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Here We Go Again by Betty White (B). Like many, I love Betty White, but I found her book to be just okay. It focused on her life pre-Golden Girls and was originally published in 1995. I read the 2010 edition.

Seeing Strangers by Sebastian J. Plata (A). A gay couple are about to close their relationship once their surrogate mother gives birth, but a guy one once spurned is exacting his revenge by destroying their relationship. Short quick thriller that was fun and unhinged.

Table for Two by Amor Towles (B+). I probably would have appreciated this more if I had read Rules of Civility, which I haven’t yet. A collection of short stories and one novella with a character from RoC.

Too Much Is Not Enough and Uncle of the Year by Andrew Rannells. I’ve only seen Rannells in a couple of things and am way more familiar with his partner Tuc Watkins (Dr. Dorman #3! David Vickers, and I didn’t even *watch* OLTL! Desperate Housewives!), but I found his books such an enjoyable read that I am finally getting around to watching Girls for his supporting role on there as Elijah.

Let’s Get Back to the Party by Zak Salih (C). Goodreads kept recommending me this book, and…I thought I had read it, but apparently had not, and it was just full of unlikeable, whiny characters and a plot that went nowhere that I wonder if I had started it and returned it unfinished at one point. I can’t even tell you what it was about as it was that forgettable.

Family Meal by Bryan Washington (C). Another unmemorablebooks that Goodreads also kept recommending. I want to like Washington more than I do, as I had read another book by him that was kinda meh on…was hoping this would be better, but it was worse.

The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain (A-) This was a delightful read! Albert is about a UK Royal Post Service employee about to be forced into retirement at 65. After his cat dies at Christmas (mentioning that as it’s a catalyst and because I know that could be a trigger), he decides to come out and look for his teenage lover that he was forced to separate from in the 1960s. It’s one of those cozy books with eccentric characters that’s just fun to read.

Ghost Story by Peter Straub (C-). So I loved The Talisman. Was meh on Black House. But I was encouraged to give Straub a try. And the prologue was hooking me. And then…a bunch of interchangeable upper middle-class characters I couldn’t care about doing nothing but whine…and I skipped ahead to the ending and went on with my life because it was torture. I’m finding that as much as I love Stephen King, I don’t always enjoy his recommendations.

That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx (A-). She’s becoming an old reliable writer fave! A big city guy from Denver in his first job post college finds himself in a small panhandle Texas town trying to convince farmers to sell their land to the evil corporation…but finds he cares about the town.

How Long Has This Been Going On? By Ethan Mordden. This is definitely the most ambitious read of the month at 590 pages. It’s a saga of a group of queer men and two lesbians that spans from 1949-1991 and shows the struggles that they had to go through to be who they were in each decade. They do conveniently all end up in NYC during Stonewall of course, and there is a weird omniscient narrator who throws himself into the story ever so often, but it was a great read.

Where You Once Belonged and Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf (both B+). Finishing off Haruf’s six books about a small eastern Colorado town. Both books were great. Where You Once Belonged is about the high school star who steals money and leaves town for 8 years…and how life went on without him…and he comes back. Not the ending I expected. Our Souls at Night was about two elderly neighbours who begin a romance the kids don’t approve of (believe there is a Netflix movie starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda).

Return to Sender by Julia Álvarez (C). I thought this was an adult book, but it was apparently written for a middle school audience, and it was very preachy... A Vermont farm in the 2000s hires immigrants who aren’t exactly legal, and the 12 year old kid befriends their 12 year old daughter, who was born in Mexico but with sisters born in the US, and of course, immigration finds out.

What My Heart Wants to Tell, How We Talked, and Rennie’s Way by Verna Mae Slone (B+). Verna Mae is my great great aunt, yet I had never read her books. (I met her as a kid. She lived to her 90s. What My Heart is a memoir of growing up in Eastern Kentucky, and How We Talked is a collection of phrases, sayings and traditions she grew up with. Rennie’s Way is a short novel about a 12-year-old whose mom dies in birth, so she takes over raising the newborn and the sacrifices she made for it. I’m not sure what I would think of them without the family connection.

The Bourbon Thief by Tiffany Reisz (F). The book had a somewhat interesting premise of the scandalous lives of a family involved with bourbon in Kentucky, yet one twist made me slam the book shut. (Spoiler spoiler spoiler: the 17 year old finds out her 30 year old husband (already ick factor) is actually her brother).