2013 book 199

Kristen-Paige Madonia's Fingerprints of You
Judy Blume recommended this in her interview with Rookie, and if Judy Blume recommends a YA book, you'd better f-ing read it! This one's about teenager Lemon, named after a color her teenage mother was painting with the month she was born, and what happens when she herself becomes a pregnant teenager, and decides to take a road trip to try and find her heretofore unknown father. Which sounds kind of heavy, but actually this book was pretty cute, helped along by the presence of Lemon's best friend, along for the trip, and the magic of San Francisco. And the inevitable cute boy--who is more likable than most, and who isn't really featured too heavily. Most of all, this is really kind of about a mother-daughter relationship, and how a daughter realizes that her mom is an actual person. I had a few minor quibbles, but things wrapped up in a way I found to be pretty satisfying. B+. (And A+ for the awesome tattoo-inspired cover!)

2013 book 198

E.L. Konigsburg's The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
Here's another Konigsburg book I've never read--mainly b/c it came out in 2004, when YA wasn't really on my radar. I kind of love that there are all these delightful and charming books I have yet to discover--especially because some days it feels like there aren't any charming books left in the world. This one starts with twelve-year-old Margaret Rose being rescued from summer camp (and a cabin of mean girls) by her great-uncle. I kind of wish I'd known about her "I'd prefer not to" method of activity avoidance when I went to camp, because man, I'd have preferred not to have to play tetherball. Or camp outside in the mud. (I had very nice girls in my cabin, though.) Anyway. Margaret returns home, but things there are . . . not quite right. Can she--with the help of some others--save the day? Not to make this sound simplistic.  It's not as clear-cut as that--Konigsburg tells a more complicated tale (and I can think of few other YA authors who'd have outsider art as a major plot point) with an ending that is actually fairly bittersweet. A good antidote to yesterday's book (and an episode of Luther), nonetheless. A/A-.

2013 book 197

Jenni Fagan's The Panopticon
So, this book is about teenager Anais, who's grown up in a series of foster homes, and who's now being escorted to a juvenile facility after an attack on a policewoman. I'm being completely honest when I say that, for a large portion of this book, I wasn't sure if I was reading a very-near-future dystopia or a depressing book about a drugged-out British girl (like Trainspotting or something). I think I finally decided it was the latter, despite Anais' assertions that she's part of an experiment, because most of the story involves her experiences in the home and with the other teenagers there. Also note that, although there are a lot of teenagers, this is NOT a YA book. It is dark as hell. It's one of those books that I recognize is good (it won a bunch of awards in England), and I think there are a lot of people who will really like it, but I personally found so upsetting that I almost wish I hadn't read it. B.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on July 23.

2013 book 196

Robert Galbraith's The Cuckoo's Calling
So, here it is--the literary mystery that JK Rowling published under a pseudonym months ago, only for all to be revealed by an intrepid reporter! Considering that it apparently got good reviews from Publisher's Weekly and others, I'm a little surprised that I hadn't heard of it until now--literary mysteries are my JAM. Though, to be fair, the description--it's about a private eye investigating the apparent suicide of a famous model--and the fact that she chose a male pseudonym may have been enough to keep me away (I just don't read a lot of books by men--there are so many good books by women that I always want to get through first!).  And I don't think I'd ever have guessed this was written by Rowling (but do you remember how, post-Harry Potter, she talked about writing a detective novel????), but, knowing it, there are clues, like a couple of phrases I noticed from the HP books appearing here and there. Plus, the names! Cormoran Strike, Lula Landry, Freddie and Tansy Bestigui, Kieran Kolovas-Jones, Guy Some. And the line "you ought to give up detecting and try fantasy writing" is extra hilarious knowing Rowling wrote it.

All that rambling is prelude to this: I liked this a lot. Former military police guy Cormoran Strike is a really interesting protagonist, ably assisted by his plucky temp Robin (she is AMAZING! A lot of the book is from her POV, too). The investigation itself moves a bit slowly, but plenty of reveals about Strike's background are doled out too, so generally it's a pretty quick read for a longer-than-average mystery, especially once things really get moving in the second half (another Rowling tell?).Even if Rowling wasn't the author, I'd have really liked it, but I'm just so tickled by the whole situation! Very satisfying and highly recommended. It looks like Rowling is planning on writing more in this series, and I can't wait. A/A-.

2013 book 195

A. Lee Martinez's Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest
Martinez writes enjoyable and entertaining fantasy books about gods messing around with humans (or at least that's true of the ones I've read). In this one, teenagers Helen--a minotaur-- and Troy--a popular and nice athletic type--are sent by a god on a quest to find some relics for his own god-ly purposes. Meanwhile, they're being pursued by a motorcycle gang of orcs, led by an orc accountant named Nigel. The sense of humor here reminded me a little bit of Good Omens, which is a very good thing, though I will say this was slightly less silly and more heartfelt. Helen is a little bit overly cranky, but hey, she's a minotaur in the modern world, and that has to be hard. Anyway, this was a really, really fun read, and very highly recommended to modern fantasy fans. A/A-.

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

2013 book 194

Donna Andrews' Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon
In this Meg Langslow mystery, Meg is helping out at her brother's video game company--and trying to figure out if something weird is going on--when there's a MURDER! You'd think people would stop being friends with Meg and her family at this point; like four of their acquaintances have been  murdered in what I estimate is less than a year. If you're willing to suspend that amount of disbelief, it's another story with a lot of humor (and animals), and pretty entertaining. But it is REALLY hard to suspend that much disbelief. B.

2013 book 193

Shannon Hale's Austenland
I wanted to reread this before the movie comes out; unfortunately, it doesn't hold up as well as I'd hoped (I still think the movie will be hilarious though). It just requires a little too much suspension of disbelief for this bitter single thirty-something--but I'd still recommend it to people who like cute things and people who like Jane Austen. B.

2013 book 192

Jessica Brockmole's Letters from Skye
This was a really well-done epistolary novel, switching back and forth between the correspondence between a young Scottish poet and her American fan beginning in 1912 (and leading up to his becoming an ambulance driver in WWI), and her daughter's own correspondence in 1940 with her own suitor off at war (amongst other things). The earlier is the more vital, but the second does a good job of filling in the gaps in the story and further developing the characters. Nothing really comes as a surprise, but it's still an engaging story, perfect for the beach. B+.

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

2013 book 191

Suzanne Collins' Gregor and the Code of Claw
In case you didn't pick up on the hints in the Hunger Games books, Suzanne Collins thinks WAR IS BAD, and will do everything in her power to get you to think so too (aside from killing off major characters, anyway). On the plus side of this brutal finale to the Underland Chronicles, Gregor's OTHER sister, who I've been waiting to show up since she was given character traits in book 2, finally gets to do something! Yay for 8 year old code-breakers who befriend scary giant rats. Seriously, I might like Lizzie even more than adorable toddle Boots, friend of the giant roaches. And I definitely like them both way more than Gregor and his love interest, b/c twelve year old romances are gross. B.

2013 book 190

Suzanne Collins' Gregor and the Marks of Secret
Dang, if you thought Mockingjay was dark, you have clearly not read this series. This one has some straight-up mouse genocide. That's not hyperbole. Adorable giant mice who can communicate and whatnot being systematically gassed (spoilers). Genocide. This was almost more traumatizing than that one scene from Watership Down that still haunts me (4th grade is NOT an appropriate place to show that movie! I still see those screaming bunnies). Anyway, there's another quest, another prophecy, another band of bats and rats and cockroaches and people, this time trying to save the mice. There are also the first stirrings of romance between Gregor and the pretty (but badass) princess here; I admit to hoping a little bit that they would just be buds, b/c reading about lovelorn eleven/twelve year olds is really not my thing. Anyway, onto the 5th one, when we finally find out about the BIG prophecy that will put all these puny previous prophecies to shame. B.

2013 book 189

Suzanne Collins' Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods
Well, it's another Underland book, must be time for Gregor to go on yet another quest to fulfill yet another prophecy, this time to try and cure a plague. I guess that sounds pretty sarcastic about a series I find enjoyable, but there definitely is a formula here. I will say that it's fascinating to find the parts that kind of thematically resonate with the Hunger Games, plus Collins has created a really interesting cast of characters, so my annoyance is pretty minimal. B/B+.

2013 book 188

Suzanne Collins' Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane
In the second book of the Underland Chronicles, Gregor (and Boots) are back in the Underland, on yet another quest, this time to slay a super giant scary rat. Also, Gregor discovers he has magical sword-fighting powers, which I could have done without--it's more interesting to me when a character works for and learns a skill. Then again, these books are not long enough/complex enough to allow for that sort of training montage (that's not necessarily a bad thing for a series aimed at a younger audience). B.

