June Reading Wrap-Up+

Oh boy, June is done. School is out. I am (recently) back from vacation, hence a slight delay in getting this out. I also got a lot of reading done this month, though I'm not quite sure how that happened. Mostly cos I feel like I had trouble getting into stories but I guess not? Anyway, this is going to be brief because I should really be getting back on east coast time (something we're all struggling with in the house) before having to go back to work so let's jump into the stats.

Total Books Read

7

The Great Troll War by Jasper Fforde

Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On A Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

All The Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons & Politicians by Phil Elwood

I Need You To Read This by Jessa Maxwell

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green

Lucky by Marissa Stapley

The Great Troll War by Jasper Fforde

The fourth & final installment in the Kazam trilogy/The Last Dragonslayer books. (Some spoilers for the previous books.) At the end of the last book, Jennifer & co returned to find Trolls had taken over, destroying kingdoms and eating people. Jennifer and those who are left have made their way up to Cornwall and are temporarily safe behind a button-trench but it won't hold for long, especially not with The Mighty Shandar threatening to build bridges for the Trolls if they don't relinquish the Quarkbeast (for what purpose, they can only guess). Did any of that make sense? Prob not, if you haven't read the others (and/or aren't familiar with Fforde's style) but just know things have never looked more bleak. Can Jennifer (with the help of the sorcerer's, some dragons, a Princess in a swapped-body, and a vegan Troll) defeat the Trolls and Shandar while also finding out the truth about her parents and her past? A fitting end to this whole journey

Stars: 4.5 stars

Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On A Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Vera is back! A sequel to Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, and we are back with force-of-nature Vera, whose meddling is at the top of its game. She's surrounded by the wonderful family (found and blood) she brought together in her first foray into private detective work, bur she finds herself a bit bored with running a tea house, so when she sees a distressed woman outside the police station where her son's girlfriend (and soon to be daughter-in-law, of course, no talks of engagement be damned) works, she of course invites her over and starts doing some snooping to help find a missing boy. Vera again finds a motley crew of lost people who NEED a Chinese mother to tell them what to do (Vera's favorite past time). There's less development and less growth from the characters (Vera wins everyone over much more quickly, since her brood from book one are there to help convince people to just go with it), so while not as good as the first one, it was still such a good time and I would listen to Vera, especially if she cooks me her delicious sounding food.

Rating: 4.5 stars

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

I will forever know that if a book says something like "for fans of Knives Out" or "like Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None" it is not going to be like that at all. And yet, I will still go "Well I do like those things so maybe." Thus how I came to One Perfect Couple (well, also it was available immediately from the library), a book about Lyla & Nico, a scientist and aspiring actor, who get the opportunity to go on a new reality tv show set on a tropical island. Nico sees this as his big break and Lyla is sort of at a cross-roads in her academia career so why not take a couple weeks off to enjoy the beach. Things start going wrong from the start and a storm cuts the island off from the mainland, meaning those stuck there need to figure out how to survive on limited supplies and with tensions running high. This is not a murder mystery (can't imagine why I thought so, invoking Christie and all...) so I was waiting for a twist or trying to follow clues that weren't really there. Overall, it was fine, I suppose if you know what you're in for going in, but it never really grabbed me.

Rating: 3 stars

All The Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons & Politicians by Phil Elwood

You ever wonder about those positive stories about dictators or terrible companies or CEOs and how they get covered? It's all PR, baby. Elwood was PR operative (his words) in DC, representing the likes of Libyan Dictator Gaddafi, helping to win the World Cup for Qatar and trying to help turn around public opinion of Nigerian President Buhari when Boko Haram kidnapped almost 300 girls. Really, truly terrible stuff. Elwood holds nothing back as he describes this world, how PR works, how he worked with reporters to help the worst people, up until the FBI came knocking at his door. As someone who spent about a decade working in PR (though, nothing, I want to stress nothing like this) I was interested to see this side of things. It's terrible and shocking but ultimately pretty believable (unfortunately). Though how much spin is there in this book, especially about Elwood himself? Well, he seemed good at what he did, so keep that in mind. The story was engaging and a quick read.

