Reading

Book #64	Book: I Need a Lifeguard Everywhere but the Pool		Author: Lisa Scottoline & Francesca Serritella
	Source: Library book Format: Audiobook	Pages: 336	Duration: 08/02/25 – 08/02/25 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: nonfiction, humor, womens, essays, chick lit
📕10-word summary: Mother and daughter, in respective chapters, share their life observations. 🖌6-word review: Meh. Not as funny as touted.
💭A favorite quote: “I’m always interested in products that claim to be aphrodisiacs, when we all know that the one and only aphrodisiac is a man volunteering to build you some bookshelves.”
Description:* A collection of stories from the real lives of Lisa and Francesca, guaranteed to make you laugh out loud. Join them as they regret drunk-shopping online, try smell-dating, and explore the freedom of a hiatus from men — a “guyatus.” They offer a fresh and funny take on the triumphs and facepalm moments of modern life, showing that when it comes to navigating the crazy world we live in, you’re always your own best lifeguard.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I’m very wary about reviews that promise “you’ll LOL” or that “this book is hilarious,” particularly when it’s the author themself saying it. Humor is so subjective, and it’s only one of the reasons I don’t attend (or watch) stand-up comedy. And this book, especially at the beginning, sounded like mini-stand-up routines to me. With all that said, I did literally laugh out loud several times while reading this book, but nowhere near as much as “guaranteed.” My 3-star rating means I “might or might not recommend” it, and I’d only do so with caveats for this book; for example, if you love stand-up comedy. As a complete aside: The name of this book reminded me of an exercise check-in in my collection: “I don’t need a personal trainer so much as I need someone to follow me around and slap food out of my hands.”

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Book #63	Book: We Used to Live Here		Author: Daniel Hurst
	Source: Free BookBub download Format: Kindle	Pages: 274	Duration: 08/01/25 – 08/01/25 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, horror, crime
📕10-word summary: New homeowners discover — and make — dark secrets that get unearthed. 🖌6-word review: Good story, but the writing’s not-so-much.
💭Favorite quote: “All I know is that I’ve done some things right and some things wrong, and I’ll probably carry on that way until the day that I die.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: lothario, OAPs
Description:* When the Burgess family move into their “forever” home, it seems like they are set for many happy years together at their new address. Steph and Grant, along with their children, Charlie and Amelia, settle into their new surroundings quickly. But then they receive an unexpected visit from a couple who claim to have lived in the house before. They wish to come in and have a look around for old time’s sake. Seeming pleasant and plausible, Steph invites them in. And that’s when things begin to change. It’s not long after the peculiar visit when the homeowners begin to find evidence of the past all around their new home as they redecorate. But it’s the discovery of a hidden wall containing several troubling messages that really sends Steph into a spin.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: Another book that I’ve had for a while, this one downloaded free in May of 2023, it was a quick read and a typical crime mystery. The story kept me interested, unravelling at a good clip. The writing was not great, and one thing that annoyed me (to no end, for some reason) is that the main guy in the story fools around with someone and after the second time, he starts referring to her as his “mistress.” It was an affair comprising 4-5 trysts. I’d probably recommend this book if someone asked me about it, but I certainly wouldn’t be out there touting it.

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Book #62	Book: The Hoarder in You: How to Live a Happier, Healthier, Uncluttered Life		Author: Dr. Robin Zasio
	Source: Borrowed from a friend Format: Print	Pages: 222	Duration: 07/30/25 – 07/30/25 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: nonfiction, self-help, psychology, mental health
📕10-word summary: Understanding and addressing the complicated psychology of cluttering and hoarding. 🖌6-word review: Good mix of education and actions.
💭Favorite quote: “To the extent that clutter gets in the way of living in the kind of environment we’d like to be living in and leaves us feeling stressed or remiss, we can all improve our relationships to our possessions.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: fallow
Description:* Our fascination with hoarding stems, according to Dr. Robin Zasio, from the fact that we all fall somewhere on the hoarding continuum. From compulsive shoppers to hobbyists and collectors to ordinary, run-of-the-mill pack rats—to some degree or another, we all hoard. Dr. Zasio, of the Emmy-award-winning A&E show, Hoarders, shares behind-the-scenes stories from the show, including some of the most serious cases of hoarding that she’s encountered — and explains how we can learn from these extreme examples. She also shares psychological and practical advice for de-cluttering and organizing, including how to: 1) tame the emotional pull of acquiring additional things, 2) make order out of chaos by getting a handle on clutter, and create an organizational system that reduces stress and anxiety.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: Although I would argue that we are at level 0 of the 1-5 hoarding levels, my husband loves the Hoarders TV show, and after watching an episode will walk around our house looking for anything that might be pared down, donated, or discarded. The 5 levels are: 1) There is light clutter, but household cleanliness is mostly maintained, 2) Clutter congests the house, and there may be unpleasant odors, 3) Unsanitary and unorganized clutter occurs inside and outside the home, 4) The home has major structural damage and completely unusable spaces, and 5) The house is likely uninhabitable and can’t be salvaged. I, on the other hand, once tried to watch the show and barely lasted 15 minutes before having to excuse myself. But, I loved the psychology of this book explaining why people keep things, and I’m hoping to use it to address four areas I keep putting off “downsizing”: 1) several laptop and gym bags, which to-date I’ve been unable to decide on which one (or 2 or 3) to get rid of, 2) high school memorabilia (i.e., yearbooks & scrapbooks), 3) two old computers I have — one PC that takes up desk space I’d like to be able to use and another old Mac that sits in a bag in a closet, and 4) some clothes (dress shirts, t-shirts, and shoes) that I don’t wear. Complete possibly-TMI aside: It took quite a while for it to stick with me that the oft-used acronym, CBT, stood for cognitive behavioral therapy and not cock and ball torture (NSFW).

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Book #61	Book: The Alone Time		Author: Elle Marr
	Source: Free BookBub download Format: Kindle	Pages: 316	Duration: 07/28/25 – 07/30/25 (3 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, crime
📕10-word summary: Two sisters are forced to confront a childhood family tragedy. 🖌6-word review: Expeditious pace. Lots of plot twists.
💭Favorite quote: “People say they want a family, but rarely are the real consequences for the woman part of that discussion.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: char siu, deus ex machina, melanated, har gow, marmot, shoyu, cheongsam, jook
Description:* Fiona and Violet Seng were just children when their family’s Cessna crash-landed in the Washington wilderness, claiming the lives of their parents. For twelve harrowing weeks, the girls fended for themselves before being rescued. 25 year later, disturbing details about the Seng family are exposed, a strange woman claims to know the crash was deliberate. Fiona and Violet must come together to face the horrifying truth of what happened out there and what they learned about their parents and themselves — before any other secrets emerge from the woods.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was yet another book I downloaded for free over a year ago and was happy to finally get to. It was a good read with lots of family dysfunction and “bombshells” — plot twists, if you will — revealed at a good clip and that kept me wanting to read more. This is another book I’d consider making a future Mostly Social Book Club book.

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Book #60	Book: Broken Bayou		Author: Jennifer Moorhead
	Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle	Pages: 265	Duration: 07/26/25 – 07/27/25 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, crime
📕10-word summary: Troubled child psychologist returns to childhood home to protect secrets. 🖌6-word review: Fast paced and kept me guessing.
💭Favorite quote: “Even though I’ve only crossed a state line, I feel like I need a passport to be here.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: bupkis, boudin, bench warrants
Description:* Dr. Willa Watters is a prominent child psychologist at the height of her career. But when a viral video of a disastrous television interview puts her reputation on the line, Willa retreats to Broken Bayou, the town where she spent most of her childhood summers. There she discovers some of her troubled mother’s belongings still languishing in the attic — dusty mementos harboring secrets of her harrowing past. With waters dropping due to drought, mysterious barrels containing human remains have surfaced, alongside something else from Willa’s past, something she never thought she’d see again. Divers, police, and media flood the area, including a news reporter gunning for Willa and Travis Arceneaux — a local deputy and old flame. Willa’s fate seems eerily tied to the murders. And with no one to trust, she must use her wits to stay above water and make it out alive.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was another free book I downloaded over a year ago and am happy to get to. It was a quick, interesting read that kept me guessing the “who dunnit” until the very end. The reviews of this book seem to favor either 2 stars or 5 stars — you see what I rated it. YMMV.

