Started: 4/17/21
Finished: 4/26/21
I liked, but didn’t love, her first novel, but I had heard really good things about this one. Of course, then it took me a while to get into this, but once I did, I was completely hooked. Cried twice. Good stuff, and better than her first book.
Started: 4/12/21
Finished: 4/17/21
SO GOOD, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this book is a 2021 Hugo nominee! (Just announced.) This has been on my radar since it was published last year, both because she’s great and I’ve loved many of her books and because everyone in the SF community raves about it, and it lived up to the hype.
Started: 4/3/21
Finished: 4/9/21
Book 17 in The Dresden Files, which I have been re-reading via audiobook for the last year or so. I probably should have been listing the last several as new books for me, but I’ve been lazy about it. Anyway, I’m enjoying these books more than ever, particularly the later ones, at least partly because he really dialed back the low-key sexist descriptions of women THANK GOD.
Also, something in this latest book made me cry, and there was a bonus short story at the end that made me SOB. Jim Butcher has made me yell in annoyance, shout at unexpected events, laugh many times, but he’s never made me cry before.
Started: 3/30/21
Finished: 4/3/21
Book 4, I think, in the Maisie Dobbs series. I like the stories, but I’m over my love for them. Maisie needs friends, please! Someone she actually talks to or has fun with, not just clients and employees and sponsors/mentors. She might become more human.
Started: 3/16/21
Gave up: 3/16/21
This was Paul Tremblay’s first book, and it shows. There’s a narcoleptic detective, bad at his job, unwilling to change anything to improve, and why should I care about this character? I don’t. I gave up pretty quickly.
Started: 3/14/21
Finished: 3/16/21
Volume 2 of a graphic novel full of NICE fairy tale mashups. I really really hope there’s a 3rd volume.
Started: 3/6/21
Finished: 3/13/21
Book 3 in the Maisie Dobbs series. Any pretense that she isn’t somewhat mystical is gone, and since the pretense is gone, I feel like I can relax about it. It does remove a little of my enjoyment of the mystery aspect, though. Still great characters and good stories, so I’m in the for long haul with the series.
Started: 2/27/21
Gave up: 3/3/21
People LOVE Diana Wynne Jones, but it appears I am not people. I tried one a while back – it was okay. I tried this one about British witches saving the world in the early 1990s – what’s not to like? But I feel very meh about it, so I gave up. She wrote Howl’s Moving Castle, and it’s supposed to be amazing, so I will try that sometime, but if I don’t like that one, I think I might have to be done with her.
Started: 2/21/21
Finished: 2/27/21
This one starts out weird, gets fascinating, then turns dark and fascinating. And, despite the fact that it took me a full week to finish it (I had ZERO time to read), it’s short!
Started: 2/8/21
Finished: 2/12/21
T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon when she’s writing kids’ books) is one of the guests of honor at this convention I’m (virtually) attending this weekend, so I figured I’d read her next to most recent book before then. I’ve read three before this and loved them, and I love this. I love it when I find a new favorite.
Started: 1/30/21
Finished: 2/3/21
I love Sarah Gailey and everything they’ve written. This is their first YA book – it’s about friends with magic, and it starts dark. The main character is pretty insecure ways that feel real even though they’re not how any of my insecurities work. I’m not totally crazy about how the magic works. I mean, it’s not explained and I don’t think it has to be, but the friends seem to be so convinced that this one thing will work, and I don’t know why they would think that. Except it’s likely they are trying to convince themselves it’ll work. Anyway, I liked it, I enjoyed it, and a lot of things about it were really good. I’m just not sure it’s really good.
Started: 12/27/20
Finished: 1/2/21
NOT what I expected. I mean, the book cover says straight out it’s a Victorian/Regency novel but with dragons, and it would be ridiculous to expect dragons to behave exactly like humans even with that premise, but a couple of things still took me by surprise. Good surprise, if these two genres are your thing (and they are mine).
Started: 12/15/20
Finished: 12/19/20
I’ve been a little off Ann Patchett for a few years. I’m afraid to re-read Bel Canto, which I read several times years ago and LOVED and gave as gifts to many many people. What if I have changed enough that I don’t love it anymore? Anyway, I picked up The Dutch House. First, it’s good. When I couldn’t read it, I wanted to read it. Second, turns out that in order for me to LOVE a book, I need it to have a plot. It’s not that nothing happens – it’s a family saga, plenty happens – but it’s a family saga, so there’s no mystery to solve, no murder to avenge, no THING to DO. And I have learned that I prefer books that have a THING the characters need to DO.
Started: 11/1/20
Finished: 11/13/20
This book marks the first time I’ve been disappointed by an Ann Leckie book. The style is different, but interesting-different, not off-putting, so that was fine, but I finished this book over a month ago and I cannot remember the ending. I remember the reveal, but I don’t know what happens to the characters. So…I suppose that’s saying something about how I feel about this book.
Started: 7/26/20
Finished: 7/29/20
SO DISAPPOINTING. I mean, it was enjoyable enough, but I was expecting a completely different story since this is supposed to be a sequel to the White Silence AND it picks up right after the other ended. It went in completely different directions (more than once!) and seemed to have nothing to do with the plot of the first book (which had not been resolved), and when it did pick up the plot of the first book (sort of), it resolved unsatisfactorily. Meh. Also, the writing felt more amateurish than the first book and both books felt like that compared to her other books. I don’t understand how that could be, but there it is.
Started: 7/23/20
Finished: 7/26/20
This book, or at least parts of it, scared both Corey and Mel, so I went into it gingerly. If it was dark outside and I thought it was going in a scary direction, I put it down until the next day. Maybe that’s why the parts that scared them didn’t scare me. Regardless, I liked it. Weird sinister things kept happening to the character, and I REALLY wanted to know what was going on. Super glad there was a second book.
Started: 7/8/20
Finished: 7/12/20
Astronauts doing science! Science fiction, but heavy on the science, and oh so optimistic.
Started: 7/5/20
Finished: 7/8/20
Fourth in the Wayward Children series, this one takes one of our characters back in time to when she found her door. It’s so good, and the ending is so sad. It felt sadder than the others, but I’m not sure why – they’re all sad stories because they can’t find their way back to where they feel they belong. I should re-read the first one, at least.
Started: 7/2/20
Finished: 7/5/20
Young wizard goes on an adventure! Light, quick read, good characters.
Started: 6/25/20
Finished: 7/2/20
Seanan McGuire is amazing. She writes SO many books, in SO many different universes, and they’re all fascinating and DIFFERENT. This one is weird but not hard to read, compelling while also making my brain work, and I really really really liked it.