Four Stars

Best for:
Fans of the Thursday Murder Club series.

In a nutshell:
Nick has found a bomb under his car. At Joyce’s daughter’s wedding, he talks to Elizabeth to ask for help. The next day, Nick is missing, and his business partner is a possible suspect. In other news, Ron’s daughter has kicked out her abusive husband, who happens to also be a less than model citizen in other ways.

Worth quoting:
N/A

Why I chose it:
I have enjoyed all the books in the series so far, and I’m invested in these characters. Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim, Donna, Chris.

Review:
Osman is so good and developing characters AND plot. Some books have a great plot but the characters could be literally anyone. And some books have amazing character studies but not much happens. Osman, in my opinion, does a great job with both. Each book we learn more about these people, as their lives change and connections grow even stronger.

In this case, we are with Elizabeth, who lost her beloved Stephen in the previous book. Grief is hard, and she’s not her old self, because she won’t be again. But the case allows her to start to reconnect with one part of her past, and its good to see.

I also like how much time we spend with Ron this book, and of course with Joyce and Ibrahim. Much like the other books, I appreciate that this book primarily focuses on the very rich lives of people who are much older. They get their own internal lives, their own desires. They aren’t relegated to side story lines. I don’t think there’s enough media that explores the lives of older adults, so its great when the ones that do are so fun to read.

(There’s also a cheeky little joke in here that sort of references to film recently made of the original book, which did make me chuckle.)

Four Stars

Best for:
Those interested in learning more about how our language is shaped by – and shapes – society. Everyone who speaks US English.

In a nutshell:
Author Montell explores a variety of aspects of language and how it reinforces and can be used to fight the patriarchy.

Worth quoting:
N/A (but only because it was an audio book and usually I was running while listening so didn’t have a way to note something down)

Why I chose it:
The topic was intriguing to me.

Review:
I wish I’d read a hard copy instead of reading an audio version because I think I would have been underlining a lot and keeping it for future reference. That aid, it was great to listen to the author read her work.

The book explores multiple ways that language reinforces the patriarchy (the English language, specifically). Things like the default for ‘person’ being man, for example. As though men are the standard or the norm, and women are a deviation from that. But also more insidious things, like creating gendered qualifiers for words that theoretically are gender neutral, suggesting again that the default boss is male (hence ‘girl boss’). Or, conversely, some insults again should be gender neutral, but the default for the negatives are female (whore vs manwhore, for example).

Montell argues convincingly that this isn’t just an issue of sticks and stones, its that the words show the values of the speakers overall. She makes the point even clearer in the chapter where she references how some folks complain about how ‘you can’t say anything anymore;’ it’s not that one can’t say things, it’s that what they say and the words they choose reflect their values, and people are allowed to make judgments based on those values.

Each chapter covers a different aspect of language, including language changes from the LGBTQ community, the use of singular they/them, and how women are judged for sounding ‘shrill’ when they speak. This book was written a few years ago, and it’s disappointing to think about how much language and our acceptance of new usages to better reflect reality has been rolled back as more conservatives and more anti-trans folks have gained power.

The section on vulgar language and the slang that exists for penises vs vaginas (spell check wants me to call that vaginae?) was also so interesting. I’ve obviously thought in passing about how gross it is that the worst insults for men are to refer to them by terms associated with female genitalia, but hearing it spelled out here made it even clearer how gross that is.

Best for:
Those with a strong stomach. Probably those who liked reading Silence of the Lambs.

In a nutshell:
Detective Martin lost his wife and young son on a cruise ship a few years ago. He was told it was murder suicide. He gets a call and learns that a child who had gone missing on the same cruise ship under the same circumstance has reappeared, and was holding his child’s teddy bear.

Worth quoting:
N/A

Why I chose it:
Wanted another mystery to read while on holiday and this one looked interesting. It definitely was.

Review:
Content note: Torture, pedophilia.

So I didn’t realize that this book would be as dark as it was. So just a fair warning. That said, I found this to be an interesting and captivating read. So much so that I ended up going back to the same bookshop and buying another of his books.

I’m trying to figure out how to review this without spoiling things. Obviously the content note for the book gives away something, so you know it will be a dark read. And it is. There were times I definitely was uncomfortable, but it didn’t seem to be written in a salacious way, if that makes sense.

There are so many twists in this book. There was a point where I even thought the book was over and there was a whole other bit that I’d missed. And there are loads of moment where I thought I had it figured out (and other, more clever readers might have), but then was shown to be completely wrong. The writing is great but vivid.

