September Reading Wrap-Up+

We are officially, for real now, in fall. And it's actually been cool! I mean it's not supposed to last and I think we're going back up to the 80s but the heat actually came on for a few minutes these last few days. The school year has kicked off and we seem to be off to a pretty good start. Work is same old (is that good? is that bad? depends on the day), and the bamboo continues to taunt me but I'm coming to the point where I need to quit for the season and try to throw some grass seed down and hope I can repair the damage I've caused.

But hey, why don't we skip the upfront and get to the books.

Number of books read

5

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Strange Buildings by Uketsu

The Butcher's Masquerade by Matt Dinniman

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorne

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Former members of a childhood detective agency (and one dog) reconnect 25 years after their final case and return to the site of that last mystery to face their fears and find out what really happened (because the guy in the mask bit seems too simple this time around). It's the Scooby-Doo gang all grown up except it's not really (there isn't a 1:1 for the characters, except I suppose the dog). Andy the tomboy convinces brainiac Kerri (and her dog Tim) and their friend Nate, who's been in and out of mental hospitals, to go back to Oregan and find out what happened in that haunted mansion because their lives have been a mess ever since then. Peter, the last member of the gang, isn't even around anymore having died tragically (though Nate still sees him). The book is a bit odd, a bit all over the place, swinging from horror to comedy in a way that sometimes works and sometimes not. There are fun moments but overall I'd say it's fine. 

Rating: 3 stars

Strange Buildings by Uketsu

A sequel to Strange Houses which I have not read. Oops. I don't know that it is necessary (I wasn't particularly lost while reading this) but feels worth mentioning. Strange Building is a horror mystery, where most of the horror is how unsettling things are. There are eleven buildings each with a strange story that are all part of a larger connected puzzle. It's hard to give any details of the puzzle without giving anything away. But reading the "case files" and looking through the blue prints (there are lots of pictures) is entertaining as I tried to figure out what is going on, what do these details mean and how is everything connected. I sped through the book and will probably be reading the first one. Let's see if it sheds any additional light on this book

Rating: 4 stars

The Butcher's Masquerade by Matt Dinniman

Back in the dungeon, this time on the 6th floor which includes The Hunting Grounds. The crawlers, those that remain, are working together more. It's not just about surviving. This floor is open for the Hunters (i.e., those outside the dungeon who want a chance to kill a few Crawlers themselves) and Carl wants to make sure every one of them is punished for the part they've played. This is the 5th book in the series and at this point, you're really only talking to people who are already bought in. (If not, what are you doing reading so many books you don't really like??) Plus the books explode in length at this point, with this book coming in at over 700 pages. (Or read it on your phone as I've done and then it's well over 1,000.) The book fleshes out more of the characters that have been on the periphery, while still giving you plenty of Carl & Donut time. 

Rating: 4 stars

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorne

Margo has a problem. She's a 20 year-old unemployed single mom with no idea how to make some money and find affordable childcare. Her dad is an ex-wrestling star and her mom a former Hooters waitress, so she never assumed life would be easy but she didn't expect this. She definitely didn't expect an affair with her English prof would result in a kid (one he wants nothing to do with). One day her dad shows up unexpectedly moves in, ready to help with childcare. But Margo still needs money and she turns to OnlyFans using her dad's advice from wrestling to craft a character and finds she's good at this. And she likes it. Of course, not everyone is so comfortable with sex work and so trouble abounds. The characters pulled me in and while at times I found it difficult to get through (in a "oh no this could go bad I can't watch" type of way, not in a "whatever she's trying it's not working" way) I needed to know what was going to happen. And I was rooting for them. Margo, her dad Jinx, even her roommate.

Rating: 3.75 stars

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman

What, did you think there'd be only one Carl book this month? Even though this one is 800+ pages (or 1,500 on your phone, I feel so accomplished this way) I still couldn't put it down. Even though this is probably one of the ones I enjoyed the least. Or at least could follow the least because this time, on the 8th floor (what happened to the 7th floor? Well you'll have to read the series to find out, won't you?) battles are all about card games. Think Magic: The Gathering or the like. Which, no shade to them, but are not my thing. Which I suppose is partially how I finished 2 of these books this month in that when things started getting in the weeds with the card gameplay I very much skimmed things. This time the Crawlers need to capture monsters, trap them in cards so they can then use those as totems in card battles and get the keys that will let them down the staircase to the next level. But of course nothing is that easy. The crawlers are scattered all over the world, inhabiting worlds where the "ghosts" of humans who lived there in the days before the crash are wandering around among the monsters that await them. Also there are pissed off gods and the AI seems have its own agenda (to the concern of those who are supposed to be running the crawl). Not my favorite in the series but I'm not stopping

