It’s that time of the year again! The time where I make excuses for why this post is late, blah blah blah and crap. At any rate, we’re mid-April now so I’d better get this out before it’s too late and I end up making another one of my monster two-year reading list mashes. Reading-wise, it appears I skewed more fantasy than usual, which was a first for me! As always, you’re welcome to skip to the standouts below 🙂
Memoirs, Memories and Me
The Meaning of Mariah Carey – Mariah Carey
Crying in H-Mart – Michelle Zauner
The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards – Jessica Waite
Robin – Dave Itzkoff
From Here to the Great Unknown – Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough
Sweet, Sweet Fantasy Baby
Starling House – Alix E. Harrow
Fourth Wing / Iron Flame – Rebecca Yarros
The Hollow Places / A Sorceress Comes to Call / Nettle and Bone – T. Kingfisher
The Familiar – Leigh Bardugo
Voyage of the Damned – Frances White
The Ministry of Time – Kaliane Bradley
The Forgetting – Sharon Cameron
Once a Monster – Robert Dinsdale
Loveswept
The Beast / The Chosen / The Thief / Lassiter – J. R. Ward
Romancing Mr. Bridgerton – Julia Quinn
Swift and Saddled – Lyla Sage
Other Stuff
Argylle – Elly Conway
The Best Laid Plans – Sidney Sheldon
Snuff – Chuck Palahniuk
The Queen’s Bed: An Intimate History of Elizabeth’s Court – Anna Whitelock
Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era – Laurence Leamer
The Last Queen: Elizabeth II’s Seventy Year Battle to Save the House of Windsor – Clive Irving
Standouts
Shoe Dog – Phil Knight
I was in Dublin the day after a riot broke out, and was confined to my hotel as it wasn’t safe to be on the streets. I’m not in the habit of reading the memoirs of entrepreneurs, but not knowing what else to do, I hung out in the lounge and picked this up, expecting a more detailed version of Prime Video’s Air (2023). I ended up enthralled with the story of Phil Knight instead. Shoe Dog isn’t just Knight’s story, it’s the story of Nike, his “third son.” Nike’s early beginnings, and its development into the behemoth it is today is way more captivating than any old shoe deal with a burgeoning basketball star and his indomitable mother. Not that Air was bad (go watch it), it was just a pleasant surprise to pick up a book expecting one thing, and find something else even better. Knight can make even accounting sound interesting, and Shoe Dog transcends mere selling and success. It’s a rollicking good story and is compulsively readable. I was very tempted to steal the book and take it home. I didn’t, and although I do now have my own legally gotten copy, may regret not giving in to that initial impulse to this day.
The Quiet Tenant РCl̩mence Michallon
According to Libby, I read this book in one hour and twenty minutes, which doesn’t seem quite right. Pretty sure it took longer than that to finish. What is true is that I inhaled this book in one sitting, something I rarely do now, because my attention span has become woefully fractured. When a book grabs me by the eyeballs and refuses to let go until the last page has been turned, it’s a sign of how good the writing, the story, and the pace is. The New York Times calls The Quiet Tenant an “assured debut” and an “expertly paced psychological thriller” and I am inclined to agree. Michallon skillfully uses multiple voices to weave the narrative around a serial killer – the woman he keeps chained in a shed, the woman who loves him, and his daughter – masterfully ratcheting up the suspense and the dread, chapter by chapter as the ghosts of the serial killer’s victims chime in. It’s chilling. It’s great.
Mistborn: The Final Empire / The Well of Ascension / The Hero of Ages – Brandon Sanderson
Can Brandon Sanderson write? This guy from Wired doesn’t seem to think so. Although I am tardy to the Sanderson party, I do not agree with the guy from Wired. Brandon Sanderson is a good storyteller, even if he doesn’t seem to like using variations on the word “scream”. The Mistborn trilogy is a fun romp through a fantasyland of erupting volcanos, weird skies, ash, and magic. Read it if only to see if you agree (or don’t) with the guy from Wired.
Thornhedge – T. Kingfisher
In Toadling – ugly and unsure, with barely any powers to speak of, Kingfisher has the opposite of a traditional protagonist. You may not want to read about her story, or even care. But you won’t be able to help yourself once you’ve started, because reading Thornhedge feels like someone is simply whispering the story in your ear as you leaf through illustrations of fairies, sleeping maidens in towers, with knights errant hacking their way through the brush. Using clean, uncomplicated prose, Kingfisher absolutely deserved the Hugo Award for Best Novella. Read this if you love re-imagined fairytales.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder – David Grann
Grann’s characters are as fully fleshed out as he can make them, and this gripping tale of castaways fighting for survival while holding on to the tenets of honor and dignity is well worth the read. The Wager may be non-fiction, but all the pulse-pounding action makes it’s easy to forget that it is. Grann has penned a veritable thriller – and the tension is so tight, you might find yourself holding your breath as you turn the page, wanting to see what happens next.
Saving for Botox 
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