2012 book 259

Ilsa Bick's Shadows
Even though I didn't like Ashes at all, I decided I did want to read the sequel just to find out what happened to one character. But it's even grimmer and grosser than the first one! Plus, it focuses on like six characters, instead of just one, and EACH has something terrible in their plotline. And that's not even getting started on the threat of ZOMBIE RAPE, which is totally a thing now. AND the character I wanted to find out about? NOT EVEN IN THIS BOOK. I hereby promote the grade of the last one to a C, because it is so much better by comparison. D-.


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

2012 book 258

Lish McBride's Necromancing the Stone
The sequel to Hold Me Closer, Necromancer is full of just as much goofy fun as the first one, and I love seeing this world develop. In this one, the gang of misfits is trying to solve a murder (though the reader knows who did it) and come to terms with the brand-new status quo. I really enjoy these characters and McBride's sense of humor, so I hope there will be more in this series. A/A-.

2012 book 257

Stephen Tobolowsky's The Dangerous Animals Club
Normally it wouldn't really occur to me to read a book of autobiographical essays by a Hollywood character actor (Tobolowsky has basically been in everything--look him up on imdb!--but I am forever fond of him as Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day), except that after he guest-starred on one of my favorite shows, Community, he wrote an essay about it, so I knew he could really write. And his stories of his life--his childhood in Texas, his relationship with a long-time girlfriend (who won a Pulitzer), adventures with his wife and children, and many stories about acting--are sometimes surprisingly philosophical, often bittersweet, and even more often COMPLETELY HILARIOUS. I was actually, like, guffawing at some parts. Very entertaining stuff, especially for the pop culture junkies. A/A-.

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

2012 book 256

Ilsa Bick's Ashes
Ugh, FYA chooses some of the worst books for book group. I HATED this. It's a YA zombie apocalypse book, basically Teen Drama Walking Dead, and it's completely grotesque. Plus the characters are idiots--like, if you have a nice shelter with supplies, why would you wander off into the wilderness? It's a freaking ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. Then somehow even though it's a zombie apocalypse, there's a love triangle. I actually have a copy of the sequel (out next week) from the publisher but don't think I'll read it. D.

2012 book 255

Rae Carson's The Crown of Embers
Very satisfactory follow-up to Girl of Fire and Thorns, one of my favorite books of last year. The political stakes are even higher, and I'm still completely fascinated by the religion of Carson's world. Elisa continues to be a compelling heroine (and I very much look forward to her increased bad-assery in the next volume) and her romance and friendships develop fairly organically--or at least much more so than the usual YA fantasy books. I just seriously love this series. A/A-.

2012 book 254

Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace
I didn't remember a thing about this book, which meant it was time for a re-read! Atwood's based-on-a-true-story novel involves a woman convicted of murder in the 1840s, and the doctor determined to find out what really happened. Classic unreliable narrator and a very compelling story. A-.

2012 book 253

Natalie Standiford's Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters
Cute YA book about a family whose very wealthy family threatens to disinherit them all unless the one who offended her confesses--so her three wayward granddaughters (Norrie, who's fallen in lofe with an older man; Jane, who's written a blog about the family secrets; and Sassy, who thinks she might be immortal) each write their confessions. Really interesting characters/family and a nice light quick read. B+.

2012 book 252

Michael Koryta's The Prophet
Two estranged brothers--one, the beloved local high school football coach, the other a kind of sketchy bail bondsman--are drawn into a mystery when a girl both knew is murdered. Complicating things is the murder of their own sister over twenty years earlier. Great characters and plot, though I personally wasn't super into all the football talk. B/B+.

2012 book 251

 Sarah Beth Durst's Vessel
I've liked all the books I've read by Durst, and this was no exception. Great concept here--a world where, once in a hundred years, the gods/goddesses of the desert people each inhabit a vessel from their clan. Our protagonist is one such vessel, having prepared her whole life to become the goddess--only the goddess doesn't come and her people exile her. And then a young man--the trickster god--comes to tell her that something has trapped five of the gods/goddesses. And it gets crazier from there. I really enjoyed this, though the end was kind of crazy and I'm still a little bit mad about it. A-/B+.

2012 book 250

Mark Helprin's In Sunlight and in Shadow
Ah god, this book. It might have been great if it was half as long--it's 700 pages, and while the writing is beautiful, the plot can best be described as plodding. It's kind of Winter Tales-ish, in that it revolves around a love affair in New York in 1946, complicated by wealth, Judaism, and the Mafia, but it just moves so slowly. And then halfway through, we suddenly get the guy's WWII experiences, which takes almost a quarter of the book (I admit to skimming this, having lost patience long before). And then the last quarter . . . I can't even.  This book defeated me. B-.

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

2012 book 249

S.A. Bodeen's The Raft
I weirdly like books where survival is at stake (hence my love of post-apocalytpic dystopias), so this YA book about a girl stranded on a life raft after a plane crash seemed right up my alley. Unfortunately, it's too short to get to any sort of harrowing point, and I absolutely hated everything to do with the copilot stranded with her. I also wished we'd seen more of the reaction of the protagonist's family--who didn't know she was on the plane in the first place. Great nature stuff--I really liked all the information about birds--but could have been a lot stronger. B/B-.

202 book 248

Caitlin Moran's How To Be A Woman
I read this selection for lady doctor book group very much against my will, having bogged down in despair during the early chapters on menstruation and body hair. But after randomly running into a fellow book club member in Anthropologie (as one does), I figured I should finish. To be fair, it did pick up a little from there--I enjoyed every story about Moran's sister Caz and the ones that involved members of Blur and The Fall--but I am just not interested in Moran's view on handbags. I honestly wish this had been a straight-up memoir instead of a book of essays about life from a feminist perspective (or whatever this was supposed to be), b/c she has had a fascinating life! More about being a teenage rock and roll journalist in the 90s*, less on giving birth from a feminist perspective, please. B-.

*One time U2 shot a video in her house, that doesn't even get a mention!!

2012 book 247

Junot Diaz's This Is How You Lose Her
Normally I don't read short stories--they're just too darn SHORT--but I love Diaz, and heard this was a novel in stories, and I make exceptions for those. And for the most part that's true--all but one of the stories are about Yunior (narrator of Oscar Wao) and the women in his life (primarily the women he cheated on, but others too).  These stories are great, of course, but I just wish there was more meat to everything. I need another Diaz novel! A-/B+.

PS. Diaz is speaking at Motorco next Thursday!

