The One / John Marrs / 412 pgs / Missouri Book Challenge Wildcard / Double Letter

I am so impressed by this book. It was a thrilling ride and each chapter left you hanging and waiting until the story came back to that character. The book is set up so each chapter is from the POV of a different character. The characters are Mandy, Christopher, Jade, Nick, and Ellie, and they have all been matched on a website called Match Your DNA, which purports to find your one, true love based on you and your match's DNA. In each story, you learn about the character and who he/she has been matched with, and how that works. 

There are lots of twists and turns. One character is a serial killer. One is the person who discovered the DNA and is now the CEO of the company. One moves to another country to be with her match. One is a divorcee. And one is engaged to be married. I highly recommend if you like a little speculative fiction in your big thriller/suspense books.

A Gentleman in Moscow / Amor Towles / 496 pgs

This is one of those books that I wouldn't have picked up if it wasn't my book club's selection for September. That said, I ended up really liking it. The book is a fictional account of an aristocrat in his late 20s who is imprisoned during the Bolshevik Revolution in a swanky hotel in Moscow. He stays there for over three decades and sees a lot of the changes in Soviet Russia from his hotel room.

That sounds a bit boring, doesn't it? However, the story of Count Rostov ended up being far more interesting that I would have thought. Throughout the book, he forms friendships with all sorts, young and old, learns a lot about himself and others, and ends up finding a way towards having a fulfilling life while unable to ever leave the confines of the hotel. The ending of the book really made reading the whole thing worthwhile, so please stick with it even if you think it's not your cup of tea.

Stars Are Fire / Anita Shreve / 256 pages

The Stars Are Fire is a strange little book that reeled me in despite myself. I started out the book not really care much for it. I found it hard to drum up sympathy for the main character, Grace, and I realized that the huge fires of 1947 in Maine, which really did happen, was sort of just a plot device that had really little to do with what the story was about. That said, I did find myself wanting to know what would happen next - always the hallmark of a good book. I decided I was not keen on the author's habitual need of spending countless pages just describing all of the things in a room.

Grace is a young mother of two living with a husband that she really no longer loves. She is pregnant and her husband goes to join the volunteer firefighters when Maine starts burning up after a long drought. After Grace and her children are rescued, she finds herself living with a kind, hospitable family and no way of knowing what has become of her husband, or how her small family will survive with no money or possessions left.

Recursion / Blake Crouch / 329 pages

I am always in awe of Blake Crouch. His has this ability to weave these amazing, mind-blowing stories that never fail to reel me in and keep me reading way past my bedtime. I started Recursion by listening to it via Libby while I was commuting to and from work. After two days of that, and about 25% of the way through the book, I finally got the central premise of the book and I was hooked. I drove around my hometown last night because I didn't want to get out of my car. So, I hurried up and bought the book on Amazon for my Kindle app, and stayed up real late to read the rest of the book. 

I can't say much at all about the book, because I don't want to give anything away. Part of the fun of Blake Crouch's books is trying to figure out what is really going on in the plot. However, I will say that it has something to do with having memories of a life you never lived. If you like to have your mind blown, if you enjoyed his previous book Dark Matter, or if you want your nice little idea of reality to be just pummeled into the ground and substituted with something way crazier, and ultimately, way more dangerous. Then, read this book!

The Luckiest Lady in London / Sherry Thomas / 276 pages

This is one of those books that the man and the woman don't ever express themselves and if they did, so much heartache could have been avoided. It seems somewhat trite, but it worked here. My only complaint is that I think when it comes to romances, I like my male leads to be nearly perfect. There were times when I wanted to slap the male romantic lead and thought the "luckiest" lady in that book would be better off with someone else.

Louisa is approaching spinsterhood when she is sponsored by a distant relative to be introduced in London as a debutante in circa 1885. She hopes to bag one of two possible matches, neither of whom she is romantically attracted to, but both with enough money to support her mom, her sisters (one of whom is epileptic) and herself. She doesn't want much, but she wants enough that she has a roof over their heads and food in their bellies. What she didn't count on was the most eligible bachelor in London making passes at her and asking her to be his mistress. Could she give up a respectable life and be a mistress to the best looking man in all of England in exchange for her every creature comfort taken care of, or will she turn him down to remain respectable in the eyes of society?

The Art of Racing in the Rain / Garth Stein / 321 pages

I wasn't sure what to make of this book at first. After having read A Dog's Purpose and loving it, and knowing this book also is from the POV of a dog, it's hard to not draw comparisons. So, while in the former book the dog lives multiple lives, always striving to be a good dog and love its master, the dog in this book, Enzo, lives only one life and is striving to be more human. This makes Enzo into some sort of sage and philosopher, extremely self-aware, and not nearly as lovable as the dog in the former book.

