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House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (A). If you know, you know. You’ll either love it or hate it. The basic plot is a family moves into a house that isn’t what it seems. Neither is the book. I loved it. (It's so difficult to describe, that's why I say, if you know, you know...lol).

First Time for Everything by Henry Fry (A-). A British guy in his late 20s deals with life after a breakup and being evicted by his straight roommate (Laura) since she’s getting married (to Luke). I don’t think the author knew the significance of that couple name in the US though (but I did giggle at how annoyed the protagonist was by Luke and Laura, much like I am!) At any rate, highly enjoyable book reminiscent of Nick Hornby.

The B-List.

The Gay Best Friend by Nicolas DiDomizio (A-). DiDomizio’s sophomore effort isn’t quite as good as his first one (Burn It All Down), but it was still a fun romantic comedy about a gay male caught between his straight male best friend and his straight female best friend who are getting married and want him to keep all their secrets.

The Lookback Window by Kyle Dillon Hertz (B+). This book goes into the anguish of the aftermath of trauma from sexual assault. Pretty harrowing and dark read.

Tweaker World by Jason Yamas (B+). I have a fascination with memoirs of drug addiction for some reason, and Yamas holds nothing back about how he became a real-life Walter White of San Francisco and his descent into meth and GHB addiction.

When You Call My Name by Tucker Shaw (B). This book explores 1990 New York through the eyes of two 18 year old gay men, one in love with someone dying of AIDS and the other a recent runaway living with his brother after his parents kicked him out of being gay. The characters were a bit superficial, but the 1990s references were awesome, including one about how he watched General Hospital for Frisco and Felicia!

Good Christian Bitches by Kim Gatlin (B-). The ABC series G.C.B. was much better than the book…about a woman returning to Dallas after a divorce from LA and then having to deal with her former friends being false Christians and backstabbers.

Open Throat by Henry Hoke (B-). A mountain lion deals with LA citizens during a wildfire. The concept was better than the execution, unfortunately.

The C-List

Sackett by Louis L’Amour (C+) I’m not really a huge fan of westerns, but I saw this series mentioned on a Dark Tower post in the Stephen King subreddit about similar things, so I gave one a chance. Not really my cup of tea as thought (and also picked up the book I thought was the first one. It was more like the 8th apparently, LOL…oh well, apparently you can read them out of order). I’m debating reading Zane Gray just to compare…I think he’s from Ohio as I remember going to something about him near Zanesville as a kid.

Series:

The Valentine Trilogy (Very Valentine (B), Brava, Valentine (C+) and The Supreme Macaroni Company (B) by Adriana Trigiani. I loved Trigiani’s Big Stone Gap (BSG) series, so I’ve been buying her books when I’ve seen them on the bargain racks at Half Price Books or the library book sales, and this may have been a mistake, as I think her BSG may have been a fluke. I accidentally read Supreme Macaroni Company, the third one, without realising it was a trilogy. Oops. So I got the first two out of the library, and had I read this in order, I would have been so angry that I would have thrown the book. Reading the third book last and knowing what happened…changed how I felt about the series. I still recommend her Big Stone Gap series, but I would be hesitant to recommend others by her now…

Nobody’s Fool (B-) and Everybody’s Fool (C) by Richard Russo. Another author I had read before and loved (Empire Falls), but I just couldn’t get into this series and decided not to read the last one that came out last year, Somebody’s Fool.