January Reading Wrap-Up+

New Year, same me? I certainly started the year with a repeat read. I'm not huge on resolutions so I haven't really made any, other than in general try to get more exercise because if I don't move around and stretch, my body gets mad, so it seems like a good thing to do more of. I even started a bullet journal for moving around (I mostly just like tracking things and colors) but I digress. Let's get into reading. Which I did a fair amount of this year because, you know, the horrors.  

I do have a 2024 Fav Reads post that has been written since early Jan. However, one of the books on there is a repeated re-read and fav of mine, The Graveyard Book. And given everything that has come out with Gaiman, I'm still processing/deciding what that means for me. Thus that post, which includes that book, hasn't gone up yet.

But hey, that was sort of depressing and I'm sorry, I am trying to keep things light and happy as much as possible cos there is enough stress just everywhere else. Let's look at some books.

Total books read

6

How To Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Mike Schur

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki

How To Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Mike Schur

This is the third time I've read this book and it feels like a good way to start the year, with the hope, with the goal of being a little better than the year before. Does it work? Who knows. But a fairly easy-to-get-into refresher on moral philosophy, read by Shur and the cast of The Good Place isn't a terrible way to try. And some does seem to be seeping in, such as when an in-law was explaining to someone times when maybe you don't tell the whole truth and I was thinking "Kant wouldn't approve of this". I didn't say it out loud because I'm not that insufferable (at least, not that way), but it could be in my future.

Rating: 5 stars

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

What is there to say about this? It's a classic, it's funny, it's just as readable today. This was another get-the-boy-to-sleep reading choice* and unfortunately, I don't think this resonated with the little monster quite as much as A Christmas Carol but it did help put him to sleep so it did its part. Lizzie and Darcy, love it.

Rating: 5 stars

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller

Arthur Crockleford (A+ English name) has been found dead in his antique shop under what his friend feels are mysterious circumstances. She enlists the help of her niece Freya, who used to look to Arthur as a mentor until an estrangement happened 20 years prior, causing the two to never speak again. Freya is initially presented as a sort of quiet figure, dealing with a messy divorce and seemingly lacking a backbone. Which means, relatively early on when she says something to the effect of "I wasn't afraid in the dark alley because I know Krav Maga," I out loud to myself said "No you fucking don't," and that was the energy both the book and I brought to the rest of the story. Anyway, mystery whodunit and what was Arthur's antique business wrapped up in and will Freya and her aunt find out at this weekend at a secluded English mansion/castle?

Rating: 2.75 stars

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin

Murder at a fancy cooking school with a motley crew of staff/students/suspects. Out of work chef Paul Delamare is filling in for a friend (and TV chef) Christian as a teacher for a week-long cooking course. But someone turns up dead, and Paul is a key suspect, so what is he to do? The tagline describes it as "The Maid meets Knives Out with a dash of Top Chef" and at some point, I will stop getting taken in by things described as "like Knives Out" because you are just saying that regardless of truth. But maybe that is harsh because while this is not really like Knives Out it was entertaining, there were plenty of good suspects, though some pacing made it hard (for me) to try to follow the clues.

Rating: 3.75 stars

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray

Historical fiction about Belle da Costa Greene, personal librarian to J.P. Morgan and his fancy Pierpont Morgan Library with its impressive collection of renaissance books at art. But Belle has a secret. She's actually Belle Marion Greener and she's not actually of Portuguese descent, despite what she tells people to explain her darker complexion. Her farther was the first Black graduate of Harvard and a fighter for equal rights. But this is American in the 1900s. I liked the idea of the story and overall I liked Belle but I had a few issues. There is a lot of telling rather than showing, which is especially frustrating in a first-person book. She will mentions "rumors of her race going around" but we hardly ever see her actually dealing with it first hand. She also seems amazing from the get-go at blending into high society and navigating the world of fine arts auctions, so the work she must do to "blend in" seem pretty easy for her. Once I got into it, I liked it enough but did yell at it in frustration a few times.

