The 20+ books I read in February, ranked

Help, I’ve fallen into comic books and I can’t get up.

Here’s the ranking of the 20+ books I read this month. Please enjoy my impassioned rambling.

17. A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell: I had a lot of feelings about this book, but ultimately it was straight trash. The characters had remarkably poor judgment and the scheme that unfolded felt contrived. I wrote more about it here, contrasting it with the best book on my list. This is one that was bad in a way you could make fun of.

16. A Crafter Knits A Clue by Holly Quinn: Anyone who knows me for two seconds will know that if I’m not reading, I’m knitting. One of my favorite things to do is knit while listening to audiobooks because I’m an unrepentant introvert and secretly a grandma in a 30-year-old woman’s body. This book’s premise appealed to me, but the execution was ridiculously disappointing. The book was centered around a woman who ran a craft store in a small town where there was a separate yarn store. The owner of the yarn store was murdered with a knitting needle. This lackluster story was simultaneously dull and scattered. I became preoccupied with the technical inaccuracies (you shouldn’t knit alpaca socks because the fabric alpaca creates is inelastic and they’d turn into stretched out bags and fall off your feet and that would be a waste of really nice yarn!) and I just kind of lost interest.

15. Mera: Queen of Atlantis by Dan Abnett: I bought this comic on a whim when it was 90 percent off in the Kindle store. I was depending on my pal Robert’s recommendations, and I tried to branch out into the brave new world of comic books on my own, but I flew too close to the sun with this one. I was disappointed at Mera’s portrayal in the Aquaman movie, where she was just a glorified door-opener. This was not much better, with Mera spending precious pages mooning over Aquaman, who was incapacitated, but I couldn’t know about that unless I read some other Aquaman book. Then, Mera waffled back and forth over whether she wanted to be a wife or a queen. (WHY? NOT? BOTH?????) On its own, the book isn’t terrible, as Mera finally begins kicking ass toward the end, and it was fine. Held up against the other books I’ve read this month, I can’t recommend it. After the great book slump of 2017, I’ve been apprehensive about attempting to finish books I start reading and then don’t like. A bad book that I force myself to read can kill my reading mojo for weeks, and with a bold goal of now 150 books to complete by the end of the year, I don’t want to risk it!

14. Monstress by Marjorie M. Liu: If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve reached the part of the list where I’m reserving judgment until I read more. I read the first volume of this, and while I liked it, it takes place in a complex, wide world that is difficult to grasp in a few dozen pages. I’d probably have been more into it if it were longer.

13. I’ll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara: I do not read a lot of nonfiction or true crime because that’s what I do at my job all day, but this was short and I was curious about it. My biggest gripe was that it repeated a lot of facts in various parts in what seemed to be an effort to pad it out. The book was incomplete at the time of the author’s death, and it was completed by two other people and published posthumously. I really liked the way McNamara described the crimes in an engaging way without being lurid. I probably won’t seek out other true crime books, but this was fine.

12. Red Sonja by Mark Russell: I’m probably going to seek out more of this. It was witty and hilarious, but it was another book where I have to read more to determine if I like it.

11. Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir: This is about a girl in a fictional world who becomes a slave in the house of an imperial army general in order to deliver information to a resistance faction and rescue her brother from prison. The empire kills civilians indiscriminately, and is sooper evil, but we’re not quite sure why until most of the way through the book. The plot sifted through a lot of familiar YA fantasy tropes, the characters were a little flat, and I expected more, to be honest. I think pairing it with my listening of Marlon James’ “Black Leopard, Red Wolf” (which I haven’t finished yet) made it lose some of its impact. I’ll read more from this series before delivering a final judgment. 

10. A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman: Here’s the part of the list where I read some things I really liked, and could split hairs over any of them depending on my mood. I enjoyed listening to this book, and I explained why in my little book questionnaire I did in early February.

9. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer: I’m going to read a fairy tale retelling every month at this rate, and that is just wonderful. This is one of those book series that I’m not interested in pulling the trigger to buy, but I’m still interested in reading it. I think my library’s population feels the same way I do, because Meyer’s books always seem to be checked out. It’s a futuristic fairy tale retelling where earth is at war with the lunar colony. Cinderella is a secret cyborg princess! The wolf in this (Named Wolf. Woo! Creativity!) is a genetically modified man! Scarlet (this book’s Little Red Riding Hood) is trying to find out who kidnapped her grandmother and why! I didn’t like this second installment as much as when I read “Cinder” years ago, but it was still pretty good. I'm working on the third book in the series, "Cress," right now. Rapunzel is a computer hacker stuck in a satellite!

8. Giant Days by John Allison: Another light, funny and enjoyable read about a group of different girls who become friends at college. It was relatable. More, please!

7. Battle Angel Alita Vols. 1-3 by Yukito Kishiro: I read my first manga because of a movie that looked cool. Spoiler: It was cool! Go see it! I kept paging the wrong way on my Kindle and reading the speech bubbles in the wrong order, but I got the hang of it eventually! I want to read the other six volumes of this story, too. The movie kind of mushed together the storylines from the manga. Yugo was introduced right away in the movie, but in the manga he doesn’t show up until vol. 2. In the movie, Ito is much less creepy. And all of the motorball stuff, which begins in vol. 3, is placed much sooner in the movie. I’d say the movie is a solid adaptation, but the source material is excellent.

6. Bingo Love by Tee Franklin: This comic was about two young black women who fall in love, but because of the extreme taboo of the time, they can’t be together. They grow old, and then when they meet again, they decide to be together and are willing to make sacrifices to do so. At the end, the story flashes forward to the future, where you can change your appearance so you’re still recognizable to your loved ones who have Alzheimer’s disease, but there’s still homophobia. I might have been crying while I read this, but it’s TOTALLY NOT because this book was endlessly endearing and unresolved love stories cause my heart to languish in a brittle pool of angst and yearning. Nope, definitely not.

5. Saga (Anthologies 1 and 2) by Brian K. Vaughan: I read the first 3 volumes of this ages ago, then the writers dropped off the face of the earth, then I bought the hardbound anthologies after realizing the series was back on and had been for years. The third big book comes out in June and I’ll probably get that too. The worldbuilding is a little easier to grasp than "Monstress," but it’s still expansive and interesting. I am in love with the role of the romance novel in the story. I think everyone who reads comics likes Saga. I don’t have a bad thing to say about it.

4. Captain America (#1-7) by Ta-Nehisi Coates: Was it a bad idea to read Captain America before reading Black Panther or any of Coates’ essays? I don’t think so. This was amazing on its own. It was peppered with delicious notes of toxic masculinity and warped American values. I loved it.

3. The Light Between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth: This book is loosely based on the premise “What happens to the kids in Chronicles of Narnia after they come back from Narnia?” The place wasn’t Narnia and the kids were not Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, but the ideas were the same. This story got DARK. After I was finished with this book, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. I wondered if I would ever be happy again.

2. Mister Miracle by Tom King: This was recommended to me by my Goodreads pal and former sports editor Chris (Hi Chris!) This comic hits all of the old-school comicky notes, but with little riffs in the art and modern-day themes. Mister Miracle can escape from everything and everywhere, but can he escape from mental illness and childhood trauma? This book has everything: Tragedy! Romance! Action! It has the mundane goings-on of everyday life! I’m discovering that I find the comedic timing in most comics to be really great, but when it’s translated to a movie, it comes off as kind of cheesy. Anyway, on top of this book being spectacularly written and illustrated, there’s a whole page of Darkseid eating a carrot from a relish tray. He’s a double-dipper. So there’s that.

1. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng: Almost everyone I know has read this book, meaning I actually have people I can talk to about a book I’ve read! It is invigorating! I talked about it more when I contrasted it with “A Simple Favor.” I just want to say that in my long time reading and reviewing books, there are books that offer a simple plot, and those are fine. But once in a while you discover a book that offers more to the conversation. So last month, when my best book was “The Stone Sky,” I liked it because it was an adventure/survival fantasy story, but it ALSO was about racism and the right oppressive societies have to exist. “Little Fires Everywhere” was about a group of teenagers coming of age, but it ALSO was a thorough examination of the mother-daughter relationship AND it was about classism. Books that go the extra mile tend to float to the top of my reading lists every time.

Last month's rankings.

Unranked 

I read these as part of City Book Review’s sponsored review program and can’t talk about them here.

Sourpuss by Merricat Mulwray
Gift of the Seer by KB Laugheed
Radical Revolution: The Fight For Animal Liberation by Stephen Saunders

Rich people do the darndest things: A tale of two tales

Two books I finished for fun, and in quick succession this month were Celeste Ng's "Little Fires Everywhere" and Darcy Bell's "A Simple Favor." I listened to them both in audiobook format, checked out from my library via the Libby app.

Classism and wealth serve as blinders in "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng, but in this story, the wealthy aren't just cruel to each other because they're bored. Instead, those who challenge the status quo of a society are ostracized by those with resources. "Little Fires Everywhere" follows two Ohio families in the 1990s: The wealthy Richardsons, a married mother and father with four children, and the Warrens, a poor single mother, Mia, and her daughter Pearl. The story said a lot about parenting and race. The Richardsons lived a rooted life of law and order. Mia and Pearl were nomads, moving from city to city whenever Mia finished a photography project.

 Parts of "Little Fires Everywhere" get really uncomfortable in the best way. It was striking, but not surprising, how privilege and entitlement prevented the Richardson children from being empathetic. The story edged a little too far into "suburbs and rules bad," but I can forgive it that after it fully explored the many variations of the mother-daughter relationship. I loved how the book left open the question of whether the Richardsons actually learned anything from their time with the Warrens. I was leaning toward "no, they didn't." The most heartbreaking part for me was Moody Richardson’s descent into misogyny and entitlement toward the end. He seemed so nice!

 The two big questions reviewers on Goodreads asked about "A Simple Favor" was "Why was this ever made into a movie?" and also "DNF, because I feel like I'm reading trash???" Good questions, Goodreaders!

 The biggest selling point for "A Simple Favor" was its similarities with Gillian Flynn's "Gone Girl." Both seemed to explore the idea: "If a housewife was a psychopath, to what lengths would she go to lead the exact same life forever?" Emily, the *crazy* one in "A Simple Favor," just wants to commit a little insurance fraud, stay a few months in Europe with her husband and her son, and take a break from her demanding job covering up her boss’s indiscretions. She befriends widowed mommy blogger Stephanie to have an advocate and caretaker for her son while she fakes her own death.

Emily doesn't count on her husband, Sean, believing that she is dead, and he ends up sleeping with Stephanie because he wants to move on with his life and have a mother for his child.

The characters in "A Simple Favor" exercise poor judgment at almost every available opportunity. There's a weird incest subplot, which really adds nothing to the story other than a chance for Emily to blackmail Stephanie.

I could go on and on about this, but as I age, I'm not terribly interested in indiscriminately crapping on books I hate, just gently nudging others away from them. The bottom line is it seems Emily wants to have her cake and eat it too: She has a stressful job, and instead of finding another one that might be less stressful and pay less, or taking a sabbatical, she decides an elaborate insurance fraud scheme is the best way to let go of her old life because she's "bored." All of the things that would be obvious to us plebes are made infinitely more complicated and dramatic by tiresome rich characters with nothing better to do.

Both books featured wealthy people doing dumb stuff to each other, but one had broader statements to make about classism and racism, with a reasonable helping of subtlety, and the other was a weird hot mess.

TL;DR: I highly recommend “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng. Do not waste your time on Darcey Bell’s “A Simple Favor.”

