What Did T. Read In 2023?

 

“What Did T Read in 2023??”

Best Non-fiction: Travel as a Political Act

Best Psychology: What My Bones Know

Best Adult Fiction: Cloud Cuckoo Land

Best Memoir: The Complete Maus

Best Historical Fiction: Small Mercies

Best Fantasy: Clytemnestra

Best Realistic/Sci-Fi: Wrong Place Wrong Time

Best Book by Non-White Author: Light on Yoga 

Best Young Adult (YA): Firekeeper’s Daughter

Best Middle Grades (MG): Orbiting Jupiter

1. Crying in H Mart - A woman reckons with what it means to be both Korean and American as she loses her mother.

2. All the Dangerous Things - Good mystery thriller about a mother who may or may not be an accidental killer. I liked her other book, “A Flicker in the Dark,” better though.

3. The Cloisters - 3.5 Stars — love a Gothic offshoot of the Met hiding in New York as the setting. I love NYC and I love all things Gothic. I also like that it was set in academia, something the author clearly has familiarity with. I didn’t like the ending. I don’t want to say too much and spoil it, but it didn’t redeem the characters for me. None of the characters were particularly likable. Aruna wasn’t fleshed out enough. Conflict with Laure was never resolved. Protagonist was mentioned as having a hard time distinguishing fact from reality, but that never went anywhere. There are also loose threads that don’t really resolve. However, it DID keep me reading, and I love the idea of the sisters spinning our fates…

4. What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma - Author Stephanie Foo was diagnosed with Complex-PTSD brought on by prolonged childhood trauma. That’s the first 25% of the book. The author then undergoes a journey to discover how we store trauma in our bodies and how we can heal. This book is a rare blend of investigative reporting, memoir, and really good writing. Great book!

5. All My Rage - Chapters begin with pieces of one of my favorite poems: One Art, by Elizabeth Bishop. As Noor tries to analyze the poem for her English class, her story unfolds— she was buried alive after an earthquake in Pakistan. Her uncle dug her out with his bare hands but now controls every aspect of her life. Now living in California, Noor is secretly in love with her best friend, Salahudin, a boy battling harrowing demons of his own. Both stories are interwoven worth that of Misbah, Sal’s mother. It was really interesting to read this book after What My Bones Know because they had so much in common… This story of generational rage shows just how trauma like racial injustice, poverty, scarcity, and violence can be stored in the body. I loved this book. It was brilliant.

6. I’m Glad My Mom Died - Jeanette McCurdy’s narcissistic mother forced her into acting at a young age and then emotionally, mentally, and sexually exploited her. Jeanette’s mom died of cancer when the actress was 21, freeing her to consider a life of her own choosing. It was tough to read about a mom whose whims the whole family revolves around, but I’m glad Jeanette got help and wrote this memoir as part of her recovery.

7. Light on Yoga - This book was great!!! Even if you only read the Introduction (the first 50ish pages), it’s STILL great! I was intrigued by all the subtle nods to Christianity — phrases like “the peace that passes all understanding” and “as fire burns and refines gold, so the fire of truth cleanses…” and “a man must rely upon God, who is the source of all strength. Then he will fear no evil” and “Thy will be done.” Iyengar (or his translators) really read the room when trying to explain yoga to the West!

8. Demon Copperhead - Admittedly, I've never read David Copperfield. It's hard to read Dickens when he was monetarily incentivized to make his books as long as possible. Also, they're depressing as hell because he wrote what he knew, and what he knew was poverty and foster care. So that goes to say that I don't know if the aspects I didn't like in this book (the out-of-left-field relationship development; the pointlessness of one villain entirely) were Kingsolver's or Dickens' fault. Overall, it was a great book; but as with all books, movies, TV shows concerning the opioid crisis in Appalachia, this was a tough thing to get through. Still, Kingsolver did a masterful job developing Demon's voice. I read somewhere that this was her shameless audition at a Pulitzer, and who knows, maybe she'll get it. Like I said, I wish more of the book had made sense -- some of the characters appeared, just to disappear, and I wanted them to be more like Great Expectations and serve a purpose or come back around. Other characters were forgettable and when they were repeatedly brought back up, I'd already forgotten who they were. But I got a good dose of Appalachia and the people flying their kites in the storm against all odds…

9. Independence - I was enthralled enough by India’s history to look up information about the Partition on my own after reading this. 

10. The Villa - It was a decent book, maybe 3.5 stars. I just won’t remember it in a week. Also, I found the best friend character extremely unlikable and unbelievable. I found protagonist’s later actions toward her best friend completely baffling. So what worked? The Villa itself, the house in Italy. I could almost feel the sun-warmed stone of it. I also liked that it was set in the 70’s because that was before my time and fun to read about.

11. The Psychopath Test - 3.5 Stars. I enjoyed many aspects of this book. I liked learning about what constitutes a psychopath and how the DSM developed into a series of checklists and why. And I ESPECIALLY liked the guy behind DSM-IV (Dr. Allen Frances) outright admitting that ADHD should never have been included. I liked the Being or Nothingness mystery too. I didn’t like that there wasn’t really a resolution…So what are we saying? Petter Nordland was crazy and mailed a bunch of academics an expensive and mysterious book just to mess with them? Without any rhyme or reason? Also, there were so many names and people in this book, I kind of forgot who was who. And I’m ultimately not even entirely sure what the book was about. It started out a mystery. Then turned into “What is a psychopath?” and “Has this one dude been hospitalized unfairly?” And then it turned into “How did we start labeling people to begin with?” and “How do the drug companies benefit?” But then it came back to Tony the maybe-psychopath and ended back with the mysterious book that recipients are supposed to solve — only without solving it. The book just ended. Still, it was an interesting read and left me thinking for a really long time.

