Book Review: Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?

TITLE: Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? And Other Questions You Should Have the Answers to When You Work in the White House.
AUTHOR: Alyssa Mastromonaco
PUBLISHED: March 2017
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
GENRE: Memoirs, Politics
PREMISE: Obama's former Deputy Chief of Staff writes about her time in the White House and what it's like to work in politics.
MY REVIEW: I'm honestly not sure how to rate this one. There's nothing really wrong with it. The writing is engaging, it explains things really well, there are some good stories in here. It's just...I feel like the book didn't know what it wanted to be.
Part of it was a memoir, another part of it was life advice. It just kept switching and it was jarring when it would switch. That aspect of the book, I could have done without. But for the most part, I did enjoy it. It just was all over the place sometimes and needed a bit more focus. There were some excellent stories in here about Obama though. Those were fun.
This is one of those niche kind of books, you either are going to be interested in it or you aren't. I was, so I liked it.
WHO SHOULD READ: those interested in politics
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five funny stories about Obama

Book Review: Most Wanted

TITLE: Most Wanted
Part of the Star Wars canon books
AUTHOR: Rae Carson
PUBLISHED: May 25th, 2018
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Sci-Fi, Media tie-in
PREMISE: Set before the Solo movie, this book goes into how Han and Qi'ra became partners...
MY REVIEW: I saw the Solo movie a few months ago in theaters. It was perfectly decent movie. Completely unnecessary, as are most prequels, but it was a decent film.
This book is pretty on par with most of the new Star Wars books: not necessary to read, but a good time if you're pining for more Star Wars in between the films/TV shows. They also give some nice supplemental info. I actually kind of feel like this gave us some better background on Han, then the movie did. It also gave Qi'ra some much better development, as well.
If you read Star Wars books on regular basis, you know what to expect from this one: lots of action and adventure. It's very fast-paced (I finished it in like, two sittings). If you liked the Solo movie, but maybe wanted some more info on the characters, this is a good one to pick to pick up. There's also one out there about young Lando, so I'll probably look into that one as well.
WHO SHOULD READ: Star Wars fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five space races

Book Review: Not If I Save You First

TITLE: Not If I Save You First
AUTHOR: Ally Carter
PUBLISHED: March 27th, 2018
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Contemporary/Romance
PREMISE: A girl needs to save the President's son from getting kidnapped. Too bad she hates the boy's guts.
MY REVIEW: I am pretty much always up for an Ally Carter book. Her books are just fun. This short standalone is no exception. It's a nice breezy pace, with lots of action, just enough detail, and a satisfying story.
It just...wasn't as good as I've seen her do. It's not bad! Again, I enjoyed it. If you're looking for a quick, cute, read, it's a good pick. If you want something with a little more substance though....I'd look elsewhere. This also isn't as good as some of her previous work. I kind of get the sense that it was just written to meet a contract requirement. But at least it was fun. It also apparently takes place in the same world as Gallagher Girls/Heist Society as there's a bit of a reference to one of the spy schools.
So, not the best book ever. But if you just want a quick read with a fun main character, this is a good one to pick up.
WHO SHOULD READ: Ally Carter fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five bedazzled hammers

Book Review: An American Marriage

TITLE: An American Marriage
AUTHOR: Tayari Jones
PUBLISHED: February 2018
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Contemporary
PREMISE: A detailed look at a marriage and its ups and downs as the husband gets convicted of a crime he didn't commit and goes to prison.
MY REVIEW: I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. On one hand: the writing is great. There are a lot of topics brought up in this book that make you sit and think about things and I loved that aspect of it. The characters are well developed as well.
On the other hand....it was really slow. And I really did not like the ending. I felt like there was all this big amazing build up that...just fizzled out at the end and I was just left there going "that's it? Really?". Which...is unfortunately a thing that often happens with me in literature books.
So I'm torn on how to rate this. It was really good and I liked it. For the first two thirds of the book I thought I might have a five star read on my hand. But then the ending happened. But I don't want to rate a book low just because of the ending. The ending is just one factor of a book. I like to look at all the factors. For most of it...this book was really good. So...yeah, I'm not sure what to rate this one, really.
WHO SHOULD READ: Oprah's Book Club fans, those who like gut-punching kind of books
MY RATING: Three and a half to four out of five troubled marriages

