In 2034 Burbank, CA, there are plenty of Maga clubs, and 18-year-old Brooks Palazzo's grandfather is a lifelong member. But he's been kind to Brook
In 2034 Burbank, CA, there are plenty of Maga clubs, and 18-year-old Brooks Palazzo's grandfather is a lifelong member. But he's been kind to Brooks, and when Gramps dies of a heart attack, Brooks inherits the house, just in time to fill the backyard with climate refugees. There are guaranteed jobs for a day's pay and a lot of plans for creating housing and greenspace. But there are also a lot of people deadset against trying to save the world.
I read this because it was promised as "solar punk," i.e., a portrayal of a positive, hopeful future. But this book is not really set in 2034. It is very definitely now, just slightly worse, and reading it made my stomach ache.
A bigger issue I had was that while some background gets set up early on, this isn't really a story with a plot. It's more like a manual with characters telling readers how to fight or cope with people who will resist all change. That got boring and wearing after a while. The situations that were set up were interesting and highly fraught., and some of the solutions were pretty creative, but by two-thirds of the way through, I just didn't care anymore. I wasn't particularly invested in Brooks, although I did find himself perfectly likable.
It took me until just before another character tells Brooks what "the lost cause" was to realize that this book is titled for the bullcrap pretense that the US Civil War was somehow "not about slavery" which I guess shows how long I've been out of school. O_o
So this book was okay, but it had no "solar" aspect. I just felt despair reading it and thinking about how tenuous women's rights, and LGBTQ rights, and immigrant rights, etc. are because we are all just political footballs, and how there's no telling if meaningful climate change measures will be taken or if and when they'll have any effect. Living in this book was like living in the newspaper. Just a grind. ...more
Nina, Shirin, and Silvia met in a college writing class, bonded over being the only Asians, and became best friends for life. When they graduate, t
Nina, Shirin, and Silvia met in a college writing class, bonded over being the only Asians, and became best friends for life. When they graduate, they move to New York together and seek the title promise. And while it's not necessarily what they were expecting or hoping for, interesting experiences are had by all.
This is an oddly-shaped book, so instead of carrying it around, I made it my bedtime reading, with the result that I spent about three weeks living with these young women. And I really enjoyed it!
This is pretty long compared to most of the graphic novels I read, with several plot threads running through it. The heroines deal with bad bosses, Asian pigeonholing, relationships, and mental health, and befriend a once-famous Vietnamese writer who is now in her 90's. And they do it with charm and humor that made every page of this book a delight to look at and read. I'm glad I picked this up. ...more
Lady Augusta Colebrook and her twin sister Julia, now in their early 40's, are clearly permanent spinsters in Regency London. But they are lucky, a
Lady Augusta Colebrook and her twin sister Julia, now in their early 40's, are clearly permanent spinsters in Regency London. But they are lucky, as they have financial means of their own. After they successfully help one friend avoid scandal, they find themselves asked again -- and again -- to aid other women in dire circumstances. How can they say no?
I enjoyed this quite a bit! Gus, as she prefers to be called, has a strong voice and even stronger opinions about the status of women in England at the time, which is decidedly awful all around. (I haven't heard any young women assert "I'm not a feminist, but ..." to my face in a while now, but if I do again, I will be tempted to smack them with this book.) The story maintains a fairly upbeat tone, but the positions of the women receiving aid are truly terrifying and gritty, and all the worse because they are true.
This features action, romance, plotting and planning, derring-do, and spines of steel. There are about four episodes/rescues, and all are carried out cleverly and brilliantly, with this reader barely able to breathe through them and the many chances for failure.
My only complaint is that the book felt a bit long to me. The first chapter dragged a bit, the middle flew by, and then with about 100 pages left I just wanted to be done. I'm not sure if it's because the sheer misery of experiencing being chattel who could be tortured, abused, or murdered at male whim was wearing on me or if it was the deep level of detail of Regency life (the author has a degree in Regency studies, and while I appreciated her knowledge and its accuracy, it was still a bit much). But overall the story was gripping and entertaining.
