#32 [2026/CBR18] Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I've Cried About by Isabel Klee

I stumbled on Isabel Klee on one of my Instagram-reeling marathons (@Simonsits). She seemed like a nice, young woman who fosters dogs and documents their stories on Instagram. She lives in Brooklyn, which I recognized from my visits to my brother and enjoyed seeing again. I've liked her Instagram stories for awhile now. The publicity she brings to her rescue dogs and the rescue organizations she works with bring in a fair bit of money and many potential adopters. Every time she works with partners to advertise things on Instagram, she donates some of that money.

So, when I saw Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I've Cried About (2026) by Klee, I figured it might be fun to read. I'd heard that she had worked for The Dogist (another NYC-based, social media, dog person), and I was curious about the details. I was also curious how she came to have her dog, Simon, and how he changed her life. In addition, I'd seen Isabel's fiancé on Instagram, and I was curious about their story. I used Audible to listen to the Audiobook, which is read by Klee.

Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed in this book because it wasn't what I was expecting. I wanted to like this book because I liked Klee from Instagram, but there wasn't enough detail for me. If I'm going to read a memoir, then I want to really understand what makes them tick and how they became who they are. Although I superficially learned about some of Klee's previous relationships, I didn't really get a sense of who she was. Many of the dogs that she discusses in her book, I'd seen on Instagram, so she'd taken care of them relatively recently. But she has them interspersed throughout the book with mini lessons of what we can learn from them. I found I enjoyed seeing their stories in person more than reading about them.

Klee writes that she dropped out of college and moved to New York City, something she's always wanted since growing up in New Jersey. She lives in a number of not great apartments with various roommates and dates men who are not great for her--at least two of them cheated on her. I was interested to hear how she adopted Simon, and when she found out that he had a seizure disorder. It was also interesting to see what she thought about her now-fiancé when she first met him. 

It's hard for me to describe what put me off this book. First, I do wish I could have understood her trajectory better. Although she mentions working for Elias for many years (the dogist), there was very little detail about what she did for him besides a couple short stories here and there. I had assumed that it was her work with Elias that led her to developing her own social media platforms, but she never talks about it. Second, I wish Klee had been more specific when discussing her relationships. She would mention an ex-boyfriend and that they had problems, but there were never enough details for me to really see what was happening. Even when she has problems with her current fiancé, she says that she pushed him away because he wasn't crazy about her, then she went to therapy and it was better. It is certainly her right to only divulge what she is comfortable divulging, but I found it frustrating and difficult to relate to. Instead, she used generic descriptions about love and friendship and lessons learned that were hard to hear from someone younger than me without the details to back it up.

I enjoy Klee's content, and I wanted to enjoy this book, but it just wasn't for me.

#31 [2026/CBR18] Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood

By this point, I will read any book by Ali Hazelwood, and I'm usually not disappointed. However, she's so prolific that her books often sneak up on me. As soon as I became aware of its existence, I put Two Can Play (2026) on hold at the library and just recently finished it.

Two Can Play feels very much like a Hazelwood romance novel, but it is also shorter than many of her novels--about 200 pages. The story is about two video game developers who work for rival companies. Viola is excited because her favorite book series is going to be adapted into a video game, and she desperately wants to work on it. The problem is that the developer wants both the company Viola works for as well as the warring video game company to work together.

There are a lot of personal conflicts between these two companies, but the only problem Viola has is with Jesse Andrews. Back when she was first applying for jobs, she interviewed with Jesse and his boss. At the time, Jesse worked for yet another company. Jesse's then-boss was inappropriate and sexist, and Viola walked out of the interview. Jesse was embarrassed by his boss's actions and caught up to Viola. He apologized for his boss and recommended another company that he thought would be a good fit for her.

