Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book about a running club.
Where They Last Saw Her, by Marcie R. Rendon.

This is a thriller set on an Ojibwe reservation in Minnesota, and the author weaves in information about the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Quill is running in the woods when she hears a scream, and later learn that a woman has disappeared. She has suspicions about the nearby "man camp" of pipeline workers. Other women and girls disappear over the course of the book, and Quill and her friends start running together for safety.

The author does a good job of creating atmosphere: the cold quiet of a Minnesota winter, the vivid red of the women's skirts at an event to draw attention to the missing women (because red is the only color spirits can see).

Fictional characters are allowed to make mistakes, of course; it would be boring if they only made good decisions. But Quill makes SO MANY bad decisions that I got completely exasperated with her. Repeatedly putting herself in danger. Keeping information from her husband. Hanging on to evidence that should go to the police (and for an unconvincing reason). And missing a whole clothesline's worth of red flags when a friend is in danger.

Some of the disappearances end in rescue, some in rescue - and, realistically, there's at least one where we'll never know what happened.

Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book you've always avoided reading.
The Fifth Season, by  N.K. Jemisin.

Trigger warnings for extreme violence and cruelty, including toward children.

​This category caused a lot of consternation on the Goodreads discussion boards. What qualifies as "always avoided reading"? Why would you then choose to read a book where that was the case? But I immediately knew it would be this book. I'd read and enjoyed Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy, and had heard great things about the Broken Earth trilogy, a triple Hugo winner that starts with this book. But I'd been warned: "This one will break your heart."

The warning was entirely called for. This book is interesting and well written, but it is GRIM. It starts with a three-year-old being murdered by his father, and that's not even the worst thing that happens to a child in this book.

As often happens in science fiction, some people are born with special powers, and they are feared and hated as a result, sometimes killed by their own families. Orogenes have power over earth and stone, including controlling earthquakes. The fear of them isn't entirely irrational: there are multiple instances throughout the books of orogene children accidentally killing people. An organization called the Fulcrum takes the children to teach them self-control, and assigns them guardians. There are definite hints that there is something sinister about the Fulcrum. And now, an unnatural disaster has hit, blotting out the sun with ash and leaving the world in danger of starvation.

There are three narratives. Damaya is a child whose parents hand her over to the Fulcrum. Syenite is a Fulcrum-trained orogene, sent on a mission with a powerful man (and ordered to produce a baby with him). Essun is fortyish, and hid her orogene powers until her husband killed their son and fled with their daughter. Essun is referred to throughout the story as "you," and eventually we learn who's narrating her story to her, and what the connection is between the three characters.

​It's an ambitious series, with complex characters and world-building. But it absolutely will break your heart.

I now have my very own  Little Free Library! You can find the ones near you on the LFL website. Take a book and/or leave a book!

Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A redo of a 2024 category (I chose "book with a title that's a complete sentence").
Keanu Reeves Is Not in Love With You: The Murky World of Online Romance Fraud, by Becky Holmes.

Like most women who spend too much time online, I get approached on social media by men who give off massive scammer red flags. I block, delete and move on. Author Becky Holmes decided to have some fun with them instead.

Scammers who target women tend to follow similar scripts. (The scripts are a little different for male victims, which may be the subject of the next book.) They usually claim to be widowed, and either a soldier or an oil rig worker (jobs with a built-in excuse for any lapses in contact). They start with “love bombing,” a too-good-to-be-true online romance with promises to meet in person (but plans keep getting delayed). Then there’s an “emergency” where the scammer needs a relatively small amount of money, maybe a few hundred, which for some reason must be delivered via crypto or gift cards. The emergencies and demands for money keep escalating for as long as the victim can be strung along.
Some will even run a secondary scam where, once exposed, the scammer will claim “I started out trying to cheat you, but I’ve developed real feelings for you.” Others have infiltrated Facebook support groups for scam victims, claiming to know someone who can get their money back — just send them a few bank details. Holmes includes resources for scam victims in the UK.

One scam variation is the celebrity imposter, who wants money for a “private, unadvertised performance for superfans only,” or for a charity (but the money has to be sent through him, for tax purposes). At one point, Holmes created a group chat for the five Keanu Reeveses who were following her. She also heard from scammers claiming to be Liam Neeson, Brad Pitt, Prince William and, inexplicably, Prince Andrew. (Holmes drily notes that she’s a few decades too old for Andrew’s reputed taste.) 
​
Holmes enjoyed messing with the scammers, dropping comments like, “Can I bring my sister when we meet? I’ll have to release her from the tumble dryer, but she should be dry by then.” She gave out addresses in imaginary towns with names like Knackered Sphincter. She sent  “gift card codes” like 5UCH 4 RU8815H 4TTEMPT or U 4R3NT V3RY G00D 4T TH15. She occasionally claimed to have flown to Los Angeles (or wherever the scammer was supposed to be) so they could meet up for a quickie wedding. When nothing else got rid of them, she’d claim to have just killed someone. (At least one scammer said he could connect her with someone who could get rid of the body — and would take payment in gift cards).

