You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism by Amber Ruffin

I highly recommend listening to this book as Ruffin is an engaging narrator and we even get to hear from other people like her sister Lacey. This book reminds me strongly of Phoebe Robinson with stories about the Black experience in America that are comedically told but nonetheless somewhat mortifying that people in this day and age still might think some of these actions are perfectly normal. Not all of the stories are about Lacey and the do span several decades. They range from the fairly ridiculous (a woman patting Amber's hair, getting her hand stuck, and then hanging from Amber after tripping) to the horrifying (an old man waving a gun at young Amber and Lacey because they were walking on his sidewalk.

Four stars

This book came out January 12th, 2021

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

I went back and forth between listening to the book and reading it. I liked the audiobook better but both were very good. The bold at the beginning of each chapter helped let us know which family members the chapter would focus on. 
This book looks at the history of the study of schizophrenia, interweaving that with a deep dive into the Galvin family. 12 children (that poor woman!) where 6 of the boys ended up being diagnosed with schizophrenia. This studies of this family gave a lot of insight into the disease but that doesn't help them much as they struggled to deal with it while they were growing up and even into the current day.
Kolker's writing painted a very clear picture of not only the Galvin family but also the tolls this disease took on them. 

Four stars

This book came out February 1st, 2021

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own

Farewell My Herring by L C Tyler

I had never read a book in this series before but I a) didn't feel like I was missing anything and b) am now very intrigued about the rest of the series. The ending was a little mushy and sort of left open like there might be more to the story in later books and there some plot points were sort of glossed over but generally I liked the well-built characters and the descriptive creation of setting.

Though it is hard to believe, there are still places in the world where people cannot get wi-fi or cell service. I live near one of them so there was no suspension of disbelief for me when this mystery was set in a remote old house, Fell Hall. Ethelred and his agent Elsie have been invited to a conference where they will discuss writing mysteries and how to get your book noticed, respectively. There are only supposed to be the three authors (Elsie and Ethelred have had interactions with both of the other writers but I'm not sure if it was in other books or not.) They are there to confer with the woman, Wendy, who runs the writing seminars with one other person, Jenny who helps with the cleaning and cooking, in the building. However, two of the participants have shown up early. It is that evening that the snow begins to fall. This very much annoys Wendy who is the type of regimented person who wants things to not only run smoothly but to run her way. Even worse, one of the two participants seems to be causing consternation among the authors.

Added to the mix another participant shows up the next day, even with the deep snow, and he seems to have some sort of information about Wendy. Then one of their number dies. And one disappears. Elsie and Ethelred take it upon themselves to investigate the murder.

It was really interesting being in the head of both of these characters, especially since I didn't actually like either one all that much. But they are both fully formed, this being the 9th book in the series, and Tyler certainly has them so down pat that one book really gives the reader a full idea of who they each are.

Four stars

Follows The Maltese Herring

This book comes out on April 22nd, 2021

ARC kindly provided by Allison & Busby and Netgalley

Opinions are my own

She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen

This looked like a cute book and it definitely was. I have to admit that I was disappointed because the cover looks like this would be a comic book but it was a good story nonetheless. Lots of familiar romance tropes (enemies-to-lovers, fake relationship) that wove together nice in a book that is probably generally aimed at the high school crowd. It was great that Scottie, our narrator, had an incredibly supportive family and Irene, her love interest, did too, just in a different way.

Scottie is a basketball player whose ex broke her heart by breaking up with her and moving to the fancy, snooty school. When the story opens, her basketball team has just lost in an exhibition game against her ex’s new team. So Scottie is understandably upset. When she and Irene get in a fender-bender, the result is that Scottie is going to be driving Irene to school every morning. The resulting furor at school gives Scottie the idea that the two should fake date in a win-win situation to them both. But then pesky real feelings get involved.

The exploration of Scottie’s heartbreak as well as how she works through her feelings and deals with a bully in an appropriate manner showing the adult that she is becoming were the best parts of this story.

