The Buddha in the Attic - Julie Otsuka

 Was not impressed with this book!  The author clearly wanted to write all the stories and coudln't decide which was best so she did, in fact, write all the stories at once, and I guess it gives you a good overview of the Japanese women who immigrated to the US to marry in the first 2 decades of the 20th century, but the way it was written made it impossible to grow attached to anything or anyone.  She would have done better to write 5 shorter stories following women with a variety of luck in their immigration gamble. Even if she rotated between them so that the timepoints line up, that would have been better.  I think the is a serious case of ATBGE.

Skin Game - Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files, Bk. 14)

 This one was real good.  Lots of fun! 

Fever Season: the Story of a Terrifying Epidemic and the People who Saved a City - Jeanette Keith

 This had the potential to be a great story.  The author dropped the ball.  There are so many people involved, that it's hard to keep track of them across the several months of this epidemic.  I think the whole book would have been easier to follow if it started with an overview or timeline of events and then each chapter focused on one individual or group/organization.  There is an amazing story to be told in the lives of Kezia DePelchin, J. M. Keating, and especially Bob Church!  Any of those could be a rich story.  I'd love to see them on the screen even!

But this book simply isn't well organized and doesn't do their stories justice.  

Negroland : A Memoir - Margo Jefferson

 I gotta say, I feel like there was a lot in this book that I missed, not because the subject was about people far darker than me, but because I wasn't alive in the 50s and 60s so most of the pop culture references were people I'd never heard of and didn't know what they looked like or did.  There was a lot of the expected little black girls in upper society were held to higher standards and expectations than white children and were expected to be "ambassadors" for their race.  There was the expected anxiety about lower class black people and perfection.  There was, of course, so much culture around hair and what you did to it.  But the author waxed lovingly about these ground-breaking, beautiful brown and black Hollywood women that I just didn't know.  They all seemed to have had a very strong influence on her and others of her time.  I looked a few up, but I don't know them so it didn't seem important to me and the author failed to help me understand. 

I was moderately disappointed in this book except for the brief family history, which took place between about 1850-1930.  It seemed like there was a vastly more interesting story there, particularly with the author's grandmother, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend this book.  

Devil Said Bang - Richard Kadrey (Sandman Slim Series, Bk. 4)

 The more of these I read, the more I like them.  This book has the MC's human and angel sides separated from each other and I liked the character much more when he wasn't maliciously working against his best interest because he was too stubborn to listen to the wiser voice inside his head.  Both Hell and the wider picture become much more flushed out in this book and I'm looking forward to reading the next installment!

My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite

 I thought this was a pretty good book. The author does a great job in keeping the pace, jumping between dates for the "memory scenes", and making the MC feel real.  That last one was the best.  The MC keeps helping her sister cover up her crimes, even though she hates it and wants out.  Any outside advise would obviously be: simply stop and leave her to clean up her own messes.  But the author does a great and honest job of showing the MC's motivation even in the event of her crush being on the chopping block. This is an intense, wild ride and I would recommend it for any of my crime story loving friends. 

The Secret Life of the Mind: How your Brain Thinks, Feels, and Decides - Mariano Sigman

 This is a super fascinating book covering a wide range of brain-related phenomena that I’d not learned of before. If you want to know all the details, read the book, but I will leave you with an example: Every time you move your eyes, your brain shuts off.  Just try it. Look at something to your right and then look at something to your left.  You can see in your peripheral but the details of your eyes tracking across everything in the middle aren't there.  It will annoy you forever now. You're welcome.