Started: 9/14/19
Finished: 9/23/19
This is billed as a companion book to Seraphina (which I liked a lot), but it really is a sequel, and it’s just as good, if occasionally a little weirder, than the first one. Although it is a little hard to remember that the main character is supposed to only be about 17 or 18. She’s written older than that, I think, but as long as I didn’t focus on that, I was fine.
Started: 8/23/19
Finished: 9/14/19
I gave up on a different Peter F. Hamilton book a couple of years ago, but Erik convinced me to give the author another try. It started out good – I laughed, but then I got bogged down in some details. Part of the problem is most likely me. I’m too tired to read more than a paragraph at a time.
Update: The focus shifted to a completely different set of characters in a completely different situation, and that part of the plot caught my attention. And THEN I saw how the two sections worked together, and I found myself enjoying the characters and plot in the first section again, so whew. It all came together for me, and I did really like the book. The sequel is on my list.
Started: 8/12/19
Finished: 8/18/19
Another book that was good but one I don’t know if I liked. It’s a coming of age story, but the framing device was a little confusing…and then I was totally engrossed in the story, and the framing device sort of starts to make sense near the end (most of the story is within the frame, so it doesn’t matter in the moment), but then the very end made NO sense to me. The book includes an essay by the author about the themes and inspirations, and I can tell you I missed all of that. It did make everything make more sense, and I don’t mean to say that the book didn’t make sense (except for the end, which was confusing), and now I’m not making sense, so I’ll end by saying that this book could be taught in a literature course and the students would get a lot out of it.
Started: 8/4/19
Finished: 8/12/19
A gender-swapped take on The Picture of Dorian Gray, but with magic (okay, like explicit magic). And demons. And sword-fighting! I didn’t love it. It was slow to start, and the two main characters were pretty annoying (they got better), and the demon plot took FOREVER to roll, and the two main characters got the same information from different sources, but the information was identical, and WE, the lucky readers, got to read about it both times, and okay, maybe I didn’t like it, either. I mean, I didn’t hate it. But I probably won’t read the sequel.
Started: 7/28/19
Finished: 8/3/19
Sequel to Updraft, which I enjoyed, but I have nearly put this down more than once. It’s plenty good, and the main character is a somewhat realistic 20-year-old (which is kind of annoying, but I guess good?). The problem is that I DO want to know how this world is constructed (at the moment, my best guess is that the towers these people live on and fly between are spines on the back of an enormous turtle), but I don’t care enough about the plot to keep reading to find out.
Update: I kept reading, I DID finish it, and I’ll tell you offline what I know about how the world is constructed if you ask nicely. Also, I don’t plan to read the third one. These books aren’t bad, but I just don’t care that much.
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.
Started: 5/24/19
Gave up: 5/25/19
An Emily recommendation, and one that started out well, but then a baby died, very early on in the story, and I just couldn’t continue. I would like to read the book, but I think I might need a few years first.
Started: 5/19/19
Finished: 5/24/19
Book 2 of the Brunetti mysteries. Like the first one, the mystery gets solved, but the resolution isn’t entirely satisfying, for me or for our detective. I think I like that.
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.
Started: 4/30/19
Finished: 5/2/19
Books don’t scare me like movies do, but even so, I take precautions and only read horror stories during the day. Luckily (sadly?), this one didn’t scare me at all. I’m not going anywhere near any of the movie or TV adaptations, though.
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.
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.
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.
Started: 3/23/19
Finished: 3/25/19
Book 2 in the Family Skeleton series. Still fun.
Started: 3/17/19
Finished: 3/21/19
First in the Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series, we have Dr. Jeckyll’s daughter teaming up with Holmes and Watson in 1890s London to find the murderous Mr. Hyde and get the monetary reward because poor Miss Jeckyll is dead broke. The book is being written by a character we don’t meet (in the narrative, anyway) until much later in the book, but we know she’s writing it right away because the other characters have conversations with her about the narrative, within the narrative. It’s loads of fun.
Update: NOPE. It started out fun and interesting, but the writing style got really irritating (although not the interruptions from characters – that was still mostly fun). It’s full of exposition, all tell and no show, and it’s all happening in the dialogue, which makes the dialogue really clunky and painful to read. It’s a pity. I really wanted to like this book.
Started: 3/13/19
Finished: 3/16/19
Last in the Lady Helen series, we move the action to Bath and OH the drama and the men fighting over Lady Helen (even though she’s betrothed!) and the SECRETS and the clothes and poor Darby, and oh yes, fighting the big bad nasty demon-types. And I knew it, I KNEW it, and I’m not going to tell you what I knew because spoilers, but it’s nice to be right.
This was fun. I’m bummed there’s no more.
Started: 3/10/19
Finished: 3/13/19
Second in the Lady Helen series, we move the action to Brighton and Lady Helen has to dress like a man (gasp) and keep secrets from the duke who wants to marry her while also trying not to be attracted to the earl who may have murdered his wife (but clearly did not). Also, there’s magic and power and killing nasty demon-types.
Started: 2/4/19
Gave up: 2/7/19
This is a horror story set in a store that is identical to Ikea, but isn’t Ikea. The premise is kind of funny, but the novelty wears off quickly. And then the story got actually scary (or scary enough), so I stopped reading it at night, and then I found I didn’t care enough to pick it back up during the day. No ringing endorsement here.
Started: 1/28/19
Finished: 1/30/19
I like fairy tale retellings, and I very much enjoyed this Cinderella retelling with actual fairies (like the fae, the cannot-be-trusted types) in the background.
Started: 1/21/19
Finished: 1/23/19
Finishing the Queens of Renthia series, still good, but with more main characters I was left feeling like I needed more time with them. I suppose that’s a good thing – give me more!