October Reading List

• An African History of Africa byZeinab Badawi

A nice overview of aspects of African History that may be less familiar to non-Africans. It doesn't go very deep into each one, but might leave you with a dozen rabbit holes to fall into.

 

• Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters by Mike Grell

Comics Green Arrow is quickly becoming a favourite. This story is dark and compelling (although with unnecessary sexy torture) and new character Shado is very cool.

 

• Dead Man's Ransom - #9 Chronicles of Brother Cadfael - by Ellis Peters

Found this slightly less enjoyable than other books in the series. The mystery takes a backseat to the civil war/historical events and I found Elis, the main suspect, too annoying to enjoy his troubles. Brother Cadfael was awesome, as always ☺️

 

• Batman-Superman: World's Finest vol 5 by Mark Waid

Fun take on Superman and Batman's first meeting - they make a good team from the start. Very fun take on Luthor and Joker's team-up - Joker drives Luthor crazy, and Luthor underestimates the Joker to his own detriment 🤣🤣

 

• Stars and Bones by Gareth L. Powell

Seventy-five years ago, an Angel saved humanity from self-destruction by nuclear war. Now, everyone lives in a fleet of sentient space Arks, all their needs taken care of.

Eryn is a ship navigator trying to find out what happened to his sister - and, in the process, introduces the fleet to the biggest crisis it ever had to face.

I really enjoyed this book, it hooked me quickly and the world building is exquisite. The relationship between Eryn and her sentient ship, the Ocelot, is at the heart of the story. Because of the way space travel works, they are basically ride or die for each other.

The downside is Eryn’s other relationships. Things are awkward with her niece - which makes sense, considering their family history and their recent loss - but her love interest, Li, oh boy. Eryn keeps not being interested, only to decide she’s in love, only to dump Li first chance she gets. Maybe it’s me, but I found it hard to tell if it went like that on purpose, or the author is just bad at romance…

Still looking forward for the next book in the series, though.

 

• They do it with Mirrors by Agatha Christie

More interesting than I remembered. It’s the kind of book where the crime itself is rather simple, it’s the obfuscation around it that makes things interesting - I just didn’t find the family drama compelling in this one.

 

• Ultimate Spider-Man vol 2 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley

Story is very compelling, the art only so-so. Peter keeps getting the short end of the stick, but, at least, he still has MJ by his side.

 

• The Craft of Love by EE Ottoman

She's a quiltmaker, he's a silversmith; she's a socialist, he's trans - and neither of those things create problems for the romance. It's a nice story, if you you're into low-stakes, low-conflict stories, but I'm not and I need to stop trying to be.