Books update.

I’ve read a lot since the last time there was a book post, so we’ll just hit the highlights:

The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love by Jill Conner Browne
God Save the Sweet Potato Queens by Jill Conner Browne
The Sweet Potato Queens’ Big-ass Cookbook and Financial Planner by Jill Conner Browne
The Sweet Potato Queens’ Field Guide to Men: Every Man I Ever Loved is Either Married, Gay or Dead by Jill Conner Browne
The Sweet Potato Queens’ Wedding Planner and Divorce Guide by Jill Conner Browne

I loved all of these books and seriously read them all while suffering from a massive summer cold that is still hanging on. She's hillarious, witty, and insightful. I recommend reading what she has to say.

The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint

I really wish I could recommend this book higher. It just didn't work for me. De Lint at his best is fucking brilliant, but his later works just lack the sparkle of his early stuff. Even this book, which thankfully only references Jilly Coppercorn once, just didn't do it for me. Mostly this was because I wasn't convinced by de Lint's teenaged voice. Imogene, our plucky heroine, is only the kind of teenager you'd find in a de Lint book–plucky yet somehow wise beyond her years. She didn't strike me as authentic at all, and therefore I couldn't enjoy her story as much as I'd have liked. However, Adrian, the ghost whose unlife gets sort of embroiled with hers was a fun character and by far more sympathetic, for me at least.

Edited to add some grades: Given that I am really tempted to go out and buy the SPQ books on Audible just so I can listen to them being read, I'd say they're definitely all A books. The de Lint I'm giving a B- grade to, just because my memories of the book are pleasant, and he's by far better than a lot of other urban fantasy authors I've read since.