Book Review: Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger

Book: Darth Paper Strikes Back
Author: Tom Angleberger
Published: 2011
Source: Local Library

The Force requires balance. For every good-hearted (if slightly weird) Dwight, there's got to be a nasty and cyncial Harvey. For every Origami Yoda, there must be a  . . . Darth Paper.

It seems like Harvey/Darth Paper's evil schemes will get Origami Yoda/Dwight kicked out of school for good. Tommy assembles another case file to present to the school board, hoping to convince them that Dwight's not a "disruptive influence," but instead someone who has changed the lives of his classmates for the better. It's not looking good . . . but Tommy should remember that a 900-year-old paper alien is always going to have some tricks up his sleeve.

I vastly enjoyed the first book, which I read for 48HBC last year, so this one went right on my stack for this year. It follows the same format in general, short stories about middle-school angst, and just as with the first one, Angleberger hits the nail on the head. The great charm of these novels is that they're not about Star Wars at all, but about the thorny social interactions of tweens, wobbling on the threshold of teenagerhood.

There is a pretty lengthy segment at the end that deals with Harvey, who is slightly more complex than you'd think, and Dwight's eventual fate, but it's still a very quick and entertaining read. You shouldn't have any trouble selling this one based on the popularity of the first.

Book Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Book: Code Name Verity
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Published: 2012
Source: Review Copy from publisher via NetGalley

German-occupied France, 1943. A young British woman has been captured by the Gestapo, and after three weeks of torture finally agrees to give up everything she knows. But she does this by relating the story of her friendship with another young British woman, the woman who flew her into France, crash-landed their plane, and apparently died in the wreckage.

Polar opposites on the outside: Julie educated at boarding schools, born into the nobility, reading at Oxford before the war, versed in literature of various languages, can lie her head off while looking you in the eye, versus Maddie, working-class mechanic who fell in love with airplanes when she saw the engine taken apart, who can’t speak a word of anything except English and who is frankly rubbish at anything smacking of subterfuge. But under the skin they’re the same--brave, tough, funny young women, doing their jobs in wartime for the love of their country, family, and friends.

Like Scheherazade, the captured woman spins out her story knowing that when she finishes, her death lies at the end. But how much of her story is true, and how much has this trained British interrogator and spy made up on the spot?

At its heart, this book is a love story. Not in the romantic sense of the word, but in the pure and powerful connection between two friends that goes deeper than mere hearts and flowers and into a place where one friend can ask anything--literally, anything--of the other. It's also a shining example of how a really good unreliable narrator can suck you in. It's very hard to talk about this book without giving away spoilers, but I'll say this: when you realize just how thoroughly the young spy has suckered you, she is so real and vital a girl that you understand why and you're actually sort of proud of how she did it.



I'm writing about this book relatively calmly, but that's because I took a few weeks. When reading, I was completely caught up in it. At one point, I laid it down, buried my face in my pillow, and sobbed uncontrollably, and for the better part of a day I would still get teary-eyed thinking about it. Maddie and Julie became that real to me. This book tore out my heart, stomped on it, then sat down next to me and offered me a cigarette and a very strong drink.

Harrowing and powerful, this is a book you won't forget in a hurry.

Book Review: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Book: Seraphina
Author: Rachel Hartman
Published: July 10, 2012
Source: review copy from publisher, via NetGalley

A treaty may have ended the devastating human/dragon wars, but it didn't end the enmity between the two species, just forced it beneath the surface. As the fiftieth anniversary of the treaty's signing approaches, a royal prince is murdered, apparently by dragons, and a peace that was fragile to begin with threatens to shatter under the strain.

In the middle of all this is Seraphina Dombegh, the court composer's assistant. She struggles to keep her head down and avoid notice, because anonymity is her only safeguard against the revelation of a devastating secret: she is half-dragon, half-human, and an abomination to both species. Against her best efforts, she keeps finding herself in position and places where she gets noticed, particularly by the good-hearted Princess Glisselda, heir to the throne, and her bastard cousin, Prince Lucian Kiggs, the sharp-eyed and quick-witted head of royal security.

Balanced precariously between her logical dragon side and her emotional human one, Seraphina soon comes to realize that she alone may be the key to keeping this peace . . . or to starting a war.

