Book Review: "All the Water in the World" by Eiren Caffall

I’m really late to the party in reading and reviewing this, but I’m so grateful to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advance copy I received. Amazingly, this is the second piece of climate fiction I’ve read in the last few months, and it really made me think.

It’s a time after the glaciers have melted and the world is lashed by severe weather conditions, including floods. In what was once New York City, Nonie, her older sister Bix, and their father live in an encampment of sorts atop the American Museum of Natural History. The girls have been taught to hunt and grow their food in Central Park.

Their other responsibility is to try and save the museum’s collections so that work in human history and science are not lost. But Nonie has a heightened sense of when precipitation is incoming, and when a massive storm breaches the city’s flood walls, her family and their researcher friend must flee. They grab what they can from the museum, including a birchbark canoe, and travel north along the Hudson River.

The journey is a harrowing one, fraught with danger and potential disaster. Along the way they not only have to brave the elements, but they also have to face the fears and uncertainties of the people they encounter, survivors who have formed small communities. They don’t have any sense of whom to trust and whom to fear, which proves harrowing.

The characters are really beautifully drawn, particularly Nonie. She, like so many who must brave catastrophe, is wise beyond her years, but she is also tremendously kind and empathetic.

While this moved a bit slower than I was expecting, I found this to be a powerful, emotional, and eye-opening book. In addition to its depiction of a world ravaged by climate change, this is a book about grief, love, and survival. It’s also a powerful tribute to the value of museums and what they help us learn and remember, important messages given the dangers museums face in the U.S.

Book Review: "Shred Sisters" by Betsy Lerner

“No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister.”

Amy’s older sister Ollie was everything she wanted to be. Ollie was confident, athletic, beautiful, popular, and she tortured Amy mercilessly. Yet she charmed their parents so effectively that they blamed Amy for provoking her sister, which caused her a great deal of stress.

But when Ollie’s recklessness and bravado leads to destructive behavior, she agrees to go to a psychiatric hospital rather than face jail time for her transgressions. And at that moment, everything changes: Ollie’s mental health deteriorates, their parents get divorced, and Amy is left to fend for herself.

Ollie spends several years in the hospital, but when she is released, she falls into a cyclical pattern of stability, moving in with one of their parents, then starting to fall apart again, she disappears, usually leaving with money or other valuables. Meanwhile, Amy is so desperate not to be like her sister that she throws herself into studying science and keeping everyone at arm’s length.

For anyone who has had a loved one deal with mental illness, the patterns that Ollie, Amy, and their parents fall into may seem familiar. What transpires is illustrative of how the ripples of mental illness can affect an entire family, either in response to crises or defense from them.

This is a powerful story of sisterhood and trying to find yourself when you’ve always been in the shadow of another. I don’t know that I necessarily liked the characters much, but this was a tremendously thought-provoking and emotional read. It’s one of those books you’ll want to discuss.

Book Review: "Village in the Dark" by Iris Yamashita

I’ve never been to Alaska but it’s high on my travel bucket list. Luckily, lots of books are set there, so I can visit by reading.

A year ago, Cara’s husband and young son disappeared while on a hike, as the family vacationed. Their remains were found, but Cara’s grief and anger have remained, and led to her suspension from the Anchorage Police Department.

When she finds a picture of her family on the cellphone of a dead gang member, she starts to wonder what really happened to her husband and son. And while every lead she follows winds up in a dead end, she’s determined to find the truth.

As she tries to investigate what happened to the other people whose photos appeared on the gang member’s phone, she steps into a very complicated web of deception and danger. Connecting with a young Native woman, they wind up traveling to a remote village called Unity, created to protect women and children from their abusers. It is there that Cara learns the truth.

As she puts herself and others at risk in order to find answers, she must also resolve her feelings for JB, a police detective she met while on assignment. He’d do anything for Cara, but will his sacrifices lead to happily ever after or grief and danger?

