2023 book 118

 Connie Willis' The Road to Roswell

The word for the first half of this book is WACKY, and the word for the second half is SLOW. I actually enjoyed the wackiness—this book is about a young woman who’s flying out to her best friend's wedding, and it turns out the best friend's fiancé is a UFO nut, and the protagonist thinks it’s all very ridiculous, but then she is actually abducted by an alien. And various kidnappings and misadventures ensue! But I do think this would have benefited from being shorter, especially in the last third. It just felt like it was spinning its wheels. It was clearly going to be a rom-com, so let it be a rom-com! I also found the very end confusing, like I was missing some of the text. I dunno, B.

Jeopardy!

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2023 book 117

  Makoto Shinkai and Naruki Nagakawa's She and Her Cat (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori)

Once again forcing my book club to read whatever I’m in the mood to reread! I will be interested to see how they respond to this melancholy-yet-hopeful book of interconnected Japanese stories narrated mainly by cats (and the women they love who love them). 

2023 book 116

 Rachel Neumeier’s Door Into Light

I did enjoy this sequel quite a bit, but there was a lot going on! Several of the main characters find themselves in the enemy country, while the others are dealing with political upheavals (ie violent coups) at home. I did appreciate that one of the other sisters was a POV character this time, especially as it was the “practical” one. I was mildly annoyed that every character had a (straight) love interest, but romance wasn’t a big focus so I can’t really complain. Lots of magical battles and regular battles and diplomacy, all of which I liked, but I did wish towards the end things were a little tighter. Still, a very entertaining read, Neumeier is a really interesting author. A-/B+.

2023 book 115

 Rachel Neumeier's House of Shadows

Somehow I had completely missed the existence of this book and its sequel, so I was excited to get to treat myself to more by Rachel Neumeier! This one involves eight sisters who, after their father's death, have to figure out how to make money. One of the older girls goes off to get trained as a sort of courtesan (this is a respectable and fancy thing in this world) and one of the middle ones ends up apprenticed to a mage. The latter is one of the POV characters, along with a young woman who works where the courtesans are trained, and a sorcerer from an enemy country who gets drawn into an assassination plot. Lots of interesting characters here, and I loved all three of the protagonists. AND there were very cool cats! Lots of magical adventures and humor. I could easily have read this in one sitting if I hadn’t had to go to sleep! Can’t wait to check out the sequel. A/A-.

2023 book 114

 Glenda Larke's The Tangled Lands

YALL I LOVED THIS BOOK. It's about what happens when sorcerers from one kingdom plot to steal the newborn heir from another kingdom, and the heir's father refuses to negotiate. A chunk of the story is told from the POV of a young man in jail for treason. In the back half, a thirty-five year old woman comes into her own. (All of the characters in this are great, but she is one of my new FAVES.) There is magic and there are ancient gods and goddesses. There are fast friendships and lots of humor. Every moment of this delighted me. I will be reading more by Larke ASAP. A. 

2023 book 113

 Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky

I do love a sci-fi mystery story, and this one was stellar (pun mildly intended). It’s set on a spaceship bound for a new planet, crewed by 80 women/non-binary people/trans men (bc they’re intended to start the repopulation process on the way), when an explosion goes off! Now the ship's alternate, the only crew member without a specific job (but with plenty of self-esteem issues!) has to figure out if it was sabotage, and if so, who was behind it, and why. This is interspersed with flashbacks to her childhood in a future version of earth that isn’t doing too hot, and to her years of training for the mission. Lots of great characters and relationship dynamics, an interesting mystery, and really engaging writing. I can’t believe this is a debut, and I can’t wait to see what Kitasei writes next. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on July 18th.

2023 book 112

 T. Kingfisher’s Nettle and Bone

Still occasionally rereading some T. Kingfisher as a lil treat, and this may have been even better the second time (and I loved it the first time!). A wonderful fantasy adventure featuring a thirty-year old princess determined to save her sister from an abusive husband with the help of a bone dog, a witch, a warrior, and a fairy godmother. Lots of magic and adventure and occasionally creepy moments, because that’s how Kingfisher rolls, but SUCH a good story.

