Sarah

Lunar New Year Love Story

Love is essential!

Happy Valentine’s Day! One of my favorite authors has a new book out. Happy Year of the Dragon!

Some Places Should Remain Wild

Thoughts on Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong

When my hold for this audiobook (read by Angela Dawe) was ready through Libby, I was so excited. I had been waiting for months. It’s Kelley Armstrong‘s first full-fledged dive into the horror genre, even though many of her other books have elements of horror. And she is one of my current favorite authors.

Five Reasons Why I Love the Aru Shah Series

The Pandava sisters’ stories are exciting and laugh-out-loud funny.

I just finished listening to Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality by Roshani Chokshi (narrated by Soneela Nankani) a few days ago, and I loved it! I sure hope this book series continues in some fashion because I am not ready for this to be the last Pandava adventure. Here are five reasons why I love this series.

Murder at Haven’s Rock

Does Casey Butler have ADHD?

by Kelley Armstrong

I’ve been on a Kelley Armstrong kick lately – revisiting some favorite series. And it all started with this recent book. Murder at Haven’s Rock is the first in her new series of mysteries/ thrillers set in the Yukon Wilderness. It’s also a continuation of the Rockton series (at least with the main characters).

Kelley Armstrong is a prolific writer with books for adults, teens, and kids. The first book I read by her was Bitten in the Otherworld series. I was an immediate fan. (Bitten is about werewolves and is told from the perspective of Elena Michaels, the only female werewolf to have survived becoming a pack werewolf.)

Most of Kelley Armstrong’s work, I consider to be fantasy – either contemporary or historical (she has some time travel novels). Many of her characters are werewolves, witches, demons, necromancers, and other supernatural beings. But she also has some straight up mystery/ thriller series – Rockton & Nadia Stratford.)

Her main characters are always female and as I’ve been re-reading, I’ve noticed some traits that a couple of her main characters have in common. Both Casey Butler (from the Haven’s Rock and Rockton series) and Olivia Taylor-Jones (from the Cainsville series) have characteristics of women with ADHD.

As someone who received a diagnosis for this late in life, it seems quite evident to me as I re-read their stories now: moving helps them think (and they like to move fast), they’ve made impulsive decisions in their lives (with regret attached), they throw themselves into their work, and they struggle with both perfectionism and rejection. These traits are likely what make them some of my favorite characters in her stories.

And the fact that these characters (and those around them) are oblivious to their neurodivergence also appeals to me, because I find it very realistic. I was certainly oblivious to mine until I became a mother. ADHD displays very differently in girls and women than it does in boys and men. And many women reject the notion that it might even be possible, based upon what they think they know (which is usually based on boys and men). At least at first.

I am really looking forward to new books in the Haven’s Rock series and I’m especially interested in Casey Butler’s story arc. She now knows that her sister is on the spectrum. I’m curious what self-discoveries might be in store for her.

The Black God’s Drums

A review of the audiobook, The Black God’s Drums by P. Djeli Clark.

by P. Djeli Clark; narrated by Channie Waites

Confession time – I love this author’s stories.

They are fantastic creations filled with both terror and wonder set in places I never knew I wanted to travel to until they were described to me. Alas, I can only travel there in story.

I have only ever read the author’s stories in audiobook format (since that is how I do the majority of my reading these days) and they are phenomenal. The narrators have been excellent and add so much more detail and authenticity to the stories. (My favorite by far is A Master of Djinn. I wrote briefly about it here.) I use the Libby app and check out audiobooks from my library.

This story is set in New Orleans in an alternate history where a slave uprising changed the course of the Civil War and subsequent events. “The magic of the old African gods is a part of this city” (54:48 min).

It’s told in first person narration from the perspective of Creeper, an orphan who prides herself in her ability to care for herself on the streets. She also holds Oye, an African Orisha inside of her. While we don’t know Creeper’s exact age, she may be fourteen. When she comes across some information about The Black God’s Drums, she goes to the person who can do something with it – an airship captain of a smuggling ship.

Like Creeper, the captain, Ann-Marie, also holds an African Orisha – Oshun. Unlike Creeper, the captain is much less comfortable with this experience. This story reminds me of an adult Rick Riordan Presents. While the main character may be a child, she holds an African spirit that is ageless inside of her. One that is capable of displaying jealousy towards an equally ageless spirit. (Oye and Oshun are sisters and both lovers of Shango.) So while this is not a kid’s book, it does have plenty of magic and myth based on Yoruban culture.