It ended up being good advice because Viola is currently working at the company Jesse had recommended. The problem was that she often ran into him at various industry events and conventions, and he was always aloof and indifferent. She didn't understand why he disliked her, but it was unfortunate because for a short time, she'd had a little crush on him. The final straw was at a recent, Christmas wedding (his best friend and her cousin, or something, were getting married, so they were both there). He looked horrified and publicly refused to kiss her when they found themselves under the mistletoe. He abandoned her, stalking away without even a kiss on the cheek. This humiliated Viola and whatever was left of her crush officially died.

In order to facilitate the better relations between the two companies, the developer set up a ski retreat at a lodge in the mountains. This would be the test to see if the companies can work together and do the job. Suddenly, there is a lot of forced proximity between Viola and Jesse. Jesse continues to be perfectly polite and distant with her until he loses a drinking game and Viola helps him back to his room. It comes out that he liked her, but due to a misunderstanding when they first met, he thought Viola wanted nothing to do with him. 

It doesn't take much after that for the two to get closer and closer, with all of the action taking place during the retreat. 

Hazelwood does her normal thing where the couple is absolutely perfect for each other. Although it might not be realistic, it is satisfying to read. The misunderstanding felt a little unrealistic--especially that it lasted so long, but I was willing to buy it. I did appreciate that Hazelwood didn't throw a last-minute wrench into their relationship, but just let them get together without extra drama. 

Final summation: I liked Viola and Jesse and I was happy to see them together. I enjoyed this one.

#30 [2026/CBR18] To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage

I was a little surprised to find that this is the second book about a lesbian astronaut that I've read in the past six months. Back in December, I read Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and I loved it. I can't remember where I first saw To the Moon and Back (2025) by Eliana Ramage, but at some point I put it on hold at my library. 

I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I began this book, but I liked it. Steph Harper is a teenager living in Tahlequah, Oklahoma--the Capital of the Cherokee Nation, with her mother and younger sister, Kayla. Steph is obsessed with everything space and her one goal in life is to become an astronaut. Steph is not interested in her Cherokee roots and wants more than anything to get to a fancy boarding school in order to begin her long road to space.

Steph's sister, Kayla, has fully embraced her Cherokee roots and is much more involved in the community. Steph's mother, Hannah, views Tahlequah as a safe place for her and her daughters to grow up and stay. Neither one understands Steph's obsession, but her mother dutifully creates a Cherokee culture and space camp, when she can't afford to send Steph to the real Space Camp.

As she gets older, Steph begins to explore her sexuality--primarily in college when she meets Della Owens. Della was made infamous in the Cherokee community as a young girl. Della was adopted by a Mormon couple in Utah, but her father and the tribe challenged the adoption under the Indian Child Welfare Act. Della was torn from her father and grandmother as a young child when she was given back to her original adoptive family. Now as an adult, she is more interested in exploring her Cherokee heritage.

This story is told in many different ways. It begins simply from Steph's point of view as she grows up in Tahlequah. Then there are some intermittent chapters from Della's perspective as she visits her father and continues on to college. After college, there are texts, emails, and even dating profiles. I thought it was a unique and interesting way to tell a story.

What sticks with me most about this story was how well Ramage did in showing real, flawed characters. She described where they were coming from and what motivated them, and they always felt real. More than once, I was so frustrated with Steph and how she treated other people in her life. But I could also see how much she was struggling. That is also true with Kayla and her mother. They felt like a real family with a truckload of baggage who cared about each other and were doing the best they could--even when they unintentionally hurt each other. 

***SPOILERS*** Two chaotic scenes were some of the best in the book, in my opinion. The first was when Steph discovers that her mother kept her acceptance letter from Exeter from her. At this point in the book, we know how desperate Steph is to get into Exeter as a stepping stone to NASA. She's planned her whole future around it. To find that acceptance letter and know it was too late was gutting, and Steph's reaction was understandable. But there were layers on top of it, too, because they are at a public climbing gym, Kayla is upset because she thinks Steph is talking to her mother about something else. There is pandemonium on the climbing wall, and a nearby birthday party is watching the whole thing with judgment of the Cherokee kids.

