There's No Place Like Home

 Book 49 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read on May 30

There's No Place Like Home

by Edan Lepucki

My Opinion

4 stars

This short story is part of the Warmer collection available through Amazon Prime Reading.  I really enjoyed it because the story itself felt very human and realistic even against the backdrop of the catastrophic surroundings for good (people still find time for love) and for bad (even among the people who have little there is still a subset of "the lowest" people look down on).

The Peacekeeper

Book 48 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from May 7 - 30

The Peacekeeper

by B.L. Blanchard

Summary (via Goodreads)

North America was never colonized.  The United States and Canada don't exist. The Great Lakes are surrounded by an independent Ojibwe nation. And in the village of Baawitigong, a Peacekeeper confronts his devastating past.

Twenty years ago to the day, Chibenashi's mother was murdered and his father confessed. Ever since, caring for his still-traumatized younger sister has been Chibenashi's privilege and penance. Now, on the same night of the Manoomin harvest, another woman is slain. His mother's best friend. The leads to a seemingly impossible connection take Chibenashi far from the only world he's ever known.

The major city of Shikaakwa is home to the victim's cruelly estranged family - and to two people Chibenashi never wanted to see again: his imprisoned father and the lover who broke his heart. As the questions mount, the answers will change his and his sister's lives forever. Because Chibenashi is about to discover that everything about those lives has been a lie.

My Opinion

3 stars

May is always a busy month for us so reading time is hard to find.  This book was perfect for those moments - I was engrossed while I was reading but I was also able to put it down.  

The setting of a never-colonized North America was a good backdrop to have the modern technologies of the current day yet the tribes and traditions of something usually associated with the past.

I started to get frustrated about 75% of the way through about the blinders many people had while investigating but even I was surprised by the anger and venom that came through at the end so it still kept me on my toes even though I had suspicions much earlier than the characters.

 I see the author has written another book, one where the British Empire never existed, and I'll probably read that one too.

Controller

 Book 47 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from May 25 - 26

Controller

by Jesse Kellerman

My Opinion

3 stars

This short story is part of the Warmer collection available through Prime Reading.  It's a compliment when I say I didn't like it...it was written so viscerally I was uncomfortable reading about the heat and suffering because I felt like I was there and couldn't escape it.  I didn't understand the ending though and it took me out of the story.

She's Gone

 Book 46 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from May 10 - 24

She's Gone

by David Bell

Summary (via Goodreads)

When 17-year-old Hunter Gifford wakes in the hospital on the night of homecoming, he's shocked to learn he and his girlfriend, Chloe Summers, have been in a terrible car accident. Hunter has no memory of the crash, and his shock turns to horror when he is told Chloe's blood has been found in the car―but she has disappeared.
Back at school, his fellow students taunt him, and his former best friend starts making a true-crime documentary about the case―one that points the finger directly at Hunter. And just when things can't get any worse, Chloe's mother stands in front of the entire town at a candlelight vigil and accuses Hunter of murder.
Under mounting pressure from the police, Hunter takes matters into his own hands by questioning anyone who might know the truth and posting videos to prove his innocence. When Hunter learns he and Chloe were seen arguing loudly outside the dance, he faces a sickening possibility. Was he angry enough to kill the person he loved?

My Opinion

2 stars

The beginning was very good and engaged me right away but when I was almost halfway through the book and no progress had been made I was frustrated and skimmed through the rest just to see what the resolution was.

I can't really say what I didn't like about the book without spoilers so I will give 2 general statements.  First, when Hunter's memory loss is critical to how long it took to figure everything out yet there was no way to plan for Hunter experiencing memory loss, it made the actions inexplicable.  Second, it is really tough to thread the needle when it's first-person narration from the point of view of someone experiencing memory loss; there needs to be enough observation that the reader can pick out clues even if the character hasn't put them together yet but there also can't be too many or there is no way the character should still be in the dark.  Unfortunately, I knew one of the twists fairly early on and it was very frustrating watching Hunter almost deliberately avoid finding answers (such as not reading messages, etc.)

Even though this wasn't the book for me I would probably give this author another try.

Six Wives

 Book 45 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from March 25 - May 18

Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII

by David Starkey

Summary (via the book jacket)

No one in history had a more eventful career in matrimony than Henry VIII. His marriages were daring and tumultuous, and made instant legends of six very different women. In this remarkable study, David Starkey argues that the king was not a depraved philanderer but someone seeking happiness - and a son. Knowingly or not, he elevated a group of women to extraordinary heights and changed the way a nation was governed.

My Opinion

3 stars

I picked this book up for more information after reading a historical fiction novel based around these marriages, and more information I definitely got.  I chipped away at it slowly and there were many natural places to pause so I didn't feel bogged down.  

I knew it was going to be lopsided but I was very very surprised that the divorce of his first wife didn't occur until around page 460, his second wife was beheaded around page 583, and then the next four wives were wrapped up in the final 200 pages.  This devotion meant there were lots of details about matters I wasn't necessarily interested in and skimmed.  It's good to lay the groundwork of the times but there were so many names and positions I knew I wouldn't be able to keep them straight and didn't even try.

A thorough study of an interesting topic, the author did his research and showed his work by explaining how he reached his conclusions in the many cases of conflicting stories.

The Library Book

Book 44 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from May 2 - 9

The Library Book

by Susan Orlean

My Opinion

4 stars

Normally I would include a summary of the book with my review but I didn't bother this time because what I thought the book would be about based on the description turned out not to be the main focus, in my opinion.

This book celebrates libraries, particularly the public library system in Los Angeles.  I loved reading about the history, especially the staff and patrons that helped shape the library into what it is today.  But as far as the fire, which I thought was the point of the book based on the summary, that journey fizzled like a dud firework for me.  If I had read the entire book solely for that case it would've been a huge disappointment to get to end and find out there was zero resolution or even a consensus on whether or not the fire was intentional.

It was gut-wrenching to hear all the irreplaceable items lost in the library fire but I'm amazed and pleasantly surprised at how much they were able to save and restore.

Quote from the Book

"It wasn't that time stopped in the library. It was as if it were captured here, collected here, and in all libraries - and not only my time, my life, but all human time as well."

A Career in Books

 Book 43 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from May 4 - 7

A Career in Books: A Novel about Friendship, Money, and the Occasional Duck Bun

by Kate Gavin

Summary (via Goodreads)

Shirin, Nina, and Silvia have just gotten their first jobs in publishing, at a University Press, a traditional publisher, and a trust-fund kid's indie publisher, respectively. And it's... great? ¯_(ツ)_/¯ They know they're paying their dues and the challenges they meet (Shirin's boss just assumes she knows Cantonese; Nina cannot get promoted by sheer force of will; and Silvia has to deal with daily microaggressions) are just part of "a career in books." When they meet their elderly neighbor, Veronica Vo, and discover she's a Booker Prize winner dubbed the "Tampax Tolstoy" by the press, each woman finds a thread of inspiration from Veronica's life to carry on her own path. And the result is full of twists and revelations that surprise not only the reader but the women themselves.

My Opinion

4 stars

It was nice to read a book that had genuine friendship between women.  The fact that they were casually Asian made me realize yet again how often the default is for characters to be white.