I had to go back and read this one so that I could read the second one (which I started before noticing it was part of a series). This is a classic novel from my high school years which has that adorable almost-there social sensibility (i.e. talks about racism but still employs things that are clearly now racist tropes, similar with sexism) surrounding a tale about what is essentially peace-through-facism and the ones who fought it. A little sleepy but a good read.

It’s hard to talk about this book without discussing where it does or does not go but I will say I was expecting it to be one sort of book and it turned out to be another. This story of a dead scientist found in the LHC tunnels had a great plot and super uneven pacing. It also had some expository devices which I didn’t really enjoy (i.e. some of the plot reveal takes place in a holiday play sort of format and I felt like I was in some sort of Shakespeare situation) but maybe they’re right for a different type of person. It nearly entirely takes place at CERN and there’s a lot of fun Swiss stuff and science-y stuff in it but ultimately it didn’t work for me as a novel, I was left at the end not sure if I had understood the plot or not.

I got this book from a local Little Free Bookshelf and it reminded me pleasantly of the brief period of time when I had a motorcycle and also of the positive and negative aspects of motorcycle ownership especially for a woman. I also did not know that the author had been married to an acquaintance of mine, so that was an odd little surprise. A lot of fun motorcycle stories, a little bit floridly told. If you like Moto Guzzis, this is the book for you.

There was so much going on in this book! I picked it up because I liked her other book on a different topic and this one is new. A man who is a ballet dancer immigrates to Mars as the Earth becomes uninhabitable. That’s a whole thing! He learns that people who are “Earthstrong” (i.e. born on Earth with more muscle mass and adapted to more gravity) are in a weird class of “dangerous” people and treated accordingly. Mars natives live in a genderless society where they’ve been genetically adapted to a planet that is dusty and cold. They are tall. They have musculature developed to the gravity. Then there is some palace-intrigue type stuff which is maybe the bulk of the book and I liked it. I figured out some of the conceits and not others. Also there are mammoths but not in a way that was goofy or felt out of place and shoehorned in. Quite good.

I could not remember as much of the previous book as I’d thought I had, but that was fine. This is a “some years later” version of the same world with much less multiversing and much more (by the author’s own admission, in the foreword) rage. It’s a poetic look at intense inequality as seen through the eyes of those who have less, as they interact (or remember, or try to make deals with) those who are more privileged and who have, perhaps, even less of a code of honor.

This is the second in a series. Two woman, a detective and a scholar, wind up solving mysteries that take place on a gas giant planet which has a lot of fascinating world building as you might expect. So there’s some really interesting description of how it all works, which is lovely, and a lot of tasty foods, but then one character is often anxiously ruminating about "defining the relationship"which is less fun to read but maybe good for some? I found the discussion of their relationship somewhat distracting but that may be because I related much more strongly with one of the two characters.

This is illustrated by Erica Henderson who did a terrific job with it and helped make it delightful. A fun romp through adventure and friendship after the (sort of) end of the world. A adorable talking dog, some nice nostalgia trips, and a story that keeps on going in plausible but not terrible complicated ways. Definitely for the younger crowd, it’s just complex enough without being mystifying.

I heard people discussing this author when I was working at the library and took this book home on the strength of their enthusiasm. It’s basically a Vera-like character. It’s so close, in fact, that I had to check to make sure Griffiths didn’t write those. This woman is an archaeologist not a cop and it’s the EAST of England and not the North but I liked it enough to probably try the second one. There are some dead children in this book which I should point out just in case people find that sort of topic to upsetting. Some interesting archaeology history and not too gory or gruesome.

A great story about the quest for a bombmaker in 1880’s London, one who may have been a fancy watchmaker. And there are a few fancy watchmakers in town, one of whom is from a royal family in Japan and has some odd characteristics. Oh and Gilbert and Sullivan are nearby, and there is a clockwork octopus who steals socks. I’m not 100% sure I understood what was happening during this novel, but I enjoyed trying to figure it out. There’s a lot of great description, a bunch of characters who are flawed but compelling and a few women trying to do what is hard to do in old-time London. Ever so slightly magically realist in a way that I enjoyed.

An Argentine crime novel about a frustrated architect who is working in a dead end job with a few other co-workers. Over the course of the novel you realize they are bound together by a crime. I had thought the fact that this was a “crime novel” meant it was a mystery/cop story and this is not that. Ultimately I disliked the main character and the way he was objectifying the women around him. You’re supposed to, but it still didn’t work for me. This book was also read in translation and I kept feeling that some of the verbal tics of the characters were supposed to be more meaningful but I wasn’t sure how.