Wind and Truth

 Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson, 1330 pages.

This book marks the end of the first arc of the Stormlight Archive, and ties the many interwoven threads to their conclusion. It is difficult both to summarize the fifth book in a series, and also one that is well over 1000 pages, so I'm going to be very brief. This book takes place in the 10 days between the agreement between Dalinar and the god Odium at the end of the last book, and the contest that they agreed upon. Both sides are desperately trying to gain or keep ground before borders solidify at the time of the contest. Meanwhile, others seek answers from the ancient past and the Heralds to find any long-term advantage against Odium. 

For the first section of this book I finally experienced some of the issues that people who don't like these books have complained about. There was a perspective character whose story I didn't care much about, and I was impatient to get back to story lines I cared more about, while also feeling like the perspectives shifted a little to fast to really settle into any story. That being said, once it hit its stride I found myself completely hooked as usual. There were a whole lot of really standout scenes in this book, in addition to the answers to many deep lore questions. I love that characters in this series, which despite being classic high fantasy is ultimately about mental health, are able to not only make meaningful progress, but to maintain that growth from book to book. The end of this book managed to really surprise me, and I am ready to settle into the expected tragically long wait until book six. 

Work It Out

 Work It Out: A Mood-Boosting Exercise Guide for People Who Just Want to Lie Down by Sarah Kurchak, 208 pages.

This mental health-focused exercise guide for the absolute beginner is aimed mostly at people with mental health struggles, but it's modular piece-by-piece approach would be very helpful to anyone facing barriers to exercise for any reason. More than that, Kurchak's extremely sympathetic and honest book makes it feel possible to try, even if exercise has seemed insurmountable in the past. This book is funny, actionable, and very thorough about presenting choices (as well as the pros and cons of why some options may be better choices for some people). It's very creative in coming up with possibilities that are fun, practical, and approachable. It also includes flailing your arms in despair for a few minutes as an option for a basic way to get moving when everything else feels impossible, which I think really sets the tone for the book.

This is a very approachable, kind guide to exercise for people with no idea where to start, and I'm definitely planning on getting my own copy. 

Out of the Woods

Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young, 336 pages

Sarah and Caleb got married right out of high school, racing against the clock so that Sarah's mom could be at their wedding before she lost her battle with ALS. Caleb was Sarah's rock and savior during those rough years, taking care of her while she dealt with the weight of caretaking and then struggled with her grief. Eleven years later, while Caleb works too many hours at his startup company, Sarah's struggling to remain relevant in her own life. When a friend suggests a weeklong couples camping trip (something that is completely foreign to the distinctly non-outdoorsy couple), Sarah sees it as a hail mary pass to save their marriage.

This is billed as a romance, and the cover makes it look like a pretty lighthearted one at that. But while there is a bit of spice, it's much more a book about a couple working on themselves to get through the rough spots in a marriage gone stale, and any of the authors attempts to lighten the mood feel a bit off. It's not a bad book per se, but I don't know that I'd recommend it to someone seeking a light romance.

Rhythm of War

 Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson, 1230 pages.

A year after the events of Oathbringer, the war between the god Odium's forces and humanity is in full swing. Dalinar and the coalition forces are scrambling for a way to force Odium into a contest of champions, because a war of attrition favors the side whose warriors are continuously reborn. On that note, even immortal soldiers grow weary after thousands of years of war, and one of said immortals is looking for any way to end the war for good, a quest she pulls Queen Navani into. Meanwhile, Kaladin struggles to accept that staying busy forever isn't a sustainable way to deal with his depression and Adolin and Shallan venture into Shadesmar in a desperate attempt to convince more spren (spirits of the world) to join the fight on their side and create more Knights Radiant.

It is hard to give a concise summery of any book this size, and even more difficult when it is the fourth in a series of books this size. I am glad that I decided to reread this book before starting the recently released fifth book in the series, because it is absolutely full of detail that I didn't remember from the first time I read it three years ago. This book definitely feels like it is building to something, building on existing foundations until they reach the climactic conclusion of the next book. It also made me cry, which is not all that easy for novels to do. I continue to strongly recommend this series, don't be intimidated by the page count. 

