2013 book 255

Fiona MacFarlane's The Night Guest
This is one of those excellent, but mildly depressing, books about which I'm never quite sure how to feel. It centers on Ruth, a widow whose two sons live far away. One night she thinks she hears a tiger in her house. Soon after, a woman shows up at her door, claiming to be from the government, sent to help take care of her. At first you're just a little bit worried about Ruth, but gradually the worry increases until you're a hopeless ball of anxiety. In that regard, MacFarlane is very effective, though it wasn't a very enjoyable experience for me, personally. This book will make all of you call your elderly relatives. B/B+.

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

2013 book 254

Gail Carriger's Soulless
I've been wanting to reread this series for a while, and was definitely in the mood for something on the fluffy side anyway. In retrospect, I was in willful denial about the steampunk aspects of this first one, though they are definitely more prominent in the later books. But Carriger's light touch and sense of humor make the steampunk parts much more bearable. I love these books.

2013 book 253

Lauren Oliver's Panic
Although I've enjoyed all of Lauren Oliver's books, I was really glad to see her make a return to contemporary YA (as opposed to more fantastical/dystopian YA), because Before I Fall is seriously one of my favorite books. I actually wasn't sure what this would be like--the description says something about high schoolers playing a high-stake game, which I worried would be Hunger-Games-y, but it's just a serious of increasingly intense (and dangerous) challenges dreamed up by bored and reckless small-town teenagers. The story alternates narration between Heather, who enters on a whim after her boyfriend dumps her, but then realizes how much the winnings could help her change her life, and Dodge, who enters for REVENGE!!!!!!!! (The caps and exclamation points are justified.) The teenagers are all really well-done characters and the games are believable, though most of the adults in the story are not. But they're not really the focus here. In all, this was a quick and somewhat insane read, though I mean that in the best possible way. A-.

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

2013 book 252

Trish Doller's Where the Stars Still Shine
So, this book is about a teenage girl whose mother kidnapped her when she was four and they've been on the run ever since--until her mother is pulled over for a busted taillight and arrested. Now Callie has been reunited with the father she doesn't remember (and his new family) and a million other relatives from their tightly knit Greek community. Also, there's a hot guy who works on a boat. I really liked Callie as a character and this book was immensely readable--it's very reminiscent of the darker Sarah Dessen books, which I mean as a compliment, and I'd definitely recommend it to Dessen fans. It could go a little deeper, especially regarding Callie's relationship with her relatives, but I liked this a lot. A-.


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

2013 book 251

Laurie R. King's The Bones of Paris
After not really being into the last couple of King's Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell books, I was excited to read something entirely different from her. This new mystery involves an American PI in France in 1929, trying to find a missing girl, and hobnobbing with the usual notable names of the day (Hemingway, Man Ray, etc. There is a weird amount of Gertrude Stein dissing, too). Things only get more complicated when he encounters a woman from his past. The central story is pretty solid, and the seamy dark side of the Parisian art world is kind of fascinating, but everything just moved SO SLOWLY. The descriptions of various weird Surrealist theater pieces and otherwise creepy artworks could have been cut waaaaay down, and in general a lot of this could have been edited out for a more streamlined mystery. I think King is going for a more literary mystery thing here, but I found a lot of the descriptions tedious. On the plus side, there's a character who's basically the human equivalent of Lying Cat from Saga! B.

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

2013 book 250

Megan McCafferty's Jessica Darling's It List
OK, I'm just gonna say, first of all, I LOVE the Jessica Darling books, and was glad to revisit Jessica and her world. But a cynical part of me feels a little bit like McCafferty bombed a little bit with her dystopian duology (Bumped and Thumped) and wanted to get back to something she was comfortable with. I'm not sure a prequel to the Jessica Darling series was exactly the way to go. On the one hand, like I said, it's great to revisit Jessica and get her origin story. On the other, a lot of this was covered in the books themselves, and seeing a Jessica that hasn't grown up (in the sense that we see her maturing and becoming stronger in the original books) yet feels a little bit like going backwards. But it is all very charming, in the usual Jessica Darling way. I guess this is aimed more at a middle-grade audience--it's all about Jessica starting middle school--but it doesn't feel like McCafferty is writing down to them (a problem I had with Bumped). And she totally nails that middle school feeling. Looks like a sequel is due out next fall and yes, I'll probably be reading it. B+.

