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Book 2 of 2025

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

4.5 stars

I've been in a bit of a reading rut lately, but this grabbed me from the first page. At first glance, it seems like a fairly boilerplate spy novel: an American woman living under an assumed name infiltrates an anarchist commune in France to frame them for anti-industrial agitation. But it very quickly gets more bizarre, with emails from a mysterious primitivist who idolizes Neanderthals and the narrator's anonymous bosses demanding more and more of her.

The prose and philosophical sections were definitely the high points for me. I would have preferred if the narrator's characterization felt a bit more in depth, but it's still very memorable and disorienting, kind of like if Piranesi were a spy thriller. Plus some genuinely insightful and sometimes funny critiques of leftist infighting.

@bookstodon

Book cover of Creation Lake. An abstract cave painting of a human holding spears or tools is overlaid on a woman's eye. The background is a dark green with magenta highlights. The title is in large white text above the woman's eyebrow.
Book cover of Creation Lake. An abstract cave painting of a human holding spears or tools is overlaid on a woman's eye. The background is a dark green with magenta highlights. The title is in large white text above the woman's eyebrow.

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Book 3 of 2025

The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton

3 stars

A very trope-y, fluffy sapphic sci fi romance with queer found family as its emotional core. There were parts of this I really loved, and some that fell flat or were too cliche for me. Unfortunately I end up comparing every book in this genre, cozy queer sci fi, with Becky Chambers, unfairly and almost always unfavorably. There was some very meaningful representation for me, though, because one of the protagonists being a bisexual woman who has experienced biphobia because she's been in long-term relationships with men.

I appreciated that Hamilton included an acknowledgment of the copyeditors, designers, and marketing and sales staff who worked on the book. I hope this will become a more common practice.

@bookstodon

Cover of The Stars Too Fondly. Two female figures are silhouetted in the hexagonal window of a space ship. One woman is short, dressed in yellow with curly dark hair. The other woman is taller and in a blue jumpsuit with long blonde hair floating in zero gravity. The women reach towards each other and are surrounded by small shimmering particles.
A list of contributors to The Stars Too Fondly including contract organizers, copyeditors, cover designers, editors, interior designers, managing editor, marketing staff, production staff, proofreaders, publicity staff, office staff, and sales staff.
Cover of The Stars Too Fondly. Two female figures are silhouetted in the hexagonal window of a space ship. One woman is short, dressed in yellow with curly dark hair. The other woman is taller and in a blue jumpsuit with long blonde hair floating in zero gravity. The women reach towards each other and are surrounded by small shimmering particles.
A list of contributors to The Stars Too Fondly including contract organizers, copyeditors, cover designers, editors, interior designers, managing editor, marketing staff, production staff, proofreaders, publicity staff, office staff, and sales staff.

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Book 4 of 2025

Little, Big by John Crowley (reread)

5 stars

This has been my favorite book for many years now, and I've reread it several times. Yet I still feel a delightful shiver of surprise every time the ending unfolds, as I'm discovering and rediscovering new facets on each reread. Crowley must be my favorite prose stylist ever; so many of his turns of phrase just end up rattling around in my head for days. The sections set in the near future during a more advanced stage of American decay hit especially hard in these current times.

The 40th anniversary edition is stunning and well worth the six year wait. It's hard to believe that Peter Milton's stunning art wasn't designed specifically for the book, since it fits so many of the themes and scenes so perfectly.

@bookstodon

The 40th edition of Little, Big by John Crowley. A gray-scale illustration of an elegantly-dressed woman sitting on a sofa in a room with many large Classical paintings. A shaft of sunlight makes an interesting pattern on the wall, paintings, and left side of the woman's body. The title and author name are in large pale green lettering.
A page from the 40th anniversary edition of Little, Big. A large page with wide margins of creamy white paper. In the middle of a page of text is an illustration of a long hallway in a palace with many elaborate doors. There is a dreamlike quality to the light and shadows.
An illustration of the 40th anniversary edition of Little, Big. An illustration of the bottom of a staircase and a man standing in a hallway beyond. There is a sketchy, grainy quality to the shading and a shaft of sunlight landing diagonally on the man.
An illustration from the 40th anniversary edition of Little, Big. A woman in a bathing suit holding a fish floats in water that has flooded a room full of paintings. She stares at her own reflection.

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Book 5 of 2025

Fruiting Bodies by Kathryn Harlan

5 stars

This is one of the best short story collections I've ever read. Unsettling and tender and double-edged in the best possible way, with climate change and sapphic love always looming large or small in the background. I'm still thinking about several of the stories days later, mulling over the resonances and ambiguities and lovely organic metaphors.

My favorites were "Take Only What Belongs To You," "Fiddler, Fool Pair" and "Endangered Animals."

@bookstodon

Cover of Fruiting Bodies, a short story collection by Kathryn Harlan. A disembodied white hand cradles a patch of fungi in its hand, some short and white with pink tips, and others tall with pale brown stalks and caps and bright blue gills. The title and author name are in dark blue lettering.

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Book 6 of 2025

All Fours by Miranda July

3 stars

This is one of the strangest books I've ever read. There were some graphic passages that felt gratuitous - not inherently, I'm not a prude, just that I could tell July was snickering as she wrote it, patting herself on the back for being subversive.

On the other hand, I was utterly engrossed even though I found the characters unlikeable and unrelatable. It's an extremely cleverly constructed novel, very skillfully written. There are some truly beautiful, thought-provoking moments about marriage and motherhood and menopause and the creative process.