I'm not sure I personally need another book in this series, but I will look for Book 2 when it comes out and see how I feel then. ...more
Isadora, chief of staff for a California state representative, is too busy for love. But when hunky and funny Karim shows up, maybe she
3-1/2 stars
Isadora, chief of staff for a California state representative, is too busy for love. But when hunky and funny Karim shows up, maybe she can at least have some fun. Karim has just gotten out of a painful marriage, but he's willing to let his guard down for Isadora. There's just one catch -- they work for rival politicians.
This was a decently fun romance. I liked both Isadora and Karim, and the political part of the story was done really well, as their bosses are members of the same party so the story avoids polarization. It fits into the same niche as Talia Hibbert's books, dealing with emotional trauma and coping skills. I appreciated that Isadora's mother is very difficult and says terrible things, and Isadora is portrayed as accurately perceiving the difficulty and insults, unlike other books I've read where similar situations are twisted into "but it's really a show of love." (Love may be there, but it's not getting communicated well, and sometimes that's just the truth.)
It's weird, because the story was interesting and enjoyable, and Isadora and Karim have good chemistry, and I kept thinking I should like this better than I did. And yet it took me 2 weeks to finish it, which is why the rating is rounded down.
So this is sort of a lukewarm review for a book that I think probably deserves better. And yet I just never found myself living the story. I don't know if I'm just getting too old for romances, or what, because this has been my feeling about pretty much every romance I've read recently. Don't take it too personally, book! ...more
This unusual update of The Picture of Dorian Gray was a lot bloodier than I expected. Maybe I should reread the original, because I barely remember wThis unusual update of The Picture of Dorian Gray was a lot bloodier than I expected. Maybe I should reread the original, because I barely remember what happened in it. Was it this just-desserts vengeful?
But to make up for bloodiness, the artwork is gorgeous. And the story kept me flipping the pages to both find out what would happen next and where this was going. The relationship between the two cops investigating a series of murders was nicely fleshed out, and the pacing of the story was excellent.
But argh! Where the story was going was to a final page that says to stay tuned for Book Two. And who knows when that will show up? ...more
When social worker Athena Lo notices a pattern of young women disappearing and turning up dead, she decides to investigate for herself, and finds h
When social worker Athena Lo notices a pattern of young women disappearing and turning up dead, she decides to investigate for herself, and finds herself involved in the world of Carmilla's, a bar with a difficult-to-pin down owner and some mysterious staff.
I really enjoyed this explicitly queer take on this story, which modernizes it to mid-90's New York City.
The plot stays dark and gloomy and pretty scary. It's a good thing it's a pretty quick read, because it did get in my head a bit. This take on the tale also combines Chinese mythology with Sheridan LeFanu's descriptions of European vampires. I also really liked that in this world, the original Carmilla story actually exists, and Athena reads it.
I'm slightly annoyed that this ended with Athena heading off to solve another mystery -- because I want to read that next installment now!
This was a bit of a mixed bag, and like many graphic novels, felt a little too short. But I liked the artwork and the way the story was done, and I'm definitely in for whatever happens next. ...more
When Ernest's developing Alzheimer's starts causing frequent confusion and a few angry outbursts, his family places him in an assisted living home wheWhen Ernest's developing Alzheimer's starts causing frequent confusion and a few angry outbursts, his family places him in an assisted living home where he meets a cast of other elderly people with similar, but highly idiosyncratic, symptoms.
This was a sweet, warmhearted, loving but also very bittersweet look at aging, trying to hold onto oneself and one's own best history, and the slow loss of autonomy. Emilio's roommate, Miguel, brings some comedy to the story, but overall the tone is poignant and melancholy.
