fiction - tragedy befalls the Sharaf family of Fairfax, VA; the story is pieced together from interviews with family and friends in their Afghan immigrant community, as well as other acquaintances and witnesses.

nonfiction - how the U.S. political systems have increasingly favored extremist conservative views (red states outnumber blue states and tend to have significantly fewer people but each still gets 2 senators; the Federalist Society effectively vets Republican judicial nominees to ensure an anti-abortion stance) and the resulting harms being done to people's lives and their civil rights.

The author admits to simplifying and flattening the issues here somewhat in effort to underscore the importance of resistance against the current and serious threats to the lives and civil rights of women, people of color, queer people, and other marginalized groups, not to mention potential victims of mass shootings. Having read this right after Peter Canellos' painstakingly impartial biography on Justice Alito (as to the upside down flag put up by Mrs. Alito at their home, Canellos notes that the timing is disputable and it may have actually occurred closer to Jan. 20 than Jan. 6), the tone here is quite obviously slanted, but the direct quotes from some of Alito's (and other's) decisions and comments speak for themselves and leave no doubt that the Court has become shady as shit, not to mention corrosive to the interests of the people.
I sometimes found the irreverent tone a bit much (so many sarcastic asides!) and some of the sentence structures were odd enough to make me pause and try to parse out the subjects, the actions, the meanings--the discussions about legal arguments often seem show more like double-, triple- or quadruple negatives. The "reasoning" of the justices is generally total bunk anyway, though it probably doesn't need to be that complicated to explain their BS.

Overall worth a read-- democracy and equality are in dire need of defending, and we need to know what we're up against. show less

nonfiction - memoir from Amazon warehouse labor union organizer (growing up in New Jersey and forming a union at one warehouse at Staten Island, JFK8).

This. I needed something exactly like this to help counter all the uckiness in the world lately--though there is still a (very) long ways to go, it is good to read a story about workers who are standing up for themselves (and also good to know exactly what sort of unethical, racist employment practices are happening these distribution centers).

Christian Smalls is a skilled writer and storyteller and it is no wonder he also excels at getting people together and motivating them to action, even against a multi-billion-dollar corporation giant. Unfortunately the union they fought so hard for (after being fed up with the utter lack of protections afforded to them in the early days of the COVID pandemic) sort of devolved into a inner power struggle--he didn't even want to be the elected leadership but also didn't want everything to fall apart before they even established the charter--the (white) people who took over hadn't worked there and didn't seem to understand that Blackness was a big part of the workers' identity and circumstances. At least they got some COVID protections after the news media put it in the spotlight.

fiction (2026) - Mr. Gatsby re-imagined as a Puerto-Rican, self-made fashion designer in 2007 Brooklyn that goes by La Garza, known for her fabulous parties; her 20-something neighbor, Alicia Canales Forten, is cousin to Garza's ex-boyfriend, Devon Forten, who recently married old money.

A quick read once you get into it--the characters are vibrant and stick with you awhile after you finish reading, and I loved the beautiful sense of place (Brooklyn just before it was overhauled by gentrification). I had also enjoyed Gonzalez' Olga Dies Dreaming and would happily read more from this author.

nonfiction - biography/history. Raised in a conservative Catholic Italian-American family in suburban New Jersey, Sam Jr. studies hard, gets a scholarship to attend Princeton and feels personally attacked by anti-Vietnam protestors (he got an early draft number so joined ROTC to at least be an officer rather than be put in the infantry) as well as the women's lib and civil rights movements. It does leave the impression of the socially-inept smart kid who was shunned in school but vows to show everyone up later, hence the title.

Claiming to be an originalist (viewing the Constitution as protecting only those limited things that the original writers would have been concerned with) he takes a pro-gun and anti-abortion stance but on the other hand seems absolutely against any sort of protest or free speech (unless of course the speech is related to religious freedom). So, interpretation of the Constitution depends heavily on personal ideology in his case (at least he's not as bad as Clarence Thomas, but that's a pretty low bar).

