Realized I haven't posted book notes since May, so here are the books I have been reading!

Recently Finished:
Think Little, Wendell Berry. Two essays on the environment and making a home for yourself in the world. I liked some aspects of Berry's writing, but other parts of his essays have not aged well (they were written in the 70s).

Heart of the Sun Warrior, Sue Lynn Tan. Second part of Tan's Celestial Kingdom series. Overall, I think I liked this book a little more than the first one, though I nearly rage-quit it when my favorite character died. Tan pulled some twists out at the end which actually surprised me. Overall, if you like fantasy/mythology YA, I'd recommend these.

Letters to a Young Painter, Rainer Maria Rilke. I really liked this! They are letters from Rilke to Balthus, the son of his close friend (maybe ex-lover?), who was essentially his godson. The two of them published a book about Balthus' cat, which sounds like a delight.

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids, Cynthia Leitich Smith (editor). I picked this up from my local little free library. It was a very cute anthology with a major intertribal pow-wow as the framing device, but definitely geared toward younger middle-grade age. I will probably pass it along to my niblings or take it back to the little free library.

Revenge, Vladimir Nabokov. This is the first Nabokov I've read, and it was an excellent anthology of short stories. There are a couple of real stand-outs -- I especially liked "The Dragon" and "The Thunderstorm" -- but all of them were good.

Crown Duel, Sherwood Smith. A beloved re-read for me. It had been a while since I revisited this, and the romance in the second half still gets me. I can definitely see its influence on the things I like now lol.

All Systems Red, Martha Wells. I liked this well enough that I grabbed the humble bundle of Wells' other novels and novellas when it was on sale a few weeks back. I don't feel particularly fannish about it, but it was a fun read.

Tales of the Celestial Kingdom, Sue Lynn Tan. This is a set of missing scenes/backstory from the Celestial Kingdom series, but I was disappointed by it. I think it would have been stronger if Tan had gone with third person instead of sticking to first person POV for all of the stories. I had a hard time keeping track of who the POV person was (each story is from a different POV) because there wasn't enough distinction between them.

Knight's Wyrd, Debra Doyle and James D. McDonald. An alt fantasy in the vein of Chronicles of Prydain, but a little more adult. Sort of like if you took Prydain and The Chatelaine and found the middle ground between them. Would recommend for fans of high medieval fantasy, Arthurian legend, and Rosemary Sutcliff.

Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury. Somehow I had not read this before this year, and I loved it so much I nominated it for Yuletide in hopes of writing someone some Douglas Spaulding/John Huff (or Doug Spaulding & John Huff, I'm not picky). A perfect read for the end of the summer.

A Banh Mi for Two, Trinity Nguyen. A very cute f/f YA novella! The leads are a Vietnamese food blogger and street vendor and a Vietnamese-American student on study abroad trying to discover more about her family. The ending is a little trite, but nothing too egregious given that it's late middle grade/YA.

Ballad of Sword and Wine (vols. 1-3), Tang Jiu Qing. This is my current obsession and I am yelling about it everywhere!! Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye are in love! They are both super competent and find each other's competence very hot!! I am pretty sure disaster is going to strike hard in the next book!!! I also made a grave mistake in starting this before the English translation is completely published (volume 6 is out in December, volume 7 in April, and volume 8 is TBD). I am picking up books 4 and 5 from the library this week, and then I am going to Suffer.

Water Moon, Samantha Sotto Yambao. I wanted to like this more than I did. As cool and interesting as the worldbuilding was, the book never felt emotionally solid, and all of the characters' relationships felt very surface-level. It did not sell me on the romance at all, and what should have been a very big emotional reveal just kind of happened. Also the most interesting part of the story was obliquely referenced as a thing that happened in the five-year timeskip between the last chapter and the epilogue!! Just disappointing all around. >:(

Breakout Year, KD Casey. A baseball m/m romance! I really enjoyed this! I think the setup is a little bit silly (fake-dating your ex-friend), but once we got past that and into Eitan and Akiva's relationship it was a lot of fun.


DNFs:
Unromance, Erin Connor. Supposedly this was going to be turning all the romance tropes on their heads, but actually it was a paint-by-numbers romance novel. :/

The Count of Amaranth Moor (vol. 1), Faun V. Hartley. A vampire novel set in 19th century England. I will probably come back to this at a later date, but it wasn't keeping my attention.


Current Reads:
The Kid from Tomkinsville, John R. Tunis