2024 book 127

 Casey McQuiston's The Pairing

I will admit the description didn't make me excited to read this book, but I was sucked in by the writing as soon as I started. I actually am going to be vaguer than usual, because I enjoyed all the little plot reveals along the way, but the story involves childhood best friends and young adult couple Theo and Kit, who had a messy breakup in their mid-20s, and now four years later, find themselves on the same food-and-wine tour in Europe. And despite CLEARLY still having feelings for each other, they're sweet horny dummies who just can’t figure it out. There is an aggravating plot where they have a half-hearted hookup contest and I’m just like, can you please figure your shit out already?? This is all balanced by LOTS of descriptions of food and wine, which I was here for. I ended up thinking this was super cute and look forward to whatever McQuiston does next (a novel about one of the side characters here, according to an interview I read!). A/A-.

__

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

2024 book 126

 Tanya Huff's Into the Broken Lands

Perfect example of the sunk cost fallacy: like halfway through I was like, I’m not actually enjoying this, it’s just endless journeying in a land full of dangers led by an insecure heir and a weapon who’s a person, with some really annoying scholars, interspersed with flashbacks to an earlier journey in the same land of dangers. But like, I’ve been reading it all week! If I stop now, that's just wasted time! So I kept going, when instead I could have been reading something I liked better, and who cares if I didn’t blog a book for a few days (I’ve been playing a lot of Stardew lately so have been reading less, too). Anyway, this was fine, I wasn’t into it but I’m sure other people would be. B.

2024 book 125

 Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me

After those last couple disappointing books, it was time for a refresh with a reread of one of my all-time favorites. This book is beautiful and sad every time, and all the better for a reread when you know what’s coming. I always marvel at how a story about game shows and adolescent friendship woes is also a bittersweet story about time travel and fate. So good.

2024 book 124

 Jacqueline Winspear's The Consequences of Fear

I remembered why I hadn’t read the last few books in this series: I’m just not that into them! I had a conversation recently with Christina about how they fit some of the tropes of a cozy mystery (all the focus on family and friends), but they’re not cozy at all. They’re bleak as hell! Anyway, this one involves a little messenger boy witnessing a murder, but only Maisie believes him. Also she’s training spies now so there’s a lot of business with that. I’m going to take a break from these for a bit, I do plan on reading the last two eventually just to see how it all turns out, but I find these books mildly frustrating. B. 

2024 book 123

 Jacqueline Winspear's The American Agent

Ok, that was a little bit of whiplash—I decided not to reread the whole series and just jump ahead to the first one I hadn’t read, but suddenly we're in 1940 and there’s a lot I’m pretty hazy on! Anyway, this one involves the murder of an American woman, a war correspondent. I will say, I do like that this series focuses so much on Maisie and the other characters and what they're up to, but it would be nice if they made more of an effort to solve this crime. Like she doesn't talk to the victim's best friend for AGES, and when she does she doesn’t ask the important questions, as though to keep the mystery going for longer--it's very frustrating. I need to come to terms with the fact that these are a series of historical novels where the protagonist solves crimes sometimes, and not true mysteries. Mixed feelings on the ending, too. But I still like the characters! B/B+.

2024 book 122

 Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs

I was in the mood to read a historical mystery, and this is the book club pick for this month, so I figured I’d go ahead and reread it and catch up on the last few books in the series (normally I like to read the book club pick right before we meet so the details are fresh, but the heart wants what it wants, and mine wants a historical mystery!). I forgot this is like BARELY a mystery, more a historical novel set in 1929 about a woman opening a sort of detective agency and also dealing with PTSD from being a nurse in WWI. She does investigate a shady retreat for wounded soldiers, but this book is mainly giving her (interesting!) backstory. We'll see how book club likes it!

2024 book 121

 Emma Alban's You’re The Problem It's You

The second book in Alban's Mischief and Matchmaking series involves a cousin of each of the women from the first book, who are: a new Viscount who has no idea what he’s doing and has a horrible stepfather, not to mention a long-time crush on the other dude, a second son who the family convinces to help the Viscount be good at viscounting. This felt more stressful than the first one. It’s billed as enemies to lovers but it’s just two awkward dudes having a bunch of miscommunications while an over-the-top villain makes things messy. I did think it was interesting that both of these books had side plots about actual politics (getting bills passed etc). It does get very cute in the last quarter, I just think it would have benefited from having Beth and Gwen more prominent throughout (or maybe I’m just more invested in them). A-/B+.

__

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

2024 book 120

 Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor

I needed a bit of a palate cleanser after those last couple books, so decided to reread a favorite that involves court politics, a murder investigation, and a young leader thrust into power trying to do the best he can. Love watching him build alliances, get to know relatives, thwart plots, etc. This is satisfying and engaging every time.

2024 book 119

Marlen Haushofer's The Wall (trans. by Shaun Whiteside)

I definitely did not PLAN to read another book that is the diary of a woman who is maybe the last person in the world right after reading I Who Have Never Known Men, but that happened somehow. This was originally written in Austria in the early 1960s, and it's about a woman who goes with some friends to visit their remote hunting lodge. They go out one afternoon but never return, and soon she realizes she in inside a sort of transparent wall, and every living creature outside the wall is dead (she assumes this is some sort of war thing). So she has to survive in this weird circle that's left--along with a dog, a cat, and a cow. (WARNING: some of these animals die! But the narrator makes that clear pretty early on--there is still some dread leading up to those deaths though.) This was a slower book, but an interesting companion (both authors were children during WWII and I think there's a discussion to be had about that for sure). I will say after all that slowness, the end felt VERY abrupt. A-/B+.

