![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
94. Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon by Jane Austen. 3.5. Northanger Abbey is one of Austen's weaker books - it's heavy-handed satire. The last two are really just snippets from planned works, which mostly made me sad. But Lady Susan is short and delicious.
95. The Lightning-Struck Heart by TJ Klune. 5. Look, I'm not going to say this wish fulfillment fantasy about a gay wizard Marty Stu is good - but it is delightful. The author doesn't particularly care about niceties such as, say, how the concept of dukes work. Instead, he cares about stuffing literally as much adorable snark into every paragraph as is humanly possible. It's like an exceedingly well kudos-ed fanfic only entirely original. A burst of sarcastic and fabulous sunshine.
96. Safety Protocols for Human Holidays by Angel Martinez. 4. You know those memes that go around about how completely bonkers and kinda scary aliens might find humans? "They drink poison on purpose. They say they like the taste!" That, in the form of a sci fi LGBT+ holiday humorous romance.
97. Past Imperfect by Julian Fellows. 4. OK, so if you've read a lot of Regency romances, you're very familiar with the concept of the Season at its height. This is a bit of a mystery in which the solving is set in the early 2000s, but the actual mystery occurred during the days of the death throes of the Season as a concept, back in the 1960s. And it's fascinating. (Also kinda sad, and features the worst dinner party of all time.) A tragedy of manners?
98. The Duke Who Didn't by Courtney Milan. 5. This is one of the gentlest romances I've read in some time, which in any other writer's hands would have been lacking in tension. But Milan's deft touch and subtle observational skills (and dashes of humor) make it the equivalent of hot cocoa. With people of color as characters in Regency England who don't spend the book being traumatized by horrible things happening to them. Honestly, if I could basically read the equivalent of this for the rest of the year, I'd probably be happier.
99. The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones. 4. Middle Eastern-inspired fantasy - it's nice to get out of pretend-Europe. Instead, we have Baghdad in one of its more fun periods, plus tons of fantastic magic. The most inventive bits are actually in the middle - the climax is relatively straightforward.
100. How to Get a Job: Secrets of a Hiring Manager by Alison Green. 4. Resume, interviewing, and negotiating advice from the author of Ask a Manager. Much of it I knew, but there's definitely some stuff I hadn't thought of.
101. Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosch. 4. The writer of Hyperbole and a Half is as funny as ever...but she's really not ok. You can't really tell at the beginning of any given story whether it will turn out to be a creepy-but-cute anecdote of her childhood or a whammy of existential angst brought on by a combo of poor life skills, illness (both mental and physical), and tragedy. It's brilliant, but do not expect this to be light.
102. The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas. 4.5. Gorgeous retelling of the Mulan tale, featuring two rival families, one of whom has substituted a daughter for a dead twin brother, who have to set aside the dueling when invaders show up. Adventure, romance, secrets, masquerading as a boy - it's catnip. And I adore the final duel.
103. Ink and Ice by Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese. 3.5. Fun-and-angsty-but-the-fun-kind-of-angst, slightly kinky m/m romance about an ice skater trying for the Olympics and the journalist who seriously messes up his journalistic objectivity. (Disclosure - I know one of the authors.)
104. Clash of the Geeks by Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi, Patrick Rothfuss, and more. 3. Scalzi had a truly horrible painting commissioned of him and Wheaton. Then half the SF pantheon showed up to write a book for charity featuring short stories about this painting. Honestly, most of them aren't actually very good, but it was for charity and they're moderately amusing.
105. Conversational Marketing by David Cancel and Dave Gerhardt. 3. First half is why you should buy Drift, the second is how to use Drift. (My company has Drift, it made sense to read the second half.)
106. A Lily Among Thorns by Rose Lerner. 3.5. Decently competent oh-there's-a-spy romance (with the Scarlet Pimpernel as a very minor character). I did thoroughly appreciate the very beta hero - I adore a man whose superpower is being a decent human being.
