2023 book 238

 Beth Lincoln's The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels

This was a cute middle-grade mystery about a large eccentric family where everyone is named after a random word from the dictionary, and our main character is Shenanigan, so you know she’s getting up to hijinks. This book does get kind of dark—some people are actually murdered—which I was kind of surprised by! But lots of fun characters (lots of queer characters!) and I loved the relationships between the main character and her sisters. Looks like this is the start of a series, and I’ll probably be reading the next one. A-/B+.

2023 book 237

 Helen DeWitt's The English Understand Wool

What an exquisite novella! It’s about a teenage girl, raised in luxury and with the highest of tastes, who we come to see is writing a book about her life, with correspondence from her editor included. My only complaint is that I’d have read like a seven hundred page novel about these people—though of course the power is in its brevity. A.

2023 book 236

 Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver Deals With Death

The plot in this one has so much going on—blackmail, murder, romance, amnesia, etc—that by the time Miss Silver comes around to solve things, I actually had forgotten she’d been introduced earlier on, haha. Lots of murder suspects and an entertainingly dramatic ending. I’m taking a break from these for a moment until the third collection goes on sale for Kindle, otherwise I think I’d just keep going. Perfect for these quiet and lazy winter days. A-/B+.

2023 book 235

 Patricia Wentworth’s The Chinese Shawl

This one breaks the mold a little bit, as it introduces all its characters and sends them to a fancy house for the weekend, where Miss Silver happens to be visiting, and so is on hand when a murder takes place (and once again the local police guy is her former charge!). Lots of young love and shenanigans. The mystery is kind of eh and I did not at all like the way this concluded, but I’m still enjoying this series. B+.

2023 book 234

 Patricia Wentworth's In the Balance

Man, I am tearing through these! It’s interesting that even when the plots are similar—mainly people trying to murder other people because of wills—here, a young woman suspects her husband of nefarious intent—the characters keep things interesting. This one was published in 1941 and mentions the start of the war, I do wonder how later volumes will address it. A-.

2023 book 233

 Patricia Wentworth’s Lonesome Road

Ah, now we finally get more of Miss Silver! In this one, a wealthy woman knows one of her relatives is trying to kill her, but doesn’t know which one, so Miss Silver comes for a visit to suss things out. Fairly satisfying mystery and enjoyable characters and plot, another entertaining story. A-.

2023 book 232

 Patricia Wentworth's The Case in Closed

So like is Miss Silver just a side character in her own series?? I liked this one just like the first one but I would definitely like MORE of the sassy middle-aged lady solving crimes! Anyway, this one involves a young woman whose cousin's husband is in jail for murder, but they’re sure he didn’t do it, and a chance encounter on a train may mean they’re right! I love the characters in this, the protagonist is a teeny bit silly but brave and lovable, and all the other characters are interesting too, just well-drawn. I did solve this mystery fairly early on but the fun is in seeing how they prove it. I am enjoying this series a lot! A-.

2023 book 231

 Patricia Wentworth's Grey Mask

This is the first of the Miss Silver mysteries, though she’s really a minor character—she’s a detective of some sort hired by one of the main characters, who has stumbled on a crime ring that his ex-fiancée seems to be involved with. There’s also a possibly-illegitimate heiress, an eccentric stepfather, various unsavory dudes, and a fair amount of humor. I do hope later volumes have more Miss Silver but this was an entertaining mystery for sure. A-.

2023 book 230

 Glenda Larke's Stormlord's Exile

This was a solid end to this trilogy, and felt like a stronger story than the first two—better plotting and writing. New allies, old enemies, lots of action, a couple queer characters. The end felt a tiny bit rushed but I was honestly tired of battle scenes by then so found that refreshing. A-.

2023 book 229

 Glenda Larke’s Stormlord Rising

I did like this more than the first one, though there is still a lot of dark stuff (sex slavery, death, war, etc) and some of the conflicts feel manufactured. My favorite character from the first book gets a lot more time here which I liked (though unfortunately she is one of the aforementioned sex slaves), and I am still invested in the two main characters. There were some parts that just made me like cringe though, and some obvious things that take too long to be revealed. I do think the magic stuff is cool and I enjoy the politics and plotting. Onto book three. B+.

2023 book 228

 Glenda Larke's The Last Stormlord

Larke's Tangled Lands was one of my favorite books of the year, and here I am finally getting around to another book by her. I didn’t like this one as much. It’s very slow and dark (more than one man threatens to rape the young girl who is a POV character, there's murder, torture, lots of other stuff too) and I almost put it down more than once, but there was always some character or plot point I was curious about. Things improve in the second half as some of the characters finally start to get together and by the end I was actually pretty on board, until the very last scene which had me rolling my eyes. But I guess I’ll keep going with this series bc I am invested in some of the characters. B.

