THE BEAR by Andrew Krivak

This book was chosen as the "One Read" for the city in which I live so I decided to give it a try for the summer reading list at the high school. I was completely pulled in! It is weird because I don't like books about nature as a rule and I REALLY don't like books about animals (except Princess Donut in Dungeon Crawler Carl). There was something about this beautiful post-apocalyptic father/daughter survival story that just hit me hard. 

The father and the girl live off the land. The mother died when the girl was too young to remember her, not quite in childbirth, but shortly thereafter. The father has been teaching the girl all the things she needs to survive. Every year he gives her a gift that will help her with a new skill and by the time she is 11, she is adept at survival.

And this is a good thing because when they go to the ocean to get salt, they are separated and she has to make her way in the world alone. Alone except for the creatures of the forest, including the bear. 

The story was inspired by the area around Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire - a mountain climbed by many a car from my area of the country - and the setting is vivid. The girl is focused on staying alive and it is interesting that because of that, her personality is practically nonexistent other than her cleverness and tenacity. I cared deeply about her in spite of the fact that her inner life was so fixated.

This book is not at all something I would ever have picked up on my own, but I am so glad I did. And I did put it on the high school summer reading list. It is so easy to booktalk - I just reference HATCHET by Gary Paulson and they are all on board! 

You Know What - part the second!

 So my most recent post was flagged and briefly put behind a warning label. So racy! But apparently someone read it and realized it was just book reviews for a slightly naughty class. Here are the second three books - the ones I actually enjoyed.

Contemporary Assigned Choice:
The Billionaires Wake-up Call Girl by Annika Martin

Summary:

Finally, I know my favorite genre. It HAS to be the rom com. I appreciate the humor in my romance so much. And I like a heroine who isn’t a victim. If she wants to get bossed around a little, that’s okay, but she doesn’t depend on it and she doesn’t let her bedroom antics influence her real life. Unless they teach her to love again. Then I’m 100% in her corner! The story is uptight guy meets flighty girl. She teaches him to enjoy life, he teaches her to trust again. And Lizzie and Theo are perfect for each other! I loved the secondary characters - Lizzie's bestie (the protagonist of the sequel that I am DEFINITELY reading once I finish my last book for this class) and Theo’s sister are both solid, supportive anchors for our lovers. The setting might as well have been Mars for all I know about corporate America and billionaires, but it worked for me. And the connection on the phone? As a child of the 80s who regularly called late night DJs to practice flirting, this was RIGHT up my alley. Five stars, I absolutely loved it. Even the naughty bits!

Trope:

Enemies to lovers, boss/subordinate, trust issues, with just a hint of manic pixie dream girl

Triggers:

Embezzlement, dead parents

Favorite characters:

How to choose??? I guess Lizzie because she had been through so much and still had a positive attitude and a plan. I respect a girl with a plan.

Favorite thing:

How they really fulfilled a need in each other - him for stability and stalwartness, her for a balanced perspective and sense of fun - but they were also smouldering!

Least favorite thing:

There always seems to be a point in every romance I have ever read where if the characters just admitted how they feel and what they need, communication wouldn’t break down. However, Lizzie was very clear in her communication and STILL they found a way to not speak to each other for a little bit before the denouement. 

Discussion Questions:

1. What did you like most about this delightful book?
2. What do you think of the “evil business woman trying to get ahead but also attracted to the boss/Sigourney Weaver in WORKING GIRL” trope?
3. What is it about flirting on the phone? Is this only for those of us who have crossed the menopausal gauntlet? How do you youngsters feel about it?
4. Why do so many romcoms have bakery themes?
5. What is your favorite flavor of microwave popcorn and why?

