Unabridged Chick

June is always a bananas month for me, as I have a huuuuuge week-long work conference that pretty much takes up all my time and mental energy. Plus it's my birthday month, and my wife's summer jobs all start. So reading sadly doesn't happen as much as I'd like, le sigh.

Still, I'm getting reading in where I can, and I just finished N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season, which is so good it is almost unbearable. Can't wait to squee about it. I just started Mark Beauregard's The Whale, which is about Melville and Hawthorne's passionate friendship, and it's pretty much the novel I've always wanted to write. It's good, so I'm especially jealous.

What are you reading this weekend?

Title:Shades of Milk and Honey
Author: Mary Robinette Kowal

First line: The Ellsworths of Long Parkmead had the regard of their neighbours in every respect.

Review: The basic gist of this book is Jane Austen with magic, which pretty much sold me, and it's been on my TBR since its 2010 release. In the meantime, I've loaded up on Kowal's short fiction, which I love, and have been gobbling up her writing advice via her fab writing craft podcast, Writing Excuses.

Sadly, all that time waiting lead me to an anticipation that this novel just couldn't meet. It's a fluffy fun Austen homage, breezy and brisk, but felt too short and a little too thin for my tastes. (Also, I cannot fathom the title's connection to the story!)

There's a mishmash of Austen elements in this novel, from Pride and Prejudice to Emma, and it's a very fun to see what threads Kowal includes. Our heroine, Jane Ellsworth is not pretty, but gifted in the arts and skills of a proper woman, inclu…