Favorite Reads of 2023

I am guilty of not having kept up with my blog. Guilty of not keeping up with a lot lately. Some days and months I have a hard time balancing motherhood, writing, and just being myself. One thing, no matter what’s going on in my life, I read. If it’s 4am and I cannot sleep, I am reading. I am a reader of in-between spaces, waiting, and procrastination. That being said, I don’t get large chances to read everything. A large portion of what I read didn’t come out in 2023.

These lists are not in any order and I have provided one sentence thoughts on each that might or might not entice you to read them. I have not linked physical books. If a short story is available online it has been linked.

Novels/Novellas:

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison Has been on my shelf since 2016 and shame on me for taking so long to read it. I now have the other books in this world.

Semiosis by Sue Burke Another long shelf sitter and shame on me.

Nocturne by Alyssa Wees I love dark, gothic romantic tales.

Girl at War by Sara Nović Made me cry in a grocery store.

The Stolen Heir by Holly Black Yes. I am here for a good time.

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher And people say cozy horror isn’t a thing.

Out of Body by Jeffrey Ford We did a lot of cleaning house together.

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky Thank you for the recommendation. Fear the spider.

The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland Vampires will always live rent free in this heart

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie Reads like a wonderful movie. We’re all in.

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery I read and write spec fiction and this might be my strangest read of 2023.

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer Blown away by dialog. Seriously.

You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce Beautiful horror, just pay no attention to the body parts hanging in the trees.

Short Stories/Flash:

Natalya by Puloma Ghosh Cut into some lovely horror

Power is Love in the Devil’s Eyes by Dafydd McKimm I like fish.

Evidence by Grace Shuyi I relatable on a level that popped my socks off.

The Air Will Catch Us by Rajiv Moté For the atmosphere.

Ghosts Can Be Boyfriends Too by Daniel Zomparelli Confidence!

Thank Mother for Your Life by Mary G Thompson Lives in my head and comes to remind me of it in quiet moments.

The Changing Dust by James Bennett We love a historic setting that gives us mystery.

Moth Girl by Anna Madden Read with my first cup of coffee in the morning and was ready to write the things.

 

Picture Books 3: Trees and Pups

Welcome to the third installment of what I’ve gotten at the library for my toddler. At the time of writing, one of these books I’ve read enough times I feel as if I have it memorized. As always, my toddler picks a book and I pick a book, and then we see whose pick works. This series isn’t a review but rather ad adventure into children’s literature where I take you with me.

 My pick was, We Planted a Tree by Diane Muldrow and Illustrated by Bob Staake. The illustrations caught my eye off the bat. I LOVE the art style. It brings me peace in each page. Unfortunately, the toddler was not as amused. In fact, he demanded we closed it halfway through a dozen times. We have very different tastes. I thought it would be a win because of the short sentences and there is a lot to discuss on each page.

 My toddler’s pick was PAW Patrol: The Movie: Big City Adventures by Nicole Johnson and Illustrated by Wedoo Studio. The toddler has decided in the last couple months that PAW Patrol is just as good as strawberries. We haven’t watched the movie this is based after but I have read the book at least once a day. He loves naming the characters on each page and telling me some of what he hears them say.

Picture Books 2: Squares and Socks

Hello friends, and those with a healthy dose of curiosity! I bring to your attention Squares and Little Sock Makes a Friend. As with the last library picks, my kiddo (he’s two) picks a book and I pick a book for us to read. These two books worked for us and we got a lot of milage out of them!

 Squares by Pamela Hall and illustrated by Sharon Holm is about squares! It’s what I would call an early math or science book. A cat and dog play and eat together, all involving square shaped items. This worked so well because we pointed out together all the square shaped objects. I tried to get him to find square shaped things around us, but after reading his attention was exhausted. That’s not to say I didn’t try again later, and yep, he knows what squares are and how many sides they have. I call this a win for both of us. This was his pick and worked out well for us.

 Little Sock Makes a Friend by Kia Heise and Illustrated by Christopher D. Park is about a sock making a friend. My kiddo asked me to read this about a dozen times. The art work is bright, colorful, and a lot of fun. As an adult, I love that the sock sneaks into a tube in the dryer to find another land full of socks. Everyone, with kids and without, relates to a missing sock. My missing ones sit on dressers waiting for their lost friend to come back. Anyway, our sock finds a friend in Sock City. For the two weeks with these books, I was asked to read this one on repeat. I will end up buying it. Additionally, there is another book that features Little Sock.

Picture Books- A Donkey and Homes

One of my favorite things about having a kid, other than the kiddo, has been picture books. He is on a journey of first-time discovery and I’m on a journey of rediscovery. The art is amazing. The prose is at times poetry. They hold emotional gut punches that sometimes bring me to tears. Today is a library day, meaning it is time to release some of the ones we picked up and pick more. We both pick one book, sometimes more than one each if we can’t decide. Being that he is two, he is more likely to pick a book with an animal or automobile on the cover. I like heavier prose and the art style.

Before we make our selection, we do not know what is inside the books. It is usually based on our moods and how much time we have.

Last week his pick was The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith and Illustrated by Katz Cowley. This was picked because it has a donkey on the cover, and my mother has a retired donkey he gets to pet and feed. I’ll find a picture and add it below. I appreciated the rhythm of the book. If you’ve had kids after a certain point, you’ve read this one. I have one big, BUT that I’m sure a hundred other people have complained about: The language in the text is problematic.

My pick was Home is Where the Birds Sing by Cynthia Rylant and Illustrated by Katie Harnett. It caught my eye for three reasons, the art, the title, and how many words were on each page. If the paragraphs are too long my child’s attention will disappear. (There is a joke here when it comes to writing short fiction.) This was a huge win because there are a ton of objects to point out. While the book focuses on different types of diverse homes, we discovered cats, cars, windows, and a bunch of words. It is a book that can easily be explored.

