The
City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
Speculative
Orbit,
March 2020
Octavia Butler, Kafka, Men in Black, Inception… It’s as if this author has consumed and absorbed every significant SciFi/fantasy/speculative innovation and synthesized them with musical refrains and sociopolitical riffs on otherness and identity. There’s humor and biting satire, irony and sarcasm. Dangerous existential and physical battles. Brilliant writing. Glorious reading.
A few memorable lines:
What
good does it do to be valuable, if nobody values you? [Prologue, pg. 9]
“Not helping your case with the mansplaining, guy.” [Chapter 1, pg. 37]
“… So, lesson one of New York: what people think about us isn’t what we really are.”
Ron-Coms
Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin
Contemporary
romance
Berkley,
April 2021
Examining the layers of Canada’s Golden Crescent: Hana broadcasts her thoughts, jockeys for position, contemplates romance, and unravels family entanglements with the help of a multifaceted 21st-century South Asian Auntie Mame-ish character.
Rosalind Palmer Takes the Cake (Winner Bakes All #1) by Alexis Hall
Contemporary
romance
Forever,
May 2021
It’s a frothy, angsty mélange of Great British Baking Show, Hell’s Kitchen, Big Brother, The Bachelorette, and Survivor.
Not Like the Movies by Kerry Winfrey
Contemporary
romance
Berkley,
July 2020
Trope-spinners paradise
When Stars Collide (Chicago Stars) by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Contemporary
romance
William
Morrow, June 2021
A new Chicago Stars story about the next generation is the perfect beach read. It’s a mix of hostility-at-first-sight, slapstick mayhem, multiple misunderstandings, some silliness, lots of drama, fashion, and cameos of favorite characters from previous installments in the series. Plus, incitement of a bar brawl (a bonus in the tradition of Linda Howard’s Open Season). Fingers crossed that the next Chicago Stars story will feature Clint Garrett.
Women’s fiction
The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen
Contemporary
(current & 20th-c.) fiction
Lake
Union Publishing, April 2021
Cross-generational intrigues
Catching Air by Sarah Pekkanen
Contemporary
fiction
Washington
Square Press, 2014
Leaping into the unknown and navigating unchartered territories create assorted challenges.
Awesome
Anthology
Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, Nicola Yoon
Quill Tree Books, June 2021
Too much greatness to summarize. Buy it from a local bookstore or borrow it from a local library branch.
Historical romance
Breathless (Old West #2) by Beverly Jenkins
Avon,
2017
Portia overcomes childhood trauma and pursues her professional ambitions. Kent learns from his youthful indiscretions, makes amends, and pursues his heart’s desires. Regan asserts her autonomy. Eddy and Rhine make pivotal cameos.
Undercover Duke (Duke Dynasty #4) by Sabrina Jeffries
Zebra,
May 2021
Misdirection, danger, and questions answered
Contemporary Action Thriller
All Out War (Eric Steele #2) by Sean Parnell
William
Morrow, 2019
The title is 100% truth in advertising.
Real-Life Inspiration
Believe It, How to Go from Underestimated to Unstoppable by Jamie Kern Lima
Non-fiction
memoir, business
Gallery
Books, February 2021
Redefining one’s greatest vulnerabilities into sources of strength requires faith and stamina.
[above photos taken by Blerdy Binge Reader: morning at a private boat dock, 3 consecutive days of beach reading, tater tots smothered in cheese and bacon from Hammerheads Dockside Indian River Inlet, and sunset view of the bridge from Big Chill Surf Cantina]
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