Rating: 3.5 stars

I Need You To Read This by Jessa Maxwell

A mysterious murder of a beloved advice columnist. One the editor of a major NYC newspaper says is the most important part of the paper and the other parts don't matter because people really read the paper for this once-a-week column. Alex Keene is shocked by the death of columnist Francis Keen but when she sees a listing for the now-open position, she applies and surprises herself by getting the gig. She now works 16+ hour days reading letters written asking for advice so she can write one column a week (sorry, if this seems sarcastic but these things drove me nuts), but also wants to investigate Keen's murder. The editor seems to be acting odd. Can Alex solve this mystery and keep her own past from catching up to her? If you can't tell from my sarcastic comments, I had some problems with this story that was, in the end, mostly fine. 

Rating: 2.75 stars

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green

Why not read an uplifting history about tuberculosis, a deadly disease that still kills millions every year, even if many in the west think of it as that 19th century affliction. Green weaves the story of tuberculosis, the history of it among humans and it's current position in global health concerns, particularly in developing nations, through a patient Henry Green met while on a trip in Sierra Leone. This works an effective way to humanize a disease that is all but eradicated in wealthy countries but still ravishes others and as Green points out, doesn't need to. It's not a real feel-good story, but it's not as much of a downer as it could easily be and provides a good call to control TB as much as possible around the world.

Rating: 4 stars

Lucky by Marissa Stapley

Luciana "Lucky" Armstrong has been a conman (conwoman?) since she was a child, taught by her dad, an accomplished grifter herself. She longed for a stable life, but when you make your living conning people, you're always on the move. Now, Lucky is grown and she and her boyfriend pulled of the "one-last-heist" and are ready to settle down in the Caribbean, done with the grift. But when things don't go quite as planned, Lucky is on her own to figure out what to do to stay out of jail and try to cash in a winning lottery ticket. This was an interesting story that had some structural problems. The story hops between current day and flashbacks which, IMO, really messed up the momentum of the story. It felt very start-stop as I was reading and I had trouble motivating myself through the flashback chapters, especially when she was young. The ending also felt rushed and you'd think I'd realize it was coming, what with there not being many pages left in the physical book I was holding, but I was still caught off guard when I reached the end. 

Rating: 3.25 stars

Total pages read

2,070

Fiction

71%

Female authors

57%

BIPOC authors

14%

US authors

43%

Book club pick

14%

Format

audiobook: 71%

paperback: 29%

Where'd I get the book

library: 86%

chain bookstore: 14%

Decades published

2020s: 100%

Resolution books

57%

The Great Troll War is by a Welsh author

Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On A Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto who is from Singapore

One Perfect Couple is by an English author

Lucky by Marissa Stapley who is from Canada

May Reading Wrap-Up+

I was about to write how April has come and gone and while that's not wrong per se, it is a little late. I haven't slept well the last few days (travel! kids!) so bear with me. Anyway MAY. May has come and gone. I don't even know what I did this May. There was a lot of rain around these parts so it's fun to learn that if it rains long enough, water will just seep into the basement from various locations, and no, those locations are NOT where the water monitors are, silly.* We also learned that we have some carpenter bees who are annoyed we kicked them out of our garage and instead decided to give our deck a try. Except a woodpecker saw this and wanted to help us get rid of them. Now I have a post just FULL of holes. Thanks, nature. I'm sure the deck was way better than the 100s of trees you could have chosen. 

Homeownership has lots of little joys.

Let's talk reading. I feel like I had some trouble finding a reading groove this month. A few starts and stops here but still managed about my usual so I guess, what do I know? 

Total books read

4

The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley

* I also started All The Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Hartman but I think there was something about the timing but it wasn't the right book for me at the time so I just sent it back to the library. The hold line was too long so may as well let the next person have it.

The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde

Back to the UnUnited Kingdom and back with our hero Jennifer Strange. This time she and a motley crew (wizards! body-switched Princess! body guard! a rubber dragon! and more!) are on a Quest through the Cambrian Empire to find a mystical item, the Eye of Zoltar, which may or may not exist. It's a dangerous undertaking (50% fatality index) but The Mighty Shandar has tasked Jennifer with finding the item or he'll kill the last remaining dragons. A different feel than the other Kazam Chronicles books, but in a good way. The stakes are higher in each book, the losses greater and did I cry a few times? Yes, yes I did. This one felt a little less whimsical, a little less satirical than the others but the more I think about it the more I think I might like it the best out of this series so far? Or at least right up there with the first one.

Rating: 4.25 stars

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

Science! A look at the worlds we carry around inside us/on us/all around us in the form of our microbiome and how important these microscopic partners are. Some history in how science has come to understand the microbes around us (and all there is still to learn), all suited for a mass audience. Maybe not quite as funny as something by Bryson or Roach but in that realm. The book was very interesting though TBF, I did have some trouble zoning out from time to time (perhaps more of a risk when listening to an audiobook vs reading).

