WISH YOU WERE HERE (Renee Carlino) - May 30, 2025

 Meh. This super long book periodically held my interest but mostly left me cold. Carlino just cannot write authentic sounding dialogue to save her life, and the book inexplicably plods forever after he dies. Meh. ** out of ****

THE BOOK OF JOE (Jonathan Tropper) - May 24/25

 I was looking up Tropper books on here and noticed this one wasn’t listed, so I immediately grabbed it from the library. It’s a good book, though a little disappointing if I’m being honest. The central character is memorable and compelling, and so are most of the periphery figures, but the book is way too long and stuffed with needless digressions (eg the bully, the fake breakup, etc). I mostly enjoyed it, but I wanted to love it. *** out of ****

PADAWAN (Kiersten White) - May 15/25

 My obsession with Andor led me to the Star Wars books and this was an awful place to start. It takes place mostly on this boring planet full of boring kids, and it feels like the worst episode of Next Generation. I was super bored and it felt like the book just wouldn’t end. * out of ****

GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE (Emily Henry) - May 6/25

 Well it’s going to be a while (a long while) before I read another Emily Henry book. I just found this to be completely boring and interminable from start to finish. I didn’t care one iota of the reclusive star at the center of this and so much of the narrative is devoted to her tedious story. The romcom elements were okay but I lost interest in even that by the end. A real disaster. * out of ****