When comes the wind that billows our words' sails?

Translation State
by Ann Leckie

This is a thoughtful sci-fi novel set in the same universe as the Ancillary Justice trilogy and takes place some time after the events of those books. The story revolves around three people wo are each at a crossroads in their lives. Enae, who has spent most of eir life as a companion and caretaker for eir cantankerous grandmother, has taken on a diplomatic mission after eir grandmother's death. Reet is a mechanic whose origins are unknown but was adopted into a large and loving family. He has recently discovered some aspects of his biology and potential origins that lead him to unexpected and not entirely wanted places. Qved is a Presger, a strange and often brutal alien race. They have been bred to be a Translator, a human-shaped diplomat trained to serve as a liaison with the human worlds. Their paths will bring them all together against the backdrop of a Conclave of the humans and aliens where the treaties that make peaceful coexistence possible are re-negotiated.
Translation State is a masterful meditation on identity and belonging, and the roles biology, nurture, and self-determination play in them. Along the way, Leckie also looks at some romance tropes, the different effects of loving and non-loving parenting, and political machinations. All of this is done through a really good plot and some excellent characters.

Through Gates of Garnet and Gold
by Seanan McGuire

This is the 11th Wayward Children book. Nancy, a former student at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children, returns from the Halls of the Dead looking for help in saving her world. The unquiet dead have turned on the living denizens of the Hall of the Dead, killing and devouring them. The Lord and Lady of the Halls are unable to stop the onslaught, so Nancy turns to her former classmates. A handful of them answer her call for help and go with her to the Halls of the Dead to find out why the dead are destroying the living.
I enjoyed the story, which is a fairly straightforward quest. It was great to spend time with characters from earlier books. Nancy's arc in this book is really interesting. I also liked the themes around belonging, obedience vs. questioning, the different ways people find peace, and what happens when guardians fail to properly protect or care for their charges.

Usurpation
by Sue Burke

This is the final book in the Semiosis trilogy, and takes place a on Earth few centuries after Interference. The bamboo has grown from seeds brought to Earth and has lived through a recently concluded period of war and upheaval. Human society is still recovering, and it is in this context that Levanter, a bamboo based in a research center in Bayonne, France, reveals her intelligence to a small group of humans. When a mysterious fungal disease starts driving umans and bamboo to madness and death, Levanter, her fellow bamboo colonies, and her human associates must work to find a cure. In the process, Levanter leads the bamboo in revealing their true nature to all of humanity. The story concludes with humans and bamboo working towards greater understanding and a deeper relationship.
I really enjoyed this book, and it is a fitting conclusion to the trilogy. I really liked Levanter, as she had a development arc about finding her own voice and confidence after being squished down by her sibling bamboo. I also liked her friendships with the humans at the research center, especially Denis and Brian, as well as her appreciation for Bayonne's mayor. I loved Burke's take on the ways in which we need to be in harmony with the natural world in order to have true peace among ourselves, and the ways in which that is a two-way relationship and must be seen as such.

Semiosis
by Sue Burke

This is the first novel in a sci-fi trilogy about people colonizing an alien planet and their first contact with intelligent aliens. A group of humans leave a war-torn and environmentally depleted Earth to find a new home. They eventually land on a planet they christen Pax, in honor of their desire to live in peace and in harmony with their new environment. As they struggle to domesticate food crops and acclimate to their new home, they slowly begin to realize that the vines are sentient. When the move to a city left behind by the earlier visitors to Pax, they learn that the bamboo-like pant that grows around the city is not only sentient, but intelligent. Over generations, they develop a mutually beneficial relationship with the bamboo and eventually accept it as a full member of their community. Eventually, the humans also encounter the remnants of the earlier visitors and must figure out how to relate to them as well.
Semiosis is incredibly fascinating. I found Burke's concept of what an intelligent plant would be like very compelling, as well as her ideas of how it would relate to humans. Each chapter in the book is told from the perspective of a different character, mostly moving forward through each successive generation. Thus there is a focus on the development of the human-bamboo relationship and the settler society rather than individual character development. It gave me a lot to think about around what it really means to live in harmony with the natural world. It's very reminiscent of Le Guin's work in a lot of ways.

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
by Louise Erdrich

This beautiful novel focuses on Father Damien, a priest serving on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota during the twentieth century. His great secret is that he is a woman who has lived as a man for most of his life. When another priest comes to the reservation to investigate the sanctity of Sister Leopolda, a deceased nun of the reservation convent, Damien must decide whether to reveal the truth about Leopolda as he reflects on his life.
The Last Report... is a wonderful book that reveals a lot about Native American life in the early 20th century, and also explores what goodness and saintliness really are, and what makes a life truly holy. Damien's quiet, loving, empathetic service to the Ojibwe community is contrasted with Leopolda's forbidding and harsh devotion to the Church. The book is filled with so many wonderful characters, especially the elder Nanapush, Mary Kashpaw, and Damien himself. Erdrich gives us a good look at how religion can function in a community, and how that community can shape that religion. There's a lot in this book, and it's all worth discovering.

