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I love Samin Nosrat's other book, and the show, and the Home Cooking podcast, so I expected to love this too. I didn't. I think part of it was that it didn't work well for me as an audio book, at least not one to listen to while doing counting-heavy crochet. It would have needed more attention to get all the the cooking advice. But also.... I think the message of the book was supposed to be that food is an everyday thing and it's important to make food that works and is enjoyable for you. Instead, i kept wishing i was someone else. Someone who likes cilantro, for example, because Samin Nosrat likes cilantro and i want to share that joy! Oof. Maybe it wasn't the right moment for this book.

Knowing some of the authors other brilliant writing actually makes me like this series a little less. But it's still a really good story. How dare the monster.... ok that would be a spoiler. But.

Ok ok yes I liked it. I liked the things that I liked about the first one, there were no/less things that annoyed me, and I really enjoyed the more hopeful and revolutionary twists. I know it doesn't sound like it the way I write about it, but I really have a soft spot for this series.

It's not my favourite Tamara Bach book, but I think it's a really nice one, about dealing with asshole authority figures.

Ooof. Hmmm. I liked it, mostly. The whole "literally everything in this place can kill you" thing got exhausting for a moment before the plot really got started. And the explanations of the social logics of this place were often lost on me. I do like the way the world gets revealed though, and this is an explanation for the existence of a dangerous magic school that I'm only slightly annoyed by. I like the characters and the little details and hm, well, I enjoyed reading this.

Edit: oh right, there's a mention of an Arabic worksheet that might be racist or might be Islamist or might be a comment on either, and it annoyed me so much not to know which.

Finally, my first Akwaeke Emezi book. Not the one I'm most interested in, but one that sounded not too stressful. And it really wasn't – I was surprised by how fluffy, calm and cute this story is. It's about love and feeling safe with someone and deciding for that, even if it's the less expected choice, and one that some people disapprove of. The sonewhat stressful part of the story is this friend who has a crush on the main character and is not just upset when she gets together with his dad, but actually turns into a total asshole, violent and misogynist. There's a lot of difficult feelings and grief, but there's also a deep comedy to the whole thing: as a reader I know that these two people are so obviously good for each other, they're both very solidly adults, the side characters don't seem to mind so much, only the guy's kids are super freaked out about how horribly inappropriate this is and how everyone will talk.

It's a very bi story for what it is, but what I liked even more is that next to a story about big unexpected love, it's also a story about relationships that didn't happen, or didn't last long. Also, I'm not a fan of detailed descriptions of penis-in-vagina sex, but it was ok, the rest is good enough that it doesn't matter.

It's definitely fun! Not too sad or exciting despite the bad things happening. A bit heavy-handed in the meta commentary saying that stars are people and need privacy, but very convincing and cute in actually portraying stars as people. The big plan in the end is fun, but leans mostly on hoping that forensics won't look too closely, which, given the fame of the people involved, seems risky, although I am willing to believe that it's the best idea they have – I certainly don't have a better one

It was amazing how stupid teenagers could be, Walden thought, with enormous, grieving fondness. She knew she wouldn’t change them for the world.

The Incandescent is a fun novella about a magic boarding school and its demon summoning problems, but from the perspective of an older teacher.

This book could have been a "gosh those teenagers" story, but I love that the narrator Saffy herself is an adult who remembers her own teenage failures and is able to bring a lot of compassion as a result. And also, she makes the same mistakes her teenagers do--she internally comments on their relationships while she's having her own awkward romance; she also makes mistakes from the same place of hubris that they do.

Because an elite education was an investment in power. Magic was the least of what you gained at Chetwood. What mattered was the power to walk the walk and talk the talk, to have your résumé picked out of the pile and the interviewer already speaking your language.

One component I liked about this book that I feel like gets skipped in a lot of stories like this is the worldbuilding around the privilege around attending a private magic school. Given that the narrator Saffy went to the school herself and then is now a teacher, I appreciate that we get the opposite of this in the marshal Laura Kenning who is shocked that kids can live in the postcard environment and feel like it's normal, all because they have rich parents.

(In the books about magic schools department, I think A Deadly Education does this really well too, although that book is more about how outside wealth and privilege reflect on standing inside the school and at graduation, but that also makes sense given its student point of view rather than the teacher perspective here.)

No sensible woman over the age of twenty-five felt anything but dubious in the face of a smiling posh chap with good cheekbones.

This book has a romance component, but it's pretty minor. Saffy is a workaholic and primarily the book is about her relationship with her work and her school and her past. If anything, I appreciate the romance more than a lot of other books. Saffy and Laura are staid and awkward in a way that feels authentic, and I will admit that I do like the progression of professionally butting heads to an eventual appreciation of each other's talents.

ALSO, let me repeat that the main character is nicknamed """Saffy"""; her two main love interests are: (1) butch lesbian with a motorcycle and a sword, and then (2) smarmy posh guy. We'll leave it to the romance experts to figure out where the cards fall on this one.

I finished this in July, while I had covid. I liked it a lot and there's a large gap in my books since then. I thought maybe I'd go back and mark all the ones I read, but no, I think I won't.