TLC Forum

Took a break from WWII history after the previously mentioned book, and blitzed through a Nero Wolfe mystery last weekend before jumping into another WWII history book. I’d had some prelude to this one because I’d watched the 1953 film “The Man Who Never Was”, but this book goes into so much more detail (obviously) and is able to correct information previously put forward (because of the de-classification of information since the film and the book it was based upon (minus the fictitious third act)).

Ok! Books. ^_^

Recently I have read:

Castle in the Stars: A Frenchman on Mars by Alex Alice. Good solid adventure, starts in media res but gives you a quick intro to the series at the beginning, very pretty illustrations with kind of a soft watercolory look to them.

Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Sa, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist adapted by Gina Capaldi and Q.L. Pierce. An introduction to an interesting human in a difficult period in history, with painterly earth-tone illustrations.

A poetry anthology with an emphasis on life/death cycles and wetland wildlife.

Lionheart by Richard Collingridge. Simple prose, very evocative and daydreamy bright-colored illustrations. A story about courage.

A YA fantasy with fun worldbuilding but some forum-inappropriate content, in which the protagonist is a young co-monarch trying to learn the ropes before the deadline comes due for her to attempt an underworld journey.

An adult fantasy novella with some forum-inappropriate content featuring an heiress in a neo-Victorian setting with fairies trying to make amends for an injustice committed by her father.

Chivalry by Neil Gaiman and Coleen Doran. A beautiful, whimsical, and odd slow-paced character-driven graphic novel about an eccentric older lady who found the Holy Grail in a thrift shop, and the earnest young knight who wants to win it back from her.

A well-written but weird scifi novel with some forum-inappropriate content in which a first contact situation leads to humanity trying to prove their sapience to the alien community in a galactic singing competition. Extremely wide variety of alien life with sometimes conflicting interests and needs, satirical political commentary, and ultimately a deep thread of hope.

It’s been almost a month since I read the first of the Wheel of Time series. Expect to pick up the next one soon. (I don’t know all that’s in this series, but it sounds like there are some issues later?)

I read The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin last week. And I was pleasantly surprised at how clean it was, though I’ll put a little warning for Nazi brutality, even though it’s largely left to the imagination. The plot was fine, and I appreciated the historical bits, but found it lacking in the compelling character department, at least to my taste.

Reading the final skyward book of Brandon Sanderson (called Defiant). So far so good I feel that I missed a little by not reading the books that are supposed to happen while the main character is away from the rest of her squad. But since she feels a little lost too that helps.

Recently read the English translation of Lonely Castle in the Mirror. There’s a couple of swears and a scene of a man behaving inappropriately toward a teen girl, but other than that, it’s clean reading. The story is of seven kids brought together through a magical portal, where they slowly open up to each other and find strength and healing.