The Book of Flora

 Fiction by Meg Elison

https://www.audible.com

This is the last book in the "Road to Nowhere" Series (see below). It was a good conclusion to the series, in that it wrapped everything up pretty well while producing some surprises at the end. Still, it was kind of sad to me; I liked the characters of Flora and Etta a lot and really wanted them to end up happier.

I suppose it's hard to have a happy ending in a post-apocalyptic world...

I also read by this author in this series: The Book of the Unnamed Midwife and The Book of Etta

The Book of Etta

 Fiction by Meg Elison

https://www.audible.com

This book is the sequel to The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. It continues the story of the post-apocalyptic world where the population had been almost wiped out about a hundred years before by a plague that still threatens the human race, especially the women.

The city of Nowhere, the place where the Unnamed Midwife had taken refuge, is surviving, but there are at least ten men for every woman still. Women who have borne a living child are revered, but many still die in childbed fever. Raiders from Nowhere go out to find Old World goods, and to rescue women and girls from slave traders around the country, and Etta is one of those raiders.

This was an exciting continuation of the tale begun in the first book. The story does get darker and more brutal though. There is one more book in the series that I plan to listen to next.

I also read by this author: Find Layla

Becoming Chloe

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Jordan is living on the streets when he meets a damaged girl who doesn't like her real name, so she decides to be called Chloe. He works hard to take care of her, but soon learns that just changing Chloe's name doesn't change all the bad things that have happened to her. Desperate to save her, Jordan embarks on a quest to show Chloe the good and beautiful things of the world, and eventually learns how to see them for himself.

After several books I didn't like, I went to this author I always enjoy, and she did not disappoint. Great characters and a good story!

I also read recently by this author: Electric God

So Long Chester Wheeler

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Lewis Madigan is having a really bad day, and his crotchety neighbor Chester Wheeler manages to make it worse with his snide comments. Chester is wheelchair bound and almost totally dependent on a caregiver, but you'd never know it from the way the old man keeps driving nurses and helpers off, to the despair of his grown daughter. But Lewis is also out of work, and when Chester's daughter offers him the job of temporarily caring for Chester, Lewis is hard-pressed to refuse.

But why is Chester so hateful? Is here a kernel of good underneath his mean-old-man bluster? This was a really good character story that gave me a lot to think about. 

I also read recently by this author: Life, Loss, and Puffins

Life, Loss, and Puffins

Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is peripherally a story within a story; it begins with a woman called Ru telling a couple of teenaged girls about her life. The dates are ambiguous, and I don’t know how old Ru is supposed to be at the beginning, but I don’t think she’s an old lady. The point of the telling is not reveal until the very end of the book. 

Ru begins her story at age thirteen when she meets her best friend Gabriel, who is not her boyfriend. The events that unfold are interesting and surprising, and the reader will fall in love with both Gabriel and Ru herself. 

This was a really good book with great characters and a lot to think about, as I’ve come to expect from this author.

I also read recently by this author: Just a Regular Boy

Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew From It

 Nonfiction by Greg Marshall

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Greg Marshall was born with cerebral palsy but he didn't know it until he was thirty years old.

Apparently his mother didn't want him "labelled," and just said his bad leg and weak arm were just due to "tight tendons." She felt that Greg could just act like he was normal, and then it would be so. Interestingly enough, it worked somewhat. Greg grew up with a can-do mindset that served him well in many ways. But that didn't stop him from being absolutely livid when he found out the truth.

This was an interesting set up for a memoir, but the bulk of the book was just random disconnected stories, so it's not the kind of memoir I really like.

The Writing Retreat

 Fiction by Julia Bartz

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Alex is a writer who hasn't been able to write since she and her best friend Wren broke up. Friend breakups are brutal, and in this one Wren took all of their mutual friends with her, leaving Alex high and dry. It's been a year, and Alex still isn't over it. But then she gets a chance to go on a month-long writing retreat with her favorite author as a mentor! Maybe this will un-clog her writer's block.

Unfortunately, Wren is also going. But that won't turn out to be Alex's biggest problem on this writing retreat! There are a lot of plot twists coming...

I thought it was pretty good. Although some elements were WAY over the top, it was entertaining. This book is not for everyone, though. See below for another reviewer's poetic take that I found hilarious. It's posted at https://www.barnesandnoble.com.

