BFF Birthday Trip Books

I recently took a trip to Europe for my bestie's 50th birthday. If I hadn't come down with apocalyptic food poisoning, I might have read more books and taken fewer naps! But as it is, I finished four books, and here they are: 

Limelight (by by Andrew Keenan-Bolger)

Written by a Broadway performer about a kid from an abusive household in Staten Island going to a performing arts school in Manhattan. Really impressed me with its writing, since I didn't necessarily expect a Broadway-caliber performer to also be a terrific writer. This is set in 90s New York and has so much nostalgia - down to the kids waiting in line to see Rent at the Nederlander. You also really root for our main character and also appreciate the lack of the fairytale ending whereas still being hopeful and satisfying. Far above average queer YA and highly recommend.

My Cambodia: A Khmer Cookbook (by Nite Yun) 

I read this for the Read Harder category of "a cookbook about a culture whose food you’ve never eaten" - which is an increasingly difficult category, since I am fortunate enough to have tried a lot of different foods! But I learned a lot about Khmer culture and history from this book, and also appreciated that the author is a local chef whose restaurant I can visit! (She had a pop-up in the East Bay but is now located in the Ferry Building.)  There was enough personal reflection between the recipes that made this a good read, although I will never enjoy reading endless lists of "1 clove garlic, peeled.... 2 shallots.... salt... blah blah blah" that you have to read in order to "read a cookbook."  It seemed really good though, in that the instructions were detailed and extremely clear. 

According to Plan (by Christen Randall) 

Read this YA for the category of "a novel with a main character who uses they/them pronouns." I am a big proponent of the singular they but it can get grammatically confusing at points, so this is a good category to have.  I thought this book was more successful in some areas (found family, shitty parents, a well-written sibling relationship) than in others (the romance) but was overall a good YA. This book did commit a major sin, which is having our main character, an editor who loves grammar, use the "for Emerson and I" grammatical overcorrection in the text. Please don't do this to me, it hurts me. 

Austerlitz (by W. G. Sebald)

The New York Times released their "100 best books of the 21st century" a couple of years ago, and Ian and I had fun comparing notes. (I think I've read 38, and have loved many of them. There are some DNF's on there though and at least one - Detransition, Baby - that I hated.)   We also each chose a book that the other had not read, that we thought they should.  He chose Austerlitz (which was #8 on the list) for me and I chose The Great Believers (#64) for him.  

I went into this knowing nothing - I saved the introductory essay for the end - and was slowly wowed as this book unfolded itself to me.  Even knowing it was published in 2001, it feels like an older classic novel in its structure (the main character telling the narrator his life story) and its vocabulary (translated from German by Anthea Bell).  Also of course its setting - Austerlitz is growing up in post-war Europe and exploring his mysterious origins. Knowing he was taken in by a Welsh couple in 1939, his mysterious origins aren't hard to guess at, but the way it all unfolds, the way Sebald describes it, the restraint in the way he tells it... well, I understand why it made it to #8 on the NYT list.  If you have any other must-reads from the NYT list, let me know about them!

The Second Mark: Courage, Corruption, and the Battle for Olympic Gold (by Joy Goodwin)

Published in 2004, this book is about the pairs skating scandal at the 2002 Olympic games, and more specifically about three pairs - from Canada, Russia, and China - and their journey to the Olympic games.

I enjoy following figure skating and remember this year, and the book was an interesting read. I was hoping it would delve much further into the actual corruption - Goodwin seemed to just give up on digging particularly far, just reporting straightforwardly on the outcomes, after which the book ends. It's really more about the skaters themselves - growing up in communist China, the Soviet system, and the "free market" of Canada, and how different their paths were. 

I wasn't a particular fan of any of these skaters, but it definitely made me feel a lot of admiration for Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, who had an extremely difficult path to become Olympic contenders. It also kind of reinforced that Salé and Pelletier were slightly annoying, which was also my impression at the time. The Russians won the short program, Canada's silver was not a huge injustice, and it came off like bad sportsmanship to me then, and still kind of does. 

Anyway, fun to dig back into all of this drama! And rewatch all the skating on YouTube, of course. 

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 Midsummer Equation (by Keigo Higashino)

I do love Higashino, but this was my least favorite Higashino so far, mostly because of the solution to the murder, so I can't really say much without spoilers.  But it didn't quite work for me, even though I enjoyed the setting and the characters a lot.  If the murderer had been an adjacent person instead of the actual person, it would have worked much better.  And (spoiler) if the ending didn't hinge on me sympathizing with a murderer who didn't seem to have a good reason for murdering (end spoiler)

Any rate, this was for the RHC category of genre book in translation and you know I was going to use Japanese mystery for that! This brings me to 7 books read for the Read Harder Challenge, which puts me on better track than I was last year.  Woo! Something is going not horribly this year! 

