Does this constitute escapism at this point?
My main reaction is that her story is deeply fascinating and watching her walk the line between deep anger and the need for dignity (I’m not sure I agree, but also I’m white and white women are allowed to be undignified...I’m just not sure it helps) as she recognizes how she became herself is very cool to see.

I’m mildly disappointed the cover doesn’t show Charlotte’s Christmas dress. Ah well.
If for no other reason than giving us the phrase “maximum tolerable chins”, this series would be delightful. And i am, as always, a sucker for a good Holmes story. And this was another one by Thomas.

Do not read this book while rocking a sleeping child. You will laugh. The child will wake up and gaze balefully at you because the child does not understand why the death metal recipes or the horrifyingly wonderful Halloween costumes are hilarious.
In all other circumstances, however, do please enjoy this book. It was definitely written by a human.

On the one hand, I really like this series, but on the other hand, I always forget what happened in the previous book before I get to the next one so I spend the first third going “oh, who is that?” “what are they?” “did that happen?” before enough happens in this book that I catch up and move on.
They’d probably be awesome read back to back, and what Chakraborty has done here with world building and non-western fantasy is absolutely fabulous.

This was not an easy book on many levels. Good, raw, beautiful in its jaggedness, but definitely not easy and that complexity manifested just as much in how long it took me to read it. I loved the messiness even if it made me feel like I was always see-sawing back and forth between being deep in the characters and removed from them. I'm not...entirely sure how to read the end; not that I don't understand it, but I can see it going in multiple ways. Which is, I suppose, the point. It's part of what makes the messiness work.

I feel like the only real response to this is Animal from the Muppets cheering "More Penric, more Penric!"
I like how these novellas just suddenly appear (I mean, yes, Bujold WRITES them, but from my perspective it's as though I look around and there's suddenly a new addition to the story, which is quite delightful).

I feel like I enjoy the forward moving novellas more than the backwards ones. I DO like the ones that fill in backstory, but the ones that advance the narrative and stick with the people we know just speak to me more. And I'm deeply fond of the horror movie aesthetic of the Moors.

It’s horrifying, but honestly not as horrifying as this election season has been so...points for escapism?
I don’t usually read horror, but I will read anything Ursula writes and also her horror is the kind that I like - Jackson and de Maurier and Poe - the atmospheric kind that creeps up on you and takes the unreal very seriously. And it’s also Ursula, so how could I not love it?

Okay, so the thing about books that tell you what to do is that I a) can’t handle them as recommendations because I bristle and b) can’t usually handle them because I bristle.
I didn’t know this was a self-help book until I started it, at which point they had already sold me on it being a helpful one because they took seriously things like “patriarchy rigs the game and just wait if you have other axes of oppression!” Which was so gosh-darned novel and reasonable that I was willing to go with it.
I so appreciated this book for actually explaining why recommendations work, for offering a wide-range of ways to work on oneself, for being so validating, and for just generally feeling like it was written by a bunch of extremely helpful humans who love the same media I do.
It was sage advice at a very good time and, while I don’t recommend self help books unless asked for recommendations (see above about the bristling), if you ARE looking for one, this one spoke to me.

Kendall wrote a book that is, on the one hand, compulsively readable and, on the other hand, deeply hard to read whether or not you are, as a reader, familiar with the issues she’s addressing. It’s not meant to be easy, it’s meant to challenge and to give readers a sense of the enormity of the work left to do. It is a chronicle of feminism’s failures and a call to get our shit together. Let’s listen and show up as accomplices to stand and support those already doing the work.