sarahmichigan | Recent Entries

I read and enjoyed some EXCELLENT books in March and April. Reading Louise Penny's newest detective novel, "A World of Curiosities," #18 in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, was bittersweet, since I used to read and talk about the books with my mom, and she'll never read this one. Also! I led my first GoodReads group discussion, of "The School for Good Mothers" by Jessamine Chan for my "Literary Fiction by POC" group. I felt this had some flaws but still rated it 4/5. I can see why it got a lot of buzz. Similarly, I had some issues with "An American Marriage" by Tayari Jones but still rated it 4/5. I see why many book clubs would want to read and discuss it.

The novels I gave 5/5 stars to were "Patsy" by Nicole Dennis-Benn and "The Bird King" by G. Willow Wilson. I was really blown away by "Patsy" and the tricky balance Dennis-Benn pulled off in this book, attempting to make you feel sympathy/empathy for a woman who abandons her child to seek an old lover. I loved Wilson's previous novel "Alif the Unseen" so I knew I'd like "The Bird King." I think the experience was richer for the fact that Jeff and I had read "The Conference of the Birds" a few years ago.

The nonfiction book I rated 5/5 was "Mean Little Deaf Queer: A Memoir" by Terry Galloway. Funny, sexy, heart-breaking, this is the memoir of a woman who grew up deaf and queer in 1960s/70s Texas. She also, against all odds, ends up falling in love with theater, and today, many decades later, is co-founder of an inclusive theater group that goes out of its way to include actors with disabilities. LOVED THIS.

See my full reviews on my GoodReads page.

I kicked off 2023 by reading the sixth of the Murderbot Diaries. I enjoyed that series so much and am looking forward to #7 coming out later this year.

I also started the year with some fantastic, 5-star nonfiction, including "Liquid Rules: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives" by Mark Miodownik and "Why Fish Don't Exist" by Lulu Miller. I'd read and enjoyed "Stuff Matters" by Miodownik as well, but "Liquid" just really stood out to me. The Miller book is hard to describe, a blend of memoir and science history, but it's fascinating and well worth a read. Other books I gave 5 stars to were "Somebody's Daughter," a memoir by Ashley Ford, and "Little" by Edward Carey. I'm also reading and enjoying the Charlotte Holmes series by Brittany Cavallaro.

Read the full review of all 10 books I've read so far in 2023 on my GoodReads page.

The last three books I read in 2022 were the following, and all rated 5 stars on GoodReads:

-Glasstown, a graphic novel (hybrid fiction/nonfiction), by Isabel Greenberg
-Dog Years by Mark Doty, a memoir on audiobook
-I Saved the World from the President's Son by Ambrose Weaver (I was a beta reader/editor for this novella)

Most of my stats were unsurprising this year, but I was shocked that more than 50 percent of my reads this year were on audibook. In part, that's because I listened to both the Binti Trilogy and the Murderbot Diaries on audio, and they're all quite short.

Female authors: 40 (and one enby author), 68%
Nonfiction: 19 (32%)
LGBTQ authors: At least 7
POC authors: 27 (46%)
Disabled authors: 2
Classics: 3
Audiobooks: 33 (55%)
Rereads: 1

I picked up a paperback copy of "Giovanni's Room" to take on vacation back in October and quickly remembered why I'd been so impressed with it when I read it in my early 20s. I admired it even more on re-read. I also enjoyed the highly-acclaimed "There There" by Tommy Orange and two more installments of the Murderbot Diaries. I've reached my goal of 55 books for the year already, so I'm allowing myself to read whatever the hell I want for pleasure for the rest of 2022!

Since my last update, I've read the following books. 5-star reads are marked with an asterisk. Read my full reviews on GoodReads.

*Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4) - Martha Wells
*Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5) - Martha Wells
Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime - Ron Stallworth (as an audiobook read by the author!)
*There There - Tommy Orange
The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism - Naoki Higashida
*Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin (re-read)

I almost skipped the Murderbot Diaries because the name is so cheesy. I'm glad I gave it a try, though, because this hit my sweet spot for science fiction. I especially love the quirky, snarky voice of our main character.

