Lessons in Magic and Disaster

Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders

A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic--with very unexpected results--in this relatable, resonant novel about family, identity, and the power of love.

Jamie is the average New England academic in-training--she has a strong queer relationship, generational trauma, and an esoteric dissertation proposal. But she has one extraordinary secret: she's also a powerful witch.

Serena, Jamie's mother, has been hiding from the world in an old one-room schoolhouse for several years, grieving the death of her wife and the simultaneous explosion in her professional life. All she has left are memories.

Jamie’s busy digging into a three-hundred-year-old magical book, but she still finds time to teach Serena to cast spells and help her come out of her shell. But Jamie doesn't know the whole story of what happened to her mom years ago, and those secrets are leading Serena down a destructive path.

Now it's up to this grad student and literature nerd to understand the secrets behind this mysterious novel from 1749, unearth a long-buried scandal hinted therein, and learn the true nature of magic, before her mother ruins both of their lives.

Charlie Jane Anders is one of my favorite authors. I will read everything she publishes! This is a great book with fully formed characters. Read it today.

Anders, Charlie Jane. (2025). Lessons in Magic and Disaster. New York: Tor. 

The Candidate

The Candidate by Tracey Richardson is a lesbian / bisexual romance.

Presidential candidate Jane Kincaid--gorgeous, dynamic and extremely driven--is taking the country by storm, passionately outlining her blueprint for America. Voters quickly fall in love with her... and so, unwittingly, does Secret Service Agent Alexandria Warner.

Their mutual attraction begins to take on a fiery life of its own, and soon Jane fears that their intense feelings for each other are a tinder box that could destroy the landscape of her career... and alter the history of the country.

Jane had always expected the road to the White House would exact a high personal toll. She just never knew how high... until she's forced to choose between her heart and her political destiny.

Richardson, Tracey. (2008). The Candidate. Florida: Bella Books. 

The Jasmine Throne (Burning Kingdoms #1)

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri is the first book in her Burning Kingdoms series. 

Exiled by her despotic brother, princess Malini spends her days dreaming of vengeance while imprisoned in the Hirana: an ancient cliffside temple that was once the revered source of the magical deathless waters but is now little more than a decaying ruin.
 
The secrets of the Hirana call to Priya. But in order to keep the truth of her past safely hidden, she works as a servant in the loathed regent’s household and cleaning Malini’s chambers.
 
When Malini witnesses Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a ruthless princess seeking to steal a throne. The other a powerful priestess desperate to save her family. Together, they will set an empire ablaze.

Suri has created a great fantasy world filled with magic, political intrigue, and a story of revenge.

Suri, Tasha. (2021). The Jasmine Throne. New York: Orbit.

We Will Be Jaguars

We Will Be Jaguars by Nemonte Nenquimo is the true story of indigenous tribes banning together to save part of the Amazon from foreign oil interests. 

Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest—one of the last to be contacted by missionaries in the 1950s—Nemonte Nenquimo had a singular upbringing.

She was taught about plant medicines, foraging, oral storytelling, and shamanism by her elders. At age fourteen, she left the forest for the first time to study with an evangelical missionary group in the city. Eventually, her ancestors began appearing in her dreams, pleading with her to return and embrace her own culture. She listened.

Two decades later, Nemonte has emerged as one of the most forceful voices in climate change activism. She has spearheaded the alliance of indigenous nations across the Upper Amazon and led her people to a landmark victory against Big Oil, protecting over a half million acres of primary rainforest. Her message is as sharp as a spear—honed by her experiences battling loggers, miners, oil companies and missionaries.

In We Will Be Jaguars, she partners with her husband, Mitch Anderson, founder of Amazon Frontlines, digging into generations of oral history, uprooting centuries of conquest, hacking away at racist notions of indigenous peoples, and ultimately revealing a life story as rich, harsh, and vital as the Amazon rainforest herself. [from Abrams Press]

This is an amazing book.

Nenquimo, Nemonte. (2024) We Will Be Jaguars. New York: Abrams Press.

The Sympathizer

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen is a spy novel set around the US war in Vietnam. It has won multiple awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.

It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.

Nguyen has written an incredible book exploring a fraught time in both Vietnamese and US history. 

Nguyen, Viet Thanh. (2015). The Sympathizer. New York: Grove Press.

The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye

The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron is the fictionalized story of a real woman who was one of the more successful pirates of the Caribbean in the mid-1600s.

In the tumultuous town of Yáquimo, Santo Domingo, Jacquotte Delahaye is an unknown but up-and-coming shipwright. Her dreams are bold but her ambitions are bound by the confines of her life with her self-seeking French father. When her way of life and the delicate balance of power in the town are threatened, she is forced to flee her home and become a woman on the run along with a motley crew of refugees, including a mysterious young woman named Teresa.

