Category — Book Reviews

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from July.

The Vanishing Half (Brit Bennett): This book is such a good read. I had no clue where it was going or where we’d end up, and I loved that. There were a few places where the coincidences were a bit much and one analogy Bennett drew that bothered me, but I could overlook those things because what remained was so achingly beautiful. I couldn’t wait to get back to the story every day.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Suzanne Collins): This is just squeaking by onto the side of mostly liking it. Does it recapture the magic of The Hunger Games trilogy? Not a bit. But it’s an interesting backstory of how cruelty can form. I was happy when it was over, but I was also happy that I read it.

The Guest List (Lucy Foley): I was looking forward to reading this book set in Ireland while in Ireland. Oh well. It was a completely enjoyable mystery. Like The Vanishing Half, I was okay with the mountain of coincidences because I liked everything else in the book. I especially liked the ending and all of the nods to Agatha Christie along the way.

Sex and Vanity (Kevin Kwan): I adored the Crazy Rich Asians books, and I adored this book, too. It’s not in that world, though the name Astrid pops up (and you just know that it’s the original Astrid). It is ridiculous fun with the ultra-rich. My only complaint is that Kwan sent me on such a Googling spree that it look forever to get through the book because I kept getting distracted looking up various designers and locations.

Exciting Times (Naoise Dolan): This was probably my favourite book of the month. If you like Sally Rooney, you will likely enjoy Naoise Dolan. It’s about an Irish girl teaching English in Hong Kong, and the two relationships she’s having the same time. Dolan captures relationships so beautifully, the good ones and the bad ones. She made me feel like I was there in Hong Kong, hanging out with Ava and Julian and Edith. True—that’s the word I would use to describe this book, and it’s one of my highest compliments.

What did you read last month?

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from June.

Also skipping the The Return of Sherlock Holmes because, yes, I love Sherlock Holmes, but no, you don’t need a review of each short story collection. But since I technically liked it (vs. felt meh about it), I’m mentioning it.

The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides): This was a very quick read, and I mostly loved it. I figured out the ending early on, so reading became more an act of “am I correct?” vs. “where is this going?” I prefer the latter to the former, so it falls into the solid read zone instead of the exceptional read category. It was the Diet Coke of mysteries: Easy going down and thirst-quenching, but… you know… it’s not a handcrafted, small batch soda.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (Holly Jackson): So much fun. I almost didn’t read this book because people said that the writing mentally took you out of Connecticut. (The writer is in the UK.) I didn’t find that at all. I thought the writer did an admirable American writing accent. If you liked the first season of Serial, you’ll like this book, too.

Catherine House (Elisabeth Thomas): This book is a hard one. I filled two pages in a notebook listing plot holes in this book, BUT I enjoyed the experience of reading it more than I’ve enjoyed some books that I’ve given four stars. So I read it quickly and was always engaged, but I can’t say that I thought it was a good book. But maybe people will feel otherwise.

Ghosts of Harvard (Francesca Serritella): The paragraph for Catherine House perfectly describes this book, too. I enjoyed reading it, and I’ll give it four stars for keeping me engaged. Life stuff distracted me while reading this, so it took longer than it should have. I’m keeping it on the list, even though I also entertained not finishing it at certain points. But in the end, I’m glad I did.

A Deadly Inside Scoop (Abby Collette): It would be hard to love a book more. This is a case of right book at the right time. It’s light—a cozy mystery—set in an ice cream shop. It’s adorable, I liked spending time with the characters, and it was a joy to pick it up at the end of the day. The next book in the series doesn’t come out until March, which is a bummer because fun book + ice cream recipes = excellent summer fun.

What did you read last month?

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from May.

Skipping the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes because, yes, I love Sherlock Holmes, but no, you don’t need a review of each short story collection. But since I technically liked it (vs. felt meh about it), I’m mentioning it.

And just in case you read this post and are worried that you’ll learn the name of that book, don’t worry. I don’t list it below.

All Your Twisted Secrets (Diana Urban): I am not the right audience for this book, but I promise you that 15-year-old Melissa would have loved this. It’s a fun young adult mystery with a locked room, ticking bomb, and poorly behaving teenagers. It was like a brain soda: zero nutritional value but totally delicious on the right day.

