One Sentence Reviews: October

I started Actually Writing again, so my free time is limited--both for reading books and for reviewing them. Which is a shame, because I have read some great books this month! Please consider everything rated 3 stars and higher to have my recommendation, and pick yourself up a copy while I work on proper writeups.

Except for Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente. Wait for the review on that one. It's not a book to be approached casually.

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October 2015

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• The Coyote Trilogy by Allen Steele (2002, sci-fi)
• Political dissidents steal the first interstellar colonization ship, so that the next human-inhabited planet will be settled by lovers of freedom. -- It might have been good, if the author hadn't recoiled from any scenes of actual tension or resolution. 2.5/5 stars. (Full review here!)
• Gifts by Ursula K. LeGuin (2004, YA fantasy)
• Border chieftain fighting to protect his village with magical talent blinds his own son to limit his destructive capacity. - A smaller and warmer story than I expected, focusing on the dynamics of inheritance and disability rather than on magic and adventure. 3.5/5 stars.
• A Week To Be Wicked by Tessa Dare (2012, historical romance)
• Unorthodox spinster recruits local rake to ruin her reputation, thereby sparing her sisters, in exchange for the prize money she plans to win at a paleontology symposium; kissing ensues. - Hilariously convoluted shenanigans still turned into a charming, silly story. 4/5 stars.
• A Lady By Midnight by Tessa Dare (2012, historical romance)
• Birthmarked servant girl is eagerly adopted by potential noble relations; local grouchy ex-soldier suspects foul play; kissing ensues. - Apparently only every other romance I read is worth the giggles. 1/5 stars.
• Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear (2015, steampunk)
• House of prostitutes band together to protect their own from a cruel politician and a serial killer. - The character development never deepens past first impressions, but it's a great adventure and a fresh flavor in steampunk. 3.5/5 stars.
• Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente (2011, historical fairy tale)
• Traditional Russian folklore becomes even more bleak seen through the lens of Soviet culture and the siege of Leningrad. - One of the most masterfully executed novels I have ever had the good fortune to read; also the cruelest, and not for reading lightly. 5/5 stars.
• Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch (2007, fantasy)
• (Sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora) After two years setting up an elaborate heist, con men are blackmailed into political schemes involving pretend piracy and real chaos. - The sequel is as fun and white-knuckle intense as the first, doubling up on the danger and the heartache (and the number of female characters!) 4.5/5 stars.
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (2002, contemporary)
• Teenager murdered by a neighbor watches from her unsatisfying heaven while her friends and family struggle to come to terms with her death. - The sort of book that blows the mind of people who don't read very much and are amazed to find a story more interesting than their high school reading assignments, which is not to say it isn't interesting. Just not very impactful. 3/5 stars.

(Thanks for sticking around for another year of Book Grumps!)

One Sentence Reviews: September

I have now sat upon my review of Mary Renault's The Charioteer for two months, like a hen with an egg. I begin to wonder if it will ever hatch... or if I've been incubating a rock this whole time.

In the meantime, I read a lot of classics and war stories this month, most of which deserve a thumbs-up! If you haven't read some of the 4- and 5-star rated books of this month, I highly encourage you to give them a go.