The Devil's Door
by Sharan Newman

This is the second Catherine LeVendeur medieval mystery. Catherine is staying in the convent Paraclete before her marriage to Edgar. Alys, a local countess, is brought in one night after being found on the road, badly beaten. She is unable or unwilling to name her attacker before she dies. Catherine is then determined to find out who murdered Alys and why. This draws both her and Edgar into a web of deadly secrets and conspiracies.
This mystery was intricate and poignant, an examination of the terrible lengths people will go to conceal dark secrets. Catherine is once again very brave and clever in her methods of gaining information, this time with Edgar's assistance. I enjoyed seeing them work as a team, and the way Edgar truly appreciates Catherine's intellect and personality. I also liked the way the mystery wove in aspects of medieval life: inheritance, the disposition of property rights, and the range of attitudes towards the Jews.

A Reckless Match
by Kate Bateman

This historical romance was slight but enjoyable. It takes place on the border of Wales and is an enemies to lovers story featuring the eldest children of two families that have been feuding for centuries. Gryffud is recently home from the Napoleonic wars and has retreated to his country estate after a scandalous duel. Maddy is trying to figure out how to help her family recover from a financial disaster without having to enter into a loveless marriage for money. They grew up teasing and pranking each other as children and now that they are grown harbor a secret attraction to each other. When they stumble on a smuggling ring, the ensuing adventure brings them closer together and their mutual attraction ignites.
This romance lacked a little depth and development - we don't really learn much about Gryff or Maddy's pasts or their inner lives, and there isn't a lot of character development. Still, the banter is good, the smuggling plot adds drama and suspense, and their relationship is charming.

Silver Silence
by Nalini Singh

This is the 16th Psy-Changeling novel, and it lives up to the best of the previous ones. Silver Mercant, bad-ass Psy right-hand woman to Kaleb Krychek, is being courted by Valentin Nikolaev, the alpha of the StoneWater bear changeling clan. Despite Silver's immersion in Silence, she finds herself reacting to Valentin. When he saves her life after an assassination attempt, she finds herself ensconced in the bear clan. There, the spark between Silver and Valentin heats up.
I really enjoyed this one. The bears are a delight - brash, very Slavic, loyal, and loving. Silver warms to them as she warms to Valentin, and finds herself embracing emotion and passion. I also loved Valentin. He's very much a bear - brash, very physical, physically powerful. Yet he is also extremely caring. He makes sure that Silver takes care of herself, and is always bringing her food. He's willing to make real sacrifices for her. Silver is also willing to do a lot for Valentin and, by extension, the bear clan. Even when she is cast back into the depths of Silence, Silver will not do anything that would truly hurt Valentin or his ability to function as alpha of his clan. The two of them work so well together, Plus, they have excellent banter.

Bookshops & Bonedust
by Travis Baldree

This is a prequel to Legends and Lattes, telling the story of a summer from Viv's younger days when she had to spend a few months in a small seaside town recovering from a serious injury. While there, she befriends Fern, a struggling bookshop owner, has a sweet fling with Maylee, the proprietor of the best bakery in town, and meets Gallina, a gnome looking for adventure. Viv also has to deal with the threat of a local necromancer.
Bookshops and Bonedust was as charming and relaxing as its predecessor. I really enjoyed seeing Viv learn to love reading, and her genuine pleasure in helping Fern shore up her business. I didn't find the romance with Maylee quite as convincing, but maybe that's because I was comparing it to Viv's later relationship with Tandri. Also, it shows where the seeds of Viv's later desire to run a coffeeshop came from, as well as how Viv's ability to gather a found family is a consistent part of her character.

Hold Me
by Courtney Milan

This romance takes place largely at UC Berkeley. Maria is an older student, in her mid-20s and in her last semester of her undergraduate degree. Under a pseudonym, she runs a blog where she games out various apocalyptic scenarios using real science and data. She is single but has developed a real friendship with one of her frequent commenters, a friendship that has gotten flirty over time. Maria's brother Gabe introduces her to his close friend Jay, a driven junior chemistry professor at Berkeley. They do not hit it off, quite the opposite. Of course, Jay is Maria's online friend. Once they discover that truth, things change rapidly.
I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. The enemies-to-lovers plot had some real heft to it. I liked how Jay and Maria each owned their own baggage and did the work needed to properly deal with it. I liked how supportive they were of each other. Milan also does a great job of exploring the sexism in the STEM world. I also appreciated that Maria is trans, but the book isn't centered on that - it's an important part of Maria's background, but not the major driver of the story.