12. Cloud Cuckoo Land - “All times and all stories are one and the same in the end.” This book is an anthem and battle-cry not only for the world, but for books everywhere. It’s a story within a story within like two other stories. And Aethon’s story is the story of Everyman. “We are all beautiful even as we are all part of the problem, and to be a part of the problem is to be human” INCREDIBLE BOOK!!!!

13. The Soulmate - Pippa Gerard is obsessed with her movie-star-like husband. How did she get so lucky? And also, did she just see him push a woman off a cliff? Because that would really fkkk with their marriage. It was compulsive and kept me turning pages. But I will completely forget the plot within five days. Standard 3.5 stars

14. Weyward - Three stories from three different witches across the ages.

15. Shanghai Girls - “We said all the right things. We said we believed in re-armement, Jesus, and freedom.” This book was well-written but too much. Think of all the worst things you can think of. They are all here to describe the Chinese-American experience— poverty, misogyny, racism, McCarthyism, betrayal. It’s just too much. It’s too much.

16. Babel - This author won the Goodreads Choice Award, so this will be an unpopular review: There are amazing books. And then there are books that should be amazing but somehow are not. This is the latter. Clocking in at 544 pages (if you are a visual reader) or 22 hours (if you are an auditory reader), Babel by R.F. Kuang was truly an epic. It was a bit like if J.K. Rowling tried to cram the first 3 Harry Potter books into one book. Truth be told, nothing very significant happened until around page 400. But I digress. First, a brief synopsis.

In Victorian-esque England, the Industrial Revolution is powered by silver -- magical silver. This magical silver is encoded with "match-pairs" or linguistic links that imbue the silver with a special power to do everything from holding massive bridges in place to making carriages run quickly and more smoothly. The world runs on silver and Babel -- the great translation tower at Oxford -- is the center of it all. On the 8th floor of Babel are all the silver bars and all the translation students brought in from the vast reaches of the British Empire to bend their formidable linguistic skills toward silverworking. That is, until the secretive Hermes Society recruits our erstwhile young hero -- Robin Swift -- and his cohort into a madcap ploy to bring the Empire to its knees.

That's the gist. Now for the good. R.F. Kuang is very, very intelligent. With degrees (or almost-degrees) from Georgetown, Oxford, Cambridge, and Yale, she knows her subject matter: history and linguistics. Her command of languages is truly rather staggering.

Now for the bad. Where to start? 544 pages was RIDICULOUS overkill. I majored in Linguistics at university, I freaking LOVE words, and I was bored out of my g******n mind. It was far, far, far too long.

Secondly -- many of the characters were imminently unlikeable. Robin Swift? He grew increasingly self-absorbed and more obnoxious as the book went on. Griffin? Same. Lettie? Same. Okay, let's just say that Victoire, the Haitian immigrant, was the only character I cared about at all.

Thirdly -- this was extremely didactic and the author thinks her readers are idiots. I mean, DAMN woman!! I get it!!! Empire = bad!!! White people = bad!!!! Colonialism = bad!!!! I actually got so annoyed by the way Kuang beat readers over the head with her points that I had to do a search to see if I was overreacting. I was not. Variants of colonialism are mentioned 52 times. Variants of Empire are mentioned 74 times, or once every 7 and a half pages for 544 pages. This is problematic.

Fourthly -- the world-building is lacking -- here's an author so focused on her message that she doesn't bother to construct a world that's much different from our own. It's like, "Oh hey, the Industrial Revolution was powered by magical silver! That's all! Continue as you were..."

Fifthly -- no one who could actually profit from this book would make it past a few pages. HELL! I love reading books on social justice and the search for equity and even I was completely put off by Kuang's phrases like, "He wanted to wring the life from her neck, to tear the white bitch to pieces." Like... who is the target audience here? I have to think that if progressives like me are put off by the vilifying, others will be, too. It just goes on and on and on. YES, white people did many, many cruel and inhumane things. Yes, they protected (and continue to protect) Empire at all costs. But a more nuanced exploration of complicity would surely have been so much more powerful!

Sixthly -- Those footnotes. What the hell. Footnotes are important in academic writing. This was supposed to be a historical fantasy. You simply do not need 5,467 footnotes (rough estimate).

Lastly, that ending. WTH. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say: one character needing to hunt another to the ends of the earth? Just because...wait, why? No idea.

In short -- do not read this book. I know it's rated 4.3 on GoodReads, and I feel like a lunatic for disagreeing with the masses. But this book was not good. 1 star.

17. Yoga Nidra - 3.5 stars. This book took me a long time to read. Maybe I am not advanced enough to understand it all. Here’s what I did understand: Yoga nidra is the fourth stage of human consciousness (1, conscious; 2, unconscious; 3 dreaming). In yoga nidra, you are conscious of dreams and use the archetype structure of dreams to experience deep relaxation. I think it has enormous potential if it can be properly harnessed and implemented. For example, the author explains that using yoga nidra can help individuals learn a language five times faster than normal! (The trick is that you then have to review everything you “learned” once you are finished). I would have liked to learn more about this and how to implement it.