2013 book 187

Suzanne Collins' Gregor the Overlander
I've meant to check out Collins' pre-Hunger-Games series for a long time, but it was never really a high priority; then a friend who's been reading them with her 8-year-old said I should give them a try. So I did! No surprise, the plotting is great, and I even found myself emotionally invested in a couple of giant cockroaches (and let me tell you, I f-ing HATE cockroaches), so even in these early days, Collins has a way with a story. This one, the first in the Underland Chronicles, finds a boy and his toddler sister whisked away to the Underland, a world full of purple-eyed people who ride around on giant bats. Soon he's off on a quest to fulfill a prophecy and maybe find his missing father--isn't that always the case in these kinds of books? Like I said, it's pretty solid and my complaints were minor (things are overly simplistic sometimes, but this is a middle-grade book), but that may be because the toddler sister was awesome and made everything else seem awesome too. B+.

PS The real reason I read this now is that it's $1.99 for Kindle this month!

2013 book 186

Courtney Angela Brkic's The First Rule of Swimming
This novel is the story of two sisters, Magdalena and Jadranka, from a small island off the coast of Croatia, and what happens when Jadranka goes to New York to stay with a cousin, finds out a FAMILY SECRET, and runs off. But really it's the story of their complicated family and how they've been affected the political turmoil in Croatia. And it's about small towns, and big cities, and love, and loss. I really liked this. A few things about Jadranka's journey are a bit over the top, but otherwise this was really lovely. A/A-.

2013 book 185

Donna Andrews' Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos
Nothing like hijinks--and MURDER!--at a historical reenactment of a Revolutionary War battle-slash-craft fair! Another hilarious book in the Meg Langslow series. B/B+.

2013 book 184

Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn
Normally I'm not really interested in the Humble Bundle offerings, but this time, THIS was one of the bonuses. Yes, I paid 10 bucks for 5 e-books I don't care about just to own this one, because The Last Unicorn is my all-time favorite movie, since I was a little girl, and discovering there was a NOVEL in college remains one of the highlights of my life. (I have seen the movie so many times that I hear the lines of dialogue as said by the all-star voice cast: Mia Farrow, Jeff Bridges, Alan Arkin, etc.) (I also own the soundtrack, featuring songs by the band America.) Plus, this e-book version has the sequel novella, featuring the main characters from the novel along with a pretty great girl trying to save her village from a griffin. Ah, Last Unicorn. I think even if I hadn't grown up completely in love with the story, I'd still love it for its cleverness, action, friendships, and general bittersweet air. Always an A.

2013 book 183

Maggie Stiefvater's The Dream Thieves
The best books are the ones that can surprise you--where you don't know what's coming but can't wait to find out. And Stiefvater's Raven Cycle (this is the second, after Raven Boys) manages to be just that. I find this extra thrilling--in a world full of predictable YA romances, Stiefvater's characters and storylines are rich, compelling, and unexpected. This one introduces a couple of new characters--a hit man who likes the Kinks and a drug-addicted, drag-racing classmate of the Raven Boys--but keeps the main plot (questing for dead legendary kings and ley lines) going strong. We find out a lot more about the Lynch family (and meet the third Lynch brother), and there are plenty of great moments with Blue, her family of psychics, and of course Gansey and Adam. Really a solid follow-up in what is rapidly becoming one of my favorite series. A/A-.


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

2013 book 182

Sara Gran's Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway
The second Claire Dewitt book (after Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead) is more of the same, only Claire is more of a mess than ever, trying to figure out who murdered her ex-boyfriend. That's all interspersed with a case (?) from her teenage years, when she and her best friend are determined to be detectives and try and find a missing girl, a year before her best friend disappears herself. Plus there's a whole running thing involving miniature horses which is pretty great. This series isn't for everyone--it's definitely not a traditional mystery series, except maybe in the tradition of the craziest, most drug-addled noir detectives--but Gran's storytelling is really exciting, and the end of this one definitely has me eager for the next one. A/A-.

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

2013 book 181

Lyndsay Faye's Seven for a Secret
The sequel to Gods of Gotham is just as excellent as its predecessor, dealing with a young policeman in the very early (and very corrupt) days of the NYPD in 1846. Here, Timothy finds himself in the middle of a case involving men kidnapping free blacks and selling them into slavery--which is, sadly, historically accurate. (These books are very educational in the midst of all the entertaining plot going on.) There's also a lot here about family, and sacrifice, and friendship, and trying to find some justice in the world. Really solid writing, too; this falls squarely into the literary mystery category for me, and I actually might try recommending it to some Jackson Brodie fans. Really hoping for more in this series--Faye balances the history and the story really well. A.

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

2013 book 180

Tom MacNeal's Far Far Away
I am actually crying a little as I type this, having just finished reading this book, which had me in buckets of tears at various points. Not that it's a YA weepie kind of story; it just gets very dark at points, and affecting at points, and . . . other things. I mean, it's a boy-meets-girl novel as narrated by the ghost of one of the Grimm brothers, who hangs out with the boy (the hilariously named Jeremy Johnson Johnson) since he can hear ghosts. And he tries to make the boy study so he can get into a good college, while protecting him from an unknown danger, and also the distraction of the girl (yeah, right). And it's a small town, and there are small town prejudices and lots of gossip! It's also a contemporary fairy tale, in a weird way. OK, this has all been kind of incoherent, but I really liked this, even if it did make me cry a lot. A/A-.

2013 book 179

Donna Andrews' Murder with Puffins
The second Meg Langslow book is more of the same--Meg and her love interest end up on a small island in Maine with some of her relatives during a hurricane, when an unpleasant person is MURDERED! Meg gets into the investigation to try and prove that none of her relatives did it, which is more or less believable. Whatever, it's all pretty funny, and it had this whole great thread about digital cameras running through it. I love books that are slightly older and amazed at the hot new technology that now seems super outdated. Haha! B/B+.

2013 book 178

Maile Meloy's The Apprentices
The sequel to The Apothecary was a pretty fun read, at least for the parts that weren't outright grim and grisly. There's a lot going on here--Janie is framed for cheating (b/c she's stupidly naive) and kicked out of school, while Benjamin and his father are in the midst of uprisings in Vietnam, and that's just the first few chapters. I will say that I wished the villains were less overtly cartoonish--they're completely two-dimensional and might as well be twirling their hypothetical mustaches--and that Janie would be less of an idiot for such a smart girl. But there are still some funny parts (mostly involving newly famous actor Pip) and I look forward to seeing what happens with this series next. B/B+.

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

2013 book 177

Donna Andrews' Murder with Peacocks
I've been looking for a new mystery series to get into, and the Meg Langslow books might just fit the bill. In this first one, Meg (a blacksmith) is the maid of honor in three different weddings, for three demanding and annoying brides. And then . . . murder! But really, Meg is a great character, her extended family is completely hilarious, and the plot is pretty strong and very funny. Great start to a series. A-.

2013 book 176

Elliott Holt's You Are One of Them
Well, here's a novel for fans of The Americans, to keep us all entertained till season 2! It's about Sarah, whose best friend Jenny became famous in the 1980s for writing a letter to Yuri Andropov asking him not to start a nuclear war, leading to a trip to Russia, a speaking tour, etc. At least until she died in a plane crash with her parents. Now Sarah, a new college graduate, is in Moscow after receiving a mysterious email (from a girl Jenny met while abroad, who seems mildly crazy) indicating that Jenny may be alive! It's kind of nice to read a novel about friendship (and friendships falling apart) with a whole spy element on the edges. Plus, the writing is really beautiful. But man, am I happy to be an American. A-.

2013 book 175

Jane Lindskold's Five Odd Honors
Wow, I was really not feeling the conclusion to this series. There's a new POV character, the ghost of one of their ancestors, and that's sort of interesting, but a lot of what happens here is really gross and I felt like there wasn't a good conclusion. It just sort of stopped, and it left a lot of big questions unanswered. (Unless this isn't a trilogy and there'll be a fourth one, but I'm pretty sure that isn't the case.) Maybe if these books were shorter, they'd be a little stronger? I don't know. B/B-.

2013 book 174

Jane Linskold's Nine Gates
I liked this one slightly less than Thirteen Orphans, partially because the plot is kind of all over the place (they have to build gates? And there are mysterious American bad guys? And mysterious forces to be stopped?), and partially because a third POV character is added, and she's a romantic rival to Brenda, which makes her scenes pretty annoying. Plus, her arc is fairly predictable. I mean, I liked this one enough to read the third, don't get me wrong; it just didn't come together as well as the first one did. B.

2013 book 173

Jane Linskold's Thirteen Orphans
I really love books that feature magic in the modern world. Here, a young woman is on a trip with her father, about to be let in on a family secret--that he's descended from a group of twelve wizards/scholars who were exiled from China, smuggling out the baby emperor when they went, and she's destined to be his heir, taking on the mantle of the Rat from the Chinese zodiac. One of the coolest things about this book, to me, was that the two main/POV characters were both women. Besides college student Brenda, there's Pearl, an 80-year-old former child star (who's half Chinese and half Jewish, which comes up a few times, to my delight) who's also the Tiger from the zodiac. It's just nice to have a badass old lady around in a fantasy book. Anyway, just as Brenda is about to discover her heritage, they discover that the whole group is being targeted--but by who, and why? I enjoyed this so much that I had to force myself not to stay up all night finishing it, and now I am off to read the sequels. A/A-.

