April/May/June Book List

 

Books Read: 

~Neal Shusterman, Scythe (435 pgs) [I decided to reread the Arc of a Scythe trilogy because 1) it's really really good!! 2) it's been a while since I read it and 3) most importantly, I had picked up a collection of short stories set in this universe but they're more complex and across different eras so I wanted to reread the trilogy and then read the short stories. I figured Aries season was the right season for it]

~Neal Shusterman, Thunderhead (504 pgs)

~T. S. Eliot, Selected Poems (127 pgs) [This included my annual reading of The Wasteland in April because April is the cruelest month. Some of them were quite good that I'd never read before but knew lines from, but the later poems got VERY Jesurific, which I didn't expect of Eliot but I guess I don't know much of his later life.] 

~Neal Shusterman, The Toll (625 pgs)

~Neal Shusterman, Gleanings (423 pgs)

~Sappho (translated by Aaron Pochigian), Stung With Love: Poems and Fragments (148 pgs)

~Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta (92 pgs)

~Diane Stanley, Bella at Midnight (278 pgs)

~Eugen Vodolazkin, Laurus (365 pgs)

~Molly O'Neill, Greenteeth (308 pgs) [This was absolutely fantastic! One of my favorite standalones I've read in a long while!]

~Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (493 pgs)

~Christopher Marlowe, Edward the Second (100 pgs)

~Atia Abawi, A Land of Permanent Goodbyes (285 pgs)

~Howard Muggamin, The Jewish Americans (125 pgs)

~John Steinbeck, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (451 pgs)

~Richard Adams, Watership Down (478 pgs)

~Pascal, Pensées et Opuscules (105 pgs)

~Richard Adams, Tales from Watership Down (335 pgs)

~Michel de Montaigne, Essais extraits livre premier (129 pgs)

~Deborah Harkness, The Blackbird Oracle (444 pgs) [I picked this up in paperback but hadn't read it yet. I will typically re-read a series before reading the new one in it. But I saw her post on socials that you could read this one along the actual dates of the story real time read along across the summer if you started it end of May and that sounded fun and since she's writing I think at least two more in the world/series I figure I can reread this one after the trilogy and Time's Convert whenever I get around to reading them. And anyway, I feel like it wasn't THAT long ago that I read the other 4...So I thought I would give it a try see how I felt about doing a real time read along of it from late May through mid Aug while reading lots of other books throughout, lol. Yeah. I did fine with the first chapters but then when I was supposed to wait a week I got too impatient and decided to just read it all rather than having other stories and worlds interspersing it across 3.5 months. I always had a hard time with assigned readings at school waiting on the schedule for novels (except like in university when I had like 600-1200 pgs to read every week between all my courses on top of labs, lectures, essays, etc) and even then I would often just finish a good novel in one go and then focus on the other readings.]

~George Sand, Contes d'une Grand-mère (508 pgs) 

~Christopher Marlowe, The Massacre at Paris (50 pgs) [this is the last play in my 601 pg Penguin copy of The Complete Plays of Christopher Marlowe -- but I listed the others as I was reading them. This one is also significantly shorter than the others because the only copy of it seems to be edited/abridged missing key parts though some of the missing lines exist in shorter documents in personal collections. It's too bad really as I enjoyed what there was of it and the Duc de Guise had some fantastic evil villain monologues]

~Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club (332 pgs)

~Michel de Montaigne, Essais extraits livre second (127 pgs)

~Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu, The Eldest Curses 1: The Red Scroll of Magic (349 pgs) [I read this one a while ago and then didn't read it as part of my reread marathon last year because I have the second one but the third one the trilogy is not released. Only then she mentioned in her email newsletter that she was waiting to publish it until after the entirety of her NEXT trilogy she is currently writing is done as it involves things in those books. And this trilogy weaves through the other main series at different points in it, but from the perspective of Magnus and Alec once they're together -- making it a perfect choice for Pride month. And I don't want these sitting in my unread waiting for followup books stacks for literal years waiting on the other newest trilogy. And since I read all the rest just last year, I figured my brain remained immersed enough in the world/characters/storylines to finish these and put them away until the next reread which will be after the entire next trilogy and the last in this trilogy are released in paperbacks.]

~Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu, The Eldest Curses 2: The Lost Book of the White (368 pgs) 

~Ruth Benedict, Morality is Relative (essay in the Louis P. Pojman book Philosophy: The Quest for Truth Sixth Edition -- I have been and still am reading this essays intermittently between other fiction and nonfiction books, generally taking a pause between each section to read some other nonfiction titles. I will include the entire book in the list whenever I happen to finish it, but I am listing the essays individually for context of my own reading/thinking habits of the time.)

