[I've been
reading]
The Bezzle

I liked the original Marty Hench novel, this one didn’t do it for me as much. Cory clearly knows a lot about ways that rich people can fuck over basically everyone else, as well as how terrible the US prison-industrial complex is. There’s also a shout out to Aaron Swartz, RIP. However, the plot gets a bit lost in his explanations of these things (things I mostly already knew). It was good to see Marty, and Catalina Island, but there was only one woman with any lines in this book and that wasn’t quite enough for me.

Night Magic

The author lives in Boone NC and laments that blue light and other artificial lighting is limiting our access to the things that come out only at night. Each chapter looks at a new thing (bats, glowworms, fireflies, fungi, owls, moths) through this lens. I found the natural world discussions truly interesting and enjoyed the things I learned from this book. However, the use of a lot of “we” language (We can’t pull ourselves away from our screens, we are busy destroying the natural world, we don’t notice these things) did not resonate with me. If her opinions are also yours you’ll love this. Otherwise, you might not

Summer at the Garden Cafe

This is a gentle sequel to The Library at the Edge of the World. This one more about the characters we met in the last book & even LESS about the bookmobile which was a part I liked. We see more people finding ways to make lives for themselves in the rural Irish town as well as a bit of history about the Irish Civil War which feels a bit bolted on and some mysteries which remain mysteries. Once you know what sort of book this is (like the last one, it’s a happy ending book) it does remove what might otherwise be a bit of suspense with some of the interplay between the characters. Also I am often the one asking “Why does this book have a MAP?” about a lot of books but this one could have really benefited from a map.

Eartha

This is one of those tricky graphic novels which has a story that would be good for teens but has a few images that might encourage tut-tutting (my library does not have an “adult” section for GNs). Nothing problematic, just a few people who have erotic dreams that are (well) illustrated. It’s a fascinating story about people who live on an island where dreams appear, but they start coming less often and people worry something may be wrong. Eartha, an all-around well-liked person, has to go to the city to figure it out. A lot going on here, masterfully illustrated and a nice warm tied-up ending.

The Expert of Subtle Revisions

This was another time travel/loop novel where I’m not entirely sure what happened but I enjoyed it. It’s also got a Wikipedia aspect, done well so I’m a fan. This connects two time periods: 2016 Bay Area and 1930s Vienna (including the political upheval and the rise of fascism) with a few side visits to other times and places. I liked getting to experience both of the main places/times through this novel which is about math and power and who actually gets to write history. Strong female characters round it out, though the message is ultimately about, in some ways, the invisibility of women.

The Science of Last Things

I somehow misread the blurb and cover and thought this would be a very different sort of book. It was essays about the author’s life in the context of “the bigger picture” for lack of a better phrase. She discusses religion, her father’s death, her cancer, prozac, the birth of her children. Many classic texts were cited and quoted from at length which I am sure works for hte right kind of audience but not me. It was very much not my thing, too “literary” by half, using words like chthonic when many simpler ones would do. The author seems like a nice person and her thoughts about life were interesting, but I thought this would be more about the natural world and less about introspection and what people from the canon had to say about those topics.

Woodworking

Emily St. James has written one hell of a first novel. A teacher in rural South Dakota has decided, mostly, to do something about the fact that she is trans. The only other trans person she knows is a 17 year old girl who had to threaten the school district to be able to go to school--they form an unlikely alliance. She goes to support groups. She gets in her own head a LOT. She wavers. She has moments of bravery. She meets others like and not like herself which itself is a great part of the book. A masterful novel.

Trans History: A Graphic Novel

A good “talking heads” style graphic novel about the history of trans people and trans identity based on actual “what we know” history (which is often, sadly, not much b/c of colonizers and active suppression). The author does a good job explaining the things that are still unknown. Not all the history is great, of course, but the authors emphasize the positive and also try to get more than just the usual voices, actively reaching out to many kinds of transfolk to create this wide compendium of histories.

The Library at the Edge of the World

A nice small town novel about a peninsula in Ireland which is slowly losing the population in its smaller villages and the Council is thinking of ways to centralize which the villagers mostly don’t want. The librarian, a woman who came from London after a messy failed marriage and lives with her hard-to-please mother is the central character, driving a mobile library and meeting all the locals and trying to figure out what to do. I was expecting more bookmobile content, but was happy to get to know this new area and start this new series.

Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn

A book about connected farm buildings of New England, though focusing primarily on Maine. I grew up in exactly this sort of place, one that my folks bought from the original farming family. Never thought much about it. Apparently the way it was arranged was like that for a number of interesting reasons, very few of which were “Because it’s cold in the winter.” and having to do with New England history. An absolute delight to read and learn from.