2013 book 172

Marta Acosta's The She-Hulk Diaries
Guys! This book is LEGITIMATELY GOOD. I mean, I'm not one for chick lit--I hate how predictable it is--but it turns out I am way into chick lit when the chick is a superhero. Take note: Superhero Chick Lit needs to be a genre. Anyway. As you can probably tell by the title, the book is the diary of She-Hulk--or really her alter-ego, lawyer Jennifer Walters--as she makes some New Year's resolutions and tries to get her crazy life together. Soon she's involved in a big case and running into a hot ex, plus there are a bunch of other things going on--and all of it is HILARIOUS. Seriously, I loved the narrative voice so much that I might try and read something else by Acosta. It's been a long time since I read any She-Hulk (I think since the 90s comic) but this is pretty spot on, canon-wise, and fits really well into the current Marvel/Avengers universe. Oh, someone please put She-Hulk into an Avengers movie! She and Tony would banter so beautifully.

ANYWAY. This was a lot of fun, and much better than a Marvel novel might be expected to be. A-.

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

2013 book 171

Dagmara Dominczyk's Lullaby of Polish Girls
Like one of her three Polish Girl characters referenced by the title, Dominczyk is actually an actress (who attended CMU!) (and who is married to Patrick Wilson!), but let me say that this novel is not just good-for-an-actress, but an actual good novel. If you hadn't already guessed, it's about three Polish girls--Anna, the actress, who was mostly raised in new York; Kamila, who's just found out her husband is gay; and Justyna, whose husband was just murdered by her sister's abusive boyfriend. But really it's about the girls and their complicated friendships over the years. I liked this a lot and thought the writing was really strong--it has a ring of truth to an almost depressing level. But I mean that in the best possible way. A-/B+.

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

2013 book 170

Christine Woodward's Rogue Touch
Marvel Comics has always been willing to play around with different things to get beyond its typical dude comic-book-fan audience--and this isn't even the first time they've tried novels marketed more at the female audience; they put out a couple YA books about Mary Jane from Spider-Man a few years ago. But now they're aiming for adult ladies, and targeting the paranormal romance fans, if this one is any indicator (I have slightly higher hopes for the one about She-Hulk, who's a lawyer). ANYWAY. This is a novel about Rogue from the X-Men. I have been a big fan of Rogue since the 80s X-Men cartoon (and can still hear her voice from that very clearly), so was kind of excited to read a novel about her! Here, she's just put her high-school boyfriend into a coma and is on the run, when she meets a mysterious guy (NOT Wolverine--and in fact, to my disappointment, NO other X-Men appear in this book!) and they go on the run together, dealing with problems from his world. I'm pretty sure this is all out of continuity, and I didn't really care about this guy or his world or their inevitable romance. But I'm not a fan of paranormal romance, I'm a fan of comic books! I think romance fans might like this better. B/B-.

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

2013 book 169

Elizabeth Silver's The Execution of Noa P. Singleton
For a book about a woman on death row whose victim's mother has decided she's now against the death penalty and wants to do legal-y stuff to stop the execution, this book was amazingly boring. Even all the "big reveals" at the end manage to not be interesting. Mehhhhhhh. C.

2013 book 168

Penelope Farmer's Charlotte Sometimes
I don't know why I loved such old fashioned books in my childhood--though to be accurate, this book is only ten years older than I am, it's just that a chunk of it is set in 1918. (I googled to find out the year it was published, and man, googling this book was hard enough when there was just The Cure song to contend with [which is named for this book, btw], but now there is apparently also a musician called Charlotte Sometimes, and so you have to actually google "charlotte sometimes book" to get accurate results.) This is also one of those books that makes me cry every time I read it, even though I have read it countless times. But it's not really a typical books for kids--it's a weirdly poignant meditation on identity. With time travel. Apparently there are actually three books in this series, but the other two are long out of print. No matter--they could never live up to this one for me.

2013 book 167

Emily Croy Barker's A Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic
So let me start by saying that I find this title completely unappealing, and would have no interest in reading this if it wasn't for comparisons to things like Discovery of Witches and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (the first is accurate enough, though that book focuses much more on romance; I don't remember enough about Jonathan Strange to judge that one). Anyway, this is the story of Nora, a struggling grad student (at what I'm pretty sure is supposed to be DUKE, based on local references!) who goes to a wedding in Asheville and accidentally walks through a portal into the fairy world. Whoops. And Nora really should have read more fairy stories, because she's soon up to her ears in enchantments and glamour (literally) and has no idea what's going on. I wish this part had been a bit shorter, because a heroine without willpower or brainpower a) is frustrating to read about, and b) leads to squicky feelings when you realize she can't really consent to fairy sex. So that's all a little gross and I could have done with less of it (not to mention this book is already kind of long).

Luckily she's soon rescued by a nearby magician who's enmeshed in some local politics and has a pretty crazy backstory of his own, and eventually asks him to train her (that doesn't happen till like halfway through, but is part of the plot description, so I guess it's not a spoiler) and things pick up from there. Proactive Nora is much more interesting. I could have done without the conceit of Nora writing imaginary letters to her friend back home (the same information could have been conveyed more easily and naturally as part of the main narrative, I thought) but that only comes up a couple of times. It looks like this is the start of a series, and ends in a pretty interesting place, which I guess means I'll read it. B/B+.

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

2013 book 166

Simon van Booy's The Illusion of Separateness
Van Booy's latest features a cast of interrelated characters and their experiences, varying from a young man off to war in 1939 to his granddaughter in 2005 and 2010 (well, anyway, those were the characters I liked the best, but there are several others not in their family) and how one encounter in France in 1944 affected all of them. I will say that this book could maybe have been longer, though it certainly tells a good story in the pages it has. And a couple of the sections--particularly those involving one Mr. Hugo--feel overly writer-y/crafted to me, whereas the other sections flow much more naturally. Those are minor complaints, though; on the whole, this is really a lovely book, perfect for more literary-minded beach readers. A-/B+.


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

2013 book 165

Elizabeth Peters' Naked Once More
The fourth (and I guess final) Jacqueline Kirby finds our hilarious heroine, now a bestselling author, working on the sequel to the work of another bestselling author who vanished--presumably in a suicide--seven years ago. So obviously Mrs. Kirby is going to find out what REALLY happened. I admit to falling for a couple of red herrings, which was actually a nice surprise. I will say that this could have been a bit shorter--parts of it dragged a little--but it was still a fun one to read. B/B+.

2013 book 164

Sarah Dessen's The Moon and More
I have generally really liked all of Dessen's books, but since I am officially OVER YA romances, was kind of dreading this one. And then! It's NOT a YA romance! I mean, there is romance, but it's not at all the focus of the book, really. It's about a girl in Dessen's fictional NC beach town, whose family runs a local vacation rental company (I found all these details hilarious, having just returned yesterday from a vacation spent in a similar rental house), enjoying her last summer before leaving for college, and dealing with her fairly complicated family life. And annoying tenants, including a woman filming a documentary on a reclusive artist. Anyway. Very enjoyable. A-.

2013 book 163

Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane
A new Neil Gaiman novel is, like, an EVENT. Frankly, I wasn't sure this could even remotely live up to expectations, especially since it's been a while since I LOVED one of his books (though it's also been a while since he's written a book for adults, and historically I like his adult work much more than the works aimed at a younger audience), and this one is on the shorter side. All this is to say that, actually, I liked this quite a bit! It's about a man returning home to England for a funeral, when he wanders down the road from his childhood home--and is suddenly flooded with memories of when he was seven, and befriended an unusual 11-year-old girl. It's a Neil Gaiman story, so you can probably extrapolate some stuff from that. The body of the story--the events the two of them have to deal with--is fine, but it's the end that kind of sold me on this. It turns into a meditation on memory and fantasy and childhood nostalgia, and filled me with a bittersweet sort of feeling. PLUS there are kittens and conversational Yiddish. Gaiman is clearly drawing on his own childhood with this one, which makes it somehow more powerful than his bigger works about gods and monsters. A-.


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

2013 book 162

Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
I think I've read all of Fowler's books, though they tend to be hit or miss for me. This one falls somewhere in the middle--I liked it a lot, but it made me feel really despondent. It's about Rosemary, a college student in the 90s, reflecting back on her childhood with her older brother (who she now hasn't seen in ten years) and her sister (who was sent away when they were five--I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the sister, Fern, [redacted because of accidental spoilers]). So Rosemary has some issues with interpersonal relations and dealing with her family. And everything with Fern just broke my heart, completely broke it. I don't know. This was really good, but just so depressing if you're at all interested in animal rights. B+.

2013 book 161

Leigh Bardugo's Siege and Storm
I really liked Shadow and Bone, but this second book in the Grisha trilogy didn't really do it for me. For one thing, the main character keeps a secret that drives a wedge between her and her closest friend/love interest--one of my pet peeves in storytelling--and there's no real reason to keep this secret! For another, she's just as pessimistic as in the first one, and it starts to get grating after a while. And for another, most of the book is taken up with battle plans, which is not one of my areas of interest, and annoying romantic angst. There are some cool new characters--particularly a pirate and two of his crew--but they aren't enough to make things fun. And things here aren't fun. I mean, it is a book about a battle between light and dark (literally) in some fantasy version of Russia, so maybe fun isn't necessarily on the agenda, but still. The end was pretty interesting and I'll still probably read the third one, but I was really not excited about this second volume. B.