Rating: 4 stars

Total pages read

2,549

Fiction

100%

Female authors

20%

US authors

60%

BIPOC authors

20%

Translations

20%

Format

audiobook: 40%

ebook: 40%

paperback: 20%

Where'd I get the book

library: 80%

chain bookstore: 20%

Decades published

2010s: 20%

2020s: 80%

Resolution reads

40%

Meddling Kids is by a Spanish author

Strange Buildings is by a Japanese author and is a translation

August Reading Wrap-Up+

Summer is over and school is back and where has the time gone? Since August wasn't the oppressive heat of June and July in this part, I'm a little sad for summer to end and to move into cold weather. Of course, we've been spending the month of August battling bamboo. The bamboo is nothing new at this place, but we have mostly just focused efforts on getting rid of the stuff above ground. But those rhizomes are where the real problem lies and all of those shoots are child's play (unless they've matured at which point they are the hardest material in existence, I believe). All that is to say sections of my yard are destroyed, and I think we've hardly made a dent in what is hiding under there. Every time we think NOW we have found the root leading to all this growth, surprise, there are 3 other roots below it. But we carry on and I figure it's good exercise.

I managed a lot of reading this month. In part because at least 3 books are ones I started last month but also because I am fully sucked into the Dungeon Crawler Carl books and am finding myself stealing a few min here and there to read (report loading at work? Guess I can read a page while I wait!). Honestly, I'd probably be further along in the series except I'm getting the books through the library and there are holds for everything so it's basically forcing me to slow down a bit. 

With that, why don't we get into these books

Number of books read

8

Yesteryear by Carol Claire Burke

Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune

So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman

The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

Yesteryear by Carol Claire Burke

I actually started this back in June, but once we went on our vacation in July, I found I didn't really have my usual audiobook time. Then, since it was a library copy, it was returned and I had to get back on the waitlist. But it came and I was able to finish the last quarter this month. Luckily I remembered most of what had already happened and found it was easy to jump back in. Natalie, a trad wife influencer, wakes up one day to find herself actually living the life of a homesteader (no electricity, no heat, no indoor toilet, trapping their own meat, etc.). The story then goes back and forth between Natalie trying to make sense of what her life is now (and who are these children who keep calling her "mama") and her life before with the modern amenities and grand ambitions. Natalie is an awful person but entertaining to follow. I wanted to see what lengths she would go to for her ambitions, what she was seemingly raised to want and what she turned that into for herself. I skimmed through reviews and I feel like an interesting thing is several of these, if it weren't for plot details, I'd think we'd read different books. "Was this supposed to be funny?" I don't actually think so? I think there has been a lot about what this book is, that you can see lots of different expectations not being met, though when I look back I'm not entirely sure where those expectations came from. Not my fav read of the year, but I enjoyed it enough that when it came time to pick it up again a month later, I was ready.

Rating: 3.3 stars

Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

Book 2 in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and Carl has made it past the training floors. There's always a worry with a series that the second book can't live up to the first. That was not an issue here. Where the first book was a lot of learning the rules of the world, and of the LitRPG genre overall (assigning stat points, collecting items, inventory, leveling up), as well as just lots of mob fights, there is more of a story, more to do beyond just "fight this mob, gain points, repeat" that a lot of the first book dealt with. There is also a change in tone that isn't immediately evident but it felt like things were less graphic (less gross details) and there was less tonal whiplash I sometimes felt in the first. All positive changes as Carl and Princess Donut find themselves on the third floor in an NPC village and now they have to deal with a killer circus and figure out where these bodies falling from the sky are coming from. At least they now have a manager, Mordecai. These books are addictive. Are they amazing literature? No. Deeping developed rich characters? Ehhh. Super fun and still make me tear up once or twice? YUP. Did I read 2 more of them this month? You bet!

Rating: 4 stars

The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune

This is the third Klune book I've read and my experience has mostly been loved it but after some time I realize I'm forgetting a lot of details (The House In The Cerulean Sea), not super loving it but finding over time pieces of it have stuck with me more than I thought (Under the Whispering Door) and now this one, which left me with a lot of "Wait, what is happening?". Admittedly, I started it thinking this was the sequel to Cerulean Sea and listen, that is on me. But once I did get my bearings, I had some trouble connecting with the book. Nate has been estranged from his family for some time when he learns his parents have died and he lost his job. He goes out to their remote cabin in the Oregon forest to grieve and decide what's his next move. Except there are people in the cabin. A burly guy with a gun named Alex and an odd little girl named Artemis Darth Vader. There's something special about this girl, government officials seem to be after them and Nate has to decide what direction does he want his life to take. This is more of a thriller than his other books (of those I've read, anyway) but a lot of this didn't work for me. I never connected with the characters and the random explicit sex scene sort of came out of no where. This one didn't really work for me, though if you are generally a fan of Klune, it might be worth checking out.

