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.

Really not sure if I didn’t click with this book because of The Discourse around it or because it was just not my jam. You’d THINK I’d love this story of women living companionably together as partners in early Vermont but there was just a lot going on, no real through line narrative, and the author admitted she made some of the story up for dramatic reasons and I couldn’t stop wondering what was made up. Tillie is a treasure, this book was only okay.

A book about the changing way of life in Pakistan. This is a collection of “linked” chapters (they’re all about the same general area and share characters but only just; I couldn’t always figure out how they related) which were all about what I would consider class differences and longing. Some stories are about the upper classes, and some about the servant classes with stark divisions highlighted. A lot of misery but not always in the way you’d expect.

I’d read another book by this author that I had not remembered. Went back to check and it was a similar, sort of heavy but extremely well-written book. This one is about a woman who goes missing (white, history of family trauma) and her wife who looks for her (American, Muslim, family became distant when she came out to them). Really grim in parts, but there’s love at the center of all of it. If you avoid trauma stories, avoid this one, otherwise, a very good read.

Ed Yong is, of course, a treasure. I had somehow not read this book when it came out in 2016 and even though some of it may be outdated (though I don’t know which parts) it was still a fascinating read about the various ways in which microbes define a lot of the things around us, and in fact define us in many ways. I really enjoyed the plain-talking way he was able to describe pretty heavy science-y stuff, always answering the “Why would I care?” parts first.