Book 88: First Street, a Novel by a Bunch of People

 I just finished First Street and I give it ☆☆☆.

This is a book about four clerks at the Supreme Court, and interestingly there are a bunch of authors affiliated with this book (see them all here.). Each chapter lists the author for that chapter. Anyway, the book reads like a novelization of a television show--very episodic, very 'law suit of the day', and also lots of interpersonal stuff--sort of The Resident at the Supreme Court. The four clerks are pretty stereotyped: Gabriel is a hispanic army veteran who leans far right who was the 'second choice' for his clerkship, Jack is the son of a Congressman who disagrees with everything his father stands for, Odessa is a former ballerina who struggles with leaving her dancing past behind, and Charlotte is neurodivergent and learning how to get along with this variable group of people. The justices are stereotyped as well (at least the ones we read about, which is only three of the group). Anyway, it's a fast read and the bits about how to court operates is interesting, but this descends too quickly into soap opera territory. And then it ends in a huge cliffhanger with no followup book. Not good.

Book 87: The Witches of Bellinas by J. Nicole Jones

 I just finished The Witches of Bellinas and I give it 🧹🧹🧹🧹🧹. 

It's hard to describe this book---it's the story of Tansy, who moves to Bellinas at the invitation of her new husband's cousin, Mia. Bellinas is perfect! Absolutely perfect! Well, except for the somewhat airy-fairy qualities of most of the women. And the children who all look like Mia's husband, Manny. And Manny himself. As Tansy gets deeper into the mysteries of Bellinas, she also discovers some mysteries about herself. This book won't be for everyone, but I really liked it.

Book 86: Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan

 I just finished Lies and Weddings and I give it 🪭🪭🪭🪭1/2.

I love me some Kevin Kwan, and this book is the perfect frothy confection that you expect from him. In a way, it's his "Four Weddings and a Funeral" that focuses on the wealthy Greshamsbury family, Thomas Tong and his daughter Eden, and the mysterious man who knows all the secrets. It was just pure fun.

Book 85: I hope this finds you well by Natalie Sue

 I just finished I Hope This Finds You Well and I give it ★★★1/2.

This is yet another workplace novel about a disenchanted Millenial who hates her job and had something horrible happen to her in her youth. There's an interesting premise--an HR error allows her to read everyone else's emails--and she tries to be a better worker and human being but it's a struggle. It's well written but I've ready too many of these types of books recently to really enjoy them.

Book 84: Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong

 I just finished Goodbye, Vitamin and give it 💊💊💊💊💊.

Ruth leaves her ex-fiance, her job, and her life in San Francisco to spend a year helping her mother take care of her dad, who is slowly (and then quickly) failing from Alzheimer's. It's a novel told with love, compassion, and empathy, and I just loved it. It sounds like it could be depressing but trust me, it isn't. It's so hopeful and generous. 

Book 83: One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

 I just finished One Perfect Couple and I give it 🌴🌴🌴🌴 1/2.

I love Ruth Ware and this new book did not disappoint--it arrived in my Kindle at 9pm Monday night and I finished it at about 2pm on Tuesday. It's a cross between Lord of the Flies and every thriller ever written abot filming a reality show on an island. 

It's typical Ruth Ware--it moves quickly, it's very plot driven, and it features a strong heroine. But the other characters on the island, especially the other women, are also very strong and unique. It takes an excellent writer to be able to have such a fast moving plot AND to create such special characters. 

I had to take off half a palm tree because of two parts of the book where we have no idea how something happened but other than that it was great. 

Book 82: Exit Interview: The Life and Death of my Ambitious Career by Kristi Coulter

 I just finished Exit Interview and I give it ☆☆☆☆.

This is the true story of Kristi's years working at Amazon. It shows Amazon to be a completely messed up workplace, sometimes driven by the whims of Jeff Bezos and constrained by a bunch of hoity toity mission statement goals. It was interesting but she clearly worked at Amazon way too long and this book is testament to that--it's just too long.

Book 81: Anita De Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzales

 I just finished Anita De Monte Laughs Last and I give it ☆☆☆☆☆.

What a great book. Beautifully written and evocative and so much good stuff. It's a story told in two time periods: Anita De Monte is an artist who is overshadowed by her artist husband, who pushes her out a window in a fit of rage (no spoiler, really). De Monte is basically forgotten. 30 years or so later, Brown first-gen Hispanic student Raquel Toro is researching her honors thesis and examines both De Monte's life and her own story of her relationship with a rich young white man.  There's a bit of magical realism and Santeria in this which came as a surprise when I started reading that part but it was interesting and well done. This book is all about how women's and minority voices get so easily silenced.  Just a great read. 

