Jenny is the splendid and prodigious co-host of the Reading the End bookcast. She blogs about books and other sundries at the funny and entertaining Reading the End, where you can go for even more book recs in genres other than YA. She is also a champion library patron and is kind to all librarians.

Did y’all enjoy that inadvertent summer break from my YA recs? Summer is a quiet time for American YA releases, so I improved the shining hour by staying inside and sulking about the heat that makes it impossible for me to walk anywhere and the humidity that turns my hair into a tumbleweed. But now it’s September, which means it’s still hot as hell but I at least have college football and the prospect of coolish weather someday. As such, I am now able to return to YA excitement—and just in time, because L. L. McKinney’s A Blade So Black deserves to be screamed about!



A Blade So Black is a black Alice in Wonderland, which is probably enough to bring you in on it, but in case not: Alice’s father has just died when she stumbles across a Nightmare from another world. She’s saved in the nick of time by the sexy, mysterious Addison Hatta, who trains her as a warrior and defender of Atlanta (and like, all of earth!); she’s brilliant at it, but being a Nightmare warrior doesn’t mean she’s not on the hook for schoolwork, supporting her friends, and keeping to her protective mom’s early curfew.

And now, Five Questions for YA Authors (and one just for L. L. McKinney!)

( Read more... )

( Exciting releases! )

Get at me in the comments for the YA books you’re anticipating this month!

Jenny is the splendid and prodigious co-host of the Reading the End bookcast. She blogs about books and other sundries at the funny and entertaining Reading the End, where you can go for even more book recs in genres other than YA. She is also a champion library patron and is kind to all librarians.

Let me begin by saying that if you have not yet read any of Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances, you are missing a trick. I recommend beginning with The Grand Sophy, which features a spirited girl sorting out messes a la Flora Post. And if Georgette Heyer’s books give you the same feeling of joy and satisfaction that they give me, then you will be in the perfect mindset for this month’s frontlist/backlist pairing of books about gifted girls in gowns. ( Read more... )

One thing I’ve learned from talking to people about short fiction is that there are many different styles of reading short fiction. There are people like me who read one story (generally online) and then stop and do something else. There are people who sit down with a print or ebook magazine and read the whole thing cover to cover. There are people who only listen to short fiction in podcast form. So I was thinking about the different ways people read short SFF, and I wanted to find out more about these differences. I also thought that since lots of people have different short fiction reading habits, people who want to try short fiction might find that different pieces of advice are helpful to different people. So I’ve invited several guests to the column to talk about their short fiction reading habits and to share advice for people new to short fiction.

This roundtable features prolific short fiction readers, so they have a lot of great ideas for where to find short fiction, but I know it can be a little intimidating when there's so much to choose from and people who read so much! I hope this roundtable gives readers a taste of how many ways there are to read short fiction and how many entry points there are, and that there's no wrong way to read, including how much you read or at what point in life you start reading short fiction.

My guests are A.C. Wise, Bogi Takács, Brandon O’Brien, Vanessa Fogg, and Bridget McKinney. While we were working on this roundtable, the 2018 Hugo Awards finalist were announced, and I'm very pleased that two of my guests, Bogi Takács and Bridget McKinney, are on that list! Congratulations to both of them! And now without further ado I’ll let my guests introduce themselves. ( Read more... )

Jenny is the splendid and prodigious co-host of the Reading the End bookcast. She blogs about books and other sundries at the funny and entertaining Reading the End, where you can go for even more book recs in genres other than YA. She is also a champion library patron and is kind to all librarians.

Happy spring, my YA-loving friends. I hope that you are in locations that experience pleasant spring weather, and that April is not bringing you too many showers or too many of those caterpillars that fall from trees in your hair and sting your hands when you scream and try to remove them. This month, we’re welcoming the fabulous Tomi Adeyemi to talk about her debut novel, the fantasy epic Children of Blood and Bone.

And now: Five Questions for YA Authors (and one just for Tomi Adeyemi)

( Read more... )

( Exciting release! )

Please hit me up in the comments to scream about that cliffhanger in Children of Blood and Bone, or hit me up on Twitter if you want the Lady Business readers to live spoiler-free lives.

Well, 2017 was a shitty year in a lot of ways, but in terms of short fiction it was pretty good for me. I read many excellent fiction of all lengths. There are still more short stories being published than novelettes and novellas, but the latter two are catching up, especially with the Book Smugglers novella line debuting this year and Tor.com continuing to put out a ton of novellas. I’m also seeing online magazines being more and more willing and able to print longer works.

As always, I didn’t read anything close to all the short fiction published this year. But I did come up with a scheme to help keep myself from getting too behind. In the past I’ve tried to read a short story a day and I’ve never been able to keep that up. Instead, starting in 2017 I’ve been setting myself a monthly goal to read at least 12 pieces of short fiction. This is a lot less than a story a day but a lot more do-able and helps me keep up with what I’ve bookmarked to read rather than letting everything pile up until it's overwhelming. I’ve also been working on not finishing stories that I’m not enjoying and not reading things that are too grim for my tastes. I think I’ve improved on both of those counts.