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September 2015

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• Uprooted by Naomi Novik (2015, historical fantasy)
• Local wizard claims village girls to help him fight the spread of a haunted forest. -- A worthy addition to the ranks of modern fairy tales. 4/5 stars. (Full review here!)
• Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory (2008, supernatural thriller)
• Society has more or less adjusted to the pandemic of temporary demonic possessions, but one man struggles with the suspicion that he has never recovered. -- The book started strong with a compelling premise and a narrator I enjoyed, but crumbled over time. 3/5 stars.
• Because It Is Bitter, And Because It Is My Heart by Joyce Carol Oates (1990, historical fiction)
• A white girl and a black boy are the only witnesses to a murder, which distorts the rest of their lives. -- Neither as lyrical nor as moving as her short stories. 2/5 stars.
• The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (1895, historical fiction)
• Inexperienced volunteer has high expectations of his own bravery and prowess entering the Civil War, and is disappointed. -- I remain convinced that the "classics" of early American literature only maintain a spot on the list because there is so little to choose from. 2/5 stars.
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (1929, historical fiction)
• Isolated from the society that sent them to die, German soldiers salvage what food and what peace they can. -- Required reading for high schoolers, but in my opinion, this should be handed out again a year after college for a new perspective. 5/5 stars.
• Three Comrades by Erich Maria Remarque (1936, historical fiction)
• German WWI veterans enjoy the small slice of life left to them. -- Thoughtful, meandering, and comforting, like a slow-cooker stew. 3/5 stars.
• The Book of Hours by Rainer Maria Rilke (1905, poetry)
• Love poems to (a strange and lonely) God. -- 5/5 stars. (Full review here!)
• City of Thieves by David Benioff (2008, historical fiction)
• Two accidental criminals are offered a reprieve in exchange for an impossible task: to find a dozen eggs in Leningrad, a city starving under siege. -- It's too ghastly to be as funny as it is, yet somehow succeeds. 4/5 stars.
• Year's Best SF 9 collected by David G. Hartwell (2004, sci-fi anthology)
• One good story by Octavia Butler had me wanting more; one or two others were temporarily engaging; the rest were entirely forgettable. 3/5 stars.
• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (2012, historical fiction)
• Captured wireless operator agrees to tell her Nazi captors everything she knows, in the form of a story about her best friend. -- Gross Sobbing About Female Friendship And Unreliable Narrators: The Book! 5/5 stars. (Full review here!)
• The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (2006, fantasy)
• High-society thieves in a complex fantasy underworld take on a job that may prove too clever and deadly to pull off. -- I didn't know how much fantasy literature needed the "heist" subgenre. 4/5 stars.
• A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird (1879, memoir)
• English lady traveler chronicles the American West and her accidental romance with a mountain desperado. -- One of my personal "comfort" reads, both for the historical exploration of places I've lived and for the charm and ache of the real-life Hollywood love story. 4/5 stars. (Full review here!)
• Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein (2013, historical fiction)
• (Sequel to Code Name Verity) Traumatized female pilot struggles to describe the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. -- Without an appealing or sympathetic narrator, this laundry list of horrors failed to be a good story. 2/5 stars.
• White Space by Ilsa J. Bick (2014, YA sci-fi)
• Ensemble cast of teens are plopped into a series of existential nightmares as a result of their (fictional) author's supernatural meddlings, and die variously. -- A hot mess of a book, the reading of which felt like someone shaking you and shouting "Are you freaked out yet?!" at the top of their lungs. 1/5 stars.
• The Dickens Mirror by Ilsa J. Bick (2015, YA sci-fi)
• (Sequel to White Space) Ensemble cast of teens reappear in different roles in an apocalyptic Victorian London, and die variously. -- The author prides herself on being "challenging" in an awkward self-insert scene, but mistakes "incoherent" for "insightful." 2/5 stars.

One Sentence Reviews: August

Well. August was a little sparse on book reviews, wasn't it?

The problem, dear readers, is that I'm sitting on a number of drafted reviews, 3/4ths complete, which don't yet suit me. The books in question are so lovely that my usual dashed-off ramblings would do them a disservice. (I had a hope of finishing at least one tonight, but this Domaine de Canton isn't going to drink itself.)

I may yet crack and post the haphazard ravings that have already been written. In the meantime, enjoy the short version of what I do and do not recommend from the past thirty-one days' worth of books!

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August 2015

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• Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare (2014, historical romance)
• Penniless daughter of a famous author and grouchy blinded nobleman inherit the same ruined castle; kissing ensues. -- My first proper "romance" novel was shockingly fantastic--funny, smart, genuinely charming. 5/5 stars.
• The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi (2015, sci-fi thriller)
• A conscientious hitman antiheroes his way through an apocalyptic dried-up Phoenix, Arizona, joined by the classic "lady journalist" and a luckless refugee. -- The forecast for near-future USA is an interesting playground setting-wise, but the characters and plot developments were nothing uncommon. 3/5 stars.
• The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox (2000, historical)
• French winemaker encounters an angel on the hillside above his house every year for half a century. -- It wished to be more dazzling than it was; if you have seen any quotes from it, you have seen the best excerpts already. 2/5 stars.
• The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (1909, historical thriller)
• French opera house haunted, managers blackmailed, singer abducted, investigators murdered. -- Without the Broadway glitter, it's a frightening mystery more in keeping with Poe (or Doyle's serials.) 3/5 stars.
• Say Yes To The Marquess by Tessa Dare (2014, historical romance)
• Dissolute boxer arranges his absent diplomat brother's wedding to the woman he'd rather call his own; kissing ensues. -- And with that, I go back to avoiding romance novels. 1/5 stars.
• Revival by Stephen King (2014, horror)
• After tragedy strikes, a preacher researches the less-fickle miracle of electricity. -- Can Lovecraftian horrors and faith healings mix? Yes, but this isn't how to do it. 1/5 stars.
• Into Thin Air by John Krakauer (1999, memoir)
• Author recounts his experiences climbing Everest during the 1996 disaster. -- A gruesomely close-up record of how quickly things can go wrong, and how little can be done to help another person in lethal atmospheric conditions. 4/5 stars.
• The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (1950, sci-fi)
• Short stories chronicling Earth's efforts to reach a populated Mars, only to ruin it. -- A fantastic example of the composite novel, tenderly and sparsely written, no less striking for its "outdated" view of the future. (To "update" it for "modern" audiences is a crime.) 5/5 stars.
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin (1969, sci-fi)
• Solitary ambassador from unified human planets tries to negotiate with the ambisexual society of a frozen world. --It's a classic exploration of alternative gender construction, they said; they never did say it was a good story. 2/5 stars.
• The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (1968, fantasy)
• The only magical creature left in the world searches for her kin and the Red Bull that drove them away, but a unicorn is not a questing beast. -- The prettiest book in the English language, a higher-level commentary on fairy tales that never loses sight of its own story. 5/5 stars. (Full review here!)
• Flame Tree Road by Shona Patel (2015, historical)
• A progressive Indian family strives to secure British advantages for their children. -- A tolerable setpiece for early 20th century India and its complexities, but which substitutes the passage of time for a plot. 3/5 stars.

One Sentence Reviews: July

Well, dear readers, your resident grump has skated across the 100-book threshold--little more than halfway through 2015! As I mentioned back in April, almost all of these books are new--if not in terms of release date, at least to me. This has certainly been the year for discovering new treasures. Thanks to all of you who have emailed me book recommendations. I've found a lot of new favorites, and only two or three worth throwing against the wall.

As a side note, I don't count reading a book multiple times on these lists. So the relatively small number (for me) of "books read" this month doesn't reflect reading Mary Doria Russell's Doc for the third time, or Mary Renault's The Charioteer for the second. (Or the... three? total times which I have read The Goblin Emperor since January of this year, after the two readings of last summer.)

