Book Review: "Ironwood" by Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly has written more than 40 books and I’ve been reading them since 1992, when his first book was published. He has created some prolific characters, which have spawned several series. Ironwood is the second book in a new series, and this one kicked ass.

Stilwell is a detective sergeant stationed on California’s Catalina Island. Those who get stationed there are usually paying for making someone higher-up angry, or for doing something illegal or inappropriate. Stilwell was sent to Catalina for similar reasons, but he’s grown to like that it’s separate from the chaos of Los Angeles.

One night, acting on a tip one of his deputies got from a confidential informant, Stilwell and two of his deputies are staking out the island’s airstrip. They’re waiting for a plane to land and drop off drugs. But when it does, the deputies close in on the plane, shots are fired, and the plane leaves.

The whole incident has tragic consequences. As the police investigate, Stilwell is relegated to the side. But he wants to know who was responsible and where everything went wrong, so he does some investigating on the side.

Meanwhile, when sorting through the list and found, he finds an expensive backpack that belonged to a woman who disappeared while hiking four years earlier. But the backpack was found only two months ago; why is that? Stilwell’s looking into this connects him to the cold case unit led by Detective Renée Ballard. And what this partnership uncovers is another tangled web he’ll have to deal with.

Connelly is so good at taking his time to lay out the details and then gradually ratchet up the tension. He always keeps me guessing one way or another. I hope there will be a third book in this series!!

Book Review: "Evil Genius" by Claire Oshetsky

What an odd yet compelling book this was! I really wasn’t quite sure what to expect and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it, but I’m glad I read it.

“That’s the way it is sometimes. We can take forever to arrive at the most obvious truths about ourselves, because the will to conform is mighty in us, and the fear of somebody finding out we’re not normal is a mighty fear.”

Celia is 19 years old in 1974. She works at the phone company in San Francisco, where she deals with people who haven’t paid their phone bills. She tries to be empathetic but sometimes her customers anger her and she disconnects their service.

She is strangely fascinated when one of her colleagues gets caught in a love triangle. He was apparently sleeping with an executive for the phone company and they were discovered by the woman’s jealous husband, who killed her. Celia is energized by the thought of a crime of passion.

Celia is in an abusive marriage with a man she calls “her Drew.” Little by little, she starts dreaming of killing him, stabbing him with a little knife she bought. One night, Celia disobeys her Drew and stays out late. Her actions set her and Drew on a deadly path, one that ultimately will lead to self-discovery, among other things.

The tone of the book was quite satirical at times but also pretty troubling. Celia is a meek character with streaks of feistiness, and a lot of the story is written as her telling her life story when she was an old woman. Ultimately, I guess the message was one of finding your true self, but it meandered quite a bit.

Book Review: "L.A. Women" by Ella Berman

Thanks so much to Berkley and NetGalley for the advance copy of this recent release! This story of friendship, rivalry, and emotional scars was a slow burn yet compelling read.

In 1960s Los Angeles, two women met for the first time at a party. Lane was a writer with a penchant for telling the unvarnished truth; Gala was a socialite who seemed to find her way to every party and event worth her time, invitation or no. Each finds the other curious, yet at first they don’t realize how complex they both are.

Little by little, the two women develop a friendship. Lane values Gala’s intelligence and creativity; Gala believes that Lane has real writing talent. After the publication of Lane’s first novel, their relationship starts to weaken, because Gala suddenly becomes the toast of the town, leaving Lane in her dust.

Ten years later, Lane has the handsome husband and adorable children, as well as the beautiful house. And she’s finally found a way back into literary stardom: a book about Gala, tracing her meteoric rise. While excitement for the book is building, so are mystery and fear: no one has seen Gala for months. It’s almost as if she disappeared into thin air.

I love the nostalgic feel of the book; Ella Berman does a great job capturing the setting and the vibes of both decades. Both women have dealt with real emotional upheaval and pain, and both impact the decisions they make.

I didn’t find Lane or Gala particularly likable or sympathetic, but I was still interested in their stories. This reminded me a little of Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The book was definitely an emotional one.