2013 book 249

Sarah Rees Brennan's Untold
I have actually been anticipating this book and dreading it in equal measure--I really liked the first in this series, but the end made me very angry/upset. I really wasn't sure what to expect from this installment. And even halfway through, I couldn't tell if I loved it or hated it or hated it because I loved it or loved hating it, or what. I mean, for one thing, there's the ridiculously eloquent dialogue; it's like all the teenagers have stepped out of a 1940s movie featuring fast-talking dames. And I kind of like that, while recognizing its ridiculousness. And then there's the fact that all the teenagers are SO STUPID. Every time they start to have an honest conversation, it devolves into a bunch of lies and idiocy because of FEELINGS. I just wanted to shout, "Nut up, Kami!" and "Come ON, Jared!" on like every page, and then reach into the book and give everyone a good shake. I hate books with stupid miscommunications and misunderstandings that could be cleared up with one sentence, but aren't for annoying plot reasons. Things do get better in the second half in this regard, though there are still some moments where I was like "ARGH." Brennan is clearly going for plot points that make people feel that way, though, and I'm just not sure how to feel about that.

And that's not even getting into the plot, which involves evil sorcerers and slightly less evil sorcerers fighting for the town, or whatever. I don't know. B.

2013 book 248

Ursula Dubosarsky's The Golden Day
This was an excellent, if mildly weird, novel about a group of schoolgirls in 1967 whose teacher disappears while they're on a (frankly ill-advised) field trip. Really strong characterizations of the girls, and I actually really liked the resolution. It may be a short novel, but it packs a punch. A/A-.

2013 book 247

Patrick Ness' More Than This
I want to write my usual little review of this book, but instead am paralyzed by indecision over how to tag it without being spoiler-y! Sigh. These tags are inadequate.

Anyway. Ness' latest YA book (he has an adult novel coming out in January) focuses on teenage Seth, who drowns in the opening pages . . . and then wakes up outside his childhood home, only the whole town seems to be abandoned. Things get progressively more heartbreaking and insane from there, kind of in alternate waves. I thought the big reveal was a bit silly, but Seth is a really well-written character, and the flashbacks to his life are really well-done. All the young people we meet are kind of incredible. But, yeah, comparisons to a famous movie of the 90s make it hard to take it as seriously as we should. B/B+.

2013 book 246

Eve Harris' The Marrying of Chani Kaufman
It took me a few days to read this book--not because it was super long, or because I didn't like it; in fact, it was excellent and I loved it. I think it's because I related too strongly to and felt too much for the characters. The story begins at the wedding of Chani Kaufman and Baruch Levy, a pair of young Charedi (super religious) Jews in London, and flashes back to their betrothal. Their story is contrasted with that of the Rabbi performing the ceremony and his wife, the Rebbitzin tutoring Chani on being a Jewish wife, as their marriage becomes increasingly troubled. Books about very fum Jews always give me weirdly complicated emotions; I spent a chunk of my high school years hanging out with Yeshiva girls and knew a lot of girls like Chani (though slightly less sheltered) and have seen this environment firsthand. So I can say that Harris completely nails it. Plus, it's extremely well-written, has some really funny parts, plenty of touching parts, and is all-around great. I mean, it was longlisted for the Booker for a reason. The reason is that it's awesome. A.

2013 book 245

Mary Miley's The Impersonator
It's 1924, and a young vaudeville actress has been hired to impersonate a long-missing girl, so she and the girl's uncle can claim the inheritance. I actually thought this was going to be a straight-up historical novel, but the actress almost immediately encounters a murdered woman and gets caught up in trying to solve the mystery--and find out what happened to the girl she's impersonating. WHICH of her genteel but money-grubbing relatives or hangers-on could be the killer?? Great historical details here, especially regarding the vaudeville/acting life and bootlegging. The mystery itself is a little bit over-the-top, and the protagonist's crush on a supposed relative is squicky (even though the reader knows they're not really related), but the characters are strong and I think I liked the way everything wrapped up. B/B+.

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

2013 book 244

Emma Chapman's How to Be a Good Wife
I never quite know how to evaluate books that are objectively good and affecting when they are just so UPSETTING. My feelings here are also tempered by the official book description, which compares this to two other recent literary/thriller type books, and those comparisons really give the game away earlier than Chapman perhaps intended. (On the other hand, strongly suspecting what happened adds a lot more tension to the narrative--and there was plenty of tension already.) Briefly: this is the story of a woman who stops taking her mysterious medication, and starts hallucinating--or remembering?--mysterious things. I was completely frustrated and angered by the ending, and can already see book clubs screaming about it.

This may be the vaguest review I have ever written! But I don't want to give anything away. It's a strong, compelling, but ultimately kind of depressing story. One that I want to yell about. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 15th.

2013 book 243

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Rereading this book raises a few questions I've always had about this series:
a) How on earth does a romance bloom between a giant and a human??? Especially based on what we see of the giants later in the series. I'm not even just wondering about the . . . mechanics. Like, how does one strike up a conversation with a giant? You wouldn't run into one at the grocery store. Actually, do wizards have grocery stores? Where do they get, like, canned goods? Do they use canned goods?
b) It's made clear here that using any of the Unforgivable Curses = a life sentence in Azkaban. Harry definitely tries them out in later books, but doesn't get in any trouble. Is it b/c he's using them on, like, Bellatrix Lestrange? (It's said that Crouch allowed the use of Unforgivable curses on Dark Wizards--so was that rule still in effect?)