Train Wreck

Angry black woman? Got it

Token other brown person? Got it

Four woke lesbians? Got it

Gratuitous lesbian sex scenes? Well yeah

Irrelevant sex with a demon scene? Sounds good

Maybe I’ll take this psychological thriller and turn it into horror halfway through? Done

Implausible forced writing during significant trauma? Why not.

Oh hey let’s try to kill everyone off! Of course!

Happy ending? Well yeah!

LDWReviews

Gulf Coast, LA

Memorial

 Fiction by Bryan Washington

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Mike and his boyfriend Benson live together in Houston. They really love each other, but they have been going through some troubles.  The major issue is Mike’s lack of fidelity, although Benson tries to act like he doesn’t mind. 

Then Mike hears from his mother in Japan that his father is dying. Although his parents are divorced, he knows this will upset his mother, so he invites her to come for an extended visit to the apartment he and Benson share in Houston. Then (inexplicably!) he leaves for Japan the day after she arrives, blithely expecting Benson to take care of her in his absence as he goes to see his dying father instead.

Although Mike’s mother and Benson are strangers, they begin to forge a relationship. Mike stays in Japan for months, waiting for his father to die. Occasionally he texts. Benson continues to muddle along as he always has, but it’s clear he needs to decide if he will continue to accept Mike’s casually selfish behavior or demand a change. 

This was an interesting book and I really liked some of the characters (NOT that dirtbag Mike). The story was difficult for me I guess; I really wanted good things for Benson. I wasn’t exactly happy with the ending but I guess it was realistic. I don’t know how to rate this one.

The House in the Cerulean Sea

 Fiction by T.J. Klune

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In the universe of this book, there are children born as magical creatures, such as sprites and gnomes, or even telekinetics and shape-shifters. In order to control both the children and people's fear of them, they are monitored by the government and mostly housed in orphanages. Linus Baker works for the social services agency that oversees such orphanages. He tries to do a good job and help the children, although it is difficult because of all of the agency rules.

Then Linus is sent to a special orphanage with children so magical and special that their very existence is classified. There he has to decide whether the children or the rules are the most important thing, and also if he might risk falling in love.

This was a fun and warm-hearted story.

Mad Honey

Fiction by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Olivia McAfee is a single mother and a professional beekeeper who feels like she's mostly recovered from the abusive marriage she escaped over ten years ago. But when her teenage son Asher's girlfriend Lily is found dead, he's accused of the crime. Did Asher abuse and murder his girlfriend? And what really happened between Asher and Lily?

This was an interesting book with some surprises. Like all of Jodi Picoult's books, there's an ISSUE at the heart of the story, but it comes up unexpectedly. (It's LGBTQ-related, just for a heads-up.)

Although there were two writers, I didn't notice any switch in style. Also the afterward at the end about the process was enlightening.

I also read recently by this author: Wish You Were Here

Razorblade Tears

 Fiction by S.A. Cosby

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Tagline: A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.

Ike Randolph and his grown son Isiah have had a difficult relationship. Not only did Ike spend much of Isiah's childhood in prison, Ike has been less than supportive of his son as an adult. When Isiah and his husband Derek are murdered, Ike is devastated and wracked with guilt, mourning over the son he'd lost and could never reconcile with.

Derek's father Buddy Lee finds himself in a similar position, and both men decide to channel their mutual grief into vigilante rage when they realize the police aren't getting anywhere in the investigation into Isiah and Derek's deaths.

This was a good story, and much more character-driven and emotionally deep than the tagline makes it sound.

Boy Underground

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Fourteen-year-old Steven feels like an outcast in his small California farming community; he's not like the other kids, or even like the people in his own family, because he's attracted to boys and not girls. He finally finds a group of non-judgmental boys he feels accepted by and takes a camping trip into the mountains with Nick, Ollie, and Suki.

The thing is, the weekend trip begins on December 6, 1941, and Suki is Japanese. The four boys come back to a world where everything has been changed: there has been an attack on Pearl Harbor and the US has been plunged into war. Steven feels even more oppressed in his tiny hometown now that racism as well as homophobia is a problem. Plus his friends are all in trouble: Suki might be sent to an interment camp, Ollie is almost old enough to be drafted, and Nick is being accused of a crime he didn't commit. 

This was good character story with a lot to think about. I did feel like the author was trying to force a contemporary issue into a historical setting, though. 

