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Native Son by Richard Wright (A). I had never heard of this book until reading about it in paper after paper in grad school, and I am so glad I read it. It should be every bit as part of the US Literature classics as To Kill a Mockingbird. A Black man accidentally (for the most part accidental) kills a white woman and tries to evade arrest in the 1930s.

A Fabulous Thru-Hike by Derick Lugo (A). Lugo tells his account of hiking the Continental Divide Trail in 2022. I’ve been dying to read something about this thru-hike, and I really enjoyed Lugo’s memoir.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (A-) A man wakes up on a spaceship with amnesia and slowly realises that it’s up to him to save Earth from a virus affecting the Sun. And then he meets an alien whose home planet has the same thing. Very smartly written, and I wonder how the new Ryan Gosling film will fair.

The B-List:

Different Seasons (B+) was my Stephen King re-read for the month, although I skipped the Apt Pupil novella as I don’t think I could handle it right now. So many movies inspired that somehow are more memorable than the novellas (Rita Hayworth and the Shawnshank Redemption, The Body (aka Stand By Me)…


The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood B+ A retelling of The Oydssey from Penelope’s point of view. I had to abandon the Oryx and Crake trilogy for reasons so I re-read this one instead.

Theodoore Boone: The Fugitive (B-), The Scandal and The Accomplice (both B+) by John Grisham. The last three books of the series about a 13-year-old with lawyer parents who finds himself in such outrageous situations (plus the random Animal Court chapter that allows him to…sorta practice law). The Fugitive, going back to Books 1 and 3, was too ridiculous, but the other two were ridiculous in a fun way. He never resolved the sorta cliffhanger in Book 5 though, so I wonder if the seventh was really the final one…

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich (B). Not Erdrich’s best. Small town near Fargo deals with 2008 financial crisis, and a teen marries the wrong man for the wrong reasons.

Always the Almost by Edward Underhill (B) Decent YA romance about a trans guy falling for the new guy while having to deal with a huge upcoming piano recital competition.

One Week to Win the Chocolate Maker by Timothy Janovsky B. Ok, I don’t think anyone was asking for a gay retelling of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory aimed at adults, but here we are…it would have been better had it been its own thing, but it was sorta fun.

Colton Gentry’s Third Act by Jeff Zentner (B). A country singer speaks out against guns at a concert (after his friend is killed in a mass shooting) and gets cancelled and returns to his hometown in Kentucky and starts over as a sous chef for his ex girlfriend. Despite the premise, it’s not that political and focuses more on returning home and the romance with his ex girlfriend.

An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole (B-) A non traditional student receives a scholarship to a (fictitious) Ivy and finds herself embroiled in dark academia magic. It’s Cole’s first adult novel (she’s a YA writer and it shows), but there was a lot of promise and I think other books will be better.

The C-List

The Case of the Murdered Muckracker by Rob Osler (C+) I liked his first book about the (fictional) first woman detective in Chicago and learning more about early 20th century queer Chicago but this second mystery was just a chore to get through. I’m not sure I’d read a third now. Maybe my hopes were too high for this one.

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley C+ A group of friends get together to hold funerals for each other while they’re still alive. I found the characters shallow and insufferable and I skimmed to get through it. I’m not sure I’ll read any more of Rowley either.