Mermaid's California Samplers; Invincible Crossing Wind

Samplers, by Rebecca Scott
Beautiful needlework, interesting context (albeit a bit dry).
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California Demon, by Julie Kenner
A delightful confection - I find the soccer mom stuff as charming, quirky, and fascinating as the demons and other supernatural elements:).
(132)

The Mermaid's Madness, by Jim C. Hines
Absorbing fairy tale mashups - continues to be just dark enough - ie darker than Disney, not so raw as Tanith Lee.
(133)

Invincible: The Ultimate Collection, volume 3, by Robert Kirkman et al
Lots of interesting plotful developments in this volume, and it mostly refrained from pissing me off in the ways that the last volume did.
(134)

Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner
Lovely writing about 2 academics and their wives in the 30s and 40s... there were some beautiful descriptions of the natural world, too. A slighter book than Angle of Repose, but still very good.
(135)

Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
I came to this book with an open and curious mind, and I could describe its virtues (I finished it, after all). However, the overt racism, and worse yet, nostalgia for the systematic racism of days gone by, were appalling. Every time I started to relax into the story (and there were quite a few such times), some awful piece of bigotry jarred me out of it and made me feel ashamed of having any liking for this book at all.
(136)

Thor's Blue Metal Khan; Alpha Sea, High Wind Stroke

Northlanders, vol. 5: Metal, and vol. 6: Thor's Daughter and Other Stories, by Brian Wood et al
I am sorry that there won't be any more of these - they are sui generis, and I will miss the flashes of brilliance they contain.
(137, 138)

The Iron Khan, by Liz Williams
Fun! More of an action adventure (like H. Rider Haggard) and not so much detecting (or character-building) as the previous volumes, but I still enjoyed it very much.
(139)

Blue Avenger Cracks the Code, by Norma Howe
This was lovely, if not quite as Astoundingly Fantastically Brilliant as the first volume. Still, if you liked that, or if you like YA about smart quirky characters generally, you'd like this.
(140)

Alpha, by Rachel Vincent
This volume was as unputdownable as the first couple, a relief since I was meh about the next-to-last one. A satisfying conclusion to the series.
(141)

Home from the Sea, by Mercedes Lackey
This is quite a good story, but not much happens, and that what one would expect ....
(142)

Heat Stroke, by Rachel Caine
Hoo-ee, these are a ROMP. I unfortunately forgot that they end on cliffhangers (or at least the first two have) - eagerly awaiting the next one's arrival on the library hold shelf.
(143)

The High Lord, by Trudi Canavan
I am not sure why I didn't see the same extra spark in this one that elevated the first two books in this series, but I didn't. Maybe because the story's strengths lie in small moments and relationships, and this was all about Big Important International Doings? Some people are better at snapping dialogue and evoking an intimate sense of wonder than at fight scenes and dire perils ....
(144)

Fables, vol. 17: Inherit the Wind, by Bill Willingham et al
Nom nom nom. My only complaint is that it left me wanting to know more about what happens next in SEVERAL different plot lines. Which, you know, is what it supposed to do - so that's not much of a complaint.
(145)