Book-Movie Match-Up: Agatha Christie
Book or movie? With so many Christie adaptations and books to choose from, we’ve rounded up the cinematic cream of the crop and the stories that give the most mystery mileage.
Book or movie? With so many Christie adaptations and books to choose from, we’ve rounded up the cinematic cream of the crop and the stories that give the most mystery mileage in text form just in time for her birthday on September 15.
READ THE BOOK: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
The premise is simple enough — a newly retired Hercule Poirot agrees to investigate the murder of wealthy Roger Ackroyd. But this book turns the detective novel on its head in the best possible way. No wonder the Crime Writers’ Association voted it the best crime novel ever written.
Make your own call
Orson Welles’s radio drama The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the best of the dramatic adaptations.
WATCH THE FILM: Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
Even Agatha Christie approved of Sidney Lumet’s star-studded adaptation of her 1934 classic — though she took issue with star Albert Finney’s scantier-than-she’d-imagined mustache for Poirot.
Make your own call
The book is pretty darn good, too, though.
READ THE BOOK: And Then There Were None (1939)
In this atmospheric thriller, ten strangers are invited to an isolated island, where they’re accused of past crimes and murdered one by one. The tension builds as they realize that the killer must be one of their own number.
Make your own call
This fairly recent BBC adaptation channels the book’s lingering atmospheric dread.
WATCH THE FILM: Death on the Nile (1978)
Mia Farrow is compelling as a jilted lover and Peter Ustinov brings a Continental gravitas to his first outing as Poirot in this gorgeously filmed whodunnit, featuring some pretty spectacular Egyptian scenery.
Make your own call
The book pulls your sympathy from one suspect to the next.
READ THE BOOK: Crooked House (1949)
Christie broke all the rules in this ostensibly mild-mannered investigation into the murder of a wealthy magnate by his granddaughter’s worried fiancé.
Make your own call
The 2017 adaptation plays up the drama — but it does star Glenn Close.
WATCH THE FILM: The Mirror Crack’d (1980)
Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak play to type as Hollywood actresses while Angela Lansbury is a convincing Miss Marple in this adaptation about a would-be murderer terrorizing a visiting actress.
Make your own call
The original book makes Miss Marple’s mild-mannered revelation feel completely shocking, even though there have been plenty of clues laid.
READ THE BOOK: Five Little Pigs (1942)
Christie gives Poirot a chance to test his own theory of detection — that all you need is sufficient reflection to solve any crime—in his investigation of a sixteen-year-old murder.
Make your own call
The best adaptation of this book is probably the season 9 Poirot episode.
This list was originally published in the summer 2015 issue of HSL. (We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Going Out With a Bang! 10 Great Apocalypse Novels for High School
It’s the end of the world as we know it — and sometimes that’s not as bad as it seems. These 10 books about the end of the world are great for starting big conversations with your high school homeschooler.
It’s the end of the world as we know it — and sometimes that’s not as bad as it seems. These 10 books about the end of the world are great for starting big conversations with your high school homeschooler.
I’ve decided to go out with a bang(!) in my book recommendations this summer by listing my Top Ten Tales of the Apocalypse.
I’m actually something of a reading wimp, with a low tolerance for horror and blood-drenched thrillers. For many years, I carefully avoided zombies and other world-ending events (Meteors! Vampires! Really Bad Flu!) in my fiction, but in the past few years I’ve discovered a new attraction to near-apocalypses. Impending death forces characters to deal with the meaning of life — and do some very serious prioritizing — and I think many of us, in our everyday probably-not-the-end-of-the-world lives, struggle with how to separate what is meaningful and necessary from what is unimportant and time-wasting.
Of course, along with bringing up interesting moral issues, apocalypses are usually chock full of violence and death, so (unless otherwise noted) I’d recommend the following books for teen readers and up.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Two decades after a civilization-shattering pandemic, a small troupe of musicians and actors visits enclaves of survivors to stage Shakespeare plays. Their motto, taken from an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, is “Survival is Insufficient.” This novel achieved both popular and critical success upon its 2014 release and deservedly so. What I love about it, and what sets it apart from so many other popular end-of-the-world sagas (looking at you, The Walking Dead), is its refusal to give up hope. Mandel portrays the darkness in human nature, but she also sees the light — the ability of people to pull together in terrible circumstances and create communities that protect and support each other. By making room for all possibilities instead of focusing only on what is selfish and destructive in humanity, she creates a world populated by characters I can recognize and actually believe in.
The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters
Hank Palace has finally achieved his dream of becoming a detective. Unfortunately, it’s under difficult circumstances: an asteroid is scheduled to hit Earth in six months, causing an extinction-level event, and in this pre-apocalyptic world civilization is starting to break down. If the world is going to end in less than a year, do you keep going to work every day? Is the answer different if you are a police officer, or a surgeon, or someone responsible for keeping the power on? In addition to the murder mystery at the core, there are a lot of fascinating moral questions in this novel, first in a trilogy (which, SPOILER ALERT, does not end well).
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
I love this book so much that I don’t even know how to tell you about it. Set after the Go-Away War, where humanity was devastated by the invention of a new weapon that caused people and objects to simply go away (with, not so shockingly, unexpected and terrible side effects), we follow the adventures of two best friends, part of a team of ex-special-operatives, as they take on a dangerous mission. With mimes, ninjas, and pirates! Amazon calls it a “hilarious, action-packed look at the apocalypse” but fails to mention that certain readers may become so attached to the characters that things get very emotional at times. (I only cried a little, OK?) This is one of those books that is not going to work for everyone, but if you’re are in the mood for a novel that is so out there you’ll read most of it with your jaw hanging open in amazement, you should look no further. (Don’t forget to pick up Harkaway’s other two books, Angelmaker and Tigerman, and definitely email me so we can discuss them all AT LENGTH.)
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Forget Brad Pitt. This novel (which shares a title with the movie version, but not much else) consists of a series of interviews with various survivors of the Zombie War. It’s unique in that it depicts the global scale of the disaster and tells much of the story from the perspective of the military forces involved. Some of the events were so disturbing and haunting that it took me years to work up the courage to reread it, whereupon I discovered that the pieces I found so unsettling were only mentioned briefly in the narrative — the author had succeeded so well in creating the world that I had filled in all the blanks myself without even realizing it. Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to listen to the audiobook adaptation, which includes Nathan Fillion, Alan Alda, and Mark Hamill among its stellar cast.
The Sundial by Shirley Jackson
In this list I’ve chosen to highlight more recent books, leaving off classics like The Stand, On the Beach, and Alas, Babylon, but I had to include this 1958 novel by Jackson. One of her less well-known works, it follows the Halloran family after Aunt Fanny has a vision of the coming apocalypse. As one would expect in a Jackson story, the Hallorans and their hangers-on are strange, unsettling, and occasionally very funny. Plus there’s a creepy mansion, so that’s good.
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
Adolescent Julia and her family struggle to deal with massive changes as the rotation of the Earth inexplicably slows. While I struggled a bit with the science (or the massive lack of it) in this particular apocalyptic scenario, that’s not really the point. Instead, as Buffy the Vampire Slayer used a Hellmouth to point out the challenges of high school and teenagerhood, Walker uses the possible end of the world as a backdrop for this coming of age tale, where Julia wonders if she’ll even survive the dramatic changes, both personal and global, taking place in her world. (This is one of the only novels on the list that I’d be okay handing to a middle schooler.)
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Prior to winning every lit award on the planet with Underground Railroad, Whitehead wrote this zombie novel, following the protagonist and his fellow “sweepers” as they patrol the ruins of New York City, trying to eliminate the remaining infected. It’s a slow-moving, thoughtful take on the zombie genre—at least until everything starts to go horribly, inevitably wrong.
Pure by Julianna Baggott
I’ve read my share of YA dystopias (usually featuring a female lead born to set things right) but the post-apocalyptic world of Pure is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Pressia lives outside, with the other “wretches” suffering the effects of radiation which has caused human flesh to fuse with inanimate objects, while Partridge and his family live among the “pures” in the Dome. This novel, first in a trilogy, was unsettling and unique and memorable, and I couldn’t wait to read the sequels—which, unfortunately, I ended up disliking intensely for many reasons, but mostly because they didn’t live up to the promise of the first volume. Despite that disappointment, Pure was so good that I still recommend it for anyone looking for something new and powerful in the YA dystopia genre, though I wouldn’t necessarily advise continuing on in the series.
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Some say the world will end in science, some say in magic — but why choose? In this award-winning science fantasy, two childhood friends take diverging paths — one talks to animals, one builds a two-second time machine—but as they reach adulthood and the planet falls apart around them, they must figure out if they can work together to save the world. I already gushed about this one with Amy on the podcast, but I can’t resist an opportunity to recommend it again.
The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
I’ve saved one of my very favorites for last—this zombie-apocalypse novel takes on deeply human themes while still being scary and action-packed and gory (as one expects when you’ve got zombies around). It was the inspiration for the high school Apocalyptic Lit class I’ll start teaching in a few weeks at the Academy (which will also cover Station Eleven, The Last Detective, The Sundial, and The Age of Miracles). And I can’t really tell you much more than that, because part of the fun going in is not knowing exactly what’s happening, so email me when you’re finished reading and ready to talk about it. (In the meantime, I’ll be reading the just-out prequel, The Boy on the Bridge.)
A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster by Rebecca Solnit
BONUS NON-FICTION PICK: I sang the praises of this terrific book in a recent Library Chicken Update, so I’ll try to keep it short here, but if you’re interested in what actual human beings do in actual times of disaster (HINT: It’s a lot more like Station Eleven than The Walking Dead) you should pick this up immediately. Even without the occasional solar eclipse, it’s been feeling a bit like the end of the world lately, and I found this book to be both timely and inspirational in its depiction of how human beings can come together to help each other. Fair warning: it’s also frustrating and sad and maddening at times as it details the ways that authority figures have let us down in the past (the Hurricane Katrina chapter is especially difficult), but we can only change the narrative when we understand what’s gone wrong and why.
Here’s hoping that we get through the next year with no mutant-zombie-vampire-pandemics (if there is an apocalypse, I’ll be the one with zero useful survival skills), and I’ll see you next summer!