I also really enjoyed the first book of poetry I've picked up since 2020, "Life on Mars," as well as reading two books by Native women almost at the same time: the YA novel "Firekeeper's Daughter" and the nonfiction memoir "Dogflowers." The quality of the nonfiction I've been reading over the last few months has been outstanding. I listened to both "H is for Hawk" and "Written in Bone" as audiobooks read by the author, and they were both compelling and as gripping as fiction.

Since my last update, I've read the following books. 5-star reads are marked with an asterisk. Read my full reviews on GoodReads.

*Life on Mars - Tracy Smith
Bitter Orange - Claire Fuller
*I Contain Multitudes - Ed Yong
Seven Moves - Carol Anshaw
*Ammonite - Nicola Griffith
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
*FireKeeper's Daughter - Angeline Boulley
*H is for Hawk - Helen McDonald
Monstress v. 1 - Marjorie Liu/Sana Takeda
Monday Starts on Saturday - Boris & Arkady Strugatsky
*Dog Flowers - Danielle Geller
*All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)- Martha Wells
*Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)- Martha Wells
*Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3) - Martha Wells
*Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind - Sue Black

Last time, I was raving about N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy. This time, I'm all about Rivers Solomon. Two books in, and I'm sure I'll read and love anything they put out. Stephen Graham Jones was new to me but I was knocked out by "Good Indians" and see why it created a buzz when it was published a few years ago.

In a different vein, I'm still working on my list of "Classics to Catch Up On." I finished everything on my list of ancient works and am doing medieval classics now, thus Le Morte d'Arthur. As I wrote on Good Reads, "Here, you'll find almost all the best-known King Arthur tales, from the sword in the stone and the Lady of the Lake to the forbidden romance between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. There are also a lot of weird little side tales about the various knights, from Galahad to Percival to Bedevere."

Since my last update, I've read the following books. 5-star reads are marked with an asterisk. Read my full reviews on GoodReads.

Fiction:
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon*
Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones*
When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole
Luster by Raven Leilani*

Nonfiction:
The Michigan Murders by Edward Keyes*
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo*

In my last book update, I'd just finished the first in the Binti trilogy. Since then, I finished that series and NK Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy and enjoyed both a lot. I knew 50 pages into the first book in the Broken Earth trilogy that it was going to be my favorite series of the year, and I am still pretty sure that's going to be the case!

Since my last update, I've read the following books. 5-star reads are marked with an asterisk. Read my full reviews on GoodReads.

Fiction:
The Madness of Crowds (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #17) - Louise Penny*
Home and The Night Masquerade (#2 & 3 in the Binti Trilogy)*
Soul Cage (Reiko Himekawa, #2) by Tetsuya Honda
Native Son - Richard Wright
The Man in the Queue (Inspector Alan Grant, #1) by Josephine Tey
The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3) N.K. Jemisin *

Nonfiction:
Fierce Attachments: A Memoir - Vivian Gornick
Educated by Tara Westover*
Laughing at My Nightmare by Shane Burcaw
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings*

"Binti" - Nnedi Okorafor
"I love sci-fi with people of color, including women who are proficient in math and science. This hit a lot of the same sweet spots as Rivers Solomon's novel "An Unkindness of Ghosts." Highly recommended."

See the rest of my review here. Or follow me on GoodReads! Speaking of GR, from now on, instead of pasting whole reviews I wrote on GR over here on Dreamwidth, I'll be posting round-ups to links over at GoodReads if you don't already follow me there.

So far, this year, I've read the following books. I've marked 5-star books with an asterisk*.

Fiction:
All the Devils Are Here - Louise Penny*
Children of Blood and Bone & Children of Virtue and Vengeance - Tomi Adeyemi*
The Fifth Season & The Obelisk Gate - N.K. Jemisin*
Immunity Index - Sue Burke
The Starless Sea - Erin Morgenstern*
Severance - Ling Ma*
Every Heart a Doorway & Down Among the Sticks and Bones - Seanan McGuire

Graphic fiction:
The Man Who Came Down the Attic Stairs - Celine Loup

Nonfiction:
Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay*
Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist - Judith Heumann*
Sex Object - Jessica Valenti
Persephone's Children: A Life in Fragments - Rowan McCandless
All Boys Aren't Blue - George M. Johnson*

I'm not going to copy over all my reviews from GoodReads for the end of 2021. I'll just post links to them below. Then, my usual year-end wrap up and analysis of whether I met my reading goals.

