June '22 Goodreads Update Pt. 2

I've had a little more time on my hands recently. That has resulted in me doing more looking at book websites and adding of things to my Goodreads TBR. I did a big weed of the list a couple of weeks ago, but I have probably gained at least that many back since then. I'm glad I did that update in the middle of June.

Mrs. Death Misses Death by Salena Godden - A BookTuber I watch read this recently and really enjoyed it. It is about the life of Mrs. Death, as told to her biographer Wolf Willehard. She takes him through time to witness various deaths and talk about her long existence. I could dig this.

The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor - The Truth and the Turmoil by Tina Brown - I am less interested in the salacious gossip about the royals than I am in the fact that it is written by Tina Brown. She wrote the definitive biography of Princess Di and she was the editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.

The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Amanda Quick - I ran across this one while researching books for a Readers Advisory guide I was doing. This is a historical mystery romance set in 1930s Hollywood. It's the beginning of a series that I figured I'd check out. You know... one day.

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas - Despite the picture of the hairy naked guy on the cover, this is getting good reviews. The summary sounded good enough that I got it from Book of the Month a couple of months ago. It's about an English professor whose husband is suddenly accused of having inappropriate relationships with his students. And then she develops a thing for the new guy on campus. I don't love adultery stories, but it might be different when it's an open marriage anyway? We'll see.

Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine - The 1930s appears to be having a time in the publishing world all of a sudden. This one is set in 1930s Denver. Luz, our main character, is trying to survive alone while reminiscing on the history of her people. Also, the cover is freaking stunning.

The Temptation of Forgiveness by Donna Leon - Somehow I managed to miss getting this one onto my TBR. I have all the rest of the series on there, including the one after this. That cover! All the heart eyes.

Trace Elements by Donna Leon - Another one I missed. I even had the next two after this one. Who knows what happened. But I'm all caught up now. At least with putting them on my list. Reading them is another story.

Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes - The summary for this book sounds... dramatic. Night sweats and dreams of corpses, etc. Hopefully that wasn't written by the author and the actual book is more interesting. This guy spent 20+ years as a cold case investigator. Many of his cases are of names I recognized.

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez - Civil is our main character who wants to work in family planning in her African-American community in Alabama. This is the age of eugenics and sterilizing poor black women. Her clients in this case are 11 and 13 year old girls the state wants on birth control. The story affects her entire life.

Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away From the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult by Faith Jones - Cults are all the rage in publishing these days. Here's a memoir about a religious sex cult, which is a thing I've never heard of before.

More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez - Ok. See if you can keep up. Lore is married to Fabian. They have twins and live in Laredo, TX. Then she marries Andres in Mexico City. She is an international banker and splits her time between the two families. Until one husband goes to jail for murdering the other. 30 years later, Cassie decides to dig deeper and finds out things nobody wants known. I hope it's as good as it sounds.

Homicide and Halo Halo by Mia P. Manansala - I recently read Dial A for Aunties which is a book about Asian immigrants that came out at the same time as Arsenic and Adobo which is the first book to this one. Reading the Aunties one made me realize that I deeply preferred this series, so I added the second one to my list. Also, I just tried Halo Halo for the first time.

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li - A Harvard student plans to steal Ancient Chinese artifacts from the museums of the colonizers who stole them first. The blurb calls this "Oceans Eleven meets The Farewell". I don't know what The Farewell is, but this had me at Oceans Eleven.

The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner - I have never read  Meissner novel, but I'm so sure I will love them that I keep adding them to my TBR. Probably the covers help with that. This one is about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree - I posted about this on my Wishlist Post, but somehow it never made it to my TBR. That has been rectified. This is described as cozy fantasy and I am here for it.

The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier by April White - My sister sent me a Smithsonian article about this phenomenon in The Gilded Age where women who couldn't get a divorce in New York would hop a train to South Dakota and take up residence until they could procure a divorce. I had not heard about this before and was therefore fascinated. THEN I heard about this book on a podcast. It's written by the same author and goes deeper into the situation. Also, the cover!

Jumping Sharks and Dropping Mics: Modern Idioms and Where They Come From by Gareth Carrol - I love books about words. The two phrases in the title are fairly new to the lexicon, like from the last 10 years. I am pretty stoked about this.

Mr. Malcolm's List by Suzanne Allain - I saw an ad for the tv show that is being made of this book. I didn't realize it WAS a book until I ran across it on Goodreads. I like that the tv producers are doing this productions with diverse casts, which I'm pretty sure the book doesn't do. That's ok. Selina's friend Julia invites her to London, but when she gets there, she finds out she's meant to be used to get revenge on one Mr. Malcolm who spurned Julia. He has a list of requirements for the perfect wife. Selina decides she also has a list. If he wants to marry her, he has to meet her requirements. I think this is a hilarious return and am super interested to read it. And watch the show.

The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann - This is a romance, but with a twist. Joy is asexual. She likes Malcolm, but he likes Summer. Fox is Summer's ex, and he decides to help Joy out by pretending to date to make Malcolm notice her. I'm not sure what Joy's asexuality has to do with it, but I assume it makes a difference somewhere. I do love a fake dating story though.

OK. That's all of them. Did any of these strike your fancy?