In fact, the book really didn't take off for me until halfway through when the story of the family that Enzo lives with took one bad turn after another. Enzo's master is a race car driver, one who is really good at driving in the rain, and his young wife becomes sick. What happens after is something you need to discover on your own as you read about the human family that is at the center of Enzo's world. By the end, I was very happy with the book and how it ended, but it took a while to get there.

Quiche of Death / M. C. Beaton / 246 pgs

I don't like cozy mysteries, but I actually enjoyed this book. The mystery kept me guessing and the narrator did an amazing job with the voices. Agatha Raisin was a fun character and the Cotswolds was a wonderful venue for the mystery. I would think that cozy mystery lovers would really enjoy this book, the first in the Agatha Raisin series, but I would also recommend this book for folks who normally don't enjoy cozy mysteries. I might just even read the next book to see how I like it as well. I'm interested in the possible burgeoning romance between Agatha and the new neighbor.

Agatha Raisin retires early from the rat race in London and moves to the Cotswolds where she enters a quiche baking contest, but when the judge dies from poisoning, she's the prime suspect. She must try to find the killer herself in order to be exonerated.

Filthy Rich / James Patterson, et al. / 400 pgs

Granted, this is only my second James Patterson book, but it was light years better than the other one I read. He co-wrote this book with two other authors, one of whom is a journalist, so I am using this book for the Read Harder challenge category to read a book by a journalist.

I must have been really busy with college during the time that the Jeffrey Epstein scandal went down, because I did not know much about it at all. The book was very illuminating about what a horrible man Epstein is, and how, despite the tons of evidence against him, the legal system let his victims down. I also did not know of what Alan Dershowitz and Prince Andrew were accused of until reading this book. I definitely recommend reading the book if you haven't really gotten the full story of Epstein or want a lesson on how the justice system fails victims.

Years of Rice and Salt / Kim Stanley Robinson / 672 pages / Asian Setting

Though this book wasn't exactly what I was expecting, I really enjoyed it nonetheless. The premise that the plagues in Europe in the 14th century led to 99% of all Europeans dying, rather than the 33% that actually died is really interesting. The author posits that the world would be divided between two major superpowers, the Chinese and Dar-es-Islam with other powers coming into their own in the 19-21st centuries, Travancore (aka India) and the Haudenosaunee (a league made up of Native American nations).

The story is told with the idea that the same people keep reincarnating over the centuries with the K character being rebellious and often a leader and the B character is usually hopeful and often religious. The biggest thing I did not expect was long discourses about religion, philosophy, and science, but I think the author was really trying to get the whole western European mindset out of our American heads to see how the mindset of Buddhists, Daoists, and Muslims affect how people in the Eastern Hemisphere live, work, love, and learn.

At nearly 700 pages, it's a long book and it took me about 3 weeks to get through it all, with the combination of both reading and listening to the audiobook while commuting to and from work. Pick up this book only if you are in the mood for something really meaty, not something fluffy.

A Different Flesh / Harry Turtledove / 292 pgs

What an amazingly thought provoking and interesting book. The story is of an alternate America where those who landed at Jamestown in 1607 did not find Native American humans, but homo erectus, otherwise known as Sims. These hairy "sub-humans" have no power of speech, no chins and no foreheads. They communicate with grunts and hoots and use only sharpened rocks as weapons. In the subsequent short stories from 1610 to 1988, we learn about how the absence of Native Americans as we know them, and the presence of Sims drastically alters the USA we know in this world.

The book was written in 1988 and has some problems that we in 2019 could possibly find offensive given our knowledge now of colonialism and the mistreatment of Native Americans. In this made up world, black slavery is outlawed a good 50 years earlier than it was in the real world. Steam engines also made an appearance about 50 years earlier. The USA is based on the Roman Republic with two censors instead of one president. In 1988, Sims are used as test subjects for AIDS cure experiments, being deliberately exposed to the virus first, something we would barely allow in animals now, certainly not human beings, but are Sims human beings? That's the question the book wrestles with throughout. 

Sky Without Stars / Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell / 592 pgs

I was so lucky to get to meet the authors of this wonderful new book at my library last week. They told great stories about how they came up with the idea of Les Miserables in space and reading this book was a little like a homecoming for me because I love the movie (though I must admit I haven't yet read the book by Victor Hugo).