Rating: 3.25 stars

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki

Talking cats read astrological charts for people. I'm not sure what prompted me to put this on my to-read list. I really should keep track of it. It wasn't what I was expecting but to be fair to it, it is pretty clear in the description that's what it's about, so that's on me. A café appears to people seemingly in their dreams, staffed by talking cats who explain to people why things aren't going right in their lives via astrological readings. I'm not big on astrology so this might have been more of a hit for me otherwise. Also I bet if a talking cat serving me tasty drinks and snacks was teaching me astrology I'd be more into it. Maybe not for me, but it felt successful it what it was trying to do and it is a quick read so if astrology is your thing, this is a cozy read.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Total pages read

1,838

Fiction

83%

Female authors

67%

BIPOC authors

33%

US authors

33%

Rereads

33%

Translation

17%

Book club book

17%

Format

audiobook: 83%

ebook: 17%

Where'd I get the book

library: 67%

gift: 17%

Kindle/Audible: 17%

Decade published

1810s: 17%

2020s: 83%

Resolution books

83%

Pride & Prejudice is published a bit before 2000 and by a UK author

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder and Knife Skills for Beginners are both by UK authors

One of the 2 authors for The Personal Librarian is Black (which I'm not splitting the % of how it counts towards total because that is too much work)

The Full Moon Coffee Shop is by a Japanese author and is a translation

*I've been reading random, boring-to-a-six-year-old books to help my son get to sleep after reading his usual bedtime stories.

2024 Year End Stats

2024 was another busy year. I said in my last wrap up post how we'd moved (and then moved again) because the housing market is crazy in this neck of the woods. It's no less crazy now but the good news is that we were able to somehow find something in our preferred neighborhood, not far from the place we were renting which meant there was no need to worry about pulling Matthew out of school because we were still in the district. We moved in May but are still in the process of unpacking (it feels like a never ending task) but the books are unpacked! All 980 of them! 

Work has also been something. Again, in my post last year I mentioned I started a new job because my old one sold the brands I was working on. I'm still at that (not so) new job, BUT this company has announced that they are selling off the brand I work on so again, things are a bit up in the air. Good news is I'm a bit more relaxed about it all because what are you gonna do? 

And then my reading for the year was surprisingly strong. Moreso than I would have thought though I couldn't really say why other than reading is great and audiobooks make it at all possible to read while having to get everything else done (cooking! cleaning! commuting!) Again. ididn't make any cool graphics which I'm sure I should have because it would definitely make this more visually interesting to look at but is just not going to happen. Instead please enjoy this list of stats compared to my historic average (2013 - 2023)

What will 2025 hold? Who knows? I 'm just going to try not to make any sudden moves or spook it in any way and we'll just see what happens. 

Total books read

63

Last year was the most books I had read in a year over the past 10 years.

This year, I exceeded that. I dunno why. Meaning I didn't go out of my way to try to read more than last year and indeed, I didn't actually realize that was the case until writing this just now. 

Historic average: 54

Year with the most books: 2024 / Year with the fewest books: 2016 & 2018 (48 books)

Total pages read

20,365

Historic average: 17,758

Year with the most pages: 2013 (21,681) / Year with the fewest pages: 2018 (13,525)

Months with the most / fewest books

November (9 books) / Feb, May, Jun, Sep (4 books)

Historic average: as I said last year, every month is either 4 or 5 books on average with the exception of July which for whatever reason is a light year and the average is 3

Months with the most / fewest pages

November (3,135) / June (1,170)

Historic average: Sept (1,699) / May & July (each with an average of 1,243)

Fiction

74%

Historic average: 60.7%

BIPOC authors

15%

Historic average: 18.7%

Female authors

56%

Historic average: 57.8%

Author's nationality

US: 52% (Historic average: 67.4%)

UK: 29% (Historic average: 20.4%)

Canada: 5% (Historic average: 1.7%)

Australia: 3% (Historic average: 2.0%)

Japan: 3% (Historic average: 1.5%)

Sweden: 3% (Historic average: 0.8%)

Malaysia: 2% (Historic average: 0.2%)

New Zealand: 2% (Historic average: 0.2%)

South Korea: 2% (New country!)

