I love summer. Thunderstorms cooling off the scorching heat, bunnies munching green shoots in the fields at dusk, and fireflies sparkling in the night. I’ve installed string lights on the back porch so I can finally use it for night reading and writing. Woo hoo!
I’m still working hard on the new podcast, The Serial Fiction Show, and writing episodes of my co-authored serial fiction stories which are launching later this month. If you haven’t checked these out yet, here are the links: serialfictionshow.com and lpstylesbooks.com
I’m looking forward to sharing more with you once they go live! With all the work I’m putting in on these projects, I’m still managing to get a fair amount of reading and TV viewing in…
What I’m Reading
The Refrigerator Monologues: Catherynne M. Valente (Saga Press, 2017). I’m a huge Valente fan, especially Space Opera which is one of the funniest and most charming books I’ve read in a long time (and is on sale for $1.99 right now!!), so I don’t know how I missed this one for so many years. Women who belong to the Hell Hath club relate their stories of being “refrigerated” by the superheroes they were involved with. Funny, heart-warming, and tear-jerking. If you want to feel all the feels, I highly recommend this poignant take on how women have been represented in superhero storylines that wouldn’t pass the Bechdel Test.
The House in the Cerulean Sea: TJ Klune (Tor, 2020). Gail Carriger called this New York Times bestseller “1984 meets The Umbrella Academy with a pinch of Douglas Adams thrown in”, and I 100% agree. A child protection worker in charge of cases of Magical Youth travels to an orphanage to decide whether the six children living there will bring about the apocalypse. But this stuffy, introverted man gets more than he expects in this tale of found family and unexpected love.
Circe: Madeline Miller (Little Brown, 2018). All I remembered about Circe from Bullfinch’s mythology was that she turned Odysseus’ men into pigs. This imaginative retelling of the goddess’ story is feminist, sweeping, intimate, and made me reflect on how much of a jerk Odysseus really was. This is a beautiful, poetic page-turner. I’ve never seen Greek mythology told like this.
What I’m Watching
Sweet Tooth: Based on the graphic novels by Jeff Lemire of Essex County and Underwater Welder fame, this is a sweet-and-sour Bambi meets Mad Max post-apocalyptic tale that may make you unexpectedly tear up. You’ve been warned. A million percent, this is worth the watch.
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