Books. Cats. Nonsense.
I've been doing a lot of reading, but not a lot of blogging, while in lockdown. In an effort to catch up on my outstanding reviews, I'm introducing Quarantine Reads! Check out mini reviews of three books I read during lockdown that I never got to share my thoughts on.
While hunting through my shiny new Scribd account, I stumbled upon P. Djèlí Clark’s Cairo novellas and was intrigued. I queued up the audiobooks and ended up absolutely loving these gorgeous fantasy tales! As these were quite short, today I’m bringing you mini reviews of these two books.
Oh, Murderbot -- everyone’s favourite anti-social, anxiety-riddled killing machine. I recently completed the entire Murderbot Diaries novellas in anticipation of the release of the first full-length novel, Network Effect, in June. Today I’m offering you mini reviews of each novella, as well as some thoughts on the series overall.
I recently signed up to Scribd in order to listen to more audiobooks while homeworking. I was so pleased to discover that they had a few Tor.com novellas that I had been interested in reading, but couldn’t justify the cost (especially for the audiobooks!). Below are two mini reviews for Tor.com novellas that I recently listened to while in self isolation.
I’ve been hearing buzz about The Deep for a few months now and the amazing concept captured my interest. I’ve never read a book by Rivers Solomon before and admit I am unfamiliar with the song and artists that inspired and helped work on this book, so I didn’t know what to expect. This novella is an absolutely powerful story of memory, pain, history, and surviving in the face of adversity.
Prosper’s Demon was one of my most highly anticipated January releases, in part because of its astonishing cover -- yes, I am shallow. While this horror novella wasn’t necessarily what I expected or craved, I enjoyed this strange and snarky tale of demonic possession and exorcism.
I absolutely love Lauren James’s The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, so I was naturally thrilled to pick up a copy of her latest book, The Starlight Watchmaker. A novella from Barrington Stoke, a publisher that focuses on readable books for dyslexic and reluctant young readers, I couldn’t wait to get my paws on this little book. I did enjoy it, but I found that I couldn’t quite turn off my detail-obsessed adult sci-fi brain!
Much to my surprise, I have been reading and loving a number of novellas this year. While it is not a format I usually gravitate toward, I am finding myself loving these shorter tales. However, I do sometimes feel that novellas deserve to be full-length novels, and this was the case with Silver in the Wood.
You all know how passionately I love Becky Chambers’ books -- she’s one of my favourite authors and consistently puts out incredible stories. When her next release was announced, I was initially a little disappointed that To Be Taught, If Fortunate wasn’t going to be a continuation of her Wayfarers books. However I completely trust Becky to give me the gorgeous, quiet stories I crave. My faith in Becky Chambers remains -- To Be Taught, If Fortunate is the beautiful, gentle tale of human exploration that I never knew I needed.
I would like to file a complaint. How is it already August? It's completely baffling to me and I'd love to know when I time traveled because this is ridiculous. The month of July was kind of crazy, as I feel like it always is. What is it about summer months and me going to tons of events and doing fun stuff? I swear I usually sit at home and read books -- I'm not a particularly social person. Regardless, I had a ton of fun this month -- especially at YALC!
