Beyond Selidor

I also recently read Invisible Women, and while I was aware of some of the things beforehand, there was a lot that was new to me as well, or that I hadn't thought of in its fuller social context. It was a really valuable book, though it was also frequently so depressing that I had to read it in small portions!

I really need to check out Roshani Chokshi's work!

I loved Fire and Hemlock as a child, but a) I was mostly into Polly getting so into reading and writing and stories, b) I never understood (het) romances in books anyway, so going "eww, I don't get it, grown-ups are weird, I'll focus on the parts I like" was the way I approached most books that featured a character growing into adulthood. If I reread it now, I have no idea if I'd be able to get past... what I assume is the thing that squicked you. So I totally understand not being into it when you read it for the first time in adulthood.

A few weeks ago I finished Harbors of the Sun, the fifth and final novel of Martha Wells's Raksura series (there are still some short stories / novellas I haven't read yet, though). It was fabulous. I've loved the entire series, but I feel the final duology of novels was even better than the previous books.

Sadly, after that I've been in a bit of a rut reading-wise. I was trying to read Annalee Newitz's Autonomous for a book club, didn't finish it on time because I was dragging my feet with it, not being into the dystopia setting that was like "standard American future dystopia because they can't imagine the future being defined by anything but what their country is like now"; and since none of the other book club members were enthused by it either and we spent a lot of time talking about its flaws, I haven't been eager to pick it up again. I've tried to read A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan, which is a lot more light-hearted and should be right up my alley with the blend of pseudo-historical setting and dragons, but so far I haven't been that into it either. Trying to decide whether to go on with either of them or pick up something new.