Coming soon: The end of February is approaching, and I read 25 books this month. I’m expecting to squeeze in another 1 or 2 in the next few days. It’s not as impressive as it sounds, since a lot of them were short and with pictures. I have a full-blown obsession with comic books right now, with no end in sight. #cantstopwontstop #sorrynotsorry

Book FAQs: Info about my bookish taste and how I choose what to read

1.) What was the last book you read?

After reading one of my friends’ book reviews on Goodreads (Hi Beth!) I read “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman. I borrowed the audiobook from my library via the Libby app. Yes, listening to an audiobook is reading. And yes, the book was very good.

2.) What made it good?

It struck the perfect balance of funny and sad. Living in Florida, surrounded by snowbirds and retirees all the time, can be frustrating. This book helped me have more empathy for my elders. I would absolutely recommend it.

3.) How often do you read?

I bookend (LOL) my days with reading. I read for at least an hour in the morning while I have my coffee, and then I’ll usually go for a walk and listen to an audiobook. At night, I read before I go to bed.

4.) What was the last bad book you read?

This is a long, complicated question.

I write paid book reviews for an author marketing service, City Book Review. If there’s a bad book, it’s usually coming from their sponsored review program. The program encourages honest reviews as part of this program. The books are usually self published or come from tiny vanity publishers.

The downside of writing paid reviews is the reviews are written for the authors and not for the readers, and so the author gets to decide whether the review is published or not. If it’s not, I can’t talk about the book anywhere.

So what was the last bad book I read? I can’t say! If I talk about it, I'll get in big trouble!

For my monthly rankings, I won’t rank my sponsored books whether I like them or not, just because I was paid to review them.

5.) Do you wish to be a writer?

I can appreciate the effort that goes in to writing. Sometimes I write articles for my day job, but I have no desire to write fiction. I’m not interesting enough for that.

6.) Has any book influenced you greatly?

Recently? Probably “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo. I’ve spoken before about how it made me view my possessions differently.

7.) Do you read fan fiction?

Indirectly, most likely, in the way that “Fifty Shades of Grey” is “Twilight” fan fiction. I don’t read overt fan fiction, but I’ve probably read books that draw heavily on a work an author likes and I didn’t know.

8.) What’s your favorite book?

“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte. I’ve read it at least eight times by now because it’s one of those stories where you find something new to interpret or think about every time you read it. I’ve also gone through times where I’ve disliked it, even going so far as to trade in and repurchase it, but I always go back to it as my favorite book.

My favorite part is in the middle when Jane finds the strength and confidence within herself to leave Mr. Rochester, despite being an unwanted child and a lowly governess after that, and on top of being desperately in love with him. I don't mind that she goes back to him in the end when they can be equals and his ego was knocked down a peg or two (and, you know, he wasn't married anymore.)

9.) What’s your least favorite book?

One, that I read and wrote a paid review for, was so bad it left me angry and weeping intermittently for days. After that, I stopped reading for months. I can’t talk about that one, but if you ask me privately I’ll probably tell you.

The books I view as “bad” or “my least favorite” usually have one or more of the following qualities in common:

• Obviously horrible, amateurish writing
•  Horrible things happening to the characters simply to be lurid and gross, with nothing gained or learned
•  Flat, unlikable characters. They're fine, but they have to have a motivation and/or they have to grow or change for better or worse.
•  A main character, framed as a hero and meant to be an analogue for the author, but that main character is some combination of racist, sexist, homophobic, fatphobic or transphobic. (See: “Tek War” by William Shatner)
• Racism, sexism, homophobia, fatphobia or transphobia without a reason for it being there.
•  A manifesto of the author's horrible personal views or it contains revisionist/distorted view of history.

10.) Do you prefer physical books or reading on a device (like Kindle?)

I’ll read using any method, and I won’t be a snob about it.

11.) When did you learn to read?

