It’s been a little while since we’ve discussed what’s happening on your bookshelf and I am curious. Plus, today is National Book Day, so what better time? I’ve been reading a lot lately. As you know, Heather and I are working on our sequel to The Royal We right now, and I have this thing where I will not read books that are too similar to ours while I’m working on it, because I don’t want to subconsciously plagiarize or get my own internal fictional world confused. (On that note, if you wrote a royals-oriented book and sent us an ARC within the last year or so, I am so sorry, but I can’t read it! I’m sure it is excellent!) So I end up reading a lot of stabby-stabby murder-murder books. Since the beginning of the year, the books I’ve read that have stuck with me the most (in a positive way; I read one book that was a crazy hot-ass mess that I’m not going to name because it’s rude and also it’s not like you’re going to buy some book because I was like, “WOW this went off the rails!!!!”) have been:

  1. Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. This is the book about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. I don’t read a lot of non-fiction (it’s maybe 20% of my book diet; I just love novels). It’s excellent. I actually think Jennifer Lawrence is GREAT casting for this part, too. I think she might make a great villain, and Holmes is such a profound weirdo in addition to being, you know, a sociopath.
  2. One of Us Is Lying, by Karen M. McManus. I’d call this The Breakfast Club With Murder, and I really enjoyed it. It’s super tightly written — and also I kept imagining one of the characters as a young Luke Perry, which felt really poignant this week.
  3. The Dry by Jane Harper. I really enjoyed this one, too. I love a detective novel, and I don’t think I’ve ever read one set in Australia, somehow? Anyway, this was the first in a series of detective novels and this pleases me greatly, as I need another detective series to read while I wait for Michael Connelly to write things. (Michael Connelly is one of the few male writers whose books I automatically pre-order. I love me some Harry Bosch books.)
  4. Tell Me Everything by Sarah Enni. Full disclosure, I know Sarah! Her YA debut is totally charming; there is a Clueless Easter Egg in it that made me chortle out loud.

(I’ve linked to Amazon here, because we use their affiliate links, and it’s a good way for us to make a little money, but of course I also encourage people to go to their local indie bookstore/use their local library!)

What are you reading?