Jacquotte and her band become indentured servants to the infamous Blackhand, a ruthless pirate captain who rules his ship with an iron fist. As they struggle to survive his brutality, Jacquotte finds herself unable to resist Teresa despite their differences. When Blackhand hatches a dangerous scheme to steal a Portuguese shipment of jewels, Jacquotte must rely on her wits, resourcefulness, and friends to survive. But she discovers there is a grander, darker scheme of treachery at play, and she ultimately must decide what price she is willing to pay to secure a better future for them all.

An unforgettable tale told in three parts, The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye is a thrilling, buccaneering escapade filled with siege and battle, and is also a tender exploration of friendship, love, and the search for freedom and home.

Cameron, Briony. (2024). The Ballad of Jacquotte Delehaye. New York: Atria Books.

The Future of Another Timeline

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz is a queer, feminist, punk time travel novel. 

1992 - Beth is at a Riotgrrl concert with her friends when a decision they make creates a new path in the timeline. 

2022 - Beth is part of a group of time travelers who are hoping to make small changes in the past to ensure body autonomy for women in all timelines. 

1892 - In the White City as Chicago's World's Fair is about to open the battle for the future in on. Trends started by Comstock and his followers could take away women's rights for the whole of the future.

Newitz is a science fiction genius. They take stories to places few others would think of. Due to the current political climate in the US this is not an easy book to read right now, but maybe corrections are coming here too.

Newitz, Annalee. (2019). The Future of Another Timeline. New York: Tor.

The City in the Middle of the Night

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

January is a dying planet - divided between a permanently frozen darkness on one side, and blazing endless sunshine on the other. Humanity clings to life, spread across two archaic cities built in the sliver of habitable dusk. 

But life inside the cities is just as dangerous as the wastelands outside. Sophie, a student and reluctant revolutionary, is supposed to be dead, after being exiled into the night. 

Saved only by forming an unusual bond with the enigmatic beasts who roam the ice, Sophie vows to stay hidden from the world, hoping she can heal. But fate has other plans - and 

Sophie's ensuing odyssey and the ragtag family she finds will change the entire world. [from fantastic fiction]

Anders is a talented writer who takes stories places other authors don't even think of. Her science fiction is amazing and will leave you thinking of the characters long after you finish reading. 

Anders, Charlie Jane. (2019). The City in the Middle of the Night. New York: Tor.

Zeitoun

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers is the true story of one family's experiences in and around Hurricane Katrina.

Nola residents Kathy and Abdulrahman Zeitoun own and run a construction and painting company. They are known as good neighbors and loving parts of Syrian Muslim community. 

When the news starts talking of a storm headed toward New Orleans, Kathy decides to take the children to a relative's house farther inland. Zeitoun stays to watch the house and be available for their customers' needs. 

After weathering the storm with some leaks, water starts slowly flooding in. Zeitoun moves everything he can upstairs to keep it dry. He takes a used canoe out of the garage and ties it to the from porch. 

After the flooding, Zeitoun uses his canoe to search for people who need help. He finds one of their buildings that still have phone services and keeps in touch with Kathy. 

Then random police from all over the country arrive, volunteering to "protect the city" from looters. Zeitoun, his building tenant, an acquaintance from their mosque, and a stranger are all arrested. Having identification showing that be belongs has no effect. 

What follows is one of the failures of FEMA and law enforcement. Read this book. It is important to see what really goes on in times of chaos. 

Eggers, Dave. (2009). Zeitoun. New York: McSweeny's Books.

Patience is a Subtle Thief

Patience is a Subtle Thief by Abi Ishola-Ayodeji

Hope and circumstance define a young woman’s life in this heartbreaking tale of lost innocence, set in politically volatile 1990s Nigeria, from an exciting and fresh voice in global literature. 

For as long as she can remember, Patience Adewale, the eldest daughter of Chief Kolade Adewale, has been waiting for confirmation that she is loved, that there is a place where she truly belongs. Patience lives a sheltered life within the secure walls of the family’s mansion in Ibadan, but finds no comfort from her distant father and stepmother Modupe. Her only ally is her younger sister, yet even Margaret’s love and support cannot overcome Patience’s insecurity and uncertainty.

More than anything, Patience wants to know why her father and uncle banished her mother from their compound years ago—and whether her mother is even alive. Determined to discover the truth, Patience embarks on a desperate search to find her mother. Answers begin to surface when she moves to Lagos for university and unexpectedly reconnects with her cousin Kash.

Kash and his friend Emeka are petty thieves with an opportunity to make a big score. To pull it off they need help—and enlist Patience and Emeka’s straight-arrow brother, Chike, to become partners in their scheme. The thieves’ plan is to quit after this job. But unforeseen events lead to unexpected consequences—and demand a price from Patience that may be too steep to pay.

