Rude Bitches Make Me Tired

 

Rude Bitches Make Me Tired: Slightly Profane and Entirely Logical Answers to Modern Etiquette Dilemmas (2013) 254 pages

Celia Rivenbark's etiquette book is comprised of 27 short chapters dealing with everything from weddings to funerals, houseguests, children, grocery-store behavior, airplane travel and more. Much of the book is in question-and-answer style. 

She doesn't hold back! (What would Miss Manners think?!) Rivenbark references her spouse (Duh Hubby) and her teenaged daughter (the Princess) frequently, to great effect. Very funny, fast read.

 

Bloody Rose

Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames, 546 pages

Tam Hashford is the daughter of a retired monster-fighting mercenary and a bard who died in battle years earlier. Because of the way her mom died, Tam's dad has tried his hardest to keep his daughter from the call of the mercenary bands, but when Bloody Rose, the most famous fighter in the land, asks Tam to join as her bard, Tam joins right up. She soon becomes something more than the bard, as she finds a family with the complex band of fighters.

This is the second of Eames' Band books, which treat orc-slayers in the same way we treat rock bands. They tour from arena to arena, gathering groupies and fans along the way, drinking and battling their demons with drug addictions when necessary. I love all of the nods to rock and roll throughout the books (I particularly loved the woefully bad mercenary band called Men Without Helmets), and I can't wait for the next book in this series to come out (though this and Kings of the Wyld can easily be read as standalones too). These are just so much fun.

Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, 478 pages

This is my second time through this book, and my thoughts haven't really changed since my first blog post on it last year. This time around, I read it for the Orcs & Aliens Book Group earlier this month, and wow, did we have fun chatting about this one! It was a great conversation about the nature of humanity, engineers, language, alien life, and space travel. SO GOOD.

Finlay Donovon Knocks 'Em Dead

Finlay Donovon Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano, 357 pages

After her previous escapades with her nanny Vero, divorced mom and struggling novelist Finlay Donovan is still struggling a bit with writer's block and still in need of a reliable source of income. Vero thinks that they should become the hitwomen they've previously been mistaken for, and it's in her searches that they learn that there's a hit out on Finlay's ex-husband. Now, instead of trying to kill him, she's determined to keep him (and her kids) safe, while attempting to find the person who wants him dead, coming up with another novel to keep her publisher happy, and keeping her nosy family in the dark about all of it.

This was a fun sequel, and while I'm fearing that the gimmicks might get old, they haven't yet, and so I'll keep reading these. Bring on #3, Cosimano!

Unthinkable

 

Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy (2022) 428 pages

Congressman Jamie Raskin writes about  his son Tommy, who took his own life on New Year's Eve of 2020, alternating this topic with his own appointment to head the team that tried the second impeachment of Donald Trump. These two topics dovetail well because of the love Tommy had for animals, people, and country, and Tommy's love for debate, his need to defend the underdog when bullies threaten.

Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, had just buried his son on January 5, 2021, one day prior to the insurrection of the Capitol by those who supported Trump's call to stop the official counting of the States' ballots from November's presidential election. Raskin's heartbreak over the loss of his son, and his anger over the insurrection found new purpose in the information gathering, legal considerations, and presentations for the impeachment trial. His 25 years as a law professor helped me understand some of the nuances related to what the impeachment managers chose to focus on for the trial.

I thought the narrative flowed, and was both informative and poignant. 

Oh William!

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (2021) 240 pages

I've enjoyed reading books with the character Lucy Barton, in spite of reading them out of order. In this novel, Lucy is in her late sixties and widowed. We learn much about her life, but not so much that I don't thirst for more. She speaks in a conversational style, offering slivers about many parts of her life: her early years, living in poverty with non-nurturing parents; her college scholarship, which was her passport out of poverty; her first and second marriages; her daughters.

William, the man of the book's title, was her first husband, a driven man, a parasitologist who had taught microbiology for many years. She and he had remained on cordial terms since their divorce, occasionally even using old pet names for each other. Sometime after Lucy's beloved second husband died, William asked Lucy to go a trip with him to Maine to learn more about his mother, and in particular, about a half sister he learned that he had. William first seemed to disbelieve that he'd really had a sister, a girl that his mother purportedly had abandoned when she left her first husband, but now he wants to know all about the woman, even though he's not sure he wants to meet her. Lucy goes along to support him.

Strout's characters are strong, yet vulnerable. And very believable. I first read Anything Is Possible and now Oh William. Next up: the first, My Name Is Lucy Barton. 

