Galvanizing

When I read a print book that I own, I write the date I finished the read inside the back cover. That's how I know it's been almost exactly 19 years since I last reread Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsong and Dragonsinger, the first two books in the Harper Hall trilogy in McCaffrey's Pern universe.

The story is about Menolly, a musically gifted girl from an isolated fishing village who escapes from her unsupportive family and through luck and her own talent ends up as a rare female apprentice in the Harper Hall (and forms a mental bond with nine fire lizards in the process). It's classic YA "misfit kid finds their place", "modest protag turns out to have superior abilities", and "girl proves she's just as good as the boys".

As a high school student immersed in band and orchestra, I adored these books. I reread them over and over and over. I took them with me to the music camp I went to for three summers; being at that camp felt like what I thought living in the Harper Hall must be like.

Decades later, I still enjoy them. It's nice to escape into a world where people love making music together and you might Impress a fire lizard as a bonus. The Suck Fairy's treated these well; they're not free of problematic aspects, but the books don't have the dubcon/noncon/draconids-made-me-do-it material that a lot of the other Pern books have (indeed, that Dragondrums, the third in the triology has). They're adolescent wish fulfilment, overall done well.

(I don't have a copy of Dragondrums that I know of; if I did, it got purged. Piemur's fun as a side character but isn't who I want to spend a book with.)

Susan C. Pinsky, Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD. This would be useful for someone who hadn't read a wide variety of books on organizing, or who'd mostly read books focusing on setting up attractive and complicated systems rather than systems that prioritize function over looks. I didn't come away with any great insights, and several of her suggestions turned out to be things I did already.

I also thought some of her suggestions made assumptions about availability that aren't necessarily valid. For example, yes, getting rid of physical media frees a lot of space, and it's a great idea if you're not going to rewatch/relisten to/reread that item. (As I age, I'm also realizing that many of my old books are going to be harder for me to read in non-electronic format; that's made me reevaluate whether I want to keep the borderline cases.) But "you can just stream it" assumes that you're always going to live somewhere with good internet and that the streaming service or library will always have what you want. Or "throw out all your socks and replace with 7 identical pairs all in the same or at most two colors" -- obviously I'm ignoring that one and sticking with my bazillion pairs of hand-knit socks, which I mostly find enjoyable rather than burdensome to pair up after running the sock wash. But I also can't easily find commercial socks of the fiber content, thickness, and durability of the ones I used to buy. Yes, in theory if I get rid of a tool and then find no, I should've kept it, I can buy another...and chances are the replacement will be more poorly made than the 20-year-old item I originally had.. Pinsky's central message of "You will have a much easier time organizing your stuff if you're organizing less stuff" is valid, but "you can always replace it if you find you did need it" isn't always the case.

Rachel Lynn Solomon, Business or Pleasure. A romance between a ghostwriter and an actor whose memoir she's writing. It was a fun read, and the bits of fictional scripts from the actor's projects were a nice touch.

I feel like I'm reading and rereading Lois McMaster Bujold all the time, but I realized I haven't actually reread the Vorkosigan series in at least ten years. While the general outlines are enmeshed in my brain, it's been long enough that the words are fresh, and there's many little details I didn't remember. (For example, I remembered the cremation at the end of Cetaganda, but the bit where the stream of plasma is shot straight up into the sky was an image that I had no memory of.) Currently I'm on the Miles Errant ebook volume -- "Borders of Infinity", Brothers in Arms, and Mirror Dance.

Recent reading:

Deanna Raybourn's Killers of a Certain Age is a delight if you're up for the body count. Four women who've retired from being professional assassins discover that the organization they've spent the past forty years working for is now trying to kill them; they competently kick butt and take names.

Jessie Q. Sutanto's Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers is a nice cozy mystery. The victim is clearly a total shit; the suspects are fascinating people and all had good reason to off the victim; I have great sympathy for Officer Grey. Only quibble:

( vague spoiler )

Claudia Gray's The Murder of Mr. WIckham was a decent mystery and a fun Austen continuation. While I'm not sure I buy the portrayals of all the Austen characters, they're congruent with the people they are in Austen, only with different traits emphasized. And the two original characters are delightful together. I've already put a hold on the sequel for when the library gets it.

