Best of the Bunch (July 2023)

Today I'm sharing the best book I read in July.

I had a mediocre reading month. I read 7 books and had just one 5-star read, so that's my Best of the Bunch!

Magpie Murders 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 say this as someone who's worked my way through most of Agatha Christie's complete works.) I don't want to give too much away because the journey of the book was part of the enjoyment. I'm not surprised the book had such a long holds list, but I was delighted to see that the second audiobook was already available, and I'm about halfway through it now!

What is the best book you read this month? Let me know in comments, or write your own post and link up below!

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, A Hole in the World, 50 Women Every Christian Should Know, and Wayside School Is Falling Down
Five years ago I was reading: The Yiddish Policemen's Union and The Professor and the Madman
Ten years ago I was reading: Flight Behavior and Thinking, Fast and Slow

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Ten (More) Good Books With One-Word Titles

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week we're sharing books with one-word titles. I last made a list of these books in 2020, so I am only including books I've read since then. I also left out books where the one-word title is a name; in 2020 I made a separate post of book titles that are female names. Here are the ten non-name one-word titles I'm sharing today!

1. Ace by Angela Chen

2. Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

3. Handsome by Holly Lorka

4. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

5. Listen by Patty Wipfler and Tosha Schore

6. Loveless by Alice Oseman

7. Platonic by Marisa G. Franco

8. Scythe by Neal Shusterman

9. SLAY by Brittney Morris

10. Untamed by Glennon Doyle

What good books with one-word titles have you read?

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 and Thinking, Fast and Slow

What I've Been Reading Lately (Quick Lit)

Today I'm linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy's Quick Lit to bring you some short and sweet reviews of what I've read in the past month. For longer reviews, you can always find me on Goodreads.

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

Ten (More) Red, White, and Blue Book Covers

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week's theme is "Book Covers In the Colors of My Country's Flag" in honor of Independence Day here in the United States, where our flag colors are red, white, and blue. I last did this topic back in 2018, so here are ten more covers of books I've read (or reread) since then!

1. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

2. Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

3. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

4. El Deafo by Cece Bell

5. Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy

6. Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

7. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages by Trenton Lee Stewart

8. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

9. Rising from Ash by Jax Meyer

10. Small Animals by Kim Brooks

What other books with red, white, and blue covers have you seen or read?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: I Wish You All the Best, How to Talk When Kids Won't Listen, and Wayside School Is Falling Down
Five years ago I was reading: The Raven Boys and Eragon
Ten years ago I was reading: The Casual Vacancy, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and Thinking, Fast and Slow

Best of the Bunch (June 2023)

Today I'm sharing the best book I read in June.

I had a great reading month! Of the 10 books I read this month, I had two 5-star reads (also two 4.5-star reads!). These are my 5-star reads:

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli

I Won't Shut Up: Finding Your Voice When the World Tries to Silence You by Ally Henny

This is a hard choice! I'm going to go with the one that I haven't been able to stop recommending to people since I read it at the beginning of the month.

I absolutely loved this. By now, we've seen plenty of stories of people coming out after being closeted for years, and we've heard the stories of people who didn't know they were queer until later in life because they grew up in a time where there weren't a lot of out queer people. But I hadn't seen this story of coming out to oneself late, not because of a lack of queer models but because of an abundance of them and the narrative "this is what it looks like to be queer." There's a lot of important and nuanced queer community discourse that happens within this book, which was pretty obviously Albertalli clapping back at the people who forced her out of the closet because "straight writers shouldn't be writing queer romances," but I felt like it was well done. Albertalli writes adorable romances, but also beautiful depictions of friendship, family, and identity exploration. I'm so glad this book exists.

What is the best book you read this month? Let me know in comments, or write your own post and link up below!

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Little Fires Everywhere, How to Talk When Kids Won't Listen, and Wayside School Is Falling Down
Five years ago I was reading: The Orphan Master's Son and Eragon
Ten years ago I was reading: The Casual Vacancy, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and Thinking, Fast and Slow

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Top Ten Books on My Summer TBR

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

It's time to share what we're planning to read this season. Of the books on my spring TBR, I have one rolling over to summer, two that I'm in the middle of now, and one (Harrow the Ninth) that I DNFed. The others I did successfully read this spring. Here are ten books I plan to read this summer!

1. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
This has been recommended over and over again both as a literary award winner and by people whose taste I trust. I'm looking forward to finally reading it.

