A Talent for Murder. Finished 1-27-25. Thriller, 3.5/5 stars, 255 pages, 2024
“When she was a seven-year-old she had declared rain to be the best weather because it was reading weather.”
I feel the same way about cold and snow! When I picked this up I didn’t realize it was the third in a series, but it is. I enjoyed it as a standalone, but I did feel like I was missing something with the two main characters of The Kind Worth Killing books.
Who doesn’t love a good serial killer thriller? Martha’s husband is a traveling salesman. Who knew this was even still a thing? One day he comes home with a little blood on his shirt and, BOOM!, she’s thinking serial killer. I don’t know about you but there are at least 1000 thoughts I’d have before that one was ever entertained.
But the thought is there so she calls her old friend Lily to see if she thinks it could be true.
It was fine, but would have been better if I’d read the first two.
Drowning by TJ Newman. Thriller, 3/5 stars. 304 pages, 2023
Six minutes after takeoff, Flight 1421 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. During the evacuation, an engine explodes and the plane is flooded. Those still alive are forced to close the doors—but it’s too late. The plane sinks to the bottom with twelve passengers trapped inside.
I’m not a good flier. I’m a mess and I don’t recommend getting in a plane with me. I’m planning a trip in March that I’ll have to get on a plane for and I’m already low key stressed about it 😆. But I read TJ Newman’s first book, Falling, about a hijacked airplane and I liked it so I thought I’d give this a try.
In Drowning a plane has crashed into the ocean after leaving Hawaii. As the surviving crew and passengers scramble to evacuate, some decide to stay in the plane and wait to be rescued.
I listened to this one, which is good I guess because I never would have made it through reading a physical copy. The beginning was intense and I liked it, but it lost momentum and I just wasn’t that invested. It’s got good ratings, but it just wasn’t for me.
This week I had the change to attend a small book club with Mary Reynolds Powell, a nurse who served in Vietnam during the war. In 2003 she published a book with her story and those of others who she interviewed. She said that she thought The Women by Kristin Hannah got it right. AND she came home and married the doctor she worked with at Long Binh. It was a lovely evening set up by Gage’s school, where Mary currently sits on the Board of Trustees. I’m really looking forward to reading this.
Last night we attended Gage’s school’s school play and this morning we attended a new church. I’ve spent lots of time at the library this week sorting donations and maintaining the ongoing book sale. It’s nice to be healthy again!
I only managed one movie this week, the new Jamie Foxx/Cameron Diaz Netflix movie, Back in Action. It was fine. Predictable. But if you want to see Cameron in action again after ten years, you’ll be okay with it.
Plans for the weekend What’s left of it will be spend making lists and prepping for the week. What about you?
Neurodiversity is one of the most urgent political issue of our times. As the number of diagnoses of Autism, Aspergers, ADHD, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia rise, we are starting to understand that there is no such thing as a normal brain. But society is still organised around neuro-normalcy, and autism is treated as a social disease. Jodie Hare, diagnosed with autism at twenty-three, argues that it is time to redefine the politics of who we are.
This was a very thoughtful and eye opening book about the current state of the neurodiversity fight written by a woman diagnosed with autism at 23.
It’s 120 pages of the why, the numbers, and the way the fight for neurodiversity intersects with many other groups struggling for a way to change the system we live in.
I appreciated her perspective. As a parent, I still need to process some of it. A few things I’m not sure I see the way she does and that’s okay. It still gave me a lot of new information and I’m glad that she covered how these other fights, LGBTQ and others..) intersected with the one of neurodiversity.
An interesting and current book on what’s happening in the world of autism.
“Autistic people are thought to experience a substantially increased risk of self-harm in comparison to non autistic people, studies suggesting their likelihood of self-harming is three times higher.”
“In medical settings, neurodivergent individuals are often denied access to life-saving transplants on the basis of their disability…The extent of this discrimination became so widespread that, in 2021, laws were passed in multiple US states to ensure that disabled people were eligible for organ transplants…”
“Recent studies suggest that transgender and gender-diverse people are between three and six times more likely as cisgender adults to be diagnosed as autistic.”
Ugh. Gage still has a cough from last Friday. He went back to school on Tuesday, but the cough remains. Jason came home from work sick on Monday and didn’t talk for 3 days. He’s mending, but not 100 percent. I am having mild cold issues only. So far. This appears to be a sickly winter for us considering we’ve all already had covid.
I did manage to get myself to the Friends of the Library board meeting on Monday, but not a lot else.
I watched this teen movie about a girl who wants to empower herself by getting into shape and making friends at a summer camp. She does both and also manages to fall for her personal trainer. I thought it was a sweet Netflix movie about the way we see ourselves and the power we wield as we make our way through our days. But, it’s also not that deep, lol.
Plans for the weekend
I’m going to try something new on here this week. I need to find some productive way to get through the next four years.
The Unhoneymooners. Finished 1-17-25, 4/5 stars, romance, 432 pages, 2019
“the only coherent thought that comes to mind is how insulting it is that eyelashes like his were wasted on Satan’s Errand Boy”
What happens when your twin sister’s wedding ends with all attendees in the hospital with food poisoning, except for you and the best man you hate? The two of you go off on their Hawaii honeymoon of course! Once there you have to pretend to be your twin sister and married to your new brother-in-law. I’m sure everything will be fine. Oh, wait! There’s your new boss and his wife and now he thinks you’re married. As does your new ‘husband’s’ ex when she shows up. Somehow Hawaii feels like Minneapolis 2.0.
