nomadreader

The backstory:   Sea State  is the debut by Scottish journalist Tabitha Lasley My thoughts:  This gorgeous book, part memoir and part journalism, is difficult to describe. It is both deeply personal, raw, and honest about life, love, and the passion and reality of an affair. It's also a fascinating exploration of the work and home lives of the men who work on oil rigs off the coast of Northern Scotland. How do men, Lasley wonders, act when there are no women around? The writing is extraordinary. Favorite passage: "I couldn't say  what I wanted, because what I wanted resided deep down, in a place under language, a register that lost everything in translation." Rating: 4.5/5 Length: 220 pages Publication date: December 7, 2021 Source: my local public library Want to read for yourself? Buy Sea State from an independent bookstore , Bookshop.org or Amazon (if you must), or find a copy at your local library .   As an affiliate, I receive a small commission whe...

Often I find myself listening to audiobooks that fit together, either by narrator, genre, theme or setting. As I find myself staring at a long list of them to review, I decided to start writing Litsy-length reviews and grouping them together in a new recurring series I'll call Audio Interludes. Today's installment features a trio of contemporary novels narrated in British and Irish accents. When All Is Said  by Anne Griffin narrated by Niall Buggy If an old maudlin Irishman narrator is your thing: do I have a book for you! Maurice Hannigan, over the course of one night, orders five different drinks a hotel bar and toasts each one to a different person who impacted his life. Through these five (very long) toasts that are more like stories, we learn about his life in interesting, and non-linear ways. For a debut novel, this book is bravely told, but for such an emotional book, it also felt like it was trying to be a little too clever. Is a lovely goal, but it didn't fu...

Dear Jasmine, After reading and enjoying your first two novels, The Wedding Date  and The Proposal , and hearing you speak at ALA last summer, I was excited to revisit those characters in your third novel, The Wedding Party, but also get to know new characters in this fictional universe. I wouldn't consider your books a series (would you?), but I do love seeing the characters pop up in the other novels. It's so much fun. This book features Maddie and Theo, the two best friends of Alexa, the heroine of The Wedding Date , but I admit, I didn't remember much about either one . Thankfully, your reminders helped me remember without feeling like you were re-telling key scenes from The Wedding Date .   And I fell so in love with both of them, but especially Maddie, that I might even go back and re-read The Wedding Date  knowing what I know now. I'm a reader who doesn't read many romance novels (perhaps I just haven't found the right ones?), but I love your romance ...

The backstory: The Library Book  is the January 2019 pick for the Hello Sunshine book club . I started listening to it December 27th, but it was nice to be well into it when Reese announced the January pick. My thoughts:  I saw Susan Orlean speak at the American Library Association conference in New Orleans last June. I had heard she had a book coming out in the fall called The Library Book , but I didn't know anything else about it. After moving to Los Angeles, her son had an assignment to interview a city employee, and he chose a librarian. While visiting Central Library in Los Angeles, a librarian mentioned to Susan that you can still smell smoke in some of the books. She was shocked to learn there had been a major fire at the library in 1986 and she didn't know about it. The Library Book is an investigation of the fire, which was intentionally set and still unsolved, but it's also an exploration of the long history of the Los Angeles Public Library and the current sta...

Dear Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers is your fourth book, but somehow it's the first one I read. I found this fact to be particularly confounding considering your debut novel, The Borrower , is about a librarian taking a road trip. That premise is completely perfect for me, a librarian who loves road trips and all kinds of travel (well, except camping and exploring nature, but I digress.) But, somehow, it's languished on my TBR like so many other wonderful books. I'm so glad I picked up The Great Believers . The premise is ambitious: "In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, his friend Nico's little sister. Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estra...

