Shirleynature > Recent Status Updates

Thomas King is among my favorite authors. Engaging as ever, here he includes semi-autobiographical notes and is frequently just plain silly!

Loving my 1st epic fantasy and already anticipating book two in the trilogy! Loosely inspired by Tlingit folklore and traditions with a fun, yet tension-filled adventure-quest (Tolkienesque). The author is an enrolled Tlingit Nation member.

Ah, how Obreht tells a tale! I believe this is my 1st time reading of an active gunfight, it's sort of like watching a chase scene!

Gratitude to Obreht for the fantastic magical realism of a dreamlike animal-human encounter!
And an interesting structure, this seems like a story within another story -- contemporary discovery of historical. I'm entranced!

Obreht is a shrewd and wry storyteller. Heroine Nina is describing reading what sounds like a pulp western paperback while also telling us more about Nina's husband and her job as a nanny. I'm so grateful to be enjoying my favorite author's forthcoming novel!

An uneven experience so far -- including classic wry critiques of bigotry and classism intermixed with plenty of misogyny. I'm wanting more of the jazzy humorous prose that may not be here, but I know to be in Hughes' work.

Oh, book club joy! This African American multigenerational family saga with a piercing view of land inheritance, of non-linear telling, complete with the previous generations benevolent ghosts is perfect for fans of Happy Land by Dolan Perkins-Valdez!!!

Among the wisest and wry multigenerational, ghost omniscient, and place rooted stories I've read. I feel deeply connected in a way relatable to my own family roots, including benevolent spirits of the long-passed generations.

Oh wow, I believe this may be among my favorite 2026 publications! The timeline is primarily contemporary with seamless historical notes for context, featuring multiple generations of one African American family, including the ghosts of long dead earlier ancestors and all the relationship nuances. A readalike for Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez.

pp125-6:"Why is gender such a lockbox?It's one of the verities we're raised with.Pink for girls,...everything divided into gender categories--toys,shoes,clothes...And a rift opens up if those certainties are questioned...we need to put people into a hierarchy, to judge people and know where they fit...It's control."
...versus getting to know people and real community connections.

The charm of family rootedness and mini reunions has me completely emotionally connected.

The charm of family rooted ness and mini reunions has me completely connected.

Loving this for wry laugh out loud moments, contemporary characters haunted by benevolent ancestors, and wise storytelling!

A heavy theme. With occasional reflections of the healing power we enjoy in relationships with trees and other plants, Montgomery balances family and autobiographical stories with deeply painful moments of race-based injustice that is rooted in specific time and place across the US and occasional globally far-afield mentions to places such as Benin.

I look forward to sharing this read in my Nature Book Club.

I didn't know I needed this moving story as catharsis, but I'm grateful for inspiring tears. While reading of the mystery injustice suffered by a Black American transgender woman killed by hit and run and mis-gendered by police as reported in the news. While the current horrendous actions of ICE haven't directly impacted me, I am grateful to champion stories of heroines such as lesbian private eye Mickey Knight.

notes: respectful recognition for people of color, especially Latine, resonance in various genres of popular music and the hopeful era in early 2008 leading up to electing Obama, an affectionate familiarity for New York, vibrato, the nefarious machinations of gentrification, consumerism, general excess, class divisions, skepticism of the benefits of marriage to women

Mesmerizing, yet unlike any other read in my experience. Such a juxtaposition to Livonia Chow Mein which will also publish in April and is set in Brownsville, another Brooklyn neighborhood. My frame of reference will make a future visit very interesting!

Such an emotionally intense thriller, yet with healing wisdom interlaced throughout like: "Focus on justice, not the unjust. Keep digging." Archeologist heroine Syd being shadowed by a ghost from a traumatic experience from her youth is quite vivid.

I love this heroine!!!

Just beginning and gotta save this epigraph:
"What happens to the land happens to the women." ~Native wisdom

A tough Choctaw heroine cop, Indian relay, horses, aspects of diverse Indigenous traditions, and land alottments. Blood Relay by Devon Mihesuah is due Feb24. This is my 2nd fiction entry by Mihesuah after The Hatak Witches from 2021. The author is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation and a Chickasaw descendant, professor, and historian; she teaches Indigenous Studies at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS.

It's extremely difficult to step away from the hold this story has on me.
This is a riveting fictional mystery. An account of the urgent and hauntingly real vulnerabilities of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.
I will return to finish soon! And look forward to recommending this to readers of realistic gritty thrillers.