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Amy’s Library Chicken: What I Read in May
Modern Gothic, hopeful speculative YA, classic kids lit mash-up, and one of my favorite new book discoveries made May an awesome reading month.
May is a heavy grading month for me, so a lot of my reading was student writing! I’m also reading lots of books to prepare for classes next year, which I will only review if I think they’re worth reading as standalones in their own right. But I thought some of the books I read this past month were pretty great.
White Smoke may be the modern Gothic vibe I’ve been looking for — maybe the missing ingredient in modern Gothic is that sense of real-life evil permeating beneath the surface, and this book (by Tiffany D. Jackson, who also wrote the terrific Monday’s Not Coming, which isn’t Gothic, but which now that I am looking back it definitely has that air of foreboding so essential to The Gothic Experience) tangled its haunted house mystery up with racism and capitalism in ways that made it genuinely creepy. Marigold’s mom wins an art fellowship that comes with a lovingly restored house in a small town all the way across the country. It’s a fresh start: Mari’s mom has just married a widower with a tween daughter, and they’re trying to figure out what their new family looks like, especially since Mari, her mom, and brother are Black, and Alec and Piper are both white. Mari’s also got stuff of her own to navigate: After an unfortunate bedbug incident triggered her OCD (and a drug coping mechanism that ended up with her overdosing her bedroom), Mari’s just trying to figure out how to get through the day. This is hard because their new house is weird — doors open on their own, shadows flit by places where shadows shouldn’t be, the power cuts on and off at weird times, and Mari’s new sister warns her that “Aunt Suga” doesn’t want Mari in her house. Trigger warning for bedbugs (I cannot stress this enough!), but if you, too, have been looking for some modern Gothic that satisfies in the creepy department, you may want to try this one, too. (It also has some of the problems you can run into with Gothic stories, but I’ve been wanting something actually creepy so bad that I would forgive it a lot!)
The follow-up to the amazing Raybearer (seriously, if you haven’t read this book yet and you like YA fantasy, you really should!), Redemptor does NOT suffer from second book letdown. At least it didn’t for me — it picks up right where Raybearer ends, with Tarisai the newly anointed Empress, charged with anointing her own council and traveling to the Underworld to fulfill her deal with the sinister spirits of the dead. Because this is the focus, the family building aspect of Raybearer is less present (though definitely still there!), and the relationships are less important than Tarisai’s own journey. This was OK with me because I felt like it made sense — I missed Kirah, but I liked that she was off having her own journey and that her story wasn’t just about being Tarisai’s friend. There are lots of fun twists, some great new characters, and an overall spirit of hope and possibility that frankly feels essential in the world today. I liked the first book better, probably, but I found its conclusion satisfying in pretty much every way.
See You Yesterday is a light-and-fluffy YA comedy about two college first-years stuck in a time loop. It’s basically Groundhog Day on a college campus and just the thing for a heartwarming beach read.
I’m honestly not sure how I feel about This Appearing House. I think that’s because I have a kiddo with a chronic health condition, which may not seem relevant, but I think it definitely affected my feelings about this book, so I want to mention it. Jac is almost five years cancer-free, but the weight of her diagnosis is still hanging over her head — and she’s had a few moments recently that made her wonder if she’s experiencing symptoms again. When some classmates dare Jac and her new friend to go inside the mysterious house, she finds that her darkest fears are shaping what’s inside — and that she’s going to have to be very brave if she wants to find the way out. This book definitely falls into the spooky middle grades genre — it’s very atmospheric and full of deliciously creepy moments. It’s also clearly a metaphor for what it’s like to go through a serious illness. I think the central idea — that the way out is through — is important, and I know that kids going through health crises need to see themselves represented in literature. I really appreciate that this book didn’t shy away from that. Something about it didn’t quite sit right with me, though, and I can’t put my finger on what it was. That’s why I think it might be connected to my own experiences and not to the book.
The Clockwork Queen is definitely going on my middle grades recommendations list. Sophie’s father gets hired to be the chess tutor to Catherine the Great’s son — but when lessons don’t go the way the empress wants them to, Sophie’s father is imprisoned, and Sophie and her mom are left to fend for themselves. Sophie relies on her father’s chess lessons to get by — and then her chess skills bring her an opportunity to rescue her father. I am very fond of stories about early robots, about Russian history, and about chess, so this book ticked a bunch of boxes for me.
I always enjoy Sarah Waters, but Affinity isn’t my favorite. It’s about a young lady in Victorian England who takes up visiting women prisoners as a way to recalibrate her life after a suicide attempt. She’s captivated by one of the prisoners, a young medium imprisoned after the death of her benefactress during a seance. I’m fascinated by Victorian spiritualism, and I love the way Waters nails her endings — this was a solid book. I’ve just enjoyed other of her books more.
A Secret Princess is out later this month, and it’s a wild and wacky mash-up of three Frances Hodgson Burnett classics: A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and Little Lord Fauntleroy. The Little Princess, Sara, is an heiress from the Philippines; Mary from The Secret Garden is a rebel with a lot of causes; and Cedric is the poor little rich boy whose chronic health condition constantly disappoints his aristocratic family. The three meet up at Miss Minchin’s repressive and prestigious British boarding school and become fast friends. When a series of unfortunate events upend their lives, the trio run away from school to start a new life together. You probably won’t be surprised that the three stories are virtually unrecognizable from their original forms, but as long as you don’t go in expecting that, this book feels like a fun, fan fiction romp through a literary landscape where you’ll occasional spot a familiar landmark. I had no expectations going in and thought it was a lot of fun.
Wow, I loved Pretty as a Picture. I’m honestly surprised by how great I thought I was — I would read an entire mystery series with Marissa as the main character. She’s a film editor who is fantastic at her job turning pictures into stories and terrible at people-ing, so all she wants to do is hunker down in the editing room and get to work on her new true crime movie. The universe, however, has other plans, and Marissa ends up investigating the murder of the actress playing the murder victim with the enthusiastic assistance of two teenage girls and an ex-military security guy who might have motives of his own. It’s so much fun! I really loved how Marissa uses mental movie clips to identify or explain her feelings in a given moment — it reminds me of how I use bits from books the same way. This was one of those books that I discovered randomly, which somehow makes loving it even more delightful. I’m going to recommend this one if you like mysteries.
Survive the Night, on the other hand, was a random pick that did NOT delight me. Friends, if your best friend is murdered by a serial killer, please do not ride share with a random stranger you find on your college bulletin board. Maybe especially do not do this if you have a mental condition where you frequently aren’t sure what is real because your mind turns things into movie scenes. Consider taking a bus instead.
Did you read anything great in May?
I post my Library Chicken roundups on the HSL Patreon every month and on the blog here when I think about it! (We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Book Review: Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan Series
Here’s an action-packed, steampunk-inspired YA series for teens that is great for kids who love historical fiction or books about World War II. Suzanne explains why Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan series is summer binge reading material.
It’s got adventure, flying whale-beasts, and a brave and resourceful heroine. What more could you want?
In an alternate steampunk Europe on the brink of World War I, a young woman disguises herself as a boy so she can join the British Air Service and serve on their fleet of giant genetically-modified air beasts. Meanwhile, the Central Powers (or Clankers) are building up their army of steam-powered many-legged machines as the inevitable conflict approaches. You want to read these books already, don’t you? But wait, there’s more! All three books (pick up the hardback editions, if you can) have wonderful full-page illustrations by Keith Thompson, including some of the most gorgeous endpapers I’ve ever seen.
Many people are familiar with Scott Westerfeld’s YA science fiction series beginning with Uglies, but it seems that fewer have heard of this steampunk/biopunk alternate history. Marketed as YA, I’ve been recommending it for middle schoolers and up (including adults) ever since it first came out. It’s got adventure, flying whale-beasts, and a brave and resourceful heroine. The series also makes a great side-read for anyone studying World War I, since Westerfeld uses actual history as his jumping-off point and includes historical figures ranging from Archduke Franz Ferdinand to Nikola Tesla. As a bonus, after you’ve read the trilogy (including an extra final chapter and illustration on Westerfeld’s website) you can check out The Manual of Aeronautics, an illustrated guide (by the fabulous Keith Thompson) to the world and technology of Leviathan. What are you waiting for?
Leviathan
Young Scotswoman Deryn Sharp rejects the dresses that a “proper lady” should wear to disguise herself as a boy and study to be a midshipman on one of the great British air-beasts. Meanwhile, Prince Aleksander, son of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, must go on the run after his parents are killed. Will their paths cross when the ship Leviathan crash-lands in Switzerland? (SPOILER: Yes.)
Behemoth
War has broken out, though Alek (an Austrian Clanker) and Deryn (a British Darwinist) still want to work together for peace. After their mission goes awry, however, the friends are separated and their friendship will be tested as they end up on opposite sides of the conflict.
Goliath
Together again, Alek and Deryn are still in the thick of things as their adventures take them to Siberia (where they rescue Nikola Tesla), California (and William Randolph Hearst’s estate), and Mexico (where they get help from Pancho Villa). And don’t forget the bonus chapter!
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Summer Reading: Catherynne M. Valente’s Fairyland Series
If Suzanne had to pick one book series for a desert island, the Fairyland series is the one she’d choose. Here’s why.
If I had to pick one series to keep me company on a desert island, one series to pass along to my kids, I think I’d pick Catherynne Valente’s Fairyland books.
I’ve written before about the glorious summers of my childhood, when I could devote long uninterrupted hours to burning through enormous Lord of the Ring-type sagas. I’ve also shared the cautionary tale of a dear friend whose parents made her put down her book and play outside, but I’m sure none of our readers could behave in so dastardly a fashion. (NOTE: I am not entirely against the outdoors and exercise and whatnot, but they made her put down her book. Things like that take years of therapy to get over.) With all that in mind, when Amy asked me to do some Summer Reading posts, I decided I wanted to focus on some of my favorite series for children and young people — but only series that have already come to a satisfactory end, as there’s nothing worse than being stuck with a cliffhanger while you wait for an author to hurry up and write, all the while worrying that before they finish they might die in some sort of freak word-processing accident.
