I used to read lots of mysteries, and for some reason I stopped. Then I heard about Sue Ann Jaffarian’s mysteries from Mystery Bookstore on Twitter, and got addicted. Her heroine is plus-size paralegal Odelia Gray, and she’s an amateur detective. I read the latest one, Booby Trap, first, but the first one in the series, Too Big to Miss, is excellent– Odelia’s friend dies by killing herself live onscreen on her porn site, one Odelia didn’t know about. She goes about investigating whether it was really suicide (it wasn’t). There’s also a romantic angle as she dates Greg Stevens, a hot wheelchair-bound graphic designer. Odelia’s spunky and funny and Jaffarian’s plots are intricate enough that after three books, I haven’t figured out any of the murderers yet. There’s also this big girl empowerment angle that’s woven into the books; it doesn’t clobber you over the head, but you definitely want to see Odelia thrive and get back at the haters (including her stepmother and stepbrothers, who are delightfully horrid). I love discovering a new author like that so I can then devour all of their books right after one another, like chain smoking.
And right now I’m reading and absolutely loving Diana Joseph’sexcellent memoir I’m Sorry You Feel That Way: The Astonishing but True Story of a Daughter, Sister, Slut, Wife, Mother, and Friend to Man and Dog. It’s ostensibly about the men in her life, but also about how she interacts with them, and is full of incredible observations about family, relationships, and so much more.