Book Review: Famous Last Words

TITLE: Famous Last Words
AUTHOR: Katie Alender
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: 2014
GENRE: Paranormal/Mystery
PREMISE: A girl moves to Hollywood as there's a serial killer on the loose and she's haunted by visions...
MY REVIEW: I read this pretty much right after reading Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall. As always with Alender: it's a fun and entertaining romp. This would make a great by the pool book (there's even a scene in it with a pool!). Quality wise...it's just okay.
The plot was decent. It kind of slowed in the middle. There was stuff going on with a female friend that I found incredibly unnecessary (and fed more into that whole "girl can't be real friends!" nonsense that seems to plague YA). The romance was...a little blah and felt forced. But the stuff with the ghosts and the mystery was pretty good. A little slow, but good.
This book just scratched my itch to read more ghost books. If you also have such a need, it's a good one to look into. Though if you're going to try Alender, I recommend starting with her Bad Girls trilogy first. After reading all her books now, I can safely say that's her best one.
WHO SHOULD READ: Katie Alender fans, those who just want fun ghost stories
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five ghosts bothering humans

Book Review: Gunslinger Girl

TITLE: Gunslinger Girl
AUTHOR: Lyndsay Ely
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: January 2nd, 2018
GENRE: Dystopian
PREMISE: A girl escapes her home life and goes on a journey to a town where she becomes a sharp shooter for entertainment...
MY REVIEW: These James Patterson imprint books have been a real mixed bag for me. Much like how James Patterson's books are, now that I think about it. This latest book is no exception. I do give the author many points for creativity factor and readability factor. But story-wise...it was just okay all across the board.
The world-building is really interesting and where I see most of the creativity. She also writes nicely and cleanly and manages to spin a fast-paced tale. But other then those things...nothing much about this stood out for me. The characters were all the usual types that you see in YA these days. The story was okay...but not what I'd call a must read. Even the writing, which I mentioned was nice...is just okay. Everything is just...okay. Nothing, aside from some creative world-building, really stands out in this book.
So I don't know how I feel about this one to be honest. I enjoyed it as I read it. There's nothing particularly bad about it or anything. It's just...very average. I basically finished it, shrugged, and then promptly moved on to the next book in my pile. But I've seen some people love this. So...I don't know. I say check it out from the library, and see if it's for you, before buying it.
WHO SHOULD READ: James Patterson fans, dystopian fans, Hunger Games fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five shrugs

Book Review: Chaotic Good

TITLE: Chaotic Good
AUTHOR: Whitney Gardner
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: March 13th, 2018
GENRE: Contemporary
PREMISE: A girl who is sick of being ostracized by male geeks, dresses up as a male to be able to go her local comic book store in peace. Things do not go how she plans...
MY REVIEW: This is more of what I am taking to calling geek lit. I am mostly enjoying these geek lit books. But one thing about them is bugging me, and that thing persists in this book: it does not call out the geek world on its issues enough. I know what you're thinking, wait...this book sounds designed to call out the stuff like sexism in it? And to be sure, Gardner definitely goes farther on calling out shit then most of these books do. But...I can't help but notice it never once mentioned the word sexism, nor did it imply that the problem was sexism and that's...really baffling to me. This was talking about fake geek girl crap, and fake geek girl crap exists, mostly because of sexism. There is some of the usual bs elitism that floats around geeks involved as well, but mostly....it's sexism. I've yet to see any male geek who didn't know some obscure piece of information get called a fake geek. Laughed at a bit, sure. But he's still welcome to play Dungeons and Dragons. If a female geek doesn't know the random thing, she gets told to go away and stop pretending she's a geek.
Honestly, the way the author handled the character of Brody in general, just really bugged the shit out of me and dragged down the whole novel for me really. Yes, sometimes a character would tell him he was being a jerk. Cameron got a great tell off scene at the end. But...even she never once told him to his face that hey, you're being sexist, you know that, right? Quite frankly...someone really needed to tell him this.
I'm sorry, but I've dealt with way too many guys in fandom who are like Brody. Who will say all the bs he says, then insist that they totally aren't sexist, how dare you suggest such a thing! It's been my experience, guys like Brody...tend to ruin fandom. My advice to anyone who runs into a guy like him is a) Call him on his shit, please. Tell him outright he is being sexist and it is not okay. B) If he doesn't change his behavior...ditch him. Because if he sticks around spreading his toxic views to the group, your friend group is going to disappear, because they don't want to deal with him.
If it wasn't for Brody and the mishandling of that entire issue...I would have liked this a lot more. The main character is fun, it does address some stuff like male privilege and does that well. It did try to address the fake geek girl stuff and definitely said it was wrong...but by not talking about the sexism part of it...I'm not sure if it handled the subject that well. All of this is just more then a little disappointing as I loved this author's last book so much.
WHO SHOULD READ: Queens of Geek fans, Geekerella fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five sad sighs