Rating: 3 stars

So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder

You know before when I said Natalie in Yesteryear is an awful but entertaining person? Most of the characters in this novel didn't get the memo that you can be unlikable but you can't be boring because often they were both. We follow a group of friends as they meet up every few years at a party (NYE part right after college in NYC, a friend's wedding in Mexico, a Halloween party in the suburbs, etc.) and we see where they are at through their interactions now and a series of flashbacks. A line in the summary of the novel says "time has a way of breaking even the strongest bonds and testing what we thought we knew," except I don't know that I ever saw these strong bonds. This is a group of friends that don't seem to particularly like each other very much and other than "went to college together" I'm not sure why they still hang out. They are a mass of insecurities who are constantly mean to each other (sometimes to their faces, mostly behind their backs). I love a story with multiple narrators but I feel like this may have benefitted from sticking to just a couple instead of such a big group (all with similar names, what do you mean there's a Mia and a Nina, a Richie and a Mitch) and because I never felt those "strong bonds" in the first place, I found it hard to care too much as they were tested. In general I thought it was well written but a narrower focus with more chance to let the characters in the character-driven story to grow might have made it more for me.

Rating: 3 stars

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman

Another Dungeon Crawler Carl book? I'm telling you, these are hard to put down. Spoiler, Carl and Princess Donut make it down to the 4th floor and things are getting more difficult. But they have a new teammate, Katia a Doppleganger joining them. They're now stuck in a train station (or a series of train stations) and in addition to fighting their way through mobs and leveling up and all of that jazz they've been through, now they have to untangle The Iron Tangle. TBH, the structure of this floor was confusing and had I tried to follow it closely and figure it out, I think I would have gotten frustrated. Instead, as with many of the RPG elements that I don't super care about, I let it wash over me and just enjoyed the fun. Because there's not only the intricacies of this train level they're now dealing with, but all of the outside influences from the Syndicate and the Borant that are running the crawl, the AI, the viewership and everything outside the dungeon. Does all of this sound like gibberish nonsense? I know and I'm sorry. All I can say is it is FUN gibberish nonsense.

Rating: 4 stars

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

After Sorcerer's Stone, we moved onto the next book. He already knows the story and is a big fan of the giant snake. (Not it trying to kill people, just the idea of a giant snake) so he did like that. He was frustrated with Dobby and I think overall, started to get bored with the books. We finished this but decided we're switching over to rereading Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid for now. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman

I know. I KNOW! Another Dungeon Crawler Carl. I told you, they are addictive and they're quick reads, even as the page counts continue to climb up. Again, spoiler, Carl, Princess Donut and Katia make it down to the 5th floor. Carl and team have gotten pretty good at the game thus far, but now they're going to have to rely on other crawlers as they try to take the 4 castles and get out of the bubble. Things are getting crazier, which is itself a skill considering how nuts all of the previous books have been. And there is a bit more to the world outside the dungeon, the machinations of the Syndicate and the various factions controlling the game, with Carl trying to stay alive as well as do what is right for those trapped in this game. Parts of this could be harder to follow, which is saying something after The Iron Tangle in the last book but I still found myself reading late into the night thinking "one more page, just one more page". Onto the next (as soon as the library hold comes in).

Rating: 4 stars

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

Sheep solving mysteries. George, shepherd to a flock of sheep, has been found dead in his field with a spade sticking through his chest. The people in the small Irish village don't seem to know exactly what happened but the sheep decide they need to figure it out. He was their shepherd after all. And so this flock use what they know and what they can understand about humans to try to figure out who could have killed George. It's a cute book that is also darker than I would have thought. The mystery itself is a bit hard to follow, in part because everything is being interpreted through the sheep and what they know about people. And in part because I was listening and I will be honest, I found myself drifting from time-to-time and having to rewind. It also turns out I'm terrible listening to names that are similar (see some of my confusion in So Old, So Young) so some of the sheep being named Miss Maple, Maude, and Mopple took some time for me to sort out which sheep is which. But in the end I did keep everyone straight and seeing the world through these very different eyes 

Rating: 3.75 stars

Total pages read

3,511

Fiction

100%

Female authors

38%

US authors

75%

BIPOC authors

0%

Format

audiobook: 50%

ebook: 50%

Where'd I get the book

library: 100%

Decades published

1990s: 13%

2000s: 13%

2010s: 13%

2020s: 63%

Resolution reads

25%

Chamber of Secrets is a UK author and published pre 2000

Three Bags Full by a German author and it's a translation.

