24. Dear Enemy

By Kristen Callihan (393 pp, ebook)

I love this author. This is a romance about Macon and Delilah who met growing up. They did not get along and actively despised each other but also he dated her troubled sister as a teen. They are brought back together when the troubled sister is in trouble again and Delilah, now a successful chef/caterer, has to bail her out or else Macon, huge TV star in a Game of Thrones type show, is going to call the police and send troubled sister to jail. There's a lot of drama in this story that is tough to sum up in a sentence but needless to say, Macon and Delilah learn there was a lot of misunderstanding from their youth and now they are into each other. What will happen?

23. Carrie

By Stephen King (322 pp)(ebook) I bought the 50 year (gulp!) anniversary edition of Carrie. I originally read it around 1976 when the movie came out. I know because I vividly remember my paperback with the blood soaked Sissy Spacek on the cover and the movie photos inside. The book holds up. It's about a young woman raised in a super religious household who is bullied and turns out, has telekenisis which comes out in a massive wave of destruction when the joke goes too far. The book is partly the story with different POVs and partly from memoir and the investigation into what happened. The way the story events are sequenced is really clever and tension building. Stephen King is the master at writing vivid and disturbing scenes and this book delivers.

22. Matrix

By Lauren Groff (257pp)

I have been looking forward to reading this since I heard a podcast with the author. If I remembered which one I would link it, but it's been awhile. I love Lauren Groff's writing and I enjoyed this one. Like Fates & Furies if you look at reviews, people seem to love or hate this book. Those are my favorite books! This is set in the 12th century and opens with a teenaged Marie de France banished to a run down abbey where the nuns are starving. The story follows Marie's life as she whips the abbey into shape. Complex characters and relationships. Made me want to know more about this time period.

21. Leonard and Hungry Paul

By Ronan Hessian (256 pp)(ebook)

You could call this a Ted Lasso of fiction -- no soccer involved but regular people navigating the dips and peaks of being human and things work out okay. There were times while I was reading when I thought, "This is a book?" because it felt so real and relatable. It's about two men in their 30s with a loyal friendship, one set of parents and one sibling preparing to marry. They navigate romance and work life and its funny and sweet.

20. Seven Days in June

By Tia Williams (325 pp)

When we were at The Last Chapter romance bookstore in Chicago (me signing my book) I decided to pick one book by an author who is new to me and this is what I picked. It's a contemporary, second chance romance about a Black couple who had an intense and chaotic week together as teenagers. Fifteen years later Eva is a successful author of an erotic paranormal series and Shane is a successful literary author when their paths cross again. Lots of drama and great humor and characters.

19. System Collapse (Murderbot #7)

By Martha Wells (243 pp)

I love Murderbot and a little Murderbot is better than no Murderbot, but also, this felt slight. It starts where the last one left off and the Murderbot crew are headed to the other side of a planet to talk to some colonists before the bad guys get there. Meanwhile, Murderbot is having some operation errors it can't figure out. It felt like a thin story and a lot of Murderbot rumination. Still, always recommend Murderbot. The Internet tells me this is soon to be a TV series on Apple + with Alexander Skarsgård. I guess we will be starting Apple TV again.

Interlude

I know no one is keeping track except me but I am bummed by how few books I read. 40 a year seems like a weak but doable goal but I'm not even on track for that. I even made an intention to read more books and I got in bed earlier for extra reading time and then ended up getting sleepy and going to bed earlier. To be fair to myself: I have other things going on, it's not like I'm doom-scrolling in my spare time. I'm still writing and have several short stories and a couple long stories in the mix at the moment.

I was thinking: well, when I retire I can aim for 2 books a week. At that rate it will still take me about 4 years to get through the TBR pile if I don't add any new books or re-read anything. And I would love to re-read the Expanse series and the Magicians series. This is a good problem to have but I still wish I could read more.

18. Lovecraft Country

By Matt Ruff (400 pp)(ebook)

I did not see the TV series but I might have to now. I didn't know what to expect with this book and it was a wonderful surprise. There is an overarching story but also it feels like interlinked short stories -- every character gets an adventure. I don't know how to describe the in a sentence. It's set in the 50s in Jim Crow America where the racist stuff is terrifying but also there's a secret society with creepy rituals and unsettling creatures and a foreboding air over everything. The characters are really well drawn - the way they react to what's happening and their relationships are really good. Recommend.

17. Scales and Sensibility

By Stephanie Burgis (384 pp)(ebook)

Jane Austen with dragons! In this world the dragons are small enough to sit on your shoulder and are a fashion trend. Elinor is stuck living with her snotty spoiled cousin as the poor relation. Her cousin is busy checking out potential husbands and for story reasons Elinor ends up pretending she's someone else. I don't want to be too spoilery. This book is so fun and Elinor keeps getting into worse and worse trouble so it seems hopeless. Also, there's romance.

16. The Burgess Boys

By Elizabeth Strout (352 pp)(ebook)

Elizabeth Strout is such a great writer. These characters and their relationships are so complex and sad and funny and relatable. The story starts with a freak accident that happens when the main characters are children and it's a ghost over their whole lives. The oldest sibling is a successful attorney, the sister has hard edges. The youngest son is good natured non-profit attorney who I wanted to hug every few pages. Susan's son is a loner who inadvertently gets himself into big trouble and in the process of helping him, the siblings have to go through a lot. Really good.

15. Exit Black

By Joe Pitkin (257 pp)

Joe is a longtime friend and colleague of my husband and we are very excited about this book. We went to a fun reading at Broadway Books in Portland which is a terrific neighborhood bookstore with a great staff. It's a smaller store but so well curated that every aisle has intriguing books that you want. Exit Black is a fun "Die Hard in space" story set on a luxury hotel orbiting earth. In the story, the hotel hasn't quite opened but they are doing a pre-event for some billionaires and an influencer. Bad guys take control of the hotel and super badass scientist Chloe has to save the day. My favorite part was watching the bad guy, Dion, trying to keep his cool with each new setback. A great character. Very fun book! Recommend.

14. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton

By Julia Quinn (480 pp)(ebook)

I watched Bridgerton and was obsessed with Penelope and Colin so I wanted to read the book. It's one in a series about the wealthy Bridgerton children finding true love. Colin is, I think, the third son, and he's tired of everyone thinking he's just a player. Penelope is best friends with one of the Bridgerton sisters and has had a crush on him since she was a teenager. But then he notices how awesome Penlope and there is love but also complications because Penelope has this whole hidden identity. It was great.