Beth Brower's The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: vol. 8
Still enjoying this series when a new one pops up—I always like an epistolary novel (this one is a diary). Some funny parts, some tense parts, some secrets of the past revealed, and as always I love the camaraderie between this motley crew of friends. Just a nice chill read. A-.
Jill Bearup's Just Stab Me Now
This was the perfect cute palate cleanser for my brain! It involves a writer working on a fantasy romance novel, except her heroine isn’t particularly interested in being part of an enemies-to-lover romance and keeps doing her own thing. Totally engaging narrative voice and very amusing meta plot. I even liked the romance(s)! Really fun read. A-.
Christopher Bollen's Havoc
This popped up on a couple of year-end lists and the description seemed interesting—it’s about an elderly woman living in a hotel in Luxor, who has a history of meddling in people's lives and is on the run from something that led to murder. And then she meets her match when a little boy comes to the hotel with his mother. But like, this was exceedingly unpleasant, and not in a fun or even an interesting way. I can’t list all the things that bothered me bc of spoilers, but yikes. I realized halfway through that I wasn’t going to end up liking this, but the sunk cost fallacy got me. I am gonna have to read something really cute to get this one out of my head. B-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.
Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing Of The Dog
I’m blogging on my phone because Lexie is laying on me, so excuse the lack of usual formatting! I do love this book; it just have been such tonal whiplash for fans of Doomsday Book to go from something so beautiful and heartbreaking to something much more light and humorous. But I am the target audience for this-/a cat lover who also loves classic mystery novels. 😹😹
Connie Willis' Doomsday Book
I decided to reread all the Oxford Time Travel books together in publication order, without realizing there's a new one that's supposed to come out in June (!!!!!), so not great timing, but on the other hand, it's always great timing to reread great books. This one is less stressful on a reread, even with dire time travel errors, the Black Death, and a future pandemic--though it is even more heartbreaking. GREAT characters and world. I cried three times.
Rufi Thorpe's Margo's Got Money Troubles
Rereading this for book club and it’s definitely going to be on my list of favorite books of the year. I love how it plays with narrative to tell the story of a pregnant college student, her former-pro-wrestler father, and the community she creates through OnlyFans. There is also realistically stressful stuff, like how to raise a baby and take care of yourself as a college student, and the judgement you get for doing OnlyFans, etc. I already know two other book clubbers loved this as much as I do, and one…did not. Lol. Should be an interesting discussion.
Victoria Goddard’s The Sisters Avramapul
This is actually three novellas/novelettes, but they’re each under 70 pages so I’m counting them as one book for tracking purposes. I’ve read the first two but the third is new, hence a reread.
In the first one, older sisters Arzu and Pali (the latter a major character from various other Goddard works) go on a quest to rescue their youngest sister from her ill-fated marriage to a Wind God. Great fairy-tale atmosphere, very Bluebeard.
This is a good read because I love Sardeet and Pali, but there isn’t a ton going on plot-wise. But those are some of my favorite Goddard stories—I like the way she writes families.
The Weaver of the Middle Desert
The third book finds Arzu and Pali once again going on a visit to their sister, but it’s a chiller trip this time (and involves a beanstalk!). Lots of humor and some mild adventure (other adventures are glossed over, a pity). I did like that this was more from Arzu's POV, since she’s not as present in the other series.
Christianna Brand's Green for Danger
Two points of interest: 1) Brand is also the author of the books the Nanny McPhee movies are based on; 2). It turns out I’d already read the first book in this series, back in 2013–I was even madder about the antisemitism then. This second book is way better in all regards, centering on several nurses and doctors at a military hospital during WWII, and what happens when a patient dies suddenly. The mystery was interesting enough and the setting was certainly unusual. I will probably read more in this series after a break for some other stuff. B+.
Christianna Brand's Heads You Lose
Sarah Weinman mentioned another book in this series recently, and I'm always looking for classic mysteries, but wanted to start from the beginning. I did almost put this down due to some casual antisemitism, but it seemed limited to one unpleasant character so I moved on, since I was enjoying the writing otherwise (sadly, the casual antisemitism does recur throughout). Anyway, the mystery involves a dead woman and the main suspects are the six friends/relations staying at a house, which is my favorite kind of mystery, but the ending was sooooo ridiculous, like reallllllly silly. Giving this a B.
Victoria Goddard's The Hands of the Emperor
Once again I am rereading the 800 page fantasy novel about government reform and making a better world--gee, I wonder why.
Ally Carter's The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
I am decidedly NOT into Christmas romances (I'm Jewish), but I am VERY into locked-room mysteries set in fancy English houses, plus mentally I can't handle anything more complicated than a book like this right now. Anyway, this involves two mystery authors who get invited to a mysterious Christmas visit at the home of a VERY FAMOUS elderly mystery writer--who then vanishes from a locked room! The romance was cute, the mystery was solid, this wasn’t very Christmassy besides the setting, and it was JUST what my brain needed right now. Highly recommended if you want an adorable and entertaining book. A/A-.
Olivia Waite's Hen Fever
After slogging through a long and slow epic fantasy series, and with the election on the horizon, I needed something LIGHT and FUN to read. Enter this historical romance novel I've been saving for a rainy day, which involves queer ladies and also chickens. (It’s not a hundred percent fluffy—one of the women is a war widow with PTSD.) Anyway, it was just what I wanted, and my only complaint is that it's a novella and could have benefited from more pages developing things. But definitely very fun. A-.
Kate Elliott's The Traitor's Gate
Ok, this was super slow and I don’t think it needed to be 900 pages. I was more interested in some characters than others, or course, but some parts reallllllly dragged. The last quarter was solid and I did like the end, even if a lot of stuff that came before was a major bummer. Interesting series for sure but I think if it was more streamlined,it’d have been stronger. B+.
