Shaina Reads

Happy Monday, book buddies! I hope you all had lovely weekends, whether or not you partook in any Easter festivities. Hopefully you weren't bum-rushing any egg hunts.

On Wednesday, I take off for Seattle for my last graduate school visit before I make my final decision about where to attend. I've got a gut feeling that I'm going to love University of Washington's program and may just be calling myself a Seattleite come fall, but only time will tell. One thing's for sure: I'm excited to be done with the whirlwind cross-country travel. My body is, too; after my last red-eye home from Berkeley, I was a sickly mess for almost a week. Yay for another red-eye on Thursday night!

Anyway, you aren't here for travel grumbling. You're here for the books!

Last week, I finished and adored the audio of The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin. I wrote a super gushy review, but I also urge you to read Foz Meadows's thoughtful take on how Jemisin treated her queer characters (after you read the book, if you plan to; it's super spoiler-filled). I stand by my hearty recommendation of the novel and the audio version, but Meadows's points helped me to think more critically about a trope I missed the first time around.

This week, I hope to finish up the last of Jonathan Kozol's The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. I should have some non-fiction reviewlettes coming your way soon, but I think I want to finish Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman first. I started it over the weekend and have already flown through 20% of the audio. The way Silberman interweaves the stories of families with children on the spectrum with the history of autism's classification and treatment has me completely hooked.

You guys. YOU GUYS. You guys.

After a blissful two-week stint with it, I just finished the audio of N. K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season, the first in her Broken Earth series. I managed to glom together enough of the puddle it reduced me to to grab my laptop and open up a new post draft. Considering this is only my second blog post in a month that's almost over, you might say this is big.

At its heart, The Fifth Season tells the story of Essun, a woman who comes home one day to find that the family—and the world—she's known has ended. She will never be able to go back to the way things were before, but she can track down the one who's responsible for taking it all away from her. Interwoven with Essun's story is that of Syenite, an Orogene (a master of the Earth's seismic activity) who is slowly uncovering the dark secrets of the academy that trained her, and Damaya, another powerful young woman who casts off her beginnings as a pariah in the hope of something better. I don't want to go into the specifics for fear of spoilers, but here are a bunch of generalities: this story is about race, caste, gender, and sex (the sexy kind, not the biological kind); it's about a cast of horribly interesting and diverse (actually diverse! not just pretend!) characters; it's about a mother's love and how far it will carry you before you break; and it's about freaking awesome earth magic and stone lore and mysterious gemstone monoliths that float among the clouds.

Although I'm certainly not shy about expressing my enthusiasm for the things I love, I would not call myself overly gushy when I review. No book is perfect, and I like to temper my positivity with the parts that didn't sit right with me, whether they're mountains or mole hills. Here? I've really got nothin'. This book had me by the throat from the very beginning and did not let go until more than 15 hours of audio had gone by. I am sitting here trying to think of a single negative thing to say, and the only thing I'm coming up with is that it ended.

I'm still only getting started with fantasy, and I think this would be a perfect start for anyone looking to break in to the genre. Jemisin's world is vast and thorough, layered with a mythology that's either all its own or based on one I need to learn much, much more about, but it does not feel intimidating or unwieldy. I remember feeling overwhelmed at the outset when I tried Jemisin's The Killing Moon last year, but I did not feel that same sense of disorientation in the Broken Earth universe. My audio book came with a handy PDF appendix that helped me over the initial hurdle, and it was smooth sailing from there.

In fact, I might be trying The Killing Moon again via audio next. I'm just terrified that no one can live up to Robin Miles in the narration department. She tackled an invented language, narration changes (a significant amount of the story takes place in second person), and a wide variety of voices with ease and more than a bit of sass. This is a story about women, and Miles took them off the page and made them live and breathe and just be, unapologetically.

As excited as I am to get my hands on The Obelisk Gate (Broken Earth #2) in August, I'm going to be sorely disappointed if Robin Miles doesn't eventually read and record it. I may just start a petition.

Go read and/or listen to this book. Now. Like, really. Close this page and go.

Hi, book buds! The rumors are true: I'm still alive.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, particularly on the weekends. I closed out February with a trip to New York City to visit a slew of college friends (and, of course, to hit up The Strand), and I spent the following weekend in beautiful Berkeley, California being wooed by their public health school (and not meeting Lauren, much to my sadness). I took a red-eye home last Monday night and worked the next day, and only now am I finally feeling readjusted to real life. I think sleeping for 12 hours on Saturday night/Sunday morning might have finally done the trick. Needless to say, that bloggin' flow has been more of an ebb lately.

Despite my lack of posting, I have been reading! Thirty-six hours of listening later, I finally, FINALLY finished Alexander Hamilton. I immediately dove into audio of Sarah Vowell's Lafayette in the Somewhat United States because I just wasn't ready to quit that tasty, tasty American revolutionary history. It was my first Vowell, and I'm especially interested in getting my hands on Take the Cannoli next. I'm crossing my fingers it'll come to Audible soon.

I've also been gettin' odd for Julianne's Weirdathon (sign-ups are open until tomorrow!). I've had Karin Tidbeck's Jagannath lingering on my virtual bookshelf since this time last year, and these oft-bizarre, always whimsical Swedish short stories did not disappoint. I also knocked another read off my Kindle with The Bees by Laline Paull. The ending managed to feel both epic and too neat, but I really enjoyed the ride. I mean, wildly religious bees. And they talk.

I'm so excited about everything I'm reading right now, too. I've raved about it on Twitter already, but get thee to your nearest audiobook source and grab up The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin. I ended up setting aside The Killing Moon when I tried it last year, but I'm absolutely sucked in to her latest. Fabulous world-building, a sucker-punch of a beginning, and solid narration? I couldn't ask for more. I also started The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonathan Kozol just last night, and my blood has been at a slow roil ever since.

Also, sorry to Rain and In the Woods. I'll come back to you, I promise.