February 2025

 Hi friends,

February was a good month for our family. It was the first February in 2 years that we didn’t end up going to the ER in the middle of the night with a kid with croup who couldn’t breathe. I was very relieved to get through the month and skip that tradition.

I also went back to work the last week of the month. This transition was easier than some of my previous returns because I’m thankfully still working from home, and Dan is taking his parental leave until the beginning of April. Having him home with the baby really eases the transition back to work. 

I read some really good books too. I started my first lit RPG and loved it and continued some series I’d started in January. Just finishing these series will probably consume quite a bit of my reading this year. Let me know what you think of these books, and if you have suggestions for further reading.  

Best,

Tonya 

A Prayer for the Crown Shy (Monk and Robot #2) by Becky Chambers

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review:  I really liked the first book in this series for its low-stakes philosophical discussions and its hopefulness. This sequel had the same vibe as we followed our favorite Sibling Dex and their robot pall Mosscap as they continue their tour of civilization. Sibling Dex finally has to confront that question that scares all of us, “What do I want to do?” and the two explore how it’s never as simple as it seems. These books just feel cozy and help me relax and have hope that maybe someday humanity will find a way to solve all our sustainability issues and build a utopian society. 

The Ladies of Grace Adieu (Strange & Norrell 1.5) by Susanna Clarke  

Rating:  4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review:  I really enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, but coming in at 1000+ pages, it was quite a commitment, and it lacked an interesting female protagonist that I could engage with. Clarke solves both of these problems with this collection of short stories set in that same world. Again the world building here is excellent. I love how Clarke can, to me at least, write perfectly in the style of the Victorian era. My favorite stories here were one featuring the Duke of Wellington’s horse and one that gets a cameo from Jonathan Strange. They are delightful and engaging. There were a few though that just felt like the first chapter of a longer untold story, which is always a shame with short stories. 

Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl #1) by MAtt Dinniman

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes 

Review: Dungeon Crawler Carl is fast becoming a darling of most of the people I follow for book recommendations on You Tube. Although I never thought that lit role playing game, or lit rpg, would be my thing I decided to give it a try after five or so recommendations. Like everyone else I’m really glad that I did too. At first I was a little put off by the casualness and needless destruction of the apocalypse that starts the story. It seemed to me that Dinniman was making a little too light with people’s lives for me to engage with the setting and story, but then I realized that he was actually just trying to get the reader on Carl’s side and against the game that Carl and his feline compatriot Princess Donut are forced to play. When I realized that the story was likely going to go in a destroy-the-unjust-system direction, I was all on board. Also, Princess Donut is far and away my favorite cat in all of literature. Reading her almost made me want a cat. Dinniman doles out Carl’s character development and back story in small doses that occur at interesting moments in the larger narrative. The only criticism I had was that the ending wasn’t really an end, more of an abrupt stop, but the second one picks up right where the first one left off. 

Demon in White (Sun Eater #3) by Christopher Ruocchio 

Rating:4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: This was probably the best Sun Eater book so far. The pacing was great, Hadrian had some great character moments, and every plot was perfectly executed. Ruocchio knows how to write a great action scene, and this book delivered several, but I found that my favorite parts were the political intrigue and the mystery solving that revealed more about the lore of the Sun Eater universe. Hadrian continues to be a flawed protagonist, but it is a lot of fun to see him start to grow into his Halfmortal legend in this book. He has some really awesome triumphs that continue to increase the threat he poses to the Empire while simultaneously winning great battles for that same empire. The Empire is extremely problematic with highly stratified class system, but it really is the best of all the even worse societies in this far future space opera. It’s fascinating to wonder where the rest of the series will go and what choices Hadrian will make that lead to his infamous Sun Eater title. 

Deadhouse Gates (Malazan Book of the Fallen #2) by Steven Erickson

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: 

Review: Book two of Malazan is set on an entirely different continent and with an almost entirely new set of characters than the first. In this one, we go to the desert, and like everyone’s favorite whiny Jedi, all of our characters end up hating sand by the end. This book has four different plotlines, but only one that has overlapping characters with the first book. Felisin was my least favorite and starts as a captivity plotline and then morphs into something unexpected. We get a military fantasy plotline with Duiker who is an Imperial historian accompanying the great Wiccan commander Coltaine on his desperate flight across the continent with 40,000 refugees in tow following the local uprising against the empire. We get an assassination plot line with  Kalam and Fidler, our Bridgeburning friends from the first book. And then we have Mappo and his centuries-long friendship with Icarium who have the most heartwarming relationship in the whole series that dulls the edge of this otherwise vicious world. I actually really enjoyed Duiker’s plotline, which could have easily been a slog as we follow our characters on a literal slog across the desert, but actually was really well paced and contained some great character and action moments. (Where’s the sapper captain!?) Kalam and Fidler are always fun to follow, and I loved seeing Kalam’s dueling loyalties and the conclusion he comes to at the end. I felt really divided over Felisin’s plotline, which in the end mostly felt like set-up for the next story. Although I’m not sure if she was set up as a villain or not? It takes quite a skilled author to keep me engaged for almost 1,000 pages, and while this book is a large commitment, I felt like it was time well spent to get to an amazing conclusion across all the plotlines. These aren’t books I can read back to back since they are pretty intense,  but I’m enjoying reading about one a month. 

Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (Dungeon Crawler Carl #2) by Matt Dinniman

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review:  Book two in this series picks up right where book one left off as Carl and Princess Donut make their way to the third level of the dungeon. I liked that we got more of Carl’s back story in this one in little bits and pieces, and I really liked that we didn’t just end up fighting monsters for pages on end. In this one, our characters are volun-told into a few “quests” and have to learn how to deal with the dungeon writers who are solely focused on providing entertaining content to the trillions of Dungeon viewers at the literal expense of the crawlers’ lives. Carl’s mantra, “I will not let you break me,” is the most emotional that he usually gets despite intentional triggers from the showrunners. Donut is the perfect balance to Carl. As someone who is not an animal lover, I didn’t think I could care this much for a cat,  but that’s a testament to the quality of Dinniman’s writing. Donut could come off as over the top and annoying, but she has enough charisma, like literal charisma points, that she makes it work. I’m enjoying my journey through the dungeon and am hoping that Dinniman is setting things up for an epic burn-it-all-down plotline in the upcoming books. We’ll have to see. 

There and Back: Photographs from the Edge by Jimmy Chin

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: I loved Chin’s Free Solo movie featuring Alex Honnold, so I’ve had my eye on this collection of his photography for a while, and Dan bought it for me as a Christmas present. I read mostly ebooks, but this book needs to be read in print to experience the stunning landscape photography that Chin is famous for. I also enjoyed reading about his many adventures. While I’m not one to feel the need to scale dangerous ascents, I do appreciate the stories of those who do, and this book was a great way to experience some amazing events.