LGBTQ+ Assigned Choice

Trans Girl High by Cami Kates

Summary:

Jenny is a stunning trans girl who was terribly bullied in Buffalo. She and her supportive parents have moved to the Pacific Northwest for her dad’s job, which allows her the chance to have her senior year in a new place where no one knows her past. She has sex with Zach by accident. Then she  is outed by the bully from her old school who - a little too coincidentally - is at her new school. And even though she is trans, Hunter, Zach’s bestie is super hot for her and they fall in instalove. Hunter has some issues and suggests they form a throuple with Zach when he learns of their history. They have a bunch of young people sex, a misunderstanding, a breakup, a life-saving reunion and a sequel where we learn how they all ended up.

Trope:

MFM throuple, trans life, high school

Triggers:

Bullying, religious intolerance, sexual assault

Favorite characters:

I loved the parents! Jenny’s folks are the gold standard (except her dad for a bit at the end, even though he was kind of right) who accept and love her and want what’s best for her, Hunter’s parents probably think they are great,  fostering independence in their high achieving son, but they don’t realize they are neglectful. Poor Zach’s batshit crazy, hyper-religious  mom and his drug-fueled ignorant father are the stuff of nightmares, but very effective with little screen-time. 

Favorite thing:

I love how these kids came from religious backgrounds but when their pal Riley came out and the church closed ranks against her, they thoughtfully looked at their faith and determined that there are many ways to interpret the Bible and it is important to put the love of your fellow human before a rickety dogma. 

Least favorite thing:

The bully was fat and had bad skin and our heroes were stunning. Ugly people need love too!

Discussion questions:

1. What did you learn about male to female transitions from this book?
2. How comfortable were you with the medical details (for want of a better term) of Jenny’s sex life?
3. Could you have a relationship with two people who are also friends? Is this a generational acceptance thing?
4. How did you feel about the religious aspects of the book?
5. Did you find it the tiniest bit creepy that they were still in high school, even though the writer was careful to tell us everyone was over 18?

Disabilities/Neurodivergent Assigned Choice

Daydreamer by Susie Tate

Summary:

This is the story of Lucy who has social anxiety, Reynaud’s Syndrome and a tendency to disassociate from reality. When the book starts out we learn that, while she is a very successful high-fantasy writer, she has moved to London to take a job in business to force herself out of her comfort zone as well as to reconnect with her childhood crush, billionaire Felix something-Italian. Their dynamic is mostly Lucy being shit at her job and Felix trying to fix her. This does not go well. But when we get a bit of their backstory and mix in the office politics - including an abusive boss and some really badly missed communication - it all comes together. There is a lot of community building, which is one of my favorite tropes, as well as some fairly steamy, but not too yucky or physically impossible, sex scenes. And a very badly trained pony. It all ends happily and there’s a bit of humor so I was completely won over! I am so thrilled that the books in this class got progressively more to my taste as the course went on. It would have been my instinct to ease in slowly, but being thrown directly into the deep end, content-wise, and then getting to more conventional romance really worked for me!

Trope:

Childhood crush, boss/subordinate, crabby asshole to nice boy, childhood trauma, trust issues

Triggers: 

There is an assault that, refreshingly, wasn’t sexual, although the perpetrator’s reasoning seemed to be because Lucy wasn’t interested in his advances. 

Favorite characters:

I love Victoria and Lottie. Victoria is a high powered business exec whose autism actually helps her be successful. Lottie is her assistant who works to help her navigate social interaction. I was really hoping they would fall in love too, but apparently Lottie has a thing with Victoria’s brother in the second book of the series which I will definitely be reading!

Favorite thing:

While the characters were kind of just their tropes at the outset, I loved the two first person perspectives. It fleshed them out really well.

Least favorite thing:

Oh my gosh, the lack of communication was frustrating until they - particularly Felix - learned to just say what they mean!

Discussion questions:

1. What did you think of the dynamic of Lottie and Victoria?
2. Can you diagnose everyone in this story, please?
3. What did you think of the epilogue, did it feel real? What would you change about it?
4. What do you think about Felix’s obsession with keeping Lucy warm at the expense of the comfort of others?
5. Did Lucy’s outburst at the family dinner feel real to you? Why or why not?