No. 49: Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

No. 50: Bury the Lede by Gaby Dunn (graphic novel)

No. 51: The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs by Patricia B. McConnell (unabridged audiobook)

No. 52: A Better Man (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #15) by Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)

No. 53: Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

No. 54: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1 by Emil Ferris (graphic novel)

No. 55: Yes Please by Amy Poehler (unabridged audiobook)

No. 56: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

No. 57: For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in You and Your Best Friend by Patricia B. McConnell (unabridged audiobook)

No. 58: I Was a Stripper Librarian: From Cardigans to G-strings by Kristy Cooper

Goals analysis

My main goal is always just around 50 books, though I set an official GoodReads goal of 55 and made it, plus a few. I used to try to limit my audiobooks to 20 percent, but I just don't care about that anymore, so it's not an official goal. However, despite listening to audiobooks a lot while traveling at the end of the year, I only ended up with 14 audiobooks out of my total of 58 books, or about 24% of my total books for the year.

My other sub-goals are just a way of encouraging me to read diversely:
X Non-fiction, 30 percent give or take: 20 out of 58 books, for approx. 34%
X Women authors, 50 percent or more: Approx. 67% this year, depending on how you count authors in anthologies. Plus, one known non-binary author.
X LGBTQ, at least 2: I read 13!
X POC authors, 10 percent or more: 20 out of 58 books, for approx. 34%
X Disabled authors, at least 2: I read 3 in 2021.

Commentary
First off, the "Stripper Librarian" book is out of order on this list. I read it in late May and early June as a beta reader but didn't add it to my list here and on GoodReads until a few months after it was published.

All goals met. I'm actually surprised my nonfiction count was so high, since I gave myself permission to just read for pleasure and not worry about goals after I hit 50 books in early November. On GoodReads, I typically give out 4 stars every year more than any other star rating. This year, I had a LOT of 5-star reads, fewer 4-star reads, only three 3-star reads, and nothing lower. It was a good year in reading!

( Books 1-48 read in 2021: )

Book No. 47 was "White Is for Witching" by Helen Oyeyemi. My first exposure to Oyeyemi was "Boy, Snow, Bird," and while I liked the writing, I wasn't knocked out. I decided to give her another try and really enjoyed "White is for Witching". I see some reviewers find it confusing or disjointed, but I was able to follow it without problems. The writing is beautiful, especially the bits about desire and falling in love and kissing, kissing, kissing. The idea of a house that is possessive of its own people and wary of strangers and that is a viewpoint character felt fresh to me. This was genuinely spooky in many spots. Loved it.

Book No. 48 was "Kingdom of the Blind" (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #14) by Louise Penny. I always enjoy these Inspector Gamache novels, even though some are better than others. The events on the previous book, "Glass Houses," are still rippling into #14 in the series as Gamache and his second-in-command are under investigation for how they handled the previous case. And there's a new drug on the street that Gamache desperately wants to track down before it is released and starts killing people. At the same time, he, Myrna, and a stranger named Benjamin are all called in by a notary to be the liquidators of a will of a woman none of them has ever met. What is going on?

I gave this one a 4/5 for a couple reasons. One is that there weren't a ton of surprises. I saw several plot points coming a mile away. And I really was irritated by Penny's repeated refrain of "tr---ies", junkies, and "wh--es". It seemed clear that Gamache treated everyone, including drug addicts and trans prostitutes with respect, but the fact that Penny feels the need to use that string of slurs over and over again got on my nerves. On the plus side, I like the way the characters are still evolving in this book, and I loved that Myrna got some serious page time devoted to her. Even after feeling a little "meh" about this one, I'm looking forward to the next in the series!

