The Whispers

 

Title: The Whispers

Author: Audrey Audrain

Publisher: Penguin Audio

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: At times, a very taut psychological domestic thriller, but I wish Audrain went deeper as it feels like she is holding something back, plus it would have been very helpful if the audio book had a different narrator for each woman.

Rating: 3/5

Finishing the Hat

 

Title: Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines, and Anecdotes

Author: Stephen Sondheim

Publisher: Knopf

 
ISBN: 9780679439073

 

Thoughts: This collection of the first half of Sondheim's oeuvre contains many insight into the world of Broadway from the 50s-70s.

Rating: 4/5

The Hillside

 

Title: The Hillside

Author: Jane Smiley

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories

 
ISBN: 9781542041386

 

Thoughts: A futuristic story with a morality-tale feel that leaves a huge backstory to the imagination.

Rating: 3/5

Congratulations, the Best Is Over!

 

Title: Congratulations, the Best Is Over!

Author: R. Eric Thomas

Publisher: Random House Audio

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: Very relatable humorous personal essays, that do focus a lot of Thomas's time during Covid.

Rating: 4/5

The King Tides

 

Title: The King Tides

Author: James Swain

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

 
ISBN: 9781503956698

 

Thoughts: This story, while it had a solid plot and decent characters, was very disjointed in the first half and second half felt like two different novels, although related, and the use of the king tides added nothing.

Rating: 2/5

Yellowface

 

Title: Yellowface

Author: R.F. Kuang

Publisher: The Borough Press

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: This is a book that needs to be discussed because it touches on so many subjects and presents so many view points to those subjects, all while being highly engrossing.

Rating: 4/5

Tom Lake

 

Title: Tom Lake

Author: Ann Patchett

Publisher: HarperAudio

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: Highly engaging memory novel that will appeal to family saga lovers and theatre geeks alike.

Rating: 4/5

Stephen Sondheim

 

Title: Stephen Sondheim: A Life

Author: Meryle Secrest

Publisher: Delta

 
ISBN: 9780385334129

 

Thoughts: Very thorough and informative biography, but I would love to see an update to cover the last decade or so of his life.

Rating: 4/5

Wizards, Inc

 

Title: Wizards, Inc.

Author: Martin H. Greenberg & Loren L. Coleman, eds.

Publisher: Daw

 
ISBN: 9780756404390

 

Thoughts: Like most collections, some stories were great while others fell flat; ones that stood out to me were "Back Door Magic" by Phaedra M. Weldon, "The Keeper of Morals" by Dean Wesley Smith, and "Theobroma" by Diane Duane.

Rating: 3/5

Annihilation

 

Title: Annihilation

Author: Jeff Vandermeer

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

 
ISBN: 9780374104092

 

Thoughts: Very tightly constructed post-apocalyptic sci-fi that sucks the reader in and leaves them wanting to know what happens next.

Rating: 4/5

You Were Always Mine

 

Title: You Were Always Mine

Author: Christine Pride & Jo Piazza

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

 
ISBN: 9781797160498

 

Thoughts: This novel is filled with flawed characters who you will be yelling at and rooting for at the same time.

Rating: 3/5

Gone Tonight

 

Title: Gone Tonight

Author: Sarah Pekkanan

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: Engaging suspense, but there are some points that just do not work if you think about them too hard.

Rating: 3/5

The Anarchy

 

Title: The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire

Author: William Dalrymple

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

 
ISBN: 9781635573954

 

Thoughts: Very dense text about the East India Company and Indian history filled with quotes that did not make anything clearer.

Rating: 2/5

Our Missing Hearts

 

Title: Our Missing Hearts

Author: Celeste Ng

Publisher: Penguin Press

 
ISBN: 9780593492543

 

Thoughts: A dystopian novel that seems scarily possible.

Rating: 4/5

The Last Animal

 

Title: The Last Animal

Author: Ramona Ausubel

Publisher: Riverhead Books

 
ISBN: 9780593420522

 

Thoughts: A great book to spark discussion, but it just fell a little flat.

Rating: 3/5

Much Ado About Baseball

 

Title: Much Ado About Baseball

Author: Rajani LaRocca

Publisher: Yellow Jacket

 
ISBN: 9781499814330

 

Thoughts: Fun spin on Shakespeare and I loved how it had a strong female lead but will still appeal to MG boys, but while it felt like it was supposed to focus more around the plot of Much Ado About Nothing, it leaned too far towards A Midsummer Night's Dream, much like it's companion novel, Midsummer's Mayhem.

Rating: 4/5

Denver Dossier

 

Title: Denver Dossier: Themed Adventures of Every Traveler: A Local's Guide to Art, History, Outdoor Escapes, Family Fun, Culinary Gems, and Hidden Treasures in the Mile-High City

Author: Kimberly Burk Cordova

Publisher: Cordova Consulting

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: Pleasant and easily-accessible travel guide to various things to do and places to visit in Denver.

Rating: 4/5

The Whalebone Theatre

 

Title: The Whalebone Theatre

Author: Joanna Quinn

Publisher: Knopf

 
ISBN: 9780593321076

 

Thoughts: Quinn presents a sweeping family saga and uses a variety of literary forms, but some of that gets lost as the last 40% or so turns into an almost typical WWII novel.

