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June 2024


Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish

Reading Challenges

Canadian Book Challenge: 2024-2025

Beat the Backlist 2024

Ozathon: 12/2023-01/2025

Artwork
Chicken Prints
Paintings and Postcards


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Mission One: The Vice Principal Problem: 06/30/24

Mission One: The Vice Principal Problem

Mission One: The Vice Principal Problem by Kekla Magoon, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Molly Murakami (Illustrator) (2024) is the start of the Blue Stars graphic novel series. Cousins Riley Halfmoon and Maya Dawn move to Urbanopolis and after years apart are now expected to share a room.

Riley misses her Muscogee cousins but at least her parents are nearby. Maya's parents are oversees, serving in the military and it's her first time not being able to move with them. She's used to living out of a duffle bag but doesn't know how to handle her extrovert cousin.

Fortunately both have something else to focus on. The vice principal at their school seems to be up to things. He makes promises but seems much too devoted to detention. The cousins decide to work together to save the clubs they love.

Molly Murakami's illustrations bring these characters to life. She's great at making them individuals but still obviously related. The world is colorful but not cluttered. There's great attention to detail and everything is eye catching.

Five stars

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Boys Dance!: 06/28/24

Boys Dance!

Boys Dance! by John Robert Allman and Luciano Lozano (Illustrator) (2020) is part of the American Ballet Theatre series of children's books. This one is about a class of young boys who are taking ballet.

The book goes through the boys' class, from working at the barre to stretch and practice their positions. Then we see them practicing various dance moves.

After we've seen what they can do as young ballet dancers we get to see each boy compared to an adult ballet dancer. The book also includes short biographies for all the adults referenced.

The final sections show how ballet informs other aspects of dance and activities outside of dance. Here things like tap dance, hip hop, various sports, and so forth. In this section I was excited to see Gene Kelly included especially since one of the boys is shown dancing in away reminiscent of how Kelly used his body.

The children in the class as well as the adults referenced throughout the picture book are diverse. It's cool to see a bunch of different types of people dancing, albeit all boys.

Five stars

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The Stranger in the Library: 06/26/24

The Stranger in the Library

The Stranger in the Library by Eva Gates and Elise Arsenault (Narrator) (2024) is the eleventh book in the Lighthouse Library mystery series. Lucy has been busy putting together an art show celebrating obvious copies and fan pieces of famous artwork to coincide with a traveling Impressionist show that has a stop in Nags Head.

After the reception for the library show things get weird. A painting, a known copy by the brother of a famous Nags Head Impressionist, goes missing. Then at the reception for the actual art show, a man is found dead. Are the two crimes related and how or why?

Of course they are. But not in an obvious way. The puzzle here is a little more complex than art theft / murder mysteries I've read. Despite that, this book has a similar vibe to another mystery I've read recently, Prologue to Murder by Lauren Elliott (2019). Both involve historic objects, a modern day murder, and a threat to the protagonist.

Five stars

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Murder on Wheels: 06/25/24

Rockets' Dead Glare

Murder on Wheels by Lynn Cahoon and Susan Boyce (Narrator) (2016) is the sixth book in the Tourist Trap mystery series. Jill Gardner lost the bid on a food truck but now the woman who bought it is dead.

In this volume it seems that Jill can't get a moment of rest. Her aunt is dating two men. Her boyfriend has gotten her roped into doing Geocaching. Her customers are now asking for gluten free options. And there's water rationing because of the California drought.

In between all those distractions, Jill needs to run her bookshop and do what she can to clear her friend's name. The main person of interest had been dating the dead woman's husband, not knowing he was married.

I like the characters in this series. I kept reading mostly for the secondary plots. The mystery I solved before the murder had even happened. Solving it was a mixture of having read similar plots and real life informing my puzzle solving.

The seventh book is Tea Cups and Carnage (2016).

