Rockets' Dead Glare: 05/31/24

Rockets' Dead Glare by Lynn Cahoon and Susan Boyce (2018) is a short story in the Tourist Trap mystery series. It falls between Dressed to Kill (2015) and Killer Run.

It's nearly Independence Week and in the middle of the shops getting ready for the celebration, the chief of the volunteer fire department is handing out impossible to follow fix it orders for nearly everyone.

But before any of the store owners can take their complaints to the mayor / city council, the fire chief is dead. His body is found in his own home, during a fire. It looks like one of the other volunteers is responsible.

Now as this is between a short story and a novella length, the solution to the chief's death has to be a straightforward one. Even though the obvious solution is the correct one, it's still a compelling and sad read.

The next full length mystery is Murder on Wheels (2016)

Five stars

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The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll & The Broom Handle and Who Was in It: 05/30/24

The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll & The Broom Handle and Who Was in It by Carl Sandburg and Harriet Pincus (Illustrator) (1967) began life as a story or nonsense poem in Rootabaga Stories (1922). The year the poet died, artist Harriet Pincus illustrated the story, turning it into this oddball picture book.

The story is essentially a run down of all the types of guests who come to the wedding of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle. The two meet when he fixes the doll's missing eyes with prunes. The guests are primarily household items or toys. They remind me a bit of the numerous sentient societies that are part of Oz and Oz adjacent.

The illustrations are typical 1960s surreal. They're colorful pen and ink line drawings. They also bring to mind the illustrations of Maurice Sendak, who was a contemporary of Harriet Pincus.

Four stars

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Misfortune Cookie: 05/29/24

Misfortune Cookie by Vivien Chien (2023) is the ninth book in the Noodle Shop mystery series. Lana and Anna May are in California for a restaurant convention. They're staying with a beloved aunt and are shocked when her friend dies unexpectedly.

Conventions are a popular reason to get the protagonist out of their usual location. Often, though, there's a cooked up reason to include others from the ensemble cast. This book though uses the convention as an opportunity to mix things up by having Lana travel with her sister, someone she's often at odds with. The rest of the investigators are California characters, in particular the aunt and her associates.

The mystery itself, though, wasn't much of a puzzler. Again, maybe it's because I'm reading so many mysteries right now but I just saw how things were going to fit together. Even the basics of the murder were predictable. Deaths by falls are second only to poisoning at conventions among the mysteries I've read.

The tenth book in the series is Peking Duck and Cover with an expected release on July 23, 2024.

Four stars

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Plain Jane and the Mermaid: 05/28/24

Plain Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brosgol (2024) is a YA graphic novel that combines all the author's favorite underwater folktales in one story. Jane is facing homelessness now that her parents are dead because women aren't allowed to inherit property. Her only option for keeping the estate is to get married. The man she proposes to, though, ends up kidnapped by a mermaid!

Jane is given help from a local witch but she only has three days underwater before she drowns. Her only other advise is to go down.

Her journey into the depths of the sea is interspersed with her would-be fiancé's time with the mermaids. He has three captors and it's clear they plan to eat him to gain his youth. They remind me of the witches from Stardust by Neil Gaiman (1999).

I don't want to go into the details of this marvelous book too much. It has four plot threads and all of them tie up wonderfully. Observant readers will see where things are going and it's so satisfying when they do.

This graphic novel also happens to sit on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Although things are initiated by Jane's decision to go after Peter, it's ultimately about family traveling (33). Their destination is home as defined by the various members of this family (66). Their route, being the sea, is an offroad one (66).

Five stars

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Buried in a Book: 05/27/24

Buried in a Book by Lucy Arlington (2012) is the start of the Novel Idea mystery series. Lila Wilkins manages to land an internship at a literary agency after being laid off as a reporter. Her work takes her into nearby hippy town, Inspiration Valley. On her first day, the local homeless man ends up dead in the lobby and Lila is convinced one of her coworkers did it.

Along with a new job at less pay, Lila and her son are forced to sell their home and move in with Lila's eccentric mother. The vibe here is a similar relationship between Brooklyn and her hippy parents in the Bibliophile mystery series. The difference, though, is Lila is more flawed and despite her experience as a reporter, still has things to learn.

