August 2022 Reads
 
Indecent Hours, by James Fujinuri Moore
This is the first full-length book of poetry I’ve read in years and I loved it. The author is a Southern California native and his work reflects his Los Angeles-area upbringing. Themes of family history and trauma, racism and Japanese internment, and contemporary living, the book has a lot to say and does so with quite lovely language. For example: “I am the sing of air between nock & nock,” and “There’s no smog in Los Angeles, just those spectacular coughs of sunset.” I highly recommend this book.
 
The Woman in the Library, by Sulari Gentill
I was really ready to like this book. It was a listen and I enjoyed it up until I didn’t. It contains two stories: one is the murder mystery that surrounds the title—four people meet over a scream at the Boston Public Library becoming fast friends, maybe; the second is an email correspondence between the writer of the first story and a big fan who may have turned murderous. I kept expecting that the two stories would somehow intertwine, [spoiler alert] but they didn’t. And the murder mystery part had major plot holes. Major. So, can’t really recommend this one.
 
Juniper & Thorn, by Ava Reid
This is a retelling of a Grimm’s fairy tale that I had never heard of, The Juniper Tree. In a Russian-like city that is burgeoning under new industry, Marlinchen lives with her sorcerer father and her sisters. All three girls have some type of magic which their father uses to his benefit. When Marlinchen begins to test the limits of her father’s rule, she falls in love and gets tangled up in the mysterious murders happening around town. The novel is beautifully written, with a lot of reverence to fairy tale-like language, but it is a bit slow. Overall, it was a nice change, but I’m not too enthusiastic about it. Also, kudos for the great cover.
 
The It Girl, by Ruth Ware
I was excited to read this new Ware novel, especially as the MC is a bookseller. It was fine. Ten years after her friend and roommate was murdered, Hannah is still reeling from the death and the events during her first year at school. The person convicted for April’s murder has died in prison and Hannah can’t help thinking that the testimony she gave put an innocent person in jail. As she does her own research into the murder, she realizes so many people wanted April dead. Finding out who did may kill her too.
 
Friend of the Devil, by Stephen Lloyd
An odd, short novel about a remote boarding school, a missing manuscript, an investigative student, an underground drug ring, sinister happenings, a possible demon, and a PI with nothing to lose. That’s about the only way to sum it up without telling you the whole story. It was a fun, quick read and I didn’t see the twist ending coming at all.
 
Himawari House, by Harmony Becker
Following three non-Japanese girls living together in Tokyo, this graphic novel is funny, full of grace, heartbreak, love, and warmth. I absolutely fell in love with these friends as they go about their lives attending Japanese language school, getting part-time jobs, having crushes, and eating so much good food. To make it even better, the illustrations were gorgeous too. Loved this book!
 
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, by Caitlin Doughty
This book is SO good. Caitlin Doughty has made herself famous as a mortician and explainer of everything regarding dead people. Her previous books have to do with funerary practices and this one is based on questions she received from kids at speaking engagements. Because, kids aren’t afraid to ask the hard questions. Hence, the title. I learned a lot from this book and laughed a lot too. Doughty clearly likes her subject and does not squirm away from the icky parts. And now I know what my dogs will do to my body if I die in the house with no one else there. Yay?
 
The Restless Dark, by Erica Waters
I really enjoyed Waters’s book Ghost Wood Song, and this one seemed like it would be right up my alley. It was okay. I think it would have read better if it were a psychological thriller, but it relied too heavily on a feeling of the supernatural feeling that the story never quite conveyed. Lucy attends a week-long camp, hosted by a true crime podcast, to find the bones of a serial killer. Lucy was supposed to be the killer’s last victim but survived and lives in terror that he is not dead. At the camp, she meets two other women who are there for their own issues. The camp is on a steep mountain that is often encased in fog where it’s easy to get lost. And the people who are there to search for the bones all seem to have their own agendas.
 
Cat’s Cradle: The Golden Twine, by Jo Rioux
The first in a series, this graphic novel was so different and fun. It has monsters I’ve never heard of and magic that brings something new. Suri is an orphan raised by a merchant caravan. Rather than work to earn her way, she tells monster stories. She’d also like to be monster hunter one day. Her wish sort of comes true, when she finds the “monster” living in the woods. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series!
 