And the topic is an interesting backdrop, as anyone who has even a passing familiarity with ‘true crime’ will likely be aware of folks who have disappeared from cruise ships, and how challenging it is to get a proper investigation done. I doubt there is anything going on quite like what is described in this book, but who knows.

Five Stars

Best for:
Anyone interested in stopping the desire to be smaller, chasing after diets and such.

In a nutshell:
Registered dietitian nutritionist Spence looks at (and breaks apart) the history of diet culture, and shares her thoughts on ways to have a better relationship with food and your body.

Worth quoting:
“That’s the thing with a diet culture mindset: even though you see how certain aspects are unattainable or unsustainable, the narrative of an ideal body is still perpetuated.”

“In our current #hustleculture, dieting and restricting are correlated with discipline and being as small as you can be, with taking up less space and being obedient. It’s a sign of hard work, of conforming correctly.”

Why I chose it:
I follow Spence on TikTok and love what she shares. I bought this book a couple of years ago when it came out, but finally actually read it and I’m so glad I did.

Review:
What a great book. Probably one of the best I’ve read on diet culture from the perspective of someone trained in nutrition. Her whole approach is basically diets not only don’t work but they aren’t necessary for people to improve their overall health and wellbeing. Moreover, she isn’t just focused on this being an issue for the individual to resolve; she is focused on the bigger picture, including discussion of things like social determinants of health.

The first half of the book looks at diet culture, and how it is perpetuated by the patriarchy. She explores ideas like how ridiculous it is that we all could or should be the same body size, and also has a chapter focused on the elitism of the wellness community. It’s great to read. Infuriating, but great to see it all laid out in one place.

The second half of the book offers suggests for individuals who have spent their life on the diet wheel, or who have gotten off but perhaps are feeling the pull back to it. Her philosophy is not about restriction o removal, but about addition. Getting more sleep. Eating more vegetables. Moving in a way that is for ENJOYMENT, not to ‘earn’ your food. She does talk about intuitive eating, and recognizes it has some positive take-aways, but she takes it a step further and offers her own suggestions she crystallizes into ten principles. The ones that have really stood out to me have been to be really present with my food and actually eating what I want.

It was great to try out on holiday, because I had access to all this amazing Greek food. And I ate it, and I didn’t need to go for a ten mile run to ‘work it off.’ Looking at food as something that is both for fuel but also for joy is something that a lot of fitness and health influencers seem to scoff at, but that’s not the life I want.

I’ll end with one of my favorite take-aways from the book: “The only foods to avoid are those that you’re allergic to, must avoid for medical reasons, or don’t like.”

Four Stars

Best for:
Fans of cozy mysteries.

In a nutshell:
A handful of passengers attend the soft launch of a new form of luxury travel – an airship – set for the North Pole. But someone dies, and everyone is stuck inside, possibly with a murderer.

Worth quoting:
N/A

Why I chose it:
Before setting out on holiday I usually try to buy a fun book from the airport bookstore. I was going to get the new Thursday Murder Club, but the special ‘airport’ copy was so big that I picked this one up, and I’m so glad I did!

Review:
The author’s books have been likened to Agatha Christie’s, and I can see why – a bunch of people in a closed environment, someone dead, who did it?

A company is taking a test run of a luxury airship trip to the North Pole from Svalbard. Chloe is a blogger given a chance to take the trip after something came up keeping the original travel writer from attending. Ezra, the COO, and Harold, the main founder, created the company from an idea Harold and Ezra’s late father had, and its been twenty years in the making.

I suppose minor spoiler:

The death doesn’t occur until about 2/5 of the way through the book, but the set-up all feels necessary and relevant. We get to know the characters, and we get chapters from different perspectives, which I love (seriously, not sure how I’ll handle reading a book again with only one perspective).

Hindle is a talented writer – I have such a vivid picture of the airship, the landscape, and the individuals thanks to his writing. I read the book in just over a day while on holiday, and I’ve just ordered his other three books.

Three Stars

Best for:
Those looking for some reminders related to the Buddhist approach to live and being present.

In a nutshell:
Prolific writer on Buddhism Thich Nhat Hanh shares some thoughts on positivity and presence.

Worth quoting:
“You need to recognize that these kinds of positive elements exist and that you can benefit from their refreshing and helpful presence.”

“We must always ask ourselves the question, ‘is my perception accurate?’”

“The future is being made out of the present, so the best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment.”

Why I chose it:
I’ve enjoyed writings by this author before.