This is the second book in a series which in part takes place in Point Mettier, Alaska, an isolated town that can only be accessed by an underground tunnel, and where all the residents live in one large condo building. The first book, City Under One Roof, is really good, too, but you don’t have to have read that first.

I love the way Iris Yamashita writes. These books are so atmospheric I can feel the cold and see the images she creates. The fact that these books read like a movie is no surprise, considering Yamashita is an Oscar-nominated screenwriter. I hope there’s a third book!!

Book Review: "Another First Chance" by Robbie Couch

“Death isn’t the end but a conclusion to a single chapter within the infinite story of us—a cosmic transfer when our essence merges with the skies above. In death, we return to stardust, forever woven into the celestial tapestry of a universe that cannot be anything but immortal.”

River’s best friend Dylan died in a car accident a year ago, when he was texting and driving. River has been full of grief, not to mention guilt, since it was his text that Dylan was responding to. Every day, River passes a billboard with Dylan’s face on it, reminding people not to text and drive, which River hates.

Since Dylan’s death, River has been a loner. No one really understands how he feels, except Mavis, Dylan’s girlfriend, who used to be River’s best friend, but she hasn’t spoken to him since the accident.

When River makes some “improvements” (otherwise known as vandalism) to Dylan’s billboard, he gets blackmailed into participating in a research study called The Affinity Trials, which is geared toward teenagers who are struggling socially. River is thrown together for a week with 19 other students, including Mavis, which makes for a difficult time.

During the Trials, River finally starts coming to terms with his grief and guilt. At the same time, several of the students, including River, are experiencing some weird things. What are the Trials really for. What’s real and what isn’t?

The book is narrated by River in the present and Dylan on the day he died. Although the book gets a little technical at times, I thought it was really moving, and as someone who lost one of his best friends 2-1/2 years ago, some of the emotions felt very real. I can always count on Robbie Couch to hit me in the feels!!

Book Review: "Christa Comes Out of Her Shell" by Abbi Waxman

Christa is a scientist, studying snails on a remote island in the Indian Ocean. It’s a quiet life, but it’s very satisfying for her, since she doesn’t have to interact with many people and she can enjoy the natural beauty around her.

Her peace is upended when she learns that her father, Jasper Liddle, once a famous television star, didn’t really die in a plane crash when she was two. Apparently, he’s alive and well and has been living in Alaska, and 25 years later, he’s ready to make amends with the family he left behind.

Christa has to come back to the U.S., and she, along with her mother and two sisters, are thrust into the spotlight. It’s not a place Christa wants to be, as she’s always had a difficult relationship with her family, and during her teen years, she caused no end of scandals in the press. But the Liddle women, thanks to the machinations of their father’s agent, are expected to play along with all of the insanity around Jasper’s reappearance.

As if that’s not enough, Christa feels a strong connection to Nate, a childhood friend, which is definitely reciprocated. Christa would like to build something with Nate, but she doesn’t want to do it in the spotlight, and she wants to go back to her snails. And when Jasper’s story appears to be not quite what he claimed, she has to figure out what to do with her whole life.

Abbi Waxman has been a favorite author of mine since The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. She creates such quirky characters and imbues them with warmth, flaws, and rich emotions.

While I enjoyed this book, it veered into zany territory more than a few times. There were lots of crazy subplots that never quite got resolved, and I don’t know if the characters were really true to themselves. But it was still a fun read.

Book Review: "The True Love Experiment" by Christina Lauren

I couldn’t have loved this more if I tried!

Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is a famous romance novelist who loses her mojo—both creative and romantic—when she realizes she’s never had the all-consuming love she writes about. Sure, she’s had relationships and some steamy, no-holds-barred sex, but she’s never truly felt love, so she feels like a fraud. And she might have shared those thoughts. Publicly.

