January Wrap Up

 In January I read 8 books. What a great start to 2022 even though only 5 of them were planned!

I started with Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt. This was one of the oldest books on my shelves. It's a YA story about a young girl who loses her favorite uncle to AIDS, and then secretly befriends his boyfriend. This was a case of the right book at the right time. I grew so attached to the characters and ended up sobbing at the end. I gave it 5 stars.

Next I picked up the graphic novel The Magic Fish by Trung le Nguyen. This was a beautiful story about a young immigrant boy who is gay but doesn't know how to communicate with his mother. There were beautiful weaving of fairy tales into his story to tell his journey. I gave it 4 stars.

Then I read the ARC Cost of Living by Emily Maloney. I've written its own separate review but I gave it 4 stars.

Afterwards I read another ARC The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart. Again, it has its own review and I gave it 4 stars.

On an impulse, I decided to listen to Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell. This was narrated by David Tennant, whom I love. It was a bit slow but picked up quite a lot. I really enjoyed the story and the narration. I gave it 4 stars.

I read Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane. This is a memoir of a young man growing up in absolute squalor in apartheid South Africa during the 1960s-1980s. His story about being treated like a fourth class citizen and the fear of whites due to the excessive violence was absolutely eye-opening. He finds a way out and is one of the lucky ones. I gave it 4 stars.

Another whim, I decided to pick up David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. This was my second Dickens novel and I really enjoyed it. It focuses on the life of David Copperfield (based on Dickens himself) growing up and becoming a writer. While it definitely dragged some in the middle, I enjoyed this more than I expected and gave it 4 stars.

And lastly I read Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore. This was a fluffy fun story about a woman who time travels every year on her birthday to a different year of herself. On her 19th birthday, she suddenly wakes up in her 51 year old self. She attempts to change her future but ultimately accepts her weird quirk. Nothing serious but fun so I gave it 3 stars.

ARC Review of The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart

 The Saints of Swallow Hill focuses on two people working at the same turpentine camp during the Great Depression. The first perspective is Del Reese who is a single man who treats "negros" with respect and draws the ire from his racist boss. The second perspective is from a young woman named Rae Lynn who goes into the camp pretending to be a man. They strike up a friendship and we follow what happens afterward. The treatment of these desperate people during The Great Depression was awful and most likely illegal. This was incredibly eye-opening. I gave the story 4 stars because while I enjoyed most of it, I felt the ending was a bit saccharine. I was given this as an advanced audiobook copy by Netgalley for my honest review. The book is released today, January 25th, 2022.

ARC of Cost of Living: Essays by Emily Maloney

 I received an advanced audiobook of Cost of Living: Essays by Emily Maloney. This is a book of essays detailing her medical experiences as a patient and also when she worked in the medical industry, It starts with her suicide attempt at age 19 and the medical debt that followed her. She then worked a variety of healthcare jobs to try to pay off that debt. I thought this was going to be more about what it costs to live, getting medical care in the United States but that was just a small part. She also talks of the excess in the pharmaceutical industry, spending money to advertise and hold conferences. I found her thoughts on chronic pain patients and how insurance creates a dependency on medications, rather than seeking out alternative therapies interesting and enlightening. Overall, I enjoyed this collection, even though it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I gave it 4 stars and would encourage anyone interested in medicine or disability to seek it out. She narrates the audiobook herself which I enjoy with nonfiction. The book will be published February 8th, 2022. Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy.

Best Books I read in 2021

 I read a total of 59 books in 2021. While quite a bit less than usual, I did find some really great books. Here's my top 10 list:

10. The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

9. The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

8. The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels

7. The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

6.  In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

5. All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks

4. Broken (In the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson

3. The Bear and the Nightingale (trilogy) by Katherine Arden

2. Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

1. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

ARC Review for The Storm of Echoes by Christelle Dabos

 The Storm of Echoes by Christelle Dabos is the fourth and final book in The Mirror Visitor series translated from French. I was lucky to receive an advanced audiobook in exchange for my honest review. Unfortunately, the book was a huge disappointment.

While we get to know several great characters throughout the first three books, many of them are mere cameos in the fourth book. I wanted more Berenilde, Madame Rosaline, and Archibald. We get a fair bit of perspective from Victoria, a nonverbal child with the ability to dream-walk. Because she cannot warn any of the characters about what she's seen, these scenes are used to build tension by giving the readers info that the main characters do not know. I liked this in the third book as it was used more sparingly, but felt it was overused as a plot device now.

Two other things annoyed me before the ending. This book is translated from French, but the translator leaves in a lot of French words, something that wasn't done in the first three books. This gave the book an entirely different mood. Secondly, there is a lot of focus on infertility that seemed incredibly out of place, especially for a YA book. I know the protagonist is now a bit older, probably 20-21 but when facing the destruction of arks and losing great swaths of people, it felt like an odd thing to focus on.

Even with these complaints, I was still enjoying the book until the last 40 or 50 pages. The pacing suddenly speeds up, several reveals happens, making little to no sense. I felt the author didn't know how she was going to make some things happen so she shoehorned in events that she wanted to occur, even if there were no links or clues to these sudden reveals.

I ruminated on how to rate this and decided on 2 stars. I don't hate it, but I also don't recommend reading this book either. While this is a quartet, it really feels more like two duologies. The first two books focused on politics and magical societies whereas the latter two focus on religion/god/cults. 

Both the book and the audiobook are out now. Thanks to Netgalley for my advanced copy.

January TBR

Here's what I want to get to in January.

1.  Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane

2. Saga issue #55 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples

3. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

4. Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

5. The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

6. Tears of Amber by Sofia Segovia

7.  The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

8. Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

9. Cost of Living by Emily Maloney (ARC) 

10. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

December Wrap Up

 In December I read 4 fantasy books.

I picked up The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden to finish out the trilogy. A snowy wintery read that was nearly perfect. As it is the third book, I don't want to say what it was about but I loved it and gave it 4.5 stars.

I read The Hatmakers by Tamzin Merchant. This was a cute children's fantasy about different clans of "makers" and a king that needed their help. It was silly and fun and I gave it 4 stars.

Next I read A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske. I knew there was a M/M romance in this, but didn't realize it was smutty. A man who doesn't know about magic gets a cursed tattoo and a magician tries to help him. I enjoyed this quite a lot and will continue on with the series when new books are released. 4 stars.

I read The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu. I'd heard fun things about a magical school, and while that wasn't quite true, I still enjoyed this story immensely. A girl yells at a sorcerer and is sent to a troubled girls school where she has to learn "manners". She makes friends and uncovers a long-held secret. I flew through this and gave it 5 stars.

I'm in the middle of another book that is an ARC, so I'll review it separately.