The Swans of Fifth Avenue: A Novel, Melanie Benjamin

I really liked this book, until I got to the end, and then I spent a few days struggling with why I was so disappointed. This book is a wonderfully written, juicy romp through the New York City of the post-war years, featuring Truman Capote and all the incredibly rich socialites he made his social circle. In particular, Babe Paley (wife of Bill Paley, head of CBS, whom I recognized from the Paley Center name). There is a lot of great gossip, a lot of scandal, some betrayal, some dark secrets, and the inevitable moment (foreshadowed in the opening) when Truman turns all of this into a book, and his "swans" turn on him.

I really struggled to articulate why I was frustrated that at the end, the author discusses how, while the events are real, all the conversations are fictional. I love historical fiction; my favorite author, Dorothy Dunnett, fictionalizes all the people in the Lymond Chronicles and makes up conversations between them, and I don't feel let down like this. I thought for a while it was because of the weirdness of making up thoughts and feelings for people who were alive in the 70s, but I don't think that's it, either.

I think my frustration with the book comes from the fact that while the events are real (the black and white ball, Babe's will, Ann's death) those aren't the plot of the book. The imagined conversations between Babe and Truman, their emotional connection, their trust in each other, are the main plot of the book, and that's the part that's made up. Everything that makes the characters interesting, unless you have a previous interest in Truman Capote (and I realized that David Sedaris was narrating his parts in my head), is made up. I'm sure it's well-researched, but I came out of it wishing it had just been a non-fiction book. Yes, it's my fault for missing "a novel" in the title. But I would much rather read a super juicy non-fiction version of this story without all the imagined deep dark secrets.

Grade: C
#72 in 2016

She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth, Helen Castor

Yeah. I've read one book in a month. Whoops. And I was so on track before. 

I loved this! The prose is super clear, the stories are REALLY interesting, and I loved looking at the rise and fall of these kings from the perspective of their wives. (Or moms.) Highly readable, very very interesting. I have no idea why it took me a month to get through, except I just lacked any spare time for reading, and when I climbed into bed at night I was ready to sleep, too tired to read. 

I should have more to say about a book I really enjoyed, but -- if this sounds remotely like a thing you'd like to read, definitely read it. 

Grade: A

#71 in 2016

Kanye West Owes Me $300: & Other True Stories From A White Rapper Who Almost Made It Big, Jensen Karp

I ran into Jensen Karp because I listened to his Bachelor podcast (now defunct) although I guess I should have run into him 10 years ago when I was paying a lot of attention to Pete Wentz. (Let's be serious: I was/am always paying more attention to Patrick Stump.)

So this is the story all about how his life got flipped -- turned upside-down. Sorry. I'll stop. In college Karp used his obsession with rap and rap battles to become a famous rap-battler on local L.A. radio, which led to a music deal with Interscope, which was eventually shelved because Interscope also represented Eminem and seemed to feel they could only promote one white rapper.

The joy of the book is all the run-ins he had with famous people, and since we're about the same age, I loved all his stories. I want to hear about pre-fame Kanye, and Sisqo, and Fred Durst, and Mark McGrath, and the Justin-Britney dance-off, and Suge Knight. I was obsessed with a lot of the same pop-culture Karp was, only he met all these people and I was in college watching TRL.

The flip side is that Karp didn't deal well with losing out on fame; he was already depressed because of his parents' divorce and his father's cancer, and the end of the book is a little bit emotionally brutal. As a reader, it feels like he never totally believed his rap career was going to happen (the lyrics he includes are always jokey) and when it fizzled out he just collapsed. But I get it -- I've queried a novel, gotten great feedback and talked to editors and agents, and then had them say, "Oh, you know what, this just isn't... quite... Good luck in the future!" and then collapsed in on myself and wanted to go hide for months and/or years. I'm delicate, and it's hard. And I didn't even have a pen name that's an awkward sex act from urban dictionary.

