Two thumbs up for Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer. Literature.
I enjoyed the previous book, Less, very much. This one, in which the eponymous Less stumbles across America, is even better. I wouldn’t suggest reading this if you haven’t read Less (though I suppose you could), but if you have and are wondering whether to read this one too, the answer is yes.… >> Read more
Two thumbs up for Less by Andrew Sean Greer. Literature.
What a delightful trifle of a book! I can’t believe a comedy – a truly funny and shockingly good-hearted comedy – won the Pulitzer Prize. (Can comedies win things?) Our titular character, Arthur Less, almost fifty, a good but not famous or rich novelist, is invited to the wedding of his younger ex-lover.… >> Read more
Thumbs up for The Wisteria Society for Lady Scoundrels by India Holton. Historical fantasy romance.
This book is bananas, in the best way. From the description, I was expecting a Victorian romance with some derring-do, maybe some swashbuckling. On page two, a handsome pirate knocked on the door of the ladies’ genteel townhouse; by page four we had established that the ladies are also pirates; and on page eight it is made clear that said pirates use magical incantations to levitate and fly their houses for the purposes of looting and plundering and assassinating each other.… >> Read more
Thumbs up for The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C. M. Waggoner. Romantic fantasy.
Setting: sort of a gaslamp London-equivalent, but there’s magic, and same-sex marriages are ordinary. Delly, a guttersnipe firewitch, being in need of money to keep herself and her drug-addicted mother housed, applies for a job bodyguarding an upper-crust lady. Joining her are a handful of other female magic-users, including a strapping lass with good (marital) intentions.… >> Read more