Don't Be a Drag

 Don't Be A Drag by Skye Quinlan, 368 pages.

After Briar Vincent's mental health takes a dangerously bad turn, her beloved older brother flies her out to spend the summer with him in New York, where he moved after graduation to escape their small Texas hometown and pursue his dreams of being a drag queen. New York is initially almost too much for Briar's anxiety to bear, especially after clashing with a drag king who is irritatingly full of herself (and also frustratingly hot). Which is how Briar ends up in a drag king of the year competition despite never having done drag in her life. 

This is, overall, a sort of fun book about community building. There were some aspects I found frustrating (some inconsistent characterization, a pretty slow plot, a few other minor quibbles), but there were also some interesting portions, putting it at a pretty solid 3 out of 5 for me. This is definitely a young adult novel, so mileage may vary with enjoyment of the genre. Overall a fine book with good representation. 

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

 Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum (trans. Shanna Tan), 312 pages

Yeongju is beyond burnt out by her high-pressure job and high-stress life, so she leaves it all behind to create the bookstore of her childhood dreams. Hyunam-Dong Bookshop isn't very flashy, just a simple neighborhood bookstore, with coffee and books to suit the owners tastes. But gradually, many other local residents come and start to find the same peace in the bookshop that Yeongju does.

This is the type of sort-of cozy book with no real plot to speak of. I occasionally found it a little slow and dry, but I also found it pretty relaxing. Virtually every character is dealing with a fairly similar burnout issue, which both allows the author to examine the problem from many angles, but also implies a broader social commentary on the work culture of South Korea. Ultimately this is a relaxed, thoughtful book about what makes up a life well-lived. I'm not sure I would recommend this book for everyone, but I'm sure there are many people who will enjoy it, especially going into the dark and reflective portion of the year.  

Solitaire

 

Solitaire by Alice Oseman (2014), 400 pgs.

Tori Spring finds no particular joy in being alive. She goes to school, talks to as few people as possible, and returns home as quickly as she can to create an entry on her blog, watch a film, or talk to her brother (who is, quite probably, her best friend). Tori finds almost everything uninteresting, not worthy of a second glance, until one day, she notices a trail of bright sticky notes which lead her to a blog called "Solitaire." She meets another student, Michael Holden, who has discovered the blog, and they embark on a journey neither of them could have expected. 

After reading, and loving, the Heartstopper graphic novels, this book's much darker tone took me a bit by surprise, but it fits well within the universe Oseman has created. Tori's external indifference and internal cycle of discovery and doubt create a frustrating, but very real, experience for readers as they see the world simultaneously through her eyes and from the outside. She discovers something new, then hides from it; she reaches out, then recoils; and no one in her life seems to understand her, except perhaps Michael Holden. Overall, the book was a bit drawn out for me--especially with the cycle of actions and emotions Tori experiences--so I would have enjoyed a slightly condensed version more, but I liked getting to know Tori better and found Oseman's world building to be very impressive.

The Madness

The Madness by Dawn Kurtagich, 318 pages

Dr. Mina Murray has dedicated her professional life to helping women deal with  trauma. After all, she has her own experiences with traumatic experiences, ones that manifest in obsessive behavior that she hasn't allowed herself to address. When Mina's estranged friend Lucy contacts her for help, Mina soon discovers that Lucy is exhibiting the same mysterious symptoms as a Jane Doe she recently treated, and they're by no means the only women experiencing these problems.

This retelling of Dracula focuses on what's happening to the women that are preyed upon while simultaneously giving Mina and the other female characters more agency than the original. It's well done, and timely, and with a Welsh setting, is still wonderfully gothic (though it has me craving bara brith now).

The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards

The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards, A Memoir (2024) by Jessica Waite 309 pages

Jessica Waite's memoir details her shock and grief at her husband Sean's sudden death at age 47. Her difficulties are compounded when she comes across information that shows he had been a consumer of pornography, and also had affairs. Her money situation looked scary, too, finding that his credit cards had large balances.

The memoir starts raw with Jessica learning of Sean's death in an airport in Denver, and wanting to break the news to their nine-year-old son gently. As Jessica's grief turns to anger, the memoir chronicles her emotional journey. She comes across as fully human, sometimes saying or doing cringy things, but also showing the many resources she used to find healing.

