Space Station Mir

17. Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See I’d been interested in reading Snowflower and the Secret Fan for quite some time, and heard Lisa See speak about one of her newer books at the most recent National Book Festival. So, finally, I picked up the audiobook to listen to during my commute (curiously, all the audiobooks I’ve successfully finished have been set in another country, primarily the UK and China, though I just finished one set in Spain). Lily and Snowflower are two young girls growing up in Jiangyong Province in the late 19th century. Like her mother and sister before her, Lily knows that she will have her feet bound at the age of six, join a group of sworn sisters at nine, become betrothed in her teens, marry at 17, and move definitively into her in-laws' home when she is ready to give birth to her first child, leaving her natal family and local friendships behind. But the matchmaker comes with a special offer for Lily: to become a laotong , one of two sworn...

In which I catalog my unbridled reading with my slightly more disciplined writing. Just Finished Library Audiobook: The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (22) Just Started Library Audiobook: The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen Skimming Halfheartedly: Allegiant by Veronica Roth Just Finished: The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (23) Lightwall by Liliana Ursu (24) Still Delightedly Skipping Around In: Dispatch from the Future by Leigh Stein

I read The Shadow of the Wind almost six years ago, and in the past couple of weeks devoured the other two books in the series: The Angel's Game and The Prisoner of Heaven . The Angel's Game is a prequel, but came out after The Shadow of the Wind . The Prisoner of Heaven covers events between the books as well as after the events of The Shadow of the Wind . In my original 2009 review, I wrote, "This beautifully written literary thriller pulls you in and invites you into the exciting literary underworld of Barcelona," but advised "Read The Shadow of the Wind for fun, not for substance." I wonder if I would write those words today. The Angel's Game and The Prisoner of Heaven are equally vivid page-turners. Yet both books contain a depth of thought that I wonder if I missed in the first book. The atmosphere is so distracting that it appeared to me, at first, to be the most significant element of all three novels. Zafon's Barcelona...

Happy Top Ten Tuesday! Love this topic, there are a lot of characters that I continue to wonder about! 1. Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling What is Luna up to? She's probably leading an exciting life chasing Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, writing for the Quibbler, and starting a line of outrageous fantastical beast-themed hats. 2. Neville Longbottom from the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling We do find out in the epilogue that Neville becomes the Herbology professor, and later Rowling revealed that he married Hannah Abbott. But...there must be some awesomeness that Neville is getting involved in, and I want to know about it. 3. Matilda from Matilda by Roald Dahl What happens after Matilda moves in with Miss Honey? Super-geniuses don't just fade into thin air. 4. Wade and Art3mis from Ready Player One by Ernest Cline What happens after Wade wins the game? What happens to him and Art3mis? What happens to their world? 5. Lyra and Will fro...

18. The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord The Galaxy Game is a grittier, faster-paced, and even more fun sequel to 2013’s The Best of All Possible Worlds . The novel opens with Grace Delarua’s nephew Rafi in an institution for rogue psionically-gifted adolescents. Rafi still suppresses his abilities and struggles with his father’s abusive legacy. His friends Ntenman and Serendipity are each drawn to him for their own reasons, and soon the three will set forth from the school to forge their own destinies. Lest the previous sentence confuse you, this is not exactly a sci-fi Harry Potter. The concerns of this book are galactic, and the stakes are high, but there’s no one Dark Lord to be defeated, nor do these three form the closeness of the fantastical trio. Instead, each of their destinies is separate, but their choices will intertwine throughout their lives, and each will contribute to a new galactic order. In this book, we finally get off planet, and learn more about other societies, ...

Happy Top Ten Tuesday! So...the most anticipated ten books on my TBR list (which has been growing for years) or just the last ten I added? I'm doing a mix, but trying to include only books I added in the past, let's say, six months. 1. The Martian by Andy Weir 2. Rebel Queen by Michelle Moran 3. The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu 4. The Tale of the Heike (author or authors unknown) 5. The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley 6. The Just City by Jo Walton 7. Holy Cow by David Duchovny 8. The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip Zaleski 9. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok 10. The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine

13. Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld Sisterland is Curtis Sittenfeld’s most recent and perhaps most mature novel. The Sittenfeld trademarks, a nonlinear narrative and first-person perspective in hindsight, are present, but more polished than in previous books. This novel also adds new elements to the oeuvre, including a premise that relies on magical realism. I’m not always certain what ‘magical realism’ means (except that I know it when I see it, natch), but here I’m using it to describe something that could be interpreted as either genuinely supernatural, or merely a character’s (in this case, two or more characters) delusion. The conceit is that the protagonist Kate and her twin sister Violet are psychics. Violet revels in her ‘powers,’ and becomes a psychic medium. Kate denies her visions, struggles to live a normal life, and eventually rids herself of her powers altogether (perhaps). The room that the twins share growing up is labeled “Sisterland” with a physical sign that V...