I was 3 years old and it just kind of happened. I remember being desperately bored in first grade while reading a book called "Here Are My Hands." I was reading things like "Anne of Green Gables" and "Babysitter's Club" when I was 6 or 7.

12.) What is your favorite book you read in school?

In fourth grade, I remember loving and hating “Stone Fox” by John Reynolds Gardiner. It was so good! It was so sad! I still cry when I try to summarize this book!

In college, I really enjoyed Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and “Titus Andronicus” and wondered why, when I was initially learning about Shakespeare in high school, we didn’t learn about those much more exciting plays.

13.) What is your favorite book series?

I’m going to be a typical millennial and say “Harry Potter.” I’ve been listening to them on audiobook lately and I’m remembering how much better they were than the movies. I’m also remembering how problematic they are and how terrible it is that JK Rowling is trying to go back and change the canon years later.

14.) Who is your favorite author?

Right now it’s N.K. Jemisin. It changes from month to month.

15.) What is your favorite genre?

I’m really into sci-fi right now.

16.) Who is your favorite character in a book series?

Daenerys Targaryen in GRRM’s “A Song of Ice and Fire.” Alabaster Tenring in N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy.

17.) Which book did you wish had a sequel?

I don’t wish sequels onto books that don’t have them.

18.) Which book do you wish didn’t have a sequel?

I mentioned this in my January book list, but I really wish Sara J. Maas’ Throne of Glass series would have been restricted to 3 or 4 books. I just struggled through the sixth book, and now I’m supposed to suffer through a seventh? I’ll do it eventually, but I don’t think I’ll like it.

19.) How long does it take you to read a book?

It depends how long it is and how much time I have to read. I can usually get through 300 pages or so in a couple days.

20.) Do you like it when books become movies?

Yes! There have been some excellent movie adaptations of books lately.

21.) Which book was ruined by its movie adaptation?

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” – The movie didn’t *ruin* the book, but a lot was left out of the movie that made the book really good.

22.) Which movie has done a book justice?

The “Ready Player One” movie adaptation was better than the book. The movie stripped away most of the misogyny and fandom gatekeeping that made the book so intolerable.

Movies released specifically last year were on the same level, if not better than their bookish counterparts including:

• "Annihilation"
•  "A Wrinkle in Time"
•  "Avengers: Infinity War" (I HAAAATED "The Infinity Gauntlet")
•  "Crazy Rich Asians"

23.) Do you read newspapers?

I work at a newspaper

24.) Do you read magazines?

Yes. I have a subscription to Vogue Knitting. I read various snooty magazine articles from random publications online because I follow a bunch of magazine accounts on Twitter.

25.) Do you prefer newspapers or magazines?

Depends what mood I'm in.

26.) Are you a fast reader?

Yes. I average about 150 pages a day, and I have a full-time job and other chores and hobbies.

27.) Where is your favorite place to read?

In the recliner in my book/knitting nook, on the loveseat in my living room or in bed. Someplace comfortable where I can keep a cup of tea or coffee nearby.

28.) Who gave you your love for reading?

I developed it on my own, but it was encouraged by my family who purchased books for me on holidays and my birthday.

29.) What book is next on your list to read?

Audiobook: "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng, followed by "Black Leopard Red Wolf" by Marlon James.

Comic book: I just finished “Giant Days Vol. 1” by John Allison, and I might soon be starting “Saga Book 1” by Brian K. Vaughn. The third anthology comes out in June.

Physical book: I just finished "The Light Between Worlds" by Laura E. Weymouth, and I’m evaluating my “to-read” pile for something new. You can see that whole list here. 

I have a complicated system of prioritizing what I read based on review deadlines and when things need to be returned to the library. My personal mood factors very little into what I’m reading.

30.) Which author do you think you’d be friends with?

Based on Twitter presence and her writing, I think I would like to be friends with N.K. Jemisin. We seem to like the same things, such as video games and Star Trek and social justice issues and feminism. She'd probably be way too smart for me.