2012 book 246

Kerry Greenwood's Cocaine Blues
There are, weirdly, a lot of mysteries starring sassy ladies set in the 1920s, but I like that sub-genre and figured I'd check this series out. It involves the aforementioned sassy lady, a bored rich titled woman in England, who gets sent to Australia to try and solve a possible poisoning, but ends up involved in trying to bust a cocaine ring instead. The plot is ok, pretty predictable, and I hate the "shiny black cap" description of 1920s hair (whyyy is it always a cap), but it was a nice light mystery and I'd read more in the series. B.

2012 book 245

Siobhan Dowd's Solace of the Road
No one makes me get all teary-eyed like Dowd, and this is no exception, as a fourteen year old girl runs away from foster care to try and find her mother in Ireland. But as always when the story involves a journey, there's a lot more to it than that. A/A-.

2012 book 244

Katherine Catmull's Summer and Bird
Summer and Bird are sisters who wake up one morning to find both their parents suddenly gone, and they decide to set off in search of them. But this isn't the adventure-laden middle-grade book I expected; it's a slow, and very lonely, story. I honestly don't know why this is for ages 10 and up--not that a ten year old couldn't read it, but I don't think too many ten year olds would. It's one of those stories about stories, and identity, and has almost a philosophical feel to it. I'm glad I read it--I liked the last quarter a lot--but still haven't decided what exactly I think about it. B/B+?

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

2012 book 243

Hanna Pylvainen's We Sinners
Really lovely novel-in-short-stories about a family living in the Midwest who belongs to a small, restrictive branch of Christianity, and the effect it has on the nine children. Each section is narrated by a different member of the family (though not all have a turn), giving a multiplicity of viewpoints on the age-old struggle between tradition/religion and modernity/secularism. I loved all the characters and was totally wrapped up in their crises, large and small. A/A-.

2012 book 242

Alethea Kontis' Enchanted
Cute book about a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter living in a fairy tale world who befriends a frog prince. Basically the whole book is waiting for them to fiiiinally get together, but there are some interesting subplots involving her many sisters as well. B/B+.

2012 book 241

Gennifer Albin's Crewel
It's another post-apocalyptic YA dystopia, with a pretty decent concept--super misogynistic society, but some women ("Spinsters") have the power to weave the threads that make the world (very Greek mythology) and thus have a slightly more prominent role in society. Our protagonist is chosen to be one of these select few--against her parents' wishes, mysteriously enough. It's all very Katniss-goes-to-the-Capitol. Then a bunch of other stuff happens, there are political machinations and the requisite love triangle.  There's actually a lot here of interest, but the protagonist was really frustrating, and the plot didn't have an overarching story to give it structure or narrative tension. The writing felt kind of clumsy in general. But the end was kind of intriguing, if a bit formulaic for these trilogies. I think this will be very popular, it just didn't thrill me. B.


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

2012 book 240

Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth
An excerpt of this novel--most of the first chapter--ran in the New Yorker recently, and you had better believe I couldn't wait to read a novel about a young British girl recruited into being a spy in the early 70s. But things get complicated when she falls for her target, an aspiring writer. One of the things I liked most about this was that it was primarily a novel about a girl who loves novels, which is one of my favorite things to read. I mean, the spy stuff is great too, but characters waxing rhapsodic about books really makes me happy. And I have to say, the one thing I would have complained about while reading, too much focus on the love interest's writing, comes to make perfect sense. And I absolutely loved the ending. Really an enjoyable book and a quick read. A/A-.

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

2012 book 239

Seanan McGuire's Ashes of Honor
I think this is like the 6th book in the October Daye series, and it's one of the stronger ones--here, Toby is after a missing, possibly kidnapped, changeling girl, with the usual cast of awesome characters as backup. Totally compulsively readable. I love this series and miss when they came out twice a year--darn McGuire and her many many other series! A-.

2012 book 238

Jenn Ashworth's Cold Light
I think this is the book all the reviews wanted Megan Abbott's Dare Me to be--an excellent, if mildly troubling, story about young girls, toxic friendships, and the secrets they keep from each other and from the adults in their lives. Twenty-five-year-old Lola is looking back on the death of her best friend ten years earlier, as a memorial is being erected in her honor--at least until a grisly discovery is made. It's sort of a mystery, but much more a psychological portrait of a town in the late 90s.  Gripping stuff--very enjoyable. A-.

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

2012 book 237

Laurie R. King's Garment of Shadows
I generally have enjoyed King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series a lot, but couldn't get into the last one at all--I'm tired of books where Mary and Holmes have separate adventures--they're much better together. And this one didn't start off strong--for one thing, they're separate again, as Holmes is trying to track down a missing Mary (who has amnesia, of course, because why not) in Morocco on the verge of a civil war. And the first third is all jsut VERY BORING exposition about Moroccan politics. It picks up a little after that, but the plot is still pretty weak (it's all just people talking, and Mary only gets to be awesome in one scene) and the resolution unsatisfying. I wish King would wait to write another one of these till she actually has a good story in mind. B-.

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

2012 book 236

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
I still think this is a great end to the series, and one of the best books in the series as well--though I haaaaate the King's Cross/Dumbledore scene, and think the whole Harry's-Invisibility-Cloak-is-EXTRA-special-magical thing is a copout compared to discussions of such cloaks earlier in the series. Good stuff otherwise, though.

2012 book 235

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
It seemed silly to read the first five Harry Potter books and not finish the series off, plus what better way to spend a long weekend than by watching Doctor Who and reading Harry Potter? Parts of this one make me cringe a little for whatever reason, but the awesomeness totally outweighs the awkwardness.

2012 book 234

Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient
My brain was kind of overloaded on Harry Potter, so I took a break to read something more on the literary side--I'd actually never read this before (nor seen the movie). Anyway, it's about Hana, a Canadian nurse in Italy in 1945, living in a villa and caring for a badly burned patient whose identity is unknown (but is presumably English, as the title indicates). Soon they're joined by a friend of her father's and a young Sikh bomb disposal expert, and they basically all hang out waiting for the war to end while the English Patient talks about his past in the Egyptian desert and his affair with a married woman. The writing is beautiful, though too oblique at times (maybe b/c the titular character is on morphine? The flashbacks to the Sikh's life are much clearer).  I think parts of this book are supposed to be tragic, but I didn't feel enough for the characters and the writing didn't always draw me in. Great atmosphere though. B/B+.

2012 book 233

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
I like this one more every time I read it--though I still wish Rowling had had a lighter hand with the caps lock key. :)

2012 books 230, 231, 232

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Still making my way through these (again). And I have to say, book 2 REALLY is the weakest of the series by far. 3 and 4 still rule though.

