Every Kind of Craft

I had a massive pause on visual media for most of July due to travel. Some reading, because that’s easier while on the road (most of the time).

Wet Grave by Barbara Hambly is the sixth novel in the Benjamin January series. The story had a good balance of personal story with murder mystery plot.

Lois McMaster Bujold’s new Penric & Desdemona novella, The Adventure of the Demonic Ox, proves that well-established authors are not opposed to whump. Hee.

Kaliane Bradley has a first novel, The Ministry of Time. Time travel shenanigans! Weirdly compelling doomed romance! Interesting characterization! Questions about identity! The most charming 19th century Arctic explorer you can meet on a page! I actually shrieked out loud during some parts of this. I’m not sure I can answer the question, “Is it quality?”, but it is fun in a strangely morbid way.

Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder, by Bellamy Rose, reveals a lot in its title. Quirky murder mystery, with bonus romance. Pomona Afton is a spoiled rich girl at risk of losing all her money if she doesn’t solve the murder, so she’s motivated. And overdue for a growth arc. Silly and fun distraction read.

Rebecca Ross has a duology, Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows. Very “new adult”, I guess I’d say. The story has an innocent feel to it, even though the leading characters are reporting from a war zone during most of the story. The stakes are more personal than geopolitical as well. The world-building was probably my favorite element: Gods are real, and they’re a pain. Time to kill some of ‘em!

Stone and Sky is Ben Aaronovitch’s tenth novel in the Rivers of London series. And I read it at the beginning of July when I was also busy keeping (or failing to keep) a bunch of high schoolers out of trouble in Europe, so it didn’t stick in my memory as well as it might have otherwise. But it was a good distraction, and I appreciate the ongoing character growth. Oh, and Peter and Abigail take turns as story narrators, which is a fun addition.

And continuing with novel series, Sherry Thomas’s Miss Moriarty, I presume is another entry in her Lady Sherlock books. I tend to buy these when they eventually go on sale; they’re not “must read INSTANTLY” books for me. But Thomas is a writer whose stories work for me. They’re solidly formed with a variety of well-defined characters. If you enjoy variations on Sherlock, you'll probably like this.

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Plane ride movies! Agnes Varda and an artist who goes simply by JR made a movie together in 2017, two years before Varda’s death at age 90. JR puts large-scale photo prints on mostly-flat surfaces of various kinds (buildings, cliffs, and more). Varda was a long-time filmmaker whose films had tremendous influence on other movie creators. The resulting collaboration between these two artists is called Faces, Places in English; Visages, Villages in French. It was a moving travelogue with some real moments of emotional catharsis.

A Bicyclette, called Ride Away in English, is another French documentary/follow-our-real-life-adventure movie, from 2024. Mathieu Mekluz is in his fifties; his adult son Youri died in his mid-twenties and Mekluz decided to pay tribute to / sort out his grief for his son by doing the same epic bike ride across Europe that his son had once made. This film blurs the lines between documentary and fiction; both Mekluz and his film buddy Philippe Rebbot are actors. They left on this trip with no script, but it’s not necessarily a true documentary. But did I enjoy it? Was it an interesting narrative? Yes and yes.

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Edited to add: I have not kept up with Dreamwidth this summer. At all. And I make no guarantees for the future, given that I'm teaching a new subject in a new school district. But hey, feel free to link me to anything I simply MUST read or know. Hopefully I'll log in here at least once a week.