Yowsa, I wish I could stop posting my disclaimers about current events and the need for distractions and empathy by reading BUT HERE WE STILL ARE. But I’m going to control what I can control, which means putting out my book blog at the end of the month. I kept pace this month purely thanks to audio books, as my physical reads were the big books this time around!
Total Books: 9
Audio: 7
Physical: 1
Mix: 1
DNF: 4
Genre: Thriller/Murder Mystery
Format: Audio
Rating: 3/5
Summary: People keep getting murdered. The detective and the journalist are both connected to the victims. And they are connected to each other! dun dun DUUUUUUUUN!
This was an uncomfy tale with graphic crime scenes and plenty of need for trigger warnings (infant death, dementia, parental loss, bullying, assault/abuse, and more!), but it was a very engaging audio book with plenty of twists to question. I did guess the main ending, but I was glad that other questions were resolved in the epilogue. Were the answers pretty far-fetched? Sure. But that’s what you get for reading a quick thriller!
Genre: Fantasy (Gods/Goddesses, Romance)
Format: Mix of Audio/Physical
Rating: 4.75/5
Summary: A goddess figures out her purpose and falls in love. People get stabbed. There’s magic!
This was built in the same universe as one of my favorite series: Divine Rivals. However, it focused on the mythology of the book instead of the original characters. Matilda is a goddess who falls in love with a mortal, all while figuring out the issues of having an Underling mother and a Skyward father. It is everything I wanted to be, but it didn’t get the perfect five because: they call it her “adult debut” because it had two pages of doin’ it out of 527 pages of adventures and political god-fighting. Now I can’t recommend it to more people. Because of the doin’ it. (It’s honestly not that explicit, but STILL.) Also, this fits the “Doorstopper” (500+page book) category of the library, and it definitely didn’t need to be that long. Anyway, I loved it and thought about the characters when I wasn’t reading it – the highest of praise when that happens.
Genre: Non-fiction (Pop-Culture)
Format: Audio
Rating: 3.25/5
Summary: Taran Armstrong details the history of Big Brother.
A couple of lovely friends always talked about Big Brother, but I just didn’t “get” it. However, thanks to my love of Survivor and finding the RHAP podcasts, I discovered Taran Armstrong. And there is something special about listening to people nerd-out about special interests. Every now and then, I would tune in and then I started appreciating the show. I was only twenty years late to the party. This book struggled to find its main point, as it was an overall history, tutorial, personal reflection, and deep dive into a few seasons. However, it was an easy and interesting audio book for reality TV nerds.
Genre: Romance (Regency w/2 pages of Pearl-Clutching)
Format: Audio
Rating: 4/5
Summary: A marriage of convenience evolves into a love match.
I almost gave up on The Regency Vows series after the second one didn’t live up to the first, but I’m glad I came back around for the third. This one was all the charm and humor without all the miscommunication and trickery. It was tamer than the others and made for fluffy-fun-and-fast audio book. It’s a good “Bridgerton-Light”.
Genre: Non-Fiction (Memoir)
Format: Audio
Rating: 5/5
Summary: Zarna Garg’s memoir of coming to America and eventually winding up in comedy.
This audio book was how memoirs should be done. Great pacing, interesting, funny, and produced well (sound effects, etc.). Zarna Garg was not on my radar at all until I saw her for 45 seconds on a reel from Amy Poehler’s podcast. Her book immediately went on my Libby holds. Her storytelling is fantastic – and it was icing on the cake to hear from her family on the audio version as well. Great insights into her experience as an immigrant, Indian vs. American culture, and making it in comedy.
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Format: Physical
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary: Three POVs document a fictional reality show as it goes too far.
For the second time this month, I was influenced by Rob Has a Podcast (RHAP). I’ve been listening to Rob and Stephen’s Survivor “Know It Alls” recap show for several years, and I was pretty excited about this book coming out. Stephen takes his experience from writing and covering reality TV for the past two decades and spins this tale. It’s a slow start, but it picks up nicely. It’s a little darker and sometimes more crude than I expected from what I know of the author, but it was an engaging and twisty tale of reality TV manipulation.
Genre: Mystery (Checked off “Locked-Room Mystery” on the Bingo card!)
Format: Audio
Rating: 3/5
Summary: People go to a mysterious island and the murders start.
My first Agatha Christie novel! I will give her another shot, but this one didn’t do it for me. At least they updated it to be less racist!? I mean, it’s still…..not great, but I’m going to overlook the 1939 of it all. The thing I have learned about “locked room mysteries” is that when everyone has to be a suspect, everyone kind of has to suck. So I didn’t really care who died or who did it. The epilogue explains the whole thing. It was fine.
Genre: Romance (Regency & a Lot a Bit Raunchy for a Little Bit of Time)
Format: Audio
Rating: 3.25/5
Summary: A lady gets kidnapped and falls in love with a hot spy who also just happens to be a distant friend of the family?
I wasn’t in great haste to return to Bridgerton, Dear Reader, but then the DMPL announced that Julia Quinn will be one of the guest speakers this year! And returning to the 1800s would check off a Bingo square! This prequel contained some of the least problematic of her characters, but they were a couple of the most boring. It’s an easy listen and as charming as always but not quite as epic as Quinn’s other tales.
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy/Adventure
Format: Audio
Rating: 1.75/5
Summary: Siblings go on many quests while the grownups keep secrets.
This series came highly recommended, but I obviously missed something. I had a multi-paragraph rant about it, but I’ll delete that and summarize: It’s like Dr. Seuss and Gregor the Underlander shuffled together, but not in a good way. It was too much and yet not enough at the same time. (Heidi ducks.)
The Quit List
37% This was a Lent thing. The author gave a lot of generic advice. Some good takeaways, but I really think he just needs a vacation. Next!
20%ish This was like a grown-up The Giver. NEXT!
20%ish This was like an updated The Giver. NEXT!
60+% I was determined to finish the series, as they are dumb fun. However, this one gave me the ick in a relationship that went from zero to 50000000 in one page. I threw up a little in my mouth. Next!
Time to start March reading. Go team!