For You & No One Else, by Roni Loren
This is the last book in a trilogy, and it felt like it. Just like the first two in the Say Everything series, I listened to this one. I really liked the first two and highly recommend them. This felt like the story was not quite all there. That the obstacles weren’t all that big a deal. Eliza seems like she has it all, but she wants to find ‘the one,’ and have a relationship like her parents did. Enter Beck, gorgeous, smart, and too young for her. After the video of a disaster of a date goes viral, Eliza decides to have a social media detox, inspired by Beck. And you know where it goes.
 
Network Effect, by Martha Wells
The end of August was rough, I needed a comfort read. Funny how a Murderbot book is my comfort read.

These Prisoning Hills, by Christopher Rowe
This is a great post-apocalyptic novella in the vein of the film, Annihilation. Long after the war with the AI-controlled Voluntary State of Tennessee, there is rumor that one of its most fearsome weapons is still around, hidden by the hills of Appalachia. Marcia, a native there, goes with a troop of Federals to find it. I don’t want to give too much away as it is a short, tight telling. Instead, I’ll say, go read it. It’s really good.
 
The Demon Tailor, by Susan McCauley
I found this novella miss-shelved in the YA section at the bookstore. It’s an adult horror set in 1500s France and based on a true story of a serial-killer. It was OK. The setting was well done, but the characters (few of them as there were) are flat. The story follows 16 year-old Marie as she goes on a hunt for a wolf that has been taking her villagers and winds up being taken by the true killer who is human. The story is mostly about her trying to escape and then succeeding. It wasn’t very horrifying and read more as trauma porn to me.
 
Bluebird, by Ciel Pierlot
A fun, far-distant space-capade about a brilliant woman on the run from the three factions that rule the universe. When a group of soldiers comes for her, she teams up with another woman who is a talented assassin in order to rescue her sister who is being used to lure her back to the faction she escaped from. An enjoyable adventure with plenty of action and lots of space travel. My biggest complaint is that ten thousand years in the future women are still wearing bras. Can’t we imagine a better world already?
 
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, by Becky Chambers
Another sci-fi cozy from one of my favorites. This is the sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built, which I loved. This continues the story of robot, Mosscap, and human monk, Dex. The two have returned from the wild and making their way through villages on their way to the capital. I’m in love with this series, so calm yet thought-provoking. Another just read.
 
Eclipse the Moon, by Jessie Mihalik
This is the second in Mihalik’s Starlight’s Shadow series, and like all her books it is a space-opera romance. Kee is the tech genius in her crew and is trying to hunt down a former general who might be trying to provoke an interstellar war. But she is distracted by her attraction to Varro, a powerful Valovian telepath, who is working with her crew. Lots of action, lots of romance, always fun. Maybe not my favorite of her books, but always worth a read. Although, I have the same complaint as I did with Bluebird. Why do bras still exist?!?
 
The Drowned Country, by Emily Tesh
Sequel to Silver In the Wood which I read earlier this year. This time new Greenman, Silver, has to help his paranormal investigator mother take down a vampire. This throws him into the path of his true love Tobias—for the first time since they split up. But a vampire might not be their biggest problem. Well-written and interesting. My overall feeling is the same I had with Silver in the Wood, good but not great, interesting but not intriguing. I guess maybe I had high expectations for this duology that just weren’t quite met.
 
How to Do Nothing, Resisting the Attention Economy, by Jenny Odell
This book is not about doing nothing, but doing everything with a different, slower, more meaningful kind of attention. It’s a very thought-provoking book and relates its concepts through art, writings, and practical examples from the life of Odell. Ultimately, the book is about thoughtfully giving your attention, not just letting the attention economy take it.
 
Taproot, by Keezy Young
In this graphic novel, Blue, the ghost of a young man, has fallen for the living man, Hamal, who can see ghosts. When the veil between life and death cracks, Blue will have to sacrifice himself in order to save Hamal from Death. Gorgeous artwork, uneven story. I would have liked to have seen the romance between Blue and Hamal filled out more. Good though.
 
What Moves the Dead, by T. Kingfisher
Based on Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, this story follows retired soldier Alex Easton as they rush to the deathbed of their childhood friend, Madeline. What they find is a country estate that is falling into disgusting decay, Madeline under the thrall of a strange illness, her resigned brother, and an unusual American doctor amidst an overwhelming fungal infestation. While it’s supposed to be horror, it’s more gross and alien than scary. Not my favorite Kingfisher horror, but she’s always worth a read.
 