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July 2015

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• Under A Painted Sky by Stacey Lee (2015, YA historical)
• A Chinese orphan and a runaway slave become unlikely friends as they make their way to hopeful refuge on the Oregon Trail, dressed as men for their safety. -- A limping start, but a fun adventure full of humor and grit, toothsome turns of phrase, and a unique perspective of the dangers of cross-country travel in the 1800s. 3/5 stars.
• Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral by Mary Doria Russell (2015, historical)
• Tombstone, Arizona suffers cattle rustling rings, fires, floods, and the epic showdowns between famous figures of the Old West. -- It lacks the emotive heart of its predecessor, "Doc," and the vague threads of plot are too tangled to follow. 3/5 stars. (Full review here!)
• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (2014, contemporary mystery)
• Investigations into drowning death of a mixed-race girl provokes contemplation throughout the family tree. -- This would be a good "book club" book, full of thought-provoking revelations about ordinary family life and social pressures. 3.5/5 stars.
• We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962, thriller)
• Orphaned sisters suspected of poisoning their entire family protect each other and the family estate from hostile neighbors. -- A hands-down perfect book. 5/5 stars. (Full review here!)
• Tipping The Velvet by Sarah Waters (1998, historical)
• Lovestruck village girl follows dazzling male impersonator to London, cycles through varying alternative lifestyles and means of supporting herself before becoming a socialist. -- I was charmed by the start, then sickened, then bored. 3/5 stars.
• The Charioteer by Mary Renault (1953, historical)
• After Dunkirk evacuation, crippled British soldier wrestles with his integrity as he falls in love with a conscientious objector working at the hospital. -- This book strikes me differently on each reread, but every time I am dazzled and can't think of anything else for days but its subtle intensity. 5/5 stars.
• Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint (1987, thriller)
• Average businessman rendered invisible after lab accident, struggles with daily survival and the requisite interested government agencies. -- If you can stomach the casual amorality of the protagonist, this offers a complex and engaging look at the pros and cons of invisibility, plus heart-pounding hunt/escape sequences. 3/5 stars. (Full review here!)
• Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman (2007, contemporary)
• Son of Italian resort owner develops crush on summer guest, waxes poetic. -- When I wasn't rolling my eyes over the histrionic narration, I was revolted by the characters. 1/5 stars.
• As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann (2001, historical)
• Murdering servant boy escapes justice by joining the English Civil War, falls in love with a fellow soldier, and continues to be a murderer. After the previous book, I couldn't stomach another several hundred pages with a protagonist I disliked so much--so this is one of the very rare books I didn't even finish reading. 1/5 stars.
• The Best Of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord (2013, sci-fi)
• After the destruction of their own planet, post-human refugees interview other post-human settlements for potential future spouses. -- Only rarely could I understand what was happening in this story, much less why. 2/5 stars.
• The Dog Stars by Peter Heller (2012, postapocalyptic survival)
• Ragged survivor of apocalyptic flu, his dog, and his gun-happy survivalist neighbor eke out a living in the abandoned Colorado countryside. -- A slow and methodical book about finding what one needs to survive, both in terms of physical needs and emotional ones. 4/5 stars.
• Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (1997, YA adventure)
• Half-Inuit girl flees underage marriage into the Alaskan wilderness, is adopted into a wolf pack. -- A revisited childhood favorite was nothing at all like I remembered. 3/5 stars.
• H Is For Hawk by Helen MacDonald (2014, memoir)
• Inspired by T.H. White, the author undertakes to train a goshawk to sublimate her grief over her father's death. -- Rich in insight and uncommon in subject. 4/5 stars. (Full review here!)

One Sentence Reviews: June

I was really certain I'd get at least Rose Madder done before the end of the month, but moving has really taken it out of me. That, and I've just read my eighty-eighth (88th!) book of 2015.

Until I get my properly grumptastic feet under me again, have some one sentence reviews for the month of June!