2013 book 242

Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave
I was, let's say, not excited to read this for FYA book club. Aliens are not really my bag. It started off not-terrible--I wasn't into the narrative voice, but teenage Cassie, alone and on the run after a multi-pronged alien invasion, was interesting enough, and there was plenty of action. Then like a quarter of the way through, the story starts to be narrated by a guy who is clearly Cassie's high-school crush and I was just like, seriously?? And every other part after that annoyed me even more. An alien assassin thinks Cassie is too cool to kill! Then she meets a different cute teenage boy and instantly becomes the most annoying character ever to exist. And that's all just in the first third of the book, before the ridiculous coincidences start piling up. I feel like Yancey is trying to make some philosophical points about humanity, but damned if I can tell what he meant. This book was extremely stupid. C.

2013 book 241

Lauren Grodstein's The Explanation for Everything
Grodstein's latest, after the excellent Friend of the Family, is another strong and readable novel. It was actually amazingly readable, considering how many parts of it involved things that I personally find grating (student-teacher relationships, people who are into intelligent design [can't you believe in God AND evolution?? I do, so it's certainly not impossible!], an incorrect description of the academic grant application process [sorry, but I work with grants at a university! Professors don't just directly submit to the NSF and you certainly can't be still writing the scientific portions a week before it's due! There are CHANNELS and OFFICES you have to go through and SIGNATURES needed from the school!]).

ANYWAY.

The book is about a biology professor at a small (and apparently not very reputable) school, a widower with two daughters, who teacher a class on evolution called There Is No God (modeled after his Princeton professor mentor's most famous course). When a student approaches him about doing an independent study on intelligent design, he finds himself exploring the idea of faith. Grodstein absolutely nails writing people who are basically total messes and has academic politics (and neighborhood politics) down to a T. I'm actually still not sure how I feel about where things end up, but this was really good. A-/B+.

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

2013 book 240

Daniel Woodrell's The Maid's Version
I've never read anything by Woodrell before--he's getting much more hype now that Jennifer Lawrence is super famous: she received her first Oscar nom for Winter's Bone, based on the book by Woodrell. Much like Winter's Bone (the movie--like I said, I haven't read the book), this is a powerful, but harrowing, story. And it's surprisingly dense for such a short novel. It's narrated by young Alek, whose grandmother is relating the story of a terrible tragedy where a dance hall blew up, killing many people inside. But it's also the story of their family, and their town, and the family his grandmother worked for, and a few of the people who died that day, especially since the narrative moves back and forth in time, kind of all willy-nilly. I will also say that when the truth behind the disaster finally comes, it's . . . anti-climactic. From a literary perspective, this is strong, but I didn't really ENJOY it. B/B+.

2013 book 239

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Sometimes when you're sick and cranky, only Harry Potter will do! Man, I am still angry about the movie version of this and how they never say that Harry's Patronus is the same animal his dad could turn into. That connection is like the whole point of the book! Well, that and Hermione being awesome.

2013 book 238

Tamora Pierce's Battle Magic
In the last couple of books in the Circle series, Pierce has referenced a war involving Pierce's Imperial China analogue that Briar, Rosethorn, and Evvy fought in/survived, and I guess she decided to write a whole book about the war, even though we already know our main characters make it out mostly unscathed. Actually, this is stronger than some of the other books in this series--there's a lot more going on, especially since the three characters split up for a while. But the second half of the book is mostly getting ready for battles, and battling, and I just think reading about battles is boring. Plus, some cats are killed by the bad guys just to show how bad they are. It's entirely unnecessary, since they're also torturing a 12-year-old girl (not a spoiler--this is referenced in the earlier books). Gratuitous animal murder is an automatic downgrade. B/B-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 24th.

2013 book 237

Tamora Pierce's Melting Stones
I figured I should read this before the new book in the Circle series comes out, even though I haven't been super excited about the last couple books in this series--and this was no exception. I like the characters plenty--it just seems like not really a lot happens in these books unless it's directly promoting personal growth or averting the one bad plot thing that's going on. Because there's only ever one plot thing going on. Anyway, in this one stone mage Evvy accompanies Rosethorn and some new character to an island to find out why parts of the land are dying. There are also some adorable pirate orphans and this series' best non-mage character (or at least, most competent non-mage character) to date. I kind of wish there was more to the story though. B.