I’ve noticed some themes and trends in the short fiction I’ve been reading. My personal tastes tend towards domestic short fiction. I love stories with cooking, farming, and just plain daily living, so you’ll find stories with those themes in this list. These types of stories seemed easier to find this year, but maybe I’ve just gotten really good at honing in on them.

Another theme I’m seeing a lot is robots and AI, especially fiction from the viewpoint of an AI character. I’ve been seeing this trend in more longer works, too, and I think it's great; I love seeing so many takes on what being a robot might be like.

Another great trend I’m seeing is more marginalized characters and greater diversity of such. Short fiction has always been one of the more diverse corners of SFF and that diversity has only gotten wider and deeper over time. This year's list features stories about non-binary characters, characters with a variety of disabilities, queer characters, and characters of many ethnicities. Many of these are #ownvoices stories.

And now on to my favorite stories of 2017! I’ve listed these by Hugo Award categories for the convenience of nominating for the awards.

( Short Stories )

( Novelettes )

( Novellas )

That’s everything! I hope this list is helpful and that you find something here that you love. How was your 2017 short fiction reading? Did you love anything I didn’t include? Please share recommendations in the comments.

forestofglory is a fan, crafter, and an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy short fiction. You can find her on Dreamwidth and on Twitter at forestofglory.

It’s December, the season for me to badger all my friends into letting me pick out gifts for them to buy their friends. To break up the tedium of me shoving Starfish at everybody this holiday season, I’ve asked some brilliant YA people to tell me what one YA (or YA-ish) book they’re giving as a gift this year. Let the gift ideas commence!

( Read more... )
( What's out in December? )

Hello once more! This is Courtney Schafer, returning to guide you on one last journey through the under-read wilderness. (Apologies for the delay since my last post. It’s been a hell of a year.) My previous posts discussed treasures from the 1980s, the 1990s, and the 2000s; now I’ll finish off by taking a look at the current decade. The 2010s aren’t even over yet, and already I’ve read so many great books deserving of more attention that I found this list the most difficult of all to narrow down to reasonable length.

My usual caveats still apply: this list is personal in nature, and not meant to be exhaustive, nor even to identify the "best" books of the decade so far. I’ve simply chosen reads I enjoyed that seem to have slid under the radar and deserve to be discovered by more readers. I have also restricted myself to choosing only one book/series per author, and listing any given author only once over the four-decade span of my posting series.

As always, if you have favorite treasures of your own, don’t hesitate to share them in the comments! ( Read more... )

We're thrilled to share the first post in the Short & Sweet column written by forestofglory. Short & Sweet is an ongoing short fiction column full of recs and short fiction goodness, and forestofglory will drop in each quarter to share what she's been reading and what short fiction she's excited about. We're so happy to have her; please give her a warm welcome (and read her recs!).

Animal Brides

Here are six stories featuring animal brides, a trope about animals who turn into women and marry humans. Sometimes they have choice about this and sometimes the human forces them. This trope can take a lot different forms and the worlds in these stories are varied. Animal brides allow authors to explore ways women are viewed and desired. The trope lets the authors examine a variety of animals and animal archetypes.These stories deal with entitlement and freedom. They frequently draw on fairy tales and myths. This collection hits a lot different themes and moods from cute to creepy. Overall this list a bit darker then what I really generally rec but I love all of these stories.

"The Contemporary Foxwife" by Yoon Ha Lee (4,763 words) — So this is probably one of my favorite stories ever, it's so cute and sweet. It's a bit of an outlier here being the happiest story and also the only story to feature a male animal bride, and the only story with science fictional elements – it’s set on a space station.

"The Animal Women" by Alix E. Harrow (8,534 words) — Content note: race in America, violence, attempted sexual assault. I got really sucked into this story set in the US south about how women’s voices are repressed. It is pretty dark in places but had an ending I found hopeful. While the women in this story aren’t brides, their animal affinities are important, and the story shares many themes with other animal bride stories.

"The Fox Bride" by Mari Ness (1,308 words) — This one really plays on the animal nature of the animal bride and also the way stories have of taking over reality. It's extremely unromantic about animals and what they are like.

"Dragon Brides" by Nghi Vo (3,620 words) — Rather than a story about dragons who marry men, this a story about women who marry dragons. Or rather about a princess who was once captured by a dragon. But it feels thematically of a piece with the rest.

"Jackalope Wives" by Ursula Vernon (5,000 words) — I love how the author uses the desert myths and legends here. Between that and her depiction of desert fauna and flora she really brings the desert to life. I also really enjoy Grandma Harken–it’s nice to see an old woman be the hero of a story and I enjoy her no nonsense attitude.

"Foxwife" by Hiromi Goto in The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm ed. Ellen Datlow and Terrie Windling — This story gives us a glimpse of such an interesting world I always wish the author would write something else set there. I also really like how Goto uses aspects of Japanese myths.

