The Power

 The Power by Naomi Alderman, 341 pages.

This book starts with a simple premise. What happens if all women suddenly gained the power to produce and manipulate electricity? It takes a very wide view of this question, exploring not only the political ramifications, but also many branching social results. We mostly follow four characters. An abused foster-child who hears the voice of god (probably) and reinvents herself as "Mother Eve," starting a new religion focused on women. The daughter of a major player in organized crime who has exceptional raw power and isn't afraid to use it. A small town mayor who develops this new power and uses the changing political landscape to her advantage. A reporter, the sole man in our primary cast. 

Alderman is very clever with this book, but I think perhaps the most clever thing was it's framing device. In a small note at the beginning this book is presented as a piece of historical fiction written by an archeologist, thousands of years from our own time. This not only lets us see some of the very long term effects of the events, but also adds layers throughout that are fun to spin around like puzzle pieces while reading (although I will grant there's an amount of suspension of disbelief for the accuracy this theoretical far future write has for our own time). 

The scope of this book reminds me a bit of World War Z, which is another book concerned with wide ripples from a single speculative event. However, my one real complaint about the book (aside from the fact that it's a little too on the nose sometimes) is that it's scope is not quite ambitious enough. There are one or two lines about how the emergence of  the power is effecting fashion and gender presentation, which was very interesting, but I think that the book is a little weaker for not including the ways that transgender experiences would interact with gender based magic and the sort of sexual division that arises from it. It's also almost entirely focused on America and Europe, which limits the scope quite a lot. We get glimpses of the rest of the world from the respective of the reporter, but they are unfortunately very limited. Overall I definitely enjoyed this book and found it very thought-provoking. I really enjoyed the almost mythic tone it took at times, which makes sense for a fictional man writing about the way his world came to be. This book won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2017 and I would say it was definitely deserving. 

Also: See Kara's post about this book here

Boys Run the Riot vol. 4

 

 Boys Run the Riot, vol. 4 by Keito Gaku, translated by Leo McDonagh, 262 pages. 

In this conclusion to the series we focus in on the boys' clothing brand and their attempts to make it as an indie fashion brand. Life stomps them down as high schoolers with more passion than skill or experience, but a chance encounter brings them into contact with a man who runs his own indie brand and is willing to take them on as apprentices. They have the opportunity to display their clothes at his expo, but first they need to figure out what they're doing and why they're doing it.

I really liked this volume, like all the others, and I liked that we got to spend a little more time with Jin in this volume after focusing so much on Ryo. I was a little underwhelmed with this as a conclusion to the series, but it was still completely solid (even if it's hard to tell from the timestamps on this blog, I read the entire series in less than a week, even waiting for the last volume to come in from another library).

Fun Fact: This is the first book that gets bonus points for a train ride, which is wild for a book set in a Japanese city.

Night And Silence

 Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire, 368 pages.

In this installment (book 12 of the October Daye series) Toby feels like her life is crumbling after the events of the last book. Many of the social ties she has spent so long building are strained or broken all together, and it makes it all the more difficult to get over the experience herself.

Everything is much worse when her human daughter is kidnapped and all signs point to Faerie. 

This is a great series about a changeling PI solving magic mysteries. I wouldn't recommend jumping in at book 12, but this is definitely a solid edition to the series. It explores a few more of the mysteries of Toby's family line, but there wasn't quite as much big-picture lore as I was hoping for after the last book. This was a recovery book for her in a lot of ways, and I'm excited for the next one.

Boys Run the Riot vol 3

 Boys Run the Riot, vol. 3 by Keito Gaku, translated by Leo McDonagh, 210 pages.

 

This is volume 3 and we're reaching spoiler territory, so proceed with caution. The boys' brand suddenly gets huge publicity after a collaboration with WING an LGBTQ YouTuber (and the non-binary cousin of one of their classmates). Unfortunately, WING (real name Tsubasa) also uses this video to publicly out Ryo, allegedly for his own good. Now whether he's ready or not Ryo is out, and has to deal with all of his classmates knowing. 

This volume gets pretty heavy (but so do the others, at times) and we're definitely reaching dealing with complexity both with life and identity. I really enjoyed this volume.