Connor Prince is a documentary filmmaker focused on the environment. He and his ex-wife share custody of their 10-year-old daughter and he is a devoted father. When his boss tells him he needs to create a successful dating reality show in order to keep his job, he’s thrown for a loop.

But when he discovers how popular romance novels are (and particularly, Fizzy's novels), an idea is born: how about a show where the audience watches Fizzy interact with different men, and hopefully fall in love with one of them? At first, Fizzy wants nothing to do with the show, so she makes all sorts of unrealistic demands about casting and everything else. And Connor meets nearly every single one. So now she’s trapped into doing the show.

As Connor helps Fizzy get ready for the show, the two become close friends. Both find themselves wanting more, but know it could be disastrous, especially for Connor. But how can he watch her flirt with other men, much less fall in love with one?

This was another fantastic Christina Lauren book. I loved Fizzy in The Soulmate Equation, and it was so good to see her in her own book!

Book Review: "Victor and Nora: A Gotham Love Story" by Lauren Myracle, illustrated by Isaac Goodhart

Victor lives a solitary existence, wracked with guilt about the death of his older brother Otto, and closing himself off to the world. The only bright spot is his job as a scientist, where he hopes to make significant contributions.⁣

Nora believes in living every day to the fullest. But that’s not just a mantra: she has a terminal illness that will rob her of everything—movement, speech, memory. She’s determined not to let that get her down until it’s time, and she has a plan.⁣

⁣ Victor and Nora have a not-quite meet-cute in the cemetery where his brother and her mother are buried. Little by little, Nora’s devil-may-care attitude thaws Victor’s frozen heart. But when he discovers the secret Nora’s been hiding, he’s determined to use science to save her—but what will the consequences be?⁣

⁣ This graphic novel, beautifully drawn and full of emotion, is essentially the origin story of Mr. Freeze, who resurfaces in Batman comics (and a movie). There’s no hint of his ultimate supervillain future here, but obviously there’s a tinge of sadness along with hopefulness.⁣

⁣ I’m a fan of graphic novels, especially ones with some emotional heft to them. I really enjoyed this.⁣

Book Review: "See You Yesterday" by Rachel Lynn Solomon

As if freshman year of college isn’t bad enough, you get caught in a time loop? So is the premise behind Rachel Lynn Solomon's See You Yesterday.

Barrett had high hopes for her freshman year of college. She was hoping for a brand-new start, away from the problems that plagued her in high school. But on the first day of class, she discovers her high school nemesis will be her roommate, she gets tormented by a guy in her physics class, she screws up her interview at the school paper, and her attempt to make friends at a frat party ends in a fiery mess.

When she goes to bed that night, utterly depressed and defeated, she feels like college isn’t much better than high school. But when she wakes up, she discovers she’s repeating that day from hell. Again and again and again, no matter what she tries. And then when she runs into Miles, her tormentor from physics class, she finds out she’s not the only one experiencing this phenomenon—he’s been stuck for a long time.

Despite the fact that she doesn’t want to deal with the scientific aspects of the time loop they’re stuck in, eventually she and Miles decide to work together to try and solve the time loop mystery. But while some of the approaches are fun, none seem to succeed. The more time they spend together, the harder they start to fall for one another. But if they ever get out of the loop they’re in, will they remember what they’ve shared?

Solomon always delivers fantastic books, whether YA or adult, and this is no exception. I loved the banter between Barrett and Miles, and the relationship between her and her mother. This is so sweet and emotional and romantic, and it certainly makes me hope I never get caught in a time loop!

Book Review: "Lessons in Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus

In Bonnie Garmus' debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry, a female chemist confronts the realities of 1960s society.