I thought I’d start with my very favorite fantasy series. For decades, if you’d asked me what my favorite series was — the books I’d read over and over, the books I’d have to make sure my own kids read, my desert island books — I would have said the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I was (and still am) a hardcore Narnia-head. As a child, I reread the series every summer. I wrote Narnia fanfiction (before ‘fanfiction’ was even a word). I love these books. (NOTE: I know that not everyone loves Narnia because of the Christian allegorical aspects. I completely understand that, but it’s not hampered my own love of the series because I was raised ‘unchurched’ and didn’t even notice that it was a Christian allegory until I was in my late teens or 20s. I was <ahem> perhaps not the most observant of readers.) But now, if I had to pick one series to keep me company on a desert island, one series to pass along to my kids, I think I’d pick Catherynne Valente’s Fairyland books.
The Fairyland books, with one exception, are about September, a 12-year-old girl living in WWII-era Nebraska, with a mechanic mother who works in the aircraft factory and a father missing overseas, until — in the tradition of children who get lost in wardrobes and swept up by passing tornadoes — she catches a ride with the Green Wind and his Leopard. They drop her off in Fairyland, ruled by the evil Marquess, where September soon finds herself on a quest to defeat the Marquess and free her friends. These books are for all ages, beautifully written, with a heroine who relies on her bravery, her intelligence, and her friends to save the day. There is little that is black and white in Fairyland: even the villains have complicated histories of good intentions gone bad, and even the heroes can make poor choices under difficult circumstances. I’ve read these books both for my own enjoyment and as readalouds (which is particularly wonderful, as Valente has a gift with language and original phrasing) and I think they belong on every family’s bookshelf.
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
“You seem an ill-tempered and irascible enough child,” said the Green Wind. “How would you like to come away with me and ride upon the Leopard of Little Breezes and be delivered to the great sea which borders Fairyland?”
In book one, September visits Fairyland for the first time and meets her soon-to-be-best friends: A-Through-L, a Wyverary, and Saturday, a Marid. (A marid is a type of ifrit or djinn, and a “Wyverary” is the offspring of a wyvern and a library. And honestly, if that isn’t enough to send you out to find this book immediately, I don’t even know what you’re doing hanging around these parts.) Both of her friends are held captive (one way or another) by the evil Marquess, ruler of Fairyland, and September must defeat her to save them.
FIND MORE SUMMER HOMESCHOOL INSPIRATION
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
In book two, September returns to Fairyland to find that its magic is being sucked away by Fairyland Below, ruled by Halloween, the Hollow Queen. September soon discovers that Halloween is her own shadow, left in Fairyland after her previous adventure, and when she reunites with her friends, A-Through-L and Saturday, she finds that they have shadows also.
The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two
In book three, September returns to Fairyland with her new sidekick, a 1925 Model A Ford, and discovers that she’s been named a criminal, specifically a “royal scofflaw, professional revolutionary, and criminal of the realm.” On a mission to the Fairyland’s Moon, she must defeat a mysterious moon-Yeti and figure out what actually happened to all of Fairyland’s missing fairies. Unlike the first two books, this one ends with something of a cliffhanger, but that’s okay because you can go straight to book four...
The Boy Who Lost Fairyland
...which begins not with September, but with Hawthorn, a changeling who was born a troll in Fairyland before being spirited away to the human world. I was all set to be annoyed with Valente for swapping out September for another protagonist, but I immediately fell for Hawthorn, who, in an effort to act like a Normal child starts writing a rulebook of Normal behavior (e.g., “Knives and scissors are sharp, but different than swords, and you can only use them to fight cucumbers and onions and packages from the postman, not Ancient Enemies from Beyond Time,” followed by “There are no such things as Ancient Enemies from Beyond Time”). Plus he hangs out with the best wombat ever in the history of wombats. We catch up with September eventually and another cliffhanger leads us straight into the fifth and final book...
The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home
...where different teams, including September and her best friends (and Hawthorn with his friends) must compete in a Royal Race for the throne of Fairyland. And really, I don’t want to tell you anything more because you should go out and read these fabulous books for yourself.
Happy Reading!
Find your next favorite book!
Visit our summer reading guide for more summer reading inspiration.
HSL Reads: Book Review Roundup
Teen horror, Native American mythology, and prejudice in history class are highlights in this book review roundup.
If you follow us on Instagram, you know that we review books there pretty frequently, but since not everyone is on Instagram, we try to post some of those reviews here, too. Here’s some of what we’ve been reading:
Race to the Sun ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆
The Assignment ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
Harrow Lake ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
The Very Comforting, No Pressure, It’s All Going to Be OK 2021 Reading Challenge
We all hope 2021 brings fewer worries, more freedom, and a return to normalcy — but much of that lies outside our control. Our reading list, on the other hand, is completely within our control, and we’ve made ours all about comfort and joy.
We all hope 2021 brings fewer worries, more freedom, and a return to normalcy — but much of that lies outside our control. Our reading list, on the other hand, is completely within our control, and we’ve made ours all about comfort and joy. (Download a copy here.)
Read a book with a cover you like.
Read a book with a cover in your favorite color.
Read a book by an author with a name you like.
Read a book with an alcoholic beverage on the cover.
Read a book with a hot beverage on the cover.
Read a book with a summary you like.
Read a book set in a place you love.
Read a book set in a place you’d really like to visit.
Read a book by an author who makes you feel warm and fuzzy.
Read a book in the Furrowed Middlebrow imprint.
Read a book with recipes.
Read a book that you’d take to the beach.
Read a book that you’d take to the mountains.
Read a book that you’d take on a trans-Atlantic flight.
Read a book with a gorgeous title font.
Read a book set during your childhood.
Read a book set during your teenage years.
Read a book set on a farm.
Read a book that takes place on a vacation.
Read a book set in the mountains.
Read a book set at the beach.
Read a book set in a village or small town.
Read a book that features a librarian.
Read a book that features a chef.
Read a book set in an old estate house.
Read a book by an author who looks like someone you’d be friends with.
Read a book by an author who looks like someone you’d like to take a class with.
Read a book by an author who looks like someone you’d sit next to on the subway.
Read a book by an author you’d like to know in real life.
Read a book with a title that makes you smile.
Read a book that celebrates Black Joy.
Read a book that celebrates Native life.
Read a book that celebrates Asian life.
Read a book that celebrates Latinx life.
Read a book that celebrates LGBTQ+ life.
Read a book that celebrates women.
Read a book with a happy ending.
Read a book that made a friend happy.
Read a book that your child or parent loves.
Reread a book that made you happy.
New Books Roundup
Some big hits (Vanderbeekers! Hilary McKay! Mexican mythology!) and misses (a 90s YA novel set in the mall that should have been awesome but wasn’t) from our late summer reading list.
If you follow us on Instagram, you know that we try to review a new (or newish!) book every week, but since not everyone is on Instagram, we try to do an occasional roundup of those reviews here, too. Here’s what we’ve been reading this summer:
The Mysterious Messenger ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
The Vanderbeekers to the Rescue ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
The Mall ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆
The Time of Green Magic ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
The Gilded Cage ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆
Paola Santiago and the River of Tears ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
The Devouring Gray ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆
Ever Cursed ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
The Glare ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆
What I Read in June
It’s been a June full of light and fluffy reading fun.
It’s been a June full of light and fluffy reading fun.
Here we go! As always, I’m saving most of my middle grades and YA reads for Instagram, and we’re still moseying through The Ancestor’s Tale and The Canterbury Tales for our family readalouds.
A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole
I mean, I love a fluffy romance novel, and this one is SO GOOD: Like everybody else, grad student Naledi gets the occasional spam email from an African prince, but unlike everybody else, the African prince in question is her real-life betrothed. She just doesn’t know. There are two parts to this book: In the first, Thabiso comes to New York to find Naledi and ends up falling for her because she’s cool and smart and independent — and he doesn’t tell her he’s a prince (much less her betrothed). In the second part, Naledi agrees to come to Thesolo and pretend to be the princess bride so that she can participate in a big epidemiological case that’s happening there. OF COURSE they fall for each other — it’s a romance novel, so you know where it’s headed, but it’s smart and funny and charming. I dug it.
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
I grabbed this to read with the kids as part of our evolutionary biology unit, but I’d forgotten how WEIRD it is. Basically, humanity is wiped out in a global apocalypse — except for a hardy group of good swimmers, who manage to escape to the Galapagos Islands, where they evolve into a new species over the next million years, overseen by a reluctant spirit. Is it about the way that human intelligence and happiness are inversely related? Or about the link between evolution and theism? Or just an excuse to revisit Kilgore Trout? Who knows. I crossed it off our readaloud list, but I am glad I reread it myself.
The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
If you listen to the Library Chicken podcast (on Patreon), you know I fell hard for the first book in this series, and I’m only allowing myself one new book a month because I don’t want to just race through it. I don’t know how this is possible, but The Queen of Attolia is even better than The Thief. I know! But it’s true. The Thief was mostly about a particular quest, but The Queen of Attolia brings us into the broader world of the tension between the three kingdoms — two of which are actually queendoms, y’all! — of Eddis, Attolia, and Sounis. It’s darker and more complicated than The Thief, with layers of relationships and implications, and I loved it, and you should go read it because if I try to say anything else about it, I might spoil it for you. I can’t believe I have to wait for August (according to my own arbitrary rules) to read the next one!
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
This one was a low-key charmer: Linus Baker finds himself completely out of his corporate comfort zone when he’s sent to investigate an island orphanage for magical children — partly because the children there are particularly peculiar, partly because the children’s caretaker is totally crush-worthy, and partly because — for the first time in his life — Linus feels weirdly at home. It’s a love story and a family story and a story about finding yourself and a story about being brave enough to change your life, and it’ s just really lovely.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Ugh, I want so much to love Neil Gaiman, but every time I read something that pulls me in (Stardust! Neverwhere!), I seem to follow it up with something that’s painfully meh. This is clearly a me-problem — lots of people loved this fairy tale for grown-ups, but I did not. I think for me the problem was the narrator — the books was peopled with fascinating characters, but the narrator wasn’t one of them, and ultimately he wasn’t even shaped by anything that happened to him in the story because he didn’t remember any of it. Maybe that would be fine if the magical world he visits for a little while were better established, but we only see it through his eyes, so it remains shadowy and elusive. Maybe that’s part of the point, that all these big mysteries are out there, and we just don’t understand enough to even see them? I don’t know — I wanted to love it, but it just fell flat for me.
Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
I love a fluffy romance novel (see above) and Kinsella usually does it for me, but this one was a big miss. Most of the characters were kind of terrible, and when they weren’t being terrible, they were kind of stupid. I don’t mind a predictable ending when it’s fun getting there, but this one was hard work.
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
What fun! In this alternate history, the Civil War ends because the dead start rising, and the Confederacy has to surrender to get some help putting down the zombie hordes that are overtaking the country. Happily for racists (and there are a lot of them in the post-Civil War world), recently freed Black people make a great army against the undead. Kids like Jane are snatched up and sent to special military training schools where they learn how to protect white families from the zombie threat — but Jane is a born maker of good trouble, and she finds herself offloaded to a faux utopian community on the western frontier, where the mess really hits the fan. I’m totally adding this to my U.S. history reading list — it’s smart, funny, and does a great job playing with the already fascinating “what if?” that’s its premise.
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
Two westerns in one month! And I really liked them both. Suzanne recommended this one to me because it was about bad-ass librarians, and I’m recommending it to you for the same reason. Runaway Esther stows away in the librarians’ wagon after her best friend is hanged in the town square, thinking anything’s better than the arranged marriage her family has planned for her. Turns out, she’s found something even better than an escape: The Library gives her a family, a mission, and the chance to accept who she really is.
Stuff I’m Reading for Work
(And again, I’m lumping all of my work-related reading here because it feels different from my fun reading. I don’t know — I am weird.)
I’ve managed to pin down my Japanese literature reading list to a reasonable number, but it took a lot of reading to get there: My Brother’s Husband, Kafka on the Shore, The Tale of Gengi, Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s short stories, Kokoro, and Snow Country all made it to the short list, so I had to reread them to get to the Shorter List. (My life is so hard.) On to Africa! I just started rereading Purple Hibiscus, which my daughter will probably never forgive me if I leave off the syllabus.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
New Books Roundup
Here’s what we’ve been reading lately, including a new-to-us series, a delightfully quirky new middle grades fantasy, and a grim fairytale continuation.
If you follow us on Instagram, you know that we try to review a new (or newish!) book every week, but since not everyone is on Instagram, we try to do an occasional roundup of those reviews here, too. Here’s what we’ve been reading as spring rolls into summer:
The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices edited by Wade Hudson ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
Max and the Midknights by Lincoln Peirce ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
The Night Country by Melissa Albert ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
The Language of Spells by Garret Weyr ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
What I Read in May
My reading list for May was heavy on Asian history and physics, but I also made time for some vintage discoveries, twisty (but ultimately unsatisfying mysteries), and a favorite from childhood.
I stopped tracking my Library Chicken on the blog because I was getting terrible about buying books for my Kindle and not going to the library and looking at the points made me feel guilty — but I miss chronicling my book lists, so I thought once a month or so, I would round up what I’ve been reading with no points attached!
Mary-’Gusta by Joseph Crosby Lincoln
I really enjoy rifling through the many terrible vintage books in search of treasures, which is how I discovered some of my favorite comfort reads, including The Rose Garden Husband, Penny Plain, and Strawberry Acres, none of which is perfect but all of which scratch a very particular reading itch for me. Mary-’Gusta isn’t going to make the highlights reel, but I enjoyed it all the same: Two confirmed New England bachelors are surprised to inherit their old crony’s little stepdaughter, and they do their best to bring her up — though, of course, as is always the case in these sorts of stories, little Mary-’Gusta ends up raising them as much as they raise her. There’s a little drama with family secrets and expected inheritances that don’t really exist, but mostly, it’s a series of gentle domestic vignettes, culminating in a teary-glad happy ending for everyone. Sometimes that’s just what you want in a book.
The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett
On the other hand, this old-fashioned book did NOT do it for me. I love Burnett’s The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, and I expected to love this one, which is basically about a wealthy American woman restoring a British manor house — if I have a wheelhouse, we all know that is solidly in it. BUT. Burnett’s insistence on the greatness of rich Americans, who can appreciate the British countryside more than the Brits who live there, who are a new breed of awesome, who are just charging around making the world a better place — all of that feels terribly out-of-tune with the state of the world right now. I’d have enjoyed more sourcing of antique bricks and rug buying and less celebrating the unlimited options that come with being obscenely rich. (And beautiful. And well educated. And … well, you get the idea.)
The Way Life Works by Mahlon Hoagland
This isn’t a new book, but it’s still one of my favorite biology spines for the middle grades because of its emphasis on understanding systems and processes. I’m trying to gussy up our high school biology curriculum to make it less textbook-focused and more critical-reading focused, and reading this book reminds me why it’s so important to do that: Because science is legitimately interesting, and there’s something wrong with books that don’t communicate that fact.
The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
We’ve been alternating these as our family readaloud lately — even though the kids are older, we still do a big “bedtime story” together every night. (It used to mark their bedtime; now it marks mine!) My daughter wanted to do some work with evolutionary biology this summer, so The Ancestor’s Tale (which I love) was an obvious choice, and then I realized that my son had no idea about The Canterbury Tales (which I also love), and I’ve never read them together, so that’s what we’re doing. I was a little worried it would be too pedantic in combination, but we’ve been really enjoying them, possibly partly because my Middle English is as apparently as hilarious as my attempts to get the accent right in The Wee Free Men and partly because, as my son points out, Chaucer would have been a great Dungeon Master.
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
I read this again with my junior high book club and was delighted that they loved it (and Turtle!) as much as I do. (Wouldn’t this make a great limited television series?)
The Eight by Katherine Neville
I expected to like this historical thriller more than I did, which is probably my fault: I expected it to be like Foucault’s Pendulum, but it was more like a French Revolution version of The Da Vinci Code. The story has two timelines: The more interesting follows the members of a dissolved convent in 1790s France as they hide powerful chess pieces around the world; the other follows a 1970s computer expert who’s being sent to work in Algeria. There’s chess and Charlemagne and OPEC and Napoleon, and all of that should add up to a fun read, but somehow it just kept missing the mark for me. At one point, the stories kind of converge with the main characters from both timelines arriving in Algeria to be rescued by dashing, dangerous men, and frankly, it’s just a bit much. I do think if I hadn’t read Umberto Eco’s roller coaster rewriting of history, I might have liked The Eight (and The Da Vinci Code!) more, but he has spoiled me for Big Historical Conspiracies.
The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson
I did vow when I “finished” Truly Devious that I would not be reading the rest of the series — I put finished in quotation marks because the book did NOT finish, and I’m still mad about it — but I did break down and read the last book in the series to find out what happened. I didn’t read the second book, but apparently nothing happened in it because I didn’t feel like I’d really missed anything. Both mysteries end up solved by intrepid would-be detective Stevie Bell, who discovers both the fate of Alice Ellingham (and the events that led up to it) and the villain behind the present-day murders of Ellingham students while she’s snowed in at the abandoned school with a group of friends and faculty. Neither resolution feels particularly satisfying, and you could make a coat warm enough to survive being snowbound with all the loose threads, but I have a Bad Attitude about this book, so if you want to read it, ignore my grousing and pick it up anyway.
Stuff I’m Reading for Work
(I’m making this its own section because I tend to read these kinds of books in clumps, but I won’t include review copies of elementary, middle grades, and YA books here because I share all those on Instagram!)
I’m also (as I mentioned in the podcast) reading lots of Asian history and literature right now. I talked about Kyoto: A Cultural History (a kind of travel guide that focuses on one Japanese city) and My Brother’s Husband (a graphic novel) in the podcast, so I’ll just drop them here because I really did love both of them, for different reasons and for different ways. I also read The Silk Road: A New History (not to be confused with The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, which I also read but which is not about Asian history so much as U.S. policy). The Silk Road focuses on archaeological discoveries along the “silk road,” that legendary and lucrative path connecting China to the western world, and I really enjoyed its emphasis on primary sources. I also enjoyed The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan, which is a great (if sometimes a little dense) history of feudal Japan. I’m also rereading lots of Japanese fiction, especially short stories, to try to winnow down a list of books and movies for lit class — I decided it makes sense to focus on one country’s literature in depth and picked Japan because its literature is kind of a melting pot of Asian culture and ideas.
I’m also on the hunt for good literature readings for my physics class, so I’ve been collecting essays from Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries, Six Easy Pieces, A Short History of Nearly Everything, and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. I also looked at Alice in Quantumland (which I’d never read before — it was really fascinating!) and The Algebraist, which was recommended to me as a good living book for physics. I see why my friend recommended it: It’s a mash-up of big philosophical and scientific ideas around human-ness, human rights, religion, and reality. I’m definitely looking for a way to slip it into the reading list.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
New Books Roundup
What have we been reading lately? Immersive sci-fi, delightful fantasy, alternate history, and more.
What have we been reading lately? Immersive sci-fi, delightful fantasy, alternate history, and more.
If you follow us on Instagram, you know that we try to review a new (or newish!) book every week, but since not everyone is on Instagram, we try to do an occasional roundup of those reviews here, too. Here’s what we’ve been reading this spring:
Nevers by Sara Cassidy ★★★★★
Dragon Ops by Mari Mancusi ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
Elysium Girls by Kate Pentecost ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
The HSL Hindsight is 2020 Reading Challenge
It’s not as though you need an excuse to read more books, but a reading challenge can be a surprisingly fun way to mix up your regular reading list — and you can be as ambitious as you like: Complete the whole card by reading 25 books, or just score Bingo. Your 3rd grader can tackle the challenges, your high schooler can fill out her own card, and you can take this challenge on yourself. Keep your scorecards on the fridge and plan celebrations when you hit major milestones or offer prizes for the first person to get three in a row or another accomplishment you choose.
To download a PDF for yourself, scroll to the bottom of this post.
We can’t resist a good pun, so we’ve decided to build this year’s reading list around the most obvious one out there! It’s not as though you need an excuse to read more books, but a reading challenge can be a surprisingly fun way to mix up your regular reading list — and you can be as ambitious as you like: Complete the whole card by reading 25 books, or just score Bingo. Your 3rd grader can tackle the challenges, your high schooler can fill out her own card, and you can take this challenge on yourself. Keep your scorecards on the fridge and plan celebrations when you hit major milestones or offer prizes for the first person to get three in a row or another accomplishment you choose.
