Quarterly Recap: July-September

It’s October, one of my favorite months of the year. The weather is finally cooling down on my end, which is something I always look forward to. But, I digress. October also means that it’s time to take a look back at the past three months and, as always, I’m starting with reviews.

July, August, and September Reviews...

• Clock Striker Volume 2: The Sharing Society by Issaka Galadima and Frederick L. Jones
• Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker
• Devil Is Fine John Vercher
• Give Me Something Good To Eat by D.W. Gillespie
• Holly Horror: The Longest Night by Michelle Jabès Corpora
• It Came From The Trees by Ally Russell
• In The Shadow of the Fall by Tobi Ogundiran
• Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi

Other July, August, and September Blog Posts....

• What I've Been Listening To (September)
• I Listened to Paradise State of Mind by Foster the People
• I Listened to Imaginal Disk by Magdalena Bay
• I Listened to What Happened to the Heart? by Aurora 
• I Listened to Megan by megan Thee Stallion 
• Short Stories I Read In June
• Quarterly Recap April-June
• I Listened to Born in the Wild by Tems
• Short Stories I Read in August
• I Listened to Brat by Charli XCX
• I Watched The Invitation (2022)
• I Listened to Dopamine by Normani

Looking forward, the holiday season is here, so I have nothing specific for this portion of the post.

The City in Glass by Nghi Vo

Title: The City in Glass

Series: n/a

Author: Nghi Vo
Source/Format: NetGalley; eARC
More Details: Fantasy
Publisher/Publication Date: TorDotCom; October 1, 2024

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

In this new standalone, Hugo Award-winning author Nghi Vo introduces a beguiling fantasy city in the tradition of Calvino, Mieville, and Le Guin.

A demon. An angel. A city that burns at the heart of the world.

The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city of Azril. She has mothered, married, and maddened the city and its people for generations, and built it into a place of joy and desire, revelry and riot. And then the angels come, and the city falls. Vitrine is left with nothing but memories and a book containing the names of those she has lost—and an angel, now bound by her mad, grief-stricken curse to haunt the city he burned. She mourns her dead and rages against the angel she longs to destroy. Made to be each other’s devastation, angel and demon are destined for eternal battle. Instead, they find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever. Together, they unearth the past of the lost city and begin to shape its future. But when war threatens Azril and everything they have built, Vitrine and her angel must decide whether they will let the city fall again.

The City in Glass is both a brilliantly constructed history and an epic love story, of death and resurrection, memory and transformation, redemption and desire strong enough to burn a world to ashes and build it anew.

Nghi Vo’s, The Singing Hills Cycle, is one of my favorite series, so I was interested in checking out her latest story, The City in Glass. Essentially, this is a tale about a ruined city that might rise again from its ashes, a demon, an angel, and the strange tumultuous sort-of fascination/love story between the two.

The City in Glass was engaging from the very first page. It begins with a revelry, the fall of the city, and the demon, Vitrine’s effort to rebuild what she lost. Despite the book’s short length, the actual timespan of the story was hundreds of years with sporadic time skips, which sometimes spanned as long as decades. The book was written incredibly well and with enough detail to give the characters—particularly Vitrine—and Azril a rich history.

A large part of the book was dedicated to—and lingered on—Vitrine’s grief as well as her memories of the people and the place she’d lost. During these flashbacks, it was clear how much she’d loved the city of Azril, following generations of families, shaping the place into what it was before everything ended, like a gardener. Her grief was, for lack of better terms, consuming, and The City in Glass allowed Vitrine to go through these stages. It was messy—she was prone to giving into her rage, lashed out, and wanted to be left alone with memories and ghosts—but it drove home the devastation. The way she wanted to linger in the past reminded me of a short story I read earlier this year (Something Small Enough to Ask For by Anamaria Curtis), and the lesson for that main character was ultimately a similar one. Stay in the past or finally move forward? As character arcs go, Vitrine’s was a good one.

