2017 book 217

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
I maintain that this is the weakest of the HP books, but the creation of Gilderoy Lockhart is an all-time winner. A champion example of a hilarible mansplainer. I will also submit a hot take at this time: I do NOT understand y’all who are into Draco Malfoy. In the first book he is a snobbish asshole; in this one, he is straight up racist and relishes the thought of Muggle-borns dying. So like, what is the appeal there? Anyway, Hermione manages to save the day while basically in a coma, so yay for that.

It looks like this is the last book of the year for me—here’s to more good reading in 2018!

2017 book 216

Kim Fu's The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore 
This book has been getting a TON of buzz and let me tell you, it lives up to the hype. It’s centered on a group of young girls at a summer camp in Vancouver, and a kayaking trip that goes awry, flashing back and forth between that event and the girls' young adulthoods. It’s compelling and evocative stuff. Just really outstanding. A.

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

2017 book 215

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
I will very soon be going to THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER, fulfilling what feels like a lifelong dream—even though I know that is not logically possible—so of course I had to immerse myself in some HP to prepare. This is such a good intro to the world and sets up so much of the later stuff, though I do think Dumbledore is way more problematic than intended. This is balanced out by NEVILLE. I LOVE YOU, NEVILLE.

2017 book 214

Thisbe Nissen's Our Lady of the Prairie 
Literary novels about middle aged academics having affairs have never been something I was particularly interested in, but this one grabbed me—at first—with its strong narrative voice. The fact that the narrator is a middle aged Jewish woman theater professor also made this feel a bit fresher, plus the first half of the novel turns on her mentally ill daughter's marriage to an Amish man—so a lot of balls are being juggled, but I found it compelling enough. Things start to drag as the narrator becomes mired in indecision and self pity, and I could have done without a lengthy dream sequence about WWII French collaborators as well as the lengthy retreads of the Bush-Kerry election (the novel is set in 2004 for some reason). I just found this all to be more insufferable the longer it went on. B-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on January 23.

2017 book 213

Melissa Albert's The Hazel Wood
Protagonist Alice is a teenage girl whose single mother has moved her from place to place, trying to outrun their bad luck. She is also the granddaughter of a reclusive author of creepy fairy tales who has a cult following. When they hear said grandmother has died, they think they are finally free, but that is when things really start to go wrong. This story was weird, and creepy, and unexpected, and awesome. I read this all in one sitting and loved almost every second of it. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on January 30th.

2017 book 212

Ann Patchett's Bel Canto
I have had three separate conversations about Patchett recently, which of course made me want to reread some Patchett! I am personally not into opera, but this story is so operatic (and I guess they did actually make an opera of it recently, to boot) that it makes me want to try and get into it! If you have somehow not read this book, it is the story of a group of South American guerillas who take a party of fancy people hostage. It is beautiful and tragic. State of Wonder is probably an even stronger novel, but this one really speaks to me.

2017 book 211

Jodi Lynn Anderson's My Diary from the Edge of the World
This is a perfectly fine middle grade book set in a world that is very similar to ours, except that it's also got a lot of paranormal creatures wreaking havoc--oh, and it's flat. The book is meant to be the diary of a middle-schooler but the narrative voice was not particularly authentic to me. Still, it's an interesting story of a family on the run, trying to escape a terrible fate, and maybe make it to the Extraordinary World--our world. I liked the family relationships here but wished for a little bit more, I guess? B/B+.

2017 book 210

Sage Blackwood's Miss Ellicott's School for the Magically Minded
This was a very cute MG fantasy centered on a girl at the titular school, who has to band together with her friends to save the city with magic and heart and the occasional crossbow. The book doesn’t make light of the cost of war but there are some funny moments, and I especially liked all the little magical schoolgirls (and Anna!). I also liked that it talked about things like the inaccuracies of history lessons. Good stuff. A-/B+.

2017 book 209

Erika Johansen’s The Fate of the Tearling
The conclusion to Johansen’s Tearling trilogy improves on a second reading, when you can see her laying the groundwork for how things are going down. There is still a lot going on, but not in a bad way, and I appreciate how she humanizes (some of) her villains in this volume. Still a lot of sexual violence and rape threats, which I personally prefer less of in my epic fantasy. I’ve read that the author is planning more books set in this universe, and I’ll read them, or anything else she writes, because she has a deft hand with plot and characterization.

