Many thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Books for the digital review copy!
This was a compelling portrait of a family and character driven novel, with some unexpected twist and turns that kept me intrigued. I appreciated the fact that the author had a robust cast of characters, but I don’t know if this book was long enough to give each their due (other than the main character Marley). Just as I was getting invested in another family member, the focus would shift - it was well plotted, but then I would feel left hanging. The writing was lyrical, and had a melancholy dreamlike quality, but everything in this book felt depressing, there was not a lot of joy. I had got the same vibes as I did while reading Hello Beautiful - which is beloved by so many readers. If you’re looking for a similar ‘portrait of a family’ read, this would be a  great book to pick up!

“Mick enjoyed Shay, but only in the way a dog jumps for joy at seeing himself in a mirror. The dog thinks someone has come to play, someone who resembles him and stares deeply into his eyes, waiting for this newfound reflection to blink. What Mick never said but meant: I don’t love you. I love the likeness of me.”

It’s probably a good thing that I don’t rate memoirs because I don’t know where I would land with this one… I went into More thinking I would learn about how a healthy open marriage works. Cool! Instead, it was a frustrating read with so many red flags (a grown-ass adult acquiescing to unprotected sex against her better judgment with a veritable stranger is so beyond the pale), and absolutely no self reflection: in one breath, the author praises the excellent communication she has with her husband, and in the next won’t tell him about her jealous feelings because she’s worried about ruining her marriage.
I also don’t think she read back through and reflected on this manuscript if she wanted to portray her husband in a good light. He comes off as the instigator of this arrangement when things begin with him encouraging her to go on a date with someone she met at a friend’s party, and he gets off on asking for her to describe her exploits - which she clearly finds uncomfortable!
Down the road when it doesn’t seem to work for her and she might want to close the marriage, the emphasis is on making the OPEN marriage work rather than trying to work through their issues and make a monogamous marriage work. Why this is never discussed as an option, I don’t understand.
All the while, she keeps trying to fix her anxiety with relationship after relationship of her own that never seems to end her jealousy or fears, and just ends in heartbreak for everyone involved. It was exhausting and frustrating to see this woman repeatedly beat her head against a wall.
Maybe some people need the injection of drama in their personal lives to feel fulfilled and alive. But I cannot see how it is healthy to have that kind of constant stress, nor have that chaos trickling down to your children. I’m sure there’s an open/polyamorous memoir out there showing how all parties involved make it work (also, apparently one must be wealthy enough to have money laying around for lots of weekend getaways and hotel rooms) but this was NOT it!

I thought I’d try another thriller on audiobook when a fellow bookstagrammer mentioned The Drift and it was exactly what I have been looking for! Three separate storylines of increasingly creepy and WTF is going on all coming together in an action packed way. This plot felt fresh, I felt immersed in the setting, figuring out the connections was so engaging. The ending seemed a tad abrupt, but what a wild ride! I’d compare it to a less literary version of The Passage by Justin Cronin - an all time favorite book. I will definitely pick up more of Tudor’s work!

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for the complimentary digital copy of Show Don’t Tell.
Curtis Sittenfeld is an auto-read author for me, and this was another short story collection that blew me away. She examines the minutiae of everyday life and our inner turmoils with such precision - turning the ordinary into extraordinary with her unique brand of uninhibited storytelling. Most of the narratives revolve around women in their mid 40s/early 50s (Sittenfeld's and my age) and are so identifiable to me, but have ageless themes of love, marriage, friendship, feminism, self awareness, to name a few. As with her other books, characters id's and ego's start to go off the rails and she examines them in a deliciously scandalous way. I couldn't put it down and am beginning to think her short stories are superior to her novels, which I also love!

I went into this one with pretty high expectations, based on the glowing reviews and the fact that I am game for a dystopian take on the gladiator trope. Alas, it lost steam pretty quickly for me. There were too many characters that the author didn’t seem to fully invest in, it read like disjointed vignettes, I wanted to know more about the descent into this dystopian system from our current day, and the action sequence of the ending was muddled. The exposure of our terrible criminal justice system, with many current factual footnotes, was the standout of this novel and I absolutely appreciate the aim in exposing it with a captivating fiction. It just didn’t captivate me.

