I am baking a cake for the joint birthday party of two of our cats, one of whom has a birthday on April 5th and the other on April 7th. Last year, the first year of the pandemic, I baked them each their own cake; this year I am toning it down in anticipation of a return to Somewhat Normal Times. (Another idea I have used in previous years: bake one cake mix in two round cake pans and serve one round on each of the two evenings. Still one cake, and one cake-baking process, but two parties’ worth of cake. I didn’t do it that way THIS year because yesterday I was thinking I would not bake any cat cakes at all, and then today I changed my mind, and so now it is a Combined Cake to cover my change of heart.)
In selecting a cake mix, I discovered I owned two boxes of mix that had best-by dates in 2018, and I’m sure they’re fine, but I clearly need to stop buying cake mixes so far ahead. It’s just, I’ve had a few times when I was extremely grateful to have a couple of cake mixes already on hand, and those times have lodged compellingly in my brain. Similarly: the time a box of mixed crackers and a couple extra bottles of wine allowed me to discreetly save an awkward party-food situation, so now I ALWAYS have a box of Pepperidge Farm Cracker Trio and at least one huge cheap bottle of white wine in the cupboard, and always will.
I just finished a book that has left me feeling wan:
(image from Target.com)
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, by Mona Awad (Amazon link). I requested it from the library after reading about it on Hello Korio, where it was described like so:
I think just about every woman can see some example of her own personal youth, or her own young adult behaviors, or her own motivations in these stories, in ways that don’t pull any punches. It’s harsh. It is a harsh book. I really liked it, and I really recommend it.
And yes. I agree, except I don’t know if I recommend it. It put little sad truth burrs all through my joie de vivre. It made me feel sad for all of us, and all of our daughters, but without feeling like there’s any way to stop/fix any of it.
Anyway. Right before that, I read a book that made me happy, so let’s do that one next:
(image from Target.com)
Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik (Amazon link). Looking at this book, and reading the description, and looking at its WHOLE VIBE, I would never have chosen it. I read it ONLY because first Miss Grace recommended it to me, and THEN Hello Korio mentioned a DIFFERENT book by the same author, and described it as a book where all the mysteries and so forth end up making impressive logical sense, and that is CRUCIAL to me, and so then I put the Spinning Silver book higher on my reading list, and I finished it right before the other book I just mentioned, and as it turned out it was EXTREMELY MY THING. I don’t even want to tell you about it, because if someone had described the plot to me, I would not have read it. It was already hard enough to get past the font and illustration choices on the cover, all of which loudly communicated that this book was Not For Me. BUT IT WAS FOR ME.
Do you remember awhile back, when I said I’d always thought I disliked science fiction, but it turned out what I disliked was science fiction written by middle-aged men? This book caused a similar insight. Now I have to finish my other library books so that I can go on to read LOTS OF NAOMI NOVIK.
I loved, loved, loved Spinning Silver. I’m still rereading it. Loved it. I think it just so well done – beautifully written, immersive, very confidently plotted. Just excellent, in a rare way.
I’m so glad you read it.
I picked up her other titles Uprooted and the first book for th Scholomance series abd I loved them too but they are a bit darker – more death. Be aware. But I still loved them. She is just so good at what she does.
I love Naomi Novik! I will be curious about your thoughts on Temeraire, which seems like it might not be up your alley (Napoleonic era, mostly male characters fighting battles and strategizing). Uprooted is much more similar to Spinning Silver. I also loved her newest one about a school for magicians, with another prickly female main character.
I was writing my comment at the same time about Temeraire too! I ended up loving Temeraire and feeling fond of Laurence too, and it’s 75% not what I would normally expect to enjoy (the mostly male, Napoleonic era, war strategizing) but I guess for me dragon + awesome relationship of Laurence & Temeraire (is that too spoilerish?) trumped all of that.
HORATIO HORNBLOWER ON DRAGONS.
I gobbled them up and wished for more.
I have a deep fondness for Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series even though it has a male protagonist. I admit I do like dragon books but would not have expected that a dragon/historical novel series would appeal to me so much. Even if you don’t read the whole series I think the first book stands on its own quite well.
I’m also a big Mercedes Lackey and Tamora Pierce fan and they use lots of female protagonists!
We usually get the Trio box of crackers for New Year’s Day when we have a tradition of eating fancy cheese, but every single time, Beth laments that when it went from being a Quartet to a Trio, they removed her favorite cracker of the bunch, so I don’t think we can have them on hand any more often than that, as it distresses her so.
We celebrate our cat’s birthday on Valentine’s Day, because at the shelter they said he (and his brother, now deceased) were born in mid-February. We have never made a cake in his honor, but there are always a lot of other sweets circulating on that day. Sometimes in August I make an unbirthday cake, at the midpoint between my birthday and Beth’s (the longest stretch we go without one).
YES to cakes for cats!!🐈 🐈⬛ – and for ‘just in case’ comestibles supplies! BUT a giant NO for making the wine cheap, very much a case of life being too short!
Absolutely not: for emergencies where I have to scramble to make up for someone else putting me in a tight spot, cheap wine is EXACTLY the right thing! The good stuff is in the NON-emergency bottles.
Just so you know, the link for both books which I expected to take me to some info about them, where to buy, etc….only leads to Target’s main site.
I just placed three books on hold thanks to this post and comments. Thanks everyone!!
