Three Stars

Best for:
Fans of mysteries set in a different time.

In a nutshell:
Mrs King has been let go from the fancy De Vries household, where she served as a housekeeper. She now has a plan to pull off the most dramatic heist London has ever seen.

Worth quoting:
“Choose your first move wisely, and you could steer things any way you liked.”

Why I chose it:
I was looking for something interesting but somewhat mindless as I’ve been having some trouble finishing the non-fiction books I’ve started reading lately (I have three I’m in the middle of right now).

What it left me feeling:
Decently satisfied.

Review:
This was a fun book with some darkness in it, which I appreciate. Set in London in the early 1900s, nearly the entire story is told from the perspectives of people who society overlooks: housekeepers, servants, shopkeepers, those living in poverty, those trying to get by outside the system because the system doesn’t work for them.

We open with Mrs King being fired from her job as head housekeeper in the De Vries household. One imagines she would be disappointed to lose a job without anything else lined up, and no references, but she’s calm. And we later learn why: she is planning the greatest heist of her former employer.

There are a few characters in the book, including the lady of the manor, a deceased lord of the manor, and many players (all women) helping to lead the heist. But there are some unexpected bits, and until the end it’s not clear what will happen, which is delightful. It’s a fun read that is as described on the tin.

Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it

Three Stars

Best for:
Anyone who likes fact / trivia books.

In a nutshell:
A sort-of history of Glasgow (Scotland’s largest city), as told via facts, figures, and trivia.

Worth quoting:
“ABBA’s mega-hit ‘Super Trouper’ is told from the point of view of a disenchanted touring musician staying in a hotel in Glasgow.”

Why I chose it:
I recently moved to Glasgow and want to learn more about it.

What it left me feeling:
Amused.

Review:
This book is absolutely fine. It’s hard to write a review, because it does what it says on the tin, but there isn’t much more to it. I assume the information is accurate (there are references), and a bunch of it was kind of interesting. Which is what I’m generally looking for in a book like this – pretty easy to read, and caused me to say ‘huh’ a few times.

The book is broken down into nine chapters, focusing on things ranging from places, crime, transportation, culture, sport, and food and drink. Basically, all the things. Of course in the chapter on war, they also have to include riots, because Glasgow is known for workers fighting back (as well as the occasional football dust-up).

I learned a few things for sure, and I’ll probably come back to this one. It was pretty easy to skim, which also meant that it was pretty easy to put down. But I’ll be holding onto it because I’m sure I’ll have a question about something Glasgwegian and will reach for this book.

Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep

Four Stars

Best for:
People interested in how youth stardom, misogyny, and failures of the justice system can impact someone.

In a nutshell:
Singer Spears shares her story, from being a teen star and one of the most famous people in the English-speaking world, through the conservatorship that kept her under lock and key for over a dozen years.

Worth quoting:
“I accomplished a lot during that time when I was supposedly incapable of taking care of myself.”

Why I chose it:
As someone who consumed a lot of pop culture musings in my youth, I felt a bit like I owed it to Spears to hear her tell her story, when so many others had chosen to tell it without her input.

What it left me feeling:
Angry and a little sad.

Review:
I was in university when Britney Spears became a household name. For a few years I listened to her music, but didn’t follow her much after I graduated. But she was so very famous that I couldn’t help but learn about her career just by living in the world. And what I learned clearly wasn’t the whole, or even much, of the story.

Spears’s father was abusive. Not physically (well, I’d argue how he treated her while he controlled her as an adult was physical abuse), but definitely emotionally. Her family was not kind to her. It’s kind of a wonder she ended up doing as well as she did, considering the lack of support, along with how the media and society treated her.

Like others who listened to Spears over the years, I followed the case of her father’s control over the money and her body. I probably engaged in my own misogyny, judging her for outfit, parenting, hair choices. Also, I naively thought that the civil court system might actually be acting in her best interest if she really was suffering from some mental health issues. Clearly, that was not the case.

I felt a lot of anger towards everyone who failed and took advantage of Spears over the years. Controlling what she could eat, who she could see. I’ve seen this mentioned before, but there are a lot of very famous men who have acted much more erratically and were much more irresponsible, but none of them had their personhood taken away. None of them had their father saying they had to remain on birth control as a 30-something-year-old. And that fact that she was as famous as she was and still was put under this control, with no support, and really no evidence it was even necessary to start, let alone for 13 years, is pretty fucked up. What’s happening to people who don’t have her resources.

In the book she addresses some of the things that people still comment on – why she posts photos of herself nearly naked, or in a bunch of different outfits. It’s about regaining control of what she does and how she is viewed. I get it. She might be in her 40s, but she missed her 30s pretty much completely. She’s figuring out how to be a grown woman. I wish her luck, and I hope all those her failed her and took advantage of her can make some amends.

Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Recommend to a friend

Three Stars

Best for:
Runners; those looking for some inspiration and motivation.

In a nutshell:
Author Tough runs, solo, across mountain ranges on five continents.

Worth quoting:
“The thing that I know for sure is that you are tougher than you think you are.”

Why I chose it:
I run.

What it left me feeling:
Impressed

Review:
I started listening to this book as I waited to start my fifteenth half marathon race. I though I would find it motivating, but really I was just overwhelmed by everything she was doing, so I switched to a podcast.

But on my longer runs I’ve been listening to the book, read by the author, and I found it fascinating. The idea of traveling alone as a woman, in secluded mountains, is also vaguely terrifying. I’ve traveled on my own before, but in Ireland, in big cities. I never really was far from someone who could help me if I needed it.

