You know that feeling where you're enjoying inhabiting a book so much you don't want to reach the end? This week I finished The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison, and that's how I felt.
 
Witness is a companion novel to Addison's breakout novel, The Goblin Emperor (TGE), which I read for the first time last year and never got around to reviewing. You don't need to have read TGE to enjoy this one at all; Witness focuses on a minor character from TGE and his adventures after the events of that novel. Thara Celehar is a prelate of the god Ulis, and his role in elven society is something like a cross between a priest and a private detective. He has the ability to commune, in a limited fashion, with the dead, and he is employed by the city to provide this service to the people. This may involve reporting a deceased's last thoughts to a mourner, asking a deceased to clarify a point on their will, or seeking answers from a murder victim to bring their killer to justice.

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Recent Reading: Our Wives Under the Sea

  • Apr. 25th, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Latest commute audiobook: Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. This novel is about a woman, Miri, whose wife is a marine biologist, and goes on a submarine expedition for work meant to last three weeks. Six months later, Leah's sub finally resurfaces, but she isn't the same person Miri remembers.
 
This is another WIN for online queer recs - I thoroughly enjoyed it. I may even buy a copy for myself. There is a horror element to this story—for Miri, our primary narrator, the horror of watching someone you love become something you don't recognize or understand—but mostly Our Wives Under the Sea is a meditation on grief and loss. It is so easy to transform this story into a metaphor for anyone with a loved one who is terminally ill, or missing, or otherwise there, but not there.
 

"On a Woman's Madness" by Astrid Roemer

  • Aug. 31st, 2024 at 9:40 PM
The week before last Libby showed me a list of books my library recommended, all books translated into English in whole or in part by female translators. I made the sore mistake of going through the whole list and added about thirty new books to my TBR. This was the first of them that I've finished! It's called On a Woman's Madness by Surinamese author Astrid Roemer, translated from Dutch by Lucy Scott. The book description is:

When Noenka's husband refuses her request for divorce, she flees her small hometown for the city, where life is simultaneously free and unfree: an open book; a closed door.

Full review on my main.

Recommend if:
  • You like books that focus heavily on characters' emotions
  • You enjoy "soul searching" stories
  • You like messy or struggling main characters
Do not recommend if:
  • You prefer a linear story which communicates itself clearly
  • You don't enjoy heavy subject material (definitely check your trigger warnings for this book)
  • You want a plot-driven story

Review: Scandinavian from Scratch

  • Jun. 12th, 2024 at 3:45 AM
Scandinavian from Scratch: A Love Letter to the Baking of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden [A Baking Book] Hardcover – October 3, 2023
by Nichole Accettola

We just finished reading this cookbook. It's an interesting introduction to Scandinavian cuisine, which is pretty different from most European food. It makes heavy use of rye, which is nice. The front matter includes A Baking Love Letter, Scandinavian Baking: An Overview, The Scandinavian Pantry, Useful Baking Equipment, Baking Best Practices, and the Table of Contents. The Index lists both ingredients and recipe titles. Also, our hardback edition has a red grosgrain ribbon in it for marking your place.

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