2013 book 236

Dara Horn's A Guide for the Perplexed
Well, this book just warmed my history-and-Judaism-loving little heart! Horn's latest (after All Other Nights and In The Image, both of which I loved) has two main parallel storylines--the first, a sort of modern retelling of the story of Joseph from the Bible (I fully expect someone in the future to write a college term paper on the symbolism here--the names alone!) involves genius software developer Josie Ashkenazi, who's invented a program called Genizeh that is like social media ++, and who is convinced by her sister to go to Egypt to do a project with the Alexandria library, where she is then kidnapped (!!). The second involves awesome scholar Solomon Schechter, the namesake of like every Jewish day school, as he (and two Scottish sisters, who are amazing and hilarious here) uncovers the famous Cairo Genizeh. There's also a whole thread involving the Rambam, author of the original Guide for the Perplexed (whose papers were found in the Cairo Genizeh). That all may sound confusing or convoluted, but Horn's novel is entirely readable. She deftly draws all these narrative threads together into one completely engrossing story. I LOVED this. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 9th.

2013 book 235

Meg Cabot's The Bride Wore Size 12
The latest entry in the Heather Wells series (also known as the series with my least-favorite titles) has more murder and mayhem at the dorm where Heather works, mainly centering on a rich Middle Eastern prince who's taken up residence there. She's also about to get married, but thankfully for me (who isn't interested in reading novels about weddings), there's not too much plot devoted to wedding planning or whatever. Anyway, there's a great sense of humor, as always, plus a long-awaited confrontation with Heather's crappy mom! Great stuff, perfect read on a day where I'm coming down with a cold and need something fun. A-/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 24th.

2013 book 234

Seanan McGuire's Chimes at Midnight
The seventh October Daye book (they're not really mysteries at this point) find Toby and her companions trying to stop a bad fairy drug from being sold, which leads to Toby getting exiled . . . and starting a revolution. It's all very action-packed, but with McGuire's trademark sense of humor. I seriously love this series--total entertainment. A-.

2013 book 233

Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project
 I'm not sure what I was expecting when I started this book about an Australian genetics professor (who clearly has Asperger's, but seems unaware of the fact, though the text makes it obvious to the reader) who decides to create a questionnaire to find the perfect candidate to be his wife. And then a friend/colleague throws a young woman (the titular Rosie) looking for information on her biological father his way. The main beats of the story are pretty transparent, but the story was still TOTALLY CHARMING. Don and Rosie are both fully realized and likable characters, and I loved their interactions. The supporting characters are all really well-done too, as is the investigation on Rosie's father. This was completely delightful. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 1st.

2013 book 232

Matthew Quick's Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
Quick is the author of, I guess, Silver Linings Playbook and some other books, but this one doesn't make me want to read those. I mean, it made me get all teary at an airport, but I feel like it's a book I've read several times before. It's about troubled teen Leonard, who's planning to murder a classmate (for reasons we don't find out till like 3/4 of the way through, and though I found the reasons very upsetting, they weren't presented in a way to make them, like, powerful) and then kill himself. Leonard is a typical fictional troubled teen, where he's the only one who's DIFFERENT and the only one who can see through all the BULLSHIT and CONFORMITY. It's too bad Leonard didn't grow up in the 90s; we hated conformity and surely he'd have found some peers to relate to. There's also the typical cool/okay teacher, and the old neighbor who gets him into Humphrey Bogart movies. It's all pretty  . . .  I don't want to say predictable, but there aren't really any surprises (I was mildly surprised by some things the mother does, but not in a good way). Anyway, this was a perfectly fine book, if you want to read one of those books where a troubled teen plans a suicide, but I wasn't really into it. And there were waaaaayyyy too many footnotes. B/B-.

2013 book 231

Cristin Bishara's Relativity
I am super into books with parallel universes (feel free to recommend some!), so was excited to read this YA take on the subject. Teenage Ruby--a major physics nerd--has moved from California to Ohio after her father gets married, where she discovers a magical tree (okay) that allows her to enter other versions of her life. I can't decide whether I like that Bishara attempts to give a science-y reason for why this happens, or whether it was unnecessary. I definitely liked that romance was kind of on the backburner (though the love interest was very appealing) and the focus was more on Ruby and her family (and the different iterations thereof). Things get pretty intense, in a good way. An interesting and quick read. B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 10th.

2013 book 230

Tarquin Hall's The Case of the Love Commandos
The fourth Vish Puri mystery is just as delightful as the previous three. It starts off with Vish in a funk, having been unable to locate a whole bunch of missing jewelry. Then one of his assistants, who moonlights with an organization that helps couples from different castes run away together (the titular Love Commandos), enlists his aid in finding a missing young man. Though things quickly become more complicated. Meanwhile, his intrepid Mummy-Ji is on the trail of a suspicious man, who might be a pickpocket, or a murderer! I kind of like it when Mummy and Vish interact more, though they are still pretty hilarious together in this one. B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 8th.

