Book 13: Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian

The final book (so far) in the Cabot series, this is just a very nice story about people loving each other the way they want to be, which is a concept I've been thinking about a lot recent. The titular Cabot in this story is the son of the OG Cabot, who is living in the East Village in the early seventies and just figuring out his life after serving in the army for a year but not getting anywhere near Vietnam itself, thanks to his family connections. There's definitely more than a little of the 'boy wasn't New York magical when the East Village was still affordable (because of utter neglect and abandonment)" feel to this book, but I still enjoyed it a lot. He is befriended by Alex, a Ukrainian immigrant doctor who helps Daniel after he got into a fight with someone who was talking shit about gay people, and the two of them are in the slowest, most gentle best friend pining I've ever read. But it works for me, and the way they create a life together is just really lovely, and there's just enough plot that happens for both of them and the people in their lives that it doesn't feel inert. Just a very nice book to read while there's an artic blast outside and you don't want to leave your couch all day. 

Grade: B

Book 12: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Note: I know the author of this book socially. 

The first book in the Scholomance trilogy, I decided to finally read this now that it's complete, and I'm glad I waited, because boy that cliffhanger at the end of this book! 

What I knew going in was that it was a story set at a magical school, but very little else, and the start of the story really drops you right into the middle of it. There's no set up, the narrative begins most of the way through the junior year of the protagonist, and in general it feels designed to make the reader feel like they're struggling to keep up. That also matches the school itself: there are no teachers, just classes with assignments, and there are monsters who can kill you everywhere, and then graduation means running a gauntlet of the worst monsters and using your developed skills (and, crucially, the alliances you've built) to survive and make it to adulthood. It's a lot!

Our protagonist is El (short for Galadriel), whose mom is a great healer but who does not follow in her footsteps: her talent in magic is for mass destruction, essentially, and she also makes everyone else feel bad psychically. But over the course of the book, she begins to develop a core group of friends, in part because the golden boy of the school, Orion, rescues her and everyone assumes that if he bothered to do that, there must be some reason to not dismiss her for their own self-interest. I've been watching a lot of Survivor this winter, and there's a real sense of that kind of alliance-building, it's an interesting mashup of genres. 

The end of the book is extremely satisfying, and then the final line is a classic first book ??? moment, and I am very excited to dive into book two now!

Grade: A 

Book 11: The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

The second book in the Thursday Murder Club series! This one just jumps right in, since we already know most of the main players, and this time the mystery has come directly to them. We get to see a lot more of Elizabeth's past, and Ron and Ibrahim's friendship (and relationship with Ron's grandson) is so lovely, and this series is just fun to read. There's just the right level of peril; I trust the author to do what needs to be done to make the story work, without being cruel just for the sake of it, but at the same time there is real suspense and real consequences. I don't really want to say much more about the story than that, but it's a sequel that builds on what was great about the first one and keeps running. 

Grade: A 

Book 10: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

It is always so nice when you start reading a book that a ton of people have recommended to you, and within the first couple of pages you're like 'oh yes.' This is the first in a series of English mystery novels set at a very nice retirement community in a small village by the sea. There's a group of four retirees who are all in the titular club together, reviewing old cold cases and files that Elizabeth brings for them to discuss, until suddenly there's a real murder in town and they have an actual current case to solve. 

Elizabeth is a delight; she clearly has a very interesting secret past that means she has all kinds of unconventional methods for investigating leads. We also follow the story through the journal entries of Joyce, who's the newest member of the club and just such a good voice for the novel. They end up working together with a young policewoman who had moved down there from London after a bad breakup, and it's very much a story that I had no idea how it was going to end until just before. 

It's not entirely a light book; while the person whose murder kicks off their whole adventure isn't someone we care about, the entire book is basically a rumination on what makes life living, and grief, and the specter of loss that is everywhere in a community like that. It really hits hard, but for me the balance is exactly what it needs to be. I am very happy that I waited long enough to read the first one that I can now immediately read the next two in the series. 

Grade: A 

Book 9: Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman

Man, this book should be a homerun for me. It's a Notting Hill famous/not-famous romance between a writer and the movie star she met when she was young and is now interviewing again, and the narrative goes back and forth between the present and ten years prior, when they first met. It should be light and snappy with an intriguing chronological structure that conceals what actually transpired between the two of them all those years ago, and instead it's just exactly the wrong kind of fantasy for me. The actor is getting ready to play James Bond for the first time, and that's fraught for a variety of reasons, and it's one of those things where I just know a bit too much about the reality of this topic to lose myself in this fictionalized version of it, and meh. I picked this up because it was recommended on a podcast I listen to, and I am honestly a bit perplexed. 

Grade: C 

Book 8: Christmas Wish List by N.R. Walker

Another gay Christmas romance novel! This one is...fine. It's about a guy who's a chef who gets hired for the Christmas season at a newly opened bed and breakfast that's owned by a guy who came out and ended his straight marriage and so is trying to figure things out in his forties. The story and the romance is fine; probably the most intriguing thing is that they acknowledge their attraction to each other and then are like 'oh no but we can't until Christmas is over!' That gives it a bit of tension at least, even though they in no way hold out that long. Definitely another entry in the 'this would have worked better as a novella' list, as there's not much in the way of a plot, but it was fine for what it is. 

Grade: C  

Book 7: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

First book club book of the year! I was very happy when this book got chosen, because I've been meaning to read something by this author and this was a great excuse for it. This book club focuses on novels that exist within the speculative fiction umbrella, and I would say that this one qualifies but is closer to literary fiction than the standard scifi genre novel. The story spans four or five centuries, starting with a remittance man in Canada just prior to WWI, then stopping off in New York right before Covid hits, and then a worldwide book tour two centuries after that. How are they all linked? Well that's what everyone is trying to figure out. 

I hadn't read anything else by this author, but I've seen the first two episodes of the miniseries based on Station Eleven, so I wasn't surprised at how much of the story is about a possible future and also pandemics and what they do to civilization. I was surprised by the writing; for some reason I went into this expecting it to be a challenging read in some way, and instead I found it delightfully crisp and engaging. I think I went in fearing that it would be all of the things I like least about literary fiction as a genre, and instead it was what I like best. It also has a ton of incidental queerness, which is something I always appreciate. I really enjoyed reading it, and individual images and characters from the story are going to stick with me for a long time. Looking forward to going back and reading her earlier novels now! 

Grade: A