2013 book 100

Mary Robinette Kowal's Without a Summer
The third book in the Glamourist Histories series is more of the same super awesome Regency historical setting with MAGIC. In this one, Jane and her husband are off to London for work, bringing along her younger sister in the hopes of finding her a husband. But it's the Year Without a Summer, and political tensions are high. Kowal does a great job weaving actual history into her magical universe (or . . . vice versa?), and I'm getting a weirdly complete picture of the era between these books and the CS Harris mysteries. Anyway, this series brings me great joy, and the only bad thing about tearing through this one is that now I have an endless wait till the next one comes out. A.

2013 book 99

Dawn French's Oh Dear Silvia
I admit that, because this book is by DAWN FRENCH, I expected it to be completely hilarious, even though I knew it was about a woman in a coma, and her (very dysfunctional) family coming to visit her. But it's not meant to be a comedic novel--though it has some very funny black humor, and some straight up slapstick (mostly involving the coma patient's New Age-y sister). It's actually a very moving novel about a family torn apart and how they got that way, and how she ended up in a coma (which was all much more dramatic than I was anticipating!). The characters of the ex-husband and their daughter were especially well-done, and the end was very affecting. I'm not sure how entirely /believable/ everything was in retrospect, but at the moment of reading I was pretty well caught up. OK, looking at everything I just wrote, I realize it's kind of a mishmash, but the novel is a straightforward and strong one. Really unexpected and great. B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in May.

2013 book 98

Caroline Leavitt's Is This Tomorrow
Full disclosure: Caroline Leavitt once mailed me some stickers and stuff, so I kind of love her and am predisposed to like her books.
Leavitt's latest, after Pictures of You, is another EXCELLENT story, focusing on Ava--a Jewish divorcee in the 1950s--and her son Lewis, who are already neighborhood outcasts, when Lewis' best friend disappears. I will say that the earlier parts of this book bummed me out and filled me with indignant fury in equal measures, because I too am Jewish and have experienced much of the ignorance displayed in this book (luckily things are better now for American Jews, but we're really not too far removed from people being offended that you don't want to decorate your desk for Christmas). That's not really relevant to the plot, but I wanted to point out that Leavitt totally nails that time period's mildly vicious anti-Semitism and general meanness toward divorced women. It's all pretty heartbreaking. And that's before the best friend even goes missing, and Lewis and Rose (his other best friend, the sister of the missing Jimmy) have to try and keep themselves going. This isn't a mystery (though all the plotlines have a resolution), but a really moving coming-of-age, dealing with the crazy 1950s/1960s, trying to get past personal tragedies, sort of novel. Plus, there are pies. I really loved this and will probably be recommending it to a lot of my lady friends who read. A/A-.


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

2013 book 97

C.S. Harris' When Gods Die
The second book in the Sebastian St Cyr series finds our intrepid Viscount being asked to investigate the murder of a young woman--and everyone thinks the Prince Regent did it. There are plenty of suspects, but what really intrigues Sebastian is that the dead woman was wearing a necklace that belonged to his mother, who died when he was a child. Plenty of interesting historical/political shenanigans going on, and a pretty solid mystery in general. Also, I love how characters in historical mysteries are always just taking in helpful street urchins and employing/adopting them. Seriously, I love that. A-.

2013 book 96

Bridget Zinn's Poison
For the first two-thirds of this book, I was like, ok, this is a typical fantasy adventure sort of book, about a girl who's a poison master, and who's on the run after a failed attempt at assassinating the princess (who happens to be her best friend), and of course there's a cute boy and I was not interested in their romance at all. The high point for me was an adorable magical pig (I kept picturing Waddles from Gravity Falls). I mean, it was fine, just not particularly compelling. And then the last third gets super awesome! I mean, the romance is still there and cliched and predictable (but likable enough), but there's some pretty cool stuff going on otherwise. It's a standalone (and the author died tragically young of cancer, so there won't be any sequels for sure, which ugh, sad), which is a nice change of pace too. An actual ending, how novel in a YA novel! B+.

2013 book 95

D.A. Mishani's The Missing File
 Since it's Passover, reading a mystery set in Tel Aviv felt appropriate--plus, I lived there for six months in college when I studied abroad, and it's nice to revisit it, if only through fiction. Anyway, the protagonist here is a detective whose hobby is reading crime novels and watching Law and Order and seeing where the detectives get it wrong (which is maybe a little ironic, as he's not that good of a detective/policeman, at least based on my own pop culture consumption). Now he's on the case of a missing teenage boy, which is complicated by the boy's English tutor, who's determined to insert himself into the investigation. I had mixed feelings about the mystery itself (and the serious incompetence of the main character, which was extremely frustrating), but really enjoyed the characters and setting, so probably will check out any further books in this series. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

2013 book 94

Daphne Kalotay's Sight Reading
Kalotay's latest (after the awesome Russian Winter) is another book dealing with artists and/or Boston, though here the artists are musicians, and the storyline more domestic in general. I will say that I'm not entirely sure what the /point/ of the novel is--the difficulties of making a marriage work (especially when one of the people involved is a famous composer)? The vagaries of living life as a musician? This is not the say the book isn't good, because I REALLY enjoyed reading it, and thought all the characters were great (I particularly liked Hazel), I just can't really pinpoint what it was ABOUT. I think I'll go with the marriage one. B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in May.

2013 book 93

Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being
I adored both of Ozeki's earlier novels (and have made more than one book club read them), so was psyched to read her first new book in nine years, which completely lived up to my expectations. It's the story of a novelist, Ruth, struggling with writer's block (in theory she's working on a memoir about her mother's Alzheimer's). From what I can tell, a lot of this is definitely based on Ozeki's real life (to the point where I got worried and uncomfortable when she argued with her husband in the story). Anyway, one day, near their remote Canadian home, Ruth finds a package on the beach, which turns out to contain a diary, some letters, and other assorted plot points. The diary belongs to a teenager, Nao, contemplating life, the universe, her amazing great-grandmother (a radical feminist author turned Buddhist nun), her depressed father, war, American vs Japanese culture clashes, and her own plans to commit suicide. Things get pretty metaphysical. Or maybe just meta. Either way, I loved it, and will need to revisit it soon. A.

2013 book 92

Elizabeth Peters' The Seventh Sinner
I'm still trying to find more mystery series to get into (I'll definitely be getting back to the CS Harris books, but like to have more than one series going at a time) and the Jacqueline Kirby books are now very high up on my list. This first one involves a group of young scholars in Rome--when an acquaintance is murdered, their new friend (and librarian!) Jacqueline Kirby has to figure out who did it, before another one is targeted. Normally I HATE reading books about librarians, because they never get it right . . . but this one is kind of amazing and hilarious and even accurate. I will say that some of this book reads as VERY dated (it was published in the early 70s and the references to things like love beads make that pretty clear) but it is no less awesome for that. A/A-.

2013 book 91

Anton DiSclafani's The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls
It's 1930, and teenager Thea has just been sent away from home in disgrace (for what, we find out gradually), to the titular camp for girls, populated by the daughters of wealthy Southerners. There's a little bit here about the Depression hitting some families, but not much, and there's a little bit about Thea making friends, but not much. It's all very . . . insular. At first, I was sympathetic to Thea--what she did was kind of gross, but not really her fault, except that she keeps making terrible and selfish and mean decisions, and was unlikable in a not-fun way. Not to say that she isn't realistic, but I still wanted to give her a good shake. And I found the end to be entirely unsatisfying. Thea is really the only well-drawn character here--I don't feel like I knew any of the others, and I didn't care much about any of them, including her. Well-written though, really lovely descriptions of the Asheville area (the camp is in the Blue Ridge Mountains). B/B-.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 4th.

2013 book 90

C.S. Harris' What Angels Fear
In search of a new mystery series to get into, I was excited when someone on Twitter mentioned this one--a Regency-era murder mystery! Actually, to be fair, this is immediately pre-Regency, as the plotting to get the Prince Regent installed comes up a couple of times. But the is primarily about one Sebastian St Cyr, a Viscount who is implicated in the extremely violent and gross murder of an actress, and must go on the run and clear his name! Luckily he's just back from a stint in military intelligence during the Napoleonic Wars and has the skills necessary for such an endeavor. Plus he gets a street urchin sidekick pretty quickly, as those are de rigeur in these types of stories. There wasn't quite as much about social mores as I might have liked (the women here are actresses and social mores don't really apply, and there's a lot about men and their politics) but this was a strong start to a series I'll definitely be reading. B+.

