Wednesday Reads 26/2/20

What I’ve just finished reading:
Two Wings to Fly Away by Penny Mickelbury. I have a reflection post (it’s really not a review) in the works and I hope that will be posted soon. But basically a) there is a romance in this story but the book is not a Romance; b) I want the sequel ASAP, and c) I now need to decide which of Mickelbury’s other series to start on sometime soon. Honestly, it will probably come down to which is more readily available.

Mindset, by Carol Dweck. An item on my personal development reading list from last year. I had some time and access to the eBook via the library and so sat down and finished off the final chapter. Really good book; probably need to get my own copy.

What I’m reading now:
My spreadsheet tells me I have four books currently on the go, which feels like a couple too many.

Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss. Third of my Black History Month books, this is an historical set during WWII at the time of the Cowra Breakout. One of the Japanese prisoners who escaped in the breakout makes his way to a nearby mission station where Indigenous Australians are forced to live by the government. There was some utter nonsense on Twitter over the weekend where African Americans were saying Indigenous Australians aren’t Black and that made me all the more determined to read this as a Black History Month read.

The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan. I needed something on Kobo to read and I didn’t feel like Anne Boleyn. Also I am trying to keep my Black History Month goal of only finishing fiction by authors of colour (with the exception of Moontangled). So I started the next of the Brothers Sinister books. The two from last week, Craft a life you love by Amy Tangerine and Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession, are still there.

What’s catching my eye on the TBR:

I’ve put in an Inter-Library Loan request for Blonde Roots, one of Bernardine Evaristo’s earlier books, and the system tells me it’s on its way. Meanwhile, Kristin Neff’s Self-Compassion is finally back on the shelf in my work library, and I’ve been wanting to read that since early last year and I may need to just snap it up while it’s available.

Wednesday Reads - 19/2/2020

What I’ve just finished reading:
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. Loved it. Loved it, loved it. I have got to chase down some of Evaristo’s other books, especially Blonde Roots.

What I’m reading now:
Two Wings to Fly Away by Penny Mickelbury which I’d told myself was a romance, when it’s kind of not, but I’m still hoping for the HEA/HFN (there’s a sequel coming). It’s set before the US Civil War, in Philadelphia, and the reason I’m having to rejig my assumptions is that there’s a man getting all in the way of things - Ezra MacKaye is a far more important part of this story than he would be if it had been a straighforward f/f romance. He’s an interesting man, serving an interesting plot, but I’m just hoping he gets well out of the way when the time comes.

Craft a Life You Love by Amy Tangerine. (Pretty sure her actual name is Amy Tan, but then I remembered that there’s another writer by that name, and her decision to go with her crafting brand as pen name made way more sense. And yes, I have read at least one book by other!Amy Tan.) This one is a personal development book, and thus doesn’t violate my “only finishing books by Black authors in February” rule, which I’m sticking to when it comes to fiction. Meanwhile, Tangerine is still an author of colour and I promise I am not making a pun there. Tangerine is well-known in scrapbooking circles and I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while. It’s good. It’s designed with journaling exercises in the book and I have no compunctions about writing, highlighting etc all over this book. And I’m doing exactly that.

Still going with Anne Boleyn, but it’s down the priority list right now (see February rule above).

What’s catching my eye on the TBR:

Part of my Valentine’s Day present from my wife was Murder on the Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (published in the US as The Widows of Malabar Hill, according to Goodreads). I’ve read Sujata Massey before (never realised she had a Minnesota connection, though!) but this is the beginning of a new series, set in Bombay in the 20s!

I don’t know whether I’ll get to it, but I do still want to start Anita Heiss’ Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms as part of my Black History Month reading. That way I’ll have one author each from the UK, US and Australia...

Wednesday Reads - 12/02/2020

What I’ve just finished reading:
Nothing. I didn’t get as much reading time over the weekend as I’d kind of hoped, and everything I’m reading at the moment is big and chunky.

What I’m reading now:
Still working on Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo and Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession by Alison Weir. See last week’s post for details.

