Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, 382 pages

Sunrise on the Reaping might be my favorite book in the Hunger Games series. From the beginning, we know how the story ends. We know that all of the tributes sans Haymitch will die. But the way the story unfolds feels unpredictable, like anything might happen. Revolution can come and spare the children. I ran through this title at a breakneck speed. It's a book that my subconscious will be chewing on for a while. 

 

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

 My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

The anonymous narrator, a slender and beautiful blonde from a wealthy WASP family, is a recent Columbia University art history graduate grappling with her personal tragedies and the pressures of societal expectations. During her senior year in college, both of her parents died—first her father from cancer, then her mother in a suicide caused by an interaction between psychiatric medications and alcohol. Now residing on Manhattan's Upper East Side and increasingly dissatisfied with her post-collegiate life, the narrator seeks out Dr. Tuttle, a psychiatrist known for her unorthodox methods. Dr. Tuttle readily prescribes a range of sleeping pills, anti-anxiety, and anti-psychotic medications. The narrator, however, intends to spend as few hours awake as possible, numbing herself with a steady regimen of pills and repeatedly watching middlebrow movies on her VCR until the machine finally breaks down.

After being dismissed from her art gallery job, the narrator decides to subsist on her inheritance and unemployment benefits, embarking on a year-long quest to 'reset' her life through extensive sleep. But her "year of rest and relaxation" is regularly interrupted. Her college roommate Reva (who unabashedly envies the narrator's wealth and appearance) makes frequent unannounced visits, which the narrator allows despite her disdain for Reva's social climbing and annoyance at having to listen to Reva's problems—her own mother's terminal cancer, a frustrating affair with her married boss. The narrator is also occasionally in contact with an older boyfriend, Trevor (a banker who works in the World Trade Center), though he frequently cuts off their relationship to date women his own age, returning when one of them has dumped him or occasionally in response to the narrator's pleading.

The narrator initially makes trips out of her apartment only to a local bodega, Dr. Tuttle's office, and the Rite Aid to fill her prescriptions. But as she takes stronger and stronger medications, she begins leaving the apartment in her sleep, among other things to go to nightclubs (or so she gathers from Polaroid photographs and glitter she discovers when she awakes from her multi-day blackout). She also wakes up on a train headed toward the funeral of Reva's mother on New Year's Eve 2000. Convinced these activities—which have no appeal to the narrator in her conscious hours—are disrupting her efforts at complete rest, she decides she needs to sleep locked inside her apartment. She contacts Ping Xi, an artist represented by the gallery where she used to work, who agrees to bring her food and other necessities for four months in exchange for being allowed to make any kind of art project he wishes while she is unconscious: the only requirement is that all trace of him be gone when she wakes every three days to eat, bathe, and take another pill to put herself under again. To prepare, she empties her apartment, giving her designer clothes to the ever-covetous Reva, who has just been dumped by her boss—unaware that she is pregnant, he arranged a promotion that would transfer her out of his office and to the company's office in the World Trade Center. Reva plans to have an abortion; the narrator sleeps until June 1.

She readjusts to life slowly, spending hours over the summer of 2001 sitting in a park and refurnishing her once-expensively decorated apartment with mismatched, used furniture from Goodwill. But as she hoped, her worldview has been transformed by her rest: her contempt for Reva has evaporated and for the first time she earnestly reciprocates her friend's previously insistent declarations that "I love you", though now Reva is the one who has become distant. The narrator calls Reva once more, on her birthday in August, but Reva brushes off the call. They never speak again. On September 11, Trevor is in Barbados on his honeymoon and Reva dies in the terror attack on the World Trade Center. The narrator goes out to buy a new VCR to tape the news coverage, returning as time passes to watch the video, in particular footage of a woman leaping out of the North Tower whom she believes to be Reva.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

 

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, 350 p.

"Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena's a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn't even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.So when June witnesses Athena's death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena's just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena's novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song--complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn't this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That's what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.But June can't get away from Athena's shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June's (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface takes on questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white society. R. F. Kuang's novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable."--Goodreads blurb

I've loved everything I've ever read by Kuang, and this was no exception. She deserves the hype, and you want to know why? Because despite the fact of me hating every.single.character in this book, I still couldn't put it down. Her writing style, dialogue, and atmosphere of her stories is so engrossing. This book made me feel gross on so many levels. June's delusional thinking has the reader thinking "WTF" on so many levels.  She surrounds herself with enough 'Yes men' to completely buy into her delusions, and for a fleeting moment, be very lucrative in doing so. This book left me shaking my head, and I can't wait for more from Kuang. This is the first book I've ever rated 5 stars, loved completely, yet hated everyone in it. Now THAT'S good writing. 