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante, 471 pages, 

translated from Italian, Book 2 in the Neapolitan Novels series

I became interested in the novels after watching the HBO series My Brilliant Friend. I immediately fell in love with the two main protagonists, Lila and Lenù, little girls growing up in post WWII Naples. The telling of their brutal childhood is handled with raw innocent grace: difficult childhoods are difficult to narrate. Following Book 1, which lays out the girls’ lives in their dusty square of multi-family apartment buildings, the broken adults, the near feral children, their bare-bones school, and the steely bond between the two, this Book 2 reaches into their adulthood, such as it is. Lila marries at 16, hardly an adult, while Lenù eventually leaves the grey life of Naples by train, attends University in Pisa, to gain academic status, and new bonds. 

Their lives sharply cut away from each other by outward appearances. But both battle restrictions set upon them from within and out, in the backdrop of the 60’s, as social, gender, class upheaval brews. Lila weaponizes all resources within her grasp to fight the life that seems decided before she was born, a life still full of suffocating limits and violence. Meanwhile, Lenù, given opportunities of freedom that Lila can no longer even dream about, wrestles with a chronic unease of not ever escaping her Neapolitan identity no matter how accomplished, masterful and socially connected she becomes. And in these struggles, their bond is measured and tested. I am really looking forward to reading Book 3. The filmed series is very enjoyable, but the writing offers a more exquisite tale. 

Boys Run the Riot vol 2

Boys Run the Riot, vol. 2 by Keito Gaku, translated by Leo McDonagh, 194 pages.

Ryo and Jin have started their brand, but it's not really going anywhere yet, and also making product is expensive. So the boys have to get jobs. This volume deals more with the larger social aspects of Ryo's transness and his journey into living more publicly as himself and slowly coming out to more people. It's very good and very emotionally charged, and a real pleasure to watch Ryo grow.
 

Ace

 Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen, 210 pages.

Ace is a book that smoothly combines journalism, cultural criticism, personal memoir to explore not only many facets of what asexuality is and what it means, but also what the lens of asexuality can contribute to larger discussions about sexuality and consent. It's a bit harder to write a long description of a non-fiction book, because that's the big central theme and the rest is details. 

I found this book very interesting and there were definitely things in it that were new to me. Chen includes a very wide variety of experiences that all fall under the umbrella of asexuality, which is almost sure to introduce some new perspectives. Thought-provoking and thorough.

The Hostess with the Ghostess

 The Hostess with the Ghostess by E.J. Copperman (2018) 325 pages

Alison Kerby runs a guesthouse that is partially occupied with ghosts. She also has a private investigator license, which sometimes comes in handy, especially when her co-investigators are those same ghosts, and they need a live person to help get information.

This time, Richard, the newly deceased brother of one of her former resident ghosts arrives, wanting to help Cassidy, who has been accused of her stepfather's murder. Richard was a lawyer who had been helping Cassidy when he himself was murdered. Alison needs to find Paul, Richard's brother, in order to get his help with the case, and places an online personal ad, and also asks a local medium to try to get the message to him (although she's not sure that this medium is legit). As we learn more about the stepfather's murder, there's definitely some funny business going on, especially when his own wife and children ask Alison to stop working on the case.

Meanwhile, Alison is hosting several senior citizens in her haunted guesthouse, and has her ghosts doing shows for the guests twice a day. It's a fast, fun read, my second in the series. I plan to try out other series by the same author.

How to be perfect

 

How to be perfect: the correct answer to every moral question / Michael Schur, read by the author and a cast, 300 pgs.

This book explains the philosophical underpinnings of “The Good Place” sitcom that was created by the author. With musical interludes and narration by the show's cast plus “real” philosopher Todd May, this primer is a serious study of moral philosophy and ethics.  Narration by this lofty group of performers makes it a lot of fun to listen to but the content is true philosophy and ethics.  These topics require a lot of focus by the listener to provide understanding of the issues addressed despite the pop culture rewards. Certainly an enjoyable way to study how to be a better person.

Boys Run the Riot, vol. 1

 Boys Run the Riot, vol. 1 by Keito Gaku, translated by Leo McDonagh, 246 pages.

