18. Authority

By Jeff VanderMeer (340 pp) Book 2 in the Southern Reach Trilogy. These books are really wierd and convoluted because what is happening in the story is weird and unexplainable. Annihilation (I have to look up the spelling of that word every time) is about an expedition into Area X. This book is about Control, a new director of the entity overseeing Area X trying to figure out what's going on. Everybody is suspicious and seems to be hiding something. I love the descriptions of the environment.

17. Where the Past Begins: A Writer's Memoir

By Amy Tan (368 pp ebook) I am a huge Amy Tan fan but this book was only medium for me. It reminds me of back in the day when a band had to fulfill a contract and would put out an album of "outtakes" and live versions that didn't add up to much. The sections about her family history were super interesting but some of it is journal entries and free-form ruminating that didn't work for me.

16. Writers & Lovers

By Lily King (324 pp) How great is it to get a book you know nothing about as a gift and end up loving it? I never would have discovered this on my own and now I have added this author to my list. This is set in the 90s and is about a 30 year old woman, who is also a writer, trying to get her life together with varying degress of success. The writing is beautiful. Great characters. The protagonist sometimes makes maddening decisions but is very relatable. Looking forward to sharing this with Mom.

15. The Trespasser

By Tana French (455 pp) I dragged my feet on this one because it's the only Dublin Murder Squad (6 of 6) I had left and now it's done. I love Tana French but also the books always seem a tad longer than they need to be and there's often a whiff of implausibility to the murder part of story. In this one a young woman is found murdered and at first everyone assumes it's a slam dunk domestic violence. It's more complicated than that. But the story is also about the detective Antoinette Conway, getting her dream job as a murder detective and dealing with sexism and a crappy work environment that makes her second guess herself. Recommend all of Tana French's books.