More January Reading

A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost

The last 'celebrity' memoir I read was Born a Crime; I tend to go more for gritty, real-life memoirs. After reading rave reviews though, I wondered if this audio book would live up to Trevor Noah? Yep, it sure did. Admittedly, I adore Colin Jost on Saturday Night Live and often tape the show just to fast-forward to Weekend Update to see Colin and Michael Che. The story of Colin's childhood, his journey to become an SNL writer and actor, his family on Staten Island, is highly compelling, heartfelt, and gave me some uproarious laughter. Definitely listen to the audio of this one - it is MONEY.

Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1) by Seanan McGuire

Where has this book been? As in, HOW did I miss it earlier?! What a delightfully dark, creepy, warm, engaging, heartfelt story. I know, those are contradictory definers, but this book is a bit like Tim Burton meets Harry Potter. A boarding school for teens who have spent time in another world (some Nonsense worlds, some Fairy lands, some in the land of the Dead); an ancient woman runs the school, after her own time in another Land, and tries to help them come to terms with living in normalcy again. Unfortunately, some 'issues' arise and there's a bit of murder, blood, gore, you know, the normal stuff. This is a short story at just 260 pages and it is utterly magical.

The Minders by John Marrs

Is this new John Marr’s book a compulsive, propulsive read, as usual? Yes. Is it confusing and implausible? Yes. Will it inspire you or depress you? Definitely depress. It builds on conspiracy ideas of the Deep State, the government is out to get us, life is hopeless, you know, all the good stuff. In this one, post his previous book The One, the government has hidden all their secrets in the brains of five Minders, and the Hackers want to find them. Yeah, fun stuff. I’m not a believer in all that conspiracy bullshit - it reminds me of the Trump cult and their inability to understand truth and facts. I’m not a nihilist. I like to hope and believe in the inherent goodness of others. While I thought this book could be mindless entertainment, instead it just put me in a deep dark hole. This book just was not for me yet I’m sure others will enjoy this page turner. 

Under a Gilded Moon by Joy Jordan-Lake

I love a good historical fiction, and adored this author's previous book, A Tangled Mercy. However, this one just did not do it for me. The premise was intriguing: set in the Gilded Age, a young woman reluctantly returns to Asheville to help her family, as the building of Biltmore mansion disrupts the surrounding mountain people and their lives. However, too much was thrown into this plot for my brain...anarchists, hill feuds, past love stories, current love stories, New Orleans mafia and murder, bootleggers, you name it. I just could not keep track of it all.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

This book was funny. As in hysterically funny. As in...really not good. How do some of these ridiculous thrillers soak up all the publisher's attention, with huge marketing campaigns while other really thoughtful books get missed? I will never understand. Put simply, poor girl walks rich guy's dog, they fall in love and she moves in, hears weird noises, yeah, wife is upstairs and not dead. I shrieked with laughter over this one, and I"m pretty sure a thriller is not supposed to do that. That was a waste of a few hours.

The Last Girl (Maeve Kerrigan, #3) by Jane Casey

If you like police procedural mysteries, especially ones set in the UK, you need to check out this series by Jane Casey. Most of them stand alone, as does Book #3, but taken as a series, it is fun to see how the characters develop. There's always a murder, some wonderful twists and turns, seeing how Maeve deals with the rampant sexism and misogyny in the police station, and always, a satisfying ending. Highly recommend to mystery lovers:)

The Narrowboat Summer by Anne Youngson

Youngson's previous book, Meet Me at the Museum, was a big favorite of mine two summers ago, so I was excited to pick her new book up. While it was a pleasant read, it ultimately did not have the same impact as her first. I do love a book peopled with older characters, maybe because I'm of that age group, or because I'm just tired of everyone being in their twenties? This story revolves around three women: Anastasia, the owner of a canal boat in the English countryside, suffering from cancer; Sally, an unhappy housewife, wondering if she took the wrong path years ago; and Eve, an engineer who just lost her job of thirty years, struggling to see her next steps. As Eve and Sally agree to sail Anastasia's boat across the English canal system in order to get repairs done, we see their pasts lives in their conversations, their memories, and the stories they tell with the strangers they meet on the canals. This is a beautifully written book, slow in its exploration of life's choices, a bit too descriptive in the canal system, a pleasant journey but not one that will linger. 

