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AnnieSmith

AnnieSmith

Joined April 2016

review
AnnieSmith
The Sunlight Pilgrims | Jenni Fagan
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Pickpick

More interesting for its depiction of a young transgender teen during her transition and for a young man's grief than its depiction of climate change. Not sure if I liked the ending or not. NetGalley ARC.

1 like1 stack add
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AnnieSmith
My Real Children | Jo Walton
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Pickpick

We all have critical decisions in our lives, but we usually don't get to learn what would have happened if we'd made the other choice. This book is all about what if. Very good, even though I think it has a problem with bias.

7 likes1 stack add
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AnnieSmith
Under the Harrow | Mark Dunn
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So glad I stumbled on this book in my library. It is the story of a valley untouched by the outside world for over a century. It all started as a social experiment, but the wheels are coming off spectacularly. The best part is that the people in the valley's culture is inspired by Sickens.

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AnnieSmith
My Cousin Rachel | Daphne Du Maurier
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Mehso-so

The psychological suspense in this novel it's worth wading through some misogyny. Phillip suspects Rachel of poisoning his cousin, but is he seeing crime where none exists? Absolutely tremendous ending.

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AnnieSmith
Misery | Stephen King
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4 likes1 stack add
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AnnieSmith
Vinegar Girl | Anne Tyler
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A wonderful retelling of The Taming of the Shrew that makes the ending work! NetGalley ARC.

4 likes2 stack adds
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AnnieSmith
The Bones of Grace | Tahmima Anam
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An affecting novel narrated by a woman who has messed up her life. The novel is framed by this woman's explanation to her lost love about why she did what she did. It also contains an atmospheric portrayl portrait of Bangladesh. Edelweiss ARC.

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AnnieSmith
Book of Esther | Emily Barton
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An incredible alternate history based on the premise that the medieval Jewish kingdom of Khazaria survived to the twentieth century's the kingdom new faces a Nazi invasion and it's up to Esther and her ragtag army of golems & Uyghurs to face them. NetGalley ARC.

3 likes1 stack add
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AnnieSmith
The Crane Wife | Patrick Ness
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Amazing novel about a lonely man who blunders into a folk tale. George's life is turned upside down after he rescues a crane. By the end, he will discover art, love, betrayal, and sacrifice.

5 likes1 stack add
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AnnieSmith
What We Become: A Novel | Arturo Perez-Reverte
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Pickpick

This is a forty year tango between two people who keep getting tangled up in their own schemes, but who connect to each other so closely that that haunt each other for decades. Rich and atmospheric. NetGalley ARC.

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AnnieSmith
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Pickpick

A wonderfully incongruous exploration of the discoveries and inventions that keep America's soldiers, sailors, and marines safer in the line of duty--told with Roach's trademark goofiness and humor. I had a great time with this one. NetGalley ARC.

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AnnieSmith
Clinch | Martin Holmen
Mehso-so

Noir set in Stockholm in the 1930s, with an ex-boxer as a reluctant detective trying to clear his name. Some events regarding consent may be triggering. NetGalley ARC.

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AnnieSmith

This book is so funny and weird I want to quote all of it. I

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AnnieSmith
Grand hotel | Vicki Baum
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Pickpick

Wonderful novel of linked character stories rescued from obscurity. Baum has created fully human portraits of the hotel guests that will show you the highs and lows of life in late Weimar Berlin. So good I wonder why this author isn't better known.

3 likes1 stack add
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AnnieSmith
The Rabbit Back Literature Society | Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen
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A demented look inside the minds of writers, seasoned with Finnish folklore for a supernatural flavour. The plot was delightfully unpredictable--as soon as I thought I'd figured everything out, another layer would present itself.

Merethebookgal It was SO good, right? My podcast just had the opportunity to interview Pasi and he gave some great insight to the book! 8y
6 likes1 stack add1 comment
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AnnieSmith
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Pickpick

Moving account of a Laguna man suffering from PTSD trying to reconnect through a new warrior's ceremony. Hypnotic writing.

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AnnieSmith
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Pg 34 of the kindle edition

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AnnieSmith
A Borrowed Man | Gene Wolfe
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Pickpick

No matter how futuristic the setting, a good mystery plot will always work. Wolfe updates a noir plot to a future where people can check authors out of the library, so our detective is a cloned mystery writer from our time. After check out, our hero lands in a tangled family conspiracy.

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AnnieSmith
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Fantastic new entry in the series. Wonderfully diverse. Terrific characters. Amazingly bizarre plot. I loved every page of this contemporary fantasy.