Translation

8%

Historic average: 3%

Rereads

24%

Historic average: 19%

Book format

audiobook: 85% (Historic average: 45.1%)

ebook: 10% (Historic average: 27.4%)

hardback: 5% (Historic average: 3.9%)

Where'd I get the book

library: 69% (Historic average: 29.2%)

Kindle/Audible: 19% these weren't new books but rather me finding rereads (Historic average: 34.1%)

gift: 10% (Historic average: 9.0%)

indie bookstore: 2% (Historic average: 15.6%) though a few of the gifts came from indies

Decade published

1840s: 2% (New Decade Unlocked)

1970s: 2% (Historic average: 1.4%)

2000s: 3% (Historic average: 14.9%)

2010s: 23% (Historic average: 55.7%)

2020s: 71% (Historic average: 15.3%)

Top Genres

Mystery: 33% (Historic average: 10.2%)

Adult fiction: 10% (I didn't have this genre previously and I dunno even know if it's entirely right now but whatever)

Fantasy: 7% (Historic average: 5.2%)

Humor: 7% (Historic average: 7.3%)

Literary Fiction: 7% (Historic average: 9.8%)

Resolution books

55%

Historic average: 49%

December Reading Wrap-Up

December is always such a crazy month. It's a fun month. We had fun this month. But there's just so much going on it feels like there's stuff every weekend, and even multiple times during the week. And yes there's stress because there's so much to do and get done but Christmas was a success! We decorated gingerbread houses! We saw a symphony perform the music of A Muppet Christmas Carol (the best Xmas movie, IMO) while watching the movie so the monster's first trip to the movies could be a fancy one. We had family over for Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas Day in the city. We took a quick trip to D.C.

It was also, surprisingly, a month with a lot of reading again. As I mentioned in a previous post, some of this is because I've been reading to Matthew at night (beyond his normal routine of kids books) so that's contributing. Then there's the fact that I'm trying to replace some social media scrolling with something better (sometimes that's reading, sometimes it's MarioKart). Let's see how January goes.

Total books read

6

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

Mother Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

Have you ever wondered about the science of actually getting people up into space? And did you know that the early space missions were way grosser than I might have initially considered? (Did you know it takes about 5-7 days before your body quits producing so much body oil, because that's about how long it takes clothes to reach a saturation point, because bathing in space is a challenge!) This was a book I read to Matthew as he was sleeping, with a fair amount of skipping bits that were let's say not six-year-old appropriate. Interesting and makes me appreciate all of the details that go into something like this.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Mother Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

It's really more like Grandmother, Mother, Daughter since in this case Lana, a high-powered realtor in LA finds herself staying with her daughter Beth and granddaughter Jack in a small northern CA town as she battles cancer, missing her old life. But murder night is right in the name so you know something is gonna happen and in this case it's that Jack comes across a dead body and when the cops start looking into Jack, Lana decides she needs to figure out what's going on and clear her granddaughter. 

This was described as Gilmore Girls but with murder and I have seen maybe 2-3 episodes of Gilmore Girls but the tone of this seemed pretty far from what I remember of that show, so keep that in mind if that's a big selling point.

Rating: 3.8 stars

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

Martha has had something of an unconventional upbringing, with a sculptor mother and an aspiring poet father. Beyond that, something has been wrong with her since she was a teen, where she would spend days in bed. It's a story of mental health and Martha's relationships, especially that with her husband Patrick. The story is far more Sorrow than Bliss (there's a La Croix of bliss). But it's mostly Martha self-sabatoging over and over again, knowing she doesn't want to be like this but seemingly unable to help herself.  I liked the style of writing and some turn of phrases but perhaps the weeks following the election were not the right time for a book with so much sorrow.

