Flamer (by Mike Curato)

I read this graphic novel for the RHC task "read a banned book and complete a task on Book Riot’s How to Fight Book Bans guides."  I checked out the ALA list of most banned books last year to find the book, then donated to the Freedom to Read foundation for my activity. There are lots of amazing ways to help, especially during Banned Books Week, coming up in October.    

This graphic novel is semi-autobiographical, set in the summer of 1995 when a boy who grew up Catholic but doesn't quite fit in goes to Boy Scout camp, worries about what lies ahead in his first year of high school, and struggles with some confusing feelings for a friend.  A very quick read but very moving and reminded me of what it was like for my (Catholic, effeminate, turned out to be gay) best friend growing up and struggling with these same feelings in this era.  

An important book that deserves to be read. 

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!

Swimming Studies (by Leanne Shapton)

It's been a minute! This is another one of the paper books sitting on my shelf - where it had been for probably 10 years - that I always meant to read but never got around to reading because I ignore paper books. Not in 2025, baby! 

This is a very loose, impressionistic memoir that combines stories of Shapton's childhood as a competitive swimmer with her adult life in various pools around the world. It includes amazing artwork and photography, including pages of bathing suits and information about where they are from, and abstract renderings of pools.  And the writing is just, so lovely.  Like this description of a sunset:  “I’m serenaded by sky blue and pink, an intense Tahitian Treat pink. Popsicle, Care Bear, little-girl colours. I’ve never seen sky like this. It’s optical glucose."

Optical glucose - I will never forget this metaphor, it hit me like an incredible line of poetry.  This book is from 2013 so not exactly breaking news, but it's really lovely and I recommend it! 

I reshelved it to keep (especially due to the artwork) but for my next paper book decluttering, I just gave away The Tale of Genji. I have no plans to read it, and if I do change my mind and read it, it can be on my Kindle.  

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!

Seattle Books

I visited Seattle for work last week and finished four books, pretty much all on airplanes, as is my wont.  Two for the ToB, one for the RHC, one for fun. Here they are:

The Extinction of Irena Rey (by Jennifer Croft) 

Read for the Tournament of Books, and probably my favorite so far apart from James in this somewhat underwhelming year so far.  It's got a sprinkling of Pale Fire (footnotes of an unreliable narrator who is allegedly translating a book written in Polish by a Spanish translator into English...) and Annihilation (gathering of semi-strangers in an uncanny landscape). This novel is about a group of translators who get together, kind of cult-like, to translate the magnum opus of a Polish author, who disappears, and things get weirder from there. It's one of those gems that the ToB helps me discover and it was a surreal read.

The (Big) Year That Flew By: Twelve Months, Six Continents, and the Ultimate Birding Record (by Arjan Dwarshuis)

Read for the RHC category of "a nonfiction book about nature or the environment." This is a Dutch birder who broke the global Big Year record and raised money for the Preventing Extinctions Program. His memoir is equally about birding and observations on conservation efforts (and the impact of climate change and deforestation) that he sees along the way.  I would have liked it to be more linear - he does a lot of flashbacks to his childhood that interrupt the narrative - but enjoyed it overall.

Colored Television (by Danzy Senna)

About a biracial author living in Los Angeles who gets drawn into the television industry.  I loved this until the halfway mark where the main character started making inexplicable decisions and I started getting annoyed because this is not how Hollywood works! I liked the unpredictability of the ending and my annoyance had ebbed by the end. Well written overall and would definitely read more by Senna.

The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy (by Elizabeth Kendall and Molly Kendall)

Whenever I drive by Lake Sammamish I think about Ted Bundy. I dipped back into The Stranger Beside Me and then followed some breadcrumbs to this memoir, which I didn't know had been rereleased and updated in 2020.  Kendall was Ted Bundy's girlfriend for many years and ended up going to the police no less than three times when she started to suspect his involvement in the murders.  Molly was her young daughter, to whom Bundy was a father figure. She first wrote the memoir at a time when she still talks about how part of her will always love him; she's traumatized and still healing.  The memoir is kept intact with a new afterword that talks about how she feels now, decades later. There's also a chapter from Molly that is unforgettably chilling and satisfyingly full of rage. Worth reading for true crime fans! 