2013 book 229

Jillian Cantor's Margot
As a Jewish woman, I kind of have mixed feelings about books where Anne Frank secretly survived the Holocaust (ok, there are only two of these that I know of, but I didn't really like either). Cantor twists the idea a bit by having Anne's older sister Margot survive, instead; I appreciated her efforts to bring life to a historical figure about whom little is known, but analyzing the impulse leads me to some cynical places. THAT SAID, this book is really readable! I couldn't get into Shalom Auslander's recent Anne Frank book at all, but completely devoured this one, which finds Margot Frank living in Philly in 1959, working at a law office and posing as a Gentile. Too much of the story revolves around her lovelife for my own particular tastes, but there is plenty about memory and family and religion and survivor's guilt to balance things out. It feels mean to say that this is a feel-good Holocaust survivor story, but the end really makes it seem that way. But the author is a fellow Penn State grad, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt on this one, and conclude by saying that it's all very engrossing. B/B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 3rd.

2013 book 228

Chelsea M. Campbell's The Trials of Renegade X
The adventures of Renegade X continue thanks to Kickstarter! And I couldn't be more delighted about that. The sequel is just as charming as the first one, featuring more of Damien being caught between the world of superheroes and supervillains. Only he's accidentally turned his best friend and sidekick kind of . . . crazy evil. And there's plenty of high school drama to deal with. And a brand new power! So much awesome action and adventure and romance and family and friendship. Plus there are a couple of dangling plot points, which gives me great hope that we'll hear more from Renegade X. A/A-.

2013 book 227

Chelsea M. Campbell's The Rise of Renegade X
This is still one of my favorite novels about superheroes--well, to be more specific, about the son of a supervillain mad scientist who finds out his father is a superhero, and is forced to go live with him (and his family) for 6 weeks to give the ol' hero-ing thing a go. Not all part of this are believable (even for something involving superheroes), but Damien's struggle between the two worlds is really compelling, as well as being pretty hilarious. Campbell has a great narrative voice.

2013 book 226

Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland
I love Lahiri's writing--and have read The Namesake several times--so was very much looking forward to a new novel from her. This was a slow starter, though; I wasn't really interested in the characters till about a quarter of the way through. The story involves a pair of Indian brothers--one of whom gets involved in the radical politics of the 60s and 70s (and marries a philosophy student),  while the other goes to America to study oceanography. At first, reading this felt like something of a slog, but an unexpected plot point made me much more invested, and I liked it a lot after that. Lahiri's writing is superb as always (the last section is particularly lyrical), and her characters are GREAT, even when they're doing things that aren't very sympathetic (Subhash and Bela are particularly compelling, though). I think this will be a book group favorite--there are a LOT of things to discuss. It took me a while to get into, but by the end, I was sold. B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 24th.

2013 book 225

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
I want to reread books 3 and 4 for some reason, but I have this weird compulsion that won't let me read them out of order, or skip one, so I'm rereading this one too (I reread the first a couple weeks ago). This is kind of my least favorite--which isn't to say there isn't stuff to like! So much Weasley awesomeness, plenty of foreshadowing, etc. But Lockhart and Dobby are just so annoying. (Book 7 makes me regret saying that about Dobby, but it's true in this one.)

2013 book 224

Adam Langer's The Salinger Contract
I really loved Langer's Crossing California, but wasn't too interested in his last couple of novels. But this one! It's a literary mystery/thriller--one of my favorite genres--involving actual literature! Our protagonist is  . . . Adam Langer (although he is less successful than the author Adam Langer, the two seem to have a lot in common), who gets caught up in a crazy and amazing story when an author friend of his accepts an unusual proposal. This is a really quick, engaging, and fun read, and hits a lot of my personal buttons--and I doubt I'll be the only one. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about the ending, but that doesn't really lessen my enjoyment any. Super, super fun. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 17th.

2013 book 223

Kate Manning's My Notorious Life
Apparently books based on REAL HISTORICAL FACTS are the hot new thing; this is like the third or fourth one I've read recently. It manages to read more like an actual novel and less like a bunch of history crammed into a novel than some of the others, though. (I did worry that it was going to turn into a polemic on Why Abortion Should Be Legal, and it does kind of skirt that line at times.) Anyway, this one is about an apparently notorious New York midwife in the mid-1860s; the story starts off strong with her childhood in extreme poverty, as she and her siblings are sent out West on an orphan train. She works her way up the ranks through some luck and through intelligence/experience, which is all pretty compelling. I will say that a large chunk of the second half involves her railing against newspapers and their accusations against her; I understand that this novel is being presented as a memoir, and someone writing a memoir certainly would want to refute accusations against them, but it got a little bit boring. And I was really discomfited by the relationship between the protagonist and her husband--they're awful to each other. It's really her relationship with her sister that was the heart of the story, to me. This is a solid work of historical fiction, for sure, with a satisfying ending. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 10th.

2013 book 222

Diana Wynne Jones' The Pinhoe Egg
The final Chrestomanci book revisits the characters of the first one with some new additions--a bunch of witches in a nearby town determined to keep their secrets from Chrestomanci. And they've started a feud. It's all delightful, and the unicorns and griffins make it even better. Solid and entertaining story.

