Space Station Mir

I've been obsessed with Elizabeth I and her family since the seventh grade when I was browsing in my school library and came upon this book, Behind the Mask. I loved the idea of a powerful woman ruler, especially in a time and place when women were much more systemically oppressed. I also loved the idea that there was more to Elizabeth I than met the eye. She had to hide behind the mask she created for herself (actually many masks), the Virgin Queen, Astraea, Gloriana, the female prince with the heart and stomach of a king. I identified with the idea of creating and assuming identities and personas to protect yourself, being seen a certain way to outsiders, keeping everyone else on edge in order to survive. She was my entree into this world, and then I fell in love with the story of her mother, Anne Boleyn, also a clever and powerful woman, and all the many wives, daughters, and female relations of the notorious Henry VIII. In honor of Anne Boleyn, who was executed on this day, May...

I abandon books a lot more often than I used to. I've learned what I like, and I've also learned that there is a time and place for some books, and sometimes it hasn't come yet, which doesn't mean that it never will. Finally, I've learned that there's no point in completing a challenge that brings you no pleasure. Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! The Last 5 Books I Abandoned 1. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller I just wasn't feeling it when I started it. It doesn't mean that I'll never finish it, Dad! Remember, I also didn't like The Hobbit the first time I started it :-P 2. Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler I absolutely loved Parable of the Sower and I love Octavia Butler, but with a corrupt president trying to "make America great again," this one hit too close to the bone, and I couldn't get any further. Someday, when times are better. 3. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali I'm...

I love this topic because even as an introvert, I miss socializing! The socializing I'm doing virtually is still (as usual) book-related: staying engaged with book blogs, Twitter, and Bookstagram, plus participating in my book clubs, two of which have moved virtual. I've also been attending online book talks, like the Quarantine Book Club from the Jewish Women's Archive. However, while a lot of this would work online, except the exchange of physical books, I would love to have a gathering to do some or all of these activities in person, when we can. Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! Things I'd Have At My Bookish Party 1. Book exchange I'd invite people to bring books they want to give away and set up a table for people to leave and take what they want. 2. Book recommendations I'd have a wall where people could put Post-Its with what kind of books they're looking for and a couple of their favorite books, and you could respond...

Books Read This Month Summer Sisters by Judy Blume King Solomon's Table by Joan Nathan To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers Life Will Be the Death of Me:...And You Too! by Chelsea Handler The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin A Paris Affair by Tatiana de Rosnay The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab Favorite Book This Month Technically, it's a novella, but To Be Taught, If Fortunate is some of the best science fiction I've ever read. Taught exudes the same hopeful Federation spirit as Chambers' excellent but more fanciful Wayfarers' books. I can tell that, like me, Chambers grew up on Star Trek and is truly a literary heir to Roddenberry. In a time like this, I needed this hopeful comfort.Tightly focused on the science of space travel as well as planetary and evolutionary biology, it ultimately explores the larger question: should we explore the universe because we can?