Four stars

This book comes out April 20th

ARC kindly provided by MacMillan and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Hugh Fraser, Hastings from the Poirot mystery series, reads this version of Agatha Christie's rule-breaking novel. I love his voice and think of the show fondly when I hear him reading the stories. He is an engaging reader; one one who intimately knows the works and one who makes it easy to listen to the story.
Told in the first person by a small-town doctor, this story paints a vivid picture of village life. The people, the movements, and, of course, the gossip. Dr. Sheppard leads us through what happens when the richest man in town is found murdered, shortly after he received a letter exposing the name of a blackmailer. We go through the entire investigation even as Hercule Poirot is brought in (even though he is self-proclaimed to have retired from solving mysteries.)
For the ending alone, the book is well-deserved to be on many lists of "Best Crime Books". I would not recommend the reread though because knowing the end takes some enjoyment out of the story.

Three stars

Follows Poirot Investigates

Followed by The Big Four

This book came out in 1926

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

The Deadly Mystery of the Missing Diamonds by T E Kinsey

I've been quite enjoying the Lady Hardcastle mysteries and didn't quite realize that this is a new series with characters that we have seen before. Lady Hardcastle and Flo do make a brief appearance in this book both "in person" and through letters that Flo is exchanging with Skins' wife, Ellie.

Skins and Barty are part of a jazz ensemble who have been asked to been play for a specific group at the Aristippus club. It seems that this group is supposed to go up against another group in a dance off. But these boys will need a lot of help.

It is a routine job until an old friend, Superintendent Sunderland, asks them for a bit of help. Rumors have it that an army deserter who stole a fortune in diamonds is somehow related to the club. Skins and Barty agree to help and are eventually aided by the whole band as well as Ellie.

The mystery was very much secondary to the character development and I did not hate it. Bartholomew "Barty" Dunn is a footloose and fancy-free bachelor though he is starting to re-think his ways. He is shown to have a soft spot for his landlady who lost all three of her sons in the war. 

Skins and Ellie fell in love in an early Lady Hardcastle book and now have two children. Ellie is supposed to have an inheritance but her family didn't like Skins being a musician and are holding the money until they've been married for a set amount of time. It's all of the little touches that really start to make us care about reading more of the stories.

Four stars

This book came out March 1, 2021

Followed by A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball

ARC kindly provided by Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

The House Swap by Jo Lovett

Cassie is a children's book writer with writer's block. Her editor suggests that she come to live in London and see if new scenery can shake something loose. Cassie is hesitant because she's built her life in America for the last five years. Returning overseas might help her write her last few books but it also might bring up all of the feelings for the reasons she left. But it will be closer to an in vitro clinic and she wants a baby terribly. So she lists her house on a swap site.

James has been dating a woman for nine months but doesn't think it's very serious. She, however, does. And has created all sorts of expectations around that assumption. Expectations that, when not fulfilled at her birthday, cause her to become The Vengeful Ex. It's time for James to get out of town. So he lists his house on the same swap site and they come to an agreement for the course of several months.

During that time, they don't see each other in person very often but they do exchange emails and phone numbers and slowly grow closer together. However, there are large jumps in time that make it hard to really see any true connection between the two with most of the relationship being off-page.

I very much appreciated that the h/h were a little older (in their mid- to late-thirties.) It's more believable that they could be so successful in their jobs. I wish there had been more in the description about Cassie's search to have a baby. That is a HUGE plot point and takes over most of the back half of the book. There were also a number of smaller plot points that, had there been fewer, they could have been explored better making the book richer. Things like Jame's dead sibling and parent, his failing relationships with his only remaining family, Cassie's friendships on both sides of the ocean,  James's friendships (or lack there of), Cassie's struggles with her writing, the difference between James and Cassie on listmaking the man James had made redundant, his ex-girlfriend's apparent in ability to let go, etc. Each of these was brought up and I thought "This will be a fun plot point later" and then it was resolved in almost buried single sentences. Even James's aversion to children which was built up and built up was resolved really quickly. If plot moppets could be anything other than children, these were all plot moppets, introduced solely to show one aspect of a character or relationship then moved quickly off page.

Overall a fast read but so much concentration was put on having children (with most of the "interesting" plot points going to that) that any other development for characters, place, relationship, or literally any other plot point was left behind.

Three stars

This book comes out April 18th, 2021

ARC kindly provided by Bookouture and NetGalley

Opinions are my own