Once again belatedly, the monthly summary of what I read and listened to in May 2021!
BOOKS
I read 13 books in May: 8 in print, 3 in e-book format, and 2 in audio format. They were:
1. Lightspeed Magazine #132 (May 2021 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Andrea Kriz’s “There Are No Hot Topics on Whukai,” Gene Doucette’s “Hypnopompic Circumstance,” Kristina Ten’s “Bones in It,” and Howard Andrew Jones’s “The Palace in the Moonlight.”
2. Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard. A princess haunted by a fire that occurred when she was a political prisoner of another nation must navigate negotiations with the representatives of that same colonizing nation as an adult, complicated by the arrival of a new friend and an old lover.
3. Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters by Aimee Ogden. Sci-fi “retelling” of The Little Mermaid, although that retelling is briefly in flashbacks and the story really focuses on the characters quite a few years later. FULL REVIEW HERE.
4. Burning Roses by S.L. Huang. A novella about running from one’s past mistakes and the uses and misuses of personal power, featuring a version of Red Riding Hood and a version of Hou Yi who help each other deal with their slowly unveiled pasts.
5. Adler, Volume 1 by Lavie Tidhar (writer), Paul McCaffrey (artist). Collection of the graphic novel series teaming up versions of fictional characters Irene Adler, Jane Eyre, Miss Havisham, orphan Annie, and others against Ayesha.
6. Miles Morales: Spider-Man Volume 4: Ultimatum by Saladin Ahmed (writer), Cory Smith, Carmen Carnero, Javier Garrón, others. Collection of issues 16-21 of the monthly comics run.
7. The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo. Vo’s reinvention of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, narrated by Jordan Baker, who here is a queer Asian adoptee in a world where magic actually works. FULL REVIEW HERE.
8. Ms. Marvel by Saladin Ahmed Volume 3: Outlawed by Saladin Ahmed (writer), Minkyu Jung, others. Collection of issues 13-18 of the monthly comics run, in which Kamala and friends must avoid being caught by government agency CRADLE while acting as super-heroes without adult sponsors.
9. Ghost-Spider Volume 2: Party People by Seanan McGuire (writer), Ig Guara (artist), others. Collecting issues 6-10 of the monthly comics run, during with Gwen navigates life on two different Earths and meets her Earth’s versions of Sue and Johnny Storm. Shame this run was cancelled so early.
10. Shang-Chi by Gene Luen Yang Volume 1: Brothers & Sisters by Gene Luen Yang (writer), Dike Ruan, Philip Tan (artists). Collection of the monthly mini-series that introduced a new status quo for Shang-Chi in the comics, as he learns he has more biological half-siblings than he ever thought he could have. It’s not the Shang-Chi I grew up reading, but an interesting reinterpretation.
11. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I don’t remember reading this in either high school or college, but after reading Nghi Vo’s reinterpretation, I felt like I had to in order to understand her inspiration. It’s an interesting story as far as it goes, with some interesting turns of phrase.
12. The Witch in the Almond Tree & Other Stories by C.S.E. Cooney. Three wonderful fantasy short stories featuring magic, romance, and a bit of erotica. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author and loved every minute of it.
13. Dodge & Twist: A Sequel to Oliver Twist by Tony Lee. I listened to the audio production, which was more of a radio play than a reading (and my understanding is that Lee wrote it specifically as such for Audible). It’s a fun tale of Oliver and Dodger running into each other in their early twenties and getting involved in a caper together. I’m not sure it’s quite the sequel “Dickens would have written,” as some of the press materials claimed, but it’s a fun and fast-paced tale nonetheless.
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. “Hypnopompic Circumstance” by Gene Doucette, from Lightspeed Magazine #132 (May 2021 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams
2. “Carnivores” by Rich Larson
3. “There Are No Hot Topics on Whukai” by Andrea Kriz
4. “Saudade” by Nelson Rolon
5. “An Invitation to a Burning” by Kat Howard
6. “Bones In It” by Kristina Ten
7. “Dead Men in Central City” by Carrie Vaughn
8. “The Palace in the Moonlight” by Howard Andrew Jones
9. “Like Birdsong, The Memory of Your Touch” by Izzy Wasserstein, from Fantasy Magazine #67 (May 2021), edited by Christie Yant and Arley Sorg
10. “The Sweetest Source” by J.L. Jones
11. “Disenchantment” by P.H. Low
12. “By Our Own Hands” by Anya Leigh Josephs
13. “By Any Other” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.
14. “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, from The New Yorker (June 26, 1978)
15. “Crooked House” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, from The Dark #72 (May 2021), edited by Sean Wallace
16. “Of Claw and Bone” by Suzan Palumbo
17. “Water Child” by Frances Ogamba
18. “The Witch in the Almond Tree” by C.S.E. Cooney, from The Witch in the Almond Tree and Other Stories
19. “Witch, Beast, Saint” by C.S.E. Cooney
20. “Braiding the Ghosts” by C.S.E. Cooney
So that’s 20 short stories in May. Fewer than “1 per day” but I’m still slightly ahead for the year. (May 31st was the 151st day of 2021.)
Summary of Reading Challenges:
“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 6 of 24 main titles read. (0 of 4 alternate titles read)
365 Short Stories Challenge: This month: 20 read; YTD: 163 of 365 read.
Graphic Novels Challenge: This month: 5 read; YTD: 13 of 52 read.
Goodreads Challenge: This month: 13 read; YTD: 59 of 125 read.
Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 8 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: May’s mini-challenge was to read some works by authors of Asian Pacific and/or South Asian descent, for Asian Pacific and South Asian Heritage Month. Didn’t do too badly on this one: three novels (de Bodard, Huang, Vo), one graphic novel (Shang-Chi by Yang, Ruan, Tan and co.).
June’s mini-challenge is, quite naturally, LGBTQIA+ authors and works, since June is Pride Month.