Four years ago I bought the audiobook of Crazy Rich Asians when it was the Audible daily deal. This month, I finally listened to it. These are the things I learned: 1. There are A LOT of characters. Don't let it worry you. In the first chapter featuring all of the mothers, I almost gave up or started over. Keep listening. The more important characters emerge, and I wasn't confused. Part of that is due to: 2. Lynn Chen's narration is excellent. She utilizes voices so well, I wasn't even aware of them. I soon could tell who was talking simply through her performance, which makes me sad because: 3. She doesn't narrate the next two books in the series. This book is the last one she narrated. I hope it's because her acting career has really taken off and she doesn't have time. 4. Speaking of the next two books, this book's ending is: abrupt and unsatisfying. I looked at my phone and couldn't believe the book was over. It begs the reader to start ...

Dear Alafair, I am so excited The Wife  is making its way into the world this week. It was one of my favorite books of 2017, and I've been impatiently waiting to talk about it since I read it over Thanksgiving. You're in my Hall of Fame , and I've read and enjoyed all of your books , from the Samantha Kincaid series to the Ellie Hatcher series , all of the standalones, and even the Under Suspicion series you write with Mary Higgins Clark . But, let's be honest, the books you write yourself are the best. And The WIfe  is your best book yet. Not only is The Wife  your best book yet, it's unbelievably timely. The titular wife, Angela, finds herself in a situation that has become all-too-familiar in recent months: her husband, Jason, an NYU economist who has found relative fame after a book that helped launch a media career, is accused of sexual harassment by an intern. Soon, an allegation of rape from a colleague follows. This novel offers sobering, and often de...

The backstory: The Chalk Man  is the debut psychological thriller from British author C.J. Tudor. The basics: Told in dual narratives in 1986, when Eddie and his friends discover the dismembered body of a young girl in the woods, and 2016, when Eddie and his friends each receive a cryptic chalk drawing in the mail. My thoughts: I didn't order The Chalk Man  as my December Book of the month, but judge Kristin Iverson's blurb did make me immediately start the egalley I had on my Kindle. This mystery wasn't even on my radar, and I'm so glad she convinced me to read this one. (Want to try Book of the Month? I'd love it if you use my referral link !) The Chalk Man  is a crime novel, but it doesn't necessarily read like one, as the crime is only part of the story. To be sure, there is a body discovered, and her head remains missing (how eerie is that?), but part of the benefit of the two timelines is the very ordinariness of life that infuses this story too. The...

The backstory: Greer Hendricks worked as an editor for more than 20 years. For her first novel, she teams up with one of the authors whose work she edited. My thoughts: The Wife Between Us  is one of this season's buzziest books, which is always a dangerous proposition for a thriller. And this particular thriller is one that benefits from the reader knowing as little as possible going into it. I'm glad I read this one before its publication so each surprise was still a surprise. I read a thought of mysteries and thrillers, and I can't recall the last time I actually said out loud while reading, "wait, what?!" and flipped back a few pages to make sure I hadn't misread. This novel's first big twist is so much fun. It flips this novel on the reader, and it made me realize I was reading a very different novel than I thought I was. Unfortunately, after the thrill of that twist, I realized I actually preferred the novel this begins as rather than the one it ...

The backstory: Last summer, I read and enjoyed Wendy Walker's first psychological thriller All Is Not Forgotten  ( my review ). ( Walker has also published several novels that aren't thrillers.) The basics: One night, two sisters, ages 15 and 17, go missing. Three years later, one of them comes back, and she's desperate to find her sister, whom she left behind in order to escape. My thoughts: When I read All Is Not Forgotten , I was enraptured. In my review, I wrote "ll Is Not Forgotten is an utterly gripping thriller. I read it compulsively. As I reached its conclusion, however, I realized the thrills were likely gone. In this sense, the novel is authentic and realistic--it's characters feel like real people. While I appreciate the novel's conclusion in this sense, for such a twisty ride, I was mildly disappointed there wasn't one more twist." In many ways, Emma in the Night  has the opposite problem. The premise is such an intriguing one, but I...