( The other books I've read so far this year: )

Book No. 45 was "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara (& other contributors). This book was a fascinating look at Michelle McNamara's search for the Golden State Killer, a.k.a. "The East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker," a serial killer active in California in the late 1970s and early 1980s with an astonishing number of victims. McNamara died before finishing the book, so parts of it are pieced together by her colleagues, many of them amateur sleuths who post on international message boards dedicated to cold cases.

( spoiler: )

The book is a bit choppy because of the way it was put together, thus making it a 4-star rather than a 5-star read for me, but it was still a really interesting and compelling read.

Book No. 46 was "Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance" (The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries #1) by Gyles Brandreth. I listened to this as an audiobook on a road trip, and it was amusing enough. I guessed pieces of the mystery but not all of it until the big reveal, so the author definitely did something right! My criticisms include the fact that I felt the author overdid it a bit in terms of using known Oscar Wilde quotes as dialogue, and the fact that the narrator, Wilde's friend Robert Sherard, sanitizes Wilde's reputation. I'm not sure if the author (Brandreth) is trying to say that Oscar Wilde wasn't a lover of men or if he was merely creating Robert as someone a bit clueless who doesn't believe any of the scandals about Wilde's love life. It was an odd choice. I enjoyed this but I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to continue the rest in the series.

( The other books I've read so far this year: )

Book No. 43 was "Glass Houses" (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #13) by Louise Penny. I always enjoy the Inspector Gamache stories. This one's structure is different than previous books since it starts at the end with the trial and flashes back to what started it all. I'm giving this 4 stars instead of 5 because I felt like some sections were told in detail while other bits were sort of summarized in a rush, and a few threads didn't get tied up. But you know an author really has you invested in a character when you know that what he's doing is "out of character" and makes you flinch a bit. I listened to this as an audiobook and there was an interview at the end between Penny and the audiobook reader, and you find out this is the book she was working on when her husband died, as well as some tidbits about story pieces she took from real life and how she made them her own. Enjoyable, and I am looking forward to the next in the series.

Book No. 44 was "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters. I enjoyed Sarah Waters' take on the haunted house story. Dr. Faraday is a doctor who has clawed his way up from working class roots when he begins administering care to the residents of Hundreds Hall, a mansion where Dr. Faraday's mother had once been a maid. Strange things begin to happen at the home as it seems like a malevolent force is intent on driving the occupants out, or up a wall, but Dr. Faraday is convinced there's a non-supernatural cause for it all.

This was a good read, if somewhat of a slow burn. I got frustrated with Faraday that he was so obtuse about certain things, especially related to courtship, but maybe that was Waters' intent. She says in an interview that one of the themes is the oblivious sense of entitlement many men feel. It's also about class, and changing times, as so many giant mansions are crumbling in the Post WWI era, and the great families with them. I enjoyed this, even if I felt it was a bit slow in spots and left some threads not neatly tied up at the end. I enjoyed reading "Tipping the Velvet" a number of years ago, and I'd definitely read more by Waters.

( The other books I've read so far this year: )

Book No. 41 was " Good Dog 101: Easy Lessons to Train Your Dog the Happy, Healthy Way" by Cristine Dahl. I appreciated this book from the library so much that we ordered a copy of our own. Best part is that the author gives you "recipes" for dealing with behavioral problems. And she's occasionally funny as well. She also suggests treats, toys, and other supplies in lists at the end of the book to assist with training. The only downside is that it feels like she copied & pasted some phrases or passages over and over again, like when she's teaching a few different techniques to deal with the same problem. But overall, really invaluable. As a first-time dog owner, I really appreciated this book.

Book No. 42 was " How to Be Both" by Ali Smith. This novel doesn't do well on GoodReads with folks who don't like experimental novels. Ali Smith herself, according to interviews, doesn't like the term "experimental novel," but I think it's best to be prepared for the novel (pun intended) structure of the book, which I won't spoil in this review. I was mildly annoyed by some stylistic choices a few pages in but was pulled into the narrative and really appreciated that I stuck with it. I really loved both halves of the narrative, both the Renaissance character Francesco del Cossa and more modern early 21st century character, George. The theme of "being both" resonates throughout, and the imagery of the prose is like poetry even in the sections not styled as poetry. I think I'll be remembering scenes from this novel for many years.

