Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami , Gretel Erlich

While Gretel Erlich obviously feels deeply about Japan, and her experiences there both before and after the tsunami, I did not enjoy this book at all.
I was hoping to read about the tsunami and learn about the geology, the earthquake, the people, the effects, Fukishima, the radiation, and the aftermath, like Douglas Brinkley's book The Great Deluge covers Hurricane Katrina, but this is not the book for that.
This book instead felt (to me) very self absorbed and even upsetting- as soon as the disaster happened, this writer rushed there not to help, or even, apparently, effectively document what was going on, but rather to experience the drama and tragedy first hand, and to write some Japanese style poetry about her feelings about it all.
I found the book to be weakly written, in terms of factual information and also in narrative structure, I found the poetry to be mawkish, and I found the entire book to be unsettlingly condescending and a nasty piece of culture-vulture disaster-tourism work.

Angel Wings, Howard Kaminsky

When murdered prostitutes start being found in Providence, made up to look like dead angels, Detective Danny Martell is on the case. But when his wife, Linda, disappears and then is found dead in what seems to be a copycat killing, his involvement becomes much more personal.
This could have been a solid noir thriller, but the protagonist, Martell, is absolutely vile. He barely mourns his wife, his detection skills and work ethic are weak, and half the book seemed to be given over to describing delicious sounding feasts of Italian food on Federal Hill.
Should have been a cookbook- would have left the reader with more satisfaction than the half-baked ending.

Wolves of the Beyond, Kathryn Lasky

Talking, surfing wolves. WTF?

All The Right Stuff, Walter Dean Myers

Preachy urban YA.

Dead To You, Lisa McMann

YA abduction trauma drama.

Darkwater, Catherine Fisher

Soul selling nonsense.

Shadows Cast By Stars, Catherine Knutson

Paranormal YA with First People legends and lots of blood harvesting.

The Chaos, Nalo Hopkinson

??? Surreal apocalyptic paranormal GLBQT YA.

Changeling, Philippa Gregory

Hist fic, paranormal YA.

Red Heart Tattoo, Lurlene McDaniel

School shooting, trauma drama.

My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan, Seth Rudetsky

Devine Intervention, Martha Brockenbrough

Paranormal YA.

The Gathering Storm, by Robin Bridges

ABSURD YA. Set among the Russian aristocracy in the 1890s, I thought this had promise, but the inclusion of vampires, zombies, witches and so on was a bit much.

Sugarhouse, by Matthew Batt

expected a funny take on home renovation, similar in tone to The House on First Street , but despite the fun looking cover and title, the book really turned into a kind of depressing family story.
Even the parts about the home renovation tasks that the author and his wife took on were not terrifically funny or interesting, and the smug satisfaction kind of reeked.
Yes, it is very cool that they laid a slate floor- but seriously, every person who has laid tile of any kind has that same exact story, and manage to not sound like Smug McSmuggery about it.
There was hardly any mention of any amusing/frightening/interesting encounters with neighbors or ex-users of the crack house (which, honestly, it didn't seem to have been one) and the home repair parts were dull, the smugness clouded everything, and if I had wanted to read a book about a gold-digger named Tonya fleecing a guy's grandad out of his money, I would have chosen a book that didn't pretend to be a funny book about renovating a house.
Misleading and not funny. Depressing and smug.

Damned, by Chuck Palahniuk

I still can't stand Palahniuk. This was loathsome.

Arranged, by Catherine McKenzie

Wow. I really LOVED Spin, by Catherine McKenzie, so was excited to read Arranged, but gosh, it read like it was written by a different person.
The protagonist, named Anne Blythe (over the top, no?) is so desperate to be in a relationship that she pays $10,000 to an arranged marriage service.
This book just made me depressed. Without spoiling the "plot" for other readers, this just painted Anne as a sad and lonely and rather pathetic woman unable to live without a partner.
I thought women had come along way, baby, but you'd never know it from reading this.
I felt insulted as a woman and a reader by just about everything in this book, and am profoundly disappointed, as after reading Spin, I had thought I'd found a fun, new writer writing about realistic women, but I just have to say, read Marian Keyes instead.     

Running With Trains, by Michael Rosen

Novel in poetry about cows and running and Vietnam or something.

White Girl Problems, by Babe Walker

UGH. One of the worst books I've read in a long time- I can't believe I finished this shallow foul cesspit of a book.Waste of paper.

These Days Are Ours, by Michelle Haimhoff

Repellent post 9/11 novel about underachieving spoiled rich kids in NYC. From the vain and narcissistic protagonist who wants another terrorist attack to happen so she wont be under pressure to get a job to the trust fund kid who walks around with holes in his sweaters, every character was unpleasant except Adrian, a 'poor kid' who went to Brown on scholarship, and doesn't need to hang out with this pack of losers.

Death Comes to Pemberley, by P.D. James

Yet ANOTHER sequel to Pride and Prejudice, this time in the form of a mystery byt the usually talented P.D. James, but as with almost every Austen adaptation/sequel/whatever, it was pretty awful.