The discussion around Ozempic is something I never really gave brain space to, but a fellow reader found this book interesting and I thought it would be good to learn about this timely phenomenon. What I have come to understand is that all of the topics Johann Hari writes about have impacted him directly. So they are well researched deep dives that read like a memoir: fascinating stuff made relatable. The vulnerability he shows in sharing his life journey in relation to food and going on Ozempic is commendable.

I still don’t know how I really feel about the whole thing (waves hands around gesturing at all the things GLPs are being used for) whether it’s “good” or “bad.” It’s an unfortunate tool that might be necessary until our society changes. In the end, Magic Pill is a rather depressing read about the health of our country (and Great Britain as well). No, I am not talking about seed oils or food dye, and whatever ridiculousness that the current administration is supporting rather than actual science. It’s clear we need to be regulating corporations, marketing, and advertising, while investing more in our public schools, nutrition programs and education. Alas, in our capitalistic and individualistic society, I don’t see things changing anytime soon. 

I must say I was hesitant going into this one, because I didn’t love The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and was dubious about ANOTHER prequel. Alas, I wouldn’t sit out any new Hunger Games books and knew I’d read it eventually. It’s a testament to all of the positive reviews that I picked it up so soon after it’s release. That, and it was in my possession because my 14 year old bought it and blew through it in record time. Sunrise on the Reaping did not disappoint and I think it should have been written/released before Ballad.

One of the complaints I had about the first prequel, was that it was so far removed from the world and characters we knew in Panem. In this installment, getting backstory on beloved characters from the original books was so engrossing and made narrative sense. (It wasn’t slapdash with little cameos just to please fans like other franchises tend to do.) Getting Haymitch’s origin story was WAY more satisfying than President Snow’s, and absolutely tragic. I didn’t love the pining romance plot, because we don’t get to know Haymitch’s sweetheart at all. It felt a little heavy handed, but necessary for the plot I suppose. However, the relationships that he made in the arena were really well fleshed out (Maysilee forever!), and everything was so vivid as with the original beloved series. 

I cannot WAIT for the adaptation, as the young actors chosen seem fresh faced, and Jessie Plemons is perfect for Plutarch. I hope the rumors of Elle Fanning as Effie and Kieran Culkin as Flickerman are true!

Favorite book of the year so far, and I almost didn’t pick it up! I decided to pop it in my Book of the Month box when I got my yearly BFF free book of the year selection. I have read McConaghy’s Migrations and thought it was impressive, but I didn’t love it. There’s something about stories of being a ‘stranger in a strange land’ that always appeal to me.

From the first pages, as the main character washes ashore and is discovered by the children in this curiously dysfunctional family, I was hooked and the pace did not let up until the bitter end. Try as I might to figure out what really happened to all of the scientists that disappeared from this remote island, I could never have imagined their fate. The twists kept coming, then fell like an avalanche in the last pages and I was blown away and emotionally wrought. This book has it all: excellent prose, vivid sense of place, thoughtful themes (especially on parenthood, patriarchy and environmentalism), complex and fully rendered characters while also being an absolute page-turner. LOVED!

“I close my eyes, drinking it all in, knowing it is a place in time that I will never forget. The world is dangerous and we will not survive it. But there is this. Impermanent as it may be.” 

I was in the mood for some sci-fi and had this on my shelves. I’m so glad I picked it up - gritty and action packed, The Future was immediately gripping, while also being thoughtful about issues of race, inequality, technology, consumerism, you name it. The writing felt cinematic, and I hope this gets the film treatment, as her previous novel did. I remember there was a great deal of buzz around that book, The Power, and I never picked it up because the reviews were wildly mixed. I think I will rectify that now because I thoroughly enjoyed this one and loved the writing style, highlighting SO many passages:
“There were no clicks or eyeballs in the sensible, reasoned middle ground, and all the money in the world in encouraging users to rush to treat the extremes as if they were the center.”
“A forum full of sovereign individuals who’ve never even met in person can, by that fact, feel free to become a deeply interconnected community. Meanwhile a backwoods cult of conformity turns people inward, to the secret thoughts and the inner strengths they cannot share with others.”
“Every time, we begin again, again. The beginning does not foretell the end. There is no end.”
“The most persistent hauntings are the ghosts of lost futures.”
“That’s a rule of infinite vendetta: scroll back years through a social media timeline, the worst thing you can find another person has done is totally legit to do to them. But then, that’s the worst thing you’ve done, and it’s legit to do it to you. And on and on, everyone trapped inside this same worsening cycle. That’s where we are right now with the media and the internet: stuck inside a cave with the worst person we know, finding increasingly degrading things to do to each other and feeling righteous while we do them.”

