With the Fire on High

 With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo, 395 pages.

High school senior Emoni Santiago has what feels like an impossible amount on her plate. She has a daughter to raise, a grandmother to support, and no idea what she's going to do with her life after high school. The only things on her plate that don't stress her is the actual food. Emoni is magical in the kitchen, with an instinctual understanding for what goes together and a gift for making people feel things with her food. A culinary arts program at her school (complete with a trip to Spain) could be completely life-changing for her, but can she afford to care about what she wants with so many people depending on her?

This book by the same author as The Poet X had many of the same things I loved about that book. In some ways they are similar books, with Afro-Caribbean protagonist dealing with complex family relationships that are still very rooted in love, but they are also different enough characters and problems that it didn't feel like reading the same book again. Emoni's problems feel very real, and it would be hard not to get deeply invested in her. The imagery in this book is vibrant, and the voice is deeply engaging. This was probably further strengthened by the fact that I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by the author and helps Emoni feel very real. This is an excellent young adult novel, I would recommend it widely, but especially to teens. 

A Scarlet Death

 

A Scarlet Death by Elaine Viets (2024) 231 pages

Angela Richman is a Death Investigator who gathers a slew of information at the scenes of murders and hands off the info to the county's medical examiner. Like other stories in the series, which is set in a fictional area described as 40 miles west of St. Louis, Angela is working with Jace, a police detective at the scene of a murder. An older man of wealth and respectability has been found dead in his love nest—an apartment over a chocolate shop—on a 9-foot square "Alaskan" king-sized bed with black silk sheets. He is naked, except for a blue tie and a woolen letter "A" on his chest. This is the first of a few cases they handle in this book, and if you like details about what death investigators look for, this is a book that will hold your interest. Angela works with Jace to help solve the cases, as well.

Additionally, Angela's relationship with Chris, a policeman in the same department, advances when Chris asks Angela to marry him. Like a stunned rabbit, she avoids answering, not sure if she wants to marry again after having lost her first husband at a young age. When Chris is badly injured in an area far from his usual beat, his coma turns their lives upside down..

The antagonists in Viets's stories might be slightly caracatured, but she creates characters one loves to hate. Her protagonists always seem relatable, with dialogue that feels natural. The solutions of the murders felt right, but after that, there was an ending I didn't expect.

Nobody's Girl

Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre (2025) 367 pages

I wanted to read this memoir to get a better sense about how abominable Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell were to hundreds (and maybe a thousand or more) of mostly teenaged victims. The book is especially timely as the U.S. Justice Department has been (slowly) releasing redacted parts of the information that had been collected, and some men (and women) are just starting to be held accountable for the trauma they inflicted—or failed to call attention to—during the many years that Epstein and Maxwell found vulnerable teens and groomed them for sex with both themselves and others, often men of great wealth and power.

Giuffre shares the trauma she went through beginning with her own father, and continuing with abuse by Epstein and Maxwell, which went on for years.

I recommend this book, but also suggest not reading it before trying to sleep.

Project Hail Mary

 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, 476 pages.

This was my third time reading this sciencey space adventure (and my second time reading it for a book club) and I continue to be surprised at how well it holds up to further scrutiny! I first wrote about this book in 2021 here, and I still stand by most of those first impressions. However, to keep things fresh I decided to try the audiobook this time! I found it remarkably well-done. Grace's sense of humor comes across well with the audiobook narration, and the addition of sound added some really interesting elements to communication with Rocky. My book club ended up chatting about this book for nearly two hours, which proves to me that there's quite a lot to chew on for such a fun book. Definitely check out the book before the movie comes out next month!

Wylding Hall

 Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand, 176 pages.

Windhollow Faire is sent to the country by their manager to try and record a new album in the wake of a personal tragedy in London. The acid-folk band is initially delighted by Wylding Hall, the extremely old manor they have rented, and by the isolation that allows them to totally focus on their music. But the strange and unexplainable occurrences keep piling up, until they culminate in the disappearance of Julian Blake, the band's heart and lead singer. Now, decades later, a documentary filmmaker is trying to recreate what happened that summer, and everyone has their own stories.

I listened to this book, and I think the full-cast audiobook did a great job making this feel like a real retrospective. The strange incidents sometimes felt a little too episodic, as most of the characters never talk to each other about anything strange that happens, but they still come together to form an ever-heavier sense of unease. This felt quite a bit like Daisy Jones and the Six, except in this case the bad thing that everyone is talking around feels like it is terrible enough to justify the tension. I would definitely recommend this for fans of that book that want something a little darker, or for people interested in something a little bit gothic and modern-ish. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

My Sister, the Serial Killer

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (2018), 223 pgs. 

