Standing My Ground: A capitol police officer's fight for accountability and good trouble after January 6th - Harry Dunn

This book was intense! It's another one I think probably everyone should read. The author doesn't hide his personal political preferences, but I believe he is completely justified in them, especially after what he went through and simply existing is an AA man in the United States.  It seems like, despite a very clear inquiry, many Americans either don't or refuse to understand what happened during the insurrection on January 6th, and this book lays out the officer's side clearly, as well as the aftermath. 

Doctor Sleep - Stephen King (The Shining sequel)

 I'm glad he wrote this book.  It was a pretty standard Stephen King book.  I really like the idea of following up to catch the young characters from one-off books many years later, just to see what happened. It was a fun book. 

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma - Peter A. Levine

 So much of this seemed hokey and ridiculous, but I don't believe I've ever had any trauma, so I can't be in a position to say what does or doesn't work to resolve such things. There were some components that rang true to me, like allowing your body and mind to go through the innate actions of processing an event shortly after it occurs. This makes sense to me. But re-enacting the event with a different outcome does not because the thing still happened. I guess it works for the same reason placebos work. 

I thought there were some useful components to the book, but I don't know that it was worth all the hype. Much of it was devoted to examples. 

The Silvered Serpents - Roshani Chokshi (Gilded Wolves Series, Bk. 2)

 This book has some really cool concepts.  The characters are a little polarized. I know the author was really going for dichotomy, but it's a little overplayed sometimes. Otherwise, it's a good book overall and I look forward to the next one. 

Tripwire - Lee Child (Jack Reacher series, Bk. 3)

 I realized I skipped one of these so I went back and caught it.  I'd been really enjoying these books so far, but now it seems that accidentally skipping this one was serendipitous. The MC's love interest in this book was the daughter of his former commanding officer, so she was off limits.  Ok, that's a fair stance. She was off limits because she was a child. Eh, he's young and in the military, it wouldn't be the first time a guy who's 19-21 crushed on a girl who's 17, right? That's a fair reason for a girl to be off-limits. The author could have made either or both of those arguments. But no! When Reacher says she was "too young" he was 24 and she was 15, but he "wanted her so bad". W. T. F. He then goes on to recount how she was skinny and gangly, so it's not like the child love interest even LOOKED like a woman yet! That makes it SO MUCH WORSE.  The rest of the story was honestly pretty good, but I never got passed the fact that apparently Reacher is a pedo now.  Totally soured the whole experience for me.  I'm not totally sure if I'll even continue with these. 

Memnoch the Devil - Anne Rice (Vampire Chronicles, Bk 5)

 This book seemed a little drawn out, but I still really liked it. God as a floundering cat (I meant to do that!) seems so much more logical than other versions I've heard. And the deification of suffering. And just not caring about humans.  All of that seems so much more plausible than allowing the evil to occur. I really like Anne Rice and would recommend everything from her I've read, just so long as you like the gothic horror style and enjoy sacrilege. 

Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving - Pete Walker

 This is a super amazing book that everyone should probably read, even if they're like me and don't have any PTSD, complex or not.  I've seen flashes of the consequences of this in people around me. Often it manifests as someone freaking out over simple life hiccups, but the types of reactions I see line up with the patterns outlined in this book. (Everyone has innate reactions that come out in response to external stimuli regardless of if they have any PTSD or not, and that is what I mean when I say I see them.  The book outlines them very well, so it's easier to catch them in everyday life. cPTSD draws out these reactions more as they've been cemented into place over a long period of time.) I think this book would really help people understand both their own sudden, emotional reactions and those of people around them, leading to better understanding and, hopefully, more successful communication and better relationships.  Identifying how/why someone responds a certain way to conflict, in my opinion, would benefit everyone because those responses could be anticipated and dealt with in a healthier manner.