The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book had made a lot of "best of the year" lists so I was very excited to read it. I didn't think it was a life altering read or one I will want to re-read over and over again but it was very good. The characters were so real and the plot so believable that it felt like you were right inside the story. Despite it being so long, I think this book would appeal to just about anyone.



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Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I don't normally read mysteries because they generally seem to disappoint me. As he's from my home state, I've heard a lot of people talking and raving about Krueger so I decided to give this series a shot when someone left this book in the break room at work. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised. The problem I have with mysteries is that I don't like them if I can figure them out. I consider it a sign of poor writing if you know the ending too early. I don't think I'm giving a spoiler to state that Krueger gets around the problem very well by revealing the "who done it" earlier in the story and spending the rest on how to deal with the information. I thought that was a good solution and made an already interesting story seem even more well-crafted.



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Dodger by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Easy, entertaining read. Little bit of a Forrest Gump quality about it. I'm not sure Pratchett is well enough to continue with the character but I think this would be a very fun series to follow if there are more books in the future.



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Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book was an impulse buy. I'd never heard of it but I've always been interested in Asian culture and history and just grabbed it when I saw it in the store. I did not know anything about Dowager Empress Cixi before reading this book and found her to be very fascinating. The book was well written and not nearly as dry as a lot of non-fiction can be. Makes me want to watch the movie The Last Emperor again, as the beginning of that is where her story leaves off.



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Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have to be honest, this book grabbed on to my heart right away and kept tugging on its strings until I was done. Very sweet, heartbreaking first love story with a nice little trip down memory lane. I felt like I was right there inside the tale.



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Bellman & Black: A Ghost Story by Diane Setterfield

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this book but it was subtitled as being a "ghost story" so I kept expecting it to take a different path. It felt like a combination of Poe and Dickens and was very well done. The only beef I had was with the way the passage of time was conveyed. All of a sudden many years would have passed and it would take a while for the author to explain.

This review is based on an advanced copy received from the publisher.



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This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had really been wanting to read Cash's first book but I have not gotten around to it. I got this advance copy from the publisher and was really excited to check it out. Cash has a wonderful writing style. He sucks you right in and you don't want to let go until you reach the end. His characters are wonderfully flawed and you love them for it anyway. They are also very well developed considering how short this story was. I'd recommend this book to anyone and it makes me want to read his first novel even more.



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Mastering the Art of French Eating: Lessons in Food and Love from a Year in Paris by Ann Mah

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Occasionally I found the timing of the story to be a bit disorienting. Mah tended to jump around a bit during the course of the chapter and I sometimes lost track of where she was going or when things were taking place. That aside, I liked the way she mixed memoir, history, and recipe all together. It was a really good well-balanced combination. I hope to try some of her recipes soon.

This review is based on a free advanced copy obtained from GoodReads First Reads.



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Allegiant by Veronica Roth




I feel like I shouldn't have been surprised by the way this wrapped up but it still did. I'm pretty happy with the way this series went as a whole. I also like that it was still left open enough to resume later if Roth decides she wants to pick it up again. I am looking forward to the movies.



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Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I am really glad to be done with this series. I feel like I've been reading it forever. I know there's still the Bean part of the series but I'm taking a break and will come back to them at a later time. I liked this better than the last two books but it felt like Card was also getting sick of the series and was in a hurry to wrap everything up. I'm not fond of giving serial books their own ratings because you really need to consider the story as a whole. I give the Ender series 3 out of 5 stars.



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Xenocide by Orson Scott Card

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It feels like Card was having an existential crisis while writing this book.



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The Color of Magic: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If you can imagine a Star Wars/Lord of the Rings mashup as it might be described by Douglas Adams, you'll get a good idea of what this is like.



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The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book seemed a bit darker and kind of scary for something that is supposed to be a series for kids. I'm not sure how I would have liked it if I read it when I was younger. As for now, it was pretty good. It was nice to have the dragons be a bigger presence in the story. I'm going to take a break before reading the last three.



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The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I was expecting to see Ged right away again so kept wondering when he would pop up again. You have to wait until you're about a third through to see him again. Going to start book 3 tomorrow to see how this all fits together. So far, Earthsea is a very well-constructed land.



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A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm glad I finally got around to reading this. It's been sitting on my shelf for as long as I can remember. I got the impression that J.K. Rowling may have read this at some point before writing Harry Potter. Good story. On to book two!!



