verumsolum's reviews
2719 reviews

Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler

4.75

Even 30 years after I finished high school, I have memories of those years that can make fiction set in high schools difficult for me to read: add in the combination of football and queerness (and other sources of conflict that I'll leave for your reading of the book), and this had the potential to be a book that I dragged myself through.

But this book is wonderful: it neither shies away from its issues, nor exaggerates them excessively. And it didn't lose sight of the people and interests that its characters loved. As a bonus for me, at the end of the book, our main character is

scouted by my wife's alma mater

.

I wouldn't go back to high school for a million dollars, but I enjoyed most of this fictional high-school experience and will probably see if I can find other books from this author

Vanishing Girls by Lisa Regan

4.5

A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths

4.75

Another strong book in this series: I’m somewhat surprised to enjoy it as much as I do, because I find its main character to be a baffling set of contradictions: brilliant at times but maddeningly bewildering at others. It may be a rare case where I find the plots more compelling than the characters, who sometimes feel too exaggerated for me to feel them to be real. 

How Do We Relationship?, Vol. 4 by Tamifull

4.25

I feel like this volume is the point where I realized that the writer isn’t intending to take me where I expected to go. A fair bit of this volume was uncomfortable for me to read. I’m still going to read the next volume, but beyond that relative to be determined: I can imagine enjoying some storylines that might follow this point, but I can imagine others that I wouldn’t. I’m not going to guess prematurely, I’ll just wait until I’ve read more and then decide whether I’d prefer to continue reading the series or whether I’d prefer to find something else to read. 

Word Perfect: Etymological Entertainment For Every Day of the Year by Susie Dent

5.0

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2025 by Jackie Sherbow, Janet Hutchings

For non-book records, review text and ratings are hidden. Only mood, pace, and content warnings are visible.

Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings by Lydia Sherrer

4.0

I start this review not knowing which star rating I’ll give to this book. Because I enjoyed myself, reading this book, but I also had some frustrations, areas where the book felt ever-so-slightly less than it could have been. 

To try to express this concisely: the plot held my interest, but the characters mostly feel to me like cardboard cutouts. I also was not fond of this book’s two-episode structure. 

The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal

5.0

Wow… I… want to meet Dr Elma York, not just read about her. Mary Robinette Kowal's writing has, all along, turned Elma into a character who feels more real than fictional to me, and I would love to sit in a café with her and chat about her experiences, which through these four books have brought me so much to imagine. In some ways, I'm still that child who was fantasizing about seeing things and going places where I have never been before. On Earth, I've seen some things that go far beyond the experiences of my first couple of decades of life. But as I grow older, I am beginning to realize that I need to be content with many of those dreams remaining dreams.

But this is supposed to be reviewing the fourth Lady Astronaut novel, not a self-indulgent personal reflection. And I need to give Kowal a ton of credit: I normally hate fiction where there's a great big secret and things would be much simpler if people would just open their — mouths and communicate. But Kowal has

taken a shared secret, but left the reader and most characters unaware of it. But the secret is weaved in as needed, not exaggerated. And when the secret is revealed, it makes sense of things we've wondered about in this book and fits with what we know from earlier in the series. (Actually, there are other secrets exposed in this book, too… but none of them feel like they are contrived to give the author another source of conflict and point of plot. They feel natural, because Kowal has worked to make those secrets as meaningful and real to the characters as they would be in real life: no more, but also no less.)

My only regret: reading this book too quickly. I want to still be in that world!

Advise and Consent by Allen Drury

5.0

I am somewhat surprised that I enjoyed my reading of this book as much as I did. I first found this book in a small remote library, the summer between high school and college, and loved it. I may have read it once more between then and now, but I am not certain. But a lot has happened in my life (and in politics) in the 30 years since I first read it (let alone what's happened in politics in the 40 years between this book's writing and the first time I read it).

Drury has done a good job of shedding many labels that might distract the reader into making comparisons between his characters and their non-fictional counterparts. And as a result, I was able to fall into its world without (too many) comparisons to the present-day figures in Washington. (That also meant that the book did not remind me of contemporary political… personalities, controversies, and injustices as often as I feared it might.)

I will definitely be continuing to reread this series.

A Side Character's Love Story, Vol. 18 by Akane Tamura

4.75

This volume seems to be finally moving past some of the friction that’s developed

while they’ve been apart

, and it was a more comfortable read. I wish it wouldn’t come to an end, though I guess ending is better than continuing without a story to tell; I get the sense that the story the writer wanted to share is mostly told. I’m very glad to have read this sweet series