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.)

Belize Books

I'm almost done with a sixth book, but here are the five books I finished while on my vacation to Belize:

Birding Under the Influence (by Dorian Anderson)

I avidly followed Dorian's blog about the Big Year he did on a bicycle. In this memoir, he tells the story of his journey while interspersed with the love story between him and his now-wife Sonia, and his problems with drinking and drugs and general addict behavior. I thought this memoir was terrific - well written, candid, structured well, and generally one of the better blog-to-book books I've ever read. Highly recommended if you're interested in reading about a Big Year!

Journey Under the Midnight Sun (by by Keigo Higashino) 

Another Japanese Mystery, and I think the third one I've read by Higashino. This one is pretty long (I would say overly long) and you figure out whodunit pretty early, but the whydunit and will-someone-ever-catch-them elements propel you to the end. Definitely a motive I should have, but did not, see coming, which made the ending hit hard. Not my favorite by him purely because of the overlength, but good nonetheless.

The Long Run (by James Acker)

Queer YA, you knew it was making it on this list somehow. I wasn't sure an athlete love story would be my jam as they've been hit or miss for me in the past, but this one has so much depth, the characters and their relationship are actually wonderful and lovely and I cried of course. Recommended!

Noah Frye Gets Crushed (by Maggie Horne)

This was, vis a vis the RHC, "a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character." Absolutely adorable, funny and charming. full of terrific characters, although I would have liked to see Jessa developed better. I'm actually not a middle grade fan (Baby-Sitters Club notwithstanding ) but this nails it. Horne has got a sapphic YA debut coming out next month, can't wait for that!

Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet (by Molly Morris) 

Love the premise - every 10 years, someone in this small town gets to come back from the dead - wrapped in a queer YA.  I enjoyed it enough to finish it to the end but was my least favorite of these - I found it to be overly quirkified and aggressively 90s (authors need to stop with this).  I was thrown off at the very beginning by the quirky names. The main characters, Wilson and Ryan, are both girls. Ryan's twin brother is Mark, which makes no sense whatsoever as a sibling set. Wilson calls her mother by her first name, Jody, and Jody's ex, a man, is named Cass.  Wilson is named after Wilson Phillips. I was so confused and also, like, why do all the names have to be quirky.  My biggest issue is that the romance didn't fully work and relationships felt inorganic.  I finished it, I guess, is the best I can say!

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.

Bad Fat Black Girl: Notes from a Trap Feminist (by Sesali Bowen)

I had to commute into the office last week for the first time in years, which made it a great opportunity to finally check out "an audiobook performed by a person of color of a book written by an author of color." This is read by the author, Sesali Bowen.  

Short review: this is great. I learned a lot about trap music and culture, and Bowen's perspective on feminism gave me a lot to think about and unpack.  I tagged this as memoir since she uses her own experiences to guide the reader through her ideas.

This quote from Goodreads captures it well: "If you want to challenge your ideas of what it means to be a feminist, particularly if you are steeped in white feminism that lacks intersectionality, I would recommend reading Bad Fat Black Girl." Same here. It's entertaining, erudite, queer, challenging, enlightening.  

Recent Book Flurry

I finished a bunch of books this weekend, so here's a catchup entry.

I Have Some Questions for You (by Rebecca Makkai)

I loved The Great Believers, and put this on the library holds list as soon as I heard it was coming out. This is a boarding school literary mystery (emphasis on the literary part) in which an adult woman coming back to teach at her boarding school takes a fresh look at the murder of a classmate.  Our narrator comes back again and again to a litany of crimes against women that serve as a backdrop to both the story and the life of every woman. A favorite read of the year, for sure.

