Eight Book Minimum: Brought to you by Short Business

[spindizzy]

This issue of Eight Book Minimum is brought to you at least partially by bookgazing and her short story recs! I finally got around to reading and rereading a bunch of short stories, and they've shown up here.

(Reminder; an asterisk means that the story contains sexual assault or rape. To my recollection, The Lion and the Crow is the only one where it's explicit and the other all have it implied, but better safe than sorry.)

1. Spectred Isle by KJ Charles [Jump]


2. The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian [Jump]


3. Sweet Disorder by Rose Lerner [Jump] *


4. The Lion and the Crow by Eli Easton [Jump] *


5. Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher [Jump]


6. Space Battle Lunchtime Volume 1: Lights, Camera, Snacktion! by Natalie Reiss [Jump]


7. The Joy of Baking by Holly Lyn Walrath [Jump]


8. Cardinal Orchard by Alex Singer [Jump]


9. If We Live To Be Giants by Alison Mulder [Jump]


10. Frozen Heart, Melting Kiss by Ellie Darkins [Jump]


11. The House That Made The Sixteen Loops of Time by Tamsin Muir [Jump]


12. Selkie Stories Are For Losers by Sofia Samatar [Jump]


13. A Recipe For Magic by Kat Howard and Fran Wilde [Jump]


14. Ida & Beezle by Alex Singer and Sarah Magelky [Jump]


15. Breaking the Spell by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz [Jump]


16. The Wolf and the Tower by Kelly Sandoval [Jump]


17. The Auntie by Alyssa Wong and Wendy Xu [Jump]


18. The Selkie Wives by Kendra Fortmeyer [Jump] *


19. The House That Creaks by Elaine Cuyegkeng [Jump]

1. Spectred Isle by KJ Charles [Top]
I know sometimes I joke about books being pretty much written for me, but hello my darlings: this is a book about a disgraced archaeologist(!) falling in love with a professional arcanist(!) while investigating a magical mystery in 1920s England(!!!). It is ridiculously my jam. I bought the ebook the day I went down to Nine Worlds in August, bought the paperback while I was there, and read the paperback on the train back up.

... Seriously, I wasn't kidding about it being my jam.

(This is technically a sequel to The Casebook of Simon Feximal, although you don't need to read that first; a couple of characters from that book show up in this one, but they're mostly explained.)

You know how I feel about politics right? The magical politics going on here and the repercussions of everything that happened during the First World War (Protip: it is exactly as terrible as you think) and the social upheaval of the post-war period are great. The mystery was really interesting – especially the way it built from history and folklore! The horror and the magic that gets (mis)used during the war, and the classism built into that are handled really well! And the relationship, getting to see two desperately lonely people start fumbling towards happiness when they've been holding themselves together for so long brings me joy. It's one of my favourite books of the year, and I really recommend it.

(Caution warning: there is off-screen abuse and consideration of suicide, as well as period-typical homophobia.)

2. The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian [Top]
I almost didn't pick The Ruin of a Rake up, because I read the first two and was like "Oh, it's about those guys? Why?"

And now I'm here like "I can't believe I played myself this way."

Lord Courtenay, brother-in-law to the titular Lawrence Browne of the second book, has been banned from seeing his nephew. His best friend, Eleanor, asks her brother Julian to step in and help Courtenay rehabilitate himself in polite society so he can regain access. There are so many feelings here – not just the romance, which is great but family! Courtenay and Julian both love their families, with all of the complex feelings of love and obligation and guilt, which is delightful as it gets untangled – especially Julian and Eleanor, who want each other to be happy and so badly can't talk to each other!

I loved the degree of scheming and social engineering that Julian brings to his problems, and I really enjoyed those machinations – the scene where he goes to Courtenay's ancestral home and raises very well-mannered hell was delightful. And the amount of respect and admiration between them was delightful, even when Julian's attitude is very much "Oh fuck he's hotter than I thought, this is terrible."

(Plus, it is one of the rare historical romances where someone has a chronic illness! If that is a thing you'd be interested in reading, I submit this to your consideration.)

If you like Cat Sebastian's work, or if you're in the mood for queer Regency romances, I absolutely recommend this one. Then you can come back and yell about it with me!



3. Sweet Disorder by Rose Lerner [Top]
I'm fairly sure that this one is because readingtheend recommended Rose Lerner's books to me a while ago when I was first getting into Regency romances, and I have finally gotten around to reading one!

It is great. It's set in a politically contentious village during election season, where Phoebe Sparks, a widow, could give her husband the vote should she marry again. Nicholas Dymond is sent by his family to convince her to marry someone of their choosing so that their candidate can win. You see where this is going.

