2016 book 163

Maria Semple's Today Will Be Different
Semple's latest is in the same mold as her bestselling Where'd You Go, Bernadette, dealing as it does with frazzled motherhood and marriage in a complicated age, but it doesn't hold together quite as well for me. It has some really intriguing parts--I loved the parts about the protagonist's long-ago work as the art director of a cartoon show, and the reveal of her family background was very well done--but it is a bit scattered, and the end just felt very abrupt. Now, it is also highly readable and entertaining! Semple is super funny and I love the way she tells a story. This just kind of veered away from being compelling and then came to a screeching halt, sort of. B/B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 4th.

2016 book 162

Sally Andrew's The Satanic Mechanic
The second Tannie Maria mystery is perhaps more interested in Maria's personal life than in the murder mystery part of things, but I had no major problem with that. As Maria's new romance is progressing, she's dealing with some serious PTSD from her abusive former husband. And meanwhile, a San man who's part of a group that's just won a big land claim trial is murdered right in front of her. I really like the characters here; even if her love interest isn't particularly interesting, everyone else is, and I especially like the people who write in to her advice column. I hope to see more in this series, for sure. Content warning for mentions of marital rape. A-.

2016 book 161

Sally Andrew's Recipes for Love and Murder
The first book in Andrew's Tannie Maria mystery series, about a middle-aged South African widow who writes a cooking/advice column for a local newspaper and who gets involved in a murder investigation when one of her correspondents is killed, somehow manages to be both serious/realistic, and super cute. Like several of the women, including the protagonist and the murder victim, are survivors of domestic violence, and Andrew doesn't shy away from the trauma of that--but also Tannie Maria is so sweet and Andrew tells such a heartwarming story (despite the murder) that I cried from cuteness more than once. I am so here for meddlesome middle aged ladies solving crimes (and maybe finding new romance). A-.

2016 book 160

Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown
I keep thinking that I am just not in a reading mood lately, but it turns out I am totally in a reading mood if it means rereading one of my favorite books for book club! And this was just as good as the first time around--it just hits all my sweet spots--it's funny, a little romantic, focuses on underrepresented populations in history, and has MAGIC. It's the first in a trilogy and I cannot wait for the next one.

2016 book 159

Paulette Jiles' News of the World
Jiles' latest centers on an old man in Texas just after the Civil War--normally he makes a living by traveling town to town, reading out newspapers from near and far, but now he's been tasked with returning a little girl, kidnapped by the Kiowa, to her relatives. I loved both these characters and their relationship, and the western atmosphere is really well done. There is a pretty sweet shootout scene, too. I did think some things wrapped up a bit too neatly--there was never a ton of narrative tension--but this was an enjoyable read. Content warning for someone attempting to buy the little girl for nefarious purposes. :( B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.

2016 book 158

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
When you're tired and cranky, Harry Potter is the only cure. I will say that my dislike of Dumbledore has grown so much in the last few years that even in this first one I kind of want to kick him in the shins. But hooray friendship and teamwork and bravery and whatnot.

2016 book 157

Laure Eve's The Graces
This is one of those books with a plot that sounds like a cliche--a girl moves to a new town, where she becomes intrigued by a trio of mysterious, beautiful, popular siblings, and wants to be part of their inner circle. Yeah yeah, it's been done before. BUT these siblings are maybe witches? Which actually still sounds like a cliche, I guess. It's all super silly, lots of descriptions of flowing skirts and knee high boots and golden boys, but things eventually devolve into overwrought melodrama, and the main character is terminally stupid. I think I'm past the stage where I commiserate with teen girls who want to be part of the school ruling class. Like, get over yourself, get some magic powers, and get off the pot, you know? Learn a life lesson from The Craft. Find a hobby. (I think this is aiming for a Twilight-y audience: the main character is never described, not even her hair color until she gets a makeover, so impressionable young girls can better imagine themselves hanging out with magical beautiful teens.) I did kind of like the ending but this book is VERY ridiculous. B.

2016 book 156

Kelly Barnhill's The Girl Who Drank the Moon
Barnhill's latest, after The Witch's Boy, among others, is a perfectly fine middle grade fantasy story about witches, stories, and families of all kinds, and magical girls. I think it's one that would work better for younger readers than thirtysomething me--I wanted it to be a little more subtle, I guess. I loved the Witch and the titular girl, plus their dragon and monster companions, but some of the other characters are a little underbaked. And I guess this is a really nice book with a good message for adopted children, but again. that just doesn't resonate with me. A sweet story, I just wish there was a little more to it. B/B+.

