Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 15
May 8, 2021
My April Reading Log
Fiction:
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine follows A Memory Called Empire, in which Mahit Dzmare travels from her home space station to the center of the mighty Teixcalaanli Empire. In this installment, Mahit is back on Lsel Station and facing danger from her own government. Meanwhile, a threat from the last book reunites Mahit with Three Seagrass, in a plot running parallel with imperial heir Eight Antidote’s lessons in government and the decisions facing a newly-promoted militar...
April 29, 2021
Kalikoi!
Kalikoi, a new F/F publishing house, will launch on May 3.
Kalikoi brings you the best fiction about women in love with women. Our diverse authors know how to stir your imagination, speed up your heart, and make you laugh or cry. But by the end of a book, your only tears will be happy ones: Kalikoi books guarantee happily-ever-after or happy-for-now endings!
Our heroines all identify as women, but beyond that, the sky’s the limit. They may be trans or cis; they may be lesbian, bisexual, pa...
April 21, 2021
#TBRChallenge – Old School: Magic Flutes by Eva Ibbotson
Given that Magic Flutes by Eva Ibbotson was published in 1982, I decided it could safely fit this month’s challenge theme. Plus, I’ve been looking forward to reading it for a long time, as one of the few by this author I have not already read. Plus it combines a 1920s setting with musician characters, which is catnip for me.
Magic Flutes is set in Vienna shortly after the First World War. English foundling Guy Farne has become a millionaire through his innate intelligence and knowledge of m...
April 10, 2021
My March Reading Log
Fiction:
Battle Hill Bolero by Daniel José Older is third in the Bone Street Rumba trilogy, one of the best urban fantasy series I’ve ever read because of its superb, deep grounding in contemporary Brooklyn. I’d been hoarding it for a while; I bought this series as it came out, but enjoyed it so much I didn’t want to devour it all in one swoop. Compared to the previous two books in the trilogy, the conclusion is epic, as in, there is a literal epic battle between forces of freedom and burea...
March 17, 2021
#TBRChallenge – Book by a Favorite Author: Wild Angel by Pat Murphy
Wild Angel by Pat Murphy is a book by a favorite science fiction author I have been saving since it came out in paperback in 2000.
When Sarah McKensie’s parents are murdered in 1850 California, the young girl is saved by a mother wolf and raised in the pack. Part Mowgli, part Tarzan of the Apes, Sarah becomes the Wild Angel of the Sierras, rescuing those in need, while eluding her parents’ killer, a man who still wants to see her dead. Sarah lives with the wolves, hunts with the wolves, fig...
March 5, 2021
My February Reading Log
Fiction:
In the course of reading Coming to Terms: Consequences Impend (Clorinda Cathcart’s Circle Book 12) by L.A. Hall, I discovered I had somehow missed Tricks and Traps: Tables Turned (Clorinda Cathcart’s Circle Book 10)! Which I had not noticed, because both volumes 9 and 11 were further back in the continuity. It was good to find out my memory is not that terrible, that I had in fact missed an installment! And I still managed to enjoy reading it.
February 20, 2021
#TBRChallenge – New-To-You Author: Pembroke Park by Michelle Martin
Pembroke Park by Michelle Martin was a gift from Keira Soleore several years ago.
It is repeatedly cited as the first lesbian Regency Romance, traditionally published by the storied Naiad Press in 1986.
Description:
When Lady Joanna Sinclair meets lady Diana March on horseback and clad in male attire, she is outraged. Such bizarre behavior is simply unacceptable in Herefordshire! But she is irresistibly drawn to the headstrong Diana, whose eccentricity cloaks a mysterious darkness in her pa...
February 6, 2021
My January Reading Log
Fiction:
The Orphans of Raspay: A Penric and Desdemona novella by Lois McMaster Bujold had fun twists and turns; there is currently one more novella in this series for me to read. I am a huge fan of Bujold so enjoy these immensely.
Shadows in Death by J.D. Robb is the fifty-first Eve Dallas mystery, this time upping the ante with a contract killer villain. There are also bonus appearances of Roarke’s Irish family, proving Robb knows we’re in this for the secondary characters as much as for ...
January 20, 2021
#TBRChallenge – Comfort Read: Tree of Cats by Ellis Avery
For my “comfort read” I chose Tree of Cats by Ellis Avery, the final novel by a college friend who died from cancer in 2019. Another college friend who read the manuscript told me the outlines of the story, which led me to believe it would fit in this category. And in a metatextual way, it comforts me to know that this last work of Ellis’ hands is out in the world. Reader, it was not a comfort read, at least not in the conventional sense. But I was comforted.
Description:
The thrilling and ...
January 13, 2021
Arisia 2021 Schedule
I’ll be participating in a couple of Zoom panels at Virtual Arisia 2021, January 15-18, 2021.
“Comfort Food Media: Extreme Stay-at-Home Edition”
2020 was going to be the year we were going to tackle the piles of unread books, of films we’d been meaning to see. Many of us haven’t actually worked on those lists, choosing instead to revisit the things that we know repair our collective calm. What old favorites did you return to this year, why is this so comforting, and what do you do with the ...