Ideally, this challenge will give you an excuse to check out a few books you wanted to read anyway and point you toward a few books that you might not have picked up otherwise. And since it involves reading, everybody wins!
What’s on this year’s challenge:
A book published in 2020
A book published in 1920
A book set in a place you’ve never visited or lived
A book you loved 10 years ago
A book you started but never finished
A book you should have read for school but didn’t
A book with the word home, school, or life in the title
A book with eyeglasses on the cover
A nonfiction book about a TV show or movie
A book recommended by your parent or child
A book with a character who shares your name
Historical fiction that takes place during your parents’ lifetime
A book with a non-English word in the title
A book that inspires you to take action
A book that answers a question you’ve always wanted to know
A book set in the 1980s
A book set in the 1990s
A book involving an election
A book that takes place in two or more timelines
A book set in a culture or country you’re connected to
An ALEX award winner
A memoir or journal published before 1990
A collection of short stories
A book you really want to read
A graphic novel
Click here to download your own copy of the HSL 2020 Reading Challenge. Happy reading!
Library Chicken Best Books of 2019: Horror
I dipped a toe into the zombie-infested waters and am having a great (and terrifying!) time exploring the genre. If you’re not typically a horror reader, I recommend giving it a try—there are books all up and down the scariness/goriness scale, and everyone can find something to suit their sensibilities.
Hello everyone and welcome to another wrap-up of what the BookNerd has been reading!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: end-of-the-year booklist time! This week I’ll be sharing some of my favorite horror novels that I read in 2019. I’m fairly new to the horror genre, in that I actively avoided it for decades. That’s maybe because I grew up in the 80s, so I thought horror was Stephen King and teen slasher movies, and those aren’t really my thing. (Also I’m a squeamish wimp who gets scared and grossed out easily.) But horror is an extension or a sibling or at least a cousin of my best-beloved genre, science fiction/fantasy, and a lot of my favorite novels by authors like Neil Gaiman, China Mieville, and Jeff VanderMeer could be described as horror-adjacent at the very least, so a few years ago (starting around 2016, though I can’t imagine what could have triggered my interest) I dipped a toe into the zombie-infested waters and am having a great (and terrifying!) time exploring the genre. If you’re not typically a horror reader, I recommend giving it a try—there are books all up and down the scariness/goriness scale, and everyone can find something to suit their sensibilities.
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
Speaking of dipping toes into infested waters—Grant’s novel asks the question, “What if mermaids were real? And what if they WANTED TO EAT YOUR FACE?!?” A few years ago, an entertainment conglomerate known for producing “documentaries” about mythical creatures (e.g., Bigfoot) sent a ship full of scientists, actors, and various television producers to the empty waters over the Mariana Trench in search of mermaids. After contact was lost, the ship was discovered adrift and abandoned, with only bloodstains and a few very disturbing film clips left to tell the tale. The younger sister of one of the people lost on that voyage is now an undersea researcher in her own right, and when she is approached to go on a follow-up trip to the same location she is eager for answers. SPOILER: Things do not go as planned. After I’d read and enjoyed this novel (no snorkeling in my immediate future, thank you very much) I realized that Grant’s novella “Rolling in the Deep” tells the story of the first doomed voyage, and though I generally am not a fan of reading things out of order I think you could go either way with this pair. NOTE: “Mira Grant” is the pen name of urban fantasy author Seanan McGuire, so if you enjoy McGuire’s other books as much as I do, consider giving her horror a try!
The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike, translated by Deborah Boehm
From the uncharted ocean depths to the horrors of suburban Tokyo! Housing is always a problem, so when the Kanos find a lovely new apartment for a very reasonable price, they can’t believe their good luck. The mom, Misao, has only one concern: her new home overlooks a graveyard, which seems a bit inauspicious. Koike’s novel, originally published in 1986, is a popular classic of modern Japanese horror that English readers can now enjoy in a translation by Deborah Boehm. This is one of those books where I found myself yelling at the characters, “What are you doing?!? GET OUT ALREADY!” but I enjoyed the slow-building suspense along with the subtle surprises and differences that reading in translation can bring. Not gory but verrrrry creepy.
The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
Many of the reader reviews for this one contain some variation on the line: “You’ll never look at rocks the same again,” and they don’t mean that in a “Wow, geology is cool!” sort of way. After her grandmother’s death, our protagonist, Mouse, is tasked with cleaning out her house, which is made more difficult by the fact that (1) her grandmother was a terrible person and was estranged from the rest of the family, and (2) she was a hardcore hoarder. Also, there may be Things Lurking in the Woods outside. (SPOILER: There absolutely are.) Fortunately, Mouse has her dog Bongo to keep her company and—this is not a spoiler because the author gives us this incredible gift up front—we know that Bongo comes out okay at the end, so we don’t have to spend the whole book worrying about what happens to the dog! HURRAY! This is an original and very creepy take on the ‘haunted woods’ idea and I’ve been seeing this book on various best-of-the-year lists, so congratulations to T. Kingfisher, who you may already know as Ursula Vernon, author of (among many other wonderful works) the delightfully Eva Ibbotson-esque Castle Hangnail.
A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill
This is another 2019 book that has been showing up on various best-of lists, which is impressive as it’s also Hamill’s debut novel. The Turner family has been seeing monsters for a while, and in response, the father became obsessed with building a massive haunted-house attraction, which ultimately becomes an important business for their town and the Turner family’s livelihood. But the monsters don’t go away, and son Noah, like the rest of the family, has to decide how he’s going to deal with that. Does he ignore them and hope they go away, or does he invite them in? This novel has been described as a literary fiction-horror hybrid (and indeed focuses as much on family relationships as it does on the horror aspects) so it’s a good choice for people who are looking to broaden their reading. But mostly I want people to read it so I can talk to them about the ending and figure out what I think. Do I like it? Do I hate it? I’m not entirely sure, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
The Grip of It by Jac Jemc
Another litfic/horror mash-up: this book follows a young couple with a troubled marriage as they move into a house with a troubled past. I’m a sucker for a haunted house story and this one is very unsettling. One thing I enjoy about horror is seeing what’s happening through the character’s eyes, and realizing (as a reader) that reality is coming apart around them even as the character seems oblivious. It’s a tricky thing to pull off, but Jemc does it well. Also a great entry point to the genre.
Kill Creek by Scott Thomas
So you’ve got a haunted house. Everyone in town knows the stories. Everyone knows it’s totally legit do-NOT-go-in-there haunted. What do you do? Clearly, you invite the country’s most famous writers of horror and ghost stories to spend the night and then see what happens. Best. Publicity. Stunt. Ever. That’s the premise of Thomas’s haunted house story and I am most definitely in. (Also, is anyone making a movie of this book? It should totally be a movie.) I don’t think the later portions of the book hold up quite as well as the beginning (horror as a genre often has a difficult time sticking the landing) but this is a fun, scary, Halloweeny read. This was another debut novel and I’m looking forward to what Thomas does next.
Salvation Day by Kali Wallace
I feel like I’m cheating a bit with this one, because it’s not straight horror—I’d describe it as a science fiction thriller with horror elements—but it does have zombies in space, so that’s got to count, right? In a future of space exploration and ecological disaster, a terrorist group hijacks a transport ship in order to take over the derelict exploration ship House of Wisdom, left abandoned in orbit after a virus killed everyone aboard. Clearly this is a TERRIBLE idea and once again I am here for it. The narration flips back and forth between one of the terrorists (though really, “terrorism” is in the eye of the beholder, right?) and one of the hostages as they explore the ship and discover that the authorities have not been completely honest about what happened to the crew. This is a page-turner with so many great elements (cults! conspiracies! diversity! romance!) that also has something very relevant to say about our present of anti-immigration, anti-refugee rhetoric and us vs. them thinking. A great read and I highly recommend it. This is Wallace’s first novel for adults; I haven’t read her YA novels yet but they’re on hold for me at the library.
Happy Reading and Happy Holidays! Now GO GET SCARED.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Library Chicken: Some Great Graphic Novels
Suzanne’s favorite graphic novels of 2019 so far include a new Lovecraft-ian horror classic, a heartwarming chronicle of … wedding planning?, and more.
Hello everyone! I hope you’ve been having a good 2019 so far! As you may have noticed, my Library Chicken updates this year have been happening less on a weekly schedule and more on a <ahem> somewhat quarterly schedule. It turns out that I’m not all that great at juggling the needs of two college kids, two high school kids, a houseful of obnoxious but cute animals, and a new year at the Academy. But I’m back with some of my personal favorites from this year—I can’t resist a good end-of-the-year wrap-up!
You may notice something different this time around: I have stopped posting my Library Chicken points and score. Not because I care that people know how badly I’m losing (I’m definitely losing this year), but because it’s kind of a hassle to keep track of everything and if I just make up the numbers I feel guilty. (Who needs more guilt?) And although the ostensible point of this occasional blog is to share my Library Chicken score, we all know it’s really just an excuse for me to babble on about books, right? So, onward!