The second scene that was so memorable is the graduation dinner. Steph's family and her conservative Mormon girlfriend's parents are all going out to dinner to celebrate. Steph's mother is nervous and accommodating. Kayla is defiant and provocative. Della's parents are trying, but are disapproving on a number of levels. Della is keeping quiet, and Steph is missing a lot of important information. It was spiraling and funny on a number of levels, even though serious things were happening. ***END SPOILERS***

#29 [2026/CBR18] Not My Type by E. Jean Carroll

I had heard of E. Jean Carroll, her accusations of sexual assault against Donald Trump, and her subsequent lawsuit against him, but I did not pay much attention to the specifics. This was clearly a he said/she said situation, and I believed her. On the one hand you have a woman who told a believable story. On the other hand you have a creepy misogynist, a friend of Epstein, a man who brags about sexual assault on tape, and someone who lies constantly and loudly. Now having read the book, I'm even more sure about Trump's guilt.

I have read a couple other memoirs involving rape, and I think they are important in shedding light on how damaging rape is and how difficult the legal system is for rape victims. It's after reading some of these that I wonder how any victims manage to get through this process. I read Know My Name by Chanel Miller back in 2023, and it was very eye-opening--even though I already knew the basic facts. Miller did a phenomenal job describing the long-lasting physical and emotional impacts of Brock's assault and the subsequent court proceedings.

Not My Type (2025), although it covers similar ground, has a very different feel. E Jean Carroll was 81 when Not My Type was published. She is from a different generation, and she is a very unique woman. She is funny and opinionated and optimistic. She'd prefer to focus on the positive in her life rather than dwelling in painful memories. She is not here to psychoanalyze her feelings. Thus, Not My Type does not go into the same detail describing the emotional toll of the assault that I've seen in other memoirs. Instead, Carroll begins the book by recounting her deposition with Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba as they discuss every man she's ever had sex with. For Carroll, her sex life began after college with her then boyfriend, an Olympic swimmer, and continued to stay [shall we say] impressive throughout most of her life. But after Trump attacked her in the dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, she never had sex again. 

Because Carroll focuses more on clothing, random asides, and specifics of the trial, her true emotional state mostly comes through with inference. We hear that Trump destroyed her sex life, we hear that she can't even talk about the hundreds of thousands of ugly threats she received after Trump publicly denounced her. Occasionally, Carroll becomes emotional on the Audiotape when talking about her legal team, and you can see how hard this all is on her.

Carroll describes many parts of the trials in great detail, and I learned a lot about what led up to the assault, as well as specific testimony in each of the trials. In fact, I didn't even know there were two trials when I started the book. I loved Carroll's descriptions of all of the attorneys involved, and the testimony was really interesting. It almost made me want to read an entire transcript of the trial. What really stood out, though, was how aggressively Joe Tacopina, Trump's attorney, went after Carroll on cross examination. I can only imagine the optics of a giant, muscle bound man deriding an 80-year-old woman for not screaming when she was sexually assaulted.

I was not looking to read this book until I saw it was available when I was looking for a new Audiobook to read. Now I'm glad I listened to it. Carroll deserves a chance to share her story in a way that is unfettered by Trump's attorneys throwing judgment and blame at her. I'm glad that I now know what she went through and how brave she is to stand up to Trump (well, really, his attorneys). I hope she gets all the money that's owed her.

#28 [2026/CBR18] The Good Liar by Denise Mina

I'm not sure how I first heard of The Good Liar (2025) by Denise Mina, but I probably saw it on some end-of-the-year-best-novels list. Mina seems to be a pretty prolific writer, but she was new to me. The Good Liar is a thriller/murder mystery that takes place in London. On the whole, I found this book well written and interesting to read. However, I've found I'm not too into murder mysteries these days. I'm finding them a little too dark and sometimes unrealistic.

