Book #40:

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff (288 pages).  I hugged this perfect novel as soon as I was finished. This is a sprawling family saga where the author features the point of view of 3 main characters (one at a time) throughout their relationships and their lives. The writing quality is excellent here, yet always accessible. It reads as literary fiction but EASY. The character development is stellar, and the author leaves no stone unturned with regard to each main character’s motivations and inner thoughts. You as a reader quickly come to root for these people and are invested in what happens to them. This is a FULL five stars from me; I get the hype and why this novel was such a favorite for so many readers last year.

Book #41:

Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden (Length: 239 pages). This memoir is everywhere so I wanted to see what all of the fuss is about. For those who’ve been living under a rock, the author’s husband told her in the first week of Covid lockdown that he was leaving her after 20 years of marriage AND he didn’t want custody (legal or physical) of their 3 kids. The author’s family is VERY wealthy (reports indicate the author’s family trust fund is 60 some million dollars) and the family is a part of Martha’s Vineyard and NYC society, so the glimpses of this life are fascinating. Her writing is excellent and I couldn’t stop reading. I do think the author is self-aware, especially of her privilege, and you can’t help but root for her and her family to be okay. 3.5 stars.

Book #42:

Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Length: 101 pages).  This is novella 1 in the author’s Dorothy Gentleman trilogy. I listened to this on audio and it’s absolutely the way to go with this fun, cozy murder mystery set on board an interstellar spaceship heading to another planet. The narrator, Dorothy Gentleman, is one of the ship’s onboard detectives and she wakes up in a different body just as a (rare) murder has occurred. Passengers on this voyage are able to store their memories in the ship’s library to give their bodies a rest, and this conceit is what makes this fun little mystery work. I’ll absolutely continue on with this trilogy the next time I’m in need of a cozy mystery. 4 stars.

Book #43:

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Length: 493 pages). This initial book in a fantasy duology is SO MUCH FUN! A retired female pirate in middle age takes one last job to rescue a kidnapped girl in order to earn a payday that will set up her own little family for generations to come. The tone here is fun, the adventure is top-notch, the camaraderie of her crew made me smile and the writing is excellent. There’s some magical realism and the author’s vivid storytelling made this so difficult for me to put down each day. I have already procured the second one in the series . . . released a few weeks ago. 5 full stars from me.

Book #44:

Start at the End by Emma Grey (Length: 389 pages). This is a Sliding Doors-esque romance which is very sad (fair warning!) but ends on a more hopeful note. The main characters are a classical music composer and a climate scientist; they are fully drawn and the plot is propulsive. The story splits into two different directions about midway through and this gives this romance more depth than the average novel, but I found the writing quality to be a bit cheesy in places, which was distracting. I know some readers love her writing, so this is likely a “me” thing. 3.5 stars from me.