STEM Girl Reads for Your Nerdy Heart Needs

What’s this? A post that isn’t a review? Yes, friends, I’m finally getting back on my blogging game, and thought I’d kick things off with a post that’s been lingering half-finished in my “drafts” folder for a while.

Like many others, I’ve read and really enjoyed some of Ali Hazelwood’s books. The Love Hypothesis was great; Love on the Brain was okay; and while I didn’t love Below Zero, the popularity of the STEMinist novellas further speaks to the budding popularity of Science Girl stories. Women in STEM don’t get nearly enough credit or page time in books–especially not in fictional stories where they’re defined by more than just their academic careers. To that end, I’ve put together a list here of a few stories starring STEM women. They span quite a few genres, and while some are quite popular, at least a couple are (hopefully) a little off the beaten path, and/or not advertised as starring women in science. Enjoy!

Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology – blog tour (review, quotes, giveaway, yay!)

Editor: Celine Frohn
Cover artist: Jenni Coutts
Cover designer: Charlie Bramald
Publication date: February 28, 2020
Genre: adult, speculative fiction, paranormal/supernatural, gothic
My rating: 4/5 stars

It’s here. It’s queer. Its creepiness levels range from minimal to severe. It’s Unspeakable, the queer gothic anthology that you didn’t know you needed until just now. From beginning to end (minus a handful of “meh” moments), it is a fun-filled read, especially for those of us who like an extra dash of the paranormal, dark, and/or macabre in our stories. Plus, it is positively bursting with queer rep of all shapes and sizes! Stick with this post to the end, and you’ll find a nice little giveaway for a copy of the book, too.

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home – review

Authors: Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
Publication date: May 5, 2020
Genre: fantasy, dark humor, horror
My rating: 5/5 stars

Do you like ghost stories? This book is for you!

Do you like revenge plots? This book is for you!

Do you like ragtag teams of criminals? This book is for you!

Do you like bizarre alternate versions of historical Europe? This book is for you!

Do you like dark humor and bitterly harsh realities? This book is for you!

Do you like Welcome to Night Vale? Obviously this book is for you; that’s probably what brought you to this review anyway, right?

Do you like sweet and happy endings? Dear god, please don’t read this book; find yourself something more wholesome.

This story can only turn out the way things happened. I cannot conjure a happy ending where none exists.

Top Ten Tuesday 12/17 – Winter 2020 TBR

It’s been a while since I’ve written a TTT* post, for a variety of reasons (including vague prompts and my life being chaotic), but here we are with an easy one: my winter TBR this year. As you may recall from some posts a while ago, I won quite a few books recently, both from Goodreads giveaways and from other giveaways, so I have plenty of reading material for this winter. Plus, I have a KILLER range of genres. Seriously, I feel like I’ve outdone myself on this one 😉 This is a very tentative TBR, and a lot of these are ARCs, so I have split the list into ARCs and some books that are already out that I’m excited for. Let’s go.

Top Ten Tuesday 11/26 – Fictional families I’m thankful I’m NOT a part of

Its freezing outside and the approaching holidays are stressful, but hey–at least there’s comfort in the routine of weekly memes. You know the drill: Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly themed post hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s TTT is a “Thankful Freebie,” and while I initially wanted to do something cheesy and happy like “books I’m thankful to have in my life” or something, I started thinking about big things we associate with Thanksgiving…like family. Honestly, not all families are great; there are racist grandparents and cruel siblings and overly critical parents and just generally shitty people. Even my family has quite a bit of its own drama. But we’ve got nothing on these fictional families, which I am so incredibly glad I don’t belong to.

Let’s begin.

1. The Parrish family (The Raven Cycle)

November 2019 TBR (or, an attempt to read what’s actually on my shelf)

It’s the first of November, and there is snow on the ground. There has been since yesterday, and I am both cold and unhappy about this. What I am happy about, though, is that cold weather is great for reading inside, curled up under a blanket…and that I have a great TBR this month.

I’m participating in a TBR Jar event this month with a group called We Be Book’n. The goal is to cut down on your existing TBR by having someone else pick the books from your list for you. I asked my partner to choose 8 books for me, from a much longer list, and these are the ones she selected:

Top Ten Tuesday 10/22 – Titles that are worse than this one

You know the drill! Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly themed post hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is “Books I’d Give Different Titles To (and tell us what title you’d pick!)” Given that last week was on “Extraordinary Book Titles,” this was extra fun.

WWW Wednesday- 10/16 (or, why am I so indecisive?)

WWW Wednesday is a weekly post hosted by Taking On a World of Words. Every Wednesday, the posters present their answers to the 3 W’s:

1. What are you currently reading?
2. What did you recently finish reading?
3. What do you think you’ll read next?

What am I currently reading?

Top Ten Tuesday 10/8 – Character Traits I Love

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly themed post hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is “Character Traits I Love.” I’m going to say right off the bat that this is not my best Top Ten Tuesday post, in terms of finding pictures and quotes; it has been a stressful couple days and I don’t have the mental energy for that 😓. That said, here’s my list of ten traits I love to see in characters (and yes, there are definitely some recurring themes…)

1. Sarcasm

Is this really a surprise to anyone? I live for the snarky characters, especially the ones who make me laugh out loud with their commentary. Bonus points if you have two sarcastic characters who feed off each other.

Top Ten Tuesday 10/1 – Easy as 1, 2, 3

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly themed post hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is “Book Titles with Numbers in Them.” To make it a little more challenging, I decided to do the numbers from 1 to 10, and to only use titles I have actually read. Yes, I’m obnoxious and an overachiever. No, I don’t regret it.

1. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

I must admit, I picked this one up primarily because the title was so weird. It was a quirky, funny collection of essays, including a few confirming my suspicion that some “contemporary performance artists” are totally making everything up as they go along, with no real plan or intent.