The book provides serious information, examining the practical and emotional damage of being scammed, but also manages to be scathingly funny.

Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book with a snake on the cover or in the title.
Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America, by Talia Lavin.

Lavin starts with a caveat: "There are many faithful people in this country who kiss the cross or take Communion and love their neighbor and keep up with old friends and listen to a nice sermon or two. This is not a book about those people."

Rather, it's about a political movement that's deeply entwined with the notion of being "spiritual warriors" and preparing for an apocalypse that they sincerely believe will happen in their lifetime. Hallmarks are a belief in biblical inerrancy, the demand that their movement must rule politically, and an obsession with traditional gender roles and sexual purity.

The section on child-rearing was a difficult read. The movement is dominated by voices like James Dobson (Focus on the Family) and Michael and Debi Pearl (To Train Up a Child). Their focus is on teaching children a single virtue: not kindness, empathy, or generosity, but obedience. Lavin interviewed adults who'd left the movement, and they uniformly described childhoods of being beaten with paddles, switches, and wooden spoons for any sort of infraction - including obeying orders but having the wrong facial expression or tone of voice.

Lavin is passionately clear about the dangers of political power that uses religious faith as a shield to declare itself above question. A timely and sobering book.

Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A highly anticipated 2025 release.
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, by Sarah Wynn-Williams

This is a scathing tell-all by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a New Zealander who joined Facebook with a vision of working with governments around the world to make social media a force for good, or at least keep it from being a force for evil. The people in the C-suite seemed to live in a bubble where people outside their social circle weren’t real. They came off in the book as clueless in a way that’s unique to narcissists. Thus the title, from the famous Great Gatsby line:

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

Some highlights: when South Korea threatened to arrest Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives, Zuckerberg decided to send someone to South Korea as a “test” to see if they’d arrest anyone connected with Facebook. But not himself, of course — he was too important to risk. As the least senior person in the meeting, Wynn-Williams was told it would be her. And she actually planned to go, until her husband argued some sense into her.

When negotiating to bring Facebook into China, Zuckerberg and his team casually gamed out the likelihood of having to censor posts at the government’s whims, and handing over private information, not only for users in China, but for anyone they interacted with. The possible consequences, including people being arrested or worse, were discussed in the abstract as just the hazards of doing business. 

The “couldn’t be made to care” attitude also applied to a textbook case of harassment by Wynn-Williams’s boss, Joel Kaplan. Sheryl Sandberg helped build her career on preaching “zero tolerance” about harassment in the abstract. But when Kaplan’s behavior escalated from slightly-off comments and boundary pushing to physically grinding against her on a dance floor, it was Wynn-Williams who was scapegoated and fired.

The section on Myanmar is truly chilling. Facebook was used to spread fake news and whip up anti-Muslim rage. Management shrugged off warnings, saying they weren’t getting any reports of posts violating Facebook policies. As riots broke out, it turned out there was exactly one Burmese-speaking employee, and that person was based in Dublin and not always reachable. Later — far too late — it came out that the Burmese version of Facebook had no tools to report posts violating the rules. It didn’t even have a Burmese translation of the rules. It wasn’t that Zuckerberg and the other execs wanted the violence; they simply didn’t care.

​As Wynn-Williams notes, it didn’t have to be this way. Throughout the story, the people running Facebook had the opportunity to make different choices. But they moved fast, broke things, and left other people to clean up the mess they made.

Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book about magical creatures that aren't dragons.
David and the Phoenix, by Edward Ormondroyd.

This is a children's book from 1957, but it has a timeless feel, which seems appropriate for a book about an immortal bird. It reminds me of Scholastic books I read as a kid, where an ordinary child makes a magical friend.

The Phoenix has a comically high opinion of itself, and announces that it will take charge of David's education. It takes him on adventures to meet other magical creatures: a sea monster, a banshee, and gryffins, gryffons, and gryffens (three related but very different creatures).

The phoenix also has a nemesis: a scientist who wants to capture or kill it in order to study it. The phoenix is creative (and occasionally hilarious) in its attempts to evade the scientist, with David's help.

The Thinklings edition includes Joan Raysor's marvelous illustrations. It also incudes an intro by Robert Natelson explaining that the story includes allusions to Ovid's Metamorphoses and other classics, but I totally missed them, and it didn't in any way interfere with my enjoyment of the book.

