What a fun book! I so enjoyed chuckling my way through it.

Ho. Ly. Crap. How was this book written by a teenager? Teenagers should not be able to write this well and should never have to know about these things. I‘m absolutely shaken. This book is extraordinary, and would have been regardless of the author‘s age.

#bookspin

Liselle has just learned her world is about to blow up, but has to carry on in her upper middle class life while thinking back on her college days and one relationship in particular. I liked this overall, especially the LGBTQ and race themes explored, but I wanted a few more ends tied up to be a little more satisfied.

I‘m doing something I‘ve never done before—bailing at the 87% mark. I enjoyed Pearse‘s first outing and was excited for this, but it feels so phoned in. Basically the exact same setting as the first book, a similar storyline, and characters so flat they all blend together (which is not helped by the terrible audio, in which they are all voiced the exact same way). This is awful!

After a man went to prison for killing a teen girl, he developed a relationship with William F Buckley Jr when he lost access to The National Review. Buckley firmly believed in his innocence and helped work toward his release. This was a big mistake. I thought this was a fascinating exploration of a sociopathic mind as well as a reminder that just because someone shares your politics, that doesn‘t necessarily mean they‘re trustworthy.

After taking a back seat to Amanda‘s career for years, Mark drags the family to #Namibia so he can work on his Fulbright. But there may be another reason he‘s there. Meanwhile, Amanda meets the embassy expat community in this delicious skewering of Americans abroad that I absolutely loved!

#ReadingAfrica2022

Amanda Jones is my hero. Book bans seem to be happening more and more, and this awesome librarian is fighting back. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna42800

I love the idea of reframing a well known story about a white man (in this case David Livingstone) to instead discuss the local people of color surrounding him. But the execution here just isn‘t working for me. I think it‘s me, not the book, but I‘m finding it scattered and a slog, so I‘m bailing out.

I really wanted to love this one but I just can‘t. There are some wonderful things—an elderly main character (who is fabulous), a focus on a long-standing friendship, an exploration of women‘s opportunities. But, ultimately, there are too many storylines and not enough editing. By the end, I just didn‘t care anymore.

Enjeela was growing up in a well-off family in Kabul when the Soviet Union invaded. The family had to flee but was fragmented in the process, with Enjeela and three of her siblings going by foot over the Hindu Kush to Pakistan. This is an extremely interesting story and gets an A+ for that, but the writing is a bit juvenile. (It reads in places like a children‘s book.) Also, the audiobook isn‘t great.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I think it works well as a historical fiction book looking at a well-off family around the time of the Civil War, during which most of the family doesn‘t pay much attention to current events. That family being the Booths works less well for me. Focusing on this family while leaving out major aspects of JWB just doesn‘t make sense to me. But I mostly enjoyed it, so low pick for me.

The entire town of Abandon vanished Christmas Day, 1893. In 2009, a group hikes up to the town to explore and look for clues, but things suddenly go in a different direction. Crouch builds the tension of both storylines side by side in this horror/thriller. I enjoyed it and had a true jaw-dropping moment near the end.

Acclaimed artist Sylvia has hidden for decades that she is actually Iris Chapel, daughter of the wealthy gun manufacturing Chapel family. She ran to try to escape the family curse, and her story is told here. While the approach to this book is wildly different from Walker‘s debut, she continues to explore the difficulties women face in simply navigating the world. A low pick for me.

Fe Fe is 12 and lives in the Robert Taylor Homes, a housing project in Chicago that is being gradually torn down. This details a summer of violence, fear, friendship, and the making and fracturing of bonds. It‘s a tough read but a good one.

In this story, the Civil War never happened and slavery still exists in 4 southern states. Victor is a black man in the North who hunts escapees. As we gradually learn his story, he gets involved in a dangerous plot that he may not survive. Superb story. There‘s one little bit at the end that didn‘t quite work for me, but I otherwise loved it.

I knew I would love this book. I did not know it would end up on my all time favorite list. It‘s absolutely fantastic! Ed Yong explores the world of animal senses, showing what the world is like for those animals. It‘s just wonderful and I hope it gets widely read. Yong is an incredible writer.

