12. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

By Claire North (405 pp)

I actually read this book and #11 at the same time. I usually don't do that but I don't know what happened. I really liked both books. This one is about a guy who more or less repeats the same life over and over. He remembers everything about his previous lives every time he is reborn. There are other people like him and eventually someone starts mucking around with things making trouble that has to be stopped. It's hard to summarize all the mechanics in this little blurb- but I recommend.

11. Ready Player One

By Ernest Cline (372 pp)

I really loved this book, but I had a few issues. It's set about 30 years in the future where the world has become a bleak place and people spend their time in a virtual world. The eccentric bazillionaire who helped create the virtual world dies and leaves behind a puzzle hidden in the virtual world. The person who solves it inherits his money and the company. It's a big battle to win the contest. There is lots of 80's trivia and a lot about video games which went over my head. Super fun to read and a great story but there bits where it felt amateurish for example, major info-dumping at the beginning. Also, the bad guys are cartoonishly bad. All that was missing was actual mustache twirling. Still: Recommend!

10. Coming Out to Play

By Robbie Rogers (222 pp)

This is a memoir by a professional soccer player who came out in 2013. As I write this he is still on the roster at LA Galaxy. Bob and I used to play this game called "celebrities who might have been interesting once but are now tiresome."  It's been a long time since we've played that game but I think some current nominees are James Franco and Seth Rogen. I felt like I went through the entire interesting-to-tiresome arc while I was reading this book. Rogers is so charming and he was so painfully tormented while he was closeted -- so worried about disappointing his family, also Catholic, and in his mind there was no way he could play professional sports and be out. It was heart-breaking to see how deeply this affected him. However, his coming out goes great, his family, friends and teammates are a million percent supportive and by the end he sounds just like any other self-involved handsome and successful athlete who benefits from enormous privilege. I honestly enjoyed the book and still think he's charming and I'm happy that he can be who he really is and I'm certain his story benefits others so I will give him a pass on the self-involved, etc.

9. The Magician's Land

By Lev Grossman (401 pp)

This is the third in a trilogy that started with The Magicians and The Magician King. For both of those books, I said that really liked them but the entire time I was reading I felt like I was on the verge of falling insanely in love and fell just a bit short of that. The only time I've ever been disappointed in great books for not being great enough. This book was great enough. I'm sorry I didn't re-read the others before I read this. And yes, I read this book in a day plus one morning because of The Crud. I'm almost recovered so back to my slower reading pace.

8. In The Woods

By Tana French (429 pp)

Yes. I read a book in 1 day. I had the crud and the only thing that felt comfortable was sitting up in bed reading. I can't remember the last time I did that and, other than being sick, it was quite enjoyable. I read an interview with this writer and her books sounded good so I put her on my list. It's a contemporary murder mystery set in Dublin. The protagonist was one of three children who disappeared when they were young. He is the only one ever found, blood in his shoes and no memory of what happened. In present day another murder of a child happens in the same place and he is one of the detectives. I really liked it and was glad to read it one sitting. I liked the characters and setting. There were a few bits that strained reader credulity but overall recommend for mystery fans.

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.