2013 book 89

Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Boys
Finally a book for FYA book club that I was actually EAGER to reread! This book was maybe even AWESOMER the second time, but it's hard to go wrong with a book about a house full of psychic ladies, ley lines, three troubled boys, class issues, and the sensible girl at the heart of it all. Bonus points for friendly ghosts and talking trees. I gave this an A- last time but actually I'm feeling it as more of a straight-up A today. The sequel is out in September and I can't wait!

2013 book 88

Christina Schwartz's The Edge of the Earth
This is a perfectly satisfying novel about a young Midwestern woman in the early 1900s who, instead of marrying the respectable and responsible man she's supposed to, instead falls for his feckless cousin, and accompanies him to California where he's taken a job as a lighthouse-keeper. There, she befriends the children (and wife) of the chief keeper, and alongside them, starts to learn about the natural world around her (the framing device lets us know that she becomes a well-known naturalist/scientist). There's some really fascinating stuff about a Native American woman living nearby (though many parts of this plotline are predictable), and never in my life have I wanted to shake a book character more than the protagonist's ambitious and thoughtless husband. Really a quick and enjoyable read, and I like this trend of books set in lighthouses--very isolated and atmospheric. B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on April 2nd.

2013 book 87

Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife
For whatever reason, I wasn't really psyched to reread this for Lady Doctor Book Group, even though I loved it when I read it the first time. And really, it was ripe for rereading, because I'd forgotten most of the details (and completely forgotten all the parts involving Koschei the Deathless, who is more sympathetic here than in some versions). Anyway, it totally holds up, moving story about a doctor in post-war Bosnia (or thereabouts) and her relationship with her grandfather and his various folk-ish stories, plus tigers, etc etc, so good, can't wait to discuss with a bunch of lady doctors. Still an A.

2013 book 86

Kasie West's Pivot Point
This has been described as a Sliding-Doors-kind-of-book, where a teenager lives out two alternate realities, but it's actually more interesting/complicated than that: the teenager lives in a Compound (in Texas??) full of people with special mental abilities (telekinesis, clairvoyance, etc--her dad is a human lie detector) and her ability is called Divergence, where she can see what happens if she chooses one decision or another. Was that all one sentence? Sorry. Anyway, her parents decide to divorce and her dad is moving to the normal world in Dallas, and so she does a mental search of six weeks to see who she should live with, living out each moment in both realities. Obviously both involve a cute boy, but they also include her awesome best friend, a mysterious tattooed dangerous man, and a lot of high school football. Great premise and really a fun read--I also liked that the book heavily frowns on creepster teenage boys. A-.

2013 book 85

Kerry Greenwood's Cooking the Books
Well, nuts, this is the most recent Corinna Chapman mystery and now I'm in search of another fun series to get into (if anyone has any recommendations, please please let me know!). Anyway, in this one, Corinna is roped into helping bake on the set of a new tv show, and there are all sorts of backstage shenanigans. Meanwhile, her boyfriend is trying to track down some missing paperwork from an important company, lost by a bullied intern. The first plotline is especially goofy, but that's kind of why it's all so entertaining. B.

2013 book 84

Kate Atkinson's Life After Life
OK, I am basically just going "AAAHHHHH" after reading this book, because it is fantastic and also kind of insane. I'd say it hearkens back to Atkinson's earlier, pre-Jackson Brodie novels, but it doesn't hearken back to anything ever. I mean, the novel STARTS with the main character shooting Hitler in 1930! I guess I should say something about the premise here, which is that young Ursula, born in England in 1910, immediately dies. But then on the next page, things start over. And it keeps happening. I will say that it's a little upsetting to read about a child dying in multiple horrible ways, even knowing she'll be resurrected on the next page. And it doesn't get any easier when she's older--at one point, I was actually hoping she'd die, just so she could have a do-over on the next page and not have to deal with such horrible experiences (or at least, get a chance to stop them). Because it's her growing self-awareness that makes this book so fascinating--as well as her wartime experiences (during both World Wars) and her life with her family and friends. And seeing how one little thing can change EVERYTHING. This is a novel to corral a friend into reading just so you can talk about it, because it's one to talk about. As the kids say: AMAZEBALLS. A.

2013 book 83

Kirsten Miller's How to Lead a Life of Crime
Having read--and very much enjoyed--Miller's Kiki Strike series, about a bunch of bad-ass young girls, and read--and not really enjoyed--the first book in her YA reincarnation paranormal romance series, I was STILL not prepared for how completely insane this book was. It's about a boy who's run away from his wealthy home and his abusive father after his brother's death, and is now an accomplished thief, when he's recruited to a super prestigious school for criminals. Not petty theft--serious white collar crime. The school is training kids to run the world in very immoral ways. But I can't even explain how bonkers it all is. There are some plot twists I should have seen coming, but I was so enthralled that I didn't even think ahead and try to guess what would happen next. And that's pretty rare for me. Based on the description alone, this book shouldn't have appealed to me at all, but Miller completely drew me in. A-.

2013 book 82

Kerry Greenwood's Forbidden Fruit
The fifth Corinna Chapman mystery involves a pair of runaway teenagers--and things are complicated because the girl is heavily pregnant. There's also a subplot involving vegan activists who believe having pets is wrong (I was honestly very worried they'd do something terrible to one or more of the many awesome animals in this series, but they're up to something . . . else). And there's a donkey who likes to eat muffins. Pretty solid outing in the series. B.

2013 book 81

Julie Wu's The Third Son
Wu's first novel begins in Taiwan during WWII; a little boy and a little girl meet during an air-raid and help save each other, and he longs to meet her again. But it's primarily the story of the boy, Saburo, and his ambitions, despite the disadvantage of having an AMAZINGLY HORRIBLE family. I will say that the characterizations of his parents are a bit too weak for their actions to be entirely believable, but Saburo and Yoshiko (the girl) are both pretty great, and I loved all their interactions. I also especially appreciated the depiction of history at a turbulent time in Asia (the story goes up through the early 60s) and the effects on Taiwan--really fascinating stuff, and not stuff I get to read about very often. I think this could be a good pick for book groups--it's got a lot of different aspects to discuss. A-/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2013 book 80

Jacqueline Winspear's Leaving Everything Most Loved
Hooray for a new Maisie Dobbs novel, and one that I liked a lot more than the last one. Of course, I'm predisposed to like this series, because historical mysteries starring smart and/or sassy lady detectives = one of my favorite genres. And Maisie is a particularly interesting example, plus this is a pretty solid mystery, involving the murder of a young Indian woman who was beloved by everyone who met her. There's also a missing schoolboy to be found, lots of secrets to be revealed, and class and race issues to contend with. Plus Maisie's companion wants to get married. Things end on a really fascinating note for the series--I'm really looking forward to seeing where Winspear is going with this. B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on March 26th.

2013 book 79

John Crowley's Little, Big
I've been meaning to read this book for years and years, and even owned a used paperback copy for a while in like 2005--everyone is always recommending it to me--but it's very long and very dense and so requires a bit of a commitment. And, being a thousand pages long, there is a LOT going on, generations of a family's story being told, some of whom I find more appealing than others--the two main male characters are both kind of weak and annoying. And the book is absolutely racist with its several examples of the Magical Negro trope and straight up stereotyping of the Puero Rican community (at one point, a Puerto Rican girlfriend thinks about how much BETTER her white boyfriend is than the other guys she knows, it's pretty gross. This book was written in 1981, come on, John Crowley). It's also pretty homophobic (there aren't really any gay characters, but there are a few negative mentions.)

I did like all the fairy stuff, particularly the adventures of Lilac, but that might be because that's where the girls (and a few guys) really shine, and aren't like sleeping with their sister's husbands, and where things actually get interesting. Crowley's writing itself is amazing, but this is the kind of book that needs your 100 percent undivided attention because of it. And I didn't always like what he was /doing/ with his amazing writing--like the political/power story that takes up a chunk of the second half of the book. On the other hand, there are some interesting meditations on stories and storytelling.

I honestly feel guilty for not really liking this that much, since so many people I like have recommended it, but . . .  I didn't really like it that much. Maybe if I'd read it when I was younger. It did remind me a bit of Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale, my favorite book in high school and college, but one that I don't like as much now. B.

2013 book 78

Kerry Greenwood's Trick or Treat
The fourth Corinna Chapman mystery involves a new bread shop right down the street, an increase in local insanity (caused by something pretty obvious, but luckily that's revealed way before the end), a local Wiccan celebration, and the stolen treasure of the Jews of Greece killed in the Holocaust (that latter part is historically accurate). I could have done without the casual (and not-so-casual) anti-Semitism exhibited by various characters, and the solution to the mystery is absolutely ridiculous, but whatever, I still like this series. B.