There are 7 scripts for yoga nidra in the book. These include archetypal images and directions for “rotation of consciousness” … There isn’t an explanation (unless I missed it) for why certain images are included. For example, as your mind scrolls through the images the speaker lists of, you might hear “sunset…rose opening…temple at dusk…burning body.” And I’m like WTF?!? Burning body?! I’m assuming this represents the death archetype, but that’s an assumption based on my English degree — no explanation is given and if I heard that during a yoga nidra class, it would really throw me off. I wish the author had done more by way of explanation on how to select images. I can just see myself leading a session saying, “sunset…rain cloud……. piano? …shoe?” 😂

All that to say that I wish there were more explanation of images. However, the rotation of consciousness bits were great and I’ve found myself using those when I need to calm down or detach. (Rotation of consciousness is when you focus on different parts of your body one by one). I found the last part of the book, the part with the science, the most fascinating. There are real-life applications, yoga nidra for kids, pictures of brain scans during deep relaxation, etc. Bear in mind, however, that this is all dreadfully out of date. One of the studies is from fifty years ago. The book itself has been out of print for only a decade; surely, much has been done to discover the benefits of “waking sleep” in the time since?

All in all, I’m glad I read it! I talked to a couple of the older ladies at my yoga studio about their experiences with yoga nidra. They LOVE it and were regretful about classes being rescheduled. I suggested Yin to them and interestingly, both said Yin is too hard on their bodies. That would not have occurred to me. Having now tried yoga nidra several times, I can definitely say I join the ladies in being a fan! I’m interested in learning more about it and seeing further research…

18. The Bear and the Nightingale - I NEVER re-read books, but I read this one from 2 years ago again! (YA) For lovers of Game of Thrones and Diane Setterfield’s “Once Upon A River” comes an old north story of magic and snow. The Bear and the Nightingale tells the tale of a witch’s daughter named Vasya, living in the frozen tundra of Russia’s wild northern lands, lands ruled by domovoi and spirits. As a girl, Vasya stumbles upon an ancient magic, and as she ages, the magic threatens all she knows and loves. Loved this book!!

19. Adelaide - There’s a fine line between “writing what you know” and writing an autobiography couched as a novel, with lots of disclaimer at the beginning and giveaways in the Acknowledgments. I wanted to love this book, but it just really felt like the author was trying to exorcise her own demons. I have no idea if she — like the protagonist — fell in love with an unavailable man, had a breakdown, discovered she was bipolar, and then adopted a dog. But it all felt like she was trying to just make her life into a book. It didn’t work for me.

20. The Tiger’s Wife - The author is the youngest winner of the a Orange Prize for Fiction. So obviously a board of some kind understand the magical realism going on here. I read this book — set in an unnamed Eastern European country at war — in preparation for a pilgrimage to Croatia. There are at least two stories going on at once here: one of Natalia, a young doctor inoculating poverty-stricken children on a hillside; and one about her grandfather, a young boy decades earlier who befriended a tiger and a deaf-mute girl. In the middle of all of this is “The deathless man” — a character from Eastern European lore (?), he is the nephew of Death and serves to bring souls to the Crossroads.

As several others have said, perhaps I’m just not *smart* enough to completely understand what’s going on here. But basically I think the Tiger is a metaphor for the people who are placeless and nationless… they’ve been left to their own devices, knowing neither how to be completely docile nor completely free as governments redraw boundaries and decide who lives and who dies. As the townspeople try to decide whether the people with dark skin and different names are their friends or enemies, the Tiger serves as a convenient scapegoat for anything that is “other” and foreign and potentially dangerous. Meanwhile, Death himself is actually a compassionate friend, and one who harvests the souls that men themselves kill.

21. Croatia Travel Guide 2023 - I've heard it said that you can buy really good reviews on Amazon, but I wasn't quite sure until this book arrived in the mail. I'm planning to travel to Croatia later this month and Rick Steves new book won't be out until after I return! Seeing that this travel guide by Stuart Hartley had so many 5-star reviews, I took the bait and bought it. MISTAKE! This book was very clearly self-published. It is double-spaced (like a tenth grade term paper) and even at that, still only 92 pages. Some pages are completely blank. The editing errors are frequent and obvious. Check out the front cover: "Everything you Need to Know Before Plan a Trip to Croatia." The following words are in bold: Everything, you, Need, Before, Croatia. The following words are not: to, Know, Plan, a, Trip. No telling why. No telling why there's a word missing. No telling why most of the words -- but not all -- are capitalized. Now, as I said, the book is 92 pages double-spaced (in case you aren't an English teacher or formerly in the printing and publishing industry, NO BOOKS are double-spaced). Even at that, some of it is filled with really obvious stuff. Here's a sample paragraph:

You must be aware of Croatian hotels, apartments, and villas if you also intend to travel to Croatia temporarily or permanently. You have two options for conducting your research: either utilize a standard directory or go online for more efficient and productive research. The internet provides several incredibly useful educational websites that provide access to Croatian real estate. The top hotels worldwide, including Croatia, serve delicious food and beverages. Similarly, Croatian villas are located in some of the world's most tranquil areas, and you can unwind fully in this area because of the incredibly cool and quiet nature." I mean...what?? This paragraph accounts for between one-third and one-half of a page and it tells me to use the internet. In short, stick with Rich Steves book or another travel guide, friends. 1 star.

22. Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History - 2.5 stars. Maybe it was because I did the audiobook, but I found this hard to stay tuned into. I did like how the countries were broken down into chapters. And I will look into the quintessential Balnkans book the author kept referencing by Rebecca West. But for history and easy to follow info, I like Rick Steves’ “History of Yugoslavia” sections in his Croatia & Slovenia travel guide much better.

23. Rick Steves Croatia & Slovenia - Full disclaimer, this book was 700+ pages, am I only read the the Croatia and Yugoslavia parts, since that’s where I’m traveling. I would have loved it if the ninth edition had come out three months earlier (it’s due in print this August), but I made the most of the eighth edition. I love Steves frankness about what’s worth it and what to skip and I LOVE LOVE LOVE his history lessons about nations and their leaders!!

24.  Clytemnestra - Five shiny gold stars for this feminist retelling of the myth of oft-vilified Clytemnestra, who did what she had to do to survive and to get justice.

25. The Witch’s Heart - 3.5 stars - A retelling of the Norse legends from the perspective of Angrboda, the Motherwitch. Before there was Ragnarök and the end of the 9 worlds, there was a witch thrice-killed and thrice reborn. And above all, that witch was a mother. I felt this book had quite a bit of long winded banter that was unnecessary. But other than that, the epic struggle between gods and giants is pretty awesome.

26. Travel as a Political Act - Truly inspirational, impactful, and insightful. I read this while on a journey through Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy. I realize not everyone reads two travel guides and a 1,200-page history book to prepare for a trip, but these really helped me connect with the culture and people. The world’s most renowned travel guru, Steves is a Christian (which I hadn’t initially realized). He demonstrates how to be both unapologetically Christian AND a “raging liberal,” as my folks might say. As he travels through the developing world, the West Bank, and Europe, Rick Steves explores how Americans fear other cultures and how the antidote to fear is knowledge and human interaction. A question I’ve been asking a lot for the past few years is, “What does it look like to get your hands dirty in the business of improving the lives of others?” American Christians are well-known for sending money and missionaries to Africa. But what would it look like to help people WITHOUT expecting them to give up pieces of their culture in return? Why are so many Americans so convinced that we have nothing to learn from other nations and peoples? What I loved about this book is that Steves puts his money where his mouth is. Without any kind of Bob Goff-esque braggadocio, he gets his hands dirty. He admits to being afraid when visiting Iran and confused about what to call Palestine/Israel. But then he goes for it anyway and encourages you to do the same. The entire royalties from this book went toward an organization that lobbies the US government on behalf of poor people. And Steves doesn’t stop there. He explains to his readers the differences between charity, development, and advocacy and then provides actionable steps for how to get involved in improving our world. I loved that he started the book off by saying he would try not to abuse his bully pulpit…but then he wrote an overtly political book 🤣 This guy is my new favorite, and I believe all Americans would benefit from reading Travel as a Political Act.

27. Stone Blind - “Who decides what is a monster?” That is the central question of Stone Blind, a retelling of the Medusa myth. For lovers of Circe (Madeline Miller), Ariadne (Jennifer Saint), and Clytemnestra (Kostanza Casati), this book asserts what we all know to be true: that every story has at least two sides, and that history is always written by the victors. In Stone Blind, Medusa and her Gorgon sisters are finally seen and honored. The story is narrated by the Gorgon head, severed from its body by the cowardly, inept, and sniveling Perseus. The only thing I didn’t like about this book was the sheer number of characters (there’s a list at the front, lest you get confused) and side plots. I think the story would have been easier to follow and just as good without allllllllllllll the bits about Andromeda and everything happening in Ethiopia. Other than the meandering plot, it was great!

28. Behold the Dreamers - This is a story of two families: the Cameroonian Jongas (Jende and Neni) and the Wall Street Edwardses (Clark and Cindy). Jende comes to America in search of a better life, praying that his asylum application is approved. While he waits, a friend of a friend gets him a job as private chauffer to Clark Edwards, of Lehman Brothers. Now making $35,000 a year in New York City, Jende considers himself a very rich man and is able to send for his wife Neni and help pay for her to go to college. As Neni works toward a degree, she comes to love life in New York and dream of the wonderful things their children will go on to achieve. Meanwhile, Clark and Cindy Edwards' marriage is crumbling as Lehman Brothers falls apart. When the Edwards family fires Jende and his asylum application is denied, the Jongas' lives spiral out of control. Readers cannot help but feel pain for the Jonga family, but it's hard to feel anything but disgust for the Edwardses -- particularly the oldest son, Vince, with his trust fund and cultural appropriation. What I appreciated about this book was that the ending felt pretty realistic. I never did like half the characters... but the loss of dreams for some of the others was heartbreaking and shines an interesting light on American immigration policy.

29. Atalanta -I love mythology, but this book wasn’t nearly as good as Ariadne (same author). I finished it because I was listening to the audiobook while cycling and it was better than riding in silence, but I didn’t find any of the characters likable or compelling. As an alternative, read Ariadne or Clytemnestra or Circe.

30. Lady Tan’s Circle of Women - See’s books are always incredibly well-researched and this one is no exception. Like Snow Flower & The Secret Fan, this book chronicles the friendship of two women who are linked through a formal-ish arrangement by their elders. Yunxian is rich and cultured but suffers from depression; Meiling is poorer and a “big-feet girl” but vivacious. Together they can protect each other through the stages of life. Like some of See’s other books, this one sucked me into the period and culture so much that I wasn’t expecting any kind of twist!

