Category: Currently Reading Page 4 of 73

I’ve done this a few times some years ago, but as a practice, it never stuck. But as I spend time doing this every month for myself, I might as well take a couple of minutes and post it, right? This is not going to be exhaustive list—I’ll probably read other things, too, and may not get to all of these. But as of today, this is my plan for the month.

Last month, I only missed one of the list (but it was rescheduled). I’m not sure how I’m going to do this month–I’ve got some real hefty ones ahead of me. But you never know, I have a couple of things that could slip in as well.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. In this character-driven sci-fi story, the introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself has never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, this tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling sci-fi adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

I read this back in 2018 (and liked it better than I recalled), and it’s the next title for the Science Fiction Book Club. Time to freshen my memory. I trust 2018-me, and should have some fun.

Fairest Hunter

by M. K. Felix

A rebellious huntress. A cursed prince. A coup to change it all.

Rowena:
The king spreads darkness with his words, and when he asks me to kill his own son, it’s the final tipping point for me. Guess that solves the issue of how to overthrow the tyrant. We’ll put Prince Alvor on the throne. Except, the Alvor before me is not the same one I knew growing up. This Alvor, well he’s entirely too alluring. He keeps tearing my walls down, reminding me that I'm not the only one who needs to fight for this kingdom.

Alvor:
With one glance into Rowena’s eyes, something changed. She has magic, and the more I reconnect with her, the more I'm sure she’s the key to saving our kingdom. But time is not on our side. I need to claim the throne before my father drives our kingdom into the ground with his greed. The only problem? I’m not ready to let Rowena sacrifice herself for me or my people. Especially not after she broke my curse and rekindled the sparks in my heart.

I’ve talked to Felix a couple of times at local author events, and she made this sound fun. I like combining Robin Hood and Snow White–sure, Robin Hood + anything is likely my jam. But these two together sounds promising.

Jibberjack, Fibberjack

by Stefanie Gamarra, illustrated by Marta Pilosio

Jibberjack, Fibberjack is a clever whodunit about thinking for yourself and asking better questions.

When a mysterious creature starts scaring the chatty town of Rumorridge, only Frida asks more questions. With her detective hat, trusty notebook, and a nose for nonsense, she's sure to crack the town's monster mystery.

Things quickly get serious when strange footprints appear and the town's prized pigs go missing. Questionable monster traps and the mayor's new rules only add to everyone's nervousness.

But when smelly clues mix with stinky lies, Frida begins putting the pieces together and builds a clever trap of her own.

A gentle introduction to the concept of fear-mongering for kids ages 4-8 who love asking MANY questions.

A whodunit for 4-8 year-olds sounds fun, especially one that gets into fear-mongering? This sounds like a great way to spend some time.

Hidden in Smoke

by Lee Goldberg

After dozens of Hollywood apartment buildings erupt in flames during a single night of terror, arson investigators Walter Sharpe and Andrew Walker are assigned to catch the serial torcher and end his spree. But then a catastrophic fire destroys a major freeway, crippling the city and forcing Sharpe and Walker to take on another massive case.

Desperate for help, they know exactly who to call: homicide detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone. Together the four detectives must quickly figure out whether the freeway disaster was a tragic accident...or the work of a mastermind with a horrific plan.

As the investigations collide, an old foe with a revenge scheme enters the fray, igniting a race against time to stop a conspiracy of deception, corruption, and murder.

It’s been bugging me since April of last year that I haven’t read this–if I’m two weeks late with a Goldberg book, it makes me itchy. And here I am 10 months late? Nope. Can’t take it.

Only Way Out

by Tod Goldberg

Failed lawyer Robert Green has such a good plan: Crack three hundred safe-deposit boxes and sail off to South America with his brilliant, morally flexible sister, Penny. If it weren't for the damned freezing rain.

In the dying resort town of Granite Shores, cop Jack Biddle is self-appointed king--mostly of bad decisions. Between his family's crumbling legacy, a wife who just joined the city council, and life-threatening gambling debts, Jack's looking for a way out. Then he spots a van spinning off a mountain road into the valley below. In the wreckage, Jack finds a very dead Robert, millions in heisted loot...and opportunity.

All Jack has to do is clean up the mess, disappear Robert's body, make off with the fortune, and not get caught. One hitch is Penny. Another is Mitch Diamond, a wild card ex-con who knows more about the missing fortune than he lets on. Jack, Penny, and Mitch each have an endgame. But there's only one way out, and they're crashing headlong toward it.

