Author: Tim Scheidler

Jana: This week, with much gratitude to the Santaman, I received and have been leafing through Unicorns, Dragons, and More Fantasy Amigurumi, collating several fantasy-creature patterns from contributors to amigurumipatterns.net, and Star Wars Crochet, by Lucy Collin, which promises to teach me how to make a teeny Master Yoda and some weird teenagers no one’s ever heard of (a moisture farmer and a space princess?? I dunno).

Bill: This week thanks to being on vacation I read:
Lent  by Jo Walton
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
The Quantum Garden by Derek Künsken
Radicalized by Cory Doctorow
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E.

Jana: This week I’ve been trying to catch up on a few books in my meagre free time — Charles Soule’s Anyone, Keith Ammann’s The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, and Seanan McGuire’s Laughter at the Academy. I’ve made good progress in all of them, but just haven’t had the time/energy to finish them up. Next week: hopefully more time to read!

Bill: This week was mostly grading final papers.  

Kat: Three books this week. Robin McKinley’s The Outlaws of Sherwood is a pleasant take on the Robin Hood legend. I like what she did with Maid Marion. That was my first McKinley novel. I re-read Catherine Asaro’s Undercity so I’d be prepared for the sequel, The Bronze Skies, which I’ll pick up next. I read one horror story: A Warning by Anonymous (a senior Trump official). There wasn’t much that was totally new,

Jana: This week I dug my way out of a hefty snowfall and made snow forts for me and my pup to play in, cooked a few pans of lasagne, and finished crocheting a blanket. I also began reading Charles Soule’s Anyone, a near-future novel in which people can body-hop for all kinds of reasons (and which, naturally, has zero terrible unintended consequences, yep-yep-yep) and continued working with Ray on our review of Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth.

Bill: This week I read Jeff Vandermeer’s ambitious and highly rewarding The Dead Astronauts and Bill Bryson’s chock-full-of-neat-facts The Body.

Kat: Because I’m so busy at work right now, I am really behind in my reviews and will try to catch up soon. This week I read two books that are very different from each other but have something in common; they are both odd mash-ups that weirdly work. Lisa Goldstein’s Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon is a King Arthur retelling that features famous English poets and playwrights as well as faeries. K. Eason’s How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse (first book in the THORNE CHRONICLES) is a spunky princess space opera.

Jana: This week Ray and I have been working on a collaborative review of Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth; we agree on some things, cheerfully disagree on others, and overall I feel confident in saying that we both have strong feelings that we’re looking forward to sharing with everyone. (Yes, I am being vague.) I’m also still enjoying Keith Ammann’s The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, which is definitely a reference manual rather than a book meant to be read cover-to-cover in one sitting,

Kat: One book this week, but a good one: Tade Thompson’s The Rosewater Redemption. This is the finale of his WORMWOOD trilogy. It’s creative, smart, and entertaining. The audiobooks of this series, narrated by Bayo Gbadamosi, are fabulous. I am likely to read this trilogy again someday. Tade Thompson is on my “must-read” list.

Bill: This week I read Jenn Lyons The Name of All Things, several more essays in Philip Pullman’s Daemon Voices,  

Jana: The last couple of weeks haven’t been heavy on reading-time for me, as auto mechanics’ shops aren’t ideal spaces for quiet contemplation, but I have made more progress on Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth. The story has taken a turn, and not one that I consider for the better, along with some disquieting revelations and changes that I’m not sure are necessary. I’ve also been paging through Keith Ammann’s The Monsters Know What They’re Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters, which has been fun and educational,

Kat: Three books this week: A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker celebrates live rock music by showing us what the world would be like without it. As someone who’s always thinking about the next rock concert, I appreciated this novel. Joe Abercrombie’s A Little Hatred, the first book in a new fantasy series (but related to his previous work), was fabulous in every way. It’s getting a rare five stars from me. Vivian Shaw’s Strange Practice, the first book in her DR GRETA HELSING series,

Jana: This week I’m still reading (and enjoying) Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth, book two of THE BOOK OF DUST trilogy. I like what Pullman is doing here, with his “a precious resource the world is dependent upon is in dwindling supply” allegory, and I continue to be intrigued by the friction between Lyra and Pan. I also read Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Just War, written by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by Cary Nord; the storyline revolves around Ares making an unexpected decision and the choices Diana must make in response,