This time I’ll be sharing some of my favorite graphic novels that I read in 2019—in part because I always think that graphic novels make really lovely holiday gifts. While you’re doing your shopping this holiday season, keep these in mind for your favorite readers…
Locke & Key written by Joe Hill, artwork by Gabriel Rodriguez
This series began publication in 2008 but is already considered a classic of modern horror. After a tragedy, a mother and her three children move into the old family home (located in Lovecraft, Massachusetts, so you know that’s not good), where strange keys can be found hidden away in various cracks and crevices. The kids soon discover that if they find the lock that matches a particular key, something magic will happen—a key may make you giant-sized, or turn you into an animal, or allow others to see your thoughts. Unbeknownst to the new occupants of the Keyhouse, however, a demon is stalking their family, trying to gather keys for its own dark purposes. The story is compelling and the artwork is gorgeous (and includes a very unexpected but lovely Calvin & Hobbes tribute), and I highly recommend it to all horror fans. Warning: this is not a series for younger readers as it does contain some intense violence. As a bonus: it looks like we’re finally going to get the long-awaited television adaptation on Netflix! Locke & Key, Vol 1: Welcome to Lovecraft is a great place to start, or you could spring for the entire six-volume set as a gift for yourself or, say, your favorite Library Chicken blogger.
written by Clint, Griffin, Travis, and Justin McElroy; artwork by Carey Pietsch
The Adventure Zone (for those unfamiliar) is a long-running Dungeons & Dragons podcast hosted by the McElroy brothers (of “My Brother, My Brother and Me” fame) together with their father, Clint McElroy. In the first series, known as “Balance”, the four of them play a campaign that spans several years, based in the D&D universe but soon becoming something wholly their creation. Full disclosure: I got into The Adventure Zone (often abbreviated as TAZ) because my teenagers would spend hours discussing the various characters and plot twists and I finally had to start listening to the podcast so I could understand what the heck they were talking about. The story starts out goofy, kinda juvenile, and often a teensy bit crass, but as they go along they create something that is remarkably heartfelt, along with being diverse and progressive in many wonderful ways. It’s hard to describe, especially for people unfamiliar with D&D and/or the McElroys and/or podcasting, but I’ve really enjoyed taking the journey. And now the various arcs of the Balance series are being published as graphic novels! The first two volumes are out, and they do a great job capturing the spirit — both the intense silliness and the emotion—of the series. (I should note that while this series has many young fans, it was originally intended for an adult audience, so there is some “adult language.” As always, it’s best to check it out yourself before gifting it to a young person.) Once you’re hooked, we can all listen together to the current season of The Adventure Zone, “Graduation” (set in a magical school for sidekicks and henchmen! it just started and it’s awesome!), while we wait for volume three of the graphic novel series, a road-race arc called Petals to the Metal.
Amphigorey, Amphigorey Too, Amphigorey Also, and Amphigorey Again by Edward Gorey
I’m cheating a little bit by including Edward Gorey’s Amphigorey collections in this list because they’re not exactly graphic novels. They’re also not exactly picture books, not exactly prose, and not exactly poetry, but some disturbing and delightful combination. If you haven’t had an opportunity to appreciate Edward Gorey’s writing and artwork (think Charles Addams but less cutesy) you should remedy that immediately, and one of these collections is a great place to start. I had to update our home library (our copy of Amphigorey Too had been appreciated to death by my kids — helping to develop their sense of the macabre along the way — and I hadn’t even realized that Amphigorey Again had come out in 2007) for a full reread because I was excited about the new biography, Born to be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery (which I also recommend). The Amphigoreys are lovely volumes and make great coffee-table books for people with slightly goth sensibilities.
French Milk
An Age of License
Something New: Tales from a Makeshift Bride
Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos
by Lucy Knisley
I first found Lucy Knisley through the wonderful comics she posted about her cat, Linney. (If you are at all a cat-lover, google “Lucy Knisley Linney” for a treat.) Once I started following her, I realized I’d heard of her before as a prolific author of graphic memoirs, so I immediately put a stack of her books on hold at the library. They are as delightful as I’d expected, and some even have bonus Linney appearances! French Milk and An Age of License are memoirs of young womanhood growing into adulthood, and the changing relationships and goals along the way. But I have to talk about my absolute favorites (so far): Something New and Kid Gloves. Something New is much more than a story of wedding planning—it’s about figuring out your place in the world and what being in a marriage means, especially to modern women who may not be all that excited about the institution’s patriarchal past. Plus it’s really funny! I immediately put it on my “good gifts for brides-to-be” list. Kid Gloves, about the birth of Knisley’s first child, is funny and moving and powerful. I am in awe of the way that Knisley shares herself emotionally with her readers. Reading her books feels like a private, personal experience that you get to have with her, as if we were connecting one-on-one. I don’t know that I would recommend Kid Gloves as a baby-shower gift, since Knisley has some tragic experiences with a lost pregnancy and then some very scary medical complications during birth, but it’s a lovely lovely book, and a great read. Those of you who are already Knisley fans have probably noticed that I haven’t yet read all of her books—when I discover an author I enjoy, I’m not always too quick to read everything, since I like knowing that there’s a book or two out there that I still get to experience for the first time. (I’m very much looking forward to reading Relish: My Life in the Kitchen PLUS I need to read her picture books and her new middle-grade graphic novel, Stepping Stones.) Knisley fans may also be aware that she shared a sad milestone with her readers recently when the much beloved Linney passed away. Nothing’s good about that, but I was so happy to see Knisley’s announcement that a book entirely about Linney will be coming out in 2021—I’ll be pre-ordering as soon as they put a link up!
Happy Reading!
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Library Chicken Update: 4/5/19
School’s out for summer, and Suzanne’s reading list just keeps getting bigger.
Welcome to the weekly round-up of what the BookNerd is reading and how many points I scored (or lost) in Library Chicken. To recap, you get a point for returning a library book that you’ve read, you lose a point for returning a book unread, and while returning a book past the due date is technically legal, you do lose half a point. If you want to play along, leave your score in the comments!
It’s that time of year again — the time when I finally give up on reading the entire stack of library books on whatever-flavor-of-history-we’re-doing-in-class that I’ve collected all semester. Around the time I’m starting to think about final projects it dawns on me that I’m probably not going to get to them all before we’ve actually wrapped up the class, which means that I have to return all those books (though not before making sure they’re on the to-read list for the next time we visit this era) and start collecting books for next year’s class. (It’s the American Revolution and the Civil War in 2019-2020!) It also means that my Library Chicken score is going to go negative, so I should definitely schedule more reading time next week. (Sorry fam, I know it’s my turn to make dinner, but you’re on your own tonight — Mom has to get her Library Chicken score into the positive digits!)
Stalin: A Biography by Robert Service
My last WWII book ends up being a biography of Joseph Stalin. For a child of the Cold War, I’m realizing how little I actually know about Soviet Russia. This bio was a good place to start with Stalin, if a bit dry. And depressing. Though I guess that comes along with the topic. (Okay, I lied: this isn’t my last WWII book because I’ve kept back a stash of Eleanor Roosevelt books. And I’m definitely going to get to them Real Soon Now. I’d much rather finish up with the awesome Eleanor than with this guy.)
(LC Score: +1)
Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer
Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer
Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer
If you’re going to be reading about one of the great mass murderers of history, it helps to have some Heyer on the side! These three were all new to me, and they were all quick, fun reads.
(LC Score: +3)
The Ghost Stories of Muriel Spark by Muriel Spark
I like ghost stories and I like Muriel Spark, so this seemed like an obvious choice. The longest and most well-known story here is “The Portobello Road,” which I’ve encountered in other collections. It’s a very slim anthology and some of the stories here are only vaguely ghost-related, but it was a nice little break from All the War Stuff.
(LC Score: +1)
The Time Traveler’s Almanac edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
Whew. At nearly 1000 pages this collection is NOT slim. But I’m always happy to dive into another VanderMeer compilation! Amy and I talked about this one on the podcast, even though I was only about 80 percent through at the time. I did eventually finish it and some of my favorite stories were towards the end: I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more by Bob Leman, Tamsyn Muir, and Carrie Vaughn.
(LC Score: +1)
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
This mystery, the first in the Ruth Galloway series, has been on my to-read list for a while, and now that I have finally read it, I have mixed feelings. I was unprepared for the brutality of the murder plot, which involves kidnapping and child murder (and even the killing of a pet animal, which SHOULD COME WITH A WARNING LABEL ON THE COVER, PEOPLE). I enjoyed getting to know Ruth, who is an archaeologist and professor, and I appreciated that she was not a stereotypical protagonist, but I thought that there were some unfortunate cliches in the way Griffiths handled gender issues and Ruth’s concerns about her weight. That said, it was a fast, entertaining read, and I have a feeling that Griffiths was just beginning to hit her stride when she wrote it. I’m looking forward to the next one in the series!
(LC Score: +1)
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
Amy and I both enjoyed Anders’s first novel, All the Birds in the Sky (which we also talked about on the podcast), so I was very excited to read her second novel. This one is an ambitious science fiction adventure set on a tidally locked planet, meaning that the planet keeps one side facing the sun and one side facing out to the stars. Humans can only live in the small band where day meets night, and have to learn to deal with never-ending twilight. I loved the world-building here, and the way that Anders thought about all of the different ways that her characters would be impacted by this sort of life. I also loved the diverse relationships. Unfortunately, though, I thought that the plot lost some of its narrative drive and focus at a certain point, so even as we’re building to the climax things just sort of happen. Which was a bit disappointing, if only because I had such high expectations. I’m still thinking about the world that Anders created, however, and I’ll be first on the hold list for her next novel.
(LC Score: +1)
Books Returned Unread: -14
Library Chicken Score for 4/5/19: -6
Running Score: - ½
On the to-read/still-reading stack for next week:
The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths (Ruth Galloway mysteries #2)
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (reread after finally seeing the FABULOUS movie adaptation)
The War Before Independence: 1775-1776 by Derek W. Beck (time to start reading for next fall!)
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Library Chicken: Books You Can Be Seen Reading in Public
Suzanne’s recent reads includes a Gothic-ish murder mystery, children’s literature from Isabel Allende, Lizzie Borden, and a few hyped books that just DID NOT do it for our Book Nerd.
Welcome to the weekly round-up of what the BookNerd is reading and how many points I scored (or lost) in Library Chicken. To recap, you get a point for returning a library book that you’ve read, you lose a point for returning a book unread, and while returning a book past the due date is technically legal, you do lose half a point. If you want to play along, leave your score in the comments!
