I was sad to hear about Tom Petty's death. I've been a fan of his music for most of my life, and reading tributes to him just reminded me of how many songs of his I love*. And how long a career he had.

*I can't decide if "The Waiting" is my all time favorite, or "American Girl" or "Free Falling" or "Learning to Fly" or "Even the Losers" or "Refugee" or "Into the Great Wide Open" or...you get the picture.

Last week, I missed reading Wednesday due to being confused as to what day of the week it was since I was not feeling well. *snerk* Let's catch up!

What I've just finished
The Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone, which I found kind of draggy at the start, or maybe it's just my impatience with people not telling people stuff as a plot point - I mean, maybe if Ley had been a previously established character, I wouldn't have been so annoyed with her "Just trust me even though I'm not going to tell you anything!" schtick, but as it was, I was very annoyed. Otoh, once Izza showed up and Tara got more involved, things started moving along nicely, so I ended up enjoying the second half much more. But ugh, "I can't tell you because ~danger" is so annoying! I wish people would stop writing it. I would guess that 98% of the time, it's MORE dangerous not to tell! Anyway. that's just a personal pet peeve.

Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds, which is very good at what it's trying to do, but was not what I personally want most out of a novel about Spider-Man, which is, you know, web-slinging and wall-crawling and street level crime-fighting with quips. This was definitely more about Miles and race and class and systemic oppression, and well-done for a YA audience. Though Ganke needs to tone it down a notch. I don't remember him being that annoying in the comics.

Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon, which is the story of 12 year old Wicked Witch Molly trying to take possession of the titular castle - and the minions who inhabit it - by performing a series of required tasks. I found this utterly charming and think it would be a great prelude to the Tiffany Aching books for any 8 or 9 year olds in your vicinity. In fact, I kind of want Tiffany and Molly to meet. *g*

What I'm reading now
Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, which is a short story anthology featuring scenes from the Original Trilogy (and possibly elsewhere? I've only read the first story, so I can't say) from the POV of background/secondary characters. The quotes I've seen from it promise some primo Ben Kenobi heartbreak, so I'm looking forward to that, as well as stories from a variety of characters we don't get to hear from in the films (e.g., the first story is about the escape/boarding of the Tantive IV from Captain Raymus Antilles' POV).

What I'm reading next
I also have the new Magnus Chase book, so that's up next, and then next week, Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic prequel comes out, so that.

It's always so exciting when I have an answer to this question! *g*

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