⁣ ⁣ Elizabeth Zott is a chemist with a bright future. But not as a chemist, because as a woman in the 1960s, her intelligence and ambition aren’t appreciated or encouraged. She confronts indignity after indignity, and although she gets a position at the Hastings Research Institute, her contributions are not welcomed, even though she’s the only one who actually knows anything.⁣

⁣ At Hastings she encounters Calvin Evans, a brilliant, famous scientist known for holding grudges and his obsession with rowing. After an awkward (and messy) encounter at the opera, the two fall for each other. And although Calvin loves Elizabeth as much for her mind as everything else, their relationship only serves to further denigrate her in the minds of her colleagues.⁣

⁣ Somehow, a few years later, Elizabeth is now the host of a television cooking show, “Supper at Six.” (Cooking is chemistry, after all.) But despite the network’s wishes, she’s not quite the happy housewife on television—she’s telling women about covalent bonds and adding sodium chloride (salt) to their food. At the same time, she’s teaching women that they’re not JUST housewives, but they’re capable of so much more. And while that makes her popular, it also makes her a target.⁣

⁣ This was just absolutely fantastic. Elizabeth is a remarkable character—funny, stubborn, brash, and yet remarkably sensitive. This is a beautiful story about love and family and standing up for what is right, but it’s also about the unfairness of society towards anyone who doesn’t fit a specific mold, particularly in the 1960s. And Six-Thirty was the absolute best! (IYKYK)⁣

⁣ I won’t forget this book anytime soon.⁣

Book Review: "The Temperature of Me and You" by Brian Zepka

Brian Zepka's debut novel, The Temperature of Me and You, is a bit of a fantasy novel with a crazy love story at its core.

He wanted a boyfriend. He never imagined this.

Dylan is the only out guy in his junior class, which makes dating close to impossible. Then one day, Jordan walks into the Dairy Queen where he works. Dylan has never seen Jordan before, but he is immediately smitten…and then Jordan makes a Blizzard explode. Literally.

Clearly Jordan is hiding something, and he’s afraid to tell Dylan the truth. He supposedly just moved here from Arizona to live with his aunt and uncle, but what's the story there? And why is Jordan always so hot—temperature-wise? Even though there are lots of questions left unanswered, the two grow closer, but when Dylan starts coughing flames himself, Jordan begs him to keep his symptoms a secret for their safety, which means causes Dylan to start withdrawing from family and friends.

Can this fiery love sustain itself? Can Dylan and Jordan have a normal relationship without the use of fire extinguishers? I thought this was a sweet story with an interesting twist—you thought all relationships had drama? You don’t know the half of it.

Thanks so much to Disney/Hyperion and Storygram Tours for inviting me on the tour for The Temperature of Me and You and providing a complimentary advance copy of the book!

Book Review: "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir

Andy Weir's latest book, Project Hail Mary, blinded me with science.

I've been waiting to read this for a few months now, since I really enjoyed The Martian. So many friends have raved about it, and the book has appeared on a number of friends' year-end lists.

A man wakes up on a spaceship. He can’t remember his name or his mission, and somehow he’s the only one on the spaceship who survived. What happened? What’s his mission?

Little by little, it comes back to him. He’s Ryland Grace, a science teacher, and he was drafted into a multinational effort to save the world from a being that threatens the existence of humanity. He’s been asleep for a long time, and the window for him to act is rapidly closing.

It’ll take all of his scientific bravado plus help from one of the most unlikely of sources to save humanity. Will he prevail? Can the threat to our world be stopped?

Andy Weir is an excellent storyteller. This is definitely a story with heart and emotion and, of course, you’re hopefully rooting for Ryland to save the day. The thing is, however, this book has so much science that it made my head hurt.

Sure, you can skim some of it and some of it you can figure out, but after a while it just reminded me that there’s a reason I didn’t go to medical school and become a doctor, thus contradicting the requirement in the Torah that the oldest Jewish son practice medicine. (I kid.)

Book Review: "In the Wild Light" by Jeff Zentner

Jeff Zentner's latest YA novel is a powerful, poignant story about family, friendship, heritage, love, and finding yourself.

This was just excellent! Zentner is one of my absolute favorite YA authors, and this book was another reminder why.

