October

This month I read 5 ebooks and 3 physical books from the Toronto Public Library, and 1 audiobook, totaling to 8 books.

Horrorstor

Synopsis: Everyone knows Orsk, your friendly nordic furniture store. But at the Orsk Cuyahoga store, weird things have been happening overnight. Mirrors are breaking, furniture is getting stained with unspeakable substances. Store Manager Basil thinks that vandals must be breaking into the store at night, and recruits Amy and Ruth Anne to work and overnight shift with him to see if they can catch the vandals before Pat from the regional office arrives the next morning. Ruth Anne is delighted to help out; she’s been working for Orsk for her whole career, and lives and breathes it. Amy, on the other hand, is not so happy about it. But Basil has offered to pay overtime and approve her transfer to the Youngstown store, so it’s an offer that she can’t really refuse. Will this unlikely group of employees survive their night in the store? Or will this job kill them all?

My thoughts: I thought this was a pretty well done horror satire about working for a corporation. The author really leaned in to the Ikea aesthetic, and each chapter started with an entry for a piece of furniture in the Orsk catalogue. Major spoilers ahead, but the store was actually built on the site of a destroyed panopticon prison, and was haunted by the prison warden that was obsessed with the idea that hard labour cures all ills. And still, the actual villain ended up being the Orsk corporate office. If you are employed, this book will make you want to quit your job. I did genuinely find the book very unsettling (readers will know that I don’t even really like horror media, so I probably shouldn’t have read this at all). Something else I appreciated was that Amy actually showed a lot of character development. Some of this was definitely because she started out as a shitty person, but I still give the author credit for actually having her meaningfully change.

Rating: 4/5 stylish BODAVEST chairs, that will confine the penitent and oppose the agitated movement of blood towards the brain, forcing the subject into a state of total immobility, conducive to self-reflection and free of stressful outside stimuli

Changes by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files #12)

Synopsis: Harry Dresden’s life has changed forever in an instance. His ex-girlfriend and half-vampire Susan Rodriguez has come back into his life after years apart, and she has two devastating pieces of news. Firstly, she and Harry have a child together. A daughter, who’s name is Maggie (after Harry’s mom). (Concealing this fact alone is enough to make Harry rage with anger.) And secondly, Maggie has been kidnapped by Dutches Ariana Ortega of the Red Court of Vampires, and will be used as a blood sacrifice if Harry and Susan can’t rescue her in time. Now, Harry is apoplectic. Even though he’s just now learned of her existence, Harry is determined to save Maggie’s life. It will take every single favour, ally, artifact, and ounce of luck that he can get his hands on. But is he prepared to pay the price?

My thoughts: I think “Changes” is an extremely accurate title to describe this book. Even the fact that it’s one word, compared to every other two-word title, helps to set it apart from the rest of the series. Over the course of this book, Harry loses everything. His car is destroyed, his apartment and laboratory burned down, and he breaks his back (rendering him paralyzed). He is in a truly desperate situation, and sacrifices everything in order to even have a chance at saving Maggie. Karrin Murphy also loses her job for good, finally severing her link to the Chicago Police Department, and I’m very curious as to where she’ll go now. There are also a lot of consequences to his actions, most of which are not even fully realized until the next book. The one exception to this was the magic wayfinding stone that Harry received as a belated gift from his mother, which helps him navigate passages in the Way and effectively allows him to arrive anywhere. It’s described as being very dangerous, and that Harry has to accept all of the risks if he chooses to accept it, although none of the risks ever materialize in this book or the next one.

Rating: 4/5 dream teams known simply as “the eebs”

Sweet Sweet Revenge LTD by Jonas Jonasson

Synopsis: Victor Alderheim cares only about one thing. Not his wife, Jenny, from whom he swindled millions of dollars and her family’s art gallery. Not his teenaged son, Kevin, whom he abandoned in the middle of the Kenyan savannah. He only cares about his gallery, and making sure that the right kind of art (realism) gets featured there. But after growing into a mostly-fledged Masaai warrior, Kevin returns to Stockholm and crosses paths with Jenny. After discovering that they’ve both been wronged by the same man, they become fast friends. They desperately want to take revenge on Victor, but how can they with only 20 kroner to their names? Luckily, they run into Hugo, adman and CEO of Sweet Sweet Revenge LTD, a boutique firm that promises to ruin lives for the right price. And to top it all off, Kevin’s adopted father, full-fledged Masaai warrior Ole Mbatian leaves Keny for the first time ever in search of his son. Will this dubious quartet pull off SSR LTD’s biggest job yet? Or will it end up exploding in their faces.

