Apparently other people already knew about Elif Batuman, but she's new to me and I'm a fan. GQ called it "funny" as in "easily the funniest book I've read this year" and I feel like maybe I'm going about this all wrong. It was funny. But mostly it made me think about that feeling of being an undergrad with the whole world unfolding in front of you and dating intellectual men who mostly need to smoke less pot. I enjoyed it.

Shown here with rural Sweden flying by in the background. 🚆

I had never heard of Hanya Yanagihara*, but found this in a Little Free Library and loved it. Truly. There were some loose ends that I wanted tied off, for sure. A lot of places where the story never came full circle and I had to live with not knowing. But I still loved it.

* That's on me. She won the national book award for her last book.

(cont) People will get it on, very explicitly, before the book is over. It's also just a rich tapestry of a story.

Ian Rankin is more consistent than particularly special. Scottish police procedural stuff, so copaganda by definition. I enjoy him, but I probably wouldn't go out of my way to recommend unless you told me you wanted a detective novel read to you in a lyrical Scottish accent. It does make me want to go on a hiking vacation in Scotland and eat scones in a bracing wind.

Lindsay Faye I discovered in a free library and I love her.

NK Jeminson is a genius and I think everyone should read all of her books immediately. Science fiction and just fabulous, ornate world building.

Peng Shepherd I'm kind of agnostic on. I feel like I never really believe her characters, but she is still a good writer.

Some of the books in the screenshot are for my kid. I check out books for him when he wants a bedtime story and his queue is empty. (Cont.)

I love Miranda July and hated On All Fours. I couldn't finish it. I don't understand why everyone loves it. She sets off on this trip that she has no interest in taking, to prove something to her husband who doesn't seem to like her very much. I found the whole story painful. I quit halfway through.

John Banville is another British police procedural. After Miranda July I just needed a story. I like a good murder mystery, and would love some recs that aren't police driven. (Cont.)

Elle Cosimano is fun and a little slapstick. Not really my thing, but sometimes a ridiculous mystery that makes you roll your eyes or shake your head is just what you need.

Ann Cleeves is another British police procedural. I almost left this screen shot out because the rest is stuff my kid listened to, but I like Cleeves and I think that there's a Vera Stanhope series on Masterpiece Theater that I would love and the rest of my household would not.

This concludes my little audiobook roundup.

I'm a little surprised at how long it has been since I added to this list, but I just put Colson Whitehead's Nickel Boys back in the local little free library, without taking a photo of the cover. It's not relaxing or uplifting but it is engaging and painful and infuriating and so very well told.

https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/1107456323