I don’t know what it is about the end of the year but it always throws me slightly off balance. I wish I could say it was that I was in that weird nether world between Christmas and New Years but my work only closed on the proper holidays so I was busy working during that time. No rest for the librarians!
No, December seemed both long and incredibly short at the same time. I think it might be that I have a deadline of January 15th for a very important project so that’s been on my mind. In fact, as I type, I’m in a coffee shop, working on said project (well, taking a break to finish up this month’s newsletter) so yes, it has taken over me a bit. But, fingers crossed, I can talk about it soon and you’ll all understand.
Books I Read This Month
The Paleontologist - Lucas Dumas
Two words: dinosaur ghosts. That’s what sold me on picking this book up but what kept me reading so that I finished this thing in roughly 24 hours was everything else. A man takes a gig as the head of the dinosaur department at his childhood museum which is also where his little sister disappeared from when he was ten. It’s the middle of covid, the museum leadership is in disarray, and he’s hearing weird sounds in the dark. This is a mystery (what happened to Morgan?), a thriller (is someone after Simon?), and a horror novel (dinosaur ghosts) all wrapped into one. And as silly as I’m being with my description, it’s also extremely heartfelt, has some mediation on privilege especially in small towns, and made me a little teary at the end. I highly recommend this one.
Maya’s Laws of Love - Alina Khawaja
This doesn’t come out until March so you have plenty of time to preorder this delightful Pakistani-Canadian romance. Maya thinks she’s cursed and agrees to an arranged marriage because she hasn’t had a ton of luck and the guy is nice (and handsome.) Unfortunately, her plane is grounded on the way to Pakistan and she ends up attempting to make the rest of the journey with her jerk of a seatmate, another handsome Pakistani guy named Sarfaraz. Will they fall in love? Who could say? This book was adorable, delightful, and just very fun and silly. If you want a light little rom com that also teaches you a lot about Pakistani culture, this is very recommended!
I’ve been meaning to read TJ Klune for ages, I even have a copy of House on the Cerulean Sea at home, but I saw this at work, went “TJ Klune wrote a gay werewolf series???” and knew I had to read it. I will say that ultimately, I have mixed feelings on this one. I like the set up, I love the writing style, I’m intrigued by the werewolves and the world Klune’s created but the main couple meet when one is sixteen and the other is ten and I just … could never quite get over that. They don’t actually become romantic until many years later, of course, but something about that age difference that early just stuck in and I could never quite connect. BUT! It’s written beautifully and I’m definitely going to read more of this series because I want to see where it goes. The next book is about two folks who are MUCH closer in age so I’m very much looking forward to it.
The Ghosts of Beatrice Bird - Louisa Morgan
Set in the late 70s, this is the story of a psychiatrist who has always been able to sense when things are wrong with people but, after a few LSD trips, now sees the ghosts people carry around with them. Overcome by all of this, she runs away to a remote island in the San Juans. To this island comes a young woman on the run from her husband and together, these two work to overcome both of their problems. This book is fine. I was looking for more actual ghosts (oops) so it didn’t quite hit for me but I still enjoyed it and wanted to know what happened. I was looking for supernatural and I got magical realism historical cozy mystery. Which is still a good flavor!
The Only One Left - Riley Sanger
Riley Sanger books always look interesting and then I completely forget about them but this time I actually read it! Clearly inspired by Lizzie Borden, this follows a live in caretaker (in the 80s) who is hired to care for the potential murderess Leonora Hope who is now in her 70s and very ill. It’s a very gothic horror vibe as our heroine deals with her own demons (there’s a reason her boss gave her this assignment) as well as tries to unravel what happened at the cliffside mansion back in 1929. There are twists aplenty in this and it was definitely a fun read.
System Collapse - Martha Wells
The new Murderbot book! Of course I devoured it in an evening. I don’t think it’s my favorite of the series but each Murderbot book is a delight and this one was no different. If you haven’t been reading this series of novellas, I highly recommend them!
And the First Tournament of Books Shortlisted Books of 2024
Boys Weekend - Mattie Lubchansky
I’ve been a fan of Mattie Lubchansky for ages so I had a feeling I’d really enjoy this and—shocker—I did! A transwoman who isn’t quite out with their college friends goes on a boys weekend for their college roommate’s bachelor party to a weird Las Vegas-esque island where everything is legal. As the weekend progresses, Sammie starts noticing stranger and stranger things happen around the group but the rest of the party mostly shrugs it off. There’s digs at masculinity, capitalism, silicon valley, and just society as a whole. It’s satire, it’s horror, it’s incredibly clever and I absolutely loved it.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - James McBride
James McBride has been hit and miss with me. I enjoyed The Good Lord Bird but I couldn’t finish Deacon King Kong. Heaven and Earth Grocery Store might be my new favorite McBride, a tale about a town in the forties, the people that make it up, and how despite the white male town elders managing to fowl things up for the Jewish and Black residents over and over again, the resilience and kindness shown by the community. It’s a lot more than that, of course. It shines in its characters and how well it creates affection for almost everyone immediately. But I finished the book and went ‘hmmm’. It felt like the book was three hundred pages of build up for twenty pages of climax. The pacing was way off for me, I felt like there were characters that I didn’t quite understand why we’d spent time with when they were ultimately basically written off, and characters appeared out of nowhere to just add danger. I enjoyed the book but I feel like it either had to shave off a hundred pages or add a hundred and fifty to figure out what it wanted to be.
So you might have all heard about the very frustrating and dumb stances Substack has taken on the whole, you know, allowing Nazis on their platform. A lot of folks I know have moved their newsletters and I completely understand. The problem for me is that I don’t have the know-how or time to figure out how to do that at this point in time. So I will be continuing on Substack, at least in the immediate future, until I can figure out an alternative.
However, I’m VERY aware that some folks would rather not give money to this platform via a subscription. That is incredibly understandable. So, if you’d like to subscribe and support me and choose a book for me to read, feel free to use my Ko-Fi instead, so that none of the fees go to Substack. I can then use the backend to put you on the list. I don’t want my not having the chance to change platforms affect where your money is going.
I hope you all had a very lovely holiday season. Mine was full of ups and downs and its still a bit topsy-turvy, family-wise, but we’ll see how it all goes. And maybe next month I can finally share some behind the scenes stuff with you!
Have a wonderful, wonderful January and I’ll see you all soon!