Review:
I find this book a bit hard to review. I think because I’ve read similar books to this I didn’t get loads out of it if I’m honest.

If you’re fairly new to Buddhism and interested in some readings about being present, you might find this interesting.

I did read the book while I was traveling, and was specifically when I was in Athens, and it did make be think a lot about being present, and how to create a future I want. Obviously it can be pretty easy to be present while on holiday (though I did miss my cats a lot), but remaining present and positive during the less fun things – laundry, bills, wondering if the cats have fleas again – is more challenging.

One thing that I do find difficult about Buddhist teachings – and this is covered in this book – is the discussion around suffering and a bit of a lack of perspective. The book talks about only consuming positive media, because we all know enough about suffering from the real world. But I don’t agree – I think that different media (books, film, art) that could be viewed as ‘negative’ or not positive can help people gain some perspective or different understanding of challenges. I mean, not a slasher film, but there seems to be a strain of toxic positivity that I’m not comfortable with.

*When I went to add this review to Storygraph, I learned that I read this ten years ago. Lol. whoops.

Three Stars

Best for:
Those who don’t mind a vaguely unreliable narrator. Those who enjoy a bit of ‘he had it coming’ in their crime novels.

In a nutshell:
Hazel and Fox were sort of vigilante serial killers who now have a child. Fox has decided that they need to stop so they don’t risk their child’s way of life by getting caught, but Hazel is not satisfied with this and soon makes what might be a very costly mistake.

Worth quoting:
“I can’t tell what’s life and what’s just a chemical imbalance in my brain. I know I’m meant to be happy but things are a bit shit. So is that depression, or is that just feeing bummed out about my lot in life?”

Why I chose it:
Monthly book club choice.

Review:
It took me awhile to get into, but I decided to take it on holiday with me and figured the two flights would be a captive situation. And they were!

This is a slightly interesting take on what happens when women have to give it all up for a child. In this case, the giving up is not an office job, but instead years of killing men who ‘deserve it.’ We get point of view chapters from both Hazel and Fox, though it feels more like Hazel’s book.

Hazel attempts to make friends with a mother at a parent/child music class, but Hazel isn’t exactly a people person, and she’s pretty unlikable. I mean, other than that fact that she’s a murderer. Just, as a person, she thinks she’s quite above others, and can’t be bothered with connecting with or really caring about people unless she thinks they’ve been wronged by a man.

Then there’s Fox, who is doing his best to take care of his family and keep Hazel happy.

There are quite a few twists and turns, and one fairly large storyline that ends up being a bit of a red herring, but overall it was a fun read once I got into it.

Three Stars

Best for:
People who are childfree by choice, people who have kids but are interested in knowing a bit more about what their childfree friends’ lives are like.

In a nutshell:
Olive is a successful writer in her early 30s (I think) who is going through some major life changes alongside her three friends, all of whom are in various stages of trying to or having children.

Worth quoting:
N/A

Why I chose it:
I’m in a childfree community and saw people talking about this book, so figured I’d check it out.

Review:
SPOILERS because some of the things that bothered me about this book relate to items revealed near the very end.

In some ways this book reminds me of ‘So Thrilled For You’ in that there are four women and they are all in various different stages of life – Bea has three kids, Cecily is about to give birth to her first child, and Isla is going through IVF unsuccessfully. And Olive has just broken up with her boyfriend of nine years because he definitely wants ‘a family’ (ugh, I hate that family somehow only means kids) and she really doesn’t think she wants children.

Look, there are so few positive representations of childfree women in media that I think folks can sometimes be overly generous with the depictions we DO get. And I certainly don’t want to dissuade artists from putting out more content that represents us, but also its so frustrating when the limited media is just not very good.

First off, Olive is successful in her career. Like, kinda weirdly so. Most people aren’t working at that level, and I suppose everyone assumes childfree people focus on their careers but like, we can be mediocre in the workplace too! She’s also really bad at using her words. It’s frustrating, since she’s a successful writer in the book, but she repeatedly refuses to take the opportunity to tell her friends what she needs to say. And it is framed as something always coming up, and Olive making herself smaller for them, but also her friends aren’t mind readers! Like can you imagine not telling your friends your relationship of nine years ended, and sort of blaming it on them being busy with their kids? I mean its possible but it doesn’t ring true to me.