2012 book 229

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
It's probably too soon for me to reread these--it's only been like 4 months since last time--but I've been called into service for a Harry Potter-themed trivia night and wanted to brush up. :) So expect a bunch of super short entries over the next few days. I ran out of things to say about these books a long time ago--but I still love them.

2012 book 228

Mal Peet's Tamar
I really enjoyed Peet's Life: An Exploded Diagram and this was sort of in the same mold--a coming of age/humanity in wartime sort of story. Except here, they're actually two stories--the first takes place during WWII and involves two British spies in Holland, and the interspersed second takes place fifty years later and involves one of the men's granddaughter. There's a lot of foreshadowing and it's easy to guess where the 1944 plot will go--I'm honestly not sure whether that's on purpose--which makes it very hard to read at times. It's a /good/ book, but not entirely an /enjoyable/ one. Granddaughter Tamar is great, though, and I wish we'd gotten to see more of her journey. And this is another Peet book that is theoretically YA, but isn't really YA at all, especially since only one of the four main characters is even a teenager. Coming of age and YA are different categories, people! B+.

2012 book 227

Goce Smilevski's Freud's Sister
Translated from the Macedonian (which is really cool for some reason), this novel centers on Sigmund Freud's sister Adolfina--one of his four sisters he failed to take with him when he left Vienna in 1938 (even though he took not only all his children/grandchildren, but his wife's family, his doctor and his family, and two housekeepers), and all four elderly women were of course gassed in the concentration camps. Nice one, Freud. Anyway, all of that is covered in the first (brief) part of the book, and then it flashes back to tell his sister's life story (and her friendships with other famous people's sisters, like Klara Klimt and Ottla Kafka) But little is known about her, so Smilevski has free rein to turn her life into what's almost a psychological study (a large chunk of the book involves a mental institution of some sort). That fits with the whole Freud thing but isn't always entertaining as a novel. Reading it reminded me, at times, of the literary theory class I took in college. This book is by no means bad, it just wasn't the book I wanted to read about Freud's sister. B.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on August 28th.

2012 book 226

Beth Kephart's Small Damages
Normally I wouldn't read a YA book about a pregnant girl who gets shipped off to Spain to have the baby and then give it up, and the probably-sentimental experiences she has there. But this has gotten good reviews and I was in the mood for something on the lighter side (which, actually, a book about a pregnant teen being forced to give up her baby shouldn't be, but this kind of was). I did like the protagonist's relationship with the aging cook, but was super annoyed that OF COURSE there was a teenage boy there for her to hang out with/fall for, and that her mother is a one-dimensional villain, and that most of her relationship problems (with everyone) go unresolved. On the other hand, great descriptions of Spain. It's like reading a YA version of one of those movies where Diane Lane or someone goes abroad and everything is pretty and she goes to markets and eats fresh fruit and finds love or whatever. And I don't like those movies, but lots of other people do. If you are one, you might like this book. B/B-.

2012 book 225

Kate Morton's The Secret Keeper
Kate Morton writes these great books where people (women) in modern times investigate Secrets Of The Past. And this is another GREAT one in the genre--it may be my favorite of hers, but I'll have to reread them all before I decide! In this one, Laurel is 16 in 1961 when a strange man approaches her house and something completely bonkers happens. Now it's 50 years later, Laurel is a famous actress, and she's determined to figure out her 90-year-old mother's secrets before it's too late. That's all interspersed with flashbacks to her mother's life during WWII, so the reader gets the whole story. And the whole story is completely riveting. And of course it made me cry. A.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.

2012 book 224

Mette Jakobsen's The Vanishing Act
Twelve-year-old Minou lives on a tiny island with only three other inhabitants--her father, a priest, and a magician. When she finds the body of a boy, she hopes he can provide clues to her mother's disappearance a year earlier. But this isn't a mystery, and so things aren't that easy or clear-cut. Lovely atmosphere--it's gotten blurbed by Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus, and I think it has a similar dreamy-cum-literary quality. A-.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 17th.

2012 book 223

Robin McKinley's Sunshine
This is another McKinley book that I somehow missed, but everyone is always all "Oh, THAT is a GOOD vampire book" and I like vampire books sometimes so figured I'd try it. It's a little slow at times--McKinley wants to throw every detail of her world-building into the story--but I liked the characters and most of the plots/concepts. Unfortunately, it doesn't really have an ending. I honestly thought I had a defective copy, missing the last few chapters, but apparently it just kind of . . . ends. No plots are resolved at all, and apparently McKinley is adamant about there not being a sequel. Very weird. I think it would have been an A-/B+ kind of book, but I really can't get past the fact that it just stops. B/B-.

2012 book 222

Caroline Cooney's Fog
I have a soft spot for book by Cooney, because hers are some of the ones I read when I was actually the age for YA. (I know I'm not the only one--Face on the Milk Carton was pretty popular.) Anyway, her latest is about a seventh-grade girl who's grown up on a small island off the coast of Maine, and now she and three other students are coming to board on the mainland for school. But everything is weird and creepy, and the oldest student is acting very odd. Very strong atmosphere, but the end was  unsatisfying. Apparently this is the first of a series, and I do actually want to know what will happen next, but I wish it hadn't ended so abruptly. B/B-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher.

2012 book 221

Laura Lippman's And When She Was Good
Lippman's latest stand-alone revolves around a Baltimore-area madam juggling her double life, trying to be a good suburban mom while hiding her criminal lifestyle. It's sort of a mystery in that how she came to have that life is revealed slowly, and there are some murders later on in the story. Pretty solid character work, but not as compelling as some of her others. B.

2012 book 220

Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette
I have been eagerly awaiting this book for MONTHS--it's gotten tons and tons of great buzz, and Semple is a former sitcom writer (including for Arrested Development) so it seemed like it'd be entertaining if nothing else. But it was SOOO entertaining!  It's about Bernadette Fox, wife of a high-powered Microsoft guy, who goes missing just before Christmas, and her (awesome) eight-grade daughter is now piecing together emails and other documentation to figure out what the heck happened. And it's all just a really, really fun read. Nice light book, perfect for summer (too bad it didn't come out two months ago). A.