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JUNE 2015

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• The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes (2013, time-traveling thriller)
• Depression-era drifter finds a house which opens onto other times, already full of memorabilia from the murders he then feels compelled to commit. -- Like most time-travel stories, it's a fun head exercise tracking how all the pieces will fit together, but it has very little heart. 3/5 stars.
• A Replacement Life by Boris Fishman (2014, contemporary)
• Journalist's attempts to distance himself from his Jewish family fail when his grandfather enlists him to falsify his memoirs, so that he and his peers can benefit from grants set aside for Holocaust survivors. -- You know you're reading Literary Fiction when the author writes the essay for you. 2/5 stars.
• Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (2006, graphic novel memoir)
• Cartoonist records accounts of her childhood in a funeral home and contrasts her coming-out experience with her memories of her closeted father. -- Well-composed and thought-provoking, at least for an afternoon. 3/5 stars.
• Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel (2012, graphic novel memoir)
• Cartoonist records the process of trying and failing to write about her mother, punctuated with Freudian dream analysis. -- I was just about clawing at the walls to get out of this suffocatingly neurotic meta-book; I can't deny that I think in similar patterns, but seeing them all laid out on the page was exasperating beyond belief. 1/5 stars.
• Tea With The Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy (1999, magic-realist mystery)
• Alarmed by her daughter's cryptic messages, a traveling musician enlists the help of a polite Chinese stranger to find and rescue her, unaware that he is an ancient creature looking for his own lost meaning. -- It's a comically bland thriller, but I enjoyed it for being exactly how I'd picture an encounter with a dragon in modern times to go. 2.5/5 stars.
• Rose Madder by Stephen King (1995, contemporary thriller)
• Battered wife flees to make a new life, finding courage in her recurring dreams of a labyrinth and in a mysterious painting, while her cop husband tracks her down. -- This is the scariest story King has written, but it's paradoxically one of his rare tender, affirming novels. 4.5/5 stars. (Full review here!)
• Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed (2012, fantasy)
• Aging ghoul-killer investigates a growing number of monsters while his apprentice bickers with the local shape-changer. -- There are very few books that I don't finish, given how quickly I read... but this one wasn't even worth the remaining two hours it might have taken to get to the end. 1/5 stars.
• Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu (2010, afrofuturism)
• Doubly condemned for being both female and a child of rape, a mixed-race girl fights for her village sorcerer to train her before her powerful father kills her in the dream world. -- I couldn't pull away from this fascinating and unusual story... until the halfway point, when it devolved into juvenile love triangles, and finished on a sickeningly awful note. 2/5 stars.
• Last Night at the Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert (2014, historical)
• Apiring jazz singer chases elusive fame, while a long list of heartbroken lovers and her own daughter cling to the scraps she leaves behind. -- I liked the dichotomy between seeing Naomi as a terrible mother and the great grief of her neglected child's life, and seeing Naomi in her own narration as a brave and terrible person fighting wildly against the limitations placed upon her. 4.5/5 stars,