2023 book 227

 Alice Bell's Grave Expectations 

Very entertaining and funny mystery involving a woman who can see ghosts, and is in fact tied to the ghost of her best friend from high school, who died when they were seventeen, and who helps her make a living as a medium. She takes a job for a wealthy college acquaintance at a fancy English country house (my jam!!) but is soon drawn into a murder mystery, assisted by an ex-detective and a cool non-binary teen. The mystery was not /too/ hard to figure out but I loved these characters and their interactions, loved the ending, and really hope this is the start of a series. A-.

2023 book 226

 Dorothy Gilman's Nun in the Closet

I read and enjoyed the first few Mrs Pollifax mysteries (about a New Jersey grandmother who decides to become a spy), so when I found out Gilman had some stand-alone books, figured I’d check them out. This one involves a convent of cloistered nuns inheriting a huge house, and what happens when two nuns are sent off to check it out. This was written in 1975, so they obviously befriend some hippies, and I love it. They also find a guy in the house with gunshot wounds and various other guys are lurking around, so clearly the nuns need to figure out what’s going on! Which is tough, bc they have been totally isolated from the modern world. Anyway, very entertaining, mildly silly, great characters, some dated language, perfect light mystery story. A-.

2023 book 225

 Connie Willis' All Clear

Well, now I see why this won the Hugo and the Nebula! I do also see why a lot of reviewers thought it was too slow. There are a lot of pieces to the plot and they do take a while to move into place. But once they do, whoooooo boy, I was CAUGHT UP. I was EMOTIONALLY INVESTED. There were tears and cheers. Totally beautiful and devastating and so good. I am gonna have to reread all these books together someday. A.

2023 book 224

 Connie Willis' Blackout

I started reading this after I read Doomsday Book, but I couldn’t handle any more stress after that one and put it down for another day (which ended up being this weekend after I saw one of my friends talking about it). Because it is somewhat stressful, involving three time traveling historians who end up stranded in England during WWII, and they don’t know why they can’t get home (neither does the reader). It is also a little confusing, since there are a lot of POV sections (and some name changes?). And also, it’s really the first volume of a longer story so there isn’t really a conclusion (luckily I can jump right into the next book). But still, I liked it a lot? Great characters and I’m so excited to see where their stories go. A-.

Favorite books of 2023!

 Hey! It’s about that time! Here are my favorite books of 2023, alphabetically by author:

T. Kingfisher's Paladin's Faith

Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky

Naomi Kritzer’s Liberty's Daughter

Glenda Larke's The Tangled Lands

Malka Older's The Mimicking of Known Successes

H.G. Parry's The Magician's Daughter

Ann Patchett's Tom Lake

Brenna Raney's The Meister of Decimen City

Katie Siegel's Charlotte Illes is Not a Detective

Emily Tesh's Some Desperate Glory

2022 book 223

 Alan Sepinwall's Welcome to the OC: The Oral History

If there are three things I love, it’s oral histories, behind the scenes gossip, and DRAMA, and this has all three out the wazoo. It’s also very funny and surprisingly candid about the OC, a tv show I stopped watching during season two (but even after I stopped watching, I still read the recaps on Television Without Pity, which also comes up in here!) but enjoyed reading a whole book about anyway. Lots of cool nitty gritty on how a tv show gets made (I was especially into the chapter on the music), lots of interesting comments from people looking back twenty years later. Perfect read if you’re into pop culture. A.

2023 book 222

 T. Kingfisher’s Paladin's Faith

Hooray for a new Paladin romance book! This one brings back Marguerite, the friend/spy from the first book, as she enlists a couple of paladins to help her track down a missing inventor. Shane is a delightful Paladin hero, but I was honestly more excited to finally get to spend time with the Paladin Wren (AND the mysterious Judith!). And just when you’re thinking this is fairly straightforward for a T. Kingfisher book, Chekhov's demon pops up. Lots of action, cute romance with less pining than some of the other books (which is a plus for me as it feels less formulaic), very intriguing hints at what's to come in this series. A.

2023 book 221

 T. Kingfisher’s Paladin's Hope

The third book in this series has a great m/m romance involving one of the paladins and the helpful doctor from the previous books, who get involved in a murder investigation (led by an awesome gnole) and have to deal with literal death traps! The inevitable late stage romance angst feels very manufactured, but it’s all sorted out quickly (and entertainingly) enough, just in time for a baller cliffhanger ending. Can’t wait for the new book tomorrow!