2012 book 219

Rebecca Serle's When You Were Mine
Ah, FYA book group, some of the books you make us read are so crappy! I wasn't exactly enthused about reading a modern-day retelling of Romeo and Juliet told from the point of view of Rosalind, the girl Romeo's hung up on before he meets Juliet. And this managed to be even worse than my expectations--the narrator/protagonist is super annoying (I wanted to strangle her sometimes), and the entire plot (I mean, besides the parts we know from Shakespeare) was telegraphed in the first eight percent. Not to mention how silly the updated names were! Caplet and Monteg, seriously? Couldn't Serle have found names that sound like actual names? I picked up the phone book and found two better names (Capelli and Montana, totally catchy!) within ten seconds. And don't even get me started on anything to do with Juliet, who doesn't even show up till like halfway through and whose only character trait is "bitchy," and cardboard cutout bad boy Len, who is kind of a creepy stalker in a certain light. When I was in seventh grade, my class read Romeo and Juliet, and for homework we had to rewrite a scene and set it in some other time period. I am still haunted by how terrible mine was, but some of my classmates' were more realistic than this book. C-.

2012 book 218

Alix Ohlin's Inside
The cover of this book features a snow globe and for some reason has a contemporary sad YA feel to me, but it's actually a literary novel about a Canadian therapist, a man she saves while skiing, a troubled teenage girl who's one of her patients, and her ex-husband (also a therapist) across a fifteen year period. The three main characters are all vividly drawn and very likable, and this book was all-around solid and enjoyable. A-.

2012 book 217

Tracy Hickman's Wayne of Gotham
You'd think a novel about Batman (DC-approved, even) would be right up my alley--I mean, I write a column about comic books and Batman is one of the few superheroes I'm actually into. Or maybe that's exactly why I didn't like it, because it didn't do Batman justice at all. If I can see exactly how he's being played and he never catches on . . . well, he's not supposed to be a moron. Yet in this book, he's not just moronic, but incompetent (why does he keep leaving his Batsuit in the Batmobile?). I actually had a lot of problems with this book, which finds Bruce investigated some shadiness his dad was involved in (actually, he doesn't ever really investigate, people just give him information). Half of the story is from his dad's perspective, and that's even worse--Thomas Wayne vacillates between being whiny and being creepy (I, for one, am grossed out that Martha ended up marrying him because of the way their relationship is portrayed).

Other issues:
--WAAAAYYY too much detailed fake comic book science. Four pages describing the Batmobile is three and a half pages too many.
--Hickman tries way too hard to shove all the iconic Bat-characters into this story when they really don't fit. And Joker is pretty lame.
--Grandpa Wayne's only characterization is that he's an asshole.
--Bruce yells at Alfred way too much--their relationship is one of the best things in the Bat-universe and it's all weird here.

I wanted to like this book but obviously it wasn't for me. Batman honestly works better in the comic book format, I think. D.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher.

2012 book 216

Siobhan Dowd's Bog Child
Another excellent book from Dowd set in Ireland in the early 80s--this one centers on the crazy unrest and hunger strikes of 1981, and a teenage boy who finds an ancient body in the bog. And soon he's dreaming all about her, like his life wasn't getting more complicated already. A-.

2012 book 215

Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
Keri was saying again last ngiht that this book is good and I should read it, and since it was available free for my Kindle through my local library, I figured why not. Actually it is pretty good--obviously some parts of a memoir made up of personal essays will be funnier than others, but I did laugh out loud a couple times. Though I did wonder what happened to her best friend/writing partner after Kaling moved to LA and got all famous. B+.

2012 book 214

Siobhan Dowd's A Swift Pure Cry
Beautiful and sad book about a teenage girl in Ireland in 1984, trying to make things work for her family after her mother's death. I don't want to say any more than that so as not to spoil the plot for anyone else. But this was GREAT. A.

2012 book 213

Lawrence Norfolk's John Saturnall's Feast
A historical novel set in the days of Cromwell about a boy whose mother dies after being accused of witchcraft, and then he and his gifted palate go on to work in the kitchen of the manor nearby--well, it should have been right up my alley. But the novel's description is very misleading: "Orphaned when his mother dies of starvation, having been cast out of her village as a witch, John is taken in at the kitchens at Buckland Manor, where he quickly rises from kitchen-boy to Cook, and is known for his uniquely keen palate and natural cooking ability. However, he quickly gets on the wrong side of Lady Lucretia, the aristocratic daughter of the Lord of the Manor. In order to inherit the estate, Lucretia must wed, but her fiancé is an arrogant buffoon. When Lucretia takes on a vow of hunger until her father calls off her engagement to her insipid husband-to-be, it falls to John to try to cook her delicious foods that might tempt her to break her fast." That encompasses maybe one chapter of the book and it happens more than halfway through. Really, this book is a mish-mash of stuff--GREAT chapters on life in the kitchen, not-so-great chapters set in battle/dealing with Cromwell's goons, and kind of annoying chapters involving a completely unbelievable romance. I read the whole thing but didn't enjoy it that much. B-.


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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 4th.

2012 book 212

Robin McKinley's Beauty
Sometimes when you're home sick, you just have to read something comforting (the book equivalent of the comfort food you're too sick to eat?). It's been a couple of years since I've read it, but it's still weirdly delightful. I actually read this in class in middle school; as I noted last time I read it, one of its themes was apparently "Don't judge a book by its cover" which I had written in the inside front cover with an exclamation point. Hee hee.

2012 book 211

Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle
This is one of those books I've been meaning to read for years, and was finally spurred to do so by Christina telling me she was sure I'd like it. And I did! It's the story of a teenage girl growing up with her somewhat eccentric British family in a falling-apart castle in the 1930s, and what happens when the new young estate owners come to town (don't worry, Smith makes all the Jane Austen references for you). I think I liked how things wrapped up; I might have to think about this one for a little while. A-.

2012 book 210

Chelsea Cain's Kill You Twice
Another strong contender in the Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell series. I don't really have too much else to say about it--there's another serial killer, Gretchen knows stuff, plucky colorful-haired Susan wants to write a story on the case, etc etc. It's a solid story though, I look forward to finding out where the series goes next. B+.

2012 book 209

Graham Joyce's Some Kind of Fairy Tale
Really great story about a man whose sister went missing twenty years ago, and now she's back--but doesn't look any older, and claims she was living with fairies. I especially liked the writing here--it's told from several viewpoints, and the structure really worked. I'll have to check out more by Joyce. A/A-.

2012 book 208

Michael Underwood's Geekomancy
For someone who loooves pop culture as much as I do, you'd think pop culture references would never get old--and reading a book that's all about Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Princess Bride, and spends a page and a half discussing the joys of Community, should be way up my alley. But it had some of the same problems Ready Player One had for me--eventually, all those references get tiresome and feel shoehorned-in, and also, the action scenes in both books were really not that interesting to me. I just wanted the fight scenes to be over and for the plot to commence.