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Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


VERY different from book one but woven together nicely. Makes me more curious about where book three will go.



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Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Not a conventional scary story, although it has some elements. Perfect read for this time of year.

This review is based on an advanced copy obtained from the publisher.



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Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Magical. It's been a while since I've read a book that I'd really been looking forward to and it lived up to my expectations. I loved the way it combined the world of old-school, crazy, genius, bookworms with the world of modern tech geniuses. Worked SO well! I'm recommending this to all my bookish friends.



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May I Be Happy: A Memoir of Love, Yoga, and Changing My Mind by Cyndi Lee

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I didn't realize that this book would spend SO MUCH time focusing on body image issues. It's definitely a topic that touches everyone but not something I would have wanted to read a whole book on. It also felt like there was too much name-dropping going on.



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The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The beginning of this book was really great and very funny because the character narrating the story is so odd. Once you get used to him and are no longer surprised by his quirks, some of the humor wore off and it reads like a conventional love story. Still, a fun read.

This review is based on a free book obtained through GoodReads first reads.



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The Circle of Thirteen by William Petrocelli

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I wasn't sure I was going to like this book when I saw that the plot was driven by misogyny, but it actually worked. I'm also not normally a fan of jumping around in time during the course of a story, but again, it worked. Decent story about strong women

This review is based on an advance copy received from the publisher.



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The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I feel a sequel coming on.
It took me a while to get in to this book. I'd heard a lot of great hype about it and was really excited to read it but it didn't immediately suck me in so I started off a bit disappointed. It did get better, when you got used to the terminology and setting. The pacing was a bit awkward at times but I'm not sure if that was a fault with the editing or a story-telling device.



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The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm not sure what I feel about this book. It was well written and the characters were great but they were framed in such an odd and specific frame that it almost took away from the story if you weren't interested in botany, but maybe that's just me. I definitely liked Eat, Pray, Love better.

This review is based on an advanced copy received from the publisher.



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Evil and the Mask by Fuminori Nakamura

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Interesting, surprising, and very well written. Really sucked me in and made me interested in where the story was going. Interesting combination of the simple and the complex sides of human nature. I'd be interested in reading more of this author's work.

This review is based on a free copy received from the publisher.



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The Affairs of Others by Amy Grace Loyd

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book took me a while to get in to it but then I had a hard time putting it down and pretty much read it all the way through on my day off. It was a bit different than what I was expecting but still a very good character portrait, the narrator felt very real. Nice little story about how opening up ourselves to others helps us open up to ourself.

This review is based on an advanced copy received from the publisher.



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Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I let this book sit on my stack for quite a while because I'm not fond of reading letters. My mom recently read it a loved it so I decided to give it a chance. What a really sweet story!! I pretty much devoured it. Great love story.

This is based on an advanced edition received from the publisher.



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Havisham: A Novel by Ronald Frame

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Wide Sargasso Sea set the bar really high, in my opinion, for this type of character-centric prequel. When there is such a wonderful and iconic character, such as Miss Havisham, and you hear someone is writing their back story it is easy to get excited about it. Unfortunately, this book does not live up to such great expectations. A character like this deserves a thorough psychological exploration so you can see how they became the person you already know them to be. This felt more like snippets from a diary and just did not delve deeply enough.


This review is based on an advanced copy received from the publisher.



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The Passage by Justin Cronin

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I really don't see why this book was such a big deal. It was ok but not great. Basically similar story as The Walking Dead but with vampires instead of zombies. Not much original.



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The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Technical detail is bugging me. Author keeps having the nurses put on gloves. I did a web search and from what I can find, nurses wouldn't have been wearing gloves in the early 1900's. Surgeons were starting to glove up but they were thick and cumbersome at that time.
I had high expectations for this book and they just weren't met. If felt like there was a ton of potential but the author only scratched the surface.

Review based on an advanced copy received from the publisher.



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The Daring Ladies of Lowell: A Novel by Kate Alcott

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Little bit Austen, little bit Gaskell, little bit it's own thing. Fast read and entertaining if predictable.

This review is based on and ARC edition.



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Night Film by Marisha Pessl

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm a bit confused by the overuse of italics. This was an ARC though so maybe that will change with the final finished copy.
I'm not normally a fan of thrillers, I just don't read them that much. The endings are usually anticlimactic. This book I found to be thoroughly creepy and compelling pretty much the whole way through. The ending did sag a little but was good and not as disappointing as I normally find them. I think this book will do very well when it comes out.