Book 80: Very Bad Company by Emma Rosenblum

 I just finished Very Bad Company and I give it ★★★★ 1/2. 

I really liked Rosenblum's first book (Bad Summer People) and I liked this one as well! It's the story of an executive retreat of a tech company that is about to be sold, and how all the people react to the sale. There's also a mysterious death which brings all kinds of bad secrets out. No one is perfect and some characters are awful but this was a fun read.

Book 79: Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Dolan

 I just finished Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Dolan and I give it ★★★. 

I thought this book would be a story of whether one child killed another, and how an intrepid reporter figured it out. Instead, it was a character study of a bitter and poor family from Ireland. Not quite my cup of tea.

Book 78: Lucky by Jane Smiley

 I just finished Lucky and I give it 📙📙 1/2.

The only reason I kept reading this book is because it was set in my hometown (St. Louis), very very close to the neighborhood where I grew up. This is a fake memoir of a not-successful folk singer who made a lot of money through a few lucky breaks and then just....doesn't do a lot. She engages with her family, she sleeps with lots and lots of guys, she writes really bad lyrics.    NOTHING. HAPPENS. There's a weird twist at the end which made little sense. If you didn't go to high school with me, you probably don't need to read this book.

Book 77: The Manor House by Gilly MacMillan

 I just finished The Manor House and I give it ☝☝☝☝.

This is a twisty, plot driven mystery--who killed lottery winner Tom? Was it his wife Nicole, his friend who needed money (Patrick), the vagrant in the woods, the weird housekeeper Kitty, or the sketchy couple Olly and Sasha? I kept reading til I found out who it was, and then I kept reading AFTER because there were two more twists after the killer is revealed! So many twists! I liked this book of twisty mystery.

Book 66: Expiration Dates by Rebecca Searle

 I just finished Expiration Dates and I give it 💗💗💗💗.

I'm really not a romance reader, and I think it might be stretching to call it a romance, but I was charmed by this book and read it in a few hours. It's not great literature, but it is a very sweet story. The premise is: Production Assistant Daphne receives a slip of paper whenever she meets a potential boyfriend that has the boyfriend's name and the length of time that the relationship will last. So yeah, you kind of have to suspend belief from the git-go with this book. Anyway, we learn about a few of the 'short term' boyfriends and then Daphne meets Jake. Jake's note has no length of time on it--it's just blank. What does that mean? How does Daphne know if Jake is indeed the one? Daphne is a smart and enjoyable character, even when there is kind of a big swerve about two-thirds of the way through the book. Anyway, after so many police procedurals this was a great palate cleanser of a book.

Book 65: Being Henry: The Fonz and Beyond by Henry Winkler

 I just finished Being Henry and I give it ☆☆☆☆.

This memoir is pretty good. Certainly I remember The Fonz from Happy Days (its first few years were when I was in High School and then I had a hiatus during college, but I probably watched it a bit after maybe? I don't recall. Anyway, this is an interesting book how Winkler dealt with fame, how he got stereotypes and found it hard to get another job after Happy Days, how he got into directing, and how therapy helped him deal with his career issues as well as his family issues (his parents seemed like real pieces of work). He seems like a generally nice guy, if a little anxious, and he certainly loves his family and friends. I think I got this for $2 or so on Amazon and it was certainly worth that!

Book 64: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

 I just finished EIMFHKS and I give it ⁍⁍⁍. 

I don't like books with chatty first person narrators, I don't like the 'oh look I'm pulling back the curtain' feeling of Ernest, I was struggling to keep up with all the characters, and this is just not the book (or series) (sadly) for me. 

I don't like Richard Osman either. 

Book 63: My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman

 I just finished My Latest Grievance and I give it ☆☆☆ 1/2.

I know I said I was done with my revisiting of Elinor's books but this one came across on the Unlimited so I gave it another read. I remembered very little about it, except the main character/narrator has the same voice as in all her other books. It was ok. It was more interesting to read as my campus had unionized (the main character's parents are union organizers at a college). But other than that, this was just an ok book.

Book 62: End of Story by AJ Finn

 I just finished End of Story and I give it 🗡🗡🗡🗡.

I liked  "The Woman in the Window" and I liked this book more. Nicky is invited to visit an author she idolizes--Sebastian Trapp--and to write what is supposed to be a 'private memoir' for a dying man. Trapp's first wife and son went 'missing' twenty years prior, and Nicky, a mystery aficionado, wonders if she might find out what really happened. At the house, she meets not only Trapp, but his second wife Diana, his daughter Maddy, and his nephew Fred. As she starts to put the puzzle pieces together, truths start to arise for her and for other members of the family. If you like mysteries, and mysteries about mysteries, this book might be of interest to you.