The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

This was the third book in the Scholomance series, and I think this series as a whole was brilliant. I love El and her character as this grumpy unwilling dark sorceress heroine, and I thought this book was amazing at tying together the entire series. There were several scenes where El sleeps with other characters that really bugged me and I felt were totally unnecessary for the plot--I wish those had been kept out. But the other 99% of the book was excellent and I loved the end of this trilogy. 

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

I didn't love this one, but it did go pretty quickly. I liked a lot of the stories, even though they were all about a world I have no knowledge of or interest in. I liked the short story format, because I felt like I was able to get invested in each character really deeply for that time. 

Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

This book was funny and fun but also I was annoyed by her crazy ridiculous choices. I hate it when characters cross the line into unbelievable and this book did that for me. I could have believed the main premise but I couldn't believe all her choices as she went through the process. Although I liked the ending. 

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

This book bugged me and also impressed me. I loved the idea of women "dragoning" and being able to get the men who were oppressing them. I want this to be a real thing--but I hated all the emphasis on the children who were essentially abandoned by this generation of women.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

After reading Never Let Me Go, I couldn't wait to read another of Ishiguro's books. This one was even better. Same style of not much plot, but a lot of thought, and again, I couldn't put it down. I kept wanting to read more even though there wasn't much to find out. It was just devastating to read and see what his life was like and how he felt looking back about how he had spent it. And the ending--so rough. 

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

I didn't know what was going on for a while with this book, but once I figured it out, everything made so much sense. This book didn't have much plot, it was so internal and slow-moving and thoughtful, but I couldn't put it down. It was so good. It made me think and ask hard questions.

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

I thought the idea of this book was so fascinating for the first third and then things got weird and I was super confused by the magic of it. I didn't love this. Plus it just didn't make sense to me. 

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyah

I wasn't sure what I was expecting but this wasn't it. I thought the stories were really good, although some of them were a little raunchy for my interest. I loved some of the themes though. Really well done.

Class Mom by Laurie Gelman

I'll be honest--I am 44 books behind on my book blog so I am going to settle for super short reviews now. 3 sentences or less until I get caught up. It's just too hard to keep up now, but I at least want to get through the year. I may have to transition to Goodreads reviewing after this year.

This was hilarious and so snarky and witty. I loved the snarkiness and anti-involvement of this mom. 

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

I still hadn't read anything by Fredrik Backman other than A Man Called Ove, which I TOTALLY LOVED. So I'm not sure why I hadn't read any of his other stuff. But Tommy and Bethany both highly recommended this one to me, and again, it took me way too long to get to it. Once I started it, though, I loved it. It had the same really happy feel good ending to me that I loved in A Man Called Ove, where a weird, disparate community forms and people end up being better than you think they are. This story is about a bank robbery that wasn't, which then accidentally evolved into a hostage situation, and then turned out to be a group of people trying to help someone else. It's called Anxious People because you see into everyone's heads and get to understand a little bit of their problems and the way they think and what anxieties they have, and see how everyone has issues. It was super funny and sweet and heartwarming at the same time, and way better than I even expected. 

Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

This was different than I expected because I thought it would be just a straight thriller, but then you start realizing that something else is going on partway through the book, and you try to figure out what is happening. This book is about Ariel Pryce, who wakes up on a vacation in Lisbon and is worried to realize that her new husband is missing. She tries to track him down and spends the next two days looking for him, trying to get the police and the embassy to help her. And then you realize other things are happening and that there is more going on than you realized at first... I thought this book was really satisfying and interesting, and it was so nice to see true justice exacted on someone who was really terrible. 

You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld

I burned through these short stories really quickly and thought they were so good. I really liked each one of them and how they represented such different people. I feel like a short story is such an interesting genre that I don't read enough of, but every time I do, I am so engaged and interested and wish I read more of them. I don't have anything specific to say about any of the specific stories, but it was definitely worth the read. 

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

I really liked this heist novel about some college students getting asked to steal the Chinese Zodiac heads from the Western museums where they've been held since being stolen from China 150 years ago. It was billed as an Ocean's Eleven-type book, and that comparison was what got me interested. But what I ended liking about it were the different characters and their interactions, and the history of Chinese art and what it's like being a Chinese immigrant, and the morality of museums keeping art that has been stolen. The plot definitely started off stronger in the first half of the novel than in the second half, where it started to get a little slow, but it was still a fun book. I was definitely rooting for them and hoping they would earn the 50 million dollars they were going for. 

Anne of Manhattan by Brina Starler

I actually really loved this Anne of Green Gables retelling except for a few sexy parts. I didn't want to read about Anne and Gilbert having sex--I wanted it to stay cute and pure like in the original series. But I did really like the premise of a modern-day Anne living in Manhattan and coming across Gilbert again after years of being separated. It was a great retelling.

