More Weight: A Salem Story

More Weight: A Salem Story by Ben Wickey (2025) 532 pages 

I loved the in depth history, mostly in black and white, of the 1692 events. So much more disturbing than Arthur Miller's version of events in The Crucible. The focus on Giles and Martha Corey works well. I also appreciated poets Longfellow and Hawthorne's tour of Salem in the 1860s. It goes in an otherworldly direction, which seems odd, until you realize that this part has been a ghost story all along. The two parts connect because Longfellow had written a play about the Salem Witch Trials focusing on the Coreys and Hawthorne is related to one of the judges with his family living in the Salem area for generations. The Intro and Outro about the aftermath of the witch trials leading to modern day Salem is super dense with litigation from mishandled justice, politics, consumerism, and ongoing fictions and frauds. So much fascinating educational material. It took longer to complete than I expected, but I'm glad I stayed with it.

A Zoom with a View

 

A Zoom with a View by Jess Cannon (2026) 370 pages

Leo (short for Leonora) has reluctantly moved back to her hometown, a small city just south of Austin, Texas. Reluctant because she has most often felt that her mother is standoff-ish and doesn't want her to come back. Reluctant, too, because moving back is an admission that after her multiple post-doc years, she can't get a permanent job as an English professor. However, she accepts a summer job taking photos of new listings with a realtor (Kay) who happens to be her mother's best friend as well as the mother of Leo's best friend.

At the town's 4th of July parade, there is an altercation between Kay and another realtor, Chaz.  Chaz and his girlfriend have been spotted sabotaging Kay's float for the parade. Just hours later, Chaz is dead and Kay is arrested for his murder. On the surface, this story looks to be a standard whodunnit. However, there are hints early on that something more nefarious is going on, something which started way before this murder. This is the hook that led to this book being finished in a day, which does not happen often anymore.

Social media skills come into play while collecting evidence; Leo knows her stuff and finds herself helping the local detective. Are the characters believable? Mostly. Is the storyline solid? Reasonably. Is Leo a protagonist we can get behind? Most definitely. She's smart, measured, and takes time to think.  The only negative might be a positive: the book is calling for a sequel.

Mississippi Solo

Mississippi Solo by Eddy Harris, 250 pages

At the age of 30, aspiring writer Eddy Harris decided to find a canoe and paddle his way from the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Minnesota all the way down to the delta in New Orleans. Never canoed before, yet here he was, doing it all by his lonesome. Except that he wasn't really alone. Along the way, Harris met dozens of folks from all walks of life and swapped stories with them, getting as familiar with people as he did with the river itself. 

This was a fascinating memoir, and I'm so glad we read it as part of the Big Book Challenge this year (and even happier that Eddy came to visit! The dude give really good hugs.) I'll be recommending this widely.

The Underground Railroad

 The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2016), 306 pages

This sometimes hard to read novel follows Cora, a young slave woman, fleeing the South for somewhat freedom in the North. Books about slavery aren't enjoyable, but should be required reading for all Americans. Whitehead does not hold back on the horrors Cora, her compatriots, and aiders experienced during this era. He does a great job exploring all the aspects of the Underground Railroad and how risky it was for the folks using it and for those running it. If you haven't already, I highly recommend you check this one out. 

The First Date Prophecy

The First Date Prophecy by Kate and Danny Tamberelli (2023) 327 pages

Lucy and Rudy are both in their early thirties and living month to month without great jobs and definitely not finding partners. When Lucy gets back onto the dating website HeartThrobs after a particularly bad first date, she sees Rudy's profile and recognizes him as a child star from a TV series and decides to give him a chance. Rudy, meanwhile, gets onto the same site after his own annoying date: someone who approached him after one of his music gigs in a bar. He finds Lucy's profile. They end up meeting in a restaurant featuring Elvira, the oldest psychic in New York. The date ends up etched in their memories because of the old woman's prophecy for them, which seems like it's positive. However, the old woman is unable to finish before she collapses.

After that unsettling experience, Lucy and Rudy decide to hang out with each other to see if their relationship has a chance of success. They go to each other's job gigs and meet each other's friends. They like each other a lot, but they are each reluctant to take the relationship to a physical level, fearful of possible heartbreak.

