Author: Stephanie @that_bookish_life

Book Review: Sociopath by Patric Gagne

Sociopath // Patric Gagne

AUDIOBOOK REC

{Gifted, thanks @librofm!}

“I’m a liar. I’m a thief. I’m emotionally shallow. I’m mostly immune to remorse and guilt. I’m highly manipulative. I don’t care what other people think. I’m not interested in morals. I’m not interested, period. Rules do not factor into my decision making. I’m capable of almost anything.”

In Sociopath, Patric Gage, a former therapist with a doctorate in clinical psychology, recounts in detail her life as a sociopath. From her discordant childhood punctuated by petty theft, college years stealing cars and credit cards, to navigating a bumpy relationship with her long term boyfriend, her story is salacious and enlightening.

Gagne’s deep understanding of psychology, both normal and abnormal, allows her to expertly convey what sociopathy is and how she experiences the world differently offering hope for those affected by this often misunderstood and misdiagnosed disorder.

Recommended for fans of Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died. Both books are can’t stop listening experiences!

IHO Independent Bookstore Day Libro.FM has audiobook sales all week AND they’re currently offering 3 audiobooks for the price of one when you start a new membership. That’s 3 audiobooks for $14.99! PLUS a portion of your membership/purchases goes toward the indie of your choice, win-win. If you’re thinking of joining Libro.FM now is the time!

Book Review: The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy

The Devil and Mrs. Davenport // Paulette Kennedy

Hi, hello. I just finished reading this book and I had such a great experience I had to immediately run to a color coordinated backdrop to tell you all about it, as one does.

Loretta is a typical 27-year-old housewife and mother of two in 1955 suburban Missouri until, after a brief flu-like illness, she begins hearing voices and seeing visions. Initially Loretta is scared by these experiences, but eventually she considers them a divine gift of a sorts through which she blossoms and finds purpose assisting with criminal investigations, including that of a local teen who recently went missing. But Loretta’s controlling husband, an assistant professor at a Pentecostal bible college, will stop at nothing to keep Loretta right where he wants her.

The Devil and Mrs. Davenport is a delicious blend of mystery, gothic and paranormal horror, feminist empowerment, and even a hint of romance, all dressed with vintage flair. To my delightful surprise there is very clear Shirley Jackson influence at play here with the blend of paranormal meeting the very real and insidious nature of female oppression at midcentury, an unfortunately prescient reminder as we see our modern rights being stripped away as men work to put us back where they want us – we thought this was somewhere mid-20th century, but apparently it’s more like mid-19th century! Egads! What will these hornswogglers get up to next?!

I could nitpick a bit about some of the pacing and plot, but overall I had a great time reading and more people need to read this book!

Shop: Amazon | Bookshop

Book Review: Ready or Not by Cara Bastone

Ready or Not // Cara Bastone

It’s rare that I rave about a romance book but here I am about to do just that!

After an anomalous one night hookup with Brooklyn bar owner, Ethan, Eve finds herself unexpectedly pregnant and though far from the adultiest of adults she wants to keep the pregnancy. This choice will have far reaching consequences for Eve and Ethan, obviously, but also the chosen family within Eve’s sphere, namely, siblings Willa and Shep who have been her chosen family for much of her life.

Ready or Not is a messy love story, but it is that, a love story, one brimming with love in many forms, including romance. With snappy dialog, perfectly imperfect characters, nuance, and so much warmth, Ready or Not shows what is possible when you open yourself to possibility.

I could not get enough of this book! Totally huggable and recommended for fans of Emily Henry.

I’ve heard Bastone’s backlist is also worthwhile so I’m going to have to check that out next!

Shop: Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.FM

Book Review: The House of Broken Bricks by Fiona Williams

The House of Broken Bricks // Fiona Williams

{Thanks to the publisher for providing a complimentary review copy.}

A mixed raced family in the English countryside in crisis.  Tess, who is Black, grew up in a Jamaican neighborhood in London, feels very out of place as the only person with dark skin in their rural agricultural community, disconnected from her culture and family in the city.  Her marriage with Richard is on the rocks, an insider in his native community, he spends much of his time in his gardens and helping neighbors with odd jobs.  And their two unique twins who present very differently to the world: Max, with his father’s light skin, and Sonny, who looks like his mother.

Separated into four seasons mirroring the family’s turmoil The House of Broken Bricks is a beautifully crafted, quiet, and touching emotional family drama.  A fresh take on the English pastoral novel rich with symbolism, metaphor, and nature descriptions.