Five stars

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Gótico: 06/23/24

Gótico

Gótico by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Alexander Páez García (Translator) (2021) is the Spanish translation of Mexican Gothic. I re-read it in translation, curious to see how the translation worked for or against the story.

First and foremost I love how the title is just Gótico. Unfortunately the title with the absence of Mexicano gives certain expectations of a Mexican flavored Spanish translation. Latin American Spanish is very different from the Spanish dialects used in Spain.

The Spanish language translation, though, is done by a Spanish translator. It's a perfectly adequate rendition of the original English text but the story comes off somewhat bland, somewhat overly formal, even for a novel about a woman going to an English mansion in the middle of an old silver mining town in rural Mexico.

The book could have been so much better if Mexican Spanish were used especially in Noemi's dialog and descriptions of things if the third person POV is to be influenced from her perception of things.

At the introduction of the Doyle family, Noemi is told that the family doesn't speak a word of Spanish, yet their now translated dialog is rendered in as precise and grammatically correct language as Noemi's. It would have been hilarious if the stuffy English family, especially the oldest ones, had their dialog either left in the original English or translated into the poor attempt at Spanish some wealthy tourists use. Better yet, I'd give the poor locals better Spanish than the Doyles but heavily influenced by the local indigenous words (as Mexican Spanish is actually spoken). Noemi's should have the more formal but Aztec influenced Spanish of Mexico City. These choices would have made Gótico authentically Mexican in a way that this translation isn't.

As far as the rating goes, I'm leaving the original five stars as I don't want to penalize the author of a translation she probably didn't have much or any control over.

Five stars

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Stowed Away: 06/22/24

Stowed Away

Stowed Away by Barbara Ross and Dara Rosenberg (Narrator) (2017) is the sixth book in the Maine Clambake mystery series. A full year has passed since Jill Snowden returned home to help run the family business. This year looks to be a promising one but the woman invited to assess the family home for its historic value finds herself accused of murdering a wealthy recluse who lives aboard a former Canadian naval ship converted into a luxury yacht.

Wyatt Jayne, the architect accused of murder has a painful past with Jill, making her hesitant to help in solving the murder. But it's still an interesting puzzle involving a staged scene and a missing ring that apparently only Jill saw.

The set up for this mystery, though set aboard ship, is similar to The Paper Caper by Kate Carlisle (2022). But the approach here is subtler, so much so that I missed the twist.

What keeps me coming back to this series is the author's gentle and nuanced approach to her characters. Rather that going for the most sensational or melodramatic scenarios, she sets things up with enough breathing room for her characters to take stock of the situation. Instead of jumping to the worst conclusion and spending the majority of the book fuming, characters will have those painful conversations before things get out of hand.

The seventh book is Steamed Open (2018).

Five stars

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We All Play: 06/21/24

We All Play

We All Play by Julie Flett (2021) is a picture book about play — how children play and how animals do too. The book is inspired by the author's father taught her about humanity's relationship to animals. The book also includes Cree phrases and a brief list of animal names in Cree.

The animals featured are ones from North America. Each pair of pages show either animals doing something: rabbits hiding and hopping. Or children doing something similar with the phrase: We play too! (kimêtawânaw mîna).

The illustrations have a retro feel to them: something like Eric Carle and Jon Klassen. The colors are soft earth tones. It's a restful pallet doesn't compete with the playful nature of the animals and children.

Five stars

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Murder by the Seashore: 06/20/24

Murder by the Seashore

Murder by the Seashore by Samara Yew and Catherine Ho (Narrator) (2023) is the start of the California Bookshop mystery series set in Oceanside. Scarlett Gardner is running a bookshop she and her ex-fiancé started before he left for the promise of a startup. After selling a book to a mysterious woman, Scarlett finds the woman dead under the Oceanside pier. To make things even more mysterious, Scarlett is somehow the sole beneficiary of the woman's large estate.

