One of my goals this year is to read more fantasy by female authors. I will not declare this to be an exclusive goal (if the next Martin or Rothfuss or Lynch or Staveley novel is punished I will devour it with no guilt whatsoever). But as a woman trying to write fantasy, I want to see more what is being published by my female peers. This also may lead to less obnoxious grim-dark fantasy, which sounds great to me. My reading choices are also […]
Julián Is a Mermaid
Julian loves mermaids. And one day, while riding the subway home with his Abuela, Julian notices three women spectacularly dressed up. They are mermaids! Imagining himself as a mermaid, Julian’s dream is interrupted when they must get off the subway. But that does not stop him. He finds a way to continue using his imagination. It is Abuela that also finds a special way to help him celebrate mermaids and who he is. This is another book about being yourself and celebrating that difference. The […]
Rabbit Moon
Jean Kim, in rhyming text, tells how Rabbit comes out to play with his friends on a very moon-filled night. The themes of play, wishes, loneliness and friendship all come together in Rabbit Moon. Rabbit takes the paper airplane wishes all the way to the moon, he grinds them up into stardust and spreads their light around the sky. But this is lonely work, so one-night Rabbit goes down to play with the animals making the wishes. And while he is having much fun, he […]
So Far So Good
I admit, a part of me was a bit concerned when the last novel had evil witches as side kicks to the main villain, and I saw that this novel would have evil witches as the main villains. I thought The Dresden Files overdid it with the evil vampires in the early novels, and I was bit worried that using witches as the villains could easily give the series a slightly sexist undertone if the novels portray women magic users as evil witches while the […]