The mystery itself hinges on the murder of a monster — one of those geniuses who went too far but continue to create art. Unlike most real life monsters, this one actually had to face the consequences of his actions and has seen his lively hood destroyed. Yet, he has remained obsessed with his one particular muse.

Figuring out the events of his past is a big part of solving the modern day mystery. By more recent mystery books, this one is short, coming in at only 212 pages. There's not a lot of time wasted on establishing place or introducing characters. Nor is there a lot of time spent on sleuthing, so the clues are very straightforward, being not much more complicated than a typical Nancy Drew or similar.

That said, I enjoyed the book. My only complaint is the pacing. It really is a mystery on fast forward. I'm hoping the remaining four books in the series will take a little more time on the sleuthing.

The second book is Every Trick in the Book (2013).

Four stars

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Goth Girl and the Sinister Symphony: 05/26/24

Goth Girl and the Sinister Symphony by Chris Riddell (2017) is the conclusion of the Goth Girl series and the point where I decide to take a break from this author's works. Ada is home from school and her father is planning yet another event with numerous famous people stopping by to participate.

The problem with the Goth Girl books has been how self indulgent they are. Where the Ottoline books were avant garde and the story's surrealism was there to support his extremely detailed drawings. One can spend hours just lost in the illustrations.

Here, though, the goal seems to be to build a series of stories around puns and then make the illustrations to show just how clever he feels he's been. To exacerbate things, he keeps the punny characters/places/ situations from the previous books and re-introduces them all in each of the following books. Thus each book has less originality than the previous.

Most of the Goth Girl puns are one based on specific people: historic, literary, or in this volume's case, pop culture celebrity. Most of these references are to things adults of a certain age will certainly know (the author's age, my age) and probably aren't on the radar of a child reading these books.

But the thing that absolutely did me in an insta-earned a one star, is the inclusion of a character based on Donald Trump. He's not funny. He's not someone I want to see in a book. I certainly don't want to see his already grotesque form further distorted in the name of humor. I don't want him as one of the important new guests for this volume. No thank you.

One star

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Sieve and Let Die: 05/25/24

Sieve and Let Die by Victoria Hamilton and Emily Woo Zeller (2023) is the eleventh book in the Vintage Kitchen mystery series. Val, the local pharmacist, is accused of stalking and murdering Mandy, a woman who ran a local real estate developer.

At one point Mandy and Val had been friends. Everyone remembers how together Mandy had been. Recently, though, she had been harried, scatter brained, and disheveled. Rumor has it that Val messed with her medications. But Val never filled any of her meds.

This particular mystery wasn't hard to solve. I think it comes down to having read a lot of them over my lifetime. From the very get-go I knew who had done it and how. The only question I had, was if there was also some mistaken identity shenanigans going on too.

My one star off isn't for how easy the case was to solve. Instead it's for how revenge driven Jaymie gets near the end of the novel after her sister and step-daughter are run off the road. Jaymie's kith and kin have had other brushes with danger related to murders she's investigated but she's usually more level headed. Having her go full vigilante with the support of both Val and the police is out of character for all characters involved!

Four stars

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Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940-1946: 05/24/24

Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940-1946 by Gary Giddins (2018) is the follow up to Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams: The Early Years: 1903-1940 (2000). This second book took eighteen years and only covers six years — a sixth of the time covered in the first. That right there should be a red flag.

The war years (from an United States' perspective) plus two extra for a denouement cover Bing's transition from contract radio host to movie star. But the book's stubborn insistence on being as chronological as possible means there are numerous times that the already long paragraphs (often taken up an entire page in a tiny typeface) will completely pivot from idea to another.

It would make more sense and be a more enjoyable (as well as quicker) read if the biography were split into topics. The topics covered are:

1. Kraft Music Hall and their outlandish idea of a 13 year contract
2. The Road movies with Bob Hope
3. Where the Turf Meets the Surf (Del Mar)
4. Family life
5. USO
6. Decca
7. South America
8. Composers Bing worked with

Alas the author still hasn't covered the bit I'm most interested in. That doesn't come until 1956.

Three stars

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A Case of Cat and Mouse: 05/23/24

A Case of Cat and Mouse by Sofie Kelly and Casandra Campbell (Narrator) (2020) is the twelfth book in the Magical Cats mystery series. A reality TV show is filming a cooking competition. Kathleen Paulson is providing research support to the show runner.