31. Blind Spot: the Hidden Biases of Good People - 2.5 stars- This book is about “mindbugs,” or the blind spots that we all have when it comes to stereotypes and treatment of those from a different race, age group, or religious affiliation than our own. While I agree with the sentiments, I didn’t feel the authors had anything new to say. This reads like a dissertation or master’s capstone project…I’d already been exposed to most of the studies and ideas they cited. I found books like White Fragility, Blink, Talking to Strangers, and Cultish more compelling.

32. The Marriage Portrait - Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” forms the inspiration for this historical fiction about Lucrezia de Medici, the doomed Duchess of Ferrara. In his poem, Browning takes on the role of Alphonse, Duke of Ferrara, casually explaining to an unnamed visitor how his “last duchess” had to die. This should have been a vivid and spectacular story of murder, madness, and intrigue. Instead, it dragged along interminably at points, such as in the extremely long chapter about a tiger. Great potential, uneven execution.

33. Little Secrets - Binge read this in a day! Marin and Derek have the perfect affluent life…until their son Sebastian is kidnapped. Now 15 months later, Marin struggles through monthly support group meetings and Derek finds more and more reasons to absent himself from home. With one suicide attempt under her belt, Marin’s barely hanging on, and she certainly doesn’t have the bandwidth to deal with another blow…until she is confronted with het husband’s infidelity. This book is twisty and turny and will keep you reading!

34. Jar of Hearts - 3.5 stars. This book is MESSSSSSED UPPPPP. Geo is in prison for the murder of one of her best friends. Kaiser is the detective who brought her in — and her other former best friend. And the man who started it all? Calvin James? Why, he’s just escaped his own maximum security prison and is now on the loose again. Geo is the only woman James has ever been close to and NOT killed…and now no one can find him. This is one of those books that is over. the. top. but it will still stick around in your head a long time…The ending was completely unbelievable and bizarre but the rest of the book for sure kept me reading!!

35. The Hollow Inside (YA) Great Gateway 2024 Nominee! This book reminds me a bit of the Scarlet Letter, as it might have been told by a vengeful Pearl. “Phoenix” lived in a van with her mother…or the only mother she’s ever known, at any rate. Nina is kind of a flat villain (in fact, the word “flat” is overused to describe her affect quite a bit) but one with a purpose: destroy the life of the man who destroyed hers. As Nina and Phoenix travel to small-town Jasper Hollow to seek vengeance, it becomes obvious that Phoenix is being kept in the dark about a lot of things. There were some loose threads that weren’t tied up at all, but on the whole, a great book!

36.  Economix - This book provides a great, accessible crash course in basic economics. The cartoon-style panel layout makes it easy to read. I especially appreciated how it’s organized like a history text, in chronological order; this makes the cause-and-effect easier to understand! While economics is an overwhelming field, a 300-page comic book with glossary and further reading suggestions is a great place to start! I especially appreciated the differentiation between how markets SHOULD work hypothetically and how they HAVE worked realistically.

37. Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love (YA)- Gateway Nominee 2024. 3.5 stars. "Gubben" Oz Olsson lives with his grandfather "Farfar" and helps the older man run a food truck selling traditional Nordic food. I loved learning a little about Swedish and Finnish culture, and Farfar's determination to redeem himself for having lived a double-life is beautiful. Reck is a funny writer, even when he's writing a serious story.

38.  The Right Side of Reckless (YA) - A basic book where a good girl falls for a bad boy. Sigh.

39. Fadeaway (YA) Gateway Nominee 2024. 3.5 stars. I am loving books that deal with effects of the opioid crisis. Jake Foster is a varsity ball player with a killer fadeaway…until he gets injured and addicted to oxycontin. He’s just trying to hold it together long enough to win State. But then he disappears.

40. The Initial Insult (YA) Gateway Nominee 2024. 3.5 stars. This is a horror-inspired modern retelling of Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” One girl gets really mad at her former best friend, kidnaps her, chains her up, and tries to force a confession by slowly burying her alive. I was left confused by the end… I still don’t understand how one friend ended up on a riverbank. Don’t really understand what happened to the panther. What happened with Cecil? Lots of questions but McGinnis did a good job building the horror elements and including Poe Easter eggs.

41. Concrete Rose (YA) Gateway Nominee 2024. This one is going to be this year's winner, ya'll. Angie Thomas can do no wrong. How can one author be so freaking talented? The creator of The Hate U Give brings us the backstory of Starr's parents, but you don't have to have read THUG to understand or love this book. 17-year-old Maverick is a King Lord because his father -- now in prison for 40 years -- is a King Lord. And how else is he supposed to earn enough money for diapers, formula, and baby clothes? When Mav's cousin is murdered, he struggles with what Dre would have wanted for him, even as the streets close in on him. This is a book about "a gang-banging high school flunkout"... who decides to be better and do better for his son. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by Dion Graham. This book is poignant, funny, and real. I recommend it to anyone who works in an urban school or with young Black men; also, for readers who loved If I Grow Up, Homeboyz, or the Bluford books.

