A Good Person (by Kirsten King)

I think this one was recommended on the "Weird Girl Lit" subreddit, or perhaps in a post about unreliable narrators. I didn't remember anything about it except that it sounded interesting, and woo boy is it a wild ride.  

I love a messed up female narrator and ours, Lillian, certainly is that.  Not to spoil anything but she's in a fairly one-sided relationship, trying to get a mediocre man to love her, when he suddenly dies and she finds out more about him that shakes up her perspective.  She's manipulative and narcissistic and basically awful, and being in her head is so, so fun. 

It's a loser's game to try and predict what will end up in the Tournament of Books, but I'd definitely love to see it at least on the longlist.  A very fun read especially if you enjoy "Weird Girl Lit."  

Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion (by Tori Telfer)

Read this for the “nonviolent true crime book” category, although one of the stories does involve violence, I am still going to say it counts because it is only a small part of the book. 

This nonfiction book offers a series of short biographies of women con artists throughout history - like one who claimed to have nearly died on 9/11 and started a group for survivors, and the first women spiritualists, who scammed their way through high society. 

A fine and breezy read but ultimately very lightweight. One Goodreads review said it “lacks a central thesis” and I agree. Doesn’t delve into the historical and cultural forces at work very much, reads more as an excuse to tell some fun stories about colorful characters in history, and does that well.

Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief (by Benjamin Stevenson)

The book I finished on my Tahoe vacation was the latest in the Ernest Cunningham "fair play mystery" series, Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief.  Cunningham is sort of an accidental detective who keeps getting roped into complicated mystery scenarios.  (He's writing this one before he's actually solved it, while locked in a safe.) 

One twist halfway through based on lack of communication drove me a bit bananas, but luckily it was resolved before the denouement of the book.  On the whole I thought the solution to the mystery was clever and fair and I didn't predict it, which is always a fun outcome.

I'm trying to catch up on my reading goal for the year so this is one of the lighter books I'm sprinkling in. Fun!  

Anacortes Books

Mina and I took a six-day vacation to Anacortes to attempt to see some orcas (we succeeded!) and I finished three books on the trip.  For once, none of them were for the Read Harder Challenge - I started a fourth book for that, but it's not done yet. 

Famesick (by Lena Dunham)

I'd heard good things and once I picked up this memoir about Dunham and the making of Girls I could not put it down.  She is as annoying and blind to her privilege as you think she is but she's also been through so much (and seemingly was victimized by her former business partner, who I came out of this really hating).  It's well written, full of juicy details, and makes you angry all over again at how the healthcare system (even if you have all the money and privilege on earth) and the entertainment industry repeatedly fails women. Will side-eye Adam Driver forever and will forever root for Lena Dunham. 

Tell The Wolves I’m Home (by Carol Rifka Brunt)

This is from 2012 but I picked it up because of a recommendation on Reddit for AIDS-related literature that mentioned it in the same breath as one of my favorite novels, The Great Believers.  And holy shit is it good. I am sure this will end up on my top five list at the end of the year.  It's a coming-of-age novel set against the backdrop of AIDS (the 1980s, AZT isn't a thing yet at the beginning of the book), when a girl's beloved uncle dies of AIDS. It's emotionally complex and so subtly written, absolutely beautiful.  Brunt hasn't written anything since then (except there was something supposed to be published in 2024 that wasn't...) and that is sad to me because this book is so amazing. 

Green River Killer (by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case) 

So it turns out that Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly fame is the son of Tom Jensen, a lead detective on the Green River Killer case.  This is a graphic novel written by Jensen and illustrated by Jonathan Case.  I enjoyed it but it was pretty fast and has less depth than I was hoping for. Ultimately the case was cracked by DNA in 2003 even though he was a suspect in 1983 (so many more lives lost...) so this focuses on Tom Jensen interviewing Gary Ridgway and taking him to the scenes of past crimes to try and get closure for the families whose loved ones were killed. But it's only 234 pages and we don't learn a ton about Jensen, Ridgway, or his victims. It's fine but not amazing.