ephemeral entries

1. The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson: I enjoyed this A Lot but can see how some would bounce off it (tonal shifts, main character, over-the-top plot(s) won't work for everyone). 
2. Death of the Author by Nnedi Okarafor: DNF. There were parts of it I liked, but I didn't care enough after 3-4 hours to put in 16 more hours of audiobook with the main character, a teacher who hated her students and stole time from them to work on her terrible first novel, and would get drunk and drunk-call her family to get her home (a personal yuck). The Trinidad and Tobago wedding was interesting and I can see it was tough growing up in that family, and her (the character's) second novel sounded better (post-apocalyptic robots), and the interviews with her family had a lot of saying-but-not-saying commentary by author. Well written, but not my jam. This will probably move to 4, 5, or 6 after I read the others. 

Not yet read:

3. A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett: I expect I'll like this since I liked the first one. This will probably move up to 2. 
4. Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky: Who knows? I loved one of his finalists and DNF the other last year. Maybe THIS one will move up to one or two.
5. The Incandescent by Emily Tesh: Another dark academia fantasy. This one centers a professor, but I doubt I'll like it as much as Kij Johnson's excellent The Dreamquest of Vellitt Boe (Prof goes looking for missing student in Lovecraftian lands, entirely off campus after first chapter). I DNF her winner last year. 
6. The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow: Another medieval time travel fantasy.

1. Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite: I liked it, it was fun, not sure it completely held together but the long space migration and memory mechanisms were interesting.
2. What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon). I liked the first two. I liked this one. I think it would be comprehensible for someone who hasn't read the first two, but resonates better for those who have.  
3. The Summer War by Naomi Novik: Not yet sampled, but I'm unenthused by the description. 
4. Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz: OK so far. Another post-apocalyptic robots story. I got as far as the generator "heist" (smash and grab). Do I care enough to finish it? Libby told me someone is waiting so I returned it. I might circle back.
5. The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar: I really liked the lyrical start, the river, the willows, the sisters. But 39% in, I DNF because I didn't want to keep reading about the aggressive suitor and it seemed to be going in a depressing direction.
6. Cinder House by Freya Marske: Again, I liked the start, cool house-ghost magic, but I only got 7% in before DNF when the abuse by mother and literal physical torture by her step-family got too much for me. 

1. “Wire Mother” by Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld, Issue 229): This was so good. This is here right now to a degree, people who attack folks who don't want to engage with AI, people who care more for their feel-good AI companions than for real people, people trying to survive in that situation. Nuts to the podcast that said this was "allegory" and thought (spoilery plot point I won't say) came from nowhere and was gratuitous.   
2. “Missing Helen” by Tia Tashiro (Clarkesworld, Issue 226): I liked the (reason for the) second-person narrative the story starts with, and the plot twists I'd happily chew over with others in comments but don't want to spoil in the body of my post. Nuts to the same podcast that described one relationship as budding romance. Come on, guys (yes, the podcasters are both guys).
3. “In My Country” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld, Issue 223): A father and his children in censorship-land. What's said and not said. 
4. “Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything” by Effie Seiberg (Diabolical Plots, May 16, 2025): Superheroes, anti-ableism.
5. “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62):  List stories don't usually do it for me, even if bits are interesting.
6. “10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days” by Samantha Mills (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 63): List stories don't usually do it for me, even if bits are interesting.

• The Chronicles of Osreth by Katherine Addison (Tor US; Solaris UK; Subterranean):  that speaker for the dead in Goblin Emperor's world, I like it and would keep reading more of the priest's adventures. 
• The Craft Wars by Max Gladstone: I've read some and liked them but the whole overarching story seems too long and unwieldy

• https://bookclubs.com/discussion-guides/remarkably-bright-creatures-a-novel
• https://booksthatslay.com/remarkably-bright-creatures-book-club-questions/

Next batch:  

• The Centre by Alison Whittaker: An uploads story, but there's A Plan, see. Reminds me of aspects of Kathleen Ann Goonan's *The Bones of Time* and M. A. Foster's Ler books *The Warriors of Dawn* and *The Gameplayers of Zan*.  
• An Invitation by Timmah Ball: Architecture, academic discourse, narrator driving around enjoying the disappearance of buildings as redress of colonization. Why are cars (and Big Oil infrastructure) A-OK but Buildings Are Bad? Aren't gas stations and roads going to vanish, too? 
• Nimeybura by Laniyuk: Epistolary, sort of (letters to dear departed). More buildings-hatred (burn it all down; I could empathize some with burning servers). Land back movement, healing the land and healing the people. Then a lot explanation by author at the end?
• Water by Ellan van Neerven ("modified version extracted from the original text"): Really interesting plant people exploration, but disturbing that narrator is going along with colonizers' domestication/pacification plan, and then the abrupt ending! I would have like to read more but her next book is poetry and it doesn't seem like she kept up with this story.  

