Ivy

Oh my god I love Jane Yolen and this had POEMS too. So beautiful. Eerie but lovely fairy tales and fantasies.

Been meaning to read this one for a while now and finally caught it in ebook format. It's a great story and I love that it's based in a true relationship. At the same time, could we get some well known books with Jewish characters that aren't about the Holocaust? It's not something to forget, but maybe we could have stories where these folks get to just exist?

Far as I can tell, this is solidly anchored in real history. As a whole it was a good bit of historical fiction, not anything spectacular but a good read. My favorite bit, honestly, was the discovery of what happened to Evalina's daughter. We only know what's happened when she herself remembers.

One of the better collections of “this misery we're all living through”. Probably like, 10% poetry, 75% writing, 15% photography. I'd say it should be something they make high schoolers read in ten years, but I'm betting parents will complain because the author is gay and one of the first chapters is him meeting and bringing a guy home, so it's something they need to have college kids read in ten years.

Oh, that was charming! I loved this book way more than I expected to. It felt so genuine. This was fun, and funny, and I am glad to have read it.

Good cotton candy read. I loved this series when I was younger, so every time I see one for sale for like a dollar I have to grab it and reread it. And this one is so cute! Our heroine learns she can utterly destroy people without punching them!

Read this probably 20 years ago, and it was my first actual introduction to the Holocaust, beyond “bad stuff happened, people were killed, America came and saved everyone”. And then I promptly forgot the title for years until assigned it in high school. I have a fondness for Jane Yolen's books purely from remembering reading this one.

So this was...weird. Really lovely and enjoyable, pretty realistic characters-find a sixteen year old who isn't awful on occasion-but y'know, weird.

Enjoyed this one...it's nearly 500 pages and I was shocked to realize it was over. For the love of heaven don't give this to a young person.

So that hurt a LOT.
Also she's right, Idaho sucks, it's ragingly conservative and boring and the only good parts were the writing camp I went to in a state park two years running and the random creek in the middle of nowhere that ran perfectly clear and was just precisely deep enough to swim in.

Needs more gay, and the title reference kinda felt like it was in a fanfic, to be honest. I might've felt differently if I weren't so familiar with the song. I do still like it because I enjoy the series, but definitely not my favorite.

I don't like knowing other people hurt but it's nice not feeling alone, and I appreciate the giggles I got reading.

Relatedly, I had someone ask me for a copy of Furiously Happy earlier and they said it had “a kind of demented fox on the cover” and excuse you that is Rory and he is a RACCOON thankyouverymuch and he is excited to see you!

Reread because I wanted a good comfy read. This one's kind of jarring, since we know the bad guy from step one and we're just trying to catch him. The hunt isn't the same. I like it, but not my favorite of the series.

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens felt like a hug. It was anxiety inducing, but lovingly so! Bruised felt like the loving callout on shitty coping skills. I had to pause a few times to have emotions (and to screech when my girls FINALLY got to kiss, oh my god). I'm glad I learned of Boteju when her first book came out so I was already prepared to get this one as soon as it hit the shelves.

I forgot how damn lonely this book is! It's lovely and good, and I enjoy it, but at the same time, being Alone, entirely alone, in space, knowing there are only three other people out there with you. I love Chambers' work. All of the gentle kind lonely space feels.

Read this a few times before, but during a plague seemed like a good time to reread it. Frightening but well done, and I always find myself forgetting that it's set in New Zealand and then being delighted again that there's some really wonderful plot points that hinge on that.

My whole entire heart has been ripped out and I'm pretty sure I need that. I need there to be more about the growing movement of freed SecUnits hiring themselves out for hard currency cards and choosing their clothes and watching lots of terrible shows!

I've been burnt out on reading Fantasy lately. My brain seems too tired to put itself into a world it can't recognize, which is frustrating as hell, given that I really enjoy fantasy lit. This seemed like a good compromise for “I need a book that's anchored in real life but I'd also like to be reading a fantasy story”. I forgot how sweet this is.

This is such a beautiful book. These stories are lovely, they're charming, they're gentle and loving and good. Every single one of these stories was something heartwrenching in the most wonderful possible way.

One of the few books I'm rereading, not because I just love it so much, but because it needs a second read just so you actually understand what the heck is even happening. I liked it on first read, but that doesn't mean I actually understood much. I keep getting Umbrella Academy vibes from this one, if mr terrible garbagesack had wanted to give normal kids both trauma AND magic, rather than just find some kids with magic and skip straight to traumatizing them.

Another Nora Roberts reread. I enjoy her character development so much. You can see it really well in the J D Robb books, since those follow the same characters, but even in a standalone novel the characters are great. The side characters have their own lives and motivations, and while we might not see all of that in the book we still have the sense that it's there. These people exist outside of the main character.

Comfort reread. I LOVE that Weir can make a hard science book that I actually comprehend and don't just substitute in ‘magic' every time a sciencey thing happens.

I loved this story on my first reading, but dear god does it make more sense on the second read! I love having read Over the Woodward Wall as well, the bits where I can see them bleeding together are wonderful.

I actually really enjoyed this one! It got put on hold during April when I was working on a particular reading challenge, but I don't think it suffered from the pause. I feel like the author did justice to the women involved, and I so appreciated that she continued on to say what they did after the war, how they all continued with their lives. I will note that I felt a little foolish-I barely understood anything technical mentioned, and I'm pretty sure the author was doing her best to put it in layman's terms!

Reread for comfort, because sometimes you need a charming little magical love story. I deeply enjoy the love interests, purely as a concept of ‘butthole is under a lot of stress and has never tried being a people before but is fully capable once someone smacks some sense into him'. It's not necessarily a good trope in the real world, but in fantasy world, reformed butthole is bumbling and delightful once they get over themselves and start learning how to be a people.