Shop: Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.FM

Book Review: The Saddest Girl on the Beach by Heather Frese

The Saddest Girl on the Beach // Heather Frese

{Thanks to the publisher for providing a complimentary review copy.}

Grieving the recent loss of her father, 19-year-old Charlotte leaves college and her home state of Ohio behind seeking solace with her best friend, Evie, and her family on the tiny island of Hatteras on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But the tranquil seashore Charlotte recalls from childhood vacations remains out of reach as things on the island are in flux: Evie’s life is upended by an unplanned pregnancy, Charlotte finds herself in something of a love triangle, and a hurricane is brewing in the Atlantic.

The Saddest Girl on the Beach is a metaphor rich exploration of grief and a coming-of-age story highlighting enduring and evolving friendship. The sense of place is well developed and central to the story including interesting sprinkles of local lore and oceanography.

This would make an excellent beach read if you enjoy an emotionally charged story with your sun and sand, especially if you find yourself on OBX and can appreciate some of the references first hand.

The Saddest Girl on the Beach is something of a companion novel to Frese’s debut, and winner of the Lee Smith Novel Prize, The Baddest Girl on the Planet, telling Evie’s later story.

Shop: Amazon | Bookshop

Book Review: A Better World by Sarah Langan

A Better World // Sarah Langan

Thanks to the publisher for providing a complimentary review copy.

Set several decades in the future in a very believable America, Linda, a doctor, her husband, a scientist recently laid off by the EPA, and their two teen children score a much coveted spot in a company town called Plymouth Valley. While the world outside descends into increasingly uninhabitable chaos the residents of this bucolic town are safe, breathing clean air, living in beautiful houses, and working for the eco-friendly company that owns the town in exchange for the privilege. And a truly elite privilege it is as this population aren’t just 1%ers, they’re more like 0.0001%ers.

But the Farmer-Bowens aren’t permanent residents of this utopia yet, in exchange for their life savings they are granted a one year trial period to be evaluated at regular intervals to judge how they’re fitting in, and they’re struggling. Their neighbors are unfailingly polite but cold and unfriendly, distrustful of outsiders, and unwilling to answer questions about town customs and traditions. Is idyllic Plymouth Valley too good to be true? And even if it is, what options remain?

A Better World is sinister and satirical speculative fiction with a delicious dash of horror. The plot is suspenseful and really keeps the pages turning, I couldn’t get enough of this once I started reading! Relevant themes of wealth, power, privilege, and corporate interest set against a backdrop of ever increasing inequality allow the reader a glimpse into a dark mirror of a very possible future.

Recommended for fans of When No One Is Watching, Don’t Worry Darling, and Midsommar.

Shop: Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.FM

April 2024 New Book Releases

17 April books on my TBR

Another month of exciting new books releases is upon us! Here are the April new book releases on my radar.

April 2

Here We Go Again // Alison Cochrun (Atria)

The author of the “sexy, insightful, and utterly charming” (BuzzFeed) Kiss Her Once for Me returns with a new queer rom-com following once childhood best friends forced together to drive their former teacher across the country.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

Sociopath: A Memoir // Patric Gagne (Simon & Schuster)

A fascinating, revelatory memoir revealing the author’s struggle to come to terms with her own sociopathy and shed light on the often maligned and misunderstood mental disorder.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

Habitations // Sheila Sundar (Simon & Schuster)

A young academic moves from India to the United States, where she navigates first love, a green card marriage, single motherhood, and more in this “delightful novel, written with immediacy, warmth, and wry humor”(Ha Jin, National Book Award-winning author of Waiting).

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

The Husbands // Holly Gramazio (Doubleday)

An exuberant debut, The Husbands delights in asking: how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options? (“A time-bending gem”—Gabrielle Zevin; “Kaleidoscopic and bright and very, very funny.” –Claire Lombardo)

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

April 9

A Better World // Sarah Langan (Atria)

A cunning, outside-the-box satirical thriller about a family’s odyssey into an exclusive enclave for the wealthy that might not be as ideal as it seems.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

The House of Broken Bricks // Fiona Williams (Holt)

Every marriage has its seasons…It’s autumn when we meet Tess, but her relationship with Richard is in a deep, cold winter. A winter so harsh, their union may never see the bright light of spring.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality // Amanda Montell (Atria)

From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

The Garden // Clare Beams (Doubleday)

The discovery of a secret garden with unknown powers fuels this page-turning and psychologically thrilling tale of women yearning to become mothers and the ways the female body has always been policed and manipulated, from the award-winning author of The Illness Lesson (“A masterpiece” – Elizabeth Gilbert)

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

The Gathering // C.J. Tudor (Ballantine)

A detective investigating a grisly crime in rural Alaska finds herself caught up in the dark secrets and superstitions of a small town in this riveting novel from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

The Saddest Girl on the Beach // Heather Frese (Blair)

