Kareila's Bookshelf

Another fun adventure in Lumberjane-land. Ripley finds a nest of large golden eggs, and shares her discovery with Barney, who shows her how to hone her powers of observation and deduction. Those skills come in handy when the smallest egg goes missing and must be rescued. Also, there are thespians.

You know you're in for a long game when the prologue to the first book of a series has the hero attacked by villains that don't even appear again for the rest of the story.

October Daye - Toby to her friends - is a likable character, prickly by nature and traumatized by her upbringing, but a decent person at heart. She is a changeling, half fae and half human, not entirely at home in either world. For reasons that are not explained in this book, she is a knight in the service of a kindly Duke of Faerie named Sylvester. She is also a private investigator in the mortal world, with a boyfriend and daughter of her own, from whom she hides her true nature.

As a half-blooded changeling, Toby can expect to live for centuries. Still, she's understandably distressed when she wakes from a curse and discovers that she has been missing for 14 years. Afraid to face Sylvester with her failure and unable to reconcile with her mortal family, she passes her days in a fog of pain and denial, until the death of one of her fae friends compels her to reenter the world she left behind in order to solve the murder.

The world and its characters remind me inescapably of the Dresden Files, at least the parts of that world that concern Faerie. Toby Daye and Harry Dresden are both PIs who drive VW Beetles and have a measure of magic that they wield to solve mysteries, often facing down entities much more powerful than themselves.

I stumbled across this anthology of YA short stories and wanted to highly recommend it, although I don't have as much time to spend with it as I would like before returning it to the library. It's a diverse feminist collection of tales covering a wide spectrum of witchcraft, from astrology to butchery and everything in between. No high fantasy here, just women through the ages with various types and degrees of supernatural power. I have never heard of any of the authors here; I think the reason I picked it up (and I just realized this) is that the cover looks like it was illustrated by the same artist who did the covers for the Athena Club series by Theodora Goss, which I also loved.

This is a lovely graphic novel that focuses on Molly and her anxieties. A casual reference to "wayward mermaids" sets the story firmly after the events of Volume 5 of the collected comics, but it stands entirely on its own. The plot is predictably frivolous, involving a cursed compass and a gang of well-mannered automaton butlers, but the art style of "Polterink" is distinctive, all pencil grays with occasional splashes of green.

... Which makes it all the more jarring to discover that the last third of the print edition is a full color reprinting of the first issue of the Lumberjanes comic. I doubt very many people are going to pick up this book who haven't already read that, and even if they haven't, that one issue doesn't explain anything.

Yay, Molly finally gets more story time in this one as she bonds with Diane over how terrible their families are.

That's right, Diane is back, sent on some sort of quest by Zeus to find a rogue gorgon near the Lumberjanes camp. Unfortunately the other members of the Zodiac cabin have already been turned to stone, so it's up to the Roanokes to help save the day! And at this point even Jen is like... yes, okay, fine, more supernatural danger, whatever, let's do this.

Gail Carson Levine excels at writing juvenile fairy tales with female protagonists, most notably Ella Enchanted. I found this one at a library book sale years ago, and finally got around to reading it.

The story is told from the point of view of Adelina, a princess who is anxious, easily frightened, and devoted to her braver sister, Meryl. Meryl wants nothing more than to live a life of adventure, but when Meryl gets sick, it is Addie who must search the kingdom for a cure. Encounters with ogres, phantoms, gryphons, and dragons give Addie cause to be braver than she ever knew she could be. There's a cute romance with a charming sorcerer, but it's the relationship of the two sisters that is the real heart of the story.

I enjoyed this story very much - the girls unite to help a new counselor, Seafarin' Karen, whose ship has been stolen by selkies who think Karen took one of their pelts. While April, Jo, and Mal focus on helping Karen recover her ship, Molly and Ripley find the Bear Woman and take another trip to the alternate dimension that Mal and Molly visited in Volume 3. There are significant indications that there is something serious going on with Molly, who has been largely forgotten in the past several issues, so I'm curious to see how that develops. Hopefully I won't have to wait three more volumes to find out.

I found this to be an engrossing and educational book about the history of astronomy told through the achievements of the employees and associates of the Harvard College Observatory, later retitled the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Over the course of roughly 75 years (1880-1955) many exciting discoveries about the nature of the universe were made using the stellar photographs captured on glass plates using the telescopes of the main observatory in Massachusetts and a second associated observatory in the Southern Hemisphere. Although other astronomers at other sites made similar observations, no star catalogue was nearly as comprehensive as the one at Harvard. The book pairs as an excellent companion to American Eclipse, which establishes the founding era of American astronomy and introduces Henry and Anna Draper, for whom the Draper Catalogue is named.

Although the subtitle "How The Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars" might understandably lead one to surmise that this is a Hidden Figures type of story, the social history aspect of the book takes a definite backseat to the scientific aspect. The unusual employment by the observatory of so many women as "computers" during that era seems to have been a happy accident, perpetuated by various benefactors keen on preserving and expanding those opportunities for future generations. The true and pleasant surprise is that the observatory's directors during that time, Pickering and Shapley, were so quick to recognize and publicize the ladies' contributions, and to provide new avenues of career advancement.

I finally finished reading this with my younger son, after re-reading the first two Howl books with him. Charmain, the protagonist, is both annoying and sympathetic: her parents haven't taught her any useful skills, and she just wants to sit around reading books all day. When she is asked to look after the Wizard Norland's house while he recovers from an illness, she is thrilled to be out on her own, but quickly discovers she is in over her head, as she encounters magic in various strengths and forms. Eventually she finds herself aiding Sophie and friends as they try to unravel a plot to destroy the royal family of High Norland.

This story takes place perhaps two years after the events of Castle in the Air. Morgan is now a toddler. Princess Hilda, one of the rescued princesses from Castle in the Air, lives with her elderly father the King of High Norland, and their royal cook is Jamal, he of the ill-tempered dog and smelly squid snacks. Apart from the recurring characters, though, the events of the book stand entirely on their own.

I still find myself wishing that Jones had written another story with Sophie as the main character, instead of having her merely pop up to help other protagonists in other books. But I'm glad we do get at least a glimpse of what her life was like with Howl.

This installment focuses on the secretive Alkalinians, another alien race whose invitation to use their planet for Earth Force training seems decidedly suspicious to our young heroes. There is a creepy sequence where Jasper and his friends gradually realize the aliens are drugging them for nefarious purposes, and it's up to them to save everyone from a surprise Youli attack. The story ends with a cliffhanger, separating Jasper and Mira from the other members of Earth Force and leaving them in need of rescue.

The other focus of the book is Jasper's sister, Addy, who is old enough to begin Earth Force training. She is just as determined as Jasper to find out what is really happening, but her introduction to the team causes friction when she and Marco find themselves immediately attracted to each other. Meanwhile Jasper is increasingly aware of his developing feelings for Mira, although he's endearingly clueless when it comes to acting on them.