What I’m Reading…

12 Bytes: How We Got Here, Where We Might Go Next by Jeanette Winterson

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12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next by Jeanette Winterson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Thoughtful writing that approaches the rise of AI from a take-no-prisoners feminist angle. Winterson deftly weaves a history of artificial intelligence that intertwines religious belief, scientific breakthroughs, and the stories that have been told and refashioned about both across the centuries. At the very core of the human imagination are the questions ‘What am I? What is a mind? What is power? What is a person? What is a god?’ This book approaches all of that with clear eyes, and reads like a bell tolling for us simple, embodied human beings.



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Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

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Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Wow. Isabel Cañas’ novel VAMPIRES OF EL NORTE is a stunning, searing book. Speculative fiction can reveal truth in ways that realism simply can’t, and Cañas uses that to her full advantage in a book balancing sweeping romance with seething horror in the Rio Grande Valley of the 1840s, as the shifting border between Mexico and America was being redrawn in blood.

While the historical basis of the book is nearly two centuries in the past, it is markedly relevant, vampires and all. As Cañas mentions in her final note, “…I wrote this book for my family. For every one of us has been asked variations of the question ‘when did your family come to this country?’ […]
I have realized that the answer is, in fact, a question itself. A question that became the heart of this book.
‘When did this country come to us?’ “



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The Stars Did Wander Darkling by Colin Meloy

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The Stars Did Wander Darkling by Colin Meloy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Colin Meloy’s superbly eerie middle adult fiction doesn’t shy away from unanswered questions or grotesque imagery. THE STARS DID WANDER DARKLING is a wonderfully creepy tale inspired by 1980s American small town life and what I can only assume are some of the weirder wells of Meloy’s expansive imagination. Really appreciate how he trusts his readers to spin part of the web. Favorite character: Randy, the horror-movie obsessed video store owner.



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The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

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The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Super fun and jaunty little time-travel mystery that doesn’t take anything seriously. A fun treat for those who will catch the many British literary references and especially who have a love for Jane Eyre–it was very fun for me to read shortly after reading that classic for the first time earlier this year. While a very insignificant part of the book, I absolutely loved the ubiquitous but never explained genetically engineered pet dodos. Caution: the humor is very British. Proceed accordingly.



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Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

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Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Complex feelings on Ava Reid’s LADY MACBETH. I don’t think I can rate it fairly, nor do I think anyone with a longstanding relationship to the original play and titular character could. Best to know the story is Macbeth-inspired rather than a true retelling. The departures from the original story and Lady are many. There were lots of things I hoped this book would be, and instead it was something entirely of its own, which interestingly enough is one of the major themes of the novel–the difference between truth and expectation of identity. It really leaves me wondering if this was the same exact book but with different character names if I would have had a different experience.

Many beautiful and evocative moments in the story. I have a deep respect for anyone who attempts to make something new out of Shakespeare–it’s bold and it’s risky. The atmosphere created had gorgeous intensity. I just couldn’t snap out of my own desire to keep looking for Lady Macbeth. The more time I spent with Roscille, the more I just kept thinking, “that’s not her.” But I do think Roscille’s story has merits of its own.



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All Men Are Mortal by Simone de Beauvoir

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All Men Are Mortal by Simone de Beauvoir

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Why have an existential crisis when you can read one instead?! ALL MEN ARE MORTAL is an Existentialist manifesto in the form of a centuries-spanning epic, narrated primarily by Fosca, an immortal man born in the 1200s who is now trying to begin yet another new life in 1900s Paris. The story is at turns chilling, gorgeous, infuriating, passionate, problematic, and profound. Existentialist philosophy argues that every human individual forges their own life’s meaning and value through their freely-chosen actions in the face of certain death and despite the incomprehensible nature of the universe. But without the threat of death, could life have meaning at all? Fosca struggles to answer this question through countless regimes, lovers, bloodlines, landscapes, wars, and ambitions, all the while increasingly mourning the inevitable loss of his humanity. Incredibly thought-provoking.



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Black Tide Son by H.M. Long

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Black Tide Son by H.M. Long

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


BLACK TIDE SON is the second installment in H.M. Long’s pirate fantasy trilogy. This book expands the rich universe of the Winter Sea with more cultures, more monsters, and an unraveling knot of forces at the core of a swiftly intensifying war. It’s a constant chase, careening through alleys, waterways, and levels of reality as the core characters all seek their own forms of redemption amid the swelling supernatural power of the Black Tide. A very fun read!



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Book Review: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

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Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


My first time reading this classic. Opulent, stirring, gothic, richly romantic, incredibly dramatic, and tense with emotion, JANE EYRE has captured at least one more heart. Passion over pragmatism reigns here, but also a fierce case for devoted love on equal ground, where both partners are intellectually engaged, free, and can speak openly. (After all the secrets get spilled, that is.)



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Book Review: The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill

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The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read THE CRANE HUSBAND by Kelly Barnhill in one long, breathless go. A dark fairytale for the past, present, and future, this novella is earnest in a way that makes it feel immediate. The world she creates has fantastical rules, but feels lived-in and inevitable. A stunner.



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Book Review: Model Home by Rivers Solomon

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Model Home by Rivers Solomon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Horror is done so incredibly right in MODEL HOME by Rivers Solomon. Uncanny, frighteningly heavy, intimately empathetic, and viscerally terrifying in about fifteen different ways, this novel feels unescapable in a way that only a masterful writer like Solomon could achieve. MODEL HOME is equal parts haunted house hell, seething social commentary, psychological thriller, and warning sign.



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