This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Philipps
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This memoir is the latest in my long line of audiobook memoirs. Busy Phillips is an actress and talk show host who has been in a few things you've probably heard of and a few things that maybe you haven't. I've seen a lot of her work, but I couldn't tell you exactly where I first saw her.

This memoir takes us through her childhood in Phoenix and into her early twenties in Hollywood. It finishes more or less now (since it's a recent one and she's still young). I loved this memoir and it's audiobook is exactly the reason why I like to listen to them when they are read by the authors.

Busy unflinchingly tells us everything. From her time on Freaks & Geeks to describing her emotional state throughout her rape and later the abortion she had at fifteen. She gets choked up telling you about these things and outright cries when she tells you about meeting the Pope. She talks about her relationship with her mother and her own children.

Overall it follows the "standard" Hollywood memoir pattern but I felt nothing but genuine love for Busy after listening to this book. She digs deep and keeps it light and you learn a lot more about her in the process. I cried with her and I laughed with her. She has a way of speaking that makes you feel as though you have a new friend in your ear.

I really enjoyed this memoir. I only wish that she had waited to write it since she has so much more career ahead of her.

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Recursion by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Book of the Month offered Recursion as an option I jumped at the chance to read this book. Blake Crouch also wrote Dark Matter which is a mind-bending thriller involving parallel universes and makes you question a lot of what you believe to be true about the world.

Recursion is no different.

In this novel we follow the lives of a scientist, Helena; and a detective, Barry. Helena is trying to create a way to map our memories so that she can attempt to help her mother who has Alzheimer's. Barry is a Detective who has lost his daughter at a young age and one night happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. One could argue it was the right place at the right time…but as with everything in this book, it's all about perception.

The country is starting to be plagued by something called False Memory Syndrome. People are suddenly remembering entire other lives in vivid detail. Lives they aren't currently living but are now confusingly thinking that they have lived. Barry's first encounter with this is through a suicidal woman suffering from FMS, who he gets called to assist.

While Barry attempts to investigate the things this woman told him about her life, he gets sucked into False Memory Syndrome as well. While you're reading about that…you're also reading about Helene and her development of her memory mapping software. She's wisked away by a billionaire who promises her all the resources she could possibly need.
What they end up creating will change the world in catastrophic ways. They find a way to implant you into a past memory so that you can change your life. The only trouble is that for most, when you reach the point in time that you left…all memories come flooding back.

The rest of the novel is a lot of going back and forth in time. It's Helene an Barry trying to save the world from the one thing that should have saved it.

The question as to whether or not we should mess with the past is explored and the ramifications of such a thing are laid bare.

This novel is another great one from this author. It has all the twists and turns you want in a thriller and the added bonus of a new version of time travel was something I really enjoyed.

It leaves you with the question of, if you had to risk the entire world…would you go back and change something?


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Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This follow up to Schwab's Vicious is all over the map. That's not necessarily a bad thing…unless you like linear storylines.

All the usual suspects are back in this one. Victor, Mitch, and Sydney are roaming around trying to find someone who can help to fix Victor. Since Sydney brought him back, he's been dying from time to time. Mitch and Sydney are still pretty much in hiding. Eli has been caught and is rotting in a cell at a specialized department who deals with EOs.

Enter Marcella, a mob wife murdered by her husband who comes back as an EO with the power to rot things and people with just a touch.

While Eli helps the EON hunt other dangerous people and Victor searches for a cure, Marcella is out to become the most powerful person in the city.

I love revisiting these characters. The new additions of impervious Jonathan and Shapeshifting June were more than welcome as well. The only thing I did struggle with (and this is only because of how I read)--was the jumping back and forth in time and perspective. Perspective doesn't usually bother me when it switches, but when the story is moving forward at a good clip with one person and you suddenly switch to the past with someone else, it throws me a little.

I still love the worlds that Schwab creates and I'm pretty sure there's never going to be anything that she writes that I don't enjoy. This was a great follow up to the first novel and while I can see why she felt compelled to write it (there's just more to the story), I also think that if you felt like Vicious ended in a satisfactory way, you don't need to read this one.

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All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is definitely not written in the usual Marissa Meyer style. There's a difference in tone and a difference in how the information is presented that I cannot quite put my finger on. Someone far more scholarly than me would be able to tell you exactly what the difference is…

All the Crooked Saints follows the Soria family of saints. The current Saint Daniel and his cousins Beatriz and Joaquin are the youngest of the group and have a pirate radio station. The family itself has a compound in the desert where modern day pilgrims come to find their miracles. Daniel, as the resident Saint, can assist with the first miracle but you must find a way to the second miracle on your own.

Everyone has something they wish for and something they fear. Each character's motivations are laid bare for you as you read this story and while there is an incredibly basic plot, the story still feels deep and intricate in the ways in which it is woven together.

Equal parts practical and fantastical, this story is never dull. I never found myself knowing what was coming next as the characters worked towards resolution. One of the things that I liked best about the story line was the peppering of the old stories and the new. We're not left to wonder why they adults behave as they do, we're told why. We're treated to the hopefulness of youth and the cynicism of aging and the never ending cycle that flows in between the two.

While this stand alone is not my favorite Meyer novel, it's certainly one of her best.