Book Review: Scrappy Little Nobody

TITLE: Scrappy Little Nobody
AUTHOR: Anna Kendrick
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
PUBLISHED: 2016
GENRE: Celebrity Memoir
PREMISE: Actress Anna Kendrick talks about her life.
MY REVIEW: I...honestly don't have much to say about this book. It is basically what it is: a memoir written by Anna Kendrick.
It's very typical celebrity memoir stuff. She talks about her childhood a bit. She goes into how her career started. There are some bits here and there about the movies she has been in (not much about Pitch Perfect, oddly enough). and so on. There weren't any major reveals that shocked me or anything like that. If you're a big Anna Kendrick fan, you're probably aware of most of the information in here.
So it's an okay memoir. It just doesn't really blow me away. I don't look at Kendrick differently or anything like that. It's just an average celebrity memoir.
WHO SHOULD READ: Anna Kendrick fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five shrugs

Book Review: The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall

TITLE: The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall
AUTHOR: Katie Alender
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: 2015
GENRE: Paranormal
PREMISE: A girl inherits a mansion full of secrets, and ghosts.
MY REVIEW: This was a random pick up from the library for me. At the time I was craving ghost stories. I tend to do this when it gets hot and muggy outside. I crave a weird combination of ghost stories, gothic historical fiction, and then cute and fluffy contemporaries. I don't get it either, but it is what it is.
Alender is always good for a fun ghost story so I picked this slightly older book up that I meant to read awhile ago. It was a fun time. It's not a must read or anything like that. But if you're in the mood for ghosts, this should give you your fix. It's a nice and fast-paced plot, the characters are interesting, the atmosphere is great. It's exactly what I wanted at the time I picked it up.
This is a very quick read and was very nicely done. Again, not exactly a must read. But if you want a fun story with ghosts, this should do the trick.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that want ghost stories, Katie Alender fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five decent reads

Book Review: Stay With Me

TITLE: Stay With Me
AUTHOR: Ayobami Adebayo
CATEGORY: Adult
PUBLISHED: August 2017
GENRE: Contemporary
PREMISE: A couple talks about the difficulties in their marriage.
MY REVIEW: This book was honestly just a case of not for me. I didn't click with it at all. I didn't personally find it engaging, but did see why others liked it. The writing is beautiful, the story is interesting. It just personally fell flat for me.
Part of it is just personal taste I think. Books dealing with marriages just don't really interest me that much. I will say, it's a very quick read. You can probably finish it in like two days. There is a lot going on and it's very dramatic.
It just wasn't for me.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of Americanah, An American Marriage fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five good books that weren't for me