I haven’t read this Goldberg since his days of writing Burn Notice–and assume I’ve been missing out. This one looks like a great way to reacquaint myself with him.

Black Bag

by Luke Kennard

In Luke Kennard’s audacious new novel, a penniless and out-of-work actor picks up a job working for Dr. Blend, a university professor who is conducting a psychological experiment. How will Dr. Blend’s students react to someone zipped into an oversized bag, sitting at the back of the lecture hall over a series of Fall lectures? The role, eagerly accepted, soon has unexpected consequences. A professor of post-humanism develops research questions of her own—in particular, can you love someone secreted away inside a black bag?—and the actor’s childhood friend forms a vision for monetizing this new situation . . .

A warped campus novel, an investigation into the crisis of masculinity, and an off-kilter love story, Black Bag is a firework of a novel: blazingly funny and profoundly humane.

I’m not sure exactly what it was that got my attention with this book. Perhaps it was due to the campus novel part of the description–it’s been a while since I read one of those, and have been talking to some others about them. Or maybe it was something else. But reading it now? I’m very curious. This should be an interesting diversion from my typical reads.

Nine Goblins: A Tale of Low Fantasy and High Mischief

by T. Kingfisher

No one knows exactly how the Goblin War began, but folks will tell you that goblins are stinking, slinking, filthy, sheep-stealing, henhouse-raiding, obnoxious, rude, and violent. Goblins would actually agree with all this, and might throw in “cowardly” and “lazy” too for good measure.

But goblins don't go around killing people for fun, no matter what the propaganda posters say. And when a confrontation with an evil wizard lands a troop of nine goblins deep behind enemy lines, goblin sergeant Nessilka must figure out how to keep her hapless band together and get them home in one piece.

Unfortunately, between them and safety lies a forest full of elves, trolls, monsters, and that most terrifying of creatures…a human being.

1. This sounds fun. 2. I’ve got two big, dark, and probably bloody Fantasy books on tap this month. I could use something lighter and shorter.

Butterfly Effects

by Seanan McGuire

Sarah Zellaby is a Johrlac, a member of a species of psychic ambush predators colloquially referred to as “cuckoos.” Eight years ago, she survived the difficult, painful process of becoming a cuckoo queen…although not without costs. In the wake of her transformation, the man she loved was entirely erased from his own mind, forcing her to reconstruct him from the memories of the people who knew and loved him.

Sarah has been struggling to come to terms with her actions ever since. But there's no one else on the planet with the power to hold her accountable—until the Johrlac authorities show up. It’s time for her to stand trial for what she's done, something which can only happen on Johrlar, home world of her species, where the population is controlled by a system of unyielding hiveminds and crime is punishable by erasure.

With Sarah’s life on the line, her family will need to find a way to cross dimensional borders and survive a hostile, telepathic world in order to get her back—before the Sarah they know ceases to exist.

But no matter what happens, actions have consequences... and Sarah Zellaby is about to learn that lesson the hard way.

Chaos, noun:
1. The inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a complex natural system.

Chaos theory, noun:
1. A branch of mathematical and physical theory that deals with the nature and consequences of chaos and chaotic systems.
2. The study of unpredictable systems.
3. See also “impossible math.”

Sure, a new InCryptid novel is an auto-read for me. But one focused on Sarah is really appealing. Sarah surrounded by Johrlacs? Appealing doesn’t cut it.

Banners of Wrath

by Michael Michel

War has come...

A Kurgish host wreaks havoc among the mountain clans, slaughtering and enslaving their way up the ladder of power.

To the east, the Scarborn fortify their position while they plot their next attack.

As chaos and social unrest unfold across Namarr, Scothea mobilizes for holy conquest. The Arrow of Light’s grip on his cultists grows stronger, his miracles ever more alarming.

Meanwhile, the battle in the River of conscious reality has just begun.

With every day that passes and every hero that dies, the odds of preventing annihilation dwindle..

This was on last month’s list–but the publication got pushed back. I still couldn’t have managed to read it last month, but I at least have a good reason for not getting to it. I don’t know if I’m ready for everything the blurb promised.

Jump

by DL Orton

The multiverse is collapsing. The time machine is broken. And humanity's last hope? Might already be dead.