July Reading Wrap-Up+

July is behind us. And it was a very busy July, as at least partially evidenced by the fact that I didn't even publish my June post until mid-July because things were busy (but more cos I forgot to actually hit Publish on a FULLY FINISHED PIECE that I made sure to finish early cos I knew July, especially early July, was going to be busy. ADHD? What is that?)

Busy month! We went on vacation, leaving July 4th. Unfortunately, we left our house in darkness because a crazy windstorm came through the night before, knocking out our power which didn't come back until we had already landed.* Then we were gone 11 days (Caribbean cruise & a couple days at Disney) before coming back to NJ and more storms and forest fire smoke and a tornado?? At least the temps dropped from a "feels like" of 115 degrees (around 46 Celsius for any international folks).

Oh there was also a birthday! The little monster is way less little and now he is 8 and honestly, I don't know how that happened either since I could have sworn he was 2 just a minute ago. To stretch things out, we did a small celebration with just the 3 of us (and some new Legos) on the day and are planning a future trip to Legoland (more Legos, obv) for more celebrating. We also had an anniversary (12 years, also WHAT) cos those things are the same day, though we just celebrated early on the boat because we all know what that day is really about now. 

Why not talk about the books now? And hope I can get this post out before mid-August.

Number of books read

5

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of Childhood Online by Foresta Latifi

The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club by Gloria Chao

Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

I picked up this novel at a little bookstore on Bainbridge Island because a) I’d heard some good things about it b) it had a pretty design on the edges and c) what, am I going to go to a bookstore and NOT get a book, especially one that sort of takes place in the area? And then it sat on my shelf for a while because that’s what happens with books. Finally, a friend mentioned it with some good things to say and I decided to finally give it a try. And my friend was absolutely right, this was fantastic. Tova is living alone in a small town a couple hours outside of Seattle, spending her evenings as the cleaner of a small aquarium. Her husband passed away and her son Erik went missing 30 years earlier and her friends are worried about her at that job. But Tova likes the work and she likes the Pacific octopus, Marcellus, whom she forms a bond with after finding him roaming the aquarium at night. There are chapters from Marcellus's POV (not too many, just the right amount and honestly my fav parts) voicing general distain for humans except Tova and wanting to help her understand what happened to her son. The story is a bit slow, not in a way that's hard to get into by any means, but in a "Oh man, I'm more than a quarter of the way through the book and still feel like I'm in the intros but this is lovely, not a complaint, more a comment" type thing (that is the monologue going through my end at that point, anyway.) It was sweet and hopeful and I loved.

Rating: 4.85 stars

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

A friend recommended this to me about a year ago and then within the last few months I feel like the books are coming up constantly in my various feeds (so kudos to friend for being ahead of the curve) and during a recent Book Store Crawl I picked up a copy of the book and brought it with me on vacation. Where to start with this book? Because everything you've heard is right. It's nuts and it's fun and it's also upsetting at times. I'm sure if you are a fan of RPG, D&D stuff, there is more here to love that frankly, I'm sure went over my head but I didn't mind. One night the titular Carl is out trying to coax his ex-girlfriend's Cat (Princess Donut) out of a tree when suddenly everyone indoors is killed and everyone outside is herded into a dungeon for a televised death match (think Hunger Games or Running Man) and is treated like an RPG game, gathering loot, grinding & leveling up, winning achievements and of course fighting bosses and getting to the next level. There is a lot of detail there which, I have a feeling, if I were to listen to as an audiobook would get tedious, but here I enjoyed. There is humor (some immature, some dark) but also moments that stop the humor and were more upsetting than I thought they would be. (Sporadic reminders of how many people started in the Dungeon, and how many are left, some of the bosses and larger implications for the world). The book is the start of a series and very much not a standalone story. I'm not sure I would buy the other books but I am already on my library's waitlist for book 2.

Rating: 4 stars

Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of Childhood Online by Foresta Latifi

A look into the lives of influencer families, in particular the children, what is it like for these kids, what are the ethnical implications for this type of content and what should be done? Latifi interviews experts in psychology, influencer parents themselves as well as a few children to help understand what is it like to have every moment captured, to always (or nearly always) be performing and the motivations for going down this path in the first place. She writes a very even look that takes into accounts the benefits, the children (yes, even older ones) who like creating content as well as all of the downsides (there are so many downsides). I can't say I follow many (any?) family vloggers or family influencers (the few parenting accounts I do come across tend to be more humorous and don't show the kids at all), so I certainly come down more on a side of "This is bad", as I'm sure do most of the audience who would pick up this book, and you'll get your fill of voyeurism here, while at the same time getting a POV from some of these influencers themselves as to why they do it (as contradicting as some of those reasons and justifications may be).