It's more a series of vignettes than a plot, because it's just a bit of life and that's how real life goes. I loved every character in the story. It's very short, and yet a month after reading it, I'm finding myself still affected by it. The artwork was very appealing to me, too. I'll be looking for more books by Paco Roca....more
3-1/2 stars This was a weird book, but definitely enjoyable. It's a suspense thriller in which some people have disappeared without a trace and some pe3-1/2 stars This was a weird book, but definitely enjoyable. It's a suspense thriller in which some people have disappeared without a trace and some people are in hiding, and bad people are out to find them, combined with a story of a quirky town filled with unusual people who were looking for a home and found a welcome there. I'm not sure the two stories actually sat well together -- I completely forgot about the suspense part for a big chunk in the middle of the book, and the treasure-hunters part of the plot really didn't make any sense -- but the book was mostly fun, and I sailed through it.
If I could stop forgetting what I know, I'd remember to pick up the first book in this series. But sadly, this title is a little too effective. :-D...more
Hayes Figuereida just wants to make movies that no one else will ever watch and be left alone. His best friend is dead and he doesn't care much abo
Hayes Figuereida just wants to make movies that no one else will ever watch and be left alone. His best friend is dead and he doesn't care much about life. But then he is essentially kidnapped by the handome physicist Yusuf Hassan and taken to a laboratory, where a machine found on an asteroid may hold the keys to accessing the multiverse -- and the scientists studying it believe Hayes may be able to unlock the secret.
It's been a while since I finished this, so that's a pretty feeble summary but it carries the gist of the plot. Naturally, opening the multiverse leads to all kinds of unintended consequences and adventure.
This was well-written and I believed in the future in the story, complete with queer AI androids. I loved that this is at its heart a romance, with a Hayes and Yusuf couple in every single universe with people in it.
One cool thing that happened while I was reading this book: I was on the train and a guy asked if he could take a picture of me reading, because he's friends with the author. Of course I said yes.
This was definitely entertaining, with high enough stakes that I was strongly invested in what would happen next and how on earth there could be a satisfying ending that fixed the problems created by messing with the multiverse.
Is there? Haha, read the book and find out. ...more
This is such an entertaining series. I've read the first book and the latest two books now, and thoroughly enjoyed eaHow did I forget to review this?
This is such an entertaining series. I've read the first book and the latest two books now, and thoroughly enjoyed each of them. Sarah Booth has a great voice and a terrific outlook on the world. It occurred to me that Sarah Booth and Tinkie are in some ways modern, adult versions of Trixie Belden and her friend Honey, running that detective agency they always said they were going to open when they grew up. But they are also very much their own characters. I love the setting and sense of place in these books. And the mysteries have great twists.
I'm really looking forward to reading more of this series. ...more
Martin Hench, a 67-year-old Red Team Forever IT guy, thinks he's about to retire from tracking illicit financial ventures and travel the country in
Martin Hench, a 67-year-old Red Team Forever IT guy, thinks he's about to retire from tracking illicit financial ventures and travel the country in his RV. But he gets a call from a longtime acquaintance who needs help tracking a theft from his cryptocurrency business. And that pulls Martin into some very dangerous territory that is nothing like retirement.
I'm not entirely sure why I picked this book. IT isn't my thing, even if I do always seem to be friends with IT people. And I had no idea what Red Team (or Blue Team) was until this book forced me to look it up.
But I do have objections to wealthy people offshoring their money to weasel out of taxes, and I think cryptocurrency is a total scam, so the financial detective aspect of this book intrigued me.
And this turned out to be a pretty good story. I liked grouchy Martin and the fact that he's old. I enjoyed his mix of (typical Cory Doctorow) cynicism with a desire to be a good person and work for the angels despite the cynicism. He had some really creative solutions to the puzzles he's faced with, and reading about his MacGyvering was entertaining. I did roll my eyes at how pretty much every woman he interacts with finds him attractive, but at the same time it's kind of nice that he's got a romantic/sexual life. Elderly characters don't always get that.
You don't have to know anything about IT to enjoy this book, but it might help if you care a little about finance. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, and definitely plan to read the next one in this series when it arrives....more
When Vern moves back in with his mom and grandma after losing his job, his grandmother signs him up for a new one, and he can't say no
3-1/2 stars
When Vern moves back in with his mom and grandma after losing his job, his grandmother signs him up for a new one, and he can't say no -- it's at her old workplace. When he's handed a mop and a bucket, he has no idea what he'll be cleaning up ... or what he'll discover.
