A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (by Emma Southon)

This cleverly titled book is by an historian who writes in an accessible style - including a lot of humor and pop-culture references - about the history of murder (and what was and was not seen as "murder," and the entire concept of "murder") in ancient Rome. 

I could have done with a bit less cutesy and a bit more academic rigor but I love a dense nonfiction read with lots of footnotes so that might just be a preference. As far as pop history goes, this really was very informative. Since this is a deep dive specifically about murder, I counted it as "a microhistory" for Read Harder Challenge purposes. 

And look, it's not Dungeon Crawler Carl! 

This Inevitable Ruin (by Matt Dinniman)

This is the seventh book in the series and I am now on book eight but I am also back to work so assume I will be finishing these a bit more slowly now. (Also, I swear I am reading other things - I have two more books in progress, they just take longer than these propulsive, candy-like books.)

Book seven was a particularly good one, with huge emotional stakes as well as the trademark humor of the series. I don't have much new to say since I've already blogged about this series twice and this is the seventh book I've read! Except to assure you that I do know other books exist.  

Candy!  

 

Dungeon Crawler Carl (The Next Three) (by Matt Dinniman)

The next three books in the series were #4, #5 and #6, The Gate of the Feral Gods, The Butcher's Masquerade and The Eye of the Bedlam Bride.  They definitely all start to blend together after a while (as evidenced by the fact that I had to revise this post because I forgot #4) but I do know I enjoyed both 5 and 5, as the lore of the world keeps expanding.   (And the books keep lengthening; I just started the next one and it's like 850 pages long.  Dinniman has also started putting in recap chapters at the beginning to help keep track of everything. It's a lot.) 

So far my least favorite has still been number four because I didn't love the setup of the dungeon level very much.  I enjoyed five and six although with Bedlam Bride, I found the card mechanic a little confusing.  And Dinniman is starting to overly rely on the "flashback to fill in what you missed" technique which is confusing because I can't keep track of what he's mentioned and what he hasn't mentioned. (I'm using the "look up in book" feature on my Kindle a lot.)

Still, the humor and characters and Princess Donuttyness of it all continues to make for a fun reading experience.  Princess Posse 4 Life. 

Dungeon Crawler Carl (The First Three) (by Matt Dinniman)

My friend group (with whom I play tabletop games and RPGs) has all been devouring this series and insisting that I need to read it because it is my type of humor and also Princess Donut (the cat) reminds everyone of me.  Now that I know how magical Princess Donut is, I take this as a profound compliment.

I was also told to read it as an audiobook since it has an amazing narrator, and that's what I did for the first one, which allowed me to check off the 2015 RHC category of "an audiobook" and thus "pick a challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat."  I didn't love the choice for Carl's voice and audio isn't fast enough for me, so I switched to downloading books in text format. It took me less than a day to read book two and about another day to read book three. I need to slow down.

As you might imagine, it is in fact propulsive and very entertaining. The humor is very juvenile and there's some problematic elements; you can definitely tell a guy wrote this. The way fat female bodies are repeatedly described as monstrous isn't amazing. But there is enough delightful worldbuilding, action, humor, and heart to keep me wanting to read on. Just be forewarned. 

Also it's pretty gory because there's a lot of monster-killing and creative murder. So be forewarned! But as you can tell, it's also very addictive. 

Constituent Service (by John Scalzi)

I bought this (fancy signed edition) as a Christmas gift for my child, who loved Agent to the Stars so much that I felt confident she would also enjoy this novella, about a human who goes to work in city services for a cosmopolitan district where she is pretty much the only human around.

Mina adored this. "I love this so much, tell John Scalzi to write more, I need more, I just want to live in this world, I love it, I love it, I love it."  So please turn this into a series, John.  

It's very fun, light, fluffy, and unfortunately quite alien-poop-centric which is not my favorite type of humor but obviously it did not bother my child. So I'll have to decide which to try next - Starter Villain? Redshirts? Old Man's War? We shall see!

Adult Braces (by Lindy West)

I had to, y'all, I had to. It was in The Discourse and I am a Butt News subscriber and a Lindy West fan, and I have been fascinated by all the hot takes about this book and all the drama surrounding its publication. 

