This weekly meme is hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.

What are you currently reading?

I just started reading Our Kind of Cruelty so I’m only 8 pages in. So far I’m completely hooked on the writing and the story. I can’t wait to get back to this one tonight!

Last week I did manage to read a big chunk of Ducks, Newburyport and I’m still enjoying myself. It can be a bit exhausting “listening” to every. single. thought. that crosses our protagonists mind but at other times it’s nice to ride the wave of her thoughts. It’s a real testament to Ellmann that she weaves mindless chatter with the meat of the story in such an unparalleled way. I plan on reading another chunk of this book this week since slow and steady seems to be the best way for me to ingest this story.

What have you recently finished?

I read a couple of chapters of Girl in Ice last night before bed and I wasn’t expecting to pick it up this morning and get so into it that I ended up finishing it! I will have a review for it coming tomorrow.

The Island of Missing Trees was a beautifully written story encompassing so many different elements. My favorite character was the Fig Tree and I thought Shafak was quite clever with her use of the tree. I also loved how seamlessly she blended fact into her fiction. Next month I will have a full round up of all the Women’s Prize books I read so I will give my full thoughts on it then.

The Overnight had more suspense than I thought it would but there was no twist which left me feeling a bit blah about this one.

What do you think you’ll read next?

ARCHIE VOL. 5 is the next installment in the collection of the historic ARCHIE series relaunch, featuring the talents of comics superstars Mark Waid, Audrey Mok and more. This series is true to the spirit and characters that all Archie fans know and love while reinvigorating its spirit and humor through the talents of some of the most acclaimed creators in the comic book industry.

The fallout from OVER THE EDGE is here! One life has been destroyed, another family has been torn apart–and only the kids of Riverdale High can save their town from imploding!

When the four partners of a prominent law firm are killed in a mysterious plane crash, their widows must come together to uncover the truth in this explosive, edge-of-your-seat novel. 

It’s 1985 in Providence, Rhode Island, and the four partners of a prominent, mafia-affiliated law firm have been killed in a private jet that went down outside New York City. Four very different women have just lost the loves of their lives: Justine, a former fashion model adjusting to suburban life; Camille, a beautiful, young second wife some suspect is a gold digger; Krystle, committed to leaving the firm to her sons after her husband worked his whole life to support them all; and Meredith, a stripper at the local club who was in a secret relationship with the firm’s sole female partner. While the crash is initially ruled a tragic accident, something’s not adding up: The team wasn’t supposed to be in New York that day, and it’s soon revealed that there was a very large sum of cash that burned up with the plane. The women find themselves thrown together in search of the truth, with new danger and threats unfolding at every turn.

Could a dissatisfied client be seeking revenge? Or were the partners involved in something bigger—something dangerous and deadly? What other secrets were the partners keeping, and how far might people go to ensure they stay hidden? The widows must find the answers in order to protect their inheritance, their families, and their lives. 

Please note: This audio contains strong language, distressing situations, and descriptions of violence that some listeners may find upsetting. Discretion is advised.

An all-new, spicy murder mystery from Tessa Bailey, New York Times bestselling author of It Happened One Summer…

It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation in sweet, sunny Cape Cod—just me and my beloved brother—but discovering a corpse in our rental house really throws a wrench into our tanning schedule. Now a rude, crude bounty hunter has arrived on the back of his motorcycle to catch the killer and refuses to believe I can be helpful, despite countless hours of true crime podcast listening. Not to mention a fulfilling teaching career of wrangling second graders.

A brash bounty hunter and an energetic elementary schoolteacher: the murder-solving team no one asked for, but thanks to these pesky attempts on my life, we’re stuck together, come hell or high tide.

I’m just here to do a job, not babysit an amateur sleuth. Although…it is becoming less and less of a hardship to have her around. Sure, she’s stubborn, distracting and can’t stay out of harm’s way. She’s also brave and beautiful and reminds me of the home I left behind three years ago. In other words, the painful hunger and protectiveness she is waking up in me is a threat to my peace of mind. Before I sink any deeper into this dangerous attraction, I need to solve this murder and get back on the road. But will fate take her from me before I realize the road has been leading to her all along?

A brilliantly inventive new novel about loss, growing up, and our relationship with things, by the Booker Prize-finalist author of A Tale for the Time Being 

After the tragic death of his beloved musician father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house–a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Although Benny doesn’t understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone; some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous.

At first, Benny tries to ignore them, but soon the voices follow him outside the house, onto the street and at school, driving him at last to seek refuge in the silence of a large public library, where objects are well-behaved and know to speak in whispers. There, Benny discovers a strange new world, where “things happen.” He falls in love with a mesmerizing street artist with a smug pet ferret, who uses the library as her performance space. He meets a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many.

And he meets his very own Book–a talking thing–who narrates Benny’s life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter.

With its blend of sympathetic characters, riveting plot, and vibrant engagement with everything from jazz, to climate change, to our attachment to material possessions, The Book of Form and Emptiness is classic Ruth Ozeki–bold, wise, poignant, playful, humane and heartbreaking.