Aside from Alito's life and doings, this book provides objective insight into the concerted anti-abortion movement--loading the federal courts with conservative judges with this long-term goal in mind; choosing Supreme Court nominees who are definitely anti-abortion but without anything overt in their past that will tip off the liberals too much (everything is politics, and a broken system is made worse. It also explains how the conservative Federalist show more Society interacts with MAGA (different groups of people with sometimes overlapping goals; the American Constitution Society is the Federalists' liberal counterpart). show less

fiction - 53-y.o. Daphne is enjoying a visit to the Met with her husband when she unexpectedly comes face to face with one of her former stepdads (he was not in their lives for very long before her mother divorced him, but she and her sister Leda were always fond of him).

weird story (oh hey that weird old guy following me is just the sweet stepdad I loved but completely forgot about), but Ann Patchett's skillful storytelling is always somehow magnetic - there is likely a bit of trauma that must be uncovered (fortunately Leda is a therapist), but also Daphne cannot resist getting to know Eddie again--still a sweet man, still working as an editor.

nonfiction - memoir/history
raised by her white Jewish mother, a history professor looks back at her complicated relationship with her mostly absent father and the tangle of hurt stirred up by the n-word. Takes place in Boston MA, Los Angeles CA, and Peoria IL.

I tore through this book--so entertaining and fascinating and thought provoking. She would definitely be my favorite professor if I went to Smith College, even though I would not be comfortable speaking up in class, much less discussing the use of the n-word.

nonfiction (2026) - memoir of d/Deaf queer writer (diagnosed as deaf in the 7th grade and raised in a hearing, religious family) and mother of two terrific boys (S is hearing, born just before the pandemic and K is deaf, adopted and brown-skinned); there is also a lot of deaf history in here (as well as background info on the treatment of "disabled" people and other disenfranchised groups), but well worth reading even if you think you're already familiar with what an a-hole that A.G.Bell was; Novic is a d/Deaf studies instructor and she is very thoughtful about including what you really should know. There's also some background about the adoption industry.

A well-written memoir; Novic is so skilled at explaining all the things I didn't know that I didn't know. I wish her and her family the best and hope she continues to write.

historical fiction (1950s Honeysuckle, LA, 1960s Memphis TN, Atlanta GA, and MS) - two orphan girls (Annie, raised by her Granny while her mother is GodKnowsWhere, is lucky to make it out of Honeysuckle by any means necessary, hopefully for the better; Vernice/Niecy, raised by her aunt after her mother's death, is fortunate enough to be able to afford tuition at Spelman College) continue to support each other even after their lives have taken completely different paths.

Another beautiful and heartbreaking story from Tayari Jones; lots of complex characters but this one friendship holds true throughout. More, please.

nonfiction - short memoir + thoughts from a Montreal garbageman (translated from Quebecois French).
this has a little bit about his life (working part time as a garbageman in the Montreal area while getting his bachelor's and master's degree), the grueling, physically-exhausting, superhuman work that goes into collecting trash year-round (heat, piles of snow, ice--in addition to the usual obstacles of cars and bags that often break open), and some descriptions of his fellow co-workers. It is a unique field where recently drug-rehabbed applicants can find equal footing, but also beyond essential, and a lot of people wouldn't be able to handle the physical demands.

He also talks about how some trash, recycling, and especially compost collection receptacles/systems could be designed a lot better (why not ask some garbage collectors what they think), how "recycling" really isn't magically disappearing our would-be trash in the way we all hope, and how we really need to rethink the whole consumerism-for-economic-prosperity lifestyle in favor of more sustainable practices. These are all valid points worthy of further discussion though it stops short of calling readers to action.

fiction, tarot mystery (no witchcraft just cards) - #2 in series best read in order (2025)

A few years after her last murder mystery in the suburbs of the greater Chicago area, Katie True is back--now with her own tarot business, even if she doesn't have a whole lot of customers yet, and all your favorite characters from the first book are also here (neurodivergent Owen, mysterious Gina, the cute cop Jamie, even Katie's overachieving realtor sister Jessie).
This was another fun one--and bonus: I really like how aunt Rosie explains the meaning of the cards (she goes through the Major Arcana over the course of the book), which are much more accessible and easier to remember than other books on the topic. I liked this one better than the first one in the series, but the first book does provide a better introduction to the characters (and is also a fun read).

nonfiction - heyday of dinosaur bones collecting (mostly late 1800s-early 1900s), more history than science.

