So I've Taken Up Smoking

 Just kidding. I would never. 

 But that is the title of the latest book I've read. Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking by Aoibheann Sweeney is a little (under 300 pages) book about a young girl coming of age and figuring out herself in NYC, of all places. 

A debut novel, Sweeney takes us up to Crab Island, Maine where Miranda's mother has disappeared (and presumed dead) and her dad is so caught up in his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses that he often forgets himself and Miranda. Mr. Blackwell is a local jack of all trades fisherman who takes Miranda under his wing, including braiding her hair for her, teaching her about boats, and making sure she goes to school. Where would Miranda have ended up without Mr. Blackwell?

As she gets older, she's more awkward around people and chooses to forget to take the college exam. She has no real purpose in life and no one seems to be concerned about that. Except Mr. Blackwell. Mr. Blackwell and Miranda's dad had a fight so Mr. Blackwell has been absent from Miranda's life. But he's still looking out for her. He offers her a job with him after High School is over. When she tells her father, he suddenly gets her a job typing in NYC with two of his friends, Robert and Walter. Off she goes to New York.

Miranda is a tentative person, a bit backwards due to her upbringing, but determined to see New York. For someone so awkward, she makes friends with Ana, the coffee cart lady and Nate, teacher at the Institute with Robert and Walter. As Miranda tries to figure out who she is, who her dad was, and why she's stalled in life, her friendships take on greater meaning. Finding out who her dad really was from Robert and Walter makes her see him in a whole new light.

This was a sweet novel, and a quick read to boot. The writing is so well done, descriptive and beautiful, you'll end up re-reading passages over just to savor them.

My Literary Boo

 I will never give up on Harry Dresden. He's been my wizardy, literary boo since day one. Battle Ground is the newest novel by Jim Butcher and it's a damn doozy. It follows Peace Talks fairly quickly in publication and thank god, because where we ended on Peace Talks was not a place to end!

Spoilers be ahead, you've been warned. Although I will keep them to a minimum.

We are prepping for battle against the Last Titan, Ethniu, since she has declared war on Chicago in Peace Talks. But first...Harry battles a kraken. That's within the first few pages, as Harry and Murphy come back from Demonreach where he left Thomas, safe and sound and unreachable. There's no foreplay in Battle Ground. We're immediately in the fight.

Everyone gathers at Marcone's castle to come up with their battle plan. The good guys, even the somewhat good guys, are ready to die for Chicago, and sadly, a lot of them do. General Toot-Toot and his gang are pivotal in helping Harry and River Shoulders is more of a force to be reckoned with, despite his broken spectacles he insists on wearing. Vampires from the Black Court, including Drakul, take advantage of the chaos and end up taking down members of the White Council (RIP). Giants (Jotnar) come out of the water and nearly destroy the city and the entire Chicago skyline. Huntsman are wreaking havoc in the residental areas, eating people. Huntsman might be the most terrifying creature in here. And still they fight.

Butters, Murphy, Sanya, even the detective Bradley are in deep. But not everyone makes it to The Bean where the showdown with Ethniu will be. This part was heart wrenching. You've been warned.

The Bean apparently is a storehouse for weapons (someone in Chicago need to check this out) and Mab is making her stand here. Dresden arrives with ordinary people, an army of civilians willing to fight and die for their city. 

People fight, they die, some live, and some turn out to be much more than you ever thought possible. I bought the actual hardback for this because I knew I'd need to hug it when I was done. And I did. 

I can't wait to see where we go from here. EVERYTHING has changed.

Do other books have trailers???

Another Magic Book?

 I get a lot of my TBR books from the podcast, What Should I Read Next?. Almost as many as I did from the Books on the Nightstand podcast (RIP). In one of the episodes, Anne mentions Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey. It's a debut novel about a non-magical detective brought in to solve a magical murder. But why, you ask? Why not a magical detective?

Well, my friend, because the mages couldn't solve it. 

Ivy Gamble isn't magical, she's not special,  she drinks a lot, she's 40 and single and a private detective. At the beginning of the book, she gets mugged. She's not extraordinary. Ivy will be telling us all of this throughout the book. At first, this was hard to listen to, the woe-is-me ad nauseum, but Ivy grew on me. Somehow through the course of the novel, she strengthens, grows and matures. Just not necessarily how she wanted.

Ivy's twin sister,  Tabitha,  is a genius mage and a professor at the Osthorne Academy for Young Mages. Ah, now we see why Ivy struggles with not being special. Her twin sister IS. Special, magical, brilliant, and, we learn, cruel to young Ivy. Because of the connection, Ivy is hired by the headmaster to solve the murder of Sylvia, a teacher who was literally torn in half in the library.

Ivy may no be magical but she's damn good at her job.  Magic eludes her so we learn along with her how things work in the here and now magical world. This isn't Hogwarts, guys. This is a regular school with hormonal teens, bullies, popular girls, teen pregnancies, etc. Except they are magic. And one of them is the Chosen One. 

Once I got past the woe-is-me Ivy (this may have something to do with the narrator? Not sure), I warmed up pretty quickly to the story itself. I suspected the who in the WhoDunIt, but not the why. One thing you get out of this book is reality: families are hard. Relationships are hard. But sometimes you need to do the hard stuff because it will eventually be worth it.

Talk by the author