And there we have it! I really enjoyed reading a bit outside my comfort zone. But I'm not going to take a horror or true crime class any time soon!

Dirty Books - part the first

I am taking my last class at USM and the course is Service to Library Clients: Romance and Erotica. My professor is a researcher in erotica and really threw us into the deep end with her selections! I am putting the first four here and I am just going to copy and paste my class responses and my Goodreads ratings. 

Brace yourself...

Week #1 - PEN PAL by J.T. Geissinger

I read PEN PAL as a requirement for a special issues in libraries course about romance and erotica. Now I love some romance, but I have said of erotica (well, I said it of porn, but it tracks for erotica too) Reading/watching erotica/porn and thinking it is a realistic depiction of sex is like watching a Marvel movie and thinking that it accurately represents law enforcement. I just can't suspend my disbelief when people are having orgasm after orgasm at just the right time and with SO MUCH TALKING!! I know, it's a book, we need dialogue, but good grief.

And (mini-spoiler) the main character's husband has just died at the beginning of the book and she is hopping in the roofing guy's bed about 20 minutes after she leaves the funeral! And there is some master/slave stuff that I know people are into, but honestly straight-up irritates me. I am happy when people find something that makes them happy, no judgement, but I also don't want to read about veganism or crossfit. It's me, not them.

So about halfway through, I went to Goodreads to see how others perceived it and it has over 200,000 ratings and the average is 4.11! Granted, people who like this kind of thing are probably reading it, which explains the score, but 200,000 people?? That's a lot of ratings! And so I started to read a review and immediately saw a spoiler shield and clicked on it because I couldn't stand the book and didn't care if I read a spoiler. It was a HUGE spoiler and completely changed my opinion of the book. Of course I would have loved to seen the reveal come out a little at a time, but knowing the twist made me really appreciate the story more. And I am notoriously bad at "seeing it coming" for someone who reads as much as I do, so I would have had to hate-read this thing for another 100 pages or so. So thank you, stranger on the internet, for the info.

I can't really write much about the plot other than Kayla and her roofer get it on, she thinks her house is haunted and she likes getting spanked. And it has almost nothing to do with penpals. I probably wouldn't recommend it, but if someone told me they were reading it, I would definitely want to discuss it with them after. There is some excellent structure in the writing and some parallels to classic literature that were recognizable to me even though I try to avoid classic literature. I blew through it pretty quickly once I stopped judging Kayla for moving on so quickly, I was hooked.

So I guess I can read erotica. I am just looking for more of a ramp up. And maybe a male character who realizes that there is no foreplay more effective than vacuuming without being asked.

I gave it three stars on Goodreads. 

[Going forward, they will be in the format of the assignment.]

Week #2 - Week 2 Reverse Harem Assigned Choice

NANNY FOR THE BOSSHOLES by Rebel Bloom

Summary: Aggie (Who named their kid Agnes that late in the 20th century?? Already having to suspend my disbelief.) is great at her job as a business problem solver, but her toxic boss/boyfriend cuts her loose when she refuses to have his baby. She approaches his rivals, the Graves brothers - each of them hotter than the others - with an offer to work for them and destroy the jerk who fired her. They don’t believe her but she bonds with their orphaned niece so they hire her to be a temporary nanny. And then they have lots of sex with her AT THE SAME TIME!! The brothers never touch each other, but they are not shy about getting it on, industrial style, in front of each other and at the same time. They all fall in love, there is a misunderstanding and then a final act where I lost a little respect for them all, but the happilied-ever-after in a fairly satisfying way. 

Trope: Reverse harem

Triggers: Gangbanging, I guess? Abusive relationships, orphans

Favorite character: I loved Aggie’s old hippie dad who just accepts his daughter is in a relationship with all three brothers without batting an eye. 