Maybe One Day

Maybe One Day by Debbie Johnson (2020) 367 pages

Jess grew up as a sheltered only child in a small city in England. Eventually, she gets her way about studying at a school about an hour's bus ride away from home, meeting Joe there. She eventually moves out of her parents' home and she and Joe have a child. A tragedy ensues and Jess ends up getting care in a mental facility, told by her parents that Joe has moved on from her.

It's seventeen years later. Jess's mother has just died. Her father has already been dead for years. Jess and her cousin Michael poke around in the attic and find a box of letters and postcards to Jess from Joe, that Jess had never been given. She decides to go on a journey to find Joe, enlisting her cousin, along with another friend, Belinda, who knows Joe. Instead of starting with the last place he had written from, Jess wants to follow the cities in order, in order to better understand Joe's own journey.

Will they find Joe? If so, will he have another partner? That's the risk of finding him. By the way, the characterizations of Michael and Belinda are great. The journey takes them to various cities in Ireland, England, and later, across the ocean. The relationships feel true and the uncertainty about whether they'll find Joe keeps one reading; I couldn't put this novel down.

Shubeik Lubeik

Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed (2022) 528 pages

Regan and Kara previously reviewed this on the blog.

"Your wish is my command." We've all heard a genie say that. If your wish is to be told many stories, this graphic novel is for you. It was originally three volumes in Arabic. I loved the art work and adapted pretty quickly to reading right to left. With multiple flashbacks there are more than just three stories about how three first-class wishes sold at Shokry's kiosk are used. There are two parts to Aziza's story, when she is young and when she is middle aged. Mostly it is about the lack of justice for the poor in the Egyptian justice system. There is one really in depth story about college student Nour's mental health (with a brief tangent about the talking donkey) in part two. Part three is so good! We get a history lesson from the perspective of Abu Shokry, Shokry's father, covering 1954 to 1980, then with Shokry carrying on to 2020. Shokry, the kiosk owner, is a giving person and wants to help others. His father's generation taught him that devout Muslims do not use wishes, so he really agonizes over the last first-class wish that hasn't sold. Hagga Shawqia is a regular at Shokry's kiosk, and we learn much more about her from her friends and family as she nears the end of her life. There is tragedy and triumph. She is such a fascinating character, a "gutsy gal." We check in with Aziza and Nour. The book subverts the traditional end with a darkly hilarious bow on the talking donkey story too. This was such a fun read.
 

Wishful Drinking

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher (2008) 163 pages

I listened to a second short audiobook written and narrated by Carrie Fisher. This one is a memoir and she said she pulled together the stories she told in a one-woman stage production about her life also called Wishful Drinking. I used the word "outrageous" to describe the portion of her life fictionalized in Postcards from the Edge, but that word is better applied to the entirety of her life remembered in this book. And she admits that some of her memories are gone due to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) she has received for her mental health. Fisher was in her 50s when she recorded this and her voice sounds rougher. She shares a lot about her drug use and recovery. She tells about her frustrations with George Lucas. She reveals much about living with famous parents. She also confesses about her dating life, which is often crude. Despite her pain and struggle to recognize reality vs. Hollywood fiction she is able to looks at life with humor.
 

Pageboy

Pageboy by Elliot Page, 271 pages

In this candid memoir, Page explores his family, his career, his mental health journey, and his long, difficult relationship with his gender. As a trans celebrity who became famous playing the pregnant titular character in Juno, his transition and his life in general have been subject to media scrutiny and social media hatred. While this book certainly discusses that element of his life, the overriding theme of this memoir seems to be about him finding his authentic voice in his personal and professional relationships. It weaves seamlessly between his experiences as a kid and teen growing up in Nova Scotia, and his life as an adult, making the book anything but linear and giving it a more literary quality. I loved this book, and I'd love to read another memoir by him later on in his life — I'm sure he'll have some well-written stories to tell.

