Much belatedly, the monthly summary of what I read and listened to in March 2021!
BOOKS
I read 13 books in February: 7 in print, 6 in e-book format, and 0 in audio format. They were:
1. Lightspeed Magazine #120 (March 2021 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Claire Wrenwood’s “Homecoming,” Yoon Ha Lee’s “The Empty Gun,” Sarah Grey’s “Brightly, Undiminished,” and P H Lee’s “The Bear Prince.”
2. Lumberjanes Vol. 17: Smitten in the Stars by Shannon Watters and Kat Leyh (writer), Kanesha C. Bryant (art), Maarta Laiho (colors), Aubrey Aiese (letters), Sophie Philips-Roberts (editor). This graphic novel collects issues #65-68 of the monthly Lumberjanes series. This time out, Camp Director Rosie and counselor Jen’s attempt to take the Lumberjanes on a night of stargazing is interrupted by the arrival of a goddess, a cat-napping, and the Roanoke and Zodiac cabins sneaking out to search for aliens. It’s another really fun installment, and I’m going to be sad when the series draws to its announced end in the near future.
3. The Inconvenient God (The Polity Book 1) by Francesca Forrest. This novelette serves as the introduction to the world of The Polity, where the prevailing government is moving the populace from worship of individual gods to themed abstractions. Old, waning gods are “decommissioned,” that is, turned mortal, through the efforts of a specialized department. The novelette is narrated by Decommissioner Thirty-Seven, who has arrived on a college campus to decommission a local trickster god (and patron of lazy students) named Ohin. Things do not go smoothly and secrets about the university’s and Ohin’s histories are laid bare. I was totally sucked into this story. FULL REVIEW HERE.
4. Lagoonfire (The Polity Book 2) by Francesca Forrest. Decommissioner Thirty-Seven’s adventures continue in this novella. The action starts with Thirty-Seven being sent to investigate the possibility that the first god she decommissioned, Laloran-morna, is involved in corporate sabotage. More of Thirty-Seven’s personal history is revealed in this story, as is more about the Polity itself. You can read Lagoonfire without having read The Inconvenient God, but reading the novelette first adds some depth to the novella. FULL REVIEW HERE.
5. Village Fool (A Little Village novella) by ‘Nathan Burgoine. The latest holiday-themed gay romance novella from ‘Nathan Burgoine shifts the action from Christmas to April Fool’s Day and gives us the back-story to the relationship between IT worker Owen and physical therapist Toma, who had been mentioned briefly in previous Little Village novellas. Burgoine’s usual warmth, romance, and fine character work are all present (along with plenty of trademark geeky good-natured snark). It’s a sweet story I highly recommend. And one does not have to have read the previous novellas in order to read this one. FULL REVIEW HERE.
6. The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna. Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in a world in which women are second-class citizens: adult women must wear masks in public and can only hold certain jobs. Social status is indicated by the expensiveness of the masks women wear. At sixteen, girls are put through a ceremonial bleeding: if their blood runs red, they enter society. If their blood runs gold, they are put under the death mandate. Deka loses all hope when her blood runs gold – but then she is conscripted into a special battle corps of Alaki – near-immortal warrior women whose blood runs gold – to protect the empire from invading deathshrieks. Forna’s world-building, from the socio-political aspects to the magic, is fantastic and Deka is an intriguing narrator. This is billed in various places online as “The Deathless, Book 1” so I’m assuming there’s more to come in this world and with these characters.
7. A Voice in the Darkness: Memoir of a Rwandan Genocide Survivor by Jeanne Celestine Lakin. The third book I’ve read about the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsi, a horrific event I’m still trying to wrap my mind and heart around. The two books I read in February were memoirs by men who survived the genocide by taking refuge in the “Hotel Rwanda.” Lakin’s memoir is of survival on the streets and in the fields, narrowly evading death multiple times in the company of her 3-year-old twin sisters. Lakin talks about the fear, the abandonment by Hutu family members and former friends, and the physical and sexual abuse she experienced as a child survivor of only 11-years old. The difference in experience between the hotel survivors and those who had to fend for themselves, and between men and women, is stark. My next planned read about the subject is a memoir by the leader of UN forces in the Rwandan capital during the Genocide, Romeo Dallaire.
8. Blind Tiger (The Pride, Book 1) by Jordan L. Hawk. A new series set in the same alternate history of Hawk’s Hexworld/Witch Police novels, but with the action set in Prohibition-era Chicago. Sam Cunningham flees small town life to live with his hexmaker cousin in the big city, but when that cousin is murdered Sam must team up with the operators of a local speakeasy (called The Pride because the owners are a family of familiars who shift to various Big Cat forms) to solve the mystery and stay alive. As is usual with the Hexworld novels, there’s an awkward meet-cute between the two lead characters, a romance, and some hot sex. FULL REVIEW HERE.
9. Faery Tales: One Woman’s Search for Enchantment in a Modern World by Signe Pike. One of my non-fiction To Be Read Challenge titles for 2021. Pike recounts her search for faeries across North America and the United Kingdom and how it changed her view of herself and what she wanted to accomplish. Along the way she meets a variety of colorful local folks and learns about the ways people approach the possibility of the supernatural co-existing with us. An interesting, easy read.
