Ry Herman's Blog, page 8

Favorite Books — May 2023

I got pretty deep into some rewrites this month and didn’t have time to read as many books as usual. Nonetheless, there were still quite a few I enjoyed, including:

THE JUNIPER TREE by Barbara Comyns, REVELATOR by Daryl Gregory, KRISTIN LAVRANSDATTER by Sigrid Undset, OCEAN’S ECHO by Everina Maxwell, THIRSTY ANIMALS by Rachelle Attalla, HOLD STILL by Nina LaCour, and BLOODY ROSE by Nicolas Eames.

So close

Part 2 of epic mermaid quest work-in-progress done. 88 pages so far. Next chapter, I will FINALLY GET THE MERMAIDS UP THE CLIFF.

Hooray!

I’m thrilled to announce that I am now represented by Michelle Hauck of the Storm Literary Agency!

https://www.stormliteraryagency.com/

The 5 People Who Get This Will Probably Enjoy It

In Ilium did Homer Khan
A baffling metaphor decree;
Linguistical debate began
In papers measureless by man
About the wine-dark sea.

Beware! Beware!
His violet blood! His chartreuse hair!
Was their language imprecise,
Or were they colorblind instead
If they called honey blue or red
In illustrational device?

Inspired by https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/sea/winelike-sea

Favorite Books — April 2023

There’s no particular book I want to single out this month, but a lot of good reads, including:

THE DANCE TREE by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES by T. Kingfisher, COUPLETS by Maggie Millner, LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR by Mizuki Tsujimura, ASTRID PARKER DOESN’T FAIL by Ashley Herring Blake, THE HARVEST by Robert Charles Wilson, THE VERY NICE BOX by Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman, KINGS OF THE WYLD by Nicholas Eames, TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT by Graham Greene, DEAD COUNTRY by Max Gladstone, and DEAR MEDUSA by Olivia A. Cole.

Habits

Every time I finish an ebook, I carefully set it back to the beginning before I file it away.

I blame growing up in the era of VHS.

Favorite Books — March 2023

The absolute best book I read this month was:

BELOVED, by Toni Morrison

Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Meanwhile Sethe’s house has long been troubled by the angry, destructive ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

Powerful, haunting, anguished, and angry. Everyone should read this book.

Other standout titles included: THE RED ROSE RAGES (BLEEDING) by L. Timmel Duchamp, PET by Akwaeke Emezi, THE SUPREME LIE by Geraldine McCaughrean, and CAGE OF SOULS by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Welp.

I started today with 15,000 words written for my current Work In Progress. After a morning and an afternoon of intense writing work, I am now at… 15,000 words.

Favorite Books — February 2023

The shortest month means fewer books got read, but there were some great ones in the mix. Especially —

HALF OF A YELLOW SUN, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another.

This is the first book I’m giving a five-star rating to this year, and it more than deserves it. The book within the book of Half Of A Yellow Sun is called The World Was Silent When We Died. That very well could have been the title of the book itself — except it’s about even more than that. It’s powerful, complex, and important.

Other great books I read this month included THE GILDA STORIES by Jewelle L. Gómez, THE END OF THE AFFAIR by Graham Greene, NIMONA by N. D. Stevenson, SNOW WHITE LEARNS WITCHCRAFT by Theodora Goss, DOG OF THE DEAD by Delia Marshall Turner, and EXPERIMENTAL FILM by Gemma Files.

Asking for Trouble

When I learned that the sign on the new Edinburgh Futures Institute is going to read Patet Omnibus — Open To All — my immediate reaction was, “Do you WANT a vampire infestation in your building? Because that is totally how you get one.”