All that and I haven't even mentioned the plot, which focuses on a likable geek girl who works in a comic shop-slash-coffee shop (again, this should be right up my alley) and discovers a world of magic where geeks can get geek powers from geek media (ie, sword-fighting abilities from Princess Bride). Great concept. And like I said, likable protagonist (and her crew of girl friends were cool too). The overarching plot was a little weak and two major twists were easy to predict, but it was a fun read. Not really my thing, but recommended for those geekier than I. B.



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A review copy was provided by the publisher.

2012 book 207

Ron Rash's Serena
I was excited to reread this for book group--it was one of my favorites of 2008 and I didn't remember a thing about it--but it wasn't quite as awesome as I remembered. It's compelling stuff--a timber baron brings his ruthless new wife down to the mountains of North Carolina during the Great Depression--but it was just a bit over-the-top. Soon to be a movie starring, I believe, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, both of whom seem hopelessly miscast. B/B+.

2012 book 206

David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas
I've been meaning to reread this for ages--it was one of my favorite books of 2004 and I'm still mad it didn't win the Booker Prize--and now seemed like a good time, since a) all I remembered was the comet birthmark, and b) the movie is coming out soon and I figured it'd make more sense if I knew the story going in. Because of course the structure is complicated, the interrelated characters are complicated, and most of the stories are complicated. But all are completely wonderful, still. A.

2012 book 205

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit
It's easily been ten years since I've read this, and I'd forgotten how funny it was--and how light, since Bilbo is unconscious for most of the action scenes! But seriously, now that I've read it, I don't at all understand why Peter Jackson thinks it needs three movies. Total overkill.

2012 book 204

David Levithan's Every Day
Confession time: I've never really read anything by Levithan before, except the book he co-wrote with John Green--and I only liked the John Green parts! But the premise of this was interesting enough to combat my lack of interest in the author, and I'm so glad it did, because this book was pretty great. It's about a person who wakes up every day in a new body, and just tries to keep their lives on track--until he falls in love with one's girlfriend. Really fascinating stuff. Levithan is mildly heavy-handed with the gay-friendliness and the body-positivity, but I'm not really going to complain about cute gay couples.  A/A-.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on August 28th.

2012 book 203

Megan Abbott's Dare Me
Completely ridiculous mystery about a pair of frenemy cheerleaders and the coach who comes between them. It starts off okay--the stuff with teen girl friendships is strong--but halfway through somehow becomes super boring, even though there's now a dead body to contend with. It's not very believable and it's way too slow for a story that feels kind of low stakes. C.

2012 book 202

Georgina Harding's Painter of Silence
It's post-WWII in Romania and a young nurse encounters a deaf and mute patient, a boy she grew up with. The plot is a little slow but the depictions of the city and the time period are stellar. B.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in September.

2012 book 201

Patrice Kindl's The Woman in the Wall
Man, I cannot believe I'd never heard of Patrice Kindl before this year--I can't think of another YA writer who can write such different styles of books (based on the three I've read so far). The title of this one is a bit misleading--the woman in the wall is actually a very shy girl who builds herself a secret room and passageway in her house, gradually completely disappearing from her family. And then they kind of forget that she exists. And it's a totally great story. A/A-.

2012 book 200

Debra Dean's The Mirrored World
Apparently based at least a little bit on a true story, this novel centers on two cousins growing up in Russia in the 1700s (across the reign of three Empresses). Great insight into the roles of women during that period, and I loved all the historical details. Xenia's motivations in the second half of the book are a bit vague, but of course she's not the narrator, and Dasha is particularly likable. Definitely recommended for fans of historical fiction, and makes me want to read all sorts of other novels set in historical Russia (any recommendations?). B+.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on August 28th.

2012 book 199

Justin Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan's Team Human
If you're one of the people who finds Twilight super annoying and mildly disturbing, this book may be more up your alley. It's still a YA paranormal romance type of book, but narrated by a very snarky girl who has no love for vampires--especially when her best friend falls for one. Pretty strong world-building and all around a very fun read. A-/B+.

2012 book 198

Daniel Friedman's Don't Ever Get Old
It's hard to go wrong with a mystery narrated by a super old and super cranky Jewish retired homicide detective named Baruch "Buck" Shatz, especially when the mystery features his law-student grandson (with the also hilarious nickname Tequila) and the hunt for some Nazi gold. I will say that it is a little bizarre how many characters annoyingly try to get an 87 year old guy to hunt down Nazi gold, and it's not too hard to figure out who's behind everything, but the narrative voice makes up for a lot of that. Cranky old Jewish guys are the best. (Side note: would he really watch Fox News? None of my cranky old Jewish relatives do, to the best of my knowledge.) B.

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A digital review copy was provided by the publisher.

2012 book 197

Rachel Hartman's Seraphina
So I have this general rule--a completely random one, really--where I avoid reading fantasy books with dragons. I mean, you have to draw the line somewhere. But this was getting really positive reviews, and then I found out that this Rachel Hartman is the same Rachel Hartman who wrote one of my all-time favorite graphic novels, and all rules went out the window. (Plus, this book turns out to be set in the same world!) Anyway, it's about the half-dragon musical prodigy Seraphina, trying to hide her dragon-ness in a world with an uneasy peace between humans and dragons. Lots of political intrigue, interesting mythology and world-building, a little bit of romance, and some humor. I look forward to reading whatever comes next in this series, even with dragons! A-.

2012 book 196

Tana French's Broken Harbor
I really enjoy French's Dublin Murder Squad series (the last one, Faithful Place, was excellent), but this one was not entirely up to snuff for me. I think if it had been edited down a bit more, been a bit shorter, it'd have been a lot stronger. Anyway, one of the detectives who I guess is a secondary character in one or more of the other books (I remember nothing about him, but there are references to some mysterious previous case) and his rookie partner are assigned to solve the murder of an entire family. But obviously it's not going to be that simple, especially when the detective has family ties to the neighborhood of the victims. I liked the resolution a lot, just thought the whole thing dragged a bit, especially with all the foreshadowing that things were going to go badly. B.

2012 book 195

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens
Sometimes you just want to reread something light about the apocalypse. :)

2012 book 194

Amos Oz's Elsewhere, Perhaps
I first read this book in a Jewish lit class in college and it stayed with me to the point that when I later studied abroad in Israel and met a girl named Inbal, one of the first things I said to her was "Your name means the clapper of a bell!" (This must have been very weird but she kindly befriended me anyway.) (That knowledge comes from a recurring motif in the book, though I no longer recall what it symbolizes.) Anyway, I deeply loved this book but haven't read it in a long time (since before I started this blog in 2004, in fact), mainly because I was afraid it wouldn't hold up. Luckily, for the most part, the story of the goings-on at a kibbutz in the 70s does hold up, due primarily to Oz's clever 1st-person plural narrative voice. And of course, I personally still find the themes of Jewish/Israeli Old World/New World conflict interesting (not to mention all the gossip and shenanigans that go on). A-.

