nerdyprettythings's reviews
495 reviews

Amber Ruffin is hysterically funny and makes a lot of these stories feel so much more lighthearted than they were for Amber, Lacey, and the family and friends they sourced other stories from. Some of them are just so awful that Amber and Lacey are like "yeah man even we can't make this funny, sorry.” Also their family and especially their relationship with their parents sounds amazing and hilarious, I remember that feeling from the first book as well. Definitely recommend the audio for this one and their first book (You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey) but also they have a lot of pics in the physical/pdf!

This one is small but mighty. I will be thinking about and referring back to it a lot I think. I picked it as a nonfiction follow-up to Chain-Gang All-Stars, and I think it was good for that. At some points it felt like peering in from the outside for me, but learning a lot. But it’s also more broadly about call outs and who benefits and whether we are getting what we want from a call out (as opposed to a longer process of mediation etc, depending on what kind of harm was done). There are also a lot of references to the state using the visible dissension to tear apart the movement, and though that kind of talk initially sounds paranoid to my ear, it definitely isn’t (see next story), and the reminder felt especially poignant as we head into MLK Day.
A great sum-up quote from the Afterword: “The way forward is to forge abolition with both hands in the dirt, building empathy in the mirror; it’s to remember that innocence is never a prerequisite for human dignity, nor for human rights and freedom; that the words we speak aloud offer a prediction for what will be, and must therefore manifest not our smallest vision for the world, but our biggest.”

First completed book of the year! This story collection was a lot of fun: modern mystery authors writing in the style of Christie (but also themselves) to give us new Marple. As with all short story collections, some were misses, but overall I had a really good time reading their takes on Marple stories. Some were super lighthearted and some were more dark. I found it to be a really fun mix. McManus had the only story I thought was really boring and obvious, which is pretty good out of 12. This collection felt like Encyclopedia Brown for grownups and honestly I want that. Also, I felt like the authors did a good job referencing Marple books without spoiling too much if you’re planning to go back and read more actual Christie. 

A follow-up to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and featuring the same narrator and style. I really like the "I'm just presenting the facts, ma'am” thing, where you're promised it's fair play and you'll have the opportunity to solve the mystery. But the meta-level felt a little overboard for me this time, it's a sequel about a sequel about a man trying to write a sequel. Also, all of a sudden he's presented as kind of dumb this time? There are some clues they bash you over the head with that he's lost on and some that are important to the mystery that get glanced over… and the narrator says he doesn't know what adverbs are? 

American Psycho, but with a Disney princess lookalike instead of a yuppie. It's got the same disturbing and sexually sadistic elements of American Psycho (I have seen the film but not read the book), so I would definitely go into it knowing it's going to be violent in that way. Maeve's inner voice is the most real and important thing in her life, despite what she'd probably tell you. We learn a little about her at the very end that I wish had come up sooner, but I actually think this book was really well done. Listening to this book while stores were playing Christmas music was so disorienting and fun 😅

This was a really fun read. The twist got me! Basically, the story centers on a secret society where you can order up a death, and some witches believe they're making it happen with their minds. I picked it up because I saw that it was one of the books that has been adapted recently, with Rufus Sewell as the MC. Definitely a fun one! And with a badass female sidekick!

This book was so much fun. There are definitely some twists I didn’t see coming, and toward the end I said WHAT out loud, which really shocked me. The MC was wayyyy more clueless than me, but she didn’t get on my nerves until like 90% in, which I think is a win for this type of psychological thriller/romance. There is a love triangle, will they/won’t they thing at the center of the book, along with a ~mysterious past~ and honestly, it really worked for me. This is my third book from Kiersten Modglin - do I remember any other plots? No! Have I had a great time? Absolutely! Totally recommend picking up one of her (40!) books for a nice slump buster.

I hadn’t read any David Sedaris yet this year, and that was some deprivation of joy I don’t like to do to myself. 
This one is a collection of stories with some relation to Christmas, and as usual most of them are hilarious and a little twisted. I know all of his books are available in print, but Sedaris’s delivery on audio is so funny and perfect, definitely take advantage of the ability to have a great comedian deliver the stories to you

If you're wishing there were more queer Hallmark Christmas movies, this is for you. There's nothing too deep here, no issues that aren't almost immediately resolved. But I enjoyed that, it's a cute little Christmas read. It did one thing I didn't love - each issue is sort of tackled one by one rather than slowly building things and wrapping them more toward the end as a climax. It felt like sections of the book could be broken up into "MC gets the girl," "MC pulls off the event," "MC takes on the bad guy," etc. Still, there are a billion of these with straight couples, and queer women deserve little light holiday reads too.