June 2024

 Hi friends,

I read a lot of fantasy in June. It was just that kind of month, and all my most anticipated fantasy reads came in at the library at the same time.I even had two books that I liked enough to rate 5 stars. 

We enjoyed some family time too at the Woodbury reunion which featured trips to Boondocks and the Molly Kathleen mine in Cripple Creek, as well as kayaking, sealing sessions at the Denver temple, cousin olympics, and a kids' market. As you can imagine, the kids and their cousins had so much fun, while I had a stomach virus and spent most of the time getting over that.

As always, let me know what you think of these reads and if you have recommendations for other books. 

This blog features a guest review from Chloe of one of the books she's been reading recently. Check it out!

Best,

Tonya 

The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan #1) by Robert Jackson Bennet

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: This book has been receiving a lot of attention on social media, and all of it positive. It’s a cross-genre bender incorporating an intriguing murder mystery with fantasy and scifi elements. There’s a strong Sherlock Holmes and Watson vibe with our two main characters, Ana and Din. Ana is the brilliant but excessively quirky detective, who insists on being blindfolded all the time to reduce distractions to her thought process. Her new assistant, Din, is her eyes and ears, quite literally considering her self-imposed blindness and isolation. Din has been augmented with the ability to perfectly retain everything that he sees and hears. The augmentations are derivations taken from the slain bodies of the megalith leviathans that threaten the empire every rainy season, whose origins are surrounded in their own mystery. The story begins with a single befuddling murder case that escalates into a grand conspiracy that threatens the empire itself. It’s a magnificent ride that does a good job with pacing, plot, world building, and character development, which is everything I look for in a good book. I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a good mystery, or scifi and fantasy. 

The Space Station Decision: Incremental Politics and Technological Choice by Howard E. McCurdy

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, for space policy wonks

Review: I enjoy reading a good policy study before bed. I find them the perfect level of interesting and relaxing before dropping off to sleep. This book tells the story of NASA convincing Pres. Reagan to start a space station program. The current International Space Station that the U.S. and its partners ended up building was a far cry from the early designs and concepts that NASA’s engineers had been working on since the 1970s. As is always the case with big policy decisions, there’s a myriad of back-and-forth and negotiations with various stakeholders across Congress, NASA, the White House, and the Office of Management and Budget. One thing that still rang true with me and my knowledge of how NASA works today is how reticent NASA was to pin down a design and produce a cost estimate that went with it. NASA’s previous experience with the space shuttle had shown them that once they announce a design, the design itself would be up for negotiation, and everyone knows that putting a cost estimate with your design is a sure way to get canceled when policy makers get sticker shock at how much the thing is actually going to cost. NASA still operates this way, as does every other acquisition project in the federal government. In any case, I enjoyed learning about the early decision to start space station Freedom, which eventually became the ISS. You could probably write a whole other book about that story, but this one ends in 1989, so we don’t get to hear it here. 

Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1) by Leigh Bardugo

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: I love a good heist story. Now combine a heist story with cool worldbuilding, a group of unlikely companion anti-heros, and a mission where the stakes are world-ending, and you’ve got yourself a good read. I’ve not seen the Netflix show that adapted this and Bardugo’s other work set in this world, but I’ve heard good things about this series, and I definitely liked it. I felt that almost all of our crew were well-developed and interesting characters, and I liked the magic systems and how the characters used them. The best part of a heist is, of course seeing it play out, which actually happened earlier in the book than I thought it would. The story evolves after the heist, though, and ends on a cliffhanger for book 2, which I immediately picked up after finishing this one. 

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: The second book in the Six of Crows series picks up right where the first one’s cliffhanger ends. This sequel benefited from a faster pace because we didn’t have to be introduced to our crew and the world, which slowed down the first one at the beginning. There are several heist plotlines in this book, and some really good plot pay-offs that Bardugo started setting up in the first book. It’s also really gratifying to see how our characters evolved across the two books, especially Kaz’s ghost and female lead. Each character has their own trauma and issues they have to confront as the story evolves, and Bardugo does a good job weaving the plot and character arcs together well. At times, the book felt a little unnecessarily dark, like characters would do things just to prove how bad they were, but it all fit in the sort of grimdark lite for YA feel that the book was trying to achieve. I’d recommend to folks who like fantasy and heist stories. 

Spin of Fate (The Fifth Realm #1) by A.A. Vora

Rating:  3 of 5 stars

Recommendation: meh

Review: I was kind of disappointed in this book. I picked it up right after finishing Leigh Bardugos’s Six of Crows duology, which is also classified YA, and while Six of Crows did a good job avoiding some familiar pitfalls of the YA genre, those pitfalls were felt really strongly in this one. First, this book was heavy on long, detailed chunks of exposition to explain the magic and world building of the story. Second, the characters just all seemed to come off a bit melodramatic. The biggest thing this story had going for it was the mystery surrounding the different realms that people are consigned to based on the spin of their soul. Vora did a good job slowly revealing the secrets of the realms and the realities of how they function, or don’t, which is mainly what kept me reading. I will probably skip the sequels, though. This one ends on a bit of a cliff hanger. 

The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club #1) by Richard Osman

Rating:  5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: This book deserves all the hype it gets. I’ve heard it described as a cozy murder mystery, and I think that’s about right. There are multiple point-of-views in the story, with most of them coming from the group of four elderly friends who all live in the same retirement village together and can’t resist investigating when one of the staff gets murdered in mysterious circumstances. I loved all of the characters: Elizabeth is my hero, I want Joyce to be my best friend, I’d love to just talk to Ibrahim, and to watch a sports event with Ron. They all felt so real, and I loved that the book took its time introducing them and just watching them interact with each other. The mystery itself is also very intriguing. All of the suspects are hiding their own secrets and mysteries, and in every case, it’s not what you initially thought it was. Osman’s prose is also really well done, and each point-of-view feels distinct and gives insight into the character, showing off Osmans’s ability to write in several different styles and voices. The book touches a lot on themes of sacrifice and confidence, and really explores the extent to which people will go to to protect those they love. It made me think deeply and chuckle at the same time. I can’t wait to read more.

Guest Reviewer Chloe

The Den of Wolves (The Kingdom of Wrenly #15) by Jordan Quinn

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: I liked that the wolves join in when they were saving Ruskin -- the prince's dragon -- and other animals. That was the best part. I didn't like that the hunters tried to hunt the animals and the dire wolves. What happened in this story is that Clara and Lucas and Grom they were camping and they went to see a waterfall and then they had to track down a troll that stole Ruskin, and the wizard got caught in a magic bubble, and then a dire wolf baby followed them and it sneezed on the trail because it was allergic to dragons, so they followed that track, and it led to all the cages, including the cage with Ruskin. they freed them, and while the trolls were having lunch, they started attacking and tried to use the potion arrows on them to make them sleep, but the dire wolf pack joined in, and the trolls said "Get those dire wolves!" and the dire wolves stopped them by the baby sneezing in the manager's face, and then they got scared away by the pack. They freed the rest of the animals, and the wolves invited Clara and Lucas to join their pack, and the wolves could talk! And that's the plot!

Mommy Corner

My birthday present to me was Lego's new Space Launch System set. The Space Launch System is one of the projects that I review at work. It was fun to put it together with Chloe. 

Sometimes I get hit by the baking bug. Last week I made this strawberry lemonade cake, and it was amazing.