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nmcannon's reviews
1378 reviews
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 Dreamy Gods whisks our heroes away to a different reality where a god fulfills a single wish. In addition to deliriously good sex scenes, we’re treated to some hints at the larger fantastical world and Hal’s place in it. There’s Big Trans Feels that make me blubber. Some awkwardness lingers in the prose, but I easily forgave it. Elwood and Kaiser are so soft with their prince, and dear Lord, sometimes I need to read that. If you liked The Prince’s Dearest Guards, you’ll love this midquel entry in the series.
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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I bought all of Van Dalen’s books on bundle sale and decided to dip my toes in The Prince’s Dearest Guards series first. While there are some typical independent author fumbles like continuity and awkward phrasing, The Prince’s Dearest Guards magnificently accomplishes what it set off to do: tell a mega-hot, sexy tale of love and acceptance between a trans prince and his two cis guards. The magic-hating monarchy takes a backseat to character work, leaving plenty of questions for the sequels to answer. The novella is tender, sweet, and wholesome. If you’re looking for a gentle trans man polyam romantasy, I definitely recommend!
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/
A Woman's Place Is in the Brewhouse: A Forgotten History of Alewives, Brewsters, Witches, and CEOs by Tara Nurin
informative
fast-paced
2.0
When I saw A Woman’s Place Is In The Brewhouse on the library shelf, I grabbed it immediately. My wife and mother-in-law are brewers, and I was excited to learn the history of both their hobby and a cornerstone of human culture. Since I turned the first page, I wanted to like this book. Ultimately, however, the confusing structure left me disappointed.
Focusing almost exclusively on the Pacific Northwest and California after Prohibition, Nurin organized by eras and then topics or trends within those eras. I had no trouble following the chronology–partners and friends brewing together in an industrial shed slowly morphed into corporate industry. Topics were the trouble. Instead of following people, Nurin wrote various permutations on a trend. A whole chapter would be dedicated to, say, marketing beer. Different marketing methods, reactions to those methods, and resulting problems with those methods would be listed out, with names occasionally popped in as an example. This stylistic choice made it incredibly difficult to follow any individual brewer. For a book supposedly putting women in the forefront of brewing history for the first time, it’s crushing that I couldn’t name a single lady brewer after the last page.
Speaking of the book’s feminism, it’s heavily second wave and separatist. Women are framed as better than men, women would be better off without men sucking up all their time and energy, and heterosexual relationships lead to heartbreak. Brewers of color were discussed, but not at length. Queer and/or disabled brewers are ??? Presumably somewhere. Patriarchy harms everyone, regardless of gender, and it’s only going to be defeated if we all work together.
All that being said, Nurin convinced me of the patriarchal poison in the beer industry and the revisionism of history, often out of negligence. A women brewer-focused history book needs to exist. I’m hoping there’s a second edition of this one, or another writer takes up the cause.
I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming
adventurous
funny
fast-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
5.0
From the Furnace, with Love: The Multigenerational Tapestry of Shirley Cavanaugh. by Dana R Kaufman
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism by M.J. Lyons
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-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? No
5.0
Every friend and family member who encountered this book texted me about it, haha. As a creator of a sapphic werewolf romance game (Moonrise: https://www.choiceofgames.com/user-contributed/moonrise/), it was too up my alley to pass by. Though I’ve not read MJ Lyons’ work before, I grabbed a copy during a Pride Month Book Fair as soon as I spotted it.
Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism is a collection of smoking hot, gay, and erotic short stories. As my family and friends knew I would, I did indeed enjoy the bookending queer werewolf stories. My partner is going to enjoy the sci-fi ones. Dupin’s mystery made me smile, clap, and laugh in delight. One of my minor character flaws is I don’t really enjoy short story collections, but Lyons knocked this one out of the park. Part of it may be the length–at 128 pages, this volume is tiny–but each narrative felt complete, with nothing unanswered and without lore so unwieldy it exhausted me.
All in all, I heartily recommend Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism to anyone who likes gay m/m erotica, especially with trans lovers. With Lyons’ top shelf smut and thoughtful phantasm, there’s something in here for you.
Alice in the Country of Clover: Knight's Knowledge Vol.3 by Sai Asai, QuinRose
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0