Book #116 of 2023: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin Is it a little gimmicky and unrealistic that a 16-year-old would bump her head and lose all memory of the last four years? Sure. But in the hands of author Gabrielle Zevin, that premise turns into a neat exploration of high school identity, …
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Book #23 of 2022: Fatal Revenant by Stephen R. Donaldson (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant #2) This sequel is rather cleanly bifurcated by a development midway through, and although both of the resulting sections have their strengths, I think the opening is more successful than the close. (Call it a five-star passage followed by …
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Book #305 of 2021: The Overlook by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #13) I admire author Michael Connelly’s commitment to regularly including crooked members of law enforcement among his villains, but I think this particular story actually works better earlier on, when LAPD detective Harry Bosch is just clashing with FBI bureaucracy (no pun intended) over …
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Book #190 of 2021: Making Money by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #36) I still don’t feel as though reformed con man Moist von Lipwig is a particularly engaging protagonist, and a lot of the plot beats to this attempt to turn around the archaic Ankh-Morpork banking industry seem too similar to his previous efforts at the …
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Book #185 of 2021: Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin The most surprising thing about this 2007 memoir by comedian Steve Martin is that it’s not particularly funny. I don’t mean that the author is attempting jokes which fall flat, merely that it’s a fairly serious reflection on his early career, featuring …
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Book #83 of 2021: The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman This 2007 title is a genre throwback in all the worst ways. It’s more interested in the scientific mechanics of time travel than in its flat characters, the women seem only there as objects of sexual wish-fulfilment, and the accumulated plot holes are pretty …
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Book #76 of 2021: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn #2) Another phenomenal piece of epic fantasy, juggling pulse-pounding cinematic action, endearing characters, court intrigue, worldbuilding revelations, and even a hidden traitor subplot with apparent ease. Although I miss the feeling of daringly clever heist shenanigans from the first novel, this sequel is …
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Book #175 of 2020: Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko (Metamorphosis #1) This Ukrainian novel offers a dark spin on the fantasy boarding school trope, more in the vein of The Magicians than Harry Potter. The pupils are essentially blackmailed into enrolling via threats to their family, the curriculum consists of memorizing arcane texts …
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Book #239 of 2019: Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon Gentlemen of the Road (working title, per the author’s afterword: Jews with Swords) is an exciting, swashbuckling adventure through 10th-century eastern Europe, and definitely one of the rare novellas that doesn’t feel at all abbreviated. Michael Chabon excels at bringing this historical period to …
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Book #229 of 2019: The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3) I still sort of feel like I’m waiting for the Percy Jackson series to really hit its stride, but this third novel offers enough character growth and plot progression amid the latest romp through Greek mythology that I’m happy …
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