Rating: 3.65 stars

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I've basically read it every year around this time and I love it each time. Even knowing it's going to make be bawl repeatedly.

Rating: 5 stars

The Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

The second in the Diviners series. I read the first a few years ago and I don't have a particular reason for waiting so long between books but it was enough time to forget most of what happened. Luckily this gave me enough to remember the important beats while not giving a full recap of The Diviners. We're still in 1920s NYC, following Evie (reads objects), Sam (great pitpocket and something of a conman), Theta (Ziegfield girl with a past), Henry (New Orleans musician who can lucid dream), Memphis (healer), and the others we met in the first book as they navigate a world of speakeasies, occult museums and now dreams with the aid of a new character Ling who can contact the dead through dreams. But there's a sleeping sickness sweeping through the city and is it more than a virus. There are a lot of plates spinning with this book and a lot of characters to keep track of, with various levels of success. But the story kept me engaged and interested and I'm sure I'll read the next book in the series. Maybe this time I won't even wait 2 years to pick it up.

Rating: 4 stars

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Come on, you know this one. Good for the season and apparently entertaining enough for my six-year-old that even though I didn't think he was paying attention, once we finished the book he asked if we could read it again.

Rating: 4.75 stars

Total pages read

2,056

Fiction

83%

Female authors

67%

BIPOC authors

0%

US authors

50%

Rereads

50%

Book club

17%

Format

audiobook: 50%

ebook: 33%

hardback: 17%

Where'd I get the book

Kindle/Audible: 50%

Library: 50%

Decade published

1840s: 17%

2000s: 17%

2010s: 33%

2020s: 33%

Resolution books

50%

Sorrow & Bliss is by a New Zealand author

The Graveyard Book by a UK author

A Christmas Carol is also by a UK author and oh also, originally published a bit before 2000

A new bed time reading routine

As probably isn't a huge surprise, bedtime routines in this household involve a fair amount of reading. For the small one, this means reading a handful of books before going to bed. This has evolved from simple stories (I can probably still recite Goodnight, Moon, Time for Bed, and DinoSnores by heart) to a series of different picture books and lately with some graphic novels and chapter books thrown in. 

The most recent choices have been Calvin and Hobbes (where he definitely identifies with Calvin), sometimes Dogman as well as various chapter books, notably The Magic Tree House series, Wayside School and most recently some A to Z Mysteries. 

But just because we turn the lights out, doesn't mean stories stop. Because then it's time for Bedtime Meditations for Kids which sounds like a series of stories but really it's one about going to a forest and finding a tree guy and learning to talk to the trees (hence why we just call it "The Tree Story"). This is a story that has played at least once (and some nights multiple times) every night for the past 3 years. Another story I can recite by heart.

Earlier this month, we've made another story addition. One night, he couldn't sleep and we were already starting our third performance of the The Tree Story. Sometimes when he's up late at night because he's sick, and I'm trying to get his mind off how he's feeling, I'll read him another story. But since he was feeling fine (just couldn't settle) and I didn't want to turn on the lights, I offered to read aloud the book I was reading on my phone, which happened to be Bill Bryson's At Home. Now, to be clear, I was reading this because I enjoyed it. I've read it before, I wanted something I already owned and that I knew I liked. So I say this next part with love but I figured a history of a home and how it got there would not be the most exciting thing to a six-year-old and hoped to bore him to sleep.

Good news! It worked and he fell asleep fairly quickly. AND he enjoyed it. I had already started looking through my ebook library for another child-appropriate books so I was ready for him the next night when he asked that I read him something (while The Tree Story played in the background). Thus did we begin Mary Roach's Packing for Mars. Which, TBH, involved a lot more bits that I had to skip over while reading (not that masturbating chimps isn't funny). Luckily since he's mostly falling asleep he doesn't seem to notice this jumps.

