This took a weirdly unexpected turn, and I am really impressed that the author managed to pull it off, but the novel worked.

I recommend the audio book on this one. The narrator is Bernadette Dunne, and she's got a great voice.

This is fictionalized nonfiction. There is a lot of conjecture about small details and liberal imagination used in the fact telling. I am not usually a fan of this method of writing. It doesn't feel authentic, and it doesn't quite flow. However, it's an interesting, crazy, sad story.

I particularly recommend this book if you like Sci Fi and love cats, but my favorite parts were of the pissy, striking, foul- mouthed labor dolphins. It's funny and snarky and very John Scalzi.

This is extreme horror. It is memorable, incomparable, and even twistedly tragic. I liked it, but I would never recommend it to anyone. There were parts of the book that almost made me stop reading it altogether. They were that depraved. But I liked a female villain with such agency and audacity, and she was a fan of all of my favorite books..

Trigger warning if you're a decent human being.

I was proud of myself, I guessed right away what the ending would be and why, but it was still such a fun book. It is peppered with humor and poignant moments and one big tearjerker. These characters are drawn so amazingly well. It is so enjoyable to watch them grow, especially Joyce.

This book grew on me more and more as the tale unfolded. It ensnared me in its faerie spell, and I read past my bedtime. I love good faerie trickery, and the book was well plotted. I enjoyed the stories. I liked Emily's scholarly approach to everything and Wendell's nonchalance and charm.

Vesper left her devoutly religious family when she was just 18, but a wedding invitation tempts her back, and things take a sinister turn.

Religious zealots come in all kinds, but they all have some commonalities. This book went in a really interesting direction. Dark humor. Sufficiently scary and gross. I loved it. Very good for Halloween.

This is a difficult read because it shines the light on pain and suffering, but it is an important look at the way undocumented immigrants are treated in the United States. The book is well written and engaging. The author is unusually involved in the lives and outcomes of the people she is interviewing, so there is a clear picture of the personal impact of these issues. I'm glad I read it.

It's not really a mystery because the whole time you know who the criminals are, but it does qualify as nice and gross, so I think it is horror.

The pandemic features prominently in this book, so if you're trying to escape it, you might want to table the novel for a later time. But if you're looking for validation of current events and you have liberal leaning views, it works.

No surprising twists, but I like the characters.

What a cool, little book! It is both cute and philosophical at the time. Dex is a non-binary human in the future who is rabidly trying to find their purpose in life and comes across this chill robot. I needed to hear what this little book had to say. I recommend it if you'd like a warm hug from a robot.

This book was sweet. A little sweeter than what I'm used to, it takes place on a marshmallow island ffs, but I liked the ghosts and the invisible pet bird.

Two middle-aged women meet for the first time in a restaurant, coincidentally on their shared birthday. One decides to create a podcast about the other's troubled life and finds herself dangerously over her head.

This book was a twisted character study. It was psychologically intense and well put together. I liked that it was morally ambiguous at certain points, and I had trouble deciding how to feel.

I received a free copy of this book through a Goodreads contest.

This dystopian novel borrows too much from The Hunger Games and is more like a YA book than an adult debut. Some of the main characters are a little underdeveloped, but August makes a good shady potential villain. Mao Mao the cat steals the show.

I like the concept of jumping into other bodies, but the issue of consent is not addressed.
The series has potential.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Do you accept the haunting of your dream house? "Needs must when the devil drives." Margaret is an endearing late, middle-aged woman who has found ways to cope, but her husband is having none of it. Delightful insanity ensues.

I'm a big horror fan, and I devoured this debut gem. It was imaginative, amusing, and suitably gross. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good ghost story for Halloween.

Snobby New England, entitled, recent high school graduate girls and one outlier, participate in a competition for an elite position within a prestigious family.

This thriller takes the reader on a twisted adventure. The characters are well fleshed out and polarizing. It is an addictive read.

Vera Wong is the meddling grandma PI you never knew you wanted. The book is funny and heartwarming and there was a big surprise. My favorite character was the toddler Emma. This is a cozy mystery. It is creative, light, and fun. The characters are unique, charming, and endearing.

