2018 book 166

Marian Keyes' The Break
I am still digging the Marian Keyes vibe. In this one, the protagonist's husband announces he needs a six-month break from their marriage to travel in Asia and find himself. But of course, that means she's in a break too. As always, I loved Keyes' characters and their complicated families, and I enjoyed reading this very much, though I did find the ending to be mildly unsatisfying. B+.

2018 book 165

Laura Weymouth's The Light Between Worlds
Weymouth's debut novel is working in the aftermath of a portal fantasy; sixteen year old Evelyn and her two older siblings spent years in another world, escaping from a London bombing in WWII, but were eventually sent home. Five years have passed and her older brother and sister are making the best of things, but Evelyn is determined to return. (I feel like Seanan McGuire has been doing things in this realm as well, kids traumatized after returning from a magical land, but I've only read the first of those and didn't love it.) Anyway, the first half of the book is from Evelyn's perspective and the second is from her sister's, and I thought both were very well-done. I have not yet decided how I feel about the ending, but on the whole this was a really good read. A-.

2018 book 164

Nicole Chung's All You Can Ever Know
I feel like I have been waiting foreverrrrrrr to read this, but it was undoubtedly worth the wait! Chung's memoir is beautifully written, intensely personal, and extremely compelling, discussing her childhood as a Korean-American adopted by a white family (in a very white area of Oregon), and then her journey to find her birth family as she was on the verge of having her first child. A quick and moving read. A/A-.

2018 book 163

Marian Keyes' The Woman Who Stole My Life

I was in the mood to read something . . . I don’t even know what, but this satisfied! I liked the other Keyes books I had read, she is sort of on the meatier side of the women's fiction beat. This one, which bounces around time-wise, centers on a woman who wrote a book, had a major health crisis, has various family and romantic issues, and is now flailing a bit. I loved the narrative voice, loved the characters, and even if it was a tad silly, found it very enjoyable. I need to read more of Keyes' work. A-.

2018 book 162

Kij Johnson's The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
Ooh, this was so up my alley. It centers on a woman, a professor at a prestigious women's college, who sets off to find one of her star student, who has eloped with someone from our world, and he plans to bring her there from their world—the world of dreams. Plus she is accompanied on her journey by a little black cat! This did get a teensy big draggy toward the end (but then picks back up), and I guess there were Lovecraft references I was missing, but I enjoyed this a lot and would read more set in this world. A-.

2018 book 161

Oyinkan Braithwaite's My Sister, The Serial Killer
Well, this was an exceedingly entertaining novel! If the title didn’t clue you in, the story here centers on a young woman, a nurse in Nigeria, whose beautiful younger sister is, yes, a serial killer, who has killed several of her boyfriends. And now a doctor at the hospital—the very one our protagonist has a crush on—wants to date her! This is a quick read and a lot of fun (aside from, you know, the murdering. And also some mentions of domestic violence), really strong writing and characterization here. Gonna be a big fall hit for sure. A/A-.

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

2018 book 160

Louise Candlish's Our House
This novel centers on a fortysomething mother of two who returns home from a trip to a family moving into her house . . . which has apparently been sold. And now she's telling the story on a podcast. This is interspersed with her husband's POV, ostensibly in a word doc, along with some brief scenes from their actual lives. The problem is that both the word doc and the podcast read like . . . a novel, and not like a word doc an actual human would write, or like a podcast (I did like the little fake tweets about the podcast though). As is par for the course for this sort of book, there were plenty of twists and turns, some guessable, some infuriating. Candlish does kind of nail the ending, but on the whole this was a little bit slow and EXTRA implausible. B.

2018 book 159

Jen Doll's Unclaimed Baggage
This was a fairly cute YA book about three teens who becomes friends while working at a store in Alabama that sells unclaimed baggage from airports. I liked the friendship between the two girls a lot, and found the boy's struggle with alcoholism to be compelling, but the romance didn’t feel organic, and some of this veered a little bit into after school special territory. Enjoyable read though. B+.

