Since my last blog post (Ack! a month ago already) there has been good news on the library advocacy front, with the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ announcement that it is reinstating all terminated grants.
For more on this and to learn the history of it, visit the American Library Association.
In Masschusetts, the Senate Ways & Means has redrafted and released An Act Regarding Free Expression, and the full Senate debated and voted on this bill on Thursday, November 13. The vote was successful and the bill was approved to be moved forward to the House Ways and Means Committee, but it doesn’t seem to be officially “in committee” yet.
If you don’t live in Massachusetts, check here for what you can do in your state to support freedom of expression and speak out against book banning.
Recently Read
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
An instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from “the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction” (New York Times) — Publisher
This is really a must-read. No wonder it’s a modern classic. I marked off passages to mention, but don’t have the book with me now (on my lunch hour at work) so I can’t do that!
Currently Reading
Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur
From the author of the bestselling memoir Wild Game comes a riveting novel about Cape Cod, complicated families, and long-buried secrets. – Publisher
The closer I get to the end of Little Monsters, the more I feel sure that I’ve read this book before, but the hardcover edition only just came out in 2023! My memory is bad, but is it really that bad? It’s not in my LibraryThing record of books I’ve read, and it’s not in my library checkout history, digital or physical. By 2023, I had already given up reviewing books for Library Journal, too. It’s set in Massachusetts (on Cape Cod) and is the kind of dysfunctional family novel I’d be inclined to read. Hmm. I don’t know how long I’ve owned the paperback copy I’m reading, so I probably read it at some point and forgot to record that I read it. Anyway…it’s good.
I always remember plots only vaguely, so I don’t remember how it’s going to end. (Could I have started it and not finished it? ) Longstanding family issues will be resolved and long-held secrets revealed, and I think all the characters will be OK, but it’s not a feel-good story where you can count on everyone being happy at the end.
Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson
An unexpected road trip across America brings a family together, in this raucous and moving new novel from the bestselling author of Nothing to See Here. – Publisher
Currently Not Reading
Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott
“Real magic, real delight, doled out generously in the shape of wistful, ferocious, this-world-but-better stories.”—Kelly Link, author of White Cat, Black Dog
Didn’t finish this book in time and had to return it. I plan to come back to it next year!
Recently Listened To
The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves
The Raging Storm is the latest in the Two Rivers mystery novels featuring Detective Matthew Venn, with the next one not out until October 2026. Interestingly, my husband commented on the audiobook narrator sounding “dead”, and I said I thought that’s probably on purpose, because the detective character is emotionally stunted from growing up in a religious sect. When he realized he was gay, the Brethren shunned him and he was estranged from his parents until after his father’s death. Now happily married with a successful career as a police officer, Matthew still has a lot of psychological baggage.
https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/crime-thriller/ann-cleeves-two-rivers-series-books-in-order
A series I’m caught up on! That never happens!
Currently Listening To
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret: A Festive Mystery by Benjamin Stevenson
If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe. — Publisher
Starting Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret today. This is third in a series of stand-alone, self-contained mysteries set in Australia – 1 Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone (2022) · 2 Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect (2023) · 3 Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret (2024) – with the fourth one coming out in March, but I’d suggest starting with the first one to get the gist of the first-person narration and character of the “author” of these books. The narrator promises the reader “fair play” as in the Golden Age mysteries he is keen on, so there are no unreliable narrators, last-minute clues revealed, etc.
This is a fun series! Especially recommended if you like Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders, Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club, or the Anty Boisjoly series by P. J. Fitzsimmons.
This post is linked up to It’s Monday, What Are You Reading, hosted by The Book Date. It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is a place to meet up and share what you have been and are currently reading each week. Visit the link-up for more books to add to your groaning TBR pile.