While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams

I am not super involved in Georgia politics so I don't know a lot about Stacey Abrams specifically, but I am super impressed with her ability to write a legal thriller in addition to multiple runs for office and working as a high-powered attorney. This book was really well done, and it didn't feel like some pet project of someone who doesn't know how to write. It felt like a real thriller and it definitely got pretty dark. I thought the question of "What would happen if a Supreme Court justice fell into a coma?" was a great way to start a fun story. I felt like there were a few things I never quite wrapped my head around and had to just assume that Avery knew what she was doing, but it was fast-paced enough to keep me interested and I wanted to know how she was going to get out of it. 

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

All the Light We Cannot See was one of the best books I had ever read. I definitely intended to read Cloud Cuckoo Land as soon as I heard about it. And then Austin gave it to me for Christmas, and I really really wanted to read it. But it was so big! And I got pregnant and was so sick! And all I wanted to read the last six months was quick and easy short books, nothing that involved any actual thought or effort. But I feel like I kind of came out of that after our trip, and I finally jumped into this book--and it did take me a few days to get fully into it, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I read the last 400+ pages in two nights because I couldn't wait to see where the story was going. I feel like it's rare that I am surprised by the way a story is organized these days--I've read a lot of books and it seems like there are patterns. But when I heard this one described, with three different storylines, set nearly 1000 years apart, I couldn't imagine how it would go. I love the idea behind it--three different time periods (1400s, present day, 200 years in the future) and five different characters, all tied together by the same story and how they interacted with it. The main idea of the book seems to be about the power of a story and how it can change and influence people, and about the importance of preserving stories and not letting stories and books disappear. 

I feel like sometimes with these books that have multiple storylines, there are one or two of them that I am not interested in or that I feel like I am just suffering through to get back to the ones that I like better. But in this book, I actually genuinely enjoyed all of the storylines. There was one character who I liked the least, but since there were five storylines, I felt like I was really excited about what was happening and finding out about each of the characters. I really was invested in Anna and Omeir, the two young kids on opposing sides of the war in Constantinople in 1452, and in Konstance, the teenager stuck on a spaceship hurtling through space, and in Zeno, the old man in 2020 who was translating the Greek story that was the thread that connected all of these disparate characters. 

Basically, this book was fantastic. It kept me thinking, it kept me engaged, and it was really well written and beautiful. 

State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny

I freaking love Louise Penny and I love her mysteries. And after reading and enjoying Bill Clinton's foray into fiction, I was definitely down to try out Hillary Clinton's attempt. This book is about a secretary of state who ends up having to save the world from a nuclear attack, and a whole lot of intrigue and craziness that happens before then. I thought it was super interesting, especially coming from a former Secretary of State's perspective, and I could see Louise Penny's touch in the pacing and plot of the book. It was a great thriller and definitely a worthwhile read. It was really fun that Armand Gamache and Three Pines made a cameo appearance near the end. 

The Party Crasher by Sophie Kinsella

I've read plenty of Sophie Kinsella over the years--including all of the Shopaholic books long before I started keeping this blog--and she always has these characters that are just really zany and over the top with their own funny problems. The characters always get into the most ridiculous situations and this book was no exception--at one point Effie is hiding under the table while everyone else in her family is eating around her for hours. I always feel like so many problems in these books could be avoided by just normal adult conversations and communication--but it was still a fun book to read. It was good that it all ended up happy in the end. 

The Partner by John Grisham

I got this book for Tommy for Christmas and then he insisted I read it after he finished so we could talk about it. Once I did, I knew what he meant. I was all on board for the entire book but then the ending made me so mad. The book is about a lawyer who steals millions of dollars from his clients and then disappears--but when he's found and brought to trial, he's in big trouble. He has this woman friend who helps him but then in the last three pages she disappears with all of his money and he never sees her again--after NO HINTS the rest of the book that she was going to do that or that she was capable of or interested in leaving him. I felt like that threw everything else off from the rest of the story and it was annoying. But the rest of the book was a fun mystery/thriller. 

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster

I read this when I was a kid but hadn't revisited it for over 20 years. I basically didn't remember anything about it except for the boy driving around in his car. But Dane discovered it on his bookshelf and read it and was talking about how good it was and wanted me to read it, and this was one I definitely wanted to remember. (Sometimes he wants me to read the most random books and I don't always have the energy.) I really liked re-reading this and it was fun to remember the funny wordplay and puns that make up a lot of the book. I wasn't sure how much of it a kid would understand, but apparently Dane understood enough of it to like it.