2013 book 160

Marisha Pessl's Night Film
Pessl's long-awaited second novel is finally here and . . . it is weird. It's about a disgraced journalist who lost everything after accusing a reclusive filmmaker of nefarious acts--and now the filmmaker's talented daughter has committed suicide. He gets caught up in investigating again, with the aid of two young people who horn their way in. But soon things get, well, very weird, like I said. I really liked the concepts here, and the use of articles and medical information and stuff, and the end was well-done, but man, some of the weirdness was not really my thing. Though I think it does work thematically with the filmmaker's cult films being a major topic, I just personally found it a bit off-putting and very creepy at times. That may be a selling point for some people though! B.

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

2013 book 159

Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season
This is one of the big buzz books of summer--Shannon apparently sold a seven-book series (of which this is the first), and it's already been optioned for a movie by Andy Serkis (Gollum). It takes place in the near future in an alternate world where lots of people have special psychic powers (they're called "voyants," ie, clairvoyants) and are feared and ostracized. Protagonist Paige can sense dreamspaces and some other things; it's all hard to explain. Anyway, she gets kidnapped and taken away to a weird place called Sheol I, run by some other form of being, and . . . it's complicated, I don't know. There is a LOT going on here and a LOT of characters to keep track of. At first I was intrigued by the world but thought Paige was a little bit annoying, but by 3/4 of the way through I was like, yeah, I'd totally read seven books set in this universe. The writing is solid even if the story is all over the place, but I assume a lot of that is setup for later action. There are a few characters I'd really love to read more about, and the ending leaves things in a pretty interesting place. Really looking forward to the follow-up. B+.

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

2013 book 158

Sharon Creech's The Boy on the Porch
Sweet and heartwarming book by Creech, whose Love That Dog makes me cry every time. This one is about a rural couple who find a mute boy on their porch, and stuff happens. I actually wished this was written for a slightly older audience--there's not much to sustain adult interest--but it was, like I said, sweet. Should be a hit with kids--recommended for 8 and up, but slightly younger kids could probably go for it too. B+.

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

2013 book 157

Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam
I was reading this on the beach on family vacation and at one point turned to my dad and said "This is the best book I have ever read." Which was definitely an exaggeration--I was caught up in the moment--but not by much. (I am actually going to try to sell my dad on reading this trilogy--I think he might be into it.) ANYWAY. MaddAddam picks up where the previous two books come together--and flashes back to fill in a lot of the remaining holes in the story. I'm loathe to give away any plot points, but will say that Toby + the Crakers was one of the funniest combinations I have ever seen. And I could have done with a BIT less Toby being jealous, but that's just me. Otherwise, there was plenty of action, plenty of great interpersonal dynamics, Toby being amazing, and other awesome stuff. GREAT end to the story. Really raises a lot of interesting discussion topics. Oh, and there's a summary of the first two books at the beginning, if you don't have time to reread them before this comes out! A!

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

2013 book 156

Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood
I don't have too much to add from last time I read this, except that it's really interesting to see more pieces of this world Atwood has built, and see a lot of the same story from different angles (and with GREAT women this time). Can't wait to see what Atwood does with the third volume--and I don't have to, b/c I have an ARC. Which I am about to start. :)

2013 book 155

Susan Elia MacNeal's Princess Elizabeth's Spy
OH MY GOD, this was easily one of the most ridiculous mysteries I have ever read. I don't even know where to start--I think I have to bullet point it.

• What is the protocol for writing a book where the current Queen of England is a major character? Is it like a law that her fictional self has to be insanely clever, brave, and kind? It's a little bit much. 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth is perfect in every way.
• Maggie Hope is kind of annoying in this one--she willfully ignores information b/c she's angry, and she frankly is not that good of a spy.
• Don't even get me started on the romance stuff.
• Props for upfront feminism and a prominent gay Jewish character.
• The plot here is way too convoluted, involving lots of suspicious people and murders and spies and Germans determined to put the pro-Nazi Duke of Windsor (the guy who abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson) back on the throne. Also it involves polygamy, but that's kind of a side thing (and also a spoiler, I guess).
• I wish I was an editor--there were several parts that just needed to be toned down a couple notches. Exclamation points should be used sparingly in fiction. All books would be better if I was fixing their grammar.
• This book ends with not one, but two cliffhangers. One is obvious, the other completely nutbars. I can't decide if I'll read the third book in this series that just came out, or not. I am kind of curious to see where on earth MacNeal is going to go, but I also can foresee a lot of predictable melodrama.

I don't even know how to grade this book. B-?

2013 book 154

Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake
As I noted when I read Year of the Flood last year, it had been so long since I read this book that all I remembered was a guy on a beach (which, to be fair, is a big chunk of the novel!). Anyway, I liked it a lot this go-round, even though all the women characters are kind of awful (weird, for Atwood. Oh man, remember when it was so weird for a literary writer like Atwood to write a dystopian novel?). Jimmy is ridiculously compelling, though, even with his (many) weaknesses. And I feel like the mix of science and capitalism bringing down society is kind of realistic, as these things go, even though all mentions of technology are kind of outdated already (CD-ROMs, come on). I do think it's interesting how Year of the Flood fills in a lot of the holes in this story, and can't wait to see how MaddAdam completes things. A-.

2013 book 153

Susan Elia MacNeal's Mr. Churchill's Secretary
Books about smart and plucky girls solving mysteries in the first half the 20th century = easily one of my favorite genres, and the Maggie Hope series is getting a lot of buzz lately (the third one just came out). I wanted to start at the beginning, and boy, there is a LOT going on in this first one. Maggie is supposed to be starting grad school in mathematics at MIT, but has decided to stay in London as war breaks out (whyyyyyy) and ends up taking a job as a secretary for new PM Winston Churchill (all the while railing against the institutional sexism that won't let her have a more prestigious position, ha) after one of his previous secretaries is murdered. There's also a mysterious woman involved with that murder, some IRA bombings, and a society of anti-Semites who blame the Jews for the war (sadly, historically accurate). Plus Maggie has a whole cadre of friends and coworkers and love interests, and OH YEAH there's a secret about her father that everyone knows but her.  Somehow all of these plotlines come together to create a surprisingly action-packed story, and one full of GIRL POWER. I'm feeling it. A-.

2013 book 152

Elizabeth Wein's Rose Under Fire
Sooooooo Elizabeth Wein has written a companion/sequel to Code Name: Verity (which quickly became one of my favorite books). This one centers on American Rose (more specifically, the Pennsylvania Dutch Rose--sooo many references to Hershey PA!), who gets a job in England as one of the civilian pilots transporting planes and befriends one of the characters from Verity (saying who is a major spoiler for that book, so I won't). But then her plane is captured by Germans and she's sent to Ravensbruck.

Look, this is an excellent concentration camp book. Wein's writing is powerful, her characterizations are great, and she has a real gift for writing about female friendships. She doesn't shy away from any of the camp atrocities either (and goes into a lot of detail on the medical experimentation that went on). It's just that I have read a large number of concentration camp books in my life, and so none of this was really surprising to me. Verity had me on the edge of my seat the whole time, but here, we know who lives from the beginning, and so it's a little bit less intense (if a concentration camp book can ever be "less intense"). Maybe I should say it's less suspenseful. Still an excellent read and a great companion novel, and I guess I'm glad people are still writing GOOD and POWERFUL concentration camp novels for YA audiences that don't feel exploitative.  I just didn't fall for it as hard. Though, to be far, it is rare for me to fall for any book as hard as I did for Verity. A-.

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

2013 book 151

Eli Brown's Cinnamon and Gunpowder
I have just two words for you: LADY PIRATE! Okay, maybe you want more words than that. This novel is narrated by a chef whose lord is killed by aforementioned lady pirate (we find out why soon enough), and then she kidnaps him to cook her some fancy meals every Sunday. I loved reading his descriptions of the indignities of the pirate life, and his ingenuity in his cooking was equally as compelling. I don't want to say anything else about the plot to avoid spoilers, but be assured there is plenty of adventure, justice, vengeance, friendship, a teeny bit of romance, and lots of pirating. Props for plenty of diversity, too, even if a red-haired lady pirate and an uptight British chef are the stars. It all feels refreshing and new, somehow. Definitely a fun read for summer. A/A-.

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

2013 book 150

Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes
Sometimes you just have to reread one of your favorite books from childhood (I don't know why all of my favorite books from childhood were written in like the 1930s, but they were). I am generally angry that none of Streatfeild's books are available as e-books, but especially this one, which is one of the best books about an unconventional family assembled by a missing fossil-hunter ever. OK, it is definitely the only book about that. And about the intricacies of being a child performer. Also, I'm pretty sure a pair of the minor characters are a lesbian academic couple, and that's pretty cool.

2013 book 149

Mur Lafferty's The Shambling Guide to New York City
Full disclosure: I have met Mur Lafferty several times (I used to work at Chapel Hill Comics, where, by the way, she will be doing a signing on June 1st) and think she is super nice, so I wasn't really reading this with a critical eye or anything.

