Scarlet by Marissa Meyer(unfinished) It’s like the last book, I guess. It’s YA, has a strong female lead, takes place in a romanticized non-American country (France in this case). But I stopped at 40% because I just didn’t care about the characters. It’s half spin-off and half sequel. The new main is a “strong female character” who’s mean and angry just so she can appear tough. But in reality, she’s a screw-up who doesn’t know she’s a screw-up and then wonders why there are consequences for her actions. Her main goal is to find her grandma, who went missing two weeks ago. But the government’s not doing anything about it,…
-
-
The Books I Read: December 2019 – February 2020
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo Man, this was so long ago, let me see if I can remember it. Imagine Ocean’s Eleven crossed with The Lies of Locke Lamora. I know Locke Lamora is already kind of a caper book, but that one focuses on two people and it’s very character driven. This one’s closer to that classic “golden fleece” caper story–a team of eight people with different backgrounds and skills come together to get some prize (in this case, kidnap someone during a party in a fortress.) Includes the “getting the band back together” and “breaking the team member out of jail” scenes. It’s pretty darn good. I…
-
The Books I Read: September – October 2019
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein A bittersweet fictional memoir from the POV of a dog. Some people found the POV of the dog annoying, but I didn’t think so. That may be because I’ve read so many “talking animal” novels I’m used to it. The ending is satisfying. But this wasn’t as unforgettable a book as people are making it out to be. Some are like “it changed my life”, but I thought “it’s just another one on the pile”. In this book, you learn a lot about racing. I have to admit it made me appreciate the nuances of the Daytona 500 and Cars…
-
The Books I Read: July – August 2019
Year One by Nora Roberts This is the nicest apocalypse I’ve ever seen. It was advertised to me as a big epic story like The Stand, but with magic. It even has a mystery flu as the apocalypse-causing incident. But The Stand, this ain’t. Where’s the bleakness? Where’s the stakes? Where’s the beef? The blurbs and reviews made it out like the next best thing since Patrick Rothfuss, but really it’s just a standard novel that feels like it belongs on mass market shelves at the grocery store. I was hoping for a unique twist, but it’s underdeveloped. And all you get are a bunch of nice people doing nice…
-
The Books I Read: March – April 2019
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch It took a little effort to get into it, but it’s worth it. The writing style is sharp, funny. The narrative jumps around a little–both in setting and time–making it difficult to latch on. Like trying to ride a wild fire hose. And there’s a lot of world-building that has to occur. But once you get past that, this book is on par with The Name of the Wind. And that’s a damn good book. At first I was intimidated by its long length. But it’s worth it. You get really invested in the characters. (Minus points for having so few women).…
-
The Books I Read: November – December 2018
The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi So, like all second books in a series, I’m not sure why you’re reading this. If you haven’t read the first one, what’s this going to do. If you have read the first one, you already know if you want to read the second. Nonetheless, here are my thoughts. There is plenty here to sing praises about. The new world-building is fun and classic at the same time. It evokes the more sophisticated “low concept” stories of Heinlein and Asimov, using thick allegory and hard science to tell a story. One that’s not necessarily a happily ever after. It’s hard to tell he wrote…
-
The Books I Read: March – April 2018
Out of My Mind by Sharon R. Draper It’s very good. I was invested right away and I didn’t expect to be. It’s like Wonder in that the kid has a disability, but in this case, it’s cerebral palsy. The mind works fine, but the body doesn’t. And thus we get a nice look at the terrible way schools lump all the “special ed” kids in a single room, whereas Wonder was about bullying and prejudice and superficiality. It dragged in the middle, but it’s not a scmaltzy ending like Wonder. (I mean, Wonder by Natalie Merchant for the movie trailer? Really?) As one would expect, it’s inspirational, but not…
-
The Books I Read: January – February 2018
The Elven by Bernhard Hennen It took me two months of dedicated reading to complete this. Of course, I took breaks along the way, but still, I feel stories can wear out their welcome. We’re not in the era of television-less-ness anymore. We don’t need War and Peace to keep us occupied. And this is a callback to those kinds of books. It’s a saga rooted in high fantasy and Norse/Germanic myths (like elves and dwarves). We’ve got three main characters. Two are elves who have been rivals for a girl elf’s love for whatever thousands of years elves live. The last is a viking who gets treated like the…
-
The Best Books I Read in 2016
The Only Pirate at the Party by Lindsey Stirling & Brooke S. Passey (original review) It’s funny. It’s light-hearted. It’s not too long. It’s poignant. It’s like Felicia Day’s book. And it’s full of her voice both tragic and comic. Grim at times, cheery at most. This is not the Kim Kardashian, Tina Fey, or even the Mindy Kaling. This isn’t the girl who made it (not yet, at least). This is the girl still hacking at that creativity mountain with a pick-axe. Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner (original review) A fascinating slice of nostalgia for anyone who played…
-
The Books I Read: November – December 2016
Rejected Princesses: Tales of History’s Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics by David Porath I fell in love with this book immediately, which has never happened to me before. I am not an early adopter, and it’s the onus of every book to entice me. Of course, by the time I know that, I’m usually victim to time sink fallacy. But look at this cover. It looks like all the books in the old Disney movies. You know, like in Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty where a live-action book opens at the beginning and closes at “the end”. Now I have a book like that. I can look like I’m reading an…