See You Yesterday, by Rachel Lynn Solomon
A terrific time-loop romcom. Barret is excited to start college after a disastrous high school experience, but on the first day everything, literally everything, goes wrong. Dreading her second day, she wakes up on the first day of school…again. She soon finds that there is someone else is caught in the time loop—another freshman, uptight Miles. As they work to find a solution to their time loop problem, and then begin to do crazy fun things, they grow closer. Unlike a lot of time loop stories, these characters aren’t bad and need to improve themselves. Barrett and Miles are kids who have closed themselves off from other people and learn to open up. A fun YA that I definitely recommend.

Three Apples Fell from the Sky, by Narine Abgaryan
I really loved this book. It’s the story of a remote village in the Armenian mountains, Maran, and the people who live there through famine, war, and heartbreak. When we first step into the village there are only a handful of elderly residents left. It’s through the tales of their lives that we learn that Maran had once been a thriving village filled with wealthy farmers. The main character, if there is one, is Anatolia, who at 58 is the youngest person left in the village. Her life has been one of hardship and pain, but through the bonds of the village people, her remaining years may yet be her happiest. The story of the village is, overall, terribly sad, but the ending is warm, wonderful, and full of hope.
 
White Smoke, by Tiffany D. Jackson
A YA horror-like mystery about a young black woman who moves with her mixed-race family from liberal California to a nameless racist midwestern town. Marigold, a troubled young woman, finds her new home creepy. But maybe not as creepy as the unbridled racism she finds in her new town. In her home, things disappear, lights and the TV turn on and off by themselves, and she sees things that can't really be there. In her town, she finds that the black neighborhood she lives in has been decimated by arbitrary laws that have incarcerated too many people. This nexus of terrifying home and racial tensions will spark something terrible. Yes, this was a really good book. Nothing at all what I expected it to be, in the the best way possible.
 
Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, by Xiran Jay Zhao
A middle grade novel about a young Chinese Muslim-American boy who has a video game connection to his distant ancestor, the first emperor of China. A lot like Rick Riordian’s Percy Jackson books, this one makes the genre all its own through a great combination of history, mythology, and current pop culture. I wanted to read this one as I loved Zhao’s The Iron Widow. While not as edgy as that YA novel, this book has a lot of charm and Zach was a great character.
 
House Number 12 Block Number 3, by Sana Balagamwala
This is a gorgeous story of a house and its family from the 1960s to the 1980s in Karachi, Pakistan. Nadia, the daughter of the house, has been stricken by a mysterious illness, and soon after her father dies. As political unrest charges the country, the Rahmat family is distraught. But through the narration of the house, we come to know the reasons behind Nadia’s illness and she her resolve it. This is a very personal story set against the turmoil of Pakistan post-Partition. I really loved this book.
 
Book Boyfriend, by Kris Ripper
This book was adorable. While the premise is fun and well-plotted, I think I liked it so much because I listened to the audio and the voice actor brought SO MUCH to the story. PK has been in love with his best friend Art since college. When Art comes to stay with him after a messy break-up, PK wants to tell him, but can’t. Instead, he writes a romance novel about his love, and, when it gets picked up by the publisher he works for, he decides to make it into a grand gesture by revealing it to Art in public. Things go very wrong. This was a delightful story, and much needed after some heavy (but great!) books.
 
Prison of Sleep, by Tim Pratt
I wouldn’t usually start a series with the second book, but I read this for a committee that I’m participating in. I have read short stories by Pratt, but never one of his novels. It was good fun. In style, he’s similar to John Scalzi. The plot was great, the world-building was fascinating, but the people were a little two dimensional. Maybe this was because they were more developed in the first book? It was a fun read and I enjoyed Pratt’s easygoing style.

The Hunt Is On (Seekers of the Aweto #1),by Nie Jun
So this is a bummer. I had picked up this graphic novel awhile ago and finally got to read it only to find out that this is the only volume that has been translated from Chinese. It was really good! Like really! A great set-up for the bigger story … which now I won’t be able to read. *sigh* I’d recommend it if you can find it.
 
The Final Girl Support Group, by Grady Hendrix
This was a reread/listen. I really loved this book when I read it last year and found so much more to love in the audio version. While action-packed and full of twists, it is really a story about sisterhood and protecting the ones you love.
 

It took me some months, but I crocheted a summer shrug. I'm not terribly pleased with the sizing and I'd do the sleeves differently next time. But, overall, not too bad, I think.