Transgender high school student Ryo knows that "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down." So he wears the uniform he hates, tries to keep his head down, and doesn't tell anyone he's really a boy. The one place he finds solace is in his favorite clothes, which let him feel comfortable and confident for a while. When outspoken weird guy Jin sees Ryo at a pop-up shop and suggests they start a clothing brand together Ryo is initially hesitant. Then, mostly through watching Jin love his life while confidently wearing his passions on his sleeve, Ryo learns to start living without shame.

This was a surprisingly heartfelt manga. It's focused on transgender issues, but it is also more broadly about the many students at their school learning to love things without shame. It feels really good to read, and I was very excited to see that at least two other volumes have also already been translated to English.

The Hard Sell

 

The Hard Sell: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup / Evan Hughes, read by Mike Chamberlain

John Kapoor developed a powerful opioid pain medicine in response to his wife’s suffering with cancer.  But then capitalism takes over and the company he founded becomes exactly what you would expect, focused on profits at any cost. The team Kapoor recruits goes down the rabbit hole of unethical and illegal behavior to boost their paychecks. All in all, this is just another brick in the wall of the Opioid crisis.  Narrator Mike Chamberlain does a great job of adding to the procedural quality of this true crime story.  He is adept at taking us through the facts with a compassionate but neutral observer calm.

Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe, 317 pages

In the 19th Century, Anderson Cooper's ancestor, Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt amassed a huge fortune in railroads, making the Vanderbilt family the richest in the United States. In this book, Cooper examines The Commodore and his various descendants, the vast majority of whom squandered the Commodore's fortune in lavish ways. Among others, the book tells of Billy "The Blatherskite" Vanderbilt, son of the Commodore and the only kid to add to the fortune; of socialite Alva Vanderbilt, whose social competition with Caroline Astor led to increasingly lavish parties, culminating in an 1883 masked ball that cost the equivalent of $6 million to throw; of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, a socialite and artist who founded the Whitney Museum of American Art; of Harold Vanderbilt, who sailed many times in the America's Cup; and of course, it tells the story of "little" Gloria Vanderbilt, denim magnate and Cooper's mother. It also touches on the people who surrounded the Vanderbilts, including European royalty, politicians, other notable socialites, and well-known literary figures, including Truman Capote and Dorothy Parker. 

It's a fascinating story, and Cooper tells it well, never shying away from the less-savory characteristics of his ancestors or of showing the stark contrast between the Vanderbilt excesses and the often-dire straits of the rest of the country. I particularly enjoyed listening to the audiobook, which is read by Cooper.

The Ballad of Black Tom

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle, 151 pages

Tommy Tester is a young Black man attempting to make a living on the streets of New York in the 1920s. Though he carries a guitar case everywhere he goes, his main job is tracking down obscure items for anyone whose willing to pay him for the work. Until he meets Robert Suydam, a rich gentleman who hires Tommy to play the guitar at a gathering of the diverse residents of Red Hook, Brooklyn. It turns out, however, that Suydam has nebulous plans to use these people to appease the "sleeping king" and gain supernatural power.

LaValle based this novella on the 1927 H.P. Lovecraft short story "The Horror at Red Hook," which has been called Lovecraft's "most racist" story (which is really saying something). But where Lovecraft made the undocumented immigrants and Black residents of Red Hook into a monolithic "other," LaValle gave them character and variation and brought them to life. Neither the short story nor the novella make a whole lot of sense (particularly in the second half), but it's easy to see how LaValle's story reckons with Lovecraft's racism and the way that being treated like a monster is what makes someone a monster. It made for an illuminating Orcs & Aliens discussion last night.

Lost in a Good Book

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde, 399 pages

**SPOILERS if you haven't read The Eyre Affair yet (which you REALLY should do, as it's been out for like 20 years and is one of the best books ever).**

Ahem.

OK, so Thursday Next saved Jane Eyre from the dastardly and diabolical Acheron Hades, but much to the chagrin of Eyre superfans and the fictional world alike, managed to change the ending in the process (though she made it better by many accounts). Lost in a Good Book finds Thursday dealing with the fallout, from a trial that takes place at the end of a chapter in a Kafka novel to having her husband eradicated from history as punishment for trapping a corporate goon in "The Raven." Oh, and she also has to deal with a growing number of murder-by-coincidence attempts on her life while she manages her newfound fame.

