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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

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Started: 6/7/19
Finished: 6/15/19

This one keeps popping up in my recommendations, usually described as being like Firefly, and I finally got a copy in this year’s Hugo voter’s packet (the 3rd book and the series have been nominated).  I can say that yes, it IS like Firefly (not as much shooting), and I enjoyed it very much.  It’s light and fun, much lighter than what I’ve been reading lately, so that was a pleasant surprise.  It’s not heavy on plot – there’s an episodic feel to it which probably also led to the Firefly comparisons, but it’s nice.

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

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Started: 6/1/19
Finished: 6/7/19

I’ve been meaning to read this one for a year, and then it got nominated for a Hugo and I got it in the voter’s packet, so yay for me!  It’s a story about monsters and monsterslayers in a post-apocalyptic US, set on a Navajo reservation, and it’s pretty great.

Dressed for Death by Donna Leon

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Started: 5/25/19
Finished: 6/1/19

Commissario Brunetti series book 3.  I think I see what Jo Walton meant when she said this series was about integrity.  Brunetti solves the mystery, but the ultimate bad guy doesn’t get punished (or not for the right thing).  If there’s a larger character arc, I wonder if Brunetti will go through a depression.

Rosewater by Tade Thompson

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Started: 5/10/19
Finished: 5/19/19

I LOVED the author’s novella, so I was really looking forward to his first novel.  The premise was interesting, and it started out great, but it gradually lost me.  It wasn’t bad, but there were parts that were viscerally disturbing, and the reveal at the end (that will drive the rest of the trilogy) feels like something the main character should already have known.  I found myself distanced from it.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

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Started: 5/8/19
Finished: 5/10/19

I’ve heard so much about this book while also learning absolutely nothing about it, so I really didn’t know what to expect.  It’s an interesting story, but I think I was looking for more to come out of it.  More…plot.  So I’m left feeling unsatisfied. Sort of “that’s it?”  I’m pretty sure that’s the fault of my expectations, though, and not of the book itself. I need more distance from it.

The Mislaid Magician Or Ten Years After by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

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Started: 5/4/19
Finished: 5/7/19

The third Cecelia and Kate book was the 2nd best.  Told in letters like the first one, although we get Thomas and James’ POVs, too, which is fun.  Best, though, is what happened to the mislaid magician in the title.  Fun, light, ridiculous, and fun.  (Did I mention it was fun?)

Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare

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Started: 4/30/19
Finished: 5/4/19

I went back and read the first of the Francis Pettigrew mysteries.  If I had read this one first, I wouldn’t be interested in reading any more.  First of all, Pettigrew is barely in it.  Certainly not a main character.  Second, the murder happens in the last 10% of the book.  No exaggeration.  And one of the suspects only got introduced a chapter ahead of it.  I MIGHT try the third one before I decide about the series, but I’m not in a hurry.

With a Bare Bodkin by Cyril Hare

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Started: 4/26/19
Finished: 4/29/19

Because Jo Walton liked it, I gave it a try.  This is the second of the Francis Pettigrew mysteries, set in England in early WWII.  Pettigrew is a lawyer, everyone is pretty isolated, and the murder doesn’t actually occur until the second half of the book.  Entertaining, but odd.

The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo

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Started: 4/24/19
Finished: 4/25/19

Overall, I don’t think I liked this book.  I read it quickly, it drew me in pretty well, but it’s written from the point of view of this woman who never seems to have matured past college age.  She’s telling the story to someone, and her voice is irritating.  And her two great loves?  Also irritating.  I would not be friends with any of them, and oh my god, she’s just wrong.  I don’t think I felt this strongly about that when I finished it.  Given a week to let it sit, and yeah – I didn’t like it.

Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys

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Started: 4/19/19
Finished: 4/24/19

I was hesitant to start this one because I kept getting hung up on the Lovecraftian parts of the book reviews, and the whole unknowable-horror-tentacled-monster thing is what keeps me away from Lovecraft.  The other parts of the book reviews (the solid writing, flipping Lovecraft’s whole bigotry thing, the found family theme) are why I read it anyway.  Final thoughts: good story, good characters, hardly any tentacles.

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

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Started: 4/18/19
Finished: 4/19/19

This is a movie waiting to happen, and I’d happily watch it.  It’s the story of a lonely, sarcastic, black French Canadian teenager transplanted to Austin, Texas in the middle of high school. In some ways it’s predictable, in other ways it isn’t, and I flew through it.

When You Read This by Mary Adkins

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Started: 4/18/19
Gave up: 4/18/19

I couldn’t get into this one.  It’s the story of a woman who died told via the emails of the people who knew her (and one person who didn’t know her but started working for her boss after she died).  It might be depressing, it might be uplifting, I think it’s supposed to be funny, but I didn’t stick around to find out for sure.  I wasn’t learning enough about the characters to care, and the intern really bugged me.

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

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Started: 4/14/19
Finished: 4/17/19

The first in a series of mysteries set in Venice that I picked up because Jo Walton says they’re wonderful and I trust her.  For some reason she recommends starting with book 2 (she’s on book 22 (!) and the author is still alive), but I started with book 1 because what kind of monster do you take me for?

I enjoyed it, even though this was one of the more disturbing motives – definitely not a cozy mystery.  Maybe Jo Walton’s recommendation about starting with book 2 was a typo.

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

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Started: 4/7/19
Finished: 4/9/19

Steampunk fantasy novella set in post-Civil War New Orleans.  I’m not always a fan of stories that use gods to fuel the magic system (capricious gods that act like children annoy me), but I liked it this time.  Details built an alternate New Orleans without a lot of exposition, and the characters were well done.

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

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Started: 4/7/19
Gave up: 4/7/19

This is hard to admit, but I gave up on Dandelion Wine.  I love Ray Bradbury, but I couldn’t read this.  It’s an ode to small-town life before the Great Depression.  Remember when boys were boys and men were men and small towns were great and aren’t little brothers wonderful and gosh, summer lasts forever, and MAYBE if there had been a plot!