Archive for the ‘Book Reviews’ Category

2019 Books

I read 315 books in 2019, so I’m going to just do one wrap up post instead of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of previous years. Here’s the genre breakdown:

Best Fiction: The Dead Queen’s Club by Hannah Capin

The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin

This is a modern day YA retelling of Henry VIII set in a high school and it goes so much harder than you would ever expect. PEOPLE DIE, okay. A lot more historical references than I expected; I loved it. I wasn’t the only one either: it made NPR’s Best of 2019 list!

Best Nonfiction: Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez

I read this book back in June, but I still think about it all the time. The medical chapters, especially, are infuriating, but I can see the evidence all around me.

Best Fantasy: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

Hard call between this and Return of the King, but I think I enjoyed this more because it was stories I didn’t already know. I read a lot of good fantasy this year, but it’s pretty hard to compete with the defining work of the genre. Plus, The Silmarillion has a surprising amount of badass lady stories.

Best Historical: The entire Clash of Eagles trilogy by Alan Smale

Clash of Eagles series by Alan Smale

Is it cheating picking an alt history series for “best historical fiction”? I don’t even care; this was way more interesting and well-researched than any other historical novel I read this year. It takes place in the 1200s, when the Roman Empire, which never fell, tries to invade North America, and gets its ass handed to it by the Native Americans, specifically the Mississippian mound builders of Cahokia.

Best Cover: The Tea Dragon Society by Kate O’Neill

The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill

This book (and its sequel) are so adorable and imaginative! I love the art and, of course, all the tea.

Worst Cover: A Mermaid’s Kiss by Joey W. Hill

A Mermaid’s Kiss by Joey W. Hill

I read this for a book club whose theme was “terrible cover” and I found it by googling “romance novels with bad covers”. It was also a fairly ridiculous book, about an angel and a mermaid finding love despite what should be insurmountable physical and environmental problems. Luckily she can shape change. As you do. Steven refers to this as “the mermangel book” and it prompted me to go to book club in costume:

I would say that’s me set for Halloween, but you know I could never compile just ONE costume a year

Worst Book: Dying to Decorate by Cyndy Salzmann

Dying to Decorate by Cyndy Salzmann

This book definitely suffered from the expectations it built based on the cover and title. DYING to Decorate?? Clearly this is some kind of interior decorator-themed murder mystery, right? NO! NO ONE DIES! There isn’t even a mystery! A group of moms renovate an old house, remind each other about Civil War history facts, and debate whether the Underground Railroad was a good thing because “slavery was wrong, but so is disobeying the law”. BIG YIKES, Cyndy.

Anyway, it was a good year in books, overall. Here are some more charts because I keep a book spreadsheet that just spits them out for me anyway:

All the half-star spots are blank because I DON’T DO THINGS BY HALF MEASURES, okay

To the surprise of literally no one, the majority of my books come from the library. The “Free” category is mostly Project Gutenberg, and “Owned before 2019” is so popular because I specifically had to read at least one of those a month as part of my goals. Most of them were Steven’s about Ancient Rome.

I read a total of 4 books over 700 pages: a guidebook to Japan I got at the library book sale (904), The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (827), The Histories by Herodotus (716), and A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (1474).

The percent of digital books seems high to me, but I suppose I usually have at least one checked out on Libby from the library for reading when I’m waiting somewhere.

I don’t know what happened in March, but the August-September lull is definitely when I was trying to finish A Suitable Boy, the nearly 1500-page monster.

I wasn’t especially trying to read mostly female authors, but I’m pleased with this result.

Excited for another year in books! If you too would like a bunch of ridic charts about your reading, check out Book Riot’s Reading spreadsheet. I’m never looking back.