Rating: 4/5

How to Be a Victorian

 

Title: How to Be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life

Author: Ruth Goodman

Publisher: Liveright

 
ISBN: 9780871404855

 

Thoughts: Very thorough and enjoyable glance into Victorian life and the reason why things were as they were.

Rating: 4/5

Little Monsters

 

Title: Little Monsters

Author: Andriene Brodeur

Publisher: Audible Audio

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: Good family drama, but there were some family issues that seemed not fully fleshed.

Rating: 3/5

The Man Who Invented Christmas

 

Title: The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits

Author: Les Standiford

Publisher: Crown

 
ISBN: 9781524762469

 

Thoughts: Approachable biography of Charles Dickens centered around his writing of A Christmas Carol, along with a brief history of the holiday.

Rating: 4/5

Mary Anne Saves the Day

 

Title: Mary Anne Saves the Day

Author: Raina Telgemeier & Ann M. Martin

Publisher: Graphix

 
ISBN: 9780545890663

 

Thoughts: Realistic portrayal of middle school friends fighting, but shows how standing up for yourself can make all the difference.

Rating: 4/5

A Thousand Times Before

 

Title: A Thousand Times Before

Author: Asha Thanki

Publisher: Viking

 
ISBN: 9780593654644

 

Thoughts: Beautiful novel about a preternatural connection between daughters and all the mothers who have gone before.

Rating: 4/5

Banyan Moon

 

Title: Banyan Moon

Author: Thao Thai

Publisher: HarperAudio

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: This was a powerful novel about family, especially about mothers and daughters, but it had so much potential to also be an amazing gothic.

Rating: 3/5

Family Lore

 

Title: Family Lore

Author: Elizabeth Acevedo

Publisher: Cannongate Books

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: Acevedo creates such rich characters, and there are many of them in this novel about family, but I was not as impressed with her first foray into adult fiction as I am with her YA.

Rating: 3/5

Finale

 

Title: Finale: Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim

Author: D.T. Max

Publisher: Harper

 
ISBN: 9780063279810

 

Thoughts: These transcripts of Max's conversations with Sondheim in the last decade show how sharp the composer was until the end.

Rating: 4/5

 

Title: At the Bottom of New Lake

Author: Sonya Larson

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories

 
ISBN: 9781542041409

 

Thoughts: Great characters, but none of them really seemed to have any growth, and the plot was very thin.

Rating: 3/5

They Dream in Gold

 

Title: They Dream in Gold

Author: Mai Sennaar

Publisher: Zando - SJP Lip

 
ISBN: 9781638931102

 

Thoughts: Highly character-driven novel that goes back and forth in time about how relationships between children and mothers and mother-figures can affect each other's lives.

Rating: 4/5

Beautiful Exiles

 

Title: Beautiful Exiles

Author: Meg Waite Clayton

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: While this was historical fiction, it was so well researched that I felt like I was reading Martha Gellhorn's memoir during her love affair with Ernest Hemingway.

Rating: 5/5

Artificial Intelligence Unleashed

 

Title: Artificial Intelligence Unleashed: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Innovation: Pratical Stratageies for Small Business to Leverage AI and Drive Growth

Author: Kimberly Burk Cordova

Publisher: Cordova Consulting

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: There was good information here, but nothing really new to me as it didn't do am intensive deep dive, and the narration, while not totally flat, sounded like an AI in a sci-fi movie with very limited range and no inflection, which honestly made it hard to follow.

Rating: 2/5

Wilder Girls

 

Title: Wilder Girls

Author: Rory Power

Publisher: Delacorte Press

 
ISBN: 9780525645580

 

Thoughts: I usually like YA dystopian, especially one with solid world-building, but the mixture with body horror just did not work for me.

Rating: 3/5

Quietly Hostile

 

Title: Quietly Hostile

Author: Samantha Irby

Publisher: Random House Audio

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: This NSFW collection of personal humorous essays had me LOLing.

Rating: 4/5

The Covenant of Water

 

Title: The Covenant of Water

Author: Abraham Verghese

Publisher: Recorded Books

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: Long but exceptional story; however, not for the medically squeamish.

Rating: 5/5

Camp Zero

 

Title: Camp Zero

Author: Michelle Min Sterling

Publisher: Audible Audio

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: A very well-crafted novel, especially with a collective functioning as one character, but I just wanted more from it.

Rating: 3/5

Lavender House

 

Title: Lavender House

Author: Lev Ac Rosen

Publisher: Forge Books

 
ISBN: 9781250834225

 

Thoughts: This had the feel of the best old-school mystery novels, but with characters who would never be prominently featured in one.

Rating: 4/5

Scorched Grace

 

Title: Scorched Grace

Author: Margot Douaihy

Publisher: Zando

 
ISBN: 9781638930242

 

Thoughts: Sister Holiday is a very cool, tortured character, but the focus on her background took away from the mystery.

Rating: 3/5

Crossroads 2070

 

Title: Crossroads 2070: Humanity's Choices Today Have Consequences - Experience Three Possible Futures

Author: Dean Whitford

Publisher: self

 
ISBN: n/a

 

Thoughts: Very interesting premise, but while each catalyst did lead to a different future the characters themselves (their self, not their actions) were the same not matter which future it was.

Rating: 2/5