Catch and Kill is a detailed account of Ronan Farrow’s experience as a journalist uncovering and documenting sexual abuse by Harvey Weinstein. 

To say this book is tense is an understatement. Obviously we know from hindsight that Weinstein faces consequences and Farrow has lived to tell the tale, but the very real threats Farrow faced are clear in this book- while keeping the focus on the victims of Weinstein’s egregious abuse. 

If you enjoy true crime, journalism, and the quest for justice, this is a great read. Clearly there is some disturbing content, but the book balances it with hope and a tiny dash of humor. I think it’s well worth your time. 

This Might Be Too Personal is a collection of essays about the author’s journalism career, many failed relationships, and her path to a family she worked hard to build. 

I absolutely loved the balance of quirky stories, humor, and tough topics. My highest compliment for Shelasky is that she nails feminist nuance. She is living a life worth reading about, but not the life you’d expect from that statement. She has a lot to say about her personal ethics, but I never felt it was boastful or preachy. 

While Shelasky’s journey to motherhood is very different from mine, her stories were so relatable, as are her stories about parenting young children in the last few years. I highly recommend this for a balanced nonfiction read, with just the right dose of funny and impactful. 

The New Neighbor is my first book by Carter Wilson. I loved the immediate drama and characters, as well as the short chapters and the premise. In short, Aiden is unexpectedly a widower with twin kids and he wins the lottery on the day of the funeral. 

Aiden decides to move the family to a new town and then it’s a quick, slippery slope to a dangerous, thrilling mess. 

I found the first 200 pages to be incredibly propulsive, but the back half moved slower than I would’ve liked. I will say that the character development was good, but the energy of the book shifted in a way that disappointed me just a bit. I wasn’t impressed by the plot twists, but I will read from Carter Wilson future. 

This is a fascinating book written for laypeople who are curious about astrophysics. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a wonderful author and narrator and he knows just how to balance the schema of the average nerdy reader with the detail and scientific specificity required to do this topic justice. 

Even if you think you can’t read a book like this, I promise you can. I even go so far as to say you will almost certainly enjoy it and leave feeling smarter and more appreciative of the intricacies of our known- and unknown- universe.  

Spinning is an emotional memoir of Tillie Walden’s experiences in ice skating as a young girl and teenager. 

Walden does a lovely job weaving together the story of her skating life with other events in her adolescence. Without lingering too long on any one topic, she shows us the emotional toll of skating at a competitive level and of being queer at a tender age. 

This wasn’t the graphic novel I thought I was picking up based on the cover, but I loved every bit of it. Even more impressive, she published this at 21 years old! I highly recommend this memoir and I look forward to reading more from Tillie Walden. 

The Night Shift is a propulsive, fast paced thriller told from multiple perspectives. It has a very final girls vibe that sucked me in from the prologue. 

In 1999, Emma was the lone survivor of a vicious attack at Blockbuster on the night of New Year's Eve. All of her coworkers died, and she did not, hearing one disturbing whisper from the killer that haunts her still. Now, 15 years later Emma is called to speak to a new final girl in the same small New Jersey town. The small crew at an ice cream shop was violently murdered and a teenage girl has escaped with all the trauma you'd imagine. 

We also get perspectives from Chris, a public defender, and Keller, an FBI agent 8 months pregnant with twins. The story is similar to many police procedurals, but the variety of perspectives made it fun and fast. I didn't see the big twist coming and had fun with every page. 

I normally dislike detective/police heavy books- I'm sorry I just don't need to glorify those guys. This book was outside my comfort zone, and I'm so glad I tried it based on recommendations. If you are looking for some 90s nostalgia and an excellently paced thriller, give this a go! 

Solid, Honda Civic reliable thriller. Predictable final twist, but dang it still was fun. 

Lucinda Berry is excellent at writing thrillers that are just so close to reality that they shake you a little closer to your core. Missing Parts is no exception. I came to this book after loving The Perfect Child. This has similar themes around motherhood, but it is otherwise a completely different take on "just too real" thrills. 

Our main character is a mom after many years of trying and many failed fertility treatments. But she carries a dark secret. When the health of her daughter is in extreme peril, her secret is revealed and the rest of the story unfolds with excruciating pain and tension. 

This is a quick read, a seven hour audiobook, and well worth it if you like the idea of a book written by a clinical psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma. I went into this book blind, and I suggest you do as well. 

Persepolis is the story of Marjane, who grew up in the 80s and 90s during significant violence and turmoil in her homeland of Iran. Told in a graphic novel, each chapter follows her through her experiences with a liberal, forward thinking family in a controlling, religiously fundamentalist society. 

Marjane faces unique challenges, including being sent to live alone in Austria at the age of 14. At times she has cognitive dissonance about her trauma, because at least she was away from the war- unlike many Iran citizens. 

It took much longer than usual for me to feel invested in this graphic novel and I decided to read it slowly, only a chapter or two per day. I think this was the right approach for such a heavy nonfiction memoir. As it progressed, I really enjoyed learning more about the Iranian culture and the experience of regular people living there. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for an informative memoir. 

The Swimmers is a short, unique novel told in the second person. This narrative style always catches my attention and seems to shift how I process a story. In this case, it created a sense of tension. The Swimmers is about a group of people who define their lives by daily lap swimming at a below ground pool. One day there is a crack in the pool, and they are all disturbed by it in their own unique ways. 

In a parallel to the pool crack, the story shifts to the experience of dementia in one of the swimmers. The use of second person continues and it is exceptionally emotional in this telling of the family experience of losing one's self and losing our family member while they are still here. 

Overall, I enjoyed this quick read but I wish there had been more character development. I think this is a case of the second person point of view holding the reader slightly at bay.