Happy June! May was over in a flash, but that’s because I was working my two SEKRIT PROJECTS. One, you already know about: Calico in Conversation! The other, well, stay tuned…. in the meantime, my brain always needs a break from the day job and SEKRIT PROJECTS, so here’s all the culture I consumed in the month of May!
Books
Star Wars, Ann Leckie, and …. BREAKING CAT NEWS!!!! What a fun concept: cats reporting the daily happenings around their household as news, and how they perceive it as cats. I’m not sure where I heard about this, but it’s adorable. You’ve already seen my thoughts on the Claudia Gray’s latest Star Wars novel, which was very good, though hard to completely sink my teeth into as a former EU junkie. Last but not least, Ancillary Mercy, which wraps up the trilogy quite nicely, though I feel a re-read is in my future, when I can read each book back-to-back-to-back!
13) Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray
14) Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
15) Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn
Short Fiction
The Nebulas were announced, and I was really excited to see women taking home all the fiction honors! I was a huge fan of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, and I very much enjoyed Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti, so I decided I should read Wong’s winning story and Pinsker’s as well. But, as you can see below, I only got around to Wong’s, but what I read, I was very captivated by.
You can read the story for free at Nightmare Magazine.
8) “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong
Comics
I decided to make up for April’s HORRID lack of comic-reading, and you’ll notice that I sat down to read things in (mostly) sets. I’m finding that both Clean Room and Cry Havoc are engaging titles, but they work better when read back-to-back, rather than waiting a month between issues. Penny Dreadful #1 takes place before the events of Season 1 of the show, so no spoilers there, and the art is quite gorgeous. But a special shout-out to Star Wars: C-3PO #1, a stand-alone story that tells the tale of how Threepio got his red arm in The Force Awakens. Guys, I’m not saying this because I’m a Star Wars fan…. this issue was really good, really poignant.
Individual Issues:
Clean Room #4
Clean Room #5
Clean Room #6
Clean Room #7
Cry Havoc #2
Cry Havoc #3
Descender #10
Descender #11
Jem and the Holograms #13
Jem and the Holograms #14
Monstress #4
Ms. Marvel #5
Penny Dreadful #1
Star Wars: C-3P0 #1
Star Wars: Obi-Wan & Anakin #3
Star Wars: Obi-Wan & Anakin #4
Star Wars: Poe Dameron #1
Star Wars: Poe Dameron #2
The Shadow Glass #1
The Walking Dead #152
The Walking Dead #153
The Walking Dead #154
Movies
An another odd mix of a movie month. I’d never seen Beverly Hills Cop, so my husband insisted we watch it over Memorial Day weekend, and it was quite good and entertaining. The Revenant was a gorgeous, lush, and rather brutal movie, and kudos to DiCaprio: he’s come a long way since Titanic. Lastly, of course I saw Captain America: Civil War. TALK ABOUT FEELS. Jesus.
Special shout-out to the FANTASTIC retro-poster for Civil War designed by Punmagneto!
* = repeat viewing
Anatomy of a Love Seen
Beverly Hills Cop
Captain America: Civil War (in theaters)
The Revenant
Television Shows
Last but not least, the joy of television! I can’t say anything really stood out in terms of what wrapped up in May, but Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has a fascinating, solid story arc this back half of the season, and now that it’s over, I’m curious to see where the show goes in Season 4. Also, there are CERTAIN CHARACTERS who DIDN’T DIE and DIDN’T GET A SPIN OFF that I was to see come back, thank you very much!
* = repeat viewing
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3
Cheers Season 7
Modern Family Season 7
That’s it from me! Also, feel free to share whatever 2016 stats you’ve got! How many books? How many movies? What were your favorites? Lay them on me!
Cheers!
Calico Writes 
My list is pretty short this month.
New books read:
1. The Aeronaut’s Windlass, by Jim Butcher. 3 stars. Read because it’s a Hugo nominee. I enjoyed this for what it was, a fun action-filled book, but it is clearly going to rank below the Jemisin, Leckie and Novik. I liked it better than the nominee from last year, possibly because this was the first book in a new series rather than the thirteenth in an established series. Now I just need to read Seveneves.
2. Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow. 5 stars. Read for my UU book club and because I’m a fan of the musical. Non-fiction book 6/12 for the year. This is the book that sucked up all my reading time this month. The paper version of the is 800 pages long, and they had to work to make it fit in that space, even. My kindle says it’s 22,000 kindle locations long, though the last 25% is footnotes and bibliography. In any case, this book took some work to get through, but I am glad I did. It’s very well written and generally illuminating about a bunch of things that I had not previously known.
New Novellas read:
1. Perfect State, by Brandon Sanderson. 3 stars, maybe 2.5 stars. I’ve read things by Sanderson that I liked much better, including his nominee for best novella a few years ago.
2. Sunset Mantle, by Alter Reiss. 3.5 stars. Well done, but not the kind of fantasy I would normally seek out. Very much a boy’s epic fantasy story. I bought it when I was reading short-fiction for the Hugo nominations, but did not get to it before the deadline.
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