I thought this would be more interesting, but it was just ok. There were a lot of tangential stories about various men who would fight with each other in pursuit of fame, rather than actual knowledge, and many vignettes of other men who similarly aspired to greatness, whether deserved or not. Their stories were not uninteresting, but I think it served to dilute and obscure the main story--it sort of gelled at the end when T-rex finally entered the public consciousness, but it just wasn't as fascinating as one would hope.

nonfiction/memoir, family memoir - 23 y.o. Palestinian/Egyptian writer and poet moves from her mother's home in Egypt to learn her ailing father's business in 2000 China, and also pieces together her family's fragmented history, displaced by war and dealing with loss, in a narrative that skips back and forth over time and over many places.

wow, if I didn't know this was nonfiction I would think: award-winning miniseries! The first part paints a picture of the generational trauma of being violently forced to evacuate one's homeland and how that has affected her family of survivors; the second part focuses more on the author's more recent experiences trying to help her father and then losing her father during the SARS crisis--what happens after his death is infuriating and tragic but at least we get this beautiful book from it.

fiction (2016) - follows Cameroonian immigrants Jende and his wife Neni through their struggles in 2007-2008 NYC (applying for asylum prior to and during the recession); at first things seem to go well when Jende gets a job as chauffeur to a Wall Street executive, but wealthy Mr. Edwards (who works at Lehman Brothers) and his wife soon struggle with problems of their own. Also takes place in New Town, Limbe, Cameroon.

A lot packed in here, but a fast read with characters that leave an impression. More, please!

fiction - this starts out as a book about a woman in her late 50s, happily divorced, raising her teen daughter in New York City, and preparing to add one more lady to her golden girls "coven" -- older single women who can grow old together as neighbors; however, events conspire and soon she's involved with a mysterious man, a terrorist bomb threat, and even the nice (super rich) couple she works for become suspect.

I enjoyed this but half wish it were more about the snarky coven.. the middle/end of the book is an odd mishmash of all the things at once, and even though it works it tends to leave the reader with mixed feelings--mostly good but a little overwhelmed from all the stuff that happened so quickly.

nonfiction - science, paleontology, geology + memoir (2025)
woman paleontologist shows the substantial evidence that disproves the popular asteroid=5th extinction theory, ruffling a lot of feathers in the male-dominated field who still cling to their beliefs despite the absence of supporting data (sabotage, name-calling, cherry-picking/suppressing data, and other dirty tricks are not beneath some of these men).

I picked this up because the library's summer reading theme this year is dinosaurs and one of the prompts is to read about a dig site and/or a paleontologist--several books turned up in the catalog, and I picked this one out partly because it had a woman author (the other book I've had queued up is David Randall's The monster's bones : the discovery of T. Rex and how it shook our world which had good reviews). As someone who hasn't read a lot of paleontology or geology texts, this started off a little information-dense (I understood it but also wasn't going to try too hard to get my head wrapped around the difference between a "foram" and what we think of today as plankton), exactly what you might expect from a university professor--but also intriguing, that something so seemingly innocuous as pointing out conflicting data could so easily garner a death threat from a fellow scientist (or "scientist").

If you're not already too tired of men in power dismissing evidence that points to flaws in their thinking and attempting to discredit and destroy anything or anyone who show more might cause trouble, here is a story worth reading. There is quite a bit of science but the author patiently breaks it down so the rest of us can understand the basics and there is certainly plenty here to cast serious doubts on the (still) prevailing theory of the Chicxulub meteor*. I also thought the author's life/origin story (growing up in a small Swiss mountain town where girls weren't allowed to learn much more than housekeeping) was interesting.