2013 book 77

Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni
Have you ever felt like a book was written just for you? Because that is kind of how I feel about this one. It's the story of a golem--a GIRL golem, created with curiosity and intelligence--whose master dies on the voyage to America in 1899, and she has to make her way in New York City. And it's the story of a jinni, imprisoned in a flask for a thousand years, who is inadvertently freed by a tinsmith. And it's the story of how they meet and become friends, exploring the city together, and also the story of how they try and fit into their respective communities (Jewish and Syrian). It's a lovely blend of Jewish and Arabic folklore, and also a pretty amazing story on its own. Wecker doesn't hurry anything, taking her time and letting everything unfold just as it should, so that we get to know the two fantastical creatures and everyone around them--good and bad. I hesitate to call this book perfect, but it was perfect for me. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2013 book 76

Kerry Greenwood's Devil's Food
Hey, I can read mysteries starring bakers if I want to! The third Corinna Chapman book finds Corinna and her hot Jewish detective boyfriend investigating her missing crazy hippie father and finding out where some poisonous weight-loss tea originated. Plus there's a crazy new religious sect in town that insists on completely tasteless healthy bread. The mysteries are all pretty silly, and each section ends with a major tonal shift where we're given the perspective of someone plotting murder (especially jarring considering the light and funny tone in the rest of the book). I get that Greenwood is trying to keep things interesting, and several of the Phryne Fisher books also have sections from other perspectives--though it didn't always work there, either. Well, whatever, I'm mostly reading these for all the talk about muffins. And the entertaining cast of characters. B.

2013 book 75

Seanan McGuire's Midnight Blue-Light Special
The second book in the InCryptid series completely rectified any complaints I had about the first one--I won't get into a plot summary as it's too confusing if you haven't read the first one, but it's a GREAT follow-up. More romance, more intrigue, more bad-ass ladies (and bad-ass female creature-things), more humor, and more hilarious religious talking mice. You know what, usually I save my As for more highbrow books, but this was really super, so: A. And I am REALLY looking forward to the next one.

2013 book 74

Margaret Wrinkle's Wash
I need to stop reading depressing literary books just because I think I SHOULD be reading books like that, instead of, say, mysteries set in bakeries. But I mean, reading books and blogging about them shouldn't feel like doing homework, and clearly that's just not where my head is these days. On the other hand, this is a novel about a slave being used by his owner as part of a slave breeding program (he's a sire, like a horse, is the deal)(I cannot bold or italicize that enough), so this is kind of an extreme case. I honestly started this twice before actually plowing through b/c I just didn't want to deal with the subject matter--it's very hard to read (if you've never noticed before, "hard to read" is my blog code for "has rape or otherwise unpleasant/unwanted sexual contact," because obviously in a novel about slavery, there's plenty of that to be had, and this one doesn't shy away from it).

Anyway.

This is a very well-written novel (though I don't know why Wrinkle switches from first to third person narration all the time, even in a novel with multiple perspectives), worth the acclaim, etc. There are some nice parts--the titular slave Wash's relationship with his mother, and with his love interest, a healer named for Pallas Athena (she's even grey-eyed), are both very moving. Wrinkle is a bit heavy-handed with the whole sex/power thing, and the whole power of stories thing, and I could have done with way less of the slave owner's viewpoint. I mean, I don't care what war experiences he has, or his family or business troubles, I am never going to sympathize with a fictional guy running a slave breeding program, and I resent having to read so many of his thoughts.

How do you rate a book that you recognize is a GOOD novel, even if you didn't enjoy reading it? B?

2013 book 73

Kerry Greenwood's Heavenly Pleasures
The second Corinna Chapman book finds our intrepid baker and her detective boyfriend on the case of a chocolate shop saboteur. There's also a missing girl and a mysterious new resident of her apartment building (I honestly wish Roman-themed apartments existed). I meant to say this last time: there are some excellent cats in this series. And it's doubly true of this book, which features KITTENS. Again, really excellent characters and I like the large supporting case--Greenwood really excels at populating a world. B+.

2013 book 72

Kerry Greenwood's Earthly Delights
Now that I've finished all the Phryne Fisher mysteries (at least until a new one comes out), I decided to try one of Greenwood's other series, even though OBVIOUSLY it wouldn't be as awesome. Except that it's about a baker, living in a Roman-themed apartment building full of wonderful and eccentric characters, so of course I loved it. There are a few mystery-type things going on--young junkies ODing from a bad batch of heroin, someone threatening all the women in the apartment building, and a missing girl. Some of these things wrap up better than others (one was a little too easy to figure out, despite a couple of red herrings), but a hot Jewish love interest makes up for a lot. As do muffin recipe. B+.

2013 book 71

Jennifer A. Nielsen's The Runaway King
The followup to The False Prince is more of the same--lots of adventures, action, pirates, plotting, etc--but avoids a lot of the pitfalls of the second book in a trilogy by having a fairly strong story on its own. I had a couple minor complaints (which I won't discuss, since they spoil the first one, but the title kind of gets at some of my problems) but really like how things concluded, and look forward to the third book. B+.

2013 book 70

Kathleen Tierney's Blood Oranges
I was about to write this entry when I went to doublecheck who Tierney was a pen name for--and discovered that it's not Cate Tiernan (whose books I like), but Caitlin Kiernan (whose books I've never read). So that partially explains my disappointment with this book, an urban fantasy about a junkie demon hunter turned vampire/werewolf, which is a promising concept. The problems are that I wasn't really into the narrative voice--I liked that the protagonist is openly unreliable, but her voice was grating--or the plot--it's one of those books where someone is manipulating things behind the scenes, and the protagonist goes and gets info from someone, who leads her to someone else, who leads her to someone else, and it's BORING. I didn't care who was manipulating things or why. This book needed some entertaining sidekick characters--a likable bridge troll comes closest but is a very minor figure--or something else to break the monotony. I mean, the concept is GREAT. I just didn't care. C.

2013 book 69

Beatriz Williams' A Hundred Summers
I started reading this book at lunch and was honestly angry when I had to put it down and get back to work, because I wanted to know what would happen! It flashes back and forth between 1931--when Lily accompanies her friend Budgie to a Dartmouth game and meets dashing half-Jewish quarterback Nick, and 1938, when Budgie and her new husband (Nick) show up to spend the summer on the beach in Rhode Island where Lily is (and where Budgie determines to set Lily up with her own ex-boyfriend, now a pitcher for the Yankees). I was more than a little impatient to find out what happened in the interim, but Williams unfolds things at a pretty good pace, and the story has some nice twists (though Lily is annoyingly stupid about many of them). From a more critical standpoint, there are some bothersome things--Budgie is way too much of a mean girl/frenemy, Lilly is too passive/"nice," and the dramatic climax takes place during . . . a hurricane. With that said, I still really enjoyed this and think it will be a perfect summer reading book. A-/B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in May.

2013 book 68

Mindee Arnett's The Nightmare Affair
Well, it's hard to go wrong with a YA FANTASY MURDER MYSTERY! Especially one with such interesting world-building. Protagonist Dusty is the daughter of a Nightmare (a creature that feeds on dreams) and a mortal man, attending magical kid school with various other magical teenagers and their various magical creature hierarchies (this is all very fascinating). Then she discovers she has a special tie to a (cute) mortal boy from her old school, and they have to help solve a murder! Some of the mystery parts were pretty predictable (I did incorrectly guess one major plot point though), but the organic teen romances, the strong friendships, and the general atmosphere of the story made up for that. The end leaves an opening for a sequel (yes please to more magical mysteries) and I would totally read it. A-.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.

2013 book 67

Steph Cha's Follow Her Home
Our story begins when Juniper Song (GREAT name)--who loves Philip Marlowe to an almost bizarre extent--is asked by her best friend to find out whether or not a hot young girl is sleeping with his dad. Things quickly (too quickly) take a sinister, even Chandler-esque turn, leading to some of the most ridiculous plot points I have read in my life. And I'm pretty sure, now that I'm done, that the whole thing didn't even make any sense. There's also a whole subplot about Juniper's first investigation, involving her younger sister Iris, which was much more compelling. I have not really read much hard-boiled detective fiction--I think this falls under that category, but it was a little much for me. I did, however, like the examination of Asian womanhood that featured throughout. B/B-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2013 book 66

Kerry Greenwood's Unnatural Habits
In the 19th--and most recent--Phryne Fisher mystery, Phryne gets caught up in the story when a young girl reporter is investigating three pregnant girls missing from the Magdalen Laundry--and then the reporter herself is kidnapped. This one is, again, pretty funny--Phryne is weirdly down on the middle class (though the books make it clear that people from all classes are terrible) and has taken to referring to her troop of wards as "minions." The story here takes some pretty ridiculous twists and turns, but it's hard to go wrong with visits to brothels, "gentlemen's clubs," an all-woman fruit-growing commune, plus a rogue nun performing unasked-for vasectomies. B/B+.

