Sarah wakes during a camping trip to find her husband Matt and their canoe both gone, setting the stage for a missing person story and the exploration of a marriage. I have some quibbles with the book, but overall it‘s a good page-turning read with some interesting reveals.

While I thoroughly enjoyed this follow up to The Verifiers, and especially enjoyed the humor in it, I am rather frustrated with it. By the book‘s end, essentially none of the story is resolved and it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. I can appreciate elements of a story threading into the next book, but too much is left unresolved here.

Self-proclaimed troublemaker Peter Staley was diagnosed as HIV+ in 1985. Shortly thereafter, he poured himself into the AIDS activism movement to fight an unresponsive government and greedy pharmaceutical companies. I appreciate here that he tells not just that story but the after, when he found himself miraculously alive, and what came next for him. Thanks for the rec, @TheBookHippie !

It‘s amazing to me that a book the contains a few scenes of brutal body horror (even I cringed, and I can handle a lot) is overall rather lighthearted and funny. I really enjoyed this one and wasn‘t necessarily expecting to going in. #TOBlonglist

I found this on Time‘s best books of the year and I‘m glad I did. The essays here explore a number of things recently popular in our culture, like mindfulness, Marie Kondo, consent and more, delving into them and in many cases tearing them carefully down. I enjoyed it but think I would have liked it better in print, which would have allowed me down a bit to mull it over.

I heard this one raved about on a podcast, but it didn‘t quite work for me. It‘s a family story and I liked the bits of the story itself, but the structure on audio really didn‘t work. It jumps around in time without any pauses or notice that that‘s what‘s happening and it was confusing and distracting.

Reading this book of interconnected short stories, many of them historical, set in the NE US and into Canada is like walking through a museum dedicated to New England and seeing different studies through the ages of people in this place. It‘s just marvelous. #ToB25

I‘ve been curious about Winstead for a while, so I finally dove in. I almost bailed very early when the main character discovered and fell in love with Twilight. (No, no, no.) Then I convinced myself that maybe she would start learning that women can have agency and aren‘t beholden to me. Now, just over halfway, her best friend/boyfriend “let her” do something and I‘m all done with this crap.

Ostensibly about a drug-deal related shakedown, this is actually an exploration of the lives of people living at the margins and at risk. It‘s described as “darkly funny” and I don‘t agree at all—I found it to be an encouragement to look more deeply at quiet desperation. #TOBlonglist

This one was just ok to me. I found the central story of a man struggling to get through a breakup fairly dull. And by the time we got to the former girlfriend‘s breakup aftermath, I just didn‘t care. Where it shines is with some of the supporting characters and stories, like the flatmate Andy ends up with and the houseboat bit. I don‘t think I would have made it through in print. #TOBlonglist

Primarily a history of rabies and its impact on the human population and our beloved dogs, this book also dabbles into very accessible science and some individual stories of infection. It‘s fascinating, though Bindi says some of the dog illness parts were upsetting.

Well, it was worth succumbing to #botm to get a hold of this early. It starts out feeling like it‘s going to be a predictable thriller, but it‘s not at all. I loved the people on the island and the humor woven in. And the many layers revealed at the end were very satisfying.

Adelle Waldman is so very clever. She lures the reader in with a story that seems to be a bit of a madcap workplace comedy in a big box store. And once she has you hooked, she reveals that it‘s actually a critique of modern American capitalism and how badly it hurts people and communities. This is fantastic. #TOBlonglist

This dreamlike book explores an Ethiopian-American man‘s relationship to his family through his life, plus the things kept from him and why. It explores family, identity, race, and hints at mental health. It didn‘t knock my socks off, but it feels like something that might stick for a while. #ToB25

An interracial couple deals with her Chinese immigrant parents, his right wing parents, and everyone‘s opinion about their choice to not have kids. This felt very topical and relatable to me as a left wing childfree person in our current moment.

After Manhunt, I wasn‘t sure about GFM (I found it one note), but she proved to me with book 2 that she can really write. She tells the harrowing, capital H Horror story of a conversion camp here and writes the characters with more depth than the typical horror book. And I kept seeing villain pastor Eddie as looking just like Mike Johnson for some reason.

#TOB longlist

Alexei Navalny loved his county but hated the corruption of its leaders, so he used his training as a lawyer to investigate that corruption and expose it with evidence on his blog. This led him into politics and eventually into challenging Putin for the presidency. This extraordinary memoir shows his humanity, humor, and love for country and family. Everyone should read this.

In 2 time lines we follow Natasha, Russian prima ballerina, after she has retired and may be drawn back in to dance, and as she grows up to reach the pinnacle of ballet. Overall I liked the story but I suggest sticking with print. The audio reader is awful and nearly made me bail early.

Well, I succumbed. #BOTM had a Black Friday offer of rejoining for free (it requires at least one month renewal) and they had the new Alice Feeney which isn‘t out until the end of January and I wanted it early. And it got here SO fast! I‘m actually stunned. And delighted. Hoping to start this soon.

I‘m not sure what I think of this. I like the story split into part 1 and 3, but the story in part 2 was bewildering on audio. It took me half of it to realize the perspective kept switching back and forth between husband and wife (read by one person with no vocal changes to inform the listener), making it hard to follow and make sense of. I can‘t quite give it a pick.

#TOBlonglist

My latest #TOBlonglist holds came in, so here‘s today‘s library haul stack! When Bury Your Gays first came out for some reason I decided not to read it, but upon rereading the description I‘m really looking forward to it. And the Bordas has a blurb from Percival Everett, so I‘m intrigued!

I made my graphic of my picks for December #ReadYourEbooks then promptly neglected to post it. 😬 It‘s a very blue theme this month! I‘m hyper focused on the TOB longlist at the moment, so we‘ll see if I actually get to any of these, but I‘ll try!

In this sly novel, Cortes is in Tenoxchitlan facing off with Moctezuma. Is he prisoner or guest? We see the maneuverings of both sides as tension builds while the tone of the book stays light with much winking at the reader. I thought this was brilliant.

#TOBlonglist

This book looked like a fun, light, cute read. But despite a couple of truly funny lines, I‘m afraid I thought it was silly and dumb. I really should have bailed.

Artist Claire has been blackballed by the art world and is thus working creating reproductions of famous paintings for a website. Then someone brings her a painting from the Gardner Museum heist but she believes it‘s a forgery. For whatever reason I dragged my feet to pick up this book and it turns out I loved it! The story is great and the descriptions of the artistic process are fascinating. #ReadYourEbooks

I‘m finally posting my #ReadYourEbooks list for December. I‘ve only read one (I‘m a little over halfway through but expect to have it finished tomorrow) for November, but I consider that a win! It‘s one I‘ve been trying to get myself to read (and it‘s so good, I don‘t know why I was dragging my feet), so I‘m so glad I‘m finally reading it. Can‘t wait to see which numbers get drawn!

This is my second attempt with Barry and I have to conclude that he‘s not for me. I read 30 pages and it‘s choppy and nonsensical and I have no desire to continue.

#TOBlonglist

What happens when one comes out of the presidency in their mid-50s? An interesting thing to contemplate. This was a very mixed bag for me. The insidery bits of it are fascinating and I wanted more, but there‘s other bits where he‘s tooting his own horn far too much. I think this is best to pick and choose and skip over some of the rest.

I‘ve read lots of SK but decided her books weren‘t really by thing anymore, so I was going to skip this but grabbed it as a skip the line loan on a whim. I went in completely blind and was floored by this bittersweet story. It‘s so good, with an unmissable author‘s note. I had no idea.

This novel starts with a woman fleeing from her home and the violence in Gaza in 2001, then goes back and recounts her childhood. It shows how so many are simply trying to live and are prevented from doing so by outside forces. A necessary reminder of the human lives impacted by violence.

The latest is another satisfying entry to the Rockton/Haven‘s Rock series. I won‘t give away any of the plot, but Armstrong has a knack for varying things in each book so they don‘t feel repetitive or silly. I really enjoyed this one.

This book looks at behaviors in animals that appear very much to be analogous to mental health issues in people, from anxiety to compulsive actions. It‘s very good, but very difficult to read if you love animals. (And why would you read this if you didn‘t?) It‘s making me think a lot and perhaps realign my thinking on some things.

Ostensibly the auto fiction of a Japanese author based on a year long visit to Japanese-controlled Taiwan in 1938, this book explores colonialism, caste, racism, and love in a light, buoyant fashion drenched in food. While I do not feel it is better than The Book Censor‘s Library, it is nonetheless a worthy winner of the NBA for translated literature. I loved it.

I had avoided this book before because I really dislike the violence of boxing, but I figured I‘d give it a go since it was on the #TOBlonglist. I reacted to it about the way I expected—I enjoyed some of the character studies, but the boxing was too forward in the story and overall I found it a bit thin.