And if none of this means anything to you, go read this piece in Slate which gives a good overview of the book. In addition, if you read the response email from Lindy's husband Aham, calling the author a "shitty fucking person" and a "bitter, untalented, mean-girl" for not making his career sound fancier (?) in a review of his wife's book because she used the word "project" (??) to describe it, you will understand why this book is ultimately the depressing story of yet another woman tethered to yet another mediocre man. (Although in a fun twist, this time he's using white guilt against her because he's not white! Whee!) 

I want to be on Lindy's side and even during the awkward interview in their underwear when they came out as a throuple, I took a very "well as long as she's happy" stance about it all. But reading this book... I don't know, man. It's depressing. I hope my take is wrong. But that email, man. That gross, misogynistic email.

 

A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap (by Rob Reiner, with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer)

I saw this on a bookshelf in Canada and was excited to grab it.  There's a history of how the gang all came together and the making of Spinal Tap, followed by an interview with Marty DiBergi interviewing the members of Tap. Clearly a promotional book coinciding with the release of the second movie (which I still haven't seen, oops) but I enjoyed learning more about the history of the making of the film, and the timeline.

The chapter about real-life rock bands' Spinal Tap moments made me laugh out loud. Jaime Lee Curtis talks about how she decided to marry Chris based on a picture (which is included) and the two of them each tell their own sides of the story.  You learn about the origins of a lot of the jokes and characters. You get the sense reading between the lines that the guy who played Ian Faith was a gigantic asshole. Lots of fun stuff.  

Apparently the audiobook (which of course is read by Spinal Tap both in and out of character) is excellent, and I'm sure that would have been an even better choice for fans! Clearly now I have to go and watch Spinal Tap II.  

This Is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch: The Joy of Loving Something - Anything - Like Your Life Depends On It (by Tabitha Carvan)

I loved this, and not just because there's a whole chapter addressing Johnlock fanfiction. It's a memoir that uses the author's obsession with Benedict Cumberbatch as a lens to explore identity and motherhood.  In fact it's so entertaining that the message sneaks up on you - until you realize you're reading about how the desires, passions, and interests of girls and women are dismissed and criticized in a patriarchal world. This memoir could just as easily be about Twilight, or romance novels, or Disney princesses, or makeup, or Harry Styles, or anything else coded as female and therefore, immature or disposable. 

“When you’re a girl who really loves a thing, it’s never just about you and your thing. Everyone else makes it their problem. You can’t love the thing unseen, not even in your bedroom, alone. You either point-blank love the wrong thing, or you love the right thing but in the wrong way or for the wrong reasons.”

So the book is a great read, but also hits at a really core truth about what it means for girls and women to embrace our passions and how that can be a subversive, feminist act.  Highly recommend!

Number One Is Walking: My Life in Movies and Other Diversions (by Steve Martin)

I love Born Standing Up and Steve Martin's novellas, and of course his films, so I was excited to read this. It's charming but it's also very slight - the most any movie gets is a few panels of a comic, and some only get a sentence. (His sentence about Bowfinger, that Eddie Murphy deserved an Oscar nod, is correct though.)  

I'll be very sad if we never get a complete memoir of all his films. Instead this one just skimmed the surface with cute anecdotes and then is padded out with dozens of one-panel comics (the comics, and book, illustrated by Harry Bliss) that are mildly amusing at best. 

It's not bad, it's just very surface-level, and not exactly what I want from Steve Martin. I could read an entire book about Three Amigos or L.A. Story alone.  Give me more, Steve!

Alaska Books

I spent a week in a cabin in Alaska; due to weather and flight delays, I also spent a whole lot of time holed up in the cabin and in airports and on planes. As a result, I finished a whopping nine books, so this might be a long post! This covers many of my favorite genres: litfic, young adult, speculative fiction, and Japanese mystery.

Asking for a Friend (by Kara H. L. Chen)

Cute YA about Taiwanese-American kids with complicated families who enter a business competition. In fact, the first of two books on this list about second-generation Asian kids! I enjoyed the depiction of Taiwanese culture and as a second-generation kid of immigrants (though not Asian immigrants) a lot of relatability in this one. Cute but not amazing.

