I feel I have a bit of a reading slump. None of the novels this month has resulted in more than 4.5 stars.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, Dominic Hoffman (Narrator)

I wish I had liked this one more. This book had some well written elements. It had a diverse cast of characters and interesting focus about African American and Jewish communities before World War II. The main characters were good when they were there but not enough characterization with them. The slow pacing, large cast, and parable aspect let it down. The two villains were caricatures; the second one was like a bogeyman. They get their comeuppance which made it feel like a morality play. I should have checked content warnings as the book had a couple of my doghouse items i.e. child endangerment and s*xual assault. It was a tad over the top even though these kind of things did happen in a historical setting but so much in one book felt excessive. I doubt I will read more from the writer as I did not like the style. The narrator was great though. I listened to 30% of it.

1.5x. May 16-21, 2025.

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan (Narrator)

This was my fourth bird book of the year. I have become a casual birder the last couple of years. Birds are relaxing. I read this in tandem with the audiobook as I prefer memoirs on audio. The print copy was necessary for the impressive bird illustrations.

2.0-2.7x. May 18-25, 2025.

National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home by Anya von Bremzen with Kathleen Gati (Narrator)

This a food and travel memoir. I am surprised I have not encountered the author before. Maybe I did read one of her essays in the American Travel Writing anthologies. I thought this would be a fairly easy and interesting listen since I love food and travel, but I was bored about half way through. Each chapter focussed on a different country: France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Mexico, and Turkey. The France one was one of the shortest and the one I knew about the most. There seemed to be a lot of research into each chapter but it also felt like too much information about each of these food cultures. It sorta of meandered with history, culture, and food. It did not help that I became less interested in the countries in the second half. It was not badly written but the writing was not to my taste.

1.5x-1.75x. May 4-7, 2025.

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu

A speculative fiction short story collection which I read slowly over the course of a month for a reading challenge. I do not like reading books slowly but since this was short stories, I would read one or two after other books. As usual, I did get very impatient and read the last four stories in one go. I am not a horror person and some of the stories were more in that genre. Other than that, I found Fu’s writing and style engaging. She really captured female characters in particular very well and in few worlds. As with any collection some were too my taste and others not so much. Overall, enjoyable albeit creepy at times.

Read April 1-May 9, 2025.

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly

This debut contemporary kiwi novel had good buzz last year. I liked most of it but there were caveats. Let’s start with the good stuff. There is diversity as the whole family is multi-ethnic Russian / Maori / Catalan, queer, and neurodivergent. While not much happens, the chapters are short and the pace was not slow. It had some dryly amusing moments. The audiobook had kiwi actors and I dipped 15% of the audio. I much preferred to read the dry style though. The setting of New Zealand was interesting as well.

Now for the stuff I found lacklustre. There were too many characters all related to each other and many of them had similar names. It was a bit strange and almost incestuous at times. The novel was narrated by the two sibling main characters and they have a very similar voice and perspective. Their neurodivergence may also have affected their ability to effectively communicate with other characters. The reader was presented info from this odd family but a lot of things are left unsaid or secretive. I was more interested in their parents especially Betty their Maori mother. Her distance from her background and her relationships with the men seemed more fascinating than Greta and Valdin. Overall, a nice debut.

1.5-2.0x. May 9-10, 2025.

Playing catch-up as reading so many books means I am perpetually behind schedule on reviewing them. It was a very audiobook focussed week as I spent more time running.