Anyway, this was a really entertaining urban fantasy where protagonist Zoe, after leaving her job in Raleigh more-or-less in disgrace (read: sleeping with her married boss), has moved back to NYC and is looking for a job--and finds one, at a publisher staffed by, well, vampires and sprites and other mythical creatures. And like that isn't enough to deal with, it seems like someone is bent on sabotage--or more! Like I said, this was a really fun read, and reminded me a little bit of Seanan Macguire's Discount Armageddon series (monsters in the big city and whatnot). It did suffer a bit from my pet peeve, a lack of contractions that make the writing seem stilted and awkward, but that might just be me. I think this is ripe for a sequel and I'd definitely read one. B+.

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

2013 book 148

Elizabeth Peters' Die for Love
The third Jacqueline Kirby mystery is as delightful as the first two; here, Jacqueline wants to escape the Midwest and decides to go to a conference for romance writers (it's about books! it's tax deductible!). Obviously this setting is ripe for both intrigue and hilarity (and there's plenty of the latter--especially when Jacqueline decides she should write a romance novel). I also love how she always has some guy after her and she's just secretly rolling her eyes at him. Have any of you read her other series? Are they this awesome? There's only one left in this one . . . A/A-.

2013 book 147

J. Courtney Sullivan's Engagements
Sullivan's latest--after Maine and Commencement--is another book that straddles the line between literary fiction and women's fiction, and is just as satisfying as her first two. This one has five separate storylines (it's not clear how they fit together until the end), all involving marriages/engagements in some way. My very favorite was the one involving Frances Gerety and her work with an advertising agency on DeBeer's--she basically singlehandedly created the engagement ring industry! I had intended to compare her to Mad Men's Peggy Olson until the acknowledgements clued me into the fact that Frances was REAL and was really that awesome--so really, Peggy Olson is modeled on Frances, and not vice-versa. The other storylines are strong too--I also really liked the most current one, involving an anti-marriage woman helping with her (gay) cousin's wedding in 2012, and the story of a French woman scorned (though one of her actions immediately took away all my sympathy). There's also a woman in the 1970s dealing with her wayward adult son, but the flashbacks to her own youth are pretty powerful. I was less interested in the EMT with a struggling marriage and financial situation--also the only major male character, and I'm not sure what that says about me! Anyway, this is a great pick for summer reading, and I definitely recommend it. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 11th.

2013 book 146

Rosemary Clement-Moore's Spirit and Dust
This is a sequel/companion to Texas Gothic, focusing on one of the cousins of that book's protagonist--a cousin who can communicate with the dead. She's assisting the FBI with cases when she gets suckered into helping find a kidnapped girl, but also there are weird cults and Egyptologists (including the ghost of one of the main character's ancestors, who is pretty awesome) and whatnot. The plot of this one was kind of all over the place and pretty predictable, but I liked the characters a lot, the writing is a lot of fun, and much of it takes place at a museum (which has a helpful librarian!) so I liked it anyway. I really hope to see more of the Goodnights. B/B+.

2013 book 145

Garth Nix's Sabriel
I'm not sure how I'd never read this before--a book about a badass girl with a magic cat should have been on my radar!--so was glad when it turned out to be the May selection for FYA book group. And it wasn't quite what I was expecting--it IS about a badass girl, but one who's trained to stop the Dead from doing bad things, and what happens when she goes to rescue her father, trapped by the Dead, and also there is a magic cat (who is enslaved? But maybe ok with it? I was not sure about this part). And a dude trapped in wood. And some creepy zombie type things. It was a little darker than I had anticipated, and the first half is a bit slow (lots of journeying), but things pick up quickly enough, and the second half was great. AND there are apparently two sequels to read! B+.

2013 book 144

Koethi Zan's The Never List

Y'all, I don't even know where to START talking about this book. I could say how it's weirdly timely, being about three young women who were held captive in a sex/torture dungeon for years before being rescued, and how ten years later their captor has a parole hearing (like, what, how would a guy who kidnapped and tortured several young girls EVER be eligible for parole), and one is determined to find out more about him and keep him behind bars. I could also talk about how that one was kidnapped with her best friend, who was killed by the guy, and there's some interesting stuff about friendship in there. It also turns into a crazy story involving weird cults and S&M clubs at a certain point.  And the writing . . . on the one hand, some of the grammar might be cleaned up by publication (this was an ARC), but there was an exclamation point after a crazy plot development that kind of made me laugh, along with some other minor things (mostly involving commas--I wish writers would err on the side of over-use rather than under-use of commas). And on the other hand--for a lot of plot points that I'd have to suspend disbelief for, Zan does a really good job of explaining why the characters are doing the dumb things they do (people always do dumb things in mysteries, that isn't a reflection on these characters at all). And there are some really harrowing moments (I had to put the book down a couple of times b/c it was stressing me out). I kind of called the end but it was interesting enough that I can't wait for other people to read this so I can be like "omggg!!!" about it. Pretty satisfying, if crazy, thriller, though I'm trying not to analyze the gender stuff too much. B/B+.

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

2013 book 143

Elizabeth Peters' The Murders of Richard III
It was high time for me to read another Jacqueline Kirby mystery, and this one did not disappoint. Here, our clever, dry-witted, and generally amazing academic librarian finds herself talked into going to a house party in England full of Richard III enthusiasts. Obviously things soon go awry, with a series of thematic attacks, but it's ok, because Jacqueline (and her purse of wonders) are on the case. And because this was written in the 70s, there's even a great part where she gets to tell off a couple of sexist jerks ragging on Women's Lib (yes, the book capitalized it). If this book had been written this year instead of before I was born, that scene would be ALL OVER Tumblr. And I would reblog it. A/A-.

2013 book 142

David Samuel Levinson's Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence

Sooooo, this is a book set in a small upstate NY college town in the 1980s, about WRITERS and SECRETS and AFFAIRS and PAST AFFAIRS and a MYSTERIOUS DEATH. But mostly about writers and critics and vengeance and sorrow, centering on the young(ish) widow of a not very successful writer, the critic who kind of destroyed him--and the hot young writer (the titular Antonia) the critic is sleeping with, who has some unusual motives and drama of her own. Things start off really promisingly, but the characters soon become pretty tiresome, and this wasn't as engaging as I had expected. The widow, in particular, is some combination of naive and overwrought that really doesn't work for me. The very end is really pretty great, but wasn't enough to make me like the rest. B/B-.

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

2013 book 141

Maggie O'Farrell's Instructions for a Heatwave
O'Farrell's latest, after the awesome The Hand That First Held Mine and others, takes place in England in 1976 during a major drought, and involves a fairly dysfunctional Irish family--and what happens when their father disappears. The three adult siblings all have a lot of stuff going on--the older two are in complicated and/or unhappy relationships, and the youngest (an undiagnosed dyslexic, which is very frustrating for a modern reader) is living a somewhat punk-ish life in New York (I'm pretty sure her night job is supposed to be at CBGB's! She is the best!)--but they all come together to track down their father. Who isn't the only one keeping secrets! Family drama ahoy! Though the drama is not TOO dramatic, and even with so much going on, O'Farrell keeps things on the lighter side. Really an enjoyable read, one I'll recommend a lot. A-.

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

2013 book 140

Rae Carson's The Bitter Kingdom
It's always something of a relief when the last volume of a series manages to hit all the high notes, resolve all the plot points, and be entertaining enough to live up to everything that came before--and Carson definitely manages. This series is really action packed, and Carson manages to weave a lot of disparate threads into a cohesive whole. For a change, this one varies the narrative between protagonist Elisa and the captain of her guard, who have been separated, which keeps things moving and answers a lot of questions the reader would have had. I don't want to say much else for fear of spoilers, but I thought this was a GREAT wrap-up to Elisa's story. A/A-.

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

2013 book 139

Rae Carson's The Crown of Embers
I don't really have too much to add to my last review of this, except to say that it's just as excellent as it was the first time, and a great middle chapter in a trilogy. It manages to have a story of its own--increased turmoil in the kingdom, and a quest for a magical source of power--and have a totally crazy cliffhanger ending that makes me very excited to start the third one, which I'm doing RIGHT NOW.

2013 book 138

Rae Carson's The Girl of Fire and Thorns
The third book in this series comes out this summer (and I'll be reading it soon, thanks publishers!), so I wanted to reread the first two so everything is fresh in my mind. I loooved this when I first read it, and was happy to revisit the story of a chubby book nerd with a special relationship with God, who becomes a leader and a warrior. Really great world-building and religion-building in this one, and the series in general takes a WAY better path re: character romances than most other YA fantasy books. Anyway, I love this. Still an A.

