Expectation: A history-flipping tale of empowerment.
Reality: A novel that isn’t bad, but in hindsight is incredibly problematic given the author’s race.
All in Audiobook
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die – Chip Heath & Dan Heath
While “Stick” provides a few good insights into how to craft a message with easy recall and that drives action, some of the examples felt trite compared to other, similar books – or maybe there’s only a handful of original business books out there?
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Expectation: A folksy tale of second chances.
Reality: A soap opera of confusing plots, overly sexualized characters and an insane amount of fart jokes.
Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate and Innocent Man – Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic
“Indianapolis” is an exhaustive, sometimes tedious, but largely engrossing telling of the worst U.S. Naval disaster after Pearl Harbor that had largely vacated the public consciousness for 30 years until Robert Shaw’s Quint, the shark-obsessed fisherman in “Jaws” gave his bone-chilling monologue about surviving the USS Indianapolis sinking.
We Are the Brennans – Tracey Lange
Expectation: A complex and layered story about family, regrets and moving forward.
Reality: A melodrama about terrible people, that think they are good people, getting a happy ending.
Billy Summers – Stephen King
Expectation: A supernatural thriller centered around a new Stephen King classic character.
Reality: A crime mystery that goes down several rabbit holes, but it’s an overall rewarding return to form for King.
Somebody’s Daughter – Ashley C. Ford
Tracing her earliest memories through post-college, Ford presents a candid view of her life as a lower middle class Black kid in Fort Wayne, a mid-sized city in Indiana that is not economically or racially diverse.
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
Expectation: A science fiction snooze-fest.
Reality: A surprisingly funny and touching story about second chances and building community.
Early Morning Riser – Katherine Heiny
Expectation: A breezy romantic comedy.
Reality: A surprisingly funny and sentimental story of chosen family that had me questioning some of my own choices in life.
The Anatomy of Desire – L.R. Dorn
Expectation: A mediocre thriller featuring social media influencers.
Reality: A mostly surface-level execution that is strongly aided by the full cast audiobook narration.
Jonny Appleseed – Joshua Whitehead
Expectation: For some reason I thought this was a young adult read.
Reality: This is anything but young adult. It’s a raw and painful story that has a fair amount of hope sprinkled in.
Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World – Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Expectation: An intimate portrayal of young love and learning how to grow as individuals and as a couple.
Reality: A bit scattershot from a plot perspective but just as well-written and affecting as the first book.
¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons – John Paul Brammer
Brammer states early and often that he’s not a trained mental health professional, simply a person that stumbled into a career with the ability to help others. “¡Hola Papi!” is clear example that he’s succeeded.
Gay Bar: Why We Went Out – Jeremy Atherton Lin
There are multiple things I took umbrage with in this unfocused, pretentious, and boring historical memoir (is that a thing?) that I gave up at 34 percent read.
No One Goes Alone – Erik Larson
Expectation: A good old fashioned ghost story told in radio serial style.
Reality: An intellectual ghost story that’s heavy on talking and light on action.
The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
Expectation: Adventure story with a speculative fiction slant.
Reality: At times both horrific and hopeful, the cross-state settings help broaden the view from other, similar stories.
The Comfort Book – Matt Haig
This is probably best suited for individuals that have had their own struggles with depression and are looking for additional suggestions on how to survive and thrive. I appreciate the stigma breaking Haig does here – especially for men – but I think his fiction, which also covers similar themes, is more for me.
The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11 – Garrett M. Graff
The stories are raw, painful and incredibly difficult. Only a few have happy endings. I had to pause the book several times to collect my thoughts. I cried frequently. That’s a testament to how Graff structured the book, its phenomenal narration, and the fact that it is an oral history.
The Stranger – Albert Camus
Expectation: An overrated classic.
Reality: Not every aspect of the story worked for me, but our collective experience during the pandemic gave new understanding – and perhaps compassion - to Meursault’s personality.
The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
Expectation: A modern “Great American Novel.”
Reality: A captivating and gorgeously written novel that, at times, asks too much of the reader.