Why fish don't exist

Why fish don't exist / Lulu Miller, read by the author, 225 pgs.

Science reporter Miller writes about her obsession with David Starr Jordan, a naturalist who classified a lot of fish in his day.  She researches him at length, impressed by some of his professional triumphs but not quite as impressed with his personal history that may include murdering his boss.  She also mixes in a little bit of her own memoir.  Jordan tried to make sense out of chaos and was slapped with a lot of trials and tribulations in his life. Miller has had a bit of a hard time too and somehow makes this all work in a book that is a little chaotic itself.  Still enjoyable.  The narration is nicely done.

Network Effect

Network Effect by Martha Wells, 350 pages.
The first full-length Murderbot novel from Wells. Murderbot finds itself and several of its human friends kidnapped by some odd alien -type beings. Being Murderbot, mayhem ensues.
For those not in the know (you should definitly be "in the know" many of my colleagues and the wonderful Ann Leckie have convinced me of this) Murderbot, formerly a SecUnit, a lethal security robot under control of a profit-driven, unscrupulous company, but now, thanks to its ability to disable its governor module, and with the help of ART and some decent humans, an independent sort of lethal robot / human who (which?) often finds itself in mayhem-rich environments. Network Effect is a bit looser and more rambly than the novellas which precede it, but it is still an excellent, excellent book. And, am I the only one who feels that Murderbot and the Expanse operate in the same universe? Very similar universes? Okay, just me. Cool.
Thanks to a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the Missouri State Library, The MLC, of which UCPL is proudly a member, was able to purchase a downloadable audio version of this book. I read it the old-fashioned way, because I could not wait, but downloadable audio brings an enormous amount of joy to my life and you should give it a try.

Fair Warning

Fair Warning by Michael Connelly, 399 pages.
Reporter Jack McEvoy, late of the Velvet Coffin, and of the Los Angeles Times before that, is now a reporter at the  consumer watchdog website FairWarning. He is still relentless about pursuing the stories that interest him and he is still making the same mistakes when it comes to trusting people close to him.
McEvoy is more or less dragged into a murder investigation when the LA police question him when a woman he dated once a year ago turns up dead. It turns out she had still his contact information  and had said something to a friend about a stalker. The police push McEvoy hard, wanting to believe he is a suspect, McEvoy pushes back, beginning his own investigation.
Connelly gives us glimpses from some of the guiltier parties (trying to avoid spoilers, they are all bad people in these POVs), and does a great job keeping us guessing about the identity of the killer.
Connelly also brings back former FBI profiler Rachel Walling, alumna of previous McEvoy novels and a few from the Bosch series. All in all a very good thriller. 

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara, 347 pages.

Jai, Pari, and Faiz all live in the same basti (or slum settlement) in an unnamed Indian city. When the second of their classmates  goes missing, Jai believes that he has learned enough from television to become a first class detective and solve the mystery around them. Jais first suspect, a fellow student, is a bully, and connected to a local nationalist group. No one is willing to help, though. The local police are corrupt, and no one with any real power is interested in the fate of the poor, let alone poor children.
Pari is the smart one of the three children, but Jai is somewhat scornful of her advice. Faiz, who holds down a job at a tea shop is too busy to help and tries to convince Jai that the disappearances are the work of malign Djinn, but as the disappearances mount and the children witness too much of the worst that people can do, the truth is more horrifying and prosaic. A compelling book.

Barbarians at the PTA

Barbarians at the PTA / Stephanie Newman, 268 pgs.

Don't judge this book by the cover.  I thought with a cartoonish picture and fun title, that there might be something fun inside. Alas, this was a serious book about cyber bullying and a young girl and single mom dealing with moving into a community that is fairly closed to newcomers.  There is nothing wrong with the book, it just wasn't what I expected.

Friends in High Places

Friends in High Places (Commissario Brunetti #9) by Donna Leon  326 pp.