I intend to post more of these. They’re not meant to be reviews but explorations.  

Horror and Monsters: 2023

Welcome to 2023. The new releases (books) are on fire this year in the best possible way. Unfortunately, the world is also on fire, so we have that going for us. Have you checked out your library lately? Holy shitballs, (Is that one word or two? I’m making it one because I can.) my library new release section used to be all Thriller and Mysteries with a sprinkle of Historic Fiction, now we’ve moved into Horror. They’re sparse on the Science Fiction. As a side note, I was told that SF & F is niche when I inquired about why it—unless you skip over to the Young Adult New Releases.

 I’m complaining now and you’re not here for that. I’ll get to it.

 So, every time I go, they have a New Release book I’ve heard of or is an author I recognize. Horror often slips over into the speculative and if you’ve read some of my published short stories, you know I like a good creeptastic story. So, I don’t have a choice. I check it out. I mean, it’s right there. What else am I supposed to do?

 How often do I go? Once every other week, or more. Depends. I have a toddler and we load up on picture books. By the way, have you read out of the kid section lately!? The art, the poetry, it’s so simple, so…. I should do some blogs about these books and our experiences. We buy the ones he likes.

 Anyway. I try to read new releases, but the truth is that I’m so far behind. There is so much to read, and I have so much I’ve purchased last month, two months, and three years ago. My reading back log is a thing of beauty. I think I’m starting to hit books that were released in 2013 but occasionally find 2011 and 2012 hold outs. I’m told I read fast but I’m not sure that’s true.

 Perhaps my eyes are bigger than my brain.

 I just finished A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. This book said hold my beer. I didn’t know horror could be cozy, or is it because I tend to find campy things cozy? And while I’m sitting at 4am reading when I should be writing a story about a weird west monster hunter (Why? Because I haven’t worked on a story like that before.) I think to myself, why am I engrossed in horror right now?

 In 2020 I developed insomnia. It happens a couple days out of the week. I rise like a zombie horror at 2-3am and there is no going back to sleep. I am filled with anxious energy that I tell myself I’m going to put onto paper and be done with, but instead bury myself in someone else’s made up horror.

 These are the reasons I’ve come up with, and pre-warning this will mention some of the very scary shit happening around the states. I have a toddler and soon he should be in school and before that I have to have a talk about active shooters and drills and being super quiet. Maybe it is because in 2020 I was pregnant and watching body bags on the news. Maybe it’s because I won’t have another child while I live in Georgia and if something goes wrong, I’m kind of fucked, not as fucked as other places. We probably couldn’t afford it anyway. And how can I sit and write when rights are being taken? Holy shit, I didn’t even get into housing and environmental crisis.

 And then I think: I sound like this old lady I used to work with who would come in and tell me some awful story from the news. Or how I hear people say, “There is a lot more violence now.” And I think, That’s NOT fucking true, it wasn’t as documented. 

 Anyway. Anyway. Anyway.

 So yeah, Monsters. They’re wonderful. I mean awful, but in a wonderful way. The protagonists are scared but have agency. They might get to DO something about it. They might escape and the world might be better off. Oh sure, the monsters might still lurk in the shadows, nothing ever goes away. Even a haunting leaves bruises but there is life at the end.

 

 

 

 

The Kid and Nostalgia

Today is the day of my kid’s 2nd birthday party. Here, a party is expected. To not do it might be close to abuse. I was telling a friend of mine, whose child is around the same age, that it’s exhausting to be the party logistics person— just complaining/venting to a friend type of thing. She asked a couple questions and we started to realize that maybe there was a cultural shift between us. To her, planning a party for someone so young is extreme.

“Well, it’d be just a shame not to have a party,” is what would be used in my direction. People always think we use “Bless your heart,” for everything, but really we use the word “shame.” We say it in a special tone made so sweet it’ll sting your teeth. It’ll be wielded against me like an angel’s fiery fucking sword.

Luckily for those who might be like that: I LOVE parties. I don’t care if they’re for occasions, kids, adults, even pets—any group setting of friends and family getting together to laugh, play games, or just joy in being around each other is special. I didn’t realize how much I took it for granted until Covid. (Not to worry. I know the Rona beast isn’t over, no matter what anyone fucking says.)

I plan a party for ease and fun. I do not go all out. This isn’t a structured thing. This is a handful of friends and family who will gather outside to eat pizza and cake. I have decorations, bright Cars theme, like the movies and show. It’s that theme because my child LOVES it. I have made attempts to get him into a dozen other shows and movies, but nothing beats Cars.

When I was a kid, maybe turning 6 or 7, my mom asked me what I wanted for the theme. She probably thought I’d pick The Little Mermaid or Lion King (Maybe it wasn’t out yet.) But I picked Rock’N’Roll, or rather, a rock star. At three, and still at ages six and seven, I was sure that I would front a band. I made up songs on the fly everyday. I didn’t own the first musical instrument other than my voice. My parents promised vocal lessons if I got A’s in school, but they knew, even before I did, that my learning disability and an allergen to authority meant I was going to have a hard time in school.

My mom cranked out black guitars and edged everything in neon pink for the party. Records danced in confetti. My party might have been a handful of kids on small plastic tables in a garage—eating pizza and cake. But I remember it as fucking awesome.

My kid won’t remember today. He will only have pictures and video. This is about the trappings, the nostalgia of our youth that has me getting the right number of plates with cartoon faces and my husband going out of his way to get the goodie bags when I refused.

For now this’ll be a get together, a small party to laughand enjoy company as safely as possible.

Sometimes I find it hard to get past the fucking trappings.