Favorite thing: I loved the relationship between Aggie and Gracie. The fact that they both lost their mothers young is a bond that they have and I feel like the care Aggie took with her was very genuine. I loved the actual story part of this book and really enjoyed the unconventional love aspect of the brothers who share everything, if not the sex.

Least favorite thing: The sex, particularly the first scene where they all get it on in the library right out of the gate her first night at the house! What the heck - she seemed completely unfazed, but I was fazed. Very definitely fazed.

Discussion questions:

1. Which brother did you like best?
2. How messed up are Grace and Max going to be if they ever walk in on their uncles and aunt?
3. How can she legally marry three men?
4. Did you feel like the baby at the end was a stupid way to wrap things up and why was termination never even mentioned as an alternative? 
5. How many problems regularly come up in business that have to be figured out and how do you quantify that?

I gave it three stars on Goodreads. 

Week #3 - Dark, BDSM, Mafia Assigned Choice

HIS PRETTY LITTLE BURDEN by Nicci Harris

Summary: Fawn is young and pregnant and ends up in the home of Clay Butcher, the head of the mob in Anytown, Australia. Clay is planning to use her as bait to get her father, a fellow mobster who turned on him, to come out of hiding. Instead he falls in love with her in a rather lovely way and has a bunch of sex with her in an exhausting, bossy way. There is lots of sex and murder, she was assaulted by her foster brothers and when Clay finds out he executes them in a, I must admit, pretty satisfying way. Fawn is often really stupid, but also brilliant. Clay is dreamy, but kind of a monster. He has a bunch of brothers, luckily, he doesn’t want to share Fawn with them. The writing was full of emotion and strangely satisfying and I think that the obvious emotional connection between Fawn and Clay made it actually less cringey than the other steamy scenes that I have read for this class. 

Trope: Dark, light BDSM, Mafia, age difference

Triggers: Where to begin?? The assault scene was brutal, but to the author’s credit, it wasn’t sexualized AT ALL, it was monstrous. (Needless to say, I only skimmed that part.)

So assault, bossyness, betrayal, aggressive blowjobs, power struggles (that may only be a trigger for me…)

Favorite characters: I loved Clay’s brothers! They each brought something to the table that was different and showed why he was basically a decent guy for a capo.

Favorite thing: I loved that they were devoted to each other and clearly, and somewhat annoyingly, they felt like they were with their soulmate. 

Least favorite thing: The whole using her as bait and the description of her assault by her foster brothers. 

Discussion questions:

1. How do you think Fawn’s daddy issues will be resolved?
2. How can Clay stay married to his wife and still provide the protection Fawn needs?
3. What did you think of the age difference?
4. What do you think of how emotional the writing was?
5. What do you think happens next?

I gave it two stars on Goodreads.  

Week 4  - Monsters and Aliens

HOOKAH SMOKING CATERPILLAR by Beatrix Hollow

Summary: Well this is my bad for picking the book based on the title alone. I thought it was going to be a Jefferson Airplane/Summer of Love setting and it ended up being an Alice in Wonderland knock-off. There are not enough words in the English language for how irritating I find the actual Alice in Wonderland, so I actually liked this a bit better. But that is not saying much.

The premise is that Alice is maybe actually the White Rabbit (argh - rabbit metaphor again…). She is deeply in lust with the caterpillar (who is also kind of a man) but the Cheshire cat is obsessed with her and wants her to be his own private sex worker. There might be some poisoned tea murder. There are mushrooms. 

Trope: Retelling of a disturbing classic, monsters

Triggers: tails, drug use, monsters, forced prostitution, signing contracts before you read them

Favorite characters: The characters were described beautifully, but had basically no personality beyond the biggest picture stuff created by Carrol, but the physical description of the caterpillar was really stunning. And I am not one for physical descriptions, so kudos to Beatrix Hollow. 