2013 book 137

Andrew Sean Greer's The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
Heyyyyyyy, it's another TIME TRAVEL STORY! Sort of. This one is more similar to the new Kate Atkinson than River of No Return. Greer (author of Story of a Marriage and Confessions of Max Tivoli [which I remember liking a lot, though I read it before this blog existed, and which I still think that Brad Pitt Benjamin Button movie stole stuff from, anyway, not relevant]) has created a world where it's 1985, and after the death of her beloved twin brother from AIDS, the titular Greta falls into a deep depression, and her /awesome/ doctor thinks electroshock therapy is the answer. Instead, it sends her back to another version of her life, in 1918, and when THAT version of her gets electroshock therapy, she's sent to yet another version in 1941. Who's also undergoing electroshock therapy. She cycles through all three, trying to deal with the different incarnations of the people in her life--particularly the man she's married to in two of them (who left her for another woman in 1985), and her brother and his heartbreaking situation as a very closeted gay man. It sounds convoluted, but it's really a well-crafted story, and one I really liked. A/A-.

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

2013 book 136

Sarah Ockler's The Book of Broken Hearts
YA Romance is easily one of my LEAST favorite genres, because reading about teenagers pining over each other is really uninteresting to me, and they tend to be pretty cheesy. Plus I hate that so many of them are, like, "yay, I met my soulmate!" I get that teenagers FEEL that way, but as a 34-year-old, I'm interested in something more realistic, and less drama-riffic. (This one ACTUALLY CONTAINS THE LINE "Everything inside me begged for his kiss." Cringe-o-rama.) There are a couple other things going on in this one--the protagonist's father has early onset Alzheimer's, for one thing; for another, the whole premise of the book is that like all the Vargas boys broke all her older sisters' hearts, and thus she has vowed to never get involved with one . . . and of course ends up hiring the hot youngest one to fix her dad's old motorcycle. You can basically guess the whole rest of the plot from there. I personally would have liked more with the sisters--the glimpses we get are so interesting--but it's a YA Romance, so teens pining and whining instead. So, this was really not my thing. B-.

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

2013 book 135

Bee Ridgway's The River of No Return
I'm not sure why, but I really love a good time travel story, and this book turned out to be an excellent time travel story. Our protagonists are Julia, whose grandfather has just died in 1815 and now her terrible cousin is inheriting the estate, determined to ferret out her grandfather's secrets! And Nick, who is about to die in the War of 1812 when he is suddenly whisked away to the 2000s and trained to blend into the future by a secret group of time travelers . . . . who also have secrets! We find out pretty early on that these two are actually neighbors in the 1800s, so waiting for their paths to cross is a bit frustrating, but after that things get pretty action-packed. And things end with a lot of threads left dangling, so I have to assume there's a sequel. Which is great, because I'd love to see more of these characters, and Ridgway injects a lot of humor into the proceedings (there's some particularly funny business with a Rubik's cube, and I liked Nick's nascent feminism). Really a lot of fun, this reminds me of the Ruby Red books by Kerstin Gier, but they aren't YA and the romance is a lot more palatable, at least to me (and I like those books a lot, so). Highly recommended. A/A-.

2013 book 134

Lauren Roedy Vaughn's OCD, The Dude, and Me
This is one of those books you could easily read in one sitting (in fact, I had to force myself not to, in order to go to bed on time), because the narrative voice is so engaging and compelling. It's the story of Danielle's senior year, told through journal entries, emails, class assignments, and other miscellany, and it's GREAT. Even when completely down on herself, Danielle is funny and sympathetic, and I loved watching her learn and grow, and also I cried a LOT. The Big Lebowski doesn't come into things until like 2/3rds of the way through, but makes everything more awesome, obviously. I will say that I was a little annoyed at the sheer quantity of typos in the last couple of chapters--it's like the copy editor ran out of time or something--but whatever, this was a really good read. A/A-.

2013 book 133

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah
Another excellent novel from the author of the awesome Half of a Yellow Sun). Adichie manages to touch on cross-cultural assimilation, academic politics, blogging, family, relationships, blackness in America, and Barack Obama in a novel that travels from Nigeria to various other places and back again. Our main protagonist is Ifemelu, who's lived in America for thirteen years, writes a well-known blog on race, and is a fellow at Princeton--when she somewhat suddenly decides to return home to Nigeria. And it's also about the boy she left behind, now married with a child, and the paths that led them together and then apart. I guess that makes it sound like a romance, but it's certainly more than that. Both have the usual immigrant travails, and then some, and both stories are profoundly moving (Ifemelu's is more so, but more time is devoted to her). And I'll also say that excerpts from fictional writings in another book don't always work for me, but the entries from Ifemelu's blog are really well-done. The end is mildly overdramatic, but this is still really a solid novel, well worth a read. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on May 14th.

2013 book 132

E.L. Konigsburg's The View From Saturday
When Konigsburg died recently, I bought a bunch of her books for my Kindle, because I had actually never read any others besides Mixed-Up Files. And it's so dreary today that I needed to read something I knew would be GOOD. Anyway, this is weirdly emotionally resonant considering it's about the four sixth graders on a quiz bowl team, and the teacher leading them. There's also a great dog and some baby turtles. A.

2013 book 131

Alafair Burke's If You Were Here
This is easily the most ridiculous mystery/thriller I have ever read in my entire life.

I don't really have too much else to say about it. It centers on a lawyer-turned-journalist-after-a-disgrace, and what happens when she thinks an old friend who's been missing for ten years might actually be alive. Except that it has an unbelievably convoluted and preposterous plot. Like, I actually could not believe some of these plot twists. Not to say that it wasn't a fun read, though by the end it was a little tiresome. And I could have done without the rampant slut-shaming--that was REALLY unnecessary to any of the ludicrous plot points. Actually, I guess I didn't really like this very much. Though there is a mildly amusing explanation of retweeting. C.

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

2013 book 130

Curtis Sittenfeld's Sisterland
Sittenfeld's latest (after Prep and American Wife and one other one I've never read) involves a pair of psychic twins living in St Louis, and what happens when one of them predicts a major earthquake. I wonder if the temptation to write about twins, especially ones with weird powers, is hard to resist for writers. It seems like there are a lot of books about twins, and not just the ones from Sweet Valley. At any rate, Sittenfeld handles the psychic twin thing pretty well--one longs to be conventional and leads a cookie-cutter life, married with a couple of kids, judging the other one, who embraces the New Agey lifestyle and has recently come out as a lesbian. Frankly, the protagonist (named Daisy, but now going by Kate, b/c god forbid even her name be interesting, and also she is trying to disassociate from her childhood psychic self), is not really that likable, even as I sympathized with her struggles and fears. Then towards the end of the book she does something so ridiculous that I was just like GET YOUR S--- TOGETHER ALREADY and was monumentally annoyed. Did Sittenfeld feel like telling this kind of internalized story about sisters and senses wasn't enough, so she had to throw in this plot twist? It just felt kind of needless to me. But it should provoke a LOT of discussions at book groups. Anyway, this is well written, and I liked most of it, but don't know why Sittenfeld abruptly turned it into a domestic drama at the end. B.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 25th.

2013 book 129

Chelsea Campbell's Harper Madigan: Junior High Private Eye
Oh dudes, this book was hilarious and adorable. But how could I expect anything less from the author of Renegade X? This is more of a middle grade book, about the titular PI, on the case of a missing luck pencil, trying to prove an old friend innocent of a crime she didn't commit, and saddled with a partner he doesn't want. Not to mention that the school is run by an amazingly evil PTA determined not to let him interfere with their plans! Campbell's narrative voice here is EXCELLENT--she nails the PI tone without being overly tongue in cheek. A quick but delightful read. A-.

2013 book 128

Anthony Marra's A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
This book is getting a lot of buzz, which is pretty well-deserved, though I confess that it was REALLY a slow starter for me. I actually almost gave it up like a third of the way through--it just felt like a slog. But I'm glad I kept with it, because by the end I was totally involved in the story (and crying). It's billed as being about three characters in war-torn Chechnya in 2004--a little girl whose father was just taken by the Russians; her neighbor, the local village doctor who would rather be an artist; and the only doctor left at the local city hospital, a woman surgeon. And all those characters are great, though like I said, it took me a while to get interested in them. BUT there are also two other characters who are immediately great--another neighbor--an older man writing an epic history of Chechnya--and the surgeon's troubled sister. Marra's writing is strong throughout--he can really turn a phrase--but really shines when those two are involved. There are maybe like two too many coincidences, and definitely a couple of needless illicit romances, but really this was a straight-up good book. I predict that book groups will love this one. A-/B+.

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

2013 book 127

Juliet Marillier's Raven Flight
The sequel to Shadowfell (and the second book in Marillier's YA trilogy) is just as strong as the first, as protagonist Neryn must journey various places to get training for her special fairy-talking skills, so she can help fight the rebellion against the terrible king. One of the things I like most about this series is that, even though there is a pretty great romance, it's not the main thrust of the story--Neryn's learning, and growing, is. Plus there's a sassy girl warrior hanging around to protect her this time, and they have some great scenes together--yay friendship! So refreshing to read a YA fantasy book that isn't a girl pining over some guy in her every waking moment. And Marillier isn't afraid to pull punches either--the end is completely heartbreaking, and there's a lot of intensity throughout. I really can't wait to see how things wrap up. A/A-.

