December 9, 2024

Random Reading

A rogue reader’s annotated list of books, all kinds of short-form writing, and, of course, Medium articles read over the last few weeks.

Photo by Gail Gauthier

All material here first appeared at Original Content.

Books

• I liked The Other Side of Mrs. Wood by Lucy Barker a great deal. Though I don’t consider myself a fan of stories about spiritualism, I wanted to read some historical fiction that wasn’t a mystery, and this fit the bill. So well done.
• Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore got a lot of attention when published. This story of a woman who jumps to a different year of her life each New Year’s Eve is very readable. But I couldn’t wrap my head around what she knew and when. Sure, it wasn’t necessary to know why it was happening. But there were other logistics I couldn’t make out. The book reminded me of The Time Traveler’s Wife. Also, I wrote a short story similar to this years ago. No idea what became of that!
• I’m not at all sure why Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw ended up on my TBR list, since I’m not a major fan of fantasy. But if I am going to like fantasy, it’s usually going to be in a contemporary, realistic setting, which is what we have here. This was a terrific story about…