Favorite thing: Honestly, the sex was pretty interesting. It still seemed worky and just a little too effective, but it was interesting to see how they do it in Wonderland. Perhaps the actual shift from a real world based erotica to a fantasy based was the space I needed to not be irritated by the steamy parts. 

Least favorite thing: The woman has basically been the victim of both society and her potential sex partner in just about every book I have read for this class. Are there no strong woman protagonists in erotica?

Discussion questions:

1. What the hell did we just read?
2. Cheshire cat or caterpillar - who do you choose?
3. If you could smoke those pheromones, would you? What do you think would happen?
4. What monsters do you think are hot? (I’m looking at you, Shape of Water guy!) 
5. What other classics of literature do you think could use a smutty makeover?

This was my first one star review on Goodreads!

I don't know if I just got used to the course, or if I chose better, but I REALLY liked the last three books I read for this class. So I will post those little gems togeter. 

Leave Your Mess at Home by Tolani Akinola came out yesterday!

This story of four siblings at turning points in their lives is funny and heartbreaking in turn.

Sola, a former instagram influencer, has just moved back to Chicago after a humiliating breakup and is struggling with her new, less public, life, Her brother Ola is expecting his first child with his wife and trying to figure out how to be a good father and a good husband, even as he reconnects with an old girlfriend, Anjola is in love with her best friend and plans to tell him at an event where he proposes to his new girlfriend. And Karen, the baby, is struggling with family expectations regarding her studies and her sexuality. Their traditional Nigerian parents, particularly their prickly mother, play the roles of “oh THAT’S why they’re like this” in a realistic manner. 

The relationship between the siblings, their parents, their partners and friends is what makes this book so compelling. Past traumas are revisited, new connections are made and old patterns rear their ugly heads in the most entertaining and moving way. And while there is certainly tragedy, there is plenty of humor and love. 

I appreciated what felt like a window into a fully formed family and I found myself hoping that they could learn to accept each other as adults instead of repeating old, damaging patterns. I wish I could accurately describe how much I loved this book and how it felt so real. But honestly, you just have to read it for yourself!

SHUT UP THIS IS SERIOUS by Carolina Ixta

 This is beautifully written and kind of gutting. Belen is clearly depressed and not doing anything to come out of it. Mostly because no one in her family talks about anything like mental health, although they are all reeling from the fallout of her father leaving them and not looking back - and taking all the money their mother saved to keep the family going. She is halfway through her senior year with no prospects for college or adulthood. 

Belen's best friend Leti is an academic high flyer who is pregnant and at odds with her parents because they don't approve of her boyfriend due to their racism and hyper-religious attitude. Belen is trying to be there for Leti, but keeps getting pulled into her own sadness. She hooks up with a much older college boy in a series of scenes which are so painful and real that they might be too much for some readers. As someone who dated college boys in high school I can assure you that Ixta NAILS the amount of forgiveness that high school girls give their college "boyfriends." This is Ixta's debut novel and she was robbed of the Morris award, in my opinion. I can't wait to see what else she writes. She makes her setting of Oakland come alive and I hate settings and usually just skim over every description of place in books. And she makes Belen's trajectory feel victorious without pandering. This may be my favorite read of the year so far.

WOODWORKING by Emily St. James

 This was recommended by a colleague who has impeccable taste. I was looking for books for the summer reading list that were written for adults but would have appeal to teenagers. This is the story of a teacher named Emily who is currently residing in the body of Mr. Skyberg. Even though she knows she is a woman, she was born into a body that leads people to believe otherwise. When she comes out to the new trans student in her school, she finds herself leaning on the kid way more than a teacher should depend on their student. Abigail, the student, is pretty miserable, having been kicked out of her parent's house and currently she lives with her sister and the sister's boyfriend. She is hooking up with the son of a prominant conservative family in the town of Marshall, South Dakota where the book is set.