~The Gnostic Bible (860 pgs) [I made my great-great-aunt a promise as a child that while I couldn't promise her to become a Catholic, since I am at best classified as a pantheist omnist universalist pagan, I would continue to read scriptures on the regular and consider it; I did not say WHICH scriptures though she made an assumption about that. So I keep in the kitchen scriptures from various eras and religions and even cults that I read while waiting for the timer on my tea to steep. Often I do pliés, relevés, and/or tendues while I'm standing there reading and waiting for hot water to work its magic on steeping tea, lol. So I do light chores tidying up while waiting for the kettle to boil then after I set the timer while waiting for the tea to steep I read scriptures from some world religion, modern or ancient or heretical, while doing ballet barre exercises. I read this one over a long while of short reads while waiting on tea to steep, so it wasn't all read in this interim, this is just when I finished it]

~James Rachels, Morality Is Not Relative (essay in the Louis P. Pojman book Philosophy: The Quest for Truth Sixth Edition -- I have been and still am reading this essays intermittently between other fiction and nonfiction books, generally taking a pause between each section to read some other nonfiction titles. I will include the entire book in the list whenever I happen to finish it, but I am listing the essays individually for context of my own reading/thinking habits of the time.)

~Jenny Moss, Shadow (377 pgs)

~Sarah Perry, The Essex Serpent (418 pgs)

~Sarah Lyddon Morrison, The Modern Witch's Spellbook (246 pgs) [this was published in 1971. Not very modern now. In fact, INCREDIBLY dated. Not very useful either. I don't think I'm going to keep it.]

~V. E. Schwab, The Near Witch (355 pgs) [this was fantastic! I really enjoyed it even if it did have some flaws she would have polished out with the help of an editor. It's the first book since Greenteeth that I had to binge read devour all in one late night/early morning, only pausing to make more te when my cuppa was empty and to make me use the bathroom while I was up to put the kettle on -- but also I was reading it while walking and while waiting on the kettle and the tea to steep instead of doing my normal "this is your productive/exercise race against the time it take for the water to boil" how I typically hack my ADHD while making tea/coffee. If you enjoy any of these tropes/genres: Gothic spooky wind and rain swept moors, witchy magic is real, Pied Piper retellings, strong defiant female characters, mob rule "us vs them" mentality is always blindly cruel while the liminal outsiders not accepted by the clique always see truly from the heart, and fantasy-love story-mystery all rolled into one...then you too will love reading this one.] 

~Malinda Lo, Last Night at the Telegraph Club (415 pgs) [this has been recommended so many times and it is on so many lists and banned so many places and so I decided that since it was Pride month and National Immigrant's Month and last month was Chinese American Heritage Month it made sense to read it now. I'd had it for a while, but I hadn't bought the companion novel to go with it so decided I'd wait until I found it in paperback. Anyway. I found this novel incredibly...banal... It was at least a quick read. But it reminded me of like a queer version of Sweet Valley High and Lurlene McDaniels books that some of the girls in middle school all read and when I tried I just found insipid with almost no plot to them. It was fine, and I could see where it would be deeply meaningful for people who had similar journeys of self discovery leading to coming out of the closet. But, I mean, I grew up with lesbian aunts in a very open minded eclectic progressive family that never viewed sexuality as anything more than a personal preference of likes/dislikes like some people liking beer and some people not liking it, so it was very hard for me to relate to why any of the feelings should be shameful or furtive or an act of discovery -- much the same as I felt about the stupid romance drama novels of soap operas for teens and tweens when I tried to read them. The feelings of love and attraction I understand, but not the furtive rebellious aspects of it. Lust and love and who you like is all personal tastes and rejection stings no matter who it's from or the reasons, but mostly I just found the start of this novel banal and insipid and didn't see what the fuss was about, either for or against it, and it was very hard for me not to DNF it. Once you get through the first section the novel improves as you get into the history of the era and the individual vs society stigma of being LGBTQ+ at that time, it just takes a solid 80-100pgs to get there. I can see where if you didn't grow up hearing these sorts of stories within your own family (my Aunt Katha and Aunt Geeta actually met out in San Francisco back in the late 70s or early 80s) this would be a transformative eye opening book as to what the repression and taboo and stigma and coded lifestyle was really like for most of the 20th century. I think it's a good documentation of what it would have been like living then for those who don't know the history when LGBTQ+ was less accepted and I can see where it would be healing/cathartic for teens who are closeted in more conservative families/communities. Once you're past the first 80-100pgs or so, it does become a beautiful book of a love story in a specific time and place within American history. You just have to get past the early teen soap opera sweet valley high intro to Lily's world. This was a purse book and I will read the companion book set much later pretty much contemporary -- but also as a purse book so it might take me a bit longer than my at home books to finish it.]

~Rebecca Thorne, Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (339 pgs) [this was a very adorable Sapphic cozy fantasy (first in a quartet) that I decided would be a good way to go or closing out pride month with the sun in Cancer. It's not particularly spicy, but it is full of puns and love stories and it's about a queen's guard running off with the greatest mage in the entire known world so they can open a bookshop and teashop together in the middle of nowhere. It is cozy and enjoyable and full of wit and community and love matches of all types spicing through the adventures. It's very sun in Cancer end of Pride month perfection and I look forward to drinking lots of cups of tea with my fur babies cuddled up nearby as I read the remaining three books in the quartet.]

