Being a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz New York, Scribner, 2016 [Challenge # 9: A book with a dog on the cover.] Since I enjoyed Alexandra Horowitz’s first book, Inside a Dog, for its insights into the canines we share our lives with, I picked up Being a Dog: Following the Dog into a World of …
The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley Tor, 2016 Kameron Hurley is one of a new generation of feminist SFF writers who began to publish in the 2010s, when social media began is phase of near-ubiquitousness, a cornucopia of hype, much of a geek-related. By geek I mean SFF in its many media — games, …
A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle Dell Yearling, 1978 [Challenge # 4: A children’s book, middle grade or younger.] A Swiftly Turning Planet is a hot mess of a book, but not without its rewards. The third installment of the Murry family saga that began with A Wrinkle in Time, it features the insufferable …
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Paperback edition, Bantam, 2007 The Lies of Locke Lamora came out in 2006, but I only got around to it in 2019. I’m coming out of a long period where I did not read current science fiction or fantasy, only old favorites. It caught my attention at …
Jet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World by Sam Howe Verhovek Avery, 2010 [Challenge # 25: A book in which airplanes figure prominently.] Hubris and aviation have a long, intertwined history together. Overconfidence in a flight control system most likely caused the recent crashes of a Boeing 737 Max …
Tales from La Vida: A LatinX Comics Anthology Edited by Frederick Luis Aldama Mad Creek Books, an imprint of Ohio State University Press, 2018 [EXTRA CREDIT: A book about a person of color (PoC), any variety, written by an author of the same variety] I’m tacking on this book as extra credit to the above …
Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan (Writer), Fiona Staples (Artist) Image Comics, 2012 The Saga saga seems to be a graphic novel favorite among readers who don’t ordinarily read graphic novels. The buzz on it has been very good since the series began, and the Goodreads and Amazon ratings high. It was even recommended …
Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams Avon Books, March 1998 [Challenge # 39: A book with a non-human (animal or fantastic creature) main character] I don’t think any talking-animal story has ever come close to what Richard Adams accomplished with Watership Down, an epic tale of rabbits who flee their doomed warren. It had …
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemison Current, Penguin Group, 2013 [Challenge # 14: A book about a person of color (PoC), any variety, written by an author of the same variety] Up to now, I haven’t read much current fantasy, that is, books published after 2001. In recent years I read fantasy YA …
The Thorn Boy by Storm Constantine Stark House, 2001 Better known as a fantasy novelist, Storm Constantine has also written a surprising number of short stories. This collection, published in 2001, features nine stories set in or around the fictional kingdom of Magravandias, which figures in her Sea Dragon Heir trilogy. The Magravandias world resembles …