This school year I’ve been doing a lot of World War II reading for the middle school history class, which means (among other things) a lot of very thick biographies about very terrible people. (I’ve discovered that I’m really not comfortable carrying a Hitler biography around to read in public). I’ll do a round-up post of my nonfiction WWII reading later in the year, but as we’re getting back into the swing of things, I thought I’d focus on my recent non-Hitler-related reading:
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Turton’s debut novel is a Groundhog-Day style murder mystery where the detective relives the same day over and over again, each time inhabiting a different guest at a house party, while trying to solve the murder that will happen at the end of the night. I am definitely up for this level of weirdness, but I was a little disappointed: it felt like the author worked so hard to get all the puzzle pieces to fit together that he forgot to create interesting characters for me to root for. (LC Score: +1)
City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende
We’ve reached South America in World Lit, which means I get to make my middle schoolers read one of my very favorite authors! City of the Beasts is Allende’s first children’s/YA novel and the first in a trilogy. In it we follow our 15-year-old protagonist up the Amazon river in search of a mysterious yeti-like creature. It’s a little slow to get started and occasionally the prose (translated from the Spanish) can be a bit clunky, but I love the descriptions once the adventure really starts and things get exciting. (LC Score: 0, off my own shelves)
The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
Horowitz is hit or miss for me. I really enjoyed Magpie Murders, but haven’t fallen in love with any of his other books. This one (coming after Horowitz’s popular Sherlock novels The House of Silk and Moriarty) casts an obnoxious ex-cop as a “consulting investigator” and stand-in for Holmes, with Horowitz himself as first-person narrator and Watson. I have mixed feelings about authors who insert themselves as characters in their own books; I think it creeps me out a bit, not knowing where the reality ends and fiction begins. There are some good plot twists, but I really didn’t enjoy the Holmes character and I don’t think I’ll be picking up the forthcoming sequel. (LC Score: +1)
The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
A high school English teacher is horrified when her best friend is murdered--and is even more upset when the murder seems to be connected to a famous Victorian ghost story written by an author that she has studied for years — and THEN mysterious messages start to appear in HER OWN DIARY!! So creepy I get chills thinking about it! This one is hard to put down and I’ve got my fingers crossed that Griffiths will write a follow-up with the same investigating officer, a not-quite-out lesbian Sikh who still lives with her parents. (LC Score: +1)
Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory
I already know I love Gregory’s books and this one, his first, was no exception. Since 1950, the United States and the rest of the world has been living through an epidemic of demonic possession, though no one can quite figure out what the “demons” actually are. Are they aliens? Telepaths? Jungian archetypes? Gregory’s worlds are always bizarre and fascinating, and I thoroughly enjoyed this story of one man desperately trying to solve his own demonic possession problem. Plus lots of cameos by celebrities both fictional and non! (Let me know when you read it so we can have a conversation about the true identity of Siobhan O’Connell.) (LC Score: +½, returned overdue)
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
I’m always up for a good Lizzie Borden book. (Most recent favorite: Maplecroft by Cherie Priest, which is Lizzie Borden plus Cthulhu.) Schmidt’s book is a retelling of the Lizzie Borden murders, showing us the inside of a deeply dysfunctional family. (Slight SPOILER: I was concerned that it was all going to be about sexual abuse, which I do NOT enjoy reading, but it turns out that there are many ways of being dysfunctional! Hurray!) I maybe wanted to go a teensy bit deeper, but it’s incredibly compelling and I read it in one sitting. (LC Score: +1)
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Aw, man, I really wanted to like this one. I love the cover and I’m definitely intrigued by the idea of taking a year off to “hibernate,” but I found the protagonist--who is miserable but always (as she keeps reminding us) beautiful--completely unrelatable and borderline unrecognizable as an actual human, capable of actual human relationships. It’s an example of what I think of as a very New York City novel about very New York City people, who are apparently completely unlike the rest of us in the rest of the world? This one, unfortunately, didn’t work for me. (LC Score: +1)
The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault
Adventures in lexicography! While researching etymologies for a new edition of the dictionary, editorial assistant Billy discovers pieces of a story told via the citations collected in their catalog. As he looks for more pieces of the puzzle, he discovers the outline of a mystery, perhaps even involving murder! I found the ending slightly anti-climatic, but it was a very fun read. (LC Score: +1)
Books Returned Unread: -1
Library Chicken Score for 3/22/19: 6 ½
Running Score: 5 ½
On the to-read/still-reading stack for next week:
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (loved The Stranger Diaries and can’t wait to read this one!)
Stalin: A Biography by Robert Service (I mentioned all the terrible people, right?)
Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer (as an antidote for all that WWII stuff)
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Library Chicken: We're Back! And the Best Books of 2019 So Far
Look! Suzanne is back! And she’s got a big list of her favorite 2019 reads so far.
Welcome to the weekly round-up of what the BookNerd is reading and how many points I scored (or lost) in Library Chicken. To recap, you get a point for returning a library book that you’ve read, you lose a point for returning a book unread, and while returning a book past the due date is technically legal, you do lose half a point. If you want to play along, leave your score in the comments!
HEY GUYS, I’M BACK! Did you miss me? I missed you! I thought about asking Amy to commission a zombified back-from-the-grave version of the Library Chicken logo (which would be AWESOME, am I right?) but then I thought maybe not. Also — and I blame this entirely on the current political situation — I think about a zombie apocalypse waaaay too much.
I hope that your 2019 has been wonderful so far and you have been busily checking books off your to-read list. To get us back in the groove, I thought I’d start out with my own Best of 2019 So Far list.
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
Part of self-care for me is comfort reading: re-reading old favorites. If you do a lot of comfort reading (ahem), you may find that you need to at least temporarily retire some of those favorites that you nearly know by heart (Jane Austen, The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, P.G. Wodehouse, Dorothy Sayers) in favor of relative newbies. These are all on my nextgen comfort reading shelf.
London Falling by Paul Cornell
The Severed Streets by Paul Cornell
Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? by Paul Cornell
Paul Cornell is a talented author and screenwriter (he wrote the Doctor Who episodes “Father’s Day” and — one of my personal favorites — the two-parter “Human Nature/The Family of Blood”). In this series (The Shadow Police) we follow a modern day London detective squad that acquires special powers during a very strange case, allowing them to see the “shadow” London of magic and mystery that exists side-by-side with the everyday world. It’s a great combination of police procedural and urban fantasy, occasionally hard-boiled and dark (the first book, London Falling, involves child-murder) with a dash of weird humor (a witch who kills soccer players who score goals against her favorite team). Very much UNfortunately, according to Cornell, this supposed-to-be-five-books series has been dropped by the publisher, so it’s possible we will never get to see the very end of the story arc. That said, if book three, Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?, does end up being the last one, it is not a bad wrap-up for the series (most of the urgent plot points are dealt with), which is still very much worth reading.
A Cure for Suicide by Jesse Ball
Census by Jesse Ball
How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball
Jesse Ball is weird and wonderful and I don’t know what he’s doing half the time but I’m totally fine with it. In A Cure for Suicide, we’re transported to a carefully constructed village where people who want to leave their lives behind are taught to live again after having their memories wiped. Census follows a father, recently diagnosed with a terminal disease, and his young son on a journey as census-takers through a world that is not quite our own. How to Set a Fire and Why, a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl with a tragic past (and, almost certainly, a tragic future) is the most mainstream (and perhaps the saddest) work of his that I’ve read.
Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle
I read this immediately following How to Set a Fire and Why, which turned out to be one of those happenstance pairings that works really well. Our narrator, Sean, has severe physical handicaps as the result of an “accident” when he was in high school. He now runs a by-mail adventure game, which has unexpectedly led to tragedy for some of his players. It’s a short novel, but there’s so much good stuff going on here that I look forward to revisiting it some time in the future.
Confessions of the Fox: A Novel by Jordy Rosenberg
This is the bizarre and wonderful story of notorious 18th-century London thief Jack Sheppard, told in parallel via footnotes (I LOVE STORY-TELLING IN FOOTNOTES GIVE THEM ALL TO ME) with the story of the professor who found the mysterious manuscript detailing Jack’s true history (turns out he’s transgender, among other things). It’s weird and compelling and (SPOILER) there is a LOT of explicit sex, which can sometimes turn me off a book (that’s just me) but didn’t bother me here.
Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
We’re doing biology in the high school and middle school this year, which means I’ve been reading up on Darwin. This nonfiction biography of the Darwins’ marriage (aimed at the YA audience, I believe, but certainly enjoyable for adult readers) shows the challenges and complexities of their relationship, which was long-lasting and, by all accounts, incredibly successful. I love reading about all the Victorians, but Darwin — who was apparently a quite decent and loving human being! — is one of my very favorites.
Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife by Francine Prose
I believe that everyone should read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank at some point (I prefer The Definitive Edition, edited by Mirjam Pressler and published 1991), and this is the year for my middle school students, since we’re covering the 1930s and World War II in history class. Francine Prose (Reading Like a Writer) explores the diary as a piece of serious literature, along with the history of its publication and popularity, and the (surprisingly!) scandalous production of the play and movie adaptations. This is a great companion to the diary for students and teachers, and a fascinating read in its own right.
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
More 1930s reading: companion book to the excellent American Experience documentary episode, Surviving the Dust Bowl. It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like to live through this ecological disaster, but Egan does a great job bringing it to life with first-hand accounts.
Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H.W. Brands
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume One: 1894-1933 by Blanche Wiesen Cook
I may be a teensy bit obsessed with the Roosevelts, and this year I’m getting to indulge my obsession. These are all great accounts of Franklin and Eleanor and their complex relationship. I’ve got another stack of Roosevelt-reading next to the night stand; we’ll see how much I can get through before I have to start studying up for next year’s history class.
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
Meaty by Samantha Irby
These two funny, compelling, and occasionally heart-breaking essay collections (by the author of the blog “bitches gotta eat”) cover a wide range of topics including dating, chronic illness, and tyrannical cats. Irby is currently working on the Hulu adaptation of Lindy West’s Shrill (another great book!) starring Aidy Bryant (so many talented women!).
...AND I’m starting fresh for the new year, even though the new year was some time ago, so:
Library Chicken Score for 3/15/19: 0
Running Score: 0
On the to-read/still-reading stack for next week:
Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 2: The Defining Years 1933-1938 by Blanche Wiesen Cook (I want to be Eleanor when I grow up)
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (everyone in the world has read this already, including my daughter who is very upset that it is taking me so long)
The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths (don’t know much about it other than that it’s supposed to be a “gripping gothic thriller,” so yes, I’m in)
Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory (Spoonbenders was great, and this looks good too!)
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Library Chicken Special Edition: Novellas!
I am here to tell y’all that we are living in a Golden Age of Novellas and if you haven’t yet discovered the awesomeness of these short-but-still-substantial reads you are in for a treat.