My thoughts: The events of the book were extremely goofy and silly, but the dry/dark comedy writing style helped a bit to tamp down everything so that it didn’t feel too obnoxious. Even still, it was definitely a lot to take in. I think I would have enjoyed it more if my sense of humor was a bit more open and accepting. By far the best character was Ole Mbatian, who was funny and charmingly optimistic. Victor, on the other hand, was cartoonishly evil in a boring way. Overall this book is definitely difficult to describe, and I would encourage readers to try it for themselves to really get a sense of what the heck is going on.

Rating: 3/5 salmon pate sandwiches that are honestly worth any deal you could make with the devil

A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue by Dean Jobb

Synopsis: In the 1920s and 30s, one of the greatest jewel thieves in American history was on the loose. He captured the imaginations of thousands all while he snuck into mansions and estates, prowling around silently, and making off with thousands of dollars worth of gold and jewelry. His name was Arthur Barry, and he was the best of the best. When he was finally captured after being set up by his partner in crime, he immediately confessed so that his wife, Anna Blake, would not go to prison. And when Anna Blake was dying, he broke out of prison so that they could spend their last years together.

My thoughts: Readers will know that I love a heist, and I thought this book was a fascinating look into Arthur Barry’s life and crimes. It’s a work of narrative nonfiction, so it was extremely easy to read, while still being packed full of accurate historical detail. I thought it was really well researched and put together, and would definitely highly recommend it to anyone who’s into true crime but wants something a little lighter.

Rating: 5/5 strings of rose pearls that scratch your teeth and are worth millions of dollars

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Synopsis: After attempting to rob a cashless bank days before Christmas, the robber flees into an empty apartment to hide from police. Except, it’s not empty: a real estate agent is showing the property to 8 prospective buyers. There’s Ro and Julia, a young couple who are nervous about becoming first time moms. Zara, a wealthy bank manager who tours apartments to see how the middle class live. Anna-Lena and Roger, an older couple who flip apartments and are very competitive, and Lennert, an actor who Anna-Lena has hired to bring down the property’s value. And Estelle, whose husband is just parking the car and will be here momentarily. They (plus the real estate agent) have all been taken hostage by the bank robber, who is trying desperately to figure out their next move. On the other side of the door are two police officers, reluctant father and son team Jim and Jack, who are out of their depth and struggling to keep the situation from spiraling out of control. But is that what’s really going on?

My thoughts: I hate to admit it but I did read this book because I saw it all over the internet. It was a booktok darling, but I do think that it was worth the hype. I still went into it pretty blind, but it was not the thriller I was expecting. Instead it was like sitting in a very good therapist’s office; cozy and comfortable, emotional, probing, and soul-searching. And eventually, after peeling back the layers, you finally discover what’s really going on. The book has a big focus on anxiety, depression, and loneliness, but there was still enough going on to drive the plot forward without getting bogged down. I also liked that the unreliable narrator wasn’t crazy or trying to protect themselves, but was instead misconstruing things to protect someone else, which I found new and interesting. Similarly, I liked that the book unraveled a mystery (how the bank robber escaped) that wasn’t a murder. Overall, I think that this is what I was hoping for when I read Sweet Sweet Revenge LTD, but Anxious People actually accomplished it.

Rating: ⅘ dead bodies filled with so much gin and tonic that you don’t dare cremate them (although that doesn’t mean they didn’t have good advice to offer)

The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther by Jeffery Haas

Synopsis: In 1969, Fred Hampton was a revolutionary leader, and Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. At only 21 years old, the FBI considered him a major threat and started surveilling and discrediting both Hampton and the Black Panthers as part of their COINTELPRO operation. On December 4th, 1969, the Chicago Police, working in tandem with the FBI, raided Fred’s home and shot him while he was drugged and unconscious in bed. The book is written by Fred’s lawyer Jeffery Haas, and chronicles his 12-year journey with the People’s Law Office in an attempt to gain justice for Fred’s family and the other survivors of the raid.

My thoughts: This book was really comprehensive and well written, and painted a pretty horrifying picture of how Black people were treated by police and the justice system both in the 1960s and today. Judge Sam Perry was particularly egregious, constantly ruling against Haas even when it was nonsensical to do so, and actively impairing their progress and ability to try the case. It was also insane that despite these giant court cases, and the settlements that the families eventually got, that the FBI and the Chicago Police still basically got away with murder. The only real consequence that any of the defendants ever experienced was not getting re-elected, which is overall very minor compared to how Fred was brutally murdered. He didn’t love long enough to see the birth of his son, and without him, the Black Panther movement crumbled. If Fred hadn’t been assassinated (especially at such a young age), I think that the future would have been noticeably different with him in it. I’m really glad that I got to read this with our book club, because it helped me engage with the text on a deeper level, and notice things that I had previously missed.

