Currently Reading #1

Today I'm grumpy about my own bad habit of starting so many books at once!

It's really a by-product of working at a library, because often when I see an interesting book I'll flip through it, or pick it up and start reading on my break, or take it home and read it...  Which, as you might imagine, means that a lot of times I have way too many books on my plate.  Right now, I'm reading four books, and I have a fifth one to start and finish by next Tuesday the 31st. (this month's book club book.  Which maybe I shouldn't have mentioned I haven't started... ?  I'm really more responsible than I seem.  Probably.)

So what am I reading?


The first book I started several weeks... maybe over a month ago.  Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane.

I've never read one of his works before, though I've seen Shutter Island and...  liked it?  If memory serves.  I'm still really early in the book so I haven't even gotten past expositional backstory.  But already I've really enjoyed it.  The writing is so engaging!  It pulled me in immediately and I got swept into the book's world.  To be honest, one of the reasons that I haven't gone back to it in earnest is because I know that it will be hard to stop reading, and I don't have time right now to read a big chunk (or, you know, the whole thing in one sitting).

I'm also reading Death By Dumpling by Vivien Chien.

This is the first in a new cozy mystery series, about a young woman named Lana Lee who is working in her parents' noodle shop.  I'm probably about two thirds of the way through with this one at least - it's a pretty quick read, and I have it as an ebook on my phone so I can read a snippet here and there throughout the day.  So far, it's been pretty enjoyable.  I don't know who the killer is, but I'm also not invested enough to really pay close attention to any clues.  If, of course, there are clues there.  Some mysteries - in the style of Ellery Queen - offer all the necessary clues to solve it to the reader, so the detective doesn't have any advantage.  A lot of others follows along with the detective's reasoning, so you can't solve it until they do because that's when you get the final piece of the puzzle.  There are inbetweens of course, and some mysteries where the detective solves it but the reader doesn't get to see how until the end.  This is in first person POV so we're following along with Lana.  The one thing that I dislike about the book is the romance subplot with the detective working the case.  It happened almost immediately and there was no real build up.  They have two or three conversations and then it's like "No Lana don't investigate, I want to protect you!" And just...  where did that come from?  I usually have mixed feelings about romance in my cozies and this time it just didn't do it for me.  I'll probably finish this by the end of the week!

Now because I am absolutely incapable of stopping myself, as soon as I picked this up I had to start reading it.  I had thought about buying it actually, but I thought it came out in August - so when I saw it at work I decided to go ahead and pick it up!  Library patrons, I'm sorry, but I'm really bad about grabbing new books I want if they don't have any holds.  And this book is Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer.

If you're wondering if that really says "An Obama Biden mystery," yes it does - and yes, it is.  This is a mystery told from Joe Biden's point of view where he and Obama team up to solve a murder.  It is written with, uh... distinct voice, and starting out it honestly feels a little absurd.  I mean, it commits, so I'm kind of here for it.  But I'm also only 30 pages or so in, so who knows if that will continue.  It's very tongue in cheek, and Obama is presented - so far - as this larger than life cowboy type who waltzed out of Biden's life as soon as their term was over (and Biden of course has missed him terribly).  I don't really know what to expect from this one, and I have no idea if the mystery will be any good or if it's just a convenient framework for a silly story about two post-presidential bros, but I'm sure I'll finish it soon.  Or eventually.

This is a book that I had no idea existed until we put it out with the new books at work.  The "Once A-Pun A Time" on the cover immediately hooked me, I'll admit.  It's Kill the Farmboy by Delilah Dawson and Kevin Hearne.

This is a send up of fairy tales and their tropes, and especially of chosen one narratives.  It's written in a fun, informal sort of way, and so far it has been funny.  I love stuff like this, I really do.  Honestly, any fairy tales really, even ones told straight without any sort of twist or fracture.  I'm not very far in, I think - about page 100 or so, but I'm enjoying it and it's an easy read.  I will say there are a few cringe moments - the main characters meet elves, and one of them is named Bargolas (as an obvious play on Legolas) which really made me roll my eyes.  There were one or two other moments like that so far, too.  The humor is great fun but not terribly sophisticated - I wish 19 or 20 year old me (those many years ago.......) could have read this, because this was exactly what I liked and exactly the kind of thing I wanted to write but I didn't think an "adult" audience would appreciate my somewhat juvenile sense of humor.  Foolish child that I was!  As a not-thirty-yet-but-oh-God-too-soon year old, I really don't care about sophisticated or not now, and I just like what I like.  So if you like goofy fairy tale jokes and fun characters, so far I would recommend this.

And that's all!

...except Surprise!  It isn't!  Because I started a new book this very morning.  I've only read a few pages, so it doesn't count, right?  Right.  This one is There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins, which is apparently a teen slasher novel?  We'll see how that goes!

So that's what I'm reading this week!  What about you?