Fiction:
I bought a bunch of Barbara Hambly short stories electronically that I hadn’t previously read. Zenobie (Windrose Chronicles) is a ghost story that takes place while Antryg and Joanna are living in our world. I love that Antryg is still a wizard in a world without magic; he’s one of my favorites of all Hambly’s characters.
A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson is novella-length, set in a science fictional world with fantasy novel trappings; there’s some science that might as well be magic going on, but the science isn’t happening front and center. It has an LGBT point of view character, and all or most characters are of color. I haven’t yet read The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, by the way, so don’t know how this compares.
The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh was a reread; it was the first Cherryh I ever read, back in high school, and led to my reading vast swathes of her books…pretty much all of them before the late 1990s. Most of the others I want to reread don’t seem to be in e-book, and my paperbacks are in a box under many other boxes. Anyway, I still enjoyed it; I remain impressed by the alien POV and human-as-other who can barely communicate in his strange new world.
Nonfiction:
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins was mentioned to me by an online acquaintance, years ago, who used this book with her classes. I can see why it would be excellent for college students; it very clearly lays out issues facing women in 1960, bolstering the story with examples from a series of interviews. It gives a good overview of several of the movements, including black women’s roles in the Civil Rights movement and SNCC, that I think would be best as a precursor to more detailed reading. For instance, Asian women are barely mentioned. But in general, I enjoyed it and found the cycle of history somehow reassuring, even when it wasn’t going in the direction I wanted.
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly, was excellent. I enjoyed the slice of social history, learning about that time and place and individual women’s lives, and how their jobs helped them to help others in a segregated work environment. I was sorry it wasn’t longer and more detailed.
Mediterranean Vegetables: A Cook’s Compendium of all the Vegetables from The World’s Healthiest Cuisine, with More than 200 Recipes by Clifford Wright: my insomnia book, finished at last! Now I need a new insomnia book….
Fanfiction:
Just Like A Child by Snapjack is for those who love the Deadpool movie. Negasonic Teenage Warhead shows up on Wade and Vanessa’s doorstep after getting dumped by her boyfriend.
Devil Put Aside For Me by follow_the_sun features Bucky Barnes crossing over with Sleepy Hollow. I recommend this whole series, really. It’s a lot of fun.