Seven months after the EMPs brought the world to its knees, a handful of scientists are racing against extinction-and each other. Somewhere in a flooded skyscraper lies a wormhole generator that might be able to undo the apocalypse. If they can find it. If it still works. If it doesn't kill them first.

Meanwhile, Diego Nadales wakes up chained to a wall, his face bloodied and his memories fractured. He's being accused of terrorism, treason, and time travel. The last one, at least, is true.

Isabel is trapped inside a biodome ruled by the man she once trusted. But her bees-microscopic drones designed to save the planet-have been hijacked and weaponized. If she doesn't find a way out soon, her creation will wipe out the last threads of life on Earth.

Old friends return. New enemies rise. And somewhere in the chaos, one small spark of hope just might be enough to ignite a revolution.

The clock isn't ticking. It's broken.

I took part in a book tour for the first book in this series last year, time for book two. Time travel, multiverse, dystopia, and tiny android bees. (or were they wasps? I should check)

Stakeouts and Strollers

by Rob Phillips

Charlie Shaw is low on sleep. And cash. Otherwise, life is going pretty well for the ex-crime reporter: he’s happily married to his college sweetheart, he’s a first-time dad to the most adorable baby girl in existence, and he’s making ends meet as a rookie PI. But when Charlie meets Friday Finley, a frightened sixteen-year-old runaway on a stakeout-gone-wrong, his world gets a little more complicated.

Friday is looking for her estranged father Shawn, an unreliable alcoholic who left when she was young—and who also happens to be her only shot at avoiding the foster care system since her mother’s death a few weeks earlier. At first, Charlie believes the man is simply hiding out somewhere, avoiding his responsibilities as usual, but the more he investigates, the more unsettling—and dangerous—Shawn’s disappearance becomes. When his own family is threatened, Charlie realizes he’s in over his head, but can he back out now that he’s begun to care for Friday as his own?

A perfect page-turning blend of humor and high stakes, Stakeouts and Strollers is a heartwarming story of fatherhood, family, and what it really means to be a “Girl Dad.”

How cute does this sound? Come on…

The Lion & the Mouse

by Jerry Pinkney

n award-winning artist Jerry Pinkney's wordless adaptation of one of Aesop's most beloved fables, an unlikely pair learn that no act of kindness is ever wasted. After a ferocious lion spares a cowering mouse that he'd planned to eat, the mouse later comes to his rescue, freeing him from a poacher's trap. With vivid depictions of the landscape of the African Serengeti and expressively-drawn characters, Pinkney makes this a truly special retelling, and his stunning pictures speak volumes. 

This is another title in Slate’s “25 Greatest Picture Books of the Past 25 Years.

First Do No Harm

by S. J. Rozan

With River Valley Hospital in the midst of negotiations to avert a nurses' strike, a wealthy benefactor is set to give a large donation to honor of the Chief of Emergency Medicine: Dr. Elliott Chin, the brother of private investigator Lydia Chin.

Before the donation can be finalized, a member of the nurses' negotiating committee is found murdered. A morgue assistant is arrested and although he denies even knowing the victim his father and brother, both doctors at the hospital, are quick to urge him to take a plea. Another negotiating committee member abruptly resigns and a senior biomedical technician disappears. An officially off-limits section of the hospital basement turns out to be a hotbed of unauthorized—and in some cases criminal—activity.

Hired by the arrested man's lawyer, Lydia Chin and her partner Bill Smith start to dig into the events and personnel at the hospital. Among the union disputes, blackmail, thefts, lies, and a detective who really, really doesn't like them, one thing becomes clear: the dictum to "First Do No Harm” is not in effect at River Valley. As time runs short, Lydia and Bill face a complicated and dangerous task: they must unlock the hospital's secrets to save an innocent man.

Rozan’s been at her best lately, hopefully that continues (but even if it doesn’t, it’s not like she’s written a bad book). Lydia and Bill dealing with corruption in a hospital? Sounds promising.

The Rage of Dragons

by Evan Winter

The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable war for almost two hundred years. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.

Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war.

Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He's going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn't get the chance.

Those closest to him are brutally murdered, and his grief swiftly turns to anger. Fixated on revenge, Tau dedicates himself to an unthinkable path. He'll become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him.

The Rage of Dragons launches a stunning and powerful debut epic fantasy series that readers are already calling "the best fantasy book in years." 