Rating: 4 stars

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

I was looking for a book I could really just fall into and wanted something proven. And what luck, there was an available copy of this at the library. Did it hold up on a re-read? Yes and then some. Loved it so much even knowing what was coming. Ove is a grumpy man who patrols his neighborhood looking for infractions (do people ask him to do this? no.) His wife recently passed away and he's been forced into retirement so, feeling he has nothing left to live for, he decides perhaps the best decision is to join his wife. Except he keeps getting interrupted by neighbors and pulled into helping them (What kind of person doesn't know how to back up a trailer properly??) that his own plans keep getting pushed off. Despite a depressing(ish) premise the book is funny and I still found myself laughing as much as crying (cos whew were there also tears).

Rating: 5 stars

Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley

OK first up, I could not say the title of this book without really stopping to think about it. Go too fast, and I either said "Jane and Dane" or "Jan and Dan". Those names are too similar to not rhyme, why are you doing this to me??

Anyway, the story itself. Jane and Dan are going through a bit of a rough patch in their almost 20 year marriage. Jane especially feels unmoored and unfulfilled in her life as a mother to 2 teens and a less-than-stellar writing career, and also Dan is probably cheating on her. Dan wins reservations (not dinner, just the reservation) to a fancy-pants restaurant and Jane decides this is probably the best time to ask for a divorce. Except dinner is interrupted by a terrorist group who takes everyone hostage in what seems like a scene from a movie. Or a scene from Jane's one-and-only books (that only sold a few hundred copies so how did these guys find out about it?). Can the couple make it out of this with their lives and maybe even marriage intact? There are thriller elements but with an undercutting of humor throughout and the chapters jump between Jane and Dan trying to figure out how to get out of this without dissolving into bickering.

Rating: 4 stars

Total pages read 

1,474

Fiction

75%

Female authors

25%

BIPOC authors

25%

US authors

25%

Translation

25%

Reread

25%

Format

audiobook: 75%

ebook: 25%

Where'd I get the book

library: 75%

Kindle/Audible: 25%

Decades published

2010s: 75%

2020s: 25%

Resolution books

100%

The Eye of Zoltar is by a Welsh author

I Contain Multitudes is by a Malaysian author

A Man Called Ove is by a Swedish author and is a translation

*Because it's been mentioned to me multiple times, we do have a sump pump. A bone-dry sump pump because that is ALSO not a location where the leaks/seepage points are.

April Reading Wrap-Up+

Flying through 2025, with April behind us already. It felt like a slower reading month for me in general, though I guess it's pretty much on par with the past few months. It just felt slower I guess. 

I did acquire some new books in April though, so that's fun. I picked up a copy of the Vera Wong sequel Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto, I picked up a few Jasper Fforde Kazam Chronicles books as part of the read-to-the-boy-at-night series, AND I introduced the little monster to Independent Bookstore Day (a very important holiday) where he picked up a Pokemon Handbook and an InvestiGators book.

Lastly, before getting to the stats, I have started watching the Netflix show/miniseries The Residence and It. Is. Wonderful. Murder mystery, very Knives Out-esque (and I say this honestly! Looking at you, pretty much every single book that also claims to be like Knives Out) with an eccentric detective played by Uzo Aduba ("Crazy Eyes" from Orange is the New Black) hired to solve a murder at the White House.

Now, to The Stats! 

Total books read

5

The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde

An Elderly Lady is Up To No Good by Helene Tursten

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde

We're back in the Ununited Kingdoms with Jennifer Strange, who is still running Kazam after saving the last of the Dragons. Now Jennifer has to face corporate and government greed as King Snood IV is partnering with Sorcerer Blix for control of magic (with one side wanting to use it for business while Jennifer and her cohorts want to make sure magic remains free). There's all of the usual Fforde shenanigans, satire, absurdity, and of course seemingly impossible odds. A fun sequel in the Kazam Chronicles and my own monster seems to enjoy it as a story to fall asleep to, and maybe in the future one for him to read on his own.

Rating: 4.3 stars

An Elderly Lady is Up To No Good by Helene Tursten

A short collection of short stories about Maude, an elderly Swedish lady who likes things the way she likes them and doesn't mind a little murder if it helps smooth things out. It was nice quite what I was expecting when I picked up the book (though I should have cos the summary makes it clear what it's about) but it's a fun lil collection, and maybe keep an eye out on those little old ladies who seem to have murder around them.

