Lady Business

Jenny Hamilton writes about spaceships and smooching for outlets including Reactor, Strange Horizons, and Lady Business. She can be found on Bluesky having opinions about 1990s SF TV.

I recently read a book review that bemoaned the tendency of comedic novels to cram in serious stuff at the end to make the reader feel like she’d eaten a full meal. A little taken aback, I performed an informal survey in my personal library of Funny Books I Liked Enough to Buy to determine the amount of serious stuff they contained; which produced the confronting realization that virtually every funny book I liked enough to buy contains, or is premised upon, mass death. This sounds like a weird joke but it isn’t, and I don’t have a punchline. I promise I don’t think mass death is funny. I have laughed about death at Mass a lot, though, and maybe that accounts for it. The literal only exception is Nick Hornby’s Funny Girl, and perhaps not coincidentally, he’s the author of the above-mentioned book review. ( Read more... )

Jenny is the outstanding and gracious co-host of the Reading the End bookcast. She blogs about books and other sundries at the very entertaining Reading the End, where you can go for even more book reviews, lists, and interviews! She is also a responsible global citizen and loves Black Sails (which you should definitely watch).

The Return of the Thief did not come out last month. For a few emotionally complicated months, I believed that it would, but its author, Megan Whalen Turner, ended up kicking the can down the road to Summer 2020. I knew I was supposed to be sad about this news, and I am, but I’m also—kind of relieved? I have been in love with this series for most of my adult life, and I am disinclined to accept the end of its era. ( Read more... )

( Anticipated YA Releases )

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.

We have reached the spookiest of months, and I have brought you an old/new pairing of the fluffiest Halloweeny books imaginable. If we’re being honest, I must admit that these are middle grade, but it’s been a rough month, and next month’s going to be rough too. If ever there were a time for this column to skew younger, now is that time.

I read Ursula Vernon’s Castle Hangnail this year and immediately raved about it on my own blog. Not satisfied with a single medium for my enthusiasm about Castle Hangnail, I have elected to share it in this column too, as a pairing for my favorite Eva Ibbotson book, Which Witch? (1979)



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Which Witch?, by Eva Ibbotson, hits many of the same notes, with a cast of characters who ostensibly serve Evil yet are delightful and strange and kind. The wizard Arriman has no prospects of finding another dark wizard to replace him, and so he resolves to make one: He establishes a contest to find a dark witch for a wife, with the intention of having a baby with her who can become the next great sorcerer of evil. Belladonna desperately loves him—but unfortunately, she is the whitest of witches and can’t blight anything. She mostly makes flowers and takes care of animals.



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Anticipated October Releases

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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... )

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 excellent at setting realistic and measurable goals.

Happy Groundhog Day, Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, and Purim, YA lovers! I have eaten a certain quantity of king cake this Carnival season and feel very satisfied with the many eateries that have provided me with delicious doughy accompaniments to my reading. This month I've decided to terrify Trump voters by writing a Valentine's Day rec list of YA books in which the protagonists bang without experiencing the dire consequences that would have befallen them had they inhabited YA books written in the 80s and 90s.

(If you are aware of older YA books in which the protagonists bang and things work out okay for them, please drop a line in the comments. I read almost no contemporary YA fiction when I was myself a young adult, on account of I did not want to learn about how dead I would become if I had sex or used a drug.) ( YA recs: TEENS BANGING )

( new releases )