*it appears that the theory has since evolved to include climate change and perhaps the possibility that volcanoes could have contributed a minor part, which doesn't make a lot of sense but the Hollywood-approved world-ending meteor is splashier and more exciting and "everyone believes it therefore it's true." show less

historical fiction - the stories of a neglected 12 y.o. orphan Meg and a young woman named Birdie (trying to help her younger married sister, among others) collide in 1933 Mississippi, at a time when eugenics policies allowed for the forced sterilization of "feebleminded" women.

Wonderful, skilled storytelling and well-drawn, intriguing characters once again from Stockett--this makes an excellent candidate for book clubs (though be careful not to injure your wrist, as I did, when handling the heavy large print edition!). I did enjoy her first book (The Help) and even though she suffered some unfortunate backlash for it, in a way she actually did us all a favor for making us aware of the need for #ownvoices in publishing (which we still are much in need of, but which at least some readers such as myself now know to seek out and ask for). Thanks for another great book--

historical fiction - stories of rebellion by enslaved people inspired by true people and true stories (read the author's notes at the beginning and end for more about these people and the writer's process).

Even if you have mixed feelings about violence, you have to root for the souls who just want to assert their human rights to live their lives in freedom. I don't know if I am dumbstruck by it or awestruck or what, but it's an excellent book and it was also neat to learn about the real people who inspired the characters at the end.

fiction, love story with ghost magic - 81 y.o. retired British bookseller Wilbur passes away and gets to revisit critical moments of his life before passing over into his "eternity."

now I remember why I never bothered to read Midnight Library, the premise just isn't very interesting, and this book is exactly as dull as you'd expect, sort of a slow-paced Mitch Albom or Nicholas Sparks. Wilbur is unfortunately not very interesting at all; his story gets mildly more interesting with the reintroduction of the "love of his life" that he apparently neglected to the point of her leaving him, but it's still fairly dull. I did manage to read through to the end, but was not really satisfied by the whole purpose of this train ride and the ending was also predictable and dull.

Also note: including a library or bookstore in the plot does not increase the appeal, so perhaps try not to rely on this cheap gimmick so much.

sci-fi fiction (middle of series, 1st full-length novel works as a standalone) - fast-paced adventures of SecUnit "Murderbot" as it protects its human owner/guardian and the other humans related to said owner/guardian, even if some of these humans are pretty annoying.

I'm not in anyway familiar with this series but could pick up the gist fairly quickly; Murderbot's humor makes it easy to like and the non-stop action makes a quick read.

historical fiction - follows the lifelong friendship of two women of different class backgrounds in 1950s-1980s Tehran, one of whom (Ellie/Elaheh) immigrates to NYC with her husband in the late 70s just before the revolution that ousts the Shah and puts the Ayatollah Khamenei in power and the other (Homa) who is an underground activist for women's rights.

A quick read, with strong female characters that western readers will easily empathize with.

adventure fiction, steampunk with vampires, werewolves and poltergeists (#3 in series, can standalone if you are too lazy to read the others first) - I wasn't that familiar with the characters in this series but could vaguely remember the Parasol Universe from the teen Finishing School series, and was able to get my bearings within the first 10 pages or so. Apparently Alexia Tarabotti has previously married Lord Maccon, Earl and Alpha werewolf of the Woolsey pack, but they've had a spat and now she's in need of a place to stay while pregnant with his unborn child--though she's barely showing, the vampire hives learn about the pregnancy and immediately set out to kill her, so she leaves for Italy where hopefully the Templars can offer her protection and perhaps answer some questions about her previously-assumed-impossible pregnancy.

This was a fast-paced, fun adventure that will likely delight the next reader after I leave it in my neighborhood little free library.

picked up from the library booksale 25-cent rack.

Nonfiction/family memoir - aided by stacks of letters and historical documents collected from her late parents (and her own skills in researching and organizing details into a very readable narrative), a Pulitzer-winning author delves into her Cuban-American family history, with special interest in the life of her half-brother Poly (Hipolito), whose father wouldn't let him leave Cuba and was subsequently left behind to stay with his grandmother and aunt when the rest of the family fled to the US in 1963. (The trauma of being separated from his mother at the age of 9 likely contributed to his difficulties in school and mental health troubles that would later surface as schizophrenia.)