“I’ve seen that life is filled with unimaginable horror. But it’s also threaded through with unimaginable wonder. Live through enough of the one, maybe you’re due some of the other.”

Cash lives in the tiny rural town of Sawyer, Tennessee, raised by his beloved grandparents since his mother died from opioid addiction. He’s content for his life to consist simply of going canoeing on the river, mowing people’s lawns, and spending time with his best friend, Delaney.

When she makes a remarkable scientific discovery locally with Cash’s help, it gets Delaney a full ride to a prestigious Connecticut boarding school, where she’ll finally be challenged academically. She convinces them to award the same opportunity to Cash, since she can’t imagine undertaking this adventure without him.

Cash doesn’t want to ride Delaney’s coattails, and with his grandfather’s emphysema worsening, he fears leaving Tennessee for a life he never imagined. But the thought of Delaney struggling all alone is also too much to bear.

How do you make the choice between those you love? How do you know if going after something you never thought you’d have is worth the risk of losing what you know? How do you find the courage to let people in?

I loved everything about this book. I went to bed with puffy eyes from crying but it was just so good. (And if you love this, definitely read The Serpent King, if not all of Zentner's other books.)

Book Review: "Bewilderment" by Richard Powers

The newest book by Richard Powers, Bewilderment is a gorgeous and poignant meditation on the world around us and the relationship between father and son.

Theo is an astrobiologist. But of all the mysteries of the world he has studied, there’s no greater mystery than his nine-year-old, neurodiverse son, Robin. Robin is fiercely passionate and intelligent, he craves the knowledge his father gives him. But sometimes he cannot handle the jumble of emotions he feels at once, so that is manifested in outbursts, tantrums, even violence.

When Robin hits his classmate in the face, the school gives Theo an ultimatum: medicate him or they’ll intervene.

“My boy was a pocket universe I could never hope to fathom. Every one of us is an experiment, and we don’t even know what the experiment is testing.”

With no real choice, Theo enrolls Robin in an experimental neurofeedback treatment to help his emotional controls. It actually involves training Robin on the recorded patterns of his mother’s brain, who died when he was younger. Is this the right course of treatment? What are the risks?

This is such a beautiful, emotional, evocative book. It’s a little science-heavy at times but skimming over those passages didn’t dampen the book’s strength. It’s at once a book about the fragility of our world and the fragility of our hearts, about the fierce love of a father for his son.

Richard Powers is one of those prolific, well-respected authors I’d never read before except short stories. Bewilderment really blew me away.

Book Review: "The Love Hypothesis" by Ali Hazelwood

Ali Hazelwood's new rom-com is just what the science lab ordered!!

Some people are good at spur-of-the-moment decisions. Not Olive. Despite her brilliance, she does some crazy things under pressure. That’s the only reason why she would’ve randomly kissed the first guy she saw in an effort to convince her best friend she was dating someone.

Of course, nothing is ever simple. It turns out that the guy she kisses is none other than Dr. Adam Carlsen, who happens to be the most hated professor in Stanford’s biology department. Strangely enough, even though his reputation as a complete ass is warranted, he doesn’t really object to her kissing him. And in fact, he even agrees to be her fake boyfriend.

Fake dating is actually more fun than either imagined (and boy, is he handsome), although it’s hard to negotiate the way her fellow PhD candidates treat her when they think she’s dating someone who shreds people’s self-esteem. But with her, Adam is surprisingly gentle, kind, and supportive—and he surprises her with his willingness to support her, even when professional crises threaten to come between them.

The thing about fake dating, though, is it rarely feels fake for long. As someone who never believed romance could last, Olive suddenly has to examine her hypothesis—but what does that mean for a real future with Adam?

This was straight-up adorable, sexy, and just so much fun. Like every great rom-com there are elements of predictability, but with the added component of the struggles faced by women in STEM, it just worked on all levels. A lot of people listed this as one of their favorite reads of September and I can surely see why!