What’s catching my eye on the TBR:
I’ve decided to change the title of this section because I don’t like tying myself down the way I feel “what I’ll read next” sometimes does? For this month it’s fine, because I set a fairly concrete reading intention and want to see it through, but in general, I work more fluidly than that, and need the flexibility…

I’ve mentally added the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn, or at least the first of them, to the TBR. I blame my wife. She was asking whether she should read them prior to the Netflix series coming out, and while I know the books won’t be her thing, it did pique my interest enough that I checked whether I’ll be able to get the first one from the library. Which I can. In March. Not before.

Also Melissa De La Cruz’s Something In Between. Which I’ve been meaning to read for ages. I saw a copy of Someone to Love in the bookstore, and that reminded me that I still have Something in Between to read.

Finally, today on Twitter, Tara Scott linked her review of 96 Hours by Georgia Beers, which… f/f romance set in Gander, Newfoundland among the plane people? Yes, PLEASE. (Although it had better be well-researched.)

Wednesday reads. (Yes, I know it's Saturday!)

What I’ve just finished reading:
Arthur: Prince of the Roses by Alison Weir - an odd little short. I’m glad it was free. Again, it’s not convincing me to fork out the amount of money being charged for some of the other “e-shorts” that accompany the Six Tudor Queens series.

Moontangled by Stephanie Burgis - squeeeee! I have been looking forward to this one for ages. It was one of those books that when advance reviews began to drop these past few weeks I was ridiculously jealous that people had already read it. It’s another delightful installment of the Harwood Spellbook (there’d better be more, Stephanie!) and as I suspected, chock full of angst (but a happy ending!) And also too short. But delightful and I loved it and I gave it five stars.

What I’m reading now:
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. Let me just quote to you what I said last week:

While I’m not sure I’m in the mood for high literature … [I] think it’s important that I read it, and I keep reminding myself that the Evaristo I’ve read, The Emperor’s Babe, was utterly fabulous and not heavy at all.

This book is also utterly fabulous and not heavy at all. I’m reminded exactly how much I adored the authorial voice in The Emperor’s Babe because it’s back here, too. And yet in this book Evaristo has twelve different characters - and the four I’ve read so far have each been quite distinct. Also it’s queer as hell and loud and in your face. So glad that I decided that I really needed to read this. (Also, dear God she seems to have teachers down pat!)

Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession by Alison Weir - as I said to someone on Instagram this week, I’m enjoying this one. It’s a slightly different interpretation of Anne from the standard one, but it seems fairly well founded, nevertheless. Much more nuanced, and I like nuance. Only really reading this one in moments where I need something to read but don't have the Evaristo with me.

What I’ll read next As I’m getting through the Evaristo quicker than I thought I might, there should be plenty of time left in Black History Month for more of what I was planning. Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss will probably be next - that or the Penny Mickelbury - and I’m really going to try to stick to Black authors for the rest of the month. (No additional Alison Weir books until March, and Burgis was an exception for an f/f new release.)

Reading for Black History Month

I had ridiculous plans for February, and half a post written explaining them. Then I took a step back, laughed at myself, and thought - don't set yourself up for failure.

For context, my February reading goal was going to be reading the following:

• Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss
• How Long until Black Future Month by NK Jemisin
• Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe, and
• Two Wings to Fly Away by Penny Mickelbury

I may have read 12 books in January, but a bunch of those were novellas or shorts, and none of them were particularly heavy reading. That list there? Not going to happen in 29 days.

 Plus, I have Bernadine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other from the library, so that's what's replacing the first list. If I get through that in the month, I'll pick up something else from the above, but for now, my Black History Month reading is just the one book. (And an eBook or two, probably...)

*Note: Black History Month is not really a thing in Australia, although May or June would probably be when our equivalent might be. But I'm also an American, so I feel like I should make a particular effort in this month over and above the general effort I'm making to read beyond white authors. So I'm reading a book by a Black UK author... because it has to go back to the library by the end of the month and also because it's the Booker winner that far too many people are ignoring.