I‘ve never read Mantel before, so when news of her death arrived, I snapped this up to remedy my failing. I didn‘t give these stories the attention they deserved, as I was distracted while listening, but those I focused on were quite good. I look forward to eventually getting to Wolf Hall (which has been on my Nook for a while).

The first half of this book reads like the fairly flat telling of an arc of a relationship, especially focusing on how it devolves. But then something is revealed about halfway through that forces you to change your perspective. Part of me dug it (after the reveal), but it was still a bit stilted, so I can‘t fully endorse it. But it was definitely interesting.

Seismologist Jones looks at the current risks (to California in particular) while going back to past BIG natural disasters and how their impact on people were shaped by each society and their responses to the disaster. This is a completely fascinating and wholly satisfying read. I could not put it down!

Cara is from the DR, living in NYC for decades, and the factory she worked in for over 20 years has closed to move offshore for cheaper labor. She‘s at loose ends and struggling to find work. Set up as a series of sessions with a social worker, this book looks past the surface and shows how complicated things can be. It‘s a great exploration of nuance about an issue (immigration) that so many want to oversimplify.

Liv wakes in the back of a cab with no memory of how she got there. Things get worse when she gets to her apartment and finds strangers living there. Each time she falls asleep, she loses her memory again. Then, she‘s implicated in a murder. This was a fun thriller that kept my attention. I guessed some parts but not others. Great premise!

Stage mom Vivian wants her daughters to fulfill her music dreams by becoming a girl group. I‘ve read and liked MWS before, but this one didn‘t hit for me. I liked the premise, but I feel like she tried to do too much and didn‘t do justice to many of the plot lines. There‘s one plot point in particular that is dropped in and should reverberate but doesn‘t, and that bothered me.

When PI Kai Cooke is contacted by a local Honolulu celebrity, he assumes the man wants him to find his missing wife. Instead, he‘s hired to find his dog, Kula. This is an enjoyable mystery with good local color, but be aware it has some difficult descriptions of animal abuse.

In the follow up to Blood Like Magic, Voya has to move forward in an important role to try to protect her family from those who fear and hate magic and those who wield it. I really loved this duology, particularly the mixing of magic with a near-future world that includes implanted tech. I thought it was a great blend. They definitely need to be read in order. I look forward to more from Sambury.

I‘m 2014, McGrath met Dicky Conant, a man who was traveling by canoe from Canada to Florida and had previously done many other long distance paddles. A few months later, Conant‘s canoe was found capsized in NC. This book details his life to the point of his disappearance and is fascinating (though the book loses its way a bit in some of the chapters near the end). The writing is really lovely.

Starting in 40 CE, two Viet noble sisters rebel, each in her own way, against their society‘s strictures and the ever tightening rule of the Han Chinese. They eventually lead their people in open rebellion. While I would love if this was based on a true story, this fully fictional historical fiction is still a Hell Yeah! feminist book.

Richard Carroll spent years in #CentralAfricanRepublic, first in the Peace Core then as a wildlife biologist and conservationist. This book is mainly his musings when first arriving there, which read as the moony drivel of an idealistic 20-something, but the surrounding material from current day Richard about the country, it‘s history and the poaching problem, are worthwhile.

#ReadingAfrica2022

This wide-reaching and thoroughly researched book tells the story of George Perry Floyd, from life through death and beyond, as well as that of his family within the context of the world around them. It‘s superb. It‘s also quite frank, explicitly detailing his murder. It may be too soon for some, but it‘s an excellent piece of reportage for now and for posterity.

I read this fascinating food book very slowly and thoroughly enjoyed it! It takes you around the world of food, from mouth-watering to nauseating to “why would anyone eat that?!?” in short entries full of fun facts. I loved it!

An Eritrean man flees violence in his country, finding himself first in Ethiopia, then as a refuge in Israel. This book is largely an exploration of identity: how we see ourselves, how we are seen by others, and how those change with perceived changes in ourselves. I thought this was terrific.

#ReadingAfrica2022 #Eritrea

After a significant rough patch, Pippa and Gabe have moved to a gorgeous spot in a little cottage at the ocean. But then they discover it‘s a known suicide spot, and Gabe starts talking people off the ledge. Until one day a woman goes over, then the plot thickens. Hepworth builds the story well, adding layer by layer of depth. I really enjoyed this, though the message it ultimately leaves about mental health is not so good.

Five privileged white kids go to the property of one of their parents and playact at homesteading (this is acknowledged in the book), but then some side projects start to shake thinks up. While I enjoyed this while I was listening to it, I kind of now wonder what the point was. A low pick.

