No.670: What I Read in July 2022

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#42. THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON by Sarah Addison Allen // ★★☆☆☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)

According to Goodreads, I have had this book shelved on my TBR list since 2010!!  At this point, I have completely forgotten who recommended it to me, so I went in completely blind.  And…it was okay.  It was a light read, felt very YA (although I don’t think it was), lacked character development and the plot was uninteresting.  I had qualms with the light touch placed on some heavy issues (like self harm), but maybe I’m just a curmudgeon.  But seriously: there was one male character who snuck into the bedroom of the girl he liked – multiple times! – just to watch her sleep. Am I the only one who finds that not romantic and incredibly creepy?

#43. ALIAS EMMA by Ava Glass // ★★★★☆
(amazon // bookshop)

I read this spy thriller in less than 24 hours!  The story is about a young spy on her first big assignment: bring an innocent man wanted by the Russian government to safety.  All she has to do is get him into MI6 before an assassination team gets to him first.  Such a page turner.  I especially loved that while there was a strong female protagonist, she was also fallible and didn’t treat the men in the story as idiots.  (A big pet peeve of mine.)  If this becomes a series, I will definitely keep reading.  (Alias Emma will be published on August 2, 2022.  Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book!)

#44. HIDDEN AMERICA: FROM COAL MINERS TO COWBOYS, AN EXTRAORDINARY EXPLORATION OF THE UNSEEN PEOPLE WHO MAKE THIS COUNTRY WORK by Jeanne Marie Laskas // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)

This was an interesting look at the jobs most of us take for granted.  For example, I don’t think many of us realize the amount of trust we give to air traffic controllers who make sure airplanes land safely and don’t crash into each other!  Another chapter was about drilling for oil on Oooguruk Island off of Alaska’s North Slope and I fell down a little rabbit hole.  The creation of the island is fascinating as well as just the act of drilling in general.  Did you know that the scale of drilling is actually pretty small?  “The drill bit ranges in diameter from six to thirteen inches; the pipe as small as three inches.  An oil well is a remarkably skinny hole.”  I also found the information about directional drilling technology really interesting: “[It] allows drillers to go down, over, up, snaking any which way through the earth and landing in ever sweeter sweet spots, reaching horizontally as far as four miles from the rig.  In the old days, a single vertical well exposed about 200 to 300 feet of oil reserves.  Now drillers can reach more than 20,000 feet of reservoir rock with one well, significantly reducing the footprint above ground, which in turn reduces costs and, in this part of the world, scarring to the tundra.” (p.217)  The more you know…

#45. PLAINSONG by Kent Haruf // ★★☆☆☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)

I usually enjoy small town Americana stories, even when the plot is slow and meandering.  This book was not bad, per se, and I loved the relationship between the teenage pregnant girl and the two farmer bachelor brothers who took her in.  (It had a Secondhand Lions feel that was endearing.)  However, the graphic sexual scenes were really unnecessary and didn’t carry the plot further.  Just an okay read for me.  (This was a pick for my Reading the Alphabet Challenge.)

#46. COPPER RIVER by William Kent Krueger // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)

Number six in the Cork O’Connor mystery series.  A good one.

#47. THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK by Kim Michele Richardson // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)

This historical fiction novel set me off on another rabbit trail!  The main character is an Appalachian pack horse librarian who has blue-tinged skin due to a blood condition called methemoglobinemia.  This article from 1982 about “the blue people” was interesting.  I also learned about the apparent controversy between this book and one of a similar flavor, maybe too similar?