I went into this book not knowing anything about it, not even the genre, and I am actually really glad that happened because it meant that I was dropped into a story without understanding the context in which it was told, which I think made it substantially more interesting.  

Fundamentally, though, his is a survival in the woods story about our relationship with nature and living off the land in tune with the animals who live beside us. There is a lot of hunting and fishing and dealing with the bodies of dead animals, which I always dislike. I almost lost my mind reading Moby Dick in high school. But the way this was written was softer and you could feel the characters' reverence for the world and this made it tolerant for me.

It is a short book, making for a quick read with writing that is quite lovely.

Stop here, if you don't want spoilers. I thought that I Who Have Never Known Men was such a unique post-apocalyptic story. This book, written 2 years later, reminded me so much of that book.  Different setting and backstory, but similar in the way that both tell the story of the last human, alone amidst the ruins of a civilization.  Here, though, the story is softer as the last human lives out her life in the company of a bear and a puma.  

Ultimately, I am going to give it a soft recommend.

A intergenerational tale of trauma and resilience, this is a book that I probably should have liked a lot more than I did.  From the healing midwife to the witch trial to the women who raised children alone without men to the women who helped women end unwanted pregnancies to institutionalization of spirited women, the story took every trope from this genre and spun it out as far as it could go and beyond.  I felt like I have just read so many variations of this same story and that this one didn't really have anything new to offer. I know it was written to try to get me to feel the empowerment of survival, but I just didn't feel that. I mostly felt the tedium, the exhaustion of intimate violence, handed down generation after generation against women who did not fit the feminine expectations.  I think the book tried to do too much and as such there wasn't enough character development.  I might have liked it better if it slowed down, maybe covering one generation per book and made it an extended series where each lifetime and personality was explored more in depth and with more detail. There was so much here, I sometimes lost track of the characters only to go back and realize that the person I couldn't remember was newly introduced without any clear indication that was happening.
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​Not recommended.

This tale builds an alternate reality that defies all rules of physics and common sense, setting a scene in which a parallel world exists of creatures who collect regretted decisions, turn them into birds and cage them. In that world, destiny is tattooed on a baby at birth and there is not free will or choice. It is fueled by the collection of regretted choices that people in this world don't want to or can't bear. They give away the memory of the choice in exchange for freedom from the weight of that choice.

Against this odd backdrop. the adventure is when the worlds collide and the characters explore what a life in which you did or didn't have choice would be like.  The fantasy of the story is quite odd as they jump through puddles that connect space and time, fly on origami cranes, and encounter zombie babies.  

I mostly did not find the fantasy world enthralling enough to overcome the too-obvious symbolism in the book and I didn't find the philosophical reflections about choice and destiny to be enough to overcome the lackluster worldbuilding.  For sure, there were lovely moments and some of the interpersonal relationship development was well done.  I can see how folks find this "enchanting," as the book cover suggests. I was just never really captivated by it.

​Not recommended.

At its core, this is a ghost story, a violent, horrifying ghost story about the kids banished to a reformatory for committing petty mostly pretty crimes.  The main character, a young Black boy incarcerated in a reformatory school for defending himself in a fight. Everything about this book is dark, graphic, and depressing, except maybe the very end, but by then it was too late for me to appreciate that.  I don't like horror or graphic violence, so this was just not for me at all. 

I suppose I wish I were the kind of person who could tolerate this level of historically accurate misery better, but even with what could be considered an empowering ending, I just couldn't get a lot of the terrorizing scenes out of my mind and while that might have been justified by the context of the story or even the point of the book, the gore and horror of it was too much. 

Do not recommend.
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The premise of the book was interesting enough, but the execution was kind of dark and broody.  A golem and a jinni find each other living parallel lives from Syria to New York, navigating a life of otherness, interspersed with kindness from strangers they befriend and lovers they become entangled with in various ways. I did appreciate the historical depiction at the end of the 1800's in those locations.  Overarching themes of loneliness and trying to connect when your very nature seems to disallow for connection make this a melancholic,  intellectual read. In some ways, the ways in which the golem, in particular, avoided abuse of lovely people who protected her and her secret was heartwarming, but the overall mood of the book left a sad haze over me that I couldn't shake and didn't love. But I for sure can see how folks who love this type of fantasy could love this tale.

