The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson

Lynnie

historical fiction

I really enjoyed The Bookseller, even though it’s not the kind of book I typically enjoy. Set in the 1960s, the book focuses on the somewhat parallel lives of Kitty/Katharyn; her real life vs. her dream life. The question quickly becomes though, which one is real and which is the dream?

The book starts slowly and took me a while to really feel engaged, but once it caught my full attention I was eager to find out where it was headed. Adding to the fun, the story is set in Denver, in the neighborhood where my husband grew up so I could picture the streets and areas that Swanson describes clearly in my mind.

My one complaint is that I often didn’t like Kitty/Katharyn; in fact, I frequently hated her. This is actually the second book I’ve read recently in which I enjoyed the story but not the main character. That keeps this book from getting full marks for me, but I’ll recommend it regardless because the story is wonderful. 

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

Amy  

women's fiction

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend was a cute novel I read for my book club.  The premise is entirely contrived and unrealistic.  However, I let myself go with it and enjoyed it.  Sara, a reclusive bookworm from Sweden, travels all the way to Broken Wheel, IA, USA to meet a long-time pen pal, Amy.  However, upon her arrival, she finds out from the town’s residents that Amy has just died.  Despite this, they want her to stay in Amy’s house.

Admittedly, the characters are all a bit too small-town for my taste and they’re a bit sad for sticking around a dying town, but they have spunk and were quirky enough to make it interesting.  And, hey, different strokes for different folks.  Live and let live.  So, accepting that they choose to live in Broken Wheel, this was a feel-good story about lonely people coming together despite themselves and the joy of a stranger bringing a little life to a tired town and its residents.

I didn’t like the title—the (extremely reluctant) readers in town never made recommendations to anyone—and I also didn’t appreciate the forced conflict near the end of the novel with Gavin. The first-time author, Katarina Bivald, also had some other problems like listing a few characters minimally early in the novel and then assuming the reader would remember them later.  (I had to use my Kindle search feature to remind myself who they were.) But, the main personalities were charming and I couldn’t help pulling for the characters and thinking of them fondly.  Plus, I enjoyed all the “book love” in the story.

Running Blind (Jack Reacher #4) by Lee Child

Amy  

mystery, action/suspense

I really liked this one--Running Blind. (The only Jack Reacher novels I blog about are my favorite ones.) It was very suspenseful. It was never boring and I wanted to keep listening to the audio book every chance I got. The thing I like the least about murder mysteries is when the reader is forced into the killer's head. I don't like to see the ugliness up too closely. This was borderline too close because we were given many peeks into the killer's point of view. But, the way this story was crafted was very clever so I tolerated it. And Reacher seemed more like himself than in book 3. Well done, Lee Child. Well done indeed.

The narrator, Johnathan McClain, bugged me a bit. While his voice sounded more appropriate for Reacher's age than the narrator from the first novel in the series, the tone he used for Julia Lamarr was overly annoying and his female voices, overall, weren't great. I'll give him an A-.  I just realized that I heard him narrate These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner previously and I thought he was perfect for that story.

The Mistborn Series #1, #2, #3 by Brandon Sanderson

Amy's Ratings:
Mistborn: The Final Empire        
The Well of Ascension                
The Hero of Ages                       


fantasy, action/suspense, (young adult)

This was a terrific series by Brandon Sanderson that did not end in a way I loved but was still worthy of high ratings.  The first two novels in the series made my Best of 2017 list.  I normally do not wait to read three novels in a series before blogging, but I've been trying to convince Lynnie to give them a try.  She encouraged me to go ahead and blog them now and she can add to my comments later if she reads them.  There are more novels in this series that, I believe, take place in the same world but are set further into the future than where these left off.

Despite having the first novel on my To Read list for a while, I put off reading it because, frankly, the cover turned me off. But, you know what they say about judging a book by its cover. Shame on me! I loved it!

In summary, this series is about a group of people with special powers pulled together in an effort to overthrow the evil dictatorship and system of enslaving the non-highborn, non-magical peoples of the world. 

In the first novel, Vin is a Skaa (slave) orphan, surviving by thieving and scheming. She does not know that she possesses special powers until a Mistborn man named Kelsier takes her under his wing to train her. She becomes involved in Kelsier's plan to defeat the Lord Ruler and make life better for the Skaa. The heroine is awesome, the powers of the Misting and Terris characters are creative and interesting, the villains are evil and powerful, the good guys have spunk, guts and brains, and the story is engaging. What's not to like? The writing and story-crafting was very well done. This first-in-a-series definitely stands on its own.

