Overall, an excellent reading month. Only two authors I won't keep reading: Alice Feeney (I read Daisy Darker), because I always figure out what's coming, and Emily Henry, because as cute as Book Lovers was, I'm not a fan of the meet cute romance genre.
Four mysteries: Marple: Twelve New Mysteries, was very enjoyable. Several of my favorite mystery authors contributed stories, and a few new to me authors to add to my TBR list. Next, The Killing Code, by Ellie Marney. Murders of female code breakers. I really liked this one, and believe it was Marney's first historical mystery. I was disappointed with Back to the Garden by Laurie R. King. I wish she'd bring back the Martintelli series! Finally, some of my favorite characters return in The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman. This retirement village is surrounded by murders, but I'd still love to live there if it meant spending time with The Thursday Murder Club members. Osman writes fully realized characters who just happen to be old.
Only one memoir this month: Taste: My Life in Food, by Stanley Tucci. This was a skim read but still interesting. His cancer treatment sounded brutal, and it's hard to look back on his show about eating through Italy knowing he couldn't taste, or at times even swallow the food he tried on camera.
Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark was recommended by Deb Coco on her Lonestarwords Instagram page. I liked it, but I can't shake my prejudice against rich people and their problems with inheritance:)
I'll keep reading Julian Barnes until one of us dies, mainly for the clear memory of Flaubert's Parrot pulling me back into literary fiction that made my brain work harder! Elizabeth Finch wasn't one of my favorites by him, but the elegance of his writing, and the expectation that his readers will be able to follow his intellectual digressions are oddly a comfort read for me.
Three new to me authors whose backlist I will seek out: C.J. Carey, whose Widowland is a alternative WWII history with shades of 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale. This ended on the ultimate cliffhanger and I can't wait for the second book to see what she does with it.
The Apartment by Teddy Wayne is dark academia adjacent--grad school students of very different socioeconomic backgrounds who share an apartment. I read with expectations of a dead body before the last chapter, but Wayne surprised me.
Finally, Ain't Nobody Give a Shit About What Happened to Carlotta, by James Hannaham is at the top of my list for the month. Most of the book takes place over the weekend Carlotta is released on parole for a crime she didn't commit. She transitioned in prison, spending a lot of time in solitary while enduring abuse from a guard. Her first person account of trying to meet the parole requirements, establish a relationship with her son, and make her place (and peace) with her family made me feel like she was sitting next to me on a long bus ride pouring her heart out. Hannaham pulled some hope and humor out of this, which is why I'll be reading more from him!
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