2013 book 65

Jane Nickerson's Strands of Bronze and Gold
I generally am super into the YA genre of retold fairy tales, so was pretty excited about a book that was going to rework the Bluebeard story, which isn't one I've seen much. Our protagonist, 17 year old Sophie, is sent from Boston after her father's death to live with her heretofore unknown godfather in Mississippi. (This is especially a huge culture shock, as it's 1855 and he has many slaves.) At first she is annoyingly naive and susceptible to his charms, even though he is the creepiest creepster who ever creeped. Eventually she wises up and becomes a lot more interesting, but she doesn't have a lot of choices, as he's her legal guardian and is also extremely controlling. It's honestly pretty horrifying--Nickerson is very effective with the narrative tension. And things don't quite follow the fairy tale--Sophie is given a bit more agency, which is nice. Apparently this is the first in a series; I'm not sure what the rest will cover, but I'm interested in finding out! B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released March 12th.

2013 book 64

Kerry Greenwood's Dead Man's Chest
When Phryne takes her family on vacation, she's hoping for a break from solving mysteries . . . except that the house's servants have apparently gone missing. And there's a phantom braid-cutter on the loose. And pirate treasure, Surrealists, a nosy old lady, and a super awesome dog. Plus Greenwood's trademark humor. Another fun read and I can't believe I have only one book left to read in this series (at least until the next one is published). I might try another series by her, though I doubt it can be as great as these. B+.

2013 book 63

Nancy Kricorian's All The Light There Was
So, this is a novel about a teenage Armenian girl living in occupied Paris during WWII--though I will say, it wasn't nearly as harrowing as I feared based on that description. It's, maybe surprisingly, more about young love and family, though certainly the hardships of war aren't ignored. I had some minor complaints--the dialogue is often very stilted; at one point it becomes clear that four years have passed, though story-wise it only seems like a couple of months; although there is certainly tragedy appropriate to the time period, it's obvious that things will work out and how they'll work out (but this is kind of on the women's fiction end of thing, so while that was a complaint for me, I think it would be appealing for others). The Armenian genocide isn't dwelt on in detail but is definitely relevant to the story, and the author does a good job of showing how historical events can haunt people. She's also strong on friendships and sibling relationships. Bonus points for a cute orange kitten. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in March.

2013 book 62

Kerry Greenwood's Murder on a Midsummer Night
Okay, I realize this is a silly nitpick, but isn't 1929 too early for "Friend of Dorothy" to be a phrase? The Wizard of Oz movie didn't come out till 1939. Surely there is a more historically accurate and yet non-offensive phrase to use to indicate that a character might be gay. None of which is really relevant in the 17th Phryne Fisher book, which has Phryne and company investigating two cases: an apparent suicide that might be murder, and whether or not a deceased woman had an illegitimate child over sixty years ago. These cases manage to touch on antiquities, Palestine, buried treasure, Shakespeare, and even more random stuff. I can't believe I have only two more of this series to read before I'm all caught up. At least I found out this week that there's a tv show, and thus my Phryne Fisher addiction will stay sated. B.

2013 book 61

M. Molly Backes' Princesses of Iowa
I should note here that this is the February book for FYA book club, and I was very unwilling to read a book with this title, not even knowing what it was about. And the very first section is kind of unusual and I really related to it . . . and then it turned into one of those books about a bitchy popular girl who only cares about her popularity and is obviously going to learn some Life Lessons (with, obviously, the help of a creative writing class [because THAT'S never been done before], an irrepressible girl who knew her before she was cool, and the inevitable sensitive cute writer boy) and start to be nice to the nerds or whatever. (Though honestly, I really think a popular girl could say "Hey, don't be a dick" to her boyfriend's stereotypical jock friend without losing popularity points, as opposed to calling a dude a /fairy/ to seem cool.UGH.) I think if I'd read this when I was younger, I would be like "wooooow, she is so REAL" and though she is an authentic character, this plot is cliched in basically every way. And I mean, if I was going to read a book about a popular girl learning Life Lessons, can't it at least be Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall, which besides having a more interesting premise, is also excellent and sad. Not to say this book was bad--the writing is solid and the characters are mostly realistic, if unlikable, but it's just sooooooo predictable. So predictable. And that's boring. B/B-.

2013 book 60

Alex Lidell's The Cadet of Tildor
This book comfortably fits in the genre of epic fantasy involving a badass girl caught up in crazy politics and whatnot. Our protagonist here is 16-year-old Renee, the only girl training to be a fighter in some fancy elite royal squadron (there are other girls, but they're training to be lawyers, and we only meet one of them). She's one of those heroines who is annoyingly stubborn and refuses to see the truth of things, but eventually gets it together and is much more likable. There's also a hot young army commander who's the new teacher, but thankfully, romance is very minimal here (though I expect it to pick up in any sequels), her friend who obviously has a crush on her, and a cute little boy and his dog. Comparisons to Tamora Pierce are apt enough, though the writing isn't as strong here (and the book is ridden with typos), but certainly Renee fits the Pierce heroine mold. And there are several plot points that take a little bit too long for the characters to figure out, but Lidell manages the reveals just before I was about to get angry about their stupidity, so I guess that's ok. (And then there's this whole thing where an attempted rapist is kind of redeemed and becomes helpful and like adorable? What? WHAT. It's a very minor plot point but GROSS.) All this rambling is to say that this is a perfectly good girl warrior YA fantasy book with some solid worldbuilding, and though I'm not like SUPER EXCITED about it, I would read a sequel. B/B+.

2013 book 59

Lauren Graham's Someday, Someday, Maybe
If you're looking at the above line and thinking " . . . wait a minute . . . " -- yes, this book is by THAT Lauren Graham. And since it's about a young woman struggling to be an actress in 1995, I have to think parts of it are based on Graham's own life. I mean, the parts about having curly hair ring too true to be anything else. And the hopes and fears and desperation for even the most minor jobs. Anyway, this is a perfectly satisfying and cute story, mildly predictable but no less enjoyable for that, and honestly, Graham is a pretty solid writer. I'm not normally into women's fiction-y books like this, but it was very charming. Definitely an easy one to recommend. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2012 book 58

Kerry Greenwood's Murder in the Dark
This Phryne Fisher book (maybe the 15th? I've lost count) finds Phryne at a multi-day house party to end 1928, where death threats and kidnappings and riddles abound. And all sorts of ridiculously goofy shenanigans of the time are taking place. The end is beyond silly, but whatever, I like this series because of its silliness, not in spite of it! B.

2013 book 57

Herman Koch's The Dinner
Translated from the Dutch, this book is garnering comparisons to We Need To Talk about Kevin, which I've never read, but is probably accurate. I've also seen it labelled as a kind of thriller, which I don't think is really fitting in terms of narrative tension or content. The action all takes place at a dinner as narrated by one man, who is out with his wife, his brother (a douchey politician), and his brother's wife. And something is up with their children, but that's revealed later, gradually. There are plenty of flashbacks/memories to fill in the gaps, so saying that it all takes place at a dinner is maybe not entirely accurate. Anyway, maybe this is a spoiler, but all of these characters are unbelievably horrible people, and this book was riveting in that car-crash kind of way, where you can't look away. I'm not sure how to grade a book like that, but I can see why it's an international bestseller and probably will be popular with book groups. B?

2013 book 56

Kerry Greenwood's Death by Water
This Phryne Fisher book finds Phryne on a luxury ocean liner to try and find a jewel thief. There's also a whole lot about Maori culture, which I actually appreciated, though sometimes I wonder if the casual racism (calling them noble savages and whatnot) is meant to be historically accurate, or if the books are just casually racist. I'm PRETTY sure it's just historical accuracy. Though Phryne dressing for a costume party as a Chinese girl doesn't really help any. B/B+.