( The other books I've read so far this year: )

Book No. 39 was "The Ultimate Guide to Raising a Puppy: How to Train and Care for Your New Dog" by Victoria Stilwell. My husband and I just adopted a puppy and were a little under-prepared. This book made me feel a lot better. Our author covers a lot of ground in this book, but she repeats some information more than necessary and leaves out some details I was interested in. Overall, though, a really great overview of how to raise a puppy that is well-mannered but not so over-managed that it loses autonomy.

Book No. 40 was "The Prophets" by Robert Jones Jr. I only picked this novel up because folks in one of my GoodReads groups picked it as a monthly read. I was feeling sort of burned out about novels set during slavery times, but I am SO GLAD I read this! It tells the story of Samuel and Isaiah, two slaves on a plantation their fellow slaves call Empty. Most of the other slaves don't pay too much attention to the fact that Samuel and Isaiah only have eyes for each other until one of the older slaves, Amos, decides to curry favor with their master, Paul, by learning and preaching the gospel. Amos systematically turns most of the other slaves against Samuel and Isaiah, leading them to contemplate fleeing the plantation.

This is so beautifully written. Most of the chapters are titled with the name of a character in the book, almost all of them corresponding with a book in the bible that (according to an interview with the author) either reflects the theme of the chapter or somehow counterpoints it. I've read several novels set in slavery times in the last few years ("The Underground Railroad" and "The Water Dancer" most recently), but this is the one that really stands out, because each character is so rounded and nuanced, even if they only get a few paragraphs devoted to them. Gorgeous, and highly recommended.

( The other books I've read so far this year: )

Book No. 37 was "Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body" by Roxane Gay. I listened to this as an audiobook read by the author, and wow, was it a knockout. I have been part of the Health at Every Size and Size Acceptance/Fat Positivity movement for some time, so listening to Gay's struggles with her own body was hard, but worth it. She lays open her deepest secrets, feelings, longings, and vulnerabilities as she talks about being brutalized at age 12, her feelings about her very large (400+ pounds) body, and all the terrible choices she made in her 20s.

These movements are important and I do wish that more people (women, especially) would be kinder to their bodies, but she's right that often these movements are centered on a "certain kind of fat person." People who are 300, 400 and up tend to move through the world in a different way than someone who can shop the plus-sized section at Target, and she's brutally honest about what this means for her. I was glad to read recently that she's married and seems to be with somebody who is really good for her. I wish her and her wife Debbie all the happiness in the world.

Book No. 38 was "I Am Legend and Other Stories" by Richard Matheson. I listened to this as an audiobook, mostly for the novella "I Am Legend." I liked the reader, Robertson Dean. I watched the movie adaptation with Will Smith well before I read the book so I was making comparisons in my mind. I think the modern adaption is actually better in some ways. There's lots of smoking and LP records and things that date it to the 70s. I can see why this is a classic that inspired multiple movie adaptations, but the main character is a bit sexist and hard to relate to at times. I also listened to several other short stories on this audiobook, but I really HATED the other reader's voice, so that detracted from the overall experience. In short, I'm glad I read "I Am Legend" and understand why it's a classic but I don't necessarily feel the need to read more by Matheson.

( The other books I've read so far this year: )

Book No. 35 was "Songs of the Gorilla Nation: My Journey Through Autism" by Dawn Prince-Hughes. In this memoir, Dawn Prince-Hughes tells how she grew up an odd child that didn't get diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum until well into adulthood. She felt like she couldn't relate to people but enjoyed observing and interacting with animals at the zoo. Through a series of lucky breaks, she finds people who understand her and support her in her goal to do research with gorillas and pursue a higher degree in anthropology. It's her work with gorillas that helps her figure out a few things about interacting more positively with other humans.

The book is funny in some places, and heart-breaking in others, as she describes the fate of the great apes. She refers to gorillas as "a gorilla man/gorilla woman," highlighting her belief that great apes have the hallmarks of "personhood" and deserve rights in some form. I really enjoyed this, both as a memoir of what it was like to grow up not knowing she was autistic and for her insight into apes and other animals. Highly recommended.