Every now and then I like something witchy, and this was a good one! It‘s the start of a trilogy, and Dawson resolves enough while leaving enough open that I was satisfied. She also does a great job of keeping a lot of characters clear from one another. I didn‘t want to put this one down!

Ten years ago, celebrated magician Violet Volk disappeared during her disappearing act and no one has seen her since. As her fans and a podcast host ramp up to honor the 10th anniversary, her sister Sasha just wants to be left alone. I just loved Oona and liked this one as well, though I wanted a little more out of the how of it all.

I expected to love this and, well, I didn‘t. Don‘t get me wrong, Dr Doudna is amazing and has had an extraordinary career with fabulous contributions to humanity, but this book is poorly organized and rather disjointed. I appreciate that Isaacson made a point of showing that scientific discoveries build on previous work, meaning many people should be lauded, but this book needed some serious editing.

The Wilcox family decided to circumnavigate the globe starting in 1974. Their adventures included shipwreck and some highly questionable decision making. This is a low pick for me because it‘s an interesting story, but it was written recently when awareness of privilege is prominent, yet it failed to explore their very obvious privilege. It felt much more like it was written in the 70s or 80s.

This one came out right as I was finishing high school, so it was not on my radar at the time. But I‘ve heard so much about it since that my curiosity won out. I‘m glad it did! I see now why this book is beloved.

Adam‘s girlfriend leaves on a business trip and falls out of contact. Then Adam finds out she called in sick to work, deepening the mystery. I really enjoyed this CRH backlist title. She‘s so good at building a thriller. I guessed part of it, but there were definitely still some surprises at the end. Terrific author!

Here‘s my living bingo board for August #bookspinbingo! Very interesting where everything landed. 🤔 Each month, I look at the new board and formulate theories of which bingos I‘m most likely to get. I‘m usually wrong. 😆 Does anyone else do that?

After a month hiatus from #bookspinbingo, I am rejoining for August. Here‘s my stacks. I can‘t wait to see where the numbers fall!

Here‘s my status update for #ReadingAfrica2022! In July, I visited Niger 🇳🇪, Mauritania 🇲🇷, Guinea 🇬🇳, Gabon 🇬🇦, and Mauritius 🇲🇺 through my reads! Sixteen countries to go! 🥳

This book is a terrific look at the realities of being an abortion doctor. Wicklund details a life under siege by protestors who constantly cross lines alongside her own commitment to provide compassionate care. She also debunks many myths about abortion. Stories like this are needed now more than ever. This is superb.

Truth

Tropic of Violence explores life, death, immigration, racism, colonialism, and more on the small island of French-controlled Mayotte. Appanah packs a lot into a few pages, but it doesn‘t feel cramped or forced. I thought this was quite good.

#ReadingAfrica2022 #Mauritius (author from)

Wealthy, popular Alice and poor, hard worker Iris are thrown together by a tutoring arrangement when Alice‘s former best friend goes missing. The police seem uninterested in investigating, assuming she ran away, but Alice and Iris set out to find out what happened. This is a fun YA mystery. I enjoyed the story and the characters.

Orphaned by cholera, Nora becomes the ward of the doctor who treated her and eventually his assistant. Only, women aren‘t allowed to practice medicine and they‘re very much blurring those lines. This is a great story and I‘m so pleased with the research the authors did, as they got the medicine and medical history right, which is all too rare.

After loving her short story collection, I was so excited for Fajardo-Anstine‘s first novel, but, unfortunately, it‘s a bit disappointing. The writing, characters, and setting are all good, but it falls a bit flat. Her short stories are gripping and this just wasn‘t.

While I think the writing here is quite good, the structuring of the book so that the reader finally sees what‘s going on in the third section kept me at arm‘s length and prevented me from really enjoying this. While it‘s clever, I feel like the cleverness overshadowed the story.

Helen Scales is a marine biologist who reveals the denizens of the deepest oceans in this marvelous book. She sucks you in with engaging writing about fascinating creatures, then reminds you of the importance of protecting rather than exploiting these deep oceans and their marvelous life forms. Highly recommend.