... I honestly feel attacked by how much I recognise myself in Phoebe. Not in the "painfully overidentifying" sort of way, just in the looking up halfway through the books and realising that yep, the fat, disorganised, prickly writer who feels really strongly about her family and her books is uncannily familiar in her specifics. I love her a lot! Especially because of how her relationships with her sister and her newspaperman brother-in-law start off rocky despite her best intentions, and while I wish her mother had faced some sort of consequences for the way she treated Phoebe and her sister I found her dynamics to be very realistic.

(I howled in fury at pretty much all of the parents in this book, okay, because Nick's mother is also a piece of work.)

I mean, Nick is fine too, especially because over the course of the book he realises that he's not a hundred percent certain how to be a person outside of the army and that is my jam. (Q: Susan, how much Star Wars fic have you read that is Finn learning how to be a person? A: *cries into pile of fic*) Plus it manages to look at the intersection of privileges he has and how they are affected by his disability. There is so much politics as well! I don't know much about politics in that time period, but I really enjoyed the way that it was presented and how the details were worked in.

I really liked that Sweet Disorder managed to work in other romantic relationships into the book, not just as sequel bait but as actual subplots with satisfactory build-up and resolution! I don't often see that in the romances I've read, usually there's only one.

I really enjoyed Sweet Disorder, to the point that I bought the rest of the Lively St. Lemeston series the very next payday. It was lovely, and the only real way it could have been better for me was more time spent with the printing press.

4. The Lion and the Crow by Eli Easton [Top]
Okay, I like Stoic Grizzled Knights and their Energetic Sneaky Comrade as a pairing. Whether it's a historical setting or a fantasy settling, this is my kryptonite, and if y'all have recs then I'm here for it.

That said: I didn't enjoy this one.

The characters are tropes that I enjoy – I like Stoic/Emotional pairings, especially when they have mutual respect and complementary skills, and mutual pining is where I live! But it goes a little too hard into the opposite direction and having one character repeatedly emotionally rejected by the other. And it's a medieval setting, which seems to be the excuse for A LOT of abuse, internalised homophobia, and attempted rape. Both onscreen and off! And some of the revelations later in the book connected to this abuse manage to retroactively tinge the romance scenes with creepiness, so I'm not sure I could bring myself to reread it. (If anyone wants spoilers, leave me a comment and I can explain.)

Plus, I was SOMEWHAT PEEVED by the details of this book, okay, because there were really silly basic mistakes like the characters ending one chapter about to arrive in Derby, and starting the next one in Manchester. My friends and I ran the maths and it's a two-day ride! So either that's a failure of basic research, or it's a failure of craft and indicating that time has passed.

All that said, I found it kind of interesting that the epilogue followed the family through major milestones until their deaths, which isn't common in romance novels, but also it was an odd note to end on. It was effective imagery and good storytelling, but it was not what I expected. I guess consider that a fair warning if you're not in the mood for a downer ending to your romance novels!

I wanted to like this one. I wanted to SO MUCH, but instead I ended up with an okay read for a bus ride that left me with a weird taste in my mouth afterwards.

(And a burning desire for queer knights that I'm mainly slaking with Merlin fic, help)

[Caution warnings: incest, sexual assault, abuse, attempted rape]



5. Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher [Top]
Have I mentioned before that I'm a fan of T. Kingfisher's stories? Because I really enjoy her short fiction and heartily recommend it, but this is the first one of her longer stories that I've read.

Bryony and Roses is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, with the role of Beauty being played by Bryony, a very practical woman who hates roses but is a devoted gardener and far too sensible for all of this nonsense. I absolutely adored her and her reactions to everything, and the relationship she built with the Beast delighted me so much! I really enjoyed that her priorities were her garden and making sure that she could live in the house she was trapped in.

And man, that house.

I really enjoyed this treatment of the house that the Beast is trapped in, and the mystery behind what's going on with it is really interesting to me! I appreciate that some may find the haphazard way that it gets investigated frustrating, but it seemed reasonable and realistic to me – especially when it gets called out later in the book! It's an interesting handling of the curse, which turns actively horrifying towards the end.

Tonally, it really reminds me of one of Robin McKinley's adaptations of Beauty and the Beast (she has two, but I've only read Beauty), possibly because the introduction explicitly cites it as an inspiration! It has the tone and the practical everyday magic of a Robin McKinley book, with T. Kingfisher's usual pragmatism running through it though, and the sort of character observations for secondary characters that are equal parts delightful and painfully accurate for people you might encounter. So if you like Robin McKinley's work, or if you're in the mood for a really excellent retelling, this is for you.