Claudia Atkins O'Sheil is a forensic scientist. She has developed a computer program that can analyze blood splatter data and pictures from a crime scene and spit out details of the assailant. For example, the program can estimate how an attack took place, how tall the assailant was, and other details of the crime. This computer program has come to be relied on more and more by the English Criminal Courts, which is great for Claudia's career.

The Good Liar has two timelines. The book begins with Claudia about to make a speech that will blow up her life and the lives of many around her. Then the book falls back some months in order to show how Claudia ended up where she was and what kind of speech she is going to make.

Claudia is with Phillip at a party for the grand opening of a new building when Phillip receives a phone call. A good friend of his and his fiancé have been found murdered in their home. Claudia drives Phillip in his car to the scene so he can identify the bodies. Immediately, suspicion falls on the victim's estranged son, who shows up on scene when Claudia is still there. Claudia sees enough to know that the son cannot be the killer, and she is disturbed that they take him in for questioning without explaining to him what's happening.

Besides the mystery of this double murder, Claudia has a lot of heavy stuff going on in her life. Her husband died almost a year before in a car accident. She is trying to navigate her own grief as well as her life with her two sons without him. Her sons are grieving in their own ways, and she struggles to relate to them. At the same time, Claudia's sister is a drug addict. She had been clean for some time, but relapses in the middle of the book. 

Finally, a young scientist challenged Claudia's blood splatter computer program openly in court, saying that it is fatally flawed. Claudia realizes that the woman is right, but doesn't know what to do about it. If Claudia admits to its flaws, it could invalidate hundreds of convictions. But the police are currently using her blood splatter analysis to wrongly convict the son for the double murders.

When a friend and rogue attorney of Claudia's dies on the same road and in the same way as her husband, she finally knows that her husband's death was no accident. She's determined to figure out what happened, but also desperate to protect her sons. When she figures everything out, she has to make a choice: whether to let everything go and protect herself, her family, and her living--or do what's right and go public.

Class is a big theme in this book, and I appreciate how Mina handled it. Claudia was not born into high society, but she married into it and wants to stay a part of it--even though she doesn't completely fit in. There are a number of titled gentlemen and ladies in this book who live a pretty privileged life. It was interesting to see their interactions and expectations. In addition, I liked that Claudia felt like a real and flawed person. She wanted better relationships with her sons and her sister, but often couldn't manage to act in a way that could make that happen. It was very relatable. I felt all of the pressure she was under while I read the book, and I was glad I was not her. I think fans of thrillers and murder mysteries should like this book.

#27 [2026/CBR18] Burn Book by Kara Swisher

My book club chose Burn Book: A Tech Love Story (2024) by Kara Swisher as our latest book. We'd already read another tech memoir, Careless People, which I enjoyed. I was hoping I would like Burn Book as well. In the end, I didn't love it. Although there were parts that were engaging, I did not have enough interest in or knowledge about the subject matter for me to appreciate it. 

Kara Swisher has been a tech reporter for three decades, covering tech from the very beginning back in the 1990's. She knows all the players, has scooped a good number of stories, and seems to be important in her field. I might have found this book more interesting if I'd heard of her or knew anything about her. But even though I begrudgingly and eventually accept technological progress, I am usually one of the last ones on the bandwagon. My phone does so much for me now, and I really do appreciate it. However, I also feel relief when I go backpacking, and I'm completely disconnected from all of it.

Swisher discusses her relationships with various tech moguls over the years. She mentions conversations she's had with them, articles she's written about them, and interviews she's done with them. Some of these people I'd heard of, including: Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sheryl Sandberg. Many of them I had not heard of, but sometimes I'd heard of their companies. Most of this I didn't find particularly interesting. I understand that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did some pretty cool things, but I just don't care if they were interviewed together. 