I‘ve put in a bunch of holds for all formats of #TOBlonglist books and these are the ones my library had on the shelves. (They also had the Rooney, but I‘m not interested in it.) I‘ve read 28 so far, so I‘m in good shape! (I may be going a little overboard with all this. 😬)

This exploration of 3 generations of a Chinese then Chinese-American family is an interesting look at family relations, race, and immigration. It‘s good, but it‘s nonlinear and the pacing is a little off. I feel like this had the potential to be dynamite if it had been tightened up more during editing.

#TOBlonglist

I really struggled with this one. It‘s a memoir by a Palestinian man serving a life sentence from a young age in an Israeli prison. I think we need to hear more voices from inside prisons, so I‘m glad this exists, but the language is so flowery I really didn‘t like it. Then the second half of the book is entirely about the woman he falls in love with and it‘s like they‘re each trying to convince themselves they‘re really in love. ⬇️

The latest Stephanie Plum book gives us a lot of scenes of Stephanie and Lula together (always fun), a possible vampire, and a curious ending that makes me wonder what‘s next (it literally says “Not the End” at the end…interesting). A fun installment!

I won this one a while back and turns out it‘s mostly a romance, which isn‘t my thing. It excels in showing the juxtaposition of how the rich and poor live and has some good humor in it. But the central relationship was silly to me and I don‘t like that one of the characters stole repeatedly and there were no consequences from this.

Eleanore is a herbalist who dreams of more and manages to get an assistantship with the pope‘s doctor when he learns of her skill. Then the black plague arrives in Avignon, putting both of them to the test. I enjoyed this, though I found the doctor‘s name (Guigo) odd and it threw me off at times.

I was really looking forward to this one, as it sounded intriguing. It wasn‘t working for me, so I looked at Goodreads and some reviewers there said it starts slowly (true) but comes together at the end (I disagree). Some of the characters were interesting and occasionally there was a super interesting moment, but then it would disappear. I considered bailing and frankly wish that I had.

I thought this would be an interesting look at Chagas‘ disease, relatively common in central and South America but mostly unknown elsewhere, but it wasn‘t what I wanted. It was purely individual reported experiences, and even those stories were a little scanty. I would rather have had science with a deep dive into personal experience than this.

In book 3 of the Dimpna Wilde/Cormac O‘Brien series, someone may be preying on pregnant women in a possible echo of a cult case from 30 years ago. I really like this series, especially Dimpna‘s work as a veterinarian, though there is less of that in this book. It‘s hard to beat a mystery set in Ireland!

I really loved this essay collection. Faliveno explores having grown up in Wisconsin (she has a deep love for the place and its people), gender (she is genderqueer), and more. Her writing is lovely and really grabbed me.

CW for rape

The National Book Awards were announced tonight and here are the winners (in the categories I follow)! I‘m delighted with the NF winner and I certainly can‘t argue about Everett getting his due (though a part of me wanted to see My Friends take it). The translated pick is the only one I haven‘t read yet, as it only came out last week, so I‘m looking forward to seeing what I think.

I went into this one completely blind after enjoying Wahala and I‘m glad I did. I found it wholly absorbing and didn‘t want to stop listening. It explores upheaval, culture, race, greed and more. No sophomore slump for Nikki May!

Quill has always lived in the rez in northern Minnesota and is all too aware of the epidemic of Native women going missing when she hears a woman scream when she‘s out on a run. From there the book focuses in on her realities, the issues with the local tribal police, and the feeling amongst the women that they have to protect themselves and each other, as no one else will. A searing read.

This story of the murder of Emmett Till, told by a man who grew up near where it happened but never knew, is superb. Wrapping together local history, the murder itself, and deep knowledge of the area, it trends new ground from the equally good The Blood of Emmett Till. I‘m glad this story is no longer hidden and hearing the author come to terms with his own past ignorance and unintended racism is affecting.

This book explores 3 adult sisters as their father has just died, looking at their current, somewhat strained relationships and their childhood. All this in the setting of a cli-fi, climate change impacted world as well as maybe something odd going on. I wish the oddness had been explored a bit more, as I feel it would have helped build tension to the ending, but this was good.

As US ambassador to Russia, Sullivan had a front row seat to the initial invasion of Ukraine and was also there in early COVID and Britney Griner‘s detention. Not only does he come across as a very reasonable guy, but he adds some history and his own experiences of the Russian people to make this a rich story. I was fascinated by this one and appreciated getting more of the story from a sort of insider.