These stories are about many types of animals and multiple genders, but they've all stuck with me, and changed how I think about women and desire. Looking at women and marriage through the lens of animals let me understand some of the ways women are objectified and treated as less than human. Particularity the way the fox (and the prince) are treated in Mari Ness' story where they aren't given a choice about their marriage. Though other stories have aspects of this too: for example, the careless way Grandma Harken's grandson treats the Jackalope wife. But the trope can also explore the ways women have power even in situations where they seem powerless. "Animal women" makes this point especially well. Ultimately, animal brides is a varied trope which is why there are so many great, but very different, stories featuring them. I hope you will take time to read some of these.

Today we present a wonderful Wonder Woman post from Diana super-fan chaila.

I will state my biases up front and acknowledge that as a veteran of being a fan of Wonder Woman on the internet, I was pretty determined to like Wonder Woman from the moment it was announced. I am thrilled and relieved that it has not only exceeded my expectations, but also has apparently escaped the crushing weight of being the first female-led superhero movie and become a critical and commercial success. Diana has a movie!



Many reviews have already covered a lot of what I loved about the movie: Gal Gadot’s performance, the refreshing neutrality of the gaze, the Amazons, the fight scenes, the Amazons in the fight scenes, General Antiope, and the simple narrative power of centering a woman in a story like this. Other reviews have pointed out its obvious failings, particularly the lack of significant roles--or even names--for any women of color, and the treatment of disability.

What I want to talk about is Diana.

( What one does when faced with the truth is more difficult than you’d think. )

We're thrilled to welcome friend of the blog, Jenny, back to Lady Business to talk about some of the nonfiction she's read or planning to read going forward. Onward for some awesome nonfiction recs!

Happy 2017, Lady Business readers! Or I guess I should say, solemn 2017, Lady Business readers. I hope we come to this new year with hope and bravery, ready to fight and call our senators and support each other. Here’s some of the nonfiction I’ll be reading in my spare time from resisting our Russian stooge cheeto president.



The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
All throughout December 2016, I told myself that my first read in 2017 was going to be James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, followed closely by the collection of essays, poems, and reflections The Fire This Time, edited by Jesmyn Ward. I like the symbolism of starting the first year of the Trump presidency with an author as eloquent, timely, and furious as James Baldwin. I hope that the reminder that these battles never went away will help me to have the strength to keep on fighting throughout the year (and the one after it, and the one after).



The Fall of the House of Wilde by Emer O’Sullivan
Okay, this will not cast me in the most flattering light, so bear with me. My friend sent me an article entitled "10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know about Oscar Wilde," written by Emer O’Sullivan and probably not targeted to someone like me who has a whole Oscar Wilde shelf in the nonfiction section of her personal library. After guessing five of the things without clicking on the article, then perishing of indignation while reading it because of how little Emer O’Sullivan seems to like Oscar Wilde, the most likeable man in all of human history, I added The Fall of the House of Wilde to my reading list. I look forward to disagreeing with all of the author’s conclusions.



Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian
In 2016, I learned about a stateless group called the bidoon who live (among other places) in the United Arab Emirates. Because the UAE does not like giving away citizenships, they came up with the solution of buying citizenships to the Comoros, a tiny, coup-prone island nation off the east coast of Africa, and bestowing them willy-nilly upon the bidoon. Strange, right? I absolutely love it when I discover odd little pockets of knowledge like this, and The Cosmopolites promises to give me more detail on the bidoon and other weirdnesses of citizenships bought and sold. Abrahamian explores the market in citizenships and what that market has to say about trends toward globalization and inequality.



Brazil: A Biography by by Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling
I am not giving up on my project to read one good history of every country in Africa, but I am not going to turn down a good history of a country in South America when Farrar, Straus, and Giroux drops one on my metaphorical doorstep. Coming in July 2017, this massive book promises to increase my knowledge of Brazilian culture and modern history by approximately 100%. Marketing materials have promised me that it’s a truly interdisciplinary book that deals with race and pop culture and economic changes. Yes thank you, I believe I will.



The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
Elizabeth Kolbert published this book in 2014, and then for two and a half years, I didn’t trust my ability to comprehend Science sufficiently to read it. I kind of still don’t, but nevertheless, this is the year I’m finally going to read The Sixth Extinction. I first encountered it when the Best American Science and Nature Writing featured an excerpt from it that taught me about how we developed the concept of extinction, an idea I had never previously considered we had needed to discover. The rest of the book—which deals with exactly how comprehensively we are fucking up the planet for our fellow species—promises to be just as illuminating.



Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest by Zeynep Tufekci
Something tells me that we’ll be leveraging social media as we wage our many protests over the next four years. Tufekci’s book Twitter and Tear Gas, forthcoming in May 2017, explores the role of internet actors in uprisings from the Arab Spring to the Occupy Wall Street movement to the recent coup attempt in Turkey. I love that she’s exploring protest movements in a range of different countries, and I hope to come away from her book with a better grasp on how to maximize the impact of protests and use social media tools to support people on the ground in locations where I can’t be.

What nonfiction are you looking forward to this year? "All of it" is an acceptable answer to the question.