The beginning of January seems like months ago, yet at the same time the month went by fast. Crazy times we’re living in. My reading was all over the place last month—a little bit of everything. So let’s get to it.
 
An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good, by Helene Tursten
I picked this up when I was visiting the excellent Left Bank Books in St. Louis in December. It was a staff recommendation. This delightfully macabre little book was a perfect start to this year’s reading. Octogenarian Maud’s life is just how she likes it, so when other people interfere and create disruption, of any sort, she takes the matter in her own hands. Maud is deceptively spry and makes sure no one knows by using a walker that she doesn’t need. Her mind is sharp, but she pretends to be a confused old lady to get her way. And her way is usually deadly. The book is a series of short stories by a famous mystery writer from Sweden and I highly recommend it.
 
Polaris Rising, by Jessie Mahalik
In December I listened to the audio for the second book in this series, Aurora Blazing. I couldn’t resist continuing my space princess obsession by reading the first book in the series. So.Much.Fun. This book follows the story of Ada (the younger sister of Bianca from Aurora) as she accidently gets involved in a high stakes game of political intrigue between her family and another powerful family from the Consortium. She also accidentally gets involved with the most wanted criminal in the universe, and the sparks fly as they try to prevent galactic war. This book was a blast. I liked Aurora Blazing a little more, as I identified more with Bianca, but Ada has her own brand of kick-ass that’s just as great. I’m looking forward to the third book in the series which will feature both ladies’ youngest sister.
 
Diana, Princess of the Amazons, by Shannon Hale
Shannon Hale is a rock star among the under 9 crowd. Her books are always so fun and empowering, for kids and adults. In this one, our future Wonder Woman, Diana, is a little girl on an island full of adults. Taking the story of her own creation to heart, she builds a playmate out of clay and suddenly life is a lot more fun. But her friend has an agenda of her own and is probably up to no good. A fun, quick graphic novel, this has a good lesson about doing the right thing without it feeling like a lesson. Highly recommend.
 
Love Lettering, by Kate Clayborn
I listened to this on audio and it was just what I needed. Meg is a hand lettering phenomenon in Park Slope, Brooklyn, but her success in business seems to cause a decline in her personal life. Her best friend since high school—also her roommate—has begun to shut her out and suddenly announces she’s moving out. Her friend is her only real connection to the world. Enter Reid, the year before she had created his wedding program and turns out the wedding never happened—partially due to a secret message she’d hidden in it. Reid looks her up to find out why she put it in. Finding that Reid hates New York, Meg invites him to walk the city with her to discover hand-painted murals and signs. I think that’s enough to get you started, I don’t want to spoil the story. Suffice it to say that Reid has his secrets and Meg has to learn to demand what she wants. What I really liked about this book was Meg’s unique way of looking at the world—through lettering and fonts. Another thing I really liked is that Reid was on the autism spectrum, but it’s never brought up because Meg notices, but doesn’t care. For a nice comfort read, invest in this one.
 
Foiled, by Jane Yolen
This is a graphic novel aimed at middle-schoolers. It was alright. Aliera is a competitive fencer but doesn’t have much else going on in her life. When she’s asked out by the cute new boy, she thinks her life is going to change … and it does. She discovers that she is the chosen defender of the fantasy realm. I feel like it took too long to get into what it was really about. As this was the first of two books, it just didn’t catch me enough to read the second.
 
Network Effect, by Martha Wells
I couldn’t wait to get my hot little hands on this. Network Effect doesn’t come out until May, but I got an ARC. Since you probably aren’t as obsessed as I am, this is the first full-length novel of the Murderbot Diaries. The first four books were novellas and some of my favorite books of the last two years. Murderbot is such a great character and Network Effect did not disappoint. We learn more about Preservation, the world where Murderbot’s favorite people come from, and we get to meet up with ART again. (If you know, you know.) We also get to see just how shitty the corporations can be and what havoc they can cause when they fool around with alien relics. So good. So good, I might just reread it now.
 