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Wires and Nerve, Volume 2: Gone Rogue by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I finally picked up Wires and Nerves after putting it off for other things for a while. It's the next in the Lunar Chronicles graphic novels continuations. It's been so long since I read the last one (and to be fair, I didn't finish the original novel series) and I had trouble remembering everyone's relationship to each other.

We open with Selene stepping down as Queen, or was it Empress? Either way, she's decided that she's going to step down and le the people come up with their own elected officials. Meanwhile, Alpha Steele is still convinced that he and his people can regain their humanity through force and that the Lunar leaders are simply hiding the cure from them.

There are battles and betrayals. There are revelations in plot and in personal growth for some of the characters. The artwork is wonderful and while I can see where a graphic novel of this size is best served having a singular blue color palette, it would have been even better had they used a full spectrum of color.

If you're already this far along in the series, you're going to enjoy this follow up. I might suggest going back and at least skimming the first graphic novel in order to refresh yourself on the characters and the situation. If you're like me, you probably forgot a lot of it.

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Supermarket by Bobby Hall
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book. I was really frustrated reading this. I still can't decide if this thing was genius or a pile of trash. Either way I found that I couldn't put it down…even if I did skim the last 75 pages or so just to get the bits of the plot so that I wouldn't have to actually read every word but still understand how it ends.

Supermarket is apparently written by the rapper Logic. That should have been my first clue that I was in for something ridiculous. The writing style is what I would call "schizophrenic thirteen year old journal".

This is where spoilers start, I can't do this review without them…there's too much to say. So stop now.
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Still with me? I knew within ten pages that Frank wasn't real. I knew almost right away that the damn dog wasn't real. The author barely even tries to be clever with his writing and it's pretty obvious right away that the protagonist is straight up delusional. Once I figure this out, I stopped giving a shit. Seriously. This wasn't about to become so big narrative about mental health and the struggles of those who are suffering delusional behaviors. It felt like someone googled random symptoms of every mental illness they could think of and threw it all into one character.

Our MC "wakes up" in an institution where he's apparently been for years. I'm still not entirely sure if the doctor was real (this is about when I started skimming because I started getting mad). None of the dialogue in the institution makes any sense. He wouldn't be given free reign to roam around and he'd be forced to take his medication especially since he's still talking to imaginary people.

So either using the narrator's voice in the manner is was…well it's either the sign of a genius writer or a shit one. So I'm going to give this 3 stars even though it's a half assed finish and probably deserves less. It's a polarizing one. I just know I wasted my time.

No, two stars. Yeah, going to stick with two.

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City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

City of Girls follows Vivian to the heart of NYC's theater scene after her dismissal from college. Written as a lengthy letter from Vivian to a woman named Angela, the novel details her time spent in the city as she spent her twenties growing up and learning about herself and about love.

The 1900-1940s is probably my favorite era to read about, especially when it involves New York City. I can't really define what the draw to that era is for me, but I will read almost anything written about it. City of Girls is one such novel.

Vivian doesn't really understand the world in general. When she moves to NYC to stay with her Aunt Peg, she receives an expansive education in the ways of the world.

This novel isn't exactly heavy on the action. For the most part it's just Vivian telling you about her life. She spends most of he focus on her late teens and early twenties. This is typically when most of us receive our "worldly" education, but having hers set in this era and in NYC adds another layer to it. While Vivian is considered to be of an upper class, in moving to NYC she discovers quickly that she is emotionally more of a country "bumpkin".

Vivian is a talented seamstress and finds herself making the costumes for her Aunt's productions at the theater. It's here that she meets a colorful cast of characters that will shape her life in ways she was not anticipating.

Towards the end of the story, we do eventually find out who Angela is to Vivian. They aren't connected in any way that I think you're going to guess. It was truly one of the more surprising aspects of the book.

I think that if the synopsis sounds good to you, you're probably going to enjoy the book. At times Vivian is too innocent and at times she's too arrogant. But I think that everyone is like that a little and she does not come off as unlikeable when all is said and done.

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The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes there are books I inhale. Wicked Deep was one of them. I read it more or less in one sitting and ignored my family to do so. It's not that it's the most amazing book I've ever read, but it was paced in a compelling way in order to make me want to do nothing but finish.

Wicked Deep takes us to the small town of Sparrow. Every year the residents of Sparrow are terrorized by the ghosts of three sisters that were drowned as witches two hundred years ago. Every year on June 1st, they arrive and inhabit the bodies of unsuspecting teenage girls and lure boys to their deaths in the water.

For this story, we follow Penny, her friends, and a mysterious stranger who arrives on the island right in time for the murders to occur. It seems that everyone has a secret as they work towards figuring out the mystery of the murders.

One of the things I liked best about this book was the pacing. It was definitely a quick read. There were plenty of details and history surrounding the orginal girls was provided. But it didn't feel overdone. The story was compelling and even with the darker subject matter, it was relatively light.

There is a twist, something I did suspect…but the author did so well in covering it up that I found myself forgetting that I had the thought in the first place.

There was a pretty quick falling in love trope at play here. I realize that it's how YA is from time to time, doesn't mean I care for it. But as with so many books in which the world building is so strong, I do wish this wasn't a standalone. I am definitely looking forward to the author's next novel.

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