Two Terrific Books
Hello, Hungry Readers,
It’s starting to look just a smidge like fall around here. The humidity is a little lower, the trees are shedding the first round of trees before they attempt some color. (There are rumors that this dry summer might affect the colors, but that’s pessimism. Or deep understanding of nature. One of those.)
Let’s talk reading, and then writing.
Emma R. Alban’s Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend is set in 1857, and is the story of two young women on the marriage mart, er, having a season. One has a wealthy and indulgent widowed dad, so this is not her first season. And one has a recently widowed mom, and they have just barely enough money to get her one season so she can get married and find a place for she and her mom to live. It is exceedingly clear-eyed about things like the financial precarity of being a woman and the issues of navigating with a hoop skirt. In addition to very slowly noticing they might like each other more than any dude, they also discover that their parents had been sweethearts who had to make different choices. And so they decide to set up their parents, but they are very bad at it. Hijinx ensue. Content notes: attempted sexual assault, discussion of past abuse and addiction.
Ruaro Faith Mazarura’s Let the Games Begin is an Olympic romance featuring two Zimbabwean British folks, one a medal winnign runner hoping for gold, and one who has a five year plan that starts with her interning at the Olympics. Neither of them have time for love.
For writing news, I am working on a few things, for release in the next six months (one will be much sooner than that, but still nailing down timing). If writing is your jam and you want to join a low pressure write every day crew, I am noodling with starting something that would begin October 15th. I’m aware that’s a Tuesday, but well, I wanted about 90 days for this draft, and wrapping the end of November means I can go do all the people gathering things everyone wants me to do in December. Tentatively thinking of calling it WriteCubed (because WriteWriteWrite is too long). So, if you’re interested, I’d love it if you filled out this form here.
Okay, that was a lot. Happy reading, folks!