Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Anaïs Flogny (2024) 240 pages 

Cinematic and expansive. Parallels some of the Godfather trilogy organized crime milieu, but with a gay man at the center. Closeted gay men, who are both immigrants in America, find the underworld of importing and selling alcohol and, later, other drugs to be their way to success and power. Jules, the younger protege, and Adam are scrappy. The story moves from 1930s Chicago to 1940s New York. Eufrasio is a more violent and ambitious partner from the Mafia family in New York who comes between Jules and Adam. Jules begins to hate himself as he confronts betrayal and guilt.

The Elsewhere Express

The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao, 432 pages. 

Sometimes when people's thoughts start to drift away from their life, those people drift towards the Elsewhere Express, a train made of thoughts that promises a more magical existence, full of peace and purpose. Raya has been drifting for years, robbed of her purpose when the brother she was born to save dies young. She has tried giving up her dreams of songwriting to pursue his instead, but she can't help but feel unmoored from her life. She finds herself on The Elsewhere Express at the same time as Q, an artist who is losing his art as he loses his vision. But something else has boarded the train at the same time, a stowaway with the power to destroy the train is Q and Raya can't find a way to stop it. 

This book has maximum amounts of whimsy, balanced out somewhat by the very real pain of the characters. It feels like the show Infinity Train by way of Studio Ghibli. While the story was engaging, the setting is the real star of the show. It creates the kind of place that I wanted to linger in while I read the book. However, time nonsense is a bit of a plot pet peeve of mine, and I am afraid that does come into play into this book, which makes it a little hard for me to fairly judge the resolution. This is a book that deals heavily with the symbolic and emotional, turning it into something physical to examine it from a new angle. I don't know if I enjoyed this book quite as much as the author's first novel, but it has given me a lot to chew on, and I wouldn't be surprised if I end up rereading it at some point. 

The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich

 The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich by Deya Muniz, 256 pages.

The laws of the Kingdom of Fromage say that a woman cannot inherit, and Lady Camembert hates the idea of marrying a man so much that when her father dies she decides it would be much better to move to the capital and start living as Count Camembert instead. She has every intention of laying low, but is frankly pretty bad at that, and instead develops a friendship (or perhaps, impossibly, more?) with Princess Brie. Cam can't stop thinking about the princess, and it may yet bring the whole charade down around them.

This was a delightful book! The quantity of cheese puns really tickled my fancy, and it shouldn't be surprising that this isn't a book that takes itself too seriously. Most of it really captures a fairytale feeling, but it's also not afraid to throw in things like graphic tees and rotting in bed with a nintendo switch to capture the right vibe. The art is very expressive, and I really liked the character designs! I picked this up on a whim when it came across the circulation desk at the library, and I'm glad I did! This book was just plain fun, and I would recommend it. 

Unequal

Unequal : the math of when things do and don't add up by Eugenia Cheng (2025) 386pp

An unusual look at advanced, abstract mathematics with commentary on how numerical complexity can be applied to humanity. Cheng is a first-class writer, but her argument is a stretch, and we would be better served with two separate books. Her discussion of category theory is interesting but Cheng then asks the reader (who she assumes is clueless about advanced math) to apply this abstraction to humanity’s problems. Synergy, cross-disciplinary cooperation and communication across silos are all important, but an attempt to equate maths with social quandaries does not compute. 

 

The Hunting Party

 The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (2018), 406 pages

A group of thirtysomething friends meet up in the secluded Scottish Highlands for their annual New Year's Eve party. What could go wrong? Everything. bwahahaha

I enjoy Lucy Foley's mysteries. While her characters are not particularly innovative, she does keep you guessing as to who was actually murdered and by whom. It must have been over halfway through the book before we even know who died. She very cleverly and slowly reveals those answers. Of course, there are red-herrings and intricate back stories, but it is a satisfying mystery and quick read.

The Impossible Fortune

The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman (2025) 352 pages

Osman keeps the activity fresh in his fifth installment of the Thursday Murder Club mysteries, starting with the wedding of Joyce's daughter, Joanna, where Nick, the best man, confides in Elizabeth that someone is trying to kill him. He hopes that the retired spy can help him. This case helps bring Elizabeth out of the numbness she has felt since her husband died. Nick and his partner Holly run a secretive underground cold storage facility utilized by people trying to keep information safe. Nick and Holly are trying to cash in on a risk they took long ago to take cryptocurrency in lieu of cash as a rental fee, and the value of the cryptocurrency has soared to 350 million. When one of them dies and the other disappears, the Thursday Murder Club members fan out to visit possible suspects.

