Category — Book Reviews

As I said last 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 December.

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts (Kate Racculia): I adored this book. It’s like a grown-up Westing Game in spirit. And I was more than willing to look past any plotline clunkiness because I loved all the characters and the mystery itself. This book is pure fun, but it goes deeper than that. It also made me wistful for old friends.

A Clue for the Puzzle Lady (Parnell Hall) and Last Puzzle and Testament (Parnell Hall): These are the first two books in a crossword cozy mystery series. As in, there are always crossword puzzles in the book, and crossword puzzles feature somewhat (or a lot) in the plot. Are they perfect? No. Are they brilliant? No. But are they so much fun that you will read the whole book in one sitting and not care at all if you guess the ending beforehand? Absolutely yes. I’ve been devouring these because they are the perfect escape.

Reverie (Ryan La Sala): The book is described as Inception meets The Magicians… which isn’t close at all. It’s about a teenaged boy who wakes up with no memories after an accident but quickly learns that he and a group of other teenagers in his school can enter daydreams. The daydreams themselves are so powerful that they suck everyone in the vicinity into the storyline, and terrible things sometimes happen as imaginations run wild. It’s a solid book and an impressive first novel.

Do You Mind If I Cancel (Gary Janetti): I almost didn’t include this because when we got home, ChickieNob found his mean-spirited Instagram account, which sort of spoiled the good feelings from the book. But in the moment, before we realized that, we listened to his essays in the car on the way home from Asheville and laughed the whole way. If you’re planning to read it, I would listen to him read the stories on the audio book version.

What did you read last month?

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 four books I liked from November.

Amberlough (Lara Elena Donnelly): I’ve had a hard time putting my feelings about this book (and the others in the trilogy) into words, so maybe I’ll start with this: I was only a few pages into my library copy when I decided I needed to own all three books in the trilogy. It is that good. Think Isherwood meets Le Carré. It’s the tail end of a queer renaissance in a decadent fictional city, with a right-wing fascist waiting in the wings. Spies. Black market hustlers. Cabaret performers. Secret messages. It is fantastic.

Armistice (Lara Elena Donnelly): This is the second book in the trilogy above. It took me a few pages to get my bearings; some characters from the first book are back plus many new ones. We’re in a new setting with its own connected but distinct political situation. This feels like a middle book in a trilogy, but I mean that in a good way. It’s connective, taking us deeper into the world, and leaving the reader excited to start the third book.

American Royals (Katharine McGee): I liked her earlier series (The Thousandth Floor), so I sensed I would enjoy this alternate American history where we have a royal family, and I was right. It is such a fun book; the perfect piece of mind candy at the end of the day. Like her other series, the point-of-view switches from chapter to chapter. I think my highest compliment is that I enjoyed being in every character’s brain.

Diary of a Bookseller (Shaun Bythell): I’ve written about this book a lot on the blog, but it’s a fun read. It’s a diary of a year in the life of a Scottish bookseller. A lot of food for thought in the pages. Definitely recommend it for a light read.

What did you read last month?