6. Space Battle Lunchtime Volume 1: Lights, Camera, Snacktion! by Natalie Reiss [Top]
This was one of the books that I picked up as part of transcribing Fangirl Happy Hour and I wasn't sure to expect, especially since it's a comic about a human woman accidentally ends up stepping in as an emergency replacement in an intergalactic cooking show!

(For those who remember me reading Starve Volume One: THE EATING PEOPLE IS BOTH CANONICAL AND HORRIFYING IN THIS ONE, because there is a rival cooking show in the background where contestants literally cook and eat each other.)

This comic is so cute. The art is lovely (I am trying not to just repeat "Bright and colourful and cute!" a thousand times, but oh wow you guys, it's really cute! And the aliens are all really interesting and distinctive in their designs!), and I was super invested in Peony doing well in this cooking show. If you, like me, are frustrated by people being thrown into the deep end and no one is willing to help them, then I guarantee that you are going to be driven up the walls by the first issue or so, but after that Peony starts to form friendships with the cast and competitors that helps her throughout the show! The build of these relationships is really great and I was so happy to see them.

And the way that background details are used to further the plot and the world building makes me really happy, as does the way things are revealed in connection to the ~sabotage~ that is rampant in Space Battle Lunchtime!

Fair warning though, this volume of Space Battle Lunchtime ends on a MASSIVE CLIFFHANGER, so you might want to get this and volume two together so you're not doing what I'm doing and wailing in agony as you wait for the second book to come in at the library! Absolutely recommended, please come and have intense feelings with me while I wait!

7. The Joy of Baking by Holly Lyn Walrath [Top]
This was a recommendation from our own bookgazing who knows that the way to my heart is through short stories about baking and forgiveness. This one is really well done, with perfect descriptions of cakes and textures (seriously, have cake on hand before you read this you will thank me later.) and their house, it has so many stories woven into it as backstory, and I love the theme of closure being a gift you give yourself. It's exactly what I wanted.

8. Cardinal Orchard by Alex Singer [Top]
Well this is an unsettling story that is ostensibly about a summer job at an orchard, a story that subtly layers its horror until it's this beautifully handled story about what you choose to see and what you choose to look away from. I absolutely enjoyed it.

(Bonus: slightly spoilery and unnerving art from chirart

9. If We Live To Be Giants by Alison Mulder [Top]
This is a super short story that bookgazing recommended. (Q: Susan, are you ever going to stop linking back to other ladybusiness posts? A: I don't understand the question.) about the dangers of girls literally growing up and controlling, abusive households; the way that the grandmother can't answer her own question tells whole stories on its own. I like it!

[Caution warnings: abuse]



10. Frozen Heart, Melting Kiss by Ellie Darkins [Top]
I accidentally ended up reading this one while weeding out the romance novels at work, so I can say up front that it is compelling and a quick read! A professional chef who's an obsessive people pleaser meets an accountant who has locked away all of his emotions to the point of being an utter arse, especially to do with food, and ends up running a private cooking course for him so that he can... Convince her he actually likes food so she'll cater a charity dinner?

It was an enjoyable read for a slow Saturday. The food descriptions are great, so if you're ready to be hungry this is the book for you. I think I liked the romance, but it did feel a bit weird to me because they spent the entire book alternating between "I feel lust for this stranger and want them to grow as a human being!" and "I would quit my job RIGHT NOW if it meant that I never had to deal with you and your emotions again." (And the Happily Ever After comes after they've spent longer INTENSELY MAKING EACH OTHER MISERABLE while growing as people than actually liking each other?) But there IS character growth, which is what I'm here for! And some pretty decent hurt/comfort if that is the trope that you're here for! It was entertaining overall, even as it puzzled me.

11. The House That Made The Sixteen Loops of Time by Tamsin Muir [Top]
This is a short story about a middle-aged woman; her best friend; and her spoilt, tantrum-throwing magic house. The houses' latest tantrum? Trapping both Doctor Rosamund Tilly and her friend Daniel Tsai in a timeloop.

I really like this one, especially for the way that it handles the timeloops (especially the short loops), the way that Rosamund's loneliness is revealed, and the way that the relationship works and doesn't throughout each loop. Plus: it was interesting knowing up front how many loops there were going to be, so it felt like counting down to things being fixed. It's enjoyable, it's short, and the resolution is... Mostly satisfying!

12. Selkie Stories Are For Losers by Sofia Samatar [Top]
Our very own bookgazing talked about Selkie Stories Are For Losers and I absolutely recommend you read her thoughts about it! This story is a look at selkie stories from the perspective of the daughter of a selkie, and her hurt and anger flavours her narration of selkie stories wonderfully. And it contrasts her feelings of betrayal with her slow-building relationship with Mona. It's a very cool mix of the mundane (the protagonist's terrible job and Mona's problems) and the fantastic (her mother's escape), and I love the way that it all builds together. Definitely recommended.