Book Review: "The Soulmate Equation" by Christina Lauren

Can science help determine who we’re best suited for? That's the question at the heart of The Soulmate Equation, Christina Lauren's latest romance. They get their science on and I loved every minute of it. This is definitely one of my new favorites of theirs!

"Have you ever wondered what a soulmate truly is? Is love a quality you can quantify?"

Jess is a single mother and a freelance statistician. Her grandparents raised her and are helping her raise her daughter. Sure, she wishes from time to time she had someone else in her life, someone to share in the big and small moments with, but when is there time to date? How can she find the right person without sacrificing her relationship with her daughter?

She and her best friend Felicity learn about a new company, GeneticAlly, which matches you to people based on your DNA. On a whim one night she submits her DNA and finds out that she has 98-percent compatibility with a person in the company’s database. It’s unheard of. And with whom does she match? Dr. River Peña, a geneticist who is one of the company’s founders.

The thing is, she knows River. Despite his magnetic handsomeness, he’s aloof, sometimes rude, and he once said she was “average.” She can’t believe they matched genetically, and neither can he. But with just a few months before the company’s IPO, GeneticAlly makes Jess an offer: get to know River, see if there’s a spark. And they’ll pay her.

Swept up in the publicity around this near-perfect match, Jess and River do get to know one another, and they realize the façade everyone sees isn’t the real person. Maybe science does know something about compatibility?

My fellow romance/rom-com fans can see the arc of the story, but it doesn’t matter. I loved everything about The Soulmate Equation—the love story, the supporting characters, even the sciency stuff. Christina Lauren’s books often have this inexplicable mix of steam, sensitivity, and emotion I just love.

Book Review: "The People in the Trees" by Hanya Yanagihara

What did I just read?

Some of you might know that Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life is one of my favorite books of all time; in fact, it was my #1 book of the last decade. So a friend and I decided to read The People in the Trees, her debut novel, and see whether that captivated and compelled as much as A Little Life did.

In short, The People in the Trees was at times beautiful, bewildering, compelling, and disturbing. Presented as the memoir of fictional scientist and Nobel Prize winner Norton Perina, it follows the man from his childhood through his years of research and experimentation, to his later years spent in jail.

When he was a young man just out of medical school, Perina was invited to join a noted anthropologist on a trip to a remote Micronesian island. There they find a group of people who might have found the secret to halting the aging process—but at what cost?

Where A Little Life devastated me emotionally, The People in the Trees merely disturbed me. It raised some interesting ethical and scientific questions, and looked at the cost of progress. But in the end, this is the story of a flawed man desperate to find his place in the world, both in science and in life.

Yanagihara is so talented; her imagery is so vivid and her characters are richly drawn. This book was meticulously researched and written; there are numerous footnotes with fictional citations, etc. But parts of the story get really bogged down in detail, and then there’s the troubling parts—child sexual abuse and animal abuse. (If those things are triggers for you, you're advised to avoid this book.)

If you read this, it’s great to do so with someone so you can discuss it. Despite my mixed feelings here, I can’t wait to see what comes next in Yanagihara's career. Hopefully it leaves me feeling more like her second book did!

Book Review: "Transcendent Kingdom" by Yaa Gyasi

Yaa Gyasi's newest novel, Transcendent Kingdom, is a beautiful, moving look at grief, faith, family, and science.

Gifty is studying for her PhD in neuroscience at Stanford. Her research deals with depression and addiction, two things she knows all too well. Her older brother Nana, a talented basketball player, died of an overdose after getting addicted to OxyContin following an injury, and her mother has been virtually bedridden with grief and depression since his death a number of years ago.

While Gifty hopes to find scientific explanations for the issues that affected her family and so many others, she doesn’t truly understand the toll they’ve taken on her emotionally until her mother comes to stay with her. And as Gifty tries to find ways of reaching her mother, and struggles with completing her own work, she remembers the days of attending her mother’s evangelical church and the comforts and challenges it brought her.

This was such a gorgeously written book, a story of racism and the immigrant experience, the pain of addiction, depression, and loss, and the clarifying power for some of both science and faith. I felt like the emotions of this book almost snuck up on me the way they did Gifty.

I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time.

Book Review: "The Plus One" by Sarah Archer

Kelly is a robotics engineer. She's smart and ready to go places with her career, but her interpersonal skills aren't always the strongest. She winds up making a mess out of her encounters with people, even when she doesn't mean to. Even her best friend Priya thinks she's socially awkward, even though she knows Kelly means well.

"It would be so much simpler if everyone could just do what she did and suppress their emotions, stuffing them in the back of the closet, right next to the childhood traumas and the performing-in-your-third-grade-play-naked-and-then-all-your-teeth-fall-out dreams."

The problem is, Kelly's younger sister is getting married, and their mother, a wedding consultant who owns a bridal shop, is in absolute heaven as she plans and controls every aspect of the wedding. This includes ensuring Kelly has a suitable date, which is an issue of concern for her mother, because Kelly's dating history is, well, shaky.

Kelly doesn't quite understand all of the craziness surrounding her finding a wedding date. She isn't all that interested in dating anyway. But when a night of clubbing with Priya ends unsuccessfully (although she met a handsome man who introduced her to his boyfriend) and the latest blind date her mother arranged ends in disaster, Kelly decides to take matters into her own hands—literally.

Using her engineering skills and the myriad different parts in the robotics lab, Kelly builds herself a wedding date. Ethan is incredibly handsome, courteous, caring, and he grows more intelligent with each interaction. He is utterly devoted to Kelly and, strangely, she feels more comfortable around him, too. Ethan charms those around him, including Kelly's mother, and no one suspects that he isn't human.

Even though the plan is to disconnect him after her sister's wedding, Kelly realizes she enjoys being with someone and having someone care about her, even if he isn't real. As her relationship with Ethan starts to interfere with her relationships and her job, she knows she has to follow her original plan. But she doesn't count on her mother's continued pressure, and she's utterly unprepared for how she's falling for Ethan. How can she simply take him apart when she cares about him so much?

I thought this was an absolutely charming, silly, sweet book. So many of us have felt the pressures Kelly did, and although we might not have the intelligence or skills to engineer the same solution she did, I definitely identified with a lot of the emotions she felt. Sure, I had to suspend my disbelief, and I kept expecting everything to blow up, but I really enjoyed the way Sarah Archer laid this story out.

Have you ever read a book or watched a movie where you knew everything was going to go awry and you were worried about what might happen but at the same time you couldn't look away? That's exactly how I felt reading The Plus One. It almost felt like I was reading with my hands half over my eyes!

This book brought a new, fun twist to the rom-com genre and I really enjoyed it. If you can embrace the fun side of the book without delving too deeply into what's possible, you'll definitely enjoy it, too.

Book Review: "Me Myself & Him" by Chris Tebbetts

The tagline for this book says it best: "One broken nose. Two versions of the same story. Infinite possibilities."

It's the summer before college, before Chris and his two best friends, Wexler and Anna, all go their separate ways to different schools. One night, while doing a hit of whippets outside the restaurant where he works, Chris passes out face-first, breaking his nose. When his estranged father, a famous physicist in California, hears what Chris did, he demands that Chris come and live with him for the summer and work at his lab—or he won't pay for him to go to the college of his choice.

The thought of having to leave his friends during the last few months they'll spend together, and live with a father he still resents for leaving, is utterly unappealing. But Chris doesn't seem to see any alternative—the college he wants to attend has a great film program and it's his ticket out of small-town Ohio. As he begins to sense a newfound chemistry between Wexler and Anna that will leave him behind, he heads to California, unsure of how the summer will go in all aspects.