I highly recommend this book if you want some great stories about the rap scene in the early 2000s, or if you want a rise-and-fall fame story that won't crush your soul forever (just make you a little sad). I just wish he'd explained how he met Pete Wentz.

Grade: B
#70 in 2016

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J Maas

There is a trope in YA fiction, where the heroine's arc is to learn about the world and how people (or aliens, or fairies, or vampires) aren't the way she assumed they were, and she's going to have to grow up and realize everyone can be good or bad. A lot of the book is her assumptions, and her finally realizing how wrong she is. And there is another trope in romance, where the heroine hates the hero for some reason, and just when she's starting to thinks he likes him, she overhears part of a conversation that seems to confirm all the things that make her hate the hero. Then she runs away, and then dumb terrible stuff happens to her.

Neither of these tropes are bad; they just aren't my favorites. I'd always rather have a clever heroine, and a romance where the tension of "will they or won't they?" is built on actual problems rather than overheard, imagined ones. So this book wasn't my favorite, because to some extent it's built around both these tropes. The romance also felt a little.... Well, he's handsome, and he's nice, so now she LOVES HIM, even though he represents everything she always thought she hated. And he loves her for no reason I ever totally understood (she's not that nice, and she's not that smart). Of course, some of that gets explained with a twist toward the end, but it still felt a little unearned.

I really liked parts of the book. Feyre is a human, and she kills a faerie so her family won't starve to death. Then another faerie comes for revenge, and rather than murder her, demands she come live with him forever instead. (Yes, it's Beauty and the Beast.) She haaaaaates faeries, and spends a lot of the book plotting escape, and being a huge brat to someone who is instantly only nice to her (for reasons that are explained later, in fairness to the book). Eventually a Thing happens, I won't ruin the twist, but she has to go rescue him, because now she LOVES him, and to do that she has to survive a bunch of trials and solve a riddle. I bet you could solve the riddle even if I don't tell you the riddle, but sure, okay; it's a YA book.

The problem was that by the time we got to Feyre standing up to the evil queen, I didn't believe she was smart enough to survive the traps set for her, or to bargain her way out of tricky faery deals. And frankly -- she's mostly not. She solves the brute force puzzle okay, but needs help to solve the thinking puzzles, makes terrible deals, and only solves the obvious riddle on the verge of death. She's bad at rescuing; she isn't even plucky and stubborn and determined. By the end she's sadly resigned to lose and die.

Oh, and there's what I think is going to be a love triangle in the sequel, which might be the dumbest love triangle I've read in years. (There is an evil faery who is dark and beautiful and saves her, but ONLY FOR HIS OWN SELFISH REASONS, or did he, or does he have SECRET FEELINGS??????? This subplot features a lot of sexual harassment, and being saved from sexual harassment, and although he has a reason, I didn't like it.)

I think I really really would have liked this if I were younger; the heroine rescuing the hero from the evil person who has stolen him away to be her consort is a great twist on a fairy tale. But Feyre just wasn't the kind of heroine who I like reading about, and so for me, this book wasn't great.

Grade: C

#69 in 2016

Hotter Than Ever, Elle Kennedy

This book wasn't for me. I'm near the target demo. I'm in sight of the target demo. This author was one of the authors of "Him" and "Us," two of my very favorite romance novels. I can tell why this novel was great for what it is. It just wasn't for me.

So: Claire is jilted at the altar by her cartoonishly uptight husband, who proceeds to go on the honeymoon without her. His brother Dylan, whom Claire has never liked, takes her home with him for a few days so she can get a break from all the sympathy. Dylan, who is a SEAL, is shockingly hot; so his his "roommate," Aidan, who is in Navy intelligence. Claire, who is also stunningly gorgeous -- even without makeup!! -- realizes the two guys are actually together, but they tell her they bring home women all the time, because they're bi and can't live without pussy. (They say so.)

Guess what happens?

You know what happens.