Unfortunately for Kathleen she has the bad luck of finding the show's host dead in the practice kitchen. With a limited number of people still participating in the show, it should be easy to figure out. Unfortunately two of Kathleen's friends are the prime suspects.

Yet another cooking competition initially made me cringe. Thankfully the competition is secondary to the mystery. Kathleen as a researcher isn't directly involved, meaning we don't have to sit through round after round of cooking. In fact, the competition is mostly not shown, merely discussed as needed.

Ultimately this mystery ended up being a fun puzzle to solve. I figured it out well before Kathleen did. I am in a spate of listening to a ton of audiobook mysteries while I work on the Sun Gallery archive. I just don't have as much free time to read print / ebooks right now. That means I'm seeing patterns and tropes in mysteries.

Five stars

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What We Buried: 05/22/24

What We Buried by Robert Rotenberg (2024) is the seventh book in the Greene and Kennicott mystery series. I didn't realize this until after I started the book, despite having read the first three.

This volume contains an afterword where the author explains the research he did for the WWII parts. The WWII piece involves Gubbio, Italy and the massacre of forty people, one for each Nazi killed by the resistance. It's a raw and compelling tale that gives this volume a wonderful Alan Furst vibe.

But it's not just about Daniel Kennicott investigating the town that his brother was to have traveled to before he was shot and killed in Toronto. Instead it's three cold cases and a present day case that are conveniently interconnected.

Look, I like a tight story. It's especially good when dealing with clues in a mystery that's meant to be solved by the reader. This, though, is just too much. Plus it relies on Nazis and Neo Nazis who somehow have enough intel to track Kennicott's entire family but not enough common sense to figure out which branch had the actual connections to them.

Three stars

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The Emerald City of Oz: 05/21/24

The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum and John R. Neill (1910) is the sixth book in the Oz series and was meant to be the end of the series. That didn't happen as we'll see in next month's review of The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913).

When I last wrote about The Emerald City of Oz, I focused on the road trip aspect of it, where Dorothy, her newly emigrated aunt and uncle, Bill, the Wizard, and the Shaggy Man take a tour of the southern country of Oz in an open buggy pulled by the Saw Horse. While reading each book in sequence separately only by a month, I'm seeing other things. This time I'll focus on the writing structure.

Baum, looking for a way to end the series in a way that would be logical to his young readers, decided to show that his reporting on the events of Oz were part of the reason that Oz was suddenly under threat of invasion by the Nomes and their allies. While we have the oddball tour of Quadling Country, the Nomes are planning to invade Oz via a tunnel dug from Ev to the Emerald City.

Although Baum closes the book citing the need for secrecy to protect Oz, the intelligence the Nomes have on Oz is accurate only to a point. One of the "facts" the Nome advisor (and later king) cites is that Glinda is the witch in charge of the north of Oz. The remainder of the book is notably set in the south with peoples directly affected by Glinda (for better or worse). I have to wonder if this slip up in intel is what ultimately lead to Glinda being the Good Witch of the North in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

The Nome King's decision to invade Oz stems directly from Ozma's first outing as a ruler when she and her entourage crossed the Deadly Desert into Ev. If we take Baum's assertion that Ozma and Dorothy are about the same age and that real time seems to be passing in the books as in between publishing dates, then Ozma is about thirteen or fourteen when she travels to Ev.

It's no wonder that she overstepped her bounds and reacted by stripping Roquat's power by taking his magic belt given her age and her inexperience. Her introducing to leadership was at the side of General Jinjur during the brief Ozian civil war outlined in The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), at the ripe age of ten or so. Now she's about sixteen or seventeen, not an adult by modern standards, but definitely nearly so. She's mature enough to see the consequences of her actions and to begin to have an appreciation for the power she wields figuratively and literally.

Yet the solution to the invasion isn't to stop it before it can succeed, despite having the magical power to do so. Instead, she choses to strip all the invaders of their memories. It's only after she does that and can't undo it that she realizes it's probably best not to let folks into Oz.

The remaining Baum novels will be entirely within the fairylands of Oz and its neighbors. There will be no more visitors to Oz from the United States until Ruth Plumly Thompson novels.