13. A Recipe For Magic by Kat Howard and Fran Wilde [Top]
Another recommendation bookgazing, because magic and baking. In this one, a young woman with a tragic past is an apprentice baker to a woman who bakes literal magic. I recognise so much of the frustrations in the baking going wrong, and the way that Lux needs help to solve her ostensible problem (being a terrible baker) through solving her actual problem. I really enjoyed it, and the mentor-student relationship, and Lux getting to learn, and while it doesn't have the sheer texture of The Joy of Baking, the things they bake sound amazing.

14. Ida & Beezle by Alex Singer and Sarah Magelky [Top]
Ida & Beezle is an illustrated short from Alex Singer about an aging film-star who gets a dog from an animal shelter when her family start fussing about her living alone.

Well.

It looks like a dog.

I absolutely love this story, it's so great. Ida's absolutely blithe reactions to all of the things going on around her, including her strange dog and people's reactions to it are perfect for the story being told; it's very much a story where if it was told from any other point of view it would be a horror story, and it wouldn't work half as well! The repetitive structure of her conversations with her sons is great for establishing their relationships and what is going on with Ida and Beezle in ways that her narration wouldn't necessarily tell us! Plus: Ida is so classy and dry! And also the only character other than Beezle to get named, which really works, because it gives the whole story the feeling of a modern fairytale?

The art is lovely, by the way, and really fits well into the story! The two page spread works really well, and I love the use of shadows for action, especially in contrast with the piece immediately following.

Basically I'm super charmed and periodically come back to read this story because I love it.

15. Breaking The Spell by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz [Top]
This is a pair of interlocking fairytales about a girl sleeping in a magic sphere, and a girl who grows up hearing about this and decides to investigate. It does interesting things with the way it interweaves the stories and its choice of point of view – one perspective is in second person and one is in third, I assume to emphasise that one of them is already a tale before the audience gets to it? And the trials and choices that both characters face fit in really well with the story being told.

It does interesting things! I wouldn't necessarily read it again, but it was interesting.

16. The Wolf and The Tower Unwoven by Kelly Sandoval [Top]
This is a short story about traps, transformations – the ones forced upon people, and the ones that are chosen – and boys who used to be wolves stumbling into witches' homes. I liked it, I think; the descriptions flow quite well, and the interactions with the women in the tower was appropriately unnerving, along with how THAT unfolded. I found the ending a little too bittersweet for my liking, but it worked for the story being told!

17. The Auntie by Alyssa Wong and Wendy Xu [Top]
This is a really funny and cute ghost story comic about a young woman whose new house turns out to be haunted by an elderly woman who immediately gets adopted into the family and does all of the aggravating auntie things in real-time! I really enjoyed it, especially for how well it paces its creepy and humour into each other.

18. The Selkie Wives by Kendra Fortmeyer [Top]
I... Wasn't sure about this one. It's a lot of different versions of the selkie folklore (where a fisherman steals a selkie's skin while she's not wearing it and forces her to marry him), trying to do it over and over again until there's a better ending and touring through the points of view of different people involved besides the thief. It's an interesting take, even if some of the stories I'm kinda squinting at suspiciously. I think the main issue was that I read it on the same day as Selkie Stories Are For Losers and The Mussel Eater, and while they're not trying to do the same thing, I was making the comparisons anyway.

But if you want to read different versions of the selkie myth exploring male entitlement (or possibly hubris) and the way it ripples out through families, and the effect a selkie being brought in could have on people: this is a reasonable place to start!

[Caution warnings: forced marriage]

19. The House That Creaks by Elaine Cuyegkeng [Top]
This is a disturbing story about a house haunted by a girl, a girl haunted by her parents' actions, and the horrors committed during regime changes haunting them both. It's super grim and the fact that it's full of love and guilt honestly just makes it worse! I appreciate what it's doing and I think it's good, but also it is Not For Me.

[Caution warning: torture, suicide, body horror]

Reading Goals

Reading goal: 128/150 (19 new this post) Prose: 71/50 (17 new this post)
New-to-me female authors: 36/50 (12 new this post; Rose Lerner, Eli Easton, Natalie Reis, Holly Lyn Walrath, Ellie Darkins, Tamsin Muir, Kat Howard, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Kelly Sandoval, Wendy Xu, Kendra Fortmeyer, Elaine Cuyegkeng)
#getouttamydamnhouse: 38/80 (1 gone this post)
#unofficialqueerasfuckbookclub: 43/128 (Spectred Isle, The Ruin of a Rake, The Lion and the Crow, Space Battle Lunchtime Volume 1, The Joy of Baking, Selkie Stories Are For Losers, Breaking the Spell)