Four Aunties and a Wedding

Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto, 287 pages

It's a year after Meddy, her mother, and her three overbearing aunties Weekend-at-Bernie's-ed their way through a huge wedding, and now Meddy is staring down the barrel of her own nuptials, which are set to take place in England, home of Meddy's posh soon-to-be in-laws. To be fully prepped for the wedding, the aunties have made sure to take British slang lessons and commissioned "regal" purple gowns with matching hats, complete with Komodo dragons, as well as hiring Indo-Chinese wedding planners to make sure everything goes perfectly on the big day. Unfortunately, when Meddy overhears the photographer talking about "the family" and "taking her out," it seems that the wedding planners may also be connected to the mafia and using the wedding as an opportunity to assassinate a target.

I absolutely loved Sutanto's Dial A for Aunties, which managed to combine Weekend at Bernie's with Crazy Rich Asians and still manage to hit all the dysfunctional family tropes that I love (awkward interactions, overbearing-but-well-meaning relatives, etc). This book, however, was completely unnecessary and didn't hit any of the notes on the Asian diaspora that Sutanto wanted to focus on, according to her foreword. I was unimpressed, and wish I'd just reread Dial A instead.

Upstream

 Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver, 178 pages.

This collection of essays by poet Mary Oliver reflects on the natural world, her place in it, and the process of writing and creativity. The book is broken into five sections (although the final section is a single short essay), loosely sorted thematically. 

I really enjoyed the first couple of section in this book, which read almost like poetry about the natural world. There was also several in the collection that I found fairly boring, or didn't enjoy for assorted other reasons. I tend to have very weird feelings about Mary Oliver, where the things I like I think are completely wonderful, and a lot of the rest doesn't really do anything for me. That being said, there are some very nice essays in here, and the whole volume is short enough that it doesn't take much effort to read it.

Taste

Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci, 291 pages

Just about any movie I find featuring Stanley Tucci, I love. So when I stumbled across the audiobook for his food-based memoir (read by the author himself!), I knew I had to give it a try. I didn't expect to find myself daydreaming about authentic Italian cuisine as he described the Tucci method of preparing multi-course dinners. Yet that's exactly what happened. Interspersed between stories of the simple meals he ate as a young actor in New York City and star-studded tales of meals on film shoots across Europe (Meryl Streep and Ryan Reynolds, anyone?), Tucci shares the recipes that have shaped his life, all served with a hearty helping of Tucci's sharp wit. My mouth is watering just remembering this book, and how it has put "Eat a meal prepared by Stanley Tucci" on my bucket list. Yeah, it probably won't happen, but I can dream, right?

Project Hail Mary

  Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, 478 pages.

I actually already reviewed this book last July! You can read that here. Overall my opinions about it are pretty much exactly the same, but with less surprise this time. One difference is that I was reading it with someone else (and in preparation to discuss it with more people) which definitely led to some interesting conversations. And I'm looking forward to more conversations with Orcs and Aliens tonight!
 

Sensational

 Sensational: The Hidden History of America's "Girl Stunt Reporters" by Kim Todd, 400 pages.

In 1887 Elizabeth Cochran, better known today under pen name Nellie Bly, convinced the court she was insane and was committed to the insane asylum on Blackwell's Island. The exposé she wrote about the following ten days changed the face of journalism in the golden age. "Stunt reporting" covered a huge range of topics, but generally it was reporting that was very exciting, a little dangerous, and largely done by women. Stunt reporters often went undercover to get their stories, and said stories were very often about exposing social ills. However, sometimes the "stunts" were more about showing the bigness of a world that was rapidly opening up in the 19th century, and might include things like riding elephants or racing around the world in less than 80 days (another Nellie Bly stunt).

This book is mostly focused on the decade or so that stunt reporting took America by storm, and it's impact on the social landscape. I was a little nervous starting this book, despite being interested in the topic, because I've found that a lot of history books about women (as a group, not so much books about specific individuals) end up containing a whole lot of speculation (from a lack of historical records focused on women) or soap-boxing. This book avoided both of these common pitfalls completely and made for a really enjoyable work of non-fiction that felt extremely informative to read. I also really enjoyed the photographs of key subjects and reproductions of newspaper illustrations, as well as the chapter at the end where Todd talks about the legacy of stunt journalism. Definitely worth the read for a thorough look at a largely unknown piece of history.

Say Nothing

 Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe, 464 pages.

This book traces the history of The Troubles in Northern Ireland from the earliest days at the end of the 1960s through the (at time of publication) ramifications and ripples of the conflict long after it ended. Although it takes a fairly broad look at the conflict, it also focuses in specifically on IRA member Dolours Price, IRA leader turned politician Gerry Adams, and the disappearance of Jean McConville, mother of ten. 