Korede has always taken care of her younger sister, Ayoola. They are best friends and have always been, despite everyone constantly comparing them to each other, and their lives are completely entangled. When Ayoola makes a mess, Korede is always there to clean it up, and Ayoola seems to keep making messes. Working at the hospital is the only time that Korede has away from her sister, whom she loves dearly but who also causes her a lot of stress, and soon Ayoola starts messing that up as well. How much longer can she keep this up before both of their lives are ruined? How much help is too much? 

I read this book very quickly. Each chapter is short and leaves you wondering what will happen next, so you can't help but read just one more...and then another...and another. Oyinkan Braithwaite writes her main character, Korede, as a complex person who you don't quite know how to feel about. One minute you're frustrated with her, and the next, completely sympathetic. Overall, this book is a quick, interesting read that will keep you guessing. It isn't quite as action packed as the title may lead you to believe, but the characters are so compelling that it holds your interest. I personally was not a fan of the ending, but up until then I was all in.

The Locked Room

 The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths (2022), 368 pages

I love this series. I love the characters and I love the cozy mysteries that take place in coastal Norfolk, England. If you are new to the series (which has been around since 2019), it follows forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway and the interesting cast of characters that live in the fictional town of King's Lynn. Sadly, this is the penultimate book in the series and I am not sure what I will do when it ends. Probably start a campaign for Griffiths to re-start it, maybe do a time-jump and have Kate, Ruth's daughter, be the new focus. I am flexible on this. 

 A huge bonus to having a forensic archeologist as the protagonist is that you get to learn a lot of interesting history about very early England. The novel includes old castles and locked rooms, but is set during the Covid pandemic. It is a pet-peeve of mine when authors completely ignore the pandemic while setting a book right in the middle of it. I appreciate Griffiths for tackling it head-on. As usual, the mystery is fine, but what I really appreciate is how Griffiths moves the character's lives forward. When we first met Ruth in 2019, she was a late thirty-something. Now she is in her early fifties with a child. Her friends and friendships have also come and gone, but the core group has matured and grown. It feels like we have been on a journey together and I will miss it. If there is a downside to the novel, it is the revelation of a trope that is just unnecessary. 

Theo of Golden

 

Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi (2023), 400 pages

Theo is an elderly Portuguese man that seemingly appears out of nowhere in Golden, Georgia. He quickly charms the locals and begins a quest to hand deliver portraits that are displayed in the local coffee shop back to the subjects of those portraits. Through the process, Theo gradually reveals a bit about himself while taking in the stories of the people behind the art. A deep narrative is revealed and secrets uncovered. 

In some ways, this is a lovely story of a long life, regrets, and renewed purpose. In other ways, it reads like "Chicken Soup for the Soul". I listened to the book and, at some points, had to stop because it just got too saccharine. I enjoyed the premise of the novel, but the perfect, continually heartwarming endings of each story put a damper on any sort of ability to connect with the characters. There is a "surprise" at the end of the book. Careful readers, though, will not be shocked.

To Broadway

 To Broadway by Maurane Mazars (2025) 248 pages

This is historical fiction set in the late 1950s about a young gay German man studying modern dance who dreams of Broadway or Hollywood in America. The watercolor art is brilliant. We ride the ups and downs of Uli's career, love life, and friendships. Fantastically emotive with the use of visuals without too many words. And the Epilogue reveals some of the real people involved in the story. Translated from French.

Sula

 Sula by Toni Morrison (1973) 174 pages

I previously listened to Morrison's Beloved, but didn't grasp much of what it was trying to say. When The Atlantic published a "The Great American Novels" list in 2024 including Sula, I decided I should read another of Morrison's books. I'm from Ohio too. Medallion, Ohio is a fictional town, but I read it could be based on Lorain, Ohio to the west of Cleveland where Morrison grew up. Morrison explores the social changes in a black community called the "Bottom" between 1919 and 1965. There is a good bit in the beginning and end of the novel that does not focus on the title character, Sula. Instead, we meet Shadrack, who is a traumatized WWI veteran. He cannot readjust to living in "normal" society. Morrison's descriptions of the community are vivid. She then traces the lives of four women that are central to the relationships of the "Bottom." Eva is a mysterious figure who has a promiscuous daughter named Hannah amongst many other children. Hannah is the mother of Sula, who dies when Sula is still young. We spend quite of bit of time getting to know Sula and her friend Nel, but also Sula leaves for ten years for college. After college, Sula passes through many big cities, but is unable to find a man that she feels really connected to, so she returns to the Bottom. There is no straightforward plot, but a loose set of occurrences that resist simplistic notions of heroes or villains.