Recent reading

[troisoiseaux]

Read A Gallery of Rogues by Beth Lincoln, sequel to The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels, collectively a rollicking middle-grade series about young Shenanigan Swift and her sprawling extended family of nominatively-determined eccentrics— and, in this one, the Swifts' estranged French relatives, the Martinets. And a gang of theatrical art thieves! And an Interpol agent who is the long-standing ~nemesis~ of Shenanigan's uncle Maelstrom! Once again, this book feels like was written specifically to appeal to my 10-year-old self - it somehow reminds me of a whole bunch of memorable MG books circa the mid-2000s, including The Mysterious Benedict Society, Lemony Snicket, The Willoughbys (by Lois Lowry, apparently??), and Roxie and the Hooligans, with the added bonus of being casually, joyfully LGBT-affirming and diverse - but I don't actually begrudge it for arriving two decades late.

Read The Novices of Lerna by Ángel Bonomini (translated from Spanish by Jordan Landsman), a collection of short stories I picked up after hearing about the titular novella, in which a young man is offered a secretive academic fellowship alongside - it turns out - his twenty-three doppelgängers. I'd actually gotten my wires slightly crossed and assumed that this book was only the titular novella - which I had also assumed was, like, an actual novel? - so the short stories were a surprise, but they were great: lyrical, atmospheric, and strange, with a tendency to end on an abrupt, unsettling note that rattled around my head for a while afterwards.

Comments

[sovay]

Read A Gallery of Rogues by Beth Lincoln, sequel to The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels, collectively a rollicking middle-grade series about young Shenanigan Swift and her sprawling extended family of nominatively-determined eccentrics— and, in this one, the Swifts' estranged French relatives, the Martinets.

I didn't know there was a sequel! I shall track it down posthaste! I loved the first one.

[troisoiseaux]

It's SUCH a delight.

[sartorias]

That top bunch sounds like something I would have adored as a kid reader!

[troisoiseaux]

It's honestly really fun to read as an adult, too!

[sartorias]

Added to TBR--thanks!

[lunabee34]

I love Shenanigan for a name. Ha!

[troisoiseaux]

The whole "everyone is named out of a dictionary" premise is a great set-up for wordplay. (Bilingual wordplay, in this one!)

[chestnut_pod]

Lois Lowry truly can do it all.

[troisoiseaux]

AND apparently she wrote a fourth book in the Giver series?? It sounds... wild. o__O

[chestnut_pod]

I went and read through the synopsis, thinking, "Well, this all sounds pretty standard, actually…" and THEN. Well, let's say it veered.

[troisoiseaux]

The "his Birthmother was 14" bit is where my train of thought went off its mental tracks, because while I suppose that is what is implied by assigning everyone a job at 12, that had never occurred to me???

So after that I was just like, yeah! Sure! There are wizards now!