Space Station Mir

 I am really not feeling planned reading lists these days, especially since I have 2 planned reads each month anyway, with my book clubs, so I really like to stay open outside of that. That said, the #Blackout reading post from last year came up as a memory on my Fb, so I was thinking I would like to maybe do that again--buy two books by Black authors from Black-owned bookstores. I wouldn't necessarily read the books in June, but at least buy them and then I might end up reading them too. So, here's a list of books that I know I'll read this summer (aka book club reads) and some I'm interested in reading, and we'll see if I feel like it. Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! Books On My Summer 2021 TBR Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater (probably going to reread before Mister Impossible) Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare (book club for June; if I can ever get it out of the library) Big Summer by J...

 There may be nearly a hundred of these formative books in my life, but below I've thought of some that were my childhood doorways into genres, others that led to niche fascinations, some of them continuing, and a few that fostered more recent obsessions, who knows where they will lead! I'm here for the journey and looking forward to the wonderful fresh content being published every day, plus all of the lost and hidden gems still circulating.  1. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle This was my first memorable foray into science fiction (even though it's now sometimes shelved as "science fantasy"). My dad had mentioned it being one of his favorites as a kid, I found it at the library, and it was my absolute favorite book from ages 9-11--until I read LOTR. Years later, I realized there were MORE, and I read all of the Time Quartet, plus almost all of the later O'Keefe family books, Austin family books, and a bunch of L'Engle's stand-alones.  2. Th...

It was quite a month for reading, especially comfort reading, as you'll see by my list. I'd been meaning to get to the Grishaverse for a while, but it was on the backburner until it came out on Netflix. After I parceled out the TV show, which I definitely enjoyed, I binged all five of the books the series is/will be based on. The creators of the show made an interesting choice to combine the casts and overlap the plots of Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows, which are separate in the books.   It will be interesting to see where that goes. The first trilogy is a much more traditional good hero versus evil villain epic fantasy with some Russian-esque words thrown in for flavor (don't get me wrong, this is the epitome of a comfort read for me!), while the Crows duology is grittier, picaresque heroes coming up in the big bad city. Bardugo is great at characterization, especially biting dialogue, and plays well with the implications of the magical Grisha powers in the universe she...