I'm in the middle of a reread of Elizabeth Enright's Melendy Family books. They were a favorite read when I was a kid, and they hold up very well. (Hmm, I should read these to Youngest once we finish Swallows & Amazons....)

I finally brought myself to reread AJ Hall's The Queen of Gondal series for the first time since the author's death. Great Sherlock fic series that rewards rereading, and while the series is never going to be finished, at least the end of the final installment is a solid ending and not an eternal cliffhanger.

I'm rereading Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher mysteries in preparation for a second attempt at Death in Daylesford. The reread is going in a zigzagged order; I tend to read more on my ereader since it's always on me, but while I have the whole series in print (I've decided it merits analog backup), I don't have them all in ebook. So at the moment I'm reading Murder on a Midsummer Night in print and Murder and Mendelssohn in e.

I thoroughly enjoy Phryne and the people she gathers around her, though it's getting to be a large enough crowd that it's unwieldly to check in on everyone in every book. Murder and Mendelssohn isn't one of my favorites; I enjoy a good Sherlock fanfic, but I'd have enjoyed this one more with a few more serial numbers filed off. The choir members are interesting characters, though.

Graydon Saunders first three Commonweal books, The March North, A Succession of Bad Days, and Safely You Deliver. Egalitarian fantasy in a post-multiple-apocolyptic world. These books take a lot of work to read because of how much incluing you have to pick up, but they reward rereading. At some point I may get further books in the series, but at the moment I don't think I have the brainspace for them.

Andrea Hörst's Touchstone trilogy (Stray, Touchstone, and Caszandra) + gratuitous epilogue. Australian young adult walks through a portal into another world, struggles to survive, and ultimately finds out she has special abilities. Probably fourth or fifth reread. I find the worldbuilding and the main character interesting, though I'm meh on the romance.

JRRT, The Hobbit. A short guy has an adventure with a bunch of other short guys. Nth reread; it's been a while.

L. A. Hall, Revenants. The latest Cathcart Circle installment. Daughter disapproving of mother's new lover; sundry young people figuring out how to be together despite parental resistance; man suddenly decides he wants custody of the son whose life he hasn't been involved in; people get ready to travel; everything gets settled happily in the end. Comfort reading.

Currently stalled on the new Phryne Fisher novel, Death in Daylesford. I was really excited about this one, but now that it's in my hands, meh. I feel like Greenwood's writing style has changed, though I can't articulate how; more tell-y than showing? More obligatory "here's what this person in the regular cast of characters is up to lately"? At any rate, I'm not enjoying it like the previous books in the series, and while I'll probably finish it eventually, I'm not feeling any urge to press on. Maybe I'll like it better once I've gotten through it once, but honestly, the end of Murder and Mendelssohn felt like it could be a good close for the series.

Nora Roberts's Bride Quartet series: Vision in White, Bed of Roses, Savor the Moment, and Happy Ever After. There are a lot of things I don't like about these books. I don't buy any of the romances except for Mac and Carter's in the first book. The emphasis on the gender binary at best makes me head-tilt and at worst makes me feel like I fail at performing femininity. The scene in Bed of Roses where Del and Jack throw punches at each other over Jack's enthusiastically-consented-to relationship with Emma because Del takes a big brother role to all four of the women, not just his actual sister -- on my first read, that was nearly a book-against-wall moment. And reading about extremely wealthy people (even the poorer characters are financially better-off than I am) grates on me; I can understand how readers would vicariously enjoy experiencing that lifestyle, but it's not my catnip.

So why do I keep rereading them? First, because I really like Vision in White as a romance. Mac is interesting and has believable issues due to her narcissistic mother; Carter is an utter sweetheart; the two of them are clearly good for each other. And second, I love the friendship among the four women. They're best friends and business partners; they work well together; they have occasional conflicts which they resolve. They work their asses off, and they're proud of what they do. They're real enough to me that I wonder how they'd be coping with the hit to the business due to COVID-19, and I'm sure the answer is "admirably".