Grieving after her father’s death, a young woman seeks solace in an Outer Banks beach town of North Carolina where her best friend’s family runs a small inn.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

April 16

I Cannot Control Everything Forever: A Memoir of Motherhood, Science, and Art // Emily C. Bloom (St. Martin’s)

An eloquent and intimate debut memoir about navigating the gap between expectation and reality in modern motherhood.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

April 23

Funny Story // Emily Henry (Berkley)

A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

Lucky // Jane Smiley (Knopf)

From the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, a soaring, soulful novel about a folk musician who rises to fame across our changing times.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

April 30

Colton Gentry’s Third Act // Jeff Zentner (Grand Central)

This “story of love, healing, and second chances ” (Emily Henry) from an award-winning author follows a down on his luck country musician who, in the throes of grief after a shocking loss, moves back home and rekindles a relationship with his high school sweetheart.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

Home Is Where the Bodies Are // Jeneva Rose (Blackstone)

From New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and You Shouldn’t Have Come Here comes a chilling family thriller about the (sometimes literal) skeletons in the closet.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

Within Arm’s Reach // Ann Napolitano (Dial Press)

The tender and perceptive debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful, about three generations of a large Catholic family jarred into crisis by an unexpected pregnancy.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

In Universes // Emet North (Harper)

For fans of Emily St. John Mandel and Kelly Link, a profoundly imaginative debut novel set in numerous universes, which follows a queer physicist’s search for belonging across time and space.

Full Synopsis | Amazon | Bookshop

Tell me: What are you reading in April?

Book Review: A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

A Great Country // Shilpi Somaya Gowda

{Thanks to the publisher for providing a complimentary review copy.}

Ashok and Priya Shah emigrated as young newlyweds from India to America escaping rigid caste systems with plans to climb the ladder to the American Dream. Twenty years later they have indeed worked their way from humble beginnings in student housing all the way to a nice home situated in a wealthy enclave of an affluent (fictional) town in Orange County, California. As their teen daughters work to assimilate, or not, into their new neighborhood, the family is suddenly thrown into flux when its youngest member, 12-year-old Ajay, has a run-in with police and the Shah’s dream quickly turns nightmarish. 

A Great Country offers a compelling look at important and timely elements of American society: immigration, classism, racism, ableism, and police brutality. A quick read at under 250 pages told with multiple points of view and a plot that really keeps things moving I think this is a book with broad appeal.

This would make an excellent book club selection as the story is very accessible and the deeper themes will make for good discussion. Recommended for fans of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere.

Pub date: 3/26 – out now!

Book Review: Worry by Alexandra Tanner

Worry // Alexandra Tanner

{Thanks to the publisher for providing a complimentary review copy.}

Millennial adulthood and modern life explored through the relationship of two, mid- to late-twenty-something Jewish sisters, upper-middle class South Florida transplants living together in 2019 Brooklyn.

Worry is about modern Jewish-American identity, tradwife mommy influencers, a three-legged rescue dog named Amy Klobuchar, contemporary reality, sisterhood, millennial ennui, the internet, the meaning of life, and the anxiety and worry baked into and bred by all of it.

A darkly funny – and I’m talking literally, giggle-snort out loud while reading funny – astute, and utterly compelling account of modern life as we know it.

Vibe is Girls meets Patricia Lockwood’s No One Is Talking About This.

Read in a day, could not put it down, highly recommend you do the same, I LOVED this!

Book Review: Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra

Nightwatching // Tracy Sierra

The best time I’ve had with a thriller in a long time!

And by that I mean deeply affected, frantically flipping pages, can’t put it down, anxiety on high alert kind of reading experience, because why else do we read thrillers if not for this experience?!

Home alone with her two young children in their isolated historic home during a blizzard, a mother hears the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs in the middle of the night. Before the intruder can reach them she sneaks herself and her children to the safety of a small room hidden behind a wall where she does everything she can to keep her children, ages 8 and 5, quiet and safe. She can’t see the intruder from their hiding place, but she can hear his heavy footsteps moving through the house she knows so well, the squeaky floorboards she avoids, the doors she recognizes by sound alone. As she hides, the story begins to incorporate flashbacks to her life leading up to this moment providing context and fleshing out the story.

Nightwatching is a fierce, feminist, horror thriller, it’s everything I hoped it might be when I read the synopsis. The narrative is suspenseful and suffocating, I felt as though I were crouched in this little hiding space alongside the characters and I, of course, couldn’t put it down once I started reading.

The story resonated with me deeply and I found the MC incredibly recognizable and relatable as I’m sure many mothers will. This was one of the best thrillers I’ve read in a long time, I think Tracy Sierra has a very clear vision of what she was trying to do here and pulled it off beautifully.