It's pretty batshit insane on a fundamental level, and I don't think it really needs to be. So it's a well-earned 3 stars, but a bit of a headscratcher for me.

@bookstodon

Cover of All Fours by Miranda July. A watercolor landscape painting depicting a tree-covered rock face looming over a lake. The title and author name encircle the image in large, jarringly modern white font.

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Book 7 of 2025

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman

4.5 stars

A thoroughly enjoyable Regency mystery romp with a social justice and feminist bent. I love that the leading ladies are genuinely old maids (in their forties) and use their own social invisibility to their advantage. There were some surprisingly moving moments, including a passage which I later learned was taken almost word-for-word from Fanny Burney's letters. The romance featuring some of my favorite tropes is just the cherry on top.

@bookstodon

Cover of The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies. Two twin ladies in color coordinated Regency dress (one with a purple hat and blue dress, the other a blue hat and purple dress) stand back to back on a white background with a white fan between them. The title is in old-fashioned looking blue font.
Cover of The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies. Two twin ladies in color coordinated Regency dress (one with a purple hat and blue dress, the other a blue hat and purple dress) stand back to back on a white background. One holds a knife behind her back, the other a gun. The title is in old-fashioned looking blue font.

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Book 8 of 2025

Sourcery by Terry Pratchett

3.5 stars

A very enjoyable early Discworld! It somehow feels like it was written earlier than Equal Rites, but that could be my faulty memory since it must be over a decade since I read ER. Actually, it felt quite distinct from most of the others because the world and protagonist were permanently altered at the end, not just the usual fun deus ex machina and return to status quo. The chuckle per page ratio is skyhigh, just so many succinct, truthful, and clever observations.

@bookstodon

A soft cover copy of Sourcery by Terry Pratchett. A bright pulp fantasy illustration. A scantily clad Barbarian woman, a wizard with a long white beard, and a scrawny redheaded man in Barbarian garb ride a flying carpet. Below them, a large wooden chest with many small human feet confronts a large crocodile.

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Book 9 of 2025

Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang

3 stars

This was a slightly better version of Babel by R. F. Kuang with more of a focus on intersectionality, but it still wasn't fully satisfying. Despite not being marketed as YA, it felt very YA in terms of prose and romance. A little too Baby's First Anti-Colonialist and Anti-Capitalist Fantasy for my taste (but maybe I've just been spoiled by Ursula K. Le Guin). I picked this up because I read a review that compared it to Le Guin, actually, but I'm afraid there's really no comparison.

The setting is certainly imaginative and it is fairly radical in its politics. Compared to Babel, I think it's an interesting choice to have a protagonist who's an ambitious, white feminist, girl boss-y woman who has never considered her complicity in the colonial project before. But Wang is really …

Cover of Blood Over Bright Haven. A golden spellograph (a magical typewriter used to compose magical spells) with a large circular window or mirror attached to the top of it. In the window is an abstract flame-like pattern in blood red.

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Book 10 of 2025

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (reread)

5 stars

This book has lived in my head rent-free since I first read it, and over the years I've looked up quotes from it to help me through many an anxiety spiral. Now was definitely the right time for a reread given the current state of my mental health and the world at large.

In addition to being comforting, it's strange and full of loveable characters and so wonderfully constructed. I'm such a sucker for well-executed metafiction. Also I should probably actually get around to studying Zen Buddhism more seriously. It seems to speak to my soul in a way nothing else does.

@bookstodon

The cover of A Tale for the Time Being, divided into four horizontal stripes. The top shows the top half of a Japanese girl's face on a yellow background. The second shows a wave with an airplane flying in the background. The third shows the top half of a red diary. The bottom shows a grassy landscape with a few pine trees in the distance.

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Book 11 of 2025

The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke

I had no idea Susanna Clarke had a new story out (though I later learned it was originally a radio broadcast). Piranesi is one of my favorite books, so I was absolutely delighted when I spotted this in a local bookstore.

It's as delightfully strange and lovingly crafted as Clarke's other books. Victoria Sawdon's illustrations are stunning and complement the text very well. The plot itself is good but too short to have truly compelling characters. I found Clarke's afterword about her unintentional influences and themes almost more interesting than the story itself.

Also, I agree with her that there should be more pigs in fiction. Apple the pig was the standout star for me. 🐷

@bookstodon

Cover of The Wood at Midwinter. White and gold text on an indigo blue background. Beneath the title and author is a stylized illustration of a fox. On either side of the fox and text are holly and ivy intertwining with branches and songbirds.

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Book 12 of 2025

You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue

4.5 stars

I was excited to read an alternative retelling of Cortés's first meeting with Moctezuma, and it ended up being completely different from what I expected in the best way. Well-researched and immersive like traditional historical fiction, but modern in prose and postmodern in construction. What surprised me most was how funny it was. In some ways it felt more like a 21st century dark satirical comedy film than a book set in the 16th century. (I couldn't get The Death of Stalin out of my head as I was reading).

It wasn't what I expected, but it was a psychedelic delight from start to finish. The prose is so unique and the jokes are so subtle that I'd love to test out my Spanish skills by reading Enrigue's original text. Maybe a goal to work up to. …

The cover of You Dreamed of Empires. Neon green and blue swirls in a psychedelic circular pattern. At the middle of the central circle is the front half of a brown horse in motion.