Rating: 3.8 stars

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

Phoebe's life has been falling apart so she decides she's going to treat herself to one last decadent vacation in her "happy place" (a boutique hotel she's seen but never visited), get herself a nice dinner, listen to some music, and then kill herself. But the hotel has been booked for the week for a large and elaborate wedding and Phoebe getting a room at all was a bit of a mistake. A mistake the bride is NOT OK with because how can Phoebe kill herself and ruin her wedding? The two women find themselves confiding in each other as Phoebe gets pulled more and more into the orbit of these wedding people. the book is so funny and touching, with so many poignant lines. This was a book I couldn't wait to get back into anytime I put it down. Loved it.

Rating: 5 stars

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

A character-driven story spanning decades about the Padavano family and the rift that comes between the sisters. William grows up in a house without love or connection, finding refuge in basketball. Until he's in college and meets eldest Padavano girl Julia and is embraced into her family. It's described as an homage to Little Women and there are lots of direct references to the book throughout the story, though the most I know about LW is watching a VHS copy of the 1994 Christian Bale, Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst version and about all I remember is the cover of the movie. I don't think that made much of a difference but perhaps if you know the story better this will resonate more. Because ultimately, for a character driven story, most of the characters felt flat to me. I didn't get much in the way of personality which meant it was harder to care about them and about what happened. But it had some beautiful turns of phrase here or there

Rating: 3.5 stars

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

This book is wild. A memoir of Wynn-Williams time working in public policy at Facebook, in a role that she pitched to the company for months before finally getting hired because she believed Facebook could be a role of good in the world (this was early 2010s). She learns over her years there how wrong she was and the lengths senior leadership will go to protect their interests and their egos and make money. Every time you think "It can't get crazier than that" it DOES. Repeatedly. Facebook denies the claims made in the book and have sued Wynn-Williams claiming she breached her non-disparagement agreement and have blocked her from promoting the book.

Rating: 4 stars

Total pages read

1,666

Fiction

80%

Female authors

80%

BIPOC authors

0%

US authors

40%

Book club pick

20%

Translation

20%

Format

audiobook: 60%

ebook: 40%

Where'd I get the book

Kindle/Audible: 20%

Library: 80%

Decade published

2010s: 40%

2020s: 60%

Resolution books

60%

The Song of the Quarkbeast is by a Welsh author

An Elderly Lady is Up To No Good is by a Swedish author and is a translation

Carless People is by a New Zealand author

March Reading Wrap-Up+

Ah March. Generally a month I enjoy, what with it being the month of both my and Tom's birthdays. Celebrations felt fairly muted this year BUT I'm not dealing with a kidney stone, so all in all an improvement from last year. 

I did a fair amount of reading this month. But also had some time where I was having trouble getting into a book so did a lot more podcast listening (shoutout to Scamfluencers which I am slowly but surely making my way through the back catalogue). Let's just take a look at those stats. 

Number of books read

6

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Monroe

It's Elementary by Elise Bryant

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

The Verifiers by Jane Pek

The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Monroe

I hadn't read this book by Randall Monroe (aka creator of the xkcd comics, aka those stick figure comics about science) in a while. Not since 2016, per Goodreads anyway. Once again, I was looking for something I could read to Matthew while he's falling asleep that wouldn't be scarring should he pay attention, but also wouldn't be so interesting (to him) that it would keep him from falling asleep. This one worked pretty nicely. Basically, Munroe opened up his website (or maybe it was always set up like this) where people could ask hypothetical science questions like "How high up would you need to be that if you dropped a steak, it would be cooked by the time it hit the ground?" and "What would happen if everyone on Earth stood really close to each other and jumped, landing at the ground at the same instant?" Silly questions, given serious, scientific thought to. The book is funny and I'm going to have to assume informative though I am not checking any of his math (because I wouldn't even have the first clue how to do that, though he provides formulas). 

Rating: 4.25 stars

It's Elementary by Elise Bryant

A cozy little mystery* where mom Mavis has a lot going on already (single parent, living with her father in her home town, underpaid work at a non-profit), that does she really need to add PTA to her load? But when honestly terrifying Type-A PTA president Mom Trisha tasks Mavis with heading the DEI committee (Mavis is one of the few POC parents in this very white town), she doesn't have a chance to back out. But at the very first meeting, when the PTA president and brand-new principal get into a bit of a disagreement, and then that night Mavis sees Trisha dragging something out of the school late at night (along with yellow rubber gloves, CSI booties, and cleaning supplies), AND THEN the principal goes missing, well, something is going on and maybe Mavis needs to add detective to her To Do list. Very fun, light read that kept me reading. Something very much appreciated during these...current times.