Towards Zero (by Agatha Christie)

I'm reading The Murder of Roger Ackroyd aloud to my family (Mina calls him "Mr. Altoid") and on a bit of a Christie kick once again.  I enjoyed the characters of this one, and as usual, didn't guess the culprit. You'd think I'd at least have a fighting chance having read so many of these and yet, no.

Murder in Mesopotamia (by Agatha Christie) 

I thought this was the one, I was so sure I had figured it out at 28% of the way into the book! But of course, I didn't, and as usual I enjoyed being fooled. Of course it's in Mesopotamia so it's racist, as usual.  (I had to identify a "guilty pleasure" book and I immediately thought of Christie. I feel guilty reading her racism! Someone edit out the racism!)

Marbles (by Ellen Forney) 

This is the Read Harder Challenge entry of this book flurry. "Read a comic or graphic novel that features disability representation." Ellen Forney has bipolar disorder and this memoir is about her diagnosis, her efforts to get the disorder under control, and its intersection with her creative life as an artist. Even knowing people with bipolar, I learned a lot from this memoir, and enjoyed Forney's visual style.   

Endless Night (by Agatha Christie) 

Woah, this one was different. A very late Christie set in the 60s (the word "sex" shows up a bunch and I'm like o.O) and reportedly one of her favorites. Slow to get started as it's not a typical Whodunit and the murder doesn't happen until more than halfway into the book.  But even though it echoes some of her most famous works, I didn't see the ending coming and it's so well done. 

Gender Queer (by Maia Kobabe)

This was the most banned book of 2022, so qualifies for the category of "one of the most-challenged/banned books of the year by a queer and/or BIPOC author." A graphic novel memoir about the author coming to better understand eir gender and sexuality, although it ends with the sense that this is a lifelong journey.

It does have sexual references as the author talks about eir kinks and whatnot, and so I understand the brouhaha to an extent.  But no doubt it's the rejection of the gender binary that's causing the most panic in conservative communities.  This is a quick read but very well done, enlightening, and soul-bearing. Very much in the mode of Alison Bechdel except more frank about sexuality. 

Worth reading for sure, and sharing with older kids and young adults in your life.

Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman (Alan Rickman)

I read an excerpt from Rickman's diaries in the Guardian and as a fan, was interested enough to read the whole thing. For some reason I got the idea beforehand that he wanted his diaries published; in fact, nobody is claiming that, exactly, but he does seem to be writing for some kind of an audience at times.

This diary is extremely long and also extremely samey - a lot of name-dropping and not a lot of details about anything. Especially disappointing when it comes to some of my favorite films featuring Rickman: Sense and Sensibility and Love Actually. (He does talk quite a bit about Harry Potter by comparison; then again, there were eight movies.) 

I was engaged enough in his voice and the tiny tidbits of his life to keep reading to the end, but I would only recommend the diary for die hard (lol) Rickman fans.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (by Matthew Perry)

I was a Friends fan (of course, I grew up in the 90s) so I was interested in reading this memoir.  There isn't a ton about the Friends years per se, but an honest memoir of his struggles with addiction and other resulting health problems (like his colon exploding and him almost dying).

You definitely feel for Matthew Perry and get a good picture of the realities of addiction.  It's really sad that he has never been able to stay sober and get married and have kids - his dream is to be a father.  The writing here starts off well, but the timelines get confusing and by the end, he's repeating stories he's already told elsewhere.  Maybe some more editing would have helped, because the writing is candid and his voice is strong.

Also the ending seems to vacillate between "addiction will kill me" and "I am cured now" when the truth is, we don't know for certain.  My heart goes out to him and I hope he makes it.

Austin Books

Another trip and another set of books: only two this time, though:

Under the Lights (by Dahlia Adler) 

This is the second book in a series I haven't read, but I gathered it's a standalone (it is) and it's got a Sapphic romance and is set in Hollywood, which made it impossible to resist! The point of view alternates between Josh and Vanessa. Josh is a misogynistic asshole who becomes marginally less of one by the end of the book, and that is not a journey I am very interested in. What held my interest was Vanessa, an American actress of Korean descent who falls in love with her manager's assistant (or something), a woman named Brianna.  The romance is well done and kept me reading, in spite of some over-focusing on Josh as well as a side character who is friends with both of them.

