Reading!

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Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I didn't like this as well as I typically like VanderMeer. He usually knocks it out of the park for me, and this was just a solid base hit. The novel explores his usual themes: the ecological horrors we are wreaking on the planet and on ourselves, the resulting fragmentation from each other, the longing we feel for something better and different and the often dangerous and maladaptive ways we try to find it.

One of the things I didn't like about this book is the repeated use of sentence fragments. I'm totally fine with the occasional one as a stylistic choice, but they're constant here, and I just subjectively didn't like them.

I respect the choice to make pretty much all the characters of this novel unlikeable; I don't need to identify personally with the protagonist to enjoy a book, and I don't need to like the characters to like the work. But unlikeable characters coupled with a bleak setting and a great deal of violence also made this a more difficult read for me than something like Borne or the Southern Reach where the setting is bleak and violence abounds but I really like the characters.

It's a good book, and if you like VanderMeer, you should read it. I'm just not wishing this site would let me give eleven stars like I often wish when I review his work. :)



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Witch King by Martha Wells

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is so so good. The plot is fantastic, the characters are wonderful, and the world building is amazing. I love the way the narrative weaves together the story of what's happening in the present with the story of what happened in the past. I love the depth the characters and their relationships are given. I love the complexity of the world Wells creates and all the places in that world that are left to explore. Highly recommend.



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Encounters with the Archdruid: Narratives About a Conservationist and Three of His Natural Enemies by John McPhee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a fantastic read. It's sobering to see that we have made so little progress in figuring out how to deal with water use in arid regions, our competing desires to mine minerals from the earth and to preserve the places where those mines are located, and our competing desires to recreate in nature and to protect nature from the consequences of our recreation.

The five men featured in this book by McPhee are interesting in that they are all multi-faceted and contradictory in some ways.

Highly recommended.



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The Vintage Tea Party Book by Angel Adoree

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is exquisitely beautiful. The illustrations are so lovely as is the photography. It must have cost an absolute fortune to produce.

If you're a drinker, lots of gorgeous cocktails in here.



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