Reading Recap, or Come at Me with Those Holds, Library!

I caught up with my library holds! (I deleted a few of them, but still...caught up.)

Wildflower by Drew Barrymore

Sweet, nutty Drew Barrymore. But nutty in a good way. 

The saddest line in the book: "When I was 14 and wanted to start my life over..." We all know that Drew had her share of troubles when she was younger and was emancipated from her mother at 14 years old. But just to think of a 14-year-old being on her own and being better off is astounding. I felt the most kinship with her during the "Klutz" chapter. I, too, fall over invisible things. Ken always points to the picture of a falling person on "wet floor" signs and says, "Look, you're on that sign!" 

Drew reads this audiobook, and I recommended it. Note: She is an AC-TOR and that definitely comes through in the book. If she's telling a story where she screamed in real life, she screams in the book. Be warned, all ye with earbuds. 

The Hours by Jillian Cantor

This one falls solidly into my "borrow" camp. The protagonist is Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's neighbor, Millie. Millie's husband, Ed, is Russian and, therefore, suspect #1 in the Red-Scare 1950s. It was a good story, but nothing remarkable. It made me want to read a nonfiction book about the Rosenbergs. 

How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Stephen Johnson

How We Got to Now looks at six areas that are integral to how we live: glass, cold, cleanliness, sound, light, and time. This book makes complicated topic really readable, and I enjoyed it. And I feel smarter! 

My favorite bit of trivia from this book: Around 1855, Chicago was raised ten feet. Like, they-jacked-up-the-buildings-and-ran-a-sewer-system-underneath-them raised. Because the city was at almost the same level as Lake Michigan, all of the waste went...nowhere. Gross. Johnson writes, "In 1860, engineers raised half a city block: almost an acre of five-story buildings weighing and estimated thirty-five thousand tons was lifted by more than six thousand jackscrews." Whuuuuuut? 

Slade House by David Mitchell

What a great, creepy book! It's small but powerful (238 pages, but the physical book isn't even as large as a trade paperback), with short stories that all tie into Slade House--which is haunted. I was a little confused during the first story, but once I got the rhythm of the book in the second story, it all came together. Put it on your TBR list for next October...or for any time you need a little unsettledness in your reading life.

(I read the ebook, but the paper book is enchanting...a bright yellow cover with no dust jacket (I hate dust jackets) and a cutout on the front. So cool.) 

Corrupted by Lisa Scottoline (Rosato and DiNunzio #3)

Let's face it, this series isn't highbrow literature. Or anybrow literature. But I like it.