Not recommended.

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A steamy fantasy romance centered around Scottish legend and lore, this was a fun, light read for my Scotland trip.  With magic and mythology, family dysfunction, and definite adult content, I wouldn't say this is high literature by any stretch of the imagination, but added to a traveling book list, it is a definite yes for romance fans. The one major bummer is that it is an American author, writing about an American woman doing a legacy trip to Scotland to find her roots after the death of her father.  But, as a fun, light, sexy plane book?  I would add it to your list.

Recommend.

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I have to say that I just love a good time travel book and this is a spectacularly good time travel book.  With a complicated plot, rich characters with depth, and a fairly believable world, the story is captivating and I did not want to take a break from it.  I particularly loved how much time I invested in trying to keep track of the loose ends and the satisfaction I had as they all came together as the story enfolded in an interconnected and unexpected way.

​The foreshadowing was there, so that the ending came together smoothly, but not so much so that it was predictable or trite.  I also love a book in which friendship is the at the center of the story and this book developed many storylines around friendships, some of them particularly sweet, though perhaps unconventional.  The relationship between the protagonist Cass and her grandfather is melancholic and haunting, but so endearing.  You'll need space in your life to really pay attention to the details, because there is a lot going on that you will want to keep track of as the story unfolds. 

And I have a soft spot for books that take place in bookstores and libraries and this has the added benefit of having both of those.

And extra bonus points for the unexpected Oregon connection.
 
Highly recommend.
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I did not even know there was a genre of literature called "feminist horror."  I am not a horror fan, despite there being quire a number of horror books recommended to me this year, so I came into this read more than a bit skeptical and a little worried about how it would impact me.  This book was nothing like what I was expecting.  It was actually just kind of awesome.  A murder mystery within a murder mystery, I found the supernatural twists to be fun in a dark kind of way and its fast pace, quirky characters, and unusual fantasy world where the "normal" rules for ghosts/monsters don't apply to be captivating.  Add in the pay-back for intimate violence themes that resonates with many survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, and I was hooked. 

This recommendation might be the epitome of why I really enjoy this project because I absolutely never would have read this book but for the fact that I read every book on this list every year.  I was sure this would fall into the category of "I love to hate a book almost as much as I love to love to book," ultimately the best part of this project is when I love a book I was sure I was going to hate. And that is what happened here.

Recommend.

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I will preface this by saying that I am not a fan of horror, either in books or movies, but part of this project is that I read and finish every book and in this case, even though the bottom line is going to be a Not Recommended label, I have to say that I thought and talked about this book a remarkable amount for not recommending it to anyone. 

This book is about truly awful, abusive mothers with borderline personality disorders who torture and haunt their children, even after their death.  The lack of clarity about whether the haunting is real or a shared delusion as a result of the trauma these mothers inflicted on their children, step-children, and children-in-law, is truly horrifying and the book in general was, indeed, horrific. 

That said, the ending was so clever and the cleverness of the ending only adding to the horror of the story.  Although it is a full book, it had the pacing and feel more in line with that of a short story, including the way the ending of the story lands with the slow realization of what is happening having the feel of The Gift of the Magi or The Lottery. 

If you are a fan of horror, then this may very well be for you, but I can't really recommend it otherwise. I did give serious thought to a Not Not Recommendation, but ultimately decided that it really was just too disturbing for that.

Not recommended.

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This is the first Brian Sanderson book that I have read that I did not hate.  I was fully prepared not to like it, but it turns out that it was pretty clever.  The fantasy world was fascinating, with the ocean of something-not-water, the talking rat, and the hexes. The main character, a young woman, is constantly underestimated by everyone ,including herself, and my favorite plot twist was a brilliant strategy she came up with to out-maneuver another character and foil their evil plot.  I didn't see the twist coming and I was just so impressed with how she turned the situation on its head, all while realistically suffering from imposer syndrome and working her way up from the very lowest position on a boat of pirates.  Despite my traditional dislike of the Sanderson books, I am going to give this one a recommend.

Recommend.
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