2024 book 118

 Jacqueline Harpman's I Who Have Never Known Men (trans. by Ros Schwartz)

I absolutely could have gobbled this down in one sitting had bedtime permitted, the narrative voice is SO ENGAGING and the story is so....unusual? Compelling? So the premise is there are 40 women trapped in a bunker, under heavy guard, and they have no idea where they are or what happened or why they are there. But one of them, the narrator, was just a small child when they were captured, and has no memory of their former world. Fascinating sort of coming of age story, interesting characters and social dynamics. Weirdly, I was looking up the author and apparently she was the inspiration for a google doodle just a couple days ago! (I don’t see the doodle on my devices so that is a weird coincidence!) A/A-.

2024 book 117

 Taffy Brodesser-Akner's Long Island Compromise 

Brodesser-Akner's second novel is inspired by the true story of the kidnapping of a wealthy Jewish man, but it’s kind of hard to get into, because after the actually kidnapping, the story jumps ahead to the adult life of the man's middle child, and he is a sad, horny, drug-addled mess. His section is lengthy and often unpleasant. I had read good reviews so I was determined to stick with it, hoping later sections and characters would be less relentlessly vile. But the next section involves his anxiety-ridden older brother, who’s made some poor financial and professional decisions, and it’s even more claustrophobic. (The horrible hot weather may not have helped my reading experience here.) The back half is more readable, focusing more on the women of the family, but I found the end to be pretty frustrating. Is the message here that rich people are assholes? And more so if they’ve had traumatic experiences? I dunno. This was kind of a bummer. B.

__

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

2024 book 116

 Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle

I don’t want to give myself credit for reading these two books back-to-back, because I think I saw someone mention it online recently when everyone was discussing The Lottery, but they are actually a perfect doubleheader! Each is narrated by a younger sister who has a close relationship with her older sister, they live fairly isolated lives, things change when a new young man comes to town… Of course Jackson is playing in a totally different ballpark than Dodie Smith! And this holds up so well to a rereading, when you know what actually happened the night most of the Blackwoods died, and can just read with a sense of dread and sadness. Satisfying in an unsettling way.

2024 book 115

 Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle

I read this blog post recently (about the difficulties of translating the title of this book), which made me want to reread it, since it’s been a long time. And it’s basically as enjoyable as I remembered, told as the journal of a teenage girl living in 1930s England in a decrepit castle in genteel poverty, with her eccentric family, and what happens when the new young heir comes to live nearby. Lots of very funny parts, but also lots of dated language and very hilariously dated discussions of psychology (the book was written in the late 40s). I found the teen romantic angst a little more tiresome this time, but still like this book a lot. 

2024 book 114

 Liz Moore's The God of the Woods

I almost put this down a couple times in frustration and actually had to get up and finish it instead of going to bed, because I needed to know what would happen and if it was going to piss me off! But actually, it ended up being pretty satisfying. It’s about a wealthy girl who goes missing from her summer camp, which is on her family property—and where her older brother went missing 14 years earlier. Lots of POVs—her self-medicating and checked-out mother, her camp counselor, her camp friend, and a young woman police investigator. I was very worried this would end up being a story about rich assholes literally getting away with murder (and the locals they crushed along the way) but it ended up being a different story entirely. A-.

2024 book 113

 Katie Siegel's Charlotte Illes is Not a Teacher

I didn’t love this AS much as the first one, but it was still very entertaining! This one finds Charlotte taking a job as a substitute teacher where her friend works, and getting involved in a case involving blackmail letters being sent to another teacher—and to her aunt, who’s on the board of ed. And also, the school is the same one she attended, and where she became famous as a tween detective—and where she’s inspiring a new generation of kids. The mystery was fine, I really enjoy the characters and their friendships and that’s what kept me interested. A-/B+.

__

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

2024 book 112

 Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric and the Bandit

Hooray for a new Penric and Desdemona novella! This one involves Penric on a journey to try and find a long-abandoned monastery, and the bandit who assumes he's an easy mark. Lol. Adventures and actions ensue, as they are wont to do. I just love spending time with these characters in this world. A-.

2024 book 111

 Kate Ross' Cut to the Quick

This first book in the Julian Kestrel series introduces the protagonist, a charming dandy, as he's invited to be the best man in a wedding where the groom is a dude he's only met once. And obviously he's like, this is so weird and also I'm kind of broke right now, so let's head to the country and see what's up. And what's up is a wedding where one family is being blackmailed into things! And then a dead body turns up in Kestrel's bed! Lots of suspects on hand, but with the help of the grumpy local doctor and his pickpocket-turned-valet, Kestrel is sure to figure things out. I really enjoyed this, the ending is fairly melodramatic but  overall a satisfying read. A-.

2024 book 110

 Kristin Cashore's There is a Door in this Darkness

I saw some discourse recently about how "there's no pandemic novels" (which, have you read Louise Erdrich, bro?), but hey, here's a pandemic novel for ya. I actually had no idea what this was about, I just like Kristin Cashore, so I perhaps wasn't expecting a novel set in fall 2020 that constantly talks about masking and the election. Too real. Very stressful. But GREAT characters and very readable! So the main character is teen Wilhelmina, who always spent summers with her great-aunts (one biological, the other two in a throuple with her), at least until one of them died of cancer. And then her best friends formed a pandemic bubble without her. And now she's seeing weird mysterious signs and sparkles and keeps running into a cute boy from school. I am not at all into teen romances in books but this was super cute (it's not a romance novel per se, much more coming of age, but the romance is a thing). Sweet story but I did have a hard time stomaching 2020 flashbacks in light of current events. A-.