2018 book 61

Joan Bauer's Hope Was Here
This was a very sweet story, a Newbery Honor book, about a teenage girl, a waitress, who moves with her chef aunt to take over a diner run by a man with leukemia—a man who's decided to run for mayor against the very corrupt incumbent (too real). There is not a lot of meat to the story, but I liked the depiction of unconventional families and appreciated the multi-racial cast. Just a satisfying and heartwarming read. B/B+.

2018 book 60

Rebecca Kauffman's The Gunners
It's funny to see a novel compared to movies like The Big Chill and St Elmo's Fire, but those comparisons are fairly apt here--the story centers on a disparate group of friends, who are reunited for a funeral when one of them commits suicide, with flashbacks to their childhood interspersed throughout. I found this to be immensely readable and really well-written, even if some of the characters were better-developed than others. (The main POV character, gradually losing his sight, was especially effective.) The story touches on family and friendship and love and recovery, and I found it to be really big-hearted and even a little bit surprising. A/A-.

2018 book 59

Judith Flanders' A Howl of Wolves
I like the Sam Clair mysteries—about an editor who keeps getting drawn into these murder investigations—a lot, though this one wasn’t the strongest one for me. The story here centers on a play featuring one of Sam's friends—and her friend's little boy—where someone is MURDERED. I love the characters and the descriptions here, and Flanders is very funny, but the mystery itself left me feeling a little flat (I correctly guessed the killer, perhaps due to an editing error in my ARC [is that ironic?], but found the motive troubling). If this is going to be one of those series that is more interested in the characters and their relationships than in the plotting of a mystery, I’d be fine with that, because that is really where the books shine, for me. B/B+.

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

2018 book 58

Martha Wells' All Systems Red
I’d been meaning to read this for a while, but then it got nominated for a Hugo, which bumped it up the to-read list. This was actually a great time to read it, because three sequels are coming over the next six months. Anyway, it's a great sci fi tale narrated by a self-proclaimed Murderbot, who's hacked its systems so it has more autonomy (and can watch tv shows), and whose current job is as the security unit for a scientific expedition. And then things on said expedition start going wrong. The pacing and characterization here are both great, and I found the plot more satisfying than in a lot of novellas. I liked this a lot and look forward to seeing where the story goes next. A-.

2018 book 57

Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver
My birthday weekend treat to myself was to read my ARC of this book, which isn’t out until July, and honestly I could not have picked a BETTER birthday weekend treat for myself, because this book had just about everything I loved in it! It’s set in the same universe as Novik's Uprooted, I believe, but doesn’t seem to be related to that book otherwise, except that it is also an interesting mishmash of Western and Eastern European folklore (and Jewish!!). The main character is a young Jewish girl, the daughter of a moneylender, but eventually several other POV characters comes into play, particularly the daughter of a local Duke and a young girl who comes to work for the moneylender's daughter. There are so many great women in here, learning accounting, knitting, fighting demons—you know, the usual stuff. Anyway, I don’t want to give much away, but this book was moving and funny and action-packed, and had so much good family and friendship stuff. I just really loved it. A.

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

2018 book 56

Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love
I had intended to wait to reread this until book club was slightly closer on the horizon, but Mitford so perfectly suited my current mood that I just went for it. I love her by turns hilarious and moving semi-autobiographical story even though all the characters are kind of terrible rich eccentrics (and in a couple of cases, blatantly racist). She paints them so vividly though--I particularly relish the wartime scenes with Davey and The Bolter. And the end is a real stunner. I really feel like Mitford is underrated as a novelist.

2018 book 55

Andrea Buchanan's The Beginning of Everything: The Year I Lost My Mind and Found Myself
FULL DISCLOSURE: I am friends with the author and love her dearly. That said, this is still an amazing and engaging memoir about the author's struggle to deal with—and be treated for—a brain leak. It is also about divorce, motherhood, family, medicine, biology, history, chronic illness, memory, and the stories we tell—not to mention, a super incredible woman. I rarely read nonfiction but this had me totally gripped, and not just because it was about someone I know. It's well written, moving, and deeply honest. And some parts are very funny, too. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. A.

