Started: 11/27/18
Gave up: 12/1/18
Someone visits people before Death does. Could have been good, but there’s no plot (I got a quarter of the way in – nothing) and the main character isn’t interesting enough to carry the book without a sense of purpose to what action there is. Gave it up.
Started: 9/11/18
Finished: 9/12/18
I don’t remember where I heard about this one, but it was a nice read about a woman trying to recover from her husband’s tragic death a year before. She has a teenage son and a job in advertising, and it was funny and sweet and light, despite the tragic background. (I do occasionally read and enjoy non-SFF books.)
Started: 4/29/18
Gave up: 4/29/18
Supposed to be in the vein of Where’d You Go, Bernadette, which I LOVED, and Today Will Be Different, which I strongly disliked (both by Maria Semple). This one fell into the strongly dislike category. The main character and the overall situation should be relatable, but I just can’t with her character, her decisions, her choices. So I quit halfway through.
Started: 4/7/18
Finished: 4/8/18
Fascinating story that follows two families, descendent by descendent, across the centuries. One stays in Africa, one is captured by slavers and goes to the US.
Started: 2/19/18
Finished: 2/19/18
I flew through this YA novel/thriller. I have a minor quibble with one of the ways the title is used, but otherwise, this was pretty good.
Started: 1/28/18
Finished: 2/3/18
Speculative fiction, second American civil war begins 60 years from now, the south refuses to give up oil. Told entirely from the point of view of a young southern woman fighting, not for the cause (she doesn’t care about oil), but because the war (and the north) destroyed everything she knew and loved. It felt real and dirty and uncomfortable, and I’m not sure I liked it, but it was good.