None of that probably makes any sense at all, but somehow, Fforde manages to take all these disparate parts and form them into a creative and fantastic sequel. Good lord, I love these books.

The Sympathizer

 The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, 371 pages.

The narrator of this political thriller is a communist double agent implanted with a Vietnamese general at the end of the Vietnam war. The story follows him as he flees Vietnam with the general after the fall of Saigon and begins living in a refugee community in California, where political maneuvering continues to happen.

For all that this book is a Pulitzer Prize winner I am sad to say I did not care for it at all. I would think it would be hard for a thriller to be boring, but that is the only word I can use to describe my experience of it. Even events that would normally be very exciting or tense were rendered anything but by the very detached and meandering narrative voice. I'm sure there must be redeeming factors for people to like this book so much, but I personally definitely had a hard time finishing it. 

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

 The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, 427 pages.

Yeine Darr, bastard granddaughter of the de facto ruler of the world and ruler of her late father's country in the barbarian north, is unexpectedly summoned to the city of Sky and named one of her grandfather's three potential heirs. The Arameri family has functionally ruled the world for hundreds of years, ever since the god of light killed one of the other three old gods and enslaved the other to the Arameri families service. In the palace of Sky, high above the city of Sky, Yeine must navigate the lethal game of succession while growing ever closer to the gods imprisoned in the palace. 

This is the first full-length novel I read by Jemisin, and I was prepared to like it more than I actually did. The premise was really intriguing, and I found the world-building super cool. Unfortunately there were some writing decisions I found pretty weird in the second half that really impacted my enjoyment of the story overall. I will say that with the way this book ended I'm really curious to see where she goes with the rest of the series. 

Middlegame

 Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, 492 pages.

Rodger and Dodger have had the ability to communicate psychically and see through each other's eyes since they were both seven-year-old geniuses on opposite sides of the country (in language and mathematics, respectively).  This is because they are in fact twins created by an evil alchemist as part of an attempt to take control of the natural laws of the universe. Over the course of their lives Rodger and Dodger are repeatedly pushed together and torn apart throughout their lives both by the machinations of others and their own (extremely fragile) hearts. 

McGuire's work is excellent as usual, although this book had less of an impact on me than many of her others. The prose is stunning and Rodger and Dodger are both very engaging, but some of the rules of this setting get more then a little complex. I'm also not the biggest fan of time loop stories, which put me at a bit of a disadvantage.

Fun Fact: The Up and Under books, which McGuire is writing under the pen name A. Deborah Baker, are a major plot point in this book. A. Deborah Baker herself is also a character, which I find delightfully immersive. 

An Uninvited Ghost

 

An Uninvited Ghost by E.J. Copperman (2011) 293 pages

Alison Kerby, a newly divorced mother of a ten year old, has fixed up a large old Victorian house on the Jersey Shore and is accepting her first guests, several senior citizens who are interested in experiencing the ghosts in her house. Her ghosts have agreed to put on "shows" twice a day. Yes, ghosts. It's a fun twist; the ghosts, Paul and Maxie, are quite entertaining. Paul is more thoughtful, while Maxie is more emotional and prone to take offense. The ghosts help Alison solve crimes, including a murder that occurs during a séance that is held in the house for the benefit of the seniors. Meanwhile, a reality television show is filming there, adding to the commotion.

It's a fluff read, and I want to escape into more books in this series!

Broken (In the Best Possible Way)

Broken (In the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson, 285 pages

In her third book, Jenny Lawson once again delves into the unpredictability that is her everyday life with pets, a daughter, a long-suffering husband, a slightly inappropriate amount of curiosity about weird stuff, rheumatoid arthritis, anxiety, OCD, and depression. Phew, that's a lot. And once again, she discusses all of these things with honesty and humor and kindness and just all-over wonderfulness. 

I love how she's able to balance the frustration of dealing with health insurance roadblocks and the despair of long-term depressive episodes with the hilarity of some VERY NSFW product pitches for Shark Tank and the odd (yet somehow still very relatable?) text conversations with her sister about bearcat pee smelling like buttered popcorn (it does; National Geographic says so). I absolutely loved listening to this audiobook, which is read by Lawson, and I'm pretty confident that I'll read/listen to anything else she writes/records in the future. If you haven't read this or her other books (Let's Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy) you're missing out.

