2018 book 117

Thea Lim's An Ocean of Minutes
This was an extremely interesting and well-written book, but also it was a major bummer in a lot of ways. It centers on a young woman in 1981 who time travels to the future to save her boyfriend from a flu pandemic (too complicated to explain in a brief review), and he promises to find her when she arrives in 1993. Except she instead arrives in 1998, where she is basically an indentured servant to the corporation that sent her there. (If I didn’t already think capitalism was a corrupt system, this book would have convinced me very quickly.) This is all interspersed with flashbacks to her relationship. I wish there had been more to the ending sections—I think there was a bit more story there to tell—but I found the ruminations on the past to be effective.  Still, like I said, a lot,of this was a big ol' bummer, don’t buy the hype that this is the new Time Traveler's Wife (that book is a bummer in an entirely different way). Content warning for attempted rape. B/B+.

__
A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

2018 book 116

Emma Straub's Modern Lovers
It is always a joy to reread something for book club and have it still be totally great and engrossing, and this one was. I think Straub is an underrated author because her books are marketed kind of as beach reads, but her stories and characters are a lot less flimsy than that label implies. This novel centers on two families in Brooklyn and their interpersonal crises—teens and adults alike. There is also a lot of talk of the food scene, the music scene, movies, yoga, families, love, etc etc. I just loke this book a lot and think everyone should read it.

2018 book 115

Becky Chambers' Record of a Spaceborn Few
YAY, new Becky Chambers is here! The third book in her Wayfarers series focuses on a disparate cast of characters, all part of the Fleet that left Earth whenever it left Earth, who still live in their human enclave. They include Tessa, a working mom and sister of the captain from the first book; Isabel, an aging archivist (with a sassy wife! and an alien visitor!); Kip, a restless teenage boy; Sawyer, a frustratingly stupid twenty year old; and Eyas, a young woman who is the scifi equivalent of a funeral director. There are also dispatches from the aforementioned alien visitor. I had trouble keeping everything straight at first, but eventually I got into the swing of things, and really enjoyed this. It’s maybe not as cohesive a story as the first two—the characters do intersect here and there, but the overarching plot is more about family and home in a vaguer way. But like I said, I liked this a lot and definitely recommend it. A-.

2018 book 114

Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw
It's been long enough since I last read this that I didn't remember any of the details, which meant it was time for a reread. This is sort of your Victorian-esque story--inheritances, family squabbles, romance, lawsuits, lack of options for women, parsons, manners, etc--except all the characters are dragons! It’s all very entertaining, often very funny, and occasionally very sad. I like all the relationships between the siblings, though, and there are some good partnerships to root for. A-.

2018 book 113

Peng Shepherd's The Book of M
Well, here is a great concept AND gripping writing all in one. In this post-apocalyptic story, some sort of phenomenon is spreading across the world where people first lose their shadows, then their memories--and their confusion warps the world around them. The story focuses on a few characters--a man and his wife, holed up in a resort outside DC--and her shadow has just vanished. There's also a young Iranian woman in Boston, an Olympic-hopeful archer; and a man whose amnesia, caused by a car accident, pre-dates the current crisis. Parts of this are very tense and parts are very sad, but I was totally engrossed the entire time. A/A-.

2018 book 112

Caroline Stevermer's A College of Magics
This is one of those books I’ve seen recommended many times over the years, but for some reason had never read (even though I like the series Stevermer co-wrote with Patricia Wrede a lot). It was pretty good! It’s about a girl, technically the duchess of her home nation, but her uncle has been ruling in her place, and now he’s forcing her to go to a far-off magical boarding school (I will say the world building here is a bit odd—it’s like Europe exists, and Shakespeare and Marx, but there are some extra countries in there somewhere? It was distracting). Anyway, there is some good friendship stuff here, and some of the political and magical shenanigans were interesting, but I did think this dragged a bit, and I had mixed feelings about how things wrapped up. Solid book but I don’t know if I’ll revisit or read the sequel. B/B+.

2018 book 111

Victoria Goddard's Whiskeyjack
The third Greenwing and Dart book wraps up a lot of the ongoing storylines (but I feel,there is still more story to tell, and I’ll read it if the author writes more), with some great friendship stuff, great family stuff, magic, scholars, codes, poems, etc. I found these books to be really fun and pleasant reading, so if you are looking for something gentle, but not boring, give these a shot. A/A-.

2018 book 110

Carrie Vaughn's The Wild Dead
The second book in Vaughn's Bannerless series, about a woman who deals with crimes and disputes in a post-apocalyptic society, is maybe not quite as good as its predecessor, but is still very entertaining. In this one, she’s training a new young partner, and they’re sent to deal with a disputed over a rickety old house—when a body washes up on the shore and suddenly it’s a murder investigation. The mystery is pretty easy to figure out, but I like the characters and world building here so much that I didn’t even mind. More post-apocalyptic mysteries, please! A-.

__
A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on July 17th.

2018 book 109

Victoria Goddard's Bee Sting Cake
The second book in Goddard's Greenwing and Dart series is more of the delightful same, as our protagonist has a visit from a university pal, gets involved in figuring out more of the town's magical mysteries, AND has dealings with a dragon and its riddle. There is some good action here, but mostly this is a funny and gentle series, and I like it very much. A/A-.

2018 book 108

Jasmine Guillory's The Proposal
Omg, how does Jasmine Guillory write the cutest, sweetest, most heartfelt, and funniest books! In this one, a woman is at the Dodgers game with her boyfriend—who proposes via Jumbotron. But they’ve only been dating a few months, it’s not serious, and he doesn’t even spell her name right! So of course she says no. Luckily doctor Carlos (a character from Guillory's previous book) is at the game with his sister and they pull off a rescue. And one thing leads to another and it is all super cute. I hope the author writes books about every single character in all of these books, because they are all so likable and fun. A/A-.

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