Rogue Princess, by RA Myers
This is a YA novel that did not quite satisfy my space princess obsession but was pretty good. It’s a gender-bent retelling of Cinderella. Set in a part of space called the Four Quadrants, Princess Delia doesn’t want to be forced to marry a prince from one of the other quadrants. Aiden, a poor kitchen worker, wants to get enough money to get off planet. When they come together, sparks fly, but they also find that there is a secret plot against the monarchy that could destroy their world. I liked this one OK, there was world building, but not quite enough, the characters were likeable, but just not enough. The plot twists felt like deus ex machina—that they were thrown in so that the story would work, not grown organically. It was a fun read and would probably be more liked by someone who hasn’t read a ton of space princess stories.
 
The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood
So, this book. Really long, with such a slow build and an ending that’s devastating, yet kind of hopeful. I read a lot of Margaret Atwood in the 1990s, but not much since. It was nice to catch up with her again. The Blind Assassin is two different stories. One story is told by Iris at the end of her life who tells about her upbringing with her long-dead sister Laura up until she gets married and leaves her husband. The other story is “The Blind Assassin,” a novel about two star-crossed lovers, who meet in dingy rooms. I loved Atwood’s ability to really get into the mind of the characters—Iris is a pretty unlikeable, but I grew to love her. Then, when we get to the end, with the big reveal, my heart broke for her. It’s been a couple of weeks since I finished and I’m still haunted by the trauma. I guess that’s a pretty good way to tell that it’s a really good book.
 
Watch Hollow, by Gregory Funaro
I picked up this early middle grade “horror” at Vromans when it was about to be returned (as no one had bought it in a year). It was a lot of fun! It owes a lot to The House With the Clock in Its Walls, but brought a lot of new stuff to the table. Lucy’s father is a clock fixer and is paid a lot of money to go spend the summer in a remote Rhode Island mansion and fix the clock that powers the house. Lucy and her brother Oliver go with him and soon find that there are evil forces at work that want the clock to work, but for nefarious reasons. Also, there are carved wood animals that come alive a night and help Lucy figure out what’s going on. This is a good book for the seven and up crowd who like things a little bit scary. I enjoyed it.

I read a whopping twelve books last month. Several of them I’d started in November, a couple were graphic novels, and a couple were audiobooks, so probably not that big a deal. I’m really enjoying audiobooks, so there will likely be a lot more of those in the future.

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, by Hallie Rubenhold
This is one of the standout books of 2019. Rubenhold does history, particularly women’s history, a huge service here by becoming biographer for the five victims of Jack the Ripper. She sets each woman’s story in the events of their time and brings humanity to their lives and especially their deaths. This is not a book about the Ripper, it’s a book about the very human circumstances that brought each woman to be exposed to the murderer’s inhumanity. I cannot recommend this book enough. (See earlier review.)

The Glass Woman, by Caroline Lea
I listened to the audio book of this novel. Set in the 1600s in Iceland—a harsh, rural environment—it follows the story of Rosa who marries, a man she knows little about, in order to stave off the death of her mother and the starvation of her village. But her new husband has secrets that could mean her death. I liked this one all right. The blurb promised a Jane Eyre or Rebecca. It started out that way then changed into something very different. Dark and brooding, definitely, but I got the feeling that the book didn’t know what kind of book it was. I probably wouldn’t have read it as a book, but the audio version was very well done.

Dear Reader, by Mary O’Connell
I seem to be reading books about wandering New York City with some frequency. This story follows Flannery from her Connecticut private school throughout Manhattan as she tries to find her favorite teacher. A teacher who’s copy of Wuthering Heights has become a real-time diary allowing Flannery to follow her tracks as she revisits places important to her in the city. Flannery meets Heath Smith, who might actually be a come-to-life Heathcliff. Both sad, thoughtful, and a delight, Dear Reader was a good read. It was as imaginative as it was fun. Probably not a book I’ll pick up again, but one that I’ll think about from time to time.

Venetia, by Georgette Heyer
This was a second read for this Heyer. In the fan forums, this is usually one of the favorites. It hadn’t been mine the first time I read it as I found the idea of the debauched, yet reformed nobleman gross. I mean the first time we meet Dameral is when he attempts to rape Venetia because he thinks she’s a servant. Gross. However, what I did like about it is Venetia’s agency. Unlike most Heyer heroines, who tend to be passive in romantic matters, Venetia has true agency and makes decisions based on her own happiness without regards to society. I liked it better on second reading. It has some of the best love-to-hate secondary characters in any Heyer.