Rating: 4 stars

The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club by Gloria Chao

Cozy lil murder story about 3 women who all find out they've been seeing the same guy, band together to get revenge, and then have to solve his murder before they go down for it. It's a light hearted story, in the vein of Dial A for Aunties (although, sorry, that one is much better), with some sweet moments like the main character Kathryn Hu finding friendship in unlikely places (you know, her boyfriend's other girlfriends). The podcast host changing her format to true crime to try to investigate the girls was a fun turn. The good parts were juuuuust enough to make me not mind (so much) the less-than-good parts, like the romance between Kat and "Detective McHottie" or some plot bits I can't get into without spoilers. I rolled my eyes a number of times but also, when the audiobook ended, I thought "That was a solid 3 star read and I'll probably check out the other books in the Hu Done It series eventually". (Also I almost never think of books in terms of their star rating till I'm at this point writing about them, but this was v middle of the road where not great but enough entertaining stuff to make up for the others.)

Rating: 3 stars

Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

The birthday boy has discovered Harry Potter. Sometimes he listens to the audiobooks while falling asleep. Recently we started reading the books some nights and we recently finished this one. I won't say much about it because really, what is there to say at this point? (If you want to see my thoughts there was a WHOLE readalong done). I will say, I have had some fun nitpicking details and I have brought the boy over to the side that Quidditch is a dumb sport because the whole Seeker/Snitch thing makes no sense for a sport (but lots of sense if you want an easy way for your hero to be the game winner without doing to much sports work).

Rating: 4 stars

I was also in the middle of listening to Yesteryear when we went on vacation. Unfortunately, I found I had less "audiobook listening time" than paperback time, and the book got automatically returned to the library before I could finish. I am back on the waitlist but it will probably be a couple months before I get it again.

Total pages read

1,716

Fiction

80%

Female authors

80%

US authors

80%

BIPOC authors

20%

Rereads

20%

Format

audiobook: 40%

paperback: 40%

ebook: 20%

Where'd I get the book

Library: 60%

Indie: 40%

Decades published

2020s: 80%

1990s: 20%

Resolution reads

40%

The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club is by an Asian-American author

Harry Potter is obv by a UK author and also written before 2000

*And we were very fortunate because our power came back within 24 hours as a bunch of houses in our town were out for almost a week. All we really lost was a fridge of a food that was partially empty cos we knew we were going on vacation. My brother, a champ, stopped by the house to make sure once the power was back everything was fine and turned on/off some things that we forgot/couldn't get to while the power was out.

June Reading Wrap-Up+

Hey, did you know we are WELL into July and yet it turns out I never actually hit publish on my June post? Seriously, it's been completed and everything. Incredible stuff happening over here, I tell ya. Better late than never I guess?

We are officially in summer now! I mean, it's been summer sure, solstice and whatnot. But I don't write these mid-month so. Summer! Every since school let out I feel like I have been in vacation mode which isn't great cos I still have to work (though we'll have our vacation soon enough). But we're figuring out a summer routine, even if it seems to change week-to-week. Sadly, that has not yet included a trip to the library to pick up our summer reading checklists (Did you know our library does ones for adults as well as kids? Libraries are swell.)

What I didn't really do is get into a good reading groove this month. Not a terrible one but had some fits and starts with actually reading books. The good news is the books I did finish I did enjoy so quality at least. And it was the NJ book crawl which just means "hey, why don't you go to a bunch of different bookstores this weekend?" and we said "Yes, excellent idea!" I think I probably acquired more books than I read this month but that's fine. I'm just squirreling them away in preparation for leaner book-gathering months.

Why not jump into those stats, shall we?

Total books read

3

The Briar Clubby Kate Quinn

Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

I am not usually the biggest fan of historical fiction, particularly that set in the ‘40s-‘50s. But I do love multiple POVs and a murder mystery, so I was cautiously optimistic about this book club pick. And it paid off.
The story is set at a women’s boarding house in the 1950s, where most of the residents keep to themselves and out of the way of the unpleasant landlady. That is until a new boarder, Grace, shows up, taking the tiny attic room. Grace hosts weekly dinner parties (making good use of the small hotplate in her room) when the landlady is playing bridge and this is what brings the women (and the landlady’s young children) home together. From here, we get POV sections for the various boarders, how they ended up in this home, what they’re hoping for. And the women begin to change, becoming more and more enmeshed in each other’s lives. There are, to steal the description from the back of the book: “poised English beauty Fliss whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; police officer’s daughter Nora, who is entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Bea, whose career has ended along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare.” There are more beyond these. And of course there’s the murder mystery I mentioned. Because when the story opens, the women are gathered in the house along with a dead body (though we, the readers, don’t know who it is), as well as the police.
I’m not sure this is going to be a book to stick with me long-term, but I did look forward to listening to it more than I expected.
Rating: 4 stars

Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka

This was a reread because the audiobook was on sale as I was browsing Libro.fm and I had to have it. I went back to look at my original review of this from a couple years ago which started with "This book was SO MUCH FUN" and you know what? STILL FUN. A bunch of assassins and other underworld-type people find themselves on a bullet train. Is a coincidence? Seems unlikely.  Even knowing basically how things unfold, I still loved it. I did skip past one particular scene that I won't get into here. Excellent choice. Will prob read again. Or maybe some of Isaka's other books, because apparently Bullet Train is second in a series (despite the fact that the first book in the series, Three Assassins, is described as "utterly propulsive follow-up to Kotaro Isaka’s international bestseller, Bullet Train")

Rating: 5 stars

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Why not keep the re-read train going? I picked up a paperback copy of this during a recent NJ Book Crawl adventure (the adventure: meet up with friends, go to bookstore, get lunch, go to a SECOND bookstore, go to a bakery) and have it sitting on my coffee table right now. Did I read this paperback copy?? I did not. But I did pick up an audiobook copy from the library and decided to relisten. Guess what? This was ALSO amazing the second time around. This was the first Backman I read and it has all of the hallmarks I love from the guy. Curmudgeonly and/or stupid people who are so much more than first impressions suggest. People who (lovingly) interfere. Moments that make me sob. Moments that make me laugh. Moments that make me sob AND laugh at the same time. And hope. Always hope. There's a would-be bank robber turned accidental-hostage-taker and a bunch of people going to see an apartment the day before New Year's Eve (odd time for an open house) and the police officers trying to make sure everyone is safe (including the hostage taker) before those Stockholmers get there.

Rating: 5 stars

I also started the latest Rainbow Rowell book Cherry Baby but didn't make it too far before I decided this probably isn't my thing, but maybe I should re-read Attachments again.

Total pages read

1,205

Fiction

100%

Female authors

33%

US authors

33%

BIPOC authors

33%

Translations

67%

Book club pick

33%

Reread

67%

Format

audiobook: 100%

Where'd I get the book

library: 67%

indie: 33%

Decades published

2020s: 100%

Resolution books

67%

Bullet Train is a translation by a Japanese author

Anxious People is a translation by a Swedish author

May Reading Wrap-Up+

It's May! Which has been a crazy month. Weather-wise in my neck of the woods I feel like we've had ALL the seasons, sometimes back-to-back (97 one day, 41 the next), though it seems to be ending on a nicer note. The way-less-small-by-the-day one (aka Matthew) had baseball this month which is adorable to watch, we had a quick long weekend up in Toronto which was a lot of fun, and just in general getting ready for the summer and vacations, which I am HERE for. 

Reading was a bit slower this month. I had a harder time focusing on a book and really getting into something. Perhaps June will be more successful (though as I look at past reading trackers, no, probably not.)

To the stats? TO THE STATS!

Total books read

4

Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want To Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes by Jessica Pan

Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke

Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman

Sucker Punch: Essays by Scaachi Koul

Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want To Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes by Jessica Pan

Jessica was lonely. She was living in London with her husband but none of her friends lived nearby. And how do you make friends as an adult, especially if you are a shy introvert (shintrovert)? Pan decides, after hitting rock bottom during a gym weight loss contest, she needs to make changes in her life and that means saying yes more often, like an extrovert would. The book is a series of challenges she gives herself, with the help of various experts, so she can learn to talk to strangers, go beyond small talk to connect, make friends while traveling alone, even do stand-up comedy and host a dinner party. This book called to me from a very tiny bookstore shelf (The bookstore was tiny. The shelf was average size. Tall, even.) Pan's stories (each chapter functionally stands alone, though it is roughly chronological) are funny and sometimes cringe and yes, I feel like I saw (see?) a lot of myself in her worries both about loneliness as well as the things she had to push herself to overcome. 

Rating: 4.3 stars

Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke

This book is a little difficult to explain. The entire story is told through Slack chats. Including those of main character Gerald, who somehow gets stuck inside Slack (his mind is anyway, his body is still at home). His bosses don't seem to mind his extended "work from home" time since his productivity is great. This isn't just Gerald's story though, and we get Slack chapters from several different co-workers who are dealing with a PR crisis (they are a PR firm after all) involving poisoned Pomeranians from a dog food client. The book is absurd satire and I did listen to this vs reading, which I don't know how much that affected things (there are multiple people who talk primarily in emojis which is interesting in an audiobook. not that it didn't work but would love to see those chapters). It's a little gimmicky but I enjoyed (even if there is one point near the end that is a bit...eeeeehhhh but it's spoilery so I won't say more here).