Immune

Immune by Philipp Dettmer, 341 pages

Inspired by his own curiosity and the work done for his stunningly successful YouTube channel, Kurzgesagt - In A Nutshell, Dettmer's book is a surprisingly beautiful and wonderfully readable run down of what exactly your immune system is and how it works dutifully each day to protect you.

For the last two (plus) years, we've been surrounded by messaging about viruses and vaccines and antibodies and... and... and...

This book was easily one of the most readable non-fiction books I've ever had in front of me in my life. I wish all of my school text books had been written like this. Immune uses basic language and is full of beautiful illustrations, pithy footnotes, and hilarious metaphors (did you know your cells have hot dog buns and weiners???). Anyone who wants to better understand what their body is doing to keep them safe during a pandemic, or any time, would enjoy this book.

How To Stop Time

 

How To Stop Time by Matt Haig (2017) 325 pages

What if we could live hundreds of years, growing older at an infinitesimal pace? How To Stop Time demonstrates what that life might be like. Tom has not only lived history from 1581 to the present, but he teaches it to high school students now. And as he covers the material, it's clear that humanity isn't progressing on an always upward trajectory to the greater good. Humanity is a roller coaster. Those who are different are often confronted with suspicion and hate.

Tom's youthful looks have always put his loved ones in danger. He's torn between wanting to find love and to protect those he cares for. When a man named Hendrich appears in Tom's life with a strategy to keep the witch-hunters and researchers from getting too suspicious of people with anageria (the condition of very slow ageing), Tom doesn't like Hendrich, but feels that Hendrich is his best hope for possibly finding his daughter, who he has learned also has this condition.

Loved this book and its trip through history, complete with plagues, Shakespeare, fascism, war and philosophical snippets galore.

bubble

 bubble by Jordan Morris, Sarah Morgan, Tony Cliff, and Natalie Riess, 272 pages.

The city of Fairhaven is a literal bubble of safety in the midst of a hostile alien wilderness known as the Bush. Morgan, who was born in the Bush and has lived in Fairhaven since she was a kid, is still plenty capable of killing any violent imps on her morning jog, but she also quite likes living here with her cozy job and easy access to Frasier (yes, the sitcom). Things get more exciting when her boss (slash pseudo mom figure) asks her to get involved with Huntr, a freelancing app for hunting monsters. Some of the monsters she hunts with her team of friends (who are all great) are super fun (I especially like The Beard, which are three guys melted together to have the worst nerd opinions). Soon a more nefarious plot arises, which is probably pretty predictable in a corporate owned and operated bubble.

This book is described as a "satirical take on the gig economy" which is accurate, but I would say that that's only part of it, and that the plot stands on it's own as an interesting independent story as well. It manages to balance being funny with maintaining  real narrative tension, which in my experience graphic novels going for funny don't always manage. 

Fun Fact: This book is based on a podcast. I tried to listen to the first episode after I read this, but it seems to mostly be a screenplay read aloud, so I think I'll stick to the graphic novel.

The Eyre Affair

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, 374 pages

Thursday Next is a literary detective for SpecOps, the special branch of the police that handles those things that can't quite be handled by the regular police force. For the most part, she spends her time authenticating Milton and dealing with overzealous Baconites (the preferred term for those people who staunchly believe that Sir Francis Bacon was the true author of Shakespeare's plays, and go door-to-door evangelizing this). But when an original Dickens manuscript is stolen, Thursday suspects that a certain ultimate-evil criminal is behind the theft and is put on the case.

I can't even count the number of times I've read this ridiculously clever and funny book. Filled with wordplay, pointed commentary about both classic literature and pop culture, and tons of creative oddness (A secret society dedicated to catching asteroids! Re-engineered extinct species as pets! Streetfighting gangs of surrealists and post-modernists! A new religion that worships the GSD, the Global Standard Deity!), I find something new to enjoy every time I read it. If you've spent more than 10 minutes discussing books with me any time in the last 15 years, I've probably recommended this book and its series at least twice. So I'll do it again: read this book. It's awesome.

