Some Books I Loved

 **So much to say about this excellent, excellent dark fantasy.  But first of all, why aren't more fantasy books set in the Golden Age of Spain???  Amazing** This was a great one.  I need to read more Leigh Bardugo, don't I? At its core, the plot of this one is simple, its elements familiar.  A scullery maid, Luiza, has the power to work "milagritos", minor miracles.  Repairing a dish that was broken, fixing bread that was burnt in the oven.  Her powers are discovered by her wealthy employers, and she's thrust into a world she never imagined of court politics and intrigue, where she will find loyal friendship and vile betrayal and sometimes one that looks like the other.  You know how it goes, a classic setup And yet.  There are so many things that elevate this book, take Luiza's journey and make it something truly fantastic One thing, I have to say, is Bardugo's prose.  She has an absolute knack for everything from scene descriptions to...

Hi everyone!  Ok, we're back from hiatus, really looking forward to diving in to Hispanic Heritage Month.  From supernatural horror and magical realism (which have both been staples of Latin American Literature for a while now) to plenty of modern stuff and some classics I've neglected, this should be a great month. First, here are some books I've loved in the past: * * * "Our Share of Night" by Mariana Enriquez (trans. Megan McDowell; 2019)  **A masterpiece of supernatural horror.  You're not going to totally understand what's happening, but you're going to know that whatever it is, it's viscerally uncomfortable in the best way** "Signal to Noise" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2015) *A wonderful and personal novel about returning to your childhood home and maybe searching for some of the magic that was once there* Jorge Luis Borges  **Calling him one of the greatest short story writers ever is damning him with faint praise.  One of the greate...

 **Flash fiction, some stories less than a single page, but still able to capture elusive but undeniable magic** "How the Andan Court"   Actually, I cannot offer you roses.  Roses that taste like crystallized desire when you try to smell them.  Roses whose buds are softer than the hands of the morning mist.  Roses pierced through by the needles of nightfall. Roses that count the season’s clock with their petals, disrobing red by red until all’s gone except the sun’s winter angles.  Roses growing in walls around the wells of your heart.  Roses crowding the boundaries of your cards until every shuffle is a procession of brambles. Roses laid upon the swelling waters to be swallowed by black tides.  Roses that candy themselves as they pass your lips.  Roses so shy you can only glimpse their shadows as you fall asleep. I would rather give you roses than a bouquet of words, but I do not speak the petal language adequately and it does not admit tran...

 **A wonderful novella, whose existence is merely a justification to tell a love story and explore the highest heights of florid prose** I've been sitting on this one for a while.  First of all, I try when I can to write about books that my friends might not have read, and this book was certainly the darling of the scene for a while.  I feel like many of my friends who would like this book have already read it, hah! The other reason though is that I will readily admit this isn't for everyone.  Because let's be clear on what this book isn't , it isn't a thriller-paced "time war" story with dramatic action-packed time travel shenanigans as each side tries to outdo the other skipping across timelines to edit the past and defeat their rival.  And if that's what you expect going in, you're going to have a very confused time reading it To make matters even more confusing, there is a time war going on, with dramatic action-packed time travel shenanigans a...

 **A ridiculous, preposterous, insane grab bag of genres.  Does it work?  I think it does, and it ends as one of the most fun and inclusive novels I've read in a while** Ok, so Is this a story about a trans girl moving on from abuse and rejection, finding her identity and her courage through music? Is this a story about a celebrated performer who sold her soul to the Devil and the terrible things she will need to do to keep it? Is this a story about intergalactic soldiers, stranded on Earth and trying to find a way to rejoin the war that has already taken its toll on them? Is it a story about a struggling immigrant-run small business?  Is it a story about the very special community in the San Gabriel Valley?  Is it a Coming-of-Age story?  Is it a story about an older person finding love when they thought they'd given up? Yes.  All of the above.  This novel is ridiculous, and I love it so much In this story we meet Katrina, a trans girl who has bee...

**Simply put, one of the finest works of fiction ever written.  Not just science fiction, but fiction period.  Written by a master who was decades ahead of her time** Fire and fear, good servants, bad lords. The year was 1969.  Science fiction, though exiting the "Golden Age" and entering the "New Wave", was still largely dominated by male authors writing for male readers.  Although the industry had somewhat moved past the raygun adventures with sexy alien babes of the 50s, it was still very much a boy's club.  While much was made of science fiction "maturing" as a genre, in practice that still basically meant adventures with author-insert characters, and the "maturity" was just adding in sex and drugs (not to say that it was a complete desert, of course.  I think the work of some guys like Bradbury and Vonnegut still hold up very well.  But they were few and far between) Anyways, into this walked Le Guin, writing a novel about a cisgendered ...