2018 book 158

Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced
This Miss Marple mystery rules because the police straight up recruit her to help solve the case (and she and the inspector share the denouement scene!). And the case is a doozy, as it involves a newspaper advertisement listing a time and place where a murder will be committed. And of course all the small town neighbors are like, we better check this out. And things spiral from there. Satisfying plotting, even if one reveal in particular is easy to guess, and I love when Miss Marple gets her due. There is a slight whiff of post-war anti-Semitism/xenophobia that I could have done without, but what can you do, rich British post-war people could be assholes. A-/B+.

2018 book 157

Agatha Christie's The Moving Finger
This is a satisfying mystery from a MYSTERY point of view, but not very satisfying as a Miss Marple story, because she’s barely in it and we don’t really get to see her at work! Anyway, in this one a young man and his sister take a house in the country so he can recover from an injury, and find themselves in the midst of a scandal involving nasty anonymous letters. The narrative voice here is enjoyable enough, if mildly sexist/patronizing (and I could do without the word “Jewess” in my novels, thanks), and even remembering some of the details, I was still surprised by several of the twists. But it needed more Miss Marple! A-/B+.

2018 book 156

Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library
When a hurricane keeps you at home instead of on a vacation, Miss Marple is some small consolation. In this one, a body is discovered in a library even though no one in the house knows her, but luckily the wife is a friend of Miss Marple's and immediately calls her in to solve the case! (In the most recent tv series, this character is played by Patsy from AbFab and she is amazing.) And frankly, the police defer to Miss Marple too, and it is hilarious and great. Great plotting. I love an old lady who knows what's up.

2018 book 155

Rena Rossner's The Sisters of the Winter Wood
If there is one thing I am HERE FOR, it is explicitly Jewish fantasy novels, though this particular one did not work for me. It's the story of a pair of sisters, told in alternating viewpoints (one speaks poem-style and I was not into it). Their parents have to leave town for family reasons, but before they leave, their mother reveals some family secrets. And then weird things start happening in the woods, and something is stirring up anti-Semitic feelings in the town. Unfortunately, this is one of those stories where I found the characters/narrative voices to be kind of frustrating(ly stupid) and repetitive, and I became impatient for things to wrap up. especially when the villains become even more sinister (and evil to Jewish ppl). Just unpleasant stuff. B-.

2018 book 154

Robin Stevens' Death in the Spotlight 
YAYYYY it’s a new Wells and Wong mystery!! Just what I needed at this precise moment in time. In this seventh outing, the girls are spending some time in London with Uncle Felix and his new wife, who decide to get the girls bit parts in a local production of Romeo and Juliet to keep them out of trouble. But then the leading lady starts receiving threatening notes, and the Detective Society is on the case! With the help of some old friends, of course. There is a hilarious bout of the flu here, as well as a revelation about Daisy that I was pleased by, to say the least (I might have started crying, but things are a bit emotional these days). And of course very solid mystery plotting, as always. Anyway, I am grateful to Robin Stevens for these books and recommend them to everyone. A.

2018 book 153

Helene Tursten's An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good
Translated from the Swedish, this is a darkly hilarious set of stories about elderly Maud, who just wants peace and quiet—and will straight up commit murder to get it. And who would suspect a poor old lady?? I enjoyed this very much, and now want to check out Tursten's other works (though I doubt they involve murderous old ladies). A- but only because I wanted MORE.

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

2018 book 152

Laini Taylor's Muse of Nightmares
Here is the second book in Taylor's Strange the Dreamer series! I went in remembering absolutely nothing about its predecessor, and Taylor kind of throws the reader right into the midst of things--but some new characters provide some interesting exposition and things kind of fill in as you go. Taylor does a great job with plotting here--characters are redeemed, new relationships are formed, unexpected stuff happens, the overwrought romance isn't too annoying, etc. I really liked the way this wrapped up, too, and hope Taylor has more stories planned for this universe. A-.

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Content warning for mentions of rape.

2018 book 151

Robin Stevens' A Spoonful of Murder
In book six of the Wells and Wong series, the girls find themselves on Hazel's home turf--Hong Kong--and of course are soon enmeshed in a murder and kidnapping case! It's nice to see Hazel taking the lead for once and Daisy being a supportive friend (more or less). I do have some mixed feelings about how the mystery of this one resolves, but of course can't be any more specific because of SPOILERS. Still a great entry in the series.