Jana: This week I read Raquel Vasquez-Gilliland’s debut novel, Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything, which was beautifully written and contained some extremely searing commentary on America’s treatment of immigrants. I also read Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Relentless Moon, which was so engrossing that I actually forgot to move for a few hours while I read (an oversight I do not recommend).
Bill: This week I read Alma Alexander’s The Second Star, a fascinating premise and start that petered out a bit in the last quarter for me. In non-genre I finished Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips, an excellent linked-stories work, and Talking God, one of my favorites in Tony Hillerman’s Navajo mysteries series. No SF-F movies this week. We did, however, project Hamilton against our garage (with a sheet) and had our neighbors over to watch in socially distanced style (other neighbors got to hear it since we had our stereo speakers in the windows). So that was fun. And my son and I watched Rear Window as I continue to work him through the Hitchcock oeuvre.
Kat: Only two books this week because I’m so busy trying to get my classes ready to be remote in the fall. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is the sequel to Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. I enjoyed spending more time with Green’s characters. Martha Wells’ The Harbors of the Sun is the fifth novel in her BOOKS OF THE RAKSURA. I think the story is over but it was not a very satisfying ending.
Kelly: This week I finished Robert Graves’s The Golden Fleece, a Retro Hugo nominee, and Daniel José Older’s Shadowshaper Legacy, the third and final book in a really great YA series. I’m currently reading Conjure Women by Afia Atakora, which follows a Black woman believed to have healing powers just before and just after the end of slavery, and the deceptions she weaves to survive. It’s a beautifully written, mostly realistic novel with a couple of magical realist elements, and will probably end up in our Edge column. My TBR pile is an embarrassment of riches right now, and I’m not sure what I’ll read next, but I might take a brief break from fantasy and jump into The Guest List by Lucy Foley. I really enjoyed her previous thriller, The Hunting Party.
Marion: I am reading eleven pieces for the workshop at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, this year being held via Zoom. Kij Johnson is the workshop leader and all the pieces are speculative fiction. I am enjoying the diversity. I’m also heads-down into the editorial letter for Copper Road, despairing of the number of distancing words I use. Still, I managed to finish Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s seductive, creepy horror novel Mexican Gothic. She made the New York Times bestseller list with this one, and I have to say, it’s about time. She is one of the best writers no one is reading. I finished an ARC of Andrea Stewart’s The Bone Shard Daughter, a fun, fast-paced adventure in a well-depicted fantasy world. I enjoyed it very much. Now I am settling in with Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop. I do love her lyrical descriptions.
Terry: It turns out that I was much more exhausted than I thought, which means I did relatively little reading during my staycation. I’m still reading everything I’ve started, having finished only Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime and Obsession by Rachel Monroe, which wasn’t really worth my time, alas.
Jana, I know that “the book was really good, and now my foot is asleep” feeling all too well!
“My foot is asleep, I have a crick in my neck, and how did it get so late??”
“And what’s that light coming from outside?”
You guys should try audiobooks!
Bill, garage-Hamilton sounds like a lot of fun!
It was so much fun we’ll probably do it again with other friends next week!