The first half was great but this book lost me with the series of stories about Stabler and Benson from Law & Order SVU. I could never refocus after that. 

A dark suspense novel with messy, unlikeable characters- in Privacy it seems like someone is out to get a therapist. Terrible things are happening all around her, to clients and those in her circle. Interspersed with chapters titled “Watching,” someone has eyes all around- but who? 

Fun, dark, a bit predictable- this was a fun ride but not one that will stand out in my memory. 

If you have ever listened to Maintenance Phase, pick this book up and I can guarantee you'll love having so much anti-fat bias information in one spot. If you haven't listened to Maintenance Phase, go start that now. I recommend starting with the episodes debunking the BMI. 

Now, let's talk about this book. This is Aubrey Gordon's second book and it's fantastic, just like her first. She narrates this audiobook which was an absolute delight; she reads with so much vitriol, empathy, and her own emotion. I read this book slowly so I could reflect, as Gordon has designed it with questions at the end of each essay. I also took my time because the content is heavy, especially as someone who has lived in a fat body and been raised around anti-fatness. 

I borrowed this from the library and I plan to buy it. I know I will reference it in the future for data driven arguments against fat bias and to guide my conversations with ill informed professionals. 

If you are a human on this planet, this is a book you should consider reading. If anti-fat bias doesn't impact you directly, I'm sure it impacts someone you love. And I'm sure that reading this book and genuinely taking its messages and data to heart can be a part of being a better human towards those around you. Taking down anti-fatness involves all of us, not just those living in fat bodies. Please give this a read. 

Beautiful, meaningful, and reeking of privilege, Between Two Kingdoms is a memoir of a young woman facing death in her early twenties. 

I have no regrets about reading this, but I would like to find a book that shows more sensitivity to the extreme hurdles many ordinary people face when they have cancer in our atrocious, profit centered health system. 

Fake by Erica Katz is intriguing from the first to the last page. This book is well paced and reads quickly, much like Katz' debut novel, The Boy's Club, but it is a tighter 300 pages. Told in traditional chapters and FBI interviews, we learn the story of Emma Caan. Emma is an accomplished painter, but her original works have never garnered success so she works at Gemini, an agency that hand copies extremely valuable paintings for museums and collectors. 

Emma spends her days copying paintings worth millions of dollars only to sleep in a barely livable studio apartment. And she has a past she is in denial about as well. Her father has recently passed away, and there are past events that make that more complex than the grief anyone might have. 

Early in the novel, Emma decides to quit Gemini to work directly for a very wealthy man named  Leonard Sobetsky and she goes to work for a very prestigious art gallery with no related experience. Plunged into a part of the high end art world that she was naïve to, Emma is in over her head. What's really going on? Is this all too good to be true? 

I couldn't put this one down and my only criticism is that I saw several of the twists and reveals coming, but I still enjoyed them. If you have liked Fake Like Me or The Boy's Club this is a must read. If you are fascinated by stories of the extremely wealthy, I think you'll like this one as well. 

If you are a fan of Sally Rooney, Cleopatra and Frankenstein, or just love messy character driven novels about college age kids, this is a book with beautiful writing, a strong art school setting, and lots of messy complexity. 

The Last Carolina Girl is a beautiful and haunting story of Leah Payne, a 14 year old girl in 1935. Leah lives on the North Carolina coast with her father. Having lost her mother in childbirth, Leah shares a special bond with her father. She is growing up wild and free on the coast when tragically her father dies in an accident at work. 

Leah is sent to live in Matthews, NC with a foster family. Expecting to be treated as part of the family, Leah is shocked and saddened to be forced to be a helpmate- essentially a servant. The well to do family is focused on climbing the ranks in society, as Matthews plans its first ball. During her rare outings, Leah learns about the surging eugenics movement. When her foster mother is displeased with her personality and her spells (silent seizures), Leah learns just how deep resentment can run and the long term impacts of this terrible time in our history. 

If you enjoyed Take My Hand, this book is told from the perspective of a young girl impacted by the same hateful movement. I found this book moving, beautiful, and incredibly sad. North Carolina's eugenics board was one of the last to be disbanded in the 1970s. One book about this topic is not enough, and I treasured that this book showed the upper and middle class white women who made the movement stronger. Church did not shy away from telling how it was marketed to polite society. I would have liked more depth and detail at the end, but it was still well written and heartfelt. 

Thank you to Netgalley and RB Media for an ALC in exchange for my honest review. 

A House With Good Bones is every bit as good as we've come to expect from T. Kingfisher. In short this book is about Sam Montgomery, an archeological entomologist who returns to the Southern home of her late grandmother to check on the health of her mother. Sam's mom is not doing well, and the first challenge she faces is trying to figure out what kind of situation her mother is in- is this dementia, garden variety eccentricity, or a different condition altogether? 

As Sam is exploring this conundrum and sorting out her life with her contracted archeological dig on hold, strange things begin to happen. This book is horror, but it's horror light for scaredy cats like me. There is a beautiful but also creepy focus on Gran Mae's old rose garden and lots of ladybugs. And in T. Kingfisher fashion, there are lots of laughs. 

I loved every bit of this book, from the Southern Gothic bones of the story to the rich details about entomology and roses.  T. Kingfisher is quick with the subtle humor, lots of anti-fat bias, and takedowns of stereotypical Southern racism and toxic communication styles. As usual, I cannot believe what she accomplishes in a short book and I can't fit it all into a concise review. If you love a dark Southern story, a little bit of humor, a dash of romance, poignant symbolism, and can suspend your disbelief for the horror aspects- this book is truly, truly special.