2013 book 55

Gillian Philip's Firebrand
I'm honestly not sure where to even start with this one! It's about a fairy boy, growing up in the fairy realm, caught up in fairy politics and battles. And then he and his brother get tangled up with people--which, considering it's the late 16th Century and witch-hunting is a popular pastime, might be a little bit dangerous. But mainly it's about fairy politics and battles. The main character is pretty great, and I love his relationship with his brother, and there are also some awesome wolf puppies. The gender stuff is pretty okay, though I wasn't particularly interested in the romance here, and there was a bit too much of the "if only I'd known" and "ah, but I'll get to that later"s in that regard. And the end was . . . I don't know. Interestingly, besides the fact that the characters live for hundreds of years (unless outright killed), it doesn't read like a story set in the fairy worlds at all. I also find it interesting that the series is called Rebel Angels, and look forward to seeing what happens next. B/B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.

2013 book 54

Sean Ferrell's The Man in the Empty Suit
Sooooo this is basically a time travel murder mystery! Only all the characters are one guy! See, this guy has a time travel machine and goes all over in it, but every year he celebrates his birthday by going to 2071 (the 100th anniversary of his birth) and hanging out with himself at every age. But then! The 40 year old him is murdered! But all the older versions are still there! And he has to figure out what happened!

Then things get a little bit convoluted and I am still kind of puzzling it all out. But I think I liked it? B/B+.

2012 book 53

Ruta Sepetys' Out of the Easy
Considering how much I enjoyed Sepetys' first book, and considering how much pre-publication buzz this has gotten, I am somewhat surprised to admit that I just wasn't really feeling it. It's the story of a teenage girl in 1950 New Orleans, the daughter of a prostitute, who becomes obsessed with escaping the city (and everyone who's mean to her) and attending Smith. There's also a murder, and a love-triangle-ish thing going on (though neither guy is particularly well-developed). The whole book is kind of gross and depressing (and normally I don't have a problem with depressing books), and kind of full of brothel stereotypes and predictable plot points. I also just didn't really feel for the protagonist, who certainly is in a situation not of her own making, but who is also kind of dumb about everything. B-.

2013 book 52

Kerry Greenwood's Queen of the Flowers
This is another fun outing in the Phryne Fisher series, involving carnivals, elephants, gambling, kidnapping, secrets of the past, and all sorts of other craziness. I was mildly annoyed that Phryne's nickname in the Chinese community has suddenly changed from Silver Lady to Jade Lady--I mean, she's been the Silver Lady for seven books, how did that get forgotten? Eh, whatever, the plots in these don't always hold together either, but I like them anyway. B.

2013 book 51

Amity Gaige's Schroder
Soooo this is basically a novelization of the whole Clark Rockefeller thing (the author even says so in a Q&A at the end of the book), presented as the father with a false identity writing his confession/a letter to his ex/an account of his week with his kidnapped daughter. At first he seems sympathetic, but as he goes on, he becomes more and more unbearable and pretentious. And more obviously a total prick. And I can logically say that it's a well-written novel, but reading a whole book in that guy's narrative voice was not at all enjoyable for me. I only finished b/c I'd already sunk a couple hours into it and figured I might as well. B-.

2013 book 50

Kerry Greenwood's The Castlemaine Murders
This was seriously the most random Phryne Fisher book yet as she discovers the mummy of a murdered man at a carnival and decides to find out who he was. It should be a simple cold case, but soon she's getting all sorts of threats. Meanwhile, her Chinese paramour is trying to discover what happened to some stolen gold from the 1850s. And Phryne's sister has some to visit, and she's a very trying houseguest. The plot is entirely predictable, but surprisingly funny somehow. B+.

2013 book 49

Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons
Surprisingly fun novel where an elderly woman--a renowned scientist--is looking back on her early years, discussing how she came to be on her path. It's set in Victorian-ish times but in an alternate world (not only are there dragons, all the countries have different names and the religions are very different--sort of. The main characters come from an England-ish place but their religion has some similarities to Judaism). So girls being scientists, and particularly being interested in dragons, is frowned upon, and her journey is an interesting one. She's only like 20 when the book ends, though, and the text implies sequels--which I am eager to read. This book fits in nicely with all those Jane-Austen-ish books where there's magic, and that's a genre I'm way into. A-.

2013 book 48

Kerry Greenwood's Murder at Montparnasse
This volume's murder case ties in with Phryne's past in post-war Paris, leading to lots of flashbacks where she's hobnobbing with the artists and literati of the day. There's also a missing girl, a French restaurant, and odd domestic arrangements. You'd think I'd be bored of this series after reading 12 of them but I totally love it. Seven more to go! B/B+.

2013 book 47

Amy Spalding's The Reece Malcolm List
Hope Larson keeps talking about this on Twitter, so I figured I'd check it out--it's a cute story about a teenager who, after her father dies, goes to live with her heretofore unknown mother, a famous writer living in LA. (There are a lot of YA books about teenagers being whisked away to live with heretofore unknown famous parents, I don't really know why.) Anyway, the writing here was engaging enough that I kept reading, EVEN THOUGH the main character is super into musical theater and talks about like callbacks and auditions all the time (musical theater is so not my bag), and EVEN THOUGH the backstory to her childhood without her mother is easily the most ridiculous thing I have ever read in a YA novel (tied only by her love interest's backstory). I did like that teenage relationships are treated much more realistically than in most other YA books, and like I said, the narrative voice is strong. But "cute" is still the best word. B/B+.

2013 book 46

Kerry Greenwood's Away with the Fairies
The 11th Phryne Fisher book has Phryne investigating the death of a woman who wrote stories about fairies, and finds herself working at a women's magazine. There's also a whole thing with pirates in the second half of the book. Another enjoyable read, though not as compelling as the last couple. B.

2013 book 45

James Lasdun's Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked
After reading an excerpt of this in the Chronicle of Higher Ed, I knew I wanted to read this intriguing memoir about a writer/professor who is stalked and harassed by a former student in a monumentally creepy way. So imagine my surprise when it also turned out to be a memoir about the author's Judaism (and a little bit about his father, apparently a well-known architect). There's also an artery running through the story dealing with Gawain and the Green Knight. Very compelling stuff all around, and I hope some of the author's demons were exorcised by writing this, but I admit to being a little worried for his safety now! Don't worry, he addresses issues about it only being his side of the story, etc. B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.

2013 book 44

Kent Haruf's Benediction
Haruf has written two of my most-beloved books, Plainsong and its sequel Eventide, exemplars of the kinds of books about gruff old men with hearts of gold.  And his latest is just as good, focused on gruff old man with a heart of gold "Dad" Lewis, who is dying of cancer with his wife and daughter tending to him (though his estranged son is nowhere to be found). Though there are other characters--a liberal preacher and his troubled son, a neighbor and her granddaughter, a mother and daugher who are family friends--this book is primarily a meditation on life, death, and family. It's very beautiful and sad. I probably would have cried anyway, but reading about the quiet death of an elderly man reminded me of my own grandfather's recent death, so I was basically sobbing buckets. But in a good way. Haruf reminds me a bit of Marilynne Robinson both thematically and stylistically, so I hope this will receive that level of acclaim. A.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on February 26th.

2012 book 43

Kerry Greenwood's Death Before Wicket
The 10th Phryne Fisher mystery has Phryne off to Sydney, to investigate a theft at the university (which is more complicated than it seems) and to track down a missing woman. I loved all the academic politics and especially adored the crankly old coot of a professor emeritus, who only cares about cricket. Since I don't know anything about cricket, I could have done with sliiiiiightly less of the play-by-play of the several games that occur, but that's ok, it kind of adds to the atmosphere. And it's interesting to note that in the first few books, the sex scenes very vague, but apparently Greenwood has gained confidence, because the last few have been VERY descriptive. B+.

2012 book 42

Kerry Greenwood's Raisins and Almonds
Oh yeah, Phryne is finally mixing it up with some Jews in a mystery involving a murder in a bookshop, alchemy, kabbalah, and Zionism. Greenwood clearly researched Judaism and threw in all sorts of references to Kosher laws and Maimonides and golems (there's a fairly extensive bibliography in the back along with a glossary of Yiddish words). However, I wish she'd thrown in fewer "oys" and "nus"--it was a little much after a while. Plus the villain was kind of obvious. BUT bonus points for cat-puppy interspecies snorgling. B+.

2012 book 41

Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away
This is one of those books where I can see why it's kind of a classic, but it's not really an enjoyable read. I kind of like the pervasive sense of dread and inevitability, but the of-its-time racism, ableism, and homophobia aren't exactly fun, and all the characters are unlikable (if sympathetic). But what else can you expect from a book about a boy raised with some odd ideas by his great-uncle who is, to say the least, a religious eccentric. Exquisite writing and theologically interesting but DANG there is some messed-up stuff in there.

2012 book 40

Kerry Greenwood's Urn Burial
I'm still making my way through the Phryne Fisher mysteries; this is one of those manor house ones where murder and mayhem occur in an isolated country house and everyone has SECRETS! Side note: some of the silliest sex metaphors ever are in this book. There is also an interesting section on limestone caves. These books are so educational. B+.

2012 book 39

Carlene Bauer's Frances and Bernard
A sentence preceding the novel notes that it was inspired by Flannery O'Connor and Robert Lowell, and I almost wish it hadn't, because I spent the whole book wondering about literary gossip and how much of this was based on fact. Which doesn't do the book justice AT ALL. Anyway, this is an epistolary novel, set in the late 50s, about two writers who meet at an artists' colony and decide to correspond (the novel also occasionally includes letters to/from other characters, but the heart is these two). For the first half or so, I was kind of like, it's nice to read such an intellectual conversation, but there was a little too much about Catholicism for this Jewish reader (there is a LOT about Catholocism, and it makes me want to recommend it to a couple of theologians I know). I wasn't really emotionally engaged. But by the end I was quietly weeping. Really lovely and heartbreaking. Now I need to go reread some O'Connor. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.

2012 book 38

Melina Marchetta's Quintana of Charyn
So this is a perfectly good conclusion to the Lumatere series, and has a lot of interesting reveals, politics, romance, action, etc. I mean, I was definitely laughing and crying at the same time at one part. I don't know why I expected that anything by Marchetta should be THE BEST THING EVER, because that's not really fair when this is still an enjoyable book. And I mean, more than enjoyable, it's GOOD. It's an A-! And way less stressful/harrowing than the second one. And I love all the characters--I was going to say something about the great women characters, but the men are awesome too. And I mean, obviously things are going to work out the way they do, but finding out how they all get there was pretty entertaining.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2012 book 37

Melina Marchetta's Froi of the Exiles
I'd forgotten that the second book of the Lumatere series is much harder to read than the first--and that one wasn't exactly a laugh a minute. In this one, the characters from the first book are trying to put their kingdom back together after the horrors they faced for ten years--and meanwhile, they've sent one of their own to assassinate the neighboring king who caused it all, except things there are more complicated than they could have imagined. And all the characters are just completely broken people; it's very sad to read. I will say that this could have been edited a bit more--Froi's moods and decisions seem really inconsistent sometimes, though I guess he is dealing with more crap than basically any character ever. Ugh, heartbreaker of a book.

2012 book 36

Melina Marchetta's Finnikin of the Rock
Rereading this was my reward for finishing that last book, because this book is GREAT.  And because it's Marchetta, the usual YA fantasy epic is complicated with issues of community, exile, and loss, but is also somehow optimistic. I love this so so much and am now about to read the sequel (and then the new one that comes out in April!).

2012 book 35

Isabel Allende's Maya's Notebook
This book starts off really strong--it's about a 19-year-old girl who's been exiled to a small town in Chile, and she's describing her life there, interspersed with the story of her childhood with her beloved grandparents, and the events that led to her leaving America. But the thing is, the events that led to her exile are so mind-bogglingly ridiculous that I grew to hate the character for her idiocy, and even to hate Allende for throwing such stupid melodrama into what had been a really nice and interesting book till that point. I mean, seriously, EVERYTHING that happens in Las Vegas is completely unbelievable. I kept reading, hoping it would get good again, but it mostly stays an overwrought and predictable soap opera with an unlikable protagonist (though, at least while in Chile, a realistic one). And while I appreciated Allende's efforts to address some of the more horrible aspects of recent Chilean history, every mention of her cousin Salvador Allende (who was overthrown in the coup that led to Pinochet's dictatorship) took me out of things a little bit. I think this might still be a popular book, but I didn't find it to be very enjoyable. C.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2012 book 34

Gordon Dahlquist's The Different Girl
Completely fascinating YA book about an island where four girls--identical except for the colors of the hair--live and learn with two adults. And then everything turns topsy-turvy when a different girl is shipwrecked on their island and they suddenly have a lot of questions. The story reminds me a bit of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go--not from a literary perspective, but thematically, and how things are very gradually revealed to the characters and to the reader (though I still have questions! So many questions! I need someone else to read this ASAP so I can discuss it!). Very enjoyable read, might be a good choice for nerdy book groups. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Feb. 21st.

2012 book 33

Kerry Greenwood's Ruddy Gore
The 7th Phryne Fisher book has Phryne and the local police investigating a murder that took place during a performance of a lesser Gilbert and Sullivan show. Ah, theatre folk. I found this one especially amusing, having been unwillingly exposed to Gilbert and Sullivan in my youth (I still know snatches of songs from HMS Pinafore, our 8th-grade operetta. Yes, I went to a school that had 8th-grade operettas). There's also an interesting subplot involving the Chinese community in Melbourne. Greenwood loves to throw in some social consciousness! (I'm not really complaining about that. Phryne is totally an Orientalist though.) A-.

2012 book 32

Gail Carriger's Etiquette and Espionage
I really liked Carriger's Soulless series, and was kind of bummed when it came to an end--but then I found out there are two spin-off series! This is the first book in the Finishing School series, a YA series set at a finishing school where the girls learn, well, etiquette and espionage. And poisons. And fighting. And other skills. Our main character is recruited, which is a handy way for the reader to learn about the less-than-typical elements of her education along with her. And of course she soon meets up with a motley crew of friends (some of whom appeared in the earlier series) and has to save the day from some mildly unexplained evils. It's ok, there are three more books in this series, I'm sure it'll all make sense eventually. Anyway, this was a super cute and quick read. I love Carriger's sense of humor. A-/B+.



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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Feb. 5th.

2012 book 31

Kerry Greenwood's Blood and Circuses
In the 6th Phryne Fisher book, our intrepid heroine goes undercover at a circus to unravel a string of nasty incidents--including a murder. This one is particularly interesting because it talks so much about class (the very wealthy and titled Phryne has to portray a poor dancer). I also find the morals of this series pretty fascinating--Phryne has new lovers every book and no one seems to think much of it, and one character murdered her husband and everyone who hears the story is like "eh, he deserved it." I'm not sure how historically accurate some of these things are (would a cop really care if another cop was saying derogatory things about circus freaks?) but they're very fun to read about. Plus there is a great bear. A-.

2012 book 30

Melina Marchetta's Saving Francesca
I started three or four different books after finishing Code Name Verity last night, but everything seemed so insipid after that book! So I had to read something equally good, but slightly less intense, so then I can go back to reading regular books. And this book is obviously excellent, and the contemporary-ness helps! I love all of Marchetta's books but this one is particularly awesome.

2012 book 29

Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity
I wanted to read something GREAT to cheer me up after the last book, plus one of my book groups is discussing this on Saturday and I needed to refresh my memory. You know, I have read this three times now, and I just don't get the complaints that it's a slow starter (several people have said this to me). Even if you don't suspect that anything is up (and even on my first read I did, though not to the correct extent), isn't it still kind of a fascinating story? Not just the whole giving-info-to-Nazis thing, but the story of the girls' friendship, and Maddie learning to be a pilot! All leading up to the harrowing and heartbreaking second part. I love this book.

2012 book 28

C. Robert Cargill's Dreams and Shadows
This book . . . this book was not my thing. It seemed like it should have been my thing-- a literary-ish fantasy novel about a young boy kidnapped by fairies; his very unpleasant changeling; and another young boy who encounters a djinn, and all their dealings with the fairy kingdom (and with Austin, Texas). I totally loooved the opening part; it was delightfully sad and creepy. Buttttttttt. I didn't really like the rest much. I never felt like I got to know the two human boys, and if I was supposed to feel sympathetic for the changeling, it was hard. Plus the plot is kind of not plotted enough. PLUS there are hardly any women! I could four who are more than incidental. 1) Alcoholic mom in one chapter. 2) Mom of the kidnapped boy who . . . well, spoilers, but she's not really proactive on her own. 3) A fairy woman who briefly causes trouble at the end. 4) The most prominent lady character, who gets I'd say 5th billing, and whose only personality trait is "IN LOVE WITH A DUDE." She actually, unironically, utters the phrase "my hero" MORE THAN ONCE. I just don't even know. This could have been so good! There's a bar where supernatural creatures hang out, and an interesting bookstore, and the main plot is just so BLAH.

The writing was nice but man, this book was not for me. C.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.