Beyond the Bright Lights by Settle Myer

Beyond the Bright Lights by Settle Myer, 417 p.

"My name is Lana Young and I’m not okay. I’m 40 years old and still grieving the death of my fiancé, 18 years later. Tyler Taylor died of cancer and he spent his final days helping others. He was an inspiration, enough that his sister wrote a book about his life. Now that book is becoming a movie, and the actor portraying Tyler on the big screen just walked into the bar I own. He's begging me for help. "Help me become Tyler Taylor." There’s one problem: Mylan Andrews is battling his demons, and I’m worried he can’t win.

My name is Mylan Andrews and I’m not okay. I’m a 25-year-old alcoholic and addict. I just got out of rehab and this movie is my last chance to save my career. Lana agrees to work with me on becoming Tyler Taylor and every day we're together, my attraction to her grows stronger. Could she be the one to help me win back control of my life? For her to consider me for her future, she must first move on from her past."--Goodreads blurb

This was a fun and steamy romance. A quick read that was a good palette cleanser after some long series.  

 

The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates

 The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates, 328 pages

Following the death of her mother and being evicted from her home, Adrienne gets thrown a lifeline: she discovers she has inherited a house from an aunt she never knew existed. But once Adrienne moves into her new home, she quickly realizes that there's something not right about the house. Cryptic messages are scratched into tables and walls, a solitary gravestone stands alone in the woods, and jarring images darken Adrienne's dreams. As Adrienne unwinds all the threads of mystery surrounding her home and her family, she discovers an awful truth about Ashburn House's dead.  

The first third of the novel seems to stretch out unnecessarily, but once the story starts moving, it does not stop. The writing had a solid balance that helped bridge the reader between the drama of Adrienne's uprooted life and the horrors that play out at Ashburn House. While it doesn't end perfectly tied in a bow, the story wraps up with enough information to satisfy. I don't read a lot of horror, but this novel makes me curious about the rest of Coates' work.

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix, 342 pages

The last one, the survivor: the Final Girl. What happens to the final would-be victim after the murderer is carted off or otherwise presumed dead? No one understands the life of a Final Girl except her fellow Final Girls. 

Lynette Tarkington survived a massacre. For more than a decade she and a group of Final Girls meet because no one else can truly understand what it's like being a Final Girl. But when a new threat appears to be targeting Final Girls, the group is splintered, and Lynette is forced to survive her worst nightmares again.

This was a quick read that was lots of fun. The book is enjoyable on its own, but it takes on a new dynamic if you are familiar with old horror films and tropes. It was a lovely strange interlude in my regular reading schedule.

Camp Murderface Doom in the Deep by Josh Berk and Saundra Mitchell

 

Camp Murderface Doom in the Deep by Josh Berk and Saundra Mitchell, 419 pages

Campe Murderface has returned to normal. Or has it?

Whilte Tez finds himself happily rolling on with life at Camp Sweetwater, Corryn remains suspicious. Pretty soon, Corryn's worst fears are confirmed: despite their efforts, the evil at Camp Murderface lingers. Something in the water is wiping campers' minds as the summer winds to a dangerous end. 

The ending of this book is not what I expected at all. I admire the authors' choice not to drag out the series beyond their vision. I liked this book but it has a very different vibe than the first. While danger was present in the first book, it ramped up for this one, especially in the last third. I really enjoyed this series. It had a great balance of horror and humor. This series would be a good bridge for older kids on the cusp of transitioning into teenage-level reading.

Flying Angels By Danielle Steel

 Flying Angels by Danielle Steel-6 Audio CDs; 7 hrs. 25 min. (288 pages, print)

"Flying Angels" is the story of Four American nurses who enlist as Army/Air Force Nurses during World War II. Eventually, Audrey, Lizzy, Louise, and Alex sign up for the Medical Air Evacuation Transport and are deployed to England. Plenty of back story precedes the women's enlistment. In England, the four women meet Pru and Emma who are English army nurses. They all quickly become friends. Each experiences love and loss as was the case in reality during World War II. This is well-written and a good listen/read. I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction. I listened to the audiobook on a recent road trip. 

The Case for Heaven by Lee Strobel

 307 pages / 8 hrs, 31 mins

"Investigative author Lee Strobel offers a lively and compelling study into one of the most provocative topics of our day. 