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, by Alice Munro
I hadn’t read any of Munro’s short stories and thought it was time. (I hadn’t read any Grace Paley either and found that her lack of structure made it unbearable for me to read.) I really enjoyed these stories. How Munro really dives into the deeps of what people think, what makes them take or not take action, is mind altering. I don’t often read short stories—those these were practically novellas—but I’m sure I’ll read more of her in the future.

Merton of the Movies, by Harry Leon Wilson
The copy I have was a centennial reprint of one of the biggest books of 1919. It started out as a series in the Saturday Evening Post and apparently was made into movies and plays. Merton is a young clerk in a small town in Illinois with huge dreams of being a serious movie actor. Merton has zero sense of humor and no sense of sarcasm. When he shows up in Hollywood ambitious to act along with his favorite stars, he’s put out to find that Hollywood is all sets and stunt actors. He still vows to bring something “real and true” to elevate the commonness of the films being made. Even going so far as to nearly starve as he crashes at nights on the movie lot when he turns homeless. But a young, flippant actress takes a shine to him and gets him a starring role in a comedy—but tells him it’s a serious film, so everyone but him is in on the joke. I enjoyed this a lot—although some of the scenes dragged, the author having a little too much fun with descriptions. It is definitely not a love letter to Hollywood despite the author being an obvious fan.

(Full disclosure: I got this book as a review copy. LARB are reprinting some fascinating-looking books from the same era. Check them out: https://larbbooks.org/books/classics/)

Love, Death, and Rare Books, by Robert Hellenga
I read an ARC of this one, the book comes out in March. It was pretty good. Book porn for sure. Gabe Johnson, is a third generation rare book dealer. He spends his life in love with a woman who does whatever she wants, regardless of how it hurts other people. When Gabe’s father dies and he loses the lease to his bookstore, he relocates to a small town on Lake Michigan to open a smaller store. I liked it overall—I mean they talk about books constantly. My main issue was that even though the book spans decades, the two main characters don’t grow or change at all. I found that off-putting once I finished, realizing that it was just OK, but I’ll always read a novel about books.

Aurora Blazing, by Jessie Mihalik
The space opera, political intrigue, action-packed, kick-ass princess book I didn’t know I needed. I listened to this one, the second in a series. It wasn’t a bad place to start as I never once felt I didn’t know what was going on. When Bianca’s brother, Ferdinand—the heir to one of the three most powerful families in the universe—is kidnapped, she is in a unique place to find him. Only her father wants her to leave it to the family’s security. Running away and soon being captured by her love/nemesis Ian—head of security—Bianca gets the information they need to find her brother. Together Ian and Bianca travel galaxies and commit daring rescues to return her brother home. I’ll reiterate here, I didn’t know how much I needed this until I read it. So much fun!

Get a Life, Chloe Brown, by Talia Hibbard
So this probably shouldn’t count as I read the book last month, but this time I listened to it. Still great.

Sheets, by Brenna Thummler
This was a Christmas present from a friend. I’d seen it before but hadn’t really looked into it. It was a fun quick read. Not really much to say about it. A girl whose mother recently died and whose father has checked out, runs her family’s laundromat while facing the threat of a shady spa owner. A ghost comes to the laundry and at first really messes up, but then he helps the girl save the store. Artwork was nice, story was OK. Fine read.

Thornhill, by Pam Smy
I’ve had a copy of this for ages, but hadn’t gotten around to it. Boy. Wow. Part diary, part graphic novel, this is a dark story about a girl, thirty years ago, who was severely bullied while living in group home. The graphic novel part of the story follows a girl who recently moved into a house next to the derelict building that used to be the group home and begins to see a girl on the property and lights on in the attic. Creepy and devastating, this is a hard story well-told.