Rating: 4 stars

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Another re-read! This one, I hadn't read since 2011, which is pre-me tracking stuff in spreadsheets and not long after I started this blog in the first place. I always do a doubletake when I see this book categorized as True Crime even though it very much is. There is a crime at the center, that of the shooting death of Danny Hansford at the hands of Jim Williams. Was it premeditated murder, a crime of passion or an act of self-defense? But really, the book is about the city of Savannah and the eccentric cast of characters. If anything, the crime was a distraction from my favorite part of the book, him just introducing the various people he met when he lived part-time in Savannah. The book is so funny and every character is so charming in their own way, regardless of the various crimes they may or may not be committing. And of course there's drag queen, the Lady Chablis (who played herself in the movie version), who steals pretty much every chapter she's in. 

Rating: 4 stars

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

Yet another re-read. This one I last read in 2015 and didn't remember much about. But once I finished What If? I needed another read-to-the-boy book and he saw the cover of this and asked for this one. I figured it is YA, and Fforde is pretty trustworthy so I should be fine reading this one to him. The only downside was he liked it a bit too much and was far more engaged in this than say Pride & Prejudice. Which I guess just means I'll have to make sure he has a chance to read it when he's a bit older. Fantasy version of the UK where magic is real but has been drying up. Jennifer Strange is a foundling who is serving out some indentured servitude (this makes it sound darker than the story is) at Kazam Mystical Arts Management, where she manages wizards who can complete jobs like replumbing a house in a few hours without tearing apart the walls. But one day a precog predicts the death of the last dragon, and Strange is swept up in matters of land ownership, Big Magic, corporate sponsorships and national war. Because oh, did I mention, she is The Last Dragonslayer (and she very much would like to not have to kill a dragon). Listen, if you know Fforde, you know he's great. One of my favorites. His books are funny and touching and the problems build and build upon themselves until you think there is NO WAY out of this and yet, somehow, you get a satisfying (if sometimes unexpected) ending.

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Verifiers by Jane Pek

Claudia Lin loves mysteries and detective stories, so when she gets a job working for Veracity, a super secret company that helps people verifier that their online matches in dating sites are really who they say they are, she's thrilled. (Why does this job need to be so secret? Honestly, no idea. I just went with it cos the story said it was Very Important.) Sure she can't tell her family that she left the job her brother got her for this, but she keeps things from them all the time, like the fact that she's a lesbian (or at least her mother doesn't know, still trying to set her up with a "nice Chinese boy"). But when a client disappears, Claudia gets sucked into an investigation to figure out who is this client really, what was she really trying to verify, and what happened to her? Another fun mystery for These Times.

Rating: 3.75 stars

The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke

It's a little hard to rate a memoir especially one like this that deals with terrible trauma a person went through. But here we are. Shari Franke, the daughter of family vlogger Ruby Franke, writes about the abuses she suffered both from within and without her home. In the end, I had 2 main issues with the book. First, is on me, because this isn't really what I thought it would be. I heard about this book through a Reel about how the first of the children of mommy bloggers was writing what it was like. I should have known this was perhaps not the best source for info (even though she was a journalist who interviewed Franke for Rolling Stone) because she never once said the name of the book. Because the thing is, the book is hardly about the negatives of family vlogging. It's mentioned, of course, but the abuse started long before the vlog started and continued long after. The vlog only makes up about 3-4 chapters out of over 40. Second, it's just not that well written. There are some metaphors that introduce some odd tone shifts. I also wish maybe there was some more time to look back on what she had gone through. And maybe some examination the role of the LDS church had in enabling some of the abuse going on. But it was a quick listen.

Rating: 3 stars

Special callout for Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix which I started this month but had some trouble getting into it, not because it was bad (it wasn't! Hendrix, please continue to write female-lead horror stories) but because of The Horrors in the real world, I don't know that this is the right book for me right now. So it automatically got returned to my library when I was about halfway through and I would have been back at the end of the line on the waitlist. So I just bought a copy but I acknowledge now is not the time for this. I look forward to it in the future though.