"Through fascinating conversations with respected scholars and experts--a neuroscientist from Cambridge University, a researcher who analyzed a thousand accounts of near-death experiences, and an atheist-turned-Christian-philosopher--Strobel offers compelling reasons for why death is not the end of our existence but a transition to an exciting world to come. Looking at biblical accounts, Strobel unfolds what awaits us after we take our last breath and answers questions like:

• Is there an afterlife?
• What is heaven like?
• How will we spend our time there?
• And what does it mean to see God face to face?"               (from the publisher)

Excellent study of the myriad beliefs about the afterlife. I give it five out of five stars.

The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey

The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey, 64 pages

Come and learn the ABCs... of different ways children can die. 

This book is less a graphic novel and more an extended comic. The illustrations are fun, sometimes even sweet, and never gruesome. Children who are home growing their own sense of dark humor will appreciate it. 

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

 One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus, 362 pages

Five teens share a detention, but their breakfast club goes awry when one of them suddenly dies. Each of the four has a motive: a terrible secret that their dead classmate was going to reveal the next day. Suspicion mounts, even among the Bayview Four themselves, until only one thing is certain: one of them is a killer. 

A Meditation On Murder by Robert Thorogood

 A Meditation On Murder by Robert Thorogood, 356 pages

When spiritual guru Aslan Kennedy is murdered in a locked room with paper walls, the Saint Marie police are given the impossible task of investigating. Because as he bakes under the hot Caribbean sun, DCI Richard Poole is sure of only one thing: the one person who has confessed to Aslan's murder is the only person that could not have possibly done it. 

This novel does not contain any spoilers for any season of the show. 

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Beach Read by Emily Henry, 361 p.

"Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast. They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block. Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really."--Goodreads blurb

I'm on a contemporary romance kick, and I'm loving it! I seriously am having the best time reading these books. They feel like a summer breeze, and I read this book on the beach! How apropos! Another really fun and funny story set in the book world! This enemies-to-lovers story has a hard undercurrent with the situations both characters are going through, but they can get through it all together. I can see why this is THE summer beach read. 
 

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

 The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware-336 pages

Rowan Caine has been working at Little Nippers for a while now and after being passed over for promotion when her roommate leaves, she decides it's time for a change. Specifically, she sees an advert for a live-in nanny in Scotland. She applies straight away and gets an interview. She is surprised to learn that she gets the job. However, all is not as it seems at Heatherbrae House. Nannies have come and gone with frequency lately. Rowan wonders why. Everyone at Heatherbrae has secrets it seems, including Rowan. She begins to hear footsteps above her bedroom and feel a breeze in her bedroom, also. Maddie, one of her charges, told her the day of her interview that "she shouldn't come back because the ghosts wouldn't like it." Rowan begins to wonder if Heatherbrae really is haunted. She can't sleep in her bedroom anymore. One night all of the lights in the house come on and music blares over the speakers. She wonders if the house is malfunctioning (it's a "Smart" house of sorts). Who or what is causing all of these happenings? Rowan finds an attic above her bedroom with the help of Jack Grant, the groundskeeper. There are strange writings and she finds other strange things (like her necklace that's been missing for days). One night she goes to check on Maddie and Ellie (two of her charges, the others are Petra and Rhiannon) only to find that Maddie is out of bed and has placed a pillow in the shape of a body in her stead. To her horror, Rowan finds Maddie dead below her bedroom window. Rowan is blamed for the death and charged with murder, but she maintains that she didn't do it. The police don't believe her. I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this, but I liked all the twists and turns and I ended up liking the book. I still have questions (one especially), but it was a good, suspenseful book. 

The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara Brunsvold

 The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara Brunsvold - 361 pages

Aidyn Kelley is talented, ambitious, and ready for a more serious assignment than the fluff pieces she's been getting as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star. In her eagerness, she pushes too hard, earning herself the menial task of writing an obituary for an unremarkable woman who's just entered hospice care.

But there's more to Clara Kip than meets the eye. The spirited septuagenarian may be dying, but she's not quite ready to cash it in yet. Never one to shy away from an assignment herself, she can see that God brought the young reporter into her life for a reason. And if it's a story Aidyn Kelley wants, that's just what Mrs. Kip will give her--but she's going to have to work for it.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak-566 pages

I previously read this during a teen librarianship class while studying for my MLS. I thought it was a good book then and I have an even greater appreciation for it after reading it a second time. It's the story of a young girl named Liesel who arrives, starving and lonely, at 33 Himmel Street, Molching, Germany during World War II. It's a story of love and loss. It's about Liesel's love for her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann and their love for her. Also, it's about the love between Liesel and Max Vandenburg, Liesel and Rudy, and all of Liesel's friendships. It's a coming-of-age story for Liesel. She goes from illiterate to writing a book of her own. Along the way, Liesel "steals" books and steals words away from Hitler and Nazi Germany. A quote from Liesel that stays with me is "I have hated the words and I have loved them and I hope that I've made them right." Words can be a very powerful tool for both destruction and building up. Hitler gained power through his rhetoric. He was a demagogue who said what the German people wanted to hear at the time. Albus Dumbledore says to Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that “Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.” This is another great quote about the power of words. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. 