2. Disfigured by Amanda Leduc
One of my book clubs is reading this for Disability Pride Month in July. It discusses the depiction of (dis)ability in fairy tales. Should be interesting!

3. The Guncle by Steven Rowley
Another one of my book clubs is reading this for July, and I'm not sure I'll be able to attend the discussion, but this title has popped up enough times now that I want to read it either way!

4. Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H
The LGBTQIA+ affinity group I co-lead at work voted on a book to read and discuss for Pride month, and this one tied with Ace, but it's recently published enough that library hold lists are super long, so we decided to discuss this one later in the year instead. My hold should come in by the end of summer!

5. How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith
This has continued to receive high praise since it was first published, so I finally put a hold on it for this summer!

6. I Won't Shut Up by Ally Henny
This comes out today (June 20)! I've been following Henny's work for years now and when I saw she had a book coming out I recommended my library buy it, so I'm pretty high up on the holds list :)

7. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
This is my one carryover from spring — I'm still on the holds list!

8. Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner
Yet another one of my book clubs is reading this in July. (My schedule will conflict with my book clubs for months and then suddenly open up for all of them at once!) I enjoyed Wilsner's Something to Talk About, so I'm very interested to check out another one of their books.

9. Parker Pyne Investigates by Agatha Christie
My quest to read Christie's complete works continues!

10. Sorted by Jackson Bird
This memoir was already on my radar when a friend said they'd found parts of it similar to their own experiences, so now I want to bump it up to the top of my list.

What do you plan to read this summer?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Good Girl, Bad Blood, Solitaire, and Velma Still Cooks in Leeway
Five years ago I was reading: The Orphan Master's Son and Inspired
Ten years ago I was reading: The Red Tent, The Biology of Belief, and The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow

What I've Been Reading Lately (Quick Lit)

Today I'm linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy's Quick Lit to bring you some short and sweet reviews of what I've read in the past month. For longer reviews, you can always find me on Goodreads.

I finally had a really great reading month! I got through more than four books this time, and several of them were excellent.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: This was a fascinating and compelling read. It takes some time to get used to the story's world, but when it became clear that there was actually a kind of mystery at the heart of the book, I was all in.

Snapdragon by Kat Leyh: I know, I just read this graphic novel a couple months ago, but I reread it with my 8-year-old and loved it just as much the second time around!

The Mysterious Mr. Quin by Agatha Christie: I quite enjoyed this volume of stories somewhat outside of Christie's usual fare. In many of the stories, there is a tragedy that has happened in the past and just by asking questions, Mr. Quin is able to uncover the truth of what really happened.

Positive by Paige Rawl with Ali Benjamin: I first read this in 2015 and revisited it after nominating it for book club. It's still a 5-star read for me: a heartbreaking, inspiring, honest, and well written memoir about having HIV from birth.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer: This is a beautiful essay collection that has earned its stellar reputation. Kimmerer, who is both a scientist and an indigenous woman, shows how traditional ways of knowing are not at odds with science; the two actually complement and reinforce one another.

The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater: This book is aimed at teenagers, which maybe explains why it reads as Gender Identity 101 / An Introduction to the Juvenile Justice System, but it's very good; Slater clearly did her research, and I felt like she really captured the complicated nuances of a crime like this.

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli: I absolutely loved this new one from Becky Albertalli. Albertalli writes adorable romances, but also beautiful depictions of friendship, family, and identity exploration. This was a nuanced dive into elements of queerness I hadn't seen before.

Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery by Casey Parks: The memoir aspect definitely worked better than the mystery, and I think if Parks had focused more on that angle, it would have been less of a slog. It's not bad, but the structure and editing could have been a lot better, and ultimately I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it.

The Bad Guys in Mission Unpluckable by Aaron Blabey: The Bad Guys (who want to be Good Guys) are back in another silly adventure, this time in a Mission Impossible-style raid on a very heavily guarded chickenhouse. It made me chuckle and kept my 8-year-old engaged in reading.

Let It Bang: A Young Black Man's Reluctant Odyssey into Guns by R.J. Young: This was a relatively quick read about an important topic told through a personal lens. When Young, a Black man, marries a white woman with a gun-loving father, he resolves to learn everything he can about guns. The writing was a bit uneven, but it's a quick read (under 200 pages) and worth a read.

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Felix Ever After, Solitaire, and Velma Still Cooks in Leeway
Five years ago I was reading: Feeling Good, Inspired, and Garlic and Sapphires
Ten years ago I was reading: The Red Tent, The Biology of Belief, and MWF Seeking BFF