What I Read While I Was Sick

An Update

Hello everyone! I’m back! I’m sad that I won’t get a chance to review the books I read to keep myself occupied during my eight week migraine. I definitely just absorbed these, rather than analyze them. But I will list them and tell you whether I liked each one.

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree: a cozy fantasy novel featuring Viv, an orc who wants to set up a shop to sell a beverage no one in town has ever heard of—coffee. I enjoyed this one! It’s light and fun and adorable.

The Measure by Nikki Erlick: everyone on the entire planet wakes up one morning to find a wooden box with a length of string inside. The string measures exactly how long each person has left to live. While the premise of this one is a great one, I never really got attached to any of the characters. I think that’s because there were too many plot lines happening. I’ve seen words like “sweeping” and “epic” applied to this novel, but it didn’t feel like either to me. It is a Read with Jenna pick and got great reviews so, again, this might just be my ennui talking.

Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter: A woman is miserable in her Silicon Valley job and trying to find a way to make her life bearable. It is pretty sad, but really innovative! My favorite thing about this one was that her life-long depression manifests as a black hole that follows her around, tempting her to give in and walk right into the darkness. If you’re looking for unique literary fiction, give this one a try. CW for deep depression and suicidal ideation.

A Court of Thorns and Roses, the six-book series, by Sarah J. Maas: What begins as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast takes a really dark turn. Feyre (“fay-ruh”) is a human who ends up in the fairy realm whose border is close to where she lives. Despite warnings that crossing the border will lead to her death, she does cross over. The books detail her time there trying to navigate the politics of and rivalries between different fairy courts. A heads up: the series get spicier as it continues. I found these “romantasy” novels totally addictive and intense. My favorite was the last one, A Court of Silver Flames.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray: I wanted to love this novel about J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, because I absolutely adore the Morgan Library museum in New York. It’s a magical place. Its origins are less magical, as Morgan himself was an awful man. Belle da Costa Greene, a Black woman passing as white, puts up with a lot during her tenure as his librarian. Somehow, I never felt close to Belle. I wonder if I would have felt differently if I hadn’t been in pain as I listened. It might need more attention than the suspenseful books I read.

The Jasad Heir by Sarah Hashem: In this Egypt-inspired novel, Sylvia’s kingdom was burned to the ground, and all she wants, despite being its lost heir to the throne, is to live a relatively comfortable life in obscurity. All of that changes when she’s forced to participate in a Hunger Games-style competition to the death. This was another intense fantasy novel, and I can’t wait for the sequel. (It seems that the intense fantasy books helped distract me more than the others.)

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld: This was fun! We follow Sally, a writer for a parallel Saturday Night Live called The Night Owls, and her relationship with a famous musician who comes to host the show. The novel includes the pandemic, and I liked the way Sittenfeld navigated the impact of Covid on communication, relationships, and family.

Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler: I had a rough time with this one as I read it, because I just wanted to shake Adelaide into realizing that she was turning herself inside out with no hope of receiving love in return. But the more I think about it, the more I like the way it depicts the way a dreamy love story can slide into a borderline-abusive, one-sided relationship. That’s not a spoiler—it’s clear to everyone else from the beginning that the man she’s dating isn’t treating her well at all. I remember the plot really well, which says a lot, given my state of mind! CW suicide attempt. Also not a spoiler, as the hospital trip is the first thing we see.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann: I could not put this down. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’m really glad to have read the book. I went through a true crime podcast phase, and nothing ever covered this horrific series of murders! It’s so important to shine a light on the violence perpetrated against Native peoples like the Osage. Grann’s narrative style makes this one easy to read, despite its subject matter, as he focuses on the rise and fall of this community and the actual lives involved.

Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory: I couldn’t finish this book. I just could not deal with the whining of the main character, Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s sister, who marries the King of Scotland. She’s jealous and petty and naive, and it’s unrelenting.

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang: Unique and fascinating, I loved this novel. A smog has spread over the world, and everyone is struggling to survive. An American chef living in London can’t return home. She’s deeply in debt and misses cooking with real ingredients (crops and animals have died because there’s almost no sun). So, she takes a risk and decides to accept a job that brings her into the literally rarefied air of the world’s wealthiest people. The plot is paced perfectly. The mysteries are suspenseful.

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab: Another suspenseful fantasy novel in a series, this one takes place in a highly original kind of multi-verse, with different worlds connected by the city of London. Each London is delineated by a color—Red, Grey, White, and Black. They are connected in ways no one has been able to explore or understand, but it’s clear that magic operates differently in each world. The plot is thrilling, but the cast of characters makes this novel truly special.

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher: A retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” this short novel follows Alex, a non-binary soldier who visits the Usher siblings after receiving a letter informing them of a mysterious illness plaguing the brother and sister. Their quest to end this plague involves a small but colorful cast of characters, possessed animals, a creepy lake, and a house that’s falling apart. I somehow have never read Poe’s original or seen the recent Netflix adaptation, but they’re now on my list. You may have noticed that I’m reading my way through T. Kingfisher’s novels (remember A House with Good Bones and Nettle and Bone?) - she doesn’t disappoint.

Lilith by Nikki Marmery: This is the story of Lilith, Adam’s first wife in the Garden of Eden, kicked out for being disobedient. I enjoyed chunks of this novel based on many stories and myths, but its repetition of the feminist message that the world is out of balance because of the patriarchy. It also suffers in comparison to Madeleine Miller’s Circe, as it’s written in a similar style. But where Circe is a perfect novel (I’ve read it on Kindle and listened to it and studied it and studied art based on the myth and I will die on this hill), Lilith just doesn’t carry the same weight. Marmery isn’t able to pull off the same kind of voice.

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang: I started reading Kuang with Babel after hearing about it on a podcast. Then, I read Yellowface, which I reviewed for this substack. Now, I’m reading this earlier trilogy. The Poppy War is her debut. I’ll pull from the official summary, because this is pretty perfect—“An epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic.” We follow Rin, a war orphan, as she makes her way from obscurity in a dead-end life to a prestigious war college, into battle itself. There’s a lot of suspense around the conflict and larger political players, but the real joy of the book is Ron’s character development as she’s forced to grow up quickly.

Galatea by Madeleine Miller: Miller does it again with this incredible short story based on the myth of Pygmalion. I cannot recommend the audiobook highly enough, because it’s read by one of my favorite actresses, Ruth Wilson (she played Mrs. Coulter in His Dark Materials on Max). Pygmalion is a sculptor who is so talented that his creations look like they might move at any moment. He falls in love with one of his own statues, and a goddess grants his wish that the statue come to life. Galatea is the name of this woman, and Miller shows us her life years after her forced marriage to the artist. It’s haunting. I’ve never read anything by Miller that I didn’t absolutely love.

Do you have questions about any of these? Leave a comment and I’ll try to answer it!