Rating: 3.8 stars

Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman

Three friends spend the summer after high school in Greece but after The Incident(TM), only two friends come home, their lives changed. Ten years later, the two surviving girls, Bess & Joni, come together again. The book is from the POV of Bess, who always felt like a bit of an outsider, even among their small friend group. The story jumps back and forth between present day, when the other friend Joni is wrapped up in a new potential crime and flashbacks to the past. There is some inspiration from Amanda Knox* (teen girls accused of a crime and their personal lives torn apart in the press), though not exactly the same. Bess and Joni are unlikable which would be fine if they were also interesting but unfortunately that wasn't always the case. I also had my own personal pet peeve where the character, in a 1st person story, is keeping stuff from the reader with no clear reason to do so (e.g., it's first person but it's via letters where they may have reason to hide details) except that the author is trying to build tension. There were times I did enjoy the story, mostly towards the end, and it's too bad more of the story didn't keep up that level

Rating: 3.2 stars

Sucker Punch: Essays by Scaachi Koul

I am a fan of the podcast Scamfluencers of which Koul is one of the hosts. I've also read an earlier book of hers, One Day We'll All Be Dead And None Of This Will Matter, that I remember liking well enough. So when on the pod she mentioned a new book about her divorce, I checked the library and low-and-behold, there was an audiobook version ready to be borrowed! This is a collection of personal essays about her divorce, yes, but also family, love, fighting and even reflecting on some of what she wrote in her previous book (where she talks about her happy with relationship with her soon to be husband and as we now know ex-husband) and what it means to live so much of your life in the public sphere of some kind. The essays build on each other though in general are stand-alone pieces, dealing with her divorce in varies degrees. The essays probably could have benefitted from being a bit further removed from the divorce but perhaps there will be a follow up collection. They are at times funny and raw and I liked listening to Koul read them on the audiobook. And I may go back and revisit her other book.

Rating: 3.7 stars

I also started Best Offer Wins which I think I would enjoy but it wasn't the right time for it so alas, perhaps I'll get back at the end of the library queue and try again in about 5 months when it becomes available again.

Total pages read

1,186

Fiction

50%

Female authors

75%

US authors

75%

BIPOC authors

50%

Book club pick

25%

Format

audiobook: 75%

paperback: 25%

Where'd I get the book

library: 75%

indie: 25%

Decade published

2010s: 25%

2020s: 75%

Resolution books

50%

Sorry I'm Late is by an Asian author

Sucker Punch is by an Asian-Canadian author

*Fun fact or like, probably not fun but anyway. I did a semester abroad in the same town (Perugia) that the Amanda Knox stuff happened. Except luckily I was there before it happened (though unfortunately a friend was there at the same time, partially on my reco for how GREAT it was, and her experience with the town was...a bit different from mine.)

April Reading Wrap-Up+

Would you believe that, once again, I had this post mostly written and then just forgot to post it? Well, you should because that is very on brand for me.

I'm not really sure what to say about April. It flew, but don't they all? The weather was nuts in these parts. We got some false summer where it was brought home just how excited I am for the prospect of getting AC put in on our second floor (unfortunately something that won't be happening until late summer/fall). I got to see friends. There was a Wild Kratts Live show for you theater buffs (who are under the age of 10 anyway). Things have been a bit crazy in some work world things (it's always something). And I got some reading done, which is really, the most exciting part, no?

Total books read

5

How To Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay by Jenny Lawson

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Strange Pictures by Uketsu

Everyone In This Bank Is A Thief by Benjamin Stevenson

How To Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy and Creative In Spite of Myself by Jenny Lawson

Not only was I of course stoked to know a new Jenny Lawson* book was coming out but also I managed to get on the "Notify Me" list early enough at my library that I was the first person to check it out. See, I leave app notifications off on Insta but I have them for the Important Things. Anyway, this book was different from her earlier books in that she frames it less as memoir and more as advice, of things that have worked for her when she's, well, not okay, whether because of her depression, ADHD, anxiety or various autoimmune conditions. It was less laugh-out-loud funny than her previous stuff (though still had its moments), but still a wonderful book that I will probably pick up a physical copy of at some point because while I loved hearing her read it, this does feel like the type of book you may want to flip to a particular section of at different times.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

OK, sure, I read this before. Not even a year ago. But now we're are in the middle of full-blown media tour for the movie and lots of people were talking about how GREAT the audiobook is, and a bunch of my library holds hadn't come in yet so I decided to look for it. Unfortunately because it is an Audible exclusive (which should not include libraries, Amazon I hate you so much), the only versions my library has are in Italian and Spanish, which, NGL, I briefly considered the Italian and testing how well Duolingo is working out for me. But in the end I caved because it was on sale for $5 and look, I'm not  happy about this either but people were right and the audiobook really is SO GOOD. I was a little worried because while I loved reading The Martian, the audiobook fell flat for me but no, this was just as good this time around and I loved it as much and now I need to figure out time to see the movie (in an actual movie theater!). And I realize I haven't talked about the story at all but I just read & wrote about it not long ago so I guess I'll just link to that...here.

