The Mistletoe Matchmaker   
by Felicity Hayes-McCoy (2019)

read: 31 August 2025
rating: [+]

This is another book in the Finfarran Peninsula series. I’ve liked the other two. This one had more of a “We’re making a movie where all the actors can’t be on set at the same time” vibe with a lot of plot lines happening at the same time but without a lot of overlap so it felt a bit disjoined. And not much happens. And it’s Christmas and there’s a fete brewing which is going to be different from the ones before. So not my fave of the series but it was enjoyable and a welcome balm from the angsty fiction I’d been reading.

The Autistic’s Guide to Self-Discovery   
by Sol Smith (2025)

read: 30 August 2025
rating: [+]

Sol runs a community for neurospicy folk and this is a very practical book on what it can be like to have autism diagnosed (or self-dignosed) later in life. He talks about his own experiences and shares a few stories from people he’s worked with, suitably anonymized. While I don’t entirely fit the criteria here, I’m also not what you’d call allistic so I read this with interest and think many people in the same boat could get a lot from it. Sol has some very particular opinions, which is not surprising, so there may be a few bits of advice here that don’t quite click for you, but it’s pretty simple to take what is useful and ignore the rest if you prefer.

The Folded Sky   
by Elizabeth Bear (2025)

read: 28 August 2025
rating: [0]

I like Elizabeth Bear’s writing and I liked the past two books in this series but this one did not work for me. Another very anxious protagonist. Nearly constant assaults by space pirates who are two-dimensional unknowable opponents so there’s not a lot of nuance or learning there. A lot of that Momma Bear “Now that you’ve threatened my children I am REALLY MAD” posturing which I’m sure works for some people but does not work for me. There’s a lot of interesting interspecies interactions and those parts are fascinating but that was not enough for me.

Vet at the Ends of the Earth   
by Jonathan Hollins (2023)

read: 23 August 2025
rating: [+]

This is about a veterinarian from the UK who moves to the Falklands for work and then goes to more and more remote islands nearby doing vet work. It’s humorous and interesting and comes with a fair bit of history about the various locales (though not a lot of critique of their colonial legacy). I enjoyed the vignette-style recounting of meeting the world’s oldest tortoise, troubleshooting a weird lamb disease, and searching for a lost dog in the island canyons.

Spent   
by Alison Bechdel (2025)

read: 21 August 2025
rating: [+]

I’m not always into anxious protagonists but I make a huge exception for this excellent book. Bechdel writes a graphic novel which is both about a fictionalized her but also has most of the cast of Dykes to Watch Out For, set against the backdrop of These Wretched Times both national and local. I saw a cameo of my congresswoman! I saw goats and seed art. The story is about Bechdel grappling with her fame, relationships, and trying to relate to the next generation of queer folk.

The Martian Contingency   
by Mary Robinette Kowal (2025)

read: 17 August 2025
rating: [+]

I read the last book a while ago, so I’m not sure what parts of my feeling sort of “eh” about it were not remembering details from previous books and which were that, as an anxious person with Shit To Do, it wasn’t fun reading about a Lady Astronaut who is anxious and has Shit To Do. It’s about the second expedition to Mars, with a permanent habitat on the planet and an orbiting space station above it. A lot of stuff goes wrong but there are also secrets from a previous mission, secrets which may be endangering safety. A lot of “Why won’t these people TALK to each other?” thinking from me as I read this. Also, no shade to this terrific lady astronaut but in some ways--while she is a brilliant computer and thinky math person--she doesn’t always seem suited to lead an expedition.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop   
by Satoshi Yagisawa (2023)

read: 11 August 2025
rating: [+]

This was another of those “cat books.” I loved the last one and did not care for this one as much. There was so much unspoken tension where I was like “JUST TELL THEM THAT THING” that it was a stressful read even though it’s a gentle story of a (maybe depressed) woman in Japan who is not sure what to do with her life. She spends a lot of time at a family-owned bookstore, at first wallowing and later getting into the scheme of things. She develops a love of reading which helps sort it all out and preps her for managing the family drama that is coming down the road. There is a sequel and I will probably not read it.