We'll Prescribe You Another Cat (by Syou Ishida)

A sequel to the delightful We'll Prescribe You a Cat - the book is a little slighter and shorter, the lore is a little more confusing, the characters are a little less satisfying.  But still a cozy read and if you are a cat lover, I recommend you read them both! 

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels (by Janice Hallett)

I enjoy Hallett's epistolary style, but this one wasn't quite as fun as the last one, about a pub trivia group. This one is about a cult and is very complicated, with lots of players to keep straight and some twists that would land better if I remembered who half these people were.

There's also one development at the end that I didn't care for but no spoilers.  This was a fast-paced vacation read, but the only book I finished on a very short jaunt to Vegas.  I probably will continue to be a Hallett completionist though, and check out Twyford Code next. 

The Stars, Too Fondly (by Emily Hamilton)

Read for the category "a book set in space" and I think I would have DNF'd it otherwise. An easy read - it reads like YA, which is a problem since allegedly the characters are all postdocs - but right from the get-go, it's ridiculous.

A group of four friends (which conveniently includes an Asian man, a nonbinary person, and a Black trans woman - very YA-coded) accidentally steal a spaceship that blasts them into another solar system. This ship w" as supposed to go into space years before and "something went wrong" with the "dark matter engine and the entire crew disappeared, and then everyone on earth decided to just leave the ship lying around and not investigate it at all.  Definitely how science and humanity works! 

Then our lead character falls in lesbian love with the AI avatar of the captain, they watch a lot of 90s movies (very YA coded), and work to try and get back to earth, in implausible fashion. Sacrifices are made that have no real stakes attached to them. None of this is grounded in anything, or feels real whatsoever. It's just a light, breezy, very young adult read. 

Non-Vacation Vacation Books

I almost took a trip to India for work and fun, but I didn't get my visa in time, so I did not go. But I still downloaded a bunch of books for the very long flight, and spent a full day reading as much as possible to still get the binge-reading travel experience I had been looking forward to. So here are the books that I would have read on my trip if I had been on the trip except I wasn't.

 Endling (by Maria Reva) 

This is in the Tournament of Books, and was spoken of highly in the Goodreads group. A metafictional novel about a woman who is trying to save various species of snails in Ukraine, before and during the Russian invasion. It took me a while to power through this for some reason, but it should be fun to talk about. 

Sorcery & Small Magics (by Maiga Doocy)

I read this for my most dreaded Read Harder Challenge category, romantasy with a queer main character. Obviously the queer part is fine but romance and fantasy are my two least favorite genres. But this ended up being so delightful - a slow burn romance between two sorcerers with an interesting magic system - and I need the second book immediately.  This is exactly why I love the RHC - because I would never have given this book a chance without it! 

The Ten-Year Affair (by Erin Somers)

Another Tournament book, and one I personally enjoyed more than Endling. (For true verisimilitude, this book expired while I was still reading it, so I finished the book in airplane mode.) It's about a married women and her married male friend and essentially plays with the idea of them having an affair in a parallel timeline.  I liked the writing style and the exploration of the grass being greener / the road not taken. It's not judgmental about its characters and not melodramatic - feels grounded and truthful.  Oh, and as a bonus, this was on a number of "best book covers" lists, so it's a RHC check also!

16 Forever (by Lance Rubin)

This is a time-loop YA about a kid who loops back to his 16th birthday every year - except he remembers nothing about the previous loops, and everyone around him does, including the girl he fell in love with last time around. Great premise! Uneven execution. I enjoyed the main characters' family dynamics but our main character just seemed annoying. I didn't understand why the love interest even liked him or why they were drawn to each other, and the ending is super abrupt and fell flat for me. 

When You Listen To This Song (Lola Lafon)

I believe this one was recommended by Ian via the New York Times - a memoir in French about a writer (whose family is Jewish) who spends a night in the Anne Frank Huis in Amsterdam.  It's contemplative, beautifully written, and beautifully translated by Lauren Elkin. The ending really packs a punch. I wrote down "a gem of a book." 

