I might be reading too fast. This is the 10th week of the year and I’m about to finish my 14th book of 2024. Because of that they are running together a bit. I apologize, as these summaries aren’t the most detailed of my writing career. The World We Make – N.K. Jemisin Jemisin’s Great Cities series was supposed to…

Sing Her Down – Ivy Pochoda I read this book while I was sick. Maybe the infection or virus or whatever was plaguing me combined with a lack of sleep and cold meds kept me from appreciating it. Because I did not get this book at all. It is the story of two women who are released from prison during…

I have started 2024 on a huge reading run; I finished my seventh book of the year early this morning. It helps that I’ve been sick the past couple days and unable to sleep, so I’ve stayed up deep into the night knocking out the final book in this list. Said illness and lack of sleep will also push my…

Julia – Sandra Newman My first book of the year was a real uplifter! Officially sanctioned by the estate of George Orwell, it is labeled as a re-telling of his classic 1984. Newman flips the script, and instead of focusing on Orwell’s protagonist Winston Smith, she uses Smith’s lover, Julia, to explore Oceania. It’s been a decade or so since…

Bing Crosby: The Hollow Man – Donald Shepherd and Robert F. Slatzer Each December, as I listen to a shitload of Bing Crosby music, I think, “I should learn more about his life.” I picked up a little of the general, collective pop-cultural memories of him as a kid. But I was six when he died and that was all…

Please Report Your Bug Here – Josh Riedel This was my Florida Trip book about a month ago. It is framed as a modern take on the workplace novel, which I didn’t know was a thing. I know there are workplace shows. I guess that means it makes sense for there to be a whole swath of novels that relate…

The Kennedy Men – Laurence Leamer After about a month of reading, split into sections, I knocked out my Big Book for the fall. A neighbor passed this to me over the summer. We were sitting on the porch having some drinks and somehow books or the Kennedys or something along those lines came up and she mentioned she had…

Tales from the Torrid Zone – Alexander Frater I mentioned in my last entry that I was taking on a rather long book that seemed like it might be a chore to get through. With that in mind, I decided that since it is divided into three parts, I would take a break after each section and squeeze in another…

I just started a book that is probably going to take me a few weeks to get through. Seems like a good moment to clear out the queue so I don’t forget about these two. We Cast a Shadow – Maurice Carlos Ruffin Writers have been using the “how far would you go to protect your child” trope for ages.…

I’m not sure why but I’ve struggled to put together blurbs for my most recent books. I’ll bash away for a paragraph or two then realize I’m not really sharing anything interesting other than a basic summation of the plot and give up. After three false starts I’m officially throwing in the towel and offering the briefest of notes about…