This is a feel-good book that will make you crave a hot cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll. Viv is not your average orc. She has hung up her sword (literally) in favor of opening a coffee shop with a diverse group of beings. You have to read it to understand. It is precious. Think TJ Klune.

This book reads like fast-paced soap opera. Each character is not what they seem, and I couldn't stop reading to find out what happened.

I related a lot to the main character, who is a loner-type obsessed with books and has anxiety. The book is humorous, but it could have used a sensitivity reader, as the jokes referencing children in Africa were not cool. If I overlook those, it was good, nerdy fun, especially with the trivia questions peppered throughout the book.

This book was so well written that the author completely faded into the background.

My big takeaway from it is that 12-year-olds should never be tried as adults, nor should they be institutionalized alongside adults. That either of those things happen is a serious failure in our judicial system.

I believe that this crime happened at all because of a lack of availability in our mental health services in the U.S.

This was a solid 4-star book up until the end, and then it was like the author ran out of paper. It was so chaotic and rushed, and I personally found it so unsatisfying that I had to take it down a star. I did like that the threads reminded me of an old Stephen King book called Insomnia. I also thought the characterization was well done. That ending, though--so disappointing!

I haven't read David Copperfield in over 25 years, and my memory is bad, so I couldn't compare the two, but this novel stands just on its own merit. The story is enthralling, and the main character is endearing. My only point of contention was that some aspects of addiction were portrayed inaccurately. I don't have enough experience with life in Appalachia to know if the book portrayed those fairly, but it struck me as sympathetic.

This book was so compelling for me because not only was it written well, but I didn't know Clytemnestra's original story. Almost everything that happened in the book was new to me, so I was in suspense.

If you don't know any Greek mythology, this is such a captivating introduction. If you are already into it, I believe you'll appreciate her point of view.

The sequel to Ninth House is a good, spooky, atmospheric read that is perfect for Halloween. It meanders, and the pacing is slow, but for all of that, the characterization is excellent, and there are some fun surprises. I have two other comments that could be construed as mild spoilers, so I will put them in the comments.

Unpopular opinion and maaaybe a tad spoilery. ⬇️

This was hilarious and relatable for me as a divorced, childless woman. Maggie is a hot mess, and I loved her authenticity and self-absorption. It's funny because it's true. I did not act this way outwardly, but inside, I was pitching a fit.

These poems reflect a driven, contemplative, loving, and insightful young man before his big rap career took off. He was obviously still growing into himself when he wrote these poems. They are heartbreaking, some amateur, sweet, and even naive, but always, he was thinking about the world around him and what justice meant. I wish he'd had the chance to say more.

This book was fabulously weird in a good way. It was original and humorous and poignant. It received 5 stars from me because one of Elena's voices came from a baby Cthulhu. I think that sets the tone.

This is a feel-good, Back to the Future type time travel YA novel that takes place in 1995. It does not portray what I think of as serious mother/daughter issues, but it does a good job with immigrant and family identity and strife throughout the generations. Gen Z is a kinder, more inclusive generation than mine, and they do give me hope. It is cute and fluffy, but I still liked it.

My TBR for August book clubs @FountainBookstore came in today. I am excited for all of these books. Have you read any of them?

My knowledge of Greek mythology is very limited, but I had no problem getting into this novel. The book is fairly violent, so that tracks. The characters were dynamic, and the story was cleverly written.

I loved this little, short book! It was hilarious and sentimental. Kevin Wilson captured 1997 so well, and the behavior of the townspeople was on point. It was a coming of age story. It could be considered YA or adult. It really works for either group. I gave it five stars. I could not put it down.

The main character was a Black sheriff in a rural Virginia town, and he was wonderful. The book is dark. There's a serial killer of teenagers, and that was almost too much for me at times, but I was really attached to the characters and committed to an enthralling story.

I got to meet S.A. Cosby in person, and he signed my book for me. He was absolutely lovely and told the best stories and seemed so down to earth.