The story is about how humanity left Earth and 505 years later live in a system with three stars and twelve inhabited planets. Laterre is ruled by the Paress family where there are three estates (royalty, administrative, and the workers), much like how there were three estates in pre-Revolutionary France. The book mainly focuses on Alouette, Chatine, and Marcellus, who are stand-ins for Cosette, Eponine, and Marius in the original Hugo novel. In this far off future, humanity has mostly lost its ability to read the written word save for a few folks who must stay hidden and protect the last library on Laterre. Meanwhile, the Third Estate starves in a rainy, marshy environment while the First and Second Estates live, eat, and play in a massive biodome under a virtual blue sky.

This is the first book in the System Divine series and there are plans for more two books at least. I can't wait for the next one as I really got invested in the characters, especially Chatine.

Also, I don't tend to judge a book by its cover, but the first time I saw this book cover, I knew I would love this book. Isn't it gorgeous? Best Book Cover Ever!

Binti / Nnedi Okorafor / 90 pgs

I really enjoyed Binti so much. It was a quick read, more of a novella than a novel, but the story was tight and not at all wasteful in the telling. I definitely want to read the two sequels that have come out now that I've read the first book in the series.

Binti is a human living in Africa sometime far in the future where interstellar travel is possible and many different alien races have been encountered. Binti is the first of her people to travel to Oomza University, on a distant planet, to study mathematics, and leaving home is both thrilling and difficult. However, her trip becomes a race for survival when an alien race known for its brutality boards the ship she is traveling on with other soon-to-be students. Binti has to call upon her strengths and the knowledge of her people in order to make it out alive.

Milk and Honey / Rupi Kaur / 204 pgs

Milk and Honey is divided into four chapters. In the first chapter, the author grapples with her abuse as a child and teenager. In the second, she falls in love with a man. In the third, she deals with the break up of that relationship. In the last chapter, she learns to love herself.

I have problems with modern poetry, and this is not much of an exception, despite Milk and Honey's critical and commercial success. Though I did find the first chapter moving, when the author talks about her physical and emotional abuse, that is as much praise that I can muster. I read this book for one of the categories of the Read Harder challenge, to read a collection of poetry published since 2014.

I will just crawl back to my Robert Burns, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Ruyard Kipling now and be happy with them.

Golden State / Ben H. Winters / 319 pgs

I started Golden State with high expectations since I had read Ben H. Winters' earlier book "Underground Airlines" and loved it. Based on the book jacket's description, I had though this would also be an alternate reality/alternate history type book, but I was wrong. Once you get into the book, you discover that it is set far in the future, though the feel of this futuristic society is very basic. There isn't much talk about computers, cars drive on roads, the style of dress is the same though those who work in this weird version of the FBI wear little cameras strapped to their heads.

The premise is that the world was partially destroyed due to war and it was decided in this futuristic version of Los Angeles (only known as "The Golden State) that lying was the crux of all trouble in the world. Think of Fahrenheit 451 and their belief in that book that reading was the problem. An elite force of folks who have a special gift to be able to ferret out liars due to their physical reactions when someone is lying around them, goes around looking for liars. When a man dies under suspicious circumstances, it is the main character's job to figure out what happened. Meanwhile, he stumbles across a bigger conspiracy.

The book definitely held my attention, though I'm not a fan of murder mysteries. The larger speculative fiction plot was what I was most interested in. The twist at the end was very good and I definitely recommend the book. Ben H. Winters has a fan in this reader.

Echo / Pam Munoz Ryan / 587 pgs

This book was beautiful. This book may end up being the best book I read all year. I don't know if anything can top the greatness that is this book. It's equal parts fantasy and historical fiction and it didn't read too young for me, more like one of the later Harry Potter books.

The story of a magical harmonica and three sisters tasked with finding someone to save is gorgeous and haunting and I can't even come up with enough words to describe it. The harmonica in question goes from person to person. First it shows up in the hands of a boy living in Germany in the early 1930s, as Hitler is rising in power and those who don't agree with Nazism are carted away to work in prison camps. Second, it finds its way to an orphan boy living in Philadelphia just a couple of years later. Lastly, it finds its way to a Hispanic girl living in California in 1942, after the U.S. has entered World War II. The way the story ties up in the end is perfect.

I can't recommend this book enough. I read it to fulfill the 2019 Read Harder Challenge category "A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009." If you're doing the Read Harder challenge, you should definitely read the book.

I both read and listened to the book. The parts of the audio book I listened to were wonderful because the harmonica music is incorporated into the story. It was really neat to hear the harmonica played so beautifully and emotionally.