2013 book 221

Diana Wynne Jones' Conrad's Fate
I liked this one slightly better than last time I read it, but it's not anything particularly exciting. I do like the focus on the staff of a Count's house, especially once a bunch of actors get hired; it's just not particularly compelling.

2013 book 220

Chelsea Cain's Let Me Go
I think this is the 6th book in the Gretchen Lowell series, and it's high on the entertainment factor, if low on an overarching plot. I mean, a lot HAPPENS, but it feels more like a novel involving serial killers than a straight-up mystery. There's serial killer Gretchen doing stuff, and stuff with a drug kingpin, and everyone is just kind of along for the ride. The wrap-up is stronger than the set-up, for sure. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy it--I did! But at a certain point, I feel like the author can't help but run out of things to do with Gretchen. She's bordering on unbelievable here--medical skills, hacking skills, surveillance skills, and what basically amounts to ninja skills. Basically, this was a little bit silly. But action-packed and fun? B.

2013 book 219

Diana Wynne Jones' Witch Week
Note to self: this is your least favorite of the Chrestomanci books and you find it a little bit tiresome--don't bother to reread it again anytime soon.

2013 book 218

Diana Wynne Jones' The Magicians of Caprona
This Chrestomanci book is as enjoyable as the first two; it involves two Italian feuding families full of musicians and magicians and the children who realize they have to work together to defeat an evil enchanter! Plus awesome cats!

2013 book 217

Ryan North's To Be or Not to Be
A choose-your-own-adventure version of Hamlet is clearly the best idea ever, which is why this raised over half a million dollars on Kickstarter. And yes, I'm counting it toward my book totals, b/c it's over 700 pages long (some are illustrations, but still) and it took me more than a few hours to go through. I'm like 97% sure I got to every ending thanks to a system involving lots of page-corner-turning and several bookmarks! And it was so worth it--this was REALLY well done. I have never chuckled so much at Hamlet! Granted, I have never actually chuckled at Hamlet before, to my knowledge, but I certainly appreciated it much more this time around. I also liked how North editorialized about some of the choices that stick to the text, particularly the ones involving Ophelia. But there's also ghost time travel and a lot of swordfighting pirates, for those who don't want to be judged for making sexist choices as Hamlet would. It's all very clever with a GREAT execution. Plus illustrations by all the awesome indie comics people of the day! How can this not get an A?

2013 book 216

Diana Wynne Jones' The Lives of Christopher Chant
I always think the second Chrestomanci book is stronger than the first--there's just a lot more going on, with all the world-hopping and various people and their machinations and an awesome girl-goddess. And Christopher is more likable than Eric, or at least less wishy-washy. But let's be honest, I read these books for the girls like Millie.

2013 book 215

Diana Wynne Jones' Charmed Life
I've been so cranky about books lately--nothing seems appealing. The only cure is to fall into a series you already love! It'd been a while since I revisited the Chrestomanci series and this really hit the spot. Of course, the only thing I really remembered was the end, so I kept waiting for all the reveals to just HAPPEN already.  It doesn't matter though; this whole series is charming.

2013 book 214

Natalie Brown's The Lovebird
I only finished this book because I'm so tired of leaving books unfinished (nothing seems appealing these days). It's about a limp noodle of a young girl who falls for her Latin professor, and he then introduces her to the world of animal activism. (I will say that Brown totally nails the college student activism scene, full of well-meaning, but idiotic, students.) Then she ends up having to go on the run; at one point she makes a quip about being a white girl who will be saved by magical Native Americans. BUT, that is exactly what happens, and it's like, what, come on. The epilogue also feels totally tacked on. I didn't realize this was women's fiction, but that's what the second half turned out to be. Not really my thing. B/B-.

2013 book 213

Jaime Lee Moyer's Delia's Shadow
So there's kind of a lot going on here: it's a few years after the San Francisco earthquake, and our first main character is a young woman (Delia) who can see ghosts, and is being haunted by a woman who was murdered (Shadow). Our other main character is Delia's best friend's fiance's partner--they're detectives trying to find a serial killer! These two storylines quickly intersect, obviously. I will say that some plotlines are fairly predictable, and some of the dialogue is awkward/overly exposition-y, but the characters and setting are charming, and the mystery part is suitably creepy. Things get a little bit overwrought by the end, but it was a pretty fun read. B/B+.

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

2013 book 212

Rhys Bowen's Heirs and Graces
Yay, finally a new book in the Royal Spyness series! In this one, Victoria's great-granddaughter Georgie finds herself being enlisted by a dowager duchess to teach the new heir--who's grown up as an average Australian--some social graces. But then! The current Duke is murdered! With the heir's Australian hunting knife! I thought I had totally predicted the killer but was way off, much to my surprise and delight. I really enjoy this series--Georgie is an interesting heroine, I like the historical setting and reading about the foibles of upper-crust British society, and the tone is always nice and light (even when there's murder involved). I wish there were more series like this one. A-.