But in another timeline, Chris hides the truth of what happened from his parents, just telling them he fell. He gets to keep his job and stay home for the summer, but he's not sure how to handle Anna and Wexler suddenly becoming a couple, leaving him and his sparse romantic prospects even more depressing. He knows he'll never find a boyfriend in his small Ohio town, and why bother when he's about to leave? However, little by little the summer starts to fall apart, as the truth about his accident starts to get revealed and his relationship with his friends becomes strained. Chris wonders if there's another version of him somewhere else, living a better life.

The chapters in Me Myself & Him alternate between Chris' "real" story as he spends the summer in California and deals with his father, and the "other" version in which he stays in Ohio and no one is the wiser about what happened (not really). This is a fascinating, poignant, thought-provoking book which meshes familial dysfunction, the fear of growing apart from your friends, and wanting to be loved for who you are with musings on alternate realities, religion, and fate.

I really enjoyed this book and thought Chris Tebbetts did a great job laying out the story and the alternate path Chris' life could have taken. Even though he's a bit misanthropic, I really identified with so many of his feelings, with wanting things to change but also wanting them to stay exactly the same, wanting your friends to be happy but not wanting your relationships to change, and just wanting someone to be with, all while trying to figure out who you are.

I think of this as the gay, not-quite-stoner version of Sliding Doors. It's utterly entertaining and a really enjoyable read.

NetGalley, Random House Children's, and Delacorte Press provided me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

This book will be published July 9, 2019.

Book Review: "Recursion" by Blake Crouch

This was some crazy s--t.

"What's more precious than our memories? They define us and form our identities."

Blake Crouch's new book, Recursion, is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

Crouch's Dark Matter, which was one of the top five books I read in 2017, blew me away, even though I wasn't 100 percent sure I understood everything I read. But this book? This is a fascinating, albeit confusing, meditation on memory and how crucial what we remember is to our identity. It's a roller coaster ride which cements Crouch's reputation as a master of meshing unbelievable science and emotion.

Barry Sutton is a detective in New York City who is summoned when a woman is threatening to jump from a skyscraper. She tells him that she is suffering from False Memory Syndrome, which somehow leaves you with vivid memories of a life and experiences you never had. Often these memories feel more real than the life you are living, and it is immensely disorienting—and possibly contagious. The woman tells Barry that she is devastated by the fact that her son has been "erased," even though people tell her she never had a son. And then she leaps to her death.

Meanwhile, Helena Smith is a neuroscientist who has been working on research to help map our most precious memories and how to preserve them. If she succeeds, people with dementia and brain injuries might one day be able to remember moments and people that have slipped from their grasp. The pace and scope of her research is significantly accelerated by the involvement and support of an eccentric, wealthy benefactor. But what's behind his interest?

As Barry tries to investigate what's behind False Memory Syndrome—or if it exists at all—he finds himself in the middle of a disturbing mystery. Has someone figured out the ability to manipulate our memories and make us believe things that never existed? If our true memories are wiped out and replaced, does that change who we are? And at what cost?

Barry and Helena's stories alternate as they represent both sides of the coin—the beneficent research looking to make a difference in how we retain our memories, and the shadowy side, using memories for destructive purposes. Recursion started a little slowly for me, but picked up speed as the book moved along, until it careened toward a conclusion.

The ideas behind the book were fascinating and thought-provoking, but the book itself didn't quite work for me as well as I had hoped given how much I loved Dark Matter. Each story on its own was compelling but the constant shifting back and forth, and having to keep track of when things happened, often made me lose focus. But once again, Crouch proves his talent as a storyteller and a brilliant mind.

If you're a fan of science fiction thrillers that make you wonder if what you're reading might actually be possible, pick up Recursion. And don't miss out on Dark Matter or Crouch's Wayward Pines trilogy, because this guy knows how to write.

NetGalley and Crown Publishing provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

This book will be published June 11, 2019.