• Mariel of Redwall by Brian Jacques (1991, YA fantasy)
• Shipwrecked amnesiac enlists the aid of Redwall Abbey and its allies to fight the corsairs who still hold her father hostage. -- This was my first Redwall book and it still--clearly--has a place in my heart, like all stories about heroic mouse girls punching villains in the face. 3/5 stars.
• Pink by Lili Wilkinson (2009, YA contemporary)
• Resenting the categories she has been placed in, lesbian punk teen transfers to a prep school to try out being popular and straight. -- Boy, this author had a weird bee in her bonnet: "Don't accept me so easily!" 1/5 stars.
• Wildthorn by Jane Eagland (2009, YA historical )
• Forced into a Victorian-era mental asylum by unknown betrayers, aspiring female doctor strives to escape and confront the truth. -- A moderately fun historical piece, not terribly memorable. 3/5 stars,
• Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle (1999, YA ghost story)
• Sulky young American expat helps her new stepparents restore a historic (read: haunted) farm in Dorset and takes it upon herself to free the ghost she loves. -- Better on the reread than my first try, and thanks to Della for making me pick it up again; Jenny is a strikingly charismatic narrator in a tale with good twists. 3.5/5 stars.
• Rage: A Love Story by Julie Anne Peters (2009, YA contemporary)
• Young teen's attempt to support her troubled girlfriend creates a cycle of abuse instead. -- This was so much an Issue Book that I couldn't even describe the characters to you; that said, the Issues at hand were ghastly and worth discussing. 2/5 stars.
• Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden (1982, YA contemporary)
• A chance meeting in an art museum turns into a close friendship, which turns into more. -- I knew this was a Lesbian Classic and assumed it was because the pickings were slim; I didn't realize it was because this was the sweetest, gentlest story of falling in love I've read in a long time. 4/5 stars.
• We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach (2015, YA contemporary)
• Ensemble cast of teenagers band together in the face of a potential meteoric apocalypse, hoping to make their final days count for something. -- Throughout the entire reading experience, I kept thinking "Life As We Knew It did it better." 2/5 stars.
• Empress of the World by Sara Ryan (2001, YA contemporary)
• Various characters at an intensive summer school work through various family-, identity-, and romance-related issues. -- It has a few good moments, but nothing you would regret not reading. 2/5 stars.
• Keeping You A Secret by Julie Anne Peters (2003, YA contemporary)
• Class president never thinks about diversity until a new transfer student lobbies for a lesbigay club; class president then thinks about it a lot harder, falls in love, and becomes villainized by parents, schoolmates, and former friends. -- Julie Anne Peters writes really well-developed characters in bizarrely underdeveloped relationships, but I can see why this particular one of her books gets discussed a lot in alternative YA circles. 3.5/5 stars.
• Far From You by Tess Sharpe (2014, YA mystery)
• High school senior exits rehab to conduct an investigation of her best friend's murder while battling her own crippling injuries, a painkiller addiction, and the aspects of the mystery she'd rather stayed secret. -- It starts out like the author is ticking off her research points, but develops into an emotionally mature mystery (the ending of which I sincerely did not see coming.) 4/5 stars.

One Sentence Reviews: May

One sentence summaries, one sentence reviews of all the books of May--both the dross I've already mostly forgotten reading, and the gems I'm looking forward to reviewing. I finished up a number of series this month, so there isn't as much variety as before. (Maybe this will be the summer I get around to reading the Discworld books...)

P.S. 69 books and counting for 2015!

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MAY 2015

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• Cold Magic by Kate Elliott (2010, steampunk)
• Rambunctious Phoenician schoolgirls have magic, get married, and fail to explain their own plot despite repetitive fact-dumping about their alternate history/steampunk world. -- A lot of plot-induced headache with no payoff. 2/5 stars. (Full series review here!)
• Cold Fire by Kate Elliott (2011, steampunk)
• In which our heroines bumble into the Caribbean and make out with everyone; also, zombies. -- This one gets half a star more than the others because the free Caribbean society was interesting. 2.5/5 stars. (Full series review here!) 
• Cold Steel by Kate Elliott (2013, steampunk)
• In which our heroines get lost in their own plotlines, change sides several times for no reason, recap the plot to each other in every conversation, and I guess save the world; also, more zombies. -- I was really hoping the author would have the nerve to axe her narrator. 2/5 stars. (Full series review here!)
• The Finger: A Novel of Love and Amputation by David L. Robbins (2014, contemporary/humor)
• A flaky writer offers his girlfriend anything she asks to stay with him; she proposes permanent mutilation to demonstrate his sincerity; America's favorite talk show host rigs the outcome. -- A surprisingly tender book, for all of its comedic premise, with great side characters. 4/5 stars.
• How To Kill A Rock Star by Tiffany DeBartolo (2005, contemporary romance)
• Music-addicted reporter realizes that she can only secure her budding rock star fiancee's success by breaking up with him. -- A book to remind you of when you were young enough to give your heart 100% to the things you loved without shame. 4/5 stars.
• Breath and Bones by Susann Cokal (2005, historical)
• Fallen from convent grace to be an artist's model, Famke tracks her beloved painter across the American frontier, modifying his masterpieces as she goes. -- A great book about drop-kicking the male gaze and classical definitions of beauty, with a side of cross-dressing and robbery, ending as always with tuberculosis. 4.5/5 stars. (Full review here!)
• Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (1985, historical)
• Egyptian street rat is blackmailed by two different factions into spying on Hatshepsut's court. -- A dated but nevertheless endearing book about an unapologetically terrible person. 3/5 stars.
• The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison (2014, urban fantasy)
• (Part of the Hollows series) Rachel Morgan accidentally steals pieces of a particulate elven goddess, which, as usual, nearly ends the world. -- The heart has gone out of the series, but the comedy and the action remain. 3/5 stars. (Full series review here!)
• Into The Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond by Kim Harrison (2012, urban fantasy)
• (Part of the Hollows series) An anthology of various side stories and histories. -- These made so little impression I don't even remember finishing the anthology. 2/5 stars. (Full series review here!)
• The Witch With No Name by Kim Harrison (2014, urban fantasy)
• (Part of the Hollows series) Everything blows up. -- Don't ask me to summarize the final book in a series; I have to be vague. Still mad about Ivy. 3/5 stars. (Full series review here!)
• Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (2009, contemporary thriller)
• Former child-survivor of a brutal family massacre makes an appearance at a serial killer fan convention to supplement her donation-based income, learns the brother she put behind bars might have been innocent all along. -- Not personally moving like Flynn's other stories, but a solid thriller. 4/5 stars.
• Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (2015, YA contemporary)
• Gay high schooler is blackmailed into setting up his friend with a creep, or risk having his online relationship with a mystery fellow student outed for th world to judge. -- I was not prepared for this book about all the ways you have to keep coming out, over and over again, to be as cute as it was. 3.5/5 stars.
• All The Rage by Courtney Summers (2015, YA contemporary)
• High school rape victim is shunned after going public with her accusations, but joins in the search for another missing girl. -- A staggeringly brutal emotional journey that falls flat at the ending. 4/5 stars. (Full review here!)
• Shackle and Sword by Alanna Morland (1999, fantasy)
• Unappealing hero meanders through faux-medieval life while the gods have no effect upon his life whatsoever except to periodically remind the reader that he likes animals as much as he likes fighting. -- What a pointless book. 2/5 stars.

One Sentence Reviews: April

The history of this blog suggests that I take two months off per year from writing reviews. Dear readers, as you may have noticed, April 2015 was one of those months.

Despite the hiatus, I have been reading up a storm this spring. Just a few days ago, I crossed off my fiftieth book of 2015! I'm excited that the books I've read have mostly been new to me(if not necessarily recent publications.) So many books, so little time! My thanks to all of you who recommend books, directly or indirectly. And a special thanks to the local library for being so obliging.

A fair number of March and April's books deserve a full and enthusiastic book grump, which shall be delivered to your RSS feeds in due course. In the meantime, let me take this chance to post something I've been considering for a while: an abbreviated monthly roundup. One sentence summaries, one sentence reviews!

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APRIL 2015

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• The Patron Saint of Ugly by Marie Manilla (2014, contemporary)
• Superstitious Sicilian grandmother convinces hideously birthmarked child that she has holy healing powers; might not be lying. -- A book I never knew I wanted: humor and trauma, family history and fairy tale all in one. 4.5/5 stars. (Full review here!) 

• Farm City by Novella Carpenter (2009, memoir)
• Hapless optimist turns empty slum lot into vegetable garden/chicken run/beehive/pigpen, befriends thugs and hobos, eats well. -- Readers will be entertained and inspired to do all sorts of wacky things. 4/5 stars.

• Rebel Queen by Michelle Moran (2015, historical)
• Orphaned girl joins the all-female guard of the Rani of Jhansi, gets a front-row seat to watch the British overrun India. -- An insulting and insipid little wheeze in the direction of a real-life legend. 1/5 stars.