Book Review: "Automatic Noodle" by Annalee Newitz

I really enjoyed this, although it’s definitely not one of my usual genres. I’m not ashamed to admit that my love of noodles is one of the things that drew me to the book. Thanks to my friend Matthew for reading this with me!

It’s 2064, in the aftermath of a brutal war between California and the rest of America. One day a group of deactivated robots awaken in the ghost kitchen where they all used to work in the rubble of San Francisco. With the war over, the robots don’t really have a purpose, and there’s still some in California that don’t think robots should be citizens.

While the group didn’t like cooking the horrible food they had to in their old restaurant, Hands misses their time as a chef for a food truck, while Cayenne loves tasting everything, even if they can’t eat it. They convince their friends, Sweetie and Staybehind, that they should open their own restaurant in the same space. Hands is fascinated by the art of hand-pulled noodles, and so Authentic Noodle is born.

Each robot has a purpose, and shortly after the restaurant opens, it becomes a smashing success online. But they’re determined to keep their identities secret, since there are many who would cause trouble if they knew the food was being cooked and served by robots.

Suddenly disaster strikes, when the restaurant is hit with a barrage of 1-star reviews online, reviews that hit on robot ownership and cooking. Their reputation is on the line, but they’re determined to find out who’s behind this.

Automatic Noodle is so creative and sweet. There’s lots of great messaging here about chosen family, fighting for yourself, and valuing the contributions of outsiders.

Book Review: "The Fiction Writer" by Jillian Cantor

Have you ever read a book that you didn’t really like but you needed to read it in its entirety to see how everything was tied up in the end? Asking for a friend.

“That’s what writing fiction was, wasn’t it? Processing your own life, answering all those questions in any way you wanted to, since fictional worlds operated with their own language and their own rules and their own timelines. They offered their own answers.”

Olivia’s first novel was published to some acclaim, but her second novel, which was a retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, was panned by critics. When editors pass on her third novel, she’s in need of money and, perhaps, a new career choice.

Then her agent calls with a sweet deal. Apparently megabillionaire Henry “Ash” Asherwood wants Olivia to write about his grandmother, and is willing to pay quite well. Intrigued by the opportunity and the client (named People magazine’s sexiest man alive twice), Olivia flies to Malibu to learn more.

Ash tells Olivia that his long-dead grandmother originally wrote the story which became Rebecca, but du Maurier stole it. But the more Olivia asks for proof, the more Ash seems to stall her and try to distract her in all sorts of ways. At the same time, Olivia is curious about Ash’s young wife, who died in a mysterious car accident.

The plot of this book was definitely an example of if it seems too good to be true, it is. Olivia stupidly gets led on by Ash for far too long, and then the story takes so many tangents I didn’t quite know what to expect. There was lots of stuff left unresolved and I was hoping for so much more out of this book. And since I never read Rebecca, I don't know if that knowledge would have made a difference to my enjoyment.

Book Review: "All Friends Are Necessary" by Tomas Moniz

“But now, I understood that finding your family and your friends often happens despite anything you choose to do. You have no real control. And maybe that’s for the best. You can prepare and devise and court and romance all you want, and sometimes that works. But trauma can lead to family. Accidents can create friendships.”

This gorgeously written, character-driven book is about the family we choose and the family we’re born into. It’s about resilience and recovery and finding your own way. And it’s a beautiful tribute to the power of belonging, of love, of being seen.

Efren (aka Chino) is a biology teacher in Seattle, preparing for his wife to have a baby. But when tragedy strikes, he moves back to the Bay Area, where he ekes out a simple existence, working temp jobs, hanging with his college best friends, and longing for connection and companionship.

Chino needs to find his way out of his grieving, anger, and guilt. He moves about 90 minutes away from the Bay Area, still trying to find himself, and he dates both men and women in an effort to find the person who feels most right. And while he finds a home and dreams of an opportunity, he eventually heads back to the Bay to be with his friends.

The book spans between 2018 and 2023, watching the group of friends deal with changes in their lives, their relationships, even the pandemic. And in the end, they realize that life is real, it is hard, and it is uncertain, but it’s worth all of it.

“Perhaps Genevieve is right. All your pain and all your joy. All the ridiculous memories and regrets and mistakes: Why would you want to leave all those memories of family and friends and broken hearts and birth and death behind?”