The Late Show, Michael Connelly
Suspense
I made it about 60 pages in before I had to put this down. It turns out I just really can’t hang with gratuitous sexual violence anymore, and transphobic language sealed the deal. I have enjoyed Connelly books in the past, but I think I have to take him off my casual reading list.
A Better Man, Louise Penny
Mystery
This is the 15th book in her Armand Gamache series, and every time I pick up a new one, I think, but how can she keep this story going? And every time, she does, with a lovely blend of modern issues, deep compassion, quirky characters, and literary references. I will keep pre-ordering her books as long as she keeps writing them.
The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal
Science Fiction
I’m not entirely sure what genre this one should be filed under, because it combines elements of sci-fi with a historical novel. One of my favorite things in the world is people who are deeply, passionately nerdy about something, and main character Elma is that. What if a meteor hit outside Washington, DC, in the early fifties and set off a likely extinction event, forcing us to figure out how to get to space? And what if the women who flew in WWII wanted to be astronauts? You get this delightful book, for which Kowal has justifiably won major awards.
Didn’t Stay in Vegas, Chelsea M. Cameron
Contemporary romance
This is a sweet, trope-y f/f romance. A group of friends goes to Vegas for one’s bachelorette; two of them (besties) come back married, without quite knowing how it happened. Nothing that happens here is a surprise, but the delight is in watching it unfold. Also, there are some hot sex scenes.
Catch and Kill, Ronan Farrow
Memoir/creative non-fiction
Farrow helped break the Weinstein scandal that brought Tarana Burke’s #MeToo into a broader consciousness and started toppling powerful sexual predators from their powerful posts. This book describes how that happened — and how powerful men protect one another. It illustrates just how much we have a systemic problem, and not just a bad actors problem. For a situation and an experience this complicated, Farrow does an amazing job of making it clear and easy to follow. Also, he proposes to his boyfriend in the manuscript. How cute is that?
When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
Memoir
Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon obsessed with language and the question of life’s meaning. In his mid-30s he developed debilitating stage IV lung cancer; this is his narrative of the experience of having to rethink his identity, rethink his goals, rethink everything he knew about how he thought his life would go. It is a gorgeous, beautiful book, with a heart-wrenching afterword by his wife. Prepare to cry.
In My Father’s House: A New View of How Crime Runs in the Family, Fox Butterfield
Non-fiction
Multiple studies have shown that 5% of families account for half of all crime and 10% account for two-thirds. This deep dive into one family attempts to look at how that happens — and it explicitly and intentionally looks at a white family to disaggregate the effects of racism and unequal policing. It’s fascinating and disturbing in equal measure, and it concludes that familial criminality is caused by a subtle interplay of nature (certain genetic susceptibilities to mental illness and other traits that co-exist with crime) and nurture (a family context in which crime is normal and expected, often coupled with abuse and neglect). It has no good solutions, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
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