Grandmother and granddaughter swap homes in this delightfully British novel. Having thrown herself into her work following her sister's death, Leena's debilitating grief threatens to catch up with & overwhelm her. Her boss tells her to take a month away from the office and do some proper processing. Meanwhile, her grandmother Eileen is itching for a new romance, one that she feels unlikely to find in her rural village. So Eileen ventures into the big city, leaving Leena to house-sit and take over her gran's parochial Neighborhood Watch responsibilities. Charming & heartwarming experiences ensue for both women.

DNF 30%

I like many of the photos, but the writing is not for me. Powell prioritizes documenting Wild West cosplay/reenactments, people who are "keeping the spirit alive" (a phrase that's repeated about a thousand times). If Powell had chosen to focus on contemporary cowboy life, or an in-depth, contextualized history, I think I would've found this more compelling. I guess the intended audience is the people who love/are nostalgic for the Wild West image (i.e. white cowboys vs. Indians). I'm not the intended audience, lol.

Driven reads like The Social Network-meets-the montage scenes of Tony Stark building his Iron Man suits. It's an incredible combo of wacky DARPA directives, feuding Ivy League engineers, robot cars driving themselves across the desert Mad Max-style, and also corporate espionage. Not to mention, it's a super-readable primer on tech that will, in all likelihood, take the world by storm within the next few decades. Exceptional.

An excellent history of America's entry into WWII. A combination of storytelling modes--including comics, maps, and primary sources--illuminate this important moment in US history with accuracy, context, and emotional nuance. Rather than writing this story in terms of simplified heroes and villains, Messner skillfully captures the moral complexity of wartime for everyone involved. You'll learn something new no matter your age.

DNF @ 30%