• Rusalka by C.J. Cherryh (1989, folklore/historical)
• Two runaways get lost in the deep Russian forests, are beset by monsters, ghosts, and wizards, and decide to make it home. -- I have such a huge soft spot for the characters and the world-logic of these wizards, even if the narration itself gets more than a little muddled. 3/5 stars.

• Chernevog by C.J. Cherryh (1990, folklore/historical)
• (Sequel to Rusalka) Formerly-dead wives prove difficult to live with; local trees are ornery; local terrifying sorcerer wakes up and wants to be your best friend. -- A delightful continuation, with the same virtues and failings as the first. 3/5 stars.

• Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (2006, YA contemporary)
• Australian teens play war games for what turns out to be no good reason at all. -- I had only the faintest idea of what was happening at any given point in this book. 2/5 stars.

• If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan (2013, YA contemporary)
• Iranian girl contemplates a sex change to marry the girl of her dreams, who probably isn't worth it. -- The book is more of a summary than an actual story, written vaguely and with no particular heart. 1/5 stars.

• The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan (2012, contemporary)
• A schizophrenic artist attempts to record her haunting by a woman she met twice, each for the first time, who may not have been human. -- A complex read, with moments of great compassion surfacing amid the maelstrom of mental illness. 2/5 stars.

• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (1996, sci-fi)
• Jesuit mission to the first known inhabited planet ends in disaster; lone survivor wrestles with faith in the face of unbearable trauma. -- This is the sort of book that the phrase "a great and terrible beauty" should apply to, not anemic boarding-school fantasies. I purchased a copy immediately after reading, and violated the terms of this post to write two sentences in its honor. 5/5 stars. (Full review here!)

• Heat by Bill Buford (2006, memoir)
• Ambitious columnist apprentices himself to a professional chef, rises through the ranks of the kitchen, then heads to Italy to learn the art of butchery. -- A fun repeat read, well-composed, evocative, and funny. 5/5 stars. (Full review here!)

• Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh (2013, memoir/humor)
• A series of illustrated anecdotes about the author's childhood, dogs, and struggles with depression. -- Humorous, but the absence of my favorite stories leads me to prefer the original blog. 3/5 stars.

• Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve (2008, historical)
• Foundling child taken under Merlin's wing compares the historical truth of King Arthur with the glorious stories Merlin spreads as propaganda. -- It ended eventually. 1/5 stars.

• The Girl With All The Gifts by Mike Carey (2014, sci-fi)
• A ragged group of survivors--scientists and soldiers--try to cross a zombie-filled England, with one child-sized and remarkably intelligent zombie along for the ride. -- It goes both better and worse than you would expect, by which I mean both the book and the plot. 3/5 stars.

• The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (2001, fantasy)
• Traumatized war veteran trains a future queen to survive a treacherous court, and learns firsthand how terrifying it is to have the eyes of the gods on you personally. -- If you read can only read one more fantasy book for the entire rest of your life, make it this one. 5/5 stars. (Full review here!) 

• The Children of God by Mary Doria Russell (1998, sci-fi)
• (Sequel to The Sparrow) Disgraced priest plans to relinquish his holy calling and find what comfort he can in an ordinary life; the Jesuit Order plans to send him back to the alien planet, as the only one who can redeem the first mission's mistakes. -- I seem to be alone in feeling that The Sparrow needed no sequel; this was interesting from a sci-fi perspective but not arresting on an emotional or spiritual level. 3/5 stars.

• I Shall Be Near To You by Erin McCabe (2014, historical)
• Headstrong bride follows her husband into the Union Army rather than be separated from him. -- No worse and no better than a dozen other books with the same plotline; misses the chance to take a less predictable turn (and be a better book.) 2/5 stars.

• Doc by Mary Doria Russell (2011, historical)
• Tubercular dentist/gambler strives to make his life, if not longer, at least meaningful. -- A staggeringly good character piece. 4.5/5 stars. (Full review here!)