I liked this one. I thought the twin aspect was fun. A huge, close knit family always makes for story. No spoilers, but one of the main characters was a real ass, but the revenge scene was perfection. Loyalty to siblings caused many of the problems, which felt pretty true to life.
A definite beach read, or if you’re like me stuck in the frozen tundra for much of the next week, it’s a perfect escape.
“Our brains are hardwired to want resolution, to want the answer. The bigger and broader the mystery, the deeper the satisfaction when it’s resolved (a variation on Dad’s low baseline theory). They turn the pages and join the search party, to accelerate the process of solving the puzzle, of turning it into a different kind of story.”
Why did I wait so long to read this?!
One day Eugene, a non speaking teen with Angelman Syndrome, shows up at home, agitated and without his dad. Told in first person from 20 year old Mia’s point of view, this mystery has many layers of mystery. Where is Adam and who is this mystery woman who left messages on his phone? And why are the police interested in Eugene? Mia, her twin John, her Mom, and Eugene are thrown into a world with more questions than answers and more turmoil than it first seemed. Who is this dad they are learning about it? Did they know him at all?
This is set during Covid lockdown time. Personally, learning more about Angelman Syndrome and the risks and dangers of how it’s perceived in the world outside the home spoke to me. The whole question of how much nonspeaking individuals know and if alternate ways of communicating can be found was something worth reflection. There is not enough autistic representation in stories and Kim tied Eugene into the mystery flawlessly.
The end left some questions and I loved that. It felt real.
It’s been back to reality this week. Gage went back to school on Tuesday and by the time he came home from school on Friday he was sick. So, he’ll miss another day tomorrow. I’m hoping we can get him healed up by Tuesday. I’m still not entirely sure what kind of ick we’re dealing with.
But I was able to get some home projects done/started in the few days when I had the house to myself (Jason worked from home on Thursday and Friday so that also threw things off). And I had lunch with a friend which was nice.
Oh, and I hit 1000 followers on Instagram. I didn’t start using IG for books, but for the past few years it’s mainly been me tracking what I read. I don’t exactly feel like it’s an accomplishment because it wasn’t a goal I had, but I think it’s pretty cool. I did start noticing a few months ago when I hit the 950 mark and was only a few away at the end of the year.
We went to the movies with friends on Monday and saw Sonic the Hedgehog 3. It was good and I loved listening to Keanu Reeves as Shadow.
I watched Lonely Planet on Netflix and liked the offbeat feel of it, just as a movie about writers should be.
Last night I watched Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. I thought it was a nice modernizing of the original. And I loved seeing most of the original Ghostbusters and where they are today. Not going to be on anyone’s favorite list but, for nostalgia, it’s a win.
This Weekend
Trying to heal up this kid and stay healthy myself!
“She’d been made small for so long, the words hadn’t existed to articulate the wild yearnings within her… She knew now what she wanted– what she’d always wanted… The freedom to want, to choose, to be. To live a colorful, conspicuous, unconventional life.”
The Belles of London series has come to an end as the last of the four horsewomen find love. I’ve really enjoyed this historical romance series, set in 19th century England.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Stella. She had a head full of gray hair in her 20s, a problem I am familiar with, but I could die my streak of gray away. Stella, stood out in a way that made her not marriage material for many. And her jerk of a brother made her feel like a burden. Stella deserved better. Enter Teddy, wheelchair-bound due to Scarlet Fever, who is mesmerized by her and wants to paint her portrait.
They make such an interesting pair, each conspicuous and both having limited independence. I loved seeing how they were able to come together in an unconventional way.
The themes of independence, art, and being bold made this one shine for me. As well as having a leading man in a wheelchair. I found Teddy interesting because of his struggles and his resistance to his vulnerability.
This is my favorite since the first of the series.
Body Surfing. Finished 1-7-25, 4/5 stars, fiction, 291 pages, 2007
“Sydney discovers that she minds the loss of her mourning. When she grieved, she felt herself to be intimately connected to Daniel. But with each passing day, he floats away from her. When she thinks about him now, it is more as a lost possibility than as a man. She has forgotten his breath, his musculature.”
Sydney is a widow and divorcee by the time she’s 29 years old. She’s taking a tutoring job with a family at a New Hampshire beach house (this is the 4th this same beach house has appeared in her books as part of the Fortune’s Rocks series). As she works with the daughter and enjoys a good relationship with the father, the mother is less than thrilled that a half Jewish woman has ingratiated herself with the family. And that’s before her son’s arrivals and their interest in Sydney becomes evident.
Anita Shreve’s writing speaks to me, it’s the way she puts her words together and it’s just as much of what she doesn’t say as what she does. There is a multitude said in her pauses, her silences. They always feel like they are happening to people I could know. Sydney is not my favorite character, her willingness to go with the flow frustrated me at times. It’s through her relationships with the daughter and father I was able to see her in a more favorable light.
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