Following Packing for Mars, we decided to go for something seasonally appropriate and read A Christmas Carol. So far, this method seems to be working. And I'm going to need to pick out some more books-for-me-but-also-ones-that-I-can-read-aloud-to-him. Perhaps Pride and Prejudice as our next choice. 

November Reading Wrap-Up+

I went nuts with reading in November. Just wait till you see those stats. What happened? Well, see, there was this election. And post said election I decided that perhaps I am spending too much on social media and for my mental health, perhaps I don't need to be doing that so much anymore. And I have, to a large extent, replaced random social media scrolling with reading some book I already have on my phone. Thus did I add 3 ebooks where normally I have, well, zero. That and I have decided, for the time being, to focus on comfort reads and the thing about comfort reads is they tend to go fast, so I get through more of them.

There is much to be thankful for, so for now, let's focus on that. And those stats

Total books read

9

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion by Tori Telfer

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley

Murder Most Actual by Alexis Hall

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson

The Author's Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig & Karen White

The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

I love Rainbow Rowell but in general, I am not a huge fan of her Simon Snow stuff and I don't read much in the way of graphic novels so I haven't followed her She-Hulk stuff. I was interested to see she had a new adult fiction book coming out and while it's not my fav of hers (that will come later in these reviews) I still did enjoy it. The story itself is a bit of a slow dance, as the story is about two people, Shiloh and Cary, who have been best friends since high school and everyone assumed they'd get together. They seem meant for each other but things just didn't work out and they went their separate ways, until meeting up again at a mutual friend's wedding. the book is missing a lot of the humor of some of her other work but the relationship between the 2 main characters is sweet and their reason for not getting together feels real instead of manufactured. The good parts help make up for some of the less-than-stellar pieces

Rating: 3.75 stars

Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion by Tori Telfer

Who doesn't like a book about lady scammers? I mean, I suppose the people being scammed weren't crazy about it. But I've been relistening to podcasts like Scamanda so hearing about historical scammers seemed like fun. This book includes stories from the time of Marie Antoinette up through current day. In books like these I typically find myself drawn to the more modern stories but here those were far less interesting and instead I wanted more of the older cons. Maybe cos pissing off rich aristocracy seems less problematic than stealing from 9/11 charities. Who knows

Rating: 3 stars

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley

Remember when I said I wanted some more comfort reads to replace some of that Twitter scrolling? Well look no further. This is such a feel good book about a bunch of strangers who get intwined in each others lives. Iona is a larger-than-life character and I love an older force-of-nature woman who begins to meddle in the lives of people around her. Unlikely friendships form, tragedies are averted, lives are changed. Overall it's a feel good story that gives you some hope for humanity. Something that is nice these days.

Rating: 5 stars

Murder Most Actual by Alexis Hall

Cozy mystery set in a remote Scottish castle. Liz, a true crime podcaster, is on the rocks with her wife Hanna but they're hoping this trip will help spark something. Except one of the other guests end up murdered and now Liz wants to solve the murder, Hanna seemingly wants to yell at everyone, and no one seems concerned enough that they are apparently trapped with a killer. The tone of the book was odd, with the focus shifting so often between the murder and the relationship between Liz and Hanna, never really nailing either. Elements were fine. But the description saying it's for fans of "Clue, Knives Out and Only Murders in the Building" (all things I love) do this book a disservice because this book does not have the humor or characters of any of those.

Rating: 3 stars

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Again, a comfort read. I love, love, love this book. The romance elements are fine but it's the relationship between Beth and Jennifer that Lincoln so falls in love with that drives the story. It's so wonderful and sweet and good. This was my 6th read and it won't be the last

Rating: 5 stars

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

Another comfort read! This one a bit slower going but I love the conceit of looking around the domestic sphere and how things got the way they are cos there is a lot of history in all of these little decisions. 