Previously: 2018 in books

50 States of Reading

This year I decided to read a book set in each state. And I did! Here is the genre breakdown:

My selection process was not especially intense. I mainly searched the library catalog for the state and chose from what was available, heavily biased towards ebooks I could download to my phone. I tried to only read fiction, but ended up with memoirs twice (Hawaii and Utah) when they seemed like the best option by far. Here’s my Goodreads rating breakdown:

It definitely skews lower than my overall Goodreads ratings. Let’s face it, I wouldn’t have read the vast majority of these books if not for this project. In the list below I include the average rating on Goodreads in parentheses next to my reading. As you can see, I didn’t like the romance novels as much as the majority of their other readers. The book descriptions are straight publisher’s copy so don’t blame me for how cheesy some of them sound. I’m also including whatever review I wrote on Goodreads at the time, primarily because I’ve forgotten a lot about some of the duller books I read towards the beginning. Unfortunately, I tend not to write detailed reviews unless I really hated something! Here are the books, in alphabetic order by state:

Alabama
Book: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4 (4.28)
Description: It’s first the story of two women in the 1980s, of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women—of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth, who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern kind of Cafe Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder.
Review I wrote on Goodreads: I really liked this: the way it was written, the way it was structured, and the characters were all really engaging. Definitely not what I was expecting, in a good way!

Alaska
Book: Alaskan Holiday by Debbie Macomber
Genre: Romance
Rating: 2 (3.58)
Description: Before beginning her new job as sous chef at one of Seattle’s finest restaurants, Josie Stewart takes on a six-month position cooking at a lodge in an Alaskan lake town. It’s only temporary–or so she thinks, as she becomes a valued part of the local community, falling in love with the people who call the Klutina Lake home. But one man, in particular, stands out among Josie’s new friends: Palmer Saxon, a quiet, intense sword craftsman, whose very existence forces her to question whether her heart wants to return to Washington at all.
Review I wrote on Goodreads: I don’t know, maybe I’ve read so many of these for this project that my standards have changed, but this didn’t seem AS ridiculous as I was hoping from the premise.

Arizona
Book: Breathless (Old West #2) by Beverly Jenkins
Genre: Romance
Rating: 3 (4.15)
Description: A strong-willed beauty finds herself in the arms of the handsome drifter from her past, in this second book in the sizzling series set in the Old West, from USA Today bestselling author Beverly Jenkins
Review I wrote on Goodreads: I thought the pacing of this was a little weird, but I really liked the intersectional feminism.

Arkansas
Book: The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4 (4.09)
Description: Every first Sunday in June, members of the Moses clan gather for an annual reunion at “the old home place,” a sprawling hundred-acre farm in Arkansas. And every year, Samuel Lake, a vibrant and committed young preacher, brings his beloved wife, Willadee Moses, and their three children back for the festivities. The children embrace the reunion as a welcome escape from the prying eyes of their father’s congregation; for Willadee it’s a precious opportunity to spend time with her mother and father, Calla and John. But just as the reunion is getting under way, tragedy strikes, jolting the family to their core: John’s untimely death and, soon after, the loss of Samuel’s parish, which set the stage for a summer of crisis and profound change.
Review I wrote on Goodreads: I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would from reading the description. It was well-written, and even though it was set in rural Arkansas, certain parts definitely reminded me of visiting my own grandparents in rural Tennessee.

California
Book: Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 2 (3.52)
Description: For fans of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary and Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It comes an irresistible novel of a woman losing herself . . . and finding herself again . . . in the middle of her life.
Review I wrote on Goodreads: I liked the unconventional format of this, but I saw the twist coming from the very beginning so the supposed suspense seemed tiresome. Plus, I kind of loathed the main character.

Colorado
Book: Angel’s Rest (Eternity Springs #1) by Emily March
Genre: Romance
Rating: 1 (4.03)
Description: Gabriel Callahan has lost everything that mattered. All he wants is solitude on an isolated mountain estate. Instead, he gets a neighbor. Vibrant, no-nonsense Nic Sullivan is Eternity Springs’ veterinarian, and she has an uncanny plan to lure this talented architect back to the world of the living. First with a dog, next with a renovation project, and, finally, with a night of passion that ends with a surprise.
Review I wrote on Goodreads: At first I was pleasantly surprised that this book decided to deal with PTSD a little more realistically than typical romance novels, in that sex didn’t ~magically~ cure it. But realistic trauma recovery is not really what I’m looking for in a romance novel, so it wasn’t enjoyable at all. Also, the hero is a huge asshole who uses his mental health as an excuse to treat everyone around him like crap. Not hot.