This was quick and cute. Vern is a full-grown adult, but I think this book could easily be read by anyone 11 and up. The story was interesting and kept me flipping the pages.
The biggest problem for me is, it's a little too short, so it felt kind of rushed. It lacks buildup and the ending is just reveal-reveal-reveal-DONE. I barely had time to wonder what was going on before it was over. And while all the connections made sense and were satisfying, I would rather have had just a little more chance to try to figure things out on my own, with Vern. Because of that, I've rounded my rating down instead of up.
Overall, I enjoyed this, but it wasn't particularly memorable -- I forgot I read it already, until I saw a copy on display at the library and thought "Maybe I should write a review for that."...more
Who knew a world without men could be so funny? (Sorry, guys)
I wasn't sure what to expect from this, since I saw it mentioned tangentially in another Who knew a world without men could be so funny? (Sorry, guys)
I wasn't sure what to expect from this, since I saw it mentioned tangentially in another book and decided to look for it. I thought it would be more novel-like, but instead it's written as comic episodes, with hilarious punch lines. And there is some plot as the characters interact. All of them really grew on me as I read, and now I'm going to miss them even though I only knew them for a day. Sob. ...more
Ruthy Ramirez disappeared over a decade ago, on her way home from middle school track practice. Her sisters, Nina and Jessica, have gotten on with
Ruthy Ramirez disappeared over a decade ago, on her way home from middle school track practice. Her sisters, Nina and Jessica, have gotten on with their lives okay. But then Jessica sees a young woman on TV who looks just like Ruthy, and the wondering starts again.
This book is hard to describe. It's not a "what happened to Ruthy Ramirez?" thriller with a question mark. And it's not a trauma story about a family that can't heal or anything like that. It's a warm, intimate story about the remaining female members of a family that's experienced tragedy, and who just go on -- loving each other, crabbing at each other, and just carrying a memory of the one who is gone.
And the weird thing is, I could not put it down. Partly because I was curious about how it was going to end. But mostly because I was absorbed into their lives, and how they were going to be affected by learning whether the TV woman was actually Ruthy, or not. I absolutely zoomed through this, which has not happened to me in a while.
And then the ending (view spoiler)[made me cry. I didn't expect to feel nearly as affected by it as I was. Well done, and darn you, book. (hide spoiler)]
This was a pleasantly surprisingly good debut, and I'm looking forward to whatever Claire Jimenez writes next....more
Hmm, I liked this well enough but not enough that I remembered reading it until I was cleaning up my For Later shelf at the library just now. This wasHmm, I liked this well enough but not enough that I remembered reading it until I was cleaning up my For Later shelf at the library just now. This was a weird borderline between feeling middle grade and feeling YA. The mythology had some holes in it for me (especially the ending). And the mustache-twirling villain was over the top. I'm not sure I'm going to continue with this series. ...more
Jam lives in an idyllic land, a city where, when her parents were young, all of the monsters were vanquished by angels. Everyone is safe. Everyone
Jam lives in an idyllic land, a city where, when her parents were young, all of the monsters were vanquished by angels. Everyone is safe. Everyone can be whoever they are, with no fear of bullying. No one in Jam's generation knows what a monster is. But then Jam's artist mother paints a monster ... and it steps out of the painting and tells Jam that it's been sent to hunt a monster, and it needs her help.
I really loved most of this book. Jam truly lives in a paradise of representation and acceptance, and spending time there was absolutely beautiful. I completely believed in this wonderful world, and it's a place we need to be aiming to emulate and achieve. I'm really impressed that the author was able to imagine this world and express it so well.
I was also very into "how can you tell the difference between monsters and angels?" After all, the first thing angels say is "Be not afraid!" which strongly implies that they look pretty scary. So if angels look like monsters, what do monsters look like? If something looks monstrous, what is it? Should you listen to it, believe it? These questions kept me zooming through most of this short book, and living it while I was doing other things. The writing is excellent and absorbing, the story vivid.
