This was a bit of an infill since I started reading this a few days ago and said “Wait I’ve read this fantastical mystery set in a bell foundry before.” No idea why I failed to write it down at the time. Read it in the last year or so. It’s the next installment in the Rivers of London series and we’ve seen the protagonist cop become a detective and try to sort out the maniacal supernatural dude who has it in for him. Did not read it all the way through a second time.

A sequel to a book (Secret Identity) which needed no sequel but it was great anyhow. This is a book about comics industry intrigue and a character who was created in the 70s by a relatively unknown woman who then disappeared. A new comics illustrator steps up as part of a modern strange new scheme to relaunch the character but it turns out it’s a dangerous path/situation. Mostly a narrative but there are some comics panels for illustrative purposes and they are all great.

Another great one by Julia Wertz which I had to read a little quickly because it was an ILL I had to return. It goes back and forth between slice-of-life stuff of her in NYC but also a lot of “then and now” images of particular streets in NYC as well as deep dives into things like “Things invented in New York” and the histories of some famous/infamous NY women. Some things she claimed were “lost to history” I was not so sure about, but loved this all the same.

I’m always surprised when I read a book by someone who had written a ton of best sellers who I haven’t heard of. This author is primary a romance novelist which may explain both her output and why I hadn’t heard of her. This book--about a woman confronting her own mortality deciding to pull off one last heist with her partners in crime from her (much) younger years who she’s long lost touch with--was good but not great. The older characters felt more like tropes than people and I just kept wishing the author had chops like Richard Osman.

Another great graphic novel by Wertz though in this case it was about her recovery story (as she says, pretty average) alongside some of the other things going on in her life at the same time, a few relationships, moving house, meeting up with friends (in a section that felt a bit name-droppy but I don’t think was meant that way). Since the other book I read came after this one, I sort of knew where it was going. Really enjoy this author’s style and storytelling.

This took a long time to finish. It’s a dense history of the Manhattan area and environs from when the Dutch arrived and set up shop until about when the English took completely over. Thanks to some newly-translated early Dutch documents, there’s a lot more known about this time in history and the author is very excited to have a more complete picture. The author discusses what went into New Amsterdam which later became New York and how its origins can still be seen in the way the place works. Good history.

A lot going on here! An autistic likely-lesbian is a scriptwriter in a world where GenAI owns the copyright to everything and sort of “owns the narrative” of all the culture’s stories. But! Maybe there’s another way. She reconnects with a person from her past who is now a man and envisions a different future. Alternating timelines from her growing up “different” to being a grown-ass lady with a job... and a desire for something different. Also this all takes place in space so there’s a certain amount of mucking about in spaceships and spaceports.

This was a fun sort of meta-mystery where the author is fully aware they are writing a book about the curious case of a dead guy (and then a bunch more dead people) while his somewhat argy bargy family is having a family get together at an Australian ski lodge during the middle of a storm. A lot of breaking the fourth wall type of things, a good amount of humor and a story at the center of it which is compelling. It was mainly published in Australia, but worth tracking down.

I haven’t read any other books by Wertz but I will track some down. This is a long pregnancy memoir which encompasses not just her pregnancy/birth/motherhood but also her own relationship stuff, family issues, concurrent crises of people near her. It’s warts-and-all in a way I found refreshingly frank without being complainy. I learned some things and really liked Wertz’s style and storytelling abilities. I say this a lot lately but “Usually not my jam but very good.”

I just finished Tana French’s Cal Hooper series and remembered this read-alike, the Cormac Reilly series. Cormac is a local (unlike Cal) but he does sometimes feel out of step with what’s going on around him in Galway. He’s contemplating moving to a different job, his second in command may be moving to Australia, and his ex is back, pregnant with a missing husband. Also maybe someone hacked the lottery. Lots going on, a well-crafted mystery novel that lays it all out.