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2021 Reading -- November
Dec. 8th, 2021 09:41 amAnd here I am again. No preliminaries, let's get to it.
1. Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine November/December 2021 by Various. GENRE: Mystery/Prose. FINISHED: November 2. REVIEW: The magazine's 80th anniversary officially ends with this issue, which not only contains an EQ story reprinted from 1963, but also a newly discovered Elizabeth Peters' story! (And yes, I figured out the answer to both mysteries right around the time the respective detectives did!) The rest of the issue wasn't bad either. Definitely enjoyed.
2. Blood and Thunder by Max Allan Collins. GENRE: Mystery/Prose. FINISHED: November 4. REVIEW: After a short absence, detective Nate Heller returns to this list! This one is about the assassination of Huey Long, and a subsequent investigation. Heller is, in the first part, a bodyguard of sorts, and, in the second part, an R-rated Johnny Dollar, investigating Long's widow's double indemnity claim. This book was great, and an easy read. Recommended, as are all the Heller books!
3. Hawkeye by Matt Fraction, David Aja, Matt Hollingsworth, and Chris Eliopolos, with Annie Wu, Javiar Pullido, et al. GENRE: Superheroes/comics. FINISHED: November 10. REVIEW: After missing the hardcover, I finally got my hands on the new paperback reprint of Matt Fraction's amazing run. I loved this series when it came out, starting in 2012, and it holds up incredibly well. This is the series that basically got me to fall in love with Kate Bishop (I never read the original Young Avengers run), and, of course, it's what gave us Lucky the Pizza Dog. Love this so much!
4. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. GENRE: Fantasy/Prose. FINISHED: November 18. REVIEW: This was recommended to me by a co-worker, and I'm awfully glad they did. It starts a little slow, feels a little dense, but then picks up and zooms you through 488 pages. The worldbuilding (specifically language building) is excellent, and the book just drops you into it with little in explanatory exposition. The plot is fantastic court intrigue, and the characters (although everything is very much from the POV of the main character) are well drawn and three-dimensional. In brief: Maia is the youngest son of the Emperor of the Elflands. His mother, a Goblin, was an unhappy dynastic marriage, and he has spent his entire life exiled from court--the last 10 years in little more than a hovel where he is emotionally and physically abused (beaten) by his cousin/guardian. Suddenly, there is what seems to be an accident, and the Emperor and all his sons are killed. Maia is next in line for the throne...and that's the first chapter. It just takes off from there! Definitely not for everyone, but for the people who it is for, it's really for.
5. The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec. GENRE: Fantasy/Prose. FINISHED: November 23. REVIEW: The most stunning first novel I've read since Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell," this book is totally different. One can look at it as a perfect synthesis of what little we know of Norse Myth, but it's so much more than that. At it's heart, this is a book about a woman, at various stages of life, at various periods of power, agency, and helplessness. It's about motherhood, it's about age, it's about youth, it's...this is quite a novel and it's affected me deeply, emotionally. Read this book. Just read it.
And that's it for this month! (To be honest, there was an issue of F&SF I almost finished before I had to go on a trip, but I didn't quite make it.)
Before I close, here's a question: Do you think I should do this next year? It has been fun, definitely! Thoughts?
1. Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine November/December 2021 by Various. GENRE: Mystery/Prose. FINISHED: November 2. REVIEW: The magazine's 80th anniversary officially ends with this issue, which not only contains an EQ story reprinted from 1963, but also a newly discovered Elizabeth Peters' story! (And yes, I figured out the answer to both mysteries right around the time the respective detectives did!) The rest of the issue wasn't bad either. Definitely enjoyed.
2. Blood and Thunder by Max Allan Collins. GENRE: Mystery/Prose. FINISHED: November 4. REVIEW: After a short absence, detective Nate Heller returns to this list! This one is about the assassination of Huey Long, and a subsequent investigation. Heller is, in the first part, a bodyguard of sorts, and, in the second part, an R-rated Johnny Dollar, investigating Long's widow's double indemnity claim. This book was great, and an easy read. Recommended, as are all the Heller books!
3. Hawkeye by Matt Fraction, David Aja, Matt Hollingsworth, and Chris Eliopolos, with Annie Wu, Javiar Pullido, et al. GENRE: Superheroes/comics. FINISHED: November 10. REVIEW: After missing the hardcover, I finally got my hands on the new paperback reprint of Matt Fraction's amazing run. I loved this series when it came out, starting in 2012, and it holds up incredibly well. This is the series that basically got me to fall in love with Kate Bishop (I never read the original Young Avengers run), and, of course, it's what gave us Lucky the Pizza Dog. Love this so much!
4. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. GENRE: Fantasy/Prose. FINISHED: November 18. REVIEW: This was recommended to me by a co-worker, and I'm awfully glad they did. It starts a little slow, feels a little dense, but then picks up and zooms you through 488 pages. The worldbuilding (specifically language building) is excellent, and the book just drops you into it with little in explanatory exposition. The plot is fantastic court intrigue, and the characters (although everything is very much from the POV of the main character) are well drawn and three-dimensional. In brief: Maia is the youngest son of the Emperor of the Elflands. His mother, a Goblin, was an unhappy dynastic marriage, and he has spent his entire life exiled from court--the last 10 years in little more than a hovel where he is emotionally and physically abused (beaten) by his cousin/guardian. Suddenly, there is what seems to be an accident, and the Emperor and all his sons are killed. Maia is next in line for the throne...and that's the first chapter. It just takes off from there! Definitely not for everyone, but for the people who it is for, it's really for.
5. The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec. GENRE: Fantasy/Prose. FINISHED: November 23. REVIEW: The most stunning first novel I've read since Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell," this book is totally different. One can look at it as a perfect synthesis of what little we know of Norse Myth, but it's so much more than that. At it's heart, this is a book about a woman, at various stages of life, at various periods of power, agency, and helplessness. It's about motherhood, it's about age, it's about youth, it's...this is quite a novel and it's affected me deeply, emotionally. Read this book. Just read it.
And that's it for this month! (To be honest, there was an issue of F&SF I almost finished before I had to go on a trip, but I didn't quite make it.)
Before I close, here's a question: Do you think I should do this next year? It has been fun, definitely! Thoughts?
