The beginning of this year has started well for reading. Maybe I have walked to Kingston for lunch too often and walked past the Book Cow - walk past did I say? no, I browsed the window and went in.
Favourites first (p.s 3/5 is still over 50%)
5/5 A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers: Tea Monk and 5th Generation Robot explore the meaning of life. 💕🫖
4/5 City of Stardust - Georgia Summers: Otherworlds, a sentient probably Gothic house, magical keys, wishes, prophecy. Wild and mad gods.
4/5️ Station 11 - Emily St John Mandel: There was a really bad flu, and lots of people died - a comic book thread and Post-apocalyptic life as a traveling theatre and all the wild things that brings. (A re-read as I started watching the T.V series)
4/5 Starling House - Alix E Harrow: A sentient, definitely Gothic house, a complicated family, ghostly beasts drawn from imagination and trauma let loose on the world.
4/5 The Book of Doors - Gareth Brown: Magical Realism; whimsy and wonder, magic books, libraries, bookshops, time travel and action.
3/5 The Cleaving - Juliet E. McKenna: 4 women from Arthurian legend. Told with a new perspective. But maybe I have read too many books in this subgenre.
3/5 The Daughters of Izdihar - Hadeer Elsbai: High fantasy. Feminism, oppression and Magic. POV 2 women one wealthy, one poor.
3/5 Among Others - Jo Walton: A book about magic, boarding school and reading books in diary form. A primer for Science fiction and Fantasy titles.
3/5 A Fellowship of Bakers and Magic - J. Penner: A cozy fantasy with an extra cup of sugar. It is not Legends and Lattes.
3/5 The House of Sorrowing Stars - Beth Cartwright: Whimsy and wonder, Marzipan, a Gothic House, hidden wallpaper, more magic keys, magical white flowers, sadness and sorrow. Instalove between 2 characters I could have done without. Read Feathertide instead.
2/5 Curious Tides - Pascale Lacelle: The magic system was intriguing, appealing cover and maps. It started well but there was an annoying love triangle, and the characters were younger than I expected.
2/5 Sisters of Sword and Shadow - Laura Bates: Great cover and blurb on the back. A feminist Arthurian retelling - apparently.