![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jan2020books-1-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\nThat’s<\/p>\n
- \n
- Gideon the Ninth by Tasmyn Muir<\/li>\n
- Here by Richard McGuire<\/li>\n
- How To Be Happy by Eleanor Davis<\/li>\n
- Check, Please! Book 1 by Ngozi Ukazu<\/li>\n
- Marvel Masterworks: Doctor Strange – Volume 5 by Steve Englehart, Frank Brunner, and Gene Colan<\/li>\n
- The New Voices of Science Fiction edited by Hannu Rajaniemi and Jacob Weisman<\/li>\n
- Freddy the Detective by Howard Hughes<\/li>\n
- Bitch Planet, Vol. 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro<\/li>\n
- March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell<\/li>\n
- Transcendent 3: The Year’s Best Transgender Themed Speculative Fiction edited by Bogi Tak\u00c3\u00a1cs<\/li>\n
- Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes<\/li>\n
- This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n
I mostly enjoyed them all–though Freddy the Detective, an old children’s book that was bought for me as a gag gift, maybe isn’t the lost classic its cover asserts, and there were more than a few typesetting errors throughout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Richard McGuire’s Here is a genuinely astonishing graphic novel, while Ngozi Ukazu’s Check, Please! was a delightful surprise. Muir’s novel, which I read for my book club, was a whole lot of fun, and I’ll definitely read its sequel. And I was really impressed by Linda Holmes’ first novel. I’m familiar with her writing from Pop Culture Happy Hour<\/a>, and here voice definitely comes through in the prose, but the nicest thing is how none of the characters or their problems feel contrived, despite the ostensibly romantic-comedy plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which leads into my favorite short stories from the month. I’m still trying to read a new (to me) short story every day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nMost of the short stories I read in January were from a couple of really great anthologies:
– The New Voices of Science Fiction edited by @hannu<\/a> and Jacob Weisman (@TachyonPub<\/a>) and
– Transcendent 3, edited by @bogiperson<\/a> (@lethepress<\/a>)<\/p>\u00e2\u20ac\u201d Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) January 31, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>