Written mid-April: As I’m writing this, baby Kai is just about ten months old, Naomi is almost four, and everything is finally, finally turning green and bloomy and colorful again. My mental health is burgeoning like the buds outside. Kai is crawling and cruising around, loving oranges and tomatoes and lemons and basically anything acidic and squishy – no scurvy for this kid. Naomi continues to switch characters moment to moment; one second a princess, the next batgirl, the next a unicorn, the next a fruit bat. We’re all just trying to keep up. Kai giggles his head off when she turns upside down and reaches toward his face.

Here’s everything I read since the last installment – so, Jan 1-April 30, or, the first third of 2025, as our country’s systems continue to crumble around us. The list is roughly in the order in which I read these. Green books are ones I loved and recommend. Purple books are ones I disliked (and either didn’t finish or wished I hadn’t.) Black books are somewhere in between!

First – books I actually read in 2024 and forgot to put on the last list:

• A Talent for Murder, by Peter Swanson (F) – A fun twisty mystery with a likable, plausible female main character. (The NYT wrote in 2023: “Peter Swanson has a clear, conversational writing style that makes even his most preposterous plots seem reasonable.”) I liked Swanson’s writing enough to read another by him…
• Nine Lives, by Peter Swanson (F) – Which was still fun, but I didn’t like quite as much.
• Murder in the Family, by Cara Hunter (F) – Another reasonably fun mystery, written as a screenplay mixed with emails and press releases. It was occasionally hard to follow and the ending wasn’t very satisfying.
• The Nature of Disappearing, by Kimi Cunningham Grant (F) – A sort of spooky thriller mixed with wilderness/survival story. I feel like it didn’t always make sense and the writing was sometimes terrible. But also, ultimately, I hardly remember anything about this book which is not a great sign.
• Margo’s Got Money Troubles, by Rufi Thorpe (F) – I am certainly not alone in loving this book. It’s so good! So funny and weird, so feel of deeply real characters who clearly love one another, really an excellent book about motherhood.
• End of Story, by A.J. Finn (F) – Yet another mystery/thriller – with a sort of weird ending?

Then, the list from Jan 1 – April 30:

• I Need You to Read This, by Jessa Maxwell (F) – This book was SO BAD and I cannot believe I finished it. (Murder mystery set in a library.)
• Miss Benson’s Beetle, by Rachel Joyce (F) – Luckily so much better. Delightful adventure story about an older middle-aged woman having a late in life adventure; beetles and entomology; pregnancy; female friendship.
• The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County, by Claire Swinarski (F) – The first chapter was good and it was all downhill from there. Weird Christian and Republican undertones (sometimes overtones…Is that a word?) I kept reading for the north woods vibes, I guess?
• The Girls from Corona Del Mar, by Rufi Thorpe (F) – I didn’t like it quite as much as Margo’s Got Money Troubles, but still really like Thorpe’s writing. Her dialogue is so good. This one gets quite sad.
• There is No Ethan, by Anna Akbari (NF) – Very fascinating nonfiction story about a woman who catfished a bunch of women online, pretending to be this dude named Ethan, and how those women banded together to catch her out.
• Good Material, by Dolly Alderton (F) – Funny, sweet, relatable, well-written romance.
• How to Solve Your Own Murder, by Kristen Perrin (F) – Fun cozy read. Writing’s okay.
• The Wedding People, by Alison Espach (F) – Beautiful funny existential novel.
• The Husbands, by Holly Gramarzio (F) – I loved the main character so much, and kept talking to Niko about this book as I was reading it.
• Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros (F, fantasy) – This is just not my genre, but I feel like everyone I knew was reading this series one day and I wanted to check out the hype. Some fun YA adventurey stuff in there, but generally not for me.
• The Guide, by Peter Heller (F) – I like Heller’s writing, and how he weaves in the setting so well, but found the convoluted plot v implausible.
• Pineapple Street, by Jenny Jackson (F) – Lighthearted, fun novel about a family in New York.
• Nightbitch, by Rachel Yoder (F, magical realism) – did not finish. Had potential, but it wasn’t the right time to read about an angry, floundering mother (who is slowly turning into a dog.)
• Scrap, by Calla Henkel (F) – Weird punctuation, but overall really liked the writing and the story. (A thriller that is also about art, wealth, true crime, and scrapbooks.)
• Anita de Monte Laughs Last, by Xochitl Gonzalez (F) – Sometimes a little slow, but so many passages I loved. Exploration of young women of color in a man’s art world.
• The Rom-Commers, by Katherine Center (F) – Funny, sweet, clever romance with great dialogue.
• State of Paradise, by Laura van den Berg (F) – did not finish. So depressing. Very Florida.
• The Summer Pact, by Emily Giffin (F) – I think this was like a romance/travel/friendship y novel. I do not remember it very well. I didn’t hate it.
• An Indian Among Los Indigenas, by Ursula Pike (NF) – Super interesting memoir of Pike’s experience in the Peace Corps in Bolivia. She does not always come off as very likeable, but very very smart and self-aware. Fascinating look at the complexities and contradictions of the Peace Corps and its mission.
• You Are Here, by David Nicholls (F) – Delightfully written, often funny British novel about a long thru-hike and romance and friendship.
• One Perfect Couple, by Ruth Ware (F) – A very meh thriller.
• Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy (F) – I loved this book SO MUCH. It’s the combination of unfolding mystery and climate change philosophizing and mothering in the face of wildfire and botany lessons and seed library stewardship and Arctic adventure and hope and fear and weird and wonderful characters I needed.
• Half Magic, by Edward Eager (YA) – A re-read of a children’s novel I loved as a child; a one-hour comfort read on a rainy, dark, airplane ride back to Minneapolis when I was missing my kiddos. (Honestly a very fun little book about some siblings who find a magic coin which grants exactly half of whatever wish you make while holding it.)
• The No-Show, by Beth O’Leary (F) – A fun, cleverly written romance with some good twists and turns.
• Nothing to See Here, by Kevin Wilson (F) – I’m not even sure why but I loved this book. His writing! It’s so good. Kids who spontaneously catch on fire! A world weary nanny! I made Niko read it and he loved it too.
• We Solve Murders, by Richard Osman (F) – This guy just keeps pulling off very funny, satisfying mystery novels with extremely likable characters.
• The Guest, by Emma Cline (F) – Dark, sharply written novel
• You are Fatally Invited, by Ande Pliego (F) – Gory, poorly written mystery/thriller that I skimmed the second half of to find out what was going on and probably shouldn’t have done even that.

This brings us to the end of April (although NOW as I’m writing this it’s July…)