The Killing of Polly Carter

 The Killing of Polly Carter by Robert Thorogood, 333 pages

When Polly Carter, a famous model with an infamous heroin habit, is found dead at the base of a cliff near her Sainte Marie home, DCI Richard Poole realizes her suicide is actually murder. As Poole and his team dig into the case, there is no shortage of reasons why everyone in her life wanted her dead. To make matters worse, DCI Poole's mother has come holidaying on Sainte Marie--alone. Now he must solve two mysteries: who killed Polly Carter, and can he possibly salvage the shipwreck of his parent's marriage?

The Killing of Polly Carter was a lovely return to the Honore and the original team. This novel does not contain any spoilers for any season of the show.

Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price

 Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price-656 pages

This is a sweeping look at the Vikings and the Viking Age (roughly 750-1050). I have seen Vikings on screen (Vikings on History Channel, in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla the video game, and other places) and I am very interested in learning more about the "real" Vikings and how they lived. I was not disappointed with this book. It is a good, fairly easy read. Vikings did not live glorious lives nor should they be glorified or celebrated. In many ways, Vikings were a very brutal people and Price compares them aptly to pirates (especially those who operated in the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th Centuries). Vikings owned and sold slaves and a goal of many raids was to capture slaves to be sold. Slaves were called thralls at this time and were treated very poorly. Thralls had no real rights or freedom and had little recourse to attain freedom. Many thralls were even sacrificed, sometimes to be buried with their owners when they died. Viking burials are explored in great detail in a chapter and an elaborate boat/ship burial is explained. A Viking male who was almost assuredly of some prominence was buried with several different animals who had been sacrificed and butchered (which was apparently common practice, according to the author). Furthermore (and more brutal, disturbing), a female thrall volunteered herself to be sacrificed and buried with him. According to Price, the female thrall was thence repeatedly raped by males of the community before being ritually butchered and buried with her owner. It paints a pretty picture, right! Price also explores the religion of the Vikings. He explains that they didn't have any real organized religion but they did have somewhat of a relationship with the gods (Thor, Odin, Freyya, Freyr, etc.). They did sacrifice and pray to one or more of the gods at times and they did believe in an afterlife, although not necessarily in the since of heaven and hell/good and bad. Price discusses much of the politics and everyday life of Vikings. For a while, they didn't have unified countries with rulers, but they operated more in war bands and communities. What I found most fascinating in this book, though, was Price's discussion of the raids and battles that took place throughout the Viking Age. The raids started as isolated events, but became much more coordinated as the Viking Age continued. The Vikings held much of England more than once with the longest period being during the Danelaw. They left their imprint on much of Europe and even into North America, the Middle East, and Russia. By the end of the Viking Age, they had raided and/or explored/colonized Frankia, England, Ireland, Scotland, Vinland, Iceland, Egypt, Spain, and Greenland among potentially others. Some of their coordinated attacks may have included hundreds of Viking longships and thousands of warriors. It wasn't really until the 11th Century that Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland started to become more unified and kings tried to unite and rule. This somewhat coincided with the influx of Christianity to Scandinavia. I was fascinated by reading this sweeping history on the Vikings and I have a better grasp on how they lived and their psychology. 

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, 328 pages

The Lovely Bones is the story of Susie Salmon's brutal murder. Susie narrates the novel with her own voice, pondering her brief existence and the waves left in her wake. From her heavenly purgatory, she observes her friends stagger on without her; watches her murderer disappear unnoticed; despairs as her family splinters a sliver at a time. Over time, Susie watches as her loved ones' wounds slowly mend into scars, and she realizes that she, too, must heal.

The imagery oscillates between lacy, watercolor language and a stark, penetrating vocabulary but always remains visceral. The way the story unwinds reminded me more of a play than a novel which was slightly discomfiting, mirroring Susie's unease in purgatory. While not a novel I will revisit, it was well-worth a read. 

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

 Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter - 394 pages

Twenty years ago Claire Scott's eldest sister, Julia, went missing. No one knew where she went - no note, no body. It was a mystery that was never solved and it tore her family apart.

Now another girl has disappeared, with chilling echoes of the past. And it seems that she might not be the only one.

Claire is convinced Julia's disappearance is linked.

But when she begins to learn the truth about her sister, she is confronted with a shocking discovery, and nothing will ever be the same