I have been waiting to read this book! So glad that it taught me the dangers and advantages of being sick with a disease.

This was okay. Josephine has just gotten married. As a child, she was known as a "Divine" - she went to a very expensive school for entitled rich people, where the children were taught nothing academic and mostly just how to treat people they considered beneath them poorly. She hasn't thought about her years there much since she left, but when her husband starts asking questions about the box of mementos she's kept, she's forced to relive her past and confront some of the darker moments within - especially the tragic tale of her roommate, Gerry. The mystery part takes a bit to develop, and really isn't the focus of the story? It seems more like the struggle of a young girl to find her place in the world, and to deal with the pressure to conform to what her friends and family want her to be. The chapters alternated between her years at the school and her adult life, and I honestly didn't really care about her as an adult. Those chapters didn't really add anything to my experience. By the end I was left with this vague feeling like I'd missed something important, but I'm not sure what? This was the sort of book that seemed like my jam, because I love a good boarding school mystery, but something about it fell flat and I just didn't adore it like I expected to.

On one hand, I thought Project Hail Mary was completely unrealistic - the plot is beyond far-fetched, the supporting characters are flat and underdeveloped and the narrator sometimes sounds like an immature teenage boy. But I gave it 4 stars because I really liked this book. It was different and the story caught my attention. There's a LOT of science, much of which I confess I didn't follow, but overall it adds to the feel of the story. For me, this book was a surprise success.

I'm clearly missing something with this book, because the entire time I read it all I kept thinking was "there is no way this author is an actual human being." The book takes place over the span of 11 years. In most chapters, we follow Kate and Meredith, two neighbors living in a town where a woman named Shelby has just gone missing. Meredith, a doula with two children named Delilah and Leo, has started receiving threatening text messages from an unknown number. Shortly after, her and her daughter disappear. The book centers around what was going on with Meredith prior to her disappearance, with Kate providing insight into what happened after she disappeared. Set eleven years later, there are also chapters from Leo's point of view, where we get to see what it's like to have your sister suddenly return after being gone for eleven years. There are just so many reasons why this book didn't work at all. The biggest of them all is that it is poorly written. As an example of what you can expect, this is how the author thinks someone would describe potentially seeing figures outside of a house a few weeks before the occupants went missing - "It was dark out," Cassandra says, "a moonless night. The streetlight outside has been out a month or two. My husband, Marty, called the city about it a while ago, but it still hasn't been fixed. Our tax dollars...hard at work. The only light came from whatever porch lights were left on overnight." Yeah. Because when my neighbor turns up missing and I think I may have seen some strange figures skulking about their house, I'm definitely going to be remembering that it was a moonless night. Everyone else in the book is just as poor at their job. The pathologist couldn't correctly figure out how someone died. The police openly lied about evidence and just sort of hoped no one would ever question them or figure it out. A woman running a daycare is completely unaware of the abuse happening there - and then the mother just doesn't even care?? Who finds out their kid is being abused and is just like "eh, I better send them back the next day or they'll get soft." Are there no other daycares?? The final thing I'll mention is that the ending is completely bonkers. I guess if you're going to commit murder, this is the town to do it in - apparently no one is ever around to watch people murder people and then drag their bodies into their cars.

This book is a great read whether you're familiar with Alan Cummings or not. In addition to his other skills as an actor and performer, Cummings is an excellent writer and an even better storyteller. I highly recommend the audiobook, read by Cummings himself, as the best way to take in this sad, funny, honest and very engrossing memoir.

This book is absolutely terrifying. My heart raced all the way through. It is Stephen King meets Fairfield Hills. An old Sanitorium is converted into a chateaux, an avalanche or two traps everyone in and things get very frightening. It is a fast read!

I fee like I'm on a trend this month of books that just start out really slow. Emily and Kristen have been best friends since college, and they have a hobby of going on trips to random places together. Last year they went to Columbia, where their trip ended with a dead guy. This year they go to Chile, where their trip also ends with a dead guy. Now forced to deal with the trauma of two dead men, Emily is struggling to return to normalcy. And then all of a sudden Kristen appears in town, moving in and inserting herself in her life more fully than ever before. Could those two instances really have been just a fluke, or is something darker hiding under the surface of their relationship? The first chunk of this book was just so boring, because it felt like you were waiting for the shoe to drop and the action to begin. The world-building aspect here was not captivating at all. The book was also SUPER predictable. You could see every twist and turn coming on a mile away, and I felt like the author didn't trust me to put together anything subtle. There was one clue near the end of the book that I went "huh, I wonder what that will mean," only for it to be immediately explained a few pages later, like she was afraid I wouldn't remember it if she waited. Overall a little too much of a handhold while reading, and nothing really special. Probably closer to 2 and a half stars, but I'll give it three because I don't think I regret reading it, it just wasn't memorable.

The 7th and last book of the Rock Harbor Series. I am sad that I got to the end of the series. But loved reading about Rock Harbor and watching them learn and grow as people (characters). Dana, friend to Bree, is returning to Rock Harbor after her relationship hit the rocks. The past and the present come together. Love the Rock Harbor series and will try another series by this author.

This book is very eerie. It is a dystopian novel about memory. The citizens are on an island and things disappear mysteriously. The Memory Police take people away and the main characters work to try to preserve their things and memories against all odds.

This book is about two African American women who join the Women’s Army Corps in World War II. They are subjected to racism and violence and although they are like oil and water become friends given their common predicament. Since both are from New York City, the segregation and treatment they receive is alarming to them.