recently finished: Last week I listened to Sometimes I Lie, Alice Feeney’s 2018 thriller. It’s an intense audio book, so I listened to it all in only 3 days, but it’s really good. I enjoyed it lots. I also spent the weekend reading My Friend Anna, a memoir about a woman who befriended a con artist and got taken for just short of $70k. It’s a crazy story, and one I had been wanting to read since I first heard about it. Last week I found a new podcast about cons and frauds called Illegal Tender, and the second season is about this story. Con artist Anna Delvey took several businesses and individuals in New York City for hundreds of thousands of dollars, with no remorse or regret. If you want to know more, start with the podcast and then head for the book. They’re both really good. (Season one of the podcast is really good too. It’s the story of an energy businessman who also turned out to be a fraud, and it features one of my favorite talking heads/authors from the Enron documentary and book The Smartest Guys in the Room, Bethany McClean. This one is based on her book Saudi America, which I haven’t read yet, but you know it’s on my list).

currently reading: I’m about 3/4 of the way through Love Lettering, and it’s truly lovely. It’s very easy for me to get caught up in that story. I’m also reading Catherine Steadman’s Mr. Nobody, a novel about a neuropsychologist (or maybe she’s a neuropsychiatrist?) who treats a man with no memory, in a really rare fugue state, and she has to figure out what happened to cause it to keep him from whatever danger he’s in. I’m only about 20% of the way in, but I am really enjoying it. And because I was craving something lighter and finished my Bridget Jones, I started rom com Well Met, about a woman helping at a ren fest. I am loving Jen DeLuca’s voice, and I can’t wait to see where the story goes. It’s so much fun!

up next: There are a couple of novels coming out later in January that I am really looking forward to. Louisa Luna’s follow-up to Two Girls Down, The Janes, is out the 21st. I loved her first one, so I am greatly anticipating this one too. And The Circus comes out the 28th. This is the latest by Swedish author Jonas Karlsson, who also wrote The Room and The Invoice, both of which I loved. His work is different, kind of like if Magritte had written novels. But I can’t help but be drawn in to his world, and I can’t wait to read his latest!