The Seven Dials Mystery (by Agatha Christie)

For the category "a book recently adapted for film, TV, or musical," I had quite a few choices - especially since I just watched both Heated Rivalry and the first part of Bridgerton season four.  But as far as book qua book, I figured I couldn't go wrong with Christie.

Our detective is an amateur detective named Bundle, aka Lady Eileen, who lives with her father in an Emma Woodhouse type of situation, except with a sports car. (After being very confused by the trailer, I am told she has a mother in the miniseries, played by Helena Bonham-Carter.)  

A group of friends at a country house plays a prank on a friend, who ends up dead.  Is it murder? The characters are delightful although I admit I wasn't sure how on earth Christie would surprise me... until I literally gasped at the end. That Agatha Christie, man. She knew what she was doing.  

Anyway, a very fun book and I look forward to the series!  

Breaking Free: How I Escaped Polygamy, the FLDS Cult, and My Father, Warren Jeffs (by Rachel Jeffs)

Trying to hit the ground running on the RHC, so I also finished this book for the category "a book about a cult." And wow. 

I can't believe Warren Jeffs is still alive and probably still perpetuating this horrible situation (he was giving directives from inside prison right up until Rachel Jeffs left). There's the multiple wives and child brides, yes, but also everyone in this "church" is being horribly abused.  Rachel Jeffs was molested by her father and she discusses that, and how it impacted her relationship with the church, but makes sure to state at the outset she's not a victim.

I'm happy she got out with her kids and seems to be living her best life.  I hope that is the outcome for every person, especially girls and women, trapped in this cult.  

Heroines, Rescuers, Rabbis, Spies: Unsung Women of the Holocaust (by Sarah Silberstein Swartz)

I chose this as my first Read Harder book of the year, for the category "a nonfiction book about resistance."  

It is a profile of ten different women, including the first female rabbi (who died in Auschwitz and was forgotten for many years) and others who survived the war.  Some of the subjects are more interesting than others - it turns out that among the nine women are the author's mother and aunt as well as a friend of their family.  I'm sure the author's passion for their stories is what led to this book but it does feel a bit self-indulgent and maybe not quite as compelling as some of the other stories.

Still, it was worth reading and I'm glad Swartz highlights the bravery and resistance of these women via this book. 

Metallic Realms (by Lincoln Michel)

One of my favorite novels of all time, as you may know, is Pale Fire. So when I realized this is essentially "if Charles Kinbote was an awkward nerd and John Shade was a sci-fi writing collective" I was so in.  

So many fun twists - I loved the sci-fi stories that are presented here as the products of the "Orb 4" writing collective, which vary wildly in style and quality but are always fun to read.  The narrator (and "lore-keeper") is named Michael Lincoln (not Lincoln Michel) and the author himself is referenced as a case of mistaken identity (and possibly makes a cameo at the end). The clueless unreliable narrator is both sympathetic and terrible.  There are so many inside jokes and references I'm sure I didn't get.  

I did my usual "check the Goodreads reviews" and as always there are people who take it all literally and don't seem to understand what Michel is doing. But if you are a Pale Fire and sci-fi fan, this one is for you.

The Shining (by Stephen King)

I've read a ton of Stephen King in my life (It was one of my favorite books when I was a kid) from Insomnia to The Tommyknockers to 11/22/63. And yet somehow I'd never read The Shining, in spite of seeing the Kubrick movie and the miniseries.  (My problem with the Kubrick movie is that Wendy is annoying. My problem with the miniseries is that Danny is annoying.) 

Growing up I had to just borrow the books from my older cousin so I am guessing she didn't have The Shining which I why I never read it.  And damn, it is scary. (I have this vague memory of a "deleted scene" that King published in Entertainment Weekly back in the day, where someone gets into the elevator and it goes down, and then it keeps going down way further than it's supposed to be able to go down. To hell, get it? Anyway it was scary too.) 

I had to keep putting the book down because the tension and horror was too much. I knew the book ending wasn't the same as the films so really didn't know how it was going to turn out. And the undercurrent of alcoholism and domestic abuse is great.  (I mean not "great" obviously but, well done. Thematically intense.)

You probably don't need to tell me that The Shining is a masterwork but, well, of course it is.  Great way to kick off my reading year. 

Year-End Book Wrapup 2025

Once again, my goal this year was to read 75 books and complete the Read Harder Challenge.  I read exactly 75 books and completed the RHC.  You can check out everything I read for RHC in last year’s wrapup, which I just updated because apparently I forgot to update it this year. Here's the 2026 RHC and ToB shortlist for any curious cats!