I read this one way back, and I'm so excited that it's finally being released so I can squeal, "OMYGAW THIS BOOK!" at all my blog readers. I'm not entirely sure I can talk coherently about this book, because there's so much I want to gush over. Seraphina, first. So you know how the Forever Young Adult girls award their BFF charms? I will give all my BFF charms to Seraphina. All of them. Awkward and unsteady in her own skin, yet endlessly practical. Quick on her feet, quick with her wits. I want this girl on my side.

It's quite a trick to write such a fascinating and complex person, much less a second. Lucky for us, Hartman's managed it with Lucian Kiggs. A royal bastard, he's caught inescapably between two worlds, just as Seraphina is, so he has special insight into what makes her tick. While he's occasionally not sure what to make of her, he'll back her up in a split second. Faster. Is there romaaaance? In a bumpy, sneaky, when-did-that-happen kind of way that completely works for these characters, and I'll take that over sparkly-eyed swoons of destiny any day.

I like this one for twisty-turny political fantasy fans, the ones who've finished all of Megan Whalen Turner's books and are begging for more. Beware, though. Give this to them and they will be back within a day, begging for more of Seraphina.

Book Review: One Moment by Kristina McBride

Book: One Moment
Author: Kristina McBride
Published: June 26, 2012
Source: review copy from publisher via NetGalley

It happened in a moment. Maggie was finally taking the dare to jump off the cliffs into the swimming hole, helped (prodded?) by her beloved boyfriend Joey. She was all ready to do it. But then . . . only Joey took the jump, leaving Maggie alone on the cliff. And Joey jumped wrong, bashed his head on the way down, and died before the paramedics arrived.

Maggie is immediately sucked into a quagmire of grief. The close circle of friends that she and Joey shared are barely able to help her, lost as they are in their own sorrow. But as Maggie begins to surface, questions arise with her. Why didn't she jump? Why did Joey? Why does it seem as if he had secrets that so many of their friends knew and she didn't? And why can't she remember the last few moments before Joey took his fatal dive?

Basically, this is a grief novel. It doesn't break any particular ground, though I do like the realism of Maggie's grief, the waves and troughs of it, as well as the slow implosion of the friend group that has suddenly had its center ripped out. I also liked the amnesia aspect, when Maggie's broken heart protected her from the full onslaught of the truth until she was ready to handle it. We all know what really happened before Maggie does, but she needs to come to it gradually. No argument there.

Why I'm writing this review . . . Go away, spoilerphobic. There are spoilers here.

I'm starting to realize that endings are actually pretty darn important. Well, I always knew they were important, but the capacity of an ending that doesn't quite work to ruin the whole book is mind-boggling. I was really liking this book, until the end. Because what happens is that Maggie discovers the Big Secret: that Joey had been cheating on her for a long time with their friend Shannon, and their other friend Adam knew all about it. This is not itself a horrible thing, as far as the story is concerned. Clearly as far as Maggie is concerned, it's pretty bad. It's also unfortunate for this group of friends, which falls apart under the strain (and gets unrealistically patched up at the end), but what follows is what drove me nuts.

One of the themes of the book is that Joey wasn't perfect. He was a fun, engaging kid, but he was so far from perfect. And yet Maggie loved him. A lot of people loved him. To me, that was a good place to leave it. That was a great place to leave it. Nobody's perfect, after all, and part of your first love story is coming to terms with that, in one way or the other.

Except it didn't end there. At the end (the real one) we find out that everything that was ever good about Maggie's relationship with Joey was false. Everything. He stole it all from somebody else. Specifically, from Adam, who has had feelings for Maggie for a long time.

So the end of this book is not about coming to terms with Joey's flaws. It's not about Maggie understanding that she had loved an imperfect boy, one who made mistakes but died before he could grow up and make them right. It's not about learning to forgive somebody who's not around anymore.

Instead, Maggie simply writes Joey off as unworthy and transfers all her love to Adam. This is the boy who kept secrets in order to spare her (which anybody knows makes it much worse in the end), who constantly pushed her away when she tried to reach out to him, who chickened out on ever expressing his feelings, and yet he is held up as the worthy one. I think he even used the words "I deserve you," which set off my ranty feminist a-girl-is-not-a-prize rage.

