Author: bibliobloggityboo

Looking for You by Alexander McCall Smith (Literary Fiction)

I’m loving this new McCall Smith series about the Perfect Passion Company — an old fashioned matchmaking service based in Edinburgh. This is book number two. On the surface, it is a story about a variety of characters and how the matchmaker — Katie — works to find the perfect match for them. But as with all McCall Smith books, it’s teeming with hidden depth as it explores life, love, and the pursuit of happiness (liberty isn’t really an issue here).

The writing is lovely — McCall Smith never condescends and he can make the most exquisite sentence out of utter mundanity. I couldn’t exactly explain why, but he is the only male writer whose female characters I absolutely love. He explores individuals, relationships, and various social and cultural milieus with a process that seems to incorporate detailed observation, in-depth reflection, multi-faceted synthesis with an output of clear and tender explanatory prose. He has written over 40 books and still manages to include “musings” that either teach me more or brings me fresh insight. What appear to most to be light and accessible novels, are for me books of rich meaning.

In this episode, the relationships barriers explored include missed opportunities, poor timing, external expectations, and reevaluation of one’s own criteria. So many different forms of love, so many different people trying to understand their own relationship to happiness. As always, we are treated to many interesting asides on poetry, music, art, and other intellectually spicy aspects of life.

Some Quotes:

“She cherished this too, the place in which she lived and worked, and the land beyond its bounds, because love spilled over from one person, one object, to embrace so much else. Love spread.”

“This is an achingly, beautiful city, he thought, and I fall more in love with it every single day. I still love, Melbourne, of course, but the heart is large enough, has enough chambers, to allow for more than one love. Not everybody knew that, he said to himself, but he did.”

“What a strange, frustrating, mysterious thing was love. In a world in which there would never be enough of everything, in which not all desires could be met, love was rationed, just as happiness was. Some were perfectly happy with the share they were allocated; others felt they got too little And then there were some who failed to grasp a fundamental truth about the way love worked, which was that you got back roughly the amount you put in. That was so basic that you would think that everybody would understand it, But they did not, for some reason, and had to learn the lesson — if they ever learned it — the hard way.”

Thank you to Vintage and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on February 11th, 2025.

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson (Fiction)

Madeline Hill and her mother have run the farm on their own for decades — ever since Mad’s beloved father left suddenly one day and was never heard from again. Then suddenly, a complete stranger shows up on her doorstep to say that they were half-siblings and that his beloved (shared) father abandoned his family in the same way before creating a new family with Mad’s mother. And! There are two more half siblings spawned in similar situations. Thus begins a road trip to gather the others and confront this missing patriarch once and for all.

An interesting premise with some of the madcappery Wilson is know for, but it kind of fell flat for me. Some decent messages about family and relationships, but I didn’t really “feel” any of it and thought it went on too long for the amount of content and / or insight contained within. I also did not particularly like the ending which didn’t provide the kind of closure I wanted. Maybe that was the point. Certainly easy to read and other experiences may vary from my own.

Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 13th, 2025

Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman (Literary Fiction)

Writing: 5/5 Plot: 3.5/5 Characters: 5/5

A surprisingly engaging book about a set of bottom of the ladder retail workers and their hopes for more hours and some hope of upward mobility. They have a lot working against them — their hours are minimized to avoid having to pay benefits; each character faces his or her own limitations — a learning disability; a thick accent; trying to go straight when drug dealing is SO much more lucrative; false arrests; mental illness; single parenthood; transportation issues; and even lack of generational wealth. The characters have a lot of depth — none of the above is dealt with in any kind of stereotyped way.

But the book doesn’t take the easy way out — there is no blaming of corporate policies or resentment of management. Instead we get a pretty in-depth view of the situation through the eyes of different workers — each with his or her own thoughts, skills, goals, regrets, and fears. And — again through the voice of individual characters — some pretty interesting (and varied) analyses of the how things got to be the way they are.

The book description calls it “incisive and very funny” — I agree with the incisive part but although the story resisted the slide into depressing territory, I wouldn’t exactly call it funny. However, it is very well written and boasts excellent characterization, and after an initial irritation at what promised to be a stupid (IMHO) plot (but then wasn’t), I ended up enjoying it a lot.

The Edge of the Crazies by Jamie Harrison (Mystery)

I quite enjoyed this new (to me) mystery series taking place in small town Blue Deer, Montana. This is book one of what is currently a set of five books, but I believe it is a recent release of the audio book (I liked the narrator, Justin Price, a lot — had a real Montana sound to him).

The independently minded characters gave off a real Montana vibe, without straying too far into stereotype (and not terribly accurate) portrayal of the Montana resident.

Jules Clement was born and raised in Blue Deer, escaped to the East Coast for education and adventure, and then in a surprising move (even to himself) went back to Blue Deer to take up the usually straightforward position of Sheriff. Not so straightforward during this story, though. What starts as someone taking a potshot at a local screenwriter, turns into something else completely as the bodies start piling up and seem to connect in some way to a 20-year old accident.