Top 5 books of the year:

1. The Story of Art Without Men

The first two are very close, but ultimately for the sake of feminism, I put the feminist book first. I loved this book, bought it for my sister-in-law, and basically didn't shut up about it for two months.  I even got a woman artists calendar for Christmas! Highly recommend if you are interested in art history. 

2. The Director

As usual, the Tournament of Books picks a winner (this was also on the New York Times list of best books of the year.)  A great read with an innovative structure, absolutely masterful and my favorite novel of the year by far. 

3.  The History of Sound

This was from the 2025 Tournament of Books, and it's a short story collection which is usually not my bag, but I loved this.  

4. Sky Daddy

From this year's longlist, a book about a woman who is sexually attracted to planes. Weird in a Remainder type of way, plus I love getting into the heads of narrators like this. I'm glad I read this before the shortlist came out, since it didn't make it, and I would have hated to miss it. 

5. This Is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch

Another RHC book. See what I mean? This year all my picks are from either the RHC or ToB so you can see why I always go back to those.  This is another feminist one - specifically about how it's okay to like the things you like and make space for those things in your life, even if you are an alleged responsible grownup woman.  

Honorable mentions: The Glass Girl, The Final Girl Support Group, Lorne, When the Moon Hits Your Eye, Swimming Studies, The Wedding People

Bottom three books:

1. Headshot

The Tournament giveth, and the Tournament taketh away. I read this in the interest of finishing as many Tournament books as possible but I hated it. 

2.  Rusty Brown

Just, toxic men being toxic and the whole thing gave me the icks.  Sorry I did not enjoy this, Chris Ware. 

3. Ungifted

Mostly here because it was a huge disappointment coming from Gordon Korman and also I don't find kids posting upskirt videos on the internet to be charming or funny.  


2025 plans: 

Per the final category here, I get to still chip away at the 2015 challenge - I'm down to three books remaining and one is "a book by an author from Africa" which is already on the 2026 list.. maybe I'll do an audiobook this year.  

I am not looking forward to romantasy (my two least favorite genres smushed together). I'm also sad to see the cookbook one again, since last time I read a book about eating bugs because I couldn't think of a culture whose food I hadn't eaten. There's gotta be something, right?  

The full list of categories:

0/24 

[ ] Read a microhistory 
[ ] Read a book featured on a “best book covers” list 
[ ] Read a YA book by a Latine author 
[ ] Read a novel with a main character who uses they/them pronouns 
[ ] Read a nonfiction book about resistance 
[ ] Read a gothic novel published in the last ten years 
[ ] Read a sports book by a woman, trans, or nonbinary writer 
[ ] Read a classic from the Zero to Well-Read Podcast 
[ ] Read a romantasy book with a queer and/or BIPOC main character 
[ ] Read a book recently adapted for film, TV, or musical 
[ ] Read a book by a d/Deaf author 
[ ] Read/try a recipe from a cookbook about a culture whose food you’ve never eaten 
[ ] Read a nonfiction comic 
[ ] Read a work of magical realism or fabulism 
[ ] Read a book by a librarian 
[ ] Read a queer picture book 
[ ] Read a book about a cult or cults 
[ ] Read a nonfiction book about AI or social media 
[ ] Read a book by an intersex author 
[ ] Read a book set in space 
[ ] Read a genre (SFF, horror, mystery, romance) book in translation 
[ ] Read a nonviolent true crime book 
[ ] Read a book by an African author 
[ ] Pick a challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat!

Final Books of the Year?

I finished a handful of books during Christmas week and unless I surprise-finish something in the next couple of days, should round out my reading for the year. Stay tuned for my annual wrapup post! I know the three of you who actually read this are all staying so tuned!  

Dating and Dragons (by Kristy Boyce) 

A quick YA read to try and get me to my goal for the year. Cute, very feel-good with a love interest a bit too good (and mature) to be true. But cute and fun - and of course I enjoyed the gaming theme. 

Blob: A Love Story (by Maggie Su) 

This one had already been on my list but made it to the Tournament of Books shortlist so I'm now I think at two books read off the shortlist.  I enjoy a hot mess narrator and this one was the messiest of hot messes.  Thought the ending was terrific and enjoyed! Not as good as Skydaddy, which did not make the shortlist.  (To wit: I copied this review from what I have written in my notebook, but I already can't quite remember the ending of Blob. I remember the ending of Skydaddy perfectly, though.) 