42.  The Passing Playbook (YA) Gateway Nominee 2024. Spencer Harris has left his public school behind and transferred to a new school, one where no one knows that his birth certificate still reads "female." When he joins the local soccer team (against his parents' wishes), he meets the handsome Justice Cortez. Justice's family is deeply religious and does not know he's gay. Spencer and Justice navigate their feelings for each other as the Queer Straight Alliance advocates for gender-neutral bathrooms at their school. * I did not like this book. Most of it felt like a middle grades book instead of YA. Some of it felt really on-the-nose, like when Spencer can't be heard reading names of trans kids over the storm and his friends yell, "Don't worry! We will amplify your voice!!!" Also, the portrayal of Justice's religious family and church lacked any kind of nuance. It's really easy to draw a Machievellan mustache on an entire group of people, but most Christians are not Westboro Baptist Church in their ardor and hatred. I would have liked to see a more conflicted portrayal of the antagonists in this book... people who genuinely do love their neighbors, and yet feel compelled to say incredibly dangerous things because they are so misguided. But that's just me.

43. You’d Be Home Now (YA) Gateway Nominee 2024. Emory Ward’s family built the town of Mill Haven when they built the Mill for which it is named. They are the rich and privileged family in the big house on top of the hill. But every family has problems, and the Ward family is drug abuse. In fact, it’s the reason a girl is now dead. As Emory fights to save her brother, readers experience the reality of addiction. 3.5 stars

44. The Last Laugh (YA) This is the conclusion to “The Initial Insult,” a 2024 Gateway Nominee. In this latter half of the story, Ribbit Usher is hell-bent on getting vengeance. The thousand tiny wrongs inflicted on him by the upper echelons of Amontillado are about to be punished. Meanwhile, the “best friends” heart charm hanging around Tress’s neck has begun to pulse with a beat. Is it her delirium? The guilt of murdering her best friend? Or…is Felicity still somehow alive, bricked in behind the rubble of the fallen Allen house? Using lots of allusions to Edgar Allen Poe’s stories, this horror-filled conclusion is sure to appeal to teenagers. 3.5 stars

45. His & Hers - 3.5 Stars. I love Alice Feeney but this book was not her best. It was still good and kept me reading, but I thought the killer was obvious. Also, some parts were a bit confusing. At the end, Anna begs Jack to come visit her again in the hospital soon and he says he will but then tells the reader he has no intention of keeping that promise? But then in the next chapter, they're together and living happily ever after. I was listening to the audiobook and listened to that bit twice, but maybe something got lost in translation. IDK. In the end, it might have been 4 stars if not for the animal cruelty, which I cannot abide in real life, on TV, or in a book.

46. I Know Who You Are - In the 1980s, six-year-old Ciara is kidnapped and “adopted” by a couple who lost a girl that looks surprisingly similar to her. They give her a new name and backstory (that of their dead daughter) and never let her out of sight. In the present day, “Amie Sinclair” is a famous celebrity, but no one knows who she really is —was?— or so she thinks. Then strange things begin to happen. *This book was real high on the ick factor. I would cross-categorize it as horror and family drama, although things don’t get crazy until the last quarter of the book. The very ending left me questioning why the author would do such a thing and also what the hell happened to one of the characters? Animal cruelty was also unnecessary and hard for me as a reader. 2.5 stars

47. What Beauty There Is (YA) Two stars because the writing was beautiful. But this book was 1) confusing af and 2) depressing af. Many of the characters don’t have names, so it’s hard to tell who’s who. The dialogue tags are almost non-existent. And the story made me so cold that I literally had to put it down and run a hot bath. The ending was confusing as all get out. No idea what happened.

48. A Fever in the Heartland - This book reads a bit like a novel, even though every word is true. Egan traces the rise of the second iteration of the KKK — from 1915 through the 1920s. While the book was very interesting, I do feel it was perhaps mis-titled, as Madge only features in about half of it. Still, the story of how the Grand Dragon thought he could do whatever he wanted to women and in business — because “I AM the law!” — rings awfully familiar today.

49. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry - Maybe this book would have made more sense if I were reading a hard copy and could flip back and forth easily. Or maybe my literary mind is just not built for astrophysics 😂

50. We Can Be Heroes (YA)- Loved it! In the wake of a school shooting, two friends set out to draw national attention to Bell Firearms. Oh. And their friend has returned to haunt them, urging them onward. I don’t even go for “ghost” stories, but I still liked it. For lovers of “A Heart in a Body in the World.” If the hero dies, they call it a Greek a tragedy. But when the heroin dies, it’s a romance.This was a feminist anthem.

51. Poverty, By America - This is a FANTASTIC book about the economic inequality and marginalization a large portion of the country experiences. I wish every educator, administrator, and policy-maker would read it! But everyday, average Americans need to read itit too, as our thousand tiny decisions contribute to the enormous wealth gap in this country. The statistics are staggering, and the solutions offered are viable! Misconceptions about welfare, food deserts, and educational opportunity are addressed in a straightforward manner that demands our intention and action. Highly recommend!!

52. Sometimes I Lie - This was a fantastic book if you like twisty, turny stories that will keep you guessing! Amber is in a coma, trapped inside her own body, listening to people come and go from her hospital room. Amber remembers so much…but she cannot remember how she got into an accident or why she’s afraid of the family members who visit her. Loved this book, although some aspects of OCD seemed like loose ends. Recommend!