107. The Fire Never Goes Out by Noelle Stevenson. 2. You know those end of the year posts we all did when LJ was a thing? That, only mostly in pictures. Like, literally, these are just her end of the year notes to her fans, published without context? Basically, an exercise in vague-booking created for an entirely different purpose but we paid money for it.
108. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. 5. Basically, Harry Potter meets Hunger Games from one of the most addictive authors to rise out of fanfiction. Damn, she manages to hit all the Feels I ever had from high school, with the perfect just-angsty-enough anti-heroine, plus absolutely fantastic magic and worldbuilding. I cannot WAIT for the other two to drop.
109. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein. 5. I have been waiting until my kid was old enough to read this to him, and I was NOT disappointed. As delightful as I remembered. (Yes, aware of the racism and classicism inherent in Tolkein. But they're relatively subtle for the time period. On the other hand, I feel like Bilbo's decisions at the end do quite a lot to counter some of the crappy morals about the glory of war and the role of the Hero that come out of much of kids' fantasies. And it's gorgeous and funny and surprisingly sweet.)
110. The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite. 4. F/f Victorian romance featuring actually plausible female scientists! Also, costume porn. Like, really good costume porn. Really sweet.
111. The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger. 3.5. Written mostly for fellow writers, this explores the mirror side of the Hero's Journey, the significantly less respected Heroine's Journey. Similar structure, very different arc. More practical and occasionally flippant than scholarly (which is not a bad thing at all, just so you're clear what you're getting.)
112. Battle Ground by Jim Butcher. 3.5. Literally the second half of Peace Talks, this book is one novel-length long (along novel, at that) battle sceen. I think we get to see every still-alive named character from the entire series, many of whom are not still alive by the end. Look, it's a hell of a ride that wraps up a bunch of stuff but leaves enough strings for the next book. Although it's also kinda exhausting. Also, the solution to the Thomas mystery that kicked off and drove much of the previous book is resolved in a complete but not exactly satisfying way over about two pages as mostly an afterthought. But on the other hand...wow, do I love Mab.
113. Slipping by Lauren Beukes. 3. Collection of short stories, many of which are quite creative but basically all of which are depressing as hell. I may just not have been in quite the right frame of mind to appreciate these.
95. The Lightning-Struck Heart by TJ Klune. 5. Look, I'm not going to say this wish fulfillment fantasy about a gay wizard Marty Stu is good - but it is delightful. The author doesn't particularly care about niceties such as, say, how the concept of dukes work. Instead, he cares about stuffing literally as much adorable snark into every paragraph as is humanly possible. It's like an exceedingly well kudos-ed fanfic only entirely original. A burst of sarcastic and fabulous sunshine.
96. Safety Protocols for Human Holidays by Angel Martinez. 4. You know those memes that go around about how completely bonkers and kinda scary aliens might find humans? "They drink poison on purpose. They say they like the taste!" That, in the form of a sci fi LGBT+ holiday humorous romance.
97. Past Imperfect by Julian Fellows. 4. OK, so if you've read a lot of Regency romances, you're very familiar with the concept of the Season at its height. This is a bit of a mystery in which the solving is set in the early 2000s, but the actual mystery occurred during the days of the death throes of the Season as a concept, back in the 1960s. And it's fascinating. (Also kinda sad, and features the worst dinner party of all time.) A tragedy of manners?
98. The Duke Who Didn't by Courtney Milan. 5. This is one of the gentlest romances I've read in some time, which in any other writer's hands would have been lacking in tension. But Milan's deft touch and subtle observational skills (and dashes of humor) make it the equivalent of hot cocoa. With people of color as characters in Regency England who don't spend the book being traumatized by horrible things happening to them. Honestly, if I could basically read the equivalent of this for the rest of the year, I'd probably be happier.
99. The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones. 4. Middle Eastern-inspired fantasy - it's nice to get out of pretend-Europe. Instead, we have Baghdad in one of its more fun periods, plus tons of fantastic magic. The most inventive bits are actually in the middle - the climax is relatively straightforward.