One avenue that I was pretty undecided on (and still am), was how the relationship landed, whether it worked as well as some of the other aspects of The City in Glass or not—especially with the way the story ended. On one hand, I understand Vitrine had to work through her grief and come to terms with the angel’s role in it. While on the other hand, some of the angel and Vitrine’s best moments were when they communicated, when there was this push-and-pull albeit with a sense of burgeoning closeness and understanding (even frustration and anger) with each other. However, I wish there had been more of it, or at least a little more of the angel’s perspective on the situation, particularly before the end.

Despite how conflicted I was about the aforementioned, it wasn’t bad actually. In fact, The City in Glass was thoroughly engaging and enjoyable, and I know I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.

 

About the author....

Nghi Vo is the author of the novels Siren Queen and The Chosen and the Beautiful, as well as the acclaimed novellas of the Singing Hills Cycle, which began withThe Empress of Salt and Fortune. The series entries have been finalists for the Locus Award and the Lambda Literary Award, and have won the Crawford Award, the Ignyte Award, and the Hugo Award. Born in Illinois, she now lives on the shores of Lake Michigan. She believes in the ritual of lipstick, the power of stories, and the right to change your mind.

Goodreads     Website     Instagram

Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by the publisher (TorDotCom) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you! 

Music Monday (300): Kimbra, Banks, Mary J. Blige, Fabolous

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: Kimbra has steadily released new music this year, and even though it's pretty different from her other stuff, I actually like the direction it's going in. One of my favorites so far is Stuff I Don't Need featuring Banks.

Andrea: Hi all! This week I'm listening to Breathing by Mary J. Blige featuring Fabolous. Have an amazing week!

What are you listening to this week?

Short Stories I Read In August

It’s September twenty-ninth. So it’s time to write about the short stories, miscellaneous posts, and podcast episodes I read or listened to in August.

Something Small Enough to Ask For by Anamaria Curtis (Uncanny Magazine Issue Fifty-Nine)

I read Anamaria Curtis’s Something Small Enough to Ask For. This was a great story, which starts fairly simple—Lucy and her grandmother working on a sewing project—before it takes a speculative twist, as a thoughtful gift has unforeseen consequences. The story basically asks: If you could relive fond memories (good times in the past) would you? For the protagonist, Lucy, that question becomes pertinent, and the majority of story explores the scenario as much as it does its main character. Even though Something Small Enough to Ask For was the only short story I read last month, it was bittersweet but ultimately hopeful, and it’s one of my favorite works of short fiction this year so far.

From around the web…

• The Road Goes Ever On: When Fantasy Sends You on Your Own Journeys [Molly Templeton; Reactor Magazine; August 15, 2024]
• Scalzi on Film: Hollywood Totally Lied to Us About AI: Why Cinemaic Cyborgs Are So Much Smarter Than What We Have in the Real World [John Scalzi; Uncanny Magazine Issue Fifty-Nine]
• Summertime Spookiness: On the True Meaning of Summerween [Lorna Wallace; Reactor Magazine; August 19, 2024]

I Listened to Paradise State of Mind by Foster the People

Now, I’m not as familiar with the indie pop band, Foster The People as I am with other artists I’ve mentioned for the music related posts on Our Thoughts Precisely. That can be explained by the seven year gap between their last and current major musical project. However, I was anticipating their fourth studio album anyway, Paradise State of Mind, after listening to the single, Lost in Space, in May of this year. And with that, welcome back to the music minded corner of Our Thoughts Precisely!

Released on August 16, 2024, Paradise State of Mind was preceded by three singles: Lost in Space, Chasing Low Vibrations, and Take Me Back. And it can be summed up as an infusion of genres—funk, some jazz, disco, and even some notes of gospel tossed in there—with quality production. It’s not the longest album I’ve listened to lately with just eleven songs, but it’s a cohesive listening experience that felt just right, in terms of length and substance. In some ways, it had a Very retro feel to it, particularly around the 1970s style of music, but it was a great combination that didn’t feel dated! For example: Glitchzig, the opening See You In The Afterlife, the titular Paradise State of Mind, and even the closing track A Diamond To Be Born.

So, Paradise State of Mind wasn’t an album I started the year anticipating, but as the singles were released, my hype only grew. And, ultimately, I ended up loving it.