2012 book 193

Shannon Hale's Princess Academy: Palace of Stone
I started to write that this was a super cute follow-up to the super cute Princess Academy (a 2006 Newbery Honor book), and then realized that was kind of a weird thing to say about a book about a political revolution. Which this is. We find Miri and several of her Mount Eskel friends in the big city to learn new things and hang out w/ their friend who's about to marry the prince--only soon Miri finds herself befriending revolutionaries, and agreeing with their cause! Can she help make the country better--without hurting her best friend? Talk about your high stakes. And things do get a little intense--but this book is still super cute! I enjoy all Hale's books (adult, YA, graphic novel, whatever), but Miri is especially likable. B+.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in August.

2012 book 192

Amanda Coplin's The Orchardist
Lonely gruff old man farmers are basically my favorite literary archetype, especially when they're aiding pregnant girls (See Kent Haruf's Plainsong for another find example of this trope). Of course, this book takes a far different tack than Plainsong--for one thing, it's set in the late 1800s, and for another, there are two pregnant girls--sisters--fleeing something pretty horrible. The story also goes in a completely different (and generally unexpected) direction (really, the only similarities are lovable old farmers and pregnant girls). Plus, there's some interesting insights into the not-entirely-fully-formed legal system of the time. I will say that I found end mildly unsatisfying, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the rest of the book. B+.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in August.

2012 book 191

Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle
Made it just under the gun--the FYA book group discussion of this is tomorrow! Of course I'm always happy to reread this--it's still one of my favorites. I actually tried to rewatch the movie recently to give it another chance, but only made it a few minutes in--I get that Miyazaki maybe wasn't interested in the comedic/romantic parts of this book, but making the whole movie about war (and making Sophie lame) kind of kills it for me. Anyway, this book is always an A.

2012 book 190

Karen Engelmann's The Stockholm Octavo
It's a time of upheaval for Sweden when this story takes place--things have gotten pretty crazy because of the French Revolution and various plots against the king. When a young, ambitious man befriends a local card-game-hostess (I don't know) with talent as a Seer, the cards she reads for him may deal with more than his chances with romance. But will he ever stop looking at pretty ladies long enough to see the bigger picture? (Seriously, he spends a lot of time dwelling on pretty ladies. He is likable but somewhat silly at times.) Great atmosphere and great handling of political intrigue. I fully expect this to be a big Fall buzz book. A-.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.

2012 book 189

Guy Gavriel Kay's The Darkest Road
The third book in the Fionavar trilogy isn't predictable, but a lot of it feels inevitable. It's one of those epics that's going to culminate in a good vs evil battle, and those always go the same way. And I still haven't decided what I think about the gender roles in this series--I would have felt better if there was even one warrior woman (some of the women are powerful, but are sidelined during battle and/or only become sympathetic when they finally agree with the men). I mean, even Tolkien had Eowyn. Still, I totally cried like three times during the (long) ending and I did like Dave's story arc especially, which redeemed some things I liked less. B+.

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Update 7/19: The more I think about this book, the more problems I have with the ending in regards to the parallel world stuff. And the more I realize that Kay didn't bother to create backstories for the women at all. I'll let my original grade stand, but if I was grading it today it'd be lower.

2012 book 188

Guy Gavriel Kay's The Wandering Fire
The second book in the Fionavar trilogy is a little bit hard to follow--not just b/c there's a large cast of characters always going various places as things creep toward war, but b/c I'm not at all familiar with the Celtic mythology Kay is drawing on. I liked it more than the last one though due to the general lack of rape and/or torture. And I admit that I'm eager to see where the story ends up. B+.

2012 book 187

Guy Gavriel Kay's The Summer Tree
Sometimes you just have to read an epic book about five Canadian college kids getting whisked off to a parallel fantasy world on the brink of war. I mostly liked this a lot, but it's getting downgraded to a B for a lengthy rape/torture scene that I found very hard to read. Hoping Kay makes up for that in the second book (it's a trilogy).

2012 book 186

Robert Hellenga's The Sixteen Pleasures
Somehow I never knew this book existed, and I am so grateful to Sara (the convener of my lady doctor book group) for suggesting it to me! It's 1969, and a 29 year old woman whose plans to attend Radcliffe and have life adventures were altered by her mother's lung cancer is now working as book restoration expert at the Newberry Library. When she hears about the flood in Florence, she's determined to go to Italy and rescue some books--but isn't given the respect she deserves because she's a woman. She somehow ends up in a convent to help save their amazing library and discovers the nuns aren't what she expected at all--and then they find an extremely rare book of Renaissance erotica. And so it seems she may have some life adventures after all. A.

2012 book 185

Terry Pratchett's Dodger
A few days ago, this article appeared in my Google Reader. At the time I was like, "well, that's interesting or whatever" but it turned out to be perfect background reading for the new Terry Pratchett book, whose main character is a tosher--and Mayhew himself appears as well. It's a classic Victorian adventure story--in fact, I would go so far as to call it Dickensian, mainly because Dickens is one of the secondary characters, and the book is full of references to his work (and to other bits of London history and literature--I was delighted whenever I recognized a reference, and I'm sure there were many I missed). Dodger himself is clearly a relative of Dickens' Artful Dodger, and his landlord/father figure is an awesome old Jewish guy (don't worry, not very Fagin-like in the least, a relief to this Jewish reader). Anyway, things get going when Dodger rescues a mysterious girl from a mysterious attack, but of course it's never really that simple in a story like this. A very fun standalone one from Pratchett, for sure. A-.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in September.

2012 book 184

Kat Rosenfield's Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone
God, for someone who's ostensibly smart and about to escape her small town for a good college, the protagonist of this book is a COMPLETE IDIOT. Whether it's mooning over her equally idiotic boyfriend, mildly obsessing over a girl who was found dead in town, or randomly accusing other local idiots of murder, she manages to do the wrong thing every time. (This is especially annoying since the murderer's identity is obvious to the reader.) Her story alternates with the dead girl's, and at least she is likable and interesting. I know that this is a YA mystery, but the plot was really undercooked. C.

