Look at that. Another January is behind us. I didn't really make any resolutions for the new year. I rarely do. Usually because I don't know what to aim for. I am trying to keep in mind that resolutions can be fun. They don't have to be stuff about losing weight or...what are other stereotypical resolutions? Anyway, not that. Maybe I'll aim to make new recipes this year. Keep on reading. Maybe try to make something, though honestly trying to make something is less appealing while we're still in between where we will be staying long term (because making something means acquiring things for the making which means I will need to pack up and move those things and right now, I have a room in my house just full of boxes and I don't need to add to that more than necessary). Maybe I'll make some March resolutions. Who knows? What I do know is January is over which means I have some reading stats to share.
Total books read
5
How To Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Shur
How To Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Everyone Here is Lying by Shari Lapena
A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
How To Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Shur
This is a pretty good book to start the year with, right? This is a good goal. I also read this book last January, so who knows, maybe this is a good New Year / Be Good reminder. A primer to moral philosophy, told in a very accessible way by the guy that created (among other things) The Good Place which is one of my fav TV shows.
Rating: 5 stars
How To Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Hendrix has really become a go-to author for me. I have learned not to get lulled into a false sense of security when the premise sounds ridiculous because I know that even with a silly sounding plot, the story will be truly scary and touching. This time Louise has to travel home after both her parents die suddenly to deal with the family home. She and her estranged brother will need to work together the clean the house of all of their mom's puppets and dolls. But something is off with the house and is Louise sure those dolls aren't moving? Very creepy story about sibling relationships and family secrets.
Rating: 4 stars
Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena
A nine-year old girl goes missing in an otherwise safe suburb and what could have happened to the girl. True the father came home early the afternoon the girl went missing, after the affair he was having ended badly and lost his temper when he saw her there after getting in trouble in school again. But what really happened? The story is told through multiple points of view and it seems that no one is really being totally truthful about what happened, what they know, what they suspect. The first half of the story was much stronger for me but as more and more of the mystery got answered, honestly, the less and less interested I was in the story, which really feels like the opposite of how that should go.
Rating: 3 stars
A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz
Another book in the Hawthorne/Horowitz series. This time there's a murder on a remote island at a literary festival (a small literary festival). The island is on lockdown as they (and by they, really Hawthorne though it's fun that Horowitz tries) to solve the murder. These books are fun. Hawthorne has a lot of tropes you'd expect from a super smart detective and watching all of the new ways he exasperates Horowitz is a good time. Bonus is that my library seems to have the books with little to no wait so also a key reason I've already finished 3 in the series.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
The story of Medusa. The story of Perseus. The story of Athena. Their stories are all intertwined, so of course you can't have one without the other. The story about who is a monster and who is a hero. A story about wrongs done to young women and the young women who are punished for having been wronged. Haynes has multiple narrators (Medusa sure, and Athena but other gods and demigods and titans and a crow and an olive tree and many more) but she manages to keep everyone straight, the narrators serve their purpose (yes, even the olive tree). The story has humor and cruelty and even when you know where the story is going, you hope that this time maybe things will turn out differently.
Rating: 4.25 stars
Pages read
1,830
Fiction
80%
Female authors
40%
BIPOC authors
0%
US authors
40%
Reread
20%
Book club
20%
Book format
audiobook - 100%
Where'd I get the book
Library: 60%
Gift: 40%
Decade published
2020s: 100%
Resolution books
60%
Everyone Here is Lying is by a Canadian author
A Line to Kill and Stone Blind are both by UK authors