If what you want is a lot of very explicit sex scenes, including m/m, threesomes, dirty talk, and a lot of the word "sexy juices" then this book is for you. There isn't a ton of plot; Claire isn't sure she's a threesome kind of girl, but it turns out she is. Her parents disapprove. Her cartoonishly evil ex tries to ruin things. Love triumphs.

For me, there wasn't enough character (all three of them are mostly described as "sexy"; we know Aidan has secret sadness but he immediately tells Claire what it is; Dylan turns out not to be a bad guy after all) and there was no angst or pining, two things I require in romance. I'm a lot more interested in the build up to the fucking than the actual fucking itself. I want complicated feelings and misery. (Misery is pretty key for me.) This is a straightforward story about threesomes and the beautiful, sexy people who have them. So close, but not quite what I wanted.

But if you haven't read Him or Us by Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen, for god's sake go do it. M/M hockey romance that is flat-out amazing.

Grade: C
#68 in 2016

The Invasion of the Tearling, Erika Johansen

The second book in a trilogy can be hard to pull off, but I loved this book. It added to what we knew from book one, it advanced the plot, it was full of great exciting moments. And it ends on a cliffhanger, which I figured it would, but.... Now I have to wait a couple of months for the last book to find out if the series sticks the landing. (I really hope it does.)

In case you forgot: the Tear is a fantasy land, and Kelsey is its queen, raised in seclusion so she couldn't be murdered by her mother's enemies. In book 1 Kelsey comes back to her kingdom, realizes how messed up things are, and tries to make it right -- which kicks off a war with a much more powerful country on the border. We also know that Kelsey and other characters read books from our world, reference the Bible and Shakespeare, and came to the Tear on something called "the Crossing," in boats, a few centuries earlier. All the technology and history from before that is more or less lost, though.

In this book Kelsey has to figure out what to do about the invading army. She has magic, and she has the potential to use it to destroy her enemies, but just like Luke Skywalker could have told her, once you go down the dark path forever will it control your destiny. Kelsey can't save her people without doing some potentially terrible things. And meanwhile, she's having visions of the life of a woman before the Crossing, back in Manhattan, dealing with a dystopian slight-future where a terrible US president has seized power and is using censorship to make life terrible, especially for women. But maybe there is hope for a better world...

This story gets dark (if you have trouble with sexual assault or self-harm I wouldn't recommend it) but I loved the story Kelsey finds herself watching, and I loved Kelsey's story, too. I really liked how it expanded what we know about the Crossing, and the Tear, and I liked Kelsey's arc here. I also like Pen, and the Fetch, and the Mace. So many good characters! So much going on!

And who the heck is Kelsey's dad, you guys. Seriously, I need to know.

Grade: A
#67 in 2016

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, Ben Macintyre

Then I took like, 2 weeks off from reading because I'm on vacation and it's the Olympics, whoops. Also, in my defense, this book is non-fiction, and it took me a while to get going with it.

But once I did, my god. someone recommended this to me as vacation reading and I strongly agree. If you like thrillers or spy movies you should take this book to a beach and read the whole thing in a couple of days, under an umbrella with a drink in hand. It's the true-life story of the Russia mole inside MI6 in the UK during WWII and the early Cold War, the man who was simultaneously reporting everything to the Kremlin and running the anti-Soviet counterspy division. The number of ways he was almost turned in, the way he totally duped people, the close calls -- all of these things would seem insane if this were a movie, but they all really happened.

Halfway through the book MI5 begin to suspect him, but that is only halfway through the book! Things continue to escalate in ways that should be outlandish, and are totally real. You will find yourself turning to whomever is sitting closest to you and shouting, "AND THEN, YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS PART, AND THEN--"

If I had a criticism, I would have liked to have the parts about James Angleton and the CIA more fleshed out, but otherwise, this was a literal page turner. ...except I read it on a kindle, so I guess it was a literal virtual page turner.

Grade: A
#66 in 2016