While I would not say that many of the characters were likeable, they were all interesting and had their own kind of depth. The story was slow paced, but not overwhelmed by filler, and I never got bored (which is saying a lot). I loved the character of Jules, whose personality contained many contradictory elements. I’ll definitely be pursuing books 2-5.

Thank you to Highbridge Audio and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book was published on November 5th, 2024.

Who Will Remember by C. S. Harris (Historical Mystery)

Number 20 in the historical mystery series featuring Sebastian St. Cyr, Lord Devlin. Throughout the series, Harris has successfully embedded each volume in an historically accurate period — this one is no exception. It is set in London in August, 1816, the year that “had no summer.” Later historians promoted the cause as a large volcano explosion that blocked the sun causing weather abnormalities, floods, and massive crop failures leading inevitably to riots, strikes, apocalyptic fears, and the potential for revolution.

In this milieu, the body of a Lord is found in an abandoned chapel, hanging upside down with legs posed as depicted on a rare set of tarot cards (Le Pendu — the Fool). From here connections are made to French assassins, the Prince of Wales, friends made during the 1808-9 British retreat across Northern Spain (Battle of Corunna), and a particular (nasty) society called the Society for the Suppression of Vice.

I always like the characters in these books — representing multiple walks of life and varied ideas of morality. I particularly like the depiction of the members of the “ton” — a term for the fashionable members of upper class English society during the Regency period. As one might expect, those characters run the gamut from utterly selfish, corrupt, and “above the law” to considerate, moral, and obsessed with a fair justice. Always fun to guess which is which upon the first “meeting.”

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 25th, 2025.

Esperance by Adam Oyebanji (SF / Mystery)

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 4/5 Story: 4/5

Part (very weird) murder mystery, part speculative fiction and a wow ending — Esperance is an evolving surprise from start to finish.
Ethan Karol is the Chicago PD detective trying to solve the seemingly inexplicable murder of a father and son, found drowned in seawater next to a large (also dead) fish on the 20th floor of a fashionable apartment building. Meanwhile, Abidemi Eniola is roaming the streets of Bristol (England), dressed in 30s attire, speaking in a weird accent, and full of technological trickery that is beyond anything her accidental sidekick, Hollie, has even considered possible. And both Karol and Eniola appear to be trying to track down a very specific, long ago sea captain…

All the characters are fun to read and slowly learn about. Character insight comes through action and behavior more than any kind of introspection. Themes of racism, justice, and intergenerational trauma are core to the story, but (IMHO) serve primarily as background motivation for what is an intense, action filled set of pages. In truth, a little more action than I usually care for, but so well-written and full of surprising twists I didn’t even have time to complain (to myself).

I’ve read all four of Oyebanji’s books in the last four months and they have all been written (or at least published) in the last three years. This is promising! Two books are straight up mysteries (not cozies, but also not too thrilling for me) and two are SciFi Crime / Mystery. Author has exactly the kind of interesting bio that leads to creative plots and unusual characters. I’ll be keeping an eye out for all his new, apparently rapidly produced(!), works.

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 25th, 2025.

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny (Mystery / Thriller)

Writing: 4/5 Characters: 3/5 Plot: 3/5

If you have liked every Louise Penny book so far, you will probably like this one, too. Gamache gets pulled into a mystery that smacks of domestic terrorism and calls into question everything (and almost everyone) he thought he could trust.

Penny writes taut, suspense-filled crime fiction with very accessible prose — this was an easy read for me — but I did not find myself enjoying it, and I’m not sure I will keep reading the series (despite the fact that I’ve read them all and pre-ordered this book in my enthusiasm!).

As the series has progressed (this is book 19), the stakes have gotten higher — too high. I preferred the highly psychological, small-scale, surprisingly twisted murder mysteries to these large-scale, conspiracy oriented, thrillers. At the same time, this book had a lot of filler. I love Three Pines (the town) and the many interesting characters we have come to love over the past two decades, but there were far too many filler scenes emphasizing the bounty of their lives: Many (too, too, many) food and wine descriptions, children bouncing around doing cute things, the love between our aging inspector and his (too) saintly wife. Somehow in this book this filler simply became too repetitive and too content-free to keep my interest during the many pages they occupied. Lastly, I honestly had a hard time believing that there could be a conspiracy to do something as deadly as planned, without any motive other than (apparently) power, that managed to attract so many previously decent people.

So in summary — second half a good crime thriller, characters had far less depth than they had in the earlier works; writing a little less polished — but an entertaining enough read.

Back After This by Linda Holmes (Rom-com)

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 4/5 Story: 5/5

I really enjoyed this (very) funny, well-written, and actually insightful rom-com written by the author of Evvie Drake Starts Over. I like rom-coms when they are clever, witty, and most of all — NOT STUPID. I can’t stress that last quality enough. This was a perfect, read-in-one-sitting exemplar of exactly what I love in a rom-com and perfect for this stressful season.

Cecily is a podcast producer who agrees (think forced, bribed, coerced) to star in a podcast about modern dating with the help of a dating guru / popular Influencer. An introverted audio nerd by nature, this takes her so far out of her comfort zone that she feels impending implosion looming everywhere. Plenty of (well-paced, well-written) comedy follows, but I was impressed that she gained some real insight into aspects of her own personality that were getting in the way of her getting more of what she wanted from life. While I can’t bear to read about physical makeovers, psychological makeovers — are fascinating.