Brunetti is having a quiet afternoon at home when the arrival of a young bureaucrat from the housing department comes to the door questioning Brunetti about the construction of the apartment. Apparently there are no records of the stories added to the centuries old building which, according to the department, don't exist. Soon Brunetti's red tape conundrum becomes a murder investigation when the same man is discovered dead, having been pushed off the scaffolding outside a building under renovation. While this is happening, Brunetti's boss, Vice-Questore Patta has drawn Brunetti into the arrest of Patta's son for selling drugs. Soon the investigation leads Brunetti to drug abuse and distribution, loan sharking, and danger. I have to admit I'm hooked on this series.

Not Like the Movies

Not Like the Movies by Kerry Winfrey, 320 pages

Nearing her 30th birthday, Chloe is working at a neighborhood coffee shop, taking night classes, living in the apartment over her best friend's uncle's garage, and dealing with the day-to-day care of her father, who's in the early stages of Alzheimer's. In other words, she has a lot on her plate, even without helping her best friend prepare for her wedding next month or dealing with the rom-com movie that's coming out that her best friend wrote about Chloe and her boss Nick. But Chloe is determined that she can do it all, without help or sleep. Sure thing, the cracks start showing as she attempts to juggle it all and fend off a relationship with Nick, despite the fact that there are some SERIOUS sparks flying there.

It's honestly great to read a romance novel about an anxiety-ridden worrier, especially where not everything's fixed by love at the end. And there's definitely a Gilmore Girls Luke-and-Lorelai (but with Sookie's baking skills) feel to the whole book that appealed to me too. But for a book titled Not Like the Movies, it sure is a romantic comedy in book form, which is definitely not a bad thing.

Long Bright River

Long Bright River by Liz Moore, 482 pages

Sisters Kacey and Mickey grew up being raised by their grandmother since their parents were addicted to opiods. Mickey managed to break the cycle, avoiding drugs, graduating from high school, and becoming a patrol cop in the rough Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, near where she and Kacey grew up. She's even the mom of a super-smart four-year-old son. Kacey, however... well, she didn't fare so well, becoming addicted on her own, eventually becoming a prostitute to feed her addiction. After years of trying, Mickey knows she can't change her sister, but she does try to keep an eye on her during her patrol. But when Mickey finds a strangled prostitute on her rounds, she realizes it's been a few months since she's seen Kacey, and starts searching for her while simultaneously trying to catch the killer.

This thriller/mystery is also a beautifully told story of a real-life, hard-on-its-luck neighborhood and the people who live there. Moore does an excellent job of weaving the story of a family, a city, and a nationwide crisis into a page-turning mystery. Definitely a great read.

Outsider

Outsider by Linda Castillo, 320 pages

On the run from the crooked cops she works with (and who framed her for murder, among other things), Gina Colorosa can think of only one person to turn to: her former roommate Kate Burkholder, who is chief of police in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere Ohio. Unfortunately, before she reaches Kate, Gina gets caught in a snowstorm and ends up rescued by an Amish widower and his children, who are out on a sleigh ride. Thankfully, he knows Kate and pretty soon these two outsider women are snowbound with the Amish, attempting to sort out Gina's escape to safety before she's caught.

This wasn't a great book by any means, though it's also the twelfth in the Kate Burkholder series, so perhaps I would have appreciated it more if I'd read those first. But reading about a snowstorm as I'm sweating my way through July? That was a nice way to cool off. So there's that.

The Other Bennet Sister

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow, 463 pages

Most of us are familiar with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the story of the five Bennet sisters whose overbearing mother is determined to see married off to wealthy gentlemen. By the end of the book (is a spoiler alert really necessary for a 200-year-old book?), four of Mrs. Bennet's daughters are married — the oldest two quite successfully, the youngest two somewhat less successfully — leaving only plain, boring Mary suffering from the worst case of middle child syndrome ever.

Hadlow's debut novel picks up where Austen left off, telling us Mary's story both during P&P and in the years after. It's the ultimate diamond in the rough, black sheep tale, with intelligence, humor, and a long fight for self confidence. I'm not a huge Austen fan — I've often said I prefer my Austen derivative, like with zombies or as a choose-your-own-adventure book — but I loved this story. Mary is definitely the sister I'd most like to hang out with, and the fact of that is Hadlow's crowning achievement. Great fun for anyone even remotely interested in Austen, derivative of not.