Just One Damned Thing After Another and A Symphony of Echoes (Jodi Taylor): These are the first two books in the Chronicles of St. Mary’s series. They were both good fun, and I will pick up another book in this series in the future. They’re time travelers—sort of Doctor Who meets Jasper Fforde—and the plotting feels like she was being chased while typing. In other words, a lot of random things happen, one after the other, and each story feels like four books smushed into one. But, again, really good fun, and the perfect read for right now.

Chosen Ones (Veronica Roth): Were there major plot holes in this book. Yes. Was the whole thing set up to be a series and doesn’t completely work on its own? Yes. Even with those two damning facts, I still really loved this read. It wasn’t what I thought it would be, which made me a little disappointed for the book I hoped to get and also pleasantly surprised with the book I got. Think of it like a more realistic epilogue to Harry Potter—what happens to the heroes after the bad guy is vanquished and they’ve saved the whole world? I have something specific about this book to unpack, but I promise no spoilers.

What did you read last month?

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from April.

The House in the Cerulean Sea (T. J. Klune): In another time and place, I may have smiled wanly while reading this book, but encountering it during the pandemic was like being thrown a happiness lifesaver. It is such a sweet story about a social worker for magical children who is sent to a remote orphanage to report on the conditions. I loved every character in the book, and I still have Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea” stuck in my head. But mostly I laughed aloud at a time when I really needed a good laugh.

In Five Years (Rebecca Serle): What you think this book is and what this book actually is isn’t clear until you close the last page. And while that normally would have made me annoyed, in this case, I was blown away. Like literally blown away by the ending. It’s a 3 or 4-star book that becomes a 4 or 5-star if you stick with it to the last page. And I can’t reveal any more than that or you won’t get the big mouth drop when you realize that you had it all wrong.

The Secret History (Donna Tartt): It’s a classic. And there’s a reason it’s a classic. A classmate is murdered—you know from the opening that he’s dead—but it takes the whole book until you understand why and how the murderers did it. It’s chilling, and maybe not the best book to read when we’re all feeling a little stressed out by the pandemic. But still an amazing read to put on your TBR list for another time.

Eight Perfect Murders (Peter Swanson): I enjoyed it, but I also had big feelings about the book (see yesterday’s post). So… I give this one a solid maybe. I have the feeling I’d like other books by the author, though I don’t know if you’ll love this one unless you’ve already read all the books that he ruins or if you really don’t care about spoilers. I do care about spoilers, so I had mixed feelings about this book, but it was an enjoyable read, that fact aside.

What did you read last month?

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from March.

Crooked Kingdom (Leigh Bardugo): This is the sequel of Six of Crows, which I read—and loved—a few months ago. I think I liked this book even better than the first one, and since I rated that one five stars, I guess this one is off the charts? Hearing the backstories made me see all the events from Six of Crows in a different light, and I was so sad to say goodbye to this story on the last page.

Happiness, a Mystery (Sophie Hannah): This is the book I won last month, and it’s set to be published at the beginning of May. I LOVED this book. Instead of a whodunnit, it’s a howdunnit, treating the search for happiness as a classic mystery. If you’re missing The Good Place, you’ll happily sink into this story (especially if you understand that Chidi has been replaced by a British crime writer). It was so so so good. And I totally want to do the idea that comes towards the end of the book (when you read it, you’ll know what I mean).

The Secret Guests (Benjamin Black): It was a solid read. Not gush-worthy, but I’m definitely glad that I spent time with the story. It’s a fictional account of the princesses—Elizabeth and Margaret—being hidden in Ireland during World War II. So it’s The Crown meets Irish history meets a mystery (sort of). It was interesting to read it just as we started to shelter-in-place because the princesses are sheltering-in-place due to the war. It was nice to spend time with characters in a parallel situation.

The Truants (Kate Weinberg): Another solid read. I kept wanting to pick it up, but I also guessed most of the story early in the book. So reading became an act of confirming rather than being surprised. Still, I’m a sucker for any book set at a school, and a large chunk of this book was set at a college. A worthy, four-star read.

Plus, I re-read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which is always enjoyable.

What did you read last month?