As an aside, I learned interesting components of podcast production (and marketing) which were new to me and described with a depth that showed true understanding on the part of the author (pet peeve: I hate when characters have a huge passion for something but then never do or think about it in any meaningful way).

A cross between Lori Gottlieb and Curtis Sittenfeld — the best of them both!

Some great quotes:
“I wondered exactly where that research had been done. Presumably the University of Unsupported Hunches, where I was guessing she was a tenured professor.”

“He took me to an ax-throwing bar on our first date, and he was very good at ax-throwing, which I suppose impressed me, because you never know when you might need a guy who can kill a monster in a cartoon dungeon.”

“But we finally agreed on a loose top that fell off one of my shoulders and a pair of pants that had just enough stretch to accommodate my newly emphasized hips without making me look and feel like a vacuum-sealed pork shoulder, ready for a sous vide bath.”

“He had the facial symmetry and the perfectly shaped dark hair of a Lego prince.”

“I tried to dig my smile out of the recesses of my personality.”

“It made for a long dinner, learning quite that much about Andrew’s gym routine.”

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on February 25th, 2025.

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (Literary / spectulative fiction)

A captivating book about Zelu — a disabled Nigerian American author (unpublished) and teacher who gets cancelled (and fired) due to her insensitivity (really deeply provoked impatience!) with her more irritating students. It’s also about the new book she writes — Rusted Robots — which becomes an overnight sensation. A post-apocalyptic story where robots and AI are at war over the tattered remains of human civilization, Rusted Robots brings her fame, fortune, some wild, tech-based opportunities, and a whole lot of people who suddenly feel entitled to tell her exactly what to do.

There are so many intellectually interesting and intersecting threads in this story — AI and automation, family, gender roles, African culture, authorial creativity and control, fame, freedom vs safety, disabilities, and the balance between individual and society — but the overarching theme is one of my favorites: the place of narrative and story in human culture. After all, I read fiction because I seek understanding, not just information.

Okorafor manages to blend multiple genres brilliantly, and since I am a fan of both literary and speculative fiction, I was riveted from start to finish. The characters were drawn so deeply — like all of my favorite people, they seemed to be compelling, annoying, loud, supportive, controlling, and caring all at once. I appreciated the fact that while most of the characters were Black (with the exception of the “wealthy white dudes” who keep finding her), there was no antipathy towards white people, just more of a lack of interest.

The big twist at the end absolutely blew me away. And a last little make-me-happy tidbit? She included a call out to one of my favorite (and fairly obscure for the U.S.) books — So Long A Letter by Mariamba Ba.

In my Top Reads of the Year list.

Quotes:
“The rusted robots in the story were a metaphor for wisdom, patina, acceptance, embracing that which was you, scars, pain, malfunctions, needed replacements, mistakes. What you were given. The finite. Rusted robots did not die in the way that humans did, but they celebrated mortality. Oh, she loved this story and how true it felt.”

“The capitalism machine had used her book, her attempt at shouting into the void, to make visual comfort food for drowsy minds.”

“She thought about Rusted Robots and the main character, who understood deep in her circuits that true power was in the harnessing of it, not the possessing of it. And when you were aware of the moment you harnessed power, that was when it was most difficult to navigate.“

“Narrative is one of the key ways automation defines the world. We Humes have always been clear about this fact. Stories are what holds all things together. They make things matter, they make all things be, exist. Our codes are written in a linear fashion. Our protocols are meant to be carried out with beginnings, middles, ends. Look at how I have been built. My operating system is Ankara themed, my body etched with geometric Ankara designs. I’m the embodiment of a human story. But true storytelling has always been one of the few great things humanity could produce that no automation could. Stories were prizes to be collected, shared, protected, and experienced”

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on January 14th, 2025.

The World’s Fair Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini (Women’s / Historical Fiction)

Another installment in Chiaverini’s feel good Elm Creek quilts series. While appearing like basic Women’s Fiction (not really my thing), I like this series for two reasons: I like the characters and the way of life they represent, and I love the “every person history” stories of the featured piece of the past.

This book recalled the 1933 nationwide quilting contest sponsored by Sears Roebuck. With a grand prize take of $1,200 in prizes (remember — this was depression era) and the best quilts to be displayed at the Chicago World’s Fair, it garnered over 25,000 entries. In our time, when you can see / experience anything with a tap on the screen, I enjoyed the excitement and wonder the book made me feel along with a couple of expert (but teenaged) quilters entering the contest. Their thoughts (and designs) on the contest’s theme (“A Century of Progress”) was excellent history and told completely within the context of the time period.

I also like the way the characters in these books tackle life — with strength and fortitude, a network of supporters, and a focus on doing the right thing. There is plenty of adversity (this isn’t a fairy tale) but little complaining, little blaming on past events, and little neuroticism. Kind of refreshing 😉

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 1st, 2025.