I keep seeing this book so when it popped up as a skip the line loan, I thought I‘d give it a go. I wish I hadn‘t bothered. It‘s billed as a mystery/thriller, but at the 43% mark, there‘s only the barest hint of a mystery and no thriller whatsoever. It reminds me of Riley Sager, who I can‘t stand. And the characters are actively uninteresting. I get annoyed that books like this get elevated when those that are far better do not.

This is a poorly done, clunky mystery in which the cops are clueless and fail to investigate obvious options, the red herrings are incredibly obvious and the main cop character has an odd quirk that verges on inappropriate. I definitely won‘t read this author again. Cool cover, though.

This #TOBlonglist book actually looks like snarky fun that I would enjoy. But it‘s just not working for me right now. So back to the library it goes!

This book looks at the tiny, remote culture of St Kilda, an outer Hebridean island group evacuated of its human population in the 1930s. It‘s a very interesting read told in an engaging fashion with little bits of humor here and there. I really enjoyed it and would love to visit there someday.

I really don‘t know what to say about this one. The writing is good and there‘s some genuinely good humor in it, but for some reason Greathead clearly believed we needed a book about a mediocre white guy skating through life believing far more of himself than he should. We can see that all around us, why do we need to read it? #TOB25

A woman and her baby were found killed in a burned house in 1843 and almost immediately her SIL was charged with the murders despite a complete lack of physical evidence. This book tells the story of her trials, loaded with misogyny. It‘s not quite as good as the most excellent narrative nonfiction, but it‘s interesting and the audio is well done.

A multilingual Albanian woman is living in NYC, working as a translator and interpreter. Her marriage is in a rocky spot and she‘s such a passive person—she largely just lets things happen to her. There‘s a noirish plot line threaded through but otherwise not much really happens. I‘m not sure what I think of it, though I did enjoy reading it. I‘ll give it a low pick.

This book follows 3 people who meet in girlhood, then sees how their adult lives unfurl. But at its heart, it‘s an evaluation and critique of capitalism and the path it may well have us on for the future. It‘s not pretty and it feels all too likely. Grim but good. #TOBlonglist

In the wake of the Boston marathon bombing, kids in various high schools around the country are dealing with all the things teens have to deal with these days. Only there‘s an online forum where something terrible is being planned. Well done and thoughtful, but definitely some content warnings here (under spoiler tag below).

My first #Roll100 read!

Disabled author and disability activist Hevda presents a series of essays about her experiences to help illustrate and reframe disability and ableism. A lot of food for thought, though there were things that made me raise an eyebrow (she calls astrology a “language” to poo-poo those [like me] who do not believe in it; I remain unconvinced).

Lt Taylor Jackson is back at work after having shot and killed someone attacking her in her home…who turned out to be a fellow, dirty cop. Now she‘s faced with a young woman found dead and posed with herbs on her. Turns out this is actually the kickoff of a series and I‘m eager to read more. The story is propulsive, the writing engaging, and I really liked the characters.

O‘Neill spent 20 years digging up documents and interviewing people involved in the Manson murders and trial and presents here his “proof” that the motives presented at trial aren‘t correct. The problem is, he is relying on memories of 30+ year old events and failing to contextualize his findings. There‘s some intriguing possibilities here, but that‘s it, not the smoking gun he wants to believe it is.

Many moons ago I did an environmental studies minor in college and this book was mentioned repeatedly. I‘m glad Leopold exists for having influenced so many in thinking about the natural world, but much as I‘ve tried for several years now, this book is not for me. It just doesn‘t hold my interest.

What a fantastic start to my reading year! I absolutely loved this book. I was fully absorbed right away and never wanted to put it down. It‘s not what I would think of as a Booker nominee, but why not? I‘m so glad this was on the #TOBlonglist to insure that I read it.

I didn‘t read any of my December #ReadYourEbooks as expected. My focus on #TOB25 and the longlist is winding down a bit now, so hopefully I‘ll get to one or more of these this month!

This thought-provoking book is a mix of unusual personal/family memoir and what feels like a NF version of Labatut‘s How We Cease to Understand the World. It ruminates on life, death, war, and more. I found it fascinating and I‘m glad it serves as my final completed book of 2024. #TOBlonglist

My last read from the NBA NF longlist, and I dragged my feet on picking this one up as I‘m so tired of political discourse. It is well done, though, and the first 2/3 was historical, showing how we got here (none of this is new), with the final third being the focus I dreaded. I do wish since it leaned so heavily into American mythmaking that it had made a little more effort at debunking.

