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lady_ragnell) wrote2025-10-21 01:46 pm
lady_ragnell) wrote2025-10-21 01:46 pm
2025 Books, Post 11
Took another trip, which meant airport books, and then a few fast reads, so a nice fast post this time, thank goodness! And I even managed to get one into my top ten for the year, which feels pretty miraculous.
The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Not one of my favorites in the series, though not terrible either. The Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow go to find the Tin Woodman's old beloved who he can no longer love due to having a kind heart but not a loving one, but who he feels nonetheless duty bound to marry. Some amusing episodes, less of Dorothy and Ozma than I prefer. Canonizes The Worst Piece Of Oz Lore, that nobody in Oz has aged at all since receiving a blessing from the fairy queen Lurline. Babies are just babies forever! That's not at all a horrifying concept! Anyway, was so distracted by that piece of utter horror that I didn't pay as much attention as I might have to the rest of the events.
Parker's Forbidden Mate by Blake R. Wolfe
It's October, which means I like to read a thematic romance or two, and this happened to turn up in my recommended on hoopla. It was ... not very good? It had parts I enjoyed, but didn't quite do what it wanted to do very effectively, which is probably just because it was very short. I'll have to read something else Halloween-y at some point, I guess!
Cinder House by Freya Marske
I think this is my favorite Marske so far! She managed to do something that unfortunately is rare, which is that she managed to make an interesting and novel and adult take on a classic fairy tale while still understanding what appeals about the original fairy tale. This seems especially impossible for many authors with Cinderella, so I was even more relieved to read this one. That's not to say it's perfect--it could have used another 30-50 pages to breathe, I think, there were some parts that could have used more delving into--but it was a really delightful morning's read, and it's the one that made it onto my top 10.
Swordcrossed by Freya Marske
I liked this one a lot! Marske really understands romance beats and what makes them work, and I appreciate that very much. I especially appreciate that it was a fairly low-stakes fantasy plot without being too Cozy, since the current cozy fantasy trends do not really understand what I want in low-stakes fantasy. Also I always love stories where textiles are a big deal. I cared way more about the secondary sapphic romance than about the main romance, but I don't mind that terribly, really, and that doesn't mean I disliked the main one, just that I am an inveterate secondary character lover. Just overall quite solid for me!
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Not Okorafor's best outing for me! It's a really really risky thing to frame a book around sharing pieces of a piece of in-universe artwork that captures the world's attention and Changes Everything, and Okorafor is very good, but not good enough to really justify that. She clearly had a lot to say about fame and fandom and how the world treats creators who are any combination of black, disabled, and female, about the publishing industry and about the way Hollywood feeds on publishing trends and sanitizes and flattens out diversity in those (and how fandom can often greet that with relief), and I don't mind books making points, but again, it centered so much of that on the other half of the story, Rusted Robots, that made a lot of the foundation flimsy (at the end of that story-within-a-story, Okorafor did do something cool that at least partially justified it, but didn't pull it off quite well or soon enough to backdate me being impressed to the beginning). I think in a lot of ways this would have been more effective if it were about the pressures and expectations of being a cult-following genre author, or a genre author whose book only started getting wider cultural attention AFTER the fairly-unfaithful adaptation.
The Disordered Cosmos by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
I can't remember who recced me this one, but it might have been someone over here? Anyway, as ever I tend to like my nonfic dry and impersonal, so this wasn't really targeted at my interests. However, it was personal in very pointed and very necessary ways, with EXTREMELY pointed reminders that even nonfic framed as dry and impersonal is full of personal experience and bias, so I took my medicine happily enough. Not much else to say about this one!
Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee
This is ... literary corporate horror, I guess? Books for people who love Severance. I can't remember where I ran across it, but I decided to give it a shot, and, mm. It's one of those things where I read it the entire time going "well, it's not for me, but sometimes it's good to expand my palate a little" and that's basically what it is. Did I enjoy it? Eh. Am I glad I read it anyway, especially when my usual genres haven't been catching me as much as I'd like this year? Yeah.
