Kept Me Guessing

Charlie is autistic, brilliant and loyal. That's why she doesn't say anything when her boss is found murdered, and it is clear from the security footage that Charlie was witness to something that night. Her life isn't easy--raised in a hardscrabble style by a single mom until a selfish stepdad enters the picture, Charlie knows that she has only herself to rely on in many ways. So who does she trust when she has to navigate the twists and turns of a murder investigation? I didn't see the solution right up until it was revealed. Brava, Wendy Walker, who by the way, looks like she could be Blake Lively's sister, and, oh yeah, she's an attorney who used to work in child advocacy. Once I got over my inferiority complex, I decided I'd like to read everything she's ever written. Maybe I'll just skip the bio page next time.

It Was a Low For Me

The Long Haul remains one of my favorite books--the first chapter alone made me laugh so hard it hurt. With that in mind, I was excited to read this next project by Finn Murphy about his foray into the hemp "space" (world/agricultural endeavor/whatever) and dove in with gusto, just knowing I was in for another great ride. Instead of the easy banter of his former book, this reads more like an informational manual, slogging along and laden with data. If the first book was a white water ride, this was a plod through a plowed-up field dragging a 50 pound weight. While I'm all for learning something as I read, I also want the book to be enjoyable. This just wasn't, for me. It was clear that after his first success, the publisher thought another gold mine could be milked from Finn's latest adventure. Or perhaps Finn thought he'd try to salvage some of the wreckage of his failed farming attempts by luring loyal fans into buying this book. Could have been an amusing article, at best. Sorry, Finn.

Crazy, For Sure

This exhaustively researched book will give you yet one more reason to be ashamed of our past. Built in 1911, Crownsville Hospital in Maryland was designed for Black patients, built by Black patients (yes, that's right), and certainly funded at the expense of Black patients. Patients (called everything but that) who were brought to Crownsville, say for speaking with a British accent, protesting against racism (peacefully), and for not answering questions at a police station. Or mainly, for just being Black. Of course, we know that mental health assessment was quite subjective for anyone in that era, but there was an unapoligetic disparity between funding and staffing for local white hospitals and Crownsville, unsurprisingly. This book tracks this hospital, its workers, therapists and directors, the populace that surrounded it, and weaves the saga of what abject racism can do to hold people back in all sorts of ways.