Run Time

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Adele is an Irish actress, but she's trying to make it in Los Angeles after a wrong decision burned her career back on the Emerald Isle. It's not going well in the USA, so when she gets a last minute offer for a low budget horror film back in Ireland, she decides to take it. And she wants to take it quickly, before any rumor of her previous on-set breakdown gets to the new director. But when Adele gets to the remote location, it's more remote than she'd bargained for. Plus the director is giving her a weird vibe...

This was an exciting page-turner of a thriller with several surprises!

I also read recently by this author: 56 Days

Fifty Grand

 Fiction by Adrian McKitry

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This a revenge story, and those kinds of novels can be quite dark. In this book a female detective from Cuba risks everything to try to hunt down and punish her father's killer.

The characters were well-drawn and believable and the story was interesting, but it was just SO dark. And it didn't seem like anyone was satisfied at the end.

I also read recently by this author: The Chain

Misfit

Subtitled: Growing Up Awkward in the 80's
Nonfiction by Gary Gulman

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https://www.audible.com

This was a fun memoir about a comedian reminiscing about his childhood while recovering from a a major depression.

One thing I really liked about it was how the author recounted exact details of the circumstances and set up great punchlines he made over twenty-five years ago. I'm glad to not be the only one who does that!

The Nickel Boys

 Fiction by Colson Whitehead

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book is a fictionalized account based on a real historical place: a juvenile detention facility in Mariana Florida called a "school for boys." This was a terrible place that remained open for over a hundred years for both white and colored boys, separately housed and very badly treated. Interestingly, I read another book on this subject recently, The Reformatory by Tananarive Due. That book involved the ghosts of dead boys telling the story, while this one  took a more realistic approach.

At the beginning of the story, a group of students from a Florida are digging up an archeological site on the grounds of the old school where hundreds of dead boys were apparently buried. The students are also gathering the stories of the boys who survived the place and are now old men.

This was a good story but very sad. It was well written but I can't say it was enjoyable.

I also read by this author: The Underground Railroad

Remarkably Bright Creatures

 Fiction by Shelby Van Pelt

https://www.audible.com

I tried reading this book in print several years ago and couldn't get into it, but I heard people raving about the audio version. I decided to give it a another chance with the slightly different medium.

Interestingly, I liked it much better in the audiobook version. It's a weird premise: the narrator is an octopus, and that's the reason I was hesitant at first. But actually, the octopus is only one of the narrators. There's also Nova, the woman who cleans the aquarium at night where Marcellus the octopus lives, and Cameron, a young man who comes to visit the aquarium while searching for his father.

This turned out to be a fun book.