2018 book 54

Rebecca Stead and Wendy Maas' Bob
I am pretty much here for anything Rebecca Stead writes, and I also like Wendy Maas, so I was excited to see what a collaboration between them would be like. Maybe this book is aimed even younger than I thought, but there is just not enough to the story here (and I think there is room for a lot more). It centers on a young American girl, visiting her grandmother in Australia for the first time in five years, when she discovers a strange creature in her closet. A creature she apparently befriended, and offered to help, but now has no memory of. It’s all very sweet and pretty cute, I just expect more character development and more plot from both of these authors. I do think this may be for young kids though. B+.

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

2018 book 53

Marge Piercy's Gone to Soldiers
I have seen this 1988 novel recommended a few times recently, and I am honestly surprised I have never read it before now, because it is basically Alicia catnip: an epic 700+ page novel about several women  (and a few men) during WWII, most of whom are Jewish (and some of whom are from Pittsburgh!), across the globe. Plus, I love Marge Piercy! I should really read/reread all her books. Some of these voices are more compelling than others--I particularly loved petulant and pretentious teen Jacqueline's transformation, and was cheering hard for writer Louise and pilot Bernice--but on the whole this was a completely engrossing work. Anyway, I'll throw in a vague content warning here bc some of the characters have racist/Orientalist/anti-Semitic attitudes common in their era, and there are also various sexual assaults, plus, you know, concentration camps, so steel yourselves. But this was great, just breath-taking. A.

2018 book 52

Madeline Miller's Circe
I really liked Miller's Song of Achilles, so I was eager to see her take on one of the women of Greek mythology. And this was a (mostly) well-written and powerful story of a woman caught between worlds who just wants to belong. Circe is a smart character to choose here, because she—and her family—feature in so many stories, but she has never really been a central figure. Miller does a good job weaving in all those stories (the Minotaur's birth scene is a real stunner) and making even the more well-trod ones come to life. Really well done. A-.

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

2018 book 51

Sharon Shinn's Summers at Castle Auburn
Well, this was a perfectly charming, if more of the usual white European/heternormative sort of fantasy story, about a young girl--the illegitimate sister of the local prince's (legitimate) betrothed, who spends summers at the castle with her beloved sister. And all the local court intrigues. Shinn does a good job of showing her growing up from summer to summer, from an educated yet naive young girl to a more socially aware and astute young woman (primarily regarding a group of enslaved fairy-ish people). And I honestly wasn't sure how the romances were going to play out half the time. Solid writing and pacing and great characters--I will definitely be reading more by Shinn. A/A-.

2018 book 50

Jaclyn Moriarty's The Ghosts of Ashbury High
Sometimes I like this conclusion to the Ashbury/Brookfield series more than others--the story is told primarily through essay tests which I find to be an unusual storytelling device. Of course, it is also told through fairly hilarious blog posts and comments. And the story itself is moving, bringing Australian history and Irish folklore into the complicated teenage lives at its center. An interesting way to wrap up these characters' lives, for sure.

2018 book 49

Roshani Chokshi's Aru Shah and the End of Time
So basically Rick Riordan was like, we could really have Percy Jackson-esque books for all different world mythologies, but perhaps I as a white man am not the best person to write them, and instead I will use my platform to promote #ownvoices writers. So now a few new series that fit the Percy Jackson mold are in the works, written by other people. This is the first, which is basically Percy Jackson but with Hindu mythology and with a girl—so I am here for it! I actually liked this better than the other Choski book I’ve read—it has the good pacing and humor of a Riordan book, with lots of entertaining characters (the protagonist has a neurotic but smart compatriot and a pigeon sidekick), plenty of action, and a lot of heart. Anyway, I can’t wait for all of the sequels—this was really fun! A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on March 27th.

