Cleveland Book Bonanza

We just took a trip to Cleveland and between layovers, flights, being snowed in, and a general very relaxed pace visiting grandma, I finished nine books. So settle in and let me try to remember what they were all about. 

Best Travel Writing of 2021 (by Jason Wilson, ed. Padma Lakshmi) 

For the Read Harder category “Best _ Writing of the year book for a topic and year of your choice.”  I put a bunch on library hold in different genres and years and went with what was available first. I'm guessing that the pickings were slim for travel writing of 2021. I've been thinking a lot about the reasons why I love travel and why conversely I have hated not being able to travel during the pandemic, and was hoping this volume would explore that. It touches it on it a bit in one essay but mostly, not really. There are some real standouts here (particularly The People of Las Vegas by Amanda Fortini) but also some real clunkers. Not an essential anthology.

Cards on the Table (by Agatha Christie) 

Waiting for Death on the Nile to be available from the library (having seen two adaptations of it recently) and in the meantime downloaded others that I don't think I've read that I saw on "best of Agatha Christie" lists.  This is decidedly middle of the road though, in my opinion. Read on a plane, which was basically the perfect place to read this. The other Christie I read (see below) is much better. 

Being Mary Bennett (by J.C. Peterson)

One of my favorites of these books! Very funny, charming, and just enough winks to Pride and Prejudice to make it fun. I loved Marnie, our main character and the groundedness of this with authentic problems and an avoidance of the "if he would only just let me explain" thing that muddies up so many formulaic plots. Truly a standout YA romcom and if this is your thing, I highly recommend.

She Gets the Girl (by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick) 

Another winner, an alternating point of view romance between two girls who are both college freshmen. Good chemistry between the leads and I loved the backstories and complex issues each of them had.  The better of the two alternating point of view romances on this list, although this one was the PG-13 version while the other was more NC-17.

The Candy House (by Jennifer Egan)

Wow, literary fiction! What a novelty! I loved A Visit from the Goon Squad and this sequel(ish) novel is right up there with it. However you felt about Goon Squad will accurately predict how you will feel about Candy House. Which is not to say it's not full of originality and spark because of course it is. I really enjoyed it and was left wanting more of multiple plots and characters. Who knows, maybe Egan will revisit this world again!

The Body in the Library (by Agatha Christie) 

As mentioned, this was more like it. This would even make a good Kenneth Branagh film! Of course it's a Miss Marple and I was never a Miss Marple fan (actually I'm not even really a huge Poirot fan, I just like Christie's plots) but true to form I enjoyed the plot and the characters here.

Light from Uncommon Stars (by Ryka Aoki) 

I've heard great things about this Hugo award nominee. The main plots include: a transgender runaway who is a violin prodigy; her teacher, looking for a seventh violin player to damn to hell; a motley crew of aliens who run a donut shop in Southern California. It's got fun and quirky elements but also sexual violence and darkness. I was invested in Katrina's story throughout but thought the whole space refugee thing was wildly undeveloped, the "I damned six people to eternal torment" glossed over (?), and overall I thought despite a ton of potential it didn't stick the landing.

Remember Me Gone (by Stacy Stokes) 

A great premise (a girl whose family has the power to erase memories thinks she might be missing her own memories) that should have been amazing but the writing doesn't match up to it.  Once we discover  what is really happening in the town, a lot of plot holes emerge. Entertaining enough to read on the plane - this time, on the flight home.

Love and Other Disasters (by Anita Kelley) 

A woman and a non-binary person compete in a Top Chef-style cooking competition and fall in love.  I enjoyed the central characters and their chemistry, but the competition felt like an afterthought and a lot was unrealistic. (The contestants aren't sequestered? They get cell phones the whole time? They go sightseeing because they have weekends off? No to all of this.) The description of the other contestants and food are also glossed over. So it was cute but not as textured as it could have been.

Phew! Those were all my reads and my brain might need a break now. 

* * *

Bonus book:

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (by Jesse Andrews)

This was my brain break book. Much funnier and more original than I was expecting, although very dated in some ways in its handling of the Black characters. Overall I enjoyed it though, it was a quick and fresh read.  

Dare Mighty Things (by Heather Kaczynski)

This is part of a series of two books; I didn't know that when I started reading it, but it was abundantly clear at the end (and really the last chapters when we realized we weren't going to get to the space part in this book).

Cassandra Gupta is recruited for a secret NASA program where she competes with 25 other young people for a spot on a secret mission. This book covers the training and testing they do on the candidates, and Cassandra's journey in trying to outlast the others and be the one selected in the end.

I enjoy speculative fiction grounded in science, so I enjoyed the milieu of the book, as well as the characters. I read this for the "book with an asexual and/or aromantic main character" and honestly her asexuality was barely addressed and not really relevant. I'm going to count it anyway but I'll still try to find a book where this is more central to the plot. 

The cliffhanger ending didn't work for me and I'm still deciding if I enjoyed it enough to read the next one.  I think I did?

How to Be Perfect (by Michael Schur)

This book was a birthday gift from Ian and laugh-out-loud funny, especially if you're a fan of Schur's humor (on display in shows like The Office and, most relevant, The Good Place). 

I enjoyed this "Ethics 101" approach although by the end I was left wanting more: more analysis of complex ethical situations, more discussions of the issues explored in The Good Place, more depth in general. I did love that he rips on Ayn Rand multiple times and it definitely did teach me stuff and entertain me. Will be hanging onto this one for sure.

Two Emotional YAs

I was out of town for work and didn't have the bandwidth to read literary fiction or sci-fi, so young adult it was, of course. Both of these made me cry. 

Message Not Found (by Dante Medema) 

A girl who loses her best friend in an accident makes an AI she can text to try and uncover the real reason why her friend died.  It's a bit slow, and the twist is fairly obvious, but it's emotional and moving as it deals with our main character processing grief and other complicated feelings about her friend. 

When You Get the Chance (by Emma Lord) 

As an adopted person and musical theater fan, this was 100% for me.  Our main character is Millie (a much more endearing version of Rachel from Glee) who digs up clues in her father's Livejournal from 2003 (!) as to who the mother is who abandoned her as a child. She narrows it down to three suspects so of course the musical theater references, which come hard and fast, include plenty of Mamma Mia ones. I thought Lord did a great job of building the "who is the mother?" suspense while also dealing with Mille's complicated journey of self-discovery.  The ending wraps up way too neatly but by then I was - yes, you guessed it - crying, so I went along for the ride.  Loved this one!