I didn’t stop reading, but the wheels fell off the keeping track of books wagon (now there’s a laboured metaphor for you!) this fall. So, here’s a possibly incomplete list of what I read this quarter. I’ll try to do better in January. Let’s not call it a resolution though. No need to tempt the gods of the new year.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Masterful, obviously.
Past Crimes by Ashley Gardner and Jennifer Ashley. A collection of novellas by a single author under two pseudonyms. Pretty good actually.
The Whisper Network by Chandler Baker. Once I started reading this novel, I found it hard to put down. Four women, all lawyers, trying to navigate career politics, parenthood, long hours, unrealistic self- and societal-expectations who encounter the traditional “whisper network” – woman-to woman advice about whom and how to avoid dangerous men – recorded in a spreadsheet that’s shared secretly amongst career women in Dallas. When one of them decides to add a name to the list, the repercussions are something none of them expect. Fiction, but absolutely drawing on real-life so authentically that it feels like reportage (but without the false gloss – and impossible standard – of “objectivity” that journalism calls for).
Murder on the Sugarland Express by Angie Fox. Not great, bub. I had to work to finish it. Definitely not what I’m looking for in a cosy.
Ghost of a Chance by Cate Dean. Enjoyable undemanding read.
On the Lamb by Tina Kashian. I’ve read other installments in the Kebab Kitchen Mystery series, and this one stacks up nicely.
Remedial Rocket Science by Susannah Nix. Subtitled “A Romantic Comedy,” this book makes it seem that the author very much is hoping for it to become a screenplay. It’s perfectly enjoyable though if I’m optioning movie rights, I’d go for a Jasmine Guillory novel first.
Too Many Crooks Spoil the Plot by Sarah Osborne. I couldn’t remember the plot of this one at all based on the uber-generic title. After a quick refresher, I recall the story as a good read that ticks all the cosy boxes. (That sounds potentially dirty. Is not.)
The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum by Kirsten Weiss. In this cosy, big-city woman returns to her small town home to find herself and ends up running not a bookshop – or a cafe or iced tea emporium or a cupcake bakery, etc., – but a paranormal museum. That’s the genre twist. I admit, I like it.
Miss Spelled by Morgana Best. In this cosy, hapless big city woman inherits a small-town bakery (check!) and moves in. She’s inept at a lot of things in her life, cooking especially, but it turns out that she comes from a long line of witches and she needs to figure out how to make the spells work for her. Oh, and solve murders for which she looks guilty.
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The November read of my book club and wow, it was good. Evoked nuanced discussion about religion, extended families and responsibilities thereof, child abuse, government corruption and coups, and hope versus desperation.
Louisiana Longshot by Jana DeLeon. A really quite entertaining cosy in which a CIA sharpshooter has to go deep undercover as a librarian in small-town Louisiana. Fun.
A Read Wine Bookstore Cozy Mystery Boxed Set: Books 1–5 by L.C. Turner. I think I got through the first three books before I noped out of them. May have been conceived and written by a random story generator fed the conventions of cosy mysteries and then poorly edited to boot. They actively made me cranky and feel taken advantage of, though I’m pretty sure I downloaded them for free (legally, always).
I started listening to a few different podcasts this fall, but haven’t gotten hooked on any. Maybe I’m just generally hard to please right now? POSSIBLE.
