2024 book 197

Kate Fagan's The Three Lives of Cate Kay

Yall, this was really good! I had to force myself to put it down and go to bed last night! The eponymous Cate Kay is the VERY reclusive author of a trilogy of bestselling books--which led to a trilogy of blockbuster movies, etc. But only like two people know her real identity. And this book is the memoir telling her whole life story, including chapters from childhood friends, colleagues, ex-girlfriends (this book is very queer), and more. The description says this is a thriller but it totally isn't— it's a really engaging, occasionally messy, and sweet novel. I could quibble and say some of it is too neat or some characters could be more fleshed out, but I don’t want to quibble! I loved this! Apparently the author is best known as a sportswriter, but I hope she keeps putting out fiction. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on January 7th.

2024 books 194, 195, 196

 Rainbow Rowell's Carry On

Rainbow Rowell's Wayward Son

Rainbow Rowell's Any Way the Wind Blows

I reread the Simon Snow series (including the story in the Scattered Showers collection) while traveling this weekend; things have been stressful lately and that calls for rereading a favorite series I know will be satisfying, full of magic and action and (queer) romance. So good.

2024 book 193

 Celia Lake's Complementary

This author writes romances set in a fantasy version of England in the early 1900s, and this one involved ladies so I figured I’d try it. It was a very sweet romance but the plot just like stopped existing after a while (initially it involves the ladies going to investigate magical weirdness at an artists' colony). Like I get that is is a novella and a romance but you gotta have more than “we'll do this thing to solve the problem” and then the next chapter is several weeks later after things presumably got solved. Or at least I like a tiny bit of actual plot in my romances. But still, very pleasant characters and the romance is cute. B/B+.

2024 book 192

 John Wiswell's Someone You Can Build a Nest In

I've seen this recommended so many times, and I was intrigued.... I saw it described as like "cozy horror" and while there are some funny moments and some sweet moments, this is actually pretty dark.The narrator is a sort of shapeshifting blob creature, who can disguise herself as a human using parts of the people she eats. But then she starts to FALL for a woman who helps her, and has to rethink a lot of stuff! The dark stuff mainly involves the love interest's background, as opposed to monster murder shenanigans (though there is also a fair bit of that). It gets a little slow in the second half but I loved how things wrapped up. A-.

2024 book 191

 Charlotte Vassell's The In Crowd

I’ve seen this mystery recommended a few times recently—it’s actually the second in the series, but the first didn’t really grab me, so I just went for this one instead (there are a lot of references to the first book but I felt like I got the gist of it). Anyway, this involves a London detective working on two cold cases involving rich British people—there’s also a lot of shady political shenanigans going on. I enjoyed this but there were a few too many coincidences for my taste. I did like the detective and was rooting for him/his romance/his colleague pals. I’d read another involving him. B+.

2024 book 190

 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-.

2024 book 189

 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-.

2024 book 188

 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.

2024 book 187

 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. 😹😹

2024 book 186

 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.

2024 book 185

 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.

2024 book 184

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.

The Bride of the Blue Wind

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.

The Warrior of the Third Veil

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.

2024 book 183

 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+.

2024 book 182

 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.

2024 book 181

 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.