Connecticut
Book: The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3 (2.91)
Description: Betty Weissmann has just been dumped by her husband of forty-eight years. Exiled from her elegant New York apartment by her husband’s mistress, she and her two middle-aged daughters, Miranda and Annie, regroup in a run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach cottage. In Schine’s playful and devoted homage to Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” the impulsive sister is Miranda, a literary agent entangled in a series of scandals, and the more pragmatic sister is Annie, a library director, who feels compelled to move in and watch over her capricious mother and sister.
Review I wrote on Goodreads: This book was fine, but forgettable.

Delaware
Book: Hope Never Dies (Obama Biden Mysteries #1) by Andrew Shaffer
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 4 (3.51)
Description: Part noir thriller and part bromance novel, Hope Never Dies is essentially the first published work of Obama/Biden fanfiction
Review I wrote on Goodreads: This was a quick read, and pretty funny. It delivered on the promise of its cover.

Florida
Book: Florida by Lauren Goff
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 2 (3.78)
Description: The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but Florida—its landscape, climate, history, and state of mind—becomes its gravitational center
Review I wrote on Goodreads: This book let me down hard. A better title would be “Stories that are tangentially related to Florida”. A few of them reminded me of home, and a few descriptions were really on point, but mostly I was bored and wondering why so many of them were set in France. Read the rest of this entry »

2018: The Pretty

Since I feel bad for making fun of the ugly covers, here are all the best book covers from the year! A lot of them are graphic novels this time around, and a bunch showed up on my The Good list(*)!

The Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston


This cover really captures the dichotomy in the book between prim Victorian sensibilities and invasive gennome-mapping technology.

The Stone Heart by Faith Erin Hicks


*I really like the art style, which I guess is how most graphic novels end up on here.

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu


*This is my aesthetic, basically.

Piper by Jay Asher


*Of course gorgeous graphic novels have gorgeous covers.

Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel


When a woman writes an AU crossover fic, it’s trashy, but when a dude does it, it’s Serious Literature(TM). Read the rest of this entry »

2018: The Ugly

Time to make fun of all the ugly book covers I read this year! A bunch of these already showed up on The Bad list(^), but one is from The Good(*)! You can’t judge a book by its cover, I guess. But I will still judge these covers themselves hardcore. Here they are in the order I read them:

Kodiak’s Claim (Kodiak Point #1) by Eve Langlais


Grizzly bear shapeshifter romance novel!!

Outfoxed by Love (Kodiak Point #2) by Eve Langlais


This romance novel is about A MOOSE SHAPESHIFTER!!! Dreams come true

Polar Bared (Kodiak Point #3) by Eve Langlais


Polar bear shapeshifters seem kind of whatever after the moose one, right? Don’t worry, next up:

Caribou’s Gift (Kodiak Point #3.5) by Eve Langlais


CARIBOU SHAPESHIFTER CHRISTMAS ROMANCE NOVEL!

Nearly Dead by Brendan P. Myers


^A satellite image of the setting? Try harder, Brendan. Read the rest of this entry »

2018: The Bad

This year I only rated 13 books 1 star! The worst book I read this year, by a wide margin, was:

Darker by ELJames

This series has so many problems I started a separate blog to discuss them all in detail.

The other terrible books I read mostly fell into these categories:

Bad Romance Novels
You kind of expect these to be terrible, right?

The Winter King (Weathermages of Mystral #1) by C.L.Wilson


This book was basically Frozen 2: Your Brother Is Mad You Have Weather Powers And All He Can Do Is Talk to Birds

Dragon Pact by Mac Flynn

This plot-hole ridden ride is about a dragon vampire, as you do.

The Geek Girl and the Scandalous Earl by Gina Lamm

This time traveling romance is somehow even dumber than the cover makes it seem. And yet I still read the sequel:

Geek Girls Don’t Date Dukes by Gina Lamm

Another time traveling idiot finds love instead of being burned as a witch or immediately getting typhoid.

Love Finds You in Humble Texas by Anita Higman

This book was not reflective of my time in Humble, Texas. No one went to Sonic? No one spent forever in traffic? At one point, a character falls asleep outside and doesn’t wake up covered in mosquito bites and sun burn? Okay

My Wild Irish Dragon by Ashlyn Chase

This book is about two supernatural shapeshifting fire fighters, a dragon and a phoenix, finding love.