Suspenseful and evoking the subtleties of Nigerian life in an fresh and unexpected way, Patience Is a Subtle Thief is a heart-wrenching story of one young woman’s precarious journey to adulthood, and the risks and sacrifices it takes to follow her heart.

[from Harper Collins]

Ishola-Ayodeji, Abi. (2022). Patience is a Subtle Thief. New York: Harper Collins.

Wanderers (Wanderers #1)

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig is the first of two books dealing with a plague and its aftermath. 

Something is causing an illness that makes people lose all sense of themselves. The illness causes a white fungus to form on their faces giving it the name White Mask. 

At the same time, something else strange is happening to a small group of people. Shana's sister Nessie is sleepwalking and cannot be awoken. Shana follows her and as they go, more sleepwalkers are joining her. They cannot be stopped or communicated with. Soon there are sleepwalkers and their loved ones heading across the country. 

Set is a familiar-feeling time politically, society begins to collapse. Terror and violence are rampant. The CDC assigns it best investigator to follow the sleepwalkers while others search for the origin of White Mask. 

Wendig has written a compelling series. It is gripping, haunting and realistic. Book two takes place about five years after the onset of the disease, in the time after the illness has run its course. I HIGHLY recommend this two-book series. It is one of the best I have read this decade!

Wendig, Chuck. (2019). Wanderers. New York: Del Rey. 

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Story by James McBride is one of the best books I read this year, or any year. Set in the 1920s and 30s in Pottstown, Pennsylvania's neighborhood of Chicken Hill, a mixed Black and Jewish part of town. 

Chona is the daughter of a store owner. She has a limp from Polio as a child. She married Moshe, a Romanian Jewish immigrant who owns a dance hall. As Chona was raised in Chicken Hill she convinces Moshe to bring Black musicians and bands along with the Yiddish he has already planned.

Though they don't need the money, and actually lose money on it, Chona keeps running the grocery. She allows anyone to shop there and extends credit to her Black neighbors. 

When a young boy is in need of hiding from the state agent who wants to take him to a home because he is deaf, Chona takes him in. 

McBride is one of the great writers of our time. Read all of his books, but start here!

McBride, James. (2023). The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. New York: Riverhead Books. 

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance #1)

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin is the first book in the Inheritance series. 

Yeine Darr who grew up in a small land in the north has been summoned to Sky by her mother's father. Her grandfather is going to recognize her as an heir to the Arameri throne. 

The city of Sky is contained in a super tall tower. Anyone with Arameri blood can live in the tower, but most work as servants. Only those of the central bloodline are treated as royalty. 

The Arameri gained power generations ago when one of the three gods made a deal with the head of the family. It was at the end of the gods' war when Itempas won. He chained his brother and the lesser gods into service of the Arameri. 

Yeine, not having grown up in the midst of this, has few skills to find her way in the political battles of Sky. But after she arrives, one of the lesser gods, Sieh, the child god, befreiends her. It is not clear is this is an advantage or disadvantage for her survival.

Jemisin is possibly my very favorite writer - or at least tied for the first spot with Becky Chambers. This is her first series but does not read as such. Her ideas are completely fleshed out, her writing captivating. 

Jemisin, N.K. (2010). The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. New York: Orbit. 

The Splinter in the Sky

The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa is a brilliant space opera, filled with political intrigue, espionage and some deserved comeuppance! 

On the distant moon of Koriko, a territory of the Holy Vaalbaran Empire, those who live on the planet are not doing as well as they were before they were subjected to the Empire.

Tea Specialist and Scribe Enitan Ijebu is about to become a political prisoner to ensure the uneasy peace between the Empire and the Ominirish Republic. Losing both people she cares about, she is taken to the capital planet - home of the God-Emperor.

The seat of government, and the upper classes, is a floating city that hovers over the planet long abandoned by all who could. There Enitan will do everything necessary to save her sibling, exact revenge and try to free her home planet. 

Ashing-Giwa has written a wonderful science fiction, espionage story. This is a great read-a-like for fans of Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire. 

Ashing-Giwa, Kemi. (2023). The Splinter in the Sky. New York: Sage Press.

The Terraformers

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz is the story of creating a habitable planet out of a rock spinning in space. 

The Environmental Rescue Teams job on the planet SASK-E is to keep things in balance. Teams through the ages have been guiding the planet through stages from oxygen production to soil enrichment to plant growth. SASK-E is now in a Pleistocene-like era.

Destry, an Environmental Research Ranger, in the year 59,006 is charged with caring for the planets and helping when the ecosystems need it. 

