Women

Marriage of a Thousand Lies

2018, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Queer, Women /

We listened to Marriage of a Thousand Lies on audio. The first few minutes of the book were pretty darn depressing. Turns out the whole thing is pretty darn depressing but it’s also pretty darn good.

We don’t get a lot of decent lesbian literary fiction. We get lesbian chick lit, or lesbian erotica, or lesbian poetry, or token lesbian characters in mainstream fiction, and a ton of GAY fiction of all types, and we’re event seeing more trans fiction of all types. But literary lesbian fiction? GOOD literary lesbian fiction? Sooooo rare. Marriage of a Thousand Lies is worth reading for that reason alone. But prepare yourself for the depressing, frustrating, and not at all happy ending.

I very much hope SJ Sindu writes more books. I’ll read them.

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The Paper Magician

2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Mystery, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

I’m confused about how The Paper Magician ended up in my library bag. I thought at first that it had been on my TBR list for awhile and I’d reserved it when I did a bunch of reserves a few weeks ago, but that’s not it. Then I thought it was an Amazon best seller from last year and it hit my holds when I went through another mad round of reserves, but no. So I must have picked it up from the new arrivals shelf at the library but why would it be on the new arrivals shelf when it’s several years old?

SO WEIRD. Whatever. I really, really enjoyed it and hope to goodness the library has the other books in the series. I need to know what happens to Ceony next.

Updated: hmmm, turns out the series has been optioned by Disney so that might be how the book wound up in my bag… I may have seen this info on a blog or Facebook after all. Huh. This book would make an excellent Disney movie.

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The Witch of Painted Sorrows

2018, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

You may remember that I read all/most/some(?) of the Daughters of La Lune series and was troubled when I realized I hadn’t read the first book… so I read the first book and now I kind of wish I hadn’t read The Witch of Painted Sorrows. The end was rushed and left more questions than it answered. Worse yet, those questions were NOT answered in the follow up books.

SO ANNOYING.

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Alice Paul and the Fight for Women’s Rights

2018, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

OK I think Alice Paul and the Fight for Women’s Rights is the last non-fiction Cybil I’ll read this year. Probably. I’m kind of glad I finished on such a high note.

This was a pretty comprehensive history of Alice Paul’s life and work. It was a quick read but not a simple read. Well done, I highly recommend it to kids (or adults) who don’t know much about Alice Paul.

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The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat

2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

Last week, the second book in this series was on the new arrivals shelf at the library and instead of grabbing it, I went back to the stacks to find the first one. I’m so glad I did. I absolutely loved The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat. I laughed and laughed and I might have maybe been close to tearing up there at the end. I really hope the second book is still on the shelf when we go back to the library — if not, I’ll be reserving it.

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The Library of Light and Shadow

2017, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women /

Huh. Y’all know how I feel about reading series out of order … so why did I read the second book in the Daughters of La Lune series and not come back and read the rest? So weird. And now I’ve done it again with book 3, The Library of Light and Shadow. (Oh, I see why. I liked it but didn’t love it and wasn’t in dire need of reading the first one. Whatever.)

I feel pretty much the same way about this book. I liked it. I didn’t love it. Part of my problem was trying to remember more about the earlier book (about the sister whose power is tied to stones.) I also always seem to find myself being more interested in the secondary characters than in the main characters. Let’s see if that happens when I read the others.

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Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong — and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story

2018, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction, Women /

So, Happy IWD2018? Happy coincidence that I’m writing about Inferior today… and I’ll take all of the happy coincidences I can get right now because HMPH about all the things. Anyway.

This was an interesting book. Interesting to get a look at all of the different studies that have led us to where we are now. All of the ways women were left out of research, all of the ways (mostly) male researchers got it wrong, and to ponder the reasons why the (mostly) male researchers got it wrong. (And, why they are still getting it wrong more often than they should be right now.)

It was also interesting to read about some of the primate studies and insights into various tribes and groups of people in other regions. (The Agta in the Philippines, the Hadza in Africa, etc.)

I’m not really sure that new research is rewriting the story, but some researchers are certainly trying.

(PS. I’m on the side of the “grandmother theory” to explain evolution/life expectancy/menopause, how about you?)

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The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

2018, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women /

It’s been awhile since we read a Lisa See novel and I’m glad TW mentioned Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. It was a good story, as See’s books generally are, and its take on overseas adoptions by white parents of Chinese children was a far cry from other books that include this topic.

No coincidence = no story — that’s the theme here, and it’s an interesting one. Very useful in making the coincidences seem less like coincidences that you’d never believe and more like a life of coincidences. I bought it (most of it, ok a lot of it and what I didn’t buy, I forgave because the writing and the characters were wonderful.)

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