The Fifth House of the Heart

The fifth house of the heart / Ben Tripp, 390 p.

I don't usually read vampire fiction, but I read a review that made this book sound interesting, so I picked it up. The author has come up with an intriguing twist on vampire mythology: vampires become what they eat. So older tales about wolf-like creatures were because vampires tended to use wolves for sustenance during that time period. Now that vampires use humans for their food source, they're very human-like. On the one hand, this gives us really intense, nightmarish scenes, such as a long-trapped vampire who've been eating nothing but spiders escaping...but on the other hand, I never could buy that vampires who'd been eating from humans for years would start collecting art and antiques. Given that I didn't care much for the cruel streak in the primary protagonist, and the fact that I don't enjoy horror for its own sake, and I had to struggle a bit to finish this.

Spark Joy

Spark joy: an illustrated master class on the art of organizing and tidying up / Marie Kondo, 291 p.

Marie Kondo's first book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, inspired me a lot, even though I adapted much of her advice rather than adopting it. I made a lot of progress last year, but had kind of stalled out, so I wanted Spark Joy to kickstart me again.

It's not a replacement for the first book, but a continuation of it. It expands on some points--actual diagrams demonstrating her method of folding clothes, for instance--and add some details and advice about using and displaying items you've chosen to keep, rather than storing them and not seeing them. The biggest take-away for me is her emphasis on choosing what to keep rather than what to discard. That perspective shift really clicked with me, and now I'm motivated to continue my tidying journey.

But I'm still not going to thank my socks.

When breath becomes air

When breath becomes air / Paul Kalanithi 239 pgs.

Paul Kalanithi was in the middle of a punishing residency working towards becoming a professor and Dr. of neurosurgery. He was doing well, winning awards and would have the pick of high profile jobs upon completion.  His wife was concurrently finishing her residency as well.  Nagging weight loss and pain was finally diagnosed as lung cancer and, obviously, life changed radically.  This meditation on the meaning of life, the meaning of death and how to have quality in both has a strong philosophical base.  So much of what here makes you think instead of just conveying a story.  Very profound.

Radiance

Radiance / Catherynne M. Valente, 289 p. (of 429)

I really, really wanted to like this book. The setting is fabulous--our solar system, but other planets are liveable! in cool and interesting ways!--and I've always meant to read this author, who gets lots of raves. But boy did I bounce hard off of this book. The story isn't linear (which I like fine), and is told by various narrators, sometimes through ephemera such as gossip columns, sometimes in first person by characters (which I also enjoy as a technique)--but I just can't make myself care about the narrative as a whole. There's a mystery about what happened to documentary filmmaker Severin Unck, whose father is a famous director of gothic romance films, but I couldn't stick it out to discover any revelations. The book is very well written--I'll definitely try other books by Valente--but this one is just Not For Me.

The decent proposal

The decent proposal / Kemper Donovan 309 pages

Richard is a good looking but broke producer, Elizabeth is a hard working attorney who is going places but is a little light on personal relationships and not interested in breaking her rigid schedule.  Richard and Elizabeth have never met but an unknown benefactor wants to pay them each $500,000 to get together and talk for two hours a week for the next year.  At first they are a little unsure but Richard is broke so needs the money and Elizabeth figures the hourly rate is much higher than the firm is paying her so they decide to give it a try.  They start getting to know each other slowly, she is a little worried he is too shallow, he is a little worried she is no fun.  They turn their time together into discussions about books and movies and slowly start seeing each other's good points.
In the end the benefactor decides to meet them...turns out there is a connection but it isn't obvious.

I thought this would be kind of a mindless romance but it was more than that.  There aren't many characters but each is interesting in their own way.

April Totals!

Christa  13/3645

Cindy  7/2170

Kara  12/2954

Karen  5/1519

Kathleen  11/2952

Patrick  14/4632

Rob  1/438

Total  63/18,310

Lumberjanes: A Terrible Plan

Lumberjanes vol. 3: A Terrible Plan by Noelle Stevenson and Shannon Watters, art by Carolyn Nowak, 112 pages

The third volume of this girl-power-ed summer-camp series finds our campers with a free day, which can be spent doing whatever they want. While Mal and Molly take the opportunity to go on a picnic date in the woods, Jo, April and Ripley decide to spend their day trying to earn some of the more mundane badges. As can be expected in this series, Mal and Molly's date becomes a supernatural adventure when they decide to track the mysterious bear woman, while the others find that the boring badges are harder to get than they expected.

This series continues to delight. I love it, and I can't wait to share it with my daughter!