2019 book 168

Sarah Pinsker's A Song for a New Day

This novel takes place in the near future, in a world where, due to bombings and pandemics, public congregations (including concerts!) are banned. Our protagonists are a (woman) musician, ex-Orthodox Jewish, who misses playing live shows, and another young woman, who works for a corporation that controls basically everything. The story bogs down a bit when the latter gets a new job and has to face the real world; she is amazingly naive and parts of the book feel like capitalism/consumerism 101 as new friends clue her in. I did like that basically everyone in this book was queer, and liked the way it depicted music scenes. I just wished it was a little more subtle. B+.

2019 book 167

Tiffany Tsao's The Majesties
This book is kind of like if Crazy Rich Asians, instead of being fun and soapy, was something of a thriller. It’s narrated by a woman in a coma, whose beloved sister has poisoned their entire family and all their friends in a murder-suicide, and the comatose woman is the only survivor. So, as any coma patient would do, she narrates the story of her sister and herself in a straightforward literary manner. (Clearly I had some issues with suspension of disbelief.) The conclusion is super obvious, though I also felt it needed more actual foreshadowing to work. Parts of this are really moving, but on the whole it didn’t work for me. B.

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

2019 book 166

Catherine Lloyd’s Death Comes to the Nursery
The seventh Kurland St Mary mystery has a murder closer to home, when the new nursery maid—a very pretty girl who all the local men are fighting over—is found dead. The mystery elements were good enough, though a bit all over the place, but Lloyd is hitting the same character beats as in the last couple so it’s not super interesting. I mean, it’s fine, but the characters need some new friends and neighbors or something. B.

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

2019 book 165

Catherine Lloyd's Death Comes to Bath
The sixth Kurland St Mary mystery finds Lucy and Robert off to Bath to take the waters, with various friends and relations in tow. Soon a new acquaintance is murdered and they’re determined to solve the case. The mystery here is fine, even if the solution isn’t too hard to suss out, but I was really frustrated with the writing. This needed better proof-reading—lots of little mistakes and missing commas. And the story wasn’t engrossing enough to ignore it. B/B-.

2019 book 164

Diana Wynne Jones' The Pinhoe Egg
And the cozy reads continue with the sixth Chrestomanci book! This one features lots of magical secrets, mysteries, animals, etc, as Cat (from the first book) and a local girl deal with magical issues in the village. Just another very satisfying story.

2019 book 163

Diana Wynne Jones' Conrad's Fate
These are the perfect books to read in chilly weather when you are sleepy and cozy! The fifth Chrestomanci book finds a boy named Conrad partnered with teen Christopher as trainee servants in a gran house—but both are secretly there for other reasons. Adventures, comedy, and magic ensue and of course Jones wraps it all up with a satisfying bow. A-.

2019 book 162

Diana Wynne Jones' The Magicians of Caprona
The fourth Chrestomanci book has everything: feuding magical families in a town in Italy (the homage to Romeo and Juliet is intentional), political intrigue, interesting children, and excellent cats. Can they all come together to save the day? And will things be hilarious along the way? This is Diana Wynne Jones, so yes.

2019 book 161

Diana Wynne Jones' Witch Week
This is a charming and mildly silly outing in the Chrestomanci universe, in a world where witchcraft is illegal, but SOMEONE in the sixth grade class is a witch. Lots of magic and mayhem ensue before a very satisfying ending.

2019 book 160

Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer's To Night Owl from Dogfish
I’ve had mixed feelings about previous works from both these authors, but this was a pretty cute middle grade book that has a reverse Parent Trap vibe. See, these tween girls' dads have become an item, and are sending the girls to camp to make friends. Which the girls resolutely REFUSE to do, nope, definitely not going to be friends, even though they are emailing back and forth like crazy. A lot of this was predictable but I liked the girls' relationship a lot. B+.

2019 book 159

Victoria Goddard's Blackcurrant Fool
The fourth Greenwing and Dart books finds our young men on a road trip to meet some heretofore unknown relations and also check out one of the local bastions of higher education. Things obviously don’t go quite as planned. I liked how Goddard brought in some of the world's trailing thread, plus I appreciated the emphasis on a good literary analysis! There are still some dangling bits of storyline so I have high hopes for more stories featuring these guys. A/A-.

2019 book 158

Victoria Goddard's Whiskeyjack
The third Greenwing and Dart book is full of the same fun and adventure and magic as its predecessors, plus it starts to solve some of the mysteries surrounding the protagonist's father. This one is maybe more action-packed/plot-forward as opposed to character-focused, but it is still obviously super entertaining and enjoyable.

2019 book 157

Victoria Goddard's Bee Sting Cake
The second Greenwing and Dart book is as delightful as the first, as old friends--and dragons--come to town, not to mention the upcoming harvest fair and cake competition! I love the narrative voice in these books and also love the focus on friendship. But you also can't go wrong with dragons who make you solve riddles.

2019 book 156

Victoria Goddard's Stargazy Pie
It is rereading cozy books season, and since the fourth one in this series just came out, I decided to reread the first three! This does a great job introducing a complicated fantasy world, full of magic and action and bookstores and mysterious cults and mysterious pies and friendship. What more could you want in a story??

2019 Favorites!!!!

I think this is my earliest favorite books post ever, but I am susceptible to peer pressure, everyone else is posting lists, and anyway are those library holds going to come in anytime soon? No. I read a bunch of good books this year and probably missed just as many other good books. SO here are my favorites, the ones that made me happy when the world was bad or that otherwise blew me away. In alphabetical order:


Naomi Kritzer's Catfishing on CatNet

Melina Marchetta's The Place on Dalhousie

Juliet Marillier's The Harp of Kings

Casey McQuiston's Red, White, and Royal Blue

Jaclyn Moriarty's Gravity Is The Thing

Sandra Newman's The Heavens

Helen Oyeyemi's Gingerbread

Ann Patchett's Dutch House

Kate Racculia's Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts

Rainbow Rowell's Wayward Son

Elizabeth Strout's Olive, Again

Miriam Toews' Women Talking

2019 book 155

C.M. Waggoner's Unnatural Magic
This is just the sort of book I’ve been wanting to read, full of adventure and magic and romance and powerful ladies getting shit done. In this case, the powerful ladies are a young girl who wants to be a wizard (despite societal sexism), and a young troll woman who befriends an injured soldier. Also, there is a murder mystery!! (Though it’s not too hard to figure out.) Both storylines and all three characters are great, and when they eventually come together, it’s even more awesome. This is one of those stories I was so caught up in, I didn’t even notice when the cat got onto my lap. I love being totally engrossed. Anyway, I will definitely read whatever Waggoner writes next, and I hope it’s something else set in this world. A/A-.

2019 book 154

Margaret Peterson Haddox's Greystone Secrets 1: The Strangers
This is a solid start to a new middle-grade series, wherein three children live normal lives with their normal mom, until they hear a news story about three other children who have been kidnapped—children with their same names and birthdays. What is the connection between them? And why is their mom suddenly going on a mysterious business trip? This went in a direction I didn’t expect and it was great! Good characters and narrative voices, a quick-moving plot, etc. The end was a bit silly/even more unrealistic than anything else, but appropriate enough for a kids' book. I will definitely be looking forward to volume two. A-.

2019 book 153

Kate Saunders' Laetitia Rodd and the Case of the Wandering Scholar
The second book in Saunders' mystery series, about a lady detective in Victorian times, finds the titular Mrs. Rodd asked to track down a dying man's brother—a former scholar who now lives as a hermit in the woods. Soon she is caught up in a MURDER and must prove a friend's innocence! I liked the characters and the plot a lot, though a lot of the characters are vicars and parsons who have arguments about Christianity, which I am not personally that interested in. Still, if Saunders writes more in this series, I will definitely read them; I like the narrative voice very much. A-.

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

2019 book 152

Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed's Yes No Maybe So
Do you need a super cute YA romance about progressive politics in your life? Yes, yes you do. This co-written novel focuses on a Jewish teen boy, plagued by social anxiety, and a Muslim girl, dealing with newly separated parents, who pair up to canvas for a state senatorial candidate in Atlanta. I love both characters and their relationships with friends and families (I was obviously partial to the sassy Jewish grandma and the sassy Jewish little sister). They felt like real kids, even if I did find the romance stuff to be sliiiiightly cheesy. Still, I was rooting for them! This was so cute and super relevant to our modern times! A/A-.

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

2019 book 151

Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them
I keep reading things about Warner, and liked her book Lolly Willowes a lot, so though I’d check this out. It’s the story of a convent in 1300s England, and some parts are interesting and some are tiresome and not much really happens. I guess it’s an interesting concept from a literary point of view, but I didn’t really enjoy the reading experience. B/B-.

2019 book 150

K.B. Spangler's Stoneskin

This was a very compelling start to a sci-fi series that also includes some magical elements—namely, a sentient force in the universe that can communicate with certain people, called Witches, who can use it to teleport people and things all over the galaxy. Now it has chosen a little girl as a Witch, much younger than its usual selections—but why? Lots of adventure and learning to use powers and action and different kinds of humans, etc. I really liked the characters, relationships, and world building here, and will definitely read more of this series whenever it comes out. A-.