Inspector Imanishi Investigates (by Seicho Matsumoto) 

I believe this was a new author for me that I got from a recommendation on Reddit.  Slow-paced, lots of minutia which I normally love, but but not enough balance in the other direction, and not enough excitement in the mystery. It's like "here is every detail about a very slow paced investigation, and the killer is the exact person you most medium suspect, and you'll discover that very slowly." Not a must.

True Love and Other Impossible Odds (by Christina Li) 

This was the one that made me cry.  It has lot in common with the first book on this list, as it also deals with the pressure of being the child of Asian immigrants. Bu it's a little more mature (the characters are college freshman), the romance is a Sapphic one (always a plus), and in general it was more affecting (I cried). Of all the YA books (or early adult in this case) on this list, this was by far my favorite.

James (by Percival Everett) 

I've been meaning to read this one since the summer, as it was selected for Camp ToB and is by one of my favorite authors. It's a high concept novel (a loose retelling of Huck Finn from Jim's perspective) and it's by Percival Everett, so of course it's a masterpiece. This will definitely make my end of year best books list and probably be in the 2025 tournament.  It's wonderful.

In the Orbit of You (by Ashley Schumacher) 

Another YA, with good chemistry and a nicely complex love story but an unsatisfying ending that didn't quite ring true. As an aside, I knew the Goodreads crowd would dislike this one because they get very mad when anyone is emotionally (or god forbid physically) cheating in a YA novel, but I cannot be the only teenager with the messiest love life. (A sample of my high school days: I cheated on my first boyfriend by kissing a hot guitar player at a party, he responded by bringing me flowers and forgiving me, which didn't make sense until I catfished him for fun only to discover he'd been having sex with his male best friend for years. We stayed together until I successfully convinced him he was gay. We've been best friends for over 30 years. That's high school for you!)  

Margo Has Money Troubles (by Rufi Thorpe)

I decided based on reading her ToB judgment last year that I had to read something by Rufi Thorpe and indeed, this novel is exactly as smart, fresh, quirky and funny as I expected. 

The Half-Life of Love (by Brianna Bourne) 

This was both speculative fiction and YA; the concept is that you get a twinge when your life is halfway over.  A lot of suspension of disbelief was required because they are scientifically investigating it as if it's some chemical thing but also apparently you're immortal before this happens? Like, what happens if you blow your brains out with a pistol? But it's a love story between a researcher who lost her baby sister and a teenage boy who's about to die.  I didn't love how the ending played out (not in terms of what happens, but in terms of how Finch doesn't get agency over his planned death) but it was an interesting high concept, and I liked September as a character and just generally pondering how we live our lives and what's important. Also I was on a bucket list trip (to see the Northern Lights) so led to some interesting contemplation about the purposes of a bucket list and why this trip was important to me.

True Letters from a Fictional Life (by Kenneth Logan)

I wasn't sure if the characters fell flat for me because I was tired from travel at this point, but my thoughts were echoed on Goodreads and the more I thought about it, the more flat it fell. It's about a sporty kid who's figuring out he's gay but I had a lot of problems with it: there's a lot of homophobic and transphobic stuff that is never challenged or addressed. It doesn't feel like in 21st century Vermont of all places there would be this many people using the f-slur, punching gay kids, assuming gay people are pedophiles, or panicking about gay people getting AIDS. Like the widespread regressive attitudes don't ring true. The romance is absolutely tepid. And I couldn't really visualize any of the characters so they all fell flat. A big miss for me.

Salvation of a Saint (by by Keigo Higashino) 

Last but not least, from the author of The Devotion of Suspect X, another Howdunit.  There was one part of the Howdunit that I figured out very early on; the other part was ingenious and I didn't. I loved the character of the female junior detective.  I loved the entire plotline and the unraveling of the mystery. Goes into my top tier of Japanese mysteries for sure, and a great note to end my vacation reading marathon on!

Leslie F*cking Jones (by Leslie Jones)

Okay, this is a book that is wildly different in audio vs. print. It's a short book that turns into a 19-hour audiobook because Leslie Jones riffs, expands on her stories, curses a lot, ad libs, and improvs her way through it. She laughs her ass off and also cries when recounting difficult moments of her life. It's completely authentic - she tells stories that include her stealing stuff during the L.A. riots, dealing with debilitating hemorrhoids, and regularly getting high with Kenan Thompson, among other things.

