I’m always surprised when I read a book by someone who had written a ton of best sellers who I haven’t heard of. This author is primary a romance novelist which may explain both her output and why I hadn’t heard of her. This book--about a woman confronting her own mortality deciding to pull off one last heist with her partners in crime from her (much) younger years who she’s long lost touch with--was good but not great. The older characters felt more like tropes than people and I just kept wishing the author had chops like Richard Osman.

Another great one by Julia Wertz which I had to read a little quickly because it was an ILL I had to return. It goes back and forth between slice-of-life stuff of her in NYC but also a lot of “then and now” images of particular streets in NYC as well as deep dives into things like “Things invented in New York” and the histories of some famous/infamous NY women. Some things she claimed were “lost to history” I was not so sure about, but loved this all the same.

A sequel to a book (Secret Identity) which needed no sequel but it was great anyhow. This is a book about comics industry intrigue and a character who was created in the 70s by a relatively unknown woman who then disappeared. A new comics illustrator steps up as part of a modern strange new scheme to relaunch the character but it turns out it’s a dangerous path/situation. Mostly a narrative but there are some comics panels for illustrative purposes and they are all great.

Another great graphic novel by Wertz though in this case it was about her recovery story (as she says, pretty average) alongside some of the other things going on in her life at the same time, a few relationships, moving house, meeting up with friends (in a section that felt a bit name-droppy but I don’t think was meant that way). Since the other book I read came after this one, I sort of knew where it was going. Really enjoy this author’s style and storytelling.

This took a long time to finish. It’s a dense history of the Manhattan area and environs from when the Dutch arrived and set up shop until about when the English took completely over. Thanks to some newly-translated early Dutch documents, there’s a lot more known about this time in history and the author is very excited to have a more complete picture. The author discusses what went into New Amsterdam which later became New York and how its origins can still be seen in the way the place works. Good history.

A lot going on here! An autistic likely-lesbian is a scriptwriter in a world where GenAI owns the copyright to everything and sort of “owns the narrative” of all the culture’s stories. But! Maybe there’s another way. She reconnects with a person from her past who is now a man and envisions a different future. Alternating timelines from her growing up “different” to being a grown-ass lady with a job... and a desire for something different. Also this all takes place in space so there’s a certain amount of mucking about in spaceships and spaceports.

This was a fun sort of meta-mystery where the author is fully aware they are writing a book about the curious case of a dead guy (and then a bunch more dead people) while his somewhat argy bargy family is having a family get together at an Australian ski lodge during the middle of a storm. A lot of breaking the fourth wall type of things, a good amount of humor and a story at the center of it which is compelling. It was mainly published in Australia, but worth tracking down.