2017 book 208

Erika Johansen's The Invasion of the Tearling
Another gripping one, even though I have read it before! In the second Tearling book, the narrative is divided between the young queen, and a woman from our near future (a future that feels nearer every day, frankly), which answers a lot of questions about the world and how it came to be. Unfortunately this volume ramps up the sexual violence, which does make a lot of it hard to read. Still a solid story though.

2017 favorites!

All right, we've reached the point in the year where I admit to myself that I am not going to read any more of the big 2017 books and have succumbed to the peer pressure to tally up my favorite books and albums!

2017 was mostly a terrible year but I did get to see Hamilton on Broadway with two of my closest friends and also I knitted several giant shawls, so I call that a win. It was also a great year for STUFF!

Alicia's Top 10 Albums of 2017 (in alphabetical order)*:

Aimee Mann's Mental Illness
All Our Exes Live in Texas' When We Fall
Alvvays' Antisocialites
Belle and Sebastian's How to Solve Our Human Problems (Part 1)
Charly Bliss' Guppy
Coco Hames' Self-titled
Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton's American Dream
A Giant Dog's Toy
Slowdive's Self-titled
Sweet Spirit's St. Mojo

*I acknowledge that this list is not very diverse.

Alicia's Top 11 Books of 2017 (in alphabetical order):

Naomi Alderman's The Power
Kristin Cashore's Jane Unlimited
Louise Erdrich's Future Home of the Living God
T. Kingfisher's Summer in Orcus
Meg Howrey's The Wanderers
N.K. Jemisin's The Stone Sky
Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere
Elizabeth Strout's Anything is Possible
Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give
Scarlett Thomas' Dragon's Green
Gabrielle Zevin's Young Jane Young

Here's hoping to a better 2018 with lots more great books and music!

2017 book 207

Erika Johansen's Queen of the Tearling
Rereading this for book club, I was struck anew by what a compulsively readable book this is. I mean, I've read it several times and remembered it pretty well, and I still had a hard time putting it down. I will say that, having now read the third book, it seems clear that Johansen had something different in mind when she wrote this one, but that is not a major complaint. I really enjoy this story of a young queen coming into her own in the far future with the help of magic and her trusty Guards. Content warning for many mentions of rape, though there are no graphic depictions.

2017 book 206

Elizabeth Hand's Waking the Moon
This was a weird moment to read this particular book, because a large part of my brain was yelling "BURN IT ALL DOWN!" and almost cheering on the character trying to resurrect the moon goddess and her matriarchal, sacrificial murder cults, despite the, y'know, murders. But to back up for a second: I like Elizabeth Hand a lot, though I do find some of her books to be a bit unsettling, and this was definitely one of those times. The action starts at a mysterious college in DC in the 1970s, where warring religious secret societies enter the lives of some first-years. The protagonist is your usual girl who feels out of place and doesn't really know what's going on and is consumed by feelings for various beautiful people, and then things go very awry and her story picks up almost twenty years later. I did like this book but thinking about it too much makes my head hurt, and I am not gonna get into the inappropriate yet mystical romances. It is VERY atmospheric though. A-.

2017 book 205

Mitali Perkins' You Bring the Distant Near
This seems to be marketed as a YA title, I assume b/c Perkins' previous works were YA, but this is definitely a crossover title. It centers on three generations of Indian-American woman as they struggle to reconcile their cultures and their issues with each other (there is also a fair amount of focus on their romances). Very readable and great characters, if a teensy bit on the cheesy side. Nothing wrong with the occasional multicultural heartwarming read! A/A-.

2017 book 204

Frances Hardinge's A Skinful of Shadows
Hardinge is an author I have heard good things about, ans her latest novel seemed really interesting—set at the beginning of the English Civil War, it centers on a young girl from a family with mysterious powers that she wants nothing to do with, so she ends up on the run to escape them—and to maybe find a way to save her brother from their clutches. I really liked this and loved how it wrapped up. A-.