Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood 🔖

First published April 22, 2003

__________

Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining. (Source: goodreads) 

__________

This was not for me. After I got to the part where we see Oryx for the first time, I could not get past it. 

__________

Why was this banned: Alcohol use and abuse; drug use; sexual activities; sexual nudity; profanity; suicide; violence; inflammatory religious commentary; and inexplicit bestiality.

My thoughts: I didn't get far enough to catch all that was listed here. 

Nudity that was described in the first 80 pages was not descriptive in the least other than to say the characters had no clothes on. 

Sexual activities: Yes, including description of child porn. 

That's as far as I was able to get. Would I ban this? No. I don't believe in banned books. Would I want my kid reading this? No. It was too gritty, I didn't like the representation of porn, and I particularly don't want him reading about child porn in detail. Those are images that no one should "inadvertently" have in their heads, especially young teens. There are other books to recommend. 

Shamed by Linda Castillo 🔖🔖🔖

First published July 9, 2019 

__________

The peaceful town of Painters Mill is shattered when an Amish grandmother is brutally murdered on an abandoned farm. When Chief of Police Kate Burkholder arrives on the scene, she learns that the woman’s seven-year-old granddaughter is gone, abducted in plain sight. Kate knows time is against her—the longer the girl is missing, the less likely her safe return becomes. The girl’s family is a pillar of the Amish community, well-respected by all. But Kate soon realizes they’re keeping secrets—and the sins of their past may be coming back to haunt them. What are they hiding and why?

Kate’s investigation brings her to an isolated Old Order Amish settlement along the river, a community where family is everything and tradition is upheld with an iron fist. But the killer is close behind, drawing more victims into a twisted game of revenge. Left behind at each new crime scene are cryptic notes that lead Kate to a haunting and tragic secret. What she uncovers threatens to change everything she thought she knew about the family she’s fighting for, the Amish community as a whole—and her own beliefs.

As time to find the missing girl runs out, Kate faces a harrowing choice that will test her convictions and leave one family forever changed. (Source: goodreads)

__________

This is my second Linda Castillo book. I like her style of writing. It's fast paced, not fluffy, gets to the point without drawing things out, and keeps the mystery interesting. Quick, fun thriller. 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie 🔖

First published September 12, 2007

__________

The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert 🔖🔖🔖

First published March 10, 2020

__________

Literary awards: Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award Nominee 2023

__________

Beach-loving surfer Alberta has been the only black girl in town for years. Alberta's best friend, Laramie, is the closest thing she has to a sister, but there are some things even Laramie can't understand. When the bed and breakfast across the street finds new owners, Alberta is ecstatic to learn the family is black-and they have a 12-year-old daughter just like her.

Alberta is positive she and the new girl, Edie, will be fast friends. But while Alberta loves being a California girl, Edie misses her native Brooklyn and finds it hard to adapt to small-town living.

When the girls discover a box of old journals in Edie's attic, they team up to figure out exactly who's behind them and why they got left behind. Soon they discover shocking and painful secrets of the past and learn that nothing is quite what it seems.

__________

I thought this was cute and fun to read. It is one I would have enjoyed as a teen. 

Concealed in Death by J D Robb ✖️

First published February 18, 2014 

__________

Literary awards:  RITA Award by Romance Writers of America for Best Romantic Suspense 2015

__________

Leading the demolition of a long-empty New York building that once housed a makeshift shelter for troubled teenagers, Lieutenant Eve Dallas’s husband uncovers two skeletons wrapped in plastic. And by the time Eve’s done with the crime scene, there are twelve murders to be solved.

The victims are all young girls. A tattooed tough girl who dealt in illegal drugs. The runaway daughter of a pair of well-to-do doctors. They all had their stories. And they all lost their chance for a better life.

Then Eve discovers a connection between the victims and someone she knows. And she grows even more determined to reveal the secrets of the place that was called The Sanctuary—and the evil concealed in one human heart. (source: goodreads)

__________

I'm  not a fan of Nora Roberts romance, and thought I'd give her a chance with suspense as J D Robb. Nope. Too slow, fluffy, "perfect". 

By the Pricking of my Thumbs by Agatha Christie 🔖🔖

First published November 1, 1968

__________

While visiting Tommy's Aunt Ada at Sunny Ridge Nursing Home, Tuppence encounters some odd residents including Mrs. Lancaster who mystifies her with talk about "your poor child" and "something behind the fireplace".

When Aunt Ada dies a few weeks later, she leaves Tommy and Tuppence a painting featuring a house, which Tuppence is sure she has seen before. This realization leads her on a dangerous adventure involving a missing tombstone, diamond smuggling and a horrible discovery of what Mrs. Lancaster was talking about. (source: goodreads)

__________

This was a fun enough read and the ending was not one I saw coming. However, the clues just weren't there to be had and I'm not a huge fan of that kind of whodunit. Not my favorite Agatha. 

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid 🔖🔖🔖🔖🔖

First published June 13, 2017 

__________

Literary awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction 2017, Book of the Month Book of the Year Award Nominee 2017

__________

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways. (Source: goodreads) 

__________

This showed the complexities of life, love, and relationships in a brilliant way. There was amazing character development. I did not necessarily like Evelyn Hugo as a person, yet this book made the reasons for her decisions at least understandable. 

And, as always, representation matters. 

Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen 🔖🔖🔖🔖

First published April 14, 1998 

__________

Literary Awards: Edgar Award for Best Juvenile 1999

__________

Grams always told her those binoculars would get her into trouble. Now Sammy's witnessed a crime at the Heavenly Hotel-a light fingered thief stealing $4,000 from Madame Nashira, the astrologer with the fire-hazard hair-do. Thing is, while she was watching him, he was watching her, too...

Fast-paced and funny, packed with menacing suspects and clever clues, the Sammy Keyes mysteries keep you guessing to the last riveting page. (Source: goodreads)

__________

This has been on my to read list for years as it was one of my daughter's favorites of all time when she was a young girl. She's in her 30s now. Finally I got to it and I loved it! It would have been one I would have treasured when I was young as well. So fun.

Emergency Contact by Mary H K Choi 🔖🔖🔖🔖

First published March 27, 2018

__________

Literary Awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction 2018 

__________

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other. (source: goodreads)

__________

I enjoyed this book. I liked that the main relationship was not based on attractiveness, though that played into the story line, but more about emotional support and connection. I enjoyed the quirks of Penny and how people interacted with those, noticed those, and made accommodations for them. It was refreshing that not all the difficult relationships had rosy closure, and those that did find "repair" was not neat and tidy, but emotional and expressed hurt and actual open communication. This just felt real and good to me.

__________

This one is banned in my kid's school district. It is not even available at my local public library. 

Banned for sexual activities; sexual nudity; drug and alcohol use; profanity; and controversial racial commentary; and hate involving racism.

My take:  Sexual activities. sexual nudity. 

• There were descriptions of making out, one of which ended in sexual assault and the other where the man showed respect for the woman's stiffening when touched under her shirt, and he stopped. 
• Penny's mother is referred to as a MILF. 
• A boyfriend sent a character "nudes"
• Discussion of Penny wanting to have sex but having qualms about her boyfriend. Describes "getting naked with some fumbling third-base action." 
• A male glances at a woman's "boobs".  
• Friends talked about their parents and grandparents having sex. "Penny tried to imagine sex between seventy-year-olds".  
• A friend announced she is drinking a lot of cranberry juice as she has a UTI "because of the sheer volume of sex I had this past week." 
• A young woman, referring to a handsome barista, said, "Because I would bang the ever-living shit out of him if he'd give me the time of day." 
• References to birth control, periods, condoms. 
• Abortion is discussed, but dismissed as an option, during a pregnancy scare. 

Drug and alcohol use. 

• Some characters smoke weed, one parental figure eats weed brownies with negative results, a young man chose alcohol to cope with loss and discusses his regrets. 
• Main character drinks a lot at a party. 

Profanity. 

• There are over 50 s-words. Other than that, the other words are less than 5, other than b-word which is 5. F-word 4 times. 

Controversial racial commentary. Hate involving racism. 

• The Korean main character described why her mother is still beautiful and young looking by saying "Asian don't raisin". 
• Character wants to order a baked good received a response "Yeah, your people love it." "My people?" "She means white," said Bastian. 
• Main character, who is Korean, laments about how she has been treated at times due to her ethnicity. 
• Again, as stated many times, I do not believe the fact that people of color point out the mistreatment they receive as "controversial racial commentary". It's facts.
• And there was no "hate" involving racism that I recall in this book. 

Would I be okay with kid reading this? Sure, as a teen. Younger than 13, I imagine it wouldn't even interest him that much. 

Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin 🔖🔖🔖🔖

First published January 30, 2024 

__________

Enid is obsessed with space. She can tell you all about black holes and their ability to spaghettify you without batting an eye in fear. Her one major phobia? Bald men. But she tries to keep that one under wraps. When she’s not listening to her favorite true crime podcasts on a loop, she’s serially dating a rotation of women from dating apps. At the same time, she’s trying to forge a new relationship with her estranged half-sisters after the death of her absent father. When she unwittingly plunges into her first serious romantic entanglement, Enid starts to believe that someone is following her.

As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid must contend with her mounting suspicion that something is seriously wrong with her. Because at the end of the day there’s only one person she can’t outrun—herself.

Brimming with quirky humor, charm, and heart, Interesting Facts about Space effortlessly shows us the power of revealing our secret shames, the most beautifully human parts of us all. (source: goodreads) 

__________

This is not what I expected and I loved it. I don't usually get to read books with lesbian main characters who talk about their sex lives as if it's normal. What a refreshing experience in this. For me, it as real representation. 

I loved the main character and related to her in many ways. Watching her thought process was insightful and Austin made this all believable. I enjoyed the energy and the processing. 

Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes 🔖🔖🔖

First published February 2, 2023

__________

Literary Awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction 2023 

__________

Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope--she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in.

That’s because Sam Kemp – in the bleakest point of her life – has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag--she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change—and that thing is herself.

Full of Jojo Moyes’ signature humor, brilliant storytelling, and warmth, Someone Else’s Shoes is a story about how just one little thing can suddenly change everything. (source: goodreads) 

__________

This book promised humor, brilliance, and warmth. I did find it a warm story and I did like the characters, other than the "bad guys". I didn't laugh at all, and chuckled maybe once or twice. I also wouldn't say it was "brilliant" because overall it was still "trope-y". Overall not a waste of time, though.