2019.Book5 - Live Magnetic Air (Popoff)

Surprised a book about a band would make me like them less. Probably because of lyricist drama. Helped me realize my relative valuation of music and lyrics (about 9:1)

2019.Book4 - Infomocracy (Older)

Very good. Entertaining and interesting.

2019.Book3 - Secondhand Time (Alexievich)

I can see why this won a Nobel Prize. Spectacular, harrowing, intense.

2019.Book2 - Autumn (Smith)

Arty.

2019.Book1 - The Story of the Lost Child (Ferrante)

More excellence. So good.

2018.Book52 - Equal Rites (Pratchett)

Good fun.

2018.Book51 - Belgravia (Fallows)

Fine. Plot-wise, the "bad guys" had so little power it wasn't interesting. Some editing problems.

2018.Book50 - Rejoice (Erikson)

A pile of hot garbage. So terrible. One-step-removed Mary Sue for Sawyer, and this reminded me of his shitty novels. A great concept, poorly done. Ugh.

2018.Book49 - Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro)

Pretty weak. Gene Wolfe lite.

2018.Book48 - Someone Like Me (Carey)

Carey's with Brooks Hansen now in the "wrote one good novel" club.

2018.Book47 - Asymmetry (Halliday)

All the parts are fine, but don't add up to much more.

2018.Book46 - Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Ferrante)

More excellent drama. "We Spit on Hegel"!

2018.Book45 - The Story of a New Name (Ferrante)

Excellent. Wow. The ending.

2018.Book44 - To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)

Excellent. Can see why it's a classic.

2018.Book43 - Gardens of the Moon (Erikson)

Pretty good re-read. Somehow not motivated to read the next one though.

2018.Book42 - Willful Child Wrath of Betty (Erikson)

Fun space comedy.

2018.Book41 - The Human Stain (Roth)

Very good, of its time

2018.Book40 - All the Birds in the Sky (Anders)

Pretty good. Some neat ideas.

2018.Book39 - Whitethorn Woods (Binchey)

Nice stories about (mostly) good people.

2018.Book38 - Beatrice & Virgil (Martel)

Just OK. Started out quite weak; got better in the last third.

2018.Book37 - The Calculating Stars (Kowal)

Just OK. Solid C

2018.Book36 - Commonwealth (Patchett)

Very good. The metafictional part seemed lame at first but better on reflection.

2018.Book35 - The Stone Angel (Laurence)

"My wilderness was pride, and the demon that led me there was fear". Very good.

2018.Book34 - Monday the Rabbi Took Off (Kemelman)

Getting a little less good

2018.Book33 - Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home (Kemelman)

Pretty good mystery

2018.Book32 - Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry (Kemelman)

Pretty good mystery

2018.Book31 - Friday the Rabbi Slept Late (Kemelman)

Pretty good myster

2018.Book30 - The Kite Runner (Hosseini)

Pretty good but kind of cheesy.

2018.Book29 - Freeze Frame Revolution (Watts)

Really good SF.

2018.Book28 - Us Conductors (Michaels)

Pretty dull, then a little better in the last third. How did this win a prize?!

2018.Book27 - The Underground Railroad (Whitehead)

Very good. The gimmick was unnecessary.

2018.Book26 - No Coins, Please (Korman)

Classic humour. Liked it as much now as when I first read it.

2018.Book25 - The Agony and The Ecstasy (Stone)

Entertaining Michelangelo biography.

2018.Book24 - The Merry Spinster (Ortberg)

Fairly weak. A couple of funny parts.

2018.Book23 - Armed in Her Fashion (Heartfield)

This should have been so good. Medieval fantasy in a Bosch setting. Could have been quite horrifying, but author pulled her punches, I guess, or was going for something else.

2018.Book22 - My Discovery of England (Leacock)

Some funny parts; seeing London as compared to Peterborough. Definitely of its time in the sexist and classist senses.

2018.Book21 - Gnomon (Harkaway)

Very good. Got lost a bit.

2018.Book20 - Beartown (Backman)

Pretty terrible, but somehow I finished it.

2018.Book19 - Endangered Species (Wolfe)

Good short stories.

2018.Book18 - Love is the Law (Mamatas)

Great idea, pretty good execution.

2018.Book17 - We Are Never Meeting in Real Life (Irby)

Occasionally funny essays. Everybody's already told all so the impact is small. Like the pet clinic stuff.

2018.Book16 - The Devil in Silver (LaValle)

It's not often that I read a really terrible book. Just so bad. I loved "Ballad of Black Tom" so I thought this would be more of that; not at all.

2018.Book15 - Of This Earth (Wiebe)

Pretty interesting MB memoir

2018.Book14 - The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All (Barron)

Very good Lovecraftian horror collection.

2018.Book13 - Gender Hurts (Jeffreys)

Very good. Lots to think about.

2018.Book12 - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Very strange, but very good.

2018.Book11 - Unsettling Canada (Manuel)

An unexpected alliance, a foreign power.

2018.Book10 - The River of Consciousness (Sacks)

Some interesting parts.

2018.Book9 - Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Thien)

Wow, so boring. By the end I just didn't care at all.

