has shades of a cerulean sea. The magic system felt fresh and fun and had different parts: magic as nature's glitter, pretty but annoying; Mika's potions talent that relies on natural ingredients and creativity; spells are advice, not carved in stone. The romance wasn't too piney, and there was only one sex scene (if, like me, you aren't titillated by those). Overall, this is the kind of book to read if you want something sweet and happy with a touch of practical magic to it. I hope there are more adventures with the denizens of Nowhere House.

Four stars.

>252 libraryperilous: This one has been getting a lot of hype on BookTok. Glad to see you liked it!

>253 curioussquared: It probably is a good thing I have trouble navigating TikTok, lol. I was overwhelmed just by the few BookTubers' videos I watched for a few months. Too many book recs!

>254 libraryperilous: Honestly agreed :) I only have a few creators I actually follow on there -- my favorite is probably megstearoom. She focuses on cozy fantasy recs.

>255 curioussquared: Ooh, this is great: cozy fantasy master list! Thank you!

>252 libraryperilous: This sounds delightful, even though I'm not much of a romance reader. I will look out for it. We all need something cosy at the moment, I suspect.

>252 libraryperilous: My elder daughter Katherine was commenting that "cosy fantasy" seems to be more of A Thing in the US rather than on this side of the pond. I'll draw her attention to this.

>257 Sakerfalcon: I think you might like it. It's more of a found family cozy than a standard romance. The writing style is more on par with a rom-com than a Harlequin. Something we probably both would like is a cozy fantasy written in mid-century domestic fiction style. Maybe that will become a trend!

>258 haydninvienna: I hope we all see more of them. It makes for a nice, cozy break! If she's not read >194 libraryperilous:, I recommend it as well.

>259 libraryperilous: She has, and she recommended it and lent it to me. I read it as well.

>259 libraryperilous: Found families are one of my favourite tropes! Consider that a success book bullet hit!

72. The Wild Hunt: On a remote Scottish island both beautiful and terrible—and clearly modeled on the St. Kilda's archipelago—Leigh Welles returns from the mainland a few years after the war. She finds an island resolutely reliving the war and their losses, stuck in both their grief and the past, even as modernity has intruded. The sluagh once coexisted peacefully with the islanders each October and were a source of tourist income and pride. Now they're vicious and restless—and increased in number. The islanders dig further into their traditions and superstitions as the sluagh sink their talons more deeply into village life.

The island is a palimpsest—of grief, memories, anger, nostalgia, and insular gossip. Leigh, already guilt-ridden that she was only a child during WWII, faces both her return to island living and her father's recent death, her mother's long-ago disappearance, and her brother's resentful distance. When a local boy disappears after a bonfire night, Leigh searches up and down the island's wild places with Iain MacTavish, a former RAF pilot haunted by his own great guilt and grief.

How do you move on from the terrible personal histories that a war leaves you? How do you say goodbye to guilt and grief and choose to live? Which traditions do you keep and which do you let go? Is home still home if things are different? Who holds it all together as people retreat into their interior lives? As Leigh becomes haunted by a voice whispering, "Have you come to finish it?" she and the islanders must decide how much of the past to keep and how much to let fade. Leigh learns how she truly feels about the island, and also how the islanders feel about her and the role she took upon herself during the war.

I absolutely loved this: a WWII-era modern Gothic set on a heather-filled, brine-soaked Scottish island; with crow-like sluaghs, a handsome RAF pilot, and a communal pulse thrumming through it. This was written in a minor key, with low and slow pacing until the last few chapters—yet I couldn't put it down and wanted another 100 pages or so of story. This feels like something a slightly different Mary Stewart would have written, or a grown-up version of Hollow Chest. Also Tamsin. The WWII era is ripe for these kinds of supernaturally-tinged stories. Maybe they're more common than I realize, but this felt like a new and very successful blend of pieces of other tropes. I'm going to be thinking about this one for a long time.

Five stars: my book of the year so far.

"How desperately she wished that she, too, could sail away from all of it and not care a bit, how desperately she wished that her heart weren't made of heather and sea spray." (273)

>262 libraryperilous: 👀 putting that one on the list!

>263 curioussquared: I think you might like it? But I'm in total fangirl mode right now, lol.

>264 libraryperilous: I loved Hollow Chest and Tamsin so odds are good, I think!

73. A Venom Dark and Sweet: The Book of Tea duology concludes with a story that starts slowly, wending its way through an enchanted bamboo forest and a demigoddess' garden, before ending in a bit of a rush with a palace battle against an ancient, vengeful god. Lin writes compelling descriptions of the mouthwatering food, genteel but powerful tea magic, and kingdom in the throes of change. I wanted a bit more to the story. I think this could have been a trilogy.

Recommended to readers of YA fantasy or fans of tea fantasies. I think this is an creative spin on both genres.

Four stars.

This thread is starting to load a bit slowly on my Kindle. Time for a second edition!