Beyond the Wand

Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton, 288 pages

In this memoir, actor Felton recounts his years making the Harry Potter movies (he played the sneering Draco Malfoy), as well as the movies and projects he worked on before and after. While most of the book is fairly light and full of anecdotes about boyish troubles on-set, the latter part of the book gets pretty real, with his account of going to rehab for alcohol use and mental health issues. He's frank, self-aware (I loved how he notes that he mansplained something to Emma Watson as a kid), and full of care for the people in his life. I listened to the audiobook (read by Felton) with my Harry Potter-obsessed daughter, and even in the more serious parts, we both enjoyed the listen.

Where I Can't Follow

 Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms, 352 pages.

Doors have appeared to people in Blackdamp County, Kentucky for generations. Nobody knows where they go or why exactly they choose the people they do, but it's usually agreed upon that little doors tend to appear to people who are just about at the end of their rope. That certainly makes sense to Maren, who is wandering the woods in the middle of the night in freezing temperatures trying to find her grandmother with dementia after a long day at a pointless job that doesn't pay enough. She spent a lot of time praying for a door after her mother left through one when she was nine and, even though she's much older now, her door (and the idea of leaving all of her problems behind for good) brings her a lot of comfort, even if she swears she'll never take it. But the doors don't wait forever, and soon Maren's door and the people who love her are both pushing her to make a choice, as she decides what kind of future she can live with.

I really liked this one! Blooms is an evocative storyteller, and Blackdamp seemed to grow off the page. Despite that long plot description, this is mostly a very reflective novel, with a very empathetic look at a whole lot of mental health problems both in Maren and the people who have loved her. This novel feels like it uses it's speculative elements to keep it's difficult subject matter at just enough narrative distance to be emotionally safe to handle, and I think it did a great job with that. This is definitely one I would recommend.

The Charm Offensive

 The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun, 358 pages.

Kara wrote about this book here and I've got to say I agree with everything she said. This book pulled me in from the first page and held on until the end. This book was extremely cute and very thoughtful, I would definitely recommend it.

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.

The Last House on Needless Street

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward, 341 pages

At the end of a quiet street near the woods, a man lives with his cat and his daughter. They're reclusive, to say the least: he keeps the windows boarded up and he doesn't let his daughter out of the house too often (and never unsupervised), given her penchant for trying to run away. Certainly, there is something not at all right in the titular house. Told in chapters alternating between the man, the cat, and the daughter's points of view, this story slowly spools out in increasing horror. I'm a bit hesitant to fully call it "horror," though many publications have listed it as one of the best horror novels of 2021. What I will say is that this book is incredibly well-written and captivating and truly impossible to put down. 

The Heart Principle

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang, 338 pages

Violinist Anna Sun has been dealing with some serious artistic challenges recently, so much so that she's had to leave her job with an orchestra and delay a tour and record deal. Her longtime boyfriend hasn't really helped matters either, as he decides that they need to date some other people for a bit before settling down. Anna's not OK with that, but in the interest of keeping him happy, she agrees, and takes the opportunity to set up a one-night stand with tattooed biker Quan (who's also dealing with some complicated feelings toward dating since his bout with testicular cancer a few years earlier). Well, when the first attempt at a date fails disastrously, Anna and Quan agree to try again...and fail again. But they're both determined to have a one-night stand one of these attempts.

Much like The Charm Offensive (which I just blogged about before this and LOVED), this book brings a refreshing and compassionate look on neurodiversity, mental health, and self-realization. It's so nice to see these elements popping up in romance novels!

The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton

The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton by Eleanor Ray, 305 pages

Years ago, Amy Ashton's best friend and boyfriend vanished on the same day. While the police concluded that they ran off together, Amy's convinced that her two favorite people in the world would never do that to her. As investigators, family, and friends moved on, Amy became stuck, staying at the same "temporary" job she had when they disappeared and gathering lost "treasures," that include discarded bottles, plant pots (but not the plants), newspapers, and a veritable flock of ceramic birds. Now, Amy's treasures have overtaken her home, and the pressure of meddling neighbors and rambunctious children next door is beginning to make Amy's collection, and her mental health, crumble.

This is a very real and humane look at hoarding, mental health, grief, and the relationships that make up our lives. I loved the way Ray treated Amy's many issues with kindness and empathy, particularly as hoarding has become such a sensationalized issue in much mainstream media. I absolutely loved this book, and recommend it to those who enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.