Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another book that was on my To-Read list since 2014. I *think* I heard about it on Boing-Boing, but I wasn’t making good use of my GR shelves that way back then to keep track of such things. Wherever I heard about it, I was expecting this to be a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. (Looking at the other Donna Jo Napoli books I have on my To Read list - Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, etc - it’s not hard to see why) But this turned out to be so much better for my sensibilities - it’s really more of taking the barebones of the Anderson telling and porting it back to the original Western source of mermaids - the Sirens of Greek Mythology.

Dead Man’s Deal by Jocelynn Drake

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow, Ms. jocelynn Drake did something pretty rare among the trilogies I’ve been reading for the past half decade - she made a second book in the trilogy that doesn’t end on a cliffhanger. My memories of books I read when I was younger have this happening more often. But I know I have written many, many reviews on Goodreads where I talk about how hard it is to rate the second book because it’s a setup for the third. So it was nice and refreshing to have a second book in a series where if Ms. Drake had never continued, we’d be satisfied with the ending. That said, she certainly provided enough change in the status quo that I’m curious to read the next book and find out what happened.

Kingdom Hearts II by Alexa Ray Corriea

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with the best books in this series, Ms. Corriea has a deep passion for the game she’s writing about and it had a profound impact in her life. Over a number of chapters, she makes a great case for why this series is capable of deeper reflection than it would seem for a game with Donald, Goofy, and Cloud McCrono-face the protagonist (Sora). She does a great job blending the history of the series as well as pulling in information from later games to show the deep universe the creator put together in this series. It’s a game I own, but never got to play as I got it in college and from that point on I’ve had trouble finding the time needed to complete a jRPG. After reading this book, I’m keen for my kids to play it during that magical 9-14 years old where jRPG melodramatics play so hard. (And I think part of why FF6 and Chrono Trigger hit me so hard while I never really got into FF7 - FFX)

Aces High by George R.R. Martin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As usual for an anthology, I’m going to post my thoughts on each story, but before I get to that, my thoughts on the book as a whole. It was a big change from the previous book and that might be good, bad, or neutral to you. The first book, our introduction to the Wild Cards universe, was basically a series of stories that took place in the same universe and used the same characters (everyone LOVES to play with Croyd) but there wasn’t any unifying story outside of Dr. Tachyon coming to terms with the effects of the virus. But the stories mostly stood alone and even explored different narrative techniques like a Hunter S. Thompson parody. By contrast this book is one tight story that goes from beginning to end strongly being involved in each of the stories. It also once again expands the Wild Cards universe, more literally than metaphorically. Where this works best is with the theory of the small man of history. Many of the characters are just doing their own thing and only tangentially interacting with the PlotDevice.. It’s constantly changing hands and driving the plot and almost no one understands what’s going on until near the end of the book. But everyone’s actions are leading towards the various major plot points of the anthology.

His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I added this book to my Goodreads To Read list in 2014. The reasons for doing so are lost to time and slightly baffling. I don’t believe I had any previous experience with Ms. Naomi Novik. I’m not a big fantasy person (I’m certainly much more of one thanks to Sanderson than I was in 2014). That leaves 3 possibilities: a recommendation from someone whose opinions I admire, a fondness for historical fiction, and/or my love of counter-factual history. Either way, five years later it had big expectations to fill. AND IT SUCCEEDED. I’m kind of mad at myself for not getting to this earlier.

Huckleberry: Recipes, Stories, and Secrets from Our Kitchen by Zoe Nathan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My favorite part of this cookbook has been the intros to each chapter. Mrs Zoe Nathan has organized the chapters into the time of day needed to start working on the items to be ready to open Huckleberry for breakfast. Her stories are entertaining and reveal a lot about her personality. My second favorite part is that each recipe has an intro that explains the origins of the dish as well as pairings and substitutions that work well with the recipe. The only bad thing is that her recipes use a LOT of butter. A LOT. So while all baked goods are less healthy for you than, say, veggie dishes or even some burgers, these are not for those taking lipitor. That said, I ear-marked a good 2 dozen or so recipes I’d like to make, including a banana-poppy seed muffin I can’t wait to make this weekend.

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I decided to participate with the Sword and Laser book club for the February 2018 pick. Before I get to the review proper this was a very interesting time to be reading this particular book. At Farpoint 2019 I attended a panel about SFF books in alternate timelines. Simultaneously I read The Just City which makes the point that our moon missions should have been called Artemis, not Apollo for Apollo is the god of the sun and Artemis of the moon. I wonder if it was just in America’s 1960s we couldn’t name something as militarily important as the moon missions after a goddess? Also, in the book they think about launching from Brazil and I just saw a headline a few weeks ago about one of the US private space companies considering launching from Brazil. And I recently learned that female astronauts were a real thing that politicians killed because of ego.

Grilled Cheese Kitchen: Bread + Cheese + Everything in Between by Heidi Gibson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn’t know there could be so many kinds of Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, although as a coworker remarked - “Technically, most of those are melts, not grilled cheese.” Fair enough, but I still loved the various suggestions for different sandwiches. If I’m at home I usually end up making the same roast beef or smoked ham sandwich, so it’s nice to have someone say, “hey, these tastes all work really well together!” Because once you get past a PB&J, for all the effort it takes to make a sandwich (including washing and cutting the veggies, cheese, etc) you really don’t want such a basic food to taste bad. Also, to be honest, I’ve NEVER been a basic grilled cheese person. They always just tasted greasy to me. Even better, and elevating this book into 4-star territory is the chapter that provides recipes for soups to pair with the grilled cheese sandwiches.

Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook by Rachel Khoo

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the first time I’ve read a cookbook written by a European and it was interesting to see where they are similar and different. Some of them really intrigued me and some of them were a bit too far. But I look forward to making a few of them, particularly the tomato soup with chickpeas as croutons.

The Just City by Jo Walton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’d had this book on my To Read list since 2014 when I read about it on Boing-Boing. I don’t remember what they said about, but something piqued my interest. Of course, when you have a To Read list that’s hovering near 400 books, it takes a while to get to things. In his case, it was a good thing because eventually I nabbed it for free from the Tor eBook club. If you’re into SFF, I think it’s one the best deals you can get in exchanged to be emailed at from a company. So what about the book?