You have to be a fan of Leslie Jones and her style of comedy, but if you are, you can trust and believe (a Leslie-ism you will hear a lot) that this audiobook is an experience. (Also there are multiple shoutouts to John Ritter's comedy skills and so of course I love her even more.)

The Final Season (by Andrew Gillsmith)

This was the most difficult RHC category for me this year, and still not sure if I nailed it, but I read this for a book that went under the radar in 2023." The question of course is what radar? Whose radar? Recommendations in the Goodreads group included a bunch of novels from the Tournament of Books short and longlist. They do find a lot of relatively niche books, but they are by definition on the ToB radar, so they're on the radar, so then they don't count! 

Someone suggested looking for books with a small number of reviews and ratings, and I think a random rec list had this book on it. Not only is it low on reviews and ratings, it isn't carried by any of my libraries, so I bought it. And as a humorous sci-fi book, I would fully expect it to show up on The Big Idea series on Scalzi's Whatever blog, which definitely counts as "the radar" for sci-fi, but it hasn't. (Dear Andrew Gillsmith: Scalzi readers would be so into this, you should get on The Big Idea when you publish the next one in the series.) 

Anyway, the book itself! It's a Douglas Adams-style book about a reality series that's been watching a doomed planet for 10,000 years. The planet's apocalypse is about to happen, and the showrunner has the opportunity to save the planet's inhabitants. But will she? A fun, funny read and really I do think it would be a hit with fans of Agent to the Stars or Hitchhiker's Guide.

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!

Friends Forever: The One About the Episodes (by Susman, Dillon, Cairns)

A very breezy* read about the sitcom that stays pretty surface level.  There are recaps of 10 or so episodes per season, but not all of them, and a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff is glossed over. (For example, Matthew Perry's well-known addiction struggles are not mentioned at all, RIP.)  There is also at least one embarrassing mistake, where the authors say Christina Pickles played Bridget Jones's mom in the movies. That was Gemma Jones! For superfans only.

*You can't say you're breezy, that totally negates the breezy!

Boston Books

As usual, I did some of my favorite reading in airports and on planes, and finished six books on my trip to and from Boston.  Here they are:

The Boleyn Inheritance (by Philippa Gregory) 

A fun page-turner that had the songs from Six stuck in my head the entire time. It's well-researched but repetitive (the phrase"Boleyn inheritance" is in this book 23 times) and not particularly literary in its execution (lol, execution).  But I enjoyed the story, told from the alternating perspectives of Katherine Howard, Anna of Cleves, and Jane Boleyn.  Anna's story gets somewhat less interesting once she leaves court, but I did enjoy the interpretation that as long as Henry was alive and chopping heads off, she lived in fear. Pulpy and fun if you enjoy the time period.

The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers (by Adam Sass)

Could not have been more adorable, and maybe my favorite book on this list. Messy and complex, which I always enjoy as it feels more real than a romcom hitting all the expected beats. Loved the cast, the setting, the queer rep, the plus-sized rep.  The best YA I've read in a while, I think! Adorbs.

Broken (by Jenny Lawson) 

Funny and real, albeit in a "these are blog posts clumped together in book form" format. It works anyway, though, because Jenny Lawson is a great writer! She isn't afraid to explore her own challenges with depression and anxiety and also runs it through with humor, ala Allie Brosh.

The Unlikely Thru-Hiker (by Derick Lugo) 

Read for "an adventure story by a BIPOC author."  I struggled with this category (we are down to the "categories Mo struggled with" portion of the year). I can think of some perfect books I've read in the past, like The Good Lord Bird, Washington Black, or Underground Railroad that I would consider to be "adventure stories" but I've read all of those. Book Riot recommended a lot of fantasy adventure, and fantasy isn't my favorite. So instead I went for the nonfiction adventure, the story of a Black man who thru-hikes the Appalachian Trail.  Derick (better known on the trail as Mr. Fabulous) has a distinct voice and a great sense of humor; this felt like reading his diary, in a good way.  I wished for pictures since he often talked about taking pictures on the trail! But a fun read and unique perspective, so I'm glad I picked it. 