2013 book 211

Meg Rosoff's Picture Me Gone
I've really enjoyed Rosoff's books, particularly her most recent one, There Is No Dog;  she's one of those writers who inhabits a completely different world with every one. This one is smaller in scale than her last, but is much more affecting--it's about a strangely observant 12-year-old London girl who travels to America with her father to visit his long-time best friend . . . only the friend has left home and is currently missing. So they have to roadtrip around to try and find him. Secrets and lies are uncovered, but it's the narrative voice that really makes this great. Mila is amazing, and I loved her relationship with her parents. It's always really nice to see a loving, non-dysfunctional family in fiction (even if everyone else's marriages seem to be falling apart). Really an enjoyable and very moving read. A-.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 3rd.

2013 book 210

Pamela Dean's Tam Lin
This is one of those books people have been recommending to me for YEARS, but man, it is BORING. Seriously, so boring. The fairy tale stuff doesn't get started until like the last ten percent of the book, and before that is just a bunch of 70s college students dealing with a love octagon; most of the dudes are creepy Classics majors (the school has a weird Classics cult) (also they are obviously all fairies/dealing with fairy drama) who keep pretentiously quoting poetry at each other. There's also a very extended scene involving a play they're putting on that I found completely unbearable, because it just goes on FOREVER. Symbolism can be shorter. I really wish the editors of the Fairy Tale Series this is a part of had taken a much firmer hand with this one. The main character, Janet, is likable and proactive enough, but I don't really care about her college classes and essays or her dining hall preferences. And that's ALL the book is. There's also a ghost and some nice roommates, but the fairy tale elements are way underplayed here. If I wanted to read a book about obnoxiously intellectual college students, I'd have done that; I wanted a fairy tale. B-.

2013 book 209

Hanya Yanigihara's The People in the Trees
Comparisons to Ann Patchett's State of Wonder are apt for this book--not only in terms of subject matter and themes, but for the strength of the writing. This doesn't at all read like a first novel. It's about a Novel Prize-winning scientist, who once discovered a small Micronesian tribe that eats a specific turtle to become immortal--but also leads to dementia. Now disgraced and imprisoned for child abuse, he's writing his memoirs, which are being edited and annotated by a colleague he mentored. It's one of those books where the main character is completely unlikable in every way (not only is he extremely racist and sexist, you can actually see the moment where he decides sexually abusing children is a-ok), but it's told so well that the book is great anyway. There's also a whole interesting thing with the multiple levels of unreliable narrators, and the discussions of 1950s academia are pretty fascinating too. Now, this book was very hard to read at times--besides the sexual abuse, there's a very lengthy description of terrible things done to lab animals--but it was also EXCELLENT. I honestly can't believe this is a first novel--it's a remarkable accomplishment. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on August 13th.

2013 book 208

Natasha Farrant's After Iris
This is one of those YA books that just makes you straight up WEEP, about 13-year-old Bluebell, whose twin, Iris, was killed in an accident almost three years earlier--and her family has basically been falling apart ever since. There are also a bunch of pet rats, a bearded Bosnian au pair, first crushes, school drama, and more. Things resolve a little too neatly for my personal taste, but that feels about right for a middle-grade book, and it's still fairly satisfying. B/B+.

2013 book 207

Hannah Kent's Burial Rites
Based on the true story of the last woman executed in Iceland, this novel centers on an accused murderess in 1829, who's sent to live with a local official and his family while she awaits her execution. She tells her story to a young local priest (and to the sympathetic matriarch who's housing her). Really well-done atmosphere, though some of the characters weren't as well developed as I might have liked, and I'm still not sure what to think about murderer Agnes. But I will say that, for all the complaints I've had about historical based-on-a-true-story novels, this one actually passes muster. It's a bit slow, but totally nails feeling of the long winter in the frozen North. B/B+.


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

2013 book 206

Phoebe North's Starglass
Normally sci-fi books about spaceships are REALLY not my jam, but when it's a sci-fi book about a JEWISH spaceship, I am SO THERE. Sixteen year old Terra lives on a spaceship founded generations ago by a bunch of secular American Jews (though obviously after 500+ years, the religion has changed somewhat), and now they're about to finally arrive at their destination planet! The usual plotlines happen--a brewing rebellion, corrupt leadership, various love interests (I actually have no complaints about the way the love interests are here--very rare for a YA book), interesting social/LGBT issues, etc. The only problem is that, as with all YA books, the protagonist is a teenager, and teenagers are stupid. Terra is particularly easily manipulated by basically everyone else in the book. Not that that's a bad thing--it actually works with the story/worldbuilding, and things end up in an interesting place (this is the first of a two-book series). I liked this much more than I was expecting to--because spaceships, whatever--and look forward to seeing what happens next. B/B+.

