Circe

Been meaning to read Madeline Miller's previous book Song of Achilles for awhile now, but the spouse got Circe as a Christmas present and so there it was in my ebooks when I needed an ebook. (Let's ignore for now my backlog of paper library books...) And it was really good. Very readable and compelling and some good writing, like, sharply-chosen words and well-turned sentences. Maybe actually so good I want to nominate it?? Definitely recommended if you like Greek mythology. I can't say how it reads if you don't.

Dragon Pearl

I read a 2019 book and it's January, what kind of witchcraft! Dragon Pearl is Yoon Ha Lee writing for Rick Riordan's mythologies-of-the-world project, where authors from underrepresented backgrounds kind of do the Percy Jackson thing with their own culture. I mean, not that plenty of people weren't doing that before Rick Riordan - I had to check whether Laurence Yep ever wrote a book called "Dragon Pearl" (he did not) - but that feels like a fine thing for Riordan to use his name to promote, and, like, Roshani Chokshi's doing some, Rebecca Roanhorse is going to do one, yay people getting book contracts. Anyways, Dragon Pearl's young protagonist is exactly Lee's type, a shape-shifting, charm-person-wielding fox spirit, and her adventure in spaaaaace is fast-paced and action-packed, and the stakes felt just right for middlegrade. Man, middlegrade is so good sometimes. Fingers crossed I can get Junie to read it - I finally made a serious play to get her to read So You Want To Be A Wizard and I think she didn't get into it and never finished it and I'm sad. But onwards!