Meanwhile, Ron's daughter has finally had enough of her abusive husband, pulling a gun on him. Now she's in hiding, and has left her precocious son, Kendrick, in the care of her father and brother, while her husband plots against her.

Another storyline has to do with Connie, a cocaine seller whom we met previously. Ron is responsible for her getting prison time, and she would like to kill him now that she's out. But she's been working with Ibrahim, Ron's best friend, who is trying to get her to mentor young people to keep them from going afoul of the law. Little does Ibrahim know that Connie's mentoring has encouraged a young woman to plan a heist!

The action keeps moving, while the characters that we know and love from this British series are on the hunt for a killer. Even some of the "bad guys" are lovable in their own way. The seemingly unrelated plots converge at times in this hard-to-put-down-book.

Death on the Island

Death on the Island by Eliza Reid, 336 pages

When a group of international luminaries gathers at a fancy restaurant on a tiny island off the coast of Iceland, they're expecting good food, experimental drinks, and politically charged conversation where everyone is angling for support of their specific cause. However, they also get a murder, as one of their number doesn't survive the post-dinner drinks. Trapped on the island by bad weather, the ambassador's wife sets out to catch the killer with the help of a couple other diners.

This book melds the locked-room vibes of Agatha Christie with the atmosphere of Nordic noir, and for the most part, it works. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that the end didn't really work for me. If you pick it up and want to chat though, I'm here and ready to talk. :)

Flesh

 Flesh by David Szalay (2025), 368 pages

I am not really sure the point of this book. It follows Istvan, a Hungarian, from his teenage years to old age. Normally I love a sweeping life story. This one I did not. There wasn't a lot of depth, and, honestly, it felt like it mainly dealt with his sex-life and how it affected/progressed his life. A lot of reviews have noted that the sparse dialogue provides a contemplative, detached voice that resonates with Istvan's humanity. I found it sluggish and tedious. It would be interesting to see how many times the following riveting conversations occur in the book:

"Yes?" - "yes."

"Yeah?" - "yeah."

"Ok?" - "ok."

I realize it won the Booker Prize, so obviously many folks liked it. I just wasn't one of them.

Where We Belong

 

Where We Belong by Emily Giffin (2012) 372 pages

Marian had a child when she was eighteen and gave the baby up for adoption. She kept her address up-to-date at the adoption agency. Still, she is dumbfounded when the child, now eighteen herself, shows up unannounced at Marian's NYC apartment. Kirby is going through her own teenaged angst as a high school senior and feels that her adoptive parents don't understand her. When she finds Marion, she doesn't understand why her birth mother is avoiding talking about what really matters to Kirby, and instead, takes her shopping. Kirby finally learns the astounding information that her birth father doesn't even know that she exists at all.

The story shows the back and forth of emotions in such a fraught situation. Not only Kirby, but her parents, her birth mother, and her birth mother's parents are all finding their way through the changed world that results as Kirby goes on her quest to find the other important people in her life.

I thought the story was well-handled and riveting, with chapters alternating between Marion's and Kirby's points of view. As a bonus, Kirby lives in St. Louis and there's enough local color to make the story seem more real.

Tusk Love

Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon, 288 pages

Daughter of an increasingly poor merchant, Guinevere's job in live is clear: marry up, make sure there's plenty of money to support her parents, and be an obedient wife cranking out babies. Her parents have found her a husband and beckoned Guinevere to his home, directing her to make haste and bring along their remaining riches. Unfortunately, her carriage is beset by bandits, and her life is saved by half-orc Oskar, who is on his way to visit some relatives that he's never met. But because he's a nice guy, he redirects his path to escort Guinevere, despite the fact that she clearly isn't suited to his style of travel.

This book is written to take place in the Critical Role universe, and is obviously written with those fans in mind, with locations, names, and descriptions galore — and somewhat distracting from the plot of an otherwise bog-standard romance novel. You can read it if you're not familiar with Critical Role (I'm not), but I get the feeling those of us who aren't are missing something.