library

A Truly Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Started: 12/6/22
Finished: 12/12/22

Hank Green does everything, so it’s not really a surprise that he also wrote a book. And it’s pretty good! Not subtle in its message, and it’s a bit meta (about his life) at times, but since I tend to agree with the message and I know something about his life, it didn’t bother me.

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

Started: 12/1/22
Finished: 12/5/22

Big happy sigh. I really enjoyed this book. It’s a romance, and it’s a family story, and it looks like it cannot possibly have a happy ending (except that I TOTALLY called it before I reached the halfway mark, but that didn’t lessen my enjoyment in any way), and it was really nice. I cried. Twice? Maybe.

Just Like Magic by Sarah Hogle

Started: 11/25/22
Finished: 11/27/22

I don’t usually read holiday books, and I don’t read a lot of romance novels, and I certainly don’t read a lot of holiday romances, but I loved this book. The main character is pretty awful at the beginning, but the book takes a ludicrous turn FAST, and it’s funny, and I swear I cried TWICE before it was over. Super light read, super ridiculous plot, oversimplified resolution, and I couldn’t have enjoyed it more.

The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake

Started: 11/16/22
Finished: 11/25/22

Sequel to The Atlas Six, which I enjoyed so much I got on the waiting list for this one immediately. Turns out there will be at least one more (there’d better be), and this one suffers a little bit from 2nd volume syndrome. It has a thing to do, but it takes overlong to get there, and there are a lot of scenes of characters figuring something out without actually telling the reader what they’re figuring out. I can’t tell if whatever the thing is (or things are – this happens more than once) is supposed to be obscure and I’ll find out later, or if I’m just being dense and I should have understood what the character was saying.

But I enjoyed it! And I’m looking forward to the next book.

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong

Started: 11/8/22
Finished: 11/16/22

I have no idea what prompted me to pick this one up, although I’ve heard of the author, but I’m glad I did. It’s not good, but it makes me laugh every 20 pages or so. I’m going to be super annoyed if it ends with the main character in love with this one dude. (I’m afraid it will.)

Update now that I’ve finished it: super satisfying, and I am not super annoyed. Yay!

I should mention that this book is extra violent and pretty gross.

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Started: 11/3/22
Finished: 11/8/22

This started out super interesting (it’s set in LA’s Chinatown and written like a movie script), and it’s a fast read, but I nearly gave it up around 2/3 of the way through. I don’t think there’s any question about the conceit (that I don’t want to spoil for anyone), but I will admit to be confused about what was reality and what was, I don’t know, maybe allegory?, a couple of times.

The Charmed List by Julie Abe

Started: 10/5/22
Gave up: 10/8/22

I read a Buzzfeed article about cozy fantasy books for the fall, and this sounded promising. Magic hidden in plain sight in Palo Alto, cute little romance. And sure, those things happen. But the characters are in high school, and I just cannot. I literally said, “Ugh, teenagers,” when I put this one down for good.

Velvet Was The Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Started: 9/24/22
Gave up: 9/27/22

I don’t remember what I thought this book was going to be about, but I certainly didn’t expect a bored and thoroughly unpleasant 30-something woman, a somewhat interesting young government thug, and a missing person who sounded like someone I would find pretentious and obnoxious. Not for me. Gave it up.

Oh, wait, I know. I was confusing it with Certain Dark Things, which I am still interested in reading.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

Started: 9/22/22
Gave up: 9/24/22

I have been wary of David Mitchell books. Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks sound so impenetrable, and that’s really not what I’m looking for in my fiction. So when Jo Walton wrote basically the same thing and then said that this book (and Utopia Avenue) are completely different and totally wonderful, I figured I would trust her. I HAVE to stop doing that. I started this book, and I guess I just wasn’t in the mood for 17th century Japanese and Dutch morality and hand-wringing and ugh with the overly gross descriptions. So I gave it up. I MIGHT still try Utopia Avenue when I get around to it.

The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu

Started: 9/18/22
Gave up: 9/22/22

Giving up two books in a row is never a good sign for my state of mind, but I think I’m justified here. I made it to 72% before I got tired of the drama between 22-year-olds. It started out cute, light, good immigrant family stuff, but at the point where I quit, stuff that had barely been hinted at in the first three quarters of the book was all of a sudden brought out and OH, here’s the obstacle our characters have to overcome, and ugh, I don’t care. Not a good setup.

Oona Out of Order by Margerita Montimore

Started: 9/17/22
Gave up: 9/18/22

The premise is interesting, and it got me through the first 90 pages, but no. Girl (on the eve of her 19th birthday) begins living her life out of order, meaning that her consciousness spends every year in her own body in a random year of her future life. So when she turns 21, maybe she jumps to her body when she’s 30. (I don’t know – I quit before that.)

I quit for two reasons. First, I don’t like the character, and I feel like that’s a failure of the writing, not of my imagination. She’s going through a lot, and I would like to feel sympathic and understanding when she’s bitchy to the people who are trying to help her, but even though the reader is ONLY in her head, there’s not enough to bring me to sympathy. Then again, she’s still a teenager when this begins, so maybe I should give her more slack, but THEN I feel like I shouldn’t have to put in this much effort. So I quit.