Well, if this book is representative of the quality on the NBA fiction longlist, I just got much more excited about it! Rita is a crime scene photographer who has been able to see ghosts since childhood. We see scenes of growing up on the rez alongside the current events, making this a bit of a blend of thriller and character study while also showing a bit of Navajo culture. I thought it was superb.

While in his orthodox school, Hoodie spots a gorgeous girl out the window one day. Problem is, she‘s not Jewish. He starts talking to her anyway and is then shunned by his community. The basic failure of different groups of people to talk to and try to understand one another eventually devolves into a violent episode. This is so well done, with a great story, great humor woven through, a terrific message, and a bit of an education for the reader.

A white man wakes up one morning to discover he is now brown. We then follow his efforts to adjust to this when, eventually, reports emerge of the same thing happening to other people. I really enjoyed most of this exploration of identity and assumptions, but I thought the end was a bit weak and I felt like there were some routes he could have taken to explore further that he didn‘t. Low pick for me.

And the grand paboo of this lists is up, fiction! I‘m mystified, as I haven‘t even heard of most of these! Not sure if I love that or if it drives me crazy. I do own one of these, and I‘m certainly looking forward to researching the rest!

I‘m not a GN reader, but I thought it‘d be fun to shake up my #ReadingAfrica2022 challenge by adding one in, and it was! I didn‘t enjoy how the story jumped quickly between the different characters, but I really enjoyed the art of the #CotedIvoire street scenes, and the pages at the end with a glossary, recipe, and other Ivorian info was fun.

I finished the beast! Most of this book is great, with Catton layering on the story in a way that is fascinating and gives it depth without feeling bloated. But I found much of the final 50-100 pages unnecessary, wherein she fills in all the blanks in the story, many of which the reader could have already done for themselves. I enjoyed it overall (but the cover is super boring).

A housekeeper (really more a caregiver) is assigned a difficult client: a mathematician with a brain injury, leaving him with a short term memory of only 80 minutes. But they learn to speak to each other using math. This is a quiet, lovely book about people connecting and learning how to communicate despite barriers.

The cover and title of this book would lead you to believe it‘s about fire, but it turns out that‘s just the first piece. After I got over my disappointment about that (seriously, boo for false advertising!), I enjoyed this collection of Junger‘s writing. It‘s quite good and all the topics are interesting.

The nonfiction list is out! This is the one I was most excited for and frankly…I‘m a bit underwhelmed. I‘ve read South to America, and it was good, but I‘m frustrated to see a book on here about Ted Kennedy when I‘ve read two absolutely amazing nonfiction books recently, An Immense World and Eating to Extinction, that are not here. What gives, NBA committee?

I know many of you follow the Booker closely, but I‘ve found the NBA lists usually hew closer to my taste. I get super excited to see the lists every year, especially for fiction, nonfiction, and translated lit. The list reveals started today, with TL up first! I tried the Tokarczuk a few months ago and it wasn‘t for me, and I have The Employees and Scattered. Of the others, I‘m most excited for Jawbone. I can‘t wait for NF tomorrow!

I knew nothing about Ali before reading this. He‘s had a fascinating life so far and has a very engaging writing style. Based on the subtitle, I expecting a bit more humor, which is how the book starts, but even as it gets more serious my interest didn‘t wane. A great exploration of the impacts of being POC in America.

The first book in the series finds Molly possibly meeting a new man at the same time that a controversial local wealthy man goes missing, then his skull turns up. This is the second book I‘ve read in the series and I‘m loving it. This author does a great job sprinkling humor through as well as having the characters tied into the mystery just enough.

Maddy‘s horrific, abusive, racist white father lives in fear of people learning she‘s half black, so when her hair gets wet one day and her secret comes out, home life becomes more of a horror and the bullying at school ratchets up. This Carrie-style story is fantastic and brutal (though, honestly, I was cheering some of the deaths after how awful people were). This is a super creative look at bullying and entrenched racism.

The Shore follows two teen daughters and the wife of a man with terminal brain cancer, as his personality and behavior changes and they have to adjust to these changes along with his inevitable death. Great premise, but the distance between the characters ends up translating to a distance with the reader as well. Plus, I think the cover is beautiful but doesn‘t fit the book at all.

Raff looks at the historic ideas of the origins of indigenous peoples of the Americas and refutes some entrenched ideas with current genetic research. There‘s a lot of good stuff in this book, but overall it‘s poorly done. She mixes in supposition with science, which weakens the latter, and spends too much time at the start establishing her own opinions, making it seem that she may have looked for the data to support her opinions.

https://www.theonion.com/bored-woman-to-give-book-few-more-chapters-just-in-case...

😂

I loved The Last Flight, so I was super excited for this, but it was a disappointment. The writing is good and I like the story, but there are just too many holes. The two main characters blend together and one major plot point is just left dangling. What a bummer.