2012 book 183

Ann Patchett's State of Wonder
I have to say, this was a perfect book to read for my lady doctor book group, and I look forward to discussing it with actual medical professionals. At first I was reluctant to reread it--I remembered it being a massive tome for some reason, but it's not even 400 pages--but I'm so glad I did--I didn't remember the story well and had completely forgotten one huge plot twist. This totally held up to a second reading. Still an A.

2012 book 182

Cornelia Read's Valley of Ashes
I had read another boom by Read a few years ago and remember enjoying it a lot, so was eager to check out her latest. And then a few chapters into this book, the protagonist's backstory started to sound really familiar--it turns out that this is actually the fourth in a series that started with the one I read back in 2007. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as awesome as that one. It starts off with promise, as reporter Madeline Dare and her family have just moved to Denver for her husband's job, only he's being a total jerk and she's overwhelmed with their baby twins. When she starts investigating a string of local arsons for the paper, it seems like she's going to get sucked into some dramatic crime story--only things abruptly devolve into a REALLY BORING and pretty annoying domestic drama. The mystery this book is ostensibly about is never really addressed again. Seriously, I wanted to smack some sense into all of these characters because they were all weak morons. C.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in August.

2012 book 181

Jeremy Jackson's I Will Not Leave You Comfortless
Those of you who know me well, or who regularly read this blog, know that I generally have a complete lack of interest in reading non-fiction of any kind. I made an exception for this one, though--Jackson (author of the beautiful Life At These Speeds, written about here and here, and whihc I wish was available for Kindle, and which I cannot recommend enough!) has written a memoir that might as well be a novel, about just over a year in his life when he was ten turning eleven, and the things that happened to his family. The descriptions of their Missouri farm are entirely evocative, and his writing was stellar as always. Lovely stuff. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher (actually, the awesome Milkweek sent me a print copy after I had problems with the digital one, so big ups to them). This book will be released in October.

2012 book 180

Emmy Laybourne's Monument 14
Pretty compelling book about two schoolbuses of kids that get driven into a Target-like superstore during a near-future weather disaster (which quickly turns things into something much worse). The six high-schoolers, two eighth-graders, and slew of little kids must figure out how to survive and keep each other safe. Some parts of this were predictable, and I had SERIOUSLY mixed feelings about the ending, but I enjoyed this book a lot--I love near-future dystopias where the characters are well-stocked with supplies and thus have to deal with other issues. And the characters here are pretty strong ones (in terms of writing and the characters themselves). A-/B+.

2012 book 179

James Meek's The Heart Broke In
Meek--author of the awesome The People's Act of Love (excuse the lack of capitalization in that very old blog entry)--brings another book full of complicated and kind of hilarious characters. This book deals with romance, science, blackmail, fame, and family among a large interconnected group of people, including a former rock star turned reality tv producer, his scientist sister, her newsman boyfriend, and a whole host of others. Meek's writing is outstanding and this is going to be a crowd-pleaser (or so I hope). A-.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.

2012 book 178

Elizabeth Haynes' Into the Darkest Corner
OH MY GOD, THIS BOOK WAS TERRIFYING. Completely terrifying. And the worst part was how realistic it was. It's like a very well-written PSA about domestic abuse. (I don't mean that in a negative way or to say it sounds canned, b/c it isn't at all like that.) It's about a young woman who was in a relationship that we know went very badly (though the details emerge gradually), and how four years later she's still struggling to recover. And it is absolutely TERRIFYING. A/A-.

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Note that this isn't really a mystery, more of a psychological thriller, but I always categorize those with mysteries, so . . . 

2012 book 177

Margo Lanagan's The Brides of Rollrock Island
Lanagan, author of Tender Morsels, delivers a less creepy, but no less lovely, troubling, or weird new novel. And I mean all those adjectives in the best possible way. In this one, different characters take us back and forth in time, narrating the history of an isolated island--and the story of why taking a sea-wife is maybe not a great idea. To say much more would be giving too much away, but this is another winner from Lanagan. A/A-.


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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in September.

2012 book 176

Patrice Kindl's Goose Chase
Another completely charming story from Kindl, involving a young Goose Girl gifted with beauty, hair that sheds gold dust, and tears that become diamonds--which turn out to be unwanted gifts when they lead local royal to imprison her in a tower till she decides which she will marry. And that's just the start of her adventure. Plus her geese are super awesome. A-.

2012 book 175

Katie Kitamura's Gone to the Forest
A well-written, but at time very hard to read, book about a weak-willed son, his domineering father, and the young woman who comes between them. I will say that I was a bit distracted by trying to figure out where/when this was in history--the family is mostly oblivious to a coming revolution, and there are multiple references to "natives"--but I still couldn't figure it out. I know that was on purpose but I found it mildly annoying. B.
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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in August.

2012 book 174

Patrice Kindl's Keeping the Castle
I'd never heard of Kindl until this book came out, and my gosh, have I been missing out. This was GREAT! It takes place in Regency/Jane Austen times, and is the cutest and funniest book ever about a girl determined to marry for money to save her family estate. Most of it was predictable, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable. A.

2012 book 173

Jay Caspian Kang's The Dead Do Not Improve
I was intrigued by the description of this first novel by Kang, who works on Grantland--it's about a youngish Korean-American man whose elderly white neighbor is killed in what seems to be random gang gunfire, but then he gets drawn into a much larger mystery. The writing is excellent and I enjoyed some parts of this a lot (primarily the descriptions of the protagonist's childhood/teen years in North Carolina, where he and his Jewish friends were super into rap, and his meditations on Korean-American identity) but some parts were less appealing to me (I think this is more of a dude book, I didn't understand the end AT ALL, and I wanted to know more about the protagonist's family [though I understand why the latter maybe wasn't relevant]).  Mainly my problem was that the mystery made no sense to me--I get that this isn't a traditional mystery novel, but still. But like I said, excellent writing, and should be popular among dudes. B.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in August.

2012 book 172

Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone
Sometimes when a book gets a lot of critical raves, it can never measure up to the hype, and I worried that would be the case with this one--but I liked it a lot. It take place in a fantasy version of historical Russia, where various people have various magical powers, but our orphan protagonist's magical power is the magicalest (it always is, in these kinds of books). Luckily, most of the rest of the story isn't (too) formulaic at all, and I really liked how things proceeded. Definitely a strong start to a trilogy--I look forward to seeing where it goes next. A/A-.

2012 book 171

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
Sometimes you just have to reread a classic--and I always am delighted anew on rediscovering how hilarious this book is. Plus Elizabeth is just a little bit bitchy--which is why I like her so much!

