Julia

Gifted from my aunt, who chose it for her book club. This was great! Sweeney is a generous biographer who nonetheless didn't shy away from the prickly sides of Laybourne's personality, and has such a deft mix of interviews with her colleagues, friends, and family with aviation history (truly, I had no idea bird collisions were such a big deal for planes!). This is a story you wouldn't think would be fast-paced, but it is, and I feel enriched to know about Laybourne's lifework. Also, really appreciated Sweeney's attunement for the sexism she worked upstream against her entire career, and his care not to make more of the fact that although she was clearly an adept professional mentor, she did not enjoy motherhood.

This was great! Also, listen to this. I heard Hawley do an author talk, and she finished Servant of Earth back in 2017, but was told at the time that there wasn't a market for romantasy. WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. I feel terrible for her! I can imagine a regular romantasy reader assuming some of this is derivative, when it's actually a great early exemplar of the genre! The world-building is much stronger than some other things I've read. Not Maas-style doorstops, but I really like the shards premise, and the love triangle here is subtly and deftly handled - fire daddy and shadow daddy wut. Also some great female friendship stuff and meditations on grief. Already ordered the next one.

I should love this more, but didn't! Just liked it. I love when Kleypas chooses a FMC who isn't wealthy (this protagonist is a novelist for a living!), it was fun that the MMC is younger than her, and there's a bunch of "inside publishing" stuff from the historical time period that is of course interesting. I do think FMC used another nice dude with somewhat ill intent, so maybe that was it? But still! A pleasant romp! And one of her funnier meet cutes.

This was great in many ways! Nielsen's foremost achievement is clearly articulating how disability history is not adjunctive but central to the American story, particularly relating to our obsession over what a democratic citizenry "should" look like. I do wish there are times she'd done slightly deeper dives into some of the tidbits she unearthed (there'd be a fascinating sentence about someone...and then the text would move on!) or acknowledged when that wasn't possible due to lack of records. This was also written long enough ago that I longed for an updated version that moves the history through from disability rights to disability justice. Still, invaluable reading overall.

Okay, on the one hand, I didn't even know Wallflowers #0 existed! I think this was intended to standalone, but on the one hand, I was THRILLED to hear about Westcliff's sisters (their "scandals" are referenced in Wallflowers), and also, when do we get TWO heroines?? My main issue is I just read Alice Wong's anthology Disability Intimacy so I was so irritated at the psychological hurdle one heroine has to get over. I suppose it's understandable internalized ableism and at the same time, I resented it mightily as the source of tension in that half of the plot.

I just wish this anthology had more of Alice Wong's inimitable voice in it, and I wish I'd discovered Alice Wong earlier! What a loss for all of us. This anthology was beautiful, challenging, expansive, and necessary.

I liked this, although I think Gong's Immortal Longings series is better (likely because this was her debut - it is an amazing debut). Somehow the pacing is smoother, while still at quite a clip. My curiosity about this book is that it's quite gory for young adult (certainly equivalent to IL), and although I like the fantasy element, it ended up adding A LOT of plot to the complicated Romeo & Juliet bones that already needed to feel emotionally urgent. I'll read the second one, and I would recommend people curious about Gong start with her adult stuff.