Sing Her Down by Ivy Pochoda
Read as part of CBR16Bingo: rage. The rage of women, ex-cons, survivors is centered in this book. The opening chapter contains a monologue on female rage. You ever have an author that you think you should like more? You just try and try with them but they can’t put it together for you? That was Ivy Pochoda until These Women, which I read a couple months ago and will absolutely be in my Best of 2024, with a great shot to place in the top 5. […]
Holly (Holly Gibney, #3) by Stephen King
This was bit of a messy book that I ultimately enjoyed very much. King takes a lot of smaller pieces (racism, homophobia, cannibalism, the fear of aging, COVID, poetry and writing and the meaning of art) and smushes them together in this little book following Holly Gibney, a character some people love and some people (inexplicably) hate. I happen to love her. I thought this was a great showcase for Holly, even if it wasn’t perfect, and there were small moments I might have tweaked […]
The Darkness of Others by Cate Holahan
Took a break from this season of horror reading to get to a thriller I’ve been meaning to check off the ol’ TBR. Mixed feelings on it. It was one of those roller coaster books. No it did not thrill me like a roller coaster. But the shape of my enjoyment went from flat to a high curve and back to flat again. Cate Holahan develops an intricate mystery here, even if large parts of it are predictable. And she imbues it with some quality […]
Holly by Stephen King
I suppose I should address the conversation around the book before the book itself. There’s been a lot of grousing from center/center-right/right wing King fans about how political this book is. That all the villains are painted as MAGA doofuses. These comments usually have some variety of “King was never political until now!” To which I say…have you ever read Stephen King? His early books are steeped in 70s paranoia. He wrote a book about a man trying to assassinate a presidential candidate, the latter […]
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Hollywood Godfather: My Life in the Movies and the Mob by Gianni Russo
Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier by Mark Frost
Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara
American Tabloid by James Ellroy
Hot Springs by Stephen Hunter
Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier
Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier
Dead Soon Enough by Steph Cha
Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka
Here are the books I read in May 2022 that I didn’t get to give a full review for whatever reason. I read a lot of authors of AAPI descent; their books were all wonderful in their own respective ways… Sea of Tranquility **** Unquestionably a metacommentary on the author’s Station Eleven success in the shadow of Covid-19, it’s a beautifully written reflection on finding peace and contentment in the uncertainties of life. I don’t know that I enjoyed it as much as others did given […]
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
This is objectively a four star book, but I’m giving it five stars, because I can. This book was just super fun to read and it was exactly what I needed and wanted. I will be reading it again whenever I need to feel nerdy joy and my affection for humanity needs a boost. The title of this book sort of says all you need to know before going into it, but if you need more, here’s just a little bit. Jamie is working for […]