2012 book 27

Kerry Greenwood's The Green Mill Murder
The 5th Phryne Fisher book features more of the same (there are like 19 in this series and I can see I'm going to run out of things to say sooner rather than later)-- a murder at a jazz club and a search for a missing veteran are the centerpieces, and most of the plot is predictable (especially Phryne sleeping with any and all attractive straight men), but I still really enjoy the writing and the characters. B.

2012 book 26

Leila Rasheed's Cinders and Sapphires
The first book in the Somerton series is yet another series designed to appeal to Downton Abbey fans, and has quite a bit in common with another recent series starter, Summerset Abbey. But because Cinders is a YA book, it is super DRAMA-RIFFIC. Ladies Ada and Georgiana are returning from India with their father in 1910 under what seems to be a cloud of scandal, plus Ada immediately meets a cute Indian guy on the boat, which will obviously be trouble. Then their father remarries and they have a slew of unpleasant stepsiblings who will obviously be trouble. Then there's a maid with questionable parentage (the book addresses the obviousness of this quickly, which was a relief), which will obviously be trouble. Trouble is a-brewing. Plus there's all sorts of romantic intrigue and pretty dresses. I can't decide if this is more drama-riffic than season one of Downton Abbey, but it's definitely better than seasons 2 and 3. GREAT guilty pleasure reading. I can't wait for the sequel, which I'm sure will be deliciously devious. A-.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released tomorrow.

2012 book 25

Kerry Greenwood's Death At Victoria Dock
The fourth Phryne Fisher book involves a runaway teenager and an anarchist murder, though honestly the mysteries start to feel secondary to Phryne's love affairs and other relationships. I find it odd just how many of these books have mentioned child abuse, though. And in such a light kind of series, it feels a little weird. Anyway, still an entertaining read, despite the whole convoluted anarchist plot. B.

2012 book 24

Kerry Greenwood's Murder on the Ballarat Train
The third Phryne Fisher mystery was right up my alley--not because of the train murder case, but because there's a little girl with no memory who's in braids and an ill-fitting wincey dress and immediately I was like "omg Anne of Green Gables" and horrified on the girl's behalf and immediately in love with her. Plus there is a GREAT kitten. Kittens + braided girls 4-eva. And the mystery is pretty solid, and I still love all the other characters too. It's nice to have a rich socialite detective who can solve any problem by throwing money at it and/or inviting it into her home. I mean that in the best possible way. A-.

2012 book 23

Kerry Greenwood's Flying Too High
I liked the first book in this series well enough and was in the mood for a lighthearted mystery, so decided to read the second one. Our heroine has apparently settled in Australia and set up shop as a private detective, and is soon involved in both a murder and a kidnapping. Maybe it's weird to call such a story lighthearted (especially when the kidnapper is a child molester--though the child in question isn't molested, which isn't really a spoiler so don't get all mad), but Greenwood has a distinctly breezy writing style (to match her heroine's lifestyle) and there's a good sense of humor about everything. B+.

2012 book 22

Elizabeth Strout's The Burgess Boys
Strout--author most recently of the multiple-award-winning Olive Kitteridge--writes great books about small towns and dysfunctional families, and this book features both. It centers on the Burgess family, in particular the titular brothers, raised in small-town Maine and now both lawyers in New York (though different kinds of lawyers--one is a famous criminal defense lawyer, the other works for Legal Aid) and what happens when their nephew commits a hate crime against the Muslim Somali population in their hometown. In general a strong story, and I think it'll be popular, but parts worked less well for me (in particular, one brother's spectacular flame-out, and reactions to the nephew's crime). But for the most part, the characters are vividly captures--I haven't even mentioned the two women who are just as much a part of things as the brothers, who are both interesting and vulnerable. I liked this a lot, I just wonder if things worked out too easily, and look forward to discussing it (I might make my book group read this). A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in March.

2012 book 21

Tamora Pierce's The Will of the Empress
I think this is a standalone, not the start of a new series, but who knows! Anyway, this book finds the four mage friends at 18, on a journey to visit the empress (the cousin of one of them) and obviously are soon caught up in crazy court machinations. The end drags on a bit, but the story here is more interesting than some of the earlier ones, and it's nice to have the kids all back together. Props for a positive lesbian relationship, no props whatsover for the boy being kind of a manwhore and the empress being kind of slut-shamed. And don't even get me started on the whole kidnapping-an-unwilling-bride custom. That's rightfully treated as a terrible thing though. And the rest of this book is pretty entertaining. B+.

2013 book 20

Tamora Pierce's Shatterglass
Considering that Tris is my least favorite of the children from the original series, I wasn't much looking forward to reading a book dedicated to her. I mean, she's a cranky brat all the time. But she gradually becomes much more likable, and the plot in this book is stronger than in some of the others--the stuff with her student was much more interesting, plus the two get involved with helping to hunt down a serial killer. Crazy and exciting stuff. B+.

2013 book 19

Tara Conklin's The House Girl
This book has a really interesting premise--a super-ambitious young lawyer working on a case about slavery reparations is trying to track down information about a slave who may have painted some well-known works of art, and that is interspersed with the story of the slave planning an escape in 1852. But there are a few problems here (or I should say, things that weren't really to my taste, as this veered too much into women's fiction for me): lawyer Lina and her plotlines are like super annoying and straight out of some bad 80s fiction for the first half, plus her backstory is unnecessarily complicated. Slave Josephine's story is stronger, but requires a LOT of suspension of disbelief (especially after reading Kindred so recently, which has a whole lot of info about why slaves weren't taught to read). I actually had to take a break from this book halfway through because I didn't really like it. But I picked it back up, and luckily things pick up a bit in the second half, mainly thorough some first-person letters that move the plot along and are frankly more interesting than most of what came before. Then things resolve way too easily, there's a shoehorned-in romance, and the end is completely ridiculous. Basically I didn't really like anything with Lina; it felt like another cliched "young lawyer in the city" kind of thing. But the historical stuff, especially the first-person sections, is pretty strong. I don't know, B/B-?


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.

2013 book 18

Tamora Pierce's Cold Fire
The third book in the Circle Opens series breaks the formula a bit--smith/metal-mage Daja finds twins with magic, and also finds them proper teachers, and then has to deal with a crazy arsonist. The identity of the arsonist is revealed early on to the reader, and I'm not sure if that was a better choice than making it more of a straight-up mystery. It's hard to know the answer and be frustrated at the characters who haven't figured it out yet. Luckily that's not an issue for too long. B/B+.

2013 book 17

Tamora Pierce's Street Magic
The second book in the Circle Opens series focuses on plant-mage Briar (the only boy of the four children), traveling with his teacher, and what happens when he befriends a young stone-mage and they get involved in some gross gang wars. Generally this was cute but predictable. I wonder if all four books will involve the original children becoming teachers--I might lose patience with that. B.

2013 book 16

Erin Kelly's The Burning Air
Halfway through this book, a twist I never saw coming actually had me say out loud "Holy S---!" and I was convinced this will be 2013's Gone Girl. Now, it does wrap up slightly (slightly!) more neatly than that book (no book's ending will ever be as crazy as that one's), but the twists, turns, family secrets, plots, and intensity are all there. The story focuses on the MacBride family--wealthy British types from a fancy school, where their father was the headmaster. They're all getting together for the first time since the death of their mother. And at first you think you're just getting into the usual interesting dysfunctional family secret sort of story . . . but NO. Dang, I think I'm still hopped upon adrenaline from the shocks. GREAT crazy read. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.

2013 book 15

Octavia Butler's Kindred
Butler is one of those authors I've always meant to read, but my lack of interest in sci-fi has put her on the backburner. Then I read a description of this one and honestly, it's not sci-fi at all, it's really kind of straight-up fantasy, about a young (black) woman in 1976 who keeps getting sucked back to the early 1800s to save the life of a young (white) boy--who's one of her ancestors. But it's not all life-saving, as she becomes a part of the household--and what kind of role is there for a young black woman? Butler spares no punches and parts of this are completely horrifying to read--mainly because of their historical accuracy. This is a weirdly great companion to all the things I've been reading about Django Unchained--and now that I've finally read this, I can see how it's influenced a few other books I've read. Powerful stuff, though the narrative voice is occasionally over-explainy. A-.

