The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani

I have no idea why people are raving over this book. It is mediocre at best.

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

So they blurb this book as if it were a chick-lit rom-com a la Sophie Kinsella, but it . . . is not. It's good, but the fact that it used the same device as another book I read recently kind of took the punch out of it for me.

Privilege by Shamus Khan

Decent.

Need to Know by Karen Cleveland

I thought this was great fun.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Moral Combat by R. Marie Griffith

Very interesting.

The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn

Solid, but not quite up to all of the hype about it.

Two Girls Down by Louisa Luna

This was surprisingly good for genre fiction.

Review copy provided by publisher.

The Good Widow by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

Kind of ridiculous, but also kind of entertaining.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Happiness for Humans by P. Z. Reizin

If I said "rom-com with AI as Greek gods," you'd probably think that was stupid. But this: this is one of my favorite books every.

Review copy provided by publisher.

What She Ate by Laura Shapiro

I really enjoyed this.

Behave by Robert M. Sapolsky

Solid, but (1) this really could have used a good editor, and (2) it doesn't quite live up to the hype, and (3) if you read a lot of social science, a lot of this won't be new to you.

Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak

Decent.

Lady Bird and Lyndon by Betty Boyd Caroli

I really, really enjoyed this.

Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict

I normally love books that can be described as "like reading Downton Abbey," but I think the genre of "we're going to focus on a woman peripheral to a famous person and show how she changed history" has been overdone.

Review copy provided by publisher.

The Rooster Bar by John Grisham

This was less formulaic than expected in that the main characters were not just underdogs but also jerks. I enjoyed reading it.

The Journal of Best Practices by David Finch

Hilarious . . . and hit pretty close to home.

The Midnight Assassin by Skip Hollandsworth

Fascinating, and I loved the local color.

Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith

Quite interesting.

Why Buddhism Is True by Robert Wright

Very, very interesting.

Plutopia by Kate Brown

Very interesting.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

I didn't like this book.

Against Empathy by Paul Bloom

Very, very interesting.

The Last 100 Days by David B. Woolner

Decent.

Royal Sisters by Anne Edwards

Decent.

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

This was really good.

Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King

An amazing book about a horrible story.

Book of Ages by Jill Lepore

This was fantastic.

The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

On the one hand, this was ridiculous. But on the other hand, I kind of loved it.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

This book does not live up to the hype. It's decent, but not great. 

Glamorous Powers by Susan Howatch

In a sense, this was kind of lame. But in another sense, I loved it and can't wait to read the next one.

The Hello Girls by Elizabeth Cobbs

Fascinating. 

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

I wanted to cry through most of this. It's incredibly well done, and it's incredibly depressing.

The Big Sort by Bill Bishop

Fascinating and depressing.

Saving Normal by Allen Frances

Interesting.

Daughter of Empire by Pamela Hicks

I really enjoyed listening to this.

The Whispering Room by Dean Koontz

On the one hand, this was completely over the top. On the other hand, this was really fun to read.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Sex and the Constitution by Geoffrey R. Stone

Fascinating.

Artmeis by Andy Weir

I loved this. It was awesome in all the same ways that The Martian was but without being redundant.

A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki

This is one of those books that everyone should read.

Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein

Very, very interesting. Recommended.

It's All Relative by A. J. Jacobs

I love Jacobs, and I thought this was great fun.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Al Capone and the 1933 World's Fair by William Elliott Hazelgrove

Mildly interesting.

The Smartest Kids in the World by Amanda Ripley

Very interesting. 

A Magnificent Obsession by Helen Rappaport

I loved this so much. (I feel vaguely embarrassed about my obsession with English royalty.)

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

This was very well done.

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

Solid, interesting. But not extraordinary.

Fowl Language: The Struggle Is Real by Brian Gordon

Funny.

Review copy provided b publisher.

The Man Who Knew Everything by Marliee Peters

I read this to Truman. It was OK, very mediocre.

Review copy provided by publisher.

The Taste of Empire by Lizzie Collingham

I loved this so much.

The Color of Money by Mehrsa Baradaran

I really enjoyed reading this, in the sense that it left me completely outraged and depressed.