July was a busy month. We started it in Seattle, the little one is way-less little now as he has turned 7 and we had the subsequent celebrations for said milestone (including a bounce house in the rain), some acknowledgement of a wedding anniversary on the same day (which will be forever in the shadow of the birthday) and so much time playing minigolf and swimming. We also dealt with a broken AC during a heat wave, a missing mailbox and the town flooding (our house was mostly dry, the car had some issues). A lot of good stuff, some less-fun stuff and much reading. So let's take a look at that, shall we?
Number of books read
6
Kills Well With Others by Deanna Raybourn
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Harder, Live Longer by Gretchen Reynolds
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks
Kills Well With Others by Deanna Raybourn
The sequel to
Killers of a Certain Age, we're back with our group of older-lady-assassins, who have been laying low since their last adventure when their corporation tried to have the "retired". But the women are getting a bit bored with actual retirement and aren't that upset to find out that someone seems to be trying to get revenge on the Museum for hits carried out decades earlier and our fav assassins are in their crosshairs. Spanning a few countries (love a stop in Venice), the women need to do what they can to keep themselves and their loved ones safe while taking out this latest threat. Not necessarily a lot of humor in the books, but these are a lot of fun and I was RACING through the end of the book (because I wanted to hear how things turned out and also it was about to be returned to the library). I think I even liked this one more than the first, so that's a skill in and of itself.
Rating: 4 stars
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
How does he get me every time? I have seen these on book displays all over the place but I was waiting for my hold from the library to come in. And then when it did I was like "Hmm, maybe this isn't the right time. This seems sad and not sad in the normal Backman way and I dunno if I want that". But the hold was so long I decided to go for it and past me was a dumb dumb thinking this would be sad in the manipulative way or that this wouldn't worm it's way in. It's a story about childhood friendships and art and loss and grief and happiness and finding "your humans". It's funny and there are unlikely pairings and the story seems to be heading one way before shifting in another direction. Did I cry during this book? Yes, multiple times, though as I think about it probably as many times because something happy happened as something sad (also I am a SAP when it comes to crying while reading). I don't know that this is my favorite Backman book but it's probably his best one.
Rating: 5 stars
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
I am a big fan of
The Martian (book and movie; audiobook, less so); not so much a fan of Weir's follow up
Artemis (it was fine), but I heard there was a movie coming out about this one, and I was in a bookstore in Seattle and figured I can't leave empty handed (perish the thought!) so I grabbed a copy of
Project Hail Mary. And look, if someone were to say "This is basically
The Martian" I can't say I'd have too much of an argument against that. Yes, the reason he's alone is different and there are some things that are semi-spoilers (the trailer for the upcoming movie brings it up) that make it different enough. But Ryland Grace and Mark Watney are basically the same guy or at least closely related, and the story is a series of problems solved through the Power of Science and Math! The stakes are higher, since now instead of one guy left on Mars, our hero needs to figure out how to save the entire planet Earth. And this was fun! Ryland Grace wakes up in a spaceship with 2 dead astronauts and no memory of who he is or why he's here. Slowly things come back to him and we get a series of flashbacks as he remembers things (a nice way to handle those scenes and break them up within the present-day story). I do skim a lot of the math details because listen, I'm just going to
assume his math is right and I am happy he has all this knowledge but I, do not need to get bogged down. It's hard to talk about too much more without giving anything away so I'll just say I really liked this one and I look forward to eventually seeing the movie (with my track record, should be in about 4 years)
Rating: 4.25 stars
The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Harder, Live Longer by Gretchen Reynolds
I first read this book about a decade ago and was looking for something I had on my phone to help put my son to sleep. In that sense, I can say this book worked WONDERFULLY. According to my book bullet journal, we would manage about 8 pages a night before he was out and he often would ask me "Are we almost DONE with this exercise book yet?" I know, this isn't the nicest compliment to give, but if you're looking for something to bore a small child to sleep with, I can attest this one works. The book cites a lot (a LOT) of studies around the science of exercise, mostly centered around running, swimming, cycling and sometimes weight training (usually in services of one of those first 3 things). There are some interesting points, most boiling down to "Exercise is important for health (though not necessarily for weight loss, this book is not about that) and you should probably do both aerobic and strength training" along with a lot of information about if you want to push your serious training forward. It has little tips that I do still do, such as practicing balance by standing on one foot while brushing your teeth. There's nothing really revelatory here but also, the book is over 10 years old and it says the science here moves fast so it's not all that surprising
Rating: 3 stars
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
I can't remember where I first heard about this, but I am glad I did and that my library hold came in. Linus Baker works for a shadowy company that oversees state-run orphanages that handle magical children. Linus has always been a quiet rule follower, doing his assessments of the orphanages, providing meticulous reports, though not following up after his reports are turned in (the rules say that it is no longer his responsibility then). Linus truly cares for the children though reminds himself it's important he doesn't get attached. One day Linus is given a special assignment by Extremely Upper Management to assess a house on a remote island that includes some of the most dangerous magical children in the state's care, including the Antichrist. Linus must assess not only the home but the caretaker Arthur Parnassus, who seems to have some secrets of his own. The story is very sweet and I will definitely be checking out the sequels.
Rating: 4 stars
All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks
This book, especially the audiobook, is like attending a bunch of parties with Mel Brooks and having him tell you story after story about working in show business. This isn't an autobiography where you're going to to a full picture of who Brooks is as a person. This is going to give you a bunch of fun stories with lots of celebrity name drops spanning a 7-decade career. You get a few glimpses into his personal life, but he says that this is a story about his time in show biz and he didn't want to get too into his personal life, so he doesn't. But for a series of stories, where everything works out and everyone becomes great friends, it's fun. I could see this getting a bit tedious if you're reading it and going over plot synopses of his books but listening to him tell him and recite dialogue and sings songs in the audiobook made it just the thing.
Rating: 4.25 stars
Total pages read
2,430
Fiction
67%
Female authors
33%
BIPOC authors
0%
US authors
83%
Reread
17%
Translation
17%
Format
audiobook: 67%
ebook:17%
paperbook: 17%
Where'd I get the book
Library: 67%
Kindle/Audible: 17%
Indie: 17%
Decade published
2010s: 17%
2020s: 83%
Resolution
17%
My Friends is by a Swedish author and is a translation