So, I started this one yesterday. Wow. Starts off fast and hard, and really doesn’t let up. My mind is boggled and it’s probably going to get worse (or better).

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

by Mo Willems

inally, a book you can say “no” to!
 
When the Bus Driver takes a break from his route, a very unlikely volunteer springs up to take his place: a pigeon! But you’ve never met a pigeon like this one before. As the Pigeon pleads, wheedles, and begs his way through the book, readers answer back and decide his fate.

Another from that list. I know I’ve seen the cover to this/sequels around before. Might as well find out what’s behind the cover.

(Image by DaModernDaVinci from Pixabay)

I’ve done this a few times some years ago, but as a practice, it never stuck. But as I spend time doing this every month for myself, I might as well take a couple of minutes and post it, right? This is not going to be an exhaustive list—I’ll probably read other things, too, and may not get to all of these. But as of today, this is my plan.

Strange Animals

by Jarod K. Anderson

Green trips on the curb, falls flat into the street, and sees the city bus speeding toward him. And then . . . blink. He’s back on the curb, miraculously still alive. A five-foot-tall crow watches him from atop a nearby sign, somehow unseen by the rushing crowd of morning commuters. 

Desperate for answers and beset by more visions of impossible creatures, Green finds his way to a remote campsite in the Appalachian Mountains, where he meets a centuries-old teacher and begins an apprenticeship unlike anything he could imagine. 

Under his new mentor’s grouchy tutelage, Green studies the time-bending rag moth, the glass fawn, and the menacing horned wolf. He begins to see past hidden nature’s terrors and glimpse its beauty, all while befriending fellow misfits—and finding connection and community. 

Along the way come clues about the forces that set him on this path—and, most incredibly, a sense of purpose and fulfillment like nothing he’s felt before.

But Green’s new happiness promises to be short-lived, because alongside these marvels lurks a deadly threat to this place he’s already come to love.

Creepy, cozy, and beautiful, Strange Animals is a fantasy about home, belonging, and the fearfully wonderous nature all around us. 

I honestly don’t remember what precisely jumped out at me about this book when a publicist reached out to me about the ARC. Reading it now, it sounds promising–and I’m looking forward to it.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

by Ace Atkins

It’s 1985, what will soon become known as “The Year of the Spy,” and fourteen-year-old Peter Bennett is convinced his mom’s new boyfriend is a Russian agent. “Gary” isn’t in the phone book, has an unidentifiable European accent, and keeps a gun in the glove box of his convertible Porsche. Peter thinks Gary only wants to get close to his mom because she works at Scientific Atlanta, a lab with big government contracts. But who is going to believe him? He’s just a kid into BMX and MTV.

But after another woman who works at the lab is killed, Peter recruits an unlikely pair of allies—a has-been pulp writer and muckraker named Dennis Hotchner and his drag performer buddy and heavy, Jackie Demure. Both soon become the target of an unhinged Russian hitman (Is it Gary? Maybe!) with a serious Phil Collins obsession.

Meanwhile, Sylvia Weaver, a young, Black FBI agent, investigates Scientific Atlanta in the wake of the employee’s murder and discovers a nest of Russian spies in the Southern “city too busy to hate.” Little does she know her investigation is being thwarted by a seriously compromised colleague in Washington, D.C., who is in league with a lovesick, hypochondriac KGB defector who is playing both sides of the Cold War to his benefit.

As Ronald Reagan and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev prepare for a historic nuclear summit in Geneva, what happens in Atlanta might change the course of the Cold War, the twentieth century, and Peter Bennett’s freshman year of high school.

Okay, an Atkins stand-alone sounds appealing. A humorous spy-thriller set in the mid 80s? I’d take a second look at that just from this premise, but if it’s from Atkins, it’s almost a guaranteed hit.

Twelve Months

by Jim Butcher

One year. 365 days. Twelve months.

Harry Dresden has been through a lot, and so has his city. After Harry and his allies narrowly managed to save Chicago from being razed to the ground, everything is different—and it’s not just the current lack of electricity.

In the battle, Harry lost people he cared about. And that's the kind of loss that takes a toll. Harry being Harry, he’s doing his level best to help the city and his friends recover and rebuild. But it’s a heavy load, and he needs time. 

