We’ve spent
January settling into our new home in Colorado. We were homeless for two weeks
while we waited for our stuff to arrive from Maryland. We fell afoul of being
both the first house to get loaded on the truck to be followed by three more
houses, and COVID delays as our driver had to substitute for another driver who
got COVID-19 and had to isolate. Finally, though, our stuff arrived January 11,
and we’ve settled in quite nicely. Our new house is quite a bit bigger than our
old rancher in Maryland, so we’ve been furniture shopping both through scouring
Craigslist and visiting American Furniture Warehouse – I don’t recommend
bringing children to any furniture warehouses unless you’re prepared for them
to try to jump on literally every couch in the store.
I did manage to
read a few books this month amid all the flurry of moving. I’ve been on a Young
Adult fantasy kick since I started following a few “booktubers” on YouTube. Check
out Daniel Greene and Elliot Brook’s channels if you want great content and
reviews about adult and young adult fantasy.
As always, let
me know if you have any recommendations for further reading and if you have any
thoughts about these books.
Cheers!
Tonya
Rating: 4
of 5 stars
Recommendation:
yes, especially for anyone who enjoys spy thrillers
Review: This
was the only nonfiction book that I finished this month, but it read like a
spy thriller novel. Macintyre tells the story of one of the highest-ranking
Soviet defectors. Oleg Gordievsky was a colonel in the KGB, and the head of
their London branch. Driven by ideological motivators and a desire to see
Soviet-style communism dismantled, he relayed valuable intelligence information
for years that in some cases literally directed the outcome of British-Soviet
relations. In the end he fell afoul of one of the most infamous traitors in CIA
history – Aldrich Ames. Following the betrayal, MI6 pulled off literally the
most daring and spectacular extraction from Soviet Russia in history. Unfortunately
for Gordievsky, who never told his wife that he was a spy, he’s separated from
his family for years following his daring escape, and the resulting loss of
trust in their marriage tore it apart. Hopefully, it was worth it? I know it
was definitely worth it for Western country intelligence agencies. Macintyre’s
impressive research skills allow the book to read like a novel and kept me hooked
the whole time. Highly recommend.
Slay by
Brittney Morris
Rating: 4
of 5 stars
Recommendation:
yes!
Review: I
will never know what it’s like to be the only person of my race in my high
school. I think I’ve said on here before that one of the things I love most
about reading – fiction and nonfiction—is that I can gain insight into other
people’s experience and perspectives, which allows me to develop greater empathy
and understanding of the human condition. In this book, 17 year-old Kierra Johnson
is one of three Black students at her suburban Seattle high school. She’s also
the secret creator of an online multi-player, virtual reality game made
specifically to create a safe space for Black gamers online. Morris manages to
not only tell a compelling and engaging story, but also uses the book to discuss
sensitive race issues. I think my main race-relation takeaway I got from the
book was that white people shouldn’t expect their black friends and acquaintances
to speak for the whole Black race, and that it’s not fair of me to put them in
a situation where they have to do that. I’m not a gamer, like, at all, but I also
enjoyed reading about the virtual world the narrator had created and really
enjoyed that part of the story.
Fireborne
(The Aurelian Cycle #1) by Rosaria Munda
Rating: 5
of 5 stars
Recommendation:
yes! For anyone who lives dragon riding fantasy!
Review: I
have to confess that I have a large soft spot in my heart for dragon-riding
fantasy novels. Reading Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series
growing up was one of my first introductions to fantasy, and cemented my love
for the genre. Munda does an excellent job continuing that tradition here. To be
honest, the dragonriding is not a huge part of the book. It’s mainly a
political fantasy book that examines issues of class, propaganda, and governance.
When the dragonriding does happen though, it is excellent. Also, I loved the
two main point of view characters. One is the lost Anastasia-like son of the
dragonborn class that was overthrown in a violent and bloody revolution the
decade before, and the other is a farmer’s daughter who’s family was killed by his
father’s dragon for not paying taxes. The relationship between the two main characters
is the anchor for the whole book and motivates pretty much everything the two
do. Highly recommend for anyone who likes fantasy and dragons in particular,
and I can’t wait for the sequel to come out later this year.
