I guess I did all the reading due to all the flying I did this month. It’s been a wide swath of genres. As we near the halfway point of the year, the reads have been on point.

Finished in June

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

What I Learned: Narrative Non-Fiction

I am obsessed with the story of Theranos. The way Carreyrou brought it to life through anecdotes, back story, and retellings of interviews with each chapter having a kind of thesis about what went wrong was so engaging.

Read Cover-to-Cover in June

Unbroken

What I Learned: Healing Through Sexuality

Read an ARC received from NetGalley. Came out April 2019. The relationship between Michael and Victor is steamy. But what really worked in this work was how Ray layered in Michael’s past and the healing that resulted from opening himself up and being vulnerable with the demon living inside his house.

The Fire Opal Mechanism

What I Learned: Time Travel That Works

Read an ARC received from NetGalley. Came out June 2019. I’m so excited to have gone back to the Gemworld. Time travel was one of the mechanisms introduced throughout (see what I did there?). Wilde handled it deftly and it opened up the world that much more.

Kingdom of Exiles

What I Learned: Monster Factory

Read an ARC received from NetGalley. Came out June 2019. This romance between an assassin and a beast charmer ticks off so many boxes: Assassin’s Creed, the first Fantastic Beasts movie, and Pokemon. The monsters and how they co-exist in the world of humans was so invented and the creatures were so much fun.

Magic for Liars

What I Learned: Voice in Genre

Read an ARC received from NetGalley. Came out June 2019. This murder mystery is unlike several that I had read. Sure, it follows the format, but the voice is incredible. The way the story unfolds and comes together by the end is so masterful and really comes together because the characters are so masterfully crafted.

Pan

What I Learned: Blending Classics and Mythology

Ruz has such a way of tying in mythology, the past, and the things at hand. I loved the way Greek mythology was folded unexpectedly into this Peter Pan origin story. Deliciously creepy from start to finish.

Audiobooks

If, Then

What I Learned: Playing with AU

If you’ve ever thought about the other option, this book presents it in a way that’s unsettling but utterly thought-provoking. In Oregon, a few characters witness their doppelgangers living opposite lives. It was such a cool exploration of alternate realities, but presented so straight-forwardly.

Graceling

What I Learned: The Origin of Tropes

Having arrived about ten years too late to this book, I definitely see why people love it and Katsa so much. The momentum was really great, Katsa was so delightfully angry. Unfortunately, because there were a few tropes that are quite popular today present in one tome (particularly, the notion of “not like other girls”), I found it hard to get as excited about it.

The Lesson

What I Learned: Aliens as a Metaphor Vehicle

The emotional breadth of Turnbull’s debut is something to behold. It’s not really just about aliens. One of my favorite sequences was when Mera, one of the Ynaa, talks about adjusting her language and accent to get by (code-switching). The rest of the work is similarly breathtaking.

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In July, my boyfriend is visiting and I have a book to finish by August, so uh, I guess I’ll be scarce?

Happy reading,
Jo