100. How to Get a Job: Secrets of a Hiring Manager by Alison Green. 4. Resume, interviewing, and negotiating advice from the author of Ask a Manager. Much of it I knew, but there's definitely some stuff I hadn't thought of.
101. Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosch. 4. The writer of Hyperbole and a Half is as funny as ever...but she's really not ok. You can't really tell at the beginning of any given story whether it will turn out to be a creepy-but-cute anecdote of her childhood or a whammy of existential angst brought on by a combo of poor life skills, illness (both mental and physical), and tragedy. It's brilliant, but do not expect this to be light.
102. The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas. 4.5. Gorgeous retelling of the Mulan tale, featuring two rival families, one of whom has substituted a daughter for a dead twin brother, who have to set aside the dueling when invaders show up. Adventure, romance, secrets, masquerading as a boy - it's catnip. And I adore the final duel.
103. Ink and Ice by Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese. 3.5. Fun-and-angsty-but-the-fun-kind-of-angst, slightly kinky m/m romance about an ice skater trying for the Olympics and the journalist who seriously messes up his journalistic objectivity. (Disclosure - I know one of the authors.)
104. Clash of the Geeks by Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi, Patrick Rothfuss, and more. 3. Scalzi had a truly horrible painting commissioned of him and Wheaton. Then half the SF pantheon showed up to write a book for charity featuring short stories about this painting. Honestly, most of them aren't actually very good, but it was for charity and they're moderately amusing.
105. Conversational Marketing by David Cancel and Dave Gerhardt. 3. First half is why you should buy Drift, the second is how to use Drift. (My company has Drift, it made sense to read the second half.)
106. A Lily Among Thorns by Rose Lerner. 3.5. Decently competent oh-there's-a-spy romance (with the Scarlet Pimpernel as a very minor character). I did thoroughly appreciate the very beta hero - I adore a man whose superpower is being a decent human being.
107. The Fire Never Goes Out by Noelle Stevenson. 2. You know those end of the year posts we all did when LJ was a thing? That, only mostly in pictures. Like, literally, these are just her end of the year notes to her fans, published without context? Basically, an exercise in vague-booking created for an entirely different purpose but we paid money for it.
108. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. 5. Basically, Harry Potter meets Hunger Games from one of the most addictive authors to rise out of fanfiction. Damn, she manages to hit all the Feels I ever had from high school, with the perfect just-angsty-enough anti-heroine, plus absolutely fantastic magic and worldbuilding. I cannot WAIT for the other two to drop.
109. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein. 5. I have been waiting until my kid was old enough to read this to him, and I was NOT disappointed. As delightful as I remembered. (Yes, aware of the racism and classicism inherent in Tolkein. But they're relatively subtle for the time period. On the other hand, I feel like Bilbo's decisions at the end do quite a lot to counter some of the crappy morals about the glory of war and the role of the Hero that come out of much of kids' fantasies. And it's gorgeous and funny and surprisingly sweet.)
110. The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite. 4. F/f Victorian romance featuring actually plausible female scientists! Also, costume porn. Like, really good costume porn. Really sweet.
111. The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger. 3.5. Written mostly for fellow writers, this explores the mirror side of the Hero's Journey, the significantly less respected Heroine's Journey. Similar structure, very different arc. More practical and occasionally flippant than scholarly (which is not a bad thing at all, just so you're clear what you're getting.)
112. Battle Ground by Jim Butcher. 3.5. Literally the second half of Peace Talks, this book is one novel-length long (along novel, at that) battle sceen. I think we get to see every still-alive named character from the entire series, many of whom are not still alive by the end. Look, it's a hell of a ride that wraps up a bunch of stuff but leaves enough strings for the next book. Although it's also kinda exhausting. Also, the solution to the Thomas mystery that kicked off and drove much of the previous book is resolved in a complete but not exactly satisfying way over about two pages as mostly an afterthought. But on the other hand...wow, do I love Mab.
113. Slipping by Lauren Beukes. 3. Collection of short stories, many of which are quite creative but basically all of which are depressing as hell. I may just not have been in quite the right frame of mind to appreciate these.
