Unabridged Chick

January

Kerry Greenwood, Cocaine Blues: a Phryne Fisher mystery (8/10)
Linda L. Richards, Death was the Other Woman (8/10)
various Akashic Noir short stories collections (about 6/10)
Denise Hamilton, ed., Los Angeles Noir
Jarret Keene & Todd James Pierce, eds., Las Vegas Noir
Peter Maravelis, ed., San Francisco Noir
Aurelien Masson, ed., Paris Noir
Neal Pollack, ed., Chicago Noir
Mustafa Ziyalan & Amy Spangler, eds., Istanbul NoirFebruary

Kerry Greenwood, Flying Too High: a Phryne Fisher mystery (7/10)

March

None

April

Kerry Greenwood, Murder on the Ballarat Train: a Phryne Fisher mystery (8/10)

May

Kerry Greenwood, Death at Victoria Dock: a Phryne Fisher mystery (6/10)
Kerry Greenwood, The Green Mill Murder: a Phryne Fisher mystery (6/10)
Julia Leigh, Disquiet (7/10)

June

Henry James, Daisy Miller (7/10)

July

Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice (6/10)

August

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and the Damned (9/10)

September

None

October

Charlotte Greig, A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy (9/10…

Title: The Monsters of Templeton
Author: Lauren Groff
Genre: Lit Fic

Love/Hate?: Not hate.
Rating: 4/5
Did you finish?: Yes.
One-sentence summary: Spoiled gorgeous Willie returns to her small town to find herself.

Why did you get this book?: The cover and I really thought it was about monsters.
Do you like the cover?: The cover is gorgeous!
First line from book: The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass.

Review: Even though the New York Times says that the narrator/heroine Willie Upton is "disarming and smart" and more interesting than "the elaborate events that surround her", I actually found the opposite to be true. Willie seemed spoiled and entitled and in dire need of a reality check; her mother, Vi, was maddening, and her best friend too perfect. It was like watching a rom com with the appropriately wacky supporting cast. In the end, it wasn't Willie that kept me reading, but her ancestor…

Title: A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy
Author: Charlotte Greig
Genre: Fiction

Love/Hate?: Love
Rating: 5/5
Did you finish?: Yes.
One-sentence summary: Men are rubbish. So were the '70s.

Why did you get this book?: Buzz on Bookslut.
Do you like the cover?: I hated the cover. It made it appear v chick-lit-y, which it wasn't.

First line from book: I woke up late that morning.

Review: I had mixed feelings when I began the book but by the end, I couldn't put it down. Susannah was actually very engaging, despite her bad life choices, and I found her plight far more moving than I anticipated. The conclusion was very satisfying -- I thought it was going to be a she-had-the-baby-and-lived-happily-ever-after wrap up, and it wasn't.

Tropes?: Men are rubbish.