2018 book 38

Melina Marchetta's The Piper's Son
The followup to Saving Francesca centers on one of the boys from the previous book, and his family--shattered by grief and alcoholism and stubbornness. But how they put themselves back together is why this story is so compelling. Amazing characters struggling with real issues, but not in an after-school special sort of way. Marchetta is just great.

2018 book 37

Melina Marchetta's Saving Francesca 
Maybe it is weird to find comfort in a novel about depression when you yourself are feeling depressed, or maybe that makes perfect sense. Either way, this is an excellent novel with excellent character work and excellent depictions of friendships and family and little rowdy feminists.

2018 book 36

Erin Entrada Kelly's Hello, Universe
This book just won the Newbery, the first time in a long time I hadn't even heard of the winning book before! So I was eager to read it. It's about four middle school kids--a shy Filipino-American boy with a pet guinea pig and a crush on a classmate; said classmate, a deaf girl with a recurring nightmare; a Japanese-American girl who runs a business as a psychic; and the local jerk bully--and the events leading up to a memorable day in the woods. Sometimes I am a little bit meh on the Newbery winners, but this one was pretty great. A/A-.

2018 book 35

Tilly Wallace's Secrets to Reveal
A friend who knows that Recency-era fantasy novels are my jam recommended this to me, and it was pretty fun! It starts off on a low note for me, as the heroine laments that she can't make any female friends, yet she dismisses her boarding-house-mate's conversations as "inane chatter" because she is clearly Not Like Other Girls. The world-building and the love interest coming from a troop of Scottish werewolves are more than a little reminiscent of Gail Carriger--Wallace is definitely playing in that sandbox. I did wish for a more attentive editor; we shouldn't have to be told six times in the first couple chapters that most people think the protagonist is a maid (when really she is a secretary/codebreaker) and the “inane chatter” of women shouldn’t have come up even once, let alone multiple times. There were a few other things that seemed to be errors, too. In general, the writing is a bit overwrought and I wished things had been polished up a bit. The romance and the spy stuff are both pretty cute, though. B.

2018 book 34

Elizabeth Goudge's The Little White Horse
I had never heard of this book before, but it's apparently something of a classic in England, and it was charming and delightful and magical and just what I was in the mood to read today. It's set in the late 1800s, and centers on an orphaned thirteen year old girl who, with her governess and her (adorable, ridiculous) dog, is sent to live with a heretofore unknown cousin in a mysterious old castle. Can she solve all the old family mysteries and give everyone a happy ending? And will be be a funny and moving journey along the way? I mean, you can probably guess the answer, but it is still worth a read. A-.

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A couple of caveats. This book was written in the 1940s and one of the characters is a little person who is described with some cringeworthy language. Also, the book is full of that sort of benign but pervasive Christianity often found in books from this era. I didn’t find it bothersome as a non-Christian reader, but thought it worth noting.

2018 book 33

Becky Chambers' A Closed and Common Orbit
The second book in the Wayfarers series is not a direct sequel, but more of a spin-off, focusing on a few characters from the previous book and their adventures elsewhere. It’s just as good, though, and maybe even more moving (I just for some reason am really gripped by the portion of the novel where an AI in a space shuttle is raising a little girl, but all of it is really interesting and profound). Ughhhhh, when will book three be out!

2018 book 32

Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
I was excited to reread this for book club and am glad it holds up to a second reading. Interesting world building, great characters, spaceship adventures etc etc. I will also say that based on reports from fellow book clubbers, it is just as appealing to people who don’t usually read sci fi as it is to diehard fans. I of course am about to immediately start rereading the second book, and wish the third one was out already too.

2018 book 31

Karen Healey and Robyn Fleming's The Empress of Timbra
This is a strong entry in the fantasy with court politics/other politics genre, anchored by the sibling relationship at its core. It starts with the son of a fisherman whose beloved father dies at sea, and then he finds out the man wasn’t his biological father when his mother brings him to court, where his father is a Baron—and where he meets his younger half sister, also a bastard, the daughter of the Empress' Witch. I guessed a fair amount of the political plot, but finding out if I was right was still an interesting and intense journey, and it didn’t go entirely as I expected. I also liked the world building here a lot (there is some interesting gender stuff) and found parts of this very funny and parts very moving. It looks like this is the start of a series and I am eager to read more. A/A-.

2018 book 30

Mary H.K. Choi's Emergency Contact
I read this because it was blurbed by Rainbow Rowell, which makes sense, because it has a very Fangirl vibe. And not just because the protagonist is just starting college and wants to be a writer! But because it is about insecurity and vulnerability and learning to make friends and learning to make peace with your family and learning your craft and learning to open up to a cute boy (who is also a compelling POV character in his own right). GREAT stuff. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in March.