The Golden Spoon (by Jessa Maxwell) 

Another fast read to get me to my goal, this time a cozy mystery inspired by the Great British Baking Show. The ending doesn't really hang together (not the mystery itself, but the aftermath) but fun vibes, good characters,  and worth a read if you like cozy mysteries and baking shows.

The Wild Duck Chase: Inside the Strange and Wonderful World of the Federal Duck Stamp Contest (by Martin J. Smith) 

Last but not least, a book about the Duck Stamp contest, which I followed for the first time this year.  Absolutely fascinating, with lots of interesting details about a niche subculture that would make a perfect Christopher Guest movie.  And as a birder, I will definitely be buying my annual duck stamp from now on!

The Story of Art Without Men (by Katy Hessel)

I absolutely adored this - I've been raving about it to everyone for weeks.  An overview of art history with a focus on the female artists who have been systematically overlooked for decades, with beautiful illustrations of all their work.

A friend asked "is it well written?" and I said "eeeehhh...?" To be clear, it's not bad. It's accessible and interesting throughout.  It goes for breadth more than depth - most artists get a sentence or two. But I was introduced to so many artists, and found their stories fascinating.  

Many female artists died in childbirth or who were forced to give up art for marriage. Women were not allowed into life drawing classes until the 19th century, but they pioneered still life, quilting, and photography. The first painting of an artist at their easel in history is by a woman. One man in the 16th century raised 11 children while his wife ran a successful art studio.  After Jackson Pollock died, his artist wife Lee Krasner was able to paint large-scale works in the barn instead of being shoved into a small space in the house. 

If you're at all interested in art, I highly recommend this - and it would make a gorgeous coffee table book too, as it's easy to pick up and flip through at any point, to learn about some amazing artist and her work.

This also represents my final Read Harder Challenge book, for the category "a book about little-known history."  The 2026 challenge is out, if anyone is interested!  Most dreading: romantasy.  My two least favorite genres shoved together. But I'll make it through. 

It's a Love/Skate Relationship (by Carli J. Corson)

Book #70 of the year; I'm trying to hit 75 and clear out a bit of my library backlog so queer YA it is! This is very light - it's essentially The Cutting Edge, but make it Sapphic.   It requires massive suspension of disbelief (especially around the frankly ludicrous ending) and apparently is incorrect about a lot of figure skating terminology.

But the chemistry is cute; the MC's relationship with her best friends is cute; the side characters are cute; overall it's - what's the word - cute.  And now I can move on to book #73, which can be something else that's a quick read! (71 and 72 are in progress, nonfiction and litfic.) 

Animal Instinct (by Amy Shearn)

From the ToB longlist. This book is about a character named Rachel Bloomstein (which is kinda funny if you're a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend fan) who is going through a divorce during the early days of the Covid pandemic. She has a lot of sex.

The blurb suggests a central part of the book is Rachel creating an AI chatbot but that part totally falls flat.  The chatbot seems extremely badly programmed and keeps randomly insulting her yet she "loves talking to it."  Maybe it's deliberately clunky because AI was clunkier in 2020, but "don't go on an insulting tirade about me" should kind of be in the 1.0 version?  I also viscerally dislike pandemic books.  I lived it, I don't want to relive it, thanks.

And yet I kept reading because I found her friendships, her backbone when it came to her awful ex-husband, her (bi-)sexual escapades, and her musings on identity to be interesting. I liked the character,  I rooted for her, in many ways I related to her.  I don't know how likely it is to be on the shortlist, and I didn't love it, but I did enjoy it. 

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.  

The Director (by Daniel Kehlmann)

An intriguing entry on the ToB longlist that I opened and then couldn't stop reading, The Director is the fictionalized account of a real-life director who made art films in Nazi Germany at the behest of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. 

The point of view characters change chapter by chapter (although narration is in third person) with time skips that leave the reader to fill in their own blanks.  It's about complicity - and to what extent you can maintain your own moral compass in the face of that complicity. The final few chapters made me gasp multiple times. It's a page turner that absolutely sticks the landing. 

I had never heard of Kehlmann before but really hope this tour de force ends up in the Tournament. Either way, you'll definitely see it again on my list of favorite reads of the year - maybe even in first place.  

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki (by Baek Se-hee)

I heard about this memoir when the author passed away, and obviously the title made it a must read. Unfortunately, the best part about it is the title, otherwise it's very surface level and not interesting. 

It mostly transcribes conversations between the author and her mediocre therapist that don't really go anywhere or explore anything. I only finished it because it was fast and I'm behind on my goal for the year.  I'm sorry that Baek See-hee is no longer with us, however. 

