This is how I’ve been spending my lunch breaks. I’m such a nerd.
What I’m Listening to Now: The Vikings
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Quick Review: The Darkest Magic by Morgan Rhodes
The series The Book of Spirit of Thieves is both a prequel and a sequel to Morgan Rhodes other series Falling Kingdoms. With it’s dueling narratives that take place centuries before and after and in the same realm as the action of her previous books and also in our own world in present time. In some ways, it fills the origin holes of some the mysteries and prophecies but stands on it own. The switching POV of Maddox, Becca, Crystal and Farrell are kind of a mix bag. I like Maddox as his is different from the others. It’s the prequel part of the story and takes place in Mytica. Becca, Crystal and Farrell are all in present day Toronto. The sisters Becca and Crystal are fine. There is a genuine love between them but a little bit of distance. Since the events of the last book, they both have learned a lot about themselves and each other and they are not sure what to do about this new knowledge. Farrell, I could do without, sort of. I understand why he is a POV but I just don’t really care that much about him as I do the others. He’s a privilege rich white boy who drinks and acts out because he didn’t get the love at home. He uses people to make him feel better and people keep giving his boorish behavior a pass because he’s just a good kid inside. He’s just hasn’t gotten over the loss of his brother. He’s being controlled by an ancient cult leader. Ok those are both true but still. I’ve over it. This series is fine and okay. I think Falling Kingdoms is a far more interesting series with more compelling characters and more twists and turns. That being said, it’s still kinda fun to read and it does fill in some wholes of the other series so it’s worth checking out if you’ve read the other series.
Series You Should Check Out: Necromancer and Firebug by Lish Mcbride
It’s been awhile since I did one of these. In fact it’s been 5 months. Oops. I think it’s about time I did another one, don’t you think? I can’t think of a better series to welcome back this column then Necromancer and Firebug series’ by Lish McBride. Really, I can’t believe I have waited this long to write about them. It’s actually two different series but they take place in the same world, just on opposite coasts. Necromancer consists of Hold Me Closer, Necromancer and Necromancing the Stone. Two of the best book titles in history of literature. I decided to read the first book based on the title alone. With a title like Hold Me Closer, Necromancer it had to be good right? Firebug at the moment is the only book in it’s series but the sequel, Pyromantic, another great title, comes out in March of next year. (I hope, I’m pretty sure. It’s released date has been pushed back more then once to my chagrin) They both take place in the underground world of the supernaturals. Sam, our hero in Necromancer is a necromancer. When he is discovered by another Necromancer he brought into a world of werewolves and other supernaturals creatures that he didn’t even know exist but now is in the thick of it. You’ll think about Seattle in a different way after reading this book. Ava, our little firebug from Firebug, is forced to work for the Coterie, a magical mafia. She along with her friends, Lock and Ezra, she must track down creatures of all kinds who are behind in their payments or doing something they are not supposed to.
So why do I like these books so much? For one thing they are hilarious! Like laugh out loud funny you just can’t help yourself. The situations the characters get in are at times so ridiculous and absurd it’s just too funny. They are also very original. Sure, there are a lot of other books that feature werewolves, ghosts, nymphs and other supernatural beings but nothing is like this. I’m not sure how to describe the weirdness of these books but they just work. There is also a realness to them as well. Sam and Ava are both great protagonists. They both find themselves in situations that are out of their control but with the help of their friends and their own gumption they find ways out of them. They both have a little sassiness to them that I love in my characters. The supporting characters are more then just comic relief or filler but true characters in their own right.
Firebug came out two years ago and I have been waiting (mostly) patiently for Pyromantic to come out. Like I said earlier, publication has been pushed back a few times because well life I guess. Lish Mcbride is not just an author but also a bookseller as well. The biggest secret of the publication world is that just because you have a book published doesn’t mean you are set for life. Most authors don’t live off of their writing. They have to have day jobs to make ends meet. Recently Lish started a Patreon page. If you not familiar with Patreon, it’s sort of a crowd sourcing website for creators and artist. You can pledge to give so much money a month to an artist and in return you get exclusive material from them. Lish so far has posted a new short story and read a chapter from Pyromantic. It’s been satisfying so far. It ties me over until her new book comes out and I also can feel good about supporting an author I love. It’s a cool way to support artists and all for that. So before Pyromantic comes out, I suggest you read Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, Necromancing the Stone and Firebug and read her public post on patreon page. You will not be disappointed.