Five stars

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Ya Boy Kongming!, Volume 3: 05/20/24

Ya Boy Kongming! Volume 3 by Ryō Ogawa (2021) deals with the planning and recruitment process for the upcoming Summer Sonia music festival.

For Eiko to participate she needs 100,000 likes on a single music video. To do that, she'll need extra talent and to up her singing game.

For the talent side of things, Kongming rap battles with KABEtaijin, a renowned rapper who has left the public eye due to stress. Through ancient poetry, he manages to rekindle the artist's inner fire.

Meanwhile Eiko needs to find her inner muse. She needs to know why she's singing. She needs to learn how to harness that inner muse and project it into her music for the world to hear. If she can do that, then she can record the single that will be her Summer Sonia entry video.

Finally, in the backdrop of Eiko practicing her craft, we learn more about Azalea, the idol group that poses the biggest threat to Eiko. These insights come through singing and busking, as both flashbacks and conversations.

I preferred the Eiko centered scenes. The rap battle in print takes longer than it needs. Maybe in the original Japanese it reads better. The meter gets strained a few too many times for my taste in translation.

Four stars

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A High Tide Murder: 05/17/24

A High Tide Murder by Emily George and Chelsea Stephens (Narrator) (2024) is the second book in the Cannabis Café mystery series. Chloe's new café is doing well and she's having trouble keeping up with demand during the Azalea Bay Pro Challenger Surf Competition.

Just as she's starting to set her mind on hiring help she's thrust once again into a murder investigation. This time it's to help her friend Ethan, whose best friend is dead by an apparent suicide. He though believes it was murder and Chloe agrees.

Where the first book was more focused on the steps needed to open a cannabis café in California, this one is more focused on the mystery. Aaron had his close friends and his enemies. He, though, wasn't one of those despicable people that are so often the murder victims in cozies. Instead, he was flawed but making amends.

Figuring out the murderer's identity before Chloe is possible. There are enough details and clues left for the attentive reader. This particular mystery had a similar feel to Bread Over Troubled Water by Winnie Archer (2023).

Five stars

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Weight of Blood: 05/16/24

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson (2022) is a modern day retelling of Stephen King's Carrie (1974). Maddy Washington is a light skinned biracial teenager in a small North Carolina town that still has two proms decades after desegregation.

Told in a mixture of first hand accounts and more traditional narrative, Maddy Washington's life and horrific act is revealed, layer by layer. From the very first pages the reader is told that "Maddy did it." Further more, the full extent of what happened is laid bare at the beginning.

What makes this book such a compelling page turner is the way Jackson peels back each layer to show the over powered ingénue who is now remembered as the monster who destroyed a town and nearly every one in it.

There is so much nuance and pathos in this telling that is missing from the original. The writing is raw and emotional because it's now built on a foundation of systematic white supremacism to explain the actions of Maddy's tormenters and the adults who failed her.

And then just as things are wrapping up and one thinks they understand Maddy and what has happened to her and the town, Jackson works in one last twist. One last detail to remove Maddy's power from the usual explanation in this sort of story. That one last change is the final twist of the knife. It turns the last monstrous character into an almost sympathetic one. At least it makes his actions understandable beyond just "because racism."

Since it's been almost forty years since I read the novel that inspired The Weight of Blood, I plan to re-read it so I can do a deeper dive into both books.

Five stars

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Bake Sale Murder: 05/15/24

Bake Sale Murder by Leslie Meier and Karen White (Narrator) (2006) is the 13th book in the Lucy Stone mystery series. A small set of tract homes have been built near the Stone house and with them comes a younger generation of women to help with various fundraisers, if the two generations can get along.

On the day of the big bake sale one of the morning volunteers doesn't show. Lucy is sent to check on her and of course, finds her dead. She's been stabbed violently in her own kitchen. Everyone suspects the husband. Soon he's arrested and the family's teenage boys are left to fend for themselves.

Meanwhile there are anonymous rumors of hazing at the local high school. Lucy ends up torn between investing the murder of her neighbor and tracking down anyone who can substantiate the hazing allegations. Her own daughter, Sarah, seems caught up in it as a cheerleader. But she doesn't want to talk any more than anyone else does.

Although this book is seventeen years old it holds up better than some of the others near it in the series. It's raw, emotional, and focused enough on the human drama to avoid being dated.