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AnnieSmith
The Night Watch | Sarah Waters
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This story of Londoners living through the blitz and their love lives should not work, as it's written backwards. And yet, it does. We see where these characters end up in 1947, then work backwards to see how they got there. Brilliant writing from Waters.

AnnieSmith That's Mogwai the Amazing Photobombing Cat in the background. 8y
4 likes1 stack add1 comment
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AnnieSmith
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Pickpick

Amazing mash up of horror, fantasy, and western. The novel tells the story of Jake Tracy as he finally learns to set aside his personal demons to use his strange abilities to fight some real demons. Loads of adventure and top notch characterization.

2 likes1 stack add
blurb
AnnieSmith

Really digging this tale of a former soldier fighting ghosts and demons in 1880's St. Louis. Great dialogue. Messinger has a great talent for setting the right tone while messing with the genre.

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AnnieSmith
The Orphan Sky | Ella Leya
Panpan

It started good before fading to fine. I finished it because I enjoyed to setting. I'd never read a book set in Baku or Azerbaijan before. Unfortunately, the setting didn't make up for characters who changed moods at the drop of a sentence.

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AnnieSmith
The Orphan Sky | Ella Leya

I hate it when I can spot the point where the author's attention started to wander... And that point is two-thirds of the way through.

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AnnieSmith
The Eyre Affair: A Novel | Jasper Fforde
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One of my very favorite books. It's got wonderfully demented action and is packed with literary jokes. Every time I read it, I fall in love again and want to chain-read the entire series.

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AnnieSmith
The Queue | Basma Abdel Aziz
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Pickpick

A bit heavy handed, but very interesting tale of people caught in a stalled bureaucracy. Every day brings new requirements. & forms that the protagonist needs to have surgery to have a bullet removed before it kills him, but officially, the bullet doesn't exist. This is Kafka in Egypt. Netgalley ARC

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AnnieSmith
The Queue | Basma Abdel Aziz

It's Kafka in Egypt. So good!

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AnnieSmith
Shadow and Bone | Leigh Bardugo
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Russian-flavored YA with a brilliant twist at the end. I do wish the author had spent a little more time world-building, but the characters are good and the plot even better.

4 likes1 stack add
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AnnieSmith
Barren Cove: A Novel | Ariel S. Winter
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Mehso-so

A strange retelling of Wuthering Heights with angsty robots. All of them struggle with identity and purpose, wondering what to do with no orders or vision or mission. In watching them struggle, we too need to think about our own purpose. NetGalley ARC.

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AnnieSmith
Barren Cove: A Novel | Ariel S. Winter

Why do all sentient robot stories end up as existential crises?

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AnnieSmith
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Mehso-so

Two lives mixed with philosophy and art in an exploration of the meaning of life. Some readers may be annoyed by the pacing and irritating teenager thoughts, but there is some good stuff here.

3 likes1 stack add
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AnnieSmith

Two-thirds of the way through and am still not sure if it's pretentious or just very intellectual.

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AnnieSmith
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Pickpick

Utterly demented tale of a family's obsession with time travel and their descendent's attempt to document their madness. Or is it madness?

3 likes1 stack add
blurb
AnnieSmith

Reading The Lost Time Accidents and it's pretty weird. I'd say really weird but The Weaver Fish had wrecked the curve on bonkers scifi.

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AnnieSmith
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A melancholy but introspective portrait of a writer during the French Occupation. It doesn't take much effort to work out who the writer is, so you'll spend the rest of the book looking for echoes of his work. Very, very interesting. NetGalley ARC.

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AnnieSmith
Pickpick

Even though MacLean is too fond of one sentence paragraphs, I rather enjoyed this tale of a wallflower finding love and a man learning that love is possible after a broken heart.

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AnnieSmith
Nazi Hunters | Andrew Nagorski
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Mehso-so

Nagorski reveals the complicated history of tracking down Nazi war criminals from the end of World War II up through the recent case against Iwan Demjanuk. As war criminals went to ground around the world, their pursuers had to fight against indifference, red tape, and each other's egos.

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AnnieSmith
Nazi Hunters | Andrew Nagorski

30% of the way through this and, since I read Hiding in Plain Sight last month, am starting to worry if I've hit my saturation level fit reading about war criminals or if the book just needed more editing.

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AnnieSmith
Native Guard | Natasha Trethewey
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Had the pleasure of hearing Trethewey read from this and some of her other collections today. I loved the profound simplicity of her words and her voice is beautiful. Amazing.

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AnnieSmith
Pickpick

Fascinating fucked up philosophical science fiction about a social experiment teetering on the edge of war.

3 likes1 stack add