This book did not deserve the hype. Supposedly about women's experiences of the Trojan war, it adds very little in this regard. The opening and closing chapters are moving, but otherwise it's a by-the-numbers retelling of highlights from The Iliad that ironically still focuses on the men. Barker tells us that characters love, grieve, or fear, but never demonstrates it. The anachronisms are a bad stylistic choice. It doesn't deliver on the premise.

A solid conclusion to a wonderful series. I love that Leckie writes a new story with each volume, and how her conclusion is hopeful without neatly (and unrealistically) resolving every outstanding question. I recommend this entire series.

This book largely deserves the hype. It's a beautiful depiction of human affection, interpersonal conflict, hubris, grief, compassion, and the transience of all these. There's humor, pathos, and historical references obvious and subtle. Female characters are mostly an afterthought, a failing Saunders shares with many authors, but a greater one here given his perceptiveness otherwise, and the one thing keeping this excellent book from perfection.

I enjoyed this one a lot. Novik has created a harsh worlds for her characters to inhabit, but she never lets them wallow in it. I particularly loved the sections with Wanda and Stepon, and the interactions and plot arc of Irina and Mirnatius... Excellently done. This one definitely merits a second read.

This book started out with so much promise, but it's scuttled halfway through as Medina lays on the melodrama by the shovelful. Meanwhile, the adult characters are so oblivious it beggars belief. It's a shame, because the depictions of bullying and high school social dynamics are spot on, and had the rest been equally as realistic, the novel could easily have been a classic.

A very quick read that was both harrowing and uplifting. After witnessing the abuse and murder of multiple young childhood friends and family members, Brohi devotes her life to ending the marriage of prepubescent girls and "honor" killings of girls and women in tribal cultures. She perseveres in her efforts despite the social approbrium and death threats. Though a bit short on specifics of what her NGO has accomplished, it's a riveting read.

This book is phenomenally good, the kind of read where you can't start another book for days afterward, because you still have to chew it over.

I would not have been pleased to pay full price for this one. I commend O'Malley for passing the Bechdel test and forgoing a love interest for his female lead, but he writes her dialogue and interior monologue as though she were a 20-something heterosexual male. That, along with the 75:25 infodump-to-action ratio and O'Malley's burning love of adverbs (oh my God, the adverbs), made reading this one a slog.

I was FURIOUS at this book when l first read it as a child. As an adult, it's one of my favorites. Alexander has such love for his characters, and writes their arcs of maturation without preaching or heavy-handedness. This is an all-around lovely tale.

I really enjoyed the unique non-Western Europe fantasy setting and magical system. The observations on sexism and racism were also spot on. But learning to see beyond one's self-absorption to commiserate with others is also an important element of the hero's quest storyline, and the main character never did that here--never even tried--which ultimately kept this novel from living up to its full potential.

Excited to start this one, and even more excited to have met the author tonight! 😃

Another Ann Leckie fan joined me on the commute today. 🤣 Bona fide #bookworm

God, this book is so good. Leckie's excellent worldbuilding continues, and I love, love, love that Ancillary Sword is an actual sequel, rather than an unimaginative repackaging of its predecessor. Instead, we get new settings! New complications! A new plot that builds on the previous one. And so much character development, all of it spot on. There's so much to enjoy here; like Ancillary Justice, this is a definite recommendation.

Despite the title, Shields spends little time discussing her experiment wearing minimal makeup and "unrevealing" clothing. Rather, her focus is on how societally constructed pressures to "look good" convince women to focus on appearance at the expense of their abilities or desires. There's little here that 1000 feminism 101 texts haven't said before, but Shields is a talented writer and the message-especially regarding consumerism-bears repeating.

"Pick" is a nuanced choice, because this book was well written but so unflaggingly dark it was difficult to read. Still, I was still mulling many of these short stories over long after I finished the volume, and the brilliant "Especially Heinous" alone justifies the cover cost. Machado makes a lot of very sly, very pointed observations about the things modern culture does to women and their psyches.

1) A good cover can make me notice a book, but only the content can make me love it.
2) Neither. I'm a park bench reader.
3) Chapter finisher, for sure.
4) Absolutely.
5) Of course! That's half the fun.
@SilversReviews

I so wanted this book to be more than it was. Chakraborty built a great fantasy world, only to populate it with characters who think, speak, and act like 21st century teens. I had to slog through this, and doubt I'll read the sequel.

I loved this. Just as delightful as its predecessor, and without retreading the same story. Barnett‘s story is whimsical and sweet, and Klassen's artwork complements it perfectly. And we get to see an all new side of Square. Definitely recommended!

The weekend is almost over, so time to tally my #13inThree results: two books finished, and two more at 75 percent and 14 percent, respectively, over 14.5 hours of reading. Many thanks to @Samplergal for hosting!

This is pretty much what I'd be doing anyway, so let's make it official! @samplergal #13inThree

This is the science fiction I want in my life. Leckie handles her narrator's mindbending POV with ease. Add in a fully realized intergalactic empire with multiple species, social codes, and languages, and political intrigue that envelops the main characters with the inevitability of an approaching thundercloud, and you've got one gripping read. Definitely recommended.

Slower and more meditative than its predecessor, but every bit as good. Miller has crafted another gem out of the classics, and one that's become my definitive version for these characters. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

The Presger didn't care if a species was sentient or not, conscious or not, intelligent or not. The word they used--or the concept, at any rate, as I understood they didn't speak in words--was usually translated as "significance." And only the Presger were were significant. All other beings were their rightful prey, property, or playthings.

I loved Ratner‘s first novel, In The Shadow of the Banyan. Such a poetic and beautifully written novel about a truly ugly period in Cambodia's history. I am expecting this novel to be just as moving.

This just didn't do it for me. The social ideals are spot on, but there's no nuance. Jemisin's societies are either populated by racist totalitarians or communal parenting utopians who smile benevolently on outsiders and polyamory. It's the uncle who marched for civil rights but still insists HIV was sent by God to punish "the gays" that makes fighting prejudice so hard; such contradictions don't exist in this heavy-handed novel, to its detriment.

Perfect reading for tonight's severe weather.

Love this book for the way its characters confront the same issues we do today, but without ever slipping into anachronism. So. So. Good.