January 2.0

 Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America by Michael Eric Dyson

I started listening to this powerful book of essays just a day before an armed battalion of white supremacists breached the walls of Congress, while police used far less force than during peaceful protests the previous summer, protests with people of brown and black skin not the white-skinned militia attempting to overthrow our government and causing death and injury. The contrast was shocking, yet sadly not surprising, given the caste system and history in America. Dyson (Tears We Cannot Stop, What Truth Sounds Like) does it once again in his latest book, as in he makes me THINK, he demands I consider every aspect of our past and current cultural forces, and he forces me to see America through Black eyes, through the eyes of history. Each chapter addresses Black victims of police murder, as Dyson talks directly to Tamir, Sandra, Breonna, Clementa, and the myriad of victims over the decades of time. I will not forget this book anytime soon, nor should I. Highly highly highly recommend.

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak

"The possibility of an immediate and wholesale decimation of civilization was not half as frightening as the simple realization that our individual passing had no impact on the order of things, and life would go on just the same with or without us." A dead prostitute, dumped in a trash bin, reflects on her life for the 10 minutes, 38 seconds that her brain activity continues. That's it. That's the premise. But my oh my, this book is brilliant. As I learned about how Leila came to be in this trash bin, I fell in love with her and her five friends, her 'water' family. I agonized over their lives, their tragedies, their triumphs. I fell more in love with Shafak's incredible writing (Bastard of Istanbul, Honor), as she forced me to think about death, religion, prejudice, hate, you name it. In one word, this book is BRILLIANT. 

The Naturals series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

This is the ultimate potato chip series, well...if you can stomach a lot of murder, that is. The same author as the infinitely less bloody but just as wonderfully entertaining The Inheritance Games, this series was her previous endeavor. Reading just about one a day, I hauled ass through these books. If you like watching Criminal Minds, this series is definitely for you. It takes the concept of 'natural' talents, as a group of teenagers are gathered together by the FBI to access these talents and solve murders. A girl who can detect when one lies, another who thinks in statistics and numbers, another who reads facial expressions and emotions, and two who gather all the facts quickly and can create a profile of who, why, and how. Pure entertainment, rather implausible (it's YA - go with it), and some endearing, quirky characters. 

The One by John Marrs

If you're looking for mindless escapism, as I was as America imploded six days into the new year, this book will give it to you.The premise is a bit implausible and crazy but I'm all about 'just go with' sometimes. A perfect match system has been created through people's DNA, as in, your life partner can be found for you with 100% accuracy. Just think about that...what if you were already married? Or you're gay and you're 'perfectly matched' with a member of the opposite sex? Or your perfect match is halfway across the world? Yep, problems ensue. Big problems. Following five different matches, Marrs leads us down a crazy warren of rabbit holes. Occasionally I was like "Really??" But then I reminded myself I was looking for mindless entertainment so my advice is...roll with it:)

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Continuing the 'modern day classic, one a month' reading, this is a quiet, thoughtful book amidst the sea of crazy news days and reading about serial killers. I had only read one book before by Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go) but considering that one was futuristic dystopia and Remains is the tale of a butler, pre and post WWII, there's not much to compare. Suffice it to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Upon opening up to page one, my first reaction was, aaaargh, long paragraphs. As in, really loooooong. Yet, by page two I could care less, as Mr. Stevens and his melodic voice swept me right into his story, his life as a butler in a 'fine English home,' the relationship with his own father, his road trip to see a former staff member, the issues leading Britain into WWII, and the upheaval of the social order following both world wars. What struck me the most was the invisibility expected of this man, this butler, the utter void of human emotions. Not that Stevens didn't have them, but that his world told him he was not allowed to feel. In a most understated way, this book says powerful things about our hearts and what happens when that heart is subjugated, drowned, hidden, and imprisoned.