As the series is set in a town I know from my childhood, albeit only peripherally, I was extra curious to see how the place is portrayed. As Scarlett mentions throughout her first stint as an amateur sleuth, Oceanside only recently became a tourist destination. Certainly when I was still living in San Diego (1970s-1991), Oceanside was primarily the town that folks living/working at Camp Pendelton went when off base. Camp Pendelton pretty much cut the town off from other seaside locals to the south or to the north.

An odd coincidence for my timing of reading this mystery is that it came in the same week that a fire at the end of the pier closed the structure. I'm curious to see if a subsequent book in the series will mention the fire.

Finally, because Oceanside is part of my personal history, I picked up on throw away remarks in the dialog. One in particular was Scarlett quipping that the woman's murder was probably the first one for the seaside town. I decided to look up the stats. The city averages seven homicides a year (out of a population of approximately 170,000).

All that aside, how is the book? It's fun. It's written confidently by someone comfortable with the voice and tone of a modern cozy mystery. Scarlett is a believable lead character from a loving family and a small but loyal set of friends.

Scarlett extra interesting because she and her sister are both adopted. While it's not a secret and both are curious about their own birth parents, they are still first and foremost sisters. When Scarlett needs advice, she calls either her sister or her mother without any of the melodrama sometimes worked into stories that involve adoption.

Five stars

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Detective Sweet Pea: The Case of the Golden Bone: 06/18/24

Detective Sweet Pea: The Case of the Golden Bone

Detective Sweet Pea: The Case of the Golden Bone by Sara Varon (2024) is the start of a new graphic novel mystery series. The golden bone, a magical chew toy has gone missing from the museum. Sweet Pea gets pulled in to solve the mystery because she's got the best nose of all the dogs.

As a mystery it has a good set up of the characters and setting. The clues are laid out in a way that observant readers will be able to solve the mystery. It has a similar skill level in the clues as a Nancy Drew mystery but with Sara Varon's cozy art.

The dogs in the book are inspired by the author's own dogs. She includes photos and biographies in the afterword. It's fun to compare and contrast the real with the fictional.

Five stars

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Patchwork Girl of Oz: 06/17/24

Patchwork Girl of Oz

The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum and John R. Neill (1913) is the seventh book in the original Oz series. It's the second book in the series to be set entirely in Oz and to have a male protagonist and cohorts brought to life by magical powder.

Ojo and his uncle, Nunkie, live in surprising poverty (given Oz's socialistic propaganda). Having run out of food, the two leave their home and head to their nearest neighbor, Dr. Pipt, the self proclaimed Crooked Wizard. He's crooked both for being old and for being a lawbreaker.

When Dr. Pipt's last use of the Powder of Life goes awry, leaving his wife and Ojo's uncle petrified, Ojo and the titular, newly created Patchwork Girl, named Scraps Patches, set out for the second Yellow Brick road and the Emerald City.

This novel reads like a weird mashup between the first two Oz books: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904). Ojo has to go to the Emerald City but he also has a quest to find ingredients to save his uncle.

Ojo, though, doesn't do his quest only with the plucky friends he's made along the way. He must bring along some of the classic characters: Dorothy, Toto, and the Scarecrow. They serve to legitimize this book as being part of the Oz series to the once rabid fans who had forced Baum to revise his series despite closing the borders at the end of the last book.

Like the last book, the back half of this novel gets hung up on the exotic aspects of Oz as once again Quadling Country. This time the peoples aren't ones created from Glinda's magic. These meetings act as filler more than actual plot progression.

The ultimate goal in Glinda's area is a gill of water that has never seen the light of day. The solution to this problem dates the book even more than the inclusion of a sentient phonograph! The people who are in charge of mine and help Ojo find the water are mining radium. Not only mining it, but drinking it, and using it as a health tonic. Yikes!

The eighth book is Tik-Tok of Oz (1914).

