Green River, Running Red was written by Ann Rule, one of the most prolific and respected true crime authors of her time. She originally intended to write this book in the mid- to late 1980s, when it was widely believed that the infamous Green River Killer would soon be caught and prosecuted. Instead, the case dragged on for decades. It wasn’t until 2001 that law enforcement finally identified the killer — and not until late 2023 that he was definitively put away for the rest of his life.
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret feels less like a full third installment in Benjamin Stevenson’s Ernest Cunningham series and more like a holiday special — something Stevenson and Ernest both lean into openly. It’s noticeably shorter than the first two books, and Ernest even frames it as a kind of “Book 2.5.” That framing works surprisingly well, especially since this entry feels more original than Everyone on This Train is a Suspect, which leaned a little too hard into Murder on the Orient Express territory for my taste.
Identity Theft is an excellent premise for a Star Trek: The Original Series novel, and Greg Cox executes it with confidence, strong pacing, and a deep understanding of the characters. Set almost entirely in the narrow window between Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the story moves quickly — and it has to — thanks to a metaphorical ticking clock that keeps the tension high throughout.
I’ll be honest right up front: I did not enjoy Under Milk Wood. I read along while listening to the famous BBC full-cast production starring Richard Burton, and even with that assistance, this one simply did not land for me.
Let’s start with the title, because it’s always struck me as a little ironic. How to Read a Book. If you’re holding this book in your hands (or listening to it, or reading it on a screen), you obviously already know how to read a book. But that’s not really what Adler and Van Doren mean. What they’re actually offering is a guide to reading with the intention of understanding and mastering a subject, particularly nonfiction. Once I reframed the book that way, everything about it made a lot more sense.
John Jackson Miller has done it again. Batman: Revolution drops readers right back into the shadow-soaked, gothic grit of Tim Burton’s Gotham — set between Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) — and immediately feels like home for anyone who loves that era of the Dark Knight. This is a direct continuation of Miller’s earlier tie-in novel, Batman: Resurrection, and once again, he absolutely nails the tone, atmosphere, and character voices of Burton’s world.
I don’t remember when I first heard about Quiet — maybe therapy, maybe work training, maybe somewhere in between — but it ended up on my reading list ages ago. Then one day I was wandering my local Barnes & Noble and saw it sitting on a shelf. I took it as a sign and bought it immediately… where it then sat untouched on my own shelf for months.
As a sequel to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, this book works surprisingly well. Ernest’s narration is exactly what I hoped it would be — witty, self-aware, and just as charmingly meta as before. If anything, Stevenson doubles down on the meta elements this time, making it very clear that Ernest is not just our narrator but actively writing the book we’re reading. I actually enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek commentary about sequels and audience expectations; it’s a clever way of signaling that while this has the same flavor as the first novel, it isn’t trying to duplicate it beat for beat.
Narrative (2nd edition) by Paul Cobley is a bit of a different beast for me — because, at the end of the day, it is a textbook. This is one of the titles recommended by BookTuber Benjamin McEvoy in his “How to Get an Oxford English Education for Free” video, specifically the first book he listed in the English Literature Criticism category. And reading it, you can absolutely tell: this is a book designed to be paired with lectures, discussion, and a professor guiding you through the denser bits.
I have to admit: I didn’t complete all the poetry exercises in this book. I started with good intentions, but quickly realized I’m more interested — at least for now — in understanding how poetry works than in writing my own. And honestly, that’s okay. The exercises will be there if (or when) I circle back. What mattered most to me was learning how “good” poetry is constructed and how best to read it, especially out loud.
