(A) means I listened to it.
(RR) means I re-read it.
(P) means I read it on paper.
This year, I’m linking titles to Powell’s Books if they carry them, rather than Amazon as I have in the past. This means I will often link to an edition other than the one I read. If Powell’s doesn’t have it, I will link to Amazon. These are not affiliate links.
I also put this information into goodreads.com. You can find me there with my gmail address (the.karend).
January 1, 2019 to Now: (latest finished on top)
Future Perfect: A Skeptic’s Search for an Honest Mystic, Victoria Loustalot
I admit I got this mainly because I saw a review from a Trump supporter who was offended by it. I connected strongly with parts of this memoir. As I read about the author’s explorations and interviews with psychics and mystics and others, interspersed with tales of her love life, I came across a few ideas that struck me as worth further contemplation. It’s a shame that the Trump supporter who wrote that review I saw didn’t finish the book, because there are some thoughts on empathy here that that person could benefit from if they were able to open their heart and mind.
A Mate for the Beta, E. A. Price
A lot packed into this novella between the romance and the murder mystery. Neither is really given enough space to unfold at a realistic pace, but that’s not unusual for this type of fiction.
Twice the Growl, Milly Taiden
Quick read. Could have used more world building and character development. Some quirks of phrasing that struck me as odd: “chunk of hair”, “swallowed a gulp”, “sucked down a gulp”, “air tripped in her chest”.
The Birthday Bitch, Amelia Stone
The 2019 story the author sent out as a birthday present to her mailing list. Fun, light, good read.
I’m Fine and Neither Are You, Camille Pagán
Seemed realistic. Having worked in Ann Arbor for a while (though A2 is not named), there was a familiarity to the setting I found comfortable.
Educated: A Memoir, Tara Westover
This was powerful and heartbreaking. Living as I do in the mountains of Idaho, with Redoubters and other survivalists rearing their ugly heads in some of our local Facebook groups, this resonated even deeper than it might otherwise.
Rescue Me,
Going Commando,
From Ashes,
Shattered Pieces,
Inked in Vegas,
Flash Me, K. M. Neuhold
Read all of these in March as parts of the Heathens Ink Box Set. Note that in the box set, there are extras which are not placed in chronological order, so some contain spoilers for books one won’t have read yet if one is just reading the box set in the order in which it’s presented. The world of Heathens Ink is very inclusive, though if you like female characters alongside the gay male ones, there are very few of those. The editing here could be way better; there are lots of stray commas, missing commas, unnecessary apostrophes, homonym errors (breaks vs. brakes, for instance), and some logic problems (such as a character who doesn’t know another’s last name despite having spent a fair bit of time reading his Facebook posts). I can’t say these were pleasant reads, as there’s a fair bit of hard content (a mass shooting, a suicide attempt, kids kicked out of their homes for being gay/trans/pregnant), but they are good enough that I did finish reading the whole box set. I’m undecided about seeking out more from the author; I’m feeling some ick about a straight woman writing gay male romance. Of course writers can create characters that aren’t like them, but this series gave me some whiffs of fetishization of the gay male, and that doesn’t feel good. Quite possibly this is a me problem, not a content problem, but there it is.
To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History, Lawrence Levy
This is a business memoir which would not seem to be the kind of thing that would make me cry, yet there I was, weeping away at a particularly momentous time in Pixar’s history.
Rock Needs River: A Memoir About a Very Open Adoption, Vanessa McGrady
There is a lot of backstory before the adoption of the subtitle happens. I would really like the biological parents to write their side of this story, too; there are bits of it here, but filtered through the author’s privilege. I hope the author’s relationship with her daughter goes better than any of her relationships with men did.
Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom, Ken Ilgunas
I read memoirs to see into other people’s lives. I am too attached to creature comforts and too scared to be people like this author. Could this author have done what he did if he were a woman? Probably not, given how the world works right now.
Broken Toy, Tymber Dalton
This BDSM series is so much more realistic and so much healthier for all the characters involved than 50 Shades.
Miss Dalrymple’s Virtue, Margaret Westhaven (P)
This 1988 Harlequin Regency Romance came to me courtesy of cleaning out a relative’s library. There was something comforting about knowing pretty much how it would unfold, with no tedious sex scenes to get through.
The Sadist, the Hitman and the Murder of Jane Bashara, George Hunter and Lynn Rosenthal
I guess my reading of the Swedish true crime book led this one to show up on my recommendation list. Even though this crime took place in metro Detroit when I was living there, I don’t remember hearing anything about it. Guess it wasn’t on NPR. A sad and infuriating story. There’s some repetition in the telling here that detracts from the unfolding of the tale.
The Dark Heart: A True Story of Greed, Murder, and an Unlikely Investigator, Joakim Palmkvist, translated by Agnes Broomé
I appreciated the detail about how the Swedish justice system works. I didn’t appreciate the repetition of some parts of the story; they didn’t seem to add to the dramatic effect but rather made me feel the author didn’t trust the reader to remember things. I am confused by the author’s bio, which says he’s living under a protected identity, yet has a photo and lists the city where he lives. How does that work?
Storm, Nina Levine
(read as part of the Tasted and Tempted collection)
Having read two now, I’ve decided that MC novels are not for me. Especially not ones like this, where the MC guys kill folks with no legal repercussions and treat their women in ways I don’t care to see. This particular one did some stuff at the end that I found manipulative to the reader.
Throttle Me, Chelle Bliss
(read as part of the Tasted and Tempted collection)
I could have sworn I read a later book in the series that this book kicks off, but remembered nothing about these characters from that book, so that was confusing. Apparently there are two series about siblings running a tattoo shop, and the other one was also in this same collection.
The Size of Everything, Erin Cole and Jenna McCarthy
This memoir can be very hard to read … not because of the writing, but because so many adults failed these children. Kudos to Erin Cole for surviving and eventually thriving as an adult herself.
The Frame-Up, Meghan Scott Miller
I was on board with female geek lead character. Wish it hadn’t been first person narration. Wish there hadn’t been a couple of huge coincidences to move the plot forward. Yet I enjoyed reading it enough that I’m considering getting the sequel when it comes out in July.
The Warner Boys: Our Family’s Story of Autism and Hope, Curt Warner and Ana Warner and Dave Boling
Conversational. Can’t imagine some of the things this family went through, and they had more resources than many families do.
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