Saturday, June 30, 2018

2018 book 107

Kate Atkinson's Transcription
A new Kate Atkinson novel is always a treat, and this one was no exception. It isn’t my favorite of her novels, but Life After Life is one of my top five books, so that bar is way too high, and anyway this is still very good. It centers on Juliet Armstrong, working for MI5 during WWII—as a transcriptionist, among other things. And then in the 1950s, she’s working on children’s programming for the BBC. This is definitely an engaging read—I basically read it in one go—though I may need to reread it to parse it all out. Also, I was kind of more interested in the parts that are alluded to that we never see (Italy!), which was mildly disappointing. A/A-.

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

Thursday, June 28, 2018

2018 book 106

Ling Ma's Severance
Oh man, I would have devoured this in one sitting had my schedule allowed. If there is any justice in this world, this book will be as successful and acclaimed as Station Eleven. Anyway, it's set in 2011, after a weird fever has turned most of the world's population into mindless automatons. Our protagonist is Candace Chen, formerly employed at a book production company as the person in charge of Bibles (and secretly the one person blogging photos from NYC after things went haywire), who now finds herself part of a motley band of survivors. This is interspersed with flashbacks to her former life, and to her childhood. It manages not to be too grim, considering the subject matter. I REALLY liked this. Just gripping. A.

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

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

2018 book 105

Victoria Goddard's Stargazy Pie
The first book in Goddard's Greenwing and Dart series sets up her world pretty nicely--fantasy land, different countries, magic, manners, aristocrats, traitors, colleges, etc--as our scandal-dogged protagonist returns from a failed stint at school and an unhappy romance to his small hometown to work at the local bookstore (where his boss is a very awesome middle aged woman). But there are mysteries afoot! Parts of this were a bit slow but on the whole it was very enjoyable. B+.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

2018 book 104

Martha Wells' Rogue Protocol
Murderbot number three, baby! Yessss! In this one, Murderbot sneaks aboard a shuttle to get information for its human friends, and makes a new robot friend (inadvertently and crankily, of course). I cannot wait to see how this series wraps up. A.

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

2018 book 103

R.O. Kwon's The Incendiaries
This is one of THE summer buzz books, plus the author wears some incredibly bad-ass eye makeup, so I was looking forward to reading it. But it left me a little cold. The description makes it sound like an exciting read, but it’s much more interior—about a sad sack college student obsessed with a girl who gets involved with a Christian cult. They spend a lot of time discussing wanting a relationship with Christ/God, which is not super compelling for me (I’m Jewish), and they are both incredibly unhappy people, which makes it a kind of depressing read. The writing is great but I was relieved when this was over. Content warning for rape. B.

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

Friday, June 22, 2018

2018 book 102

Karen Healey and Robyn Fleming's The Spymaster's Apprentice
The second book in the Hidden Histories series (after The Empress of Timbra, which I liked very much) picks up a few years after the first one, and I can't say much about the plot because it's all spoilers for its predecessor. But it's still engaging, well-paced, with interesting and sympathetic characters and a lot of moral ambiguity. My only complaint is that I want more!  A/A-.

Thursday, June 21, 2018

2018 book 101

Claire Kann's Let's Talk About Love
Well, this was totally adorable. It centers on college sophomore Alice, a black biromantic asexual pop culture nerd (she loves writing critical analyses of tv shows), whose girlfriend has just broken up with her because she's ace. And now a suuuuper cute guy comes to work with her at the library and sends her into a tizzy. What will happen! There is also some good stuff dealing with friendship and family issues. Very likable story. A-.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

2018 book 100

Maryrose Wood's The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place 6: The Long-Lost Home
I admit that I was a bit grumpy for a large part of this book, because I wanted my long-awaited ANSWERS and instead Wood spends more than half the book dealing with the cliffhanger from book 5. This was all objectively very entertaining, and when I reread it, I will inevitably like it much more, but I was impatient this go-round! But once things start to come together, I was on the edge of my seat, and was definitely satisfied with how things wrapped up (especially regarding squirrels). Very funny and adorable. A-.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

2018 book 99

Maryrose Wood's The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place 5: The Unmapped Sea
In the fifth Incorrigibles book, the family takes a trip to Brighton . . . in January. The usual adventures arise, this time involving a group of dramatic Russians, a mysterious museum, ancient mariners, and so on. Plus a little romance, a large curse, and secrets revealed! I can’t wait to see how this series wraps up.