Check, Please!

Check, Please!: #Hockey and Check, Please!: Sticks and Scones by Ngozi Ukazu, 282 pages and 317 pages, respectively

Eric "Bittle" Bitty has gone from a coed hockey team in Georgia to an NCAA team in Massachusetts, and the vlogging, baking forward is more than a bit nervous about joining a team full of hockey bros. He's small, he's gay, and, well, he's never played in a league with checking. But these two volumes show how four years playing hockey at Samwell University change his perspective on his fellow players, his life, and his confidence.

This was a reread, a sweet and wonderful pair of books that celebrate friendship, baking, and the camaraderie that is synonymous with most hockey teams. I love these books, and I will be recommending them and rereading them forever.

All the Feels

All the Feels by Olivia Dade, 398 pages

Actor Alex is seen in the industry as something of a loose cannon, which the showrunners of his Game of Thrones-esque TV show don't particularly love. When he gets in one bar brawl too many, he's saddled with former ER therapist Lauren, who's given the unenviable task of becoming Alex's shadow in an attempt to keep him in line. But as the two get to know each other, they learn that there's much more to Alex's playboy public persona and Lauren's stern boring professionalism, something that draws them together more than either expects.

As a sequel that has an overlapping timeline with Dade's Spoiler Alert (which was EXCELLENT), the reader already knows how much of this will turn out. Granted, that's the case with just about every romance novel ever, but I really didn't care as I read this one. I was swept up in this story of a troubled man falling in love with a not-traditionally-attractive woman (she's short and fat and has striking, but not beautiful, features!). The ways in which they handled their mutual attraction with professionalism and respect were so much more realistic than many romance novels. I absolutely loved this, and I hope there are more books in this series for me to devour!

The Last Graduate

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik, 388 pages

This sequel to Novik's A Deadly Education finds El and her newfound friends and allies preparing for their senior year and graduation from the Scholomance, a beyond-dangerous school for young wizards. "Graduation" is nothing like the caps and gowns that we mundane people know — instead, it's an all-out sprint past and fight against maleficent magical beings that fill the graduation hall and attempt to block the seniors from the portal door that will return them home. Even with alliances, El and her pals are fighting an uphill battle for survival.

I didn't like this one quite as much as the first Scholomance book, probably because El has friends and allies now. Also, this book ends on a cliffhanger, which I *really* hate, particularly when the next book hasn't come out yet. Yes, I'll read the next one, but I'm going to grump about this end until it gets here.

Far from the Light of Heaven

Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson, 370 pages

Michelle Campion is a second-generation astronaut, though her father's unexplained disappearance in space makes their family more infamous than heroic. She's hoping to change that when she signs on as first mate for the colony ship Ragtime. But when the ship nears its destination 10 years later and she wakes up from stasis, she finds that the AI isn't working correctly and there are several prospective colonists who have been murdered while everyone else slept. As the only human crew member, it's up to Michelle to sort out the mystery before the Ragtime docks.

Thompson attempts to put a lot of elements into this novel, and I'm not quite sure how well they meld together. There are alien species that can't really be explained in proper human languages; there's a rogue AI situation; there are billionaires in space; and there's a locked-room (locked-spaceship?) murder mystery... the pieces are all interesting and remind me of other things, but instead of going together cohesively, it made me want to consume those other media. It was OK, but not great.

Grave Reservations

Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest, 292 pages

Leda is a struggling travel agent who sometimes uses her psychic premonitions to help her clients avoid travel-related disasters. (More often, she uses those psychic abilities to wow the crowd at karaoke night.) But when she uses her abilities to help save a police detective, he turns to her to help solve a murder case that has completely stumped him. Soon, they're a team (though the straitlaced detective says they're not) and she's having all kinds of premonitions to help out.

I'll be honest: I read this book several months back, forgot to blog about it until now, and had to look up the main character's name, as I don't remember much about the actual crime or plot. But what I do remember is absolutely loving this cozy mystery, which is hilarious and fun and just completely wonderful. I can't wait to read more about Leda!

January totals!

Christa  6/1455

Jan  3/1232

Kara  25/9044

Regan  9/2632

Total  43/14,363