2013 book 205

Sarah Beth Durst's Conjured
I have really enjoyed Durst's last few books, but this one didn't work for me quite as well. It has a great premise--a girl with magical abilities is in paranormal witness protection, but doesn't know who she is, and every time she has a vision, she loses huge chunks of her (newly formed) memories. There's also a whole romance thing with a boy who's a library page that takes up most of the rest of the book, and which I was pretty uninterested in. I mean, they literally do magic by kissing; it is  . . . not my thing. My main problem here, though, is that the characters feel really underdeveloped--they're basically cardboard cutouts, even the ones who /have/ their memories and know who they are. The world-building is strong, and the girl's background turns out to be kind of fascinating--I just wish this had had one more pass through an editor or something, because it just fell a little flat. B/B-.

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

2013 book 204

Jean Webster's Daddy-Long-Legs
This is one of my all-time favorite books--I read it many, many times in childhood and beyond--so I was super excited that it was FYA's July book (even though it's not really a YA book! It's a classic girls' college book!). Jerusha is one of the funniest, sweetest, most exuberant characters ever, and the epistolary format really works here. She's also occasionally wickedly sarcastic; I love all her little digs at women not being able to vote. PLUS, I found a Kindle edition that has the adorable illustrations! This is truly a classic book and it sucks that Webster died in childbirth before she could write many more. Stupid early 1900s.

2013 book 203

Lily Brett's Lola Bensky
In the opening scene of this marvelous novel, Lola Bensky, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors who now live in Australia, has come to London to be a rock journalist and is having a remarkably absorbing conversation with Jimi Hendrix. From there, we see her interact with Mick Jagger, Cher, and various other notables of the day, full of self-deprecating wit and good humor (not to mention plans for really weird diets). Then we go forward and see her in her 30s and 50s (and I would totally read the detective series she's writing in her 50s) before going back to the 60s for Monterey Pop. Basically, it's several of my major interests (Judaism, music, vulnerable but cool woman protagonists) combined into one book of awesome! And I'm pretty sure it's semi-autobiographical, based on Googling the author, which is kind of a surprise--the writing feels really young and fresh. I could have done without the list of dead rock stars that Lola had encountered (it's not really new information that like half the rock stars in the 60s died of drug overdoses), but it all came together in the end. I really, really liked this. A/A-.

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

2013 book 202

Jayne Anne Phillips' Quiet Dell
Phillips' latest--after Lark and Termite--is based on the true story of a family murdered by a con man in 1931. It starts off strong--the first quarter lets us get to know the family and a former lodger/family friend--but then things go off the rails a little when a journalist comes to write about the case and has some immediate love connection with the local banker. The whole thing was really bizarre and unnecessary, I thought. And it just gets really dull from there, with weirdly fake-old-fashioned-style dialogue and people traipsing around and nothing happening! Like, I did not care about the weird relationship between the journalist and the banker, and that's what the whole last 3/4 of the book is about. Plus, parts are from the POV of the youngest child's ghost, and . . . no. Even the section on the murderer's trial manages to be boring. I gave up reading it twice but figured I didn't have time to finish another book, so kept plugging away angrily at this one, wishing it was like 200 pages shorter. Side note: this book also has the most genteel description of anal sex that has ever been written. I'm not basing that on any kind of expertise on writings about anal sex, but on the extremely hilariously polite way it is described here. It was kind of amazing. Nothing could possibly ever top that. Still not enough to make me like this book, though. I feel like I've had this problem with books based on real events before--like authors get so caught up in trying to keep things authentic that the story suffers. I don't know, C?


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

2013 book 201

Donna Andrews' We'll Always Have Parrots
In the 5th Meg Langslow book, Meg finds herself at a con for a popular Xena-like tv show (her boyfriend is one of the actors), and of course there is a MURDER. (Sorry, at a certain point I find it hard to suspend disbelief that one person would encounter so many murders.) Actually, though, this is a fairly strong volume of the series, with lots of Andrews' trademark humor, and even has a pretty good explanation of fanfiction and slash--which, considering this came out in 2004, is kind of impressive. It's pretty easy to figure out what happened, but all the craziness of a tv show con plus a bunch of loose parrots and monkeys keeps things entertaining. B+.

2013 book 200

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Apparently Harry Potter is my comfort reading for when I'm not feeling 100 percent, and nothing else would do! I actually have thought of something new to say about this book after umpteenth readings. When Rowling was revealed as the author of the Cuckoo's Calling, all sorts of reviewers talked about the book's depiction of fame in relation to the murdered supermodel Lula. But the HP books are also very much about celebrity, and how people's perceptions of HP shift based on it (maybe more so in the later books, but it's very present in book 1--especially since Harry has no memory of what he's famous for). And Rowling wasn't famous at all when she wrote this book--so maybe it's just something she's interested in? Of course, she can obviously relate to it much more now.

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. :)