In a similar vein, I appreciate that Apple was at one time a pioneer in products and design, but I'm not a fan. I don't like how you have to have everything Apple to use anything else from Apple. I don't like that I can't see my brother's photo albums because I don't have an iphone. Everyone says Apple is intuitive, but that's only if you've been using Apple products all your life. Sometimes Apple users feel like a cult that I have no interest in joining. Swisher, on the other hand, seems to love Apple and Steve Jobs and she talks about them a lot.

Swisher seems to be smart and funny, and some of her takes were interesting and/or amusing. (She calls Rupert Murdoch, technically her boss at one time, Uncle Satan). I think I would have been more drawn into the book if she had made it more in depth or personal. She would give a little anecdote about a famous tech dude, and then move onto the next one. But because I don't follow that world at all, I did not have the context for it to be meaningful, I often didn't know anything about the person she was talking about, and I didn't feel like I was learning anything.

My favorite parts of the book were when Swisher wrote about where tech was going (AI) and how it could change all of our lives for better or for worse. She warned us a number of times that having a small, homogeneous group of rich, white, men who care more about money and power than the greater good is not who we want making all these decisions. Many of these tech moguls started out wanting to do good in the world, but they've proven that they do not care about harmful side effects and collateral damage (Mark Zuckerberg). Whether spreading misinformation that potentially sways elections or foments violence around the world, or targeting young teens with predatory advertising, they've shown that new technology needs a legal and ethical framework to be safe.

I can imagine the right person loving this book, but I am not that person.

#26 [2026/CBR18] Here's Looking At You by Mhairi McFarlane

After finishing Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane, I wanted more and started looking through McFarlane's novels to see if I'd missed any. I was happy to find Looking At You (2014), an older McFarlane novel that I hadn't read before. Looking At You was fine, but it did feel a little dated and is not on the top of my McFarlane list.

Anna Alessi is a history professor in England, forcing herself to go online dating in order to meet the one. She has mostly gotten over a traumatic history of intense bullying from what in America would be called her high school years. The book begins with Anna in high school. Her secret crush, James Fraser, asks if she wants to do a duet at the final school lip sync show. But he just leaves her on stage, laughs at her, and calls her an elephant while the rest of the school throws candies at her. It was premeditated and appallingly mean.

Now, many years later Anna has transformed herself into someone literally unrecognizable after losing about fifty pounds (not the best of tropes). She goes to her high school reunion for closure--or something. James Fraser and his friends are there, but they don't even know who she is. Shortly thereafter, Anna is helping out with a museum exhibition and James's company is brought on for some of the tech. Anna and James have to work together, and he still doesn't know who she is.

At first Anna is very prickly and defensive with James, which he doesn't understand. But slowly the two start getting along better. and even become friends. But one day, they go to Anna's place and James sees an old picture of Anna and the truth is out. James barely remembers what he did to her, and thinks she's making too big a deal out of it.

Eventually James understands how miserable Anna's life was in high school and properly apologizes. There are also some side stories with Anna's sister and James's wife.

I think its pretty gutsy to have a main character do something so mean in the very beginning of the book, and then bring him back as the romantic hero. The problem for me is that it didn't work. I know he was only sixteen and sixteen year old's are especially stupid with undeveloped brains. But there's a difference between stupid and cruel. And I never got the sense that James changed enough for me to really trust him. He consistently seemed low on the caring about other's feelings scale. And he didn't have any good relationships. He hated his best friend and coworkers and had nothing in common with his wife. He didn't know who he was. Even though he supposedly figured this out at the end of the book, he still went back to his wife before finally deciding he should stick with Anna. Their relationship didn't feel very romantic to me.

Anna was more sympathetic, but a lot of her character was just her looking to get married, which seemed a little tiresome. I'm also not a huge fan of the losing weight to become an entirely different, and very hot, person. I might have preferred if Anna had stayed the same and James had changed into a more substantive adult who noticed and cared about other people who weren't as hot as him. I love McFarlane, but I don't think this one aged as well as some of her others.