But author Tough? She just does it. She’s not flippant about security concerns; she’s just focused on her goal of traversing a mountain range on six continents. She runs carrying everything she needs on her back, resupplying in towns or from packages she’s sent to herself. Sometimes she makes errors – like not watching the path and running Wile E Coyote style off a small cliff, landing something like 8 feet below on the ground. And sometimes she faces situations the rest of us would find more than a little scary – like being confronted and repeated followed in the mountains in Morocco by members of the military.

The book didn’t inspire me to take up self-supported long-distance running or anything like that, but it did remind me of what I felt in that last half marathon I ran. I was likely sick when I ran it, and it was my slowest time ever. In the last six miles I walked more than I ran. But I did run some. And I finished it. I wasn’t dying, I was just uncomfortable. And I knew I could push through it. Tough’s message throughout is that we can do more than we think we can, and I appreciate that.

Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it

Four Stars

Best for:
People who enjoy novels that constantly move through time.

In a nutshell:
Emily didn’t die on 9/11, but everyone thinks she did.

Worth quoting:
N/A

Why I chose it:
BBC just turned it into a radio play, and when I heard the description of the book I knew I had to read it. It took awhile to find a copy, but I think it was worth it.

What it left me feeling:
Conflicted.

Review:
This book jumps back and forth through time, starting a week after 9/11, when Emily is leaving New York City. But we don’t get the full story of what happened that week until nearly the end of the book, which is a credit to Hooper’s ability to weave a story. We go back to when she meets the husband she eventually ‘widows’ in 2001, and forward to raising her daughter. In the present day, where her daughter is 13, we learn Emily might have breast cancer.

Author Hooper does a great job of creating a character who does a lot of extremely unlikeable things. She should be generally unsympathetic. However, I sort of get her, and was rooting for her. I don’t think I’d make any of the same decisions she does, and I don’t even necessarily think the decisions make sense. In fact, I think outside this book, if these actions were described I would be deeply concerned about the individual who took them.

I sped through this book. I cared about Emily even though she made some deeply disconcerting choices. I wanted good things for her and her daughter. But I also appreciate that Hooper didn’t just make her completely sympathetic, subject to fate. She’s not a victim; she makes choices. She finds herself in some shitty situations, but she makes choices. And they aren’t ones most people would agree with. But they make for excellent reading.

Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Recommend to a Friend

Three Stars

Best for:
Those who like their science fiction without a ton of world-building

In a nutshell:
The Silo is a 130+ story underground bunker, housing 10,000 people. Juliette is a mechanic there who ends up discovering more about this world than she is meant to.

Worth quoting:
(Nothing jumped out at me.)

Why I chose it:
I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of Silo, which is roughly based on the first third or so of this book.

What it left me feeling:
Intrigued.

Review:
I know everyone has their own ratings, and for some, a three star review is almost like damning with faint praise. But for me, three stars is a decent book. And for me, this was a decent book. It did take me three months to finish though; I think there was just too much in it, but I understand the arc of the story that Howey wanted to tell in one go.

The premise of the book is fairly simple – in a place that may or may not be earth (and might be the US), a few thousand people live in what they call the Silo. The Silo is 130+ stories underground. There are no windows, save one projection of a small camera that shows the outside world, which is gray and bleak.

No one is allowed outside, ostensibly because the air will kill them. Which serves as a handy punishment – anyone who is said to have uttered the words “I want to go outside” is sent out to clean. Cleaning means wiping any accumulated dust from the one camera on the outside, and then basically dying from the elements.

The main focus of the story is Juliette, who is a mechanic who is asked the replace the sheriff, who was sent out to clean three years after his own wife is sent out. I can’t say more without spoiling it, but I will say that Juliette wasn’t wrong to be concerned about taking on that new world.

The broader issues of the book explore authority, class hierarchies, and knowledge. What do people deserve to know? What is reasonable for the government to hold back? Anything? And who should be trusted with power?

If you’ve seen the TV series, there are some differences in the book. I also didn’t expect the book to cover the same ground as the TV series so quickly. And because I’ve seen the show, the characters now are the actors in my mind, which is a bit limiting.

I did enjoy this, and will be reading the next book soon.

Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep – my partner wants to read it.

Four Stars

Best for:
Fans of the series – you should really read the first three before you read this one.

In a nutshell:
The best octogenarians out there are back to solve another crime – this one hitting closer to home.

Worth quoting:
N/A (Audio book)

Why I chose it:
I tore through the first three of these books and couldn’t wait to read what these folks are up to next.

What it left me feeling:
Content

Review:
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim are back. Oh how I’ve missed them. They live in Cooper’s Chase, a retirement community in England. The book begins with the murder of Elizabeth’s husband’s friend Kuldesh, which obviously draws the team in. I won’t share more at risk of spoilers.

What I have enjoyed so much about these books is the character development, and we get even more in this one. This book has some funny moments, but also a lot of heart and some real rough moments as well. I love media that isn’t focused on people finding partners or raising children; I love books that talk about friendships, and especially friendships among older people. I’m sure I said this in my last review, but I feel like older characters are often left out of media, or are mentioned only as grandparents, not people with full and independent lives.

Osman does a great job not just of spinning a twisty, turning plot that one probably won’t guess but that isn’t still totally out of left field. But more than that – he gives us characters that we care about and root for. Complex, interesting characters.

Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
I recommend the audio book, because Fiona Shaw (who you may know from Killing Eve, or Harry Potter, but who will always be the Headmistress from the Pileforth School for Girls featured in Three Men and a Little Lady to me) does a fantastic job reading it.