What I’m Reading Now: Recreated by Colleen Houck
I actually started reading this a couple of days ago and it’s only meh
Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne
***Spoilers***
Whatever you feel about the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows there was a sense that it was a beginning of a story and not an end like we thought. The play in two parts, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the continuation of Harry’s story starting right at the epilogue. Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione are taking their children to the Hogwarts Express at the start of a new school year. Albus Severus Potter, Harry and Ginny’s middle child is full of anxiety over many things but most of all of being the son of Harry Potter. How can he possible live up to the legend of Harry Potter, who with his friends saved the wizarding world? On the Hogwarts Express, Albus meets another new student who also has to deal with shadow of his parent, Scorpius Malfoy. Without giving away more spoilers less just say that Albus has Harry stubbornness and his penchant to dive right in without thinking of the consequences. He and Scorpius travel back and time but they truly didn’t think about all the possible outcomes and well drama unfolds. We see everyone struggle, from trying to find their place in the world to how to relate to their children. I was able to understand Albus frustrations but I didn’t like him as I did with Harry. Honestly, the best character in the play of Scorpius. He was funny, optimistic and kind. Pretty much the opposite of Draco from the books. He had Ron’s heart and Hermione’s brain. He was the perfect friend for Albus. Harry is older but not necessarily wiser. Hermione was great as always and Ron was great too. While it was great to revisit the Wizarding World and Harry I think I’m ready to let go of them. It was a beautiful story and the ending was heartbreaking. I really want to see it performed because there are many things that happen that I’m not sure how they do on stage. Like when a couple of characters take polyjuice potion and change into other characters on stage. That’s just one example. I really hope this comes to Broadway or it’s get filmed because I don’t think I’ll be making it to London anytime soon.
Review: The Reader by Traci Chee
A world without books sounds terrible. Who would ever want to live like that. I know there are people in this world who can read but choose not and it’s baffling but that has nothing to do with this book. Books can really change a life. For Sefia, her life was simple until her father is murdered and she is forced to go on the run with her Aunt Nin. For years, her parents have been hiding a mysteriously item and people are hunting down Sefia and Nin for it. When Nin gets kidnapped, Sefia finally decides it’s time to find out what she’s carrying and why people murdered her father and how she can get Nin back. It is a book. It tells her. In Sefia’s journey she is joined by another orphan, Archer and pirates. Meanwhile there are dual narratives of Lon, an apprentice to the Master Librarian. A secret society that is tasked with gathering all the knowledge of the world and controlling it. They spend their time recopying texts from one manuscript to another and learning to see people’s pasts in vision. Lon proves to be a fast learner and with the help of the Second, a assassin apprentice he begins to see things are not as they seem. We also meet Captain Reed and his crew first in Sefia’s book and then for real. At first it was confusing with all these story lines going on at the same time. I could tell that they were all meant to tie together but it just didn’t jive. I started to guess that one of the story lines wasn’t happening at the same time as the others and then things started to make sense for me. It was an exciting first book to a new series. Sefia is strong and resourceful. She is resolute in finding the ones she loves. She teaches herself how to read and discovers the secret of the book. Archer has an equally tragic backstory. Taken from his family at a young age, he is raised in violence and forced to fight to the death. It’s all mixed with tension and intrigued. I can’t wait to read the next one.
