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#67: How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now by James L. Kugel. 4. Kugel starts with an interesting structure: going through the Bible book by book, explaining how it was interpreted by religious authorities (often differentiating between Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish interpretations) and then contrasting with how modern Biblical scholars interpret it. The structure kind of falls apart halfway through. (As a whole, it's a bit repetitive and could probably have used a better editing pass.) But it's still quite fascinating.
#68: A Queen from the North by Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese. 4. Alt-history modern romance, where the War of the Roses never really ended. I've always loved both the "political marriage that becomes real" and the "princess school" tropes, so this was catnip. Rather looking forward to more installments in the series. Disclosure: Maltese is an acquaintance.
#69: Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick. 4. Look, aside from being in a bunch of movies, Kendrick hasn't actually done anything all that interesting. But she's delightful company on page. By the end, it's clear she's run out of biographical material but her editor wanted more pages so she just starts ranting about hypothetical theme parties, and it's still hilarious.
#70: Once Upon a Marquess by Courtney Milan. 4. It's not that the set up is so very original (he accidentally discovered her father was a traitor, now she's ruined, but they have to work together), but as always the historical research is on point and the dialogue sparkles. Oh, how it sparkles.
#71: Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko. 3.5. Clever SF conceit in which groups of people are permanently mentally bonded together--especially clever since it's from multiple viewpoints within the same cluster, who consider themselves a single person. The actual plot, involving a cryogenic defrostee trying to restart the Singularity and take over the world, is somewhat less compelling, to be honest. And some of the paranoia-inducing "they're trying to get you" stuff doesn't really work in hindsight. But entertaining overall.
#72: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. 3.5. So it turns out I'd read this before, and given it a 4. I'm downgrading to a 3.5 because apparently it so failed to stick that I didn't remember reading it until one particular passage 2/3 of the way through. (To be fair, I've read several books set in this time period, so the particular plot points were always going to be familiar. I've seen Henry nearly die on the tilting field and Lady Rochford be a bitch and Anne lose her head from multiple perspectives.)
#73: Please Don't Tell My Parents I Have a Nemesis by Richard Roberts. 4. More delightful teen aged super-villain shenanigans. But it ends on a hell of a cliff-hanger (apparently the next book is the last in the series).
#74: God's War by Kameron Hurley. 4. This is the kind of science fiction that verges on fantasy--extreme biotech to the point of summoned bugs that have replaced most mechanical and chemical processes, shapeshifters, and near-resurrection spells. It's cool. Also kind of nihilistic (the author wrote it while nearly dying and it shows)--a centuries-long religious war on a barely-habitable planet, multiple double-crosses where all the authority figures are ethically compromised, a brutal mercenary team who are each filled with their own special brand of self-loathing. I found it brilliant, but I'll admit I'm not actually all that eager to read the rest of series; this is not a nice place to be.
#75: Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson. 3. Just to be clear: my parents are great. But I needed some research on a character I'm writing, and this gets recommended a lot by advice columnists. Some really great insights. Also a tendency to view every problem as a nail, and to define "emotionally mature" as "behavior I like". Still, could be very useful to someone struggling with their own parents.
#76: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. 5. Another brutally nihilistic one. Dick's alt-future where the Axis won World War II is so brilliantly, carefully revealed that it's a tour de force of world-building. Unsurprisingly, his one female character is an overemotional idiot (they always are for him), but we'll set it aside as an artifact of its time. The seesawing of racism as viewed through several very different characters, on the other hand, is delicately handled. This book is brilliant and chilling. It's also weirdly beautiful in parts, such as Togumi's last scenes as he tries to gain emotional equilibrium. A masterpiece.
#68: A Queen from the North by Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese. 4. Alt-history modern romance, where the War of the Roses never really ended. I've always loved both the "political marriage that becomes real" and the "princess school" tropes, so this was catnip. Rather looking forward to more installments in the series. Disclosure: Maltese is an acquaintance.
#69: Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick. 4. Look, aside from being in a bunch of movies, Kendrick hasn't actually done anything all that interesting. But she's delightful company on page. By the end, it's clear she's run out of biographical material but her editor wanted more pages so she just starts ranting about hypothetical theme parties, and it's still hilarious.
#70: Once Upon a Marquess by Courtney Milan. 4. It's not that the set up is so very original (he accidentally discovered her father was a traitor, now she's ruined, but they have to work together), but as always the historical research is on point and the dialogue sparkles. Oh, how it sparkles.
#71: Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko. 3.5. Clever SF conceit in which groups of people are permanently mentally bonded together--especially clever since it's from multiple viewpoints within the same cluster, who consider themselves a single person. The actual plot, involving a cryogenic defrostee trying to restart the Singularity and take over the world, is somewhat less compelling, to be honest. And some of the paranoia-inducing "they're trying to get you" stuff doesn't really work in hindsight. But entertaining overall.
#72: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. 3.5. So it turns out I'd read this before, and given it a 4. I'm downgrading to a 3.5 because apparently it so failed to stick that I didn't remember reading it until one particular passage 2/3 of the way through. (To be fair, I've read several books set in this time period, so the particular plot points were always going to be familiar. I've seen Henry nearly die on the tilting field and Lady Rochford be a bitch and Anne lose her head from multiple perspectives.)
#73: Please Don't Tell My Parents I Have a Nemesis by Richard Roberts. 4. More delightful teen aged super-villain shenanigans. But it ends on a hell of a cliff-hanger (apparently the next book is the last in the series).
#74: God's War by Kameron Hurley. 4. This is the kind of science fiction that verges on fantasy--extreme biotech to the point of summoned bugs that have replaced most mechanical and chemical processes, shapeshifters, and near-resurrection spells. It's cool. Also kind of nihilistic (the author wrote it while nearly dying and it shows)--a centuries-long religious war on a barely-habitable planet, multiple double-crosses where all the authority figures are ethically compromised, a brutal mercenary team who are each filled with their own special brand of self-loathing. I found it brilliant, but I'll admit I'm not actually all that eager to read the rest of series; this is not a nice place to be.
#75: Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson. 3. Just to be clear: my parents are great. But I needed some research on a character I'm writing, and this gets recommended a lot by advice columnists. Some really great insights. Also a tendency to view every problem as a nail, and to define "emotionally mature" as "behavior I like". Still, could be very useful to someone struggling with their own parents.
#76: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. 5. Another brutally nihilistic one. Dick's alt-future where the Axis won World War II is so brilliantly, carefully revealed that it's a tour de force of world-building. Unsurprisingly, his one female character is an overemotional idiot (they always are for him), but we'll set it aside as an artifact of its time. The seesawing of racism as viewed through several very different characters, on the other hand, is delicately handled. This book is brilliant and chilling. It's also weirdly beautiful in parts, such as Togumi's last scenes as he tries to gain emotional equilibrium. A masterpiece.