 

Books Acquired:

~Joe Abercrombie, The Devils

~Michelle Collins Anderson, The Moonshine Women

~Leigh Bardugo, Ninth House

~Leigh Bardugo, Hell Bent

~Peter S. Beagle, The Way Home

~Jebediah Berry, The Naming Song

~Anne Birrell (trans.), New Songs From a Jade Terrace: An Anthology of Early Chinese Love Poetry

~Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

~Pierre Boulle, The Planet of the Apes

~Anna Bright, The Hedge Witch of Fox Hall

~C. J. Burright, Druid Cursed

~Debbie Cassidy, Wicked Onyx

~Ova Ceren, The Book of Heartbreak

~Kay Chronister, The Bog Wife

~Ernest Cline, Ready Player One

~Zoraida Córdova, The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina

~Julie Carrick Dalton, The Last Beekeeper

~Oliver Darkshire, Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil

~Charles Dickens (abridged by Mary Louise Aswell), The Dickens Digest: Contains David Copperfield, Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Martin Chuzzlewit [I do own all 4 of these books unabridged. My mum picked this up for $2 while out west visiting familyand it's published in 1943 so going with older books]

~Grace Draven, Dragon Unleashed

~A. Rae Dunlap, The Resurrectionist

~Egyptology

~Jaymin Eve, Spellcaster

~Laurie Forest, The Black Witch 

~Jeffrey Gantz (translator), Early Irish Myths and Sagas

~Joanne M. Harris, The Gospel of Loki

~Taylor Hartley, Song of the Hell Witch

~Natalie Haynes, Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth

~Horace, The Complete Works of Horace Translated By Many Hands (very cool old edition published in Great Britain in 1923)

~J. K. Huysmans, Against Nature

~Isabel Ibañez, Together We Burn 

~James Islington, The Shadow of What Was Lost

~M. R. James, Collected Ghost Stories

~Liu Jung-en (translator), Six Yüan Plays

~Yume Kitasei, The Stardust Grail

~Gabriela Romero La Cruz, The River and the Star

~Kim LaDow & Katie Ryan Donohue (illus), Henry and the Mermaid at the Vilas Zoo

~Mariely Lares, Sun of Blood and Ruin

~Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

~Judy I. Lin, A Venom Dark and Sweet

~Malinda Lo, A Scatter of Light

~H. M. Long, Entwined

~Hannah Lynn, The Women of Artemis

~Robert MacFarlane & Jackie Morris, The Lost Spells

~J. D. McClatchy (editor), On Wings of Song: Poems About Birds

~Jean Menzies (editor), Fairies, Elves and Sprites Myths and Legends

~Jean Menzies (editor), Mermaids, Sirens and Selfies Myths and Legends

~Rieka Moonsong, Owl Magick

~Lucy Moore, Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France

~Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching 

~Haruki Murakami, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

~Haruki Murakami, The Elephant Vanishes

~Haruki Murakami, First Person Singular

~Haruki Murakami, Hard-boiled Wonderland and The End of The World

~Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun

~Sosuke Natsukawa, The Cat Who Saved the Library

~Paul Negri (editor), English Victoria. Poetry 

~Claire North, Slow Gods

~Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope

~Lauren Owen, The Quick

~Heather Pringle, The NorthWomen

~Ava Reid, The Wolf and the Woodsman

~Madeline Roux, House of Furies

~Caitlin Rozakis, Dreadful

~Katherine Rundell, Impossible Creatures

~O. O. Sangoyomi, Masquerade

~V. E. Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic

~Michael Scott, The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel 4: The Necromancer [I have been looking for this one for AGES so I could finish reading the series which I started back when the first one came out didn't come back to. And I always found all the other volumes or found this one in the wrong edition so it wouldn't match the rest I already owned. And ordering online, even used, was high likelihood of getting the wrong edition. I am so happy to have this one FINALLY!!!! I am missing two novellas that can be bought together as lost tales though that are much harder to find but I want before I read these.]

~Sydney Shields, An Arcane Study of Stars

~Sydney Shields, The Honey Witch

~Tore Skeie, The Wolf Age

~Mark Small & Jack Shoulder, Museum Bums 

~Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

~Susan Stokes-Chapman, The Shadow Key

~Greer Stothers, Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs To Dir

~Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Hyena and the Hawk

~Adrian Tchaikovsky, Days of Shattered Faith

~Cari Thomas, Shadowstitch

~Stuart Turton, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

~D. E. Weingand, Crystal Saga Series 3: 11 & 12: Explorer 1 & Explorer 2 [this is my grandma's multi series series she wrote and I went to reread them but found I was missing this one. I will do a reread later this year, I was thinking to read along with Mo. My mum got her the first book as she is the right age for how these are written and she's so social I though she might enjoy reading together more than just her experiencing the story]

~Azadeh Westergaard & Júlia Sardà (illustrator), A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

~Maithree Wijesekara, The Prince Without Sorrow

~Maithree Wijesekara, The Witch Without Memory

~Benjamin Zephaniah & Melissa Castrillón (illustrator), Leave the Trees Please