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

2013 book 126

C.S. Harris' What Darkness Brings
And finally we come to the latest Sebastian St Cyr mystery, which means I'll be looking for a new series to dive into. Sigh. The mystery here involves murder, diamonds, Napoleon, and the occult--yes, it is kind of all over the place. But I'm admittedly reading them just for the adventures of Sebastian and Hero, really. In this one, Hero investigates child laborers! (Well, children who apparently earn money sweeping street corners. I don't know. The Regency Era was weird.) This series is great and I hope the next one comes out soon. B+.

2013 book 125

Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl
Basically, when I got an e-galley of this, I was like "YES. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE." Because now I didn't have to wait till September to read a book by RAINBOW ROWELL (who has quickly become one of my favorite authors) about college freshman Cath, caught up in the fanfiction world of a Harry-Potter-Like character--a world she used to participate in with her identical twin, only now that they're in college, her twin only wants to do college-y things and refuses to be her roommate. I should say here that I was never super into fanfiction myself--I actively avoided Harry Potter fanfiction (wanting to keep the books pristine), though did occasionally read fanfiction for cartoons I liked, and currently read a fair amount of Teen Wolf fanfiction for some reason (I am a really weird kind of nerd). That being said, I was SUPER into the Harry Potter fandom and spent hours dissecting possible future plot points with friends, so can definitely relate to Cath, along with her general social awkwardness and willingness to rely on the internet for socialization. Luckily she has an awesomely hilarious roommate and a couple of cute guys--and a GREAT writing professor--to help her leave her dorm room sometimes--and deal with her family drama. As always with Rowell, the characterization is great and I was sad when the story ended because I wanted to spend more time with them. I had some mixed feelings about the insertion of Simon Snow stories--not the ones Cath wrote, but the "official" ones--the change in tone was just a bit jarring. But it totally fits with the world, so I'm not complaining. A-.

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

PS I will probably buy this in physical book form--which I NEVER do--just b/c Noelle Stevenson did the cover and it is sooooo cute.

2013 book 124

Sara Zarr's Sweethearts
I had to reread this for FYA book group tomorrow, because I didn't really remember the details anymore. I don't have much to add from last time (when clearly I didn't have anything to say either)--it's a perfectly good, if slightly depressing, YA book. I like the main character a lot, but no one else is really well-developed (on purpose, I assume, as a lot of it is about how little we know each other), including mystery man Cameron Quick (great name though).

2013 book 123

C.S. Harris' When Maidens Mourn
The problem with blazing through three of these in one day is that now I only have one left to read--at least until new ones are published. Anyway, in the 7th Sebastian St Cyr mystery, Sebastian is trying to solve the murder of a beautiful young scholar doing a Camelot-related archaeological dig--and also a friend of Hero's--and find the two little boys (her cousins) who were with her, and who seem to have vanished into thin air. Another engrossing one from Harris, with plenty of red herrings and a little romance. A.

2013 book 122

C.S. Harris' Where Shadows Dance
Seriously, I LOVE this series. This one finds Sebastian (and Hero!) on the case of a murdered diplomat, and they're a great team. There's also a lot of humor (some involving grave-robbing, but it manages to be funny anyway) and some great stuff with their personal lives (I'm trying not to be spoilery but it's hard!). A.

2013 book 121

C.S. Harris' What Remains of Heaven
I have to say, this series is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. In this one, Sebastian is asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury to investigate the murder of the Bishop of London, who was killed in a crypt while examining a thirty-year-old mummified murdered corpse. It's pretty crazy. The mystery is fine, as always, but I admit to being more interested in Sebastian's personal life (Harris doles out discoveries with GREAT timing) and in Hero Jarvis, awesome detective. A/A-.

2013 book 120

Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini's House of Secrets
When I found out that Columbus---director of the first two Harry Potter movies--was cowriting a middle-grade fantasy series with YA author Vizzini, I expected it to be cheesy, but hoped it would be fun. Unfortunately, it's neither cheesy nor fun, it's actually kind of terrible. Action scenes in every chapter don't make up for a complete lack of character development or world-building. I mean, look at the first Harry Potter book--the first third introduces us to Harry and makes us care, and then Rowling drops us into this insane place Hogwarts. Here, there aren't really any preliminaries; the family buys a magical house and things go haywire immediately, but somehow none of it is exciting. And it's a bummer, because the concept is interesting--three siblings sucked into the fictional world of a crazy occult author. But I really didn't enjoy any part of this. Maybe a kid would like it, but I don't really see why. C-.

2013 book 119

C.S. Harris' When Serpents Sleep
YES! I have been hoping that Hero Jarvis--a minor character in the first three books--would get to be more prominent--I mean, it seems a waste to have an intelligent woman with powerful relatives and not have her do anything besides occasionally snark at Sebastian. And she's all over this one, right away, as she enlists Sebastian to investigate an arson and murder at a home for reformed prostitutes, since she was there interviewing women for social justice purposes and witnessed the crime. But that is just the beginning! Tons of intrigue and drama and discussions of social class abound. I love it. A.

2013 book 118

C.S. Harris' When Mermaids Sing
The third Sebastian St Cyr mystery is GREAT--Sebastian gets involved in investigating the brutal murders of two young men who seem to have no connection, and also there's some crazy drama with his actress mistress. And also, Sebastian tries to hire a new valet. I can't really say anything more about the plot without giving everything away, but this is historical mystery writing at its finest. In fact, I'm now going to read the next one immediately. A/A-.

2013 book 117

Kelly Thompson's The Girl Who Would Be King
Just the other day on here I was lamenting the lack of novels involving superpowered people, and then remembered I've had this on my Kindle for like, forever. Thompson writes about comics and I enjoy her essays a lot, so when she did a Kickstarter for her superhero novel, I contributed. Anyway, it's about two teenage girls who come into their superhero powers, and realize they're sort of two halves of the same coin. Thompson manages to make the "bad guy" one pretty sympathetic, and obviously the good guy one ("good girl" sounds wrong) is likable, especially once she gets a kitten. Things alternate between their perspectives, and I wish each section had gone on longer, b/c it's kind of jarring to go between two stories like every two pages. And the end is . . . I had major mixed feelings about the end. But there's some interesting mythology, and it's about superheroes, so: B/B+.

2013 book 116

Jennifer Castle's You Look Different in Real Life
Oh dudes, I really loved this book. It's about a teenage girl who's been part of a Seven-Up series of documentaries, looking at her and four other kids at the ages of six and eleven--and now they're back to shoot them all at sixteen. But she was the breakout kid of the first two, and feels like now she's a disappointment, plus there has been some drama between some of the kids in the past five years, leading to some unpleasant interpersonal dynamics. It would be easy to say that what happens is predictable, but that's just because it fits together really well. I personally could have done without the romance angle, but what the heck, it's a supercute YA book and that is a silly thing to complain about. A.


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

2013 book 115

Brian Kimberling's Snapper
I can see why this is getting a lot of advance praise--the writing is really strong and I loved the narrative voice. The problem is that I didn't actually care about anything that happened. Well, that's not entirely true--I was pretty engaged in the first half, where a young Indiana man takes a job studying birds, and there's also an interesting interlude with his Texan aunt and uncle. But then, he's in love with a girl who's not that into him (and who is basically a manic pixie dream girl from his POV), and there's some stuff with his high school friends, and it's all slightly out of order and reads like a series of interconnected short stories. Like, each part is fine on its own (I loved the one where he spends time in jail), but put together, they don't really tell a whole story, or at least not one I was very interested in. This is another one of those books where I have no idea what the point of it was. I wish it had been more about the birds, that stuff was great. B.

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

2013 book 114

Stephanie Burgis' Stolen Magic
I was in the mood to read something on the lighter side, and was wishing there were more books in that series by Mary Robinette Kowal, when I remembered there was a new book in the Kat, Incorrigible series--which is basically the middle grade version of Kowal's series! This one is just as cute as its predecessors, as Kat and her family travel to her sister's fiance's family estate for the wedding--but she seems to have a mysterious follower with nefarious plans. Various other things happen and it's all very exciting and fun. This is the third book in a trilogy, BUT I really feel like Burgis could keep going with these, and I kind of hope she does. Yay for magical Regency stories. B+.

2013 book 113

NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names
I tend to like books about immigrants adjusting to the weird American way of life, and this was no exception. I will say that the first half, set in Zimbabwe and primarily featuring protagonist Darling getting into shenanigans (and dealing with more awful things) was a lot stronger than the second, which takes place in Michigan. I really felt like there could have been more to the story there, plus a couple of sections really read like completed short stories inserted into the text (they are excellent short stories though). Bulawayo is a GREAT writer and has a really strong sense of place (for both places), I just wanted there to be a little bit more going on here. And the final image of the book really put me off, and is unfortunately going to haunt me for the next little while. Now I need to read something completely fluffy. B/B+.

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

2013 book 112

Austin Grossman's You
Normally it wouldn't occur to me to read a book about a slightly douchey guy in 1997 who takes a job at a video game company founded by his high school friends--but I LOVED Grossman's last book (one of the great novels about superheroes) and so will read anything by him. And this was actually much more up my alley than, say, Ready Player One (though I think fans of that book will also like this one). Even though I'm ten years younger than the characters and my current gaming consists of obsessively playing Pixel People on my iPhone, I certainly spent much of my childhood engrossed in games like King's Quest IV and Leisure Suit Larry 3 (I still have no idea why I was allowed to play the latter), and so could relate to a lot of what was going on here.