Rating: 5 stars

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson

This is a fun lil Christmas special mystery from the guy that wrote Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone. It has 24 chapters, so you can read it as a murder mystery advent calendar and see if/how Ernest figures out why his ex-wife woke up covered in blood, her boyfriend dead on the kitchen floor, claiming she has no memory. Where I said Murder Most Actual prob shouldn't include comparisons to things like Knives Out, this one feels right. Maybe not as good as the other Ernest Cunningham books but I still considered relistening to this one once I finished it so that's saying something

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Author's Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig & Karen White

Another remote Scottish castle murder mystery, this one on an even-more-remote Scottish island. Literary darling Brett is found dead in his locked tower during a writers' retreat attended by three American authors. They say they're three friends working together on a book set in this historic castle. What do they know about the murder? Were they involved? And can they help solve the crime?

I read one of the reviews that said the characters are insufferable for the first 40% but it gets better after that. Which is true and I absolutely almost stopped reading a few times because of how annoying the characters are. This reviewer was right, at just before the halfway mark, the book did get better. Not good, though. Just better. I still did a lot of eye rolling and I keep reading how the book is described as "a pointed satire of the literary world" which if you say so, book blurb. If you want to read it, let me know so I can complain about specific plot points to you.

Rating: 2 stars

The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood

The third installment of the Marlow Murder Club mysteries, Judith, Becks and Suzie are back trying to figure out who killed Marlow's Mayor, a man who seemed to be loved all around, but his fellow members of the planning committee seem to have their own skeletons in the closet. I love a force-of-nature older woman (see Iona above) and Judith is happy to barrel through the usual way of doing things if it means she can put her keen mind to the test to figure out this murder. And along with her are good friends, the vicar's wife Becks who knows how to smooth things over with witnesses when Judith's methods might...ruffle some feathers. And Suzie, town dogwalker, radio host, spitfire in her own way who actually witnessed the murder happen, not that that made who did it any clearer. Fun time and I look forward to future installments.

Rating: 4 stars 

Total pages read

3,135

Fiction

78%

Female authors

78%

BIPOC authors

0%

US authors

56%

Rereads

33%

Format

audiobook: 67%

ebook: 33%

Where'd I get the book?

Kindle/Audible: 33%

Library: 67%

Decade published

2010s: 22%

2020s: 78%

Resolution books

44%

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting, Murder Most Actual and The Queen of Poisons are all by UK authors

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret is by an Australian author

October Reading Wrap-Up+

I can't believe it's already November. Halloween is now behind us which is sad but also I'm sort of exhausted from all of the Halloween stuff. (Halloween party! Trick or treating in town! Trick or treating at houses! Parades!) But I still love a spooky season, even if my reading didn't really reflect that (whoops).

We were also pretty productive this month. Take a look at this before and after of my office. 

And that picture from last month which books just stacked in front of a bookshelf? Well, now they're all on their own shelf! Next up will be some serious reorganizing of books because the current method is "put on a shelf as was unpacked from a box" which has its charms but isn't the most effective method to finding things.

Total Books Read

5

The Cartographers by Peng Shephard

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue

How To Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

The Cartographers by Peng Shephard

Family secrets. Magical realism. Maps. 

Nell has been estranged from her father for years, ever since a blow-up at work over some seemingly worthless maps. Both trained as cartographers, Nell's father works at the NY Public Library while Nell works at a place making maps look old for rich people to hang in their homes. But one day her father is found dead at his desk and Nell finds one of those worthless maps, a gas station map, hidden in his desk and now she's trying to figure out what really happened to her father. 

The premise is interesting, I love the multiple POVs as you hear from people in Nell's father's life and I'm all for some magical realism. Except, there were a lot of pieces that didn't work for me. A lot of plot holes that never felt sufficiently explained. A lot of choices from people that again, I'm fine with characters making dumb choices but I need to understand WHY they did the thing they did, which at times here seemed to be "for the plot". And also, for a book filled with people obsessed with maps, I walked away from this going "...OK guys but, they're just maps" and thinking about that bit in Arrested Development when Buster studied cartography. 

It's very much an "I liked it, but..." situation here

Rating: 3.5 stars

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue

Jolene would rather not connect with her colleagues at her office job. No need to make friends, discuss personal lives, anything like that. But after getting in some trouble for an email, Jolene has to go through some sensitivity training and have restrictions placed on her computer. Except there's been a mistake and now she has access to everyone's inbox and chats. Seeing what her colleagues think of her can be painful but she also learns that layoffs are coming and maybe she can use this to her advantage. The story is funny with a lot of cringe humor moments that did make me stop listening for a bit to get a break. Jolene is awkward with an overbearing family and a Tragic Past that the book dances around for an annoyingly long amount of time before the reveal. Funny moments of office life and a cute rom-com storyline.

Rating: 3.5 stars

How To Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley

I've been on my library waitlist for this for a while (and had to push it off a few times because timing never quite works out with library holds, does it?) A feel-good story (in a way) about a group senior citizens joining together with a daycare next door to save their community center. Ensemble cast that come together to support one another, make friends, etc. etc. It's all very much the same theme as the other Pooley books I've written and while some of the characters are fun to watch, they don't have quite the same oomph as say Iona from Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting.

I loved loved loved Iona Iverson, was sort of meh on The Authenticity Project and I feel like this falls somewhere in the middle. I appreciate the geriatric cast and the themes of aging and feeling invisible, but I needed more out of the characters.

Rating: 3.5

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

I was looking in the library app for books available now to borrow and found something that looked like it was up my alley: The Last Word by Elly Griffiths. Which you'll notice, not the title listed above. And that's because, after listening to about 30 minutes or so (and going back to relisten a few times) I realized that book is the 4th in a series. Whoops. I returned it and figured I'd try from the beginning. And thus, The Stranger Diaries. This is a murder-mystery where the murderer seems to be using a short story called "The Stranger" as inspiration for killing people known to English teacher Clare. We get multiple POVs from Clare, Clare's daughter Georgia, the main detective on the case (and who the series is apparently named for) Harbinder Kaur and then interspersed with excerpts from this short story. Overall, it was fine. It had some fun turns and surprises, though overall I was annoyed with 2/3rds of the narrators and significantly question some of Clare's parenting choices. But given the narrator I did like, DS Kaur, is the subject of others in the series I may check out more

Rating: 3.25 stars

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

Osman thoroughly won be over with The Thursday Murder Club series. And sure, did I wish I was reading another one of those when I first picked this up? Sure. But I still bought a hardcover copy of this book (at full price! gotta support local bookstores) because I believed this would be just as good. I am so happy he did not disappoint. 

Another murder mystery story, this time featuring private security bodyguard Amy Wheeler who travels around the world, finding herself in dangerous situations. This time things seem lower-key, as she is hired to guard world-famous author Rosie D'Antonio from a Russian hitman, which Rosie seems to take in stride because afterall, if she isn't causing chaos, what's the point? But it seems someone is trying to kill Amy and it seems to be related to a series of influencer murders, the latest of which happened not far from where Amy is stationed in South Carolina. Amy brings in her father-in-law Steve, a retired detective who would much rather stay home and stick to his routine of TV and pub trivia, to help figure out who wants her dead and who is killing these influencers.

Everything I enjoyed from TMC is here: the humor, the characters (love Rosie and Steve especially) and the mystery. I will definitely be reading more from this series (though hopefully after the next TMC book).

Rating: 5 stars

Total pages read

1,834

Fiction

100%

Female authors

80%

BIPOC authors

20%

US authors

20%

Bookclub/readalong

20%

Format

audiobook: 80%

hardback: 20%

Where'd I get the book

Indie bookstore: 20%

library: 80%

Decade published

2010s: 20%

2020s: 80%

Resolution books

100%

We Solve Murders, How To Age Disgracefully and The Stranger Diaries are all by UK authors

I Hope This Email Finds You Well is by a Canadian author

The Cartographers is by an Asian-American author