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Book #59	Book: Anxious in Nevada		Author: Diana Xarissa
	Source: Free BookBub download Format: Audiobook	Pages: 206	Duration: 07/25/25 – 07/26/25 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, cozy mystery
📕10-word summary: A woman’s airplane seatmate gets murdered and she’s sucked in. 🖌6-word review: Easy read. Typical cozy mystery. Satisfying.
💭Favorite quote: “That mother of his looks as if she’d eat her children for profit.”
Description:* I’m Holly Parker, and on my 50th birthday I decided to stop adding things to my bucket list and start crossing a few items off instead. Visiting all 50 states was at the top of the list. A low-cost, direct flight to Las Vegas was exactly what I needed. After chatting with the couple in the seats next to mine on the flight, I was happy to arrive in Vegas and go straight to bed. My body clock, not yet reset to Vegas time, had me awake and eager to explore very early the next morning. I’d barely finished my breakfast, though, before I stumbled over a dead body. What are the odds that the victim would turn out to be the man I’d sat next to on my flight? Why is his former fiancée suddenly trying to be my best friend? And how do I convince the local police that I had nothing to do with his murder?*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a super easy and fast read, and I’m always happy to read a book I downloaded over a year ago, but just hadn’t gotten to yet. I’d never heard of this author, and this is the first book in her Midlife Crisis Mystery Series comprising 6 titles to date, and whose titles are of the schema “[Emotion] in [State]” and presumably going down the alphabet for the emotions: Anxious in Nevada, Bewildered in Florida, Confused in Pennsylvania, Dazed in Colorado, Exhausted in Ohio, and Frustrated in Massachusetts. If it were me, I’d’ve gone for alliteration of the emotion and the state, so perhaps: Nervous in Nevada, Fun in Florida, Pensive in Pennsylvania, Confused in Colorado, Ostracized in Ohio, and Morose in Massachusetts.

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Book #58	Book: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared		Author: Jonas Jonasson
	Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook	Pages: 396	Duration: 07/23/25 – 07/24/25 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★☆☆☆	Genres: historical fiction, humor, adventure, Sweden
📕10-word summary: A centenarian with a larger-than-life backstory ditches the nursing home. 🖌6-word review: Too much history for my taste.
Description:* After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he’s still in good health. A big celebration is in the works for his 100th birthday, but Allan really isn’t interested (and he’d like a bit more control over his alcohol consumption), so he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey. It would be the adventure of a lifetime for anyone else, but Allan has a larger-than-life backstory: he has not only witnessed some of the most important events of the 20th century, but actually played a key role in them.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: Just know that second only to physics, history was my least favorite subject in school. I’m not interested in it so don’t know/remember a lot most of it, and thus am probably doomed to repeat it. I’ll take the chance. With that said, if you do like history, you might very well love this book. When I read a book of the historical fiction genre, I expect the story to be, let’s say, 90% story, 10% history. This book was about 75% history, 25% story — and Russian & Chinese history, at that. A positive about the book was the author’s voice, which was laugh-out-loud (literally) at times with irreverent interjections and comments. This is a Mostly Social Book Club, and I look forward to hearing what the others in the group think of it when it’s time to discuss it.

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Book #57	Book: Courting Mr. Lincoln		Author: Louis Bayard
	Source: Library loan Format: Kindle	Pages: 417	Duration: 07/20/25 – 07/22/25 (3 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: historical fiction, romance stories, politics, class
📕10-word summary: Mr. Lincoln beloved by Mary and Joshua — who’s wooing who? 🖌6-word review: Beautifully written. Cerebral vocabulary. Homoerotic innuendo.
💭Favorite quote: “Had she not, in the early months of the campaign, longed for Harrison’s election as a nun longs for Christ — chastely and to the exclusion of everything else?”
🎓Some new-to-me words: treacled, mantua, merino, succubus, plenitudes, nightjars, hied, torpor, prolix, perforce, tippled, incommoded, interregnum, rube, reticule, descant, sward, badinage, plashing, auger, rictus, terpsichorean, caesura, cozen, lambrequins, heliotrope, surcease, annealed, blancmange, adumbrating, inveigled, senescent, crepuscular, effulgence, diminution, ormolu, pecuniary
Description:* Told in the alternating voices of the marriageable Mary Todd and Lincoln’s best friend, Joshua Speed, and rich with historical detail, Courting Mr. Lincoln creates a sympathetic and complex portrait of Mary unlike any that has come before; a moving portrayal of the deep and very real connection between the two men; and most of all, an evocation of the unformed man who would grow into one of the nation’s most beloved presidents.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: The title of this book caught my attention shortly after I had been looking at plays to see when we’re in NYC in September, and read about “Oh, Mary!” It turned out to be a little gem of a book, with the bonus being that the (gay, which I didn’t know) author teases out the (homoerotic) relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his best friend Joshua Speed in the context of both he and Mary Todd loving him. I love the author’s voice, which was consistent with a period piece, and at times reminding me of Downton Abbey or The Gilded Age. This is another book I’d consider putting forth as a future Mostly Social Book Club book of mine.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Book #56	Book: Bittersweet		Author: Susan Cain
	Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook	Pages: 331	Duration: 07/18/25 – 07/18/25 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: nonfiction, psychology, self help, mental health, personal development, philosophy
📕10-word summary: A potential reframing, or paradigm shift, about sorrow and longing. 🖌6-word review: Possible antidote to exorbitant existential angst.
💭Favorite quote: “You sing happy birthday in C major. You compose a funeral march in C# minor.”
🎓A new-to-me word: edenic
Description:* Loss and impermanence are inescapable, part of the warp and weft of our lives. They are essential to love, to growth, and to art. And yet, too often, we don’t acknowledge loss in the broadest sense, let alone honour the experience of it. We see it as a bad thing, rather than understanding that using our suffering will lead to true compassion. Illuminating, thoughtful, and deeply necessary, Susan Cain’s new book will help us to name and value the experience of loss, pointing the way toward ways of being and rituals that help us to accept it rather than bury it.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I’m not a fan of self-help books — and with regards to this one in particular, I don’t have any sorrow or longing that I need to deal with — so if it hadn’t been a Mostly Social Book Club book, I would have abandoned this one. As an atheist, the (too) many allusions, references, and connections to (various) religions in it were a huge turn-off, and I’m not very open to what some call complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), so all that talk (and there was plenty of it) was also uninteresting to me. With all that said, I’m open to the possibility that someone who is struggling with sorrow and longing might find this book interesting and helpful. It just wasn’t my cup of tea for the many reasons I’ve mentioned, and I’d be unlikely to recommend it without a number of caveats.

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Book #55	Book: The Soulmate		Author: Sally Hepworth
	Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook	Pages: 336	Duration: 07/16/25 – 07/17/25 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: fiction, mystery thriller, mental health
📕10-word summary: An unlikely suicide unravels — was it an accident or murder? 🖌6-word review: Compelling story despite unacknowledged magical realism.
💭Favorite quote: “For all of his foibles,” Mum always says, “at least your father does what he’s told.”
🎓A new-to-me word: limerence
Description:* Picture a lovely cottage on a cliff, with sloping lawns, walking paths, and beautiful flowers. It’s Gabe and Pippa Gerard’s dream home in a sleepy coastal town. But their perfect house hides something sinister. The tall cliffs have become a popular spot for people to end their lives. Over the past several months, Gabe comes to their rescue, literally talking them off the ledge. Until one day, he doesn’t. When Pippa discovers Gabe knew the victim, the questions spiral… Did the victim jump? Was she pushed? And would Gabe, the love of Pippa’s life, her soulmate… lie? As the perfect façade of their marriage begins to crack, the deepest and darkest secrets begin to unravel. Because sometimes, the most convincing lies are the ones we tell ourselves.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This is my third Sally Hepworth book, having read The Good Sister in 2021 as a book club book and Uncharted Waters in 2022 as a free Amazon First Reads download. Like this book, I read both of those in 2 days and gave them 5 stars. This story moved at a good clip, which kept me reading. Written from a dual, alternating perspective, one being the living female protagonist and the other being the deceased female protagonist. I’m ambivalent about the dead woman “speaking,” because I don’t like magical realism (which wasn’t a listed genre of this book), but she actually provided a lot of information as to the motives of other characters. That aside, I liked the book enough to give it 5 stars, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it, and I may end up putting it forth as a Mostly Social Book Club book in the future.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Book #54	Book: The Toy Car: A Short Story		Author: Rose Tremain
	Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle	Pages: 48	Duration: 07/16/25 – 07/16/25 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: fiction, short stories
📕10-word summary: Petros Castellanos comes of age negotiating competing familial expectations. 🖌6-word review: Nicely compact and well-written short story.
💭Favorite quote: “Emma searched in what she and Dan called The Awful Cupboard, the space where they put all the things they no longer liked or needed but which they thought they might like or need one day in the future.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: lukanika, rota, scops owl
Description:* In the sun-bleached idyll of his Greek island home, 17-year-old Petros Castellanos’s future seems mapped out: he’ll inherit his father’s modest taxi fleet and continue his family tradition. However, his English mother sees a different path for her son, one that leads far from the watchful eyes of their small community. So Petros goes to London to stay with his mother’s cousin. The capital is an overwhelming city whose dazzling possibilities both terrify and enthrall him. But he must decide: will he disappoint his father to fulfil his mother’s dreams, or find the courage to chart his own course home?*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a bonus free Amazon First Reads download, and being a short story by an author I wasn’t familiar with, I thought it might be a good introduction to her. It has a good pace and enough tension to keep it interesting and wondering how everything would resolve.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Book #53	Book: The Loves of My Life		Author: Edmond White
	Source: Library loan Format: Print	Pages: 256	Duration: 07/15/25 – 07/16/25 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: nonfiction, memoir, queer, LGBT, gay, biography
📕10-word summary: Legendary author unapologetically shares his gay love and sex life. 🖌6-word review: Honest. Irreverent. Witty. Some questionable generalizations.
💭Favorite quote: “I first discovered my sadism when I was in my mid 20s and tricked with a small guy who kept saying, ‘Don’t touch my hair. I told you, don’t touch my hair.’ Though he was a bottom, he had so many irritating rules; I finally slapped his ass and he came.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: outré, wen, unguent, goût exclusif, marmoreal, orreries, velleity, louche
Description:* In this peerless memoir, the 85-year-old “paterfamilias of queer literature” (New York Times) recounts the sixty-plus years of sexual escapades that have inspired his many masterpieces. He explores the sex he had with other closeted boys in 50s Midwest, with women as a young man trying to be straight, the sex he’s paid for and been paid for, sex during the Stonewall and HIV eras, and in the age of the apps. Through stories of transactional sex, mutual admiration, open relationships, domination, submission, love, and loss, he paints an indelible portrait of queer history in America and abroad in a way only someone who has lived through it can.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I think a lot of gay men, particularly those of “a certain age,” would appreciate this unabashedly detailed telling of Edmund White’s love and sex life. Details like he had over 1,000 sex partners, and at one point he was masturbating up to 5 times a day. Oh yeah, and he had a little dick. Don’t be fooled by the seemingly crassness of all that — the writing is exquisite and even academic at times.

