Reading List by Jayne
This Car Sux!: Tales and Tips from a Life of Wheeling and Dealing by Randy Pressgrove
A FREEWHEELING INSIDER ACCOUNT OF THE BASTARDS, BANDITS, AND BOZOS OF AMERICA’S CAR BUSINESS— AND WHAT YOU SHOULD REALLY KNOW BEFORE YOU BUY A CAR—FROM A FORTY-YEAR AUTO INDUSTRY VETERAN.
From the moment he joined a Memphis, Tennessee, dealership of Liberty Chrysler-Plymouth in 1979 as perhaps the only parts counterman in history with a graduate degree in Scottish medieval history, Randy Pressgrove has been a car guy.
In the ensuing four decades in sales and dealership development assignments across the world, he saw it all—from Chrysler and most of the industry’s narrow escape from the brink of bankruptcy in the early 1980s, to the 1990s revival of the VW Beetle, to the rise of electric vehicles (EVs), to the existential change brought on by the 2020s pandemic, and everything in between.
Written with an old-fashioned storyteller’s panache, a wide-angle historical lens, and the rare vantage point of someone with experience in all the methods and madness of the car-buying process from the factory to the showroom, this book reveals:
What to do and what not to do when buying a car (never get the extended warranty!)
The automobile business life at the dealership, customer, lonely manufacturer’s rep, and even the finance company levels
The most memorable and vexing challenges facing those who’ve plied the auto trade— from great leaders and turnaround artists to bumbling misfits and sleazy salesmen—since its birth more than one hundred years agoThis Car Sux! is part hilarious and compulsively readable memoir, part Kitchen Confidential for cars, and part epic saga of the automobile industry as it evolved from a vibrant and quintessentially American institution of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s to one today that is beset on all sides by cutthroat competition, scandal, and existential technological disruption.
Review
Reading the blurb for “This Car Sux” led me to believe that I would be getting one kind of book but actually, it’s another. I thought a “freewheeling insider account” told with “an old-fashioned storyteller’s panache” which promised a “part hilarious and compulsively readable memoir” would have me laughing and reading into the night.
Well, this book is not like that nor did it deliver on the hilarity. Instead Pressgrove takes us back through the history of car dealerships, into the various layers of a dealership, and into who does what and why – and yes, a lot of the “what” is to screw every last dollar out of the customer. He is detailed, thorough, analytical, obviously knows what he’s talking about and if you’re interested in what he’s talking about then this would be a great book for you. If, like me, you’re looking for the side-splitting, down and dirty tales of behind the scenes of a dealership, this ain’t it. B for what it is, C for what the blurb promised.
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Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar
Full of glimpses into gleaming worlds and fairy tales with teeth, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories is a collection of acclaimed and awarded work from Amal El-Mohtar.
With confidence and style, El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was, and could be. Like miscellany from other worlds, these stories are told in letters, diary entries, reference materials, folktales, and lyrical prose.
Full of Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Hugo Award-winning and nominated stories, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories includes “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” “The Green Book,” “Madeleine,” “The Lonely Sea in the Sky,” “And Their Lips Rang with the Sun,” “The Truth About Owls,” “A Hollow Play,” “Anabasis,” “To Follow the Waves,” “John Hollowback and the Witch,” “Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers,” “Pockets,” and more.
Review
It doesn’t matter to me what length a story is or what it’s about but I need for it to entertain me, make me want to read to the end, satisfy me, and make me glad I read it. Sadly I enjoyed one story which is a nice turn on the boxes women can be pushed into believing protect them, was intrigued by another which has a seemingly sentient book, started two more with forgotten memories and a strange delusion and ended up abandoning both of them then realized I’d hit the mark by which you stop if a book/novella/story isn’t working for you. El-Mohtar’s style of writing is lyrical but lyrical alone doesn’t do it for me. Sadly this will be a DNF for me.
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The Sisters of Book Row by Shelly Noble
From bestselling author Shelley Noble comes a gripping and timely historical novel of books, banning, and the women who helped save New York’s famed Book Row.
1915: Manhattan’s Book Row, an eclectic jumble of forty bookshops along Fourth Avenue, is the mecca for rare book buyers from around the world, and the haunt of locals looking for a bargain. It is also the target of the most vicious censor in American history—Anthony Comstock.
And home to three sisters who vow to stop him.
For the three Applebaum sisters, the narrow, four-storied Arcadia Rare Bookshop is the only home they’ve ever known. Olivia, the oldest, is an expert in restoring rare manuscripts. Daphne, the outgoing middle sister, oversees the retail shop and is a favorite with their customers. Celia, the youngest, is left to dust and catalogue, but often sneaks out to do heaven knows what. Little do her sisters know, Celia has joined a group of young people who secretly print and distribute articles on women’s health by hiding them within the pages of ordinary cookbooks, household hints, and sewing patterns, despite the personal risk.
Meanwhile, the Comstock Laws threaten anybody who owns or circulates “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” publications. Even classic literature or fine art could send a person to jail. In the face of such oppression, Celia and the booksellers of Book Row band together. But secrets and a mysterious stranger mean the fate of the famed Book Row is anything but secure.
Review
I love the idea of this book and it certainly is timely for 2026. Unfortunately, I’m a third of the way into it and have found it tiresome and dull. There is far too much explanation of the day to day, hour to hour details of opening and closing the bookstore. Nothing is thought or done without the information being repeated in most every chapter. The pacing is slow and things are brought up again and again to be sure that readers “notice” them. Sorry but this one just isn’t for me. DNF
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99 Ways to Die : And How to Avoid Them by Ashely Alker, MD
An illuminating, hilarious, and practical guