Monday, December 30, 2019

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+.

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

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.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

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-.

Saturday, December 21, 2019

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-.

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

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.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

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.

Saturday, December 14, 2019

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-.

Friday, December 13, 2019

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.

Thursday, December 12, 2019

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.

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

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??

Friday, December 06, 2019

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

Tuesday, December 03, 2019

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-.

Monday, December 02, 2019

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-.

Sunday, December 01, 2019

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.