But time is one thing Harry doesn’t have. Ghouls are prowling Chicago and taking out innocent civilians. Harry’s brother is dying, and Harry doesn’t know how to help him. And last but certainly not least, the Winter Queen of the Fae has allied with the White Court of vampires—and Harry’s been betrothed to the seductive, deadly vampire Lara Raith to seal the deal. 

It's been a tough year. More than ever, the city needs Harry Dresden the wizard—but after loss and grief, is there enough left of Harry Dresden the man to rise to the challenge?

I’ve been waiting for this for ages. Mostly patiently, although that part has been getting harder lately. I really need to be sure that I’ve got my ducks in a row when this comes out, because I pretty much see myself ignoring other books until I’m done with this one.

Memes & Mayhem Volume II:

by Ashley DeLeon

Spooky mysteries meet digital dysfunction!

The Circleville Letters, The Max Headroom Incident, The Watcher House, Roanoke...and the cursed Mary Celeste. But, like...make it unhinged.

Anonymous letters that ruin lives.
A TV hijacker with a creepy rubber face.
A house that watches you.
A colony that vanishes.
A ghost ship that drips in "nope."

Throw in some conspiracy theories, bad decisions, and meme-worthy reactions, and you've got yourself another chaotic collection of cursed tales and internet irreverence.

If you like your mystery with a dash of mayhem and a side of snark, this book is for you!

DeLeon’s mix of (light) horror and storytelling through memes was so good in the first volume that I didn’t even think before shelling out some cash for this next one. This should make for a very pleasant afternoon.

Olivia

by Ian Falconer

It's everyone's favorite pig...it's OLIVIA!

Join Olivia as she...
-dresses up
-sings songs
-builds sand castles
-naps (maybe)
-dances
-paints on walls
-and—whew!—

...finally goes to sleep at last.

I’m working my way through Slate’s “25 Greatest Picture Books of the Past 25 Years,” and this is the first on the list. I have seen the cover a handful of times, so I’m not unfamiliar with it.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

by Mordicai Gerstein

In 1974, French aerialist Philippe Petit threw a tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Center and spent an hour walking, dancing, and performing high-wire tricks a quarter mile in the sky. This picture book captures the poetry and magic of the event with a poetry of its own: lyrical words and lovely paintings that present the detail, daring, and--in two dramatic foldout spreads-- the vertiginous drama of Petit's feat.

This is the second from Slate’s list. I’m curious how they manage to make this appealing for kids without instigating a bunch of copy-cat accidents on playgrounds.

Through the Ashes

by Irene Hill

He survived the fire—but the man he was didn’t.

Ever since that night, former deputy and search and rescue expert Joe Higgins has cut himself off from the world, holed up on his Wyoming ranch with only nightmares and liquor for company.

But when a young boy vanishes in the unforgiving mountains of Joe's backyard, Joe's old boss begs one last favor. Joe doesn’t want the job—but he’s the only one who can read the land well enough to find the kid before it’s too late.

What starts as a routine search spirals into something far darker. This boy didn't just wander off. The treacherous mountains tell no lies. Guilty people tell no truths. If he fails again, there will be nothing left to save.

To solve the case, Joe must confront not just the terrain, but his own demons. And the deeper he goes, the more he realizes, finding this boy might be his last shot at redemption—or the first step into a deeper hell.

I’ve talked to Irene Hill at a couple of local author events these last few months and am eager to see what she brings to the thriller genre–hopefully I dig it, because she’s got a few others ready to dive into.

All the Best Dogs

by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Manuel Preitano

For anyone who loves a dog--and anyone who loves a laugh, comes this sensitive (and silly!) story about growing up and mending fences. An enduring message of friends, community, and the joy of pets.

Ask anyone who has a dog and they’ll tell you that their dog is the best. Really, truly, the best dog in the world. Theirs is the best dog that ever lived, ever, ever, in the history of the known universe. 

Welcome to the dog park!  It’s a playground for dogs in the big city. Here, four sixth graders (and their dogs!) overlap on one hilarious and important June weekend. 

    Ezra needs to find his lost dog.

    Cup-Cup needs a friend. (She also needs to learn to walk on a leash.)

    Mei-Alice wonders if anyone will ever understand her.

    Panda wonders what will happen if she breaks the rules.

    Kaleb is covering up a terrible mistake.

    Grover and Lottie are making lots of terrible mistakes. (Some of them are disgusting.)