The Color Purple / Alice Walker / 288 pages

One of the categories for the 2019 Read Harder Challenge is to read an epistolary novel. Epistolary novels are my favorite and I have already read tons, but I had no idea that The Color Purple, which I had never read, was a novel made up of letters. I had seen the movie a couple of times but had never read the book.

This is one of those books that I felt very torn about. I had a tough time with the book for the first half, but it got better and ended up grabbing my attention later. The story is told in a series of letters, first Celie's letters to God, then letters from her sister, Nettie, to her, then letters from her to Nettie. I think when those letters from her sister begin, about halfway through the book, that's when it finally got interesting and I ended up enjoying the latter half of the book far more than I did the first half.

Celie is a young black woman living around 1915 Georgia with her dad and mother. She is raped by her father and gives birth twice to children that her father takes away; she knows not where. Celie is not educated or good looking, unlike her younger sister Nettie, who is both of those things. Celie is given to an unnamed Mr. _____ to marry. He beats her and is obviously having an affair with Shug, a worldly beautiful singer. Meanwhile, Celie's sister runs away from home and a lifetime passes before they reconnect.

I'm glad I got to read this during Black History Month, as it is a good reminder of what life was like for African Americans in Jim Crow South. I recommend the book, but with the caveat that it's a tough read at first. Get through it and it gets better.

Hard Country (Kerney Family #1) / Michael McGarrity / 608 pages

I read this for a book club and I likely would not have picked it up otherwise. However, lately, when I find myself forced to read a western, I end up really enjoying it. This book is no exception. This is the first book in a trilogy, and I actually really want to know what happens next.

The book starts off with a young man and his pregnant wife living in rural Texas, with the designs of building a ranch. However, the wife dies after giving birth to a son and the man's brother and son are killed by horse thieves. The man gives his sister-in-law his infant son to care for while he goes in search of the murderers. Thus begins a story of revenge, family, horses, ranches, war, and the old west spanning three generations and 43 years.

I especially loved that the characters were complex and multi-dimensional. Not every "villain" you meet turns out to be a bad guy and not every person you expect to be a good guy is all that terribly good. I absolutely loved it!

To Pixar and Beyond / Lawrence Levy / 272 pages

I had so much fun listening to this book. The narrator was Bronson Pinchot, who played Balki on "Perfect Strangers" and I would have never guessed! His voice was so soothing and wonderful to listen to, and he apparently has narrated quite a few audiobooks. The story of how Pixar went from a company, owned by Steve Jobs, that was somewhat lost about what its goals were (do hardware? do software? do commercials?) to the powerhouse in entertainment that it is today. The bulk of the story is centered around 1994-1996, when Toy Story is in development and Pixar hires Lawrence Levy to be their CFO. Eventually, a week after Toy Story is released, the IPO of Toy Story is also released and the stock price skyrockets.

I learned so much about business, start-ups, and how they are financed. For the Read Harder Challenge this year, I highly recommend reading this book for the Business category.

Dad is Fat / Jim Gaffigan / 275 pages

I read Jim Gaffigan's other book, Food: A Love Story a couple of years ago and loved it because I could completely relate to the love a foodie can have for good food. I had already experienced Gaffigan through some of his stand-up comedy, especially his food-related sketches. His jokes concerning Hot Pockets, bacon, and cinnamon rolls are some of the funniest bits of comedy I have ever seen.

So, I was going into this with high hopes, but not really knowing if the humor was going to be a general nature or not. Unfortunately, the humor was only about parenting. As someone who is not a parent, I could not relate as well to the jokes. That said, the humor was still pretty funny and I found myself enjoying the book, but probably not as much as I would if I were a parent.
If you are a parent and need to laugh a bit about raising kids, then I highly recommend this book. If you've never read anything by Jim Gaffigan before, then please check out Food: A Love Story!

Norse Mythology / Neil Gaiman / 299 pages

I never knew a thing about Norse Mythology other than what little Norse Mythology you get from Marvel's Thor. This book, which I listened to in my car, narrated by the author himself, really taught me a lot about Norse Mythology. 

It's so interesting how similar myths from Greece, Rome, the Pacific Northwest, and in Scandinavia really resemble each other. For those who like this sort of thing, this book is for you. The stories are short, like most myths are, so you can read them in bite-size chunks. Be prepared to learn what Marvel got wrong about Thor, Odin, and Loki. You are going to meet a whole lot more gods and goddesses, giants, and other monsters and learn about how Thor got his hammer, Mjolnir - how Odin lost his eye - how the universe was created - and much more!