The next book in the series is St. Patrick's Day Murder (2008).

Five stars

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House of El, Book Two: The Enemy Delusion: 05/13/23

House of El, Book Two: The Enemy Delusion by Claudia Gray and Eric Zawadzki (Illustrator) (2022) continues the tale of two teenagers in the end of days of Krypton.

Sara, genetically modified by the Els is starting to see patterns in the ways things are playing out that most people aren't or can't. Zahn, meanwhile, has found a data cube that the two believe contains the truth of the planet's situation. Together they will manage to unlock its secrets.

This series is so stressful to read. It's like those disaster TV movies that were so popular in the 1970s. As a reader I know the ultimate outcome before either of the main characters. I know some people enjoy seeing how things go from bad to worse but not me.

The other troubling bit of this series is the further exploration of genetic engineering to build up the caste system of Krypton. Given Superman's origins (the comic, not the character) I find this take on Krypton weird. Maybe it's been done before but I wouldn't know as I typically avoid Krypton set stories in the comics.

The third book is The Treacherous Hope (2023).

Four stars

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Club Microbe: 05/11/24

Club Microbe by Elise Gravel (2024), also published as Le Fan Club Microbe in French is a nonfiction picture book about the smallest living things.

Elise Gravel uses her art to make microorganisms more accessible to readers. She spends most of her time talking about the helpful ones to help lessen the on-going push to cleanse the world of all "germs" despite the fact that they are part of digestion, food making, and even snowflake formation.

The book ends on a brief description and drawings of the dangerous germs in life.

Five stars

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For Batter or Worse: 05/10/24

For Batter or Worse Jenn McKinlay and Susan Boyce (Narrator) (2021) is the thirteenth book in the Cupcake Bakery mystery series. Mel and Joe are days away from getting married. Oz as the pastry chef at a local resort, is in charge of the deserts for their reception. Angie's coming up on her due date too.

If a wedding and a first baby aren't enough, the Chef de Cuisine at the resort is murdered, his body discovered by Oz in Oz's kitchen. Anyone who knows Oz, knows he didn't do it. But the rumor mill at the resort is a busy one and there's even a rumor that Oz and the resort owner's wife are having an affair!

For the most part, I enjoyed this book. The brothers' antics are toned down. Angie, so close to her delivery, isn't as temperamental as she usually is. The bad blood between rival bakeries has calmed too. All that's basically left is the toxicity of Oz's new job. Much of that was fueled first by the dead chef. The on-going bad vibes are clearly coming from someone. Figuring out who is a big step towards figuring out who the murderer is.

The clues are all there for the observant reader. Even if you do figure out the who before Mel does, it's a satisfying read.

The fourteenth book is Strawberried Alive (2022).

Four stars

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A Roost and Arrest: 05/07/24

A Roost and Arrest by Hillary Avis and Kitty Hendrix (Narrator) (2020) is the third book in the Clucks and Clues mystery series. Leona's egg business is doing well and she's in the mood to celebrate. She spends Independence Day with friends but after the fireworks, her friend is under arrest for the murder of that year's beauty queen. With her friend in custody, it's up to Leona and the other women to cafe for the accused's young boys, and solve the murder, of course.

Question number one is who would want to kill a young woman? Is her death related to the beauty contest. If so, was it a rivalry taken too far? Did the accused actually do it because she couldn't get the woman to follow the comportment rules? Or something else?

Question number two is a matter of timelines. Who was where when? Who had access to the woman? Who knew her? Who talked to her?

But to keep a fairly straightforward mystery more complicated, there are the two young boys: Owen and Dillion. I couldn't tell if they were twins or just close in age. That's the downside of listening to an audiobook while doing other things. Regardless, they are young and high energy. Leona with experience from raising her own children is better equipped for handling them, although at times I though they were more chaotic than any children I've known at their ages.

But if you pay attention to all the details and are good at mentally rearranging things, the solution is straightforward. Despite that, it's an entertaining book. I especially liked the secondary mystery of the missing chicken eggs and Leona's solution to the problem.

The fourth book is Born in a Barn (2020).

Five stars

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Kindling: 05/06/24

Kindling by Traci Chee (2024) is a YA fantasy retelling of The Seven Samurai (1954) / The Magnificent Seven (1960). It's set in a postwar era where the magic infused child soldiers are now free, as long as they don't use the magic they were drafted to use.