    And Jilly needs to make a new life in a new place. 

    On this almost-summer weekend, a series of surprises, mishaps, and misunderstandings will end up changing all of their lives.

I saw this cover in an advertisement on Bookshop.org and just had to look into it. And then once I read it, how could I not get my hands on it? There’s nothing about this that doesn’t scream “Get this, HC!!:

The Land of Sweet Forever: Stories and Essays

by Harper Lee

From one of America’s most beloved authors, a posthumous collection of newly discovered short stories and previously published essays and magazine pieces, offering a fresh perspective on the remarkable literary mind of Harper Lee.

Harper Lee remains a landmark figure in the American canon – thanks to Scout, Jem, Atticus, and the other indelible characters in her Pulitzer-winning debut, To Kill a Mockingbird; as well as for the darker, late-’50s version of small-town Alabama that emerged in Go Set a Watchman, her only other novel, published in 2015 after its rediscovery. Less remembered, until now, however, is Harper Lee the dogged young writer, who crafted stories in hopes of magazine publication; Lee the lively New Yorker, Alabamian, and friend to Truman Capote; and the Lee who peppered the pages of McCall’s and Vogue with thoughtful essays in the latter part of the twentieth century.

The Land of Sweet Forever combines Lee’s early short fiction and later nonfiction in a volume offering an unprecedented look at the development of her inimitable voice. Covering territory from the Alabama schoolyards of Lee’s youth to the luncheonettes and movie houses of midcentury Manhattan, The Land of Sweet Forever invites still-vital conversations about politics, equality, travel, love, fiction, art, the American South, and what it means to lead an engaged and creative life.

This collection comes with an introduction by Casey Cep, Harper Lee’s appointed biographer, which provides illuminating background for our reading of these stories and connects them both to Lee’s life and to her two novels.

Yes, Go Set a Watchman has made me a little trigger shy about trying this. But…it’s worth a shot. If only so I can understand it a little more–and generally gain a little more insight into one of my favorite writers.

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

by C.S. Lewis

This twist on an old story, is an exploration of love—between sisters, between friends, between teacher and pupil, between men and women. Till We Have Faces is retold through the eyes of Psyche’s oldest sister, Orual. 

Orual was born ugly and even though she’s a princess, she struggles with the death of her mother and the friction between her sisters. There are two lights in Orual’s life. One is her tutor, the Fox, a Greek slave captured through war. The other is her much younger sister Istra, later nicknamed Psyche, born from Orual’s father’s second marriage. Istra is beautiful and sweet and good but far from being jealous of her, Orual loves her as a daughter. When the priest of Ungit says that Psyche’s great beauty is an insult to the goddess and she must be sacrificed, Orual fights to prevent this. When Orual expects to find her sister dead, she finds her well and thriving. But, why can’t Orual see what everyone else sees? Blinded by her jealous love, Orual castes blame on the duplicity of gods. What is the truth? What is real?

Lewis’s novel is a brilliant examination of envy, loss, betrayal, blame, grief, guilt, and conversion. Why must holy places be dark places? Lewis reminds us of our own fallibility and the role of a higher power in our lives. “Holy places are dark places. It is life and strength, not knowledge and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood.”

This is supposed to be Lewis’ greatest work. So I’m sure there’s a really good explanation for the fact that I’ve never read it–I’ve only been reading Lewis for a measly 36 years or so.

Banners of Wrath

by Michael Michel

War has come...

To book three in the Dreams of Dust and Steel series.

Murder, betrayal, high-stakes, and sorrow and all that good stuff continued here.

Until Michel finishes the Dreams of Dust and Steel, I’m going to be rushing to get to the next thing available. I doubt I’ll finish this before the end of the month, but I’ll hopefully start it.

Remington Platypus

by Steven Nash

Remington Platypus is many things: badger, detective, Platypus by name, but not by nature.

When a grotesque body turns up in the city, a fusion of multiple species, Frankensteined together into something that should never have existed. He knows he can’t look the other way. Someone is making monsters.


His boss wants him to walk away. The Murder wants him gone. Their syndicate of crows controls half of the city. In the shadows, the Rev, their enigmatic raven leader, watches. Silent. Patient. And far too powerful.

Remington has never been good at playing it safe. But when nothing adds up, and no one is who they seem, who do you trust? In a city of fur, feathers, and fangs, where predators set the rules and prey vanish without a trace, Remington is about to learn that some monsters aren’t born, they’re made.