Total pages read

2,047

Fiction

50%

Female authors

50%

BIPOC authors

33%

US authors

67%

Rereads

50%

Book club pick

17%

Format

audiobook: 50%

ebook: 33%

paperback: 17%

Where'd I get the book

Library: 50%

Kindle/Audible: 33%

Indie: 17%

Decade published

1990s: 17%

2010s: 33%

2020s: 50%

Resolution books

67%

It's Elementary is by a Black author

The Last Dragonslayer is by a UK (Welsh) author

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was published before 2000

The Verifiers is by an Asian author (originally from Singapore, lives in the US)

*TBF, I am still trying to figure out exactly what makes something a cozy mystery, absent things like tea rooms or extended food scenes. So forgive me if I've misused the term

February Reading Wrap Up+

This was another eventful reading month. Except it mostly just looks like that, because 2 of the books are ones that I started in January and just didn't finish until Feb. Now there's often a book or so that will cross months, but both of these are books I started pretty early in the month. Agnes Sharp was a Christmas gift that I started in early Jan but because it is a paperback, took me much longer to get through than an audiobook that I can pickup when I'm doing other things. And Sherlock Holmes took a while because it's relatively long and I was mostly just reading it to my son while he fell asleep, which meant just a few pages a night

Number of books read

6

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The New Couple in 5B by Lisa Unger

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp by Leonie Swann

The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell

Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

I hadn't read this in a long time but I wasn't quite into one of my other reads this month (5B) and was looking for something that I would enjoy and also that was currently available from the library (often a determining factor in what I read). It had been many years since I read this one, but luckily I enjoyed it just as much this time around, which is always a worry with books you read and enjoyed a long time ago. I listened to the audiobook and think Stephen Fry does a great job reading, though I think this book probably works better being read because I feel you can really enjoy classic lines like "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." 

Rating: 4.75 stars

The New Couple in 5B by Lisa Unger

The book I was reading when I thought "I'm not enjoying this" and picked up Hitchhiker. But I didn't return it to the library right away (no one was waiting for it) so I decided to give it another try. I got into to to an extent though not without some issues.* A young artistic couple (she's a writer, he's an actor) live in a crappy apt in NYC but inherit a beautiful building from the husband's late uncle, who they had been taking care of in his old age. But the wife Rosie feels like something is off from day one. Her husband seemed to already know they'd be getting the apartment (despite a battle with his cousin over the will), the doorman seems to know a little too much and why are there cameras and intercoms everywhere? But Rosie is writing about the building so living there seems like a good way to get material. It's creepy at times but there seems to be a lot thrown at the wall, some of which sticks, some of which not so much. And while I don't need the protagonists to be genius who can see every twist coming or behave totally rationally in intense circumstances, I'd like some degree of awareness. 

Rating: 2.8 stars

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Another book I read to the little monster at night to put him to sleep. He was less into this one than A Christmas Carol, probably because he already knows that story), but it achieved the goal of helping get him to sleep. I partially picked it cos I thought he'd appreciate a mystery (he's seen almost every variation of Scooby-Doo) and also because I had recently re-watched some episodes of the BBC Sherlock. I've read original Sherlock Holmes stories before but reading it now really brought home how dissimilar the BBC Sherlock and the OG Sherlock are. BBC Sherlock is a dick who yells at people (including children) who bring him mysteries that he deems boring. OG Sherlock tells a person who comes to see him with a seemingly simple mystery that no problem is too small and Watson comments how he always knows the right tone to take with a person. OG all the way, even if, tbh, some of the mysteries are...less mysterious but that could be more an issue with the times (they are a-changin'). This collection included stories like "A Scandal in Bohemia" (aka Irene Adler's story), "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb", "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" and "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches".

Rating: 4 stars

The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp by Leonie Swann

A Christmas gift from Tom who was looking for books that are like Thursday Murder Club. Agnes has turned her family home into a place where fellow seniors can live as an alternative to an old folks home, where they take care of each other and don't have to worry about dying without dignity. A dead body is discovered next door, a murder, perhaps a home invasion gone wrong. But this could be good for them because perhaps they could use this murder next door to help cover up the dead body they're currently dealing with. The household, who each bring their own pasts and their own unique skills, to solving this murder. Of course, they all bring their own faults too, many age related. Getting around, remembering things, isn't quite so easy as the years creep on. While it's not quite TMC it is a fun (and sometimes funny) mystery that doesn't wrap up quite as cleanly as I would have liked but I'll still seek out others from this author

Rating: 4.25 stars

The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell

So here's the thing. I liked this book. I liked listening to it. I thought the topics she talked about were interesting (Stan culture! TikTok therapists!). But I am having trouble telling you what exactly this book is about. It's more memoir than her other books (Cultish is a fav of mine) and each chapter reads more like its own stand alone piece that never really builds to an overarching point.
Each chapter talks about different bias/effect/psych 101 term like the IKEA effect, overconfidence bias, sunk cost fallacy, taking examples from her personal life, from the news, and from interviews with experts to talk about what they are and why we fall into them. Each topic did feel a little light on the research side and as I said, more memoir than I expected, but I still enjoyed.

