I started reading this story as a webcomic and was then was very delighted to see it released in print! Nyneve has grown up in the witch kingdom of Hyalin, where the strength of a person's magic is linked to the length of their hair. Short-haired witched are teased and shunned, but witches whose hair is too long are deemed dangerous, potential enemies of the state. Nyneve's long-haired father was burned by the Witch Guard when she was young, and ever since then she's hidden her long hair. But she and her classmates have reached the age of mandatory conscription and when she is chosen as a future member of the Guard, her whole life is thrown into chaos. This volume is just the beginning of what is clearly going to be a big story-- indeed, there are over 400 pages posted to the webcomic site (https://www.witchycomic.com/) and I was happy to see volume 2 is slated for released in early 2022. I love the art and the coloring and I'm very curious to see where this story goes!

Very mixed reviews of this one. It has a lot of fatphobic language and a few throw-away racist lines that really caught me off guard in such a classic favorite YA novel. I did really like the portrayal of long distance friendship though, a topic that's fairly hard to find in media (at least, if you are looking for a long distance relationship that never turns romantic.) Unsurprisingly, I was most invested in Tibby's storyline, though I thought the book did a pretty good job balancing the action amongst the four protagonists. I really liked the short letters they each sent each other, but I'm unlikely to recommend this book in the future.

I found the early childhood section of this memoir a little be repetitive, but it found its stride in the teenage years. I really appreciated the author's honesty especially in writing about the more challenging themes. They were balanced out with some really joyful family stories. I haven't read a book for a young adult audience like this before, and I'm glad it exists now!

A very sweet comic anthology with stories themed around friendship. The majority of the stories have a fantasy or science-fiction element. A few really stood out to me were "Tender in the Dusk" by Paloma Hernando, about a monster who joins a neighborhood book club; "The Faire" by Vreni Stollberger about a group of medieval craftspeople selling at a market fair; and "Pretty Trans and Co" by stc019 and two trans friends starting a fashion company together.

Wow, how to describe this book? Written as journal entries by Nell, an expelled PhD student from a biology program, it unwinds the threads of her two obsessions: poisonous plants and her academic mentor, Dr Joan Kallas. Nell is maybe in love with Joan, or else wants to be her, or at the very least wants her constant attention-- something hard to get since an accidental death in Nell's lab closed the whole department. Nell attempts to carry on the research of her diseased colleague from an unfurnished New York apartment. Meanwhile, Nell's best friend and ex both continue to take Joan's Columbia graduate classes, and a web of tangled relationships, jealousy, and unrequired love unfold between them all. Many of the entries are written in the second person, addressed to Joan, who we only get to see through Nell's eyes. She is a powerful, intelligent, icy, magnetic woman and Nell's fixation on her seems doomed; but who this doom will fall on is an open question. I listened to this as an audiobook and deeply enjoyed the story and the writing style, woven through with herbal and medieval imagery.

I heard Diane Duane talk about this book on a podcast years ago, and she made it sound so compelling it's been on my radar ever since, even though I have never watched a single episode of Star Trek's original series. I went online recently to see if it was available as audiobook, and found a fan-made one which was posted chapter by chapter to youtube during 2020! Three friends decided that recording this book would be their covid project, and apparently Diane Duane retweeted several of their posts about it. I don't know if that counts as official authorization, but at the very least she was aware of the project and looked favorably on it.

The story itself is quite enjoyable. It opens with Captain Kirk's Enterprise being awarded the chance to test out a new engine system, the Intergalactic Inversion Drive, which far outstrips the warp drive in instantaneous jump capabilities. The Enterprise ends up hosting the alien scientist who invented it, an original character created by Duane who stole every scene she was in. This Inversion Drive pulls energy from an infinitely dense particle, but as the crew soon discovers, using it can have catastrophic effects on matter, time, and space near the ship. The ordeal that the crew must go through to heal the effects of the Inversion Drive is deeply philosophical and genuinely moving. I was already a long-time fan of Duane's Young Wizards series, but I'm definitely interested in reading more of her Star Trek novels after this.

A very fun, fast, addictive read. I think I plowed through the 500 pages in about 4 days? I can see why people are so into this series. It opens in fantasy-Amsterdam, where six outcasts and criminals assemble for a seemingly impossible heist: to steal a scientist out of a prison in the most highly guarded city in fantasy-Scandinavia. The crew is eclectic- a sharp-shooter, a spy, a demolitions expert who happens to be a runaway nobleman's son, the thief/mastermind, a disgraced member of fantasy-Scandinavia's military and a Grisha, aka, a witch. In this world some people are born with aptitudes for powers, some to work with natural materials, or work with weather, or to heal, or to kill. The scientist our team aims to collect has invented a drug which amplifies these powers to an almost unstoppable level, but the drug will also kill the magic user after only a few doses. The control of this drug, and of the addicted Grisha, could turn the fortunes of entire countries. Naturally, everyone on the heist team is between 15 and 18 years old, and there's a tangled web of crushes, loyalties and betrayals between them. I was slightly caught off guard by the semi-cliff hanger ending, but it means I'll probably start the second one as soon as I can get my hands on it, which is, I'm sure, the point!