I also read recently by this author: Jumpstart the World

Jumpstart the World

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Elle's mother is helping her move into her own apartment in New York City. Her mother tells Frank, Elle's friendly next-door-neighbor, that she's a little nervous at leaving her just-turned-eighteen-year-old only child there alone with just a cat from the animal shelter as a companion. Elle doesn't say it, but this is a lie.

There IS a cat, Mother IS nervous, and Elle IS alone. But she hasn't just turned eighteen. Elle's birthday is coming up in a few days, but it's her sixteenth birthday. Mother has a new boyfriend who "doesn't do teenagers," and Elle is being moved out of the way. Plus Elle is starting a new high school where she knows no one and doesn't know how to fit in.

Frank the neighbor and his wife Molly take Elle under their wing and try to look after her, but it turns out that they have a few problems of their own. This was a lovely little story with great characters.

I also read recently by this author: The Day I Killed James

The Guncle

 Fiction by Steven Rowley

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Patrick O'Hara gets temporary custody of his niece and nephew, Maisie and Grant, after their mother, who had been one of his closest friends, has died, and their father, Patrick's brother, goes to rehab. Their dad had apparently encouraged the children to call him "GUP" for "Gay Uncle Patrick," hence the "Guncle" of the title. It's Patrick's task to try to give the kids a fun summer while helping them recover from their mother's death; this is made harder because Patrick himself is still getting over the death of his partner, Joe, several years before. 

This was a pretty good story, mostly lighthearted but not exactly laugh-out-loud funny.

Finding Stevie

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Stevie is fourteen years old and considers himself gender-fluid, a term that foster carer Cathy Glass has never heard. She has to learn quickly what it means in order to help Stevie, who is having trouble in school and rebelling against his grandparents, who can't seem to understand his gender confusion.

I liked this story just a little less that some of the others. Sometimes Cathy came across to me as a little sanctimonious in this book; usually she is very caring and accepting of both the child and his or her family, but in this case she seemed awfully judgey of Stevie's grandparents. Still, it's good to know Cathy isn't perfect.

I also read recently by this author: Please Don't Take My Baby

What If It's Us?

 Fiction by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

https://www.audible.com/

This was a straight romance about a gay couple.

You might be thinking: Wait, what? Remember, I define a "straight romance" as a book where the entire plot is the romance and nothing else happens.

Unfortunately, in this story, REALLY nothing else happens. I liked the characters, but not enough to sustain hours of will-they-or-won't-they when you KNOW that obviously, THEY WILL.

I have read other books by these authors separately that are better, so I think maybe collaboration is not the best idea for them.

I also read by Adam Silvera : They Both Die at the End

I also read by Becky Albertalli: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Simon Vs the Homo Sapien's Agenda

Fiction by Becky Albertalli


https://www.barnesandnoble.com

So...this was a young adult novel about a teenage boy who is afraid to tell his parents he is gay, and he is also trying to find true love.

The voice felt really authentic and the story was interesting. I am a little troubled by novels for teens with sex in them though, straight or gay....

The Paying Guests

Fiction by Sarah Waters.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

I recently read Fingersmith by this author and LOVED it, but this book was kind of disappointing.

It's basically--ahem--a lesbian romance set in 1920's England, which was not exactly what I was expecting. In general, I prefer romance (of any kind) to be secondary to plot in a novel. The story finally picked up a bit more than halfway through the book, but there was a lot of nothing going on but luv-luv-luv for way too long. And maybe I'm being a prude about it, of course.

Carry On

Fiction by Rainbow Rowell.


http://www.barnesandnoble.com

In the book Fangirl, also by Rainbow Rowell,  the main character was obsessed with a series of magical stories about a boy called Simon Snow. This is his story.

Although the books are related, it is by no means necessary to read Fangirl before reading Carry On. It's a completely separate story.

I actually liked this book even more than the original, maybe because of the magical aspect.

Carry the One

Fiction by Carol Anshaw.


http://www.barnesandnoble.com

There is a tragic accident at the beginning of this book that affects the characters involved over the next 25 years. This is a good premise and I was interested in how the author developed it.

I will admit that there was a little too much lesbian sex for my taste, but of course, I would have preferred none at all. So maybe I'm not the best judge of what is too much.

Other than that, this was a great book.