I am not a fan of child narrators and child neglect makes my blood boil, so this book shouldn‘t work for me at all. But the writing is magical and buoyant and that made all the difference—I really enjoyed it. I‘m glad it was on the #TOBlonglist to get me to read it. I‘ll be looking for more from this author.

With the exception of the past two months (oops), #ReadYourEbooks has helped me this past year to read down some of my owned ebooks. So, I decided to jump into #Roll100 for 2025 for my physical owned books. I made up a list, then realized the numbers were already rolled, so here‘s mine for January! Hopefully this will be another successful endeavor for me to read my own damn books. 😬

With all due respect to the books I will finish before Wednesday, I went ahead and put together my #Top24of24 list. My favorite fiction of the year is The Book Censor‘s Library and my favorite NF is Challenger. There‘s also some really good stuff in the next tier and if I‘d waited an hour, maybe this list would be different.

This book centering a comedy MFA program had a dynamite first chapter, looking like it‘s going to skewer academia and take on topical issues. But then it falls flat on its face with bad pacing, exploration of boring characters, and no apparent point. There are some funny lines scattered through, but I wanted to do anything else but read this. #TOBlonglist

Eleven years after the events of The Cheerleaders (which I really enjoyed but is not necessary to read first), a member of the local football team ends up in the hospital under mysterious circumstances. Intrepid student reporter Hadley starts investigating and finds fire where there‘s smoke. This one may have tried to squeeze a bit too much in, but I still enjoyed it.

Not sure what to think of this one. It appears to be a social commentary on things many find tacky (Jersey Shore, Hot Topic, Cheesecake Factory), but instead it‘s a memoir incorporating those things into King‘s story. And the writing is good, but some of her life choices are a bit abhorrent to me. I‘ll give it a low pick since I enjoyed reading much of it.

This book frustrates me. I like the plot and characters, but the writing is poor, the editing isn‘t great, and the entire storyline in the US is superfluous—there would have been better ways into the story. Not an author I‘d reach for again.

I was not excited for this one as, quite frankly, I didn‘t expect to like it at all, but turns out I liked it a lot! I‘m glad the #TOB25 put it on their list and in the tourney to get me to read it. It‘s funny but has heart and shows the reality of the lack of options and support for young single moms.

In this trippy little book, Tara has traveled to a Paris on a book-buying trip for her rare books business with her husband. But when she wakes up one morning, she discovers she‘s reliving November 18, which was the day before. No one else remembers they‘ve already done this. Watching her navigate the time loop is fascinating. I really hope the whole series gets translated.

NBA longlist, translated literature

What a wonderful collection of gifts, Soubhi, thank you so much! I love the variety in the books and can‘t wait to read them all. The orchid picture is so cool (and fitting, since we put in a bunch of orchids not long ago) and the jam looks scrumptious, though I‘ll have to fend off Tony for it, since he loves blackberries! Have a lovely, very Merry Christmas!

I had passed on this one earlier this year, so I‘m really glad the #TOBlonglist got me to circle back to it. Not only is it a great read about family, depicting very realistic relationships, it‘s so well crafted, giving the right time to each story and making each sister distinct.

The first part of this is writer Sarah Moss‘s memoir of her abusive childhood, written as somewhere between a fever dream and verse, and revealing her initial entry into anorexia. Then she delves into the most harrowing account of anorexia in an adult I‘ve ever read. This is very well done, but a harrowing read.

I‘ve seen people raving about this and I get why. Two people meet as misfit kids, forming a bond impacted by trauma, then bound together through life by the obsession of one. It‘s engaging and well balanced. I really enjoyed it.

This one is me, not the book. I tend not to enjoy fiction set in Ancient Greece and this was no different. Glad I gave it a try at least. Don‘t let me deter anyone. #TOBlonglist

This one really didn‘t work for me. Parts of it were good, but the structure felt choppy and a number of the religious musings felt shoehorned in, not fitting the narrative. By the end I really didn‘t care. I‘m disappointed because I lived in Detroit when Obama was elected and hearing people celebrating in the streets was extraordinary. I wish this could have channeled the actual moment. #TOB25

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.