Twice - Mitch Albom - fiction - five stars - I love all of Albom's books and this was another great one. Alfie has the ability to go back and change his story, he can live any moment again, but there are some restrictions. He can only go to that one moment twice, if he loses love, he cannot regain it, and he cannot stop death. The story is told at the end of Alfie's life as he recounts the mistakes he has made and the things he has changed. Alfie's greatest regret is that he had love and lost it, and has now lived a second life doing all in his power to fix as much as possible for the one he loves. Both sweet and bittersweet, loved it.
The Menu of Happiness (Kamogawa Food Detectives, #3) - Hisashi Kashiwai - fiction - five stars - I really enjoy these books. They are a great palette cleaners. They won't ever knock your socks off, but these books just leave you happy and smiling. The Kamogawas run a restaurant as well as a detective agency. You can come here and ask the chef to locate/prepare a dish you had once. The catch in the stories is that there is always a reason someone wants a dish a second time, a haunting memory that requires some amount of closure. I thought this set of stories was particularly good, and I really enjoyed how the Kamogawas were able to help each of their clients.
Patriot: A Memoir - Alexei Navalny - memoir - five stars - This was one I listened based on a recommendation from a friend. It was excellent. While I knew who Navalny was and that he was a political foe of Putin, I did not have a deep understanding of Russian politics and what Navalny's party/organization was doing. This provided a good overview of how he got involved with politics. Much of the book is focused on his poisoning, reovery, and then return to Russia and incarceration. What really struck me about all this is that Navalny knew that when he returned to Russia he would eventually be arrested, and that he would never leave jail, at least not while Putin was in power. I think he expected to grow old there and die, and not be poisoned in jail, but he went back knowingly and willingly because he loved his country and believed that this is how he would affect change. Highly recommend.
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home - Stephen Starring Grant - memoir - four stars - This was a good read. Grant is an executive who loses his job when COVID hits. In order to maintain health insurance and make ends meet, he signs up to be a rural mail carrier. This was a really interesting description of what the job of a mailman requires, it's a lot of hard work. I really enjoyed reading about the mail parts of things, the training, his co-workers, different stops along his route, weird things he's delivered, etc. Less interesting to me were his general musings/commentary of politics etc. which is why this isn't a five star review. Still, definitely worth the read.
Shopgirls - Jessica Anya Blau - fiction - four stars - Zippy is 19 and was just hired to be a shopgirl at I Magnin, a fancy department store in San Francisco. She has recently also moved in with Raquel, who is a new lawyer and several years older than her, but they have become best friends. Zippy loves her job and is good at it, although not everyone at I Magnin is friendly. In addition, she is navigating family issues and just being out on her own for the first time. I really enjoyed the charater of Zippy, she is naive, kind, genuine. I felt like the story was a little underdeveloped, but the characters made it work for me.
Bright Young Women - Jessica Knoll - fiction - four stars - This book is loosely inspired by the Ted Bundy case. Pamela, president of her sorority, is also the sole witness to an attack at the sorority which leaves two girls, including her best friend, dead, and two others badly injured. The police bungle the case, focusing on an ex-boyfriend. Then a woman name Tina arrives. She is convinced that this is the work of a serial killer, the same man who murdered her best friend/lover. Pamela and Tina team up to take down the real killer. The book just back and forth between the present and years before when Tina's fiend, Ruth, was killed. Knoll does an excellent job creating the characters, and making the reader frustrated with the ineptitude of the authorities which allowed the serial killer/Ted Bundy, to excape custody multiple times.
Blue Christmas (Weezie and Bebe Mysteries, #3) - Mary Kay Andrews - fiction - three stars - I usually love Andrews' books, but this one was just OK for me. This is a short little novelette that focuses on Weezie, a character from two previous books. I think the issue for me was that the plot was just kind of thin, and I knew where it was going early on. It either needed a better storyline to make it longer, or it should have been much shorter. I still do like the characters, but story itself was just meh.
The Mighty Red - Louise Erdrich - fiction - three stars - This one was kind of weird. Kismet Poe is the object of affection for two boys. Gary, who is convinced that if Kismet marries him, all will be well and she will save him, and Hugo, Kismet's best friend and the one she actually does love. Meanwhile Kismet's father has disappeared and along with him, seemingly, the church's refurbishment fund.Kismet does marry Gary, but it's not a true marriage, and Hugo sets off to make his fortune and rescue Kismet from the marriage. This book was frustrating to me. It seemed like a bunch of people making ridiculous stupid decisions. On the up side, Erdrich is pretty good at creating characters and you are rooting for them. Despite the weak storyline, I wanted to know what happened, and I did like many of the characters.