2018 book 29

Melina Marchetta's Jellicoe Road
Don’t mind me, I’m just over here weeping after rereading one of my favorite books/comfort reads (why do I love books that make me cry?). This one has two generations of teens with complicated relationships and backstories, lots of secrets, territorial wars, and a little bit of romance. It also is all about learning to be vulnerable and to let people in. It’s just a lovely and moving and gripping story.

2018 book 28

Robin Stevens' A Spoonful of Murder
In the sixth Wells and Wong mystery, the girls find themselves in Hong Kong to mourn Hazel's grandfather—but soon they’re caught up in a murder and kidnapping case! I love these books and I love the girls' friendship, and I especially loved getting to see Hazel on her home turf and taking the lead for once. Stevens apparently did a lot of research and her depiction of 1930s Hong Kong is vibrant. Another great entry in the series. A/A-.

2018 book 27

Tayari Jones' An American Marriage
Jones' Silver Sparrow was one of my favorite books of 2011, so I was eagerly anticipating this novel, especially once the hype kicked in AND it was made an Oprah book. I am please to say it lives up to the hype and then some. It's the story of an upwardly mobile black couple, married just a year and a half, when the husband is put in prison for a crime he didn't commit. It's a beautiful novel, told from both of their POVs and occasionally some others, and also told through their letters. I think I would have thought this novel was GREAT any time I read it, but it feels particularly resonant in early 2018. Just gripping and masterful and GREAT. A.

2018 book 26

Tamora Pierce's Tempests and Slaughter
I feel like I usually like Pierce's books, though I perhaps have found some of the more recent ones overly simplistic. She's going in the other direction here, though--there's a young boy with powerful magic (and a powerful case of puberty, geez louise) and his two friends, one of whom is one of the heirs to the throne, the other of whom is The Girl (who the protagonist has a crush on, of course), and there are lots of politics and magical school things and interfering god and societal issues (it's a brutal society) going on. This did not feel like a Tamora Pierce book to me, in some ways, and I can't pinpoint why--she's had boy protagonists before, so that's not it, though I guess there is usually not as much focus on said boy's penis. The narration also feels really choppy. On the other hand, there is a pretty awesome magical bird as well as a crocodile god, and I liked both of them a lot. I just thought this would be a fun read, but it’s actually a huge bummer. B.

2018 book 25

Kate Greathead's Laura and Emma
I found this book very READABLE, but am still not sure whether I liked it. It centers on a white woman in New York City, from 1980-1995, each year a little vignette of a chapter, starting from a one night stand with a mysterious man that leaves her pregnant. She is from your prototypical very wealthy, cold, white New York family, and is an exemplar of the same, so I found her fairly unlikable (but interesting), and the book really needed more from her daughter towards the end. I thought the writing here was stellar but the story itself was lacking for me. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in March.

2018 book 24

Whitney Gardner's Chaotic Good
I admit I was first drawn to this book by its adorable cover, but the description was immediately appealing too! It’s about a teen girl, a talented seamstress/designer who is super into cosplay, whose family has just moved to Eugene from Portland. When she’s targeted by misogynistic trolls on tumblr, and then a comic book store guy is horrible to her, her gay twin brother helps her dress as a boy so she can feel safe. And then her boy persona gets invited to play D&D, and she falls for the DM, and she’s trying to complete a portfolio for fashion school—well, and stuff goes down! But this was super cute and I loved it, the narrative voice was super likable. And it nails a lot of how current culture hates women and doesn’t even realize it. Great stuff. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in March.

2018 book 23

Justina Ireland's Dread Nation
Ireland's latest novel is a doozy—it’s set in the 1880s, in a world where the Civil War came to a screeching halt when the dead of Gettysburg began to rise, slavery was made illegal but black and native children were conscripted into “schools” to be educated to fight zombies—and protect white civilization. Our protagonist is a black teenage girl with a healthy amount of smarts and sass, not to mention a good hand with a pair of sickles, at one of said schools. The plot is definitely captivating and I liked the characters—especially the friendships between various women—a lot. It looks like this is the start of a series and I am HERE FOR IT. Badass teenage girls fighting zombies and lamenting about corsets is my jam. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April. Content warning for a lot of vicious racist and sexist characters (but the story of course acknowledges they are awful.)

2018 book 22

Rainbow Rowell's Carry On
Rowell's books are comfort reading for me--satisfying, sweet, and a little bit sad (JUSTICE FOR LUCY!!!!!!!). She's having a lot of fun with this one, and I love how the magic uses language and pop culture (Rowell recently had an interesting twitter conversation about how this worked in translation, so I was paying extra attention to it this read). I love this story and these characters so much.