Marching Into Book Reviews

Happy (almost) spring! The weather here is swinging wildly from one extreme to the next, and I feel like my reading lately has too – let’s see what I’ve gotten into!

–Marissa

Here After by Amy Lin is a slim memoir that weaves together the before and after of her husband Kurtis’s sudden, unexplained death while out running one day. I love the structure of this memoir and the spare language, but felt I truly knew Kurtis and know Amy. Told in short vignettes, you could absolutely devour this in one sitting – heartbreakingly beautiful.

Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle was an easy, breezy read. When Daphne starts dating someone new, she mysteriously receives a piece of paper somehow that tells her how long she’ll be with that man (sometimes days, sometimes months, sometimes a night) – but when she goes on a first date with Jake, there is no number listed. She and her best friend Hugo unpack her past relationships, and what this could mean for her future. Just a nice, warm, easy novel.

Significant Others by Zoe Eisenberg is a book of female friendship – specifically that of Jess and Ren, who have been each other’s “person” since college, and now live together in Hawaii. When Ren – the flighty bartender – has a one night stand and ends up pregnant, it throws her relationship with Jess – driven and successful – into stark relief. They make plans to raise the child together, but of course, *things* happen. Such an interesting take on female friendships, motherhood, and coupledom.

The Locked Door by Freida McFadden was, seriously, so f’n poorly written and f’n stupid, I’m having trouble formulating a review. I ended up listening to this audiobook at 2.5x speed just to get through it, in a effort to understand WHY she is so popular with our patrons. I am astonished at how bad this was.

Piglet by Lottie Hazell was cleverly written, filled with luscious description of food, and heartbreaking at the same time. Piglet (a childhood nickname) and Kit are due to be married in two weeks’ time, but when Kit betrays her just before, Piglet goes from cookbook editor and fab cook to… someone who just… wants to eat without worrying about her wedding dress fitting or how it looks to order multiple burgers in her struggle to make sense of her life and choices. This one was complicated and sad and hopeful and… made me hungry.

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer was thought-provoking, in a super uncomfortable way. Annie (a female robot) was created to be the perfect girlfriend to Doug (cooking, cleaning, sex, intimacy, all of it), and she’s learning as he goes how to make Doug happy despite his increasingly gross ways of treating her. It was fascinating to be in Annie’s mind throughout, no matter how much I cringed at the way Doug treated her (and wanting to kick his ass), and to think of how this could be our future as AI progresses. At 240 pages, you can fly through this one.

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera was just a damn good time. 🙂 After Lucy is found covered in her best friend’s blood and wandering the streets years ago, everyone in her small town in convinced she murdered Savvy. Now, years later, a podcaster (a cute podcaster) is digging into the story again and throwing Lucy’s life into chaos. This had all I wanted – a good mystery, red herrings, snark, humor, sexy times, all of it! This was a fab read, and I screamed through it in a day because I wanted to stay in Lucy’s (snarky) orbit. Recommended for sure!