Book No. 36 was "Such a Fun Age" by Kiley Reid. About 50 pages into this novel, I though, "I hate nearly every character in this book. Why should I keep reading about them?" But, I got sucked in and finished it pretty quickly. It tells the story of Alix Chamberlain, a white, upper-class media "influencer" and her black babysitter, Emira. One day, Emira goes to the grocery story with her 3-year-old charge late at night and is confronted by security and accused of kidnapping the child. Everything else that goes on in the novel flows from that moment, but it also digs up events from Alix's past.

I pretty much hated every white character in this book with the exception of the toddler. Sympathy for Emira and a sort of voyeuristic feeling looking so closely into the Chamberlains' life kept me reading. I did feel that, while Alix was fairly well-rounded, she also came off as stereotypical in some ways. On the positive side, the author does a nice, subtle job of examining the complicated role of caregiver and how that's complicated further by race. This was more of a 4-out-of-5 star book for me, but I think Kiley Reid is going to be a literary force to reckon with if she's this good in her first novel. Recommended.

( The other books I've read so far this year: )

Book No. 33 was "Paradise Tales: and Other Stories" by Geoff Ryman. Ah, Geoff Ryman doesn't disappoint. One of his stories that is only so-so is better than a lot of writer's best efforts. He frequently has some genderweird or queer characters, pregnant men appear more often than expected, and there's often some odd biotech. Many times anthologies have weaker and stronger pieces, and that's certainly the case here, but most of the stories were very strong. The first one, "The Film-makers of Mars," lets you know Ryman is familiar with the pulps and golden age sci-fi, but these stories range all over the place. My favorites were "VAO," the novella "Days of Wonder," and "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter." Highly recommended.

Book No. 34 was "A Great Reckoning" (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #12) by Louise Penny. In this installment in the Inspector Gamache series, Gamache becomes the commander of the local police academy in Quebec, and a few months after he takes over, there's a murder. Around the same time, a mysterious map is found in the Three Pines Bistro. Are the events related? And how? I always enjoy this series, and this definitely had a twisty-turny plot that kept me guessing. On GoodReads, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars because I think Penny really stretches the reader's credulity in this one in terms of linking the murder investigation back to Three Pines. People are constantly questioning Gamache about taking 4 cadets, all suspects in the case, back to the village, and it is really out of character and a bit hard to believe this could happen in real life.That being said, even a weaker entry in this series is still a fun read!

( The other books I've read so far this year: )

Book No. 31 was " The Sellout" by Paul Beatty. This satire tells the story of the town of Dickens, a Black and Latinx community near LA. The narrator was raised by a father who treated him like an experimental subject, and he grows up to be a maladjusted urban farmer. When Dickens is removed from the map, he gets mad and decides to draw attention back to the community by painting new exit signs and city boundaries and posting stickers and signs around town trying to segregate various institutions from the bus to the local high school. He's helped in his hijinks by Hominy Jenkins, the last surviving Little Rascal.

Like many satiric novels, I sometimes find that the author is trying a little too hard to be funny. But it is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny in spots and sentimental in others. There is some really fine prose in here when he's not trying to be funny, too. This was sort of more a 3.5-star book rounded up to 4 out of 5, but I liked it well enough that I'd be happy to read more by Beatty.

Book No. 32 was " The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to Be a Better Husband" by David Finch. In this memoir, David Finch writes about his adult diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome and how that spurred him to look at ways he could improve his marriage with "best practices." Each chapter leads with one of his practices, including "Be her friend, first and always" and "Go with the flow" and "Laundry." I had a couple minor quibbles with the writing, the primary one being that his view of marriage and relationships is so heterocentric. But overall, this was a fun read, laugh-out-loud funny in places, like the chapter where he gets competitive with the "perfect" couple next door and their Christmas decorations. He has to ride a fine line of not making his wife look like a harpy out to change her man. She does tell him several times that the goal isn't to "fix" him but to mutually work on making their relationship better. I listened to this as an audiobook read by the author and enjoyed it. Recommended.