• First saw in 1991/1992 in the theater and was blown away. So beautiful and so much going on. Amazing women and family story. I'd been to college in Charleston, SC and knew about Gullah sweetgrass baskets at the market. reviewed on Usenet.  I knew at the time there was stuff going on that I didn't "get". 
• Setting: 1902 Ibo Islands of coastal SC and Georgia. Ibo Island, Mozambique https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibo_(Mozambique) v. Ibo (Igbo) people of Nigeria https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/who-are-the-ibo-igbo-people.html ?  Indigo-dyed hands and ricework. 
• Dialect: My Southern /coastal Carolina ear understood what was being said back in the 1990s. After I reviewed it on Usenet, folks wrote back that they couldn't understand what was being said. Fortunately, the beautiful remaster available on Kanopy (library) has Subtitles in English capabilities so others should be able to follow along.
• Characters: Nana (great-grandmother) and the unborn child, Eli and Eula, Iona and St. Julien, Viola and Yellow Mary (and the photographer and Trula)
• High Yellow.  Spike Lee's 1988 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_Daze had already touched on Colorism. https://www.amacad.org/publication/colorism-skin-tone-stratification-united-states 
• Bottle trees -- can be used to honor dead, not just for trapping evil spirits https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/bottle-tree.htm
• Other Root Magic 
• Mainland folks always thinking their ways are better and the poor islanders must be grateful to become more civilized. Colonizer mindset? Complicated, also related to Great Migration. 

• 1925:  Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life One of the earliest ethnographic biographies, documenting the epic migration of a tribe from Turkey to Persian, 50,000 people and their herd animals across a river and mountain range in search of grasslands where the animals can thrive. Wikipedia: Selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."  Silent, runtime just over an hour (1:10:00), available for streaming on Criterion, or playable free on the Wikipedia page. 
• Per LC, these Bakhtiari are in "The Ascent of Man" with Jacob Bronowski. See 4:30 in this 1970s video: http://www.infocobuild.com/books-and-films/science/TheAscentOfMan/episode-02.html.  How much have they changed?
• Directed by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merian_C._Cooper who directed King Kong (1933)! 
• Might tie into The Steerswoman (book 2 where they're in a sea of grass, disorienting the navigator to the point of illness) and Kurosawa's *Derzu Uzala* movie (a Russian sea of grass).
• An Hour of Turkish Music 1900-1925 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lifBp16Pk-c 
• Flatbread, magic trick, dust storm, sleeping in wagons, caravanserai, old man putting powder, shot, wadding into musket, packing it down, carrying a portable hunting blind with him, amazing shots (bird, goat, off cliff). Camels and donkeys across snowy mountain pass. Desert patrol.  Cows, sheep, and goats. Haidar Khan. A thousand camps. A few horses, for the rich. Goatskin float rafts to cross the mighty river. SO MANY goatskin floats! ... Back in snowy heights, going BAREFOOT to break trail on Zardeh Kuh, because flimsy cotton shoes are no good there!
• Compare to first 20 minutes of Ascent of Man episode 2, http://www.infocobuild.com/books-and-films/science/TheAscentOfMan/episode-02.html "Jacob Bronowski follows Iran's Bakhtiari tribe, which migrates as it did 10,000 years ago"

I enjoyed this book over a decade ago and went to hear the author, Helen Simonson, talk about it back then at the Bethesda library.  The part I remember most is she wanted to put an elephant in it (the big banquet scene) and her editor said no.  Sometimes editors are right. Anyway, I have a hold on the audiobook but it's a 6-week wait. If I have to, I'll get the ebook from Libby, or the print book from the library, to refresh my memory. I may not come up with my own questions this time, since there are two reasonable discussion guides online (I don't agree with the assumptions in all of them, but they're reasonably phrased and can spur discussions either way).  

• BookBrowse guide 
• LitLovers guide

1. This book mixes horse racing, racism of the 1850s and 2022, art history, and Smithsonian backstage life. Did the mixture work for you? Did you have a strong preference for some parts of the story versus others?
2. What did you think of the different narrative viewpoints (1850s groom/trainer, 1850s artist/writer, 2022 art historian, 2022 lab-runner / bone articulator, 1950s art collector, others)? Were all the voices convincing?
3. What did you think of the parallels in the relationships between Jarret and Mary, and Theo and Jess?
4. Have you read anything else by Geraldine Brooks?  How did this compare?
5. What did you think of the endings for the various characters/timelines? 