Popsugar Reading challenge category: A book with a non-speaking character.
Dog on It, by Spencer Quinn.

There was much discussion on the Goodreads chat board as to whether an animal can count as a non-speaking character. Since Chet the dog is a fully sentient narrator, I’m going with yes.
 
This is the first book in Spencer Quinn’s long-running Chet and Bernie mystery series. Bernie is a classic down-on-his-luck private eye: divorced, broke, and trying to stay out of the bourbon. The one thing he has going for him is his loyal and clever dog. This book also introduces Susie Sanchez, the reporter who will become Bernie’s girlfriend.
 
Chet is described as a 100-pound “mongrel” with one white and one black ear. It’s mentioned that he flunked out of police dog training, so possibly he’s part German shepherd. One convenient part of having Chet narrate is that the author can withhold story information (or just yada-yada past the unimportant parts), as Chet is very easily distracted by food or other animals. But his powerful nose – and size – come in handy.
 
I’ve read two books from this series (the other was The Dog Who Knew Too Much), and in both books Chet gets dognapped. Hope that doesn’t happen in every book! This one has a sad scene with Chet in an animal shelter, watching other dogs get taken away. Chet doesn’t understand that they’re being euthanized, but the reader does.
 
Aside from that, the book has a cozy mystery feel. Bernie is searching for a missing teenager and trying to navigate the cold war between her parents. There’s some violence, but nothing too gory. And we know that Chet’s superior nose and canine wisdom will crack the case.

Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book about a nontraditional education.
Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools that Built the Civil Rights Movement, by Elaine Weiss.

​While not as headline-grabbing as marches and sit-ins, the Freedom Schools and the Citizenship Education Project (CEP) were vital parts of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

A common racist tactic to keep Black people from voting was the "literacy test," which could be applied at the registrar's discretion. Being able to read the ballot was not enough; in South Carolina, for instance, prospective voters could be required to read and interpret obscurely worded sections of the state Constitution. Segregated, underfunded schools didn't offer much education - and people who couldn't vote had no leverage to improve the schools.

The book covers the period from 1954 (the Brown v. Board of Education ruling) through 1970 when the CEP ended. The narrative follows four individuals. Septima Clark was a teacher who set up classes for adult literacy and voter education. She recruited her beautician cousin, Bernice Robinson, to help teach. Esau Jenkins was a bus driver who used the long ride to teach his passengers and recruit them to vote. And Myles Horton was a White ally who ran Highlander Folk School, an activist training ground where White and Black students learned, ate, sang, and even roomed together, which was illegal in Tennessee at the time.

Spell Freedom covers the victories and setbacks, and also the struggles within the movement. Septima Clark expressed frustration at how women's suggestions and concerns were routinely ignored by male leaders, who still expected women to show up and do the work. (And they mostly did: the movement could not have functioned without the brigades of women who volunteered, organized, and handled logistics.)

The CEP activists and their supporters endured harassment, threats, and violence. Some were fired from jobs, turned away by landlords, or refused services at grocery stores and other businesses. Pictures of Martin Luther King Jr. at a Highlander event were distributed with claims that it was a "communist training school." Highlander was forced to close in 1960 after a fabricated charge of "selling alcohol." The charge was absurd, but was upheld by a jury. One effect of forcibly keeping Black people off voter rolls was that they were kept off juries. 

Spell Freedom packs in a lot of information about the Freedom Schools, and the context of the larger movement and legal/political battles. Yet it's very readable, and easy to keep track of who's who and what's happening. The book is an education in itself, making clear how far we've come and how the struggle for equal rights isn't over.

Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book centering queer characters that isn't about coming out.
Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters.

I have a weakness for unreliable-narrator books, and this one pulls the rug out from under the reader with multiple well-timed twists. The author pulls off a difficult feat: she gives us the same events twice, from different points of view, and it's not repetitious because we have far more information the second time.

It's 19th-century England, and Sue has been raised in a den of thieves ("fingersmiths"). An associate offers her a job: work as a maid for Maud, an heiress that he's romancing, and help convince her to marry him. With Sue's help, he plans to cheat Maud out of her money and lock her in a mental hospital. Things go awry quickly: Sue starts developing feelings for Maud, and one night they make love.

We then get Maud's version of what happened. Maud, her home, and her book-loving uncle are not at all what they appeared to Sue, and Maud has her own reasons for this ill-fated marriage. But like Sue, Maud doesn't know as much as she thinks she does, and the situation quickly spirals out of control.

By the end, we're clear on who did what to whom and why. The only question left is whether the passion between Sue and Maud can withstand the many betrayals on either side. A suspenseful and devious book.