This is a highly recommended read. It won an Alex Award and was a finalist for many other awards. It’s an amazing story.

Why Dun and Red?

An explanation for the title of my book reviewing website.

When I first started this blog way back in 2009, I was still in graduate school for library and information sciences. I had been reading lots of different books in genres I had not previously explored for at least two of my classes – a readers’ advisory class, where we read a different genre each week, and a multicultural fiction for young readers class. We had different ways of tracking what we read for each class and for one of those classes, we had to create a wiki.

As I was completing my library sciences degree, I knew that I wanted to work in public libraries and that readers’ advisory was a part of public librarianship. I wanted to create a space to continue to track my reading in a way that would help me (and others) on my journey into public librarianship. In those days, the genre of fiction that I had been most familiar with was contemporary fantasy. Charles de Lint, Holly Black, Emma Bull, – these were the novelists whose work I was very familiar with. Especially Charles de Lint, who has written a ton of books. I started reading his works back in the mid 90s.

Books that involved the fae, or faery, were especially appealing to me. As an adoptee, stories about changelings and wandering orphans resonated – especially those from the Celtic tradition, which was the only heritage I could claim with any kind of certainty.

I have always been a private person, and was now blogging on the internet. I needed a protective space for my own mind. A dun is a hillside fortress or just a hill in Scottish Gaelic and Irish.

Duns would most certainly have been used by both humans and fey. I’ve never been to Ireland or Scotland, but I’ve read a lot of stories that take place in those locations. A dun can straddle worlds (between here and the Otherworld).

So that’s where the dun in this website’s name comes from. It’s also why I have a picture of a local hill on the website.

And the color red can signify many different things.

Most importantly, I liked the play on words.

Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement

A book review of Choosing Brave by Angela Joy

By Angela Joy; Illustrated by Janelle Washington

On the last day of Women’s History Month, I want to share this amazing picture book. While picture books are usually written for children, this book is definitely written for adults as well. The paper cut art that illustrates the story is magnificent (and the artist is self-taught).

The book begins with the hardest and bravest choice that Mamie Till- Mobley ever had to make, on August 31, 1955, when she choose to have her murdered son sent back home to her.

After this introductory page, we learn about Mamie’s life. Her parents had moved north during The Great Migration in search of a better life than what was offered in the South.

Mamie’s life was not easy and she gave birth to her son, Emmett Louis Till, at the age of nineteen. The birth was very difficult – to the point where Emmett entered the world so scarred that doctors wanted to institutionalize him. Mamie chose the harder thing and brought her child home.

While I had learned of Emmett Till at different points in my life and read other picture books about him, this book adds so much more detail, understanding, and love to his story that I had not encountered previously. It is very clear in this book that his story was a part of his mother’s story, who loved him very much.

It’s the love that really shines in this book. Mamie’s brave choices were rooted in love.

I highly recommend reading this book.

Fresh Banana Leaves

By Jessica Hernandez, PhD

I really enjoyed listening to this book. It was like a breath of fresh air. I’m not sure how long I waited on hold for it through the library. It was many months and it was definitely worth the wait.

The author is an indigenous scientist of Binnizá and Maya Ch’orti’ descent working on Duwamish land at the University of Washington. Her perspectives on trauma, healing, environmentalism, academia and sciences, racism, and colonialism (and it’s lasting effects) all rang true to me.

This site is now ad free!

And the site name has changed.

In Honor of Women’s History Month

Last week, I spent time working on one of the webpages on my new website. The site is still very much under construction, but I have been blogging from it, while I build it. It’s a big dream website, where I am trying to showcase various skills, abilities, and goals in one place, while preparing for my next endeavor.

The page I finished is called Information wants to be free! and it highlights my work with my most recent employer, Pima County Public Library. In 2022, I wrote three “Three Books on a Theme” blog postings for the library website. (Click through to my website to see all three listed).

The final blog post I wrote, is the one I want to highlight for Women’s History Month. It’s called “Enraged Mothers” and features two fiction and one non-fiction book that offer current perspectives on mothering in the United States.

While women’s history is made up of much more than just mothering, mothering is a huge part of history in general and is often overlooked or ignored by patriarchal historians. Without parents, families, and tribes (women included!), there would be no history. (Although, we really should call it ourstory).