It was a pretty good reading month! Here's what I read this past month.
The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories by Agatha Christie: This was a pretty uneven short story collection that was published in 1997, perhaps cobbling together Christie's stories that didn't fit elsewhere, as they certainly don't have much in common with one another. There was sadness, death, doomed love, and mental illness, and only a few could be said to have any mystery to them.
Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing by Ben Blatt: This was a super-fun read for someone like me, whose two big loves are books and data. I found it fascinating how many different questions Blatt undertook in his statistic analyses, as well as the creative ways he went about answering questions like "How many chapters end on a cliffhanger?" This book probably isn't for everyone, but for book lovers and data nerds like me, it's a delight.
Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters by Laura Vanderkam: I'm a huge fan of Vanderkam's 168 Hours, and I liked that this follow-up is specifically for people who are working a full-time job and raising kids. I already do most of her strategies so there weren't any huge takeaways for me, but I can definitely think of some folks I'd recommend this to.
I Won't Shut Up: Finding Your Voice When the World Tries to Silence You by Ally Henny: I've followed Henny's work online since about 2016, so I was very excited to see she had a book coming out. Through sharing her own journey of growing up in and then working in predominantly white spaces, she explores the times when she wished she'd used her voice more and reflects on when it's time to direct one's energies elsewhere.
The Bad Guys in the Furball Strikes Back by Aaron Blabey: This was entertaining but not as enjoyable as the previous ones. It had less of a plot, lots of calling characters and ideas "crazy" (etc.), and a tired trope of Mr. Wolf drooling over and making ill-considered decisions because of an attractive female character.
The Bad Guys in Attack of the Zittens by Aaron Blabey: I think I like this series less since it turned into an epic save-the-world plot rather than just some bumbling attempts at doing good. My 8-year-old continues to be engaged with reading along with me, so we'll be continuing the series.
Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner: Wilsner definitely has a gift for taking on questionable relationship situations and finding a way to take them to a HEA. Here we have a 38-year-old woman and her college daughter's 21-year-old friend, which is also super squicky, but Wilsner has imagined how it could start innocently enough and then how the characters could continue rationalizing their ongoing dalliance despite their guilt at sneaking around. I enjoyed the read despite my skepticism about this kind of relationship being a good idea in real life.
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz: This was exceptional. Horowitz has written not one but two complete murder mysteries, nested inside each other, and both were plotted with the best of them. I was delighted to see that the second audiobook is already available because I definitely want to continue with the series!
Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories, Tomorrow Will Be Different, 50 Women Every Christian Should Know, and Wayside School Is Falling Down
Five years ago I was reading: The Raven King and Sarah's Key
Ten years ago I was reading: The Book Thief, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and Thinking, Fast and Slow
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