2012 book 170

Peter Heller's The Dog Stars
It's the semi-near future and a flu has killed 99 percent of the people on earth (and most of the animals are dead too, climate change or something). One man, Hig, lives in relative peace with his only neighbor, with Hig patrolling in his little airplane and his neighbor being all into guns and defense, and between the two of them, they're mostly safe. But the nine years of near-solitude are taking their toll, and Hig wants to know what else is out there. Parts of this book strain credulity, but it's a great example of a literary dystopia (a genre I can fully get behind) and Hig is a really, really strong character. A-.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in August.

2012 book 169

Liza Klaussman's Tigers in Red Weather
This was a deeply weird and kind of messed-up book about two cousins, best friends, who just after WWII are both in less-than-ideal marriages. And then the story jumps back and forth between the 40s, 1959 (when their children make a grisly discovery), and the late 1960s (where their young adult children make even weirder decisions than their mothers). Part of the problem here is that I didn't feel like I knew most of the characters that well, and the ones that I did know well I mostly despised. Not that unlikable characters inherently make a book bad, but this one kind of goes beyond the pale. A lot of the plots felt half-baked, and the end reveals were just completely bizarre. I don't understand what is supposed to be good about this book, and if it's supposed to be "interesting"--well, then it doesn't go far enough. C-.

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An e-galley was provided by the publishers. This book will be released in July.

2012 book 168

Jonathan Tropper's One Last Thing Before I Go
Tropper's This Is Where I Leave You was one of my favorite books of 2009, so I was eagerly anticipating his latest book, which is about a washed-up musician from a one-hit wonder band, leading a mess of a life--divorced, estranged from his daughter, working in wedding bands. But then he finds out if he doesn't have heart surgery he could die at any time--and also, his Princeton-bound daughter is pregnant, and his ex-wife is about to get remarried, and he's determined to be a better man. This may all sound super dramatic, but it's Tropper, so it's actually very funny, and the protagonist is amazingly charming considering what a jerk he can be. Plus his dad is a Rabbi forcing him to attend various life events, which I loved. Another great one from Tropper. A.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in August.

2012 book 167

Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood
I've been meaning to read this for a few years, and don't know why I didn't read it sooner--it's a sequel/companion to Atwood's Oryx and Crake, which I remember liking. Of course, I read it before this blog ever existed, so all I remember is  . . . someone sitting on a beach? Luckily, Flood works just as well as a standalone, focusing on two women who've survived the plague in isolation, spending their time remembering their shared past in a vegetarian cult (b/c of course they know each other--this book has way too many coincidences like that). I admit to wishing they'd meet up sooner rather than later, but the story is still fairly compelling until that point, and pretty action-packed after. I do love a dystopian novel and this was a good one. Apparently it's also the middle part of a trilogy, which I find extra-intriguing. A-/B+.

2012 book 166

Sarah Dessen's This Lullaby
After that last book, I wanted to read something on the fluffier side, so decided to try this Dessen book that I'd missed (it came out in 2002, before I was reading YA). And it was pretty good--Dessen is a reliable writer, though this one was a tiny bit heavy-handed for me (though still very entertaining). And I can never decide if her dudes are realistic or not. Dexter is way too awesome. B/B+.

2012 book 165

Shani Boianjiu's The People of Forever Are Not Afraid
I was intrigued when I heard this book was about a group of young women serving in the Israeli army (I studied abroad in Tel Aviv and was friendly with some Israelis, but they didn't talk about the army much--plus it was 2000 and things were relatively peaceful there then)--but this book was so much more INTENSE than I was expecting. The three main characters are all somewhat damaged before they even get to the army, but their experiences there . . . well, it made me extra glad that I live a cushy American-Jewish life.  It's a great, great book and should be popular with literary fiction readers (it's already getting a lot of buzz), but parts of it are very hard to read. A-.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in September.

2012 book 164

Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons
I swear, no author makes me straight-up weep like Creech does, which is a little bit crazy since she writes for middle-schoolers! Anyway, this one is about a girl on a road trip with her (hilariously cute) grandparents, telling the story of her friend Phoebe--and telling her own story as well. Creech is just a masterful, masterful storyteller. A.

2012 book 163

M.L. Steadman's The Light Between Oceans
It's 1926, and a WWI vet and his young wife live on an isolated Australian island where he serves as lighthouse-keeper. After they suffer a series of miscarriages and a stillbirth, a boat washes up holding a dead man and a small living baby, and the wife convinces the husband not to report it so they can raise the baby as their own. Obviously that's not going to work out that well, but how things happen aren't at all predictable. Great characters and atmosphere--I think this should be a sleeper hit for book groups--lots to dissect here. A-.

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in August.

2012 book 162

Ernest Cline's Ready Player One
I was not at all excited when I found out this was the next FYA book club book, b/c I DID NOT want to read a book about a dude in a virtual reality world. But it started off strong and I was actually kind of interested . . . until like halfway through when it got SO BORING. Maybe if I'd been a slightly older nerd in the 80s I'd have liked it more, but even the pop culture references I loved got boring after a while--not to mention the endless, ENDLESS video game playing. And not to mention the weirdly tacked on and completely ridiculous romance angle. It did pick up a bit toward the end but man, this book was not my thing at all. AT ALL. C.

2012 book 161

Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay
I honestly don't think this series could have ended any other way and I find this book very satisfying even on my third read of it. I really don't know how the next two movies will convey Katniss' emotional state--I mean, Jennifer Lawrence is a great actress, but dang. And yes, Gale is totally a terrorist.

2012 book 160

Suzanne Collins' Catching Fire
I'm constantly baffled by the people who are surprised at the stuff that went down in Mockingjay--like, did you not read the first two books in this series? In this one, especially, Collins is saying some Stuff about War and Society. I mean, almost all the characters have super severe PTSD! This is not a glamorous world, despite all the fancy food and dresses in the Capitol. This is a deeply messed up world that has deeply messed up the people in it. Totally riveting read, still.

2012 book 159

Nicole Krauss' The History of Love
This was actually the third time I've read this book, and the second time for a book group, and I'd forgotten how GREAT it is. This book has everything I like it in--Judaism, history, books, everyone loving and talking about books, secrets to be unraveled, etc. Well worth the re-read.

2012 book 158

Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games
Seeing the Hunger Games movie for the third time last night made me realize that I didn't remember all the details of the book, since it had been almost two years since I read it last. Obviously that had to be rectified! And though the movie is super awesome, it really doesn't hold a candle to the book. I'm dying to dive right into Catching Fire, but one of my book groups meets on Wednesday and I haven't even started that one yet. Ah, but it's so hard to resist the lure of Katniss.