20. Killing Floor (Jack Reacher #1)

By Lee Child (575 ebook)

Someone wrote about reading the Jack Reacher books during the pandemic and I'd never read one or seen a film adaptation so I gave it a try. I'm not really the audience for this but it was a fun page-turner and easy to read on a plane or the bus. An ex-military wanderer stops by a small town looking for information about a legendary singer and ends up arrested for murder. Lots of thrills and violence ensue.

19. A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe

By Alex White (440 pp)

This book sounds like it was made for me: Expanse meets Firefly. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work for me. It's set in space with some magical elements. There's race driver and a treasure hunter, a secret battleship and a creepy murder crone. The world-building is fun and detailed and there's a lot of action, but I never connected with the characters.

18. The Year of the Nurse (A Memoir)

By Cassie Alexander (416 pp ebook)

I almost forgot this one -- I finished it on the plane while traveling. This a memoir by a nurse during the Covid pandemic. I think it starts in February 2020 and things were already terrible by the end of March which is harrowing to read now when you know how long this thing has dragged out. What I loved was all the deep knowledge about what sort of complications the medical industry and nurses were dealing with. To someone who knows nothing, it seems like they just need to add more beds but then you see how complicated it is to find experienced RNs. She also writes about her struggle with self-care and mental health issues.

17. Euphoria

By Lily King (257 pp)

I got a booster on Friday so I wasn't moving too quickly yesterday. I had already read a couple chapters of this book but had the opportunity to finish it in one long reading session. It is phenomenal. It's fiction but inspired by Margaret Mead about anthropologists in the field in New Guinea in the 1930s. Such great writing, great characters, the setting so immersive. Highly recommend.

16. Superfan

By Sarina Bowen (314 pp)(ebook) I'm in a little bit of a reading slump and having a hard time concentrating on things so I picked this one up. Another hockey one with a pop star. Fun easy read.

DNF

I quit on a book when I was over 100 pages in. I haven't done that in a long time. When I started the book I loved it. It's speculative and not conventionally sci-fi but not conventionally fantasy either - with rich world-building and interesting characters. Except as I read along it seemed like more and more it was characters talking about even deeper and deeper aspects of this rich world building: society groups, politics, customs, and history. The cognitive load became too much at the moment when most of my reading is in short bits on the bus or right before I go to sleep. Perhaps I will revisit someday.

15. Paladin's Grace

By T. Kingfisher (366 pp / ebook) I have so many ebooks and I often have no idea where they came from. Did a friend recommend? Did I see a review? Was it part of a free book giveaway? I have no idea where this came from. I was expecting a fantasy and there were fantasy book things happened but also it was a super cute romance. I loved this book. I put a list of all this author's books in my phone so I can get more. This is like the Ted Lasso of fantasy romance. It's about a perfumer with a murky past, a paladin with a dramatic past, some creepy murders, and an assassination attempt. It's also funny.

14. Dept. of Speculation

By Jenny Offill (177 pp) This book is a gem! I loved the writing -- the whole book is filled with tidbits that you want to save to read again later. It's a short book but I resisted the urge to rush through it. It's the story of a relationship: love and pain. Really good.

13. Only the Good Indians

By Stephen Graham Jones (310 pp) Whew - what a ride! This is a horror novel set in Blackfeet Country and is intense and violent. I had mixed feelings at first -- it didn't seem like my kind of thing but by then end, which I finished on the bus, I was won over. It's about a group of Indigenous men who make a poor choice in youth that leads to a vengeful spirit tracking them down. Suspenseful and surprising.

12. Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure

By Courtney Milan (156 pp ebook) Novella romance between two older ladies who face a battle with Terrible Men. Quick and fun to read and nice to see characters you don't normally see in romance.

11. The Glass Hotel

By Emily St. John Mandel (307pp)(ebook) I loved this book. I am still thinking about it. Readers who come to it expecting another Station Eleven might be disappointed but I could hardly put it down. The story follows several characters at different moments in time all connected by a luxe hotel in the wilderness and a Ponzi scheme. Beautiful writing.

10. The Witch Elm

By Tana French (526 pp) (ebook) I was really looking forward to reading this. I love Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad mysteries. This one didn't quite work for me. I loved the setting and the characters and their relationships and even the set-up was good. But ultimately there were some weird side bits that never fit in and the last section went to implausible territory for me with an unsatisfying ending. Like all her books, it's set in Ireland and the main character is a 28 man who seems to have everything going for him until he doesn't.