One for All, by Lillie Lainoff
A gender-bent YA take on the legend of the Muskateers. Tania has been raised by her dad, a retired Muskateer, to be a swordswoman. Even though she is chronically ill with near-constant dizziness. When her father is murdered, she finds that he made arrangements to send her to a ladies finishing school—which is the exact opposite of what she really wants. But when she arrives, she finds the mistress is an old friend of her father’s and is really running an all-female version of the Muskateers. Their current mission coincides with Tania’s mission to find her father’s killer. This book is so much fun. Great action, sympathetic and realistic characters. A great mystery too.
 
Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel, by Ruth Hogan
I wasn’t quite as into this Hogan book as her others. It’s interesting and she writes characters as rich and varied as Maeve Binchey, but the story didn’t quite click for me. The story follows Tillie as she moves into her recently deceased mother’s apartment in Brighton. Her mother kept deep secrets from her and now, in her 40s, she must figure out the real story behind her father’s death. This involves real world sleuthing, reading her mother’s hidden diaries, and speaking with ghosts.
 
The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie
After watching the new remake of Death on the Nile, I realized that I haven’t read that many Hercule Poirot books. So I started with the first. A fun mystery set during WWI on a rural country estate. Hercule is in the village as a refugee from the war front in Belgium. While a little stodgy to read, it was fun to read Hercule’s origin.
 
Burn Down, Rise Up, by Vincent Tirado
Raquel is a denizen of the Bronx and loves her hometown. But groups of teens keep disappearing and when her friend disappears, she works with her crush (and his cousin) to find him. At the same time, her mother is stricken with a mysterious, contagious disease and Raquel believes that the disappearance and the disease are connected. To solve the riddle, she must undergo a deadly internet challenge/urban legend to get to the underside of the Bronx—another dimension where all the trauma of its history is played constantly on repeat. Great debut novel, scary and well-plotted. I also learned important history about the historically black neighborhoods in the Bronx.
 
Answers in the Pages, by David Levithan
A lovely middle-grade novel made up of three different stories: a town gone berzerk trying to ban a book, sections from that action-adventure kids’ novel, and two fifth graders who become more than friends. Short and to-the-point, Answers is about standing up for yourself and your friends and that, even when adults disagree, it’s important to stand up for what you believe. I CAN’T WAIT for this book to get banned (and it’s going to). It will be so meta!
 
The Secret Adversary, by Agatha Christie
In looking for Christie books in the public domain, I came across this one. I hadn’t heard of the Tommy & Tuppence series before and thought it looked like fun. And it was! Out-of-luck Tommy and friend Tuppence decide they are ready for adventure and stumble into a big one—a secret plot to overthrow the British government by Bolsheviks. (It takes place in 1919.) They are fun characters and the mystery (while a little contrived) makes a good read.
 
The Love Hypothesis, by Ali Hazelwood
I’d heard that this was a fun romance, and it definitely was. I really enjoyed the hijinks of scientist/grad student Olive and her fake relationship with famous professor (and jerk) Adam. Fake relationships are always a favorite for me, and this one was perfect. Especially the #metoo moment towards the end.

Like a Sister, by Kellye Garrett
A murder mystery that deals with racism, privilege, and living the influencer lifestyle. When Lena’s half-sister, influencer Desiree, is found dead, the police are happy to call it an accidental overdose. Lena knows that can’t be true. There are too many loose strings. But investigating—even against her family’s wishes—proves dangerous as the murderer is following her every move. Good mystery, well-done characters. Not a book I’ll read again, but I enjoyed it.
 
One by One, by Ruth Ware
I felt like reading a Ruth Ware book and this was the only ebook of her work available from my library. Not my favorite. Although, I can see where she was influenced by Agatha Christie’s (theme this month?) And Then There Were None. A posh tech company goes on a ski retreat in the Swiss Alps. When one of them goes missing on the ski slope, just after an avalanche knocks out their connection to the nearby town. Isolated and trying to understand where their colleague was lost, more people begin to die. But why?
 
The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls, by Mona Eltahawy
I’ve been a fan of Mona for ages and meant to get to this book earlier. It was great. It consists of essays about ways women can subvert the patriarchy. Although, the compounding of examples of women being oppressed got to be a lot. This book aims to show women that it is OK to be angry, to swear, to want power, to be sexual, and more. Absolutely worth reading.
 
When the Tiger Came Down, by Nghi Vo
Chih is a monk who travels to gather stories. When he and his guide go deep into the mountains, they are cornered by three tigers who can take on human forms. Chih entices the tigers not to eat them by telling them the human version of their story about a tiger goddess and her human scholar lover. If he can last the night, they might survive. An interesting novella about the power of storytelling and the power of who is telling the story. I had been wanting to read something by Vo and this was a good beginning.