What I’m Reading Now: The Darkest Magic by Morgan Rhodes
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Review: The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
For a superhero who has outlasted all by Superman, Batman and Captain America, she doesn’t get the recognition she deserves. She was created to inspire young woman to take up their rightful place in society as her creator William Moultan Marston once stated that in the next 1,000 years, Woman will rule the world. He wanted a superhero that embody female strength can be just as strong as any man if not stronger. To truly understand Wonder Woman and her place in history, you really have to know who origins and the man (and the women who inspired) who created her. William Moultan Marston was an heir to a family with a long history. An only child who was doted on by his mother and four aunts. His wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, was just as educated as he was and was often the breadwinner of the family and his other wife, Olive Byrne (yep, he had two wives) was once his student and the caretaker. He was a lawyer and academic. He invented the lie detector. He wrote screenplays and worked for Universal Studios during the earlier days of Hollywood. He was a little bit of everything and a little bit of a mess. He failed as more then he succeeded but all of it culminated in creating Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth was an extension of his life work of seeking truth through his own lie detector machine and research. Wonder Woman’s bracelets were inspired by his second wife’s, Olive Byrne,bracelet that she wore instead of a wedding ring. Speaking of Olive she was the niece of Margaret Sanger. Champion for birth control and founder of Planned Parenthood. Feminism was strong in the family. Actually the suffragist movement very much influenced Wonder Woman as the stories and imagery can be seen all over the the early Wonder Woman comic book. This was a very easy read that goes into the great detail of William Marsters life and highlight moments in his life that he drew upon to create his Amazonian. It may take a while before you get the actual creation of Wonder Woman but Jill Lepore does a great job of showcasing how people, situations and politics would influence Moultan Marsters and how they ended up in his work. How an old professor turned into Dr. Psycho. Or how the art of Lou Rogers inspired story lines. How the likes of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady shaped Wonder Woman’s character and how his own wives and children breathed life into her as well. Sadly, it also shows how the Wonder Woman changed after Marster’s death. Like many women after World War Two, Wonder Woman was forced back into the kitchens even if it went against her origins. She may have gone completely by the wayside if it wasn’t for Women’s movement in the 60’s and 70’s but even then she wasn’t the same. It’s sad to see that many of the issues that Wonder Woman faced in the late 30’s and 40’s we are still facing today. The criticism of her is still charged against many female protagonist of any genre. Progress has been made but we are still so much to go. You to like this book you don’t know need to know anything about Wonder Woman or even comics to enjoy it. You just need to have an appreciation for a good story and kick ass woman.
What I’m Reading Now: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne and John Tiffany
Based on an original story by J.K. Rowling as we all know. You might not know that Jack Throne is also adapting the screenplay for Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races.
Review: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
In terms of format, this is a really neat book. It is part text and part drawings. Junior, the narrator (and the part-time Indian) is an artist. He lives on the Spokane Indian reservation and, after an incident where he throws a textbook at a teacher after he feels the world collapsing in on him, he enrolls in the school in the next town over. The mostly white school. He’s a smart and funny kid with a lot of artistic talent. I was really taken by the voice of the narrator, who inhabits this in-between place. He’s Spokane, but because he’s left the reservation school and at least one of his friends feels abandoned he doesn’t always feel at home when he’s at home anymore. But, he’s always the outsider at his new school. Junior’s experiences highlight a lot of problems on reservations. There is crushing poverty and we see that through Junior and his family. There is lack of access to resources and we see that through his first school and through his interactions with his best friend and with his sister (who used to dream about being a romance author and now just lives as a shut-in in his parents basement.) There is racism when he leaves the rez and there is a high instance of alcoholism. There is cultural appropriation and cultural theft. We see all of these things in Junior’s story. While he has a lot of high points in his first year at his new high school, he has some terrible low ones. This book had me in tears more than once. But, it was an interesting read. In particular, it was really interesting to see this character struggle with and work through his identity moving between these two worlds that he inhabits.
And, while I have no doubts that things really are that bad (lack of access to resources, poverty, alcoholism, racism, troubling representations of native peoples, violence towards indigenous people, in particular indigenous women), I… I felt like towards the end of the novel that I was maybe being told things that someone may have thought I wanted to hear? Or, maybe like I was voyeuristically looking in on someone else’s tragedy and pain that was set up in a manner particular for my consumption? I don’t know. The characters were real and believable, the text was believable. I just…felt like I was being sung a sad song because that was the theater I’d walked into.
That being said, the book really is a neat format and the characters were really likable and if you know going into it that this book is going to make you cry and that’s something you don’t mind I recommend it.
This book counts as my book with a character who is Native America, Indigenous Mexican or First Nations in the Diverse Stacks, Diverse Lives Challenge.
2 Women, So Many Books 