Texas Books and ToB 2026

Time to catch up on some recent reading! I think I either started or finished all of these during my recent work trip to Texas.  

For the first time I can remember, I'm slightly nervous about my reading goal for the year - I need to finish 10 more books before the end of the year.  I still think I'll do it but normally I'm done well before December. Anyway, adding eight more books to the list today, and introducing the tag for the 2026 Tournament of Books, since the longlist is out. 

The Complex Art of Being Maisie Clark (by Sabrina Kleckner)

The only YA book on the list, actually! I liked this messy main character, and thought her coming of age story felt realistic and cute. There is some excellent trans rep that was handled subtly but realistically.  I loved that finding her artistic voice was part of her story. Her brother was kind of an asshole to her throughout, though. Overall cute and fine.

The Killer Question (by Janice Hallett) and The Last Devil to Die (by Richard Osman) 

I read these two cozy mysteries back to back and they made an interesting counterpoint to each other.  Killer Question is an epistolary novel set in the world of competitive trivia contests, which I absolutely loved. The twists here are great and genuinely surprising.   The Last Devil to Die is part of the Thursday Murder Club series and has more real emotion and deeper characters, but the mystery wasn't particularly surprising or satisfying. Really, the relationships and emotion carry this one. I enjoyed them both for different reasons. 

In a Glass Grimmly (by Adam Gidwitz) 

Part of a middle grade series that Mina enjoys so this was a read-aloud for us.  Very clever and great dark humor. Kind of what I expected and did not get from Gordon Korman, e.g. a truly funny middle grade book.  I have the third book on our shelf to start on next (and I bought her a new signed Scalzi book for Christmas, since she also enjoyed Agent to the Stars this year.) 

The Shattering Peace (by John Scalzi) 

Did someone say Scalzi?  It's been a minute since I read the Old Man's War series so I was glad of his usual formula, where there's enough context-setting to let the reader catch up.  A solid installment, cleverly written and a fun romp. As usual, my only criticism is that all of his snarky-voiced characters and their banter are interchangeable, but this is easy to look past when all the characters are so fun anyway. 

What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany (by Eric Johnson and Karl-Heinz Reuband) and The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's Original Mindhunter (by John Douglas)

And now for something completely different: nonfiction about dark topics with long subtitles. I'll dispense with the second one first - Douglas is smart but also full of himself, and clearly thrilled to bits there's a TV show about him as he brings it up a lot and even put it in the title. (I still would love a third season though.) Still, he presents some fascinating case studies about interviews with killers and if that's your thing, you'll enjoy it.

What We Knew on the other hand is a scholarly book, an oral history of Germany from 1933-1945, and explores what German Jews and non-Jews knew about the mass murder that started in earnest in 1942.  First there are 40 oral histories and then the authors take a look at large-scale survey data. Absolutely worth a read if this chapter of history is interesting to you. 

Sky Daddy (by Kate Folk) 

My first ToB read, about a woman who is sexually attracted to airplanes and believes her destiny is to marry one by dying in a plane crash.  Audacious and un-put-downable, I hope it makes the shortlist because I'd love to talk about it. (Is the ending a cop out or is it genius? I truly can't decide.)  I haven't read any of the other books on the longlist (although I had a couple on hold already) so I'd better pick the next one fast.  

Record of a Spaceborn Few (by Becky Chambers)

The penultimate category in the Read Harder Challenge was a hard one. "A book based solely on its setting." I really wanted to read a book set on a generational starship and I downloaded a bunch of them.  None of them really hit right. I think I made it like 30% into Ark and they still hadn't gotten on any sort of ship and I was bored. 

Finally I chose this one, a Wayfarers book set on a generational ship, following 5 different point of view characters who live as part of the Exodus Fleet.  And, well, it was a bit boring. The point of view keeps switching and I kept forgetting who was who, and there was really no plot. Like each of the point of view characters has a very paper-thin plot, I suppose, most of them.  But everything worked out mostly great in the end because this is the coziest of cozy sci fi.

I really want Andy Weir to write a book set on a generational ship.  Can someone give him a call for me? Thanks. 

Life & Death (by Stephenie Meyer)

Yes, I finally read the gender-swapped version of Twilight - starring Beau and Edythe, instead of Bella and Edward.

I think I've tried it once before, but it's a very weird experience at first - just trying to remember which characters are the equivalent of which other characters, and feeling like the characters are cut-and-paste copies of each other with weird names. But then as the book goes on, the characters start to feel different - especially Edythe - and then a new ending reaffirms that experience. I ended up really enjoying it. 

