The World's Common Tater

It was a down reading month for me. I only finished three books, but I am including the fourth book I did not finish because I spent way too much time on it before giving up. I had a second book I would have quit if it was not for book club. Here’s hoping May will be better.

The Rebel Mages by Laurie Forest

Rebel Mages contains two novellas that are prequels to The Black Witch – you can read what I wrote about the series here.

The first novella is Wandfasted. It tells the story of how the parents of the main character from The Black Witch met. It was more romance than a fantasy novel, but as someone who read the series, I enjoyed reading about the characters we had not met before.

The second novella is Light Mage. It tells the story of Sage Gaffney, the mage who possessed the White Wand before the Elloren, the main character in the series. It gives us a glimpse into how the Gardnerians had started to oppress all of the other races after they took power and the beginnings of the resistance. 

I enjoyed the stories, but I felt like Light Mage was a bit too long.

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler

This is the story of John Wilkes Booth’s family told from the perspective of his siblings. In theory, it sounded like a book I would like. I didn’t realize how little I would care about the early life of John Wilkes Booth’s siblings. I tried. I tried longer than I should have tried. It was time to move on to better things. It is not a bad book. It just wasn’t for me.

Hello, Transcriber by Hannah Morrissey

Hazel Greenlee starts work as a police transcriber in Black Harbor, one of Wisconsin’s most crime-ridden cities. She spends the overnight shift listening to the detectives tell the cities secrets. When her neighbor confesses to helping hide the body of an overdose victim in a dumpster she is drawn into the case and the orbit of Detective Nikolai Kole.

It took me much longer to read the book than it should have. It was less than 300 pages and a mystery. I just never felt that compelled to pick it up again I didn’t feel connected enough to Hazel or Kole to care much about their story. The resolution of the murder case was underwhelming. I think I would have preferred a book about Hannah’s sister, the host of a radio show.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

 Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced by the Bolsheviks to house arrest in a luxury hotel in Moscow. The book is about his life in the hotel over the years. 

If you read my post a few days ago you know I struggled with this one. It took way too long for me to get to a point where I cared anything about the count and his story. It wasn’t until halfway through the book that I got to a point where I didn’t want to find anything else to do besides read the book. If it was not for book club I would have quit reading it. I can see why people like it. It just wasn’t for me.