10. Biff! Bam! Eee-Yow! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Guide to Batman ’66 Season Two edited by Jim Beard. Another wonderful book of essays covering each episode of season two.
11. Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini by Cynthia von Buhler. One of my fiction TO Be Read Challenge titles for 2021, this graphic novel collects von Buhler’s first mini-series for Titan Books’ Hard Case Crime imprint. Minky Woodcock is the daughter of a famous detective who will not train her to take over his agency, so while he’s away and her ne’er-do-well brother is absent, she takes on a case to prove herself. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hires her to prove Harry Houdini is a fraud. Mixing real-life events and people with fictional characters, von Buhler proposes a “true” reason for Houdini’s unfortunately early death. It’s a compelling story with interesting characters, and the second mini-series, The Girl Who Electrocuted Tesla, is currently releasing in monthly comics form.
12. First, Become Ashes by K.M. Szpara. Szpara’s second novel explores self-discovery after trauma and outgrowing abusive origins in the context of a multi-narrator road-trip story. Dealing as it does explicitly with physical and emotional abuse, rape, and consent violations, this will not be an easy read for many people. FULL REVIEW HERE.
13. The Black Canary: Bird of Prey by Robert Kanigher and Gardner F. Fox (writers), Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, Alex Toth (artists). This graphic novel collects a number of Black Canary’s seminal Golden Age and Silver Age solo stories from Flash Comics #86-88 and 90-104, Comics Cavalcade #25, DC Special #3, Adventure Comics #399 and 418-419, and The Brave and the Bold #61-62 (her team-ups with Starman). Black Canary is one of my favorite characters and revisiting her evolution from mysterious guest-star in Johnny Thunder’s feature to replacing him and gaining a supporting cast of her own to returning in the Silver Age with powers is always fun. The Golden Age episodes feature an awful lot of BC and her male companion (first JT, then detective Larry Lance) getting knocked unconscious, and the early Infantino art feels a bit rough in comparison to the Murphy Anderson and Alex Toth art of the later stories, but they’re all enjoyable.
STORIES
I have a goal of reading 365 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.
1. “Homecoming” by Claire Wrenwood, from Lightspeed Magazine #130 (March 2021 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams
2. “Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit -- Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts” by Ken Liu
3. “And Now, A Preview of Coming Attractions” by Adam-Troy Castro
4. “The Empty Gun” by Yoon Ha Lee
5. “Olivia’s Table” by Alyssa Wong
6. “The Bear Prince” by P H Lee
7. “A Place for Hiding Precious Things” by Amber Sparks
8. “Brightly, Undiminished” by Sarah Grey
9. “The Code for Everything” by McKinley Valentine, from Fantasy Magazine #65 (March 2021), edited by Christie Yant and Arley Sorg
10. “Man vs. Bomb” by M. Shaw
11. “Close Enough to Divine” by Donyae Coles
12. “Arenous” by Hal Y. Zhang
13. “The Hand of the Forest” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.
14. “The Sin of America” by Catherynne M. Valente, from Uncanny Magazine #39 (March 2021), edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
15. “Colors of the Immortal Palette” by Caroline M. Yoachim
16. “The Book of the Kraken” by Carrie Vaughn
17. “It Accumulates” by Joanna Parypinski, from Nightmare Magazine #102 (March 2021), edited by Wendy N. Wagner
18. “Forever is Composed of Nows” by Will Ludwigsen, from Bachelors #1, edited by Steve Berman
19. “Babydog” by Ryan Vance
20. “Whatever A Body is Not Obliged to Do” by L.A. Fields
21. “Last Night at Manscape” by Nick Mamatas
22. “Little Doors” by Claire Madrigano, from The Dark #70 (March 2021), edited by Sean Wallace
23. “Immortelle” by Jelena Dunato
24. “Las Girlfriends Guide to Subversive Eating” by Sabrina Vourvoulias, from Apex Magazine #122 (March 2021), edited by Jason Sizemore
25. “A Future of Towers Made” by Beth Cato, from Clockwork, Curses, and Coal: Steampunk and Gaslamp Fairy Tales), edited by Rhonda Parrish
So that’s 25 short stories in March. Not quite “1 per day” but I’m still slightly ahead for the year. (March 31st was the 90th day of 2021.)
Summary of Reading Challenges:
“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 2 read; YTD: 6 of 24 main titles read. (0 of 4 alternate titles read)
366 Short Stories Challenge: This month: 53 read; YTD: 104 of 365 read.
Graphic Novels Challenge: This month: 3 read; YTD: 8 of 52 read.
Goodreads Challenge: This month: 13 read; YTD: 37 of 125 read.
Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 3 read; YTD: 7 of 24 read.
Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.
Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 0 book read; YTD: 0 of 14 read.
Series fully completed: 0 of 4 planned
Monthly Special Challenge: March was Women’s History Month, so my intent was to read as many female authors as possible. On the “short story” side of things, I did pretty well: 17 of the 25 stories read were by female-identifying authors. On the “books” side of things, comparatively, I did less well: if I include all the creators involved in Lumberjanes Vol 17, 9 of the books I read were written/created by female-identifying authors/artists.
April’s mini-challenge is poetry, as April is National Poetry Month. I am not a consistent reader of poetry, but in April I usually try to read at least a couple of poetry collections, so we’ll see how I do.