(I almost just typed “wreading” so that tells you wear my brain is today)

I’m still working on Stamped from the Beginning, which is still excellent. It is a very readable history book and I feel like, even at 500 pages, it is a quick read. The style is very accessible and it just opens up a whole new world…the infuriating thing being that it is the world I’ve been living in this whole time, it’s just that history has been so skewed in how it was presented that these ideas never came up. I highly recommend it and I’m only in Part 2 of 4.

I am still listening to The Queen’s Shadow for the Star Wars Book Club. I really find it strange to read a book that depends SO MUCH on you knowing the lore of a series of movies. Like, I’m not even sure someone who had not seen the prequels could make sense of this. If you just saw Natalie Portman in fancy make-up and decide to read it, you would probably be bored to tears because the first quarter of the book is straight-up politics for a made up planet and its made up election system. And if you know the movies, you know the fates of many of the characters already. It is a strange creature. But a nice distraction while I’m making dinner.

I did feel the need to actually FINISH reading something so I binged two graphic novels over the past couple weeks on the weekend. The first was The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado. This was on the GoodReads best graphic novels of 2020 nominations and had a cool cover, so I put it on hold.

It is essentially a short horror story about a town where strange cracks open up in the ground and creatures come out, where things lurk in the darkness that people won’t talk about. I liked the style and the art and the setup for the town and I really enjoyed the friendship between the two main characters, but in the end, I was very disappointed with what the twist was, a trope that I tire of seeing. I know it is a horror story and the author wanted to make it as horrific as possible but I’ve seen this before and I think it could have been done a lot better and still have been horrific. I’m trying not to spoil it, in case you want to read it…but just know the climax isn’t what you’re hoping.

Basketful of Heads by Joe Hill, on the other hand, was fantastic. Also horror tropey – young girl in short shorts manages to fight off baddies. But that is a trope I’m fine with. Jane was feisty in all the right ways. It was set in the 80s, but I think that was mostly done to eliminate the constant contact of cell phones, which I know horror writers have said makes it difficult to maintain suspense when you can call anyone at any time or take a photo etc.. BUT the book did not fall into the problematic area of using the 80s as an excuse to be gross. The 80s cliches are there, sexist comments and so on, but it works because when Jane gets to chop off some heads (it’s in the title!) you’re rooting for her. I would love to see this one made into a movie.

I read the first chapter of We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen last night because I wanted something light and it was pretty amusing. It’s not a very long book so I might try to read that and take a little break from Stamped…or try to read Stamped faster so I can pick it up. I’m not sure which yet.

I was just alerted to the reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Boom! comics so I have all of those on order and will probably drop everything and read them once they arrive.

How’s your February reading going? Anything special in your TBR that you’re looking forward to starting? Let me know in the comments!