Emmalita – Page 69 – Cannonball Read 17

Lily was struck by how duplicitous a song could be, as if multiple languages were hidden within the lyrics.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

May 19, 2022 by Emmalita Leave a Comment

What struck me the most about Last Night at the Telegraph Club was how separate Lily Hu is from the world around her. She is a watcher. She pays attention to the details of what happens around her as she tries to understand who she is in relation to the world. Only when she is with Kath do the details become fuzzy and she fully engages. Towards the end of the book, I thought a lot about a conversation I had with my mother when […]

War seems like a wonderful way to make everyone poor and miserable

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane

May 17, 2022 by Emmalita Leave a Comment

In Wrath Goddess Sing, Maya Deane reimagines Achilles as a trans woman. It’s a beautiful, slyly funny, and blisteringly angry book. It’s such a fresh and different telling of the familiar Trojan War. Achilles is living on an island where she and women like her are welcomed and loved. She is a member of the kallai. Her sisters worship Aphrodite, though Achilles, herself, does not believe in the gods and so takes no part in worship. Her lack of belief though doesn’t protect her from […]

“Now that that is all taken care of, let’s talk about love and blackmail.”

A Proposal They Can't Refuse by Natalie Caña

May 17, 2022 by Emmalita Leave a Comment

I landed on 3 stars for Natalie Caña’s A Proposal They Can’t Refuse. I knew there were going to be some family hijinks, because the blurb promises that Kamilah and Liam are forced into a fake engagement because their grandfather’s are threatening their dreams. I wasn’t expecting the heavy-duty unhealthy family dynamics. Caña writes an engaging story with well drawn characters. I had a hard time putting it down. But I screamed a few times because the there were moments where family members seemed to […]

I am quite sure that I need time with you more than I need star sprinkles.

If You Want Me Close by Skye Kilaen

May 13, 2022 by Emmalita 4 Comments

Skye Kilaen does a fantastic job of gentle hurt-comfort queer stories. One of the things you know you will find in one of her books, is care and respect for its inhabitants. A lot of queer stories are stories of families of choice. In If You Want Me Close, Simon has a very close and queer friendly family of birth. He calls is family of blended Czech and Mexican heritage The Borg, because it assimilates everyone. The exception is his friend Ziah, a gay ex-Mormon […]

“I should just follow you clowns around…Find all the trouble in the galaxy that way…”

Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky

May 2, 2022 by Emmalita 2 Comments

Things are not going well when the second book in The Final Architecture series, Eyes of the Void, opens. In Shards of Earth, we learned the Architects were themselves slaves, forced to destroy worlds. But the contact Idris Telemer made with the Architect isn’t stopping the destruction of planets and ships. Idris is with the Partheni, trying to find a strain of the clones that can be made into Intermediaries without the coercion and the high death rate in the Hugh (Council of Humans) program. […]

Determined Optimism

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

April 30, 2022 by Emmalita 10 Comments

Project Hail Mary was a real interesting thing to read in April of 2022. I struggled with Weir’s premise that the world would come together to save Earth. I switched back and forth between this and Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Eyes of the Void (review coming soon), and I think that helped me appreciate Weir’s optimism. Do I think it’s realistic? No. Do I think it’s necessary? Yes I do. This is going to be less of a review and more of me back on my bullshit […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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