Rating: 3.75

Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes

First thing first. I was filling out my book spreadsheet, as one does, and I was looking up info about the author. Goodreads just tells me some other stuff he's written, that he's originally from the UK. Great. But I notice the name and think to myself "huh, that's funny. Same name as the guy who wrote the Pina Colada song. Weird coincidence." Then I go to lookup the Pina Colada guy to make sure I got the name right and what do you know. It's the same person! This has 0 bearing on the book, but I thought about it constantly. Plus it made me think of this scene from Always Sunny.

Anyway, I loved this. What if there was a school that taught you how to murder, sorry, I mean "delete" someone? You have to have a good reason sure. You have to show that the world would be better without this person, no one would mourn them, that no one else would get hurt. But get past that and then it's lessons about how to off someone in, admittedly, very convoluted manners but isn't that the fun part? Cliff Iverson finds himself on the mystery campus at the behest of an unknown Sponsor (murder school isn't cheap) after unsuccessfully trying to kill his boss. He finds himself at a school where he could very easily be the target of another student and he has to learn how to plan the perfect murder. The story is about half boarding school story, taking place at the McMasters school, while the second half follows three students as they go about trying to finish their graduate thesis (aka, murder). It was a lot of fun and I would happily read about other students at this school and see their final theses.

Rating: 5 stars

Total pages read

2,169

Fiction

83%

Female authors

50%

BIPOC authors

0%

US authors

33%

Rereads

17%

Translation

17%

Format

audiobook: 67%

ebook: 17%

paperback: 17%

Where'd I get the book

gift: 17%

library: 83%

Decade published

1890s: 17%

1970s: 17%

2020s: 67%

Resolution books

67%

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is written by a UK author and published pre-2000 (1979)

The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp is written by a German writer and while she does live in the UK and set her book there it is also translated from German

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is written by a UK author and published pre-2000 (1892)

Murder Your Employer is written by a UK author

*In case you didn't want any spoilers or didn't want to ruin the flow above, here's one of my main issues with the book. The couple quickly realize they really can't afford the maintenance fees on this apartment and if they did move in they could only afford to be there for ~6mo. Which should have been the end but they decide to move in. For awhile I thought there'd be something about how they'd figure out how to make it work long-term, but it comes out later in a bit of a throwaway line that they're sort of planning on moving out when they run out of money. Seems like a waste of time to me but fine. You deal with NYC real estate multiple times in one year. Enjoy. BUT while they're there, all of the creepy stuff is happening and it turns out it's because the neighbors want their apartment (or at least some of the creepy stuff. Again, a lot thrown at the wall). Their apartment that they're going to have to move out of in a couple months. Something they've discussed in their apartment that has been bugged so those neighbors can hear. And yet the neighbors still go to all this trouble when they could have...waited 12 weeks. A lot of the book is like this, where it feels like the author set up something and then just forgot about it. Or wanted the creepiness to be due to multiple things, to which I wanted to yell "Pick a lane!"

January Reading Wrap-Up+

New Year, same me? I certainly started the year with a repeat read. I'm not huge on resolutions so I haven't really made any, other than in general try to get more exercise because if I don't move around and stretch, my body gets mad, so it seems like a good thing to do more of. I even started a bullet journal for moving around (I mostly just like tracking things and colors) but I digress. Let's get into reading. Which I did a fair amount of this year because, you know, the horrors.  

I do have a 2024 Fav Reads post that has been written since early Jan. However, one of the books on there is a repeated re-read and fav of mine, The Graveyard Book. And given everything that has come out with Gaiman, I'm still processing/deciding what that means for me. Thus that post, which includes that book, hasn't gone up yet.

But hey, that was sort of depressing and I'm sorry, I am trying to keep things light and happy as much as possible cos there is enough stress just everywhere else. Let's look at some books.