Maud Hart Lovelace, Emily of Deep Valley. This, on the other hand, is a book I wholeheartedly adore. Emily Webster, member of Deep Valley High's graduating class of 1912, struggles to find something to do with her life after high school. While her friends have gone away to college, she's had to stay home to care for her grandfather. She's coping with loneliness and isolation, an unrequited crush on a classmate who treats her inconsiderately, and the uncomfortable feeling of becoming out of step with her old friends. And then, she decides to do something about it. She finds ways to study and learn despite not being able to go to college; she makes new friends; she discovers a need in her community and advocates for meeting it. In the end, she's living an active, interesting life and is much happier. (Plus she meets someone much better for her than the high school crush -- but it's clear she'd still be happy without him.)

It's a wonderful story, and even though it's about an eighteen-year-old, the whole theme of figuring out what you can do with your life after one phase ends is timeless and certainly resonates with this thirty-plus-years-older reader.

Kerry Greenwood, The Spotted Dog. #7 in the Corinna Chapman mysteries. I haven’t read 4-6 yet, but I had no trouble following along. I’m mixed about this one. The mystery subplots were over-the-top (and given some of the happenings in the earlier books, that’s saying something). But it’s always fun to check in on the inhabitants of Insula and to read the descriptions of the food.

Becky Chambers, To Be Taught If Fortunate. Really good, but I had a little trouble coping with one scene, and while it’s a hopeful ending I need my stories more unambiguously happy-ending right now.

Terry Pratchett, Going Postal. Approaching double-digit reread. This is one of my favorite Pratchetts, and definitely my favorite of the Moist von Lipwig books.

Ann Leckie, The Raven Tower. Mid-single digits reread. I love S&PotH, and I'm still picking up new bits every time I reread.

Tessa Bailey, Indecent Exposure. A book that I can see working very well for someone else and that ultimately did not work for me. I liked the characters and some of the initial setup, but as the story went on, it hit too many "nope" points for me. I couldn't buy the heroine being willing to chance having a fling with the hero when she's technically his teacher for two weeks (and come on, even if she's leaving the country when she's done, she can't say "look, how about if I come back to visit soon and we'll see what happens"??). I could buy that the heroine was sufficiently coping with her past experiences to be in a headspace for a relationship now, but once it's revealed exactly what the hero's past trauma is and given how the story shows it's been affecting him in all his relationships up until the heroine? NO NO NO DUDE YOU NEED A THERAPIST NOT A GIRLFRIEND. (Also, I Do Not Like The Magical Healing Genitalia Trope. Do Not Want. It Makes Me Talk Like A Pratchett Golem. It Is An Abomination Unto Nuggan.) It's too bad, because some of the development of their relationship is very sweet, and if I read the sex scenes as a PWP rather than as part of the story they're quite hot. But I'm glad this was a library checkout and not a book I spent money on.

On the go:

Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Despite the sad bits, it's such a hopeful universe, and I'm very much in the mood for decent people making an effort to be decent to each other.

Rex Stout, Death of a Doxy. Hadn't read the book before, but I've seen the Maury Chavich/Tim Hutton version several times, so the plot was all familiar.

Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief. I read this series several years ago; rereading now because I have a member of the target audience in the household who bonds with me by asking me to read the stuff they really like. It's a fun read, and Riordan knows his audience.

On the go:

L. A. Hall, Above Rubies.

Rick Riordan, The Sea of Monsters.

Alan Smale, Clash of Eagles.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Penric's Progress. The print book collecting her novellas "Penric's Demon", "Penric and the Shaman", and "Penric's Fox". I've already read these in e (and I think I have all three of these in Subterranean Press print editions, or at least the first two), but I wanted to get a print copy that I'd be comfortable loaning to other household members, and it's nice to read all three in a swoop. I'm looking forward to Penric's Travels in May, which collects "Penric’s Mission", "Mira’s Last Dance", and "The Prisoner of Limnos"; I don't have print versions of those, and those three really need to be together in one book because they don't stand alone as well as the first three.

Suzanne Brockman, The Unsung Hero. Nth reread. A romance between a Navy SEAL and a pediatrician who'd fallen in love in high school but went their separate ways and meet many years later when the hero's recovering from a head injury and thinks he sees a presumed-dead terrorist in their small town; secondary plots involve the heroine's dying father coming to terms with his WWII service and an adorable secondary romance between the hero's niece and a comics geek. I never got into the rest of this series (the second book didn't work for me, and I never got any further), but I still enjoy this one.

On the go: Alan Smale, Clash of Eagles.