Watching them as their friendship and job prospects progress, waiting to see if they can be successful together, is a fun trip, complete with eccentric secondary characters, weird situations, and of course, a crisis point.

Hearts of Oak by Eddie Robson

 

I do not know how I feel about this book! I have 15 different opinions. It's a dimestore Piranesi, but also Westworld-meets-Truman Show- meets Alien. But the style is much like Star Trek: The Original Series.  Our story takes place in a walled kingdom made entirely of wood. A king lives in a tower, out of touch with his people, his only advisor a talking cat. Below, an architecture professor meets a mysterious woman that triggers realizations about life beyond the walls. Of course, the two stories eventually converge.  I seemed to go through a cycle of different reactions, including "huh?" "Okay, I think I see" and "meh?".  On the one hand, I appreciated that I had no idea where the author was taking me. On the other hand, a lot of problems were solved with a hand-wave and it lacked the sort of texture that immerses you in a sci-fi or fantasy story. I don't read much of this sort of thing, but it was definitely interesting.

Lady Tremaine

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser, 352 pages

Most of us are familiar with the story of Cinderella, who is forced to be a servant for her stepmother, Lady Tremaine. This book takes that familiar story and reimagines it from the stepmother's point of view, and in much the same way that Wicked made a sympathetic, three-dimensional character of the Wicked Witch of the West, Lady Tremaine paints the titular character with many shades of gray, helping put us in her shoes, attempting to find good matches for her daughters and stepdaughter, despite having no husband or income. It's a great read for fans of fairy-tale retellings, or for anyone who thought there might be more to the villain's story.

Dungeon Crawler Carl vol. 1

 

Dungeon Crawler Carl vol. 1 by Matt Dinniman, Tevagah, and Laurel Pursuit Studios, 320 pages.

Chasing his ex-girlfriend's cat through the snow is the only thing that saves Carl's life when aliens crush every structure on the surface. Carl follows a stairway underground that leads him to Dungeon Crawler World, the universe's premier game show and exceptionally lethal death game. Carl better learn the rules of this new world fast, because any mistake could be deadly. 

I was skeptical of this graphic novel of the popular book, not because I don't like the books, but because I suspected this would mostly be a simplified version of the novel I already read with the addition of some occasionally gnarly art. However, I decided to give it a try when it came across the desk at the library, and I'm glad I did! The art here is very expressive, and conveys the action and feelings of the characters very well in a way that felt like it was actually adding something to the original. They also showed a lot of restraint with illustrating the grosser elements of the source material, which I appreciate a lot. I will probably read more of these as they come out! 

The Serpent in Heaven

The Serpent in Heaven by Charlaine Harris, 304 pages. 

 

 This 4th entry in the Gunnie Rose series doesn't actually contain the titular Gunnie Lizbeth Rose, but rather her little sister Felicia. Felicia has been studying at the Grigori Rasputin school in the Holy Russian Empire, although not being taught the kind of magic she wants because nobody there thinks her capable of it. However, when danger comes to the school in the form of Felicia's past, she will have plenty of chances to prove herself. 

 Unfortunately, this is by far the weakest book in the series. This is partially because Felicia is a much weaker than Lizbeth, but not entirely. I also found the hand of "people making nonsensical decisions to make the plot work" to be extra heavy this book, and I had a hard time telling the difference between when 15-year-old Felicia was jumping to crazy conclusions and when those nonsensical conclusions were somehow true. This was weak enough that I'm not sure I will continue the series, but the next book is back to Lizbeth and the fantasy western concept that caught my interest in the first place, so I may give it another chance. 

The Odyssey

 The Odyssey by Homer (751/2000), 541 pages

Like many folks, I picked up The Odyssey to read it before watching the movie. I had a long car ride ahead of me and decided to use the time to listen to the audio version. I had read snippets of The Odyssey in school, but remembered very little of it. I had forgotten how encapsulated each chapter/section of the book is. I wish I could tell you the translation I listened to, but I could not find the details anywhere on the title information page provided by Libby. It seemed like a fair translation and, overall, I did enjoy the saga. At some points I wish there was more elaboration to an event and others less so. I am, though, looking forward to seeing it on the screen and it visually coming to life.