22. Amy Falls Down

By Jincy Willett (324 pp)

Hannah recommended this book to me years ago. Amy is aging novelist who teaches writing and fits the description of a curmudgeon. She falls down and bangs her head and this sets off a series of gently escalating events that leads to hilarious adventures. Lots of insightful bits about writing and publishing.

21. Moon Called (Mercy Thompson 1)

By Patricia Briggs (304 ebook)

This is my first Mercy Thompson. I've been curious to read one of these books since they are set in Washington in the Tri-Cities area. She's a shape-shifter and everyone in the story is a werewolf or a vampire or some sort of creature. She get tangled up in a battle of creatures. It's fun and page turny but I don't love the "magical Indigenous people" aspect.

20. Diving Into the Wreck

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch (336 ebook)

I feel like I already wrote about this one but I don't see it on the list. I read the first part in Asimov's years ago and remember liking it so I grabbed the book. The story is set in space where people "dive wrecks" meaning they go into derelict spaceships. Some people do it for salvage but the MC takes tourists out and also researches the ships from a historical perspective. In the story, she finds some interesting technology and has many adventures dealing with it. Great world building.

19. The Pleasing Hour

By Lily King (256 ebook)

This isn't my favorite Lily King that I've read. It's about a young American woman who is a au pair in Paris. The story jumps around in time and it felt like threads were dropped and it was sometimes hard to follow. The writing and characterization are great but also this character makes some aggravating decisions.

Look how many books I read in March and April -- 11! Yeah, a lot of them were short. But also I was recovering from Covid and we had a long wet spring. I can read a lot if the circumstances are right.

18. So Quick Bright Things Come to Confusion

By Caren Gussoff Sumption (114 pp)

Caren is one of my Clarion West classmates and it was great to read something new from her. This is about a guy who is part of a space mission on another planet who befriends a resident creature of that planet while the space mission does some sketchy studies. It's sweet and disturbing and funny and sad. Terrific characters and world building.

17. To Be Taught, If Fortunate

By Becky Chambers (160 ebook)

Becky Chambers can do no wrong! Even the books that don't really work for me pay off. This one is about a science mission to potentially habitable planets and has a wonderful cast of characters and so much heart. Recommend.

16. Verity

By Colleen Hoover (333 ebook)

Hoover is all over the best sellers list so I've been wanting to read something of hers out of curiosity. This is a suspense-romance(?). I think it might be romance but it's pretty dark and there's lots of sex but it's not that romantic. It's about a down-on-her-luck woman who gets a job finishing a popular book series by a famous author who is ill. Of course, it requires going to the remote estate where this author wrote to go through her office and of course, she has to stay longer than intended and of course there is a mysterious sexy husband and a creepy kid. At first it was fun, page-turny, suspension of disbelief but the ending went completely off the rails and did not work for me.

15. Murder in the Library

By Agatha Christie (224 ebook)

I bought a 3-book Agatha Christie Miss Marple bundle. This is the 2nd that I've read and I enjoyed it more than the first. This one starts opens with the discovery of the body of a young woman in the Bantrys' library. Another young woman's body is discovered in a quarry. There are dancers and actors and tennis instructors and an old guy with a sad story and lots of money that people want to inherit. Miss Marple is on the case.

14. Ninth House

By Leigh Bardugo (496 ebook)

I read a lot of books in a short period because I was dealing with fatigue from The Covid. Plus it was a cold wet winter/spring so what better to do than sit around and read? I have never read Bardugo but I loved Shadow and Bone on Netflix and she's been on my list. This book is set in a different world from her main books and seems like her regular readers weren't as fond of this. I LOVED it. It's set at Yale and has secret societies, dark magic and ghosts. The main character is a troubled and rebellious woman who gets a second chance but signs up for more than she expected. There's a murder and ever-shifting bad guys. REALLY GOOD.

13. Neverworld Wake

By Marissa Pessl (323 ebook)

This is another one of those books that I don't know where it came from. Probably a Bookbub deal. (BookBub is a blessing and a curse. SO MANY BOOKS -- but it's a deal do I have to buy it.) It's a thriller about a group of friends--they all have secrets--and they are in a car accident that turns into a groundhog's day thing. It was fun and page turny with great dark atmosphere but the story went off the rails a bit in the middle and the characterization was kind-of flat.

12. Nettle and Bone

By T. Kingfisher (262 ebook)

I have only read 2 books by T. Kingfisher but I put the list of everything she's written into my phone because I don't want to miss one thing. Fantastic stories with interesting, complex characters who have to work through tough situations. This one is set in a land with waring kingdoms and the main character tries to rescue her sister from a cruel king. She has to endure terrible trials and manages to assemble an odd group to help on her quest. Dark, but really good.

11. Crossroads

By Jonathan Franzen (580 pp)

We got this hardcover in one of the free little libraries in our neighborhood. I had it sitting here and I finally read it because it was taking up so much real estate on my shelf. It's set in the 70s and is about this family in the midwest and their relationship with their church. Complex family dynamics and people going through personal crises. It was interesting because it was really easy to read, I zoomed through it but I didn't love the story. The characters were sympathetic but also awful to themselves and each other and kept doing things you didn't want them to do. But the writing is so good and story also felt very real for the time and the subject matter.