Book Review: Postmortem

TITLE: Postmortem
Book 1 in the Kay Scarpetta series
AUTHOR: Patricia Cornwell
CATEGORY: Adult
PUBLISHED: 1990
GENRE: Mystery
PREMISE: A medical examiner gets caught up in a case involving a serial killer.
MY REVIEW: There are several thoughts I had about this, not all of them very good. I do have to give the author credit where credit is due though: this is apparently the first forensic mystery. All the stuff like Bones or CSI...we have her to thank for that. That is no small feat, to create a mini-genre.
Unfortunately...it is VERY dated. It also prescribes to White Feminism (feminism that wants to empower white women, but doesn't give a damn about anyone else) from what I can see, which...yeah no. Also don't get me started on the cop the author stuck Kay with. If I want to smack the people solving the mystery, that is not a good thing.
It gets the plot done and is very readable...I just didn't enjoy it, at all. It's just way too dated in attitudes and honestly too slow of a mystery for my taste. This was just very much a case of not for me.
WHO SHOULD READ: Forensic mystery fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five very dated series

Book Review: Lab Girl

TITLE: Lab Girl
AUTHOR: Hope Jahren
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
PUBLISHED: 2016
GENRE: Memoir, Science
PREMISE: A woman talks about her life as a scientist.
MY REVIEW: This book helped me come to a realization: books dealing with science, kind of bore me. In the book's defense, I didn't realize this when I picked it up. I don't read science books as a rule. But reading this, I kind of realized this was what was going on and why I couldn't get into it.
I'm not blaming the book for my boredom. The author did try her best to make things interesting. I did like the look into how labs are run and why science is so damn expensive. I am impressed with her and other scientists who do this work. I don't think I could handle it, to tell you the truth. But, I was still just really bored while reading it.
So this is yet another it's not you, it's me sort of situation. If you really love science and want to know more about plant life and stuff like that, this book will absolutely be for you. But if you're like me and kind of don't really care...it will probably bore you.
WHO SHOULD READ: people interested plant life, people who like science books
MY RATING: Three out of Five solid books that just aren't for me

Graphic Novel Review: Are You My Mother?

TITLE: Are You My Mother?
AUTHOR: Alison Bechdel
CATEGORY: Graphic Novel
PUBLISHED: 2012
GENRE: Memoir
PREMISE: The author/artist of the graphic novel Fun Home returns with more stories, this time going into her relationship with her mother.
MY REVIEW: A few years ago I read Fun Home. It was my first foray into graphic novel memoirs and honestly my first time, in awhile, reading graphic novels because I had stopped reading them all together at one point.
This one is honestly more of the same of Fun Home. It goes into Bechdel's family issues, this time centering on her mother. Well, partly on her mother. There is also some stuff thrown in about her own personal issues in therapy, with her writing/art, and in her own personal relationship. All of it ties back to her mother in some way though. So the mother/daughter relationship is important here.
I was fine with it. It's very typical graphic novel memoir stuff. There was interesting looks into psychology and how parents can shape you and how you deal with the world and whatnot. It wasn't as engrossing as Fun Home, but it was still a nice read.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of Fun Home, memoir fans,
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five shrugs

Book Review: Long May She Reign

TITLE: Long May She Reign
AUTHOR: Rhiannon Thomas
PUBLISHED: February 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy, Mystery
PREMISE: A girl becomes a queen suddenly, when all the people who were in line for the throne before her are killed at once.
MY REVIEW: You ever wonder what Designated Survivor would be like if it were a fantasy instead of in a contemporary setting? Well, this book, basically answers that question. Because that honestly is all this book is: a gender-flipped Designated Survivor in a fantasy setting.
There's nothing wrong with it. It has a decent plot going, some nice character growth, and all the usual trappings of a YA fantasy. It's just really generic, so there's nothing really to set it apart from all the other several YA fantasy books out there.
If you like Designated Survivor, and that premise intrigues you then this is a good one to pick up. But if you're not interested in this...you probably won't miss out on anything by not reading it.
WHO SHOULD READ: Rhiannon Thomas fans, Designated Survivor fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five generic fantasies

Book Review: The Glass Spare

TITLE: The Glass Spare
Book 1 in the Glass Spare series
AUTHOR: Lauren DeStefano
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: October 2017
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: A girl gets a dangerous gift and has to leave her life behind as she seeks to get rid of it...
MY REVIEW: I have very mixed feelings when it comes Lauren DeStefano. I think prose wise, she's great. She manages to write absorbing tales. She also has some very interesting ideas. She's just bad when it comes to delivering on that clever premise. She gets a good start but when you get to the ending it's kind of like "really? That's it?" For a prime example of this let down, see The Chemical Garden trilogy. I still roll my eyes at some of the flimsy reasoning that went on in that trilogy.
So with that in mind, I'm cautiously into this trilogy. It is a very nicely done world. As always with DeStefano, the premise is interesting. It's very absorbing and has all those things that on another author, would make me really look forward to the next books.
But this is DeStefano. So...I'm going to read the next books, but...I'm not going to expect much from them. I'm sorry, I've been burned too many times by this author for me to hail this serious as a major break through yet. She's very good at starting series and getting people hooked. When it comes to endings however....yeah. But hey, who knows, maybe this series will surprise me. I really hope it does. But in the meantime, I can't give this more then an average rating because I don't know what the series will come to be.
WHO SHOULD READ: Lauren DeStefano fans, fantasy fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five good starts, but we'll see how it goes books

Book Review: Batman-Nightwalker

TITLE: Batman: Nightwalker
DC Icons series Book 2
AUTHOR: Marie Lu
PUBLISHED: January 2nd, 2018
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Media tie-in/Superhero, Mystery
PREMISE: A young Bruce Wayne gets caught up in a mystery....
MY REVIEW: I have deep fondness for Batman. One of the first superhero things I ever got involved in was the Batman: The Animated Series. I got hooked on that show, then the Superman animated show and JLU and soon, I was checking out the comics they were based on. Nowadays, I am more of a Marvel girl. But Batman and his neverending angst will always hold an important piece of my heart. He is basically what got me into comics.
So I went into this cautiously. I wound up actually really enjoying it. Like the Wonder Woman book by Leigh Bardugo, it ignores comic continuity. So if you're hoping for teenage Bruce in the seventies or whatever, this will not be your thing (which is sad, I'd really like to see an historical take on Batman and how historical events may have shaped Bruce). But it is a believable look at Bruce as a teenager. One of my particular favorite parts was Alfred. But this is not surprising. Alfred is always my favorite. As far as I'm concerned, he's MVP in the Batman family. I'm pretty damn sure Bruce does not pay him enough for the shit he puts up with.
If you're looking for a absolutely amazing Batman story...this one isn't really up there. There are better ones in the comics. But if you like the Gotham TV show and want to see more angsty teenage Bruce Wayne. This one absolutely delivers. Plot wise it's a little meh (especially in the unnecessary romance part) but overall, this felt like a teenage Bruce Wayne and at the end of the day, that's kind of my only expectation with these DC Icons books: that they at least feel like the teenage versions of the characters they're supposed to be. For those wondering: the next DC Icons book is going to be Catwoman, written by Sarah J. Maas. I'm...not certain how that will work out (I have mixed feelings about Maas, to be honest). But I will still be checking it out.
WHO SHOULD READ: Batman fans, fans of Wonder Woman: Warbringer
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five angsty teenage caped crusaders

Book Review: What We Lose

TITLE: What We Lose
AUTHOR: Zinzi Clemmons
CATEGORY: Adult
PUBLISHED: July, 2017
GENRE: Contemporary/Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: Thandi deals with grief and many questions as she loses her mother to cancer.
MY REVIEW: The number one thing I have to say about this book is that it is short. It's under 250 pages. I read it all in one sitting. Sometimes this works out well, sometimes it doesn't. For this one, I do think it worked out well for the most part.
As always with literary books: the writing is gorgeous. The story...I think it had something to say, I just didn't particularly get into it. But I've been having issues connecting with all my books this past month or so, so I don't think that's a reflection on the book at all.
This one was kind of a mixed bag for me. I definitely do see a lot of potential in this author, so I'm excited to see what we get from her in the future. For a first book, I think this was pretty decent. I will warn it can be very sad at times, as it is dealing with grief. So if you are dealing with something like that, I'd maybe wait to read it. Unless you really want a good cry, if so, go for it.
WHO SHOULD READ: literary book fans, those that want books dealing with grief
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five solid debuts

Book Review: Track of the Cat

TITLE: Track of the Cat
Book 1 in the Anna Pigeon series
AUTHOR: Nevada Barr
PUBLISHED: 1993
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Mystery
PREMISE: A park ranger discovers the dead body of a co-worker and investigates her murder...
MY REVIEW: I should probably warn you all now: I've decided to go back to my read through the library project. This year I'm doing the B authors. So you'll likely be seeing a lot of random titles in the future. Even more random picks then what I usually do.
This series has been on my list for some time now. I know it's a pretty popular one. I...just found it okay to be honest. It's pretty dated in some stuff. For instance when it's discovered that the dead woman has had an affair with another woman, it's treated as this huge scandalous thing. Then one character tries to say only religious folk get upset about stuff like that. Which...um....no. Sadly, it's not just religion that can make people homophobic. Sometimes people are just jerks. I'm a little surprised the author would think that during the nineties, when homophobia was rampant (there was a big resurgence of it when AIDS started happening). Then there was a lot of other things that just made me sigh heavily.
Mystery wise...this was honestly just okay. Anna as a main character...had her moments. Everything else about the book...was just ho hum for me. It's a nice mystery, but that's about it. I'm honestly probably not going to bother with the rest of the books. I didn't feel any particular attachment to any of the characters.
WHO SHOULD READ: mystery fans, those who like books dealing with wildlife/nature
MY REVIEW: Three and a half out of Five okay mysteries

Book Review: Swing Time

TITLE: Swing Time
AUTHOR: Zadie Smith
CATEGORY: Adult
PUBLISHED: 2016
GENRE: Contemporary
PREMISE: Two girls lives intertwine when they're kids and taking a dance class...
MY REVIEW: I have never read Zadie Smith before. I've been meaning to read NW and On Beauty for awhile now, but I just never have gotten around to it. So this is my first Zadie Smith book. I do definitely see why she's a thing.
Her writing is beautiful. There are so many quotable lines in this, that I lost track of all of them. Story wise...this was interesting, but I felt like it needed more focus. Too me, there were actually two stories going on here: one where there were two girls who became friends as kids, but slowly grew apart over the years, and another with one of the girls as an adult and the things she was going through. The stories didn't really gel well for me. So there were pacing issues.
I'm kind of torn on this book to be honest. Part of me, wants to give it high marks, because the writing is gorgeous and it talks about a lot of important subjects and issues that I think are worth talking about. But the pacing and plotting were, to me, kind of a mess. I definitely will be still picking up Smith's other books though. From what people tell me, this isn't the best of her work.
WHO SHOULD READ: Zadie Smith fans, fans of Another Brooklyn, contemporary literature fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five interesting, but kind of messy stories

Book Review: Around the Way Girl

TITLE: Around the Way Girl
AUTHOR: Taraji P. Henson
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
PUBLISHED: 2016
GENRE: Celebrity memoir
PREMISE: Actor Taraji P. Henson talks about her life.
MY REVIEW: This review will be short because honestly, there's not much to say about this one. It's a very typical celebrity memoir. I can tell you, I really like Taraji, which is why I picked this up. Like most people, I became aware of her when Empire became a thing (I still have not seen it. Sorry guys). I then grew to like her as an actor when I watched Person of Interest a couple of years ago (seriously, watch this show. It's the best). I also highly recommend Hidden Figures, if you haven't seen it yet.
There are a few things in here about her that I actually did not know. She doesn't really tell many dark secrets or anything like that. But it does make me admire her a lot. It's decently written. I can tell she's the one telling me these stories. Which at the end of the day, is all I ask from my celebrity memoirs: that it does actually at least feel like the person is the one telling you their stories and not some ghost writer.
There's no huge bombshells. It's funny and very fast-paced. If you like Taraji and want to know more about her, this is a good one to pick up.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of Taraji P. Henson
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five solid memoirs