As Ferrer finds out early on in her work, her family's experiences don't fit neatly into the chapters of published Cuban history, yet she is able to present these stories with a vulnerable tenderness and a respectful attention to detail. Very well done, would recommend.

**reviewed from uncorrected ARC received via LibraryThing ER**

nonfiction/memoir - follows Vietnamese-American immigrant through her childhood growing up around gang activity in her Houston neighborhood, working towards a PhD while recovering from a gunshot wound to the elbow (including some painful physical rehab) and focusing on the love shared between herself and her ex-boyfriend (in prison convicted of a crime he took the rap for to avoid having to rat out a friend). Their decades-long relationship is partly reconstructed from the many letters exchanged between them until he becomes too sick to write back.

A beautiful love story -- the author's background is so very different from the immigrant experiences that usually get published, but there is also a lot that is familiar--struggling through physical therapy, the heartbreak of many failed IVF treatments, not being able to visit someone in the hospital during COVID, and the indescribable feelings of grief and loss. I also appreciated the outsider's glimpse into the workings of the Texas prison system. Hà would also have made an awesome lawyer (she certainly has the passion for helping others and the tenacity for poring over boring legalese documents and laws), but readers are fortunate that her sociology prof steered her towards a doctorate instead so that she may tell and publish these stories.

semi-autobiographical fiction - grief novel ; follows Thandi through a series of romantic relationships (including an unplanned pregnancy) and dealing with the loss of her South-African mother to cancer. (The author was also raised in Philadelphia with a South African mother who died from cancer, so one expects some of her thoughts and emotions tied to these experiences are her own, but otherwise the reader must assume artistic liberties have been taken with the characters and their lives.) Takes place in the US with visits to family in South Africa.

the nonlinear narrative didn't really grip me at first, but you get more attached to Thandi over time, and different perspectives from diverse voices are valuable and appreciated.

fiction (1st in series) - 20-something Katie True, who has a talent for Tarot reading, discovers that her friend (and fellow commiserating shopping mall employee) Marley has been murdered, and against the advice of the police, continues to follow the clues to find out what happened. Takes place in a suburb ("Lake Terrace") outside the Chicago area.

This is a fun mystery-adventure and I enjoyed the way the author has incorporated Katie's tarot senses into the story--it feels natural rather than forced and her interpretations make sense.

fiction - Louise Penny teams up with a Chinese human-rights journalist? Sounds awesome, and this does not disappoint fans of suspense and international double-agents. The plot in this one takes the artistic liberties of a movie-blockbuster, but it's still somewhat plausible (given that no one is really trying to regulate AI developments all that much).

*TW/CW: bullying, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, cutting/self harm, psychological abuse and gaslighting, sexual predators

very readable memoir about how easily (and unfortunately all too often) female athletes can be psychologically abused (and groomed for sexual abuse), especially when they start being coached at a young age (Mary was 12 when she joined the HS varsity track team). Her male coaches were at best inappropriate, creepy, careless bullies and more accurately emotionally/psychologically abusive to the extent that most certainly ought to be criminalized and illegal. Male athletes were not exempt from similar abuse but at least were not held to inhuman (and incredibly dangerous) standards of thin, conventional "feminine" beauty.

a crew of 4 robot friends wake up after being rebooted in a post-war world where California has seceded from America, joined the U.N., and given sentient intelligent bots the right to work for themselves (not forced into enslavement by their owners). In reality though, some of them have bills to pay and since their former employer has apparently abandoned them, why not make something that is beautiful as well as delicious?

Endearing personalities bring the story to life--would totally love to read more from this (nonbinary) author.

fiction - magical realism with demons, malevolent spirits, and venomous snakes - follows the mysterious disappearance of Vietnamese-American expat Winnie Nguyen in 2011 Saigon, which is somehow connected to something that happened twenty years earlier in the Vietnamese mountain Highlands, which was somehow connected to something that happened in a rubber tree grove and other traumas during the war years.