Another wildly weird and hypnotic book by Melissa Broder. I read Milk Fed a few years ago and find that there is just something raw and visceral about her writing that I cannot look away from. There was probably a lot of metaphor and deeper meaning to many of the themes in this wild tale of a woman dealing with her father’s coma, her husband’s debilitating chronic illness, and having visions while stranded in the desert that went completely over my head. Regardless, I devoured it and found it accessible while also being provocative and unique. It’s pretty clear she is one of those love it or hate it writers. I firmly fall into the former and plan to backtrack and read The Pisces!

Sigh. I wanted to love this so much, and I think my expectations were just sky high. The story leaned more political thriller (of which I am NOT a fan) than any of the other genres it was trying to fall into that made me want to read it in the first place - mainly sci-fi and romance.
The premise started out pretty wild and compelling, kind of like a highbrow Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The ending had an interesting twist, but one I had JUST encountered in a sci-fi novel a few weeks ago. And the middle just sagged with clunky bureaucratic details that I believe the author was confusing for character building. Also, constantly naming characters by the year of their origin kept me confused and never really connecting with them. There were definitely some laugh out loud, dry British humor moments. But they were negated by overwrought passages that utterly exhausted me: 

“In their much edited correctness, their placid-voiced hectoring, they bankrupted the energy in the room. Ideas are fictional, fractional entities which wilt when pinned to flow charts. Ideas have to cause problems before they cause solutions.”

I think I’d rather spend my time (and date myself 👵🏻) by enjoying some old lowbrow Keanu Reeves teen flicks on the topic of time travel…

Like many readers, I have such a soft spot in my heart for Kate DiCamillo. She is a national treasure, and my favorite of her novels is The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Ferris was a cute slice of life story about a complicated family living in a multigenerational household. It weirdly gave very similar vibes to a novel I recently read cal Mercury by Amy Jo Burns - not at all for the school aged crowd, but the same vibes: melancholy and oddball, set in a small town, life lessons learned, ultimately heartwarming. I wouldn’t say it’s up there with her best work, but still lovely.

Another true crime novel that just didn’t work for me. There’s just not enough character development for my liking and I can’t pretend to care about what happens to these two dimensional people. All the red herrings and introduction of superfluous characters became cumbersome, as did the jarring jumps in time. Clearly, this was a fictionalization of the Ted Bundy murders, and if you are interested in accounts that might give some insight, definitely pick this up. Just not my cup of tea.

Another excellent Emily Henry novel, and a redeeming one after Happy Place, which didn’t live up to my expectations. The premise falling in love with your ex-fiancé’s ex (and vice versa) the week of the wedding was a little bit off the rails, but Henry managed to suspend my disbelief all while creating such memorable characters and an excellent sense of place in northern Michigan during the summer. It gave me Elin Hilderbrand vibes and I kind of hope she keeps up with summer novels in the same setting. I still think Beach Read is my favorite, but this latest is a close second and the perfect summer book!

This was such an interesting read and fascinating way to elucidate misogynistic themes in our culture: by imagining a future where people can purchase humanlike robot companions. The way Annie is treated is eye-opening (i.e. not really different than a ‘real’ woman) and there is a lot to chew on regarding what makes us human. It was especially interesting to read after having just finished Beautyland, which has very similar themes but with an alien instead of a robot. I preferred the alien, but this was really compelling. It made me miss the early days of watching Westworld, which was a fantastic TV show with all the same moral commentary.