53. Boy21 (YA) - One of the VERY rare books I’ve read twice! From the author of Silver Linings Playbook comes this YA story of hope and friendship. Finley McManus loves 2 things more than life: basketball and his best friend Erin. They distract him from the realities of his existence -- living in a depressed neighborhood rules by the Irish mob, littered with dirty needles, and choked for hope. Fin is a mostly normal kid -- except for the fact that he rarely speaks, something that started after a horrific event that left his mother dead and his Pops without legs. All Finley wants is to play ball, make it to college with Erin, and leave Bellmont behind him forever. Then Russ arrives. Finley's coach explains that Russell's parents were murdered, and that since then, he -- uhhhhhh -- believes that he is from outer space and named Boy21. Would Finley mind taking Russ under his wing? Oh, and also, Boy21 is one of the most killer basketball players in the nation. Finley has always said yes to Coach before... but Boy21 could take his position on the team! With the Irish mob closing in, Russ getting weirder by the day, and the season quickly approaching, it's time for Finley to decide what really matters to him and who he wants to be in the world.

54.  Patron Saints of Nothing (YA) -Jason is half-Filipino and sometimes his friends forever that. After all, he’s lived in the US since he was a baby, only sporadically keeping in touch with his long-distance cousin Jun through snail mail. But when word arrives that Jun has been murdered in Manila as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs, Jay knows he won’t be able to find peace until he discovers what REALLY happened to Jun. I appreciated how this book brings light to issues in America through the lens of another culture experiencing identical issues. I also liked how the author forces us to consider: Is any human being all good or all bad?

55. Heroine (YA) - Mickey has one love: softball. Even her friend group consists solely of softball players. And she’s GOOD. But when a freak car accident lands her and pitcher Carolina in the hospital and hopped up on pain meds, their paths diverge. Carolina’s recovery is slow and brutal, while Mickey’s is fast-tracked. That’s because Mickey finds ways to keep herself supplied with Oxy, all the while rationalizing her actions and growing dependency. After she’s drained her savings, Mickey allows herself to be lured by a much cheaper drug with essentially the same chemical makeup: heroin. This book was good, but it felt strange that Mickey was never implicated in some of the HUGE things that transpired.

56. Firekeeper’s Daughter (YA) WOWWWWWWWWWW!!!! I hardly ever give ratings this high, but Fire Keeper’s Daughter earned it. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to read this book…perfect example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover— I mistakenly thought this was a fantasy book about Faeries. Instead, it’s a realistic, cultural book about Daunis Fontaine - a half-Native, half Zaaghanaash (English) girl living on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Daunis feels Ojibwe and spends much of her time on real-life Sugar Island, where the rez is. But her light skin and trust fund will always separate her from enrolled members of her tribe. In fact, the only place Daunis is truly at home is on the ice rink, and that far north, hockey is god. When members of her small community start dying, Daunis realizes hockey may be both less and more important than she’d thought. Appealing to Creator and the traditions of the First Nations, Daunis sets off to unravel the evils plaguing her community. ** This book is 🔥🔥🔥 Drop everything and check it out!

57. In the Wild Light (YA) Delaney and Cash are best friends and high school students in East Tennessee. They met in a support group for relatives of addicts. When Delaney makes a major scientific breakthrough, she and Cash win an opportunity to go to one of the premier prep schools in the country. Buy this will mean leaving everything and everyone they know and love. I’m not sure why this is rated so highly. I got real tired of listening to Cash’s self-flagellation. It was a fine book, but really similar to Serpent King.

58.  This Poison Heart (YA) Gateway Nominee 2024. I REALLY enjoyed this book about a poor girl from Brooklyn who inherits a mysterious apothecary…and discovers the rare gift she’s tried to hide her entire life is part of an ancient lineage. Briseis, like her Aunt Circe before her, is a direct descendant of the goddesses upon which Greek mythology is founded, and as such, can control the wild things growing around her.** This sounds like a Harry Potter ripoff but it wasn’t at all! It was rooted in myth, which I loved, and featured Black and queer characters to boot. I felt like the villain was a pretty flat character and easily predictable; also, it ended on a cliffhanger…other than that, it was fantastic!!

59.  The Complete Maus, Books 1-2 (YA) Man, this book was hard to read. You think with a graphic novel, it will be less awful, but somehow the Holocaust was even more brutal with the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats. I think in some ways, this was even more difficult to read than Night. Vladek’s story comes alive in the hands and pens of his son Artie, who recorded the father’s memoirs and then spent years drawing them, to preserve for history.

60.  Eight Rules of Love - I liked this book about the types of love and how to experience them. I especially liked how he drew on the Vedic texts and Ancient Greek philosophy. I didn’t like it as much as his last book, “Think Like a Monk,” but it was still pretty good.

61. The Shift - My friend Ashley really liked this book and told me to read it! TikTok star Tinx dispenses some pearls on dating and relationships. I thought it was really interesting how she said “Men date like like stock brokers, women date like venture capitalists.”

62. Good Bad Birl - Basically, this is a book about a child who goes missing and then turns up 18 years later. An interesting book with twists and turns. Not as good as Rock Paper Scissors (by the same author), but decent nonetheless. It was a bit hard to keep all the plots and sub-plots straight, and some of them seemed to just kind of conveniently end, though.

63. Wrong Place Wrong Time - 4.5 Stars. This book kept me super engaged!! Perhaps you've heard of the scientific concept of "hysterical strength" -- that inexplicable, superhuman strength that has allowed some mothers to lift entire cars off of their children? Well apparently, this is often followed by disorientation and a feeling of deja vu. Author Gillian McAllister uses these scientific realities to hypothesize about the in-between. What happens after the mother witnesses something horrific but before she experiences the deja vu? In this riveting story, Jen sees her son commit a murder, and it propels her into a time loop to discover the causality. Highly recommend!

64. The Couple at No. 9 - I found myself just bored and annoyed by this book about a young couple who inherit a house where two bodies are buried in the back garden. It got interesting in the last few pages but wasn’t really worth the wait.

