maribou | Wizard's Bone Heiresses; A Company of Zebra Angels; Tender Homeplaces Strands; Kaihau Dilemma

The Wizard's Tale, by Kurt Busiek, illustrated by David Wenzel
This was a fun kid's comic with a good message and excellent art, but I had expected more from Busiek, because Astro City is AMAZING. Turns out this one was written in 1989 (Astro City started in 1995) - so it makes sense that it's only journeyman-level work, not a masterpiece...
(135)

The Bone People (reread), Te Kaihau / The Windeater, Strands, and Homeplaces, by Keri Hulme
I first read The Bone People as a young teenager - 13 I think? - and the father in the story was so like my own father, good and bad both - more so, but still recognizably alike in a way no other father in a book ever had been - that I managed to block out everything about the book except that it was really good, so I didn't have to think too hard about what it meant. Rereading now, it was even better - because I'm not so in need of compartmentalizing as a coping mechanism, and so there were a lot of powerful things I could look at more squarely. Also her writing is amazing, and there are allusions I caught this time around that I wouldn't have heard at thirteen. [Warning: It's a very violent book. Bad things happen to a small child at the hands of someone he loves. Please don't read it if that will hurt you. It helped me, both times, because the book doesn't stop there.] I loved it so much I went and read everything else of hers I could easily get my hands on. Now I've started ILLing things that are harder to find.
(136, 142, 143, 145)

Heiresses of Russ 2012, edited by Connie Wilkins and Steve Berman
These short sf stories all had lesbian protagonists, and a certain playfulness, in common. Some of them were better than others (especially the Nalo Hopkinson Borderland-in-festival bit), but they were all at least decent. Will be hunting down the other volumes in the series.
(137)

Where Angels Fear to Tread, by Thomas E. Sniegoski
Hm. I liked this but it was messier than the others in the series - and, for that reason, easier to put down.
(138)

Zebra Forest, by Adina Gewirtz
An odd little novel - almost like a fable? Only it's theoretically realist. Hard to explain without giving away the plot. Wasn't bad. Might've appreciated it more if I hadn't read it *right* after a root canal.
(139)

A Company of Swans, by Eva Ibbotson
This was a lovely old-fashioned Edwardian romance with bonus ballet AND Amazon. Relaxing and warm-hearted. I think she might be my new save-for-when-I-feel-awful author, but I'll need to try one more to be sure.
(140)

Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I liked this ever so much better than the bits of The Great Gatsby I skimmed. There's actually a ton of stuff in this book that irritated the hell out of me, but it all hangs together so well that I was all swoony and wanted to keep reading more and more of it. And the writing is lyrical when it wants to be and rough and scratchy when it wants to be and etc. Dang.
(141)

The Wizard's Dilemma, by Diane Duane, read by Christina Moore (audiobook)
This series has come to mean an awful lot to me. I listen to it when I can't sleep or when I'm lonely or when things seem really hard... like the rope you hold on to when you're crossing a log bridge, you know? It's that kind of a story.
(142)