Woman of Light

A year or two ago, I read Fajardo-Anstine's story collection, Sabrina & Corina, which was a favorite of mine that year. I loved the grittiness and the homage to land/ancestors and the feminism all mixed together to great impact. Needless to say, I was excited to hear that she was coming out with a full-length…

Kaikeyi

I love a good retelling, so I'm here for the overall boom in feminist classic mythology retellings. The Witch's Heart and The Silence of the Girls are both great, and of course Circe is an all-time favorite of mine. So I was super excited to delve into this feminist retelling of a non-Western epic, the Ramayana. Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel “Before…

A Lady for a Duke

Well, y'all, the ‘rona got me...the day before I was scheduled to work at the library and planning to pick up this hold, which I was so hype for. So I sent my partner in to get it for me, because what is better sickbed reading than a queer Regency romance?! (Answer: nothing.) But apparently when he got…

Swimming Back to Trout River

My second to last of the 2022 Aspen Words longlist books! I brought this one on a trip with me and almost finished it on a single flight from Denver to Raleigh; once I started it, I just couldn't stop. Also, if we're keeping track, this is another one (which at this point is at…

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

This is one of those books where the title is the reason and that's all there is to it. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to read such a fabulously titled book, and in this monumentally horrific time to be a person with a uterus in the United States, this kind of whimsy was exactly…

The Tenth Muse

So I found this novel at a used bookstore a few months ago and grabbed it because the title sounded familiar. Honestly, I thought it was about an early glass-ceiling breaking female mathematician, and I was into reading it just for that. But as I got farther and farther into the book, I realized how much more it…

Ordinary Monsters

First, thanks to the publisher (Flatiron Books) for the eARC of this novel. I was quite excited about being asked to participate in a blog tour for a book that was being marketed as "A Dickensian X-Men.” I mean, if that's not my reading vibe, then idk what is? (I mean, it's lacking the Victorian aspect, but Vicious and Vengeful anyone?…

Libertie

Book thirteen in my Aspen Words 2022 longlist read-through. And one of the few that I had really been exposed to prior to the release of the longlist, as I received an ALC of the audiobook from Libro.fm. Which is why it's ending up as one of the last books I'm getting to, since I…

Beasts of a Little Land

This was an ALC offering from Libro.fm a few months ago that intrigued me, so I grabbed it. Then I requested the physical copy from my library (I do like to have both on hand while reading, if possible), but between the delays in the library getting our copy (these printing/shipping delays affect libraries too, y'all) and the…

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

My 10th Aspen Words 2022 Longlist read done! And the one that was most intimidating, size-wise. I had actually bought this one for myself a while ago, I think before the longlist was even announced, actually. But I waited til I could get the audiobook from the library to go with it, because I knew I…