This book is very thoroughly researched, and it feels it. Patrick Radden Keefe uses a whole lot of first person sources to make the characters feel very real and alive, while keeping the whole thing completely grounded in fact. This book is both informative and engaging, and, perhaps more than anything else, deeply sympathetic to everyone who was forced to live through this deeply horrific time. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who would like to learn more about The Troubles, and would probably also just recommend it in general. 

P.S. You can find Kathleen's review from back in 2019 here. I'm a little late to the party.

Recitatif

Recitatif by Toni Morrison; introduction by Zadie Smith, 82 pages

Two girls meet and live together for a few months in an orphanage before returning to their families. Over the course of their lives, their paths cross again and again. One of these girls is black, the other is white, though the reader never learns which is which.

Originally published in 1983, Recitatif is Morrison's only short story. But wow, could she pack a punch in that one story, which has such a simple premise that it's profound. It forces the reader to confront our own assumptions, as well as the way in which race plays a part in both society at large and in individual relationships. The story itself accounts for less than half of the page count mentioned above, which is why I noted the lengthy introduction by Smith. If you haven't read Recitatif before, I'd recommend flipping to the back and reading the story first, then checking out the introduction, which provides a deep analysis of the story and Morrison's writing. If you have read the story, proceed normally through the book. Either way, read the story, as it's one that simply cannot be missed. Wow.

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher, 306 pages

Mona is a 14-year-old orphan who works in her aunt's bakery, creating delicious baked goods from the crack of dawn each day. But Mona's no ordinary baker. She's also a wizard, but one whose entire magical prowess is baking-related. She can make over-kneaded dough softer and keep buns from burning and make gingerbread men dance, but that's about it. However, to a person who's trying to kill off all of the wizards in town, Mona's meager skills are plenty. Soon, she's on the run from this murderer, and trying to stop him before he catches her.

This is a delightful young adult fantasy, and Mona is a winning protagonist. And even though she doesn't think much of her bread-based powers, I would *LOVE* to have her skills. Her sidekicks are fantastic, and I love the way the motley crew of wizards and their familiars come together (As a side note: this is somehow the second book I've read and loved with a sentient sourdough starter. What an odd and specific subgenre.). Highly recommended!

Thirteen Storeys

 Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims, 390 pages.

A dinner party is held in the Penthouse of Banyan Court. A dinner party that ends in the spectacularly violent and unsolved murder of billionaire Tobias Fell, owner and constructor of the building. The guests have no connections, except that they are all tied to the building itself, whether that means residents of the poor side of the building, residents of the rich side of the building, or employees. The one thing they do have in common are disturbing paranormal encounters in Banyan Court.

Jonathan Sims, writer of this book, is also the creator of The Magnus Archives podcast, and anthology of horror stories that builds into something larger and vastly interconnected. Fans of that will definitely also be fans of this, which does something very similar. I didn't find most of these stories particularly scary, but they were varied enough that I think there's at least one story in the thirteen that's likely to get to anyone. It was also a real pleasure to watch all of the stories begin to click together, and by the time I was halfway through I could definitely identify characters on the periphery that appeared in previous stories. Towards the end of the book I actually went back and flipped through the earlier stories to try to figure out some of the things that were clearly references to other things going on that I hadn't understood at the time. 

I have mixed feelings about the ending. On the one hand I appreciate it's neatness and clarity of purpose. On the other hand I had sort of been hoping for something weirder. Still, this book is very thematically compelling and felt almost like a fun puzzle to read. It's engaging, but not difficult, and I would definitely recommend it.

A Good Marriage

 

A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight (2020) 390 pages

Lizzie's an attorney with a husband who drinks too much and who has gotten them into financial problems. Lizzie is torn between her love for Sam and her anger towards him. Meanwhile, Zach, a friend of Lizzie's from law school, calls her from Riker's, a notorious jail, where he was sent for assaulting a police officer who was among the responders when Zach found his wife, Amanda, dead at their home. Zach insists that Lizzie help him get out on bail, and also with the murder charge which soon follows. As Lizzie works to help Zach, against her better judgement, we see what was going on for Amanda in the time leading up to her death. Zach and Amanda had moved across the country with their 10-year-old son and had established him at the exclusive Brooklyn Country Day School. Zach is inattentive, immersed in his work, while Amanda tries to meet people‒mostly other parents whose children go to the same school. In particular, two other couples' relationships are examined, that of Sarah and Kerry and of Maude and Sebe. Maude and Sebe have been throwing an annual party which can include sex for those who are interested.

Who's got a good marriage? Read and see what you think. But also, who killed Amanda? The story, and its backstories, provide lots of twists. Very engrossing read!

March totals

Christa  2/515

Erin  1/272

Jan  4/1130

Kara  9/3964

Regan  6/2266

Total: 22/8147