Crown of Feathers
by Nicki Pau Preto
Rating: 4
of 5 stars
Recommendation:
yes, for those who enjoy fantasy
Review: After
reading the dragonriding Fireborne, I wanted to continue the mythical beast
riding experience, and found this phoenix-riding book. Phoenix-riding was new,
but is fairly similar to most dragonriding stories. The riders bond with their
steeds at birth and undergo intense training programs before facing off with a
big bad. Also, there’s romance, intrigue, and a pretty classic “girl-runs-away-and-disguises-herself-as-a-boy-to-fulfill-her-ambitions”
plot. All tried and true elements of fantasy storytelling, but generally done well.
To be honest, I wasn’t really hooked for the first 100 pages or so, but the last
half of the novel more than made up for the slow beginning. Preto does a wonderful
job of building an interesting and deep fantasy world. She generally does a fairly
good job of weaving in the lore and history without “information-dumping” on
the reader with long drawn-out explanations, but there were a few spots when I definitely
felt she could have curtailed the lore and history to focus more on moving the
plot forward. I was undecided until about half way through if I wanted to read
the sequel, but finally felt enough of a connection to the characters that I put
the sequel on hold.
The Downstairs
Girl by Stacey Lee
Rating:
5 of 5 stars
Recommendation:
yes! For anyone who loves historical fiction
Review: This
was another YA novel that dealt a lot with race. Jo Kuan is a Chinese American
teenager growing up in Atlanta, GA post-Civil War. To be honest, before reading
this book, I had never thought about the experience of Asian Americans in the
South. 1890 was an interesting time as well to set this book as segregation
laws were just starting to take hold in the South following the end of
Reconstruction and the withdrawal of federal troops to enforce the amendments passed
following the Civil War. Turns out that Chinese people were both forbidden from
owning property and leasing it, so Jo and the man who raised her, Old Gin, live
in an old abolition hide-away beneath a printing business. Beyond the interesting
insights into race relations at the time, Lee’s plot and character development
are on point. Jo is an orphan, and starts to investigate the mystery of her
birth with some amazing twists and surprises at the end. Her resilience and
intelligence are remarkable, and it was a pleasure to read her thoughts. I
really liked how Lee capture what I imagine was the style of the time in Jo’s
speech and writing. Being white in America, I enjoy the privilege of not having
to think much at all about race, but those of other races don’t enjoy that same
privilege, and the uncontrollable and unchangeable fact of their race affects
their every day lives in ways that I just don’t realize. Highly recommend.
Woven in
Moonlight by Isabel Ibanez
Rating: 5
of 5 stars
Recommendation:
yes!
Review: This
was another five star book this month. It reminded me of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s
Gods of Jade and Shadow in that it was a fantasy set in Latin American folklore.
For someone who reads a lot – maybe too much? – fantasy it’s refreshing to read
a story that uses other folklore as its inspiration. Ibanez tells this Bolivian-folklore-inspired
story, which relies on some classic fantasy conventions – in this case the
royal body-double switch. The main character, Ximena, is the body double of the
exiled Condesa who lost her thrown in a bloody revolution that put a tyrant king on the throne, who’s destroying his country’s economy
by forcing farmers to grow the koka drug on their farmland for export. The new
tyrant king demands that the Condesa marry him to cement his control, so Ximena
the body double goes in her stead, with her true identity a secret. It has excellent
action, romance, plot and character development, and I loved the magic. Unlike some
epic fantasy magic systems, this one felt very natural with characters’
abilities varying and bestowed on them by the moon or sun gods. So fun!
Mommy Corner
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| Maya had fun at the playground by our new house. |
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| We're enjoying the snowy Colorado weather. |
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| Chloe lost her first tooth! We didn't even realize it was loose until the day it fell out. She lost it while we were playing in the snow, so we wrote the very surprised and unprepared tooth fairy a note explaining what happened, and Chloe got a bunch of quarters. |
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| Maya having fun at her new school. |
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| I spent the last weekend in January at a "sisters retreat" with my sisters-in-law at my in-laws' cabin. It was great to get away and relax with friends. |
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| Swingin' sisters! |
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