The small town vibe is accurate and the characters, all of whom are deep in the chasm of change, feel distinct and realistic. For me, this book gave me a ringside seat to the many paths of transitioning. It answers a lot of questions for me about mindset and it is clear to the reader what is not okay to ask. From time to time I found myself irritated with Abigail and her view of herself as the center of the world. And then I remembered that she is supposed to be 17 and adjusted my expectations accordingly. This is a heartwarming story of people going though huge stakes transformations in what feels like a very small world. 

A FORTUNE OF SAND by Ruta Sepetys - expected publication May 26, 2026

 

I gave this book 5 stars in Goodreads and my spreadsheet, but really, for Ruta Sepetys it is a 4.5. It is as good as I have come to expect from her, but for some reason her adult debut didn't ring as true for me as her YA has. It's was still a perfectly researched, fascinating work of historical fiction, but it didn't hit as hard. 

The setting is the city of my birth - Detroit, Michigan - while it was in the process of becoming the Motor City. In 1927, the auto industry was nascent and new money shenanigans were all the rage. The Lennox family makes glass that provide those handy windshields, but they are tacky as hell. The oldest daughter is a social climber who is married to a glorified criminal. The next is the only son who has a facial injury, a chip on his shoulder and a fake job writing obituaries for the newspaper that is investigating his family. The third is a daughter who is actually writing the obituaries her brother is taking credit for because she is fascinated by death but is a girl so is supposed to be delicate. Marjorie is the youngest who says what she means and means what she says so is obviously considered insane by pretty much everyone.

Marjorie is the sibling we follow the most and when she runs away to join an art collective, things get really interesting really quickly. There is some romance, some mystery and a lot of family drama. Everything is resolved satisfactorily, and I enjoyed it. Even though it is not my favorite Sepetys, it's still a lot better than most. And look at that gorgeous cover!

GRIT, SPIT AND NEVER QUIT: A Marine's Guide to Comedy and Life by Rob Riggle

 

I am always looking for a good military book for summer reading but it is hard to find one that I even want to finish. I am also always looking for funny books for summer reading, but often they are a little too salty for me to recommend to all the children. Imagine if I found a book that combined a respect for and interest in the military along with some really funny stuff about improv comedy in the early 21st century. Well, behold! 

Rob Riggle's memoir is interesting and funny. He served in the US Marine Corps for years before and during his quest to become a comedian/actor. This book covers his childhood in the midwest, his early military career, his struggles in the New York improv scene, his 9/11 experience and subsequent redeployment and his eventual comedy success. 

There is nothing earth-shattering here, but it is a nice, engaging story about a man who served his country and also went for the easy laugh almost every time. And that is a compliment. 

THE UNCOOL, PENPAL by Cameron Crowe and JT Gessinger, respectively

 These two books were opposites in my humble estimation. 

I went into THE UNCOOL prepared to adore it and just giving it every chance to charm me. 

I went into PEN PAL with a sense of dread. I mean, look at the cover. This is going to be all humpin'and pumpin'.

I finished THE UNCOOL thinking, well I enjoyed it, but it didn't quite live up to my initial hopes.

I finished THE PENPAL impressed. Don't get me wrong, there was a ton of h&p that I didn't love, but the story itself was really well done. 

Let's start with THE UNCOOL. It's lovely. Cameron Crowe writes like a dream and he gives the inside story of his work as a rock journalist. Everything he writes feels true, but it feels incomplete. Does it make me a bad person that I didn't like it that he didn't talk shit about anyone? I know that hindsight is 20/20, but I feel like he polished all the edges off. 

It starts really strong. In addition to being recollections of the cool and famous, Crowe also makes it a love letter to his family. The story of his older sister who wasn't portrayed in Almost Famous was absolutely heartbreaking. His father, also left out of the movie, seems like he was a stand up-guy. He doesn't say much about the sister who DID appear in the movie, but what was there was good. I can't believe that the running into her in the airport at his lowest point scene in the movie was true! And finally, I like it when a man loves his mother, I really do, but there was so much more of her in the book than I needed. Honestly, this could be because my own mother's health is failing and so maybe I bristled at that. 