2013 book 14

Lauren Oliver's Requiem
In the interest of not spoiling the finale to a fairly popular YA trilogy, this review will be especially . . . . vague. If you've read the first two, you'll have some idea of what to expect. This leaned less-heavily on the love triangle angle than I feared, it being set in a world where love has been "cured"--though there is still plenty of love-triangle-ing for those who are into that. And the story is actually narrated in part by Hana, best friend of protagonist Lena, as she prepares for her wedding to a high-profile dude. Her parts were actually my favorite. Anyway, it's a fine conclusion to the series, even if there are a few too many crazy coincidences and an ending that didn't entirely work for me. Still, I fully expect that the teens who are its intended audience will be thrilled with it. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on March 5th.

2013 book 13

Fiona Maazel's Woke Up Lonely
I really enjoyed Maazel's first novel, Last Last Chance, and so was super excited when Twitter alerted me to this new one--and it's just as weird and wonderful as the first. It involves the leader of a movement that is more than a little cultish, and which is rumored to be a terrorist organization; his ex-wife (and mother of his child), who actually works for the government on tracking him, and who is under major pressure; the four people she employs to bring things to a head . . . and a bunch of other things. Really interesting writing here--Maazel is clearly having fun--and I loved the action-packed and occasionally silly and occasionally sweet plot. All-around, a very fun read. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher (Thanks, Michael!). This book will be released in April.

2013 book 12

Sean Pidgeon's Finding Camlann
So this was described as being like A.S. Byatt's Possession, except about scholars studying King Arthur instead of medieval poetry (or whatever it was they were doing in Possession, I don't really remember). And I guessss that is accurate, except that the scholars here don't have any "omg WOW!" moments, at least not in my mind. Congratulations, you fixed a mis-translation and are looking at some maps! I kept waiting for a big exciting discovery to happen and lead to other exciting discoveries, but all the discoveries here were small and boring, and also I have to say there was some seriously shoddy scholarship happening. No good archaeologist would make the leaps this guy makes.

Which brings me to the characters. The other thing that happens in Possession is a torrid scholarly romance (I think?) and so clearly this book needs to have one too. Except that, being an Arthurian kind of story, there has to be a love triangle, so our linguist lady is married. And she's not even in a bad marriage, just a vaguely dissatisfying one (at first, and then things take a really dumb turn). Not to mention that the archaeologist and the linguist have absolutely no chemistry, so that whole plotline was a bust for me. There's also a whole subplot about Welsh politics and legends that feels really shoehorned in--the book would have been way tighter without it, and it feels like a really false way to drive a wedge between the linguist and her husband. Like just have an honest conversation and don't wait for the end of the book for a big reveal out of nowhere.

This book is not bad by any means (I mean besides being kind of boring), but it annoyed the heck out of me. C+.

2013 book 11

Brenna Yovanoff's Paper Valentine
Guys, wow, this book was really really really good, the kind of book you can easily devour in one sitting, because the narrative voice is so likable and engaging, and because the story is ABSOLUTELY NUTS. Sort of. Here's what's going on in Hannah's life: she's being haunted by her best friend, who died of anorexia the year before (literally being haunted, Lillian's ghost hangs out with her); she's suddenly weirdly interested in a delinquent boy at school; and oh yeah, a young local girl has just been murdered. All of these pieces come together in a really amazing way. I should say the mystery element is a teensy bit weak, but a) this is ages 12 and up, and b) I'm not sure it's intended as a mystery per se, being more of a general teenage-girl-coming-to-terms-with-things kind of book where there happens to also be a murder mystery. But yes, I loved the writing here and was totally sucked in and loved everything about this book (especially Hannah and her sister). A.

2013 book 10

Michael Hainey's After Visiting Friends
I don't normally read much nonfiction, but this memoir--about GQ editor Hainey's attempts to uncover what happened the night his father died in 1970, when Hainey was only six, sounded pretty compelling. And it was! It did occasionally get a bit overly writer-ly, but most of the time I was caught up in the story (especially during the scenes with his mother). And all the details of a 1960s newspaper were really stellar (Hainey's father was a newspaperman, which complicates things for Hainey's search). This is a great one for people who like stories involving FAMILY SECRETS and SECRETS OF THE PAST, ie drama and tragedy. Great stuff. A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.

2013 book 9

Tamora Pierce's Magic Steps
So there's apparently a sequel series to the Circle of Magic series, and this is the first one, featuring one of the four from the earlier books a few years later, now staying with her uncle (a Duke). Soon she's caught up with discovering a boy who can do magic through dance (I don't know) and then there's a series of grisly murders to deal with. I was reading this as an antidote to the grisliness of my last book, and I have to say, it utterly failed in that regard. B.

2013 book 8

Melanie McGrath's The Boy in the Snow
The second book in the Edie Kiglatuk series finds Edie in Alaska to support her ex as he races in the Iditarod--at least, until she finds the body of a dead baby in the snow and gets involved in a case that involves Alaskan politics, weird religious sects, and some seriously gross grossness. Seriously, this book is even grimmer than the dead baby suggests. Things wind up as well as they could, but this was a rough read at parts. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

2013 book 7

Jennifer Haigh's News From Heaven: The Bakerton Stories
Haigh--author of the marvelous Faith, among other books--has written a series of connected short stories, all set in a coal mining town in central Pennsylvania, chronicling the town (and a couple of families in particular) from the 1930s to the present. There are several standouts--I particularly liked the story involving a young Polish girl going to New York to work for a well-off Jewish family, and loved everything involving Joyce Novak, but all the stories are stellar. I have loved everything I've read by Haigh, and this is no exception--she's a brilliant writer, and one of the few very literary writers I can recommend to just about everyone. Particularly of interest to my Pittsburgh/Pennsylvania friends! A, and an early contender for my favorites of 2013 list.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on January 29th.

2013 book 6

Tamora Pierce's Briar's Book
The final book in the Circle of Magic series (though apparently there is a sequel series) has the four children and their teachers dealing with a plague, and is occasionally a bit grisly. The end is a bit bonkers--these kids never learn the right lessons--but whatever, still enjoyable. B/B+.

2013 book 5

Tamora Pierce's Daja's Book
The third book in the Circle of Magic series has the same smallish scope and predictability as the first two, as our four magic children and their teachers travel north to check out an area dealing with drought and fires, but it's somehow really touching anyway (I mayyyyyy have teared up at one point). I really do enjoy these characters, though I admit that I'll be glad to take a break and read something entirely different . . . after I finish the fourth one, anyway. A-/B+.

2013 book 4

Tamora Pierce's Tris' Book
This series is perfect sick day reading, although nothing particularly interesting happens in this one despite the lessons learned and the pirates fought--the latter of which takes up basically the whole story. I still really like the four kids though. B/B+.

2013 book 3

Tamora Pierce's Sandry's Book
I like Tamora Pierce, and this first book in the Circle of Magic series is $2.99 for Kindle right now, so it seemed like a good time to check it out. And it's a fun book, about four children with odd gifts rescued from less-than-ideal circumstances and whisked away to a magical community/school where obviously they will develop their gifts and their friendships. It's all pretty predictable but no less engaging for that, and the four children are very likable characters. A-.

2013 book 2

Louisa Hall's The Carriage House
This is one of those great mildly-dysfunctional family stories whose plots sounds overly convoluted when trying to explain it in a blog post, but which actually works really well. There's patriarch William Adair, obsessively proud of his three daughters, and fighting to restore the titular carriage house built by his grandfather--at least until he has a stroke; his childhood love and neighbor, Adelia, who's inserted herself into the family in the wake of his wife's diagnosis with early-onset Alzheimer's; her caretaker, Louise, who is a weak character in several senses of the word (though also seems to be a stand-in for the author?); and finally, the three daughters--Elizabeth, former actress and recent divorcee, Diana, a failed tennis player and architect, and troubled Isabelle, whose motivations made little sense to me. Some of these are clearly stronger than others, but for the most part, the story of a momentous summer in their lives is a compelling one. The wrap-up veers a bit toward women's fiction category, but that just means I can recommend it to my mom. :) B+.



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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in March.

2013 book 1

G. Willow Wilson's Alif the Unseen
It's always so weird to be back at number 1 again. Anyway, this book was a strong start to 2013's reading--Wilson, author of the now-defunct Vertigo comic book series Air (which I occasionally loved and was occasionally infuriated by) has written a fantasy novel set in the Middle East involving a computer hacker, romance, crazy government plotting, and jinns. I liked this a lot--really strong writing, and Wilson isn't using the usual urban fantasy tropes (mainly because she's using tropes from Arabic literature, which was GREAT--really interesting discussions of language(s) here). There are even some lady characters (including one who, like the author, is an American convert to Islam, and one who is genuinely awesome). I did feel like it left a couple of threads dangling, but very satisfying story nonetheless. A/A-.