Saturday, June 16, 2018

2018 book 98

Maryrose Wood's The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place 4: The Interrupted Tale
In the fourth Incorrigible Children book, Penelope and the children are invited to a special event at her alma mater—but things are very changed. Plus there are pirates, villains, speeches, and lots of cheerful and efficient teachers on hand. (I love the women in these books.) More clues to the many mysteries are revealed and it is all as hilarious as ever.

Friday, June 15, 2018

2018 book 97

Maryrose Wood's The Mysterious Children of Ashton Place 3: The Unseen Guest
In the third Incorrigible Children book, visitors come to Ashton Place, revealing more mysteries--and also leading to a trek into the woods to find a runaway ostrich, among other adventures. Plus we learn all about acronyms and synonyms! What more could you ask for from a book?

Thursday, June 14, 2018

2018 book 96

Maryrose Wood's The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place 2: The Hidden Gallery
The second book in this series finds Penelope and her charges in London, using an unusual guidebook, making new friends, uncovering new mysteries, seeing the sights, and eating the occasional fiddlehead fern. These books are hilarious (do children get the humor, or do they just enjoy the adventures of children who were raised by wolves?) and sweet.

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

2018 book 95

Maryrose Wood's The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling
The sixth, and I believe final, book in this series comes out next week, so of course I have to reread all the others to get ready! This first one does a great job of setting up the story—a smart and plucky young girl with a mysterious past who has been trained up at a school for Poor and Bright Females to be a governess is hired to care for three children who were apparently raised by wolves. I love the narrative voice in these books—they are really funny—and I love the characters. Just a really fun series.

Monday, June 11, 2018

2018 book 94

Sarah Rees Brennan's In Other Lands
I just read this a few months ago, but I wanted the details to be fresh since we're reading it for book club this month! (We're actually still a week or so out, but I am getting so many texts and emails about it that I need to be able to respond accurately.) Anyway, I remembered that it was funny, but not that it was cackling-out-loud funny, as cranky asshole protagonist Elliot, a bisexual Jewish nerd, ends up in a militaristic fantasy land (full of matriarchal elven warrior maidens, harpies, mermaids, etc) and turns things on their head. I love it. POOR LUKE, though, haha. I mean, also, poor Elliot, I relate to him strongly in many ways. A great read.

Wednesday, June 06, 2018

2018 book 93

Sarah Beth Durst's The Queen of Sorrow
Durst's books are sometimes hit or miss for me, and the final book in her Queens of Renthia series was more on the miss side. I won't say too much about the plot so as not to spoil the first two, but in this one, a queen's children are kidnapped, spirits are running amok, political plots abound, and it's all fairly overwrought. I am definitely more interested in the spirits than in any of the queens or their past or current paramours at this point, so a lot of this dragged for me. I did like that an elderly women ambassador was one of the POV characters this go-round, and that there was a hint of a cute teen girl romance. Very anti-climactic and disappointing ending though. B.

Monday, June 04, 2018

2018 book 92

Lisa Halliday's Asymmetry
My library hold copy of this novel came in the day before Philip Roth died, which may seem irrelevant, except that the first part of this book is apparently loosely based on an affair the author had with Roth when she was in her 20s*. So I felt a little weird about reading it--plus I am generally uninterested in books about old writers sleeping with much younger women--though it is rare to have the story be from the woman's perspective, I guess. Just when this is starting to drag (they are watching a lot of endless baseball games), a different story entirely comes into play--the story of a young Iraqi-American being detained at Heathrow. I found a lot of this to be very profound but did wish it was a little bit less obtuse. B+.

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*Side note, I got a little jolt when it was revealed the Roth character was from SQUIRREL HILL!

Friday, June 01, 2018

2018 book 91

Rachel Hawkins' Royals
Hawkins' latest had the perfect release date, as everyone in America is super excited that one of our own is marrying a prince. This book is fairly silly, focusing on the Floridian teen sister of a young American woman who's engaged to a Scottish prince, but it's also a lot of fun as the teen gets caught up in adventures with the prince's rowdy younger brother and his pack of trouble makers—and of course finds romance. I think this is the first in a series, and I will definitely be checking out the next. A-/B+.