If you want to try out a fantasy book by an excellent female author I highly recommend Graceling.
Yes!!! I love Naomi Novak and especially Spinning Silver. I also really enjoyed the first few books of Temeraire. I need to get back to that series. If you’re looking for something totally “out there,” I recommend Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. I read a review that called it “delightfully nuts” and I agree. Science fiction, fantasy, murder mystery, a bit of gruesomeness, and friendships developing between powerful women. It’s definitely a mind bender figuring it all out, but I binged it in two days. Now I just have to wait two months until I get my turn with the second book from the library.
And while I’m on a roll, I also recommend You Have the Right to Remain Fat by Virgie Tovar (to contrast Mona Awad’s book). Virgie is an absolute delight and so is the book. I bet I’ve already recommended it in the past. It definitely made an impression on me.
Spinning Silver is $2.99 on the kindle store today, so I got it. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the recommendation! I always love Swistle book recommendations!
I too would have been turned away by that cover, and I like fantasy! Why are the covers so bad? Anyway, adding it to my list.
If you want more fantasy recs, may I suggest Ursula K LeGuin? I absolutely must have recommended her books during the sci fi discussion, but I am happy to recommend her again for fantasy- her Wizard of Earthsea series is published as YA, but holds up for adults, too. Clever magic, strong female characters. For more female entered fantasy, I also like the Sabriel series by Garth Nix. The world/concepts are very satisfying (there are ARMED LIBRARIANS), though there are some problematic elements of the “I’m so different because I’m a brunette”/”blondes are magic” type. Also recommended, with reservations (there’s incest): The Mists of Avalon.
I also would have been turned off by that cover but now it’s on my list! Another of Mona Awad’s books is on my book club’s reading list (it’s called Bunny). I’ll see how that one is first I think…
I started the audiobook version of Bunny, but I let it go when another I’d been waiting for for a long time came available through my library. I can always get Bunny again and finish it later if I feel so inclined.
13 Ways is now officially downloaded to my Kindle… where I may not read it (for awhile) but I INTEND to.
The Naomi Nivek makes me nervous, because the font and cover and remarks about it make it seem Very Not My Vibe, but I trust you and Hello Korio… but I also don’t want to read it and dislike it… and… I don’t know what to do. Fret about it for awhile, I guess. (Fretting about which book to read/not read next is Fairly Pleasant Fretting, in the realm of Frets.)
Happy cat birthdays to your cats! I hope all feline and human members of your household enjoy the celebration!
I loved Spinning Silver so much. I listened to the audiobook, which I highly recommend – the narrator did an amazing job with all the different character voices.
My other fantasy recommendations are The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, and the Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
I loved The Goblin Emperor, and I also love her new book, The Angel of the Crows, which I hardly dare describe because it sounds so peculiar but is absolutely delightful.
Just wanted to share that as a Jewish woman who grew up loving fantasy/sf books, I read an awful lot of books as a kid/teen with a prominent medieval Christian/church presence but hardly ever encountered any that even acknowledged the existence of Jewish people. I was so happy when I read Spinning Silver. I felt seen. And it makes me happy all over again hearing other people talk about enjoying it, even if they didn’t have exactly the same reasons.
I’d like to mention Lions of Al Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, which also has a competent adult female Jewish protagonist in a fantasy world and may be appealing to some folks who liked Spinning Silver.
I haven’t read Lions of Al Rassan yet, but I loved the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy when I was in high school, and I have an autographed copy of Tigana, which I didn’t like as much but was what was available at a reading he did at my university.
Some other fantasy recommendations while we’re all here:
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal (if you like Jane Austen)
Tremontaine by Ellen Kushner (if you want a very diverse/progressive cast)
Wildwood Dancing by Juliette Marillier (if you like the eastern European fairytale vibe of Spinning Silver)
Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Wizard Hunters by Martha Wells (if you don’t mind reading a whole trilogy before the plot ties up)
Sorcery and Cecelia by Wrede/Stevermer (if you liked Bridgerton, although this is way more YA appropriate)
I am here to recommend The Priory of the Orange Tree! It was one of the first things I read during quarantine that actually made me forget about *waves hands around wildly* for a while, and that was April/May 2020 and there was an awful lot of *waves hands around wildly.*
Queer ladies should write all the high fantasy, is what I’m saying.
Yes to Naomi Novik – I LOVED her latest, the Scholomance book. And to the other recs above. Lois McMaster Bujold’s Curse of Chalion is another excellent fantasy novel; as is the sequel Paladin of Souls, with a middle aged female heroine. I’d also recommend T Kingfishers fairy tale retellings (The Seventh Bride) and her Paladin fantasy adventure romances are a ton of fun too.
Thank you so much for mentioning “Hello Korio”! I lost her for a while and didn’t know she started a new webpage and I was very worried about her. But whew! All okay!
‘Thank you for the book recommendations’ does not seem sufficient for how I’m feeling. Spinning Silver was wonderful. Then I read Uprooted and cried when it was over. (Not sad at the ending, you understand, but that it was the last time I’d read it for the first time.) Ahem. I was starting to think I could never love another author the way I love Robin McKinley.
Oh, I’m so glad!! I have been DELAYING reading Uprooted, in part because I am nervous Spinning Silver was a fluke, and in part because of the same thing you mention about only being able to read it for the first time once!