While accompanying another ranger to the south of the main continent, they discover a city that should not exist - a people who should be impossible. This will make Destry rethink all she knows about SASK-E and Verdance, the corporation who owns the planet. 

Newitz has written a great environmental science fiction story that will make you think differently about our world and all kinds of people. This is a great book.

Newitz, Annalee. (2023). The Terraformers. New York: TOR.

Mutineer (Kris Longknife #1)

Mutineer by Mike Shephard is the first book in the science fiction series featuring Kris Longknife. 

Born into the Longknife legacy – daughter to the planet’s Prime Minister and granddaughter to two war heroes – Kris has chosen another path. She will not run for office like her father and brother. She is joining the Space Navy of the Society of Humanity as an ensign. No special favors from on high like those who refer to her family as “those Longknifes would expect of her. 

And it looks like maybe she is getting all the worst assignments in the Navy. Her first deployment being a hostage rescue in a cabin that makes Fort Knox look like a piggy bank. 

Shephard’s first in the Kris Longknife series is a great space opera. I will be reading the entire series (currently twenty volumes). 

Shephard, Mike. (2021). Mutineer. New York: Ace Books

Into the Light (Out of the Dark #2)

Into the Light by David Weber and Chris Kennedy is the sequel to Out of the Dark - a military science fiction about Earth being invaded and the rebuilding after the war. 

After the war with the Shongairi, Earth must rebuild. Many need the basics - food and shelter - after the loss of so many cities around the globe. A new government must be set up partly to allocate resources and to protect people from those taking advantage of the chaos. The technology that the Shongairi brought will make rebuilding faster than it would have been after a human war. 

The characters who lead the fighting in the first book must pivot to what their skills can be used for now. Dave Dvorak, Governor Howell, Abu Bakr and others will do what they have to do to make sure the Earth is never again in such a vulnerable position. 

Weber created a military science fiction plot that highlights the strength of humans to never give up. The aliens who have a very different sort of logic had no idea what they were in for! This is a great read for scifi fans.

Weber, David & Chris Kennedy. (2020). Into the Light. New York: Tor.

Our Missing Hearts

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng is a dystopian novel of where we could end up if current political thought of some is left unchecked. 

Bird Gardener, thirteen years-old, lives with his father in Cambridge housing. His dad is a linguist and etymologist who has been reduced to shelving books in the university library.

Three years ago, Bird's mother left. Margaret Miu is a poet. One of her lines was used by a stranger in a protest. Now she is wanted by the government as a terrorist.

PACT - Preserving American Culture and Traditions - promised to root out anti-American elements. Mostly what this means is encouraging anti-Asian hate and hate crimes with a focus on China but really targets at any person of Asian descent caught outside.

Ng is a wonderful writer. Her story was so realistic that I had to skim some because it was easy to see today's news taken to the next extreme. Her message of hope in the face of rigid restrictions on civil liberties comes through the story strongly. Our Missing Hearts is a beautiful, painful book. 

Ng, Celeste. (2022). Our Missing Hearts. New York: Penguin.

A Gentleman in Moscow

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is a beautiful book that everyone should have the privilege to read. Though it was written recently it will surely join the classic must reads.

After the Russian revolution, the Bolsheviks have sentenced Count Alexander Rostov to house arrest. Luckily for him, he lives in the world-famous Metropol Hotel in the center of Moscow. Unfortunately, with his sentence, he is moved from his beautiful suite, filled with his family heirlooms, to a ten-by-ten room in the attic. 

Over the following years readers will delight in meeting the various visitors, residents and employees of the Metropol. And get to explore the hotel from every angle - especially after the Count makes friends with a young girl who cannot let any mystery or curiosity go unexplored.

Towles is a wonderful writer and storyteller. Read everything he publishes but buy this book today!

Towles, Amor. (2016). A Gentleman in Moscow. New York: Penguin.

She Who Became the Sun (Radiant Emperor #1)

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan is the first book in a retelling of Chinese history beginning in 1345.

Being a daughter in 1300s China is not easy. Having a brother who is an 8th -born son also means you have to do everything for you brother and father. 

When your father takes your brother to the fortune teller, you come along. The seer says your brother, Zhu Chongba, is destined to greatness. Since you are there, too, your fortune is told - it shows nothing. 

In a time of poverty for all but the upper class, your brother has been promised to the monastery. So, when your brother and father die and you have not food, you disguise yourself as your brother and present yourself to the monastery as him. You feel that is you do as your brother would, and keep the eye of heaven off of yourself, you can take over his destiny.

Parker-Chan has written the beginning of a brilliant series - historical fiction with a queer twist. I absolutely loved this book! If you are a fan of history, fantasy or badass female characters, read this book! (Book 2 will be out in August!)

Parker-Chan, Shelley. (2021). She Who Became the Sun. New York: Tor.