So why aren't I giving this 5 stars? Partly, when the monster is discovered, it was too real -- but that's just partly just me and my horror at the situation. But also, when the monster was revealed, the story lost its fantasy feel for me, and the worldbuilding lost some luster. And partly, even though Jam and her friend Redemption are about 17 years old, this story felt very middle grade. This isn't a bad thing -- middle grade readers should absolutely read this book and learn to recognize monsters. But it felt awkward to me.
I'm not sure I would call this book "enjoyable" after how it turned out. But it is very, very good. And I'm going to look for Akwaeke Emezi's adult novels now....more
Kumiko has had it with spending her final months in an assisted-living facility. So she walks out, gets her own apartment, and refuses to tell her
Kumiko has had it with spending her final months in an assisted-living facility. So she walks out, gets her own apartment, and refuses to tell her children where she is. She's quite pleased with the arrangement. But a shadow follows her, playing a game of wits. Who will outsmart who?
I'm a fan of Hiromi Goto's prose novels and needed a book I could read in a day before starting a buddy read, so I decided to squeeze this in.
It's mostly charming. Kumiko is stubborn and quirky; she knows her own mind and how she likes things. And she savors her freedom, since she knows it can't really last. I enjoyed watching her just living her life. And I was delighted with how she dealt with the shadow.
But at the same time, the day-to-day prosaicness of the events wore on me a little. The story was just a teeny bit dull. Not enough to make me stop reading, but enough that I wasn't as engaged as I would have liked.
There were also a couple too many coincidences of sorts at the end. And honestly, I kind of wish (view spoiler)[Kumiko had stayed dead, because I was genuinely mourning the shadow's win over her (hide spoiler)].
This is a sweet, poignant book, and I appreciate that it's about an old lady. But it's also a little slight. Still, the art is good, and I don't regret spending a day with Kumiko.
No rating on account of DNF'ing. I'd say it's probably a 4-star book for what it is; it's clearly good but I was just miserable reading it
Thiago's
No rating on account of DNF'ing. I'd say it's probably a 4-star book for what it is; it's clearly good but I was just miserable reading it
Thiago's wife, Vera, has died in a freak accident. Now Thiago talks to Vera in his head all day every day, narrating the events of his life from her funeral on. He moves away from their condo in Chicago, where strange sounds and cold spots used to disturb them. But something seems to be following him, something evil that keeps causing pain.
This is a horror book, but it's also a book about terrible grief and how it affects a person's mind and all their experiences.
I'd been intrigued by the official blurb, which makes much of the Itza, an Alexa/Echo-like home device that listens all the time and answers its owners' every whim (although the answers are not always coherent, and the deliveries are not always of things anyone actually ordered). But the Itza turned out to be a very small part of the story (although at the same time, huge, since Thiago blames it for Vera's death). The rest of the book is psychological horror rather than technological horror. And while it is vivid (wow, too vivid), creative, and very well-written, the things that happen are truly awful and constantly heartbreaking.
I was completely fascinated by the events and by trying to figure out whether any of it is connected together -- did something follow Thiago from Chicago to the wilds of Colorado? Why?
But I became convinced that (view spoiler)[Thiago is mad with grief, and not a reliable narrator, even though I do believe he's having a string of terrible experiences (hide spoiler)]. And then (view spoiler)[the death, the return, and the loss again of the dog Brimley (hide spoiler)] just did me in. I felt genuinely unhappy every time I picked this book up, and with every line I read. So I skimmed through the rest of it, and it appears to stay just as bleak and despairing right through the last page.
Maybe I could handle this in the summer. But not in the depths of winter.
I do admire how weirdly absorbing this book is, written as it is with its constant chatty litany of "you" as Thiago speaks to Vera in his mind. Genuine heartbreak infuses every page. But that heartbreak wore me down. I just can't go on with this....more
Taylor Powell is $20k in debt and struggling to get momentum for Taylor'd Conditioning, her personal training business. But when Jamar "
4-1/2 stars
Taylor Powell is $20k in debt and struggling to get momentum for Taylor'd Conditioning, her personal training business. But when Jamar "Diesel" Dixon, former star running back for UT Austin and the Chicago Bears, hires her to help him make a return to the NFL after a devastating knee injury, her financial problems just might be solved. Except Jamar doesn't want anyone to know he's in training. So when they're seen together by a reporter, Taylor claims they're dating. They're definitely attracted to each other. But will their fake romance bring them together, or push them apart?