2019 book 149

Scarlett Thomas' Oligarchy
After writing the first three books in an excellent middle-grade series, Thomas is back to adult fiction with her latest. Though it does revolve around teen girls at a boarding school in England. Protagonist Natasha, daughter of a very rich Russian man, is sent to a weird school where the girls are all preoccupied by eating disorders and little learning seems to actually happen. I will say that I liked the disparate strands of this story a lot—the relationships between the girls, the relationship between Natasha and her aunt, the sort of mystery element that comes into play—but I felt like I wanted more meat to build the story out. Still, it has a sort of raw urgency that I appreciated; I read it all in one go. A-.

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

2019 book 148

Audrey Coulthurst's Inkmistress
This was described to me as a story involving magic, lesbians, and dragons, and I like all of those things, so figured I'd check it out. It centers on a young demi-god with various powers, but most importantly (and secretly): whatever she writes in her blood comes true. But not always in the ways she intended. So when her girlfriend needs help, she does some blood-writing, and things go very badly. Now she has to leave her isolated mountain and journey around to uncover the secrets behind her powers, etc. I liked the way the author uses magic here, but the writing was kind of awkward, I was not invested in the romance, and I found the protagonist really frustrating and clueless. I also found the ending disappointing on a number of levels. It kind of renders the entire rest of the book pointless. Just . . . not great. B-.

2019 book 147

Kate DiCamillo's Beverly, Right Here
In the final book in DiCamillo's trilogy, tough and practical Beverly gets the spotlight. She's fourteen and leaves home (her beloved dog has died) to make a new life for herself. Like its predecessor, this one had me struggling a bit. It's great for kids to read stories about found families sometimes being superior to birth families, but life isn't always this easy or convenient. I mean, it's not an overly optimistic view of the world; Beverly's mother is an alcoholic and her father abandoned them. I guess I just wish these stories went a little deeper. B/B+.

2019 book 146

Kate DiCamillo's Louisiana's Way Home
The second book in DeCamillo's Raymie Nightingale series focuses on her friend Louisiana--a talented singer from a family of performers, who is prone to fainting, and whose grandmother whisks her away in the middle of the night. I will say that I find the characters here likable--it's nice to have some warm-hearted people in the world--but the plot strains incredulity for an adult reader. It's a very sweet story but it doesn't really hold together for me. B.

2019 book 145

Kate DiCamillo's Raymie Nightingale
I'm reading this middle-grade novel for two reasons: 1) I saw Ann Patchett speak a couple weeks ago, and she spoke very warmly about DiCamillo and her work; and b) the third book in this series just came out to stellar reviews, and I am nothing if not a person who will always read a series from the beginning. Anyway, the titular Raymie is a ten year old in 1975, who wants to win a local beauty pageant type thing in the hopes it will bring her father back (he has left her mother for another woman). So she enrolls in baton-twirling lessons, where she meets two other girls who also have plans for the contest. I thought this was really sweet and enjoyed seeing how things worked out--DiCamillo does a great job with the structure here. The narrative voice reads a little young, but that works for a ten year old character in a book aimed at ten year olds. A-.

2019 book 144

Nona Fernandez's Space Invaders
This is a short but powerful novel about a group of friends who are haunted by dreams and memories of one of their childhood classmates in 1980s Chile, a girl who disappeared suddenly, and whose father was part of the Pinochet regime. (Kind of a Virgin Suicides vibe, but more interesting.) I did wish some parts of this were a little bit more fleshed out, but that would maybe defeat the purpose from a literary perspective. Anyway, a knockout of a book, and one of the best book covers I've seen in a long time. A/A-.

2019 book 143

Terry Pratchett’s Maskerade
This volume of the Discworld witches series finds our elder witches trying to recruit a local girl with talent—only she’s run off to the city to try and make it as a singer. Soon all three are in a pastiche of Phantom of the Opera, to endless hilarity. I will say I wish there were fewer comments about Agnes' body, though the book does seem to be sympathetic to her. Still an excellent and entertaining read.

2019 book 142

Margaret Wilkerson Sexton's The Revisioners
The Revisioners is the story of a woman in modern day New Orleans, a biracial woman who goes, with her black son, to live with and take care of her ailing, rich, white grandmother. It's also the story of the woman's great-great-something-grandmother, who was born a slave and built a new life for herself--until new neighbors come and complicate things. And mostly it's the story of families, the stories we tell ourselves, and racial and class tensions in the South. A bittersweet and moving story. A-.

2019 book 141

Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies
Cozy weather season has commenced which means I am all in on cozy reads, and apparently am just rereading all the Discworld Witches books as a result. This one is a lot of fun, as Elves start to break through into their town and the witches have to stop them! Plus one is about to get married! All three get some really good moments here, which is nice; obviously I adore Granny Weatherwax, but it's nice to see Nanny Ogg and Magrat getting into the action too. Just an all around funny and exciting book.

2019 book 140

Maggie Stiefvater's Call Down the Hawk
Considering all the book news I follow, I am amazed and a bit embarrassed that I didn't know until last week that Stiefvater a) had a new book coming out and that it was b) set in the Raven Cycle universe, focusing on Ronan! On the plus side, I only had to wait a week to read it. :) Anyway, this is really about all three of the Lynch brothers, plus a cast of new characters—another dreamer, some art forgers, a group tracking down and /killing/ dreamers to forestall the apocalypse. You know, the usual. I did wish these characters crossed paths a little earlier, but once they started interacting I was fully on board. Occasionally Steifvater's slightly mannered writing took me out of the story, but for the most part I suuuuuper enjoyed this and can’t wait to read the next one. In a year or so. Siiiiiiigh. A-.

2019 book 139

Steph Cha's Your House Will Pay
Cha is the author of the Juniper Song mysteries, which are not really my bag, but I wanted to read this stand-alone from her as it was getting great reviews. It's set in LA and focuses on two families--one African-American, one Korean-American--in the early 90s and in the present day. And I was totally caught up from the first page--just super compelling characters and narrative voices, and the suspense really draws you in. The murder at the heart of this story is based on a real murder (which I think I learned about from OJ: Made in America) and Cha does a lot to bring it back to life and show how the issues it raised are just as relevant now. This dragged a teensy bit for me in the middle but on the whole was a really powerful meditation on race and community and family. A-.

2019 book 138

Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad
This Discworld book finds our three witches caught up in a mess of fairy tales—mainly Cinderella by way of New Orleans (the race stuff here is maybe problematic??). Lots of hilarity and magic ensue, of course! Seriously, there are so few books that make me actually cackle out loud, but this one definitely does.

2019 book 137

Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters
IS there anything better than Terry Pratchett messing with Shakespearean actors and Macbeth and throwing his witches into the mix? No, there is not. Tons of action, laugh out loud moments, and sensible ladies saving the day. What more could you want in a book?

2019 book 136

Terry Pratchett's Equal Rites
Halloween may be over, but I still wanted to read about witches, and few literary witches are as good as Pratchett's. Do you know, I have actually never read this one! It centers on a little girl who, as a newborn, is given a wizard's powers (and staff) (he thinks she is the eighth son of an eighth son), and so local witch Granny Weatherwax has to deal with this girl and her magic. But it's wizard magic, so she has to go to wizard school, and what will they even let her learn?? This was a lot of fun, though the end left a little to be desired for me (I think this is like the third Discworld book, so he was obviously still fine-tuning). Still, hilarious and awesome for sure. A-/B+.

2019 book 135

Agatha Christie's Three Act Tragedy
It's Halloween, I thought, the perfect time to read a Poirot mystery I've never read, full of actors and amateur detectives and house parties and whatnot. And it starts off very funny, but we're not even to the end of chapter two before this starts:

I guess at this point the rampant casual anti-Semitism in Christie's books should not catch me unawares, and yet it does, every time.
Anyway, this mystery is fine, not one of her standout works, but well plotted and funny. I think I'm back on another break from Christie though. B.

2019 book 134

Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House
I’ve enjoyed several of Bardugo's YA novels, so was looking forward to her much-hyped adult debut—a paranormal murder mystery! I will say that I had to wait a while for my library hold to come through so my anticipation was pretty high, but the book mostly lived up to it. Like I said, it’s a paranormal murder mystery, set at Yale, where the eight super fancy secret societies are actually full of magic and mysticism and the occult! Our protagonist is a  (Sephardic Jewish!) girl from the wrong side of the tracks (her backstory was the part that didn’t work well for me) who can SEE GHOSTS, so she's been admitted to Yale under somewhat false pretenses to be part of a group that monitors all the paranormal weirdness. And then her mentor disappears, and a girl is murdered, and things really start to go off the rails. The mystery element was pretty good, although slightly convoluted, but I loved the characters, especially the growing friendships between the protagonists and other women. I will give a mega content warning here for a lot of violence against women (sexual and otherwise) which was hard to read. But I liked where this ended up and will definitely read the next one in this series. A-/B+.

2019 book 133

Rainbow Rowell's Wayward Son
Yes, this just came out a month ago and I read it then, but we're discussing it for book club this week so I had to reread it! I like the details to be fresh. I wanted to reread it anyway, because my first read was just like "what!" as the plot unfolded, and now that I know where it's going, I can absorb more of the atmosphere and character work. Anyway, if you have not read this, it features the three main characters of Carry On heading to America for a ROAD TRIP! Definitely no issues with magical teens entering unknown territory and dealing with relationship problems! Plus there's a pretty bad-ass ending (ILU, Penelope and Agatha). Can't wait for the third book!

2019 book 132

Agatha Christie's Hallowe'en Party
This is clearly a later Christie work, as it spends a lot of time lamenting about current society and its travails (particularly KIDS THESE DAYS: murderous children, as well as children getting murdered bc they got a ride from a stranger), and several times mentions that things would be better if more people were institutionalized! Anyway, mystery-wise, this is pretty solid: a little girl is murdered at a Halloween party after bragging about having once /witnessed/ a murder, so one of the party guests--a mystery novelist (who apparently appears in several of Christie's books) calls in her friend Poirot to track down the killer! There are plenty of suspects, as Poirot has two murders to solve, and has no idea what the first one was. The solution is a mixture of "yeah, that's what I expected" and pure goofiness. This book in general is very goofy, though I think a lot of that is the very dated attitudes about . . . everything. I am curious to read the other Christie books featuring Ariadne, though. B.

2019 book 131

Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar
The only book I’ve read by Tey is the one where the bedridden guy is reading about Richard III, but I saw someone mention this and it looked interesting, so I figured I’d give it a go. It’s about a young man who poses as the long lost heir to a horse breeding family (it's England). But what happened to the little boy he's pretending to be? And will he be found out??? This was a solid story, and while it’s not too hard to solve the mystery parts, the satisfaction is seeing how everything comes together. I enjoyed this a lot, a classic sort of British mystery. A-.

2019 book 130

Allie Larkin's Why Can't I Be You
I needed something fluffy after reading a creepy book by Shirley Jackson, and Christina recommended this to me. It totally fit the bill! It's the story of a woman who's heading to a conference--and then her boyfriend dumps her at the airport. So when the organizer of a high school reunion at the conference hotel mistakes her for an old classmate, she just kind of goes with it. If you can get past this fairly ridiculous premise, the book is super cute. It's got a 90s romcom vibe for sure. That also gets at its slight cheesiness and how things work out at the end. Still, I'd watch that movie! B/B+.

2019 book 129

Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House
I feel like everyone is talking about this book right now, because of course it's the perfect time of year to read a spooky story! I've actually never read this, and didn't watch the Netflix series, so I went into this knowing almost nothing about it. And it was SO CREEPY. SOOOOO CREEPY. But also funny at times. Anyway, if you don't know anything about it, the gist is that a paranormal researcher rents a haunted house for the summer, and invites two young women (who maybe have psychic abilities) and the heir to the house to investigate.(Sidebar: Theo is definitely a lesbian, right? And Eleanor?) As is common with people hanging out in haunted houses, things don't go too well. Jackson excels at this sort of psychological ambiguous terror, perfect October reading. A-.

2019 book 128

Laura Ruby's Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All
Ruby's latest novel, after the great Bone Gap, is set in 1940s Chicago and is narrated by a ghost who likes to hang out and watch the girls at an orphanage. She is particularly interested in one Frankie, whose father left her and her siblings there during the Depression. I was personally more interested in the ghost than in Frankie (the ghost hangs out with a fox and befriends other ghosts and gradually remembers her own story), though Frankie is a very vivid and relatable character. I just felt like her story, while compelling, was not a particularly new one. Ruby is saying a lot here about being a girl and being a woman, as well as dealing a bit with racial tensions. A satisfying read for sure. B/B+.

2019 book 127

K. Eason's How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse
Ooh this book was SO FUN! It’s a really interesting fantasy-sci fi hybrid with court politics and fairy tales in outer space, lots of badass women, the friends we made along the way, etc. I will note that the title is a teensy bit misleading, as the multiverse here is not a bunch of alternate versions of reality, but just the general outer space area. But it didn’t even matter, because I enjoyed this so much. The narrative voice—a slightly snarky historian—is aces, I loved all the characters and action, and can’t wait to see what this series does next. A/A-.

2019 book 126

Diana Wynne Jones' The Lives of Christopher Chant
This Chrestomanci book is a prequel to the first, but I like it that way--it's fun to get the backstories of all the adults from the first book (especially Millie!). This is one of my favorites by Diana Wynne Jones--lots of good magic and adventure and magical adventures and humor and CATS. Such good cats.

2019 book 125

Elizabeth Strout's Olive, Again
This is the perfect fall book, with its crisp prose and evocative atmospheres. It's another of Strout's novels-in-stories about the titular Olive Kitteridge, but I had only vague memories of its predecessor and didn't feel lost at all. I really love the way Strout creates a whole town and its inhabitants, and how we catch little glimpses of them from one POV to another. This one focuses mostly on Olive growing older, though of course has lots to say about family and friendship and love and forgiveness. Another stellar work from Strout. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 15th.

2019 book 124

Diana Wynne Jones' Charmed Life
Fall weather finally rolling in made me want to read books about WITCHES! So why not start with one of the modern classics? This one skews a bit young to be completely satisfying for me (plus has some brief weird race stuff, maybe bc it was written in 1977?), but it's cute and funny and full of magic, so what's not to like?

2019 book 123

Naomi Kritzer's Catfishing on CatNet
Y’all, I LOVED THIS BOOK. I totally read it all in one sitting and enjoyed every single second. It’s about Steph, whose mother always moves her from place to place—to keep her away from her abusive father—and so Steph's only friends are her internet pals on the CatNet site. BUTTTTTT one of those pals is a sentient AI!! (I think the one from Kritzer's award winning story Cat Pictures Please.) I LOVE a sentient AI that loves its friends!! Soon danger catches up with them, and everyone has to band together to save the day, and each other. I just thought this was so sweet and funny and amazing. Internet friends rule! AIs rule! Cat pics rule. Read this book!!! A.

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

2019 book 122

Eva Ibbotson's A Song for Summer
I needed a palate cleanser after that last book, so decided to reread this classic Ibbotson novel, wherein a young woman raised by suffragist activists, being of a more practical nature, winds up studying the domestic arts and heading to Austria to work at a boarding school. But . . . it's Austria in 1937. Ibbotson crafts a story that’s bittersweet, funny, and full of heroic acts of all kinds. I like her perspective; Art is good and good food is good, even if artists are sometimes silly, and NAZIS ARE BAD. Just all around a satisfying and not very intense read.

2019 book 121

Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth
Normally I don't prioritize books by white cis male authors, but I'm still interested in the adventures of Lyra--now a twenty year old college student--so figured I'd make an exception. And then I got to page 187 and said "oh, no. Oh, gross" OUT LOUD. This is what I get for trusting male authors: a character who is "in love" with a girl he's known since she was a baby, who was attracted to her when she was a young teen WHO HE WAS TEACHING, but now it's okay because she's twenty????? And in mortal danger???? Pullman even has a sensible lady tell this dude "it's cool, you're both adults!" EWWWW no. And it’s not that the age difference is even that big, it’s just that Pullman presents all this in a very . . .  clueless manner (Lyra secretly enjoys being catcalled, if you were wondering more about the general vibe.) Lyra, of course, is also threatened with rape at one point.
The story here is kind of weird, too; Pullman is doing his usual railing against corrupt organized religion, and has now added rational intellectuals and skeptics (who hate imagination? it's all bizarre) to the mix. I just think it's weird that all these secret groups of powerful/evil men are still all after this one poor girl. And then everyone is just journeying around for the entire book. It doesn’t have a remotely satisfying conclusion, because the conclusion will be in the next book. Just all around not good. C-.

2019 book 120

T. Kingfisher's The Twisted Ones
I had a real quandary here, because I don’t like reading horror stories (I get creeped out super easily), but I read basically everything Ursula Vernon writes! So of course I had to give this a shot. I will say that it is apparently full of literary references to classic/pulp horror stories, but I have never read any of those and missed all of that. SHRUG. Anyway, this is about a woman from Pittsburgh (yay!), a copy editor, who has to head down to North Carolina to clean out her recently deceased hoarder grandmother's house. And then weird things start happening. This was definitely creepy, but full of Vernon's trademark down-to-earth characters, which I appreciated. I especially liked the bold lipstick wearing elderly neighbor and whenever the protagonist's inner editor took over. There is also a hound dog, clearly modeled on real hound dogs Vernon has known. Anyway, this wasn’t my favorite of her books, but it’s not really a genre I’m into. I still liked it a lot. And kind of regret reading it after dark. B+.

2019 book 119

Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin
I had a yen to reread some Atwood novels--it's been so long since I read this one that my blog didn't even exist yet! It was a bit slower than I remembered, but not in a bad way--more of a meditative way. It's the story of an elderly woman, who's writing her life story, interspersed with excerpts of the famous novel her sister wrote before killing herself. It's moving and compelling, with vibrant characters and a dry sense of humor, and gets at issues of feminism, and aging, and injustice, and families of all kinds. I'll definitely be revisiting more of Atwood's earlier works.

2019 book 118

Annalee Newitz's The Future of Another Timeline
Newitz's latest novel is a time travel story, which you know is my jam. The premise here is that at some point humans discovered weird machines embedded in the earth that allow time travel, and in the near future there are specialized fields of academia that study it. And amongst those academics are a secret group of feminists who are trying to fix the past from the meddling of a RIVAL group of male time travelers who are MISOGYNIST, and are rolling back the rights of women (I definitely wished for a little more subtlety from this novel, in general). But one of the feminists is also secretly visiting HER OWN PAST. I did like this a lot, there are some super interesting and some fun parts, but definitely wanted more from the ending. A-/B+.


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

2019 book 117

Rainbow Rowell's Wayward Son
I don't want to spoil anything about this, so I will just say that the promised road trip is pretty awesome, Rowell totally zags where I thought she would zig, and there had BETTER be another book on the way. I was totally caught up while reading this but I don't know if it brought me as much JOY as its predecessor (few things do, though). I had better read it again so I can be sure. A/A-.

2019 book 116

Casey McQuiston's Red White and Royal Blue
I was rereading this for book club, and I think I liked it even more the second time! It’s got a super cute and compelling romance, characters you're invested in and rooting for, great secondary characters, interesting family relationships and friendships, politics, and more! Plus it is super funny and heartfelt. Just a book that fills your whole heart.

2019 book 115

Rainbow Rowell's Carry On
I HAAAAD to reread this, because the sequel comes out ON TUESDAY (pleeeeease let there be Justice For Lucy). I’ve read this several times and never stop being totally delighted and totally caught up in Rowell's take on Harry Potter/magical schools/chosen ones. Just great characters, a great romance, great friendships and families. And Agatha, the only sensible magical girl ever. I LOVE THIS BOOK and can’t wait to read the follow-up.

2019 book 114

Lisa Goldstein's Ivory Apples
Goldstein's latest centers on young Ivy, the oldest of four sisters, whose great aunt is the reclusive author of a famous fantasy novel. But maybe it’s not all fantasy? And maybe the young woman befriending the girls isn’t what she seems? I found the narrative voice and Ivy's journey compelling, but felt that her sisters were underserved by the story (especially Amaranth). The end also felt a bit abrupt. I did like the fantastical elements a lot; this is a strong entry into the mysterious magical book genre. A-/B+.

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

2019 book 113

Laura Weymouth's A Treason of Thorns
Weymouth's second novel, after A Light Between Worlds (which I liked a lot), is . . . fine. It's set in some historical version of England where magic is channeled through five Great Houses that keep the country healthy and prosperous. Our teen girl protagonist's father, a Caretaker of a House, was arrested for treason years ago; now she is returning to try to restore the house etc. There is also a teen boy at hand--her father's ward, with whom she grew up. The premise is interesting, I just thought the plot and characters were on the cliched side. I did appreciate the princess character and her relationship with the protagonist, and that a pair of minor characters are explicitly Jewish, but on the whole I felt kind of meh about this book. It's one of those ones that I was like, "hmm should I stop reading? But maybe it will be good?" and I didn't even have the enjoyment of hate-reading it just to write a scathing review. Just waiting for the inevitable conclusion. B.

2019 book 112

Agatha Christie’s A Pocket Full of Rye
I’m still periodically reading Christie's mysteries (this one manages not to be racist, thank god). The story here starts when a businessman is POISONED—and why are there a bunch of grains in his pocket?? It's an okay mystery —Miss Marple makes an appearance but there isn’t enough of her, and the solution is not too hard to figure out. Just not as compelling as some of her others. B.

2019 book 111

Margaret Atwood's The Testaments
Ooh y'all, the unexpected sequel to The Handmaid's Tale is here, and it lives up to the hype. It's set fifteen years after its predecessor, narrated by two young girls who've come of age in this new order--one a cherished daughter in Gilead, and one a regular girl up in Canada. There is also a third narrator--Aunt Lydia, from the first book. Eventually, their stories start to come together, and there are some really great women friendships and rivalries and some potent moments here. I will say that I kiiiiiiind of felt like this story cheapens the original book and its powerful ambiguity. It’s a great book, don’t get me wrong, but I am not sure it’s a /necessary/ one.

If you're wondering how this reads to someone who stopped watching the show after the third episode (too upsetting, and then I heard it went off the rails in season two): I kind of felt like I was maybe missing stuff, but nothing crucial. I did read an interview that implied this and the show share a continuity, or at least Atwood made sure the show didn't contradict the book. But it reads fine on its own. A/A-.

2019 book 110

Goldie Goldbloom's On Division
So this is a novel about a Chasidic woman in their enclave in Williamsburg, and how her life is upended when she discovers she is pregnant at the age of 57. Goldbloom is clearly a part of the Chasidic community so the details and characterizations are spot on. This is just a beautifully written and moving book about family and community, particularly a community that values homogeneity. I think a lot of reviews will be talking about “a look inside a community you never see” and exoticizing that aspect, but it wasn’t written for that purpose. It was written to be the story of a woman at a crossroad, and it’s wonderful. A/A-.

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

2019 book 109

Jacqueline Woodson’s Red At The Bone
Woodson's Another Brooklyn was one of my favorite books in recent years, so I was super excited for this one, her second novel for adults. It didn’t quite resonate with me as much, but I still thought it was great. It centers on the family of a teen girl, doing a coming of age ceremony, and flashes back and forth through time as various relatives narrate their stories. The story touches on class issues, race issues, family, education, and more. I did wish for a little more, especially of Iris. I’ve seen comparisons of Woodson's adult novels to Toni Morrison's and I don’t totally disagree, but a lot of Morrison's works feel meatier. Still, this is a very strong book and a quick and engrossing read. A/A-.

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

2019 book 108

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
I had to reread this because the sequel is out on Tuesday! I always forget how beautifully written and structured this is, and tend to only remember the grim reality of the world. And of course, really this is a story of the struggle to survive (mentally and otherwise) a horrible situation. This merits rereading for sure, not just to get all the details and things you've forgotten, but because once you know the framing device (or that there even is one), it does feel more optimistic. Anyway, great literature, fingers crossed that the sequel lives up to it.

2019 book 107

Becky Chambers' To Be Taught, If Fortunate
Chambers' latest is a stand-alone; I don't think it's set even in the same universe as her Wayfarers books (which is to say: you can read this even if you haven't read those--though you SHOULD read them). It's set in the semi-near future, and centers on a crew of four astronaut-scientists exploring some habitable exoplanets far, far away (thanks to exciting feats of bioengineering etc). I don't want to really describe the plot, such as it is--this is more of a sort of character study, and a study of the wonders of the universe, and connections between people, and the people left behind. I will be thinking about this one for a while, for sure. A/A-.

2019 book 106

Jasmine Guillory's Royal Holiday
Yesss, it’s another super cute Guillory romance! This one starts off when Maddie, the stylist from the previous books, has to go to England over Christmas to style THE DUCHESS, and brings her mom! Who immediately meets the Queen's dishy private secretary and an attraction blooms. I really enjoyed reading a romance with two fifty-something black people, and this also avoids a lot of the miscommunications that bothered me in Guillory's earlier books. Plus there are lots of scones and horses and formal invitations. Great stuff! A/A-.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 1st.

2019 book 105

Alice Hoffman's The World That We Knew
Hoffman's books are hit or miss for me, but this one falls more on the hit side for sure. How could it not, when one of the main characters is a woman golem created by a rabbi's daughter and a mother desperate to protect her daughter in 1941 Berlin???? Like, talk about Alicia catnip! The other characters were slightly less enthralling to me—a girl being protected, two boys she meets in Paris, the rabbi's daughter, various members of the Resistance, etc. I did find some of the scenes very moving (particularly the interlude in a convent hiding Jewish girls, and most of the scenes involving the angel of death) but wish less of the story rested on a teen romance. Still, I loved the golem and her character arc, and really liked the end. More books with awesome Jewish folklore, please! A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 24th.

2019 book 104

Alix Harrow's The Ten Thousand Doors of January
Ooh y’all, I really liked this book and just read it all in one sitting. Here are some of its contents: a young girl with an unknown past, the ward of a wealthy collector; magical doors; true love; scholarly endeavors; a mysterious book; an arcane Society; and lots of adventure. Also a GOOD DOG. The protagonist is occasionally a bit stupid, but in a realistic way, and I found her very likable and sympathetic. Great characters here and I thought this book was delightful. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 10th.

2019 book 103

Marian Keyes' Anybody Out There
Rereading this for book club and it’s pretty much just as gripping as the first time I read it. It’s a moving portrayal of grief, loss, family, and the cutthroat cosmetics industry. Interspersed with emails from a PI working for the mob! Funny, sad, bittersweet, with a mildly less cheesy ending than some of Keyes' other works. B+/A-.

2019 book 102

Seanan McGuire's The Unkindest Tide
Look, this is like the thirteenth book in the Toby Daye series; giving a plot summary won’t make any sense and you already know if you like these books. Most of the first couple chapters are exposition, which I actually appreciated as there is too much to remember. This volume finds Toby and several of the usual band of misfits on a sea witch adventure, doing the usual to save Faerie and also quickly solve a murder. I still wonder if this series is aiming for an endpoint; I’d be happy to know it was all GOING somewhere. But I guess I’ll keep reading, they’re entertaining enough. B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 3rd.

2019 book 101

Gail Carriger's Reticence
The latest in Carriger's Custard Protocol series feels like it might be the end of her stories from the Parasol Protectorate world, and if so, it's a pretty satisfying conclusion. In this one, the usual gang (and all their new additions) make their way to Japan to find out if fox shifters exist. And there's a new (lady) doctor on board, the perfect love interest for awkward intellectual Percy! Lots of callbacks  to the earlier books here (said doctor is the daughter of the villain from the prequel series, and those lady spies make some appearances) but I think the story and characters here are entertaining enough that it works without knowing all the context. I mean, these books are fluffy and fun and what's not to like? It's like steampunk meets Studio Ghibli. (I felt that Carriger did a pretty good job of avoiding Orientalism, but of course I am not an expert.) A-.

2019 book 100

Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had
Lombardo's debut novel focuses on a family in 2016--four adult daughters, each with their own issues, and parents still deeply in love with each other--that's upended when the secret son one of the girls had as a teen resurfaces. The story flashes back and forth in time--the parents getting together in the 70s, the tumultuous childhoods and teen years of the girls, their adulthoods, etc--to tell a really interesting story about family dynamics. I was mad every time I had to stop reading this because I was enjoying it so much! I think I wanted a little bit more from the end but really, I thought overall this was great. A/A-.

2019 book 99

Agatha Christie's Death in the Clouds
Still reading a bunch of Christie mysteries thanks to the public library! In this one, a woman is found murdered on an airplane--luckily Poirot is one of the other passengers! There's no specific narrator here, just the omniscient third person, so it's not as funny as some of the other Poirot mysteries. Lots of good suspects and misdirects; I had mixed feelings on the solution but overall liked the plot. On the other hand, there was this:

And these are characters we're supposed to like! Terrible. B.

2019 book 98

Ann Patchett's The Dutch House
Look, I’ll give a little plot description here, but it might not make you want to read the book, and you should definitely read this book. Patchett is one of our great authors and this one is another stunner. It centers on a brother and sister, living in a grand house with a complicated family, from the 60s to more or less the present. It is about family, and houses and homes, and memories, and moments of grace, and societal pressures, and it’s just completely excellent. Trust me. A.

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

2019 book 97

Juliet Marillier's The Harp of Kings
Mariller's latest is the start to a new trilogy, set in the same historical Celtic fantasy world as her Blackthorn and Grim books (it works just fine if you haven’t read those, they just add some context here and there). We have three protagonists, all young people trying to earn a place in a band of elite warriors—a brother and sister pair, who are also talented musicians, and a colder dude determined to be the best (though honestly as his backstory was revealed, I was straight up sobbing). They’re chosen to go on an undercover mission together to find a missing mystical harp and help crown a king, As always, Marillier does a great job with her characters, revealing pieces of the story at the perfect time, setting the scene for a slow burning romance that you'll be rooting for. And this is a very satisfying story on its own, but I am still very eager to see what these characters get up to next. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 3rd.

2019 book 96

Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
In this Christie mystery, our narrator is a small town doctor (and a great narrator he is) who has a new neighbor--Hercule Poirot. This comes in handy when there is a MURDER and mysteries abound! I will say this was extremely well plotted, lots of suspicious characters, great narrative voice, and a BANGER of an ending. All you could want in a classic mystery. The only reason this doesn't get an A is an off-hand, and totally unnecessary, anti-Semitic comment. A-.

2019 book 95

Mary H.K. Choi's Permanent Record
I really liked Choi's first book; the characters and situations felt really real and relatable. So I was psyched for her second, but this one was a little bit harder for me to buy into. The narrator is a college dropout, working at a bodega, struggling to get his life together, and his love interest . . . is an Ariana Grande-esque pop star. I mean, Choi does a good job with the characters and writing, the romance just has a Disney channel movie feel to it (which is funny, as that's where the pop star got her start). And then things go in directions I didn’t entirely expect, but appreciated. I really liked how this wrapped up and will definitely keep reading books by Choi. A-/B+.

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

2019 book 94

Robin Stevens' Top Marks for Murder
Yay, it’s the eighth Wells and Wong mystery, and it’s their most complicated case yet! The girls are back at school after months away, and there have been lots of changes— not least, a new girl who has taken Daisy's place as the most popular. And it's the school's fiftieth anniversary, so lots of parents are coming to take part in the celebrations—so there are lots of suspects when one of their friends thinks she has witnessed a murder! As always, the mystery here is solid, but it's the girls' friendships and their growing up that really makes these books so good. Another great entry in one of my favorite series. A.

2019 book 93

Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The library has recently added several Christie books I've never read, which is the perfect excuse to check out a classic mystery! This is the first book featuring Inspector Poirot; it centers on the death of a rich woman by poisoning. The narrator is a visitor to the house who knows Poirot, who happens to be staying in this small British town for whatever reason, so calls him in to help solve the crime. I found the narrative voice amusing, especially regarding his perpetual certainty that he knows better than Poirot (when, of course, the reader knows just how wrong he is). I did find the solution to be a bit overly complicated and silly, but this was still an entertaining read. B/B+.

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I will post a general warning here that there are some racist terms thrown about casually that were typical in Christie's day, and there is some straight-up anti-Semitism as well.

2019 book 92

Susan Choi's Trust Exercise
I'll start by saying that I knew the "twist" of this novel before I started it, which made the first part--involving a student at a performing arts high school. her new boyfriend, and the charismatic teacher in charge--more palatable, but conversely made me more impatient for it to end. It's all very pretentious, and I'd have given up if I didn't know what was coming. I liked the second half much more, though the last section did not entirely work for me. An interesting novel, but I think one that was over-hyped to me. B/B+.

2019 book 91

Marian Keyes' The Brightest Star in the Sky
We're reading a Keyes novel for book club this month, which reminded me I still had a few more of hers left to read! This one focuses on the residents of an apartment building in Dublin. It took me a little while to get into, because it's narrated by something mysterious who is observing the residents, and I was distracted trying to figure out if it was a ghost or what. I was interested in the characters and their stories, but didn’t like the way things wrapped up here at all. Definitely slid into cheesy territory. B.

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Content warning for graphic description of a rape.

2019 book 90

T. Kingfisher's Minor Mage
Ursula Vernon's latest book under her T. Kingfisher name centers on a twelve year old boy, the titular minor mage, who has to go on a quest to find rain for his drought-stricken village. Because this is an Ursula Vernon story, he's accompanied by his familiar, a sarcastic armadillo. Tee hee. Like her Summer in Orcus, I think this is really fine for older kids/teens to read, but does have some grim/gross moments and creepy monsters. But it's also very funny, and full of adventures, and awesome. A-.

2019 book 89

Eva Rice's The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
I saw this recommended recently, and was like, hm, that seems like it could be good, let's look it up, at which point I discovered that I'd bought it like seven years ago and never read it. Maybe it was fate?? Anyway, the story is set in the 1950s, a classic sort of coming of age novel about a young girl in a crumbling Medieval castle, her family, her new friends, romance, pop music, etc. (Comparisons to I Capture the Castle are fairly apt.) This is not a great work of literature or anything, but it was an engaging yet gentle sort of story. I did think the epilogue was a bit weak--either give it a whole chapter or leave it out entirely--but on the whole enjoyed this a lot. B+.

2019 book 88

Ally Condie's Summerlost
I no longer remember why this was on my library hold list, but I am glad it was! It's about a twelve year old girl who, after her father and brother die in an accident, moves with her mother and other brother to her mother's hometown for the summer. And gets a job working at a local Shakespeare-themed festival with a boy on her street, as one does. This a really great novel about grief, friendship, family, and finding your people. A moving and engaging read. A/A-.

2019 book 87

Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's This is How You Lose the Time War
This was a really fun read--it's about two time travelers working for opposing forces, meddling with time to try and bring their own group's version about, who start writing to each other and eventually fall for each other! What a great concept! I was not super into the narrative voice(s) for whatever reason, but thought the characters and settings were really interesting, and did definitely enjoy reading this. B+.

2019 book 86

Casey McQuiston's Red, White, and Royal Blue
Y'all know YA romances are not really my jam, but this was sooooo cuuuuuute. Our protagonist is the First Son, son of the first woman president, who accidentally causes a bit of a scandal with an English prince--so now the two have to pretend to be bros to stave off the bad publicity for both countries. But will a romance cause even MORE scandal??? Their growing friendship (and MORE!) mostly worked for me, plus I liked that they were both in their 20s and not in high school, so I was more invested in their lives and in them working things out. Just a really nice and cathartic read. A-.

2019 book 85

Jo Walton's Lent
I generally like Walton's books a lot, and was intrigued by descriptions of her latest, about a real historical priest guy in fifteenth century Florence, dealing with politics and whatnot, who discovers sometime about himself that changes everything. But the thing is, that twist doesn’t come until halfway through, so I had to read many, many pages of Catholic guys talking about Catholicism to get to that point (I almost abandoned this book more than once). The second half of the book was more interesting, and I thought the character work was really strong, but it too was steeped in Catholicism, and I just found it off-putting. The writing here is great, and Walton really brings Florence to life, I just think I’d have appreciated this more if I cared about Christianity and related philosophy. I’m Jewish, so I don't. B.

2019 book 84

Melina Marchetta's The Jellicoe Road
I am perpetually amazed at how Marchetta takes a story full of tragedy and angst and somehow makes it . . . uplifting. I mean, this book makes you feel the full gamut of human emotions! And the way she weaves the two plots together, peppering little clues throughout is kind of masterful. I don’t know why this story of two generations of teens resonates so much with me, but every time I read it, I love it more.

2019 book 83

T. Kingfisher's Swordheart
When the world is getting you down, it's time to retreat into a fantasy world by rereading an awesome and funny book with enchanted sword-men, lawyers, and a sensible heroine, all trying to outwit a bunch of scheming relatives and pitiless priests. Mayhem and adventures ensue! And lots and lots of pining. HEART EYESSSSSS. I love this book.

2019 book 82

Robin Stevens' Murder Most Unladylike
Yes yes, I have read this book several times before, but we're discussing it for book club this month and I wanted the details to be fresh! This may seem like an odd pick for a book club, but one of my friends has a daughter who also loves this series and wanted to check it out, plus it’s nice to read something quick and fun in the summer, PLUS you can’t go wrong with a classic-style mystery set in a British boarding school! And even having read this several time before, I still got all caught up in the action and characters and setting. Just good stuff all around!

2019 book 81

Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Gods of Jade and Shadow
Moreno-Garcia writes consistently entertaining books, and I loved her latest one. Things start in a small town in Mexico in the 1920s, where a young girl, treated as a servant by her wealthy family, accidentally frees an imprisoned God of Death. Bound to him, she is soon accompanying him on a journey to find his missing parts—and take back his throne from the brother who betrayed him. But his brother has other plans. This plays with folklore and Mayan mythology and the 1920s setting in a really fun way; I loved the characters' journeys (metaphorical and otherwise) and thought the end was GREAT. Really a good read. A/A-.

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

2019 book 80

T. Kingfisher's Summer in Orcus
Sometimes I am like, argggggh, why aren’t there more books like Ursula Vernon's? With magic and adventure and sensible heroines and animal friends? And then I realize I can just reread a book by Vernon. She really is writing modern classics! This one plays with portal fantasies and fairy tales in a really satisfying way. There is also a were-house, very handy when you’re on a magical journey! So good.

2019 book 79

Makiia Lucier's Song of the Abyss
The sequel to Lucier's Isle of Blood and Stone is just as entertaining as its predecessor, as little Reyna from the first book, now a teenager determined to become an explorer, deals with pirates and has many adventures and a little bit of romance and an awesome best friend (a girl who wants to be a doctor!). Once again, the plot was not too hard to ferret out, but it was still a super fun read with excellent pacing and great characters. I definitely look forward to whatever Lucier does next. A-.

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

2019 book 78

Barbara Krasnoff's The History of Soul 2065
This novel is really a series of interconnected short stories, about two interconnected families, starting with the improbable meeting of two little Jewish girls in 1920 and following their descendants. There are fantastic elements and sci-fi elements, and some of it made me cheer and a lot of it made me cry. It’s suffused with Jewish folklore and history and I loved it. Weird but great. A.

2019 book 77

Jane Austen's Persuasion
I wanted to reread this because I’m involved in an Austen-themed RPG and needed to refresh my references! I mean, it's also a great book and an enjoyable read. Nothing I can say about this book will be fresh or new, so I will conclude by just saying YAY.

2019 book 76

Mona Awad's Bunny
I thought Awad's 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl was GREAT, so was looking forward to her latest, which seems to be getting a lot of buzz. And it had me totally enthralled. It centers on an MFA student, who feels like an outsider, partly for class reasons, and partly because the other four girls in her program are a weird clique who all call each other "Bunny" and spend all their time together. And then they invite her to one of their gatherings, and things start getting . . . weird. Whenever I was reading this, I had to force myself to put it down--it's just totally gripping writing, and dark and funny and creepy. I loved it. A.

2019 book 75

Lisa Lutz's The Swallows
There are certainly plenty of books out there already about boarding schools full of intrigue and drama (among both the students and the staff), but Lutz's entry into the genre is FIRE EMOJI. She uses multiple POV characters—a new teacher at school with an interesting past; your typical dude teacher writing a thinly veiled novel; and various students trying to bring down a secret website where the male students rate the girls on their blow jobs (!!!)—which keeps things moving along. And of course Lutz is always great with plotting and dark humor; I was totally wrapped up in this, and cheering the building fellowship of angry girls, and hoping for happy endings for all of them. But the first pages warn the readers that things aren’t going to end well. I did think the end maybe veered tooooo much into melodrama, but I couldn’t put it down. A/A-.


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

2019 book 74

Laurie J. Marks' Air Logic
The final chapter of Marks' Logic series is finally here, and she just tosses the reader right back into the pool. After three lengthy books, there are a lot of characters to remember, and I struggled for the first few chapters to remember all their backstories. Eventually I caught on, or realized it didn’t really matter, because this whole series is sort of about the journey. I mean it is also about love (of all kinds, but also there are a lot of queer ppl and it’s nice), and found families, and working through issues, and magic, but also the journey. Maybe that makes it sound dull, but wholemit may not be action-packed, it’s certainly engrossing. Great characters and worldbuilding as always; I will definitely have to reread this from the beginning soon. A/A-.

2019 book 73

Kate Racculia's Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts
I loved both of Racculia's previous books, and honestly have spent the several years since Bellweather Rhapsody periodically googling to see when she might have a new one out. And now she does, and it's DELIGHTFUL. I had to keep putting it down so I wouldn't just tear through it. It centers on the titular Tuesday Mooney, a prospect researcher (this means nothing to most of you, but I have several friends in the field) who--along with her only friend, and a very clever neighbor kid, and a handsome and very wealthy young man, and a cast of other characters--gets sucked into a treasure hunt spurred by the eccentric will of a Boston billionaire. VERY shades of The Westing Game. Oh, also, she is maybe being haunted by her childhood best friend who disappeared mysteriously when they were teens. I loved everything about this book, big-time. I feel like I’m making it sound quirky-cute, but Racculia balances whimsy and realism really well, and there are some darker moments. Anyway, SO GOOD. A.


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

2019 book 72

Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys
And Whitehead knocks it out of the park again. In his latest novel (following up the multiple-award-winning Underground Railroad), the focus is on a young black boy in the early 60s, whose promising future is derailed by bad luck and systemic racism. And then he’s sent to an ungodly reform school—loosely based on a real place—where, in the present day, a group of archaeologists have found a secret graveyard full of young boys. Much of the novel takes place in Tallahassee; it is always a little weird to read about a place where you’ve lived, but as far as I’m concerned, Whitehead nailed it. Obviously parts of the novel are beyond grim, but the writing and narrative voice made me eager to keep reading. I just thought this was excellent, in a gut-punch sort of way. A.


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

2019 book 71

Season Butler's Cygnet
So this book is about a teen girl living on an island exclusively populated by the very elderly—she was left there with her grandmother for what was supposed to be just a couple weeks, but her parents have not come back in months. And some of the population is hostile, and all feel like she doesn’t belong. This is a beautifully written sort of coming of age story, but it kind of depressed me. There were some weirdly grisly scenes too (ie the butchering of a chicken). B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 25th.

2019 book 70

Taylor Jenkins Reid's Daisy Jones and the Six
We're discussing this in book club this week, so I figured I'd glance through to refresh my memory . . . and dang if I didn't sink right back into it and reread the whole thing! The novel is told in an oral history format, charting the spectacular rise and dramatic fall of a 1970s rock band, with all the sex and drugs you could imagine a 70s rock band having. Great characters, good reveals, interesting clashes in narrative--a really fun read, even the second time (though I still don't love the very very end).

2019 book 69

Laura Lippmann's Lady in the Lake
I love when Lippman turns her gimlet eye to mid-century Jews in Baltimore, so was pleased to dive into her latest. In this one, a thirty-something Jewish housewife, dissatisfied with her life and wanting to make a mark on the world, leaves her husband and tries to get a job as a reporter at a local paper. And then she becomes pretty obsessed with the murder of a young black woman, the titular Lady in the Lake, a murder that someone wants to sweep under the rug. I liked the way Lippman constructed the narrative here—the main narrators are the wannabe reporter and the murder victim, but almost everyone the reporter encounters gets their own little POV chapter. It’s a nice way to build up the world and makes for a fun and quick read. I haven’t quite decided how I feel about the ending, but I definitely enjoyed reading this. A-.