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Book #52	Book: Hell of a Book		Author: Jason Mott
	Source: Free BookBub download Format: Kindle	Pages: 333	Duration: 07/01/25 – 07/08/25 (8 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: literary fiction, racism, books about books, magical realism, African American
📕10-word summary: A complex story. A complex storyteller. Addressing a complex topic. 🖌6-word review: Lyrical writing with an unreliable narrator.
Description:* An astounding work of fiction, both incredibly funny and heartfelt, asking readers to embrace the fantastical in order to get to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon not only Black Americans, but America as a whole.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I went into this book knowing that I was going to be challenged, because neither magical realism nor lyrical writing appeal to me. But the topic is super important, and the book has won numerous writing awards, so I wanted to give it a chance. Not surprisingly, I spent a lot of time frustrated not knowing what was real and what wasn’t, and not knowing the connection between two of the characters — the unnamed author of the book in the book, which happens to have the same name as the book itself and the character called “The Kid.” That sentence alone should give you a taste of the state of confusion I stayed in throughout most of the book. In the end, it was hard to follow, but the topic was and important one, and I’m glad I stuck with it.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Book #51	Book: Family & Other Calamities		Author: Leslie Gray Streeter
	Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle	Pages: 253	Duration: 06/27/25 – 06/30/25 (4 days)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: fiction, romance, humor
📕10-word summary: A journalist confronts a former mentor who stole her work. 🖌6-word review: Lackluster characters. Interesting but uncompelling plot.
💭Favorite quote: “At a certain age, your face is sick of you, and it’s done hiding it for you.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: firmament, sabra
Description:* Entertainment journalist Dawn Roberts has a lot to work a widow’s grief, betrayals of family and friends, and scandals that almost tanked her reputation. Not that Dawn dwells on the past. Well, hardly. When she returns to Baltimore with her husband’s ashes, she can’t avoid it. In fact, she’s diving into decades of backstabbing and treachery for her first trip home in years. Joe Perkins, her former mentor, whose explosive exposé about big-city corruption is being turned into a slanderous movie, is also back in town. The villain of the piece? Dawn. She’ll finally set the record straight. Returning home might just be the biggest story in Dawn’s life, a fresh start—and happy ending—she never expected.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: After finishing the book I read after this one, I had to really think to remember what this book was about. That can’t be good, can it? The chapters switch between the past and the present, but the past isn’t done in traditional flashbacks. Instead, the female protagonist, Dawn, becomes submerged in memories or in stories she’s telling to others. It may sound confusing, because it is — at least it was to me, at first. The whole story just didn’t grab me, and I’d be hard-pressed to recommend it to anyone.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Book #50	Book: Reckoning Hour		Author: Peter O’Mahoney
	Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle	Pages: 315	Duration: 06/25/25 – 06/27/25 (3 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: fiction, legal thriller, mystery crime
📕10-word summary: Chicago lawyer returns to hometown — takes on two interconnected cases. 🖌6-word review: Good tension. Good pace. Satisfying resolution.
💭Favorite quote: “Crimes of the disadvantaged were punished much more harshly than crimes of the advantaged.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: pluff mud, bowrider, tomahawk steak
Description:* Big-city defense lawyer Dean Lincoln left his picturesque hometown of Beaufort years ago. But now, the lure of small-town life and a family matter have drawn him back. Amidst the sultry heat and the Spanish moss, and beneath the facade of Southern small-town charm, Lincoln begins work again and is immediately thrown into two cases: a rich kid charged with murder and a poor kid accused of arson. Both swear they are innocent. Both feel the system is trying to crush them. And in this corner of the South, guilt is rarely decided in the courtroom… Lincoln’s return has stirred a long-standing grudge, and it could cost him everything — his career, his clients, even his life. As the clock runs out on the truth, trouble is closing in fast.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I was surprised at, and pleased with, how much I enjoyed this book, especially since it was the first in a series (Dean Lincoln Legal Thriller #1) and a free download, which as a combination in my experience doesn’t often bode well. As of right now, there’s only one other book in the series, and if I can find it free somewhere, I just might read it. I thought the setting, — Beaufort, SC — was described and integrated into the story to the extent of itself becoming one of the “characters.” Also, the small-town legal corruption felt believable, if not on the verge of stereotypical, and at more than one point, I thought of the lyrics, “A big-bellied sheriff grabbed his gun and said, ‘Why’d you do it?’ The judge said ‘guilty’ in a make-believe trial, and slapped the sheriff on the back with a smile…” I liked this book enough to possibly make it a Mostly Social Book Club choice of mine some day. And last, but certainly not least, I’m thrilled to have reached book #50 by the end of June. I’d love for this to be a 100+-book year, which I haven’t had since 2022, when I read 102 books.

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Book #49	Book: Death Row		Author: Freida McFadden
	Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle	Pages: 74	Duration: 06/24/25 – 06/24/25 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: fiction, short stories, mystery, psychological thriller, suspense
📕10-word summary: A condemned murderess professes her innocence until the bitter end. 🖌6-word review: Clever twists, but sometimes confusingly executed.
💭Favorite quote: “Bowman explained to me that the protocol in this state calls for the injection of three drugs. First midazolam, a sedative. Then vecuronium bromide, which will paralyze my muscles. And last, potassium chloride, which will stop my heart from beating.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: peewee football, omakase
Description:* Talia Kemper is on death row for murdering her husband. She had an alibi and no known motive, yet Talia’s unwavering protestations of innocence have always been ignored. Then one day in the visiting area, she sees a recognizable stranger she’s certain is her husband. It turns out the man she’s been convicted of killing may not be dead after all. But as the days tick away toward Talia’s execution, what will it take for her to be believed?*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a bit of a roller coaster while reading, between the alternating “dream” chapters and the “current day” (but not “real?”) chapters, and at times confusing — as in “Wait. What’s going on here?” I did think that, overall, there were clever twists and that it would be interesting to re-read it knowing everything I knew by the end. With that said, I’m not one to re-read books, and I won’t be re-reading this one.

