Flotsam and Jetsam

Howdy Bookworms!

I’m feeling a little bit of blogging mojo these days, so I’m just going to roll with it. Let’s recap the week, shall we? Also, if you didn’t immediately picture Ursula’s minions from The Little Mermaid when you read the title of this post, I’m not sure we can be friends anymore. Kidding. We can still be friends. But brush up on your Disney, folks!

FIRST- Did y’all see that I wrote an honest to goodness review earlier this week about the Man-Eating Hippo books? If you missed it, you should definitely check it out.

SECOND- I finished The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. As I mentioned in my last Brain Dump, it was a bit much for me in terms of the raw cruelty (which, duh Katie, it’s in the title). I actually ended up liking it toward the end more than I expected to due in no small part to some of my fave characters from The Darkest Part of the Forest showing up. I’m not sure I liked it quite enough to continue with the series as it’s released, but it’s also not out of the question. I’m ambivalent. I’m not, however, ambivalent about Holly Black’s work in general, so I might dive a little deeper into her back list instead. The world is wide and books are many. We’ll see where the wind takes me.

THIRD: I started an finished Artemis, Andy Weir’s first novel since the wildly successful The Martian (which I reviewed ages ago when I was still doing a virtual book club.) Artemis is set in a city on the moon and features a female protagonist up to dubious good… Plus a lot of welding and chemistry shenanigans. It was alright. I enjoyed it well enough, but where The Martian had that whole survivalist thing going, this was a little more “unlikely heroes pulling off capers, but in space!” I’ve certainly read worse sophomore novels (I’m still not over Bellman and Black…) so I’m hopeful that Weir can recapture some of The Martian‘s magic in future work.

FOURTH: Speaking of Bellman & Black, I started Diane Setterfield’s latest release, Once Upon a River (my work Secret Santa got me a beautiful hardcover copy- I’m shifting back and forth between that and an audio version.) So far I’m enjoying it a lot. The vibe is a lot more The Thirteenth Tale (another ancient book club pick) than Bellman & Black which is a VERY good thing.

FIFTH: I started reading Blair Braverman’s book, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North. If you’re on Twitter and you’re not following Blair, you’re missing out on the best feed since SUE the T-Rex. So much delightful dog sledding. I know you THINK you’re not interested in dog sledding, but that’s only because you haven’t met Blair yet. Her unique voice and excellent stories about her pups have this decidedly indoorsy gal reading a memoir about extremely cold, extremely outdoorsy things. With no penguins, even! (Penguins are strictly Southern Hemisphere. Despite what adorable Christmas decorations would have you believe, they do NOT hang out with Polar Bears, ever. And not just because Polar Bears would totally eat them. Because geography.)

Whew. That’s all for this week, I think. We’ve got snow coming this weekend. I’m hoping to have some extraordinarily adorable photos of a snowy Sammers to show you soon. As always, if you make a purchase through a link on this site, I will receive a small commission. Keep learning, Elmo loves you. (I’ve been watching A LOT of Sesame Street. Just. Let me have this.)