The worst part is how completely unredeemable Joey becomes. By the end, he has no positive qualities whatsoever. You can't figure out why Maggie loved him, why Shannon (the Other Girl) loved him, or even why Adam cared enough to keep a promise to him. You finish the book wondering why you spent all that time grieving with Maggie when he so profoundly wasn't worth it.

I can recommend maybe 3/4 of this book. You'll have to tell me what you think of the end.

Reading Roundup: June 2012

By the Numbers
Teen: 18
Tween: 9
Children: 7

Sources
Review Copies: 9
Purchased: 2
Library: 20

Standouts
Teen: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
I . . . I can't even talk coherently about this book, weeks after reading. Once I can, there will be a blog post, I promise, because this is the kind of book you need to think about and talk about.
Tween: Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel
From my review, posted yesterday: "Wild and weird, rich and textured, this is a freaking amazing book. And I want more."
Children: The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall
This book sees the younger Penderwicks developing much more distinct personalities, as they deal with drama during their summer trip. A worthy addition to a series that stands out for its classic feel.

Because I Want To Awards
Another Sticky One: Leverage by Joshua Cohen
This story of two very different high school athletes who band together in the face of vicious bullying is another one I won't soon forget.
I Feel Bad for the Author: Burn Mark by Laura Powell
Because while this is an intriguing setting with a fascinating couple of characters who need to make major moral choices, the kidlit world has already gone gaga over a contemporary alternate universe where magic has been criminalized, and it's really hard to go head-to-head with Holly Black. That said, I really loved some of the moral complexity Powell tackled in this book, and where she left it at the end.
Conservation as Battleground: Kakapo Rescue by Sy Montgomery, pictures by Nic Bishop
I'm always disposed to like the Scientists in the Field series for their excellent pictures and their interesting take on conversation and nature-related topics. This one highlights the ups and downs of attempting to preserve a species that has fallen to less than 100 members.

Book Review: Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel

Book: Dust Girl
Author: Sarah Zettel
Published: June 26, 2012
Source: Review copy from publisher, via NetGalley

It's not easy being half-black and half-white, or living in a dying little Kansas town during the Dust Bowl, or watching your mother's ludicrous faith that your father will return, when you've never seen him in all your thirteen years. But somehow Callie's doing all of that. And life isn't about to get any easier, because she's just discovered that her father was not only a black man, but a fairy as well, prince of the Midnight People. And as the princess and last heir to the throne, she's the top of everyone's list . . . and not in a good way.

But Callie's got weapons she never dreamed of, and if she masters them fast, she may just make it out alive. Callie's got to find her mother, she's got to find her father. But before all of that, she's got to find herself.

I've been hearing good things about this book. The premise intrigued me. A story set in Depression era America, woven together with Americanized fairy lore? Possible mashup heaven. Then I read it and oh yeah, definite mashup heaven. From the moment Callie realizes that the strange new guests at her mama's hotel are really giant locusts in disguise to the moment that the long black train pulls up on a Kansas City sidewalk, this was a wild and wonderful ride.

But what really knocks this book out of the park for me is the way that history and fairy lore weave together. For every wish granted, for every mythical monster that strolls on the stage, there's something equally strange but true to anchor it. Callie's first attempt at magic calls forth a huge dust storm. They get caught in the middle of a rabbit drive, trying to escape from a murderous zombie. The climax of the novel is set during a dance marathon, (with the band led by none other than Count Basie). The effect is that for everything that human beings have dreamed up, human reality has produced something stranger.

Wild and weird, rich and textured, this is a freaking amazing book. And I want more.

Music, particularly the folk music of the Depression, plays an enormously important role in this novel. So here's a treat for you:

Book Review: Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta

Book: Froi of the Exiles
Author: Melina Marchetta
Published: 2012
Source: Local Library

Froi would do anything for his queen, so when she asks him to travel to nearby Charyn and assassinate their king, he agrees without a second thought. But it's not going to be as easy as slipping in with a dagger in the dead of night. Froi has to pose as a young nobleman who's come to the palace to impregnate the princess, the last in a long string of unsuccessful attempts. Only when she's conceived a child will the curse of infertility that's lain on the country for eighteen years be broken.