Other Books That Did What They Set Out To Do
It’s really my own fault for reading these

Nearly Dead by Brendan P. Myers

This is about zombies attacking my hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida. I was hoping it would be hilariously bad, but it was just normal bad. I wrote that on my GoodReads review too, and the author liked it. So maybe he agrees.

By Book or By Crook by Eva Gates

Cozy mysteries are just not for me, gang. I just can’t suspend my disbelief enough. Plus, this one was about a library, so there were a lot of setting details to gripe about.

Color Me Murder by Krista Davis

This one REALLY pissed me off because I ordered it thinking it was a coloring book. I was so disappointed to just get a shitty cozy mystery about a coloring book designer instead.

The Battle Begins: The Story of Creation by Caleb Seeling

This one was actually pretty hilarious.

True Disappointments

Unpunished by Charlotte Gilman


I wanted to like this mystery because of its place in early feminist history, but, like a lot of early feminism, it is hella racist. Plus the mystery story was very boring.

The Space Between Us by Brenna Yovanoff

This book is a YA romance about star crossed lovers: a human boy and THE DAUGHTER OF SATAN. That has so much potential, but inconsistent world-building just made it frustrating.

Previously: 2018: The Good
Next: 2018: The Ugly

2018: The Good

I read 177 books this year, and 31 of them I marked 5 stars! My top pick for 2018 is:

A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge

Frances Hardinge is one of my favorite authors, so it’s no surprise that this book was amazing. It’s set in an underground city where talented craftsmen can make wine that erases memories and perfume that makes you trust the wearer even while they’re stabbing you. There’s Medici-style politics, class warfare, and a heroine who isn’t taking any shit. I love it.

The rest:
Nonfiction

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman


This narrowly avoided being my top pick for the year! It was so good! A history of the 14th century that reads as easily as a novel.

Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of 80s and 90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss


This book was a great nostalgia trip, and also hilarious.

The Lexicographer’s Dilemma: The Evolution of “Proper” English from Shakespeare to South Park by Jack Lynch


I’ve read a lot of history of language books, but I still learned somethings from this one about where how the “rules” for our language developed.

The Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan


This autobiography was written around 974 in feudal Japan, and the author is so extra I LOVE HER. Most written communication happens through poetry, and girl attaches a mean poem to A DEAD FLOWER to send to her neglectful lover. Plus once she moves without telling him.

Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie


I feel like I highlighted this entire book.

Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America by Craig Childs


This book was a really interesting look at what we know and don’t know about the earliest people to live in the Americas. The author travels to different archaeological sites and talks about how the land would have looked different back then.

Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture and What We Can Do About It by Kate Harding


This book was depressing as fuck, but important and well-researched.

Sergeant Reckless: The True Story of the Little Horse who Became a Hero by Patricia McCormick


This horse is more badass than most humans.

Fiction

The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett


I finally read this, the last Discworld book, this year after rereading the entire series. I was scared it wouldn’t be a fitting end to my favorite series, because Raising Steam really kind of sucked? But, no, it was perfect.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon


This book was like the lovechild of Isabel Allende and Umberto Eco, and I am here for that.

The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud


A teen ghost fighting agency!!!

The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed


Hard to read, but amazing.

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu


Another third wave girl power book which I really wish had been around when I was in high school.

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson


Epistolary novels are my jam

My Lady’s Choosing by Kitty Curan

A CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE REGENCY ROMANCE NOVEL! RUN! DON’T FUCKING WALK!

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende


This book was about Haiti, and is the first Allende novel I’ve read that I think rivals House of the Spirits.

A Blink of the Screen by Terry Pratchett


A collection of Terry Pratchett short fiction I read for the first time during my giant Discworld reread.

…And the Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer


I had to read a book over 1000 pages, and I’m really glad I picked this one. It reminded me of Edward Rutherford, but on a much smaller scale.

Graphic Novels and Comics

The Stone Heart by Faith Erin Hicks


The sequel to The Nameless City, about the friendship between a street urchin girl and a boy from the ruling caste foiling an assassination attempt, politics get even more murky here. The art style is beautiful too!

Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection by Kate Beaton


I’m slowly building up my Kate Beaton collection.

Rat Queens, Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch


This was a pretty funny D&D parody universe.

Piper by Jay Asher


A retelling of the Pied Piper folk tale, following a deaf girl who lives in the town and is therefore the only one immune to the piper’s powers. The art style is beautiful.

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson


A super-villain and his shapeshifting sidekick!

Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham


Fairy tale characters trying to make it in the modern world

Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff


Delilah Dirk is my idol

Delilah Dirk and the King’s Shilling by Tony Cliff


Delilah Dirk gets revenge and tea continues to be a plot point

Delilah Dirk and the Pillars of Hercules by Tony Cliff


Delilah Dirk goes full Indiana Jones

Check, Please!: #Hockey, Vol. 1 by Ngozi Ukazu


Hockey! Romance! Baking!

Other

The Compleat Discworld Atlas


Beautifully done, another Discworld reread addition

The witch doesn’t burn in this one by Amanda Lovelace


A poetry collection that pulls no punches. “Burn anyone who tries to burn you”

Next: 2018: The Bad
Previously: 2017: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (and the Pretty)

2017: The Pretty

What’s my favorite cover from a book I read in 2017? It’s a close race, but the winner is:

prettythelietree
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

It is the perfect mix of creepy and curiosity-inducing.Here are the runner’s up:

goodlumberjanes
^Lumberjanes: Unicorn Power! by Mariko Tamaki

goodmeddling
^Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

prettyconvergence
Convergence by Sharon Green

This one is on here kind of nostalgically because the cover is the only reason I bought it in a used book store as a teen. Otherwise I would never have read this terrible, terrible series.

goodwitch
^How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather

prettyjuliet
Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

prettyexorcism
My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

prettypopular
Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen

prettylumberjanes
Lumberjanes Volume 6: Sink or Swim by Shannon Watters

goodhark
^Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton

goodiceghosts
^Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson

prettypagesbetween
The Pages Between Us by Lindsey Leavitt

prettyhygge
The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking

goodnotquitestates
^The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA by Doug Mack

Previously: 2017 The Ugly

2017: The Ugly

What was the book with the worst cover I read this year? Behold:

uglyredriver
Red River vol 1 by Chie Shinohara
It’s a manga about a girl who travels through time to Ancient Egypt. I checked it out because the cover made me laugh. Other bad ones include:

uglycollege
A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer
So 80s right now!

uglywit
The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld by Terry Pratchett
This could be a lot more exciting. It’s Discworld!

badstrange
*The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami
As wtf as the book itself, so I guess that’s apt

uglyflame
Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh
I hesitated to put this on here, because it’s not exactly bad, just unsuited to the subject of the book. The cover makes it seem like it’s going to be your teen fantasy Twilight knockoff, when in reality it’s a badass historical fantasy set in feudal Japan about a noble girl solving her own attempted murder with the help of feudal Japanese Robin Hood.

uglysilver
Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
The Mercy Thompson series all have horrible covers that really seem to want to turn off the actual target audience of the book? Like, she has none of these tattoos and is usually wearing sweatpants and covered in motor oil in the actual narrative.

uglybone
^Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs
Also, notice how they give her feathered earrings so you know HEY THIS MAIN CHARACTER IS NATIVE AMERICAN

uglyiron
^Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
I swear this book is not about butts.

uglyblood
^Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs
Yes, because mechanics and monster hunters both routinely work in just a bra.

goodmooncalled
^Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
What the hell

uglypast
Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen
I feel like I could have designed a better cover than this

badsexy
*Sexy Beast II by Kate Douglas
I mean, it’s hideous but I also kind of love it

uglylife
Life after Life by Jill McCorkle
Another blah entry

uglytwilight
Bringing Light to Twilight: Perspectives on a Pop Culture Phenomenon by Giselle Liza Anatol
We can do better than this

uglyfate
The Fate of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
I find this cover bizarrely bright and gaudy for the dark horror that is this book.

goodgemina
^Gemina by Amie Kaufman
I think this is here because I freakin love this book, but the cover just isn’t selling it like it should

Next: 2017: The Pretty
Previously: 2017: The Bad

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