And none of that has anything to do with the book, really! Like I said, it's about a guy who goes to work for a company founded by several people he was friends with in high school (one of whom is thankfully a girl), but hasn't kept in touch with. And one of the founders died in an accident and no one can figure out his code. And our protagonist discovers a really . . . problematic bug, and has to get to the bottom of everything. Also, he's hallucinating the four main characters from the games. So then he plays every game the company's made; at first, this is a nice look into video game history, but by the endless descriptions of outer space games I was waaaay over this conceit and ready for STUFF to happen. Luckily stuff happens, more or less, and the ending is fine.

Notes of interest:
--Grossman is a video game designer, which is why so much of this rings true.
--Grossman is Lev Grossman's twin brother.
--This is a serious dude book. The only girls are the awesome programmer (who serves in a literal support role, and whose personality/thoughts we don't see at all) and the requisite sexy but nice video game character. 

I liked this pretty well, but not nearly as much as the one about a supervillain. B.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

2013 book 111

Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl
Lady Doctor Book Club, always slightly behind the zeitgeist, chose this as our April book. I was happy enough to reread it, even knowing all the twists and turns--it's a pretty solid story and Flynn is great at suspense. I really would like to dissect this and my thoughts on it here, but spoilers. (When is it safe to talk publicly about plot twists? This book came out almost a year ago, but I know people who still want to read it and haven't yet, and don't want to ruin it for anyone.)

Weird, I just noticed this was also book 111 last year!

2013 book 110

Lisa Lutz's The Last Word
Soooo, the Isabel Spellman series is really one of my favorites, to the point where it apparently has turned me into a 'shipper. I've never been a 'shipper before, but I firmly believe that Isabel and Henry BELONG TOGETHER, and this has colored my feelings about the last couple of books a bit. Which I admit isn't fair--the stories are just as entertaining as ever. The mysteries here (an embezzlement, among other things) are a bit easier to figure out--but then again, this series has never been just about the mysteries, but about the eccentric family and their antics, and there's plenty of that going on here (I did wish Isabel would be slightly less clueless, but it's believable enough). And I was caught up enough that I stayed up till 1 am reading it, which I NEVER do. Despite the title, I am fairly sure that this isn't the last book in the series--or at least I HOPE it's not. Even if Izzy and Henry aren't destined for one another, I still love these characters and Lutz's hilarious and engaging writing style, and will probably be rerereading the whole series again soon. B.

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

2013 book 109

Jessica Day George's Wednesdays in the Tower
The sequel to the very cute Tuesdays at the Castle is just as adorable, with the magical castle acting even weirder than usual, as new rooms appear and disappear--and Celie discovers an unusual egg, inspiring her brother and herself to do RESEARCH! There's also a menacing wizard and a pretty great cliffhanger ending--I really look forward to the next volume. The characters in this series are likable and funny, and like all of George's novels, the family has really realistic and nice relationships with one another. She is rapidly become one of my favorite reliably great authors. A-.


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

2013 book 108

Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings
So, this book has been getting a ton of buzz. And I've liked the other books I've read by Wolitzer pretty well. But . . . this completely fell apart for me in the third and final part. The book is described as being about six teenagers who meet at an artsy summer camp in the 70s and dub themselves "The Interestings," and then we flash back and forward from the 70s to 2009 and all the years in between. But really the book is only about three of them--Jules, the typical middle-class character enraptured by her rich and charming friends; Ethan, the very talented animator (who creates a Simpsons-esque show); and Ash, who doesn't actually have a personality in retrospect, but is a theater director. A fourth, Jonah, has a pretty fascinating story, but he doesn't come into it as much. And I'm not even getting into the other two, who are cast out of things early on after a gross and terrible incident (and the loss of Cathy is particularly disgusting). I was wrapped up in the story anyway, and Wolitzer's prose is clever and funny, and she's saying some interesting thing about teenage friendships and self-perception, but man, that ending was kind of ridiculous in every way. B.

2013 book 107

Seanan McGuire's Velveteen vs the Junior Super-Patriots
YOU GUYS. I cannot BELIEVE that none of you told me that Seanan McGuire (an author I like) wrote a superhero book (a genre I am way into, and there are NOT enough novels about superheroes). I could have read this MONTHS ago. Actually, since upon investigation it seems to be a series of short stories from McGuire's website (though they all come together to form a cohesive whole), I probably could have read this even earlier than that. Anyway, it's the story of Velma, aka Velveteen, who was once a member of a junior superhero squad, but decided to get out of the life when she turned 18 (and the corporation that owned the squad was no longer her legal guardian). PS, she has the best powerset ever, she can bring stuffed animals and other toys to life to fight for her! THERE IS A HELPFUL STUFFED BUNNY. Seriously, how had no one told me about this before?! A/A-.

2013 book 106

Gail Godwin's Flora
Godwin's latest, after Unfinished Desires, is kind of one of those novels where a sad, lonely, and overly imaginative little girl causes a lot of trouble without really meaning to. (Saying so isn't a spoiler--there's plenty of foreshadowing that the summer this story takes place won't have a very happy ending.) Anyway, the deal here is that ten-year-old Helen, raised primarily by her recently deceased grandmother, has her older cousin Flora staying with her for the summer while her father is working on a construction project at Oak Ridge (the story takes place during WWII, if that gives a hint about what kind of project he might be doing). Then there's a polio outbreak, and the two are confined in Helen's crazy old house in the NC mountains, with only a cleaning lady and a grocery delivery guy to break the monotony. Helen is mildly dislikable, or at least is purposefully unpleasant, but is still a really sympathetic character, and I like Godwin's writing a lot. Things are somewhat predictable, but I didn't mind too much. Quick read, maybe good for those more serious-minded summer readers. B+.

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

2013 book 105

Amelia Williams' Summer Falls
After yesterday's birthday celebrations, I was too tired for anything that required a lot of brain activity, so decided to try this Doctor Who tie-in e-book (it briefly appeared in the first episode of this new half-season, "The Bells of St John"). It's cute, about a girl moving to a new town and then getting caught up in a race to stop The Lord of Winter from doing nefarious things. It reads pretty well as a supposedly-historical middle grade fantasy adventure (with plenty of little tongue-in-cheek references). The actual author seems to be Who producer James Goss, but it's billed to Amy so I'll let her have it. B+.

2013 book 104

Christianna Brand's Heads You Lose
Brand wrote a bunch of mysteries in the 40s and 50s that are being reissued--this is the first in her Inspector Cockrill series, where the Inspector has to solve a particularly grotesque murder with only six suspects. I love these closed-rooms sort of mysteries, but was REALLY put off by all the casual anti-Semitism. What is it with British writers in the 40s and 50s and their need to include disparaging remarks about Jewish people? (One of the characters is Jewish--two characters who are sort of jerks make comments about him, but the author/narrator's descriptions and even the comments of his wife and her family often refer to Jews and money, it's gross.) The mystery itself is pretty engaging--I correctly guessed the killer but there were enough red herrings to have my doubting myself. Still, I can't give this more than a B b/c come on, lay off the Jews.

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

2013 book 102

Lauren Beukes' The Shining Girls
Sooooooo, this book is about . . . a time traveling serial killer, with a magical house. And one of his victims, a sassy newspaper intern in the 1990s, who's determined to track him down and stop him! That might sound facetious, but actually, I really liked this. Beukes is great with suspense, and made me really care about his victims, though they only appeared in one chapter each. And Kirby, the one trying to find him (using RESEARCH! And NEWSPAPER LIBRARIANS! So awesome!), with the help of her sportswriter mentor, is super awesome. Warning: the serial killer sometimes does bad things to animals (which are somehow harder to read than the much worse things he does to young women). Anyway, this book is crazy and great, if you are into crazy and great things that are super dark and weird. Which I am. A-.


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

2013 book 101

Robin LaFever's Dark Triumph
The second book in the His Fair Assassin trilogy is, well, REALLY dark. I mean, even compared to the first one, and this is a series about a convent dedicated to the god of death that trains girls to be assassins, and they're in a pretty bad situation, politically and historically speaking. Anyway, this one focuses on one of the side characters from the first one, who was raised in an absolutely terrible home by her monstrous father and abusive brother, and is now back there as an assassin/spy. There's also a romance, of course, and though the guy was VERY likable, I was not feeling this for most of the book (by the end it was working a little bit better). For one thing, it comes kind of out of nowhere; they're on a journey (it's always a journey) and then all of a sudden she is like "I love him." Seriously, out of nowhere. It gets better from there but is not a strong start. Plus, I admit to hoping that JUST ONCE in a YA book, the guy and the girl on a journey would just be awesome buds and warriors together (these two are awesome warriors together). There are not enough male-female friendships in YA literature. That's not really relevant, here, I guess. This book was fine. I'll read the third one for sure. B/B+.

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.