It wasn't much of a mystery to me because I was able to guess the who, but not the why, pretty much right away. However, it was a great adventure and leaned more towards action than Ware's previous books. It was a good time, and I liked Jack a lot. I recommend the audio version because Imogen Church does an excellent job narrating. Jack's struggles really come to life with her intonations.

This is not in the database yet!

This book could have easily been split into two separate books. Ida B. Wells and the Schindler investigation only tied together loosely. But it sparked my interest in history and made me look up facts. I credit the book with peaking my curiosity.

The law declaring lynching a federal crime was not enacted until 2022 in the U.S., and three House Republicans voted against it. I'll just leave those facts.

I appreciated the quirkiness of the main character, although I'm not sure it wasn't a little over-the-top at times. I definitely felt the reason for her anxiety. The mystery was compelling.

I had a strong opinion about every character in this story. It turned out I was wrong about a few of them. I really liked the particular "voice" that the author used for Bodie. I just like HER. The ending of the mystery was very New Hampshire. I appreciated the insight into the justice system.

I gave this book 5 stars. I would recommend it. It is not fast-paced or a thriller, but it is a really good story.

Photo from last night's author meet with S.A. Cosby through @FountainBookstore . He was very funny and told great stories and genuinely seemed like such a nice guy. I had a blast and can't wait to read his new book.

I like a good tale told with dragons. The romantic elements reminded me of Jennifer L. Armentrout. If you like her, you will probably like this book.

I absolutely adored this unique, somewhat dark but sweet, fairytale. The grumpy, possessed hen was my favorite. I don't think this book could have been written any better. The author's imagination is fantastic.

This plot was too over-the-top. The author couldn't quite make it work. The characters were emotionally immature and annoying, and I did not like that I did not like them. There were snippets that I enjoyed that had literary potential, but they didn't transition smoothly. I liked the idea, I thought it would be fun, but I kind of wish I'd skipped this one.

4th book read for #MagnificentMay
@Andrew65

It was really fun to see the author weave all these creative threads together. This mystery was written uniquely and with great humor, but it was still a tribute to classic mystery writers like Agatha Christie.

#MagnificentMay
@Andrew65

It kept me interested, but there were a few problematic issues:

The press can not go after a minor so publicly without facing repercussions.

The characters in this book were either evil or all good. In real life, people who do good things can be racist also.

The MC is a white girl when the book is supposed to be about a murdered Black girl.

My goal was to finish it, and I did. Tomorrow, I will read 100 pgs.

#MagnificentMay
@Andrew65

#MagnificentMay
@Andrew65

My goal for today was to read 100 pages of this book, and I achieved it right before bed. It was in a spot where I didn't want to put it down, but sleep is not overrated when you are middle-aged. My goal for tomorrow is to finish the book.

#MagnificentMay #Readathon
Thanks @Andrew65

I've been in a reading slump this year and have had trouble with motivation. So, my goal is to pick a goal each day for the duration of the readathon and post if I achieved it.

My goal for May 6th is to read 100 pages of The Black Queen. I will worry about tomorrow when it comes.

TJ. Klune writes comforting bedtime stories for adults. This story is a sentimental AI fairy tale. It is punctuated with silly and cute robot banter. The book also not so subtley points out that sexuality exists on a spectrum, which I think even most grown people don't realize. It brings up many life philosophies to ponder while remaining humorous and poignant. Things that are real can make choices.

I could gush over the book for paragraphs!

The magical realism aspect of this book really worked to bring the story together. It made me think about generational trauma and possible healing. The characters were unforgettable.

I liked this spooky, Sci fi thriller. I listened to the audio, and it was definitely intense and suspenseful. The main character's angst was a bit overwritten, but overall, I liked her.

I loved the haunting imagery I got from this Gothic tale. It made my imagination run wild with ghouls.

I'm a little late jumping in on the #JoyousJanuary Readathon, but I am really far behind on my reading for the month. I need this! My goal is to read at least 4 books.

@Andrew65