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Book #48	Book: This Impossible Brightness		Author: Jessica Bryant Klagmann
	Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle	Pages: 308	Duration: 06/20/25 – 06/24/25 (5 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: literary fiction, fantasy, mystery, dystopia, magical realism, science fiction
📕10-word summary: Grieving woman develops unlikely connections with — dead and alive — townsfolk. 🖌6-word review: Interesting premise. Ended right on time.
💭Favorite quote: “It is agonizing, the disposition of the human mind to construct obstacles in one’s own path, when the world itself has given us none.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: QL card, rappie pie, hepatica, phonautograph, ogham, mottled, cairn, lupine
Description:* After the mysterious disappearance of her fiancé, Alma Hughes moves to a remote island in the North Atlantic, where she hopes to weather her grief and nurture her ailing dog. But the strange town of Violette has mysteries as well. Townsfolk say that the radio tower overlooking their town broadcasts messages through their home appliances, their dreams, even the sea itself. When lightning strikes the tower, illuminating the sky in a brilliant flash, Alma finds herself caught in the unexplainable aftermath of one of Violette’s deadliest storms. As the sea consumes the island, threatening its very existence, the deaths and lost memories of the recently departed also devastate the community. Alma, with a unique link to the lost, may be the only one who can help them move on. But to do so, she must confront a tragic loss of her own.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I acquired this book in January of 2024, and I’m surprised I downloaded it because I dislike 4 of the 6 genres listed for this book: literary fiction, mystery, fantasy, dystopia, magical realism, science fiction. The only thing more surprising than that is that I actually didn’t abandoned it and I liked it pretty well. I did experience, although to a minimal degree, a couple of the things I don’t like about fantasy, magical realism, and science fiction, which is constantly trying to figure out “the rules” of how things work in these unreal worlds, and then making sure the author is true to them. For example, in this book, one of the characters can see and hear dead people (and a dead dog), but only certain dead people, and those dead people can see and hear each other. Also, I’m a stickler for “speaker attribution” (a.k.a. “dialogue tags”), because if they’re not used for a chunk of conversation between people, I think the writing has to be very, very strong to keep the reader from asking, “Wait, which person is saying this?” I experienced this a couple of times in this book. And, finally, I spent too much time wondering why the name of this book was This Impossible Brightness instead of The Impossible Brightness.

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Book #44	Book: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry		Author: Gabrielle Zevin
	Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook	Pages: 290	Duration: 06/14/25 – 06/14/25 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: fiction, romance, books about books, relationships
📕10-word summary: Man gets a chance to turn around his deteriorating life. 🖌6-word review: Great characters, literary allusions, and story.
💭Favorite quote: “Do you miss your [writer] husband?” Lambaise asks. “Not really,” she says after a bit. “His sense of humor sometimes, but the best parts of him were in his books.”
🎓A new-to-me word: jejune
Description:* A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island—from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly. And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, but large in weight. It’s that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a quick, easy read for me. Books, a bookstore, and book clubs are an integral part of the story, which appealed to me greatly. This book alludes to a lot of stories, books, plays, and authors (see all 64 of them), and when I searched goodreads.com for one of the books mentioned early on in this story, The Late Bloomer by Leon Friedman, to see what it was about, I was surprised to find an entry there that said it wasn’t a real book. I love that someone took the time to create that entry, and it made me wonder how many times people search for books that don’t really exist when seeing them mentioned in another book, and what percentage of those have entries like this one for them. I originally read this book in 2020, and this was a re-read as it’s been chosen as a Mostly Social Book Club book by Suzanne.

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Book #43	Book: In One Person		Author: John Irving
	Source: Library loan Format: Print	Pages: 425	Duration: 06/04/25 – 06/13/25 (10 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: literary fiction, LGBT, queer, coming of age, gender diversity
📕10-word summary: A bisexual man shares his richly diverse sexual relationship history. 🖌6-word review: Compelling story with rare, bisexual point-of-view.
💭Favorite quote: “Maybe more to the point, I had acquired an undeniable mystique – if only to the Bancroft butt-room boys. Don’t forget: Miss Frost was an older woman, and that goes a long way with the boys — even if the older woman has a penis!”
🎓Some new-to-me words: derring-do, obligingly, stultifying, habiliment, intercrural, poleaxed, craven, obdurately
Description:* A New York Times bestselling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love—tormented, funny, and affecting — and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a “sexual suspect,” a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 in his landmark novel of “terminal cases,” The World According to Garp. In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy’s friends and lovers — a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: First things first: Let me give myself a big ol’ pat on the back for getting through this 425-page book with its very small font size. It may not sound like a big deal, but these days that’s usually a showstopper for me, and if the writing hadn’t been John Iriving’s, I probably would have abandoned it after the first chapter. I’d never heard of this John Irving book — his 13th — and I’m glad I came across it. The description says it has a “cast of characters who defy category and convention,” and if anything, that’s an understatement. The protagonist’s bisexual point-of-view was a nice change and it highlighted the many ostracizing things people — even gay people — say about bisexuals. This book has won a number of awards including two bisexual-specific awards that I didn’t even know existed: Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Literature (2013), San Francisco Book Festival for General Fiction (2013), Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction (2013), Bisexual Book Awards for Fiction (2012). It’s been a long time since I’ve read a John Irving book, and it was nice to do it again. He is, after all, the author of one of my all-time favorite books: A Prayer for Owen Meany, which I read 28 years ago in October of 1997.

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Book #42	Book: The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars		Author: Joël Glenn Brenner
	Source: Library loan Format: Print	Pages: 367	Duration: 05/27/25 – 06/02/25 (7 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: nonfiction, food, history, business, biography
📕10-word summary: Learn the striking differences between the Hershey vs. Mars corporations. 🖌6-word review: Easy-to-read inside scoop — cut-throat global competition.
💭Favorite quote: “Candy corn was originally called chicken feed.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: blitzkrieged, longitudinal conches, skid, naïf, chimerical
Description:* Corporate candy giants Milton Hershey and Forrest Mars built business empires out of one of the world’s most magical, sought-after substances: chocolate. Joël Glenn Brenner — the first person to ever gain access to the highly secretive companies of Hershey and Mars — spins a unique story that takes us inside a world as mysterious as Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Packed with flavorful stories and outrageous characters that give the true scoop on this real-life candyland, it’s a delectable read for business buffs and chocoholics alike.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This is my 6th nonfiction book this year, and I read it on a long-ago recommendation by my brother-in-law. Being extremely interested in both chocolate and business, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I learned a lot of things about the chocolate-making business as well as the Hershey and Mars families. My biggest “Aha! moment” was when they described Tootsie Rolls as “chocolate-flavored taffy.” I’ve never thought of a Tootsie Roll as taffy, but I’ll never not think of it as that from now on. The only negative about this book (and it’s neither the book nor the author’s fault) is that it was published in 1998, and I couldn’t help thinking about most of the statistics or processes described: “I wonder what they are now, 27 years later.” Thanks, Jimmy, for the recommendation.

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Book #41	Book: Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting		Author: Clare Pooley
	Source: Library loan Format: Print	Pages: 343	Duration: 05/18/25 – 05/22/25 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, romance, chick lit, LGBT, diversity
📕10-word summary: Train choking incident sparks a friendship between eclectic fellow commuters. 🖌6-word review: Easy reading. Interesting characters. Somewhat predictable.
💭Favorite quote: “Deborah sat down and took a thin file out of the practical but ugly briefcase that paired nicely with her sensible but dull shoes.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: Louboutins, diamanté, insouciance, salubrious, clever clogs, dole money, parterre, oleaginous, ladder your tights, tetchy, taking the Mickey
Description:* Every day Iona, a larger-than-life magazine advice columnist, travels the 10 stops from Hampton Court to Waterloo Station by train, accompanied by her dog, Lulu. Every day she sees the same people, whom she knows only by nickname: Impossibly-Pretty-Constant-Reader and Terribly-Lonely-Teenager. Of course, they never speak. Seasoned commuters never do. Then one morning, the man she calls Smart-But-Sexist-Manspreader chokes on a grape right in front of her. He’d have died were it not for the timely intervention of Sanjay, a nurse, who gives him the Heimlich maneuver. This single event starts a chain reaction, and an eclectic group of people with almost nothing in common except their commute discover that a chance encounter can blossom into much more. It turns out that talking to strangers can teach you about the world around you — and even more about yourself.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I didn’t notice until about a third of the way into this book that it was by the same author who wrote The Authenticity Project, which our book club read in 2023. I liked this book slightly better, probably because it reminded me of my years riding the bus to work, during which I wrote what I dubbed “buscapades” that included giving the “regular” riders that I saw on the bus nicknames like the protagonist in this story does to her fellow train commuters. Hers included “Magic Handbag Lady,” “Crazy Dog Woman,” “Terribly-Lonely-Teenager,” and “Smart-But-Sexist Manspreader.” Some of the bus rider nicknames I gave included “The Phone Lady,” “Sci-fi Fantasy Man,” “Logorrhea” (portmanteau of logophile and diarrhea; i.e., someone who won’t STFU), “Arguing Man,” “Right-Hand Rule Lady,” “Thong Lady,” “Waffle House Lady,” and “Madonna and Genetically Beautifully Daughter.” Here’s one of those blog posts with a classic buscapade scene in it that I referred to as “a buscapade character reunion.”