Raven Crime Reads raved about this on their blog, and repeatedly on their social media accounts. The strength of this made me succumb. This should be fun.

Troubled Deep

by Rob Parker

Nobody ever knew what happened to the Brindleys. One summer they were there - flashy, loud and beautiful - and then they were gone. A mother, father and two children, vanished into the East Anglian night.

Some said the family never made it home from the party; their speeding car thrown off the tracks and the four of them silently buried in the marshes. Others said they had simply moved on. For thirty years, the case remained as cold as the freezing waterways of the Norfolk broads.

Until Cam Killick found the car.

An ex-marine and ex-SBS officer, Cam Killick's PTSD has made the return to civilian life a living nightmare. The only place he can find peace is underwater, where the world is muffled to white noise. As a cold case diver it is his job to scour the waterways of the country for the lost, the submerged, the drowned, laying their stories to rest alongside them.

Except when Cam throws open the doors to the Brindley car, all four bodies are missing. And Cam will soon learn that some secrets, once submerged, are better off staying that way.

The fact that I didn’t make time for this one last year has been a bur under my saddle for months–I see it every time I look at my physical TBR shelves, taunting me. It’s beyond time to get this read.

She Who Became the Sun

by Shelley Parker-Chan

She Who Became the Sun reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor.

To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything

“I refuse to be nothing…”

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.

This is the selection for my Fantasy Book club, I know nothing about it, but it looks promising.

Lit

by Tim Sandlin

In a small town in the woods of northwest Wyoming, Kasey Cobb lives alone in a cabin, runs a drive-through coffee kiosk, and hangs out at the library, reading the classics. He's the least-likely guy to become the center of a culture clash... and death. Yet that's what happens when he strays past a book-bonfire, ignited by a pastor and his hapless followers, and inadvertently rescues a self-important (drunk) author from being burned with his obscure novel.

From that moment on, Kasey's life becomes a whirlwind that sweeps up a laconic lawman, a pissed off grizzly bear, a relentless podcaster, a sensuous librarian obsessed with death, a fierce female rancher and, most troublesome of all, a devious murderer. And yet, amidst the chaos, Kasey chases another shot at a lasting love, even if it might kill him. 

I saw something about Lit a few weeks before it was released, and I’ve been champing at the bit to get at it since.

Children of Time

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

 The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age -- a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth? 

I read my first book by Tchaikovsky last year–a fantasy novel–and have been wondering why I ignored so many people who encouraged me to read him ages ago. Looking forward to seeing how he handles SF.

The Final Score

by Don Winslow

The trademark literary style, trenchant wit, and incisive characterization that have made Don Winslow a repeat New York Times bestselling author and “America’s greatest living crime writer” (Providence Journal)are on brilliant display in this new book sure to delight Winslow’s most devoted fans and first-time readers.

The multi-million-dollar casino heist is impossible—it can’t be done. That’s what makes it irresistible to a legendary robber facing the rest of his life in prison for his “Final Score.” An ambitious, hard-working college-bound teenager has a side job delivering illegal booze to “The Sunday List” until a crooked cop, a seductive customer, and a fake guru threaten to end his dreams. Two wise guys tell each other a “True Story” over breakfast at a diner. It’s all bullshit and laughs until someone else has to pick up the check. An otherwise honest patrolman has to make an excruciating choice between his loyalty to the job and his love for a ne’er-do-well cousin in “The North Wing.” The entitled, substance-addicted movie star that surfer/PI Boone Daniels and his crew are hired to babysit in “The Lunch Break” is a problem. She also has a problem—someone wants her dead. Finally, the one terrible, momentary mistake that a devoted family man makes sends him to prison and on a “Collision” course between the man he wants to be and the killer he’s forced to become to survive.

The Final Score is a propulsive, perceptive, and deeply immersive book of crime writing — the ultimate testament to Don Winslow's prowess as a living legend of the genre.

Winslow’s deciding he was done with retirement is great (if somewhat expected) news. Can’t wait to get my hands on this. I’d say that without a Dawn Patrol story. But with one? I’m jonesing for it already.

What about you? What’re you planning to tackle this month (assuming you think that far in advance)? Have you read any of these and want to caution or encourage me as I head into them?

(Image by DaModernDaVinci from Pixabay)