January 2025

 Hi friends,

I don’t know about you all, but January seemed to last forever here. There were some good parts. Sarah’s cuteness is leveling up, if that’s possible, and no one got sick, but we also spent a lot of the month potty training our two year-old. I cleaned up so much poop and pee. I’m totally unfazed by it anymore. Thankfully, he has now gotten the hang of potty training and hasn’t had an accident in over a week. 

I’ve noticed that I have a habit in January of reading a lot of nonfiction books really quickly. I think this is because I come to the end of the year and realize that I’ve read a ton more fantasy/scifi than nonfiction and decide that I need to try and rebalance my reading habits. I’m a mood reader whose moods are largely dictated by when my holds become available on Libby, and I just really love a good story. Let me know what you think of these books and if you have suggestions for further reading. 

Best,

Tonya 

Howling Dark (The Sun Eater #2) by Christopher Ruocchio

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: The second installment of Ruocchio’s Sun Eater series was far better than the first. We didn’t have to go through a steep learning curve to get to know the characters and the world and were able to just dive right into the action. Quite literally as the book opens with an explosive action sequence. I loved that we got to learn so much more about the lore of the amazing universe that Ruocchio has created and see so many more of its fascinating creatures. As always, Hadrian is at the heart of the story as he continues on his quest to negotiate an end to the centuries-long war with the alien Pale. Being the author of his own story, Hadrian definitely has main character syndrome, and while he has grown a lot since the first book, he still makes a few huge mistakes that had me wondering if this was more of a villain origin story than the hero’s journey. Ruocchio masterfully executes a wonderful scifi plot complete with a moment that literally made me gasp out loud I was so shocked. It was chef’s kiss so great. I took a star off for some pacing issues at the beginning of the book and because Hadrian can be really frustrating to read. I’m pretty sure that this is intentional on the author’s part, so I guess he should be applauded for doing a good job writing a character and scenes that elicited an emotional response from me. In any case, I’m definitely continuing this series. 

Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik 

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: Novik is a must read author for me any time she releases a new book. This was an interesting collection of short stories, one of which shared a lot with her Spinning Silver novel, which I really enjoyed. I particularly enjoyed Pride and Prejudice with dragons! Who doesn’t love a good P&P retelling? She writes a few other stories set in her already-established Scholomance and Temerraire worlds, both of which were fun. I’d recommend for those who enjoyed these series. 

The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare by Christain Brose

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: Even though I’m still on parental leave, I read this book as part of my work team’s book club. My team does a lot of work evaluating Department of Defense weapons systems, so this was a familiar subject to me. The author worked with John McCain when he was head of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He talks about how the U.S. would lose a fight with China in the South China Sea and how we need to pivot from enormous and hugely expensive platforms to easily divestable, unmanned, autonomous systems. This book was written before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it’s interesting to see how his arguments are playing out in real life on the battle field there. As always, the issues entrenched in government acquisitions tie back to the perverse incentives for Congress, contractors, and the Department itself that lead to suboptimal outcomes for the warfare and national security writ large. This is a good read for those interested in defense policy, but probably not very interesting for a general audience. 

Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: I’m realizing that I absorb hardly anything from the self-help books that I read, and maybe that’s on me for not being an attentive reader and allowing myself to absorb the information? In any case, it’s been a few weeks since I read this one, and I’m largely drawing a blank on what it was about. The most I can say now is that super communicators are good listeners and ask open-ended questions that lead people to express themselves. Oh, and being emotionally vulnerable in a conversation can be a good thing that deepens relationships. I’m sure there was more in here since it’s a 300 page book, but that’s all I got. 

How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion by David McRaney

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recommendation: meh

Review: This nonfiction book straddled the line between self-help and science communication. The author is a journalist interested in how public opinion about same-sex marriage changed so quickly in the early 2000s. This question led him to meet with reformed conspiracy theorists and cult members along with activists out there knocking doors, trying to engage with people to change their minds about LGBTQ issues. It was an interesting read, and McRaney presents several models that research has shown can be effective to change people’s minds. It seemed to me that these conversational guides could be effective in encouraging people to examine their opinions and beliefs and why they hold them, but he also points out that people won’t change their minds unless they feel they have a safe place to retreat to if they are estranged from their social group. Obviously, people hate to admit that their wrong, but it is hopeful that if the right environment presents itself, people do change their minds, even people who have a lot to lose by doing so. It was a good read, but the ending didn’t sit well with me. I think the author made conclusions beyond the support of the evidence he presented. 