I don't regret reading it and I am thinking about putting it on the summer reading list for the high school. It's beautifully written. It just wasn't hitting right for me by the end. 

I read PEN PAL as a requirement for a special issues in libraries course about romance and erotica. Now I love some romance, but I have said of erotica (well, I said it of porn, but it tracks for erotica too) Reading/watching erotica/porn and thinking it is a realistic depiction of sex is like watching a Marvel movie and thinking that it accurately represents law enforcement. I just can't suspend my disbelief when people are having orgasm after orgasm at just the right time and with SO MUCH TALKING!! I know, it's a book, we need dialogue, but good grief. 

And (mini-spoiler) the main character's husband has just died at the beginning of the book and she is hopping in the roofing guy's bed about 20 minutes after she leaves the funeral! And there is some master/slave stuff that I know people are into, but honestly straight-up irritates me. I am happy when people find something that makes them happy, no judgement, but I also don't want to read about veganism or crossfit. It's me, not them. 

So about halfway through, I went to Goodreads to see how others perceived it and it has over 200,000 ratings and the average is 4.11! Granted, people who like this kind of thing are probably reading it, which explains the score, but 200,000 people?? That's a lot of ratings! And so I started to read a review and immediately saw a spoiler shield and clicked on it because I couldn't stand the book and didn't care if I read a spoiler. It was a HUGE spoiler and completely changed my opinion of the book. Of course I would have loved to seen the reveal come out a little at a time, but knowing the twist made me really appreciate the story more. And I am notoriously bad at "seeing it coming" for someone who reads as much as I do, so I would have had to hate-read this thing for another 100 pages or so. So thank you, stranger on the internet, for the info. 

I can't really write much about the plot other than Kayla and her roofer get it on, she thinks her house is haunted and she likes getting spanked. And it has almost nothing to do with penpals. I probably wouldn't recommend it, but if someone told me they were reading it, I would definitely want to discuss it with them after. There is some excellent structure in the writing and some parallels to classic literature that were recognizable to me even though I try to avoid classic literature. I blew through it pretty quickly once I stopped judging Kayla for moving on so quickly, I was hooked. 

So I guess I can read erotica. I am just looking for more of a ramp up. And maybe a male character who realizes that there is no foreplay more effective than vacuuming without being asked. 

THE BUSINESS TRIP by Jessie Garcia

 

Finally! A book that I didn't love beyond all measure, but just enjoyed. I was beginning to think that I just loved everything because I enjoyed the dissociation from reality that books provide so much!

This is my book club books and I like the twistyness of it. I had a hard time with all the different voices and I have to say that there isn't too much of a delineation in tone between the voices, but I also gobbled it down pretty fast so maybe I was missing the nuance. But it has been awhile since I read a murder mystery and I enjoyed the carnage and the red herrings and stuff. 

The premise is that two women have gone missing and are likely being held captive by the worst deluded master-of-the-universe-hair-product-using character I've seen in awhile. The story is cobbled together by the friends and co-workers left behind to figure out what the heck is going on!  There were a lot of moving pieces and I am currently trying to remember what happened at the end and am having a hard time, so it didn't stick with me. But it was some fun escapism.

AMERICAN FANTASY by Emma Straub expected publication April 7, 2026

When my sister and I were in middle school, we used to go for walks and I would tell her dome stories. These were stories of a future when we were old, like in our 20s, and the earth had become basically uninhabitable so we lived in domed cities, but the upside was that we were in the dome with cute boys from school and our celebrity crushes. What can I say, I was deeply influenced by Logan's Run. 

