Book #75 of 2019: Star Wars: Queen’s Shadow by E.K. Johnston Despite my hopes, this YA novel doesn’t really live up to its potential as the first canonical Star Wars story to focus on Padmé Amidala and her handmaidens. Taking place roughly halfway between the prequel movies The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, …
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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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