References and other discussion guides (dozens more discussion prompts)

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexington_(horse) -- the real deal
• BookBrowse
• Books That Slay
• Libromaniacs
• Book Girls Guide (YA)

• Intro: ok
• Ravenous, Called Iffy by Chimedum Ohaegbu: Bursting with details & world-building. Why the resurrections? A Is for Alibi style artificial separation from family.  
• The Hole in the Middle of the World by Chinelu Onwualu: Memory holes, we've seen these stories before. But well told, and the child-theft the memory selling supports. SdJ: indigenous children taken away.
• A Fair Assessment by Terese Mason Pierre: Antique stores. Also about recovering lost memories.

• Peak Day by Suyi Davies Okungbowa: Hell in Amazon warehouse or some similar place. Awful AI driving sales, better not tell them it's a mistake.  Good luck person who left, and we see the manager was kicked out. 
• Hallelujah Here and Elsewhere by francesca ekwuyasi: Here again, we have the use of "ravenous" (first paragraph). Name preferences / "gifted" nicknames. [Multiverse] & communications. Smelling that someone's different. Memory of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  Her uncle's abuse.
• Playing Dead by Trynne Delaney: Being a nanny / phlebotomist.  Soil needs cleansing. 
• Mother, Father, Baby by Lue Palmer: Father's abuse, mother makes "liars" wash their mouths out with soap. Smash that urn!

• Deh ah Market by Whitney French: Another [multiverse] story with some timey-wimey delays/loops thrown in. What's available in the market today? I liked it. 
• Paroxysm by Zalika Reid-Benta: Great opening. Hits very close to home. A passing reference to parallel universes -- it seemed like this concept was in almost every short story in this anthology, but looking back, I guess I'm remembering wrong. Friends trying to be supportive of each other, pushing boundaries, disappointing each other, not being fully honest. I understand folks getting to run their own safety calculators, but it's frustrating to me to see someone making very risky or illogical choices, and it's difficult to talk much about that without worrying about potentially making others in the conversation feel attacked.  How can it be more risky (of triggering the short story's Paroxysm condition) to talk with your parents on a call more than 15 minutes at the end of the month, than to watch the news every day? Is her family that much worse than mine (substituting my siblings for her parents, since my parents are dead), or is the news in her world, apart from the contagion, that much better?  
• Just Say Garuka by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsega: Magic carpet ride! A time and place (Alberta, nostalgia for [Supernatural and] Charmed and Sabrina the Teenage Witch (and snarky Salem the cat). Why the secrecy on the protagonist's part about leaving? Anything beyond denial? But I liked the teenage friendship. 

I'm leading a library Zoom discussion on this 2005 Newbery Medal (YA) winner next week. Discussion prompts:

1. The two sisters each think of the other as having saved them from the dog. Are they both right? How does this relationship hold up during the book?
2. Humor is mixed in with the grief of the story.  How did the balance work for you?
3. What's the longest road trip you've taken? How did it compare to the Takeshima family's trip?
4. How did the family deal with the move from Iowa to Georgia? 
5. While finishing up the trip to Georgia, Katie notices that every Georgia town declares some claim to fame. Have you noticed towns in Maryland that do this? Do you remember any other town-identity signs from your travels? (e.g., Webster, NY "Where Life is Worth Living").    
6. Who else laughed when Katie's dad told her what the "B" word meant ("Bad Lady", referring to the mean woman at the hotel), and told her not to tell her her mom he'd told her? 
7. What did you think of the chess in this story compared to *The Queen's Gambit* that some of us read earlier?
8. What did you think of the way the story portrayed the main adults?
9. Did you have a favorite character? (mom, dad, Katie, Lynn, Sammy, Uncle Katsuhisa, Silly, others)?
10. Lynn keeps a diary. Have you ever maintained a diary for long? Have you read any diaries?
11. What did you think of the portrayals of racism in the story?  Were they age-appropriate? Should the story have gone farther? 
12. The chicken processing plant has long and hard hours, but also emphasizes hygiene. How does this compare to other food-related jobs you've read about in books? 
13. What are examples of kindness of strangers shown in this book? 
14. How did Katie's dad and Katie's stress/grief coping mechanisms compare?
15. Is there a scene or quote you'd like to share and discuss?
16. Would you recommend this book to others?

• https://www.bookbrowse.com/reading_guides/detail/index.cfm/book_number/1522/kirakira