4 Stars

Best for:
People who enjoy mysteries set in one place; people who enjoy the cold case style mystery.

In a nutshell:
Journalist Jenna Halliday is in town investigating the disappearance of three teens from twenty years ago. The surviving teen is now in her late 30s. Will she be willing to talk to Halliday for her podcast?

Worth quoting:
N/A

Why I chose it:
Needed something to read while traveling on the day of the huge Crowdstrike IT outage.

Review:
Olivia Rutherford was 18 when she was in a car accident. When she woke up, the three girlfriends she was with in the car had disappeared. Twenty years later they’ve not been found, but Halliday is putting together her first podcast after 15 years of working as journalist, and she wants answers.

The book is told from both Rutherford and Halliday’s perspectives. Halliday is going through her own issues – possibly a divorce, and being away from her son for the first time. Meanwhile Halliday is preparing for the anniversary of the accident, and still living at home with her mother and dating the same guy she was dating at the time of the accident 20 years ago.

The story unfolds over the week that Halliday is in town, with the help of a local detective who is looking into the disappearance again as a cold case. There are some twists, some misdirection, and some surprises along the way. Additionally, there is a seemingly unrelated story being told between chapters that adds to the mystery.

I don’t think I’ve read anything by Douglas before but I’ll pick up another if I come across it.

What’s next for this book:
Donate to a little library nearby.

Four Stars

Best for:
Fans of Ian Karmel’s work, people interested in hearing from siblings who have been fat most of their lives, people interested in learning more about how anti-fat bias impacts the lives of fat people.

In a nutshell:
In this clever set-up, comedian, comedy writer and podcast host Ian Karmel shares what is essentially a memoir, told through the eyes of his life as a fat child, fat teen, and fat adult. His sister Alisa Karmel, who has a doctorate and is a nutritionist, appends each chapter with her own thoughts (and lots of statistics and studies), addressing some of the issues Ian raised in that chapter.

Worth quoting:
I laughed out loud a lot during Ian’s section, and found Alisa’s section interesting, but it was an audio book and I was mostly doing chores and such while listening so didn’t end up taking any down.

Why I chose it:
I listen to All Fantasy Everything, a podcast where Ian and two of his friends / fellow comedians (plus guests) fantasy draft items from pop culture. Nearly every episode is a banger, even though they draft things as wildly different as after school snacks and Disney movie songs. When I heard he had a book out, I knew I wanted to check it out.

Review:
I’ve read a few books about fatness – Aubrey Gordon’s two books. Roxane Gay’s works, Sophie Hagen’s happy fat – but all have been written by people who at the time identified as women. This is the first one that has at least part of it focused on the perspective of a fat man, and it’s interesting to hear the issues he has had, and how they are a bit different from what I have heard fat women discuss.

He’s a comedy writer, and he’s funny. His jokes flow with the storytelling, and he paints a picture of a childhood that was both full of love and joy but also full of pain from being a fat kid. And he doesn’t suggest that life would be perfect if he hadn’t been a fat kid, but he talks about the ways society has harmed him and people like him because of how it chooses to treat fat people.

He definitely talks about health impacts for him, and for some people, but he doesn’t, at least not that I caught, suggest that one must be thin to be healthy, or that one must be unhealthy if they are fat.

A lot of his story stuck with me, but the part that I recall the most is when he talks about being a high school football player and how adults finally accepted his fat because it helped him cause pain to others. Just — ooof. That level of insight.

Alisa’s section is full of so much empathy and also practical advice. She’s willing to disagree with her brother on some areas, but she mostly is focused on talking about health and creating children and young people who understand their bodies and feel comfortable talking about them. If I were a parent I would definitely be bookmarking and consulting this section repeatedly.

I’m not sure if this would have worked better if each chapter had Ian’s bit then Alisa’s (as opposed to all of Ian’s and then all of Alisa’s), but this is probably just as good as that would have been. Really that’s my only gripe.

What’s next for this book:
Keep (it’s an audio book)

Five Stars

Best for:
Those interested in Victorian architecture. Those who live in or want to learn more about Glasgow.

In a nutshell:
Author Menon explores the various 19th century architecture in Glasgow, splitting thorough text with gorgeous photos.

Worth quoting:
“… repurposing these historic buildings is an inherently sustainable option.”

Why I chose it:
We purchased moved to Glasgow last year and live in a tenement flat. I’ve become fascinated with the architecture in this city.

Review:
I love Victorian architecture. I love stone buildings that aren’t more than five or six stories tall at most, with detailed stonework and ironwork. I get that its often not possible to build in the same way now, especially if stone quarries or spent, but man, I love the way it looks. I find mid-20th-century and Brutalist architecture to both be deeply depressing to look at, so its fun to live in a city that has so much of the building style I like.

This book looks at a variety of types of building in Glasgow and divides it into industry, retail, office, finance, places of worship, parks and public, housing, civic building, education, cultural, social spaces, and transport. It starts with a discussion of architecture, materials, construction, and reuse, so there is a base set before Menon jumps into looking at the details and history of loads of individual locations. There are over 125 full color photos in the book, along with an index of addresses so one could go to the places to view them.

It was fun to look over as I recognized quite a few of the highlighted buildings, but others were ones I’d not seen before and will make an effort to go check out.

What’s next for this book:
Keep and flip through regularly.

Three Stars

Best for:
Your foul-mouthed friends.

In a nutshell:
This gift book looks at the usage and origination of common – and uncommon – swears.

Worth quoting:
“If you swear all the time it loses all impact and if you repeat the same curse ad nauseam swearing loses its joy.”

Why I chose it:
Our friends gave it to us as apart of a housewarming gift.

Review:
The idea of the book is pretty fun. It is broken into four chapters: classic profanity, contemporary swearing, crude swearing, and compulsive swearing. Within each chapter, Croft describes the definition(s) of the word, shares some examples and, in some cases, provides alternatives in other languages. That part is pretty fun.

For a novelty book it mostly gets the job done. My main issue is that it includes the r word and while it mentions that it is offensive, I think there’s a difference between profanity and slurs, and its weird to include a slur in this collection. There are a couple of other borderline swears that just seem out of place.

Also they say that ‘bloody’ is really offensive in the US. Is it? That’s not how I recall it…

What’s next for this book:
Probably can’t donate it, so might hang on to it.