Froi finds himself drawn into this drama, because the princess is irresistible. Oh, not for her beauty or her charm, because she has neither, but her ferocity, her secrets, and her strength under an unbearable situation. As Froi fights his way through the thickets of schemes and danger in the Charynite palace, every answer just seems to lead to more questrions. How did the curse come about? Why is the princess's mother locked away? Who exactly is Gargarin, his prickly companion?

And most importantly, what does Froi himself have to do with it all?

This was a behemoth of a book, weighing in at nearly 600 pages, and not light ones either. It's a complex tapestry of a novel, with multiple plotlines, secrets, and schemes to follow. I stuck with it for the characters. Froi, impulsive, hot-tempered, and unexpectedly sweet. Quintana, both damaged and powerful in ways that keep being discovered. Gargarin, Arjuro, Lirah, the older generation who are inextricably entwined in Charyn's curse.

It's also an examination of love, family, politics, and power, and how they're forever intertwined. Each is affected by the other, and very often in ways you can't predict.
 
While Froi's story is the central plot, there are two threads back at home in Lumatere that didn't work quite as well for me. As individual stories, yes, but I couldn't work out until near the end what they had to do with Charyn or the central plot, and I suspect that I'll have to wait for the third book, Quintana of Charyn, to really understand all the ins and outs.

I'd shelve this next to the Attolia series for the complexity of politics, the fate of countries and the fate of individual hearts.

Book Review: What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

Book: What Happened to Goodbye
Author: Sarah Dessen
Published: 2012
Source: Local Library

Thanks to her dad's job, Mclean Sweet has lived in four towns in two years, and in each town she's reinvented herself, even down to her name--always a version of her middle name, Elizabeth. School spirit girl, drama queen, prepster. It's easier that way. She can be a type, not a real person, and when she has to leave, she's not leaving friends, only acquaintances.

But the newest town, Lakeview, is defeating all her attempts to hold it at a distance. Although she had a name and an identity all picked out, everyone somehow meets Mclean instead. Now comes the real question . . . can she let anybody get close enough to discover all her flaws? And what will she do when it comes time to leave again?

Sarah Dessen is one of those dependable authors. You pretty much know that you're getting a book about a girl wrestling with her identity and with her choices, and very often with her parents. There will be a varied (though Dessen usually stops short of full-on-wacky) group of friends, a lively and character-filled workplace, and a smart, cute boy, all of which prompt and aid her development. In this one, there was a theme of the difficulty of loving somebody in a way that could encompass their mistakes, but that was strongest in the scenes between Mclean and her mother.

Although it hit all the usual marks, I feel like this book never really came together for me. The different threads somehow didn't mesh.  Maybe it's because I never felt as if I got to know anybody except Mclean and maybe her mom. Everybody else, like Mclean's former identities, was a type. It's all right, but I wouldn't call it this author's best.

48HBC: Finish Line!

I'm writing this very late at night, but scheduling it to post at 6:30 am, the time that I started this bloggy adventure two days ago. So here are the totals:

Time
Reading: 24:03:35
Blogging (including this post): 4:54:10
Socializing (Twitter, FB, other blogs): 1:57:35

Grand Total: 30:55:20

Yes, there are seconds on there. I use a stopwatch system, because estimation makes me twitch a little bit.

This is more than I've ever hit before, which is just awe-inspiring. More so when you consider that I had to work for a few hours Saturday morning.

Books
Total: 10 plus one audiobook
Longest time spent reading: Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta
Shortest: Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger

Giving Back
I pledged $10 per finished book to RIF, so that's $100 right there. Also, $1 per comment, though I won't count it up for a couple of days, so feel free to leave comments anywhere.

Reflections
I've been thinking that I'm not reading as fast or as much as I used to, but this weekend showed me that it's because other things are taking up my time and energy. Not that it's a bad thing. You have to have balance, after all. But it is nice to just hunker down and read down your stack. '

Next year I don't think I'll pair two long books back-to-back. While Leverage and Froi of the Exiles were separated by a night of sleep, it was still a considerable energy drain.