In the second novel, the story of this group of well-intended friends attempting to make their world better picks up a short while after the first novel. Vin, Elend, and the rest of the crew must now face the realities and politics of running a city. This is a big challenge and brings with it new friends and foes as well as a compelling calling for Vin. The adventure is terrific. The intrigue is high. The action is gripping. The relationships are refreshing. 

The third novel picks up a couple years after the second one left off. Elend and Vin are still trying to unite the Empire, save lives, and control the Koloss while fending off Ruin. The characters are still wonderful, the action is intense, the settings are well-drawn, and I remained interested and curious throughout. Our “crew” has to split into teams to, literally, divide and conquer as the world seems to be running out of time with horrific ash storms and earthquakes. However, the personification of higher powers bugged me. While religion has factored heavily in the series, this third novel deals more strongly with belief systems, religious doctrine, and all-powerful, sentient gods. I appreciated the characters’ questioning of beliefs vs. logical facts and the explained “science” of the metals. I also was happy to get answers to the biggest questions and mysteries. So, overall, it was a satisfying read but not as satisfying as the first two in the series.

(While these are not officially in the young adult genre, I think these are okay for young adults to read. The main heroine is a teenager. There is no sex or drug use in the modern sense but there is violence and cruelty.) 

The narrator of all three of these audio books is Michael Kramer. I did not love his tone of voice in the first novel--it's rather gravelly--but I got used to it. He performed excellent voice acting, accents, and voices and I had no qualms about him in the second and third novels. I'll give him an average A rating for the trilogy.

Artemis by Andy Weir

Lynnie

science fiction


I loved Andy Weir's The Martian but this is a very different book. Other than the setting not being on Earth, the two stories do not have much in common.

Artemis is a colony on the moon and the story mainly follows one of the residents, Jasmine (also known as Jazz), who is a bratty 20-something who works legitimately as a porter and under the table as a smuggler. As you might expect, shenanigans ensue.

While I liked the storyline in Artemis, I really did not like Jazz. She was in her 20s but acted like a 12-year old boy most of the time. I don't know if there was a single conversation between characters, even supposedly serious conversations, that didn't revert to sophomoric sex jokes. That said, I really enjoyed the world that Weir built & the situations the characters had to work through were interesting. I would actually enjoy reading another story about this world, as long as Jazz isn't the main focus.

So, I recommend this book if you like space adventures and have the patience to endure an unlikable main character.

Stiletto (The Checquy Files #2) by Daniel O'Malley

Amy       

 Lynnie 

 
fantasy, action/suspense, mystery

Stiletto focuses on two new characters, Felicity Clements, a Pawn in the Checquy (which is “the secret government department that employ[s] the supernatural to protect the populace from the supernatural”), and Odette Leliefeld, a member of the Grafters delegation. However, all of the characters from The Rook make an appearance and, fortunately, we get to see a lot of Myfanwy Thomas about whom the first novel is titled. It picks up after the events in The Rook and follows the events occurring in the lives of Felicity and Odette.

Amy's Review

Another hit by Daniel O’Malley! The first book in this series, The Rook, was one of the best books I read in 2017. And now this second in the series did not disappoint! I do not believe another novel has been announced for this series but the author has left that possibility open by leaving one definite loose end and another fuzzier loose end (carried over from the first novel). The title, Stiletto, while sexy, is not really as fitting a title as The Rook. I will also note that the first four chapters had an awful lot of bathrooms and functions typically performed in bathrooms. Otherwise, this novel almost felt like a book of short stories which were woven together into an overall story arc. I loved the storylines, the characters, the adventure, the mystery, and especially the author’s astounding creativity and humor which were also very present in The Rook. I continue to be fascinated that Mr. O’Malley is so adept at capturing female friendships, points of view, and strengths and he even includes wardrobe details. I will be quite happy reading anything he writes. 

Lynnie's Review

This series was a lot of fun and I'm sad that it's over (I think it's over anyway). Stiletto focused mainly on two new characters (Felicity and Odette), and while their adventures were fascinating and wonderful I found myself missing the voice of Myfawny Thomas from the first novel- though she does appear periodically throughout. Still, this book is just as creative as The Rook and equally engaging. I loved the characters and the insane situations they found themselves in and could not wait to pick up the book again in order to figure out what was happening.

I'm slightly disappointed that I predicted, fairly early, one of the books big "surprise" reveals, but it didn't take away from the joy of watching it unfold. I do find it fascinating that these books are written by a man because his female characters are really well-written and not just the typical one-dimensional females you find in many stories created by men. I love these strong, smart, powerful women that O'Malley has created.

I'd love to spend even more time with the Checquy so I'm going to keep my eyes open in case O'Malley adds to the series.