The Four Books Read by Kimberly Scheirer

Happy St. Patrick's Day reader friends!  It mostly looks like any other day around here, but I hope at least one of you enjoys a green beer later today!
I've been on a pretty awesome reading streak here lately, and am excited to share a few good reads with you today.  Let me know what you've been reading!

​A Gambler’s Jury by Victor Methos
I like to pepper my reading with the occasional legal thriller, because isn’t our legal system just fascinating and horrifying?  Methos really shines a light on all of that in A Gambler’s Jury which puts a black man with developmental disabilities at the center of a huge drug bust.  It’s clear that there’s no way he is guilty, but nobody seems to care.  As I played along with whodunit, I enjoyed some fun gender stereotype swapping and the general sassiness of the lady lawyer protagonist.  But be aware you might have to work to suspend your disbelief now and then, because she says some (fun) stuff that literally nobody would ever say.  Aside from that, this is a both a fun and yet eye-opening read about race, disability, family, and our court of law.

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​The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
I can’t say too much about this one due to Book Club having not yet happened, but I will say that I started this book thinking, “Yikes, I don’t want to read 400+ pages about some chick who isn’t remember by anyone and never dies.”  But as it turned out, I wanted to read even more than 400 pages about it, because I was sorry to turn the last page.  Luckily the story takes us beyond Addie just roaming the Earth for hundreds of years and leaves us with questions to ponder for the rest of our (numbered) days, or at least for the foreseeable future.  Can’t wait to discuss!

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​Self Care by Leigh Stein
I *finally* got my hands on this parody of the self care movement, which I’ve wanted to read FOREVER, because it is a parody of the self care movement!  (I’m all for what self care actually means, but the buzzwords and horsecrap around all of it just annoys me to no end.)  Stein is getting some extra attention here lately because of the opinion piece she wrote for the New York Times a couple of weeks ago that spotlights how today’s influencers/instagrammers are taking the place of church and religion for so many women in our general demographic.  She suggests that maybe that isn’t such a good thing (spoiler alert:  ….because living your own best wild amazing life is great and important, but it’s also not just about you…) 
So I certainly had fun reading this hilarious book but it’s really kind of an oddball piece of work with a sloppy ending.  But I promise you will laugh out loud.  

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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Initially I planned to boycott this book along with the 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.  I mean, why was that mistake made in the publishing industry?  Or was it a mistake?  Are there focus groups that show that we like books with numbers and women named Evelyn?  Do these same focus groups also suggest titles with “Girl” and with “The <Occupation’s> <Relationship>”?????  Go fly a kite, focus groups!
But – I super like Taylor Jenkins Reid.  Also, a beautiful practically new hardcover of this book was just hanging out in my library’s front room of free books.  It looks great in my new book nook!  So I read it!
One thing I really love about Reid is that of the three books I’ve now read by her, none of them are even remotely similar.  Yet they’ve all been solid gold in my opinion.  I loved this sweeping novel of this super selfish and amazing actress telling her life story to a journalist that she has chosen for some specific reason.  First we want to know who Evelyn’s true love was and THEN we have to know why the heck she picked this particular journalist.  So this is certainly a mystery and also a love story with all of the types of love you can imagine.  I just finished it two days ago and I keep thinking back to it because it really was an incredible book, despite the focus group title.

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Up Next:  On my phone, I'm reading a book about evictions and poverty in Milwaukee (not upifting, but important) and in print I've got an awesome novel about a Starbucks-manager-turned-salesman at a wacky start-up.  How about you?