All of This: A Memoir of Death and Desire (by Rebecca Woolf) 

Rebecca Woolf is a "mommyblogger" from back in the day, but I never followed her. I picked up the book on the endorsement of my friend Evany, who knows Rebecca.  This is a brutally honest memoir about the death of her husband from cancer right after they had decided to divorce. She doesn't shy away from talking about either her infidelity or his abuse, and the toxicity of their marriage. The first half of the book, recounting his illness and death and the aftermath on herself and their four children, is incredibly compelling. The second half, where she renounces patriarchy and monogamy, reads more like a string of blog entries than a compelling narrative, and possibly could have used more structure. But it's a good read and a unique memoir, for sure.

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!

Golem Girl (by Riva Lehrer)

In my last post I referred to an "overly long, overly writery, quite depressing memoir" and this is it! Read for the "book by a disabled author" prompt.  

Many folks in the Goodreads group are choosing books by neurodiverse folks, but I wanted to read something by someone with a physical disability (since I don't really think that neurodiversity = disability). Reva Lehrer, the author, is an artist with spina bifida, and certainly I learned more about the condition and appreciated her unique perspective. I also appreciated her take on the medical memoir - she explicitly says she's not going to go into unnecessary detail about her condition where it isn't relevant to her life story.

Here is more on my criticism: Overly long - especially towards the end, she includes a lot of detail and repetition and there is less of a clear throughline. Overly writery - maybe this is just code for "a lot of words, especially in Yiddish, that I didn't understand." I was grateful for the Kindle translation feature.  Quite depressing - I mean, it's her real life, but damn, this woman has been through a lot and it is a heavy read at times.  But it's also very good! I said that last time too but to reiterate: Riva's voice is unique, her political stances are eye-opening, and her perspective is... ugh I was going to write "inspiring" and that is a terrible choice for a book by a disabled author.  Going to say her perspective is challenging the status quo, in a good way.

I also love the mini-essays on all the included artworks but I'm glad it's presented in epilogue form. Definitely read this one in color so you can fully appreciate the art. 

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! 

Honor Girl (by Maggie Thrash)

I read this for the "read a nonfiction YA comic" part of the Read Harder challenge.  It's a graphic novel memoir about a girl's coming of age at a summer camp in Kentucky.

I didn't love the art style - in particular, how difficult it was to tell so many of the background characters apart. (The fact that they are all white did not help... I understand this was set in a very white area and was nonfiction so I understand, but they could still have been better differentiated.)

The bittersweet nature of the story is good, and it's subtly told. I did get confused at one point when it seemed to be stated that two characters had never kissed, but then I swear a few pages earlier they did kiss. I went and looked back to see if there was any clear indication it was a fantasy or dream, but didn't see it. Maybe I missed some obvious graphic novel signal that I'm just unfamiliar with.  At any rate, this wasn't my absolute favorite but it was fine.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This One Looks Like a Boy: My Gender Journey to Life as a Man (by Lorimer Shenher)

This Read Harder challenge was "a memoir written by someone who is trans or nonbinary"; Lorimer Shenher is a trans man who experienced dysphoria throughout his life, as well as PTSD stemming from an investigation of a notorious serial killer when working as a detective. He ultimately transitioned late in life, at age 50. 

I enjoyed Shenher's writing and his story; it was only written a few years into his transition but he still has thoughtful observations about male privilege and exclusionary politics. His story makes the pain of dysphoria visceral and understandable.  He doesn't get into genital dysphoria (I know from Detransition, Baby that not all trans people experience this) but obviously that's an understandable elision.

Ultimately his story is compelling and I enjoyed the read.

Cleveland Book Bonanza

We just took a trip to Cleveland and between layovers, flights, being snowed in, and a general very relaxed pace visiting grandma, I finished nine books. So settle in and let me try to remember what they were all about. 