2018.Book8 - The Thing Itself (Roberts)

Pretty cool attempt to ground horror SF in Kantian "ontology". Reminds me of Wilson (?) building Lovecraftian monsters in VR. But the idea at the end of this being some kind of apologetic? Very weak and I want to say typically British.

2018.Book7 - Blackout (Hepola)

Pretty good memoir

2018.Book6 - Exploring Diabetes with Owls (Sedaris)

Occasionally funny.

2018.Book5 - The Little Friend (Tartt)

Pretty good.

2018.Book4 - The Goldfinch (Tartt)

Excellent. Just wow.

2018.Book3 - The Will to Battle (Palmer)

Another very good one.

2018.Book2 - Collected Tarts (Southey)

Good-natured humour

2018.Book1 - In the Black (Jolly)

Very good, interesting autobiography

2017.Book41 - The Bees (Paull)

Pretty good

2017.Book40 - I Don't Want to Talk About It (Real)

Very good.

2017.Book39 - Heaven's Crooked Finger (Early)

Pretty good. A bit uneven, but it kept me turning the pages.

2017.Book38 - Borne (VanderMeer)

Pretty cool.

2017.Book37 - Perelandra (Lewis)

About one-third good. When he's not fighting his current-day battles, it's enjoyable.

2017.Book36 - The Stone in the Skull (Bear)

Just OK. Might have been better if I'd read the previous trilogy?

2017.Book35 - Revenge of the Vinyl Cafe (McLean)

Pretty funny stuff.

2017.Book34 - Hammers on Bone (Khaw)

OK attempt at noir/Lovecraft.

2017.Book33 - Crash Override (Quinn)

Pretty good; such a sad situation

2017.Book32 - The Ballad of Black Tom (LaValle)

Really good; totally fixed Lovecraft.

2017.Book31 - Raven Strategem (Lee)

Pretty cool.

2017.Book30 - October (Mieville)

Kind of dry, but some interesting stuff.

2017.Book29 - Perfidia (Ellroy)

Pretty much standard Ellroy.

2017.Book28 - The Unholy Consult (Bakker)

Incredible. So good. Huge payoffs from years of books. Wow.

2017.Book27 - The Refrigerator Monologues (Valente)

Good stuff. Feel like I should read it again to get all the connections.

2017.Book26 - Up Ghost River (Metatawabin)

Sad story of a kid who went to an abusive boarding school, then was raped by a community leader and succumbed to alcoholism. Eventually got out.

2017.Book25 - The Fifth Season (Jemisin)

Really good.

2017.Book24 - The Black Company (Cook)

Pretty good.

2017.Book23 - Golden Hill (Spufford)

Pretty good. Interesting characters. Twist at the end didn't have much effect.

2017.Book22 - The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Chambers)

Pretty good. Very episodic, like a TV series. Problems raised and resolved too quickly.

2017.Book21 - The Boy on the Bridge (Carey)

Very good military/scientific thriller.

2017.Book20 - Walkaway (Doctorow)

Good politics, clumsy novel.

2017.Book19 - Revenge of the Methodist Bicycle Company

Sometimes interesting.

2017.Book18 - The Collapsing Empire (Scalzi)

Excellent. Fun and fast-moving.

2017.Book17 - Three Act Tragedy (Christie)

Nice.

2017.Book16 - The Stars are Legion (Hurley)

This was good. A little line near the end put the whole bio-horror stuff in a new light.

2017.Book15 - White Tears (Kunzru)

Good stuff. Liked the parts about music.

2017.Book14 - Fifteen Dogs (Alexis)

Not good. Approaching this from an SF perspective, find it hard to get interested in intelligence without tool-making.

2017.Book13 - Seven Surrenders (Palmer)

Very good. Excellent when plot happens. Biggest drawback is I find Madame D'Arouet's source of power basically implausible.

2017.Book12 - vN (Ashby)

Cool ideas; a little jumpy.

2017.Book11 - Universal Harvester (Darnielle)

Pretty good. Kinda weird; think it's one thing, but it's another.

2017.Book10 - Fathers/Prophets (Eggers)

Very cool.

2017.Book9 - Who Killed Sherlock Holmes (Cornell)

Another excellent Shadow Police novel. I forgot too much of the previous one!

2017.Book8 - My Brilliant Friend (Ferrante)

Very good.

2017.Book7 - The Revenant (Punke)

Very good. Western.

2017.Book6 - The Brothers K (Duncan)

Excellent. So many feels.

2017.Book5 - Americanah (Adiche)

First half or so was excellent. Got a little boring after that.

2017.Book4 - A Game for All the Family (Hannah)

Pretty good. Not a great ending, but an enjoyable trip.

2017.Book 3 - Ninefox Gambit (Yoon Ha Lee)

Excellent. Really weird, lots of action. Reminds of Too Like the Lightning with its strange future.

2017.Book2 - The Divine Magician (Rollins)

Very interesting. Not there yet.

2017.Book1 - The Monogram Murders (Hannah)

Very good buildup. Payoff was just OK.

2016.Book52 - The Liberation (Tregillis)

Pretty good conclusion to a good series

2016.Book51 - Station Eleven (Mandel)

Just OK. Going for a Bel Canto thing? Unconvincing post-apocalypse.