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Spear by Nicola Griffith -- 3🌟

#HauntedShelf #SkeletonCrew #TBRRead
#31by31 ##Witchathon #Spookoween

Found the word #family in my audiobook, so I took a picture of the timestamp.

#HauntedShelf #WordSearch #skeletoncrew
@Emilymdxn @PuddleJumper

A little Nicola Griffith before Menewood comes out.

I'm expecting a heavy punch in this tiny book!

Normally when I hear something is based on Arthurian Lore I bounce off hard but this was a book club pick so I read it anyways. And it was great! Turns out I'm just very much over Arthur's story so side characters that are gender bent and queer are amazing. Even before I read the Author's Note I could tell the care and craft that went into this. Short novella-length but very worth it.

Spear is my choice for October, an Arthurian fantasy told slant. So looking forward to Menewood, the successor to Hild, being published this year.

#12DaysofChristmas, #12Booksof2022, @Andrew65

This was so good! Great author‘s note explaining how Griffith pulled together elements from a variety of Arthur stories to shape this retelling. It‘s short but packs a punch. I read it in a day.
November 2022 #BookSpin for #BookSpinBingo

1. I've just finished the tagged book and enjoyed it a lot. I tend to be a sucker for any queer retllings so 😝
2. Spear was my third finished book
3. Either Thistlefoot or A Minor Chorus
4. I had one big interruption when we went out to dinner but I just kept reading and ignored everyone else lol
5. I'm relearning that I don't like taking pics for social media at all; text first & foremost please & thank you
#readathon #deweyoct

I‘m not sure if it was me or the story or the narration, but I found myself drifting in and out of this one. I felt like it was almost a pick, but something about it didn‘t flow easily.

It‘s an Arthurian retelling with a female lead and sapphic love story.

I feel like I might have liked this more at another time.

A gorgeous old fashioned but also very queer King Arthur fantasy (a retelling of Percival the Knight, specifically) written and read by Nicola Griffith. I was very content to let this story take me on a ride of adventure, history, nature, and 6th century Welsh lesbians! Peretur is an interesting gender nonconforming heroine, half human and half god, whose superpower is being really in tune with the natural world and the environment around her.

I haven't read an old fashioned fantasy in a long time, so this is a nice change of pace. Very well done and a great audiobook narration by the author herself!

#QueerBooks #LGBTQBooks #LGBTQ

A nameless girl dreams of greatness and a deep, dark lake. When she finally leaves home, with only a spear and a tipless sword, she meets up with knights, royalty, and the apprentice of Merlin.

This was a fantastic retelling of the legend of Percival! Earthy and realistic, but with an unreal edge to it. Absolutely made for audio, it felt like I needed a crackling fire underneath. Queer and feminist. I do wish it could have been longer! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

A gender-swapped, queer retelling of Perceval & the Holy Grail, this refreshing Arthurian tale is set in 6th century Wales. I loved the central character, Peredur, immediately. Her magical abilities stem from her intimacy with the natural world, her understanding the emotional & physical experiences of all the living things around her—an old sheep, an elm tree, a fly. She‘s a woman-loving hero with an open heart, ready for adventure. #LGBTQ

Listening to the audiobook edition means that missed out on Rowena Cai‘s illustrations… so I found them online. Bonus with the audiobook edition is that it‘s read by the author AND I didn‘t have to struggle with pronouncing Welsh names in my head.

“You have thrown out a signal bright enough to draw any who can hear and see; now they will be clamouring to enter you, to know you, to have you as a bee might climb inside a flower. And like a bee they will strip you bare and leave heavy with all that makes you who you are.”

Made some muddy buddies for the nibling! Listening to an awesome Arthurian retelling. This story was made for audio! ❤️

I had a friend come and join me while reading at the creek! ❤🦌📚

You know that feeling when you start a book and you read the first few lines - and you just KNOW you are going to love it so much it gives you chills?! I felt that way about Matrix by Lauren Groff and I'm getting those same vibes from this one! I LOVE this feeling! ???

"In the wild waste, a girl, growing. A girl at home in the wild, in the leafless thicket of thin grey saplings with moss growing green on one side."

Today has been a busy day so I totally forgot I had a book mail package arriving! HUZZAH for book surprises! 🙄📚 I'm super hyped for the tagged book - a queer Arthurian retelling? YES PLEASE! 💕 And I loved Adrienne Tooley's previous book so I'm excited for her new one! The middle one isn't a new book, just another early book by T.J. Klunes - I'm working on reading a lot of his older works! 😄

#bookmail

This was lovely!

I know this is silly, but one pet peeve, in the author's note... “Troyes“ is not a person. “Chrétien de Troyes“ means “Chrétien from Troyes“. Troyes is a city, not a person. It did not write any Arthurian romances at all. It's “Chrétien's work“, never “Troyes's work“.

Got this as an ARC, hadn't realised it was Arthurian somehow! I've started reading it today -- not very far in, but intrigued.