I grabbed this as soon as I saw that adorable cover. Turns out it's the second in a 3-part romance trilogy, and the first chapter left me a bit adrift as it kept referencing events from the first book. But once Taylor and Jamar met and this story got going, none of those missing pieces mattered much.
This was an all-around terrific romance. No alph-holes, no overly contorted conflict. I really liked both Jamar and Taylor. They were both decent, competent people with a realistic combination of self-esteem and insecurities. The subplots were well-done and meaningful. I enjoyed the question of what it meant to want to date in a coach/client relationship, and appreciated that the woman was the coach and the man the trainee, because there are plenty of actual women athletes married to their male coaches (a situation that makes me personally go "ugh" but that's great if it works for them) but I can't think of a single real-life couple where a man is married to his female coach. So I found that refreshing, and it helped keep the fake dating trope from feeling too stale.
Overall, this book was put together very well, even though I found it just a teeny bit long with a couple scenes/chapters that could have been cut and never missed. I loved Taylor and Jamar's interaction; both of them had charm and great senses of humor. I loved that this was a football romance without exactly being a football romance, since Taylor is also a tough athlete, and it's focused on training in general. I loved that Taylor is 3 years older than Jamar, but it's just mentioned in passing, not a big deal. I loved that the friendship between Taylor and her recently-acquired besties Samiah and London is as important to her as her romance with Jamar.
I plan to read the first book (Samiah's) because I enjoyed this so much (and I'm curious to get the backstory first-hand), and then I'll wait impatiently for London's story. I'm very happy to have found another positive, non-problematic romance writer I can look forward to reading. ...more
Raina has promised her Nani that if she is still single on her 29th birthday, she'll let herself start being set up for an arra
A solid 3-1/2 stars
Raina has promised her Nani that if she is still single on her 29th birthday, she'll let herself start being set up for an arranged marriage. When that day comes, Nani has a list ready.
But Raina isn't really ready to like any of those men. She's still hung up on a guy she knew when she was studying in London. He wasn't ready to settle down then, and probably isn't now either, but a sense of unfinished business is hard to shake.
But as Raina tries to avoid admitting to Nani and her best friend that she hasn't moved on, she spins a lie that has wider-reaching effects than she would ever have guessed.
I enjoyed this book, but it is a bit of a sprawling mess. That cover and Nani's list on the first page of the book made me expect a romance. It is not. It's a literary coming-of-age-at-long-last story, and it covers the entire year between Raina's 29th and 30th birthdays. So it's a bit long-feeling. And it covers a lot of territory. There are at least two subplots in here that, IMO, the author could have saved for use with other books (with different characters), because there were just a few too many things going on.
And yet. I found Raina appealing, and appreciated spending time in her head, even amid all the painful circumstances in this book. She struggles, she faces her worst choices, and she grows. It's a well-done story. The cast of other characters are also interesting, and I enjoyed getting to know each of them as well.
I could have done without the series of flashbacks to pivotal events in Raina's life. The stories were interesting, and one in particular helped create empathy for Raina's wandering mother, but they were just a bit much in a book that was already a little too much.
This review sounds a bit lukewarm, but my 4 stars stand. This was an admirable, ambitious debut effort that achieves everything it sets out to do. Just in a somewhat winding way.
Content warning: Raina's Big Lie is majorly problematic and goes on waaay too long. If you want to know what it is, plenty of other reviews for this book will tell you. I was deeply uncomfortable with it, but at the same time, it showed such a wonderful side of Nani, and provided a powerful positive punch at the end of the book, so I'm forgiving it and I think all my squirming while I was reading it was worth it. YMMV, of course....more
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