ATMOSPHERE (Taylor Jenkins Reid) - July 25/25

 I can’t say I was too crazy about this for the first half. The decision to start with the shuttle disaster is a terrible one since we don’t know the characters. But it slows down in the midsection and becomes about this relationship instead, and it’s increasingly involving. The ending is very satisfying, too. *** out of ****

STICK (Elmore Leonard) - July 17/25

 I was just never able to get into this. Leonard spends so much time on stuff I couldn’t have cared less about, especially financial shenanigans, and the characters were all so thin. I really skimmed the second half of this. Meh. * out of ****

ALL FOURS (Miranda July) - July 10/25

 Ohh did I ever hate this. It started out okay, despite dumb things like the non-binary child (who's decision was it for them to be non-binary?? You can't just do something ridiculous like that without an explanation), but holy moly did this thing fall off a cliff hard. It becomes less a book and more a platform for July's infuriating hippie-dippie beliefs. My god, it's the worst. How about a plot? How about interesting characters? Nope. 1/2* out of ****

INSIGNIFICANT OTHERS (Sarah Jio) - July 1/25

 It’s a fun premise that’s stretched out way beyond the breaking point; if it were a movie, she would’ve experience three or four alternate lives but here she experiences more than a dozen. It’s way too much. But I still basically enjoyed it. **1/2 out of ****