2016 book 155

Melina Marchetta's Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil
When one of my favorite YA authors writes her first novel for adults, you had better believe I am THERE for it. And it's Marchetta at her best--some parts made me cry, but ultimately it gave me hope. Which is saying a lot, since it centers on the bombing of a bus of teenagers, and on the father of one of the girls, who is attempting to investigate the crime--which might relate to a major bombing from thirteen years earlier. But it is also about family, and love, and friendship, and grief. These characters all feel so real and are so compelling--Marchetta excels at characters--but the mystery-ish plot works really well too. I had to force myself not to stay up all night reading it. I mean,  I guess you could argue that some parts were a little pat, but I don't WANT to argue that, I just want to keep feeling how this book made me feel.  A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.

2016 book 154

Affinity Konar's Mischling
This was one of those books that I found engrossing while I was reading, but was never in a hurry to pick back up. As the second half dragged a little, I realized I was primarily reading out of a feeling of obligation as a Jew. That's a weird way to feel while reading a novel. Anyway, it centers on a pair of twin sisters being experimented on by Dr. Mengele at Auschwitz; since I once wrote a high school term paper on said Angel of Death ( . . . why?), I didn't really find anything here surprising--just sad. The whole thing is just sad. And then the end feels a little rushed and also left me with some questions. The characters are really well done and Konar does a good job differentiating their narrative voices, and I found Stasha and her journey to be particularly compelling, but like, it IS a book about terrible Auschwitz experiments and the survivors of same. Not an easy read. B/B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.

2016 book 153

Fiona Davis' The Dollhouse
I keep starting books and just not feeling them, which honestly was also the case with this one, but I was determined to just finish one and to break my curse! The writing here is just awkward as hell and both storylines are completely ridiculous and full of majorly unrealistic moments. In the present, a woman living in the Barbizon (everything about her is basically a terrible rom-com, so I'm not even gonna get started) becomes intrigued by the mystery of one of the long-term residents, and that woman's story--of arriving at the famed hotel in the 1950s to go to secretarial school, though eventually things turn tragic--is interspersed throughout. This book is basically about a bunch of sad-sacks with a super stereotypical Puerto Rican friend for good measure. I just thought this was so dull and cliched, though I did chuckle a little when someone threatens to go to Gawker with a scoop--how untimely this book's publication was. Content warning for attempted rape. B-/C+.

2016 book 152

Patrice Kindl's Don't You Trust Me?
I'm partway into like three different books right now, but all were (metaphorically) tossed aside when I got the email that this one was available (thank goodness for pre-orders!). NEW PATRICE KINDL!!! Yeah! Suck it, other books. At first I was just generally bummed this wasn't the third book in her Keeping the Castle series (hilarious Austen-ish antics), but even though it is the polar opposite--it's about a teenage sociopath who assumes another girl's identity--it's still pretty great.  I really love how all of Kindl's books are so different from one another. This one is hilarious and TERRIBLE (in the sense of someone going "you are TERRIBLE!"). Well, and also it's about a terrible person. I liked it anyway. B+.

2016 book 151

Brit Bennett's The Mothers
This is one of the big fall debut buzz books, and rightfully so--it's a beautifully written and powerful story of a small Black church community in California, and what happens when the pastor's son knocks up a congregant's daughter--whose mother has recently committed suicide. The titular Mothers are the elderly church ladies, who narrate parts of the story as a Greek chorus--those were my favorite sections. They fade out of the narrative a bit as the story goes on (and characters do frustratingly stupid things), so that I felt the first half was a bit stronger than the second half. I loved the end, though. And the writing here kind of grabs you by the throat and won't let go. Content warnings for mentions of rape and child abuse. A-.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.

2016 book 150

Mary E. Pearson's The Beauty of Darkness
Well, the third book in the Remnant Chronicles is here, and like the first two, it has a super stupid and generic title but is pretty good anyway. This one actually takes a while to get going--the first half has a lot of moments of character stupidity, boring political stuff, and leans too hard on the previously-resolved love triangle. Things pick up a little in the second half when a bunch of the (women) characters finally all come together and start getting things done, though it is still all very melodramatic, very predictable, and occasionally silly. Would I like the first two less if I read them now? Am I over these YA trilogies? B.
Content warning for rapiness and violence, and also a lot of annoying typos.

2016 book 149

Anna Solomon's Leaving Lucy Pear
The story here starts when a well-off Jewish teenager finds herself pregnant in the early 1900s, and not wanting to send the baby to an orphanage, instead leaves her for a family who annually steal a bunch of pears from her uncle's orchard. OK, sure. And then the little girl's adoptive mother becomes said uncle's caretaker. And there are a bunch of other characters, and Solomon throws in all sorts of things about Sacco and Vanzetti, and labor movements, and the temperance movement, and secretly gay men, and anti-Semitism, and Freudian analysis, and and and. There is way too much going on here, the tension of waiting for everyone to find out about where the little girl is is unbearable, there are ridiculous coincidences galore, and a reveal at the end totally cheapens everything that came before (even if everything that came before was kind of a muddle). This is just all over the place. It wants to be the sort of books that wine moms talk about in book club, but it just never manages to come together. Content warning for mentions of rape and child abuse.  B-.