The Devotion of Suspect X (by Keigo Higashino)

One of the Read Harder challenges this year is to read a "whydunit" or "howdunit" and this Japanese mystery was recommended in the "howdunit" category. And it definitely fits: you find out who is murdered, and by whom, at the very beginning. Then you follow the trail of the detectives investigating the case and the murderer as they try to cover their tracks.  The question isn't how did the murder occur, but how did the murderer cover their tracks and will the detective uncover the solution.

I thought it would be impossible for this novel to have some kind of twist, but it did anyway, and I loved it. The ending was abrupt (there is a sample of another book at the back, so partly it was that we were not at 100% yet in the Kindle progress meter when it ended) but really works. Another hit in my series of Japanese mystery novels!

A Very Punchable Face (by Colin Jost)

I'm a huge SNL fan, but avoided Jost's memoir fr a long time because I heard there was a lot in there about pooping and I'm not really into scatological humor. But somehow I ended up reading it anyway, and that's really only one chapter. (It is definitely gross, though.)

Very tongue-in-cheek, but insightful as to the inner workings of SNL and Colin's experiences there. How he ended up hosting Weekend Update, why his favorite time was working as a staff writer, why he thinks he'll leave soon, what he thought about Donald Trump, it's all in here.  Highly recommend for Saturday Night Live fans.

Two Light Reads

A Most Agreeable Murder (by Julia Seales)

I chose this for the Read Harder category "read a book based solely on the title." It turned out to be pretty delightful - a quite silly pastiche of Jane Austen, Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie as told by Daniel Pinkwater.  One of the characters is named "Croaksworth" and the novel takes place at "Stabmort Park," if that gives you a sense of the style. The mystery and romance at the core are actually both very enjoyable, and what's not to love about the main character, a fine lady who longs to be a detective? Lots of Jane Austen easter eggs as well. If this sounds fun - it is! I very much hope there's a sequel.

The No-Girlfriend Rule (by Christin Randall) 

This was a young adult novel I picked up and then couldn't put down. It's told via a Dungeons & Dragons - excuse me, Secrets & Sorcery - campaign.  Hollis's boyfriend won't let her join his game, so she goes out and finds her own, among a bunch of awesome queer people.  Via the game, her character starts to have feelings for another character, and maybe Hollis doesn't realize how much of her own desires are in there too.  The boyfriend is truly awful from page one, and yeah it could have been a bit more subtle, but it makes the part where she finally figures out he is awful quite satisfying. I think if you are a D&D fan you will love it.  Oh! And amazing portrayal of a fat and neurodivergent heroine, both on the cover and on the page. It's done so, so well. Will definitely pick up Randall's future books!

The Librarianist (by Patrick deWitt)

I did it - I read all the Tournament books except the two play-in-round losers.  So I'm almost a completist. (Also my two least favorite books made it through the first round, grr, argh.) 

This one is about a retired librarian named Bob, who lives a quiet life since his wife left him decades before, reading book. He decides to start visiting a neighborhood senior center. We then get flashbacks to his marriage and to his childhood, before a finale in the present.

The childhood flashback was a bit too whimsical and my least favorite part, but I enjoyed everything else and the character study of Bob. I don't think it's one of the top books in the tournament but I did enjoy it, which is not nothing, considering my feelings about SOME of the OTHER BOOKS. 

Monstrilio (by Gerardo Sámano Córdova)

Down to three books left and four days to go in the Tournament of Books (one is 658 pages so finishing is unlikely, but I'll make sure to read whenever wins the play-in.)

I was worried Monstrilio - whose premise is "grieving mother grows a monster out of part of her dead son's lung" - would be both too gross and too depressing for me, but I was bought in right away when I realized the narrator was extremely weird, and her relationships were bizarre, and it was not the book I was expecting at all.

The second part is told by her best friend - who is in love with her. The third part from her ex-husband. And the final part by Monstrilio himself, the lung-monster. It uses the monster as a trope to show the lengths that family will go to protect each other, the magic of found family, and it's even been read as a queer allegory. It's one of those books that I would never have picked up without the tournament, and I'm so glad I did.