The Kaiju Preservation Society (by John Scalzi)

Classic Scalzi, along the lines of Agent to the Stars or Redshirts: fun, standalone, compulsively readable, full of humor and satisfying moments.  It is explicitly set in 2020, but due to the nature of the plot, our main character is fairly removed from current events. At the same time we can see the villain as an evil Trump avatar and be extremely satisfied when (spoiler alert) the good guys win.  

Yes, the characters pretty much all talk the same (sarcasm features heavily) in classic Scalzi fashion. As with most of his books, it still works, because it's simply not that serious. It's about kaiju, after all. Two of whom are named Bella and Edward, after Twilight. You just have to let go and enjoy. And if you're a Scalzi fan, you definitely will enjoy it.

(Lest you see the "I know this person" + "library" tags and think I am not supporting my friend by purchasing his book, I have purchased a signed copy for a good friend's birthday. He's gonna love it.)

Two Queer YA

I know, it's shocking: me, reading queer YA? Well, if you've pulled your jaw off the floor, here is what I thought of these two books:

All That's Left in the World (by Erik J. Brown) 

Two boys find each other after the apocalypse and try to survive while dealing with feelings for each other. (Complicated by the fact that one of the boys is straight. Or is he...) It's somehow a fun apocalyptic book? Extremely grim (since everyone they know and love is dead from the "superflu") but with some hope in it too.

The One True Me and You (by Remi K. England)

I was sold at the very beginning when one of the characters was introduced by writing Johnlock fanfiction. Clearly this is written by someone in the fandom world who is just leaning all the way into it. (Apparently the first draft had references to Tumblr too, which has been changed in the final version to Posted, probably because the Tumblr reference dates the book. Honestly the Johnlock ones do too. I guess this is supposed to be a new show based on Sherlock Holmes that also has a Johnlock ship? Hmmm.) 

Okay wait where was I? Anyway the characters in this are terrific: Teagan is a pageant queen who is also secretly a fan of this show and secretly a lesbian; Kay is a nonbinary nerd who wants to explore their identity and pronouns during the conference. The same hotel has both a pageant and a conference; Teagan and Kay meet cute and spend an intense weekend together.

The ending of this book was a bit of a letdown as many, many plotlines are just dropped or glossed over at the end.  There's no resolution with the main villains.  There's no discussion of whether Kay's nonbinary status complicates Teagan's lesbian identity. It just kind of... peters out at the end. But I love the two main characters and the joy of fandom that permeates this book.  It's probably the lesser of these two books, but it's the one I have more to say about, so I guess that's something.

Two Tahoe Reads

I always feel awkward about putting two books in a wrapup post. Three is fine! But two seems like the wrong number. Still, nobody actually cares at all so I will press on. I read two books while on vacation this weekend in the Lake Tahoe area.

The Maid: A Novel (by Nita Prose)

I love the (unreliable, of course) narrator here, a maid named Molly who is clearly neuroatypical in some way. This is a page-turning thriller and a fun, fast read. However, the ending is super disappointing, with multiple deus ex machinas. (Or is it deuses ex machina?) I wouldn't be surprised if the ending changed from an earlier draft, since one seemed to really fit with the clues and what is here.... doesn't, really.  There are also a few out-of-character moments that really seem off given all we know about Molly. This had so much potential but I wanted a more satisfying structure.

Mistborn: The Final Empire (by Brandon Sanderson) 

One of the Read Harder challenges this year is to "read a book recommended by a friend with different reading tastes." I am not much of a reader of high fantasy (I've read the Lord of the Rings books and that's pretty much it) and my friends have been recommending Brandon Sanderson to me for more than a decade.  Given his Kickstarter success recently, it seemed like a good time to try him once again. (I've tried in the past and have failed in the past.)

The first 200 pages or so of this book were the usual slow going. A lot of extensive worldbuilding, which I find tiresome even when done well (and Sanderson, to his credit, does it very well). But I was determined to make it through a Sanderson novel this time. (Plus I was on vacation with my Sanderson stan friends and I had promised.) By the time I hit the halfway mark though, I was all in. The world was built, and Sanderson's plot and characters pulled me forward. All my predictions for the ending were wrong but it all fit perfectly and was so satsifying. This is the first book in a trilogy and now that I've made the investment, I think I might see it all the way through!  

The Trees (by Percival Everett)

When I read the description of this (a series of Mississippi murders connected to the lynching of Emmett Till) I was expecting a dark exploration of America's sins.  But somehow this book is... hilarious? While still somehow also confronting the legacy of lynching that continues (via police shootings) to the present day.

I loved So Much Blue and I heard such good things about The Trees that I decided it was a must-read before the Tournament of Books. (Not that my predictions mean anything. So far three books have been knocked out and two have advanced. Guess which three of these books are the ones I've read.)  Regardless, this book is absolutely amazing and I recommend it highly.

Ophelia After All (by Racquel Marie)

A cute YA with a great message, but a little too contrived and didactic for an adult reader. Someone on Goodreads called it "true YA" and basically captured everything I was thinking in her review. So if you're interested, go read that!