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Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My parents have been raving about this author for a while now and when I heard about this book I really wanted to check it out. Krueger has a very beautiful and lyrical style to his writing that is an absolute joy to experience. They only beef I have with this book is that I figured it out too soon.



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The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm not much for this genre but this was quite good. There were just enough vital details doled out at the proper time. I think I'd like to read the sequel.



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Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jamie Ford just has a gift for crafting a beautiful story. The people and situations are completely real and believable and you feel a little haunted when you are done reading the book.



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Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Not bad for a middle book. I was tempted to put this off until closer to the release of the third book but I couldn't help myself. I think this series would make pretty cool movies.



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The Stench of Honolulu: A Tropical Adventure by Jack Handey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Oh my. In a good way.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.



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Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book took me a little longer to read as I was on vacation. I really enjoyed it. I have a fascination with this period/place. This book stands on it's own very well but I am looking forward to reading the sequel and checking into some of the other books this author has written. The only criticism I might have is that there were too many narrators allowed. Sometimes the perspective shifted to another character that you only encountered for that one chapter section. It did keep you on your toes and was a refreshing change-up, but not necessary either.



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Where'd You Go Bernadette?

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I think if I'd read this book 5 years ago (yes, I know it wasn't written yet) I would have been in a frame of mind to enjoy it more. This is one of those stories that has a lot of humor to it, but the humor occurs mainly from people being nasty to each other. It's just not my thing anymore. It was a really well constructed story though and I did enjoy how unique the characters were.



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Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Took me a little while to get in to this as it had been so long since I'd read the last one, I couldn't remember what had happened. Watching the show has confused things too since it's so different/not as good. Honestly, this didn't end the way I thought it would but it was fine with me and I'm not going to spoil it by divulging. I'd like to re-read this whole series again. I'm a little sad there will be no more.



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The Curiosity: A Novel by Stephen Kiernan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


For the majority of the time I spent reading this book, I just wanted it to be over. The plot was so far-fetched I couldn't really get in to it. The characters didn't feel real, some felt absurd. I wanted to like this book more but I couldn't get behind it.



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The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


You never know what kind of wondrous surprises await you when you begin a Neil Gaiman book. There will be magic, there will be wisdom and, if you open your heart to his words, there will be smiles.



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Nerd Do Well: A Small Boy's Journey to Becoming a Big Kid by Simon Pegg

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Witty and entertaining account of how Mr. Pegg became the man we all (well, me anyway) adore so much today. Served up with a nice little bit of fiction to keep you chuckling. I really enjoy his work and it was nice to find out that he seems to be much like how I imagined he'd be in real life. I have to say, I completely agree with his assessment of how the transformation from Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vadar should have gone in Revenge of the Sith. It would have been SO much better done his way. Oh well.



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Legend by Marie Lu

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I had really high expectations for this book since it got such great reviews. It took me a while to get into it but by the end I was looking forward to seeing where the next books go.



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Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Just plain lovely.



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Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John J. Ratey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Kind of makes me wish I'd grown up in Naperville. School phy ed classes really are a joke and could learn a lot from their model. Interesting book but after a while the information started to feel redundant. Also made me glad that I exercise regularly.



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Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have a hard time giving books in trilogies individual ratings as I prefer to judge the story by the whole. I did enjoy this very much though and put in an order for the second book when I was about 60 pages in. I can't wait to see where this goes!



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The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It really took me a while to get into this book. I was 40 pages in and I wanted to quit. I really got annoyed with how much time was spent describing EVERYTHING. It seemed pretty predictable to me but I did start enjoying it after a while.



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East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Vividly expressed setting, both place and time. Wonderfully flawed characters. I look forward to reading more from this author.



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The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


As a book lover, I really wanted to like this book. I think that's the only reason I liked it as much as I did. Shakespeare forgeries are always an interesting topic to me but this was overloaded with coincidence that lead to a predictable story.

This review is based on a free ARC received from the publisher.



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Big Maria by Johnny Shaw

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a really great story. I feel stupid that I put off reading it for so long. It's a bit sad that it's not on a ton of bestseller lists because I feel like people would really love it if they knew about it. It's it's own little bit of treasure.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.



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