Book #74 of 2019: A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi (The Star-Touched Queen #2) This is now the third book that I’ve read from author Roshani Chokshi, and I’ve had similar feelings about all of them: appreciation for the #ownvoices Hindu mythology that informs her fantasy worldbuilding, but frustration with certain plotting decisions and …
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Book #73 of 2019: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #1) It’s probably been half a lifetime since I’ve last read this classic sci-fi series, and I’m delighted to find that the first book is just as fantastic as I remember. The dry British absurdities coupled …
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Book #72 of 2019: A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix This YA space opera has some fun worldbuilding, but the main character is such a blank slate that it ends up feeling more like a proof-of-concept for the setting than a proper story. (Imagine something like Ender’s Game, Harry Potter, Red Rising, or The …
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Book #71 of 2019: Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land This house cleaner’s personal narrative is a heartbreaking reminder of the precarious nature of life in America’s lower classes. Author Stephanie Land illustrates how a single surprise expense will send her situation spiraling, how her already-low wages …
Book #70 of 2019: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (The Illuminae Files #1) This YA sci-fi adventure gets better as it goes along, and I’m inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt that some of the elements I still don’t like are artifacts of the audiobook format. (It’s an epistolary novel …
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Book #69 of 2019: One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America by Kevin M. Kruse An interesting and meticulously-researched book from Princeton historian Kevin M. Kruse, examining the rise of America’s religious right over the course of the twentieth century. The basic thesis here is twofold: that only in its relatively recent …
Book #68 of 2019: The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie Here is a story I have heard. It’s a loose retelling of Hamlet, from the perspective of a god bound to the area, addressed to the transgender soldier serving the role of Horatio to his deposed prince. It’s a striking use of first- and second-person …
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Book #67 of 2019: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki I like the portions of this novel that are presented as the diary entries of a depressed Japanese girl, but I don’t have much patience for the fictionalized version of author Ruth Ozeki who has supposedly found her writing washed up on …
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Book #66 of 2019: The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee (Montague Siblings #2) Another rip-roaring historical comedy about young people who don’t fit neatly into 18th-century European society’s expectations for them. This book is less overtly romantic than the previous novel that centers on bisexual teenager Henry Montague — which fits, …
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Book #65 of 2019: Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen There’s a little bit too much telling over showing in the beginning of this novel about a futuristic time-traveler who creates a new life for himself after getting stranded in 1996. Luckily the plot picks up once the protagonist is belatedly extracted back …
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