I will admit that the concept of novellas — too long to be a short story, too short to be a novel — has always gotten on my nerves a little bit. PICK A SIDE, NOVELLAS. But I am here to tell y’all that we are living in a Golden Age of Novellas and if you haven’t yet discovered the awesomeness of these short-but-still-substantial reads you are in for a treat. We can thank the proliferation of e-readers and self-publishing for all this goodness: though novellas are tough to publish and sell at a reasonable price as traditional paper books, they’re a great size for reading on your Kindle/cell phone/tablet and are often very inexpensive (and so a great way to check out new authors). Without further ado, and in no particular order, I present
TEN NOVELLAS YOU SHOULD READ IMMEDIATELY IF NOT SOONER
All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
I <heart> Murderbot! This wildly enjoyable novella is about a security cyborg who has hacked its governor module but would much rather spend the day watching soap operas than killing all humans. As a bonus, it’s first in a series! Murderbot 4-EVA!
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
You may not have realized that you are dying to read this Sherlock Holmes homage set in space where Holmes is a brilliant drugged-up Asian detective and her Watson is a traumatized mindship, but TRUST ME YOU ARE. And then we can all go read de Bodard’s Dominion of the Fallen series (first book: The House of Shattered Wings) about a dystopian Paris populated by literal fallen angels while we simultaneously compose emails to de Bodard lobbying her for another ‘Tea Master’ story NOW PLEASE.
River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
Did you know that an American politician once proposed importing hippos to (1) eat invasive plants choking the Mississippi Delta and (2) help with a meat shortage? Aren’t you so very glad that Sarah Gailey used that true-life fact to inspire her tale of HIPPO COWBOYS who both wrangle and ride these dangerous beasts? Have you already clicked the ‘buy’ button for this first-in-an-amazing-series featuring a diverse cast with a non-binary lead? If not, WHY NOT? Did you not hear about the HIPPO COWBOYS?!?
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson
Climate change has forced people to live underground, but one ecologist (with a prosthetic set of octopus legs) is ready to time travel with her team back to ancient settlements on the Tigris and the Euphrates to research ways of bringing the ecosystem back to life. This one feels like the start of a great novel/series; fingers crossed that Robson writes it for us.
Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell
A small English town is divided over the proposed building of a big-box superstore, but since this particular town is in a very special spot on the border between our world and Faerie, the stakes are higher than usual: if the store is allowed to open it may well bring about the end of the world! The main characters here are all women and I especially enjoy Cornell’s depiction of female friendships. The sequels (in which our witches tackle other issues, including Brexit) in this ongoing series are also great.
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
Victor LaValle, a black American author, takes one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most notoriously racist stories (“The Horror at Red Hook”) and turns it on its head in this fabulous and award-winning (many awards! all the awards!) rewrite. Come for the disturbing spookiness, stay for the non-racist characterization! (See, H.P., it isn’t that hard after all!)
Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw
Lovecraft was not only spectacularly racist, he was super sexist too! So I enjoy imagining him spinning in his grave as talented contemporary non-white and/or non-male authors claim his legacy for themselves. Khaw’s mash-up of cosmic horror and film-noir private-eye detection (such a great pairing that I’m surprised I haven’t run across it before) is a great read and (hurray!) first in a series.
Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
Hippie folk rock band + the spooky old English estate they decide to spend the summer at + SOMETHING BAD HAPPENING = yes, please! This novella features multiple narrators which I always enjoy, but I do think someone might have had the good sense to avoid the Very Clearly Haunted Manor.
The Curfew by Jesse Ball
A surreal tale of a father and daughter living in a vaguely described police state. With Ball I’m often not quite sure exactly what’s happening, but it turns out I don’t mind. (See also his short novels Census, A Cure for Suicide, and Silence Once Begun.)
Speak Easy by Catherynne M. Valente
I’ll finish things off with My Favorite Contemporary Fantasy Writer For Both Children and Adults (Seriously She’s Awesome Read Everything), Catherynne Valente! (If you’ve listened to the podcast, you’ve heard Amy and I geek out over one of her most recent novels, Space Opera.) This Jazz Age fairy tale (a retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”) is gorgeous in all the ways and will most likely lead you to a debilitating addiction to Valente’s prose. YAY, NOVELLAS!
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
What I’m Reading: 3.12.19
These are the books that have been giving my library card a workout recently.
Apparently it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these roundups, so it’s nice for me because I have a lot to write about!
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
The Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin
I know I went on and on about Jemisin on the podcast, so I won’t go on and on here — but these are easily the most interesting books I’ve read in recent years. I am not a huge sci-fi fan, as you know, but what Jemisin does with language and big ideas like the epistemology and colonialism blows me away. I can’t recommend her enough — but you can listen to this episode of the podcast if you want to hear me try.
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Many years ago, this was the first book by Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett that I ever read, and as it turns out, my favorite: I definitely liked this collaboration better than any of their individual books. Maybe that’s partly because it’s just so much fun — that’s certainly why I assigned it for my spring book club selection for high school. (Well, that, and I want to reread it myself before the series comes out.) The End Days are here, but Aziraphale (an angel) and Crowley (a demon) have decided that Earth is too much fun to destroy. I actually listened to the audiobook this time around, which I can recommend highly.
The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier
Since I’ve tentatively decided that I want to write my own chemistry textbook for next year, I’ve been trying to read more books about science. I quite enjoyed this one — well, I enjoyed the information. It was well-researched and nicely constructed and full of interesting facts, but oh my gosh, Angier’s editor needed to jump in and let her know that there is a point where the punning is just too much. So lesson learned: Fewer puns, but lots of input from real scientists because that was the best part of the book.
Snobbery with Violence by Marion Chesney
Someone recommended this to me after I read an Agatha Raisin mystery — it’s by the same author (writing under a different name), but it’s set in Edwardian London and stars a returned-from-the-Boer-Wars younger son who discovers he has a knack for solving society problems and a would-be suffragette/socialite whose season is ruined (and family furious) when she tries to publicly take down her would-be seducer. So, yeah, right up my alley. In this set-up, there’s a murder at a house party in a faux-Arthurian castle, and the two reluctantly team up to find the murderer.
Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
I always buy these when they are on sale for the Kindle since my paperbacks are still in a box from our last move. (More than a decade ago, so …) This one is pretty standard: A former actress/evil stepmother is murdered at a holiday resort, and the suspects include her husband, her stepdaughter, her lover, his wife, and more. Luckily Poirot is there to unravel all the tangled motives and opportunities to reveal the real killer.
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
I reread this for my Victorian gender and sexuality seminar. It’s such a fun story: A multilayered, incredibly complex, Dickensian story of double crosses, switched identities, and the Victorian underworld — plus Victorian lesbian grifters, which, let’s face it, was the description that inspired me to read the book the first time.
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
I read this with my son, and we laughed so hard. I feel like this book (which came out in 2008) was overshadowed by A Series of Unfortunate Events, which had just recently wrapped up — there was a whole little spurt of forgettable Gothic-ish children’s literature. This one is quite fun, though: The Willoughby parents are absolutely terrible, but honestly their four children aren’t much better. So when the Willoughby parents take off on a dangerous trip around the world (an idea planted by their children, who are hoping their parents will leave them old-fashioned orphans), they’re hoping that they can sell the house out from under their annoying kids and escape them forever. Happily, they’ve accidentally hired a very good nanny, who helps the Willoughby children learn to channel their better selves and ends up rescuing the local millionaire down the road, too, who has unexpectedly found himself the guardian of an abandoned baby.
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman
I will pretty much always read a book of medieval history! I especially like how Tuchman has centered her story around the life of one person, a French noble named Enguerrand de Coucy VII. The 14th century is surprisingly thrilling (especially in the wake of Good Omens, when it’s the century that Crowley specifically dismisses as spectacularly boring — his fault for sleeping through most of it!): You get the black death, of course, but also a little ice age, the Hundred Years’ War, the papal schism, and Wat Tyler's Rebellion. Even if you’re fairly up on your medieval history, you’ll find this book full of new and delightful details.
A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
Charlotte Holmes is Sherlock’s great-great-great-granddaughter; Jamie Watson is John Watson’s great-great-great-grandson. They end up at the same New England boarding school, where they team up Holmes-and-Watson style after a murderer starts targeting students — all of whom have a connection to Charlotte, who has inherited some of her ancestor’s bad habits as well as his keen analytical mind. I was pretty willing to love this, but sadly, I didn’t. The problem I ran into is that it’s basically a Sherlock reshuffle — the idea of Holmes being a teenage girl might be new, but there’s nothing new about Charlotte in the book. She’s standard-issue Holmes, and Watson is pretty standard Watson of the Martin Freeman school. (It’s a good school, but most of us have already graduated from it.) Maybe the sequels hit their stride a little better?
The Time Traveler’s Almanac edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
This is our next podcast read, so I won’t spoil it by talking about it here. Overall, it was a nice collection of time travel stories, including the usual suspects (“A Sound of Thunder,” “Death Ship”) as well as some stuff I hadn’t run into before.
A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel
Hannah can’t believe she’s been institutionalized because of her roommate’s accident, but she knows the truth will come out: Agnes was her best friend, and Hannah would never have hurt her on purpose. As the days turn into weeks and she’s still under constant watch, Hannah’s confidence begins to crack, and so does her story about her relationship with Agnes. I think I’ve read too many stories of this sort — I knew almost immediately what was happening, and there was nothing that actually surprised me.
The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane by Julia Nobel
This one, though, I really loved! Emmy’s dad is MIA, and her mom is so busy explaining how other people can be great parents that she never has time to just be Emmy’s parent. Emmy is crushed when her mom ships her off to a fancy British boarding school — until she gets pulled into a mystery involving a super-secret order that may involve her long-missing father. It’s true that I’m a sucker for a boarding school book, but this is the kind of middle grades book I like best: It assumes a smart reader who can connect the pieces, and there’s plenty of action to keep the plot moving and mostly likable, individual characters who make you care about what’s happening. I recommend this one!
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Covid cases are spiking, and lots of secular homeschool families are still navigating social activities with extra caution. Having clear policies for homeschool co-ops and get-togethers can help all the folks in your community make the best choices for their families.