Four stars

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A Dash of Death: 06/16/24

A Dash of Death

A Dash of Death by Michelle Hillen Klump and Lisa Negron (Narrator) (2022) is the start of the Cocktails and Catering mystery series. Samantha Warren was a reporter but now she's living the gig life trying to find enough articles to write to keep afloat. She has a side hustle with making her own line of flavored bitters. Unfortunately a local developer dies after drinking one of her cocktails and now she's being sued for his wrongful death. Was it a horrible accident or a murder she's being framed for?

Of course it was murder. It's a cozy mystery. Or at least it's trying to be. There's no pet yet and as of book one, Samantha isn't settled into her new life. She's just trying it out while still trying to be a reporter.

The mystery comes down to development and gentrification. It comes down to guilty feelings over previous acts of racial based redevelopment. But it takes Samantha (and the book along with her) a long time to get down the correct path of clue hunting to get to the meet of the mystery.

As Samantha flails her way towards a solution we're bogged down with her recent break up and her ex-fiancé trying to get back into her life. She also goes through numerous rounds of doubting herself especially after one of her exposé's might have contributed to a death. Much of this expository stuff bogs down the pacing, resulting in me taking one star off. The other star off is for the narration. I normally don't bring the narrators into the equation but this particular performance grated. She sounded like she was reading a laundry list more than she was breathing life into Klump's characters.

The second book is Murder Served Neat (2023).

Three stars

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The Baker and the Bard: 06/15/24

The Baker and the Bard

The Baker and the Bard by Fern Haught (2024) is a fantasy graphic novel about a bard who helps their baker friend track down some glowing mushrooms for an important order. Along the way they solve the mystery of monsters who have been eating a neighboring village's crops.

The plot is a good blend of fantasy quest and cozy mystery. The two main characters have their callings in life but are willing to help others when they can. There are clues to follow and a solution that benefits everyone. I'll admit that I came to a different solution to the identity of the entity eating the crops.

The book has a similar cozy feel as the Tea Dragon Society by Kay O'Neill. There's good diversity too in representation in character types, landscapes, etc. But the artwork is a little rough and inconsistent. I hope though to see more from this author/artist and watch them grow.

Four stars

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The Big Bath House: 06/14/24

The Big Bath House

The Big Bath House by Kyo Maclear and Gracey Zhang (Illustrator) (2021) is a picture book about visiting family in Japan. It's set around a trip to the local onsen.

Like Kindling by Traci Chee (2024), the entire book is done in second person. This time, though, it's a singular point of view: you the reader standing in for the girl visiting her grandmother and aunts. And it's set in future tense: When you get there, you'll do this.

The text never mentions nudity but Gracey Zhang's illustrations present the obvious nudity (because of a communal bathhouse) as mater of fact. It's there and a wide range of feminine bodies and ages are presented. It's not sexualized. It's not sensationalized. It's just there in the background of a memory laced with anticipation for the next time visiting family.

Five stars

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Murder in Volume: 06/13/24

Murder in Volume

Murder in Volume by D.R. Meredith and Mara Lynne Thomas (Narrator) (2000) is the start of Megan Clark mystery series. Megan Clark, with a PhD in forensic anthropology and paleopathology, convinces her long time friend, Ryan, to join a mystery reading club, Murder by the Yard. A few weeks into the meetings one of their members is murdered right outside the bookshop where they meet.

I'm mostly interested now in starting more recent series if I'm going to start a new to me series. However, six years ago when I was trying to start the Cat in the Stacks mystery series, I accidentally checked out the third book in this series. Now that I'm current with the Miranda James series I thought it would be fun to try the D.R. Meredith series.

Murder in Volume is unusual compared to modern day mysteries because it has alternating points of view between Megan and Ryan. The only other contemporary one I can think of that does this is the Haunted Bookshop series by Alice Kimberly/Cleo Coyle, although more recent volumes have moved away from the alternating POV.