The basics: When Reconsidered, a podcast examining the murder of Charles Buhrman, becomes a huge hit, it sends many lives into chaos, including his daughter, Josie, who has done all she can to distance herself from the family after his murder. My thoughts: Although I didn't love it as much as some people, I was caught up in the podcast Serial several years ago. That podcast inspired the fictional podcast in this novel. Josie narrates this novel, but her narration is intermixed with podcast transcripts, Reddit forums, and Tweets. As a narrator, Josie is frustrating at times. She's not necessarily unreliable, but she doesn't share all she knows (and to do so would ruin much of the suspense.) As a reader, I know I see situations differently when I'm reading a book and looking for clues than I would if it were my life, but it can still be a frustrating experience. I knew very little about this novel going into it, and I think that's best. As we learn more about Jos...

The backstory: Michael Connelly is my favorite mystery writer. I've read and reviewed all of his books . The basics: The Late Show  is the first in a new series featuring Los Angeles detective Renee Ballard. "They worked the midnight shift, the late show, moving from case to case, called to any scene where a detective was needed to take initial reports or sign off on suicides. But they kept no cases. They wrote up the initial reports and turned the cases over to the appropriate investigative units in the morning." My thoughts: One of the (many, many) things I love about Connelly's novels are that they pass in real time. Harry Bosch, the series of his I love the most, was born in 1950. The first mystery featuring Harry, The Black Echo , came out in 1992. I've wondered how and when Connelly will end that series, and what might come next. The Late Show  attempts to answer that question. As a character, Renee Ballard thinks and acts a lot like Harry Bosch in her ...

The backstory: Deadfall  is the 19th mystery featuring Alexandra Cooper. I've read them all and reviewed a lot of them . The basics: Killer Look  ended with quite a cliffhanger, and Deadfall  picks up right where it left off, so spoilers of Killer Look  abound in this review. My thoughts: Over the years I've criticized Linda Fairstein a bit for how little things change in this series. There's comfort in that, sure, but as someone who has been reading this series for fourteen years, I would love to see more time pass in Alex's life. Fairstein upped the ante with the ending of Killer Look --the murder of Manhattan District Attorney Paul Battaglia. Battaglia's demise had been coming for a few books, but the surprise at the end of Killer Look  was a great one. Deadfall  seeks to solve his murder. As always, one New York City landmark serves as the focus of the book. In Deadfall , it's the Bronx Zoo. Fairstein infuses current issues about illegal animal tr...

The backstory: Michael Connelly is my favorite mystery writer. I've read and reviewed all twenty-eight (and now twenty-nine) books. The basics: Harry is once again out of the LAPD and working as a private investigator. The case: discover if a very rich and powerful old man fathered a child in his youth and has an heir. At the same time, Harry is working as a volunteer detective for tiny San Fernando PD, where he's putting together pieces of what appear to be a number of crimes committed by the same perpetrator. My thoughts: When I first started reading Michael Connelly, I loved that time passed between his books in real time. Each time we see Harry Bosch, he's a year or two older. But the first Bosch book came out in 1992. It's now 2016, and part of my brain knows Harry Bosch can't live and work forever. Until then, however, I eagerly await and savor each new installment. This one certainly does not disappoint. In all the roles Bosch has served in over the ye...

The basics: Spot 12  is Jenny Jaeckel's graphic memoir of her experience giving birth and the months following, when her daughter Asa was in intensive care.   My thoughts: The premise of this book sounded right up my alley. Since I gave birth (26 months ago now), I've stayed interested in parents, particularly mothers, talking about the transition into parenthood. I was curious to see how Jaeckel's transition was similar and different given her daughter's health problems. Unfortunately, I found Spot 12  to be more of journal than a memoir. The language was mostly simplistic and recounted events. I kept waiting for Jaeckel to offer more insight or hindsight, but it didn't happen. I was yearning for wisdom. I think a few of Jaeckel's style choices contributed to the emotional disconnect I felt with Jaeckel's story. First, the memoir is entirely black and white and doesn't play much with the shape and size of cells. I prefer my comics to push the medi...