The Stench of Honolulu (by Jack Handey) 

This is an extremely silly book by Jack Handey, of Deep Thoughts fame. It was recommended by the blended family whose wedding was the reason for my trip to Boston, as apparently it is quoted a lot in their household.  Very funny, clever and amusing as you might expect! 

The Bullet that Missed (by Richard Oseman) 

This was the book I saved especially for this trip, the third in the Thursday Murder Club series and maybe my favorite one so far! Absolutely delightful, and this series is a must for mystery fans. It's very funny and charming, and the protagonists are all in a retirement community so it showcases vibrant people gracefully dealing with aging while also solving crimes.  

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone (by Lori Gottleib)

Sneaking one more in here since I read most of it on the plane. It's by a therapist who has to go to therapy herself to deal with a traumatic breakup.  I am surprised I was so compelled by this one, downloaded it from the library on a whim and somehow ended up finishing the whole thing! I am dying to know who "John" is (some elements almost have to be true, like the TV show having a therapist, which seems like it would make it possible to deduce...) but regardless, an interesting view of both sides of therapy, and I enjoyed it!

I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend (by Martin Short)

 A very charming memoir by Martin Short.  I particularly loved his reminiscences of SCTV and SNL, and the whole Toronto Godspell crowd. I would love loved even more of all of that.  Plus basically an entire chapter on Three Amigos would not have gone amiss. (He improvised the scene about Lillian Gish, which the studio wanted to cut from the film. How dare they.) 

I am not a fan of his more grotesque characters like Jimminy Glick or whatever horrifying thing he did on Arrested Development. But I loved hearing his philosophy of life, his clear love for his wife, and his thoughts on grieving his wife Nancy Dolman as well as first love Gilda Radner, who both died of cancer.  He manages to keep a positive outlook in spite of it all, and the book left me with an appreciation of his approach to life.

Would I have enjoyed more gossip? Yes. (Like I'm sure he could have said a lot more about Chevy Chase than he did...) But his holiday parties with Tom Hanks playing accordion or whatever? His lake house across the way from Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell?  He really does let us into his life. I love him on Only Murders in the Building, I love a lot of his work, and I enjoyed this memoir! 

How to Be Perfect (by Michael Schur)

This book was a birthday gift from Ian and laugh-out-loud funny, especially if you're a fan of Schur's humor (on display in shows like The Office and, most relevant, The Good Place). 

I enjoyed this "Ethics 101" approach although by the end I was left wanting more: more analysis of complex ethical situations, more discussions of the issues explored in The Good Place, more depth in general. I did love that he rips on Ayn Rand multiple times and it definitely did teach me stuff and entertain me. Will be hanging onto this one for sure.

Shit, Actually (by Lindy West)

My partner introduced me to Lindy West's "Butt News" newsletter, where she amusingly recaps movies. (The one on My Best Friend's Wedding is particularly delightful.) Just as I was thinking "I hope she does Love Actually) I found out she had 1) already done Love Actually, and 2) turned it into a book called Shit, Actually.

Reader, I LOLed.  

The essay on Love Actually is indeed the high point, but the whole book is pretty hilarious. I am now a devoted "Butt News" reader and if you like takedowns of popular movies, you may want to check it - and/or her book - out.

Why Mommy Drinks (by Gill Sims)

Okay first of all I have to get this off my chest: the book is British and based on a blog called "Why Mummy Drinks."  They changed the title for the U.S. market, ala Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone. As a marketer I understand this; as a reader I find this condescending. 

This was loaned to me by a mom friend who found it hilarious. It's pretty funny! Very Shopaholic meets Bridget Jones, although the main character does one thing that made me really angry at her until of course it all worked out in the end. I also find it enraging that although she points out the horrible imbalance of household work between her and her husband, nothing actually changes at all at any point.  I guess it's relatable for lots of women but it made me real mad at the husband character and of course, as always, the patriarchy.

Overall it was light enough and funny enough that I would read more in the series. Maybe the hopes that Simon actually learns to pull his weight in one of the later books. (He won't.)