Category: reading

Valente, Vaughn, Viehl

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As promised, the next post in my women in science fiction and fantasy blog series, posting on Wednesday so we’re back to normal! Today, I discuss a short story by Catherynne Valente and books by Carrie Vaughn and S. L. Viehl. As usual, if you’ve read other books by these authors or have questions or comments about anything I say, please be sure to let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading! Continue reading

Uehashi, Underwood, Ursu

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With this post, I’m caught up on the women in science fiction and fantasy posts, and Wednesday, posts resume their regular schedule. Today, I talk about books by Nahoko Uehashi and Anne Ursu, as well as a short story by Laura J. Underwood. Lots of fun this week. As ever, if you’ve read anything else by these authors, have other authors to recommend, or just like the sound of these, leave a note in the comments. Continue reading

Thomas, Turner

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Today’s rather late helping of women writers of science fiction and fantasy includes a short story from Sarah Thomas and a novel from Megan Whalen Turner. I had intended to include Sheri Tepper, but it seems I left the library without The Margarets, which I’ve been wanting to read for a while. Distraction is inherent in going to the library with both kids, I guess. Thus, only two authors for this post. If you want to recommend other works by these authors, or suggest other authors for me to try, please feel free to do so in the comments. Continue reading

Smedman, Spencer, Springer

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Welcome to another week of women writers of science fiction and fantasy. This week, I’m featuring the letter S — Lisa Smedman, Wen Spencer, and Nancy Springer. A reminder that although I’m only talking about one work by each of these women, they all have much more to read! As always, if the work of any of the authors sounds interesting to you, please do check them out — and if you have enjoyed something by them that I haven’t mentioned, let me know in the comments. Continue reading

Rickert, Rusch, Russell

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R’s an easy letter, of course. Lots of names starting with R. Today’s helping of women writers of science-fiction and fantasy includes M. Rickert, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Mary Doria Russell. As always, if the work of any of the authors sounds interesting to you, please do check them out — and if you have enjoyed something by them that I haven’t mentioned, let me know in the comments. Continue reading

Quindlen . . .

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I only found one author to fill the Q slot of this A to Z series — Anna Quindlen, with one of her children’s books. I’m open to hearing about authors I missed, and if someone wants a pen name in a little-frequented section of the alphabet, I can recommend this letter!

Happily Ever After by Anna Quindlen

This is the story of Kate, a tomboy who loves both baseball and fairy tales. Her aunt Mary gives her a magic baseball mitt, and Kate wonders, just once, what it would be like to be a princess. Her actions in the fairy tales are not what anyone expects, and she’s quite happy to go back to her own life.

This is a sweet little tale that I’m happy to share with my own daughter (even if I’m not a baseball person myself). A fairy tale for the modern age.

Anna Quindlen can be found on-line at annaquindlen.net.

Phillips, Pierce, Priest

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Keeping with the theme of short works, today I present one children’s book (Middle grade? The term wasn’t in use when the book came out.) and two short stories, the work of Holly Phillips, Tamora Pierce, and Cherie Priest. If the work of any of the authors sounds interesting to you, please do check them out — and if you have enjoyed something by them that I haven’t mentioned, let me know in the comments. Continue reading

Okorafor, Ore, Ozeki

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Today’s post includes Nnedi Okorafor, Rebecca Ore, and Ruth Ozeki. As mentioned in my overview post last week, more short stories. In fact, all three of today’s reviews are of short stories. If the work of any of the authors sounds interesting to you, please do check them out — and if you have enjoyed something by them that I haven’t mentioned, let me know in the comments. Continue reading

A to M, a retrospective

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First half of the alphabet done, and I’ve got a couple of things I’d do differently if I do another such series. Things I might do differently going forward into the second half of the alphabet, for that matter.

Starting with: It’s hard to read 3-4 books a week — plus my other reading (I haven’t given up reading other authors, after all!), and my writing, my work, and my family all take time as well. I’ll be including more short fiction or books I’ve already read going forward. And if I do this again, I’ll probably either do only 1 per week, or do it every other week. It’s a lot to keep up with, and I’m really impressed with review sites who do this all the time.

I might take more suggestions for stories and authors for the future, or for future A to Z topics. I’m not sure. (You can always give me suggestions; I won’t guarantee to take them!)

You’ve probably noticed that I don’t always have a quote from the author to go with my review. That can be from any number of reasons: the author might be dead, the author might have no Website (or no contact info on the Website), I might have contacted the author too late, my contact e-mail might have wound up in the author’s spam folder (I did receive one note about this two weeks after a particular post had gone live), or the author might have been swamped by real world considerations. The only one of these I have any control over is how early I contact the author, so I don’t anticipate a lot of change in this area.

One thing I’ve particularly enjoyed about this series so far is the breadth I’m covering. (No surprise there, right?) My coverage is, of necessity, not encyclopedic. I can’t talk about everyone, but I try to cover as much of the speculative range as I can.

Odd thing I wasn’t expecting: one author specifically requested I not include her. I honored her wish, but I was surprised.

Here we are, now, half the alphabet to go yet. I’m anticipating finishing up the last week of the year (probably combining X and Y into a single week). I hope you’re enjoying this as much as I am.