Honestly I loved Edythe way more than Edward, although I found Beau way more of a nonentity than Bella and really didn't see what Edythe saw in him. So I guess my ideal experience would be a lesbian novel about Edythe and Bella. Maybe Meyer can do that one next! And Kristin Stewart can star in it. No I don't care how old she is. Thank you for your consideration. 

Canada Books

Yep, another vacation! This time, to Eastern Canada, to visit Prince Edward Island and Lunenberg. Here are the four books I finished on the trip:

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat (by Syou Ishida) 

Read Harder Challenge category: a “cozy” book by a BIPOC author. This is about a mysterious clinic where people go to get prescribed a cat - that somehow ends up solving their problems.  Originally a bestseller in Japan, it is absolutely cozy and charming. The sequel is already on my holds list!

Nobody in Particular (by Sophie Gonzales)

A queer YA romance about a commoner going to boarding school school and meeting a princess in Genovia Henland (I never managed to get used to the name "Henland" which just sounded like "Chickenville" to me.)  Definitely frothy and fluffy, with good chemistry between the leads and an overall cute vibe. 

Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings (by Mary Henley Rubio)

I had to get this one on the trip, where I was learning so much about Montgomery's life. I knew she experienced depression and died by suicide but had no idea about 90% of her life story.  (Personally, I blame her son Chester, sex pest and thief, for much of her misery.) This was a long book but I couldn't put it down, and highly recommend it for fans of the author.

The Glass Girl (by Kathleen Glasgow) 

Another YA, very different from the other one, as it is about a 15-year-old dealing with alcohol addiction and some fairly fucked up family dynamics.  She hits rock bottom and goes to rehab, experiencing the peaks and valleys of recovery. The author is clearly writing from experience, and this is unflinching about alcoholism.  The main character is one you can't help but root for with your whole soul.  Really impactful read and very well done.  

Rusty Brown (by Chris Ware)

This was part of my challenge to read 10 physical books this year - this one is a 700-page comic and quite unwieldy so it was taking up a lot of shelf space! 

Ware's comics are beautiful depictions of depressed, toxic masculinity and sad people with circumscribed lives, this time set in small-town Nebraska. Mostly reading this was tiresome and unlike with Building Stories, which I loved, it wore out is welcome with me.  I think my favorite part was the novel-within-a-novel called Seeing Eye Dogs of Mars which, yes, is depressing and about toxic masculinity (and you don't want to know what happens to the dogs) but was inventive.

Sounds like damning with faint praise, doesn't it? I appreciate the achievement of Rusty Brown but it's definitely one that I'm passing along to the next reader, and don't need to keep on my shelf.  (Also this was my 10th physical book of the year! Although only 6 have left my house, so I'll try to read a couple more before the year is out.)  

The Final Girl Support Group (by Grady Hendrix)

This was my pick for the "weird horror" category in the Read Harder Challenge. I honestly don't know if it qualifies as "weird" horror specifically, but I'm not super familiar with the genre.  But as soon as I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. (Well, I kind of could, because it put me in a very weird headspace, but it is for sure a page-turner.) 

The premise of this one is fun too - it's a world in which slasher movie serieses (series? seri?) are based on true stories of women who have been the "final girl" to survive a slasher spree. They are all takeoffs on real series, so the "Dream King" is Freddy Kreuger, and the "Panhandle Meathook" series is Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  The names are little Easter eggs too, and if even I (who does not enjoy slasher movies) picked up on them, I'm sure a horror fan would love it.

Anyway, the Final Girls are all in a support group, trying to process their trauma. Our narrator has become severely agoraphobic and paranoid, and it's fun to be inside her unreliable and extremely (justifiably) paranoid narration.  Of course, then someone starts coming after the Final Girls. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you, after all.

You'll probably know if this one is for you or not but, if it is, I highly recommend it! 

 

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. 

Crosstalk (by Connie Willis)

I tagged this "give-up" because I definitely would have given up on this book had it not been for the RHC category "a genre-blending book."  But so many of the other suggestions I'd looked at were a blend of fantasy and something, and I don't really love fantasy, so I stuck with it.

First off, Crosstalk is a blend of romcom (really, romantic farce) and speculative fiction.  The premise is that a woman named Briddey agrees to get a new procedure to get emotional closeness to her boyfriend - and it accidentally connects her to someone else. She has a really intrusive family with absolutely no boundaries (they call her constantly and show up at her work and at her house) and she seems really stupid at the outset - her boyfriend is obviously a douche (he's even named Trent, for god's sake) but also she doesn't even really seem to like him all that much? Why is she getting brain surgery!?