This book is either a hit or miss depending on your reading style. The author chose to include seven points of view, some of whom only get as few as a single chapter. She also opted to use second person present tense for the entire book. That mean's you get to be seven different different people at the author's whim.

I personally didn't find this retelling of The Seven Samurai to be compelling enough a story to stick with all seven points of view. I ended up sticking to the couple characters I found to be the most interesting and only skimmed the others if I felt something was missing.

Three stars

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Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma: 05/05/24

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer (2023) is an expansion of the essay "What do we do with the art of monstrous men?" (2017). In it the author explores death of the artist and things that are allowed in the name of "genius."

The author and I are part of the same generation of film theorists. I suspect she's slightly older than I am. She began her career as a movie reviewer at the Seattle Weekly. I find her writing a little depressing in how committed she is to the auteur theory and the genius of white men over any other kind of artist.

What the artists (filmmakers, writers, painters) covered in this book have in common is that they are self indulgent. They are also loud and proud of their work without feeling the need to justify their self proclaimed artistry. And because they have had success they are allowed to go on unchecked, uncriticized, and taken at their word.

Although Dederer talks about these artists' monstrous acts, their crimes or hateful writing outside of their "art" she never tries to see how their art stands up against contemporaneous pieces. Instead she waffles between gushing about their genius and lamenting their monstrousness.

I think there needs to be a companion book, one that offers up comparative artists that aren't also monsters. If you like Picasso's pieces, you might also like... If you like Polanski's horror, you might also like... And so forth.

Although this book is nonfiction, it sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. The author serves as a scarecrow (protector/critic) as she discusses the minotaurs (monsters) of the art world. Her destination is uhoria, the past primarily, as she looks at historic works by historic monsters (one exception being modern day writer, J.K. Rowling). Her route there is the labyrinth, as she spirals in on her thesis.

Four stars

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The Witless Protection Program: 05/04/24

The Witless Protection Program by Maria DiRico and Devon Sorvari (Narrator) (2024) is the fifth book in the Catering Hall mystery series. Mia Carina is at a wedding themed convention, trying to drum up customers for Belle View when she spots her ex (and presumed dead) husband.

Then after Shane finally gets up the nerve to propose, Mia's ex seeks her out to say he wants to get back together. Mind you, by now she has a very good idea of how unfaithful he was during their marriage. She wants nothing to do with him except a divorce.

Although Mia knows people who will happily off her ex for her, she insists they don't. And they agree, and yet, he ends up dead near Mia's home and the home she'll be moving into with Shane.

The side plot to the murder is Mia and Shane's soon to be home. It belonged to a comic book author, who seems a bit like Stan Lee. His home while a mess is filled with memorabilia and artwork from his career. His fan club want to prevent Mia from altering the house or selling any of the man's things.

Here's the thing. Once they were part of the plot I knew how things were going to play out. Even before the murder, I knew. It comes from first hand knowledge of how contentious small organizations can get. Mind you, I have no direct experience with murder being associated with one, but this is a murder mystery book.

My one star off is for how much time is devoted at the end to Mia and Shane's wedding. I honestly would prefer if the weddings in this cases would come before the murder is solved. But weddings so often used as the HEA to the cozy mystery, or even to the cozy mystery series. I believe that's the case here. This feels like an ending to Mia's story.

Four stars

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April 2024 Sources: 05/02/24

Sun Gallery and painting take up the majority of my time. I'm reading primarily at night.

In March I read 17 TBR books, down from the previous month's 18 TBR. One book was published in April. Four books were for research. None were from the library. My ROOB score for April was -4.14, up from March's -4.64. It was my second best April.

I predicted a -4.4 and was too low. For May, I'm going with -4.0.

My average for April improved from -2.76 to -2.85.

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April 2024 Summary: 05/01/24

Between my art, Kay's theater schedule, and working twenty hours a week or so at the gallery, I'm still not reading at the level I was a decade ago.

I read fewer books in April, 21, down from 22. Of my read books, 14 were diverse and three were queer. I reviewed 21 books, the same as the previous month. On the reviews front, 14 were diverse and six were queer.

I have 1 book left to review of the books I read in 2023 and 16 books of the 82 read in 2024.

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