The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David

McCullough

I adored McCullough's books on Johnstown and the Wright Brothers, but this one was dry and rather boring for me. Perhaps because it was about the midwest (Ohio, etc.) and I'm not really familiar with it? Perhaps because it showed a ton of truly terrible genocide as the settlers pretty much massacred and destroyed the native people? Perhaps because the characters were rather dull and stolid, not that heroic, rather forgettable? Regardless, it was not my favorite.

January 2021!

Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour

Outrageous, satirical, hilarious, provocative, farcical, mind-blowing, brilliant - this book looks to be the first huge hit of 2021. The premise is straight forward: a young Black man is plucked from his barista job at Starbucks to be groomed, trained, and set loose in the world of NYC sales. We encounter racist bosses, abusive training methods, questionable decisions, socioeconomic disparity, unequal friendships, white privilege, neighborhood gentrification, racial bias to the nth degree; in other words, ALL the problems in America today. Darren (aka Buck) is one of the most compelling characters I have ever encountered. As he tells his tale of how to succeed in sales, I found myself inspired, infuriated, perplexed, appalled, hopeful, you name it, with his behavior and actions. This book will turn your brain upside down, and could provide the best book club discussion of the year. In other words, do not miss reading this book.

The Mystery of Mrs Christie by Marie Benedict 

Author Marie Benedict (The Other Einstein, The Only Woman in the Room, Carnegie's Maid, Lady Clementine) has shown herself to be the master of finding the 'smaller' stories of history, the pieces that might have made famous people a little wiser, or more meaningful, or more important to our future. As a lifetime lover of mysteries and detective novels, I could not wait to get my hands on this story of the ultimate writer of whodunnits, the eponymous Agatha Christie. Taking a slice of history, Benedict looks at the eleven days in 1926 when Mrs. Christie went missing: the massive manhunt, the lurid headlines, the hidden love affair, and the police investigation into her husband. Written in a unique manner, of seeing the story through two sets of eyes and two time periods, the denouement at the end wreaks of a classic Hercule Poirot ending with everyone in the room, ready to unmask the culprit. I thoroughly enjoyed this mix of history + mystery.

The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

Having read six of Benjamin's previous books, I am obviously a huge fan. While this one was factually interesting, I did not find it as gripping as her other stories. Based on the famous Great Plains blizzard of 1888, this time around the focus is on an event, not a famous person, and the story moves around amongst the main characters: Raina who teaches in a Nebraska schoolhouse, trapped in an abusive boarding situation; her sister, Gerda, entranced by a beau yet responsible also for a room full of school children; Annette, a girl given away by her mother, abused and lonely; Anna, a young mother, resentful of her prairie life; and the newspaper reporter who makes them all famous.. The story jumped around a bit too much for my me, though others may like the varied viewpoints, and the plotting seemed thin, as if this storm could not sustain such a long book. I found this one good, not great.

Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab

Did you fall in love with Addie LaRue in 2020? If so, you’re gonna want to grab this older series by Schwab. This is Quentin Tarantino meets Harry Potter. Don’t play drinking games every time someone dies - you’ll be drunk in just a few chapters. I mean, this series is dark and violent and scary, and utterly obsessively AMAZING. Think about a sheaf of paper stacked together, with Black London, White London, Red London, and Grey London stacked on top of one another, with only a few rare magical travelers able to journey amongst the varied cities. Some Londons have more magic than others, some have ordinary lives, some have some really dark shit. Amongst this setting live some amazing characters: Kell, Lila, and Holland, the magician, the thief, and the prisoner; Rye, the prince; and Alucard, the pirate. Sounds so simple and straight forward doesn’t it?! In the hands of a master writer like VE Schwab, this is storytelling at its finest. Characters are richly and deeply drawn, with complexities a mile deep and relationships that morph over time. The plot is stomach churning tense, especially in the finale, and yes, the themes of family, power, corruption, and love are beautifully woven through all three books.

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

Not much more I can say about this book that everyone else hasn't said. Yes, you'll want to read it. Yes, do the audio - his voice is sublime. Yes, it's long and occasionally gets stuck in the weeds - listen to all of it anyway. This book is an excellent reminder of what it feels like to have a talented, intelligent, compassionate, focused human being in charge of our government (I had forgotten during these last four years). And yes, I will preorder the next book in this series:)