Between her family bombarding her and the results of the brain surgery, she's constantly feeling massive anxiety and the pace of the book is frenetic and it gave me secondhand anxiety to read.  I also think her sister, a massively neurotic helicopter mom, is supposed to be a funny character but honestly she came off as so awful and abusive to her child, it wasn't fun to read.  

Once Briddey finally started to figure out stuff that had been obvious to the reader for like THE ENTIRE BOOK, it got less annoying (happened at around the 70% mark, so, not ideal) and the ending was definitely better than the beginning. The romance was semi-problematic but whatever, it was cute.  I didn't hate it the whole way through, but I didn't totally enjoy it either. At least another category is checked off - only 5 more to go. 

Ungifted (by Gordon Korman)

I love Gordon Korman's YA novels, have read them all a dozen times or more, and recently read them out loud to my teenager. She also loves Gordon Korman's new work, and I had the RHC category of "the first book in a completed young adult or middle grade duology" so I figured we'd both enjoy this!

It was... fine. I expected more Gordon Korman magic, I'm so used to being delighted by the ineffable vibe of his books, and that was missing for me.  I didn't like our protagonist very much - he was an obnoxious troublemaker who stayed that way, except suddenly at the end nobody minds anymore? I'm sure it's me - I'm not a middle grade reader, and I've avoided all of Korman's middle grade books for this reason.  

I bought the second book in the duology but I'm hoping we can pick something else for our next readaloud. I think she might be ready for some Scalzi except she doesn't love bad language and John doesn't hesitate to include it.  I think she'd love the humor though, so maybe I'll go dig up my copy of Agent to the Stars and see what she thinks. 

Glaciers (by Alexis Smith)

I have another goal this year, to get through some of my unread books on paper, and probably Glaciers is the book I was thinking of when I made this resolution.  I bought this novella a dozen years ago from a display at Powell's Books - deckled edges, matte blue color, lovely cover,  pleasing form factor, and published by Powell's imprint - who could resist?  And yet somehow, I never managed to actually read it.

Once I did determine to read it, it went  fast! It's a novella about a day in the life of our main character, Isabel. Very Mrs Dalloway in its interiority, and how Isabel's reminiscences of childhood flesh out the narrative. It reads very "this is my MFA thesis" in that it's consciously poetic, very writerly, as opposed to organic, and is more about mood than any major plot happenings. 

I truly don't know what took me so long to read this - I hope whoever discovers it in our Little Free Library enjoys this poetic little novella.  

The Do-Over (by Lynn Painter)

It may surprise you to know that this YA novel was actually also a RHC novel - for the category "a holiday romance that isn’t Christmas."  In this novel, Emilie relives the same Valentine's Day over and over, which places her in the path of classmate Nick instead of her not-so-perfect-after-all boyfriend, Josh.

The novel features familiar time loop tropes with a fun twist (no spoilers) and although it's predictable and the third-act breakup is a bit forced, it still wraps up sweetly.  Lynn Painter seems to have a lot of fans and this was cute - I will probably give her novels another shot. 

Silent Parade (by Keigo Higashino)

I should have a tag just for Japanese mysteries at this point, but here we are again. Part of the "Detective Galileo" series that includes The Devotion of Suspect X. 

As usual, kept me turning the pages - and I wondered how Higashino was going to twist the ending, considering that a lot of things are known at the outset.  Is this a whodunit or a howcatchem? I thought to myself more than once. 

I wouldn't go to this as my first Higashino - I think Malice is my favorite so far - but it's another compelling, complex, satisfying mystery.

Shubeik Lubeik (by Deena Mohamed)

Read for the RHC category "a comic in translation." This was originally written in Arabic and is presented back to front, right to left. It was nominated for a Hugo, among other awards, and takes place in Egypt, in a world where wishes are real and can be bought and sold.

The book follows three "first-class" wishes and the stories of who uses each one.  A woman who has lost her husband, a college student (majoring in wishes) who is dealing with depression, and the man who sells wishes and, for religious purposes, doesn't believe in using them. 

Fascinating glimpse into a culture I know very little about and a unique premise. I didn't think the stories were all super successful - the second one, about Nour, resonated with me the most. I hoped the final story would end a bit more satisfyingly, but maybe the point is - life is life, and there is no perfect way to use a wish.