7. Before I Fall

By Lauren Oliver (470 pp)

This is a YA that I saw described somewhere as "Groundhog's Day" meets "Mean Girls" and I would call that accurate. It's about a wealthy, popular, shallow, mean girl who apparently dies in a car wreck after a big party and then wakes up to relive that same day. The book is pretty long-winded and my interest waned in the middle. My problem is that the protagonist and her friends were all awful. Not just awful in the way that teenagers are self-absorbed and thoughtless, but "let's go out of our way to be cruel and make less fortunate kids fear us" awful. I don't like these people. I don't care that they had backstories to help me understand that they had pain. Non-wealthy, non-attractive kids with nothing going for them also have pain in their backstories and none of the perks to go along with it. I didn't hate the book and the story pulled off a reasonably satisfying ending.

6. Some Assembly Required

By Anne Lamott (272 pp)

A Journal of My Son's First Son

I read Operating Instructions a long time ago. The link says it came out in 1993 so probably close to 20 years ago. I loved that book, which is about Anne's first year with her son, and just recently found out that this "sequel" existed so I grabbed it from the library. I love how honest Lamott is about her flaws. There are some great moments in here and overall I enjoyed it but it felt a little phoned-in.

5. City of Lost Dreams

By Magnus Flyte (355 pp.)

This is a sequel to City of Dark Magic that I read a couple of years ago. In this one the main character goes to Vienna to try to find a cure for a sick teenager that she befriended in the last book. It's not exactly time travel but there are time portals and alchemists and mustache-twirling villains. It's fun, light reading but gets pretty silly, especially the ending.

4. Broken Monsters

By Lauren Beukes (436 pp)

I am disappointed. This book did not work for me. Last year I read The Shining Girls which I loved. Both books have a speculative element that is never really explained. It worked in TSG but not really in this one. This is a serial killer story set in Detroit that follows the detective and several other characters. It just felt like a bunch of terrible things happening without understanding why, to characters I felt mostly ambivalent about.

3. Big Little Lies

by Liane Moriarty (415 pp)(ebook)

Definitely fun to read but got a little cartoony there. This is set in Australia and concerns several women who have children in the same school. They have issues and secrets. There's a murder. Overall recommend.

2. Bitterblue

By Kristin Cashore (563 pp)

This is the third book set in this world. I read Graceling and Fire last year and liked them both. I liked this book, too, and recommend them all. In this world some people are born with a special power called a grace. This story is about a young woman who inherits the throne after her horrible father whose grace was getting people to do awful things is given the heave-ho. I did think it got long winded and thought the whole story hung on pretty slender premise. I said I thought Fire was soap-opera-y and this one is too. But the characters are so charming and wonderful, it's fun to read.

1. Station Eleven

By Emily St. John Mandel (333 pp)

Hannah gave me this book and it is terrific. It's post-apocalypse after a terrible flu. I know you're probably thinking, what again? But this is more of a literary story that goes back and forth in time with loosely connected characters. Recommend.

39. When We Were Orphans

By Kazuo Ishiguro  (335 pp)

Poop. Did not enjoy this book much. It starts off slowly and when it finally gets going it is so loopy I didn't know what to think. It's about a British detective who spends part of his childhood in Shanghai and then his parents disappear.  The book is both his childhood and him, as an adult, trying to solve the mystery of what happened to his parents. Read Remains of the Day, instead.

Almost the End of the Year Wrap Up

For whatever reason, I still make reading goals and keep lists of the books I read. Why? Who is keeping track? I am.

This year I decided to go for pages read rather than books finished since I read books of all different sizes. I wasn't sure a good goal but guestimated 15,000 and I am *almost* on track. I would have to read 170 pages a day including today to make it. That's not impossible but not where I want to focus my energy right now.

I probably am actually a little closer but I read some really trashy books that I don't add to the list. Yes, you read that correctly. I keep a list of books I read for no reason and then don't list books I'm too embarrassed to mention.

I have another book sitting here that Hannah gave me and I would probably devour that, too. I can't decide if I should just read it or make myself read one of the books that's been sitting here awhile first.

38. The Martian

By Andy Weir (369 pp.)

If you give me a birthday present on June 1st and tell me not to open it until my birthday in December, I absolutely will set it aside and save it for my birthday. I start with that so you will believe me when I tell you that I never peek at the end of a book. Never. You have no idea how badly I wanted to peek at the last page of this book. But I didn't. Keep in mind that I'm a simpleton and if I'm enjoying my entertainment I don't try to figure it out. But this reminds me that I read a 1 star review of a romance novel and the person said: it was totally predictable. HA! That is the definition of a romance novel. That's why we like to read them.

Back to The Martian, this is the first time I devoured a book I for xmas this quickly since Pet Semetary in 1983. That book was so scary. The Martian is about a guy who is accidentally left behind on a mission to Mars. The book is pretty science-y. I got a little weary of it in spots. But mostly it's really fun to read. The protagonist is hilarious. A snooty hard science fiction fan would probably hate it but I recommend to everyone else.

37. The Runaway King

By Jennifer Nielsen (247 pp ebook)

This is the sequel to a book I read last year: The False Prince. I was a little disappointed. I still like the protagonist but the story had some implausible moments and dragged a wee bit in the middle. Not a bad book and I intend to finish the series.

36. Sunshine

By Robin McKinley (405 pp)

I liked this book a lot and it was something I was reluctant to put down but I wanted to love it and never quite got there. It's set in a Buffy type universe - a world that looks like ours but has demons and magic. The protagonist is wonderfully flawed and works as a baker in a busy cafe. She is kidnapped by vampires which sets off the events of the story. She develops an interesting relationship with one of the vampires - and these are dark, scary vampires. The problems I had were spots that got bogged down in the narrator's internal ramblings and there were some serious info dumps to plow through. But overall: recommend.