nmcannon's reviews
1373 reviews

The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by E.M. Anderson

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Lightning review to get the word out before it's pub date! I won a paperback ARC from EM Anderson in an online giveaway.

What a gift of a book. While there are definite cozy elements (plants! birding! coordinated waistcoats and bowties!) and the book centers the founding of a family, Peter wears his grief in an authentic, recognizable way that had me pausing to absorb. Anderson's prose encourages savoring, perhaps with a cup of tea and a knitted blanket. The final page hit me like the end of a Pixar movie, with sweetness and tears. If you're a fan of Pixar's Up or Shelly Jay Shore's Rules for Ghosting and/or in the mood for a sad old codger putting his burdens down and embracing love, pick up EM Anderson's The Keeper of Lonely Spirits. 

Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall

emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The Prince's Loving Guards by Beau Van Dalen

emotional hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss

lighthearted medium-paced

2.0

Waist-High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled by Nancy Mairs

challenging funny hopeful medium-paced

5.0

The Prince's Dreamy Gods by Beau Van Dalen

emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The Prince's Dearest Guards by Beau Van Dalen

emotional lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures was an impulse purchase from the town conservatory. Fungi is a newer passion of mine, and Sheldrake’s work gave a deeper, more tangled knowledge base. It sparked much joy.

Primarily, the book is a great overview of mycology and the use of mushrooms in the USA today, with the possibilities for the future study. Sheldrake answered basics (like defining a mycelium network and studying yeast and lichen) and slowly moved to more complex topics (like academia’s reluctance to study fungi formally, replacing plastic with fungal “plastic”). The blurb really hits the nail on the head: “By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms—and our relationships with them—are changing our understanding of how life works.”

Unlike with some other nonfiction I’ve been reading, Sheldrake never lost me. I understood each point of his arguments and explanations. I kept having to put the book down, not because it was uninteresting or bad, but because it kept blowing my mind. Breathers were necessary to allow my mind time to expand. Sheldrake repeatedly reminds readers to not attribute peronshood to mycelium–they are not human, or economic systems, or proof that the concept of an individual is totally bullshit. But! It makes ya think. Sheldrake weaves in many literary references mostly deftly, and it made the book much more accessible to readers like me whose last biology class was twenty years ago. There’s a bit about stealing Isaac Newton’s apples that was unnecessarily hostile, but Sheldrake’s storytelling was overall solid.

Entangled Fungi is an amazing book. I love it. I’m so glad I own it, so I can dip into it again and again. If you’re interested in mushrooms, fungi, and mycelium at all, it’s a must read. 

Something Spectacular by Alexis Hall

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Alexis Hall is a repeat winner in my sapphic book club, to the point I’m reading his work on my own. Something Spectacular was sitting so lonely on that library shelf….

Peggy Delancey is happy being a side character. She’s funny, supportive, and easygoing. She’s also desperately in love with the aromantic Arabella, exhausted from the critical mass of Tarleton shenanigans, and having thoughts about, maybe, someday soon…growing up?

The Something Fabulous universe is modern day with a Regency coat of paint. It reminded me a lot of dirtbag medievalism, but like, British Regency edition version. The Tarletons’ world is humorous, slapstick, and sexy. The characters are who they are, with brash confidence and no apologies. If you’re familiar with Hall’s other historical fictions, Something Fabulous is the middle point on the fantastical spectrum between A Lady for a Duke and Mortal Follies.

Speaking of middles, Something Spectacular is all about middles. Orfeo and Peggy describe themselves as “a little of this; a little of that.” It’s literally the middle book of a planned trilogy. The characters discuss sex enough for an erotica, but there’s no intimate scenes until the very end. The cast has sympathetic traits and go on sympathetic coming-of-age journeys, but they’re also a bunch of rich, poetry-hating assholes. My experience was middling, and I’m rating it 3 stars, the exact middle of the spectrum.

The problem with middles, this book made me realize, is they leave storytelling out. Despite opening the book with Arabella grappling with her aromanticism, her journey is pretty much entirely off page. Peggy’s major arc is to remove her “secondary character mindset,” saying she’s too good at supporting others while ignoring or putting off her own goals. However, in this book, she’s actually…kind of crap at giving a shit about others? Maybe she performed people-pleasing and drastic favors in Something Fabulous, and it’s my mistake to not read the first installment before jumping into the second. As is, Peggy was Yet Another character who claims to be not just supportive, but overly supportive of those around her, but there’s little evidence of the helpful, pleasing impulse on page. Even at the beginning, when her flaw is theoretically at its worst, the most she does is agree to a party. The narrative also shoves a serious consequence of ignoring friends to the next book. Orfeo felt the most complete as a character and with the most complete arc, but things ended in an odd backwards note.

This review may sound like mostly criticism, but I enjoyed Something Spectacular, for the cheese of it all. Sometimes, one wants goo and mess from a historical New Adult novel. If I see Something Fabulous in the library, I’ll pick it up.

Dirtbag medievalism defined here: https://avidly.lareviewofbooks.org/2021/07/14/dirtbag-medievalism/

Alice in the Country of Joker: Nightmare Trilogy Vol. 3 by Yobu, QuinRose

3.0