Best Travel Writing of 2021 (by Jason Wilson, ed. Padma Lakshmi) 

For the Read Harder category “Best _ Writing of the year book for a topic and year of your choice.”  I put a bunch on library hold in different genres and years and went with what was available first. I'm guessing that the pickings were slim for travel writing of 2021. I've been thinking a lot about the reasons why I love travel and why conversely I have hated not being able to travel during the pandemic, and was hoping this volume would explore that. It touches it on it a bit in one essay but mostly, not really. There are some real standouts here (particularly The People of Las Vegas by Amanda Fortini) but also some real clunkers. Not an essential anthology.

Cards on the Table (by Agatha Christie) 

Waiting for Death on the Nile to be available from the library (having seen two adaptations of it recently) and in the meantime downloaded others that I don't think I've read that I saw on "best of Agatha Christie" lists.  This is decidedly middle of the road though, in my opinion. Read on a plane, which was basically the perfect place to read this. The other Christie I read (see below) is much better. 

Being Mary Bennett (by J.C. Peterson)

One of my favorites of these books! Very funny, charming, and just enough winks to Pride and Prejudice to make it fun. I loved Marnie, our main character and the groundedness of this with authentic problems and an avoidance of the "if he would only just let me explain" thing that muddies up so many formulaic plots. Truly a standout YA romcom and if this is your thing, I highly recommend.

She Gets the Girl (by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick) 

Another winner, an alternating point of view romance between two girls who are both college freshmen. Good chemistry between the leads and I loved the backstories and complex issues each of them had.  The better of the two alternating point of view romances on this list, although this one was the PG-13 version while the other was more NC-17.

The Candy House (by Jennifer Egan)

Wow, literary fiction! What a novelty! I loved A Visit from the Goon Squad and this sequel(ish) novel is right up there with it. However you felt about Goon Squad will accurately predict how you will feel about Candy House. Which is not to say it's not full of originality and spark because of course it is. I really enjoyed it and was left wanting more of multiple plots and characters. Who knows, maybe Egan will revisit this world again!

The Body in the Library (by Agatha Christie) 

As mentioned, this was more like it. This would even make a good Kenneth Branagh film! Of course it's a Miss Marple and I was never a Miss Marple fan (actually I'm not even really a huge Poirot fan, I just like Christie's plots) but true to form I enjoyed the plot and the characters here.

Light from Uncommon Stars (by Ryka Aoki) 

I've heard great things about this Hugo award nominee. The main plots include: a transgender runaway who is a violin prodigy; her teacher, looking for a seventh violin player to damn to hell; a motley crew of aliens who run a donut shop in Southern California. It's got fun and quirky elements but also sexual violence and darkness. I was invested in Katrina's story throughout but thought the whole space refugee thing was wildly undeveloped, the "I damned six people to eternal torment" glossed over (?), and overall I thought despite a ton of potential it didn't stick the landing.

Remember Me Gone (by Stacy Stokes) 

A great premise (a girl whose family has the power to erase memories thinks she might be missing her own memories) that should have been amazing but the writing doesn't match up to it.  Once we discover  what is really happening in the town, a lot of plot holes emerge. Entertaining enough to read on the plane - this time, on the flight home.

Love and Other Disasters (by Anita Kelley) 

A woman and a non-binary person compete in a Top Chef-style cooking competition and fall in love.  I enjoyed the central characters and their chemistry, but the competition felt like an afterthought and a lot was unrealistic. (The contestants aren't sequestered? They get cell phones the whole time? They go sightseeing because they have weekends off? No to all of this.) The description of the other contestants and food are also glossed over. So it was cute but not as textured as it could have been.

Phew! Those were all my reads and my brain might need a break now. 

* * *

Bonus book:

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (by Jesse Andrews)

This was my brain break book. Much funnier and more original than I was expecting, although very dated in some ways in its handling of the Black characters. Overall I enjoyed it though, it was a quick and fresh read.