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

2019 book 68

Brittany Cavallaro and Emily Henry's Hello Girls
I’ve read and more or less enjoyed Cavallaro's books about the descendants of Holmes and Watson, so figured I’d try out this new book she co-wrote with an author friend. And it was GREAT! Real Thelma and Louise vibes for the teen set, as two girls—one menaced by a controlling, abusive father, the other by a drug-dealing brother—go on the run on an epic road trip. The risks and the adventures both ring true, but their amazing friendship is what I really loved about this. Just a fist-pumping good time. A/A-.

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

2019 book 67

Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Party
The third book in Guillory's romance series has the same stuff I’ve liked in her other books—fun characters, believable chemistry, interesting work and personal issues—but also has the one thing that I slightly dislike from her previous books. “Oh no, we were trying to do a casual thing but we both caught feelings and refuse to admit it and will instead have a silly fight!” But at least it happens LESS  in this one? Anyway, the (hetero) romantic duo here are the two best friends of the protagonist from the /first/ book (her stylist and her coworker) and both are in her wedding party! (I really needed more wedding planning shenanigans in this plot, seriously.) They hate each other until they don’t and vow to keep their fling a secret from their friend. Things go about as you’d expect but, again, Guillory does such a good job with the characters that you’re just like, oooh work it out! Kiss and make up! And rooting for them etc. Another fun read, and I can’t wait for her next one, which is about the stylist's MOM and involves British royals?!? Yessssss. A-.


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

2019 book 66

Felicity McLean's The Van Apfel Girls are Gone
This novel centers on a young woman, heading home to Australia from the US to visit her older sister, who is undergoing treatment for cancer. But both women are haunted by the disappearance of the titular Van Apfel girls, their friends and neighbors, twenty years earlier. The story weaves between the past and present to good effect—the story has a kind of Virgin Suicides vibe, though the women here seem slightly better adjusted than the narrators of that one. I thought this was good, but it didn’t necessarily stand out to me in the sea of books about missing girls? Definitely better written than most. B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in June. Content warning for brief scenes of animal abuse and child abuse.

2019 book 65

Sarah Gailey's Magic for Liars

I liked Gailey's novella about historical hippos a lot, so was psyched to check out her first full length novel. Our protagonist is your typical world weary, hard drinking, hard boiled private eye, taking on the usual cases involving adulterous spouses—until the headmaster of the school where her twin sister teaches hires her to investigate the murder of another teacher. And, oh yeah, IT'S A MAGIC SCHOOL. Bam! This was a really fun book and the mystery and magical elements both totally worked for me. Great characters too. I can’t wait to see what Gailey does next. A/A-.

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

2019 book 64

Julia Phillips' Disappearing Earth
Phillips' debut is sort of a series of interconnected stories, involving the locals of a town in Russia where a pair of young sisters were abducted. I found some of these characters more interesting than others, of course, and wished they had come together a little bit sooner. Still, this is a complicated portrayal of grief, loss, love, family live, inter-generational conflicts, etc. I especially appreciated Phillips' depiction of white Russian racism toward ethnic Northern populations. I did have mixed feelings about the ending, but mostly liked it? I don't know. B.


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

2019 book 63

K.J. Charles' Proper English
I'd heard good things about this and was in the mood for something cute, so a lesbian romance novel set at an English house party seemed like it would fit the bill. And I was already super into it--the characters are interesting, the romance is sweet, and the writing is great--when, halfway through, a murder occurs, and our new romantic duo must solve it! YESSSSS!!!!!!! The mystery is mildly underbaked, but of course this is primarily a romance novel that just happens to have a lil murder mystery in it, and is satisfying in that regard. This was awesome and I will definitely be reading more by this author. A/A-.

2019 book 62

Scarlett Thomas' Galloglass
Yayyyyyy the third book in Thomas' Worldquake series! This series is set in a near future world where all technology has basically gone back to 1992, there's an Otherworld full of magic and a mysterious Underworld, there are lots of rival groups of magic users, and a band of magical kids! The kids are once again learning more about themselves and their powers, which Thomas does a great job with, plus there are lots of cats in this one (one of the cats is a POV character!), and everyone has to come together to foil another evil plot. Content warning here for child abuse, though Thomas handles and resolves it really well. Anyway, hooray magic and research and cats! Can’t wait for more in this series. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on May 21st.

2019 book 61

Scarlett Thomas' The Chosen Ones
The second book in Thomas' Worldquake series deepens the world building, introduces new characters and mysteries, and has lots more magical friend action adventures! I like that the kids make realistic mistakes and then learn from them, and how they support and care about each other. I also like when they work together to foil evil plots! Yeah! By the way, if you are into personality tests, this series' website has a great one. I’m a witch-interpreter!

2019 book 60

Scarlett Thomas' Dragon's Green
The third book in Thomas' marvelous Worldquake series is out soon, so of course I wanted to reread the first two so everything would be fresh (and also because I love them!). This is a great start to a series—lots of magical adventures, a band of friends coming together and learning about their talents, bad guys, BOOKS, dragons, animal friends, etc. What more could you want in a book?

2019 book 59

Taffy Brodesser-Akner's Fleishman is in Trouble
The entire internet seems to be buzzing about this book, and I love the author's essays and profiles, so I was psyched to read her first novel. But it left me a little bit cold. It centers on a 41-year-old man, in the process of divorcing, who's trying to be a good dad to his kids and a good doctor where he works, except he’s obsessed with hooking up with women via dating apps. Like I really needed about 80 percent less of this guy and his horny thoughts. Once we meet the narrator, things are a little more interesting, and I liked the last say 20 percent a lot (the end is amazing), but I just was not feeling this. Maybe it’s because I’m not married and don’t have kids, and it seems to be thinking deeply about those subjects? Or maybe because so much of it is about a dude thinking about all the ladies he is banging or wants to bang. Maybe both! But the more I think about it, the more depressing I find it. B.

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

2019 book 58

Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog
I've actually never read anything by Willis before--I had the impression from reading reviews of her more recent works that they tended toward the ponderous--but this was an absolute delight. Time travel shenanigans, a heroine who lives by the sage writings of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers (a woman after my own heart), a hero who looks good in a boater, a lovable dog and incorrigible cat, etc etc. It's all very hilarious, though there is a fair amount of tension--CAN the time-traveling duo get history back on track in time for the big church restoration thing their determined patroness is organizing? This was a lot of fun, though the hero is frustratingly slow on the uptake. Open the basket, Ned!!! Anyway, hooray cats and dogs and time travel. A-.

2019 book 57

Kate Atkinson’s Big Sky
The fifth Jackson Brodie book finds Jackson . . . oh who cares about that, REGGIE IS BACK! And it’s ten years later and she's a police detective!! I mean, Jackson is also there, doing the private eye thing with his teen son in tow, and there's a human trafficking ring and ALSO a ring of pedophiles, so that is all pretty grim. I’m not sure this was a mystery, per se, but it’s interesting to watch all the pieces come together. And all of the POV characters are interesting, especially Reggie and the trophy wife of a local bigwig. (Give Reggie a spin-off series!) The framing sections felt a bit shoehorned in but I liked them just the same. I do hope to see more with these characters. A-.

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

2019 book 56

Kate Atkinson's Started Early, Took My Dog
The fourth Jackson Brodie book is rough going—neglected children, gruesome crime scenes, lots of talk of serial killers, etc—but there is a very good DOG in it (Atkinson writes great dogs!). I actually am not sure what I want to say about this one, it leaves me feeling all in a muddle.

2019 book 55

Kate Atkinson's When Will There Be Good News
One of the things I'm noticing on these rereads is the way Atkinson starts these books and how the initial scenes just draw you right in. And I love how the story comes together here—I had a friend say recently that all the coincidences in these books bother her, but I think it works better here than in the second one. Anyway, all of that is overpowered by my love for REGGIE, who a wonderfully determined and funny girl. I would watch hours of a Jackson-Reggie buddy cop series (featuring the actors from the actual BBC show, of course).

2019 book 54

Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn
The second Jackson Brodie book revolves around events and people at the Edinburge Fringe Festival--a sad-sack crime novelist, the wife of a crooked businessman (she's my favorite), a terrible comedian, a policewoman dealing with a teenage son, a mysterious road rage incident, a dead girl lost beneath the waves, etc etc--and Jackson finds himself caught up in the middle of things. And it’s all very chaotic and sometimes even funny before it comes to a wild and satisfying conclusion!

2019 book 53

Kate Atkinson's Case Histories 
Atkinson has a NEW JACKSON BRODIE BOOK coming out this summer, the first in eight years, which means I have to reread the first four to get ready! Not that I'm complaining; this is a compellingly-written and moving series of well-plotted mysteries. In this first one, private detective (and former cop) Jackson Brodie deals with a series of cases involving murdered or missing women and girls—and is tormented by one from his own past. The stories are all resolved in a satisfying way to the reader, and leaves one eager to see what Brodie will get up to next.