Total books read

6

How To Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Mike Schur

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki

How To Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Mike Schur

This is the third time I've read this book and it feels like a good way to start the year, with the hope, with the goal of being a little better than the year before. Does it work? Who knows. But a fairly easy-to-get-into refresher on moral philosophy, read by Shur and the cast of The Good Place isn't a terrible way to try. And some does seem to be seeping in, such as when an in-law was explaining to someone times when maybe you don't tell the whole truth and I was thinking "Kant wouldn't approve of this". I didn't say it out loud because I'm not that insufferable (at least, not that way), but it could be in my future.

Rating: 5 stars

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

What is there to say about this? It's a classic, it's funny, it's just as readable today. This was another get-the-boy-to-sleep reading choice* and unfortunately, I don't think this resonated with the little monster quite as much as A Christmas Carol but it did help put him to sleep so it did its part. Lizzie and Darcy, love it.

Rating: 5 stars

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller

Arthur Crockleford (A+ English name) has been found dead in his antique shop under what his friend feels are mysterious circumstances. She enlists the help of her niece Freya, who used to look to Arthur as a mentor until an estrangement happened 20 years prior, causing the two to never speak again. Freya is initially presented as a sort of quiet figure, dealing with a messy divorce and seemingly lacking a backbone. Which means, relatively early on when she says something to the effect of "I wasn't afraid in the dark alley because I know Krav Maga," I out loud to myself said "No you fucking don't," and that was the energy both the book and I brought to the rest of the story. Anyway, mystery whodunit and what was Arthur's antique business wrapped up in and will Freya and her aunt find out at this weekend at a secluded English mansion/castle?

Rating: 2.75 stars

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin

Murder at a fancy cooking school with a motley crew of staff/students/suspects. Out of work chef Paul Delamare is filling in for a friend (and TV chef) Christian as a teacher for a week-long cooking course. But someone turns up dead, and Paul is a key suspect, so what is he to do? The tagline describes it as "The Maid meets Knives Out with a dash of Top Chef" and at some point, I will stop getting taken in by things described as "like Knives Out" because you are just saying that regardless of truth. But maybe that is harsh because while this is not really like Knives Out it was entertaining, there were plenty of good suspects, though some pacing made it hard (for me) to try to follow the clues.

Rating: 3.75 stars

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray

Historical fiction about Belle da Costa Greene, personal librarian to J.P. Morgan and his fancy Pierpont Morgan Library with its impressive collection of renaissance books at art. But Belle has a secret. She's actually Belle Marion Greener and she's not actually of Portuguese descent, despite what she tells people to explain her darker complexion. Her farther was the first Black graduate of Harvard and a fighter for equal rights. But this is American in the 1900s. I liked the idea of the story and overall I liked Belle but I had a few issues. There is a lot of telling rather than showing, which is especially frustrating in a first-person book. She will mentions "rumors of her race going around" but we hardly ever see her actually dealing with it first hand. She also seems amazing from the get-go at blending into high society and navigating the world of fine arts auctions, so the work she must do to "blend in" seem pretty easy for her. Once I got into it, I liked it enough but did yell at it in frustration a few times.

Rating: 3.25 stars

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki

Talking cats read astrological charts for people. I'm not sure what prompted me to put this on my to-read list. I really should keep track of it. It wasn't what I was expecting but to be fair to it, it is pretty clear in the description that's what it's about, so that's on me. A café appears to people seemingly in their dreams, staffed by talking cats who explain to people why things aren't going right in their lives via astrological readings. I'm not big on astrology so this might have been more of a hit for me otherwise. Also I bet if a talking cat serving me tasty drinks and snacks was teaching me astrology I'd be more into it. Maybe not for me, but it felt successful it what it was trying to do and it is a quick read so if astrology is your thing, this is a cozy read.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Total pages read

1,838

Fiction

83%

Female authors

67%

BIPOC authors

33%

US authors

33%

Rereads

33%

Translation

17%

Book club book

17%

Format

audiobook: 83%

ebook: 17%

Where'd I get the book

library: 67%

gift: 17%

Kindle/Audible: 17%

Decade published

1810s: 17%

2020s: 83%

Resolution books

83%

Pride & Prejudice is published a bit before 2000 and by a UK author

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder and Knife Skills for Beginners are both by UK authors

One of the 2 authors for The Personal Librarian is Black (which I'm not splitting the % of how it counts towards total because that is too much work)

The Full Moon Coffee Shop is by a Japanese author and is a translation

*I've been reading random, boring-to-a-six-year-old books to help my son get to sleep after reading his usual bedtime stories.