The ‘mind blowing’ ending is the constant refrain I see when people talk about this doorstop of a book. On one hand, I agree about the stunning conclusion. But it also left me feeling completely ill at ease. Yes, it is slightly ambiguous, but not hard to fill in the blanks on the fate of the cursed Barnes family. My disappointment stems from so much dread that built up from the jump, through nearly 700 pages, without some feeling of closure! It just gave me so much anxiety. Which, bravo to Paul Murray - as I believe that was exactly his intent in weaving together such a brilliant tale. But I feel as if I needed to go for a run afterwards and ‘close the stress cycle’ or something!
I did become quickly invested in each of the characters within the first two thirds of the novel. Each of the family members is given their point of view with such rich inner lives, and I love that type of narrative - when the perspective shifts, and you learn, sometimes jaw-dropping, context for what one of the other characters is observing or experiencing. I just don’t know if I could say ‘wow I loved this book’ even though it was captivating.
Also I cannot believe that the publisher used the term ‘irresistibly funny’ as one of the first descriptors of this book. I could not imagine using those words in my review. Not one second of this book was funny. it is one of the darkest books I have read in a long, long time. So be forewarned.

It’s no secret in my reviews that I am not a big thriller fan. But I was getting burnt out on my audiobooks, because I only choose nonfiction (usually read by the author), and I thought picking up an action thriller, rather than a creepy one, would be fun.
This was entertaining, but it was like the plot of several blockbuster movies smashed together: mainly Die Hard re: family dynamics (and even an iconic Bruce Willis quote, “put it on my tab!” was used), mixed with The Abyss (estranged wife being the topside brains who puts her life in danger to save her family) and Titanic of course (more direct quotes used, and not just the one acknowledged by the characters about “a woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets” but also “I’ll be goddamned” and “you’ll want to take this call!”) every character felt like a caricature, so the high stakes drama ended up feeling silly to me.
Though I will say, I would totally watch this movie and maybe that’s what the intention is for its eventual end state.

This novel started off quite compelling, but I felt like it petered out into some predictable World War II fare. I enjoyed the main characters as unruly feral children, growing up in a grand Gothic estate and coming into their own as they move their playtime dramas from the attic to a real theater they build on the property. Those scenes were magical and fraught, as the adults with their many problems weave back into the narrative. But as the war approaches and scatter the three children into different roles within the conflict, the plot becomes dense and slow.
On paper, it’s totally in my wheelhouse: chonky book that spans a large swath of time, feminist themes, family drama and a deep dive on complex characters. I liked it, but I did not love it. It reminded me in so many ways of Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. So if you love that novel, which I know so many people do, you must pick up The Whalebone Theater!

This book was on the New York Times as a notable audiobook, and I decided to give it a shot, because I knew that she would eventually visit Chicago!
It is definitely more than a history, the makings of, and the cultural impact of hotdogs in American life. The author ties in some personal antidotes throughout that are poignant, though not necessarily relevant to the topic at hand. I do have a good hotdog, and it was fun to hear her thoughts on all of the different regions interpretations of the meal, and the funny hijinks encountered on her quest to try all the favorites around the country - including a potential drug deal going down during one of her hotdog stand visits.
I would say that the section on competitive eating could have been edited way down, but otherwise, this was a highly entertaining listen!

I had listened to Taylor Lorenz as a guest on a couple of podcasts, and her commentary about social media was so insightful that I decided to pick up her book.
It was mostly about the history of social media, and how we all became so online. Much of it was not new information as someone who was an adult before the Internet became a thing, has blogged, and been on social media for over a decade. A few things were new to me and fascinating - I believe I missed some age cutoff for the heyday of the MySpace era. And other parts felt mind-numbing - like the endless parade of YouTube influencers I could not keep straight.
I would have liked more of her informed thoughts on how being extremely online is changing our lives. But, if you don’t know much about the origins of blogs, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, the list goes on… It could be a very informative read!