Rating: 4/5 perfect homecooked meals by Iberia Hampton

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

Synopsis: Malcolm Kershaw owns a mysteries-only bookstore in Boston. Years ago, when he was just starting out, he wrote a blog post about eight perfect murders in crime fiction. It was just a little something for the bookstore’s blog, hoping that it was help increase sales. But now, years later, FBI Agent Gwen Mulvey thinks that someone is using that article as inspiration to commit a series of perfect murders in real life. She’s determined to get Malcolm, the resident subject-matter expert for crime fiction, to advise her in order to catch the murderer. Malcolm reluctantly agrees, but when the victims seem to be getting closer and closer to his personal life, it seems that he may be in way over his head. [The Eight Perfect Murders are: The Red House, Malice Aforethought, the ABC Murders, Double Indemnity, Strangers on a Train, The Drowner, Deathtrap, and The Secret History]

My thoughts: I feel like the concept for this book was really cool, but the execution was not great. I was not at all convinced that the unsolved murders were connected to each other or the eight perfect murders for the first third of the book, which is definitely too long. I would have preferred the irl murders to be a lot closer to their fictional counterparts. I also was pretty doubtful when Mal started getting paranoid that the murderer was coming after him/his loved ones. Not everything has to revolve around him (although he actually did end up being the center of everything, for an unexpected reason). My final problem (readers will know that’s an allusion to a Sherlock Holmes story) with Mal was when he revealed that he might have done some things in a dream/suppressed his memory of doing them. I think the allusion to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was cool, but c’mon, you can’t just say “i thought i was dreaming but turns out it happened irl” and expect to get away with it. There are plenty of other ways to conceal something from the reader without being so outlandish (like, for example, just lying). The Gwen plotline felt super rushed. I thought that her suspension from active FBI service would actually go somewhere but she just was sidelined until the end of the book, when Mal confessed everything to her over a phone call. He claims that this would be enough evidence to prove to the FBI that her theory was right, but an unrecorded phone call would prove absolutely nothing and only serve to be for dramatic effect.

Rating: 3/5 pet cats that you adopted from the scene of the crime

The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton

Synopsis: In the year 2041, humanity’s last hope was a spaceship called the Providence I. It was manned by the world’s best, with a goal of flying out to Proxima Century B and starting a new civilization on a goldilocks planet. Cleo grew up obsessed with the Providence mission, especially Captain Wilhelmina (Billie) Lucas. But on the day of the launch, the moment that the dark matter engines were powered up, the entire crew simply vanished. Humanity never recovered, and the Providence remained on Earth. Now, in 2061, an adult Cleo and her friends are determined to explore the Providence and see if they can solve the mystery of the crew’s disappearance. But while on board, they accidentally power on the engines, and get launched into space. They’re trapped on the ship, with only a hologram of Captain Lucas to guide them. Can they figure out what happened to the old crew? And what will happen when they start reacting strangely to the dark matter engines?

My thoughts: despite this being intended as an adult sci-fi novel, it was incredibly YA-core. The writing style and the actions of the characters felt pretty immature, considering that Cleo and her friends were supposed to be 29 years old. The voice of the novel also felt very targeted to a teen audience, and I was genuinely confused as to what age group the book was really written for. It was also not very science-y for a science fiction book, and I usually read sci-fi books because I am craving some hard science. I don’t think that just any book set in space/on a spaceship should get to call itself science fiction without actually embodying the principles of science fiction. This book ended up being more a teen romance between Cleo and the hologram of Billie. I thought it was a little odd that there was basically a love triangle between Cleo and holo Billie and real Billie (each Billie thought that Cleo would choose the other Billie over her). I’m glad that it was resolved, but at the same time felt that it was resolved a little too neatly.

Rating: 3/5 3D printers that can cook up (literally) whatever your heart desires.

What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund

Synopsis: In this book, Peter Mendelsund explores what we see when we read, and our misconceptions about our own minds’ eye.

My thoughts: I’ve been on an odyssey to read this book for seven months. As readers will know, I am hypophantasic, and rarely, if ever imagine things in my head when I read. (For those asking, yes, I just focus on the words, and the descriptions of what’s going on are more than enough for me.) I thought it would be interesting to understand how other people experience reading, so I figured this book would be perfect. The book itself played around with a lot of images, and interesting layouts for text. However, I really struggled with this book. The main thesis was that the images we imagine are made up, and often extrapolated from few details in the text. Mendelsund treated this like it was a revolutionary observation, but to me it seems pretty obvious? If something is not being exhaustively described, but you imagine it fully, then you have to be making up some of it in order to get a complete picture. He acted as though this was a controversial statement that would upset readers if pointed out to them. I also found Mendelsund was very prescriptive, eventually to the point of irritation. He didn’t really leave room for any interpretations or experiences other than his own. I also found the tone overall to be pretty pretentious. So no, I did not enjoy this book, and I’m perfectly happy to live in my words-only, pictureless world.

Rating: 2/5 mental images of Anna Karenina (even though you don’t actually know what she looks like)

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa