Sarah

Propulsive and fun, but the ending felt like when all the fireworks go off at once.

So good. Four stars only because I don't think I'll read it twice, but I really enjoyed the first read!

I have equal and opposite reactions to this book and can't decide if I really like it or if the author created an antagonist based on a weird and problematic understanding of gun violence. It's a quick and engrossing read, so that's a plus. But Leitch could have said a lot of important things with this book, and instead he says nothing except that we should listen to people.

Excellent Rocky Mountain thriller, a la C.J. Box. Propulsive and exciting, I devoured it in a weekend. Cam gets extra points for being a great guy and a gem of the BV community :)

DNF. This was a slog for me, weighted down with a lot of exposition and overly detailed descriptions of characters.

A lot going on here in what ends up being big, dramatic (Family) ways. I was supremely confused, perhaps because I read 3 books at a time and this requires more devotion.

Important, timely. Very mature thinking for 12 year-olds, but what do I know.

Jolly good fun :)

Dare I say even better than the first?

I enjoyed the first book, but this one was so bananas I was exhausted by all of the chaos. Also, if I have to listen one more time to Meddy describe Nathan's utter human perfection...and yet she cannot stop lying to him, on their wedding day.

So Toobin is a big snob who thinks Denverites haven't heard of D. H. Lawrence and that guns are a gateway drug for white supremacy, but I did learn some things (turns out my teen self did not fully grasp the societal tensions underlying the Oklahoma City bombing, go figure). I also resent the subtitle of this book, which really oversells Toobin's asides about Jan 6, but hopefully this book is just one piece of a larger examination.

What even is this book?! The first 2/3 is a slow descent into blue melancholy and I was about to abandon the book before I became inconsolably depressed when it completely turned around. All of a sudden I was reading a compelling story with a hint of intrigue and had to stay up late to finish.

Would be even better if I understood some of the super specific Britishisms or period references to solve the mysteries.

Good, with more character development. Ninth House is tough to beat, for me, because it was an unexpected treasure. In the second book, the scene is set and therefore less powerful.

This was a well done coming-of-age story, with important thru lines of obligation, race, and googling answers to life's important questions. Somehow, this didn't do a lot for me. I think I would have liked it better if I read it in my 20s.

DNF.
This sounded sweet but the passive voice drove me bananas. I even skipped ahead in case it was just used for background and scene setting but no dice.

Excellent contemporary mystery, and lots of bonus points for starring a librarian! Herchenroether explores the lives of the murdered without dwelling on or glorifying the murder or killer. I could hardly put it down and I hope this is the start of a genealogist-librarian crime solving series.

I also appreciated Herchenroether's balance of technology, paper research, and logic to solve crimes.

I read a galley and so this may change before publication, but there were some distracting changes of tense in the ghost's sections. I can understand why a ghost might struggle with temporality, but this human reader was a tad confused

Rounded up from 4.5.
Yes! This book! So honest and of the moment I felt like I was catching up with a high school friend. Both the ugly and beautiful parts of people and relationships and how much we have changed since school (thank goodness) while being kind to our young, not fully formed, vulnerable selves. (This hit close since 1998 was also my senior year of hs)

Funny and odd and a nice break from the traditional fiction & mysteries I've been reading

Felt dated and very much written by a man.

I'd forgotten how wonderful this book is. One of our high school volunteers at the library was struggling with this, and I can't stand by while someone doesn't like Barbara Kingsolver because of a misguided teacher.
This is such a rich text and timeless, layered, human story. I loved rediscovering it as an adult.

Excellent new mystery series - the charm of a cozy, but it doesn't shy away from race and class prejudices but embraces her heroine's multilayered life in 1920s India.

I don't think Cambridge has quite settled in to the mystery genre yet (the balance of clues and explanations felt off), but this was sweet and hunger-inducing and I will read more.

“Even the parts that hurt to look at.” That sums up this book for me. I recognize that is is good and complicated with lots of thoughtful and thought-provoking bits. It's also a touch depressing and nihilistic (in a very NYC way?) and I am going to go for a hike, I think. Whew.

Good, with an interesting premise, but slightly disjointed. I felt like there were two different tones at play. What began as lots of peculiar and unique threads turned into a neat bow by the end.