Hollow Dolls, by MarcyKate Connelly
This is a middle-grade novel set in Connelly’s Shadow Weaver world and follows the story of a secondary character from the original two books. In this world, kids born when a special comet passes are blessed with talents. Simone is a mind-reader, who was controlled by the evil Lady for a time unknown. She has no memory of her early life or even for how long she’s been alive—kept young through other talents. The person with the talent of “body walking” or being able to control other people, seems to be looking for her, so she and her friend set off to escape the body walker and to try to discover information about her family. I really enjoyed the Shadow Weaver duology. This one was a nice addition, but I didn’t care as much for Simone as I wanted to.

Over the holiday, I finished a few hats. I tried a couple of new-to-me techniques and had a lot of fun.

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
 
I’ve been interested in this book since it came out early this year. I saw the author speak about it at local bookstore, The Ripped Bodice, last April. She was fascinating and spoke of the clapback she’d been receiving from Ripperologists. The Five does not describe the famous murders or even attempt to point a finger towards the murder. The book describes, intimately, the lives of the five women who were murdered.
 
Rubenhold describes the life of each women from the records they left behind—birth records, marriage records, work and workhouse records, census information, and other sources. She also uses narrative texts from the era to understand what the statistical data means. With all this, she describes what life might have been like for Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary Jane. It is fascinating. Rubenhold shines a light into the dark corners of the lower working classes and poor in London in the mid to late nineteenth century. I learned so much.
 
One thing I learned was that only Mary Jane was a known prostitute at the time. This is what enrages the Ripperologists. It was estimated early on in the original investigation that all the victims were prostitutes, which has left the world with images of lovely young street walkers. In fact, the first four victims were all in their forties—many of them grandmothers. They were all likely alcoholics and didn’t have enough money to rent a room for the night, which is why they were sleeping in the open. They were said to be prostitutes because at the time the law and well-off people did not see a difference between a poverty-stricken woman sleeping outdoors and a woman who earned her living with her body.
 
The vitriol that Rubenhold has received for daring to suggest that the victims were real women with lives worth living is unbelievable. I’ve followed her on Twitter since seeing her speak and it really is crazy how personally Ripperologists take her assertion that the women weren’t prostitutes. It feels as if they take it that way because they hero-worship the Ripper—as if he were doing society a favor.
 
If anyone would know that the women were not prostitutes, Rubenhold would. She wrote the book about prostitutes in the eighteenth century, Covent Garden Ladies: The Extraordinary Story of Harris's List, which inspired the TV show, Harlots, on which she works as historical consultant. I think she knows a thing or two about women and women’s history in England.
 
The thing that Rubenhold points out—that the victims were poor women in a world that cared very little about the poor and even less about women—is relevant today. As I was finishing the book, serial killer Samuel Little was making the news for admitting to killing more people than was thought. In his four-decade killing spree, he murdered women who lived on the margin—prostitutes, transgender women, drug addicts. Like the Ripper, he targeted women that would hardly be missed by society. I couldn’t help but see the connection.
 
I can’t recommend this book enough.

I did a lot of comfort reading in October and last month. I needed to be sure of some happy endings. I will likely be doing the same this month as we had to say goodbye to my dog of 17½ years at the beginning of November.
 
All the Greys on Greene Street, by Laura Tucker
This middle grade novel is set in 1981 in a gentrifying, artist section of Manhattan. It follows Olympia as her family breaks down. Her dad has fled to Europe, her mom is in such a deep depression that she can’t get out of bed, and she is relying on friends to help her keep that a secret. Olympia comes from a family of artists and is a burgeoning one as well. She looks to her art to help her make sense of what’s going on around her. I liked this one alright. I don’t think it was made clear in the beginning that this was a “historical” book and I’m not sure why it had to be set in 1981. Olympia and her friends are well drawn characters and her frustration with the adults around her not telling her what’s going on is palpable. Overall it was OK, but not one I’m excited about.
 
Friday’s Child, by Georgette Heyer
Reread of one of my favorite Heyer’s. Basically, a young earl, to get his inheritance early, marries a childhood friend in a fit of pique. However, she has no notion of how to get along in society, so her new husband has to continually rescue her from her faux pas. This situation makes him grow up and take responsibility, and to finally realize that he is in love with his wife. From this description, it sounds like a serious book, but it is so dang funny. Not only are Hero’s, the wife, scrapes hilarious, the couple is surrounded by a trio of very young, kinda dumb, but earnest friends. It’s always a treasure to read this book.
 