Megan is described (in Ryan's sections) as being Gen-X. However, she's clearly written by someone who isn't Gen-X. She's way too obsessed with how she's perceived and her word choice for describing the sexism she experiences as a woman is straight out of the Boomer lexicon. I feel that she was made younger than Ryan to appeal to younger readers. So many mysteries seem to star women in their mid to late twenties regardless of the author's age.

The actual puzzle of who the murderer was and why was easy. There's an eye witness account obfuscated somewhat by his extreme youth that still contains an accurate physical description of one of the suspects. Knowing later what that suspect does for a living makes the motive blatantly obvious. Despite all that, I did enjoy the book and the puzzle solving.

The second book is By Hook or By Crook (2001)

Five stars

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The Partner Plot: 06/12/24

The Partner Plot

The Partner Plot by Kristina Forest (2024) is about two exes meeting up in Vegas and entering into a fake marriage to further both their careers. Violet Greene is a fashion stylist. Xavier Wright is an English teacher and a basketball coach at the high school they both attended.

After a night of drinking after their chance meeting in Vegas, they wake up together with evidence of a fake marriage and the fact they'd had a drunken one night stand. They part ways amiably until Violet is corned into pretending to be married during an interview for a high end fashion magazine.

There are a bunch of other circumstances at play too. The one that struck me most because of it's coincidental nature is that Violet ends up breaking her ankle while dashing to work. She ends up laid up much like the main character in A Killer Romance by Maggie Blackburn (2024).

Violet and Xavier have good chemistry together. It's not a stretch of the imagination to see them getting their HEA. Nor is it a surprise to see Xavier realizing that the big job he was chasing after isn't the right choice for his personality. The short version: fun page tuner.

Five stars

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The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter, Volume 3: 06/11/24

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter, Volume 3

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter Volume 3 by Kazuki Irodori et al (2022) ultimately is the start of the journey to deal with the miasma. Kondou, though he has no resistance to magicules, is being forced to go along on the quest. Clearly someone wants him dead.

I wish the book was just the miasma quest. Unfortunately the first half of the book has Kondou being beat up and therefore needing lots and lots of extra treatments. I am at the point that I'd like to see some relational reasons for Kondou and Aresh getting together.

The miasma plot though makes up for the ridiculous situational stuff. Kondou as an outsider with lots of allergies spends his time en route to understand how the miasma works and possibly ways to control it that don't involve sacred magic.

Five stars

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Death in the Stacks: 06/10/24

Death in the Stacks

Death in the Stacks by Jenn McKinlay and Allyson Ryan (Narrator) (2017) is the eighth book in the Library Lover's mystery series. Lindsey and her library staff are focused on the upcoming annual Dinner in the Stacks fundraiser. Unfortunately this year they're plagued by the new library board president who is trying to wield more power than the position allots her.

At the end of the event, the new board president is dead and Paula is standing over her body with a knife in her hand. Although Paula passed her background check, the rumors started by the murdered woman make her the prime suspect. Lindsey and the rest of the library staff know Paula didn't do it and they agree to help clear her name.

By itself, this mystery would have been a fun puzzle to solve. I seem to be reading a lot of ones set around boards with corrupt members. So I'm getting to know the tropes and how to sort things out.

But this book is a crossover with the author's two other mystery series: Cupcake Bakery and Hat Shop. As I was listening to an audiobook, I was really hoping for a guest appearance by Susan Boyce for the Cupcake Bakery characters. The Hat Shop characters were new to me, but did inspire me to start listening to the series.

Five stars

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Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo: 06/09/24

Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo

Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo by William Joyce (1988) is a picture book with a Mark Teague feel. The Lazardo family love baseball and world travel. They always bring back something extraordinary. On their latest trip they bring back, Bob, a dinosaur.

William Joyce's illustrations have a kitschy retro feel. They're somewhere between Mark Teague and Syd Hoff. But they can only go so far.

The book is also about the one percent. It's about extreme privilege and all though the Larzardos are nice to Bob they do end up subjecting him to everyone else. I have to agree the mayor's wife who tries to get Bob removed from the town because he's a hazard.

And finally there's the quiet racism of white folks going to exotic (meaning not white) areas to bring back souvenirs.

Four stars

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Thirty-seven years of tracking my reading: 06/08/24

Thirty-seven years of tracking my reading

It's that time again, when I reflect on my decades long determination to track my reading. Since 1987 I've been tracking my reading. My tracking years run from June 9th to June 8th of the next year. Today ends my thirty-seventh year of tracking. To read more about the reasons, see 2019's post.

I am on my thirteenth page of my fourth handwritten volume. Last year I noted that I didn't have an accurate account of how many books I'd read because of misreading numbers at various points in my recording process. I spent this last year doggedly in putting all my read books into a spreadsheet I had started in 1995. I now have an accurate count for the first time in years.

As predicted three years ago, I have hit 10,000 things read. While they are mostly books there are some articles and short stories too. I now know that I reached 10,000 books on January 23, 2024 when I finished The Black Holes by Borja González (2018), a Spanish graphic novel.

My first book for year 37 was Death Knells and Wedding Bells by Eva Gates and Elise Arsenault (Narrator) (2023). My last book was Emily Windsnap and the Monster from the Deep Liz Kessler (2004) which I will review later this month or in early July.

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In Farm's Way: 06/07/24

In Farm's Way

In Farm's Way by Amanda Flower and Rachel Dulude (Narrator) (2023) is the third book in the Farm to Table mystery series. The annual ice fishing derby has rolled around again and Shiloh's father is competing. Wanting to support him, she goes to the event, only to find the body of a local brewer.

The immediate questions to the murder are: where did the man go into the ice? Who had the time and the strength to do it? What was the motive? And finally, how does the owl call figure into it?

This volume has a strong sense of place and time: icy winter. It also drops enough hints for you to know that things Shiloh mentions knowing will come into play. It also has a rather cinematic approach to its narrative with the opening scene paralleling the climax, an unusual approach for the typical modern cozy mystery.

Given how many places where typically thick winter ice places aren't seeing the freezes this year, I was a little surprised to see the frozen lake be such a major piece of this mystery. One of the side effects of Global Warming is the shifting of snow patterns. They are coming later and in some places, dumping more in those narrower windows (like California). But in more typically frozen places, the ice isn't forming (like Ottawa).

The fourth book in the series is Crime and Cherry Pits. It released on February 24, 2024.

Five stars

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A Killer Romance: 06/06/24

A Killer Romance

A Killer Romance by Maggie Blackburn and Christa Lewis (Narrator) (2024) is the third book in the Beach Reads mystery series. Summer Merriweather has a romance author coming for a Valentine's Day book signing. Before the event, Summer sprains her ankle and has to miss attending in person. The next morning she learns that her author is dead, apparently poisoned by one of Summer's friends.

With Summer confined to home because of her ankle, much of this volume has a Rear Window vibe to it. Summer relies on what she can learn from her friends and via internet research.

After a while, though, it seems that most of the mystery is devoted to Summer's recovery and pain management. The narrative points are punctuated by Summer taking her pain meds or waking up from a nap.

The final straw for me, though, is the extended ending that happens a year later. It's a wedding and a pregnancy all in one to hit all the HAE ending vibes. I'm here for the puzzle solving, not the romance.

I gather this book is the end of this mystery series. That's probably a good thing. It never managed to find it's stride. Although it has the elements of a cozy mystery it never managed to find the voice of a cozy.

Three stars

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My Sister Eileen: 06/05/24

My Sister Eileen

My Sister Eileen by Ruth McKenney (1938) is a collection of short story memoir pieces that have gone on to inspire two films, a play, a radio play, and a television series. I bring up all the adaptations because I came across the book after watching the 1955 film version.