65. Between Shades of Grey (YA) 2.5 stars. Did not like. Too be fair, I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was this Kristen Chenoweth type. It felt like I was listening to Glinda the Good explain in her perky little voice what life was like in a Siberian Labor camp! How fun! And we were so, so cold! I feel the writing itself was not as strong as Sepetys’ later work. But still, this book was good enough to be an award winner and most people LOVED it. I love that this was the author’s first attempt at writing after working in another industry for 20 years!! I didn’t love the book, but definitely check out her most recent, I Must Betray You.

66. Ugly Love - This strikes me as Colleen Hoover’s answer to Fifty Shades of Grey. I feel like she read that and said to herself, “I could do that” and then produced Ugly Love. I don’t think I read the synopsis before starting it; I needed an audiobook for a long bike ride and this was available and had a high rating. To be fair, Colleen Hoover is a solid writer. But I like my stories to be a little more grounded in the realm of Things That Could Actually Happen, which this is not 🤣

67. And Then There Were None - Read for the second time in preparation to teach to 8th graders. 

68. Starling House - A house in the woods sits on top of a crack in the earth that leads down to Underland, where the monsters live.

69. The Midnight Library - Another rare 2nd read! (Matt Haig, Science Fiction/ Philosophy). String theory and quantum physics suggest that each of us — like Schroedinger’s cat — live multiple lives in infinite universes. When Nora Seed decides to die, it’s only one iteration of herself that does so. Burdened with enormous regret, the not-dead/not-alive Nora wonders what choices she could have made differently to lead her to a better life. And unlike us, Nora is given the opportunity to experience those lives. Packed with Thoreau, Hume, and Sartre, The Midnight Library wrestles with the difficulties in being human — in our charge to make good choices although we can’t control outcomes. It’s like “Sliding Doors” meets “The Alchemist.” It took me 5 bookstores to find a copy, and it was worth it!! 

70.  Orbiting Jupiter (MG/YA) WOWWWWWWWWW!!! This quick read about a family who take in a foster boy was fantastic but sad.

71. The Corset - 3.5 It kept my mind occupied when I desperately needed to focus on something else, but it ended very abruptly. Too many loose ends and unanswered questions. This is the story of Ruth Butterham, “child murderer.” At 16, she’s in prison for slowly killing her mistress. Meanwhile, Dora Truelove, an heiress obsessed with phrenology, takes down Ruth’s statements and tries to decide if she’s really a murderess…or a madwoman.

72. Hitchcock’s Blondes: The Unforgettable Women Behind the Legendary Director’s Dark Obsession - This book is a look at Tippi Hedron, Janet Leigh, Jim Novak, Eva Marie Saint, and others. I don’t know that I agree with the title about “Hitchcock’s dark obsession,” but it was kind of interesting. 2.5 stars

73. Small Mercies - The audiobook version about a Southie broad taking on the Irish mob in the 1970s was EVERYTHING. (By the author of Shutter Island)

74. Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide - This book can only be described as extremely tedious. It was 14 hours long and only required about 3 of them. I only finished it because I loved the title and my Goodreads Challenge is almost up!!

75. The Myth of Normal - The author’s colleague, renowned bodymind expert Bessel Van Der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score), once told him, “Gabor, You don’t need to drag Auschwitz around with you everywhere you go.” His mind had become a mental prison camp made by the meaning it had forged when young: I am damaged beyond hope.

It is too easy to make a prison out of our pain, out of our past. To forgive is to give up the need to change the past and to accept life as it was and as it is. Choosing your past is to choose to let it be.

“Bessel meant I didn’t need to continue to carry the core beliefs I’d developed when my family was sent to Auschwitz. Those were only the beliefs of a young mind trying to survive.”

AUTHENTICITY: notice when it ISN’T there for you and apply some gentle curiosity and skepticism. Emergence of new choices.

AGENCY: exercising responsibility.

ANGER: not blind rage. In its natural healthy state, healthy anger is a boundary defense.

People who get better really experience a change in identity. You have to change your beliefs about either yourself or the universe.

ACCEPTANCE: allowing things to be as they are. Not rejecting, resisting, or denying.

Only when attention is paid can the mind rewire the brain. We need not change the past, only recognize that it happened, that we were powerless over it, and that it exists.

76. Killers of the Flower Moon - In the 1920’s the Osage Nation in Oklahoma came into an almost unbelievable amount of money when oil fields were discovered on their land. Each enrolled member of the tribe received dividend checks for millions of dollars; however, the US government deemed the Indians incapable of managing their own money, like children. Ergo, white citizens were instated as guardians of each Osage’s money. Then, one by one, the Osage were systematically murdered and their fortunes confiscated.

77. The Storyteller - I hate reading Holocaust books; a combination of researching it for family history and teaching a Holocaust memoir and history every year in school renders me constantly WWII-fatigued. Nonetheless, my friend Liz (who always refers to our friendship as one between “one-and-a-half Jews”) asked me to read this for Jewish book club. Like all other Holocaust books, it is a TOUGH read, but Jodi Piccoult is a great writer. In the present day, Sage Singer attends grief group, where she meets a kindly 90-year-old grandfatherly man. To her utter horror, Sage’s friend confesses to her – the only *Jew* he knows – that he used to be an SS officer. In the past, Sage’s grandmother Minka writes a Polish vampire story from the confines of her ghetto…