en-US Fri, 04 Apr 2025 10:45:50 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 57062743 A deeply moving and insightful collection of personal essays from #1 bestselling author John Green, adapted from his critically acclaimed podcast.


The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet--from the QWERTY keyboard and Staphylococcus aureus to the Taco Bell breakfast menu--on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as "observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy." John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection that includes both beloved essays and all-new pieces exclusive to the book.

Narrated by the author.]]> 10 John Green 0593408535 Erin 5 2022, audiobook
But then came Tiktok, where I am fed a steady stream of posts from both him and Hank, his brother, and I grew to love them both so much. I love how much they respect and love each other, espcially.

So I went into this book very much loving John Green again. With every reference to Hank, and every bittersweet rating, I literally wept. He's so brilliant; he has the most astute way with words. Loved every second of reading this book, wish it were a million times longer. For the span that I was reading it I just kept thinking "I want to only be in this book forever."]]> 4.42 2021
author: John Green
name: Erin
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/01
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: 2022, audiobook
review:
Years ago, at the height of John Green's popularity, I felt a growing distaste for him--his writing felt too self-aware, too smug, too smart. I still respected him, though, so I listened to several episodes of The Anthropocene Reviewed podcast when I came upon it (before I essentially stopped listening to podcasts in exchange for audiobooks)--and I liked the podcast quite a bit.

But then came Tiktok, where I am fed a steady stream of posts from both him and Hank, his brother, and I grew to love them both so much. I love how much they respect and love each other, espcially.

So I went into this book very much loving John Green again. With every reference to Hank, and every bittersweet rating, I literally wept. He's so brilliant; he has the most astute way with words. Loved every second of reading this book, wish it were a million times longer. For the span that I was reading it I just kept thinking "I want to only be in this book forever."
]]> 38135574 2 Helene Hanff 1501968521 Erin 5 2024, audiobook 4.27 1970
author: Helene Hanff
name: Erin
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I cannot effuse more strongly about this book. Utterly charming, delightful, heartbreaking. Perfection.
]]> 42996336 Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal-El Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.

Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That’s how war works. Right?

Cowritten by two beloved and award-winning sci-fi writers, This Is How You Lose the Time War is an epic love story spanning time and space.]]> 5 Amal El-Mohtar 1508287058 Erin 4 2024, audiobook 3.62 2019
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Erin
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I actually started this in 2020, got 25% in, and realized I wasn't following it at all--I was maybe a bit distracted? Anyway, finally picked it back up (started over) and was struck by the clarity this time. The characters were so perfectly different, their story so compelling.
]]> 195791689 From the National Book Award–longlisted author of The Need comes an extraordinary novel about a wife and mother who—after losing her job to AI—undergoes a procedure that renders her undetectable to surveillance…but at what cost?

In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called “hums,�� May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family’s debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognized by surveillance.

Seeking some reprieve from her recent hardships and from her family’s addiction to their devices, she splurges on passes that allow them three nights�� respite inside the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams, and animals flourish. But her insistence that her son, daughter, and husband leave their devices at home proves far more fraught than she anticipated, and the lush beauty of the Botanical Garden is not the balm she hoped it would be. When her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives as she works to restore the life of her family.

Written in taut, urgent prose, Hum is a work of speculative fiction that unflinchingly explores marriage, motherhood, and selfhood in a world compromised by global warming and dizzying technological advancement, a world of both dystopian and utopian possibilities. As New York Times bestselling author Jeff VanderMeer says, “Helen Phillips, in typical bravura fashion, has found a way to make visible uncomfortable truths about our present by interrogating the near-future.”]]> 262 Helen Phillips 1668008831 Erin 4 2024, audiobook
So dark, so dystopian, but also so near-future it's scary. Reminded me a bit of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, but not nearly as gut-wrenching. (not NEARLY.) ]]> 3.49 2024
author: Helen Phillips
name: Erin
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Maybe 3.5 stars, but since I read this all in one day and never got bored, I'm rounding up.

So dark, so dystopian, but also so near-future it's scary. Reminded me a bit of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, but not nearly as gut-wrenching. (not NEARLY.)
]]> 182114883 At last, the story that definitively bridges the world of Sourdough to that of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. It’s all one Penumbraverse.

James Bascule is adrift. College beckons—but not quite strongly enough to actually get him to campus. A trip to Europe showed him a world bigger than his Northern California upbringing—and yet, one broken heart later, Northern California is where he’s returned. Back to his old bedroom, paying his bemused parents rent with his new hobby, baking bread with the sourdough starter that is his only souvenir of what was apparently just a summer fling.

The future is being built an hour or two down the highway—it’s 1985; the twenty-first century is just around the corner!—but that’s not his world either. While sitting in a Sonoma County bar, indulging in a little aimless day drinking with a junior college acquaintance, he meets a man. A man with . . . something like a plan. Has James ever heard of a “suitcase clone��? It’s a cutting of a vine used to clone and propagate noteworthy grapes—say, from a legendary European vineyard to an upstart Napa Valley operation. This man has an operation. He has a suitcase. He just needs an enterprising young accomplice up for an adventure.

Just how deliriously fun and thrillingly mind-expanding an adventure, James can’t yet know. But we, of course, know how Robin Sloan crafts a story. Crossing the international literary-techno-conspiracy of Mr. Penumbra with the delicious experimentation of Sourdough, The Suitcase Clone is a tale that enriches and expands the Penumbraverse in ways you never saw coming, told by a mysterious narrator with an unexpected perspective on the great puzzles of life. Who could it be?]]> Robin Sloan Erin 4 2024, audiobook Sourdough. Short and sweet and just wonderful.]]> 3.36 2022
author: Robin Sloan
name: Erin
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I simply love Robin Sloan's storytelling. This felt directly born out of Sourdough. Short and sweet and just wonderful.
]]> 16637496
But Robby grabs the note, and before Linda stops talking it has gone halfway around the room.That's where it all starts. There's something about Linda that makes a lot of kids in her fifth-grade class want to see how far they can go -- but nobody, least of all Jill, expects the fun to end where it does.

A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year"]]> 3 Judy Blume 0739360361 Erin 2 2024, audiobook 3.21 1974
author: Judy Blume
name: Erin
average rating: 3.21
book published: 1974
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
OMG what!? My only memory of this book from childhood was that I did not like it, and for some reason I found the cover scary (it was a chalkboard, into which I imagined scary images.) But reading it now as an adult and it's 90% spending time in the mind of a bunch of bullies?! The balance is SO off in this story--the comeuppance lasts so little time and it feels a lot like "well, it'll come for you too." I just did not enjoy being in this book at all.
]]> 204165204
The newest mystery from the author One of Us Is Lying, the Queen of thrillers, Karen M. McManus! When mother-daughter grifters set out on their final job, the heist gets deadly and dangerously personal.

For all of Kat’s life, it’s just been her and her mother, Jamie—except for the forty-eight hours when Jamie was married and Kat had a stepbrother, Liam. That all ended in an epic divorce, and Kat and Liam haven’t spoken since.

Now Jamie is a jewel thief trying to go straight, but she has one last job—at billionaire Ross Sutherland’s birthday party. And Kat has figured out a way to tag along. What Kat doesn’t know, though, is that there are two surprise guests at the dazzling Sutherland compound that weekend. The last two people she wants to run into. Liam and his father—a serial scammer who has his sights set on Ross Sutherland’s youngest daughter.

Kat and Liam are on a collision course to disaster, and when a Sutherland dies, they realize they might actually be in the killer’s crosshairs themselves. Somehow Kat and Liam are the new targets, and they can’t trust anyone—except each other.

Or can they? Because if there’s one thing both Kat and Liam know, it’s how to lie. They learned from the best.]]> Karen M. McManus Erin 3 2024, audiobook
This story had a few too many "really?" reactions for me, but it did pull together nicely and it was just a fun "locked room" mystery.]]> 3.52 2024
author: Karen M. McManus
name: Erin
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Karen M. McManus is such a good YA mystery writer because ultimately, she knows that ADULTS have to come into play. I would be interested in reading an adult novel by her, too, because she really nails characters in both age ranges.

This story had a few too many "really?" reactions for me, but it did pull together nicely and it was just a fun "locked room" mystery.
]]> 213810114
In this wildly funny and heartwarming office comedy, an admin worker accidentally gains access to her colleagues�� private emails and DMs and decides to use this intel to save her job—a laugh-till-you-cry debut novel you’ll be eager to share with your entire list of contacts, perfect for fans of Anxious People and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

As far as Jolene is concerned, her interactions with her colleagues should start and end with her official duties as an admin for Supershops, Inc. Unfortunately, her irritating, incompetent coworkers don’t seem to understand the importance of boundaries. Her secret to survival? She vents her grievances in petty email postscripts, then changes the text colour to white so no one can see. That is, until one of her secret messages is exposed. Her punishment: sensitivity training (led by the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff) and rigorous email restrictions.

When an IT mix-up grants her access to her entire department’s private emails and DMs, Jolene knows she should report it, but who could resist reading what their coworkers are really saying? And when she discovers layoffs are coming, she realizes this might just be the key to saving her job. The plan is simple: gain her boss’s favour, convince HR she’s Supershops material and beat out the competition.

But as Jolene is drawn further into her coworker’s private worlds and secrets, her carefully constructed walls begin to crumble—especially around Cliff, who she definitely cannot have feelings for. Soon she will need to decide if she’s ready to leave the comfort of her cubicle, even if it means coming clean to her colleagues.

Crackling with laugh-out-loud dialogue and relatable observations, I Hope This Finds You Well is a fresh and surprisingly tender comedy about loneliness and love beyond our computer screens. This sparkling debut novel will open your heart to the everyday eccentricities of work culture and the undeniable human connection that comes with it.]]> Natalie Sue Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.60 2024
author: Natalie Sue
name: Erin
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
A series of ever-more-absurd debacles, and yet, I was engaged and enjoyed this book. Being this entrenched in corporate life during the week of Xmas and New Year's was a little weird but it hit all the stereotypes on the head. The way she ultimately disengaged from the problems felt real.
]]> 218210691 The Life Impossible

�� Publish Date : 2024-11-28
�� Page & Size : 492p | 5.4 x 8.1 in
�� ISBN : 9791168342477

�� Artist(s) : Matt Haig, Roh Jin -Sun
�� Publisher : Influential

�� KJCstar Product ID : NOELE159

★This book is written in Korean
✔️ 100% Original Brand New Product
📦 Safely packed with Tracking Number

Korean Title : 라이�� 임파서블
English Title : The Life Impossible

�� Synopsis / Plot

Korean version of 《The Life Impossible�� written by Matt Haig.

�� 세계 1000만부 판매�� 기록�� 초대�� 베스트셀�� 《미드나�� 라이브러리》의 작가 매트 헤이그가 전작 이후 4�� 만에 선보이는 장편소설이다. 마법�� 도서관에서 과거�� 후회스러�� 선택�� 되돌리려 하는 전작�� 달리, 이번에는 죄책감이란 감옥�� 자신�� 가�� 할머니에�� 마법�� 섬에�� 초대장이 도착하면�� 미래�� 바꾸�� 도전�� 펼쳐진다. 아들�� 남편�� 떠나보낸 �� 삶의 의미�� 잃어버린 그레이스 할머니는 삶이라는 경이롭고 미스터리�� 모험�� 다시 시작�� �� 있을��?

《라이프 임파서블》은 삶의 �� 번째 기회와 무한�� 가능성, 생명�� 대�� 경외 �� 작가가 오랫동안 탐구해온 주제�� 한층 확장�� 보인��. 작가 스스�� “내 모든 것을 쏟아부은 자랑스러�� 이야기”라�� 밝혔�� 만큼 매트 헤이�� 작품 세계�� 정수�� 보여준��. 그간 소설�� 에세��, 동화�� 종횡무진하며 성공�� 거두었으�� 번아웃과 우울��, ADHD 진단 �� 어려움�� 겪으�� 글쓰기�� 그만두려 했던 작가가 새롭�� 선보�� 작품이기��, 기다려온 독자들에게는 더욱 특별�� 선물�� 것이��. 그만�� 마법 같은 이야기는 다시 한번 뭉클�� 감동�� 진실�� 메시지��, 우리에게 살아�� 힘을 북돋아준��.

"]]> Matt Haig 1038695457 Erin 3 2024, audiobook
This book, however, took FOREVER to end. It felt like it was at its conclustion so many times, but then had to go back in and reiterate the message over and over. WE GET IT.]]> 3.40 2024
author: Matt Haig
name: Erin
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
This was a sweet little story to pass the time. I like magical realism and I think this was handled well. Also I LOVE that the author never for a second forgot that the premise is that an old woman was writing a letter to a former student, much younger than her, and didn't get too weird on details. HOWEVER, why was this the letter she wrote to him? That I feel like was never really explained or justified.

This book, however, took FOREVER to end. It felt like it was at its conclustion so many times, but then had to go back in and reiterate the message over and over. WE GET IT.
]]> 199698906 A New York Times Notable Book

Acclaimed author Ann Patchett's debut novel, hailed as ""beautifully written . . . a first novel that second- and third-time novelists would envy for its grace, insight, and compassion�� ( Boston Herald)

St. Elizabeth’s, a home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky, usually harbors its residents for only a little while. Not so Rose Clinton, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed, and stays. She plans to give up her child, thinking she cannot be the mother it needs. But when Cecilia is born, Rose makes a place for herself and her daughter amid St. Elizabeth’s extended family of nuns and an ever-changing collection of pregnant teenage girls. Rose’s past won’t be kept away, though, even by St. Elizabeth’s; she cannot remain untouched by what she has left behind, even as she cannot change who she has become in the leaving.]]> Ann Patchett Erin 4 2024, audiobook 3.51 1992
author: Ann Patchett
name: Erin
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I absolutely cannot articulate why I enjoyed this book--the subject matter is largely not of interest to me--and yet, I immediately clicked with the characters (except Son, honestly--his back story was hum-drum) and was engaged with the storytelling. I suppose it's just Ann Patchett being a masterful writer.
]]> 198562150 A Library Science Book Club pick

“Messy with glitched realities and body horror, Brat breathes the same thrillingly claustrophobic air as Inland Empire and Ubik. It’s a skin-shedding ouroboros of grief and laughter, and the most brain-melting British debut I’ve read in ages.�� —Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams

From a provocative new literary talent, a hilarious and haunted novel featuring an unlikable protagonist grappling with grief, inheritance, and the ghosts of his past

We meet our ill-tempered protagonist—the story’s titular “brat”—at a low moment, but not yet at rock bottom. The Gabriel of the novel is mourning the death of his father as well as a recent breakup and struggling to finish writing his second book. Alone and aimless, he agrees to move back into his parents�� house to clear it out for sale. Here, the clichés end.

Gabriel has trouble delivering on his as the moldy, overgrown house deteriorates around him, so does his own health, and large sheets of his skin begin to peel from his body at a terrifying rate. In fragments and figments, Gabriel takes us on a surreal journey into the mysteries of the family home, where he finds unfinished manuscripts written by his parents that seem to mutate every time he picks them up and a bizarre home video that hints at long-buried secrets.

Strange people and figures emerge—perhaps directly from the novel’s embedded fictions—and despite his compromised state (and his more successful brother’s growing frustration) Gabriel is determined to try to make sense of these hauntings. Part ghost story, part grief story, flirting with the autofictional mode while sitting squarely in the tradition of the gothic, Brat crackles with deadpan humor and delightfully taut prose.

Gabriel Smith’s arrival heralds the next generation of fiction writers—formally inventive, influenced by the rhythms of the internet, and infused with a particularly Gen Z sense of alienation. Irreverent and boundary-pushing, but not for its own sake, the novel that follows is muscular yet lyrical, riddled with paradox, and told with a truly rare and compelling clarity of voice. Brat is a serious debut that refuses to take itself too seriously.]]> 318 Gabriel Smith 0593656881 Erin 1 2024, audiobook 3.37 2024
author: Gabriel Smith
name: Erin
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I don't know. I like weird books--I love depressed woman books--but I feel like depressed man just didn't connect for me, or something? Immediately after finishing this I wondered what I would say in my review and felt totally lost. It's been two days and now I don't even remember a vibe or a feeling from this book. Meh.
]]> 52739975
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]> 11 Silvia Moreno-Garcia 0593213874 Erin 2 2021, audiobook 3.49 2020
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Erin
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2021/07/03
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: 2021, audiobook
review:
This book is considered adult fiction? Not YA? This would be a perfectly good YA book, but as an adult book it's laughably simplistic. Reads like a first-time author.
]]> 176501382
It’s been a year since his ex-boyfriend dumped him and moved from Auckland to Buenos Aires, and Valdin is doing fine. He has a good flat with his sister Greta, a good career where his colleagues only occasionally remind him that he is the sole Maaori person in the office, and a good friend who he only sleeps with when he’s sad. But when work sends him to Argentina and he’s thrown back in his former lover’s orbit, Valdin is forced to confront the feelings he’s been trying to ignore—and the future he wants.

Greta is not letting her painfully unrequited crush (or her possibly pointless master’s thesis, or her pathetic academic salary...) get her down. She would love to focus on the charming fellow grad student she meets at a party and her friendships with a circle of similarly floundering twenty-somethings, but her chaotic family life won’t stop intruding: her mother is keeping secrets, her nephew is having a gay crisis, and her brother has suddenly flown to South America without a word.

Sharp, hilarious, and with an undeniable emotional momentum that builds to an exuberant conclusion, Greta & Valdin careens us through the siblings�� misadventures and the messy dramas of their sprawling, eccentric Maaori-Russian-Catalonian family.]]> 10 Rebecca K. Reilly 1797170503 Erin 2 2024, audiobook 3.69 2021
author: Rebecca K. Reilly
name: Erin
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
This was fine, nothing special. I did grow to quite like the characters but I couldn't figure out why I was reading about them in the first place.
]]> 215041755
From the beloved author of We All Want Impossible Things, a moving, hilarious story of a family summer vacation full of secrets, lunch, and learning to let go.

For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals, and messes of all kinds: emotional, marital, and—thanks to the cottage’s ancient plumbing—septic too.

This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past—except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing—her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends Rocky into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers.

It's one precious week: everything is in balance; everything is in flux. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.]]> 6 Catherine Newman 0063345196 Erin 5 2024, audiobook
I am, though, a person who goes on a family beach vacation annually, and have for my entire life. The ways all of this hit me so hard--watching your family grow up and grow old (for us, my extended family, not just my nuclear one). Experiencing the same house for years and it becoming a part of the family. Just perfection.

Often I go through spells of reading shit and I wonder if I'm a curmudgeon who just hates everything. And then I read a book like this.]]> 3.54 2024
author: Catherine Newman
name: Erin
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I am not a mother, but I'm going to say that this book made me feel as close to that experience as it could have. Aching, suffused with love.

I am, though, a person who goes on a family beach vacation annually, and have for my entire life. The ways all of this hit me so hard--watching your family grow up and grow old (for us, my extended family, not just my nuclear one). Experiencing the same house for years and it becoming a part of the family. Just perfection.

Often I go through spells of reading shit and I wonder if I'm a curmudgeon who just hates everything. And then I read a book like this.
]]> 55180613 5 Halle Butler 0593214404 Erin 4 2024, audiobook
This book being third-person omnicient for every character was a fun element, and the quick jump from POV to POV held my attention for sure.]]> 3.56 2015
author: Halle Butler
name: Erin
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/09
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I love an irascible character, dark humor, and general malise.

This book being third-person omnicient for every character was a fun element, and the quick jump from POV to POV held my attention for sure.
]]> 200269467 As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her best . . .

Mother. Monarch. Murderer. Magnificent.

You are born to a king, but marry a tyrant. You stand helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore and comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own.

You play the part, fooling enemies who deny you justice. Slowly, you plot.

You are Clytemnestra.

But when the husband who owns you returns in triumph, what then?

Acceptance or vengeance - infamy follows both. So you bide your time and wait, until you might force the gods' hands and take revenge. Until you rise. For you understood something that the others don't. If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself.

A blazing novel set in the world of Ancient Greece and told through the eyes of its greatest heroine, this is a thrilling tale of power and prophecies, of hatred, love, and of an unforgettable Queen who fiercely dealt out death to those who wronged her.
]]> Costanza Casati Erin 1 2024, audiobook 3.25 2023
author: Costanza Casati
name: Erin
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
DNF at 29%. Bored, tuning out.
]]> 205393358
As Julia Child once said, “It is hard to imagine a civilization without onions.��

Historically, she's been right-and not just in the kitchen. Uniquely flourishing in just about every climate and culture around the world, onions have provided the essential basis not only for sautés, stews, and sauces, but for medicines, metaphors, and folklore. Abundantly commonplace yet extraordinarily indispensable, the onion is Kurlansky's most flavorful infatuation yet as he sets out to explore how and why the crop reigns from Italy to India and everywhere in between.

Featuring historical images and his own pen-and-ink drawings, Kurlansky begins with the science behind the only sulfuric acid-spewing plant, then digs through the twenty varieties of onion and the cultures built around them. Among the first domesticated and cultivated crops, onions were seen by the ancient Egyptians as a symbol of eternity, the Greeks as an agent of strength, and the Chinese as a supplement for intelligence. Entering the kitchen, Kurlansky celebrates the raw, roasted, creamed, marinated, and pickled. Including a recipe section featuring more than 100 dishes from around the world, The Core of an Onion shares the secrets to celebrated Parisian chef Alain Senderens's onion soup eaten to cure late-night drunkenness; Hemingway's raw onion and peanut butter sandwich; and the Gibson, a debonair gin martini garnished with a pickled onion.

Just as the scent of sautéed onions will lure anyone to the kitchen, The Core of an Onion is sure to draw readers into their savory stories at first taste.]]> 6 Mark Kurlansky Erin 3 2024, audiobook
Also Mark Kurlansky is a truly terrible narrator. He's like having an old white grandpa who has never read a book aloud, and certainly never encountered a foreign word before, reading to you.

STILL, I like onions, this was a cute little history of onions, and the recipes certainly sound good! I think I'll be trying a stuffed onion recipe for a holiday meal this year.]]> 3.71
author: Mark Kurlansky
name: Erin
average rating: 3.71
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Listening to this book as audio was absolutely foolish to do--the last half (?) is just recipes! And while I do like reading a recipe, having one read to you is a surefire way to get to sleep quick.

Also Mark Kurlansky is a truly terrible narrator. He's like having an old white grandpa who has never read a book aloud, and certainly never encountered a foreign word before, reading to you.

STILL, I like onions, this was a cute little history of onions, and the recipes certainly sound good! I think I'll be trying a stuffed onion recipe for a holiday meal this year.
]]> 45165750 The Housekeeper and the Professor.

On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, things are disappearing. First, animals and flowers. Then objects—ribbons, bells, photographs. Then, body parts. Most of the island’s inhabitants fail to notice these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the mysterious “memory police,�� who are committed to ensuring that the disappeared remain forgotten. When a young novelist realizes that more than her career is in danger, she hides her editor beneath her floorboards, and together, as fear and loss close in around them, they cling to literature as the last way of preserving the past. Part allegory, part literary thriller, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.]]> 7 Yōko Ogawa 0525634274 Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.55 1994
author: Yōko Ogawa
name: Erin
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/25
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I think I read this too soon after Ella Minnow Pea, which has a similar setup, though at least there you understand why you're being forced to "forget" elements of everyday life. That book was delightfully short, and as a result this one felt a bit long. I enjoyed the slow descent farther and farther into absurdity though.
]]> 57819531
Mira is a loner, a drop out, an obsessive fascinated by the concept of sleaze. She wants two to move to Alaska and find the tattooed fisherman that’s the object of her desire. Her single-mindedness takes her to the remote Kodiak Archipelago, where she finds work at a homestead-turned-tourist-lodge offering a carousel of meticulously scripted Alaskan experiences.

But the lodge is failing and, as life on Lavender Island becomes increasingly claustrophobic and strange, Mira’s plans for her future become more elaborate and perverse.

Part meditation on unhinged longing, part biting commentary on eco-tourism and the mythology of the American West, and part yearning portrayal of people at the end of their tether, The Seaplane on Final Approach is wholly original, “a perfect blend of deep, dark humor, sadness, and (of course), adolescent horniness (Literary Hub).”]]> 208 Rebecca Rukeyser 178378606X Erin 2 2024, audiobook 3.18 2022
author: Rebecca Rukeyser
name: Erin
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/22
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I enjoyed the vibes, but the story really dragged in this otherwise short book.
]]> 55958987 Length: 7 hours 14 minutes

The award-winning author of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self brings her signature voice and insight to the subjects of race, grief, apology, and American history.

Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and x-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters�� lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history. She introduces us to Black and multiracial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief - all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history - about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight.

In “Boys Go to Jupiter��, a White college student tries to reinvent herself after a photo of her in a Confederate-flag bikini goes viral. In “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain��, a photojournalist is forced to confront her own losses while attending an old friend’s unexpectedly dramatic wedding. And in the eye-opening title novella, a Black scholar from Washington, DC, is drawn into a complex historical mystery that spans generations and puts her job, her love life, and her oldest friendship at risk.]]> 8 Danielle Evans 0593294718 Erin 5 2024, audiobook 4.13 2020
author: Danielle Evans
name: Erin
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Finally, truly mature, interesting, sophisticated storytelling! (Unlike the books I've been reading recently.) This reminded me a lot of Jenny Offil, who I also highly recommend. Like a friend said, I would read a longer book that built on any of these short stories. Not a bad one in this collection.
]]> 200234471
Only when Lena stepped into that house did she realize what she’d been missing. A life. An entire life. There’s no way Sebastian would have planned for that epiphany. Because as soon as she had it, she felt the urge to run.

On the Santa Cruz waterfront, every house is as flawless as the people inside—except for Mitty and her elderly roommate, Bethel. For ten years, Mitty has found refuge in their secluded existence after a traumatic adolescence. Now, they’re the oddball pair in the dilapidated bungalow, the last vestiges of a town taken over by the tech elite. But their lives are about to be irrevocably disrupted when a new couple, Lena and Sebastian, move in next door. Because on the quiet outskirts of Silicon Valley, nothing is off-limits, and what was once considered dystopia is now reality...

Sebastian is a renowned tech founder and Lena is his spellbinding girlfriend, seemingly floating through their luxurious life. But just like Mitty, Lena has her own secrets; she feels uneasy about her oddly spotty memory, and is growing increasingly wary of the way Sebastian closely controls their life together. As the two women begin to form a close friendship, they are finally forced to face their pasts—or lack thereof—which have overpowered their lives for far too long, and the urgent truths that could change everything.

A kind of Stepford Wives meets Grey Gardens for the age of artificial intelligence, Whoever You Are, Honey is gripping, seductive, and prescient as it dissects relationships between women, unpacks perfection and desirability, and explodes the intersection of passion, technology, and power.]]> 297 Olivia Gatwood 0593230442 Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.62 2024
author: Olivia Gatwood
name: Erin
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
This falls into the genre of "directionless main characters"--along with classics like Ruby in Paradise and the more recent Pizza Girl. But it's a little less everyday and ordinary like those, since it's about the world shift with AI etc.
]]> 168942193
Years ago, a reclusive mega-bestselling children’s author quit writing under mysterious circumstances. Suddenly he resurfaces with a brand-new book and a one-of-a-kind competition, offering a prize that will change the winner’s life in this absorbing and whimsical novel.

Make a wish. . . .

Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic death of his parents. Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without proper funds and stability.

But be careful what you wish for. . . .

Just when Lucy is about to give up, Jack Masterson announces he’s finally written a new book. Even better, he’s holding a contest at his home on the real Clock Island, and Lucy is one of the four lucky contestants chosen to compete to win the one and only copy.

For Lucy, the chance of winning the most sought-after book in the world means everything to her and Christopher. But first she must contend with ruthless book collectors, wily opponents, and the distractingly handsome (and grumpy) Hugo Reese, the illustrator of the Clock Island books. Meanwhile, Jack “the Mastermind�� Masterson is plotting the ultimate twist ending that could change all their lives forever.

. . . You might just get it.]]> 11 Meg Shaffer Erin 1 2024, audiobook 4.05 2023
author: Meg Shaffer
name: Erin
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I can take saccharine sweet if it's clever and well written. This was none of those things. It seemed to be promising puzzle solving--and at first I thought this was going to be a combo of The Mysterious Benedict Society and, I had hoped, Ozeki's The Book of Form and Emptiness. But the puzzles were simplistic and obvious, the writing and characters sooo melodramatic. The happy ending was absurdly happy. I rolled my eyes so many times, and strongly considered DNFing. I'm not even sure why I stuck it out. (It took me forever to finish.) I thought i would give this 2 stars but the more I think about it the less positives I can muster for this book.
]]> 202261114 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ava Reid comes a reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.

The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men.

The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.

The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive.

But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world.

She does not know this yet. But she will.]]> 320 Ava Reid 0593722574 Erin 2 2024, audiobook 3.62 2024
author: Ava Reid
name: Erin
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I think I spent the entire book waiting for her to act like and become more of the Lady Macbeth we know--and while a "retelling" that reframes her entirely isn't a terrible direction, it's odd to begin there. Like, we haven't gotten the telling that allows us into her head as she was originally written. I think it could have been really interesting and effective to show the motivations of a woman who wanted power and was saddled with an inept husband. Instead we got this.
]]> 213939313
When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 15 Liz Moore 0593867793 Erin 2 2024, audiobook 3.83 2024
author: Liz Moore
name: Erin
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I don't understand the hype for this. It was fine? I thought from the cover it was going to be scary--it decidedly was not scary. It wasn't even all that suspenseful.
]]> 86546624
Set in New Zealand in 1984 and 2014, and probing themes of racism and misogyny, Pet is an elegant and chilling psychological thriller by the bestselling author of The Wish Child, Remote Sympathy and The Axeman’s Carnival.]]> 352 Catherine Chidgey 1776920740 Erin 4 2024 4.00 2023
author: Catherine Chidgey
name: Erin
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/01
shelves: 2024
review:
The tension in this book! Really well done, even when describing seemingly mundane things--and then there's some great payoff. The last 15% flew by. (Took me ages to read this because I read it as an ebook, and lost interest in reading that way midway through this book.)
]]> 215602954 A mesmerising novel of two sisters on a Pacific Northwest island whose lives are upended by an unexpected visitor �� a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods, by the celebrated, bestselling author of Disappearing Earth.

They were sisters and they would last past the end of time.

Sam and her sister, Elena, dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works long days on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence.

Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it’s time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the plan to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger.

A story about the bonds of sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live among us �� and within us �� Bear is a propulsive, mythical, rich novel from one of the most acclaimed young writers in America.]]> 8 Julia Phillips 0525529985 Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.04 2024
author: Julia Phillips
name: Erin
average rating: 3.04
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/25
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I loved the moodiness of this book, and I feel like it would make a lovely indie film. The bear felt a bit overt as a metaphor but nonetheless was effective.
]]> 59772252
*pangram: a sentence or phrase that includes all the letters of the alphabet]]> Mark Dunn 0593560469 Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.88 2001
author: Mark Dunn
name: Erin
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/19
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Clever in concept, and while it was definitely short, it kind of felt too long? Definitely a fun exercise, and probably better read physically than listened to. Would've been so fun to edit.
]]> 210230679
A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve...

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?]]> Richard Osman Erin 2 2024, audiobook 3.99 2024
author: Richard Osman
name: Erin
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/10/18
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
There were soooo manyyyy characterrrrrrs.
]]> 60611741
An insightful, delightful new novel from the number-one New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation.

One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

Nora Stephens' life is books - she’s read them all - and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters�� trip away - with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again - in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow - what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.]]> 12 Emily Henry 1669639991 Erin 3 2024, audiobook
I read this book, set in Asheville (or nearby), within a week of Hurricane Helene decimating the area, so that stung a bit to read about. But the area feels much like the place where i live--and I moved from NYC just a year ago. The way she yearns for NY actually resonated with me, and made me miss the city more than I have since we moved away.

Obviously I expected the happy ending, but it was overly happy, in a way, and having an epilogue felt like gilding the lily--the book within a book ties up so many fewer bows, and seemed to be the character's preference! But then the ending just went on and on for us.]]> 4.02 2022
author: Emily Henry
name: Erin
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/09
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Solidly enjoyable rom-com. The idea that a beloved shark of an agent gets a book written about her within the book that is about her was pretty funny. Also, I feel like agents are definitely going to make more money in the long run so aspiring to be an editor (my own chosen career) seemed misguided. But it is explained and justified well enough.

I read this book, set in Asheville (or nearby), within a week of Hurricane Helene decimating the area, so that stung a bit to read about. But the area feels much like the place where i live--and I moved from NYC just a year ago. The way she yearns for NY actually resonated with me, and made me miss the city more than I have since we moved away.

Obviously I expected the happy ending, but it was overly happy, in a way, and having an epilogue felt like gilding the lily--the book within a book ties up so many fewer bows, and seemed to be the character's preference! But then the ending just went on and on for us.
]]> 218046325
When Judith Jones began working at Doubleday’s Paris office in 1949, the twenty-five-year-old spent most of her time wading through manuscripts in the slush pile until one caught her eye. She read the book in one sitting, then begged her boss to consider publishing it. A year later, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl became a bestseller. It was the start of a culture defining career in publishing.

Over more than half a century as an editor at Knopf, Jones became a legend, nurturing future literary icons such as Sylvia Plath, Anne Tyler, and John Updike. At the forefront of the cookbook revolution, she published the who’s who of food: Edna Lewis, M.F.K. Fisher, Madhur Jaffrey, James Beard, and, most famously, Julia Child. Jones celebrated culinary diversity, forever changing the way Americans think about food.

Her work spanned the decades of America’s most dramatic cultural change. From the end of World War II through the Cold War; from the civil rights movement to the fight for women’s equality, Jones’s work questioned convention, using books as a tool of quiet resistance.

Now, her astonishing and career is explored for the first time. Based on exclusive interviews, never-before-seen personal papers, and years of research, The Editor tells the riveting behind-the scenes-narrative of how stories are made, finally bringing to light the audacious life of one of our most influential tastemakers.]]> 12 Sara B. Franklin Erin 5 2024, audiobook
My own editing life sits squarely in her shadow, as I work on both fiction and cookbooks. I almost wish they had gotten more detailed and technical about the ways she approached cookbooks and established the standards that I ensure my books follow today.]]> 4.25
author: Sara B. Franklin
name: Erin
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/04
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Judith Jones was such an early intersectional feminist, and it seemed that it came to her naturally. Truly fascinated to learn more about her; I had known only broad strokes before. (I knew about Julia Child, but not Updike, for example.)

My own editing life sits squarely in her shadow, as I work on both fiction and cookbooks. I almost wish they had gotten more detailed and technical about the ways she approached cookbooks and established the standards that I ensure my books follow today.
]]> 52813001 Trend journalist, on-air host, and lifestyle expert Hilary Sheinbaum explores the incredible life-changing benefits of abstaining from alcohol for one month and provides a comprehensive guide to help you tackle Dry January, Sober October, and other booze-free challenges.

For many people, the holidays bring too much fun, too much food, and too much booze. January can be the perfect time to embrace the new you—and it all starts with taking a break from the bottle . . . but this challenge isn’t limited to the month of January. 

The Dry Challenge is ideal for anyone who wants to complete a dry month challenge, giving up all forms of alcohol—wine, beer, spirits and cocktails, including no shots, no low ABV cocktails, and absolutely no champagne toasts—for thirty-one days. 

Whether you’re thinking of participating in Dry January, Sober October, or want to choose a time of your own, this book walks you step-by-step through one drink-free month, from making a plan to sharing the news with friends and family (and what to do when someone tries to sabotage it) to getting back on track if you slip up and have a drink (or two).

Hilary Sheinbaum covers essential topics and provides informative tips such as:

- “What You’ll Gain When You Lose the Booze”—a deep dive into the health benefits of living a month without booze.
- “Sober Month Support Squad”—how to enlist friends for support and combat social pressures from our current drinking culture.
- Fun non-boozy activities everyone can participate in, dating (without drinks), “zero-proof�� drink recipes, how to throw a nonalcoholic shindig, and the new sober nightlife trend.

With interactive activities from prompts to checklists to recipes, The Dry Challenge is the ultimate guide to stay booze free for one month. Cheers to a whole new you!]]> 720 Hilary Sheinbaum 0062937715 Erin 0 2019-work 2.90
author: Hilary Sheinbaum
name: Erin
average rating: 2.90
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: 2019-work
review:

]]> 198970456
Now he is. . .

Without a home

Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story��

In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.]]> Dolly Alderton 0241994845 Erin 2 2024, audiobook 3.68 2023
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Erin
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
This felt like it was written by someone who recently went through a breakup and was trying to imagine what her ex was experiencing--and generously gave him highs as well as lows, but mostly painted him as a clueless idiot. And while he remained bewildered by the breakup, I'm not sure inserting Jen's voice was necessary? It for sure gave the whole picture, and without it the book would have been even thinner, but it felt somehow cheap.
]]> 204585013 Some people think foxes are similar to ghosts because we go around collecting qi, but nothing could be further than the truth. We are living creatures, just like you, only usually better looking . . .

Manchuria, 1908.
In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now.

Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments but can’t escape the curse that afflicts them—their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. When a disruptively winsome servant named Snow enters their household, the family’s luck seems to change—or does it?

Snow is a creature of many secrets, but most of all she’s a mother seeking vengeance for her lost child. Hunting a murderer, she will follow the trail from northern China to Japan, while Bao follows doggedly behind. Navigating the myths and misconceptions of fox spirits, both Snow and Bao will encounter old friends and new foes, even as more deaths occur.

New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo brilliantly explores a world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection. Epic in scope and full of singular, unforgettable characters, The Fox Wife is a stunning novel about old loves and second chances, the depths of maternal love, and ancient folktales that may very well be true.]]> Yangsze Choo 1250329515 Erin 2 2024, audiobook 3.90 2024
author: Yangsze Choo
name: Erin
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/27
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I did like this book, but not THAT much--it was too long, for sure, and definitely dragged at times, and took me so long to finish because it just wasn't that compelling a story to get back to. But it was also similar to other long Chinese legends, and if I had any patience for that kind of book these days, I probably would have really liked this.
]]> 58759178 A Wisconsin bookstore owner and cryptozoologist is asked to investigate a series of deaths that just might be proof of a fabled lake monster in this first installment of a new mystery series by USA Today bestselling author Annelise Ryan.

Morgan Carter, owner of the Odds and Ends bookstore in Door County, Wisconsin, has a hobby. When she’s not tending the store, she’s hunting cryptids—creatures whose existence is rumored, but never proven to be real. It’s a hobby that cost her parents their lives, but one she’ll never give up on.

So when a number of bodies turn up on the shores of Lake Michigan with injuries that look like bites from a giant unknown animal, police chief Jon Flanders turns to Morgan for help. A skeptic at heart, Morgan can’t turn down the opportunity to find proof of an entity whose existence she can’t definitively rule out. She and her beloved rescue dog, Newt, journey to the Death's Door strait to hunt for a homicidal monster in the lake—but if they’re not careful, they just might be its next victims.]]> 304 Annelise Ryan 0593441583 Erin 3 2023, audiobook 3.92 2022
author: Annelise Ryan
name: Erin
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/05
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: 2023, audiobook
review:
Maybe more like 2.5 stars, but feeling generous today. This was pretty standard cozy mystery, plot-wise, but the action scenes were so well written!
]]> 61935392 A sleepy little town discovers its memories have become part of the water cycle in Naomi Salman's debut novella, Nothing but the Rain.

The rain in Aloisville is never-ending, and no one can remember when it started. There’s not much they can remember. With every drop that hits their skin, a bit of memory is washed away. Stay too long in the wet, and you’ll lose everything you used to be.

By the time Laverne begins keeping a journal, the small town she calls home has been irreparably changed. Every drop of water is dangerous, from leaky faucets to the near-constant rainfall, and a careless trip outside can mean a life down the drain. With mysterious forces preventing escape, calls for rebellion seem to be on every resident’s lips. But Laverne has no interest in fighting. She has no interest in rebellion. She just wants to survive.]]> 96 Naomi Salman 1250849810 Erin 4 2024, audiobook 3.96 2023
author: Naomi Salman
name: Erin
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/09
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
This is a novella, but it feels like a complete novel--albeit one with nothing wasted, everything purposeful. Loved the premise, and how it can be a metaphor for so many things. Highly recommend.
]]> 207686732
The humans are fighting again. Go figure.

As a free A.I., Mal finds the war between the modded and augmented Federals and the puritanical Humanists about as interesting as a battle between rival anthills. He’s not above scouting the battlefield for salvage, though, and when the Humanists abruptly cut off access to infospace he finds himself trapped in the body of a cyborg mercenary, and responsible for the safety of the modded girl she died protecting.

A dark comedy wrapped in a techno thriller’s skin, Mal Goes to War provides a satirical take on war, artificial intelligence, and what it really means to be human.]]> 10 Edward Ashton Erin 2 2024, audiobook 3.86 2024
author: Edward Ashton
name: Erin
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
This is a transit book--people trying to get from one place to another. I never really got into this--also I thought it was a book in the Mickey 7 series and basically was confused from the jump.
]]> 191442444 A Silent Spring for your wardrobe, To Dye For is a jolting exposé that reveals the true cost of the toxic, largely unregulated chemicals found on most clothing today.

Many of us are aware of the ethical minefield that is fast fashion--the dodgy labor practices, the lax environmental standards, and the mountains of waste piling up on the shores of developing countries. But have you stopped to consider the dangerous effects your clothes are having on your own health? Award-winning journalist Alden Wicker breaks open a story hiding in plain sight: the unregulated toxic chemicals that are likely in your wardrobe right now, how they’re harming you, and what you can do about it.

In To Dye For, Wicker reveals how clothing manufacturers have successfully swept consumers�� concerns under the rug for more than 150 years, and why synthetic fashion and dyes made from fossil fuels are so deeply intertwined with the rise of autoimmune disease, infertility, asthma, eczema, and more. In fact, there’s little to no regulation of the clothes and textiles we wear each day—from uniforms to fast fashion, outdoor gear, and even the face masks that have become ubiquitous in recent years. Wicker explains how we got here, what the stakes are, and what all of us can do in the fight for a safe and healthy wardrobe for all.]]> Alden Wicker Erin 4 2024, audiobook 4.32
author: Alden Wicker
name: Erin
average rating: 4.32
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/18
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Sobering. As I continue in my endeavor to sew my own clothes, I need to also be more attentive to the manufacturing of the fabrics.
]]> 46145049
Jenny includes some of her most popular cookie ideas like fun and colorful letter cookies decorated in various exciting ways—as well as shimmering snowflakes, furry llamas, spooky black cats and pumpkins, bright Christmas wreaths, and more, as well as simple yet imaginative decorating ideas for incorporating these scrumptious treats into a common theme. Cookie Class also contains a section on display and packaging tips, so home bakers can take their cookie creations to the next level and wow friends and family with their stunningly packaged cookie gifts.

Whether baking for a holiday, family event, or a gathering with friends, Cookie Class gives even the busiest and most inexperienced bakers the tools they need to create delicious, stunning and unique cookies—so simple anyone can do it!]]> 224 Jenny Keller 0062959697 Erin 0 2018-work 4.19
author: Jenny Keller
name: Erin
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: 2018-work
review:

]]> 62075259
After the death of her wife, Shelby feels more alone than ever—until she meets Cammie, a charismatic woman unafraid of what anyone else thinks and whose own history of trauma draws Shelby close. When Cammie is fired from her job and admits she is in treatment for kidney cancer, Shelby devotes all her time to helping Cammie thrive. But Shelby’s intuition tells her there are things about Cammie’s past that don’t add up. Could the realest thing about Cammie be that she’s actually a scammer?

Gibson is almost forty, fresh from a divorce and deeply depressed. Then he meets and falls in love with Cammie. Suddenly, he’s having the best sex of his life with a woman so attractive he’s stunned she even glanced his way, and for the first time ever he feels truly known. This is the kind of desire and passion that musicians have been writing love songs about for centuries. But Gibson’s friends are wary of Cammie, and eventually he too has to admit that Cammie’s dramatic life can feel a bit over the top.

When Shelby and Gibson find out Cammie is a pathological liar, they struggle to understand what they really want from her—sometimes they want to help her heal from whatever causes her to invent reality, and sometimes they want revenge. But the biggest question of all is: how honest can Shelby and Gibson be about their own characters?]]> 208 Zoe Whittall 1524799440 Erin 4 2024, audiobook
[spoilers removed]]]> 3.42 2023
author: Zoe Whittall
name: Erin
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I just thought this was pretty expertly written--with characters who immediately feel real, and for the most part sympathetic, even as they behave pretty pathetically. This book goes QUICK; it has such a sense of urgency and propulsion.

[spoilers removed]
]]> 26025580
“The Grownup,�� originally appeared as “What Do You Do?�� in George R. R. Martin’s Rogues anthology.]]> 64 Gillian Flynn 0804188971 Erin 4 2024, audiobook 3.55 2014
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Erin
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I love a short story--and this one is particularly excellent. Jumps right in, holds you tight, and then lets you go and leaves you off-kilter, in the best way.
]]> 12378092 0 Ken Jennings 1452654379 Erin 4 2024, audiobook 4.07 2011
author: Ken Jennings
name: Erin
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
A fun, and interesting diversion, and I'm a map-lover (who has an excellent sense of direction, including the cardinal directions). Not super hard on the education side, but I guess I didn't know about the clubs for visiting places, etc., so it's not as if I learned nothing. I was surprised there wasn't anything about the fake towns put on maps to make the maps copyrightable, that have since turned into real towns?
]]> 217737290 From the bestselling author of the Truly Devious books, Maureen Johnson, comes a new stand-alone YA about a teen who uncovers a mystery while working as a tour guide on an island and must solve it before history repeats itself.

The fire wasn’t Marlowe Wexler’s fault. Dates should be hot, but not hot enough to warrant literal firefighters. Akilah, the girl Marlowe has been in love with for years, will never go out with her again. No one dates an accidental arsonist.

With her house-sitting career up in flames, it seems the universe owes Marlowe a new summer job, and that’s how she ends up at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. It’s easy enough, giving tours. Low risk of fire. High chance of getting bored talking about stained glass and nut cutlets and Prohibition.

Oh, and the deaths. Did anyone mention the deaths?]]> 9 Maureen Johnson Erin 4 2024, audiobook 3.60 2024
author: Maureen Johnson
name: Erin
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Fast-paced and thoroughly enjoyable as a YA mystery. Was the mystery super shocking? Not really. Did this follow nicely in the Christopher Pike style of teen murder books? For sure. The characters were all well-drawn and the pacing was great. Even the interludes set in the past worked to push the story along, rather than feeling like a retread of the present like other books I've read with this structure.
]]> 210244959 Combining history and fantasy, a sweeping multi-generational epic in the vein of Kindred and The Time Traveler's Wife about a woman who travels through time to end a family curse that has plagued her ancestors for generations.

On a rainy day in May 1964, history professor Cecily Bridge-Davis begins to search for the sixty-five acres of land she inherited from her father’s family. The quest leads her to uncover a dark secret: In every generation, one offspring from each Bridge family unit vanishes—and is mysteriously whisked back in time. Rules have been established that must be followed to prevent dire consequences:

Never interfere with past events.

Always carry your free Negro papers.

Search for the survival family packs in the orchard and surrounding forest. The ribbon on the pack designates the decade the pack was made to orient you in time.

Do not speak to strangers unless absolutely necessary.

With only a family Bible and a map marked with the locations of mysterious containers to aid her, Cecily heads to the library, hoping to discover the truth of how this curse began, and how it might be ended. As she moves through time, she encounters a circle of ancestors, including Sabrina Humbles, a free Black woman who must find the courage to seize an opportunity—or lose her heart; Luke Bridge, who traverses battlefields, slavery, and time itself to reunite with his family; Rebecca Bridge, a mother tested by an ominous threat; and Amelia Bridge, a young woman burdened with survivor's guilt who will face the challenge of a lifetime—and change Cecily's life forever. It is a race through time and against the clock to find the answers that will free her family forever.

Shawntelle Madison’s historical fiction debut is an enthralling, page-turning family saga about the inevitability of fate, the invincibility of love, and the indelible bonds of family.]]> 1 Shawntelle Madison Erin 1 2024, audiobook 3.50 2024
author: Shawntelle Madison
name: Erin
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/09/13
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
44% in but I am just SO BORED. DNF.
]]> 218366260 For fans of The Travelling Cat Chronicles, The Cat Who Saved Books and She and Her Cat, discover the Japanese bestseller that celebrates the healing power of cats.

A cat a day keeps the doctor away ...

On the top floor of an old building at the end of a cobbled alley in Kyoto lies the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul. Only a select few - those who feel genuine emotional turmoil - can find it.

The mysterious centre offers a unique treatment for its troubled patients: it prescribes cats as medication.

Get ready to fall in love:
- Bee, an eight-year-old female, mixed breed helps a young man deal with the anxiety of a corporate sales job he despises;
- Margot, muscly like a lightweight boxer, helps Koga a family man and callcentre worker with severe insomnia;
- Koyuki, an exquisite white cat brings closure to Megumi a young mother whose own parents forced her to abandon an adored rescue kitten;
- Tank and Tangerine bring peace to a high-flying handbag designer Tomoko, as she learns to let go of her perfectionism and be kinder to herself;
- Mimita, the Scottish Fold kitten helps a broken-hearted young Geisha to stop blaming herself for the cat she lost years ago;

Follow how each cat brings joy, hope and self-discovery to the human who is lucky enough to have them in this utterly charming, vibrant celebration of the healing power of cats.

Containing five exquisite cat line-drawings, discover the inspirational story that has become an international sensation.]]> 7 Syou Ishida Erin 2 2024, audiobook
This one was more charming than most, with the matter-of-fact "OK, we'll prescribe you a cat" as the solution to unhappiness. But each story was essentially exactly the same, so then why were there so many? This already slim book could've been so much shorter, even. ]]> 3.37 2023
author: Syou Ishida
name: Erin
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/10
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I still have a very hard time with Japanese translations--and at this point, I don't think it's just the translations, it's gotta be that Japanese writing really is this stilted and robotic, because every one I've ever read has been exactly like this.

This one was more charming than most, with the matter-of-fact "OK, we'll prescribe you a cat" as the solution to unhappiness. But each story was essentially exactly the same, so then why were there so many? This already slim book could've been so much shorter, even.
]]> 200703891
In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, an Egyptian American woman and a man from the village of Shobrakheit meet at a café in Cairo. He was a photographer of the revolution, but now finds himself unemployed and addicted to cocaine, living in a rooftop shack. She is a nostalgic daughter of immigrants “returning�� to a country she’s never been to before, teaching English and living in a light-filled flat with balconies on all sides. They fall in love and he moves in. But soon their desire—for one another, for the selves they want to become through the other—takes a violent turn that neither of them expected.

A dark romance exposing the gaps in American identity politics, especially when exported overseas, If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English is at once ravishing and wry, scathing and tender. Told in alternating perspectives, Noor Naga’s experimental debut examines the ethics of fetishizing the homeland and punishing the beloved . . . and vice versa. In our globalized twenty-first-century world, what are the new faces (and races) of empire? When the revolution fails, how long can someone survive the disappointment? Who suffers and, more crucially, who gets to tell about it?]]> Noor Naga Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.81 2022
author: Noor Naga
name: Erin
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/10
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Part 3 of this book for sure made it more interesting, but was it the scathing takedown of critique, as it intends to me? I'm not so sure. The truth is, the characters ARE unlikable, and it's hard to actually feel much for them or toward them despite the harrowing parts of this story. Would it be better if they were likable, though, as the third part would suggest? I'm not even sure. I like the way the final part subverted what had come before--and ended with a little "fuck you, I will be published anyway"--but... Was that enough?
]]> 58665900
One day, the mother was a mother but then, one night, she was quite suddenly something else...

At home full-time with her two-year-old son, an artist finds she is struggling. She is lonely and exhausted. She had imagined - what was it she had imagined? Her husband, always travelling for his work, calls her from faraway hotel rooms. One more toddler bedtime, and she fears she might lose her mind.

Instead, quite suddenly, she starts gaining things, surprising things that happen one night when her child will not sleep. Sharper canines. Strange new patches of hair. New appetites, new instincts. And from deep within herself, a new voice...

With its clear eyes on contemporary womanhood and sharp take on structures of power, Nightbitch is an outrageously original, joyfully subversive read that will make you want to howl in laughter and recognition. Addictive enough to be devoured in one sitting, this is an unforgettable novel from a blazing new talent.]]> 9 Rachel Yoder Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.26 2021
author: Rachel Yoder
name: Erin
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/09
date added: 2024/09/09
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I liked this primarily because I love weird books, especially ones about depressed women. And wow does being a parent seem to spark some real depression here, that is interestingly explored via Nightbitch (the character). Had no idea this was made into a movie but by happenstance while I was reading this I saw a movie influencer go to its premiere. (Which occured while I was reading it--such a funny coincidence!) Anyway, I love Amy Adams and am very curious to see how they render this on film. The book held my attention, but I had a hard time caring especially much, I guess.
]]> 200955899
New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death

1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten—certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.

But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.

Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.]]> Xóchitl González Erin 2 2024, audiobook 3.77 2024
author: Xóchitl González
name: Erin
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/08
date added: 2024/09/08
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I loved the haunting of Anita, for sure. But the parallel storylines were too obviously the same story, and the happy ending was pretty trite. I don't know, I thought this was going to be more compelling. It felt like chick lit with a bit of a ghost story and a bit of racial politics.
]]> 59616401 An NPR Best Book of 2022
USA TODAY Bestseller

This revolutionary approach to cleaning and organizing helps free you from feeling ashamed or overwhelmed by a messy home.

If you’re struggling to stay on top of your to-do list, you probably have a good anxiety, fatigue, depression, ADHD, or lack of support. For therapist KC Davis, the birth of her second child triggered a stress-mess cycle. The more behind she felt, the less motivated she was to start. She didn’t fold a single piece of laundry for seven months. One life-changing realization restored her sanity—and the functionality of her You don’t work for your home; your home works for you.

In other words, messiness is not a moral failing. A new sense of calm washed over her as she let go of the shame-based messaging that interpreted a pile of dirty laundry as “I can never keep up�� and a chaotic kitchen as “I’m a bad mother.�� Instead, she looked at unwashed clothes and thought, “I am alive,�� and at stacks of dishes and thought, “I cooked my family dinner three nights in a row.��

Building on this foundation of self-compassion, KC devised the powerful practical approach that has exploded in popularity through her TikTok account, @domesticblisters. The secret is to simplify your to-do list and to find creative workarounds that accommodate your limited time and energy. In this book, you’ll learn exactly how to customize your cleaning strategy and rebuild your relationship with your home,

-How to see chores as kindnesses to your future self, not as a reflection of your worth
-How to start by setting priorities
-How to stagger tasks so you won’t procrastinate
-How to clean in quick bursts within your existing daily routine
-How to use creative shortcuts to transform a room from messy to functional

With KC’s help, your home will feel like a sanctuary again. It will become a place to rest, even when things aren’t finished. You will move with ease, and peace and calm will edge out guilt, self-criticism, and endless checklists. They have no place here.

PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.]]> 4 K.C. Davis 1797143727 Erin 3 2024, audiobook
But I will say that her philosophy really clicks with me, and I used it a lot in thinking through how I wanted to set up systems when we moved to a new house. For example, I know I will never, ever, ever take off my shoes upon entering and then pick them up and put them into something. I will not. I slip them off each foot and can kick them toward something, but I won't bend over to do anything else. So as we search for a good shoe solution, I know that a cabinet is NOT the solution. The way we organized the kitchen was also highly influenced by learning my own inclinations toward tidying and how best to serve me. I don't really find it that hard to keep the house clean, or to get up and do something, but it's not like we don't all wrestle with some of these executive dysfunction things from time to time.

It was eye opening, though, in the ways that people with true executive dysfunction truly cannot function.]]> 4.17 2022
author: K.C. Davis
name: Erin
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/03
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
In most ways, this book is not for me--I have pretty great executive function. I also have been on TikTok for ages and had already gleaned all of these tips from Davis's videos there.

But I will say that her philosophy really clicks with me, and I used it a lot in thinking through how I wanted to set up systems when we moved to a new house. For example, I know I will never, ever, ever take off my shoes upon entering and then pick them up and put them into something. I will not. I slip them off each foot and can kick them toward something, but I won't bend over to do anything else. So as we search for a good shoe solution, I know that a cabinet is NOT the solution. The way we organized the kitchen was also highly influenced by learning my own inclinations toward tidying and how best to serve me. I don't really find it that hard to keep the house clean, or to get up and do something, but it's not like we don't all wrestle with some of these executive dysfunction things from time to time.

It was eye opening, though, in the ways that people with true executive dysfunction truly cannot function.
]]> 54434080 Philippa Pearce Erin 5 2024, audiobook The Secret Garden but only real (well, "real") and it reminded me of a favorite childhood book that no one I know has also read--The Hunky Dory Dairy, in which a girl stumbles on an old-timey farm in her neighborhood.

I had definitely guessed the reveal but it was no less delightful to reach.]]> 3.10 1958
author: Philippa Pearce
name: Erin
average rating: 3.10
book published: 1958
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/03
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Absolutely charming. The audiobook's radio dramatization was excellent, with clear movement happening by the actors. The story was like The Secret Garden but only real (well, "real") and it reminded me of a favorite childhood book that no one I know has also read--The Hunky Dory Dairy, in which a girl stumbles on an old-timey farm in her neighborhood.

I had definitely guessed the reveal but it was no less delightful to reach.
]]> 205518885 Robin Sloan expands the Penumbraverse to new reaches of time and space in a rollicking far-future adventure.

In Moonbound, Robin Sloan has written a novel with the full scope and ambitious imagination of the very books that lit the engines of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: an epic quest as only Sloan could conceive it, mixing science fiction, fantasy, good old-fashioned literary storytelling, and unrivaled enthusiasm for what’s next.

It is thirteen thousand years from now . . . A lot has happened, and yet a lot is still very familiar. Ariel is a boy in a small town under a wizard’s rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of unimaginable glories and unknown enemies, a mission to save the world, a girl. Here, as they say, be dragons. But none of this happens before Ariel comes across an artifact from an earlier civilization, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence that carries with it the perspective of the whole of human history―and becomes both Ariel’s greatest ally and the narrator of our story.

Moonbound is an adventure into the richest depths of Story itself. It is a deeply satisfying epic of ancient scale, blasted through the imaginative prism one of our most forward-thinking writers. And this is only the beginning.]]> 11 Robin Sloan 125035076X Erin 2 2024, audiobook Sourdough (I read it twice!), and I adored Mr. Penumbra's stories. And what I loved about them was how deftly Sloan handled the magical realism--it was so, so, real, and not at all fantastical. Magical realism of his type is my most favorite genre of book.

This, however, was a pretty straightforward fantasy quest/hero's journey story. And while I think Sloan is a masterful writer, I didn't find this even half as wry or astute as those other books, and even he cannot save me from my boredom with fantasy these days. At 25% in I actually restarted the book, knowing I wasn't clicking with it and hoping that I'd just missed something early on and a re-listen would help me. But alas, no. I was better able to follow it once I started over, but it felt no more compelling to me. I liked the characters, and I felt like I understood the setting, but this just wasn't for me, sadly.]]> 3.65 2024
author: Robin Sloan
name: Erin
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/02
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
OK so I love, love, LOVED Sourdough (I read it twice!), and I adored Mr. Penumbra's stories. And what I loved about them was how deftly Sloan handled the magical realism--it was so, so, real, and not at all fantastical. Magical realism of his type is my most favorite genre of book.

This, however, was a pretty straightforward fantasy quest/hero's journey story. And while I think Sloan is a masterful writer, I didn't find this even half as wry or astute as those other books, and even he cannot save me from my boredom with fantasy these days. At 25% in I actually restarted the book, knowing I wasn't clicking with it and hoping that I'd just missed something early on and a re-listen would help me. But alas, no. I was better able to follow it once I started over, but it felt no more compelling to me. I liked the characters, and I felt like I understood the setting, but this just wasn't for me, sadly.
]]> 213578064
A time travel romance, a speculative spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingeniously constructed exploration of the nature of truth and power and the potential for love to change it Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats�� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge��: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as ��1847�� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machine,�� “Spotify,�� and “the collapse of the British Empire.�� But he adjusts quickly; he is, after all, an explorer by trade. Soon, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a seriously uncomfortable housemate dynamic, evolves into something much more. Over the course of an unprecedented year, Gore and the bridge fall haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences they never could have imagined.

Supported by a chaotic and charming cast of characters—including a 17th-century cinephile who can’t get enough of Tinder, a painfully shy World War I captain, and a former spy with an ever-changing series of cosmetic surgery alterations and a belligerent attitude to HR—the bridge will be forced to confront the past that shaped her choices, and the choices that will shape the future.

An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley’s answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.]]> 11 Kaliane Bradley 1797176889 Erin 2
Some decently spicy scenes--I would argue that this is definitely not a romance, it's just a pop fiction with explicit scenes. [spoilers removed]]]> 3.48 2024
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Erin
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
review:
Very cute concept, but as with some ineptly handled time travel, it got quite convoluted. Also there were seriously too many characters and I could barely keep all their names/numbers straight.

Some decently spicy scenes--I would argue that this is definitely not a romance, it's just a pop fiction with explicit scenes. [spoilers removed]
]]> 205796038 Audiobook length: 08 hrs and 56 mins


At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different; she also possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of earthlings.


For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. But at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?


A blazing novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life in our universe, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a remarkable evocation of feeling in exile at home and introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.]]> Marie-Helene Bertino Erin 4 2024, audiobook 3.84 2024
author: Marie-Helene Bertino
name: Erin
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/31
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
This is not the first time "I am an alien, I'm here to observe humans" has been done, but it's so earnest, so genuine, so heartfelt here.
]]> 210005320 An elegant, razor-sharp debut about women's ambitions and appetites—and the truth about having it all.

Outside of a childhood nickname she can't shake, Piglet's rather pleased with how her life's turned out. An up-and-coming cookbook editor at a London publishing house, she's got lovely, loyal friends and a handsome fiancé, Kit, whose rarefied family she actually, most of the time, likes, despite their upper-class eccentricities. One of the many, many things Kit loves about Piglet is the delicious, unfathomably elaborate meals she's always cooking.

But when Kit confesses a horrible betrayal two weeks before they're set to be married, Piglet finds herself suddenly�� hungry. The couple decides to move forward with the wedding as planned, but as it nears, and Piglet balances family expectations, pressure at work, and her quest to make the perfect cake, she finds herself increasingly unsettled, behaving in ways even she can't explain. Torn between a life she's always wanted and the ravenousness that comes with not getting what you know you deserve, Piglet is, by the day of her wedding, undone, but also ready to look beyond the lies we sometimes tell ourselves to get by.

A stylish, uncommonly clever novel about the things we want and the things we think we want, Piglet is both an examination of women's sometimes complicated relationship with food and a celebration of the messes life sometimes makes for us.]]> Lottie Hazell Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.26 2024
author: Lottie Hazell
name: Erin
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/28
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
This story had an oddly sinister air about it, and I kept waiting for something sinister to happen! The way that the betrayal is never explained made total narrative sense but it left me, like Piglet, a bit hungry. Was it that bad? Really? But I suppose it doesn't matter, as it mattered to Piglet. I enjoyed the writing a lot but the story felt a litlte thin by the end.
]]> 62099064
A gripping new novel from the best-selling author of Inheritance: One Night. One Fateful Choice. A Constellation of Lives Changed Forever.

Signal Fires opens on a summer night in 1985. Three teenagers have been drinking. One of them gets behind the wheel of a car, and, in an instant, everything on Division Street changes. Each of their lives, and that of Ben Wilf, a young doctor who arrives on the scene, is shattered. For the Wilf family, the circumstances of that fatal accident will become the deepest kind of secret, one so dangerous it can never be spoken.

On Division Street, time has moved on. When the Shenkmans arrive—a young couple expecting a baby boy—it is as if the accident never happened. But when Waldo, the Shenkmans�� brilliant, lonely son who marvels at the beauty of the world and has a native ability to find connections in everything, befriends Dr. Wilf, now retired and struggling with his wife’s decline, past events come hurtling back in ways no one could ever have foreseen.

In Dani Shapiro’s first work of fiction in fifteen years, she returns to the form that launched her career, with a riveting, deeply felt novel that examines the ties that bind families together—and the secrets that can break them apart. Signal Fires is a work of haunting beauty by a masterly storyteller.]]> Dani Shapiro Erin 4 2024, audiobook 3.81 2022
author: Dani Shapiro
name: Erin
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/28
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I don't know why, but I pushed this book off from my holds for months--at least 6--and for some reason was hesitant to read it. But that was the incorrect thing to do, as this book is beautiful, and aching, and so so tender and human. There are a ton of these neighborhood/many-generation books out there, and some hit right and some don't. This one does, on all levels.
]]> 40816750 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet meets The 100 in this unforgettable debut by a brilliant new voice.

A century ago, scientists theorised that a habitable planet existed in a nearby solar system. Today, ten astronauts will leave a dying Earth to find it. Four are decorated veterans of the 20th century’s space-race. And six are teenagers, graduates of the exclusive Dalton Academy, who’ve been in training for this mission for most of their lives.

It will take the team 23 years to reach Terra-Two. Twenty-three years spent in close quarters. Twenty-three years with no one to rely on but each other. Twenty-three years with no rescue possible, should something go wrong. And something always goes wrong.
��--�������DzԲ��Ի������ܲ��ٱ��.�Ա�ٱձ�> Temi Oh 147118076X Erin 1 2024, audiobook 3.51 2019
author: Temi Oh
name: Erin
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I had such high hopes for this book but it was so boring. Also I was at one point convinced it was a translation, as the writing felt so off. But it doesn't seem to be?
]]> 205464690 Length: 11 hours and 53 minutes

After a lifetime of taking care of his impossible but irresistible sister and his cherished niece, Tom is ready to put himself first. An architect specializing in tiny houses, he finally has an opportunity to build his masterpiece―“his last shot at leaving a footprint on the dying planet.�� Assuming, that is, he can stick to his resolution to keep his needy family's demands at bay.]]> Stephen McCauley Erin 3 2024, audiobook
I also liked that the mom was a recent transplant to Woodstock--not far from me.]]> 3.15 2024
author: Stephen McCauley
name: Erin
average rating: 3.15
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
This is so much like a ton of these books, but I liked it quite a bit--debated 3 or 4 stars. The characters were compelling and sympathetic, their problems decently interesting. Definitely the travails of a bunch of white people, which is part of why i can't give this more stars.

I also liked that the mom was a recent transplant to Woodstock--not far from me.
]]> 55700922 Listening Length: 10 hours 22 minutes

A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party.

The bride �� The plus one �� The best man �� The wedding planner �� The bridesmaid �� The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?]]> 10 Lucy Foley 0062985051 Erin 2 2020, audiobook 3.63 2020
author: Lucy Foley
name: Erin
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2020/12/14
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves: 2020, audiobook
review:
There came a point in this when a character says a huge coincidence "can't be a coincidence"--but it IS a coincidence, and it's ridiculous. I liked all the intersecting threads, and there were some riveting suspenseful moments! It was well crafted in that the story jumped in time enough that you never got to a suspenseful point and noticed how much time was left in order to dismiss the scene as a red herring. But the final resolution wasn't as satisfying as I'd wanted.
]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naïve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women �� and how they might be improved.

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—T�ܰ��Ա��
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]> 129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Erin 5 4.05 1892
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Erin
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 112053235 From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother’s unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother’s fate—and find a connection that is more than skin deep?

For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass.

Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.]]> 15 Mona Awad 1797164759 Erin 1 2024, audiobook 3.25 2023
author: Mona Awad
name: Erin
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/08/05
date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
50% in and I'm out, and I'm done with Mona Awad--I love weird books, I love depressed women as main characters, but this is just not actually fun or interesting. Too confusing, trying far too hard. I can't believe I even gave a third book by her a shot!
]]> 89976735 Runtime: 5 hours and 9 minutes

The most profound book yet from the visionary author of Milk Fed and The Pisces, a darkly funny novel about grief that becomes a desert survival story.

In Melissa Broder’s astounding new novel, a woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow—for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike.

Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant.

This is Melissa Broder at her most imaginative, most universal, and finest. This is Death Valley.]]> 6 Melissa Broder 1797161679 Erin 4 2024, audiobook 3.32 2023
author: Melissa Broder
name: Erin
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I really liked this! I saw some rave reviews on tiktok, and some "this was stupid nothing happens" reviews there too--but I should have just trusted that most people have no patience for a book like this. One full of regret and grief and yearning to understand the world. Short and sweet and depressed without being sad, somehow.
]]> 60017840
As a seasoned medical technician and union leader, Anthony Almojera thought he understood the toll of the job on first responders. They carried the traumas of the city, but also its triumphs, whenever a baby was born on a subway platform or an elderly man in cardiac arrest was brought back from the brink of death. So when a strange new virus began spreading in New York, Anthony thought that his life and training had prepared him for this new challenge. The months ahead would prove him wrong, and would test the strength of the entire EMS system: a critical thread in the fabric of the city, but one that quickly found itself at the breaking point.

Following one paramedic into hell and back, Riding the Lightning tells the story of New York City's darkest days through the eyes of one extraordinary medic and the New Yorkers he serves--and serves with: ordinary people who will continue to make New York an extraordinary place long after it has been reborn from the ashes of 2020.]]> 256 Anthony Almojera 0358701694 Erin 4 2024, audiobook
The audiobook really is very uneven; it's clear the taping happened over multiple sessions. Not a big deal but it was noticeable.]]> 3.88 2022
author: Anthony Almojera
name: Erin
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Intense and very moving, plus educational. I had thought there might be some funny anecdontes--wouldn't you think paramedics would have a lot of stories of silly calls?--but this took it all very seriously. And it IS serious, of course, but some levity could have helped. The bulk of this book is focused on the start of the pandemic, and as someone who lived in Brooklyn--in a neighborhood the author visited regularly then--at that time, the PTSD was real.

The audiobook really is very uneven; it's clear the taping happened over multiple sessions. Not a big deal but it was noticeable.
]]> 36498876 Listening Length: 8 hrs 14 mins

Body-snatching has never been so heartwarming . . .

The Humans is a funny, compulsively readable novel about alien abduction, mathematics, and that most interesting subject of all: ourselves. Combine Douglas Adams’s irreverent take on life, the universe, and everything with a genuinely moving love story, and you have some idea of the humor, originality, and poignancy of Matt Haig’s latest novel.

Our hero, Professor Andrew Martin, is dead before the book even begins. As it turns out, though, he wasn’t a very nice man--as the alien imposter who now occupies his body discovers. Sent to Earth to destroy evidence that Andrew had solved a major mathematical problem, the alien soon finds himself learning more about the professor, his family, and “the humans�� than he ever expected. When he begins to fall for his own wife and son--who have no idea he’s not the real Andrew--the alien must choose between completing his mission and returning home or finding a new home right here on Earth.]]> Matt Haig 147039488X Erin 3 2024, audiobook Resident Alien, which mirrors this book so closely you'd almost think one was the source material for the other. The idea that becoming human is the best thing to be is so absurd, but the way he was learning to fit in was pretty funny, the same way the beginning of the show was.]]> 3.92 2013
author: Matt Haig
name: Erin
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/30
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
It's funny that I only recently started watching Resident Alien, which mirrors this book so closely you'd almost think one was the source material for the other. The idea that becoming human is the best thing to be is so absurd, but the way he was learning to fit in was pretty funny, the same way the beginning of the show was.
]]> 53308263
Yunjae was born with a brain condition called alexithymia that makes it hard for him to feel emotions like fear or anger. He does not have friends - the two almond-shaped neurons located deep in his brain have seen to that - but his devoted mother and grandmother aren’t fazed by his condition. Their little home above his mother’s used bookstore is decorated with colorful Post-it notes that remind him when to smile, when to say "thank you", and when to laugh. Yunjae grows up content, even happy, with his small family in this quiet, peaceful space.

Then on Christmas Eve - Yunjae’s 16th birthday - everything changes. A shocking act of random violence shatters his world, leaving him alone and on his own. Struggling to cope with his loss, Yunjae retreats into silent isolation, until troubled teenager Gon arrives at his school and begins to bully Yunjae. Against all odds, tormentor and victim learn they have more in common than they realized. Gon is stumped by Yunjae’s impassive calm, while Yunjae thinks if he gets to know the hotheaded Gon, he might learn how to experience true feelings. Drawn by curiosity, the two strike up a surprising friendship. As Yunjae begins to open his life to new people - including a girl at school - something slowly changes inside him. And when Gon suddenly finds his life in danger, it is Yunjae who will step outside of every comfort zone he has created to perhaps become a most unlikely hero.

The Emissary meets The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime in this poignant and triumphant story about how love, friendship, and persistence can change a life forever.]]> 5 Sohn Won-Pyung 0063015129 Erin 3 2024, audiobook The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time definitely set this up to not meet expectations, as that book was so full of heart and joy. I didn't get that here--it was more dispassionate, as befitting the character, I suppose, and I ended up not feeling much of anything. Still, it was a good, if hard, little story.]]> 3.78 2017
author: Sohn Won-Pyung
name: Erin
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/27
date added: 2024/07/27
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Pitching this book as reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time definitely set this up to not meet expectations, as that book was so full of heart and joy. I didn't get that here--it was more dispassionate, as befitting the character, I suppose, and I ended up not feeling much of anything. Still, it was a good, if hard, little story.
]]> 46270415 "Do you think it's possible to ever see the past as it actually was? I asked my sister. We were sitting in her car, parked in front of the Dutch House in the broad daylight of early summer.

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril's son, Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. the two wealthy siblings are thrown back escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, 'The Dutch House' is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they're together. Throughout their lives , they return to the well-worn story of what they've lost with humor and rage. But when at last they're forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

"The Dutch House" is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love, and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are. Filled with suspense, you may listen to it quickly to find out what happens, but what happens to Danny and Maeve will stay with you for a very long time.]]> 10 Ann Patchett Erin 5 2024, audiobook
Having now read (and adored) so many of Ann Patchett's books, I'm noticing and loving how there's always this underlying saracasm in all of her characters, expressed absolutely eloquently.]]> 4.17 2019
author: Ann Patchett
name: Erin
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/25
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
This book is brimming--nay, overflowing--with nostalgia, and boy did it hit me exactly right.

Having now read (and adored) so many of Ann Patchett's books, I'm noticing and loving how there's always this underlying saracasm in all of her characters, expressed absolutely eloquently.
]]> 159108784
From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of Peter Rabbit, Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process.

Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a trip across the country to uncover a forgotten love story––and perhaps, her own happy ending. As she finds herself struggling to navigate the uncharted roads of romance and friendship, Clover is forced to examine what she really wants, and whether she’ll have the courage to go after it. 9 hours and 49 minutes

Probing, clever, and hopeful, The Collected Regrets of Clover turns the normally taboo subject of death into a reason to celebrate life.]]> Mikki Brammer Erin 4 2024, audiobook
I feel like if you loved Remarkably Bright Creatures you'll also love this one.]]> 4.13 2023
author: Mikki Brammer
name: Erin
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I just loved this. I came into it from a book about a woman serial killer, and at first I marveled at the thread of a person being so close to death. Obviously this book was absolutely nothing like that one, full of heart and just so, so lovely.

I feel like if you loved Remarkably Bright Creatures you'll also love this one.
]]> 213189892 Of course, it helps that I'm the one killing them.

The night after her father's funeral, Claire meets Lucas in a bar. Lucas doesn't know it, but it's not a chance meeting. One thoughtless mistyped email has put him in the crosshairs of an extremely put-out serial killer. But before they make eye contact, before Claire lets him buy her a drink, even before she takes him home and carves him up into little pieces, something about that night is very wrong. Because someone is watching Claire. Someone who is about to discover her murderous little hobby.

The thing is, it's not sensible to tangle with a part-time serial killer, even one who is distracted by attending a weekly bereavement support group and trying to get her art career off the ground. Let the games begin...

Dexter meets Killing Eve in this superb thriller, perfect for fans of How To Kill Your Family and My Sister the Serial Killer.]]> 10 Joanna Wallace 0593829611 Erin 4 2024, audiobook women serial killers), but this one, which is basically a mystery, was a lot of fun, though of course there's the murders and the childhood trauma. I just think this was really well constructed as both a murder mystery and an exploration of a child psychopath/sociopath.]]> 3.34 2023
author: Joanna Wallace
name: Erin
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2024/07/18
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I don't know how to explain the number of books I've read recently featuring serial killers (bonus: women serial killers), but this one, which is basically a mystery, was a lot of fun, though of course there's the murders and the childhood trauma. I just think this was really well constructed as both a murder mystery and an exploration of a child psychopath/sociopath.
]]> 214527759
The Radletts of Alconleigh occupy the heights of genteel eccentricity, from terrifying Lord Alconleigh (who, like Mitford's father, used to hunt his children with bloodhounds when foxes were not available), to his gentle wife, Sadie, their wayward daughter Linda, and the other six lively Radlett children. Mitford's wickedly funny prose follows these characters through misguided marriages and dramatic love affairs, as the shadow of World War II begins to close in on their rapidly vanishing world.]]> 8 Nancy Mitford Erin 2 2024, audiobook 2.50 1945
author: Nancy Mitford
name: Erin
average rating: 2.50
book published: 1945
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/16
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
The truth is, I had a hard time getting into this book, but eventually I clicked into it. That this was published in 1945, so soon after the war(s), is the most remarkable thing about it. I don't know if I care enough about the characters to watch the show, but perhaps on a rainy day.
]]> 198983060 Welcome to the West Heart country club. Where the drinks are neat but behind closed doors . . . things can get messy. Where upright citizens are deemed downright boring. Where the only missing piece of the puzzle is you, dear reader.

An isolated hunt club. A raging storm. Three corpses, discovered within four days. A cast of monied, scheming, unfaithful characters.

When private detective Adam McAnnis joins an old college friend for the Bicentennial weekend at the exclusive West Heart club in upstate New York, he finds himself among a set of not-entirely-friendly strangers. Then the body of one of the members is found at the lake’s edge; hours later, a major storm hits. By the time power is restored on Sunday, two more people will be dead.

552 minutes.]]> 10 Dann McDorman 0593788400 Erin 3 2024, audiobook 2.95 2023
author: Dann McDorman
name: Erin
average rating: 2.95
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I love a meta mystery; this one was a fun, lighthearted diversion after too many trauma-filled reads. A little heavy handed, maybe, but excusable.
]]> 58950713 This darkly funny and provocative novel reimagines classic fairy tale characters as modern women in a support group for trauma.

In present-day New York City, five women meet in a basement support group to process their traumas. Bernice grapples with the fallout of dating a psychopathic, blue-bearded billionaire. Ruby, once devoured by a wolf, now wears him as a coat. Gretel questions her memory of being held captive in a house made of candy. Ashlee, the winner of a Bachelor-esque dating show, wonders if she really got her promised fairy tale ending. And Raina's love story will shock them all.

Though the women start out wary of one another, judging each other’s stories, gradually they begin to realize that they may have more in common than they supposed . . . What really brought them here? What secrets will they reveal? And is it too late for them to rescue each other?

Dark, edgy, and wickedly funny, this debut for readers of Carmen Maria Machado, Kristen Arnett, and Kelly Link takes our coziest, most beloved childhood stories, exposes them as anti-feminist nightmares, and transforms them into a new kind of myth for grown-up women.]]> 291 Maria Adelmann 0316450847 Erin 2 2024, audiobook
And the modern storylines, while inventive, lost me when it was the reality TV star (couldn't relate that well enough to a fairy tale), but turns out the reality aspect was the whole point.]]> 3.54 2022
author: Maria Adelmann
name: Erin
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/03
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
OMG I waited too long to review this and I hardly remember it. I think the way the trauma was being highlighted was kind of "fun"--like, let's all acknowledge that fairy tales are just stories of trauma against little girls! But is that actually fun?

And the modern storylines, while inventive, lost me when it was the reality TV star (couldn't relate that well enough to a fairy tale), but turns out the reality aspect was the whole point.
]]> 58385028
Eventually Dona lands in remote Navron, looking for peace of mind in its solitary woods and hidden creeks. She finds the passion her spirit craves in the love of a daring French pirate who is being hunted by all of Cornwall.

Together, they embark upon a quest rife with danger and glory, one which bestows upon Dona the ultimate choice: sacrifice her lover to certain death or risk her own life to save him.]]> Daphne du Maurier Erin 1 2024, audiobook 3.25 1941
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Erin
average rating: 3.25
book published: 1941
rating: 1
read at: 2024/07/02
date added: 2024/07/02
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
UGH, back-to-back DNFs. I can't grasp onto this book at ALL. Like, I've been listening and listening but not hearing for literal hours. Why am I bothering, it is not compelling me.
]]> 56483045
"A girl comes of age against the knife."

So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in Arkansas in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty, racism, abuse, and violence—both from outside the family, and also, devastatingly, from within. After years on the road, searching in vain for a better life, the Carpenters return to their hometown of Breathed, Ohio, in northern Appalachia. There, they move into a sprawling wreck of a farmhouse that local legend says is cursed. The townsfolk decide the Carpenters are cursed, too: "My mother gave birth to eight of us," Betty tells us in her frank, wry voice. "More than one would die for no good reason in the prizewinning years of their youth. Some blamed God for taking too few. Others accused the Devil of leaving too many."

But Betty is resilient. Her father's inventive stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination and even in the face of tragedy and death, her creativity is irrepressible. Against overwhelming odds, she may be the first member of her family to break the cycle of abuse and trauma—and escape.]]> 18 Tiffany McDaniel 0593212258 Erin 2 2024, audiobook
And so I actually rate a DNF 2 stars, because I think this is a good book, but it is not for me at this time (and likely ever). Check the warnings before starting this (I didn't). I am quitting at 39%, the mom is describing something so deeply deeply upsetting that literally in the middle of her story I was like "I do not have to read things I don't want to read."

I just flagged this with content warnings on The Storygraph and realized just how many more there are--this book is a walking trigger warning. Racism, physical violence, suicide attempt, child abuse... ]]> 4.14 2020
author: Tiffany McDaniel
name: Erin
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I cannot go on with this book--normally I can handle most things that warrant trigger warnings, but I can't deal with all this sexual abuse. I love the father, except for how he's oblivious to the abuse in his own home, and Betty is a delight; seeing the world through her eyes means you can see the things she can't, though she grows quite astute.

And so I actually rate a DNF 2 stars, because I think this is a good book, but it is not for me at this time (and likely ever). Check the warnings before starting this (I didn't). I am quitting at 39%, the mom is describing something so deeply deeply upsetting that literally in the middle of her story I was like "I do not have to read things I don't want to read."

I just flagged this with content warnings on The Storygraph and realized just how many more there are--this book is a walking trigger warning. Racism, physical violence, suicide attempt, child abuse...
]]> 184471880 'This fantastically strange, explosive debut novel entrances even as it unsettles. It's so brilliantly written'
BUZZFEED

Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach, her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life.

But these are human concerns. The concerns of those confined to land. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Stories that called sailors to their doom. Stories that dragged them down and drowned them. Stories of the creature that she's always longed to become: a mermaid.

Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine - the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill.

In the vein of The Pisces and The Vegetarian, Chlorine is a powerful, relevant tale of immigration, sapphic longing, and fierce, defiant becoming.]]> Jade Song 1804440612 Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.33 2023
author: Jade Song
name: Erin
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/27
date added: 2024/06/27
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
There was an intensity to the writing of this book that just never let up for a second. I don't know that the Kathy POV chapters were at all necessary; being in Ren's head was trippy enough.
]]> 201069489
You have no idea what it was like. For us. The women, I mean. The wives.

American women—American wives—have been mostly minor characters in the literature of the Vietnam War, but in Absolution they take center stage. Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney on loan to navy intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a beauty and a bully. In Saigon in 1963, the two women form a wary alliance as they balance the era’s mandate to be “helpmeets�� to their ambitious husbands with their own, inchoate impulse to “do good�� for the people of Vietnam.

Sixty years later, Charlene’s daughter, spurred by an encounter with an aging Vietnam vet, reaches out to Tricia. Together, they look back at their time in Saigon, taking wry account of that pivotal year and of Charlene’s altruistic machinations, and discovering as they do how their own lives as women on the periphery—of politics, of history, of war, of their husbands�� convictions—have been shaped and burdened by the same sort of unintended consequences that followed America’s tragic interference in Southeast Asia.

A virtuosic new novel from Alice McDermott, one of our most observant, most affecting writers—about folly and grace, obligation, sacrifice, and, finally, the quest for absolution in a broken world.]]> 11 Alice McDermott Erin 4 2024, audiobook
Having been an expat in Asia in the 80s, I found the core setting and story really interesting. But I'm not sure this was a story/setting that needed telling?

Also I will never, ever get over books that are written like letters from people who don't know each other all that well but they discuss their sex lives. WHO would actually do this.]]> 3.60 2023
author: Alice McDermott
name: Erin
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/26
date added: 2024/06/26
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I've never read Alice McDermott before, and what a breath of fresh air it was to find a writer with such a strong command of language after reading some meh things of late. The audiobook reader was great, too, speaking with such confidence even when the character was not sure of herself. The writing felt a lot like Elizabeth Strout, and I've always liked her books, too.

Having been an expat in Asia in the 80s, I found the core setting and story really interesting. But I'm not sure this was a story/setting that needed telling?

Also I will never, ever get over books that are written like letters from people who don't know each other all that well but they discuss their sex lives. WHO would actually do this.
]]> 43076904
A couple weeks later, there is a special interruption in regular programming. The announcer warns all listeners of an escaped sea monster. Giant, spotted, and froglike, the beast - who was captured six months earlier by a team of scientists - is said to possess incredible strength and to be considered extremely dangerous.

That afternoon, the seven-foot-tall lizard man walks through Dorothy's kitchen door. She is frightened at first, but there is something attractive about the monster. The two begin a tender, clandestine affair, and no one, not even Dorothy's husband or her best friend, seems to notice.

Selected by the British Book Marketing Council as one of the greatest American novels since World War II, Mrs. Caliban, much like Guillermo del Toro's film The Shape of Water, uses an interspecies romance to explores issues of passion and loneliness, love and loss - and in its own wryly subversive way, it blends surrealism, satire, and a strong female perspective.]]> Rachel Ingalls 1977388744 Erin 2 2024, audiobook The Shape of Water before The Shape of WaterM, essentially.]]> 3.38 1982
author: Rachel Ingalls
name: Erin
average rating: 3.38
book published: 1982
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/20
date added: 2024/06/24
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I wish I'd liked this more. It would, I think, make for a very fun movie, but the writing style was just so boring and the characters so flat that I felt like I had to do more of the work than should be necessary. It was The Shape of Water before The Shape of WaterM, essentially.
]]> 56015367
But there is something within Dorothy that’s different from everyone else, and having suppressed it long enough, she starts to embrace what makes Dorothy uniquely, terrifyingly herself. Recounting her life from a seemingly idyllic farm-to-table childhood, the heights of her career, to the moment she plunges an ice pick into a man's neck on Fire Island, Dorothy Daniels show us what happens when a woman finally embraces her superiority.

A satire of early foodieism, a critique of how gender is defined, and a showcase of virtuoso storytelling, Chelsea G. Summers’s A Certain Hunger introduces us to the food world’s most charming psychopath and an exciting new voice in fiction.]]> 237 Chelsea G. Summers 1951213157 Erin 3 2024
Otherwise, this was a "fun" ride in the mind of a psychopath. I almost wish the food aspect had been a bit more dominant, but it was a nice thread to connect it all together.]]> 3.78 2019
author: Chelsea G. Summers
name: Erin
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/15
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: 2024
review:
I wanted to give this 4 stars but it, sadly, does start to drag, and even becomes very repetitive toward the end. I'm not sure if this was intentional, that the MC is so caught up in herself that she just keeps repeating herself? But this was not a quirk she had from the beginning, so it just felt tedious.

Otherwise, this was a "fun" ride in the mind of a psychopath. I almost wish the food aspect had been a bit more dominant, but it was a nice thread to connect it all together.
]]> 198647289
In this suspenseful and darkly funny debut novel, a sophisticated French woman spends her life obsessing over her perfect husband—but can their marriage survive her passionate love?

At forty years old, she has an enviable life: a successful career, stunning looks, a beautiful house in the suburbs, two healthy children, and most importantly, an ideal husband, whose wealthy background allows her to transcend her own social class. After fifteen years together, she is still besotted with him. But she’s never quite sure that her passion is reciprocated.

Determined to keep their relationship perfect, she meticulously prepares for every encounter they have, always taking care to make her actions seem effortless. She watches him attentively, testing him to make sure that he still loves her just as much as he did when they first met.

Until one day she realizes she may have gone too far . . .]]> Maud Ventura Erin 4 2024, audiobook 3.71 2021
author: Maud Ventura
name: Erin
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/14
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Obsession, dysfunction, control--it's all here, in spades, and it's pretty deliciously told.
]]> 37732
But none of them can believe Margaret doesn’t have religion, and that she isn’t going to the Y or the Jewish Community Center. What they don’t know is Margaret has her own very special relationship with God. She can talk to God about everything—family, friends, even Moose Freed, her secret crush.

Margaret is funny and real, and her thoughts and feelings are oh-so-relatable—you’ll feel like she’s talking right to you, sharing her secrets with a friend.]]> 149 Judy Blume 0689841582 Erin 5 ya, 2024, audiobook 3.93 1970
author: Judy Blume
name: Erin
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/13
shelves: ya, 2024, audiobook
review:
I hadn't read this in years and years, and remembered so little, actually! "We must, we must, we must increase our bust" is of course imprinted onto me, but the actual core of this book is about finding out who you are with respect to religion! And while I realized she was talking to god, I had completely forgotten that she was being raised in an areligious household and exploring both Judaism and Christianity. While this book is of its time in some ways, it felt entirely relevant today, wrt prejudices and just the foibles of being a kid. Loved.
]]> 60769799 "A miraculous, transcendental book. Sabrina Imbler is a generational talent, and this book is a gift to us all." -- ED YONG, New York Times Bestselling author of I Contain Multitudes

A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature: the mother octopus who starves herself while watching over her eggs, the Chinese sturgeon whose migration route has been decimated by pollution and dams, the bizarre Bobbitt worm (named after Lorena), and other uncanny creatures lurking in the deep ocean, far below where the light reaches. Imbler discovers that some of the most radical models of family, community, and care can be found in the sea, from gelatinous chains that are both individual organisms and colonies of clones to deep-sea crabs that have no need for the sun, nourished instead by the chemicals and heat throbbing from the core of the Earth. Exploring themes of adaptation, survival, sexuality, and care, and weaving the wonders of marine biology with stories of their own family, relationships, and coming of age, How Far the Light Reaches is a book that invites us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live.


���ձ�> 6 Sabrina Imbler 1549187058 Erin 4 2024, audiobook 4.01 2022
author: Sabrina Imbler
name: Erin
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/12
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
i loved the rawness, honesty, and passion in all of these stories.
]]> 52142268 ~~~
“This is a beautiful story and the author brings to life a period of history with its traits and way of life.... 'Flirtation on the Hudson' is real; a narrative that features elaborately developed characters and adventures that will keep readers entertained. JF Collen combines humor and wit in a work that is hugely entertaining. I enjoyed every bit of this story.�� ~ Readers�� Favorite Book Reviews, Christian Sia (5 STARS)
~~~
Cornelia Rose decides early in life, almost instinctively, not to allow anyone to limit her to the few choices available to women in New York in the 1850s. Marry well and become a proper lady—is that all I can do? She surreptitiously pursues learning 'not meant for young ladies,' and begins the journey to become a midwife.


Flirtatious and sexy, Cornelia attracts suitors everywhere she goes. Flooded with invitations after her 'unofficial' debut, her courtships take a dramatic turn when invited to the West Point Military Academy as the guest of a cadet. Will her romantic escapades compromise her choices? Who will decide her future?
~~~
EVOLVED PUBLISHING PRESENTS a journey back in time to the 1800s, from New York society and the West Point Military Academy, to the Old West pioneering spirit, as one woman seeks fulfillment in her life. [DRM-Free]
~~~
BOOKS BY J.F.
"Flirtation on the Hudson" (Journey of Cornelia Rose - 1)
"Pioneer Passage" (Journey of Cornelia Rose - 2)
"The Path of Saints and Sinners" (Journey of Cornelia Rose - 3)
~~~
MORE GREAT HISTORICAL/LITERARY FICTION FROM EVOLVED
"Behind the Open Walls" by Lanette Kauten
"Invisible by Day" by Teri Fink
"Fresh News Straight from Heaven" by Gregg Sapp
"The Colonel and the Bee" by Patrick Canning]]> 314 J.F. Collen 1622536347 Erin 1 2024, audiobook 3.40 2019
author: J.F. Collen
name: Erin
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/12
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Having recently moved to the Hudson Valley, I looked up books set there, just out of curiosity. I didn't expect much from this, I promise, but omg it is so, so dumb. I can't. Bouncing at 6%.
]]> 199129026
Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience―she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who. Destabilized, she lost her bearings, until she began to understand the experience as one manifestation of a strangeness many of us have come to know but struggle to define: AI-generated text is blurring the line between genuine and spurious communication; New Age wellness entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers are scrambling familiar political allegiances of left and right; and liberal democracies are teetering on the edge of absurdist authoritarianism, even as the oceans rise. Under such conditions, reality itself seems to have become unmoored. Is there a cure for our moment of collective vertigo?

Naomi Klein is one of our most trenchant and influential social critics, an essential analyst of what branding, austerity, and climate profiteering have done to our societies and souls. Here she turns her gaze inward to our psychic landscapes, and outward to the possibilities for building hope amid intersecting economic, medical, and political crises. With the assistance of Sigmund Freud, Jordan Peele, Alfred Hitchcock, and bell hooks, among other accomplices, Klein uses wry humor and a keen sense of the ridiculous to face the strange doubles that haunt us―and that have come to feel as intimate and proximate as a warped reflection in the mirror.

Combining comic memoir with chilling reportage and cobweb-clearing analysis, Klein seeks to smash that mirror and chart a path beyond despair. Doppelganger What do we neglect as we polish and perfect our digital reflections? Is it possible to dispose of our doubles and overcome the pathologies of a culture of multiplication? Can we create a politics of collective care and undertake a true reckoning with historical crimes? The result is a revelatory treatment of the way many of us think and feel now―and an intellectual adventure story for our times.]]> 15 Naomi Klein 1250903114 Erin 3 2024, audiobook
At times this book was almost too personal, about the struggle of being conflated with someone absolutely on the wrong side of history, and then the idea of a 'doppelganger' was teased out in unexpected and at times quite stretches of directions. Still, each part was interesting, and thoughtful, if you ignored how they were being supposedly tied to one another.]]> 4.17 2023
author: Naomi Klein
name: Erin
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/12
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I didn't know the premise for this book when I started it, and I was deeply confused because I have never once confused Naomi Klein with Naomi Wolff, and at first I truly had zero idea who she was even talking about.

At times this book was almost too personal, about the struggle of being conflated with someone absolutely on the wrong side of history, and then the idea of a 'doppelganger' was teased out in unexpected and at times quite stretches of directions. Still, each part was interesting, and thoughtful, if you ignored how they were being supposedly tied to one another.
]]> 53463024
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> Suzanne Collins Erin 3 2024, audiobook
I felt like this was pretty successful at showing how Snow knows how to play to human nature; how he never wanted his own life to be hard at all; and that he was essentially on the road to becoming an incel.

I didn't read this when it came out, but now that the new book has been announced, I figured I ought to familiarize myself. But in reading this I realize just how little of the original trilogy I actually remember, having read them so very long ago and not re-watched the movies in a long time either. So maybe I need to re-read those too.]]> 3.90 2020
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Erin
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/12
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
First off, I, like many others, hate songs in books. If I'm reading with my eyes, I'll skip them. In audio, I don't know what is worse: a narrator who "sings" it to some tuneless series of notes, or one who reads it completely deadpan, as here. Either way, no thanks, though with the word "ballad" in the title I should've known this book was going to be rife with songs.

I felt like this was pretty successful at showing how Snow knows how to play to human nature; how he never wanted his own life to be hard at all; and that he was essentially on the road to becoming an incel.

I didn't read this when it came out, but now that the new book has been announced, I figured I ought to familiarize myself. But in reading this I realize just how little of the original trilogy I actually remember, having read them so very long ago and not re-watched the movies in a long time either. So maybe I need to re-read those too.
]]> 202898067 Listening Length: 10 hours, 30 minutes

When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living?]]> Holly Gramazio 0593865502 Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.59 2024
author: Holly Gramazio
name: Erin
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/07
date added: 2024/06/08
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
This was so, so enjoyable--though the scenarios did start to drag at a certain point. But a lot of fun.
]]> 61208367 For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage.

Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank's life is full of all the excesses Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could've predicted.

Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older. Whether it's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo's marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last.

As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent.]]> Coco Mellors Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.32 2022
author: Coco Mellors
name: Erin
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/05
date added: 2024/06/05
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I enjoyed this, but it read to me more as a screenplay for a TV show. And I would inevitably be disappointed when the next episode was Zoe focused. In general, though, I would for sure watch this show, and I think it would be exactly what a network like HBO wants--with drugs, sex, dramatic people, etc. But does that just make it like so many others? Maybe.
]]> 45449964
Teenagers develop ungodly appetites, a city becomes insomniac overnight, and bodies are diligently picked apart to make up better ones. The mundane worlds of schools and sleepy sea-side towns are invaded and transformed, creating a landscape which is constantly shifting to hold on to its inhabitants. Blurring the mythic and the gothic with the everyday, salt slow considers characters in motion �� turning away, turning back or simply turning into something new entirely.

Winner of The White Review Short Story Prize, Armfield is a writer of sharp, lyrical prose and tilting dark humour �� salt slow marks the arrival of an ambitious and singular new voice.]]> 6 Julia Armfield 1529029864 Erin 3 2024, audiobook
You can see just where the initial nugget for Our Wives Under the Sea came from.]]> 3.95 2019
author: Julia Armfield
name: Erin
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/02
date added: 2024/06/02
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Imagine my confusion when I didn't realize this was short stories. My attempts to assign all the weird characteristics to the same character was dizzying. But then I figured it out and I enjoyed the leap from weird tale to weird tale.

You can see just where the initial nugget for Our Wives Under the Sea came from.
]]> 123174782

When Alice’s best friend, Gabby, is reeling from a breakup, Alice writes her a heartfelt story to cheer her up. While reading it in a café, Gabby, as if by magic, meets the man of her dreams. Thinking the story might have some special power to it, Gabby shares it with her sister and other friends, who all find instant love. Word of mouth spreads, and Alice stumbles upon a new calling—to be a love scribe.

But not all the love stories she writes unfold as expected. And while Alice tries to harness her extraordinary gift, she is summoned to a mansion in the woods where she encounters the reclusive Madeline Alger and her mysterious library. As Alice struggles to write a story for Madeline, her most challenging assignment yet, she’s forced to confront her own guarded heart. Because maybe—just maybe—there’s a love story waiting to be written for her, too.

Emotional, deeply imaginative and brimming with valuable life lessons, The Love Scribe explores love, fate and the power of stories when we choose to believe in them.]]> Amy Meyerson Erin 2 2024, audiobook 3.58 2023
author: Amy Meyerson
name: Erin
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/02
date added: 2024/06/02
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
My quest for stellar magical realism means I read a lot of meh entries to the genre. This was a sweet, sweeping romantic tale, which is just not really my preferred book type. And the magical realism foundation just made me roll my eyes. But did it pass the time? Yep. Could this be a nice little beach read? For sure.
]]> 210164254
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin��), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon�� (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.]]> 8 Percival Everett 0593821262 Erin 4 2024, audiobook
But that said, I recalled enough to see how masterfully this was retold, and I trust that every plot point was matched to a tee. This book was brilliant for the way it humanized Jim and the other enslaved, highlighting the ways Jim had to navigate the journey from a different perspective. Plus there's a little revenge satisfaction!

[spoilers removed]]]> 4.43 2024
author: Percival Everett
name: Erin
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/05/31
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I last read Huckleberry Finn, what, more than thirty years ago (at what age does one usually read it in school, even?), and remember only the broadest of strokes, only the fuzziest of scenes. Like, the minstrel thing seems to ring a faint bell?

But that said, I recalled enough to see how masterfully this was retold, and I trust that every plot point was matched to a tee. This book was brilliant for the way it humanized Jim and the other enslaved, highlighting the ways Jim had to navigate the journey from a different perspective. Plus there's a little revenge satisfaction!

[spoilers removed]
]]> 27833910
From the author of the bestselling WAYWARD PINES trilogy, a brilliantly mind-bending science-fiction thriller in which an ordinary man is kidnapped, knocked unconscious—and awakens in a world inexplicably different from the reality he thought he knew.

Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.

It starts with a man in a mask kidnapping him at gunpoint, for reasons Jason can’t begin to fathom—what would anyone want with an ordinary physics professor?—and grows even more terrifying from there, as Jason’s abductor injects him with some unknown drug and watches while he loses consciousness.

When Jason awakes, he’s in a lab, strapped to a gurney—and a man he’s never seen before is cheerily telling him “welcome back!��

Jason soon learns that in this world he’s woken up to, his house is not his house. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born.

And someone is hunting him.

Is the life Jason remembers just some crazed dream? And can he survive long enough to discover the answers he needs?]]> 608 Blake Crouch 1101924489 Erin 3 2024, audiobook
I feel like this is the "boy" version of The Midnight Library, but it's actually even more of a romance novel than that was!

Eager to start the show and see how they tell this—the show could go on for literal seasons and seasons if they wanted it to.]]> 3.82 2016
author: Blake Crouch
name: Erin
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Early into this book I wondered if I ought to stop because I felt like I was "spoiling" myself for the TV show. I think that's a testament to how well the action was moving and how easy it was to immediately picture everything that was happening. Blake Crouch does sci-fi action really well.

I feel like this is the "boy" version of The Midnight Library, but it's actually even more of a romance novel than that was!

Eager to start the show and see how they tell this—the show could go on for literal seasons and seasons if they wanted it to.
]]> 53813848 A journey into the hidden world of fungi.

When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.

In Entangled Life, the biologist Merlin Sheldrake shows us the world from a fungal point of view. Sheldrake's exploration takes us from yeast to psychedelics, to the fungi that range for miles underground and are the largest organisms on the planet, to those that link plants together in complex networks known as the "Wood Wide Web," to those that infiltrate and manipulate insect bodies with devastating precision.]]> 10 Merlin Sheldrake 0593209818 Erin 4 2024, audiobook Fantastic Fungi on Netflix; it might suffice, honestly.]]> 4.20 2020
author: Merlin Sheldrake
name: Erin
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/28
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Clearly a passionate author, and engaging subject matter, but it did drag a touch for me in the last half. Highly recommend watching Fantastic Fungi on Netflix; it might suffice, honestly.
]]> 58809140
Miranda Fitch's life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating, chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now she's on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, the play that promised, and cost, her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.

That's when she meets three strange benefactors who have an eerie knowledge of Miranda's past and a tantalizing promise for her future: one where the show goes on, her rebellious students get what's coming to them, and the invisible, doubted pain that's kept her from the spotlight is made known.

With prose Margaret Atwood has described as "no punches pulled, no hilarities dodged...genius," Mona Awad has concocted her most potent, subversive novel yet. All's Well is the story of a woman at her breaking point and a formidable, piercingly funny indictment of our collective refusal to witness and believe female pain.]]> 14 Mona Awad Erin 2 2024, audiobook
A fever dream, an extended hallucination?

At its core this was a thoughtful exploration of chronic pain and the ways that the world is dismissive of the entire concept. But swirling around this core was so much utter insanity. I'm not sure it ever coalesced for me.]]> 3.56 2021
author: Mona Awad
name: Erin
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/23
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Um... what WAS that?

A fever dream, an extended hallucination?

At its core this was a thoughtful exploration of chronic pain and the ways that the world is dismissive of the entire concept. But swirling around this core was so much utter insanity. I'm not sure it ever coalesced for me.
]]> 11919073 6 Elizabeth George Speare 0739330284 Erin 2 2024, audiobook
Had no idea that this was going to be basically The Crucible! Basically everything about this was a surprise to me. I thought it was going to truly be about a happy witch living near a pond. I will say that toward the end it turns into an action movie (angry mob! with torches! very Simpsons) and it was super compelling. But overall, this book was fine.]]> 4.04 1958
author: Elizabeth George Speare
name: Erin
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1958
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/21
date added: 2024/05/22
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I had never read this book growing up. I suppose the "poor little rich girl" trope is useful for teaching empathy? But I wonder why it's so common in old stories.

Had no idea that this was going to be basically The Crucible! Basically everything about this was a surprise to me. I thought it was going to truly be about a happy witch living near a pond. I will say that toward the end it turns into an action movie (angry mob! with torches! very Simpsons) and it was super compelling. But overall, this book was fine.
]]> 134098364 Foster is a heartbreaking story of childhood, loss, and love; now released as a standalone book for the first time ever in the US

It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas' house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in their care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household--where everything is so well tended to--and this summer must soon come to an end.

A story of astonishing emotional depth now expanded and newly revised in a standalone edition, Foster showcases Claire Keegan's great talent and cements her reputation as one of our most important and prodigious storytellers.]]> 2 Claire Keegan 1696604907 Erin 5 2024, audiobook 4.12 2010
author: Claire Keegan
name: Erin
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/16
date added: 2024/05/17
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Yep, this is a perfect little book. Still has the undertone of bleakness that basically all Irish lit has, but it had a light touch.
]]> 199405466
Every serial killer needs a friend.
Every game must have a winner.

When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of a like-minded, pitch-black soul. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

Butcher & Blackbird is the first book in the Ruinous Love Dark Romance trilogy of interconnected stand-alone dark romantic comedies. This dual POV novel ends on a HEA.

***Butcher & Blackbird is a DARK ROMANCE intended for an adult audience - please see Brynne’s website for a comprehensive list of CWs***

Listening length: 8 hours, 43 minutes]]> Brynne Weaver Erin 2 2024, audiobook 4.12 2023
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Erin
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/15
date added: 2024/05/15
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Scant on plot and character development, but I guess you don't read it for that. But then it also took more than half the book to get to a sex scene!
]]> 177420433
Out on the open water, the couple encounters physical challenges brought on by weather, geography, and inexperience. They also grapple with the mixed emotions of parents who, now untethered from their former lives, must envision a new future for themselves. The author’s own lyrical voice shines through in this audio edition of her award-winning memoir, bringing us aboard the Heron to share in a voyage of discovery.

First published in hardcover by Sasquatch Books in 2019, Uncharted was a Nancy Pearl Book Award Finalist 2020 and a Silver Nautilus Book Award Winner 2019.]]> 9 Kim Brown Seely Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.67
author: Kim Brown Seely
name: Erin
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/12
date added: 2024/05/12
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
A sweet little memoir. Though on the surface (and the book synopsis) it's a story about weathering challenges (and actual weather) in a relationship, the main message I got was "call your mom."
]]> 123250899 From one of our fiercest stylists, a roaring epic chronicling the life, times, and secrets of a notorious artist.

When X—an iconoclastic artist, writer, and polarizing shape-shifter—falls dead in her office, her widow, wild with grief and refusing everyone’s good advice, hurls herself into writing a biography of the woman she deified. Though X was recognized as a crucial creative force of her era, she kept a tight grip on her life story. Not even CM, her wife, knew where X had been born, and in her quest to find out, she opens a Pandora’s box of secrets, betrayals, and destruction. All the while, she immerses herself in the history of the Southern Territory, a fascist theocracy that split from the rest of the country after World War II, as it is finally, in the present day, forced into an uneasy reunification.

A masterfully constructed literary adventure complete with original images assembled by X’s widow, Biography of X follows a grieving wife seeking to understand the woman who enthralled her. CM traces X’s peripatetic trajectory over decades, from Europe to the ruins of America's divided territories, and through her collaborations and feuds with everyone from Bowie and Waits to Sontag and Acker. And when she finally understands the scope of X’s defining artistic project, CM realizes her wife’s deceptions were far crueler than she imagined.

Pulsing with suspense and intellect while blending nonfiction and fiction, Biography of X is a roaring epic that plumbs the depths of grief, art, and love. In her most ambitious novel yet, Catherine Lacey, one of our most acclaimed literary innovators, pushes her craft to its highest level, introducing us to an unforgettable character who, in her tantalizing mystery, shows us the fallibility of the stories we craft for ourselves.

*Listening Length: 14 hours and 6 minutes]]> 15 Catherine Lacey Erin 2 2024, audiobook
Overall, I guess I just didn't find X as compelling as her wife did, so I never particularly cared what was discovered about her.]]> 3.53 2023
author: Catherine Lacey
name: Erin
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/07
date added: 2024/05/08
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Here's the thing. I have found in the past few years that I greatly dislike books that cite "resources" that are also fictional. I do not know why--this should, in theory, create a more robust world for the story--but I hate it. And this book is fulllll of citations to fictional things. So that put me off at the start.

Overall, I guess I just didn't find X as compelling as her wife did, so I never particularly cared what was discovered about her.
]]> 180140369 A lonely, lovable, queer mountain lion narrates this star-making fever dream of a novel.

A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign. Lonely and fascinated by humanity’s foibles, the lion spends their days protecting the welfare of a nearby homeless encampment, observing obnoxious hikers complain about their trauma, and, in quiet moments, grappling with the complexities of their gender identity, memories of a vicious father, and the indignities of sentience. “I have so much language in my brain,�� our lion says, “and nowhere to put it.��

When a man-made fire engulfs the encampment, the lion is forced from the hills down into the city the hikers call “ellay.�� As the lion confronts a carousel of temptations and threats, they take us on a tour that spans the cruel inequalities of Los Angeles and the toll of climate grief, while scrambling to avoid earthquakes, floods, and the noise of their own conflicted psyche. But even when salvation finally seems within reach, they are forced to face down the ultimate question: Do they want to eat a person, or become one?

In elegiac prose woven with humor, imagination, sensuality, and tragedy, Henry Hoke’s Open Throat is a marvel of storytelling, a universal journey through a wondrous and menacing world told by a lovable mountain lion. Both feral and vulnerable, profound and playful, Open Throat is a star-making novel that brings mythmaking to real life.]]> 2 Henry Hoke Erin 4 2024, audiobook 3.87 2023
author: Henry Hoke
name: Erin
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/03
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Quirky, funny, and engaging. Definitely more of a short story than a full novel but I am not complaining--it felt whole.
]]> 208990794 0 Sean Michaels Erin 3 2024, audiobook 4.00 2023
author: Sean Michaels
name: Erin
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/02
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
Deeply conflicted about this book. The main character being a poet meant the writing absolutely had to be completely magical and lyrical--and it was. I loved the main POV's observations, and light curmudgeonliness. The vibe felt like watching DEVS or Deus Ex and I love that. The interactions with the AI were intriguing. But finding out that the AI sections were literally written with the use of AI left me disappointed, and I'm not sure exactly what message I was to be left with in the end.
]]> 199896392
As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid must contend with her mounting suspicion that something is seriously wrong with her. Because at the end of the day there’s only one person she can’t outrun—herself.

Brimming with quirky humor, charm, and heart, Interesting Facts about Space effortlessly shows us the power of revealing our secret shames, the most beautifully human parts of us all.

Listening length: 8 hours, 25 minutes]]> 9 Emily R. Austin Erin 1 2024, audiobook Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by the same author, which hit all of those notes.

This one, however, featured characters it was impossible to feel sympathetic to, who were relentlessly annoying and helpless and generally dislikable. Just gutted it out to finish, but there was little payoff for having stuck to the end.]]> 3.73 2024
author: Emily R. Austin
name: Erin
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/05/02
date added: 2024/05/02
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I was expecting so much more from this book--I had thought it would be quirky, wry, funny. I loved Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by the same author, which hit all of those notes.

This one, however, featured characters it was impossible to feel sympathetic to, who were relentlessly annoying and helpless and generally dislikable. Just gutted it out to finish, but there was little payoff for having stuck to the end.
]]> 202020140
From the bestselling author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, a fiendishly fun locked room (train) murder mystery that "offers a tip of the hat to the great Agatha Christie novel while at the same time being a modern reinvention of it" (Nita Prose) -- perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Anthony Horowitz

When the Australian Mystery Writers�� Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.

The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty:

the debut writer (me!)

the forensic science writer

the blockbuster writer

the legal thriller writer

the literary writer

the psychological suspense writer

But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.

Of course, we should also know how to commit one.

How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?]]> 9 Benjamin Stevenson 006327910X Erin 3 2024, audiobook 3.75 2023
author: Benjamin Stevenson
name: Erin
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I enjoyed this well enough, even though it got a bit convoluted by the end.
]]> 60700194
When Ralph and Abby Lamb move in with Ralph’s mother, Laura, Abby hopes it’s just what she and her mother-in-law need to finally connect. After a traumatic childhood, Abby is desperate for a mother figure, especially now that she and Ralph are trying to become parents themselves. Abby just has so much love to give—to Ralph, to Laura, and to Mrs. Bondy, her favorite resident at the long-term care home where she works. But Laura isn’t interested in bonding with her daughter-in-law. She’s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, and life with her is hellish.

When Laura takes her own life, her ghost haunts Abby and Ralph in very different ways: Ralph is plunged into depression, and Abby is terrorized by a force intent on destroying everything she loves. To make matters worse, Mrs. Bondy’s daughter is threatening to move Mrs. Bondy from the home, leaving Abby totally alone. With everything on the line, Abby comes up with a chilling plan that will allow her to keep Mrs. Bondy, rescue Ralph from his tortured mind, and break Laura's hold on the family for good. All it requires is a little ingenuity, a lot of determination, and a unique recipe for chicken à la king��

Listening Length: 9 hours.]]> Ainslie Hogarth Erin 5 2024, audiobook
It grabs you from the start, and has such urgency and presence despite being about deeply, deeply depressed people. Read this in bits and pieces all in one day, wish it had taken longer.]]> 3.37 2022
author: Ainslie Hogarth
name: Erin
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/25
date added: 2024/04/25
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
This is the kind of book that, upon finishing, requires a deep, OH MY GOD THAT BOOK kind of scream--of elation, despair, and satisfaction all wrapped up into one.

It grabs you from the start, and has such urgency and presence despite being about deeply, deeply depressed people. Read this in bits and pieces all in one day, wish it had taken longer.
]]> 203755443
In New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s ingenious fifth literary whodunnit in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series, Detective Hawthorne is once again called upon to solve an unsolvable case—a gruesome murder in an idyllic gated community in which suspects abound.

Riverside Close is a picture-perfect community. The six exclusive and attractive houses are tucked far away from the noise and grime of city life, allowing the residents to enjoy beautiful gardens, pleasant birdsong, and tranquility from behind the security of a locked gate.

It is the perfect idyll, until the Kentworthy family arrives, with their four giant, gas-guzzling cars, gaggle of shrieking children, and plans for a garish swimming pool in the backyard. Obvious outsiders, the Kentworthys do not belong in Riverside Close, and quickly offend every last one of the neighbors.

When Charles Kentworthy is found dead on his own doorstep, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest, Detective Hawthorne is the only investigator they can call to solve the case.

Because how do you solve a murder when everyone is a suspect?]]> 10 Anthony Horowitz Erin 5 2024, audiobook 4.01 2024
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Erin
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/24
date added: 2024/04/24
shelves: 2024, audiobook
review:
I just love this series. I find it so fun, and funny, and the mysteries are interesting enough.
]]>