American Fantasy has that kind of lure for me. It is part fan-fic about meeting your childhood crush and sparks flying and part moving nostalgia-fest about the power of fandoms to build connection even as your life is kind of going off the rails. And it's Emma Straub, so it is beautifully and seemingly effortlessly written. 

I loved mid-menopausal Annie - convinced by her Boy Talk super-fan sister to come on this cruise and then left alone when said sister gets an injury and can't attend, conflicted singer Keith who is rethinking his role in the group, Sarah - the event coordinator who is amazing at her job no matter what the men of Boy Talk throw at her, and even "crazy" Maira a notorious Talker who is assigned as Annie's roommate and takes Annie under her wing and feeds her Sexy Sunset drinks and show her the joy of revisiting childhood passions through music and moderate stalking. 

The cruise ship setting is a little overwhelming, as I assume a cruise like this would be, but it works. And the romance is so slow burn that it barely happens. But it is fueled by kindness and concern and that is lovely. 

The three perspectives - the half-hearted fan, the worker bee, and the third-tier celebrity - make for a nice, full view of all the events of the cruise. The fact that it just kind of goes along and naturally ends at the end of the cruise worked for me. I didn't fall in love - I don't think anyone really does in this book - but I had a great little vacation reading it. I would give it four and a half stars, if given the option but you know me - I round up!

DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL by Matt Dinniman

 I can't possibly overstate how much I hate the original cover of this book:

I mean it is horrifying. I can't create anything visual worth a damn, but even I feel superior to this. I would never have read this if that was the cover. 

Thankfully they changed it up (see below) and I dug in and just LOVED the story! I just bought the second volume for my kindle. I don't BUY books, but I needed it. I must know if Carl and Donut, and freaking Mongo, survive.

Okay, the aliens who seeded the earth with humans millennia ago have come back to strip the planet of resources. At the same time, they are airing the most popular reality show in the universe from the dungeons where they have corralled the survivors. 

Carl was trying to rescue his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend's cat when all the structures on Earth disintegrated along with all their inhabitants. So as a survivor, clad only in his tighty-whiteys and the s-t-b-e-girlfriend's pink crocs, he and Donut headed for shelter. And the carnage began.

I really don't like violence in books or movies, but this is so cartoonish and weirdly detailed that it is not putting me off the book. But it is a lot. Nonetheless, I don't really mind if goblins heads get smashed or gerbil bosses get crushed beneath Carl's disturbingly bare feet. I don't like the evil Negan-ish crawlers who appear to be hunting Carl as they murder other crawlers, but I try to gloss over those parts. 

The killing is probably what many readers are here for, but I love the interpersonal stuff. (This is why I always leave Marvel movies 30 minutes before the end when the Grand Guignol begins.) The relationship between Carl and Donut is delightful - as if Charlie Brown and Lucy were a grown man and a cat, but also Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard without the bland sexual chemistry. My favorite human-centered storyline is the group of elderly people from the Meadow Lark Elder Care Facility and the staff that gently cares for them (unless they pee in the corridors) even to their own detriment. 

This book doesn't stop moving and I didn't stop laughing. 

THE MIDNIGHT SHOW by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Marie Thorne will come out April 7, 2026

 

I LOVE COMEDY!! I was so excited about this and, frankly, the format (interviews with people who knew the late great Lillian Martin) kept me from engaging right away. This seems crazy to me because I love that format - lots of narrators and points of view. But about a third of the way in, the story got me and I became obsessed. There is, at the top, a mystery - what happened to Lillian on the bridge and whose fault is it? But there is also stories of friendship, toxic relationships and bad decisions. In addition, there is some great commentary about women in comedy. They can be funny, y'all, and if you disagree with me, let's get drinks and I'll make you laugh so hard you'll wet your pants! But this look at, let's just admit it, SNL in the 80s is an excellent ride. Slow burn to start, for me, but I couldn't put it down in the second half. And for those who need a resolution, I will assure you, you won't be left hanging. Such a fun ride!