The basics:  "Twenty-two, and knowing no one, Tess leaves home to begin her adult life in New York City. Thus begins a year that is both enchanting and punishing, in a low-level job at “the best restaurant in New York City.” Grueling hours and a steep culinary learning curve awaken her to the beauty of oysters, the finest Champagnes, the appellations of Burgundy. At the same time, she opens herself to friendships—and love—set against the backdrop of dive bars and late nights."--publisher My thoughts: I am not often a reader who makes much of first lines. I don't know if that's a trait unique to me, or a result that the first lines of books I read aren't remarkably good or bad. But when I started Sweetbitter , I read the first paragraph, put the book down, added it to my favorite passages, and texted it to Mr. Nomadreader: "You will develop a palate.  A palate is a spot on your tongue where you remember. Where you assign words to the textures of taste. ...

The backstory: I've adored Jacqueline Woodson's books for kids and young adults for many years, and when I heard she had a novel for adults coming out this summer, I squealed. Seeing Jacqueline Woodson speak at ALA in June was one of the highlights of the conference for me (picture below.) She spoke at the same time as John Lewis, and I debated which one to go see. I chose Woodson because I haven't seen her speak before. I was lucky enough to have John Lewis as my Congressional Representative for many years, and I (not foolishly I hope) expect I'll have other chances to hear him speak again. The basics: Another Brooklyn  is the story of August and her memories of growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970's and 1980's. My thoughts: Another Brooklyn  captivated me from the first page. There is a sparseness to Woodson's prose in this novel that is poetic. I savored this book and hung on every single word. It's easy to do, as much of the novel is told in vign...

The backstory: Killer Look is the eighteenth mystery in Linda Fairstein's Alexandra Cooper series. I've read them all and reviewed a lot them . The basics: Each Alexandra Cooper novel offers some piece of New York to serve as a backdrop. In Killer Look , it's New York Fashion Week. The hook is the apparent suicide (and possible murder) of a very high profile fashion designer. My thoughts: Fairstein has been ending the most recent novels with wonderful (or terrible, given we have to wait a year for the next installment!) cliffhangers, and   as with novels past, Killer Look  opens very soon after the events of the last novel, Devil's Bridge . Alex is not yet back at work, which is a big difference from the rest of the series. Naturally, she still finds a way to help Mike and Mercer with this case. I won't say I necessarily missed the courtroom element of this case, but I did miss seeing Alex in her element. Given the events of the last book (vague spoilers), she...

The backstory: The Sellout  won the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and has been longlisted for the 2016  Booker Prize . It was also a 2015 New York Times  Notable Book  (including being honored as one of the five best fiction titles of the year) and a contestant in the 2016 Tournament of Books . The basics:  "A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality—the black Chinese restaurant."--publisher My thoughts: The first ten percent or so of this book had me thinking, "this may be the most provocative and brilliant thing I've ever read." I should remind myself when I get that excited about a book that early, it's nearly impossib...

narrated by Jorjeana Marie The basics: The Assistants, Camille Perri's debut novel, is the story of Tina Fontina, a thirty-year-old who serves as the executive assistant to Robert Barlow, the CEO of Titan, a media conglomerate. What begins innocently soon spins a big scheme to falsify expense reports to pay off the student loans of assistants throughout the company. My thoughts: As I wrote the basics above, I kept trying to come up with a description that made it sound like a book I would actually want to read. I didn't know much about this novel when I downloaded the audiobook from my library, and I think that's the way to go into it. It's a quick listen, and I found it entertaining, funny and surprisingly insightful. In that way, the book sneaked up on me. I was enjoying the story, as it was clearly diverting from reality into delightfully reckless fictional insanity, when I found myself wowed. Perri has absolutely written an entertaining novel, but it packs a wo...