This blog hasn’t been updated since 2013 (!) so in the interest of just getting something up I’m going to recap what books I read or listened to last month. The first thing you should know is that I always have at least two books queued up. Generally this means I’ll have one book on my Kindle and one audiobook either from Audible or, if it’s something I’ve pulled from a library, I use Overdrive. On a side note, if you aren’t taking advantage of your local library’s eBook and audiobook lending services then you’re really missing out. I’m a bit spoiled and have access to the library sites from the various places I’ve lived over the past decade. I also have a weekly recurring time scheduled on my calendar to check each of the sites for new listings so I can get on hold lists. This is especially great for audiobooks as I tend to get through those much faster.

I didn’t start listening to audiobook regularly until the spring of 2014. Initially I used to just listen to them while I was walking or running but then I realized that I could listen while I was cooking, cleaning, sorting the recycling, doing my hair — you get the picture. Audiobooks are a fabulous distraction for me, although all the mindfulness books I’ve read are probably giving me the evil eyeball for admitting it. Sorry, mindfulness, I’m just not ready to be one with my thoughts right now.

Anyway, in March I consumed the following:

The Martian
I so wish I had read this before I saw the movie. In the end I think it was really excellent though. It’s not often you can say that about a film and a book. I can’t believe it was originally a self-published novel. That’s just nuts. The narrator of the audiobook kind of sounds like Matt Damon too which was nice.

Try Not to Breathe
I’m so glad Gone Girl was written and became super popular so that zillions of writers now churn out lots of twisty, topsy-turvy, weird, suspenseful books for me to read. If I had my way I’d only read this type of novel. I love, love, love them. Of course, some are better than others. This one, thankfully, is one of the well done ones. The main narrator, Alex, is so painfully self-destructive that my discomfort level while reading some of her scenes would best be compared to how I feel watching The Real Housewives have yet another high heeled, cocktail fueled, brawl on national TV. Total train wreck. The girl in a coma mystery was actually intriguing and nuanced, and I ended up very entertained.

The Hypnotist’s Love Story
Liane Moriarty is my new favorite author and this novel was the last one I had left to read so I was “keeping it” until I just couldn’t stop myself. Now I want to be or go to or befriend a hypnotist. The other thing that really stood out for me was the main character’s ability to actually use and apply things like thought stopping techniques and really pointed self-observation (why am I acting like this right now…what is the real problem) whenever she was uncomfortable or flipping out about something. I also feel an overwhelming need to move to Australia and I’m happy to report that just as I finished this last novel Liane announced her new book. This means I have just a few more months until I can fall back into this fantastic writer’s extremely well plotted and uniquely populated world.

Black Eyed Susans
I really didn’t see the twist coming in this one. Really. It was also very atmospheric and creepy. Read it. You’ll like it. You’ll probably never trust anyone in your life ever again but it’s a great book.

The Duchess
When I was growing up, I read way too much Jude Deveraux. This is one of my favorites in her very large catalog of romance novels. I didn’t read the Outlander books until recently so this is how I learned about how sexy Scotland, the highlands, kilts, and whiskey were. The dashing gentleman in the book is a bit of a departure from the usual hunk and there’s a household full of quirky and bizarre family members. Even revisiting it now, many years later, I still think it’s one of the more creative and unique romance novels I’ve ever read.

The Last Coyote
I loved the show Bosch on Amazon so much that I started reading the books. They’re great hardboiled detective stuff. There are also 21 books in the series and this is book 4. Book 4, as you can imagine, was published awhile ago so I am endlessly amused by people using fax machines and ancient computers. In case you’re wondering, yes the tv show and the novels differ enough so that you can enjoy both. They aren’t just a repeat of one another.

The Widow
OK. A lot of people loved this book. Stephen King even tweeted about it. That’s great. However, I don’t understand why this is being marketed as a book to read if you liked Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train (both of which I loved) when it’s absolutely not a psychological thriller. If it hadn’t been promoted in that manner I’d feel like it was a perfectly fine novel. It’s very well written, but there is nothing truly twisty in it and because I kept waiting for one of those “you’ve got to be kidding me” moments to appear I just ended up being a little let down.

A Madness So Discrete
This is historical YA that revolves around a very wealthy young woman, Grace, who has been confined to an insane asylum by her father. The asylum is horrifying (remember those scenes with Eva Green in Penny Dreadful) and eventually she begins to assist a doctor with a series of serial killings. The secondary characters are very well fleshed out. We even have an ex-prostitute who is treating her Syphilis with mercury. Fun. I bet the book banning nuts will be all over that. I feel like this is going to be a series? If it happens to become one I’d read the next book. I think there’s a lot of promise here.

The Light of the Fireflies
Oh. You thought your family was dysfunctional? Well wait until you get to know these people. They live in an underground bunker, everyone except the youngest child has horrible disfiguring burns, and the daughter (who wears a mask) just had a baby. Guess who the dad is?! This was so disturbing and not in the way I like. I was hoping for an apocalypse but what I got was very different and unfortunately almost as emotionally awful. The book is very well written but I never want to read it or frankly think about it again. I suppose that makes it a success?

The Walls Around Us
This is a gorgeously written book with unreliable narrators galore. I just loved reading it. It’s a little supernatural, a lot twisty, there are ballerinas, and a juvenile detention center. Wait. Is this a show on the CW? I kid…but it is really atmospheric and it’s also one of those books that you can finish and just feel tremendously satisfied.