Published by Harper Books on 27 Feb 2018
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A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case.

"You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark."

For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.

Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by Michelle’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.

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I listen to my fair share of true crime podcasts and had heard the name "the Golden State killer" before, but I didn't know anything about the case. However, I did get a sense that this case is one of the most chilling and fascinating ones for true crime junkies--for the perpetrator's elusiveness and for the sheer quantity of crimes.

This true crime account was incredibly well-researched and well-written. It was published posthumously and completed by lead researcher Paul Haynes and investigative journalist Billy Jensen. They said it best: "Michelle always found the perfect balance between the typical extremes of the genre. She didn't flinch from evoking key elements of horror and yet avoided lurid overindulgence in grisly details, as well as sidestepping self-righteous justice crusading or victim hagiography... She had a nuance one doesn't normally encounter in true crime."

It was haunting that at the time of publication, the case remained unsolved, the identity of the Golden State Killer unknown. It was bittersweet when the Golden State Killer was finally caught, just two months after publication (bittersweet that McNamara, who passed away two years before publication, didn't live to see this day).

I'm glad that by the time I started reading the book, the Golden State Killer was already caught. Otherwise, I would have had trouble sleeping at night. Tip: Don't read this book in your house!! Take it to a cafe or the beach or something!

Upon finishing the book, I tried to look into the Golden State Killer's arrest and other updates to the case, but as the investigation is ongoing, the articles I found didn't have much information and were unsatisfying (especially after reading an account as brilliant as McNamara's haha). I also went back to the Golden State Killer episodes of the My Favorite Murder podcast (#1, #115, #118), and started listening to The Murder Squad podcast hosted by Billy Jensen and Paul Holes, beginning with the Golden State Killer episode (#4).

If you're into true crime, I'll Be Gone in the Dark is a must-read.

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Published by Alfred A. Knopf on 09 Sep 2003
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This is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance.

When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he’s found the one his heart is made for. Until he blows it. The school bookie says the odds are 12-to-1 against him getting Noah back, but Paul’s not giving up without playing his love really loud. His best friend Joni might be drifting away, his other best friend Tony might be dealing with ultra-religious parents, and his ex-boyfriend Kyle might not be going away anytime soon, but sometimes everything needs to fall apart before it can really fit together right.

This is a happy-meaningful romantic comedy about finding love, losing love, and doing what it takes to get love back in a crazy-wonderful world.

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When it comes to true dancing, it doesn't matter what you look like--it's all about the joy you feel.

Though this story took place in a high school setting, it felt more like middle school. This gay utopia was sweet, maybe too sweet, maybe a little naive. But I suppose this story is unique and kinda revolutionary for portraying such an idealistic society where being LGBT+ is so normal, especially when you consider when this book was originally published.

I loved Tony and got more into the story 3/4 of the way through when I got to learn more about him. I think his arc gave this light story more depth.

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Published by Doubleday on 18 Aug 1997
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Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient, and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you?

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS--or motor neurone disease--Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live.

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This book was on my TBR since middle school. It wasn't until recently that I finally swiped up a copy of the book from a secondhand bookstore for $2 and got around to reading it.

The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

Currently, I feel very lost in life and this book gave me a lot to contemplate. All I want is stability and independence, yet here I am reading a book on why and how love and relationships are what give life meaning. I think I was having too many debates in my head for the full emotional impact of this book to hit me as it seemed to hit many other people. My eyes did sting at the end though (as opposed to some of my friends who told me they cried after every chapter).

Death ends a life, not a relationship.

This is a short book that I would recommend to anyone. Even if it doesn't make you cry, it'll give you some things to think about, and maybe inspire a change in your life. Live your life well so that you don't leave with regrets.

Read this book instead of wasting water with the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

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Published by William Morrow on 02 Jan 2018
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Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times... and spying on her neighbours.

Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare.

What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.

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Anna Fox is confined in her house by her agoraphobia. She experiences the world through a window, peeping at her neighbours while downing her regular cocktail of wine and pills. Then one day she sees something she shouldn't have. Or did she?

With Anna being an unreliable narrator, I wasn't sure what to believe. I was rooting for her though! I hoped she really did see what she said she saw, but I was skeptical of the conclusions she drew (we all love to make our own speculations!). Everyone in her community gaslighted her, and I so wanted her to prove them wrong!

Just like Anna, I had so many questions I wanted answered, and was frustrated when her community didn't even have the courtesy to accept her truth as her truth--maybe not as a universal truth, but at least as her truth, and then investigate accordingly. Instead, they simply ignored Anna's crisis.

Left to my own devices, I honed in on recurring descriptions and made my own guesses, but I didn't predict the end!

This was a fast-paced thriller (I'm a fan of the short chapters) with an unreliable but sympathetic narrator. I've seen many comparisons of this book made to The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, but most preferred The Woman in the Window for its more developed characters.

Reading buddies: Kat's review / Sadia's review

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Published by St. Martin's Press on 21 May 2019
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Erica Bauermeister, the national bestselling author of The School of Essential Ingredients, presents a moving and evocative coming-of-age novel about childhood stories, families lost and found, and how a fragrance conjures memories capable of shaping the course of our lives.

Emmeline lives an enchanted childhood on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them. As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the unforeseen happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world–a place of love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity, a quest that challenges the limits of her heart and imagination.

Lyrical and immersive, The Scent Keeper explores the provocative beauty of scent, the way it can reveal hidden truths, lead us to the person we seek, and even help us find our way back home.

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This is a story of love, grace, and acceptance, and it starts with a daughter and her father, who live alone on a remote island and spend their days foraging for food and... for scents. It tells Emmeline's coming-of-age in three stages. Disrupted from her fairytale childhood, she searches for the secrets of her past, trusting the scents that never lie about the memories they hold, and discovers the realities of a world beyond what she's known.

All those stories, all those lives, each one an entire world to the person living it, and yet I knew none of them. Maybe that’s how it always is, I thought–we all just go along, catching glimpses of one another, thinking we know everything.

Starting this search for truth from an enchanted childhood, I, along with Emmeline, was trying to discern what was fantasy and what was reality, as I wasn't sure what kind of world this story was set in--was it fantasy or realistic fiction or magical realism? Navigating fantasy and reality was so apt in this story, giving another dimension to Emmeline's quest to figure out the truths and lies of her childhood growing up on the remote island. I was reminded of Disney's Enchanted, following a sweet and naive protagonist into a world where fantasy and reality collide.

Emmeline's reality kept changing, so I don't want to say too much else and instead encourage you to let go of your expectations so that you can discover her world with her as I did; the lyrical writing and unique sensory/olfactory experience was so immersive.

The only qualm I had was that I felt the ending was too open and I still had some questions I wanted answered, but perhaps it's more realistic to not have all the answers in life anyway.

But for anyone who's read the book and would like to discuss, here are some unresolved thoughts I had left: [highlight to reveal spoilers]

1. I thought Emmeline's father's *reaction* was extreme and was hoping to better understand him--and particularly that reaction--by the end but didn't really.
2. I thought Emmeline's mother's character was kind of flat (typical cold female figure bent on success) and was hoping to understand her better as well. The end gave a hint to there being more about her, but just a hint.
3. I didn't like that Emmeline moved to the city for a boy, and didn't get the sense that she found her independence from him. I guess learning from mistakes is part of growing up?

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