April was a hard month for me on the writing side and May was challenging on the reading side. So I just combined them together and captured these 8 books. Actually, we’ll call it 7 1/2, but you can be the judge.
FYI my number one tip for better reading: PUT DOWN MY PHONE. Just saying.
A Foreboding of Petrels, by Steve Burrows and A Nye of Pheasants, by Steve Burrows
In book 7 (Petrels), lead detective DCI JeJeune is suspended and forbidden from investigating any active police cases but does this stop him? Of course not! This is maybe the 2nd or 3rd book in the series where a) JeJeune skims around the edges of defying a direct order, and b) two cases, unfolding practically on opposite ends of the world, are assigned to different detectives but somehow end up being connected.
Annnnnd in book 8 (Pheasants) of the Birder Murder series, we once again have a harrowing case in Singapore involving one of the Saltmarsh detectives. This time, he is charged as a suspect in a homicide case, and once again JeJeune has clear instructions to stay out of it. Strangely, this time he does, but he is distracted from his own case as well and ends up not really solving either of them. Not my favourite of the series, to be honest, but they can’t all be the best, right? And honestly, I *know* I wanted more interesting character development but I’m thinking maybe a nice simple murder case that the team all works on together might be a refreshing change! Burrows’ 9th book is about to be released and I will continue to hope that the band finally gets back together.
How to Pronounce Knife, by Souvankham Thammavongsa
This is the second audio book I’ve listened to and I have to confess it’s not for me. I have a terrible time committing the book to memory this way … maybe I’m just not paying attention? Certainly my brain tends to wander off into side-bar conversations with my imaginary friends when I’m listening to podcasts, so no doubt this is happening when I’m listening to a book. I do recall that this book is a collection of short stories about the experiences of Laotian Canadian immigrant families. One thing that stood out: I will likely never again enjoy getting a pedi at a nail bar. Oh, make that two things: A woman will be overlooked for a deserved promotion if a man swoops in to do the job “just for fun”, even if that job is picking worms and she is better than everyone else at doing it. I have a hold on the physical book so when it arrives in 25+ weeks I can test my reading retention against my listening lack thereof.
What’s Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies, by Tim Urban
This is a huge book, both in size (600+ pages) and in meaning. I’m not going not going to say much, this one is probably worthy of its own post. But I also don’t want to diminish the book’s powerful message. Using his own brand of cartoonish drawings*, Urban takes us on a journey in an attempt to explain how we got to a place where we all suck as humans. Left? Right? It doesn’t matter. We’ve all stopped listening to each other in favour of yelling out our own opinions and then stomping out of the room. He states that societal / political discourse doesn’t just take place on the horizontal political spectrum ranging from the “woke” left to the “alt” right. He argues that there is a vertical thinking ladder as well, ranging from open-minded conversations aka idea labs run by scientist-thinkers to one-sided conversations aka echo chambers run by zealot-thinkers. Eventually he gets to a very compelling take-down of what he calls “Social Justice Fundamentalism” that had me rethinking some things.
Evvie Drake Starts Over, by Linda Holmes
Evvie Drake is a widow who’s not as sad about losing her husband as people think she is. When her BGBF’s** childhood friend / famous baseball player shows up looking for a place to recoup after suffering from a debilitating case of the “yips” Evvie agrees to rent him a room. It’s obvious that a romance is set to bloom, but this is not entirely your typical boy-meets-girl story. Worthy enough that I am going to read her second book as soon as my library hold comes up.
Open Secrets, by Alice Munro
Alice Munro is difficult to read in the wake of the posthumous revelations by her daughter. But I’ve read one of her short-story ensembles and just loved it so I gave this a try. Plus: I really enjoy her writing style, she is an extremely talented story-teller. Minus: Honestly, I just didn’t understand the ending of most of these stories! Maybe I wasn’t trying very hard – I read this in May and May is a bad month for me for reading (too much going on). Although I did read this sentence in another review of this book: “… Munro focuses more closely on encouraging the reader to think, to wonder if anything in the stories happened the way that they did or if they even happened at all.” Truth!
Good Citizens Need Not Fear, by Maria Reva
Another book of short stories, but in this case each of the characters is a resident of a dilapidated apartment building in Ukraine that isn’t even registered as a building in the municipal services department, meaning no heat or utilities are provided. It’s a dark, often darkly humourous, look at life in Ukraine before and then immediately after the last days of the USSR. One of my favourite parts: in one story, a poet tells an illegal political joke and an apology is demanded in lieu of prison (because the prisons can no longer accommodate every citizen who utters a joke). The joke is never told, because it is illegal, until the end of the story and when it is finally revealed, it’s redacted. It made me laugh. 🙂
Look What Flew Through the County, by Yvonne Buys
It’s just a bird book, but it contains some narrative, and I read it cover to cover, so I’m counting it. If you ever decide to move to the County, this book contains images of 320 of the 364 birds that you have a chance of seeing in our little island paradise.
* Tim Urban writes the blog Wait But Why, which I like very much. He’s been on a hiatus for the past 6 years to write his book. You can read an excerpt from Chapter 1 here, you’ll see what I mean about the cartoons.
** Best Gay Boy Friend