A Little Too Familiar by Lish McBride
Now this was actually super fun! It's marketed like one of those Witchy Romcoms and it is that, but it doesn't have so many of the trends that annoy me. Maybe because it's actually a romance and not a romcom! It does have a lot of quirky side characters and small businesses, both hallmarks of the, well, Hallmark version of this genre, but there's a lot of actual character work and chemistry between the leads (even if it does lean a bit lazily on "oh, they smell like home" kind of werewolf relationship-building shortcuts), and the plot was serious and heavy without crushing the lighter parts. Anyway, I'm happy to continue with this series!
The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Contains one of the less straight passages in Oz history, which is saying something! Otherwise, somewhat jarringly hops back and forth between a pair of villains attempting to take Oz over and everyone trying to find Ozma good birthday presents (though the plots do of course intersect). Baum really did shoot himself in the foot often, by saying nobody in Oz is evil and then still needing villains for his stories, and also by saying nobody's allowed to use magic but Glinda, Ozma, and the Wizard and then constantly needing magic antagonists. Really wild to read something popular published long before today's standards of needing consistent worldbuilding across series. I don't mind it this way, really! It's just a really weird difference. Anyway, only one more Baum Oz book to go! I'm glad I did this reading project this year, it's been really fun even when I get the urge to finagle things and make them more to my taste.
The Flamingo's Fated Mate by Elva Birch
Here it is, the reason I downloaded this free collection of first books in Birch's various series! And frankly, it's the best of them, which I say without a trace of irony. Birch clearly wrote it with tongue firmly in cheek, sending up some tropes that are common in the shifter genre, but the banter was fun, it felt closer to the id of why people read shifter stories with mates in the first place when Birch overall seems to shy away from that, and the plot was silly and enjoyable and the epilogue delighted me. Now that I've finished this primer of Birch's works, I very much doubt I'll read more, but I'm glad I persevered through to read this one!
No clue when the next one's coming, but hopefully I'll get another seasonal romance or two in among finishing the Oz series and maybe returning to some epistolary!
The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Not one of my favorites in the series, though not terrible either. The Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow go to find the Tin Woodman's old beloved who he can no longer love due to having a kind heart but not a loving one, but who he feels nonetheless duty bound to marry. Some amusing episodes, less of Dorothy and Ozma than I prefer. Canonizes The Worst Piece Of Oz Lore, that nobody in Oz has aged at all since receiving a blessing from the fairy queen Lurline. Babies are just babies forever! That's not at all a horrifying concept! Anyway, was so distracted by that piece of utter horror that I didn't pay as much attention as I might have to the rest of the events.
Parker's Forbidden Mate by Blake R. Wolfe
It's October, which means I like to read a thematic romance or two, and this happened to turn up in my recommended on hoopla. It was ... not very good? It had parts I enjoyed, but didn't quite do what it wanted to do very effectively, which is probably just because it was very short. I'll have to read something else Halloween-y at some point, I guess!
Cinder House by Freya Marske
I think this is my favorite Marske so far! She managed to do something that unfortunately is rare, which is that she managed to make an interesting and novel and adult take on a classic fairy tale while still understanding what appeals about the original fairy tale. This seems especially impossible for many authors with Cinderella, so I was even more relieved to read this one. That's not to say it's perfect--it could have used another 30-50 pages to breathe, I think, there were some parts that could have used more delving into--but it was a really delightful morning's read, and it's the one that made it onto my top 10.
Swordcrossed by Freya Marske
I liked this one a lot! Marske really understands romance beats and what makes them work, and I appreciate that very much. I especially appreciate that it was a fairly low-stakes fantasy plot without being too Cozy, since the current cozy fantasy trends do not really understand what I want in low-stakes fantasy. Also I always love stories where textiles are a big deal. I cared way more about the secondary sapphic romance than about the main romance, but I don't mind that terribly, really, and that doesn't mean I disliked the main one, just that I am an inveterate secondary character lover. Just overall quite solid for me!
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Not Okorafor's best outing for me! It's a really really risky thing to frame a book around sharing pieces of a piece of in-universe artwork that captures the world's attention and Changes Everything, and Okorafor is very good, but not good enough to really justify that. She clearly had a lot to say about fame and fandom and how the world treats creators who are any combination of black, disabled, and female, about the publishing industry and about the way Hollywood feeds on publishing trends and sanitizes and flattens out diversity in those (and how fandom can often greet that with relief), and I don't mind books making points, but again, it centered so much of that on the other half of the story, Rusted Robots, that made a lot of the foundation flimsy (at the end of that story-within-a-story, Okorafor did do something cool that at least partially justified it, but didn't pull it off quite well or soon enough to backdate me being impressed to the beginning). I think in a lot of ways this would have been more effective if it were about the pressures and expectations of being a cult-following genre author, or a genre author whose book only started getting wider cultural attention AFTER the fairly-unfaithful adaptation.