I also hated that Olive walked on so many eggshells with her friends and would ‘admit’ to them being right about things when no, they were just being insensitive. I get the sense the author was trying not to alienate readers with children or who want children, but it felt a bit like trying to ‘both sides’ situations where that just wasn’t necessary. Also, and this is just me maybe, but does everyone get drunk all the time in real life? Like that just has never been my reality. I now have a sober partner, so I drink maybe twice a year, but well before that I wasn’t opening a bottle of wine every night, or getting trashed on a Saturday just for funsies. That’s so unappealing and it seems odd to be such a focus of one’s life. It feels immature, and seemed like a bit of a subtle way to suggest that Olive is immature and that’s why she doesn’t want kids.

I also absolutely loathes the character Iris who led the Childfree By Choice group Olive visits. She was written as a caricature about what a childfree life is all about. Travel! Excitement! Hobbies! And like, sure, but also it’s just a life, and it feels like a weird pressure to put on people without kids that they have to live these extraordinary lives. Again – parents get to be mediocre in all sorts of aspects of their lives. Childfree people should be allowed that grace as well.

The most spoiler-y bit is probably a bit of stretch for some people, but it bugged the shit out of me, and I’m annoyed with the author about it. So we find out near the end that one of the reasons Isla has been so cold towards Olive (despite Olive being the friend who I’d argue is the most supportive of Isla during her fertility struggles) is because ONE TIME, WHILE DRUNK, Olive said she’d be a surrogate for Isla, and Isla was so upset when Olive shared that she was most likely not interested in having children and included in that discussions of her finding giving birth to be not for her. Literally one google search by the author – or even the character Isla – would tell you that someone can’t be a surrogate if they haven’t already had a successful pregnancy. So Olive COULD NOT ever even be a surrogate for Isla, at least not any time in the next probably three or four years, and it would all depend on Olive having a kid first. Like, nothing about that storyline made sense, and it really bugged me.

What I did like about the book was Olive’s genuine quest to learn more about the judgment and the pain childfree people experience. But even though it was ostensibly a focus of the book, I feel like it wasn’t explored nearly enough.

I guess I thought this book was going to be different than it was, which is why the rating is a three instead of a two – that extra star is because I need to manage my own expectations. I just expected and wanted more from this, since it’s like the only book I can find that ostensible was looking at the childfree perspective.

(Side note: maybe remove that Elizabeth Gilbert pull quote from the cover given her latest memoir …)

Four Stars

Best for:
Fans of honest memoirs; those interested in learning more about the lives of child stars.

In a nutshell:
Dancer, actor, singer, songwriter, podcaster Stoner shares the first 25 years or so of their story.

Worth quoting:
“All I have to do is be perfect at everything and look perfect while doing it.”

Why I chose it:
It just sounded interesting, and memoirs are kinda my jam.

Review:
The book itself has myriad content notes, including rape, eating disorders, religious bigotry, and others. Stoner shares them up front, so you can check out the first pages to see if maybe you want to skip this one.

I am a bit too old to be fully familiar with Stoner’s catalog of achievements. Like many people, I know them from their turn as the young dancer in Missy Elliott’s ‘Work It’ music video. But they apparently were a Disney channel star, voicing many roles, and co-staring in films like Camp Rock, Cheaper by the Dozen, and the Step Up films.

Stoner is non-binary and queer, using they/them pronouns, but the book, while addressing their sexuality, doesn’t really talk at all about their gender identity. I saw that this was referenced in an article about the book, and Stoner said there was just so much to fit into this memoir that adding in their gender journey was just too much to include. So perhaps that’ll be coming soon. And if they do write that book, I’ll read it.

Stoner’s life as a child start began at age 6 and never really stopped. Their mother took the family from Ohio to California, where Stoner was separated from their father, and instead lived with their step-father, who eventually was physically and emotionally abusive. They also had to navigate, all as a child, the brutal world of the entertainment industry. They were aware at a very early age of how many people relied on them for their livelihoods, which is such a burden to put on a child.

They discuss the challenges of never quite being a ‘star’ but still being a steadily working artist, and the pressures of having to be ‘on’ all the time, referring often to their inner publicist. They talk about their Christian faith, and their experience of losing friends in that faith when they came out as queer. For someone who felt the need to mask their true identity for their entire childhood, Stoner clearly has learned about their true self, and is so honest and eloquent in telling their story.

At one point we learn that their mother and business team has essentially taken all of their money, with their mother paying herself a salary she no longer needs. They maturity Stoner shows throughout these trials is impressive for someone twice their age. The title is clever but also very true – Stoner comes across as someone who has done a lot of work to figure out who they are, what they want, and what their values are, and they are trying to live that life. Including advocating for much better conditions for current child actors, musicians, and social media stars, which is amazing.