Nearly the end of August, and hopefully cooler weather is ahead!  Time for some reading updates.

I finished reading After Anne by Logan Steiner, which I mentioned in my last update.  A novel based on L. M. Montgomery’s life, it was interesting and the people were portrayed very well – but I personally would have made a lot of different choices in what to focus on and how to interpret some of the more ambiguous things in her life.

I enjoyed Indexing Reflections by Seanan McGuire, sequel Indexing.  It was another very good, if dark, urban fantasy based on fairy tales, and I liked how much it delved into the backstories of the characters we met in the previous book.  I’d have enjoyed a touch more romance, but there were still some nice moments. Continue reading “What I’ve Been Reading Lately (August, 2023)” →

Happy July!  Summer has arrived with a vengeance here; after a cooler June, July has had much hotter days.  Good for staying in and reading, I suppose!  I’ve been having a month of mostly fantasy books, which has always been a favorite, of course.  Lots of variety within that category, though!

I mentioned in my last update that I was reading a book about a character people forget – that book was The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab.  It sounds like the same premise as The Sudden Appearance of Hope, but it felt and played out very differently.  Hope felt like (fuzzy) science fiction, while this was straight fantasy.  Addie makes a deal with the devil – or at least, one of the “old gods” – in the early 1700s.  She gains “freedom” – immortality but also no one can remember her.  The book intercuts between stories of Addie’s past through the centuries and a modern story when she finally meets a man who can remember her.  This hits multiple story types I love, and there was a lot to enjoy here.  Her story felt deeply sad, though, in a way Hope didn’t, and I wasn’t entirely satisfied by the ending.  So I guess it was 98% of a very good book.

In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune was one I was hotly anticipating.  Klune wrote the incandescently wonderful House in the Cerulean Sea and the hilariously funny How to Be a Normal Person, so that sets up a ton of expectation!  It’s a bit of Pinocchio with a little Wizard of Oz, about a human who was raised by an android and then goes on a kind of quest with three robot friends. This definitely had a lot of Klune markers to it, a found family story where everyone is a little bit against the norm.  The book also, unfortunately, had a tendency to use deep social awkwardness (mostly robots saying inappropriate remarks because they’re robots and have no filter) as humor, and I found that, well, awkward.  That toned down as the book went on, though, and overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. Continue reading “What I’ve Been Reading Lately (July, 2023)” →

A few months ago I reviewed the Little Blue Truck series – a very popular collection in our house!  We’re still reading the series with my baby pretty much daily, and have expanded our collection.  This video reviews four more books in the series, including Little Blue Truck’s Christmas – currently timely, fun all year round, and one of the best in the series.

I’ve been rereading the Anne of Green Gables series by my favorite author, L. M. Montgomery.  I recently read the first and most famous book, and today I’m back with a video review of Book Two, Anne of Avonlea.

Anne of Avonlea continues Anne’s story, and I continue making connections to Montgomery’s life.  I share a few insights on the background of the writing, and discuss both the best and the…not as good…parts of the book.  Enjoy!