2023 book 111

 Bess Kalb's Nobody Will Tell You This But Me

It’s been a looooong time since I read any non-fiction,but Christina read this recently and said it reminded her of the way I talked about my Bubbe, and I’ve been thinking of my Bubbe a lot lately because of the whole thing where I’m going to be on Jeopardy next week (she was still alive when I first auditioned several years ago and was SOOOO excited, she was planning a watch party for all the old Jewish ladies in her building and was going to have shirts made). Anyway. So this is the story of Bess Kalb's grandmother, told in her own voice as imagined by Kalb, interspersed with voice mails and actual conversations they had. It’s not a full biography, but more the story of their relationship, which was very moving, and reminded me of both of my grandmothers. Very funny and heartbreaking. A/A-.

2023 book 110

 Simon Jimenez's The Spear Cuts Through Water

Look, I can’t explain the plot of this book easily (though it’s not hard to understand when you’re reading it), so I’ll just say this is an excellent fantasy novel involving stories and storytelling, complicated families, young (queer) love, battles, magic, history, ancient goddesses, and more. Some funny scenes, some dark scenes, many moving scenes. A very cool and satisfying read. A/A-.

2023 book 109

 Nghi Vo's Siren Queen

This is one of those books I kept checking out from the library and not getting to, and finally did, and can’t believe I waited this long! It’s a story about classic Hollywood, but a classic Hollywood that’s full of dark fairy magic, and the Chinese girl who dreams of being a star. It’s also very queer! I enjoyed this a lot, just thought the end felt a little rushed. A-.

2023 book 108

 Grace Curtis' Frontier

So this is about a woman who crash-lands on earth in an escape pod, except the people on earth think all the people who went to space are sinners and they hate advanced technology. So she has to survive all that, and all she wants is to get a message to her girlfriend. The first half is sort of vignettes of her encounters, and I was interested, but things get moving more as it goes on and I became much more invested. GREAT ending. A-.

2023 book 107

 Ashley Poston's Seven Year Slip

After reading a bunch of kind of sad mysteries, I wanted something on the lighter side—this is just about the only time I read romance novels lately. I’ve never read anything by Poston, but several friends recommended her previous book to me, and this one has time travel shenanigans—very up my alley. Anyway, our heroine is a late-twenties book publicist, grieving the recent death of her aunt, third-wheeling it with her best friends (a lesbian couple), and moving into her aunt's apartment that she inherited. And her aunt always told her stories of the apartment being magical, but she’s still shocked to suddenly find herself seven years in the past, with a hot dude aspiring chef come to stay for the summer. The romance is cute, I liked the characters well enough, I did enjoy the narrative voice, but there were just so many things to nitpick! And I don’t want to nitpick! It just made me want to rewatch The Lake House, the ne plus ultra time slip story. I might still read this with my book club, I think it will be a hit with that group. B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 27th.

2023 book 106

 Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night

I’ve been rereading this whole series just to get back to this one, but I enjoyed it a lot more the last time I read it. It’s another one where when you know the mystery's solution, it’s just kind of a depressing read. That is one hundred percent balanced out by Harriet writing and researching and hanging out at Oxford, and by her relationship with Peter. But I think I’m going to stop my rereading here.

2023 book 105

 Dorothy Sayers' The Nine Tailors

This is an interesting one, since it takes place over the course of like a year, which is unusual in a mystery novel. The mystery itself involves a long-ago jewel theft and the discovery of an unknown body in the graveyard. There is also a lot of business involving bell-ringing and waterways. I will say I remembered most of how this played out, and usually it’s fun to see how the pieces come together, but it somehow wasn’t the case for this. I definitely liked it more the first time I read it. 

2023 book 104

 Dorothy Sayers' Murder Must Advertise

Peter Wimsey goes hilariously undercover as a copy-writer at an advertising agency in this one, to figure out if an accidental death was really an accident. The mystery in this one is fine, but it’s the characters and the settings that make this so entertaining (aside from a very lengthy description of a cricket match, but maybe some people like that sort of thing).

2023 book 103

 Dorothy Sayers' Have His Carcase

I did skip one in this series that I didn’t enjoy last time I read it, which was fine, because that one didn’t have Harriet and this one does! The mystery starts with Harriet on a walking tour, in fact, finding a freshly dead body on a beach. Soon Peter is coming to town to help her and the local police figure things out. Lots of funny scenes in this one, and I really love Harriet. The mystery kind of drags but is interesting also? Like there is a VERY lengthy scene involving decoding a cipher but I love that sort of thing. Just a lot going on with a somewhat abrupt ending.