Jo Walton Reads

Old Lovegood Girls by Gail Godwin

Leave a Comment

Started: 8/2/20
Finished: 8/6/20

I thought about putting this down shortly after starting it.  Not because it was bad, it’s very much not bad, but because it wasn’t grabbing me.  I wasn’t positive I was in the right mood for it.  But I kept reading, and I kept reading, and I kept reading, and I couldn’t stop reading, and I stayed up late two nights running because I couldn’t stop reading, and then it ended, and I’m a little sad.  It’s about two women who meet in college and then separate and how their lives went on.

Would Like To Meet by Rachel Winters

Leave a Comment

Started: 5/16/20
Finished: 5/19/20

It’s a book, not a movie, so while I would call it a rom-com, I suppose it’s more correctly chick lit.  It’s totally a rom-com, and it name-checks every rom-com out there because part of the plot is that it steals the meet-cutes from them.  And just like a rom-com, it was SO OBVIOUS who the love interest was that it was infuriating that no one else seemed to think so.

It was light, it was mostly cute, but it seemed to go a little longer than it had to.  I’d watch the movie, but I wouldn’t re-read the book.

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

1 Comment

Started: 5/2/20
Finished: 5/6/20

This book started out really cute, turned absurd, got serious, took a dark turn, and ended on the cute side again without taking into account the darkness.  The second half, especially the last little bit, felt like an exercise rather than a novel, so I can’t say I fully recommend it, at least not as an immersive novel.  On the other hand, it was a really interesting exercise in use of language, and the made up months and days made me laugh, especially toward the end.

A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin

2 Comments

Started: 4/27/20
Finished: 5/2/20

Having just finished a couple of very pleasant adventure stories with likeable protagonists, I almost physically recoiled at the main character’s attitude in the first few pages.  It’s an adjustment.  It’s also about a murder, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised.  Pretty much all of the male characters came across as arrogant chauvinists, including (especially) the good guys, so the book was a bit much to take.  I enjoyed it, but I can’t say I liked it.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Leave a Comment

Started: 4/12/20
Finished: 4/19/20

I’ve read a couple of this author’s YA books and liked them a lot -they were a pair of heist stories, and I always like a good heist.  This one…I’m not quite halfway and seriously considering quitting.  Premise: the secret societies at Yale are all real and do real magic, and a young woman who can see ghosts is recruited to the watchdog society.  It was a little slow to start, but it was going fine once I got into it, and then there was a really horrifying scene made so much worse for the fantasy elements, and shortly after that there was a really gross scene, and I’m just not sure.  It’s on the horror side of fantasy – not creepy-scary, but maybe a bit body-horror scary.  Maybe I’ll see how I feel about it in the morning.

Update: I kept reading and found I couldn’t put it down.  Nothing else as horrifying or gross happened and the action picked up.  It ended with a setup for the next book, but it’s not a cliffhanger and could work as a standalone.

Update 6 months later: I was reminded of the horrifying scene, and I am horrified all over again and NOT in a good way.  I wish I hadn’t remembered it.  I don’t feel good about this book.  Definitely not for me.

Dressed for Death by Donna Leon

Leave a Comment

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.

Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare

Leave a Comment

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

Leave a Comment

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.

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

Leave a Comment

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.