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

This started as a Matthew bedtime story. I didn't remember a ton about it but when I saw it on some list of kids books, I remembered how much I liked it as a kid, so thought I'd give it a try for him. Here's the thing. He didn't really care. Mostly it seemed to center on too many adults and he wanted more children. I tried for a few days but it wasn't sticking. Except at that point, I was invested and also I couldn't remember how things turned out, so I decided I would just read it myself while he listened to Diary Of A Wimpy Kid audiobooks. Everyone was happy. The Westing Game involves a dead business tycoon, a bunch of seemingly unrelated "heirs" named in the will, and a game to figure out who murdered Westing and thus win the $200M. It's a fun mystery with word games and unexpected pairings, and twists, and turns. It did drag a bit here and there, especially in the latter half but I still enjoyed and was still surprised.

Rating: 3.75 stars

Strange Pictures by Uketsu

Should I have read this instead of listened to it so I could see the pictures? I mean, probably. The audiobook said both at the start and the end, how you should look at the companion PDF to view the titular Strange Pictures. Except I got a library copy which came with no such PDF so I relied on a bit of Google Image searching and sure, maybe that isn't ideal but even after seeing the pictures, I think I was fine. Strange Pictures is a collection of interconnected stories where the pictures serve as important clues to solve multiple-crimes. Even without the images, I was drawn into the stories, to the mysteries. It starts the discovery of a blog that seems normal enough but ends abruptly with a post about how the writer can never forgive an unnamed "you" and the feeling that these pictures posted years earlier hold the answer. Sure, it's not the most believable of mysteries (and if anything, I would probably categorize it more as horror than mystery) but it was enough to draw (ha) me in and I will probably check out another Uketsu book, this time probably in physical book form.

Rating: 4 stars 

Everyone In This Bank Is A Thief by Benjamin Stevenson

Another Ernest Cunningham book! He's solved a few murders in the past and now it's time for a bank heist! Because who doesn't love a locked room mystery? Ernest and fiancée Juliette are in a bank in a remote town trying to secure funding for a detective agency when they, along with 8 other people, are taken hostage by a masked man whose motives seem...confusing to say the least. There are lots of motives, lots of secrets, and of course Ernest is compelled to try to solve the crime(s) going on. The Ernest books are all so much fun and while the first (Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone) is still my fav, this was still fun and twisty (but no cheating the mystery!) and I love Ernest as narrator.

Rating: 4.5 stars 

I also started a book The Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer, but honestly a lot of little things just had me arguing with the book (largely to yell "did you Google nothing while writing this??) and I dunno maybe it will get better or maybe I will continue to wonder how a grim reaper works a 9-5 job because don't people die outside of those hours? Do others take those cases? Also how has she had no experience with people who maybe aren't thrilled to find out they're dead, given this is a job she's had for years? Sorry I will stop now. But you can prob see why I just returned it to the library.

Total pages read

1,540

Fiction

80% - right now, prob the best place to be

Female authors

40%

US authors

60%

BIPOC authors

20%

Translation

20%

Reread

20%

Format

audiobook: 80%

ebook: 20%

Where'd I get the book

library: 80%

Kindle/Audible: 20%

Decade published

1970s: 20%

2020s: 80%

Resolution books

60%

The Westing Game was published in 1978, so pre-2000

Strange Pictures is by a Japanese author and is a translation

Everyone In This Bank Is A Thief is by an Australian author

*Fun side story that I have FOR SURE told on this blog before but TBH, I'm not going to back right now (maybe ever?) to see what I wrote so you're getting it again. The first ever book signing I went to was Jenny Lawson's first book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened. And just by luck of where we were sitting, my friend and I were the first people at the table to get our books signed. When we got up there, my friend and I looked at each other and then looked at Lawson and sort of sheepishly said "Hey, we're not really sure what we're supposed to say here cos we've never done this." To which Lawson said "I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to say either cos I've also never done this. So we'll just figure it out together." and it was wonderful and lovely and really made things feel way less awkward. Though don't worry, I made things real awkward at a Christopher Moore book signing a few months later because I was owed one, I guess.