The Disordered Cosmos by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
I can't remember who recced me this one, but it might have been someone over here? Anyway, as ever I tend to like my nonfic dry and impersonal, so this wasn't really targeted at my interests. However, it was personal in very pointed and very necessary ways, with EXTREMELY pointed reminders that even nonfic framed as dry and impersonal is full of personal experience and bias, so I took my medicine happily enough. Not much else to say about this one!
Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee
This is ... literary corporate horror, I guess? Books for people who love Severance. I can't remember where I ran across it, but I decided to give it a shot, and, mm. It's one of those things where I read it the entire time going "well, it's not for me, but sometimes it's good to expand my palate a little" and that's basically what it is. Did I enjoy it? Eh. Am I glad I read it anyway, especially when my usual genres haven't been catching me as much as I'd like this year? Yeah.
A Little Too Familiar by Lish McBride
Now this was actually super fun! It's marketed like one of those Witchy Romcoms and it is that, but it doesn't have so many of the trends that annoy me. Maybe because it's actually a romance and not a romcom! It does have a lot of quirky side characters and small businesses, both hallmarks of the, well, Hallmark version of this genre, but there's a lot of actual character work and chemistry between the leads (even if it does lean a bit lazily on "oh, they smell like home" kind of werewolf relationship-building shortcuts), and the plot was serious and heavy without crushing the lighter parts. Anyway, I'm happy to continue with this series!
The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Contains one of the less straight passages in Oz history, which is saying something! Otherwise, somewhat jarringly hops back and forth between a pair of villains attempting to take Oz over and everyone trying to find Ozma good birthday presents (though the plots do of course intersect). Baum really did shoot himself in the foot often, by saying nobody in Oz is evil and then still needing villains for his stories, and also by saying nobody's allowed to use magic but Glinda, Ozma, and the Wizard and then constantly needing magic antagonists. Really wild to read something popular published long before today's standards of needing consistent worldbuilding across series. I don't mind it this way, really! It's just a really weird difference. Anyway, only one more Baum Oz book to go! I'm glad I did this reading project this year, it's been really fun even when I get the urge to finagle things and make them more to my taste.
The Flamingo's Fated Mate by Elva Birch
Here it is, the reason I downloaded this free collection of first books in Birch's various series! And frankly, it's the best of them, which I say without a trace of irony. Birch clearly wrote it with tongue firmly in cheek, sending up some tropes that are common in the shifter genre, but the banter was fun, it felt closer to the id of why people read shifter stories with mates in the first place when Birch overall seems to shy away from that, and the plot was silly and enjoyable and the epilogue delighted me. Now that I've finished this primer of Birch's works, I very much doubt I'll read more, but I'm glad I persevered through to read this one!
No clue when the next one's coming, but hopefully I'll get another seasonal romance or two in among finishing the Oz series and maybe returning to some epistolary!
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I gave up partway through Death of the Author -- I was listening to it on audiobook, and it did begin to drag for the very reasons you mention.
Also, sorry you didn't like The Disordered Cosmos, as I think that might have been me who gave you that rec! Pointed it certainly is, but that can be medicinal if someone's not in the mood or doesn't need that kind of thing at the moment!
THE FLAMINGO'S FATED MATE. They should give awards just for titles.
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Yeah, if it hadn't been an airport book for me, where I traditionally bring along the books I've been putting off on my shelf so I have no option but to read them, I doubt I'd have made it through Death of the Author.
It's not that I disliked The Disordered Cosmos! And if it was medicine, it was necessary medicine. Just wasn't centered enough in my interests that I had much interesting to say about it, is all.
Apparently The Flamingo's Fated Mate started out as an April Fool's Day cover that the author then couldn't resist writing, but it's SUCH a good title. Best shifter romance I've read, I think.
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The title The Flamingo's Fated Mate also gave me a good chuckle! And sounds like it was a breezy fun book in the end.
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