Saba is a young woman in a refugee camp in #Sudan, but the location doesn‘t prevent her from being repressed by the people around her. She longs for an education and to become a doctor, but, of course, any way she asserts herself brands her a whore. I actually thought the beginning of this book was a mess, but I loved the second half.

#ReadingAfrica2022

I wasn‘t planning to read this, but then I heard Tucci on a podcast and decided to check it out. I‘m so glad I did, because this book is completely delightful! The focus here truly is food and he‘s really funny! The audio, read by the author, is excellent.

This is my second try with Moshfegh, and she‘s definitely not for me. I actually liked the plot, but I strongly dislike her writing. Her deliberate provocations come across as performative to me. I won‘t be reading her again.

#bookspin

When a brain implant that allows for more effective multi-tasking, it divides a family and a society, as eventually those without it are discriminated against. This is a great way to look to prejudice and how frankly stupid it is. I really liked this book, my second read from Pinsker, and I look forward to reading more of her books.

Babakar is an OB in Mali who meets a woman from Haiti who captivates him. When she dies in childbirth, he takes the child in as his own, traveling to Haiti with her pet her mother‘s wishes. Along the way, and while still in Mali, we learn the stories of the people around him and the events occurring in those countries. I feel like it‘s not really sticking with me, but it was interesting while I was reading.

Quite recently, our world‘s food supply has gone to vast monocultures at high risk for disease, and crowding out historically eaten foods, threatening their extinction. Saladino examines some of those foods, and why it is important to save them. This book is absolutely fascinating and is a great mix of food science, anthropology, and history. It‘ll be on my best of the year list for sure.

Jamie had a bit of an accidental crime happen but instead of jail, she landed a house arrest at a macaque reserve in Florida. The people there are a little kooky and she‘s pretty sure more is going on than she‘s being told. This has a lot of potential and could have been fun, but for me the humor missed the mark and it just ending up being a little weird and silly.

Here‘s my living bingo card for September #bookspinbingo! 🥳 The tagged is my #bookspin and #doublespin is Fabric. Let‘s do this!

Here my completed #bookspinbingo board for August! I think I did great on my board this month! I did less well on #ReadingAfrica2022, adding only Namibia 🇳🇦 and Rwanda 🇷🇼, but overall I‘m in good shape on that challenge.

This book has an interesting style of intermixing short stories about ordinary women living in war in Ukraine (not the current one, but related to it) interspersed with photos of real Ukrainians in the wild. Despite being a very slim book, this took me a while to read, but I think that was me, not the book.

The worst therapist in the world (who would rather be her clients‘ friend) with NO CONCEPT of professional boundaries sees a patient go missing after (surprise) she rented out an apartment to him without telling her husband. In addition to that, it seemed really obvious to me from the start what was going on. Part of me wants to pan it, but I was entertained listening to it, so it gets bumped up a rating.

Told deftly from the first person plural POV, this book shows the breadth of experiences of Japanese picture brides and the apathy of white Americans toward Japanese-American internment in WWII. I‘m usually skeptical of this style of POV, but there‘s a richness of experience shown here. This is really good.

It‘s extraordinary that we have this story of a man violently stolen from his home and forced into slavery, to then be freed some 5 years later and unable to return home. It is a difficult book, both emotionally and because it‘s written in dialect, true to the man who spoke the words. We owe him and millions more the time it takes us to listen.

I *think* I finally have my stacks together for September #bookspinbingo. Who knows, I may swap out before the numbers are drawn, but we‘ll see. In addition to the above, #20 is Fabric by Victoria Finlay. It‘s not arriving until next week, so it misses the photo op.

In this near future story, society has been steadily breaking down and now has a semi-post-apocalyptic situation going on. Amidst that, married couple Frida and Cal are working to survive on their own. As things start to change for them, their pasts are stirred up. This made me think of The Walking Dead (the show) without the zombies, like a study of human psychology in survival situations. A slow burn, but I liked it.

Jakob and his father disappeared in a strange event from a camping trip, with Dad reappearing not long thereafter clutching…something. After 15 years, Jakob reappears. Sister Evie believes he was abducted by aliens but sister Kass is having none of it. This is a really lovely exploration of family, in particular adult siblings working to see each other as adults, set in a fun sci-fi storyline.

I used to really like Cornwell, but the last couple books of hers I read were a mess, so I figured I‘d give her one more shot and, frankly, she made it easy for me. Thin plot with lots of holes, forgettable characters and a nonsensical ending. Sorry, Ms Cornwell, but we‘re all done. I‘ve already unshelved the two others of hers I haven‘t read yet and they‘re in the donation box.