The Bezzle   
by Cory Doctorow (2024)

read: 7 August 2025
rating: [+]

I liked the original Marty Hench novel, this one didn’t do it for me as much. Cory clearly knows a lot about ways that rich people can fuck over basically everyone else, as well as how terrible the US prison-industrial complex is. There’s also a shout out to Aaron Swartz, RIP. However, the plot gets a bit lost in his explanations of these things (things I mostly already knew). It was good to see Marty, and Catalina Island, but there was only one woman with any lines in this book and that wasn’t quite enough for me.

Night Magic   
by Leigh Ann Henion (2024)

read: 4 August 2025
rating: [+]

The author lives in Boone NC and laments that blue light and other artificial lighting is limiting our access to the things that come out only at night. Each chapter looks at a new thing (bats, glowworms, fireflies, fungi, owls, moths) through this lens. I found the natural world discussions truly interesting and enjoyed the things I learned from this book. However, the use of a lot of “we” language (We can’t pull ourselves away from our screens, we are busy destroying the natural world, we don’t notice these things) did not resonate with me. If her opinions are also yours you’ll love this. Otherwise, you might not

Summer at the Garden Cafe   
by Felicity Hayes-McCoy (2017)

read: 3 August 2025
rating: [+]

This is a gentle sequel to The Library at the Edge of the World. This one more about the characters we met in the last book & even LESS about the bookmobile which was a part I liked. We see more people finding ways to make lives for themselves in the rural Irish town as well as a bit of history about the Irish Civil War which feels a bit bolted on and some mysteries which remain mysteries. Once you know what sort of book this is (like the last one, it’s a happy ending book) it does remove what might otherwise be a bit of suspense with some of the interplay between the characters. Also I am often the one asking “Why does this book have a MAP?” about a lot of books but this one could have really benefited from a map.

Eartha   
by Cathy Malkasian (2017)

read: 1 August 2025
rating: [+]

This is one of those tricky graphic novels which has a story that would be good for teens but has a few images that might encourage tut-tutting (my library does not have an “adult” section for GNs). Nothing problematic, just a few people who have erotic dreams that are (well) illustrated. It’s a fascinating story about people who live on an island where dreams appear, but they start coming less often and people worry something may be wrong. Eartha, an all-around well-liked person, has to go to the city to figure it out. A lot going on here, masterfully illustrated and a nice warm tied-up ending.

The Expert of Subtle Revisions   
by Kirsten Menger-Anderson (2025)

read: 29 July 2025
rating: [+]

This was another time travel/loop novel where I’m not entirely sure what happened but I enjoyed it. It’s also got a Wikipedia aspect, done well so I’m a fan. This connects two time periods: 2016 Bay Area and 1930s Vienna (including the political upheval and the rise of fascism) with a few side visits to other times and places. I liked getting to experience both of the main places/times through this novel which is about math and power and who actually gets to write history. Strong female characters round it out, though the message is ultimately about, in some ways, the invisibility of women.

The Science of Last Things   
by Ellen Wayland-Smith (2024)

read: 26 July 2025
rating: [0]

I somehow misread the blurb and cover and thought this would be a very different sort of book. It was essays about the author’s life in the context of “the bigger picture” for lack of a better phrase. She discusses religion, her father’s death, her cancer, prozac, the birth of her children. Many classic texts were cited and quoted from at length which I am sure works for hte right kind of audience but not me. It was very much not my thing, too “literary” by half, using words like chthonic when many simpler ones would do. The author seems like a nice person and her thoughts about life were interesting, but I thought this would be more about the natural world and less about introspection and what people from the canon had to say about those topics.

Woodworking   
by Emily St. James (2025)

read: 24 July 2025
rating: [+]

Emily St. James has written one hell of a first novel. A teacher in rural South Dakota has decided, mostly, to do something about the fact that she is trans. The only other trans person she knows is a 17 year old girl who had to threaten the school district to be able to go to school--they form an unlikely alliance. She goes to support groups. She gets in her own head a LOT. She wavers. She has moments of bravery. She meets others like and not like herself which itself is a great part of the book. A masterful novel.

Trans History: A Graphic Novel   
by Alex Combs (2025)

read: 21 July 2025
rating: [+]

A good “talking heads” style graphic novel about the history of trans people and trans identity based on actual “what we know” history (which is often, sadly, not much b/c of colonizers and active suppression). The author does a good job explaining the things that are still unknown. Not all the history is great, of course, but the authors emphasize the positive and also try to get more than just the usual voices, actively reaching out to many kinds of transfolk to create this wide compendium of histories.