This was my first year writing up capsule reviews. I still wrote full-length ones, but I'm saving them to schedule on my blog. I found it interesting to pick out just one or two lines that distilled my reaction to the book, and I also really like the idea that there are reviews ready to go for a couple of the busiest months of my year. You guys will have to let me know how it worked for you.

I always enjoy this. There's something about doing something so crazy along with a bunch of other people who are also blogging and tweeting and sharing about it. Thanks again for another great year, MotherReader!

48HBC Audiobook: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Book: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Reader: Carolyn McCormick
Published: 2008
Source: Local Library

Time: 4:18:34

We were allowed to pick one audiobook as part of our 48HBC reading, so this is what I picked. I haven't read it since it first came out, and what with all the hoopla about the movie, I thought I'd go back and see what I thought. I started it this weekend, listened to it about one-third of the way through (while driving, cooking, knitting, etc) and stopped it just before the Games themselves started.

From a technical standpoint, this isn't the best-written book ever. Collins' prose can be downright clunky and infodumpy, with frequent diversions into flashbacks while big things are going on in the present. I wasn't a fan of McCormick's voices either (though she did do a killer Effie). The power of the book comes from two things: the sheer horror of the premise, and Katniss herself.

After so much exposure to the premise, from having read the book first and then the movie hype, you'd think I'd be used to it by now, but oh God. I'm so not. Children killing each other, and their families being forced not only to watch but also to treat it as entertainment? It's the nausea that keeps on giving. Every time I think I'm hardened to it, I run across something else that makes me goggle in horror. Mostly, this comes from the disconnect between the Capitol dwellers and the district Tributes, particularly those like Effie Trinket, Caesar Flickerman, and Katniss's design team, who make their living from these games. They see these kids year after year, up close and personal as they shine them up for the unforgiving eye of the camera, then see them die, and the next year they do it all over again. The next year they are able to do it all over again. That's a special kind of soullessness.

I've heard people complain about Katniss. She's self-involved, off-putting in her determined self-sufficiency. She doesn't change, doesn't grow. In fact, I think she's so complex to start with that a fair amount of the book is taken up with simply getting to know her, even though we're in her head.

Everyone tries to make her into something, with limited success. My favorite example of this is when Haymitch is trying to prep her for her interview, trying on different personae like coats, and finally gives up in disgust. When she's told to be honest, her interview is a semi-successful blend of sparkling girl and ferocious warrior, but in truth she's not wholly either.

She tries to be hard and uncaring. In fact, when I was listening to the first chapter, I was amazed at how brittle she came across. But then you see the flashes of the girl underneath, the tender heart protected by a thick hedge of thorns. Katniss is as tough as she is on the outside because she's so vulnerable underneath. Perhaps due to her awareness of this, she reacts with fury and horror at any suggestion that she might be weak or in need of help (in fact, at the suggestion that she might have any stereotypically feminine traits, which is probably a subject for an entire Gender Studies thesis).

As a revolutionary, Katniss is a total disaster. She doesn't care about changing the world. She's worried about staying in it. It's other people that ignite her sense of the tremendous unfairness of it all. Or more accurately, her sense that something can be done, because she's known from the start that the world is unfair. As it happens, it's Gale and Peeta who jointly effect this change. Don't tell the "teams," but these two boys are far more similar, both as individual characters and in their relationships with Katniss, then they'd like to admit.

No, she's not a comfortable person to spend an entire book with. In fact, there are times when she's downright smackable. But whether she's being tough or impulsive or sad or nasty or simply shooting herself in the foot, she's definitely interesting, and definitely someone you want to spend a book with, comfortable or not.

48HBC Book Ten: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood

Time: 1:29:21
Source: Local Library

My last print book for the evening. I'm crashing hard, and I'm quite content with the amount that I've read.

Capsule review: "Wood retains the madcap feel of the first book, and adds a few sparse crumbs to the great mystery of the Incorrigible children."

Now I'll listen to my audiobook for awhile and try to write something about that before I go to bed. Or possibly in the morning.

48HBC Book Nine: Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg

Time: 0:58:30
Source: Local Library

I'm getting to the point in this challenge where I want light and easy books. This one fit the bill nicely.