The Gutenberg Parenthesis: The Age of Print and Its Lessons for the Age of Internet  by Jeff Jarvis

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recommendation: meh

Review:  I probably should have not finished this book. I just wasn’t enjoying it. It provided lots of interesting information, but I just wasn’t really into it. The main takeaway I had from this book was that it took centuries of unrest following the invention of the movable printing press to establish the institutions that produced credible information for the masses, and that it will likely take a long time to establish the institutions that we need for the internet age we now find ourselves in. Jarvis makes a lot of good points about how printing created the idea of the “masses” and the following mass communications and mass marketing. He then talks about how the internet and social media have destroyed the masses. The last part of the book had the meaty information and lessons for the digital age we live in, but the first part of the book talked a lot about the invention of the printing press and the development of books and media that was interesting if you want to learn about the history of the book, but I felt wasn’t interesting enough for my time. I should be better about putting aside books I’m not enjoying. With all of the amazing books out there that I would enjoy, there’s not enough time to spend on books that I don’t like.   

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: I really enjoyed this historical fantasy book. I think that people would call this genre magical realism as the story is set in our world but with a magical twist. In this case, we’re in early 20th century China and Japan as the last imperial Chinese dynasty comes to an end and Japan beings its rise into modernity. Against this backdrop, our protagonist is a mythical fox who can transform herself into a fox or a human. She’s seeking revenge. Our other main character is an older investigator who has been hired to solve a number of mysterious murders and disappearances. I loved how the two plotlines eventually merged and intertwined so beautifully. The story talks a lot about regret, love, revenge, and second chances. I really loved the ethereal vibe along with how our main characters develop and change as the story progresses. I’d highly recommend for any fantasy readers who are looking for a different type of fantasy story. 

Breath of the Dragon by Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: This book is basically a novelized version of a Bruce Lee movie, which is very appropriate considering that Bruce Lee’s daughter is a co-author along with Fonda Lee, who has been one of my must-read authors since The Jade City. The plot is a fairly typical hero’s journey as young Jun answers the call to adventure to seek his destiny in the national martial arts tournament that determines who will be the guardian of the magical Earth scroll. Jun doesn’t realize the personal and ethical toll that he’ll be required to pay as the tournament has been caught up in political intrigue including a vast power-grab by a violent general. The two Lees know how to write amazing fight scenes that really made this book shine, and they executed all the expected plot points masterfully. I have no problem seeing tropes play out as expected in stories as long as they are really well-written, which they were. I didn’t realize until near the end that this wasn’t a stand-alone, which I think is my only criticism since I have no idea when the next one is coming out. Whenever it does though, I will pick it up. 

Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen #1) by Steven Erikson

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: I’ve had Malazan recommended to me by Book Tube for a while. It’s recommended for people who like large, epic fantasy like The Wheel of Time and Stormlight Archive. And yeah, this didn’t disappoint. The prose was excellent, the world was so well realized, and the characters were all complex and nuanced. A lot of people say that Malazan is really complicated and hard to pick up, which I found to be the case when I started. Erikson provides almost no exposition or info-dumps explaining the world, characters, or background action. He just dumps you straight into the action, which was disconcerting. However, I found two great YouTube videos (here and here) that helped explain a bit of the lore and worldbuilding. After watching those, I didn’t feel lost anymore and was able to thoroughly enjoy how the lack of exposition improved the pacing and action sequences of the book. If you like your fantasy high on magic -- magic races, magic systems, magic places, magic realms, magic artifacts, etc. -- then this is the series for you. We get some seriously high-powered players and scenes throughout this book. I also really liked the different characters in our cast. I wouldn’t say that there’s one hero or protagonist. It’s a bit grimdark in that sense, as each group of characters acts in their own interests to survive, right wrongs, and gain or project power. I really liked all of the characters though. I understood all of their motivations and found them all to be empathetic, even the ones that we weren’t supposed to root for. I’m excited to continue with this series, and it is a long one, so I’ll probably be reading it for the next few months.