2018 book 48

Leslye Walton's The Price Guide to the Occult
Walton's second novel, after the word-of-mouth hit The Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, starts off strong—it’s the story of a girl from a long line of cursed witches, with the ability to know the thoughts of plants and animals, shy, a cutter, with the requisite eccentric and underveloped best friend. So her life, and the town, is all relatively interesting. But when she discovers her straight up evil mother is basically forming a cult, the story goes completely off the rails. There are love interests and murders and family secrets and magical drama and it is all somewhat silly and the writing is . . . not subtle. It ends in a way that suggests a sequel, or maybe it just ends, who knows. I really wanted to like this but I just didn’t. B-.

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

2018 book 47

Jaclyn Moriarty's The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie
The third Ashbury/Brookfield book brings in a few of the characters from the first two, but is primarily told through the diaries/other assorted notes of the titular Bindy Mackenzie, who at first you think is just an especially insufferable nerd (and I say that as someone who is also a fairly insufferable nerd), but then you realize not only do you like her, you're worried about her. And then a mystery comes into play! Just really excellent character work here.

2018 book 46

Jaclyn Moriarty's The Year of Secret Assignments
I have read this book many times now and I never stop thinking it's sweet, silly, and surprisingly hilarious at times. I love reading about girls who care about each other fiercely (and the boys they flirt with via a pen pal program). And JUSTICE.

2018 book 45

Mallory Ortberg's The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror

I know it is tempting to plow through a new book by Ortberg, but these stories demand to be savored, and I think benefit from it too. Ortberg is playing with fairy tale tropes and bible stories to create stories that are weird, hilarious, creepy, and sad, and sometimes all four at the same time. If you already love Ortberg's writing, this is another winner; if you’re not familiar, the first story in the book--Ortberg's take on The Little Mermaid—will be a good litmus test. A/A-.

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

2018 book 44

Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone
This book has been getting a lot of hype, but I was sure it was going to be some generic YA fantasy/action/romance novel, just set in Africa, which, hey, the world needs more of those, too. From the very first scene this had me hooked, though. It's great! Now I see why my mom was texting me when the author was on Good Morning America last week. :) ANYway, this story centers on Zelie, a young woman from a mythical African country, who is part of a group that SHOULD have magical powers—but the magic was mysteriously lost. And now she, and others like her, are persecuted and oppressed. But maybe she can restore magic with the help of a mysterious scroll—and the local princess? (The princess and her brother, obsessed with his duty, are also both POV characters.) This did start to drag a little at a certain point, and there was the occasional clumsiness in the writing—I wished the editing was a bit tighter, as usual with YA books, occasionally found the romance to be overwrought. But still, a really solid story and I look forward to seeing where it goes next. A-/B+.

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Content warning for rape threats and lots and lots of brutal violence.

2018 book 43

Shannon Hale and Dean Hale's The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: 2 Fuzzy, 2 Furious
The best part of pre-ordering a book and then immediately forgetting its release day is the joyous surprise of getting an email that you can read it RIGHT NOW! So I was already really happy to start this book, and it lived up to its predecessor in sheer delight and hilarity. The plot here involves Doreen and her merry band of friends and friendly squirrels taking on an EVIL SHOPPING MALL. And also Thor hanging out and chatting about socks, and hilarious superhero group texts, and FRIENDSHIP. It's GREAT. The world needs more joyful, adventurous, kind stories of this sort. I sincerely loved this and laughed throughout. A.

Also, peep this cameo in a list of squirrel names.

2018 book 42

Sarah Rees Brennan's In Other Lands
I sometimes find this author's writing style to be . . . overly mannered? But I had read enough positive reviews of this book--wherein a snarky 13 year old bisexual nerd named Elliot is recruited to a magical land and has fairly hilarious adventures--to want to check it out. And I loved it. I especially liked that the elves in this land are matriarchal warriors, and thus super matronizing (which my sexist computer insists is not a real word) to men, and Elliot totally goes with it constantly. And that Elliot is a pacifist trying to keep the militaristic society--and his friends--from war. And it’s very funny and occasionally  dark and deep.  I did wish Elliot was less dumb about the clearly telegraphed romance, but I loved how it all wrapped up. A/A-.