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Book #40	Book: The Family Fang		Author: Kevin Wilson
	Source: Library loan Format: Print	Pages: 309	Duration: 05/15/25 – 05/17/25 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, humor, art, family
📕10-word summary: Quirky family adventures with bizarre parents and arguably exploited children. 🖌6-word review: Compelling enough story. Structure sometimes confusing.
💭Favorite quotes: “Annie took another sip of the vodka, letting the alcohol seep through her system, turning bad ideas into good ones.” “He could count on one hand the number of times he’d had sex and still have enough fingers left over to make complicated shadow puppets.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: sestina, pratfalls
Description:* Annie and Buster Fang have spent most of their adult lives trying to distance themselves from their famous artist parents, Caleb and Camille. But when a bad economy and a few bad personal decisions converge, the two siblings have nowhere to turn but their family home. Reunited under one roof for the first time in more than a decade and surrounded by the souvenirs of their unusual upbringing, Buster and Annie are forced to confront not only their creatively ambitious parents, but the chaos and confusion of their childhood.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I saw this book in my 5/12/25 BookBub email and it sounded interesting and was available in the library. I noticed that it had been made into a 2015 movie, and I asked my husband if he’d ever seen it, and having not, he watched it while I was reading the book. “Quirky” is a good word to describe both the story and the titular family. The story shifts between the past and the present, and that was a little confusing until I figured out the structure. I enjoyed the imagination of the “performance art” scenarios enumerated, and I enjoyed the intellectual quandaries as to whether it was indeed “art,” and whether or not the children (and arguably the wife) in the family were being exploited. In answer to this discussion question at the end of the book: “Have you ever witnessed an event in your own life that felt like a Fang performance?” I’d have to say it was the time I participated in a flash mob on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh.

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Book #39	Book: The Man Who Died Twice		Author: Richard Osman
	Source: Library loan Format: Kindle	Pages: 422	Duration: 05/13/25 – 05/14/25 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, mystery, crime, humor, series
📕10-word summary: Thursday Murder Club’s septuagenarians in the throes of it again. 🖌6-word review: Complex story. Enjoyable read. Stopping here.
Description:* Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He’s made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life. As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn’t that be a bonus? But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn’t bat an eyelid at knocking off 4 septuagenarians. Can The Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I read the first book in this series, The Thursday Murder Club in 2023. Like that one, I liked this book a lot, but I didn’t love it. This one also involves mafias, cartels, or organized crime, none of which I enjoy reading about. It looks like this series is up to 5 books now. I’m glad I read this one, but I won’t be reading any more of them.

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Book #38	Book: Plays Well with Others		Author: Allan Gurganus
	Source: Library loan Format: Kindle	Pages: 368	Duration: 05/07/25 – 05/11/25 (5 days)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: fiction, magical realism, gay, LGBT, queer, New York, AIDS, chosen family
📕10-word summary: Newly arrived southerner in NYC creates a brilliant chosen family. 🖌6-word review: Ran cold. Ran hot. Ran cold.
💭Favorite quote: “I sit reading the Times, waiting, though basically I have no talent for waiting.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: rictus, toney, natch, filched, rube, rheostaticly, tintypes, juvenilia, pogrom, odalisque, comestibles, diptych, freesias, gessoed, tocking, rawboned, dandyism, fusty, zabaglione, cowcatcher, odalisquing
Description:* It’s 1980, and Hartley Mims Jr., a somewhat overbred Southerner, arrives in town to found his artistic career and finds a circle of brilliant friends. He soon discovers both Robert Christian Gustafson, archangelic boy composer of Symphony no. 1: The Titanic, and Alabama Byrnes, a failed Savannah debutante whose gigantic paintings reveal an outsized talent that she, 5-feet tall, can’t always live up to. This circle — sexually venturesome, frequently hungry, hooked on courage, caffeine, and the promise of immortality — makes history and most everybody else. The story chronicles a ragtag group of gifted kids who come to seek their fortunes; they find the low-paying joys of making art and the heady education only multiple erotic partners can provide. They suddenly encounter a brand-new disease like something out of fifth-rate sci-fi. Friends are soon questioning how much they really owe each other; they’re left with the ancient consolation of one another’s company and help. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: In the early chapters of this book, I found myself asking a couple of times, “Okay, who is the narrator here?” and “What exactly is going on right now?” — 2 questions, IMHO, a reader should never be asking. I waffled throughout the story as to whether this was a 3- or 4-star book. I thought of the first half as a 3. Then it really picked it up, and I was leaning toward a 4. But I completely lost interest in the ending, which had a section name of “Appendix,” so I almost didn’t read it. After an entire (very) realistic story, the last 15 or 20 pages was all magical realism, one of my least favorite genres, and worse, it was about heaven (thinly veiled as “paradise”) with 3 short chapters about “how everything works up here.” Not a fan. I will take a second to praise the use of the word “collusive” (instead of the overused “conspiratorial”) in: “…she flashed me one collusive wink that made me feel almost human again, partly included.”

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Book #37	Book: Blank		Author: Zibby Owens
	Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle	Pages: 250	Duration: 05/04/25 – 05/06/25 (3 days)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: fiction, humor, romance, books-about-books, chick lit
📕10-word summary: Writer’s-blocked author devises a book with a possibly preposterous plot. 🖌6-word review: Meh. Too many non-plausible plot points.
💭Favorite quote: “Darling, it’s not a vacation with kids; it’s a trip.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: mishegaas, towheaded
Description:* A wife, mother, and frustrated writer faces an impossible deadline for turning her life around in a hilarious debut novel about family, friendship, success, and exhilarating self-(re)discovery. Pippa Jones is a 40-ish former literary sensation who fears she will be a one-hit wonder. After the follow-up book she was almost done writing had to be tossed, she couldn’t write a thing. Months of staring at a blank page made her confidence vanish like a one-night stand. When she finds out that she has only 5 days left to finish (or rather, start) or repay an advance she’s already spent, Pippa has a brilliantly original idea. Okay, fine, her twelve-year-old son came up with it as a joke, but Pippa and her teenage daughter approved. Pippa’s not only going to make a bold statement, but she’ll change the book world while she’s at it! Can she pull it off? At this point, she doesn’t have a choice. When Pippa’s publisher gets intimately involved, it unlocks a series of plot twists she never saw coming.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a free First Reads book from way back in February of 2024, and I’m glad it was free. I thought the entire premise of turning in a “blank” book to meet a deadline, and purportedly to make a statement about the book publishing industry, was far-fetched at best, and that was confirmed. I found it very heavy-handed, and was unimpressed overall. In addition to that cockamamie stunt of a blank book, there were other quite improbable things that happened; for example an Instagrammer who checks out L.A. real estate incognito and then posts about it, goes to a place that turns out to be a “love nest” where her husband goes to cheat on her. What are the chances? Two things I did appreciate about the book were: 1) My pet peeve word, conspiratorial, did not appear, and 2) Instead of using the overused “palpable” or “was deafening” in this context, the author wrote: “The silence felt tangible.” I would be hard-pressed to recommend this book.

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Book #36 Book: Ethics in the Real World: 82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter Author: Peter Singer Source: Library loan Format: Print Pages: 368 Duration: 04/25/25 – 05/02/25 (8 days) Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: nonfiction, philosophy, essays, psychology, religion, politics, science, society, sociology

📕10-word summary: Influential philosopher contemplates complex life questions from an ethical perspective. 🖌6-word review: Very thought-provoking, but ultimately dated material.

Description:* In this book of brief essays, Peter Singer applies his controversial ways of thinking to issues like climate change, extreme poverty, animals, abortion, euthanasia, human genetic selection, sports doping, the sale of kidneys, the ethics of high-priced art, and ways of increasing happiness. Singer asks whether chimpanzees are people, smoking should be outlawed, or consensual sex between adult siblings should be decriminalized, and he reiterates his case against the idea that all human life is sacred, applying his arguments to some recent cases in the news. In addition, he explores, in an easily accessible form, some of the deepest philosophical questions, such as whether anything really matters and what is the value of the pale blue dot that is our planet. The collection also includes some more personal reflections, like Singer’s thoughts on one of his favorite activities, surfing, and an unusual suggestion for starting a family conversation over a holiday feast.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: It’s been a long time since I’ve read a “cerebral” book, of which this one definitely qualified. Several times I had to read a sentence two or three times to parse and understand it. The questions explored were very heavy and fascinating. The downside of the book was that the date of each essay was different, including different years with almost all 10 or more years ago, and in an an essay it would say things like, “this week… such-and-such a thing happened,” but you didn’t know what year it was. And along those same lines, because the essays were so old, a lot of the things posited as possibly happening in the future, we already know don’t play out that way. It looks like there was an updated version of the book printed in 2023, with 8 more essays in it. I probably should have read that version.

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Book #35 Book: Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style Author: Paul Rudnick Source: Library loan Format: Print Pages: 368 Duration: 04/20/25 – 04/24/25 (5 days) Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: historical fiction, romance, LGBT, queer, humor

📕10-word summary: Chronicles the highs and lows of a decades-long, rule-breaking romance. 🖌6-word review: Funny. Sad. Infuriating. Heartwarming. Always interesting.

