Welcome to Quick Lit, where bloggers link up with Anne Bogel at Modern Mrs. Darcy and share short and sweet reviews of what we’ve been reading lately.
June has been a great month of reading! There’s only one book (which I will not name) that disappointed me. Let’s hope the rest of the summer is just as good.
Here’s what I’ve been reading:
Emergency Contact, by Mary H. K. Choi
Penny Lee, a socially-awkward freshman at UT Austin pursuing dreams of becoming a writer, and Sam, a college drop-out with an alcoholic mother, toxic ex-girlfriend, and desire to be a documentarian, meet under less-than-ideal circumstances. (One of them has passed out in public :p) Despite barely knowing each other, they become the other’s emergency contact in their phones. From there, a friendship (and more?) begin to bloom through the extensive text messaging.
Going into this book, I was worried that the texting aspect of the story would be gimmicky. Thankfully, Choi integrated the texting into the rest of the story quite seamlessly. It was incredibly interesting to see how Penny and Sam got to know each other so intimately using this platform and having very little real-life contact. They were able to say things to each other through text that they normally would never have shared.
Calypso, by David Sedaris
All I can say is: READ THIS BOOK! I loved the crap out of it. In Calypso, Sedaris tackles issues like death, aging (of both himself and his family), but is able to perfectly pair heartbreak with hilarity. From tales of feeding a tumor to a snapping turtle to his FitBit obsession, David Sedaris makes me love him more and more with each book he writes.
Death by Dumpling, by Vivien Chien
After a disastrous break-up and losing her job, Lana Lee is back in her hometown of Cleveland waiting tables at her parents’ Chinese restaurant, Ho-Lee. Her personal drama takes a backseat when the property manager of the restaurant’s shopping center dies from an allergic reaction to eating shrimp-laced dumplings delivered by Lana from Ho-Lee. Everyone in the restaurant is now a murder suspect, and Lana takes it upon herself to do some sleuthing of her own.
I will definitely be reading more of this new cozy mystery series. Chien created an engaging mystery (I didn’t figure it out before the big reveal) with realistic cultural touches, a little romance, and more laughs than I expected. It also made me really hungry for dumplings!
Goldie Vance Vol. 1, by Hope Larson
Think Nancy Drew, but way cooler. Goldie Vance loves racing cars and solving mysteries at the Florida resort her dad manages. When a necklace goes missing, she’s on the case and isn’t afraid to take risks to get to the bottom of the mystery.
This graphic novel is incredibly fun and the art is fantastic. The diverse cast of characters and female-centered romance are cherries on top.
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