If, like me, you're coming to the book via the film, you'll remember two headstrong women being duped into renting a basement apartment in a New York walk-up. They are constantly having to brace themselves as the subway rumbles underneath and are at one point accused of prostitution because everyone can look into their room from street level. The film ends with a ridiculously long gag involving the Brazilian Navy.

The apartment and the navy are in the book but they comprise the last two stories. The remainder of the book is made up of stories from Ruth and Eileen's childhood. There's the time they went to camp, the time Eileen failed at working in a busy restaurant, the time Ruth nearly drowned while teaching lifeguarding, and so forth.

The stories are cute and a glimpse into a time long passed. But they aren't the tale of how these two women made their way in New York. For that, you need the film. And frankly, I prefer the film.

Three stars

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Bread Over Troubled Water: 06/03/24

Bread Over Troubled Water

Bread Over Troubled Water by Winnie Archer and Emily Durante (Narrator) (2022) is the eighth book in the Bread Shop mystery series. Ivy Culpepper is busy planning her engagement party. That is until a regular at the bread shop ends up poisoned.

The man who died shares a lot in common with Mia's husband, meaning the book has some similarities with The Witless Protection Program by Maria DiRico (2024). But this man's intentions were completely financial and not at all sexual.

With the inclusion of a side plot involving fundraising for the high school sports teams, I am also reminded of Bake Sale Murder by Leslie Meier (2006).

Ivy, though, with her head and heart more focused on her upcoming nuptials misses some obvious clues. This was a mystery where I called it before the murder had even happened. At that point I didn't know who the victim would be, despite being able to spot the murderer at their introduction.

Regardless of the easy to sort out details, I enjoyed the book thoroughly. I like the setting, the diversity of characters, and the consistency to the location. Santa Sofia doesn't change much across books, meaning it feels like a fully realized, albeit fictional, location.

Five stars

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May 2024 Sources: 06/02/24

Previous month's book sources

Sun Gallery, painting, and the run up to my youngest's high school graduation are all keeping me busy. I'm reading at night and via audio only.

ROOB Score for the last three years

In May I read 19 TBR books, up from the previous month's 17 TBR. One book was published in May. Three books were for research. None were from the library. My ROOB score for May was -4.26, down from the previous month's -4.14. It was my best May.

ROOB score mapped year after year to compare trends

I predicted a -4.0 and was too high. For June, I'm going with -4.5.

ROOB monthly averages

My average for May improved from -2.83 to -2.93.

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Meet Me on Mercer Street: 06/01/24

Meet Me on Mercer Street

Meet Me on Mercer Street by Booki Vivat (2024) is a graphic novel about a young artist's observations of her neighborhood as it struggles against gentrification. Kacie lives with her parents above the family's laundromat. Her BFF's family runs the local grocery store. Then at the start of summer, her friend is gone and the store is replaced with a chain convenience store.

While Kacie is trying to understand what has happened to her friend and to the old grocery store, she's using her observation skills to learn where Mercer Street is headed. Her three main concerns are the new convenience store, the skater boy who now lives in her BFF's old apartment, and her parents' laundromat which is struggling now to pay bills.

This book has a similar vibe as the Vanderbeekers books by Marina Yan Glaser. Except, instead of the place feeling like New York City, it has a decidedly west coast vibe. The author currently lives in Oakland which explains the familiar landscape of fictional Mercer Street.

Five stars

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May 2024 Summary: 06/01/24

Reading report

May was the last full month of Kay's high school. Her schedule plus the gallery plus a last minute commission has kept me super busy. Somehow, though, I did also manage to read, albeit short books or audios.

I read fewer books in May, 22, up from 21. Of my read books, 18 were diverse and five were queer. I reviewed 22 books, one more than the previous month. On the reviews front, 14 were diverse and two were queer.

I have 1 book left to review of the books I read in 2023, two books from April, and 16 from May of the 104 read in 2024.

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