Get a Life, Chloe Brown, by Talia Hibbard
When a friend told me about this book, I had to read it. It’s a romance about a woman with fibromyalgia (like me) who is a compulsive list maker and goal setter (also like me) as she sets to turn her life from boring to exciting after a near death experience. Relatable heroine—check. Hot artist apartment superintendent—check. Sparks flying across the page—check! This book had a little more of the sexy sex than I tend to like in a book, but I still really enjoyed it. It’s the first of three and I will definitely be reading the other two.
 
Barakamon, vols 16-18, by Satsuki Yoshiro
I’ve been reading Barakamon for years. The volumes I read last month constitute the final three volumes. When you get involved in long-running manga (comics), when they come to the end it can be very bittersweet. Barakamon follows a young calligrapher who, after a temperamental outbreak in public, is sent to a remote island to pull himself together. Reluctant to get involved with the locals, he gets pulled into village life through a parent-less girl who has no sense of boundaries. It’s been a wonderful story to follow all these years. When things get tough, I want to live in a village like the one found in this book. The series ends about a year after it began, leaving the wonderful characters to go on living their lives.
 
13 Doorways Wolves Behind Every One, by Laura Ruby
I listened to this on audio. I recently subscribed to Libro.fm and have been enjoying listening to books through the app on my phone. This is a young adult novel from a much-lauded author I hadn’t read before. I really liked this one. It took me awhile to get into it, as the book builds stories upon stories like a Wagner symphony. The story is narrated by Pearl, a ghost who died some twenty years earlier. She is fascinated with a teenaged girl named Frankie who is being raised in a Catholic orphanage, despite having a living father. Pearl tells us about Frankie’s harrowing experiences, her frustrations, and hurts, while she also gives us a glimpse into her own sad history. For fear of spoiling the story, I’ll leave it at that. I really loved the way the lives of the two girls are “grown” throughout the book, with a surprising and true-feeling ending. Highly recommend.
 
Deeplight, by Frances Hardinge
A new book by one of my all-time favorites! This book sees Hardinge return to world building like she did in her earlier middle-grade books. The last three young adult books were all set in real history—even though there were fantastical elements. This one is about an orphan boy, Hark, who just wants to save his best friend. In the Myriad, an archipelago that for hundreds of years was assaulted by gods from the Undersea—a magical ocean that underlies the real one in the island chain—but the gods died years before. They left behind their bodies—and the magic they contained—which are now exploited. Hark finds the heart of a god and it helps keep his best friend alive, but the cost is very high. It’s always hard to succinctly describe a Hardinge novel because there are so many layers of imagination and plot. I loved this one, maybe not as much as The Lie Tree or Fly By Night, but it’s still so, so good.

Devil Darling Spy, by Matt Killeen
This is the sequel to Orphan Monster Spy and continues the story of Jewish, German Sarah as she remains undercover as a spy working to defeat the Nazi’s. In this one, she and her guardian/handler go to the heart of Africa to undermine a German missionary unit that is weaponizing a deathly illness. So much of what makes this book so good, as well as the first one, is that Sarah is tough as nails on the outside and all squishy vulnerability on the inside. She doesn’t like what she feels compelled to do but is determined to rid her country of Nazis. She wants to help, while her job is to tear things down. She seeks human warmth and connection even when she knows that will leave her open to deceit. Killeen has created a wonderfully human, vibrant, and contrarian character in this series. And I didn’t even mention how action-packed these books are. Never a down moment.
 
The Bromance Bookclub, by Lyssa Kay Adams
Ah, and another comfort read. This romance is about a group of men in Nashville who suck at their married relationships and help one another by reading romance books. It makes sense. Romance books teach them what their wives want and help them to understand that tired old marital roles aren’t going to cut it anymore. Gavin’s wife has kicked him out and wants a divorce. Thea wants a husband who doesn’t behave like one of their toddlers. Gavin needs to understand how to me a good partner, while Thea needs to realize her childhood upheaval is holding her back. A very romantic, very funny book. It’s a sweet story with a romance about romantic troubles in a full-fledged marriage, which I could very much get behind.