Capsule review: "Pride and Prejudice is my all-time favorite book in the universe, so anytime I see a retelling, I'm compelled to pick it up. It's always fun to see how plot points and characters get morphed into a different setting. This one was enjoyable, if a little clunky in spots. . . . But it was an entertaining way to spend an hour."

48HBC Book Eight: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Time: 3:12:16
Source: Local Library

This one actually took longer than I thought it would. Not sure if I'm getting tired or there was just a lot more to it than I was expecting. Probably both.

Capsule Review: "If you're a plot person, don't read this. If you're into strict realism, don't read this. But if you love wicked satire with just enough silliness to keep you laughing, feminism with some teeth, stories about love and friendship and identity and courage . . .Well, this is the book for you."

48HBC Book Seven: Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger

Time: 0:36:24
Source: Local Library

After the marathon that was Froi of the Exiles, this quick and light-hearted read was just what I needed.

Capsule Review: "The great charm of these novels is that they're not about Star Wars at all, but about the thorny social interactions of tweens, wobbling on the threshold of teenagerhood."

48HBC Book Six: Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta

Time: 4:26:09
Source: Local Library

Wow. I saved this one for this morning, when I had a little more energy. Smart move. Compared with some of the others on my stack, this was a marathon all by itself.

Capsule Review: "This was a behemoth of a book, weighing in at nearly 600 pages, and not light ones either. It's a complex tapestry of a novel, with multiple plotlines, secrets, and schemes to follow. I stuck with it for the characters. Froi, impulsive, hot-tempered, and unexpectedly sweet. Quintana, both damaged and powerful in ways that keep being discovered."

I'm definitely going for a very quick and easy read next.

48HBC Book Five: Leverage by Joshua Cohen

Time: 2:37:03
Source: Local Library

Oof. Last full book for the night. I may read a few pages of another one before I fall asleep, but definitely not a whole book. I think my review's probably a little incoherent too. Good thing you're only seeing the . . .

Capsule review: "At one point, I had to set the book down and go do other things for awhile. Not during the rape, as you might think, but shortly afterward . . . You get a glimpse into how these narcissistic young men have come to believe that they can do whatever they want without consequences, because the adults in their life have taught them that athletic prowess equals moral superiority, which equals untouchability."

48HBC Book Four: Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel

Time: 1:45:21
Source: Review copy from publisher via NetGalley

My fourth book, and I'm on a definite fantasy kick.

Capsule review: "But what really knocks this book out of the park for me is the way that history and fairy lore weave together. For every wish granted, for every mythical monster that strolls on the stage, there's something equally strange but true to anchor it. . . . Wild and weird, rich and textured, this is a freaking amazing book. And I want more."

However, Joshua Cohen's Leverage may be calling my name . . . 

48-HBC Book Three: Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George

Time: 1:30:59
Source: Local Library

Continuing on with my retold-fairy-tales theme from A Tale Dark & Grimm, I picked up this one, which I've been waiting to read for awhile.

Capsule Review: "This is a book that so easily could have had the wrong heroine. I spent a great deal of it going, 'Oh for Crissakes, Eleanora, grow up.' Though she is the Cinderella in this story, she's also whiny, self-pitying, and tends to depend on others to rescue her. It's our good luck that our heroine is Poppy, who is practical, capable, and brave."

I'm going to take a short knitting break (there was knitting all over this story!) and listen to some of my audiobook before picking up my next print book.

48HBC Book Two: A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Time: 0:46:22
Source: Local Library

I needed something fast and entertaining and totally different, so I picked up this book, which is pretty famous for its gore content. It fit the bill.

Capsule Review: "In this sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes scary, often gruesome, and always marvellously entertaining book, Gidwitz has stitched together some of the Brothers Grimm's most bloody tales. . . . I think kids will eat up this fast, gruesome ride, and come out of it with a new desire for the fairy tales that they've always encountered in their sanitized versions before."

48HBC Book One: What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

Time: 2:22:36
Source: Local Library, downloaded onto my Nook

My first 48-HBC book! I started it before work this morning, stopped about an hour in to go earn some of my paycheck, and finished it when I came back.

Capsule review, snipped from the full-length review that I just wrote to be posted later this summer: "Although it hit all the usual marks, I feel like this book never really came together for me. The different threads somehow didn't mesh."

Now a brief blog-socializing break, and then on to my next book.