The Washington Post has a fun article feature shelfies from 9 authors, including fellow Litten @ChrisBohjalian ! I loved peeking onto all these shelves!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/07/28/book-organizing-authors/

I fucking loved this book! Not only are the three central women just plain not going to take the patriarchy‘s bullshit anymore, they‘re also genuinely trying to help other women, especially younger ones. I cackled and fist pumped in so many places, and the audio was spot on. I don‘t sense from it that there will be a sequel, but I would read the hell out of it if there was one.

I liked the previous two books in this series, but this one just didn‘t quite work for me. I appreciate the themes and Smith‘s anger, but I felt like I couldn‘t quite grab onto it. Not sure if it was me or the book. I will say I absolutely love the US covers of this series—they‘re gorgeous!

Iboga is a plant found in #Gabon that produces hallucinogenic effects along the lines of peyote and which has been used for a long time in spiritual traditions. There is interest in it for its potential to aid with addiction to various drugs. This book is interesting in its content, however, it suffers strongly from confirmation bias, so be aware of that failing.

#ReadingAfrica2022

The Chos have been successful enough with their Korean restaurant in Honolulu that they‘ve been able to open two additional locations. However, when their son explodes onto the world scene trying to cross into North Korea, things take a turn. Parts of this are great, and the themes of family, immigration, borders and more are compelling, but I was a little disappointed with the execution. The cover, however, will be one of my favorites of the year

Suddenly around the world, every adult receives a box with a piece of string. Turns out the length equates to how long they‘ll live. This could so easily be sappy or maudlin but it‘s not at all. Instead, Erlick uses this premise to explore mortality, prejudice and more. I really liked this.

Suddenly, Lola starts running into all her exes. Not unprecedented in NYC, but suddenly things get much weirder. At first I really enjoyed this, but then it started feeling so one note. I wanted more than just a long reexamination of all her past relationships. The ending was good enough to salvage it, but I can‘t quite give it a pick.

I don‘t think there‘s anything better in nonfiction that a compelling writer who is also an outstanding researcher. And PRK is that exactly. I really enjoyed this collection of his long form pieces, one of which was happily about #Guinea! I think he‘s just fabulous.

#ReadingAfrica2022

DVF built and sold two businesses by 36, making millions. Here, she first talks about her family (her mother survived Auschwitz and had an incredible outlook on life) then her career. While I don‘t like her shrugging off the problems with glorifying skinniness above all else in modeling, this was otherwise an interesting story. She‘s had quite a fancy life and isn‘t afraid to point out her own mistakes.

Cal Flyn explores places that have been abandoned by humans (for various reasons) and what has happened to them in the intervening years. This is both a fascinating and hopeful book. If you find yourself a bit paralyzed by climate change, this is a good one to read.

Sadie and Sam meet as children and bond over video games on a hospital children‘s ward (he‘s a patient, she‘s not) in the beginning of this beautiful ode to friendship. The book follows them forward to almost 40. It could easily have become maudlin or soaked in sentimentality, but Zevin avoids that. Absolutely fantastic.

This is a coming of age story in upstate 1970s NY contrasted against main character Berie‘s struggling marriage later on. Parts I didn‘t enjoy as much, but Moore marvelously evoked a sense of place/time in NY so much that I could see it. A soft pick for me. Thanks again for gifting this to me, @squirrelbrain !

I love Ruth Ware‘s books. The action in this one takes place at Oxford and in Edinburgh. I was so sure I had it figured out and she totally tricked me! I really enjoyed this one and so did mom.

I loved the idea of this locked room (locked ship?) mystery, but ultimately it didn‘t really work for me. It takes too long to get going and then much of it takes far to long to develop. I was so ready for it to be over.

I went into this blind because Crouch is autoread for me, and I really enjoyed it! It didn‘t knock my socks like his last few books, but it was still a lot of fun.

Polish journalist Kapuściński lived and worked in various places in Africa for many years. Here, he chronicles a bit of history, some current events, and personal stories spanning from the 50s to the 90s. It‘s terrific.

#ReadingAfrica2022 Mauritania (also works for Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zanzibar, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, Senegal, Liberia, Cameroon, Mali, Eritrea)

I got Mom to take me to Barnes and Noble and it was so nice to browse! I tried to be restrained and picked up these 5, plus the tote for free. The two in front will be good options for #ReadingAmericas2023, if I can hold off on them for that long!