Whoops, forgot to post this week but I finished a book recently and wanted to share.

I don’t know why I am just hearing about Binti now – every single person I’ve gone to tell about it after I finished it had heard of the series and raved about the author! Oh well, better late than never! I’ve already requested the next two in the series along with her stand-alone novel.

And let me just say, I love the format of the short and sweet sci-fi. At under 100 pages, Binti was more engaging than some 1000 page tomes I’ve slogged through. Really looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

I had a realization at work when some new graphic novels arrived that I was NOT caught up on my Ms. Marvel comics! I did a quick search in the library catalog and was shocked that I was three trades behind…and I also didn’t realize that the lead writer had left.

This first trade with the new head writer is great. Definitely still felt like Ms Marvel but I could see the seeds being planted for future adventures and maybe some changes down the road. This is the only superhero comic I really follow (and, yeah, I’m dreading the Disney+ series…just worried they won’t do her justice).

I didn’t plan to be listening to a Star Wars book when May 4th rolled around, but it worked out that way and it was the only Star Wars media I took in that day. I picked this up because I LOVE the MurderBot series by Martha Wells and found out from the Star Wars Book Club I am in that this existed so I NEEDED IT. (I also found out the authors of The Expanse wrote one too, so that’s up next).

I actually downloaded the audiobook from the library, which was fantastic. Star Wars audiobooks always have great production value, with sound effects and music. The narrator, January LaVoy, was great, she did voices for each character and it was downright impressive! Highly recommend this one for Star Wars fans, especially if Princess Leia is your favorite, like me.

I picked up CODA because of the awesome artwork on the cover and then I saw the Jeff Lemire blurb and I knew I needed to read it. This dark fantasy is full of adventure, black humor, and a complex world. It is a trilogy and the other two trades are already out, so I hope to finish this one up over the next month or so. Fingers crossed that it can maintain the quality level of book one in the rest of the series.

As for my “currently reading”, the new book by A.S. King came out this month and she is one of my favorite authors. Top ten. Drop EVERYTHING when a new A.S. King book comes out, no questions asked. Did I have any idea what this book was about when it landed on my desk? NOPE! I just read whatever she puts out and hope I can grasp it.

If you’ve never read anything by King, you should know her style if very unique. It’s both realistic and fantasy. It is the everyday life of a modern teenager but also twisted sci-fi. It’s prose and poetry. It’s full of metaphors, waking dreams…or is this just what real life is like now?

Switch hits hard from page one, with the narrator explaining how time stopped in June 2020. And how the narrator decides that the only way to get the world back on track and fix things is to make people “give a shit about each other”.

But in true A.S. King fashion, nothing is so simple. Her father keeps adding on to their house, a project he started when her mother walked out on him and he seems to be stuck in an endless cycle, like the Winchester Mansion, compelled to keep hammering. Her older brother feels like he should try to balance the family, still taking calls from their estranged sister…the sister with a dark past that casts a shadow on all their relationships.

Yeah, all that and I’m only 1/3 of the way through the book. ALWAYS SO GOOD!!!

Hope your May reading is going well!