2019 book 52

Laila Lalami's The Other Americans
If I have any complaints about Lalami's earlier novels, it's that they were sometimes a little bit dense, but this one was getting great reviews so I wanted to give it a chance--and I found it VERY readable, with great writing, while still touching on serious themes. It centers on the death of an immigrant from Morocco in a hit-and-run; was it an accident or not? And it's narrated by a really interesting cast of characters--primarily the man's daughter and wife; a childhood friend of his daughter, a war vet who is now a sheriff's deputy; and an illegal immigrant who witnessed the death; but there are others as well (including the man himself, as flashbacks). I did find the antagonists somewhat clumsily written (or maybe I just don’t spend time with openly racist white people and so it just seemed that way), but otherwise this was a beautiful book. A/A-.

2019 book 51

Melina Marchetta's The Place on Dalhousie
Don’t mind me, I’m just over here blubbering about the latest novel from Marchetta! This is the third of her books set in the world of Saving Francesca and The Piper's Son; the kids are now in their mid-twenties, so I guess we're out of the YA realm now. Jimmy is the focus of this one—along with the girl he's impregnated, and her stepmother, who are feuding over the house her father built. As usual, the plot is interesting (and has a couple of surprises), but it's the characters that really shine. I just love all these kids and their friendships and love for one another, and now they support each other. I don’t see that enough in books. Anyway, I loved this, of course. A.

2019 book 50

Melina Marchetta's The Piper's Son
God, I love Marchetta's characters and this world she's built. This takes place I think five years after Saving Francesca, and focuses on Francesca's friend Tom and his family--which fell apart after a tragic loss, and is struggling to come back together. Just gorgeous writing and compassion here, and a lot of humor as well. SO GOOD.

2019 book 49

Jessica Day George's The Queen's Secret
The second book in the Rose Legacy series is more fun magical horse girl adventures, though things are serious this time around, as the horse brigade tries to stop a deadly disease from spreading. I think the plot here could have been a bit better developed, and the villain's villainy is WAY over the top, but I liked the lady scientists and of course still love all the horses and their riders! Cute series for sure, I look forward to seeing how the next one turns out. B+.

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

2019 book 48

Melina Marchetta's Saving Francesca
I'm rereading this old favorite because Marchetta wrote a THIRD book featuring these characters, currently winging its way to me from Australia, and I need to brush up before it arrives! Anyway, I straight up LOVE this book and these characters dealing with their messy teenage lives (and a mother dealing with serious depression). Just funny and sweet and sad and really moving. Great stuff.

2019 book 47

Nell Freudenberger's Lost and Wanted
As of the time of this writing, this book is the "#1 best seller in ghost fiction" on Amazon, which I didn't even know was a category, but ok. I think Freudenberger is an underrated author, but this book may do something to change that, because it's great! It's narrated by a physicist who is receiving communications from the phone and email accounts of a recently deceased friend. It's also about being a woman in a male-dominated academic field, about the friendship between the women, about grief, about sexism and racism, about motherhood, and about physics. I found the narrative voice here really engaging and really did think this was GREAT. A.

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

2019 book 46

K. Chess' Famous Men Who Never Lived
Literary novels about things like multiverses are my catnip, y'all. This one centers on Hel, a woman whose version of America was beset by terrorism and nuclear war, so when a portal to our version was created, 156,000 people made it through before the world apparently ended on the other side. Now Hel is obsessed with why the timelines split, and with starting a museum to preserve her world's lost culture. Meanwhile, her partner is more interested in assimilation. I thought this was a really interesting book--great concept and world-building--but it kind of went off the rails for me a little bit. Like I needed it either to settle on being an action-packed sort of story or a psychological one. I did like it a lot--I found the end to be satisfying--but parts of the middle felt a bit muddled. Still, a cool take on multiverses, if you are into that sort of thing! B/B+.

2019 book 45

Agatha Christie's 4:50 From Paddington
The public library recently added a bunch of e-books by Christie, and here we go, a Miss Marple mystery I hadn't read yet! I had actually seen an adaptation of this in one of the tv shows, but it was still an exciting read. It centers on a middle-aged lady, returning from a shopping trip, who sees a man strangling a woman in a passing train! But no one believes her--except Miss Marple. So Miss Marple--and a very capable assistant put into position as a housekeeper--take the case! And she is is much more efficient than the police, haha. I love Miss Marple. A/A-.

2019 book 44

Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower
In general, I eagerly await new books from Leckie, but was especially anticipating this one—her first fantasy novel! It’s narrated by an old god, in the second person singular, directed to the young (trans) aide to the local leader's heir. Lots of interesting politics and adventure and gods and power and a bit of mystery, etc etc. I enjoyed this a lot! Great characters and world-building. I think I wanted sliiiiightly more from the end, but I did find it fitting. Yeah, this was good. A/A-.

2019 book 43

Miriam Toews' Women Talking
Toews' latest novel was inspired by a true story--where the women and girls in an isolated Mennonite community were repeatedly drugged and raped, and finally the eight men behind the heinous acts were caught. In Toews' novel, in the aftermath of the event, two families of women are meeting to decide what to do in two days when the men return from being bailed out of prison--will they do nothing, and forgive the men (as their pastor urges, and to ensure they are admitted to heaven), will they stay in the community and fight back, or will they leave? The novel is narrated by a man, something of an outsider, who is taking meeting minutes as none of the women can read or write. It’s a stunning novel, almost entirely a conversation among these women, who are basically having a philosophical debate. And it’s not too brutal, considering the subject matter. I do actually think “stunning” is the best word to describe it, because it’s so well written but also I feel a bit stunned. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on April 2nd.

2019 book 42

Ursula Vernon's Castle Hangnail
Sometimes you just want to reread something cute and funny and SATISFYING! And this fits the bill. It’ll have you rooting for the heroes . . .  even if they are twelve year old Wicked Witches, minions, and Minotaurs! Which, I mean, they are, and it’s awesome.

2019 book 41

Linda Holmes' Evvie Drake Starts Over
Do you want to read a book that is really GOOD, with a cute romance, but that is also really REAL? Read this book, y’all. It’s set in a small town in Maine, where the titular Evvie is a young widow—who secretly was planning to leave her husband the day he died. And now her best friend has a friend who is coming to live in her attached apartment, and he is a famous baseball player suffering from THE YIPS. Their burgeoning friendship is really satisfying, I found all the characters to be really realistic, flaws and all, and I was rooting for pretty much all of them. I just like reading a book where nice people get their shit together, you know? Just really engaging all around. A/A-.

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

2019 book 40

Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop
I don't think I've read anything by Fitzgerald before, but this volume was a good introduction. It centers on a middle-aged widow who decides to open a bookshop in her small town--thereby igniting a very slow-moving war of wills with a local prominent society woman. Also, her bookstore has a poltergeist. This did not go where I expected it to, though it was a realistic view of society. Great and powerful story but definitely got me in the gut. A-.

2019 book 39

Julie Berry's Lovely War
It's 1942, and the Greek god Hephaestus has just trapped Aphrodite and Ares with a golden net, and now Aphrodite is telling the story of one of her great works of love, of a young girl and a soldier during WWI. It is convenient for an author to have a love goddess meddling in the story, as the reader can more easily buy into the characters' insta-love. I was caught up in the story for a while, but eventually grew impatient with the melodrama and cheesiness. Just not for me. B/B-.

2019 book 38

Helen Oyeyemi's Gingerbread
I’ve been a fan of Oyeyemi's writing for a long time, but I am really feeling her recent books in a big way. When I finished this one, I seriously like sighed and said out loud, “that was AWESOME.” I am not going to try and summarize the plot because I don’t think I can do it in a way that makes it properly appealing. Instead I will say that it involves fantasy and fairy tales and gingerbread (this made me so hungry for my own lost-childhood-gingerbread) and mothers and daughters and and and anyway I loved it. It WAS awesome. A.

2019 book 37

Amy Rose Capetta's The Lost Coast
I am pretty much here for any and all books about queer teen witches, so enjoyed this for sure. There is kind of a lot going on here, with new girls and magic and spells and storms and romance and a whole murder mystery element. I actually think the book would have been better without the mystery stuff, which just popped up occasionally, felt shoehorned in, and had an unsatisfying conclusion. The story about a group of girls bonding and trying to rescue one of their own was enough on its own, for me. Anyway, this should be made into a movie, because today's teens need their own version of The Craft. B+.

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

2019 book 36

Margaret Dumas' Murder at the Palace
Don't be fooled by the title--this isn't like a Regency-era historical mystery. It's contemporary and the titular Palace is a movie theater that shows classic movies! Our heroine is fleeing Hollywood and her famous actor husband (and his famous affair with a famous actress) and her best friend sets her up managing said movie theater in San Francisco. Of course she immediately finds a dead body and we're off to the races. Also, the theater is HAUNTED! There is not a ton of plot to the mystery, and the Macguffin is pretty obvious, but the characters and setting were a lot of fun—this is the first in a series that I’ll definitely be reading more of. A-.