💭Favorite quote: “He relished conversation; he celebrated and savored anointing a shimmeringly pleasing word or phrase, treating the English language as a treasure trove to be plundered. Or more plainly: he loved to talk and make sure he was good at it.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: straw boater, hauteur, antediluvian, homunculi, officious, swain, vicuña, inveigle, sisal, Etruscan, frippery, fustiness

Description:* Devastatingly handsome and insanely rich, Farrell Covington is capable of anything and impossible to resist. He’s a clear-eyed romantic, an aesthete but not a snob, self-indulgent yet wildly generous. As the son of one of the country’s most powerful and deeply conservative families, the world could be his. But when he falls for Nate Reminger, an aspiring writer from a nice Jewish family in Piscataway, New Jersey, the results are passionate and catastrophic. Together, the two embark on a uniquely managed romance that spans half a century. They are inseparable—except for the many years when they are apart. Moving from the ivy-covered bastion of Yale to NYC, L.A., and eventually all over the world, Farrell and Nate experience the tremendous upheaval and social change of the last 50 years. From the freedom of gay life in 1970s Manhattan to the Hollywood closet, the AIDS epidemic, and the profound strides of the LGBTQ+ movement. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: When I was still on Facebook, an ad for this book appeared on my timeline. It sounded interesting, so I added it to my library to-read list. I thoroughly enjoyed it with the comedic highlight being the description of a wedding at the beginning of chapter 15 and the “take-that | up-yours | touché” highlight being in a reading-of-the-will scene in the middle of chapter 18. Unfortunately, my pet peeve word appeared at about ⅓ of the way into the book: “There were photos of the happy, or at least conspiratorial, couple at the altar, arm in arm before a floral arch at the reception…” The larger-than-life characterization of Farrell is most excellent. This author, also a screenplay writer, has worked as an uncredited script doctor on films including The Addams Family and The First Wives Club. He was credited through the pseudonym “Joseph Howard” for his work on Sister Act, which was originally intended for Bette Midler. The screenplay went through many revisions and was re-fashioned for Whoopi Goldberg. (At this time, Rudnick refused to have his real name associated with the script.) He received sole writing credit for Addams Family Values, In & Out, and the screen version of his play Jeffrey. I would consider this book for a future Mostly Social Book Club book.

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Book #34 Book: The Dakota Winters Author: Tom Barbash Source: Library loan Format: Print Pages: 324 Duration: 04/15/25 – 04/18/25 (4 days) Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: historical fiction, New York, entertainment industry, mental health

📕10-word summary: A healing NYC family’s year preceding the John Lennon’s assassination. 🖌6-word review: Fascinating male relationships. Excellently paced plot.

💭Favorite quote: “When, once in a blue moon, they fought, it was scary, in the way arguments can be between smart people who know exactly how to hurt each other.”

🎓A new-to-me word: SRO

Description:* It’s the fall of 1979 in New York City when 23-year-old Anton Winter, back from the Peace Corps and on the mend from a nasty bout of malaria, returns to his childhood home in the Dakota. Anton’s father, the famous late-night host Buddy Winter, is there to greet him, himself recovering from a breakdown. Before long, Anton is swept up in an effort to reignite Buddy’s stalled career, a mission that takes him from the gritty streets of New York, to the slopes of the Lake Placid Olympics, to the Hollywood Hills, to the blue waters of the Bermuda Triangle, and brings him into close quarters with the likes of Johnny Carson, Ted and Joan Kennedy, and a seagoing John Lennon. But the more Anton finds himself enmeshed in his father’s professional and spiritual reinvention, the more he questions his own path, and fissures in the Winter family begin to threaten their close bond. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: I saw this book in a BookBub email, and since I recently read The Address, which was about The Dakota apartment building in NYC, the fact that it was part of this title caught my eye. While the building was a “major character” in The Address, it played a comparatively small part in this story. As is often the case with historical fiction, I wondered how much of the story was historically factual and how much of it was fiction. John Lennon played a big part in this story, and at first, each time it said he did something, I wondered if he really did that and looked it up. (e.g., owned a sailboat named “Isis.”) Checking everything soon became untenable, and it didn’t really matter in this story. There were 2 things about this story that I loved: 1) the male relationships — specifically those between Anton and his father, Buddy; Anton and his brother, Kip; and Anton and John Lennon, and 2) this story moved right along; a typical example being when one paragraph mentioned that something was going to happen in 3 weeks (and arguably, it’s the thing you’re most interested in seeing how it plays out), and in the very next paragraph, it’s 3 weeks later. No waiting until the next chapter with filler or another storyline, or anything like that.

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Book #33 Book: The Best We Could Hope For Author: Nicola Kraus Source: Free First Reads download Format: Print Pages: 260 Duration: 04/12/25 – 04/14/25 (3 days) Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: historical fiction, mystery, family

📕10-word summary: Kids try to resolve effects of very complicated family dynamics. 🖌6-word review: Powerful story. Family tree logistics challenging.

💭Favorite quote: “It means that we never really know what we’ve seen, only what we noticed. It means absorbing that these are two different things, and living differently with that knowledge.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: cerise, crenellation, striate, apotheosis, kouros, pullulate, louche, palaver, chiaroscuro, deadheading

Description:* When Bunny Linden abandons her 3 children with her older sister, Jayne, she knows Jayne will be the perfect mother, one that she could never be. As months turn into years without word, Jayne and her husband, Rodger, a rising journalism star, strive to give the children the opportunity to flourish and feel loved. When Jayne and Rodger finally have a child of their own, a seemingly stable home is built. But then, after nearly a decade, Bunny resurfaces and sets a chain of events in motion that detonates all their lives.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: This was a compelling story with a lot of kids in it, of which one sister (Bunny) dumps her 3 kids (Sage, Huck, & Brian) on her sister (Jayne) who then has 2 kids (Linden & Clyde) of her own — raising all 5 of them, and at times they think they’re all brothers and sisters, when in fact 3 of them are cousins to the other 2. And then there are 2 other kids (Michael & Luke) of Margaret and her first husband, who are Jayne’s & Bunny’s half-brothers. It was just a lot. So much in fact, that after reading chapter 20 (of 25), I had to stop and draw this family tree: to remind myself who Michael & Luke were (they hadn’t been mentioned for ~15 chapters) and how they were related to the other 5 kids. And if that wasn’t enough — and it really was — at one point Jayne divorces Rodger and marries another man who has a kid (Justin), so becomes Linden’s and Bunny’s step-brother. Anyhoo, that was all problematic, but I really did enjoy the story, and I loved the pace. It moved along snap, snap, snap.

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Book #32 Book: The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard Author: Michael Callahan Source: Library loan Format: Print Pages: 305 Duration: 04/07/25 – 04/10/25 (4 days) Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: historical fiction, mystery, romance, drama

📕10-word summary: Dual-timeline, multi-generational story reveals consequential, brutal, and grave family secrets. 🖌6-word review: Compelling story with pronoun antecedent issues.

💭Favorite quote: “Kit was taken aback, because maternal concern is not an armament Lucinda keeps in her quiver.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: stagecraft, insouciance, shoulder season, traif, harridan

Description:* In 1959, Hollywood ingenue Mercy Welles seems to have the world at her feet. Far removed from her Nebraska roots, she has crafted herself into a glamorous Oscar-nominated actress engaged to an up-and-coming director… until she shockingly vanishes without a trace, just as her career is taking off. Almost 60 years later, Kit O’Neill, a junior Manhattan television producer, is packing up her recently deceased grandmother’s attic, only to discover a long-lost box of souvenirs that reveal that the grandmother who raised her and her sister Claire was, in fact, the mysterious Mercy Welles. Putting her investigative skills to use, Kit is determined to solve the riddle of her grandmother’s missing life, and the trail eventually leads to Martha’s Vineyard.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: I suppose I was destined to read this book for several reasons: 1) I saw it in my 3/27/25 BookBub email and went to put it on my to-read list at the library, where I found it already there from my 7/29/24 BookBub email. 2) I’m a sucker for stories about found letters. 3) I have a great fondness for stories about The Cape in general, and Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, & Provincetown in particular, probably because I grew up just off The Cape in Fall River, and my husband and I spent a month at a VRBO in Eastham during the pandemic. In this dual-timeline story, I found the storyline in the past more interesting than the one in the present, but both kept me interested. The only complaint I had was that there were several times when a pronoun’s antecedent wasn’t clear. For example, a paragraph talked about 2 female characters, and the subsequent paragraph referred only to “she” (4 times), and I wasn’t sure which of the 2 characters it was referring to until the end of the paragraph. And finally, my pet-peeve word showed up a quarter of the way into the book: “Well,” she said almost conspiratorially, “it’s just we don’t see Mint out that much anymore. She rarely leaves Sycamore.”

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Book #31 Book: Snow in August Author: Pete Hamill Source: Library loan Format: Kindle Pages: 403 Duration: 04/01/25 – 04/03/25 (3 days) Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: historical fiction, magical realism, coming of age, language, baseball, religion, Judaism, Catholicism, ethnic identity

📕10-word summary: An altar boy and a rabbi forge an impenetrable bond. 🖌6-word review: Religious dogma eclipses remarkable relationship storyline.

💭Favorite quote: “This was the last mass of the day, and so he went back to the altar to extinguish the two candles with a long-handled device the altar boys had named the 'holy snuffer.'”

🎓Some new-to-me words: ciborium, chasuble, maniple, amice, Spaldeen

Description:* Brooklyn, 1947. The war veterans have come home. Jackie Robinson is about to become a Dodger. And in one close-knit working-class neighborhood, an 11-year-old Irish Catholic boy named Michael Devlin has just made friends with a lonely rabbi from Prague. For Michael, the rabbi opens a window to ancient learning and lore that rivals anything in Captain Marvel. For the rabbi, Michael illuminates the everyday mysteries of America, including the strange language of baseball. But like their hero Jackie Robinson, neither can entirely escape from the swirling prejudices of the time. Terrorized by a local gang of anti-Semitic Irish toughs, Michael and the rabbi are caught in an escalating spiral of hate for which there’s only one way out — a miracle.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: I read about Pete Hamill’s book, North River, but the library didn’t have it. Searching on the author’s name, I saw this book, which sounded interesting. I didn’t notice that one of the genres of the book was magical realism, of which I’m not a fan, and unfortunately, that aspect didn’t manifest itself in the book until the very end — or I might have abandoned it. It was a decent story, but a huge section of it was about religious beliefs that didn’t advance the plot, and of which I started skimming through after it went on and on and on. (FTR, I am an atheist.) I also found way too much violence depicted in the book, of which I’m also not a fan. I gave it 3 stars for the story that was outside of all that, which was the relationship between the young Catholic protagonist and the elder Jewish rabbi, which I really enjoyed. I was extremely disappointed in the ending of this book for the reason I already stated.

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Book #27 Book: Death by Leprechaun: A St. Patrick’s Day Murder in Dublin Author: Jennifer S. Alderson Source: Free BookBub download Format: Kindle Pages: 189 Duration: 03/13/25 – 03/13/25 (1 day) Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, cozy mystery, holiday, travel, Irish culture

📕10-word summary: Bad guy, Guy, pisses off people and gets hisself kilt. 🖌6-word review: Typical cozy mystery. Decent “holiday read.”

💭Fun quote: “Sláinte!”

🎓A new-to-me word: coddle

Description:* When an old friend is arrested in Dublin, tour guide Lana Hansen will need the luck of the Irish to clear him of the crime. Lana is thrilled her friend Jeremy and his wife are on her tour to Ireland. The couple are having the time of their lives exploring the country’s rich literary and cultural history, until they run into Guy Smith, a reporter Jeremy recently exposed as a fraud. A tussle turns into a fight and leaves each man vowing to destroy the other. Yet cross words and dirty looks tell Lana that Jeremy is not the only client on her tour who has a grudge against the reporter.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: This book was “right on time” — holiday-themed and free — in my daily BookBub email. It was a short, quick read, although when at 50% complete without anyone having yet been murdered, I wondered how long without a murder in a murder mystery was “acceptable.” A search found the answer to be all over the place, but most said closer to 25% to 33% of the way through. While down that rabbit hole, in one page about what elements make a good cozy mystery, the author said to “include a plot twist that the reader won’t see coming.” I’m pretty sure you can’t write a plot twist that people will see coming. Not seeing it coming is the very nature of a plot twist. Needless to say, I’d be hard-pressed to take writing advice from the author of said writing-advice article. I found 3 editing misses in this book, which only made me happier that I got it for free.

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Book #24 Book: Attachments Author: Rainbow Rowell Source: Library loan Format: Kindle Pages: 338 Duration: 03/08/25 – 03/09/25 (2 days) Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, romance, chick lit

📕10-word summary: An I.T. security guy is sucked into employees’ email conversations. 🖌6-word review: 75% epistolary “dialogue.” Amusing, fun, fluff.

💭Amusing quote: “She was loud. And funny. (But not as funny as loud.)”

🎓Some new-to-me words: strident, pithy, rotavirus, Valkyrie, nadir, vetiver

Description:* Beth and Jennifer know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It’s company policy.) But they can’t quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives. Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill can’t believe this is his job now — reading other people’s e-mail. When he applied to be “internet security officer,” he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers — not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke. When Lincoln comes across Beth’s and Jennifer’s messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can’t help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories. By the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late to introduce himself. What would he say…?*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: This book was on NPR’s list of great summer reads. Not being in school and being retired made me wonder what characteristics of a book make it a “summer read.” According to AI, it’s “a light, accessible, and entertaining book, often with a focus on escapism, romance, or a lighthearted plot, perfect for relaxing during the summer months.” Not sure why you can’t relax during the spring, fall, or winter months — but I digress. I enjoyed this book, which comprised many email exchanges between the two female protagonists. Reading other people’s mail is something that appeals to me, and I can see why Lincoln, the I.T. guy, got sucked into reading Beth’s and Jennifer’s — ethics and privacy issues aside. It definitely checked off the summer read characteristics of escapism, romance and a lighthearted plot. With enjoying the book said, if a movie was made of it, it’d be the kind of movie I’d never want to see.

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Book #23 Book: The Lost Daughter Author: Elena Ferrante Source: Library loan Format: Print Pages: 140 Duration: 03/06/25 – 03/06/25 (1 day) Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, Italy, feminism, family

📕10-word summary: A candid, ferocious, and compelling introspection on womanhood and motherhood. 🖌6-word review: Classic Ferrante voice — quirky and dark.

💭Compelling quote: “How foolish to think you can tell your children about yourself before they’re at least 50. To ask to be seen by them as a person and not as a function.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: Camorra, reproof, pareo, tohu-bohu

Description:* Leda, a middle-aged divorce, is alone for the first time in years when her daughters leave home to live with their father. Her initial, unexpected sense of liberty turns to ferocious introspection following a seemingly trivial occurrence. Ferrante’s language is as finely tuned and intense as ever, and she treats her theme with a fierce, candid tenacity.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: I was prepared for this author’s voice, quirky and dark, from her book The Days of Abandonment, which I read in 2022. My husband watched and reviewed the movie made from this book, starring one of his all-time favorite actors, Olivia Colman, and which was Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s directorial debut. There was a lot packed into the 140-page story, and it’s a rare, refreshing, honest look at women who aren’t completely taken and in love with their own children. Oh, and lest I forget, my pet-peeve overused word made an appearance on p. 18: “They called each other by name with drawn-out cries, hurled exclamatory or conspiratorial comments, at times quarreled: a large family group, similar to the one I had been part of when I was a girl, the same jokes, the same sentimentality, the same rages.”

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Book #21 Book: The Sublet: A Short Story Author: Greer Hendricks Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle Pages: 49 Duration: 03/02/25 – 03/02/25 (1 day) Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, short stories, psychological thriller, novella

📕10-word summary: Ghostwriter learns truths about the famous person she’s writing for. 🖌6-word review: 49 pages were just enough. Unremarkable.

💭Laughable quote: “With the cleansing power of this sage, I release all negative energy from this space. Visualize the smoke absorbing all negativity. Watch it disappear and float out of the windows.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: wakeboarding

Description:* Anne is barely keeping it together. A frazzled ghostwriter and aspiring novelist, she juggles nine-year-old twins and a listless marriage from an overcrowded Manhattan apartment, spreading herself thinner each day. Just as Anne is about to give up on her dreams, she lands her biggest client Melody Wells. When Melody passes along a lead on a spacious sublet complete with East River views, built-in closets, and three bedrooms, Anne can’t believe her luck. Melody seems to know just what her family needs. But as small, unsettling incidents begin to accumulate, Anne starts to wonder what price she’s willing to pay for the good life.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: This was an “interesting enough” read, nothing remarkable. I was interested enough to invest 49 pages to see how it ended. I’m ambivalent about including the explanation of polydactyl cats and the boiling frog apologue. It felt like a couple of things that the author knew about and wanted to fit into the story, which violates a classic rule of writing: In your edit, find your favorite word or line that you worked into the story and delete it.

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Book #20 Book: Eleven Numbers: A Short Story Author: Lee Child Source: Free Prime Reading loan Format: Kindle Pages: 50 Duration: 03/02/25 – 03/02/25 (1 day) Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, short stories, thriller, mystery, espionage, novella

📕10-word summary: A mathematics professor gets himself in a world of shit. 🖌6-word review: My first Lee Child book. Excellent.

💭A favorite quote: “Korovki [a Russian prison] is like any small town. Full of gossip. Sometimes exciting.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: last

Description:* Nathan Tyler is an unassuming professor at a middling American university with a rather obscure specialty in mathematics — in short, a nobody from nowhere. So why is the White House calling? Summoned to Washington, DC, for a top-secret briefing, Nathan discovers that he’s the key to a massive foreign intelligence breakthrough. Reading between the lines of a cryptic series of equations, he could open a door straight into the heart of the Kremlin and change the global balance of power forever. All he has to do is get to a meeting with the renowned Russian mathematician who created it. But when Nathan crashes headlong into a dangerous new game, the odds against him suddenly look a lot steeper.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: I became aware of Lee Child during an after-lunch stroll with my friend Jen through Barnes & Noble. She recommended his Jack Reacher books, but this book of his was available to borrow free through Amazon’s Prime Reading service, so I grabbed it. At 50 pages, it was a super quick read, although I do wonder what part of that enjoyment was served by my love of mathematics. Although the Kindansky numbers in this book are fictional, they reminded me of the Fibonacci numbers, which actually exist in mathematics. I thought it was a great introduction to Lee Child’s writing, which I definitely plan to read more of, probably starting with Killing Floor, the first in his Jack Reacher series of 29 books to-date.

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Book #18 Book: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone Author: Benjamin Stevenson Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook Pages: 384 Duration: 02/26/25 – 02/28/25 (3 days) Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, crime, books about books

📕10-word summary: More murders take place while trying to solve old ones. 🖌6-word review: Very complicated plot points. Didn’t love.

💭Compelling quote: “Age gives you perspective. Now I know the difference between being popular and just being talked about.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: balaclava

Description: Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.* *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: Like many others, the catchy title of this book drew me in. But, I didn’t love this book. The author broke the fourth wall often, which at times came across as a funny or expositive aside, but at other times felt too gimmicky. There were a lot of characters and murders in the story — with lots of sometimes obscure, and often complicated, connections to people outside the family. I never quite cared — as much as I thought I should have — about who the murderer was. My pet-peeve overused word made an appearance about a third of the way through: “I leaned over and whispered conspiratorially.” And in what’s apparently an Australian pronunciation quirk, the narrator of this audiobook distractingly pronounced the word “assume” (which was used a lot) as “ashoom.” I’d be hard-pressed to recommend this book without a lot of caveats.

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Book #16 Book: The Book of Last Letters Author: Kerry Barrett Format: Kindle Pages: 400 Duration: 02/20/25 – 02/23/25 (3 days) Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: historical fiction, World War II, romance, dual timeline, books about books

📕10-word summary: Nurse creates opportunity for potential last words to loved ones. 🖌6-word review: Compelling dual timeline — ultimately heartwarming — story.

💭Compelling quote: “She was suffering terribly, and you did the best thing for her. This is a war, and any man on the battlefield would have done the same thing.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: maisonette, hob, Luftwaffe, Primus, cagoule, swifts, biro, chivvying, trundling, naff, welly

Description: London, 1940: When nurse Elsie offers to send a reassuring letter to the family of a patient, she has an idea. She begins a book of last letters: messages to be sent on to wounded soldiers’ loved ones should the very worst come to pass, so that no one is left without a final goodbye. But one message will change Elsie’s life forever. When a patient makes a devastating request, can Elsie find the strength to do the unthinkable? London, present day: Stephanie has people she’d like to speak to: her estranged, incarcerated brother; her nan, whose dementia means she’s only occasionally lucid enough to talk. When she discovers a book of wartime letters, Stephanie realises the importance of our final words – and uncovers the story of a secret love, a desperate choice, and the unimaginable courage of the woman behind it all.* *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: I read about this book on BookBub and it was available for a $.99 download. Since I had a credit for that amount, I “bought it” at no out-of-pocket expense. I appreciated that this was one of those dual-timeline stories in which both the present-day storyline and the in-the-past storyline were both good. Other than the aspect of “the nurse and the airman” communicating in “the book” in a couple of pages that were “purposefully stuck together to keep them private” being totally implausible, it was a believable and compelling story. I was completely sucked into it, and I looked forward to picking it back up as soon as possible and pretty much zipped through it. YMMV, of course.

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Book #13 Book: The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Author: Stuart Turton Format: Audiobook Pages: 458 Duration: 02/14/25 – 02/17/25 (4 days) Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, fantasy, crime, time travel

📕10-word summary: Man stuck in time loop until he solves a murder. 🖌6-word review: Interesting premise. Complicated execution. Tedious reading.

💭Favorite quote: “Thankfully, the leaves and twigs are so demoralized by the earlier rain they don’t have the heart to cry out beneath my feet.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: brazier

Description:* Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. Understood? Then let’s begin… Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others…*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: If, like me, the title of this book reminds you of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, disabuse yourself right now of any notion of a connection between the two books. There isn’t any. It took me a while to get the rhythm of how the storyline in this book was going to work, and the dealbreaker for me was the one chapter that was solely exposition of the time- and body-traveling rules. I mean, if you have to stop the story with a chapter explaining how a device — which you’re purportedly employing to enhance your narrative — is going to work, maybe that’s a little too heavy-handed writing. It suspended my effort to suspend my disbelief with the sort of reading equivalent of breaking the fourth wall in theater. Tedious, annoying, distracting: 1) I found it tedious that there were 8 “hosts” (i.e., other characters’ bodies) that the protagonist inhabited during the story, but then there were a couple of bodies he “visited” more than once. End it already. 2) Overuse of the word “conspiratorial” (or its derivative) in writing is annoying to me, and there were three instances of it in this book. Nobody whispers and conspires that much. 3) This is the second audiobook by a British author that I’ve listened to recently in which I found distracting the pronunciation of these words as “enna-thing,” “enna-one,” and “evra-thing.” Is that how all Brits say those words? I don’t think so.

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Starting off with a complete aside, this book has no connection whatsoever to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

At 33% of this book read, I’ve come across the word “conspiratorial” (or one of its derivatives) 3 times. Here are the contexts:

• In chapter 1: Impatient to unburden myself of the morning’s trauma, I try again to raise the issue of Anna, but my Samaritan silences me with a conspiratorial shake of the head.

• In chapter 6: There’s a crook in her smile, a slight twist of the lips that could easily be damning yet somehow comes across as conspiratorial.

• In chapter 19: My grimace causes Harrington to lean over conspiratorially, “I had the same reaction.”

Book #12 Book: Flags of Our Fathers Author: James D. Bradley Format: Kindle Pages: 400 Duration: 02/08/25 – 02/13/25 (6 days) Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Genres: nonfiction, military fiction, war, World War II, biography, military history

📕10-word summary: Raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima photograph’s shocking history. 🖌6-word review: Scholar-like accounting. Incredibly written. Horrific details.

💭Compelling quote: “John’s other nightly habit, though, was something he refused to talk about at all. When Betty would ask him about it in the morning, he would simply turn away. He’d be sleeping, his eyes closed, was the way my mother remembered it. But he’d be whimpering. His body would shake, and tears would stream out of his eyes, down his face.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: chockablock, sintering, billet, supplanted, jingoistic, pillboxes, mettle, tyro, bivouacked, bibulous, paeans

Description:* In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: To be clear, the writing in this book is excellent. My 2-star rating is because I didn’t enjoy it, and I would not recommend it to others, which is a result of my extreme pacifism and the excruciating details about the horrific acts of war written about in this book. Full disclosure: The only reason I didn’t abandon this book was because it was a Mostly Social Book Club book. I skipped chapters 7 (D-Day), 8 (D-Day Plus One), 9 (D-Day Plus Two), 10 (D-Day Plus Three), and I skipped over many other paragraphs, passages, and sometimes pages of prolonged descriptions of murder, torture, and dismemberment. While reading this, I thought a lot about my father, and his 2 combat tours in Vietnam, during one of which he received a Purple Heart for wounds received during Operation Purple Martin. I also thought about his unwillingness to talk about his time in Vietnam like a lot of the guys in this book with regards to the battle on Iwo Jima. Also, like a lot of these guys, my dad suffered from long-term effects of his war experience — he was a terrible sleeper, couldn’t eat rice because it reminded him of maggots in the food in the field, and had severe PTSD reactions to fireworks being set off. With all that said, this story is a fascinating look at marketing and PR and its — in retrospect — absolute disastrous treatment of the most recognizable image of World War II, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal. And finally, the Afterword of this book made me gasp.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Book #11 Book: The Fall Risk Author: Abby Jimenez Format: Kindle Pages: 82 Duration: 02/07/25 – 02/07/25 (1 day) Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, romance, short story, novella

📕10-word summary: Neighbors bond over the shared stairs to their apartments disappearing. 🖌6-word review: Fun characters. A short, playful story.

💭A favorite quote: “Sometimes the start of something good begins during something bad,” he said. “We don’t get to pick when these things happen.”

Description:* It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much. But when disaster traps them one flight up and no way down, an outrageously precarious predicament forces a tree-loving guy and a rattled girl next door to embrace their captivity.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.

Thoughts: I chose this book as my February 2025 First Reads offering, which provides free early access to an editor’s pick from Amazon Prime. I liked the premise of the story, and it was a short little book to slip in after reading 4 lengthier ones and before starting the next serious, nonfiction, book club book, Flags of Our Fathers.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.