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Actress of a Certain Age by Jeff Hiller (A-). Best known for his role as Joel on Somebody Somewhere, Hiller writes about his life experiences. It was fun, funny and heartwarming all at the same time, much like his character.

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster (A-) The movie is probably better known than this book about a British woman who meets people who will change her life on a trip to Firenze (Florence), Italy at the beginning of the 20th century. Well worth the read, but the movie is a great adaptation.

Hollywood Pride by Alonso Duralde (A-). A great read for Pride month! It’s an overview of the LGBTQ+ history in Hollywood, including films, actors, directors and icons, from the silent era to the time of the book’s printing in 2024.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (A-) While some things haven’t aged well (portrayal of indigenous people for one), I contextualized. It’s long, but it didn’t feel long. It’s about survival and exploration in 19th century US as a few people move from Lonesome Dove, Texas, to Montana.

The B-List

Winging It With You by Chip Pons (B+) A cute romcom about a guy being broke up with his boyfriend at the airport when they’re about to go on an Amazing Race style reality show who asks a pilot to pose as his boyfriend. They, of course, fall in love for real.

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson (B+) A woman is surprised by a man at her door explaining he’s her brother. Turns out their dad stays with a family for about ten years before running away. They go on a road trip to meet their other siblings and track down that absentee father. It’s a fun, quick read, but I do love road novels and movies.

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler (B). It only took me a day to read Tyler’s newest book about a woman’s lifelong secret coming out at her daughter’s wedding. Typical Tyler, and almost too short of a novella. I enjoy most of her writing, but it isn’t full love. She’s good enough to want to read more of her books though.

Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod (B-) I thought this would be more about the Kumano Kudo (Japan’s version of the Camino), but it was more random musings of Mod’s walks in Japan during the beginning of the Covid pandemic. Somewhat interesting, but I expected something different.

The Trail of Lost Hearts by Tracey Garvis Graves (B-) The first half of this was great—a woman goes geocaching in Oregon to move on from her late partner, but she is nearly assaulted by a group of men. The guy who scared them off offers to travel with her, and they eventually fall for each other…and then the book got bland. A few good twists, but…had it been like the first half, this would have been an A.

The First King of Shannara by Terry Brooks. A prequel to the Shannara series about the…I forget which war…that lead the creation of the magical Sword of Shannara and the tale of the Druid that trained Alanon. It was just kinda information from other books stretched out into a prequel. I think I’m going to duck out of this series (at least for a bit) after re-reading The Word and Void series to see how it got retconned into being part of the Shannara books.

The C-List

Slayers Every One of Us by Kristin Russo & Jenny Owen Youngs (C+) This is more about the podcast Buffering, which I had never heard of (I’m not a fan of podcasts) and how it played out through their relationship and divorce. It’s for the fans of the podcast, so if you didn’t know it, it was kinda…ok? So what?

Clanlands by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish C

I haven’t seen Outlander, but I loved Heughan’s memoir of walking the West Highland Way, so I was hoping for another great Scottish travelogue. Instead, I found two immature men “taking the p***” out of each other for 300 pages with some random Scottish trivia thrown in.