( The other books I've read so far this year: )

Book No. 29 was "Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good" by Adrienne Maree Brown. Like any anthology, this had some pieces that were better than others, but overall, the quality was really high. adrienne maree brown leads with "Uses of the Erotic" by Audre Lord and many of the pieces to follow are informed by this essay. amb also compiles some of her own writing about pleasure and activism and includes essays by other authors and transcripts of conversations with other women talking about the right to pleasure and how that informs their activism. brown even includes "hot and heavy homework" to help readers explore their own relationship to pleasure.

Probably my LEAST favorite by amb was "The Sweetness of Salt." It seemed more like a personal journal entry than something meant for others to read. Of the others, my least favorite was "On Fear, Shame, Death, and Humor: A Conversation between the Rocca Family and Zizi." Most of the other pieces were somewhere between "good" and "stellar," though. Some favorites included amb's pieces on why Octavia Butler turns her on and another about why she loves Beyonce; "Are you there, goD? It's me, Day" by Holiday Simmons; "Care as Pleasure" by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (about disabled pleasure and caregiving); "The Power to Make Light," a conversation with indigenous activist Dallas Goldtooth; and two very fine essays about raising children.

Talking with others about this book, they had a few criticisms that ranged from "I didn't like her emphasis on orgasms, since I can't have them" to "this felt disjointed." I can see both of those viewpoints, because the essay on nipples and some of brown's thoughts on polyamory didn't really jibe with my experience. Still, the fact that these essays and interviews range all over the place means there's probably at least one essay and likely many that will appeal to most readers. Recommended.

Book No. 30 was "The Nature of the Beast" (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #11) by Louise Penny. Ah, these Inspector Gamache novels never fail me. Some are better than others, but they're always entertaining and riveting. In this one, Gamache and his wife have retired to Three Pines. But when a little boy who is known for "crying wolf" and telling tall tales disappears after saying he found a huge gun and a monster in the woods, the residents of Three Pines decide maybe he wasn't making it all up after all. Gamache is torn about his next steps. He knows his wife would like him to retire, but he thinks there may be more for him to do in the world of solving murders. Penny took so many threads that seemed unconnected and wove them together in this story. I really enjoyed it.

( The other books I've read so far this year: )

Book No. 27 was "An Unkindness of Ghosts" by Rivers Solomon. I expected I would like this book, but, instead, I loved it with all my heart. I will note that there were a few plot points that didn't really get wrapped up, but that's my only teeny-tiny criticism. Otherwise, I loved everything about this book, but especially the strong-willed and yet tenderhearted main character, Aster. She lives on a ship called Matilda that is in search of a habitable planet after Earth has suffered some sort of disaster. The ship is divided into upper, mid, and lower decks, with the class of the passengers corresponding.

Aster lives on Q deck and suffers the degradation that all on the lower decks face, but she also makes time to help people as a healer, having learned from Theo, an upper deck man who is related to past rulers of Matilda and who is the Surgeon General of the ship. When the former Sovereign dies, Aster's mortal enemy, Lieutenant, is named the new Sovereign, and he's determined to make Aster's life difficult and hurt those closest to her. Throughout, Aster is studying her dead mother's notes to figure out what astronomical/physics problem her mother had been working on when Aster was just a baby. It's possible Aster's mother found a way off the ship onto a habitable planet but was silenced by the authorities of her time.

I loved how quirky Aster was, and how many devastatingly smart black and brown women there were in this book. I love the gender politics, the author's descriptive power, and the fact that she kept me guessing about where the plot was headed. I listened to this as an audiobook and loved that the reader chose a Caribbean accent for the low-deckers, who have their own dialect. Highly recommended.

Book No. 28 was "The Incredulity of Father Brown," short stories by G.K. Chesterton. I downloaded this as an e-book on my phone, mostly to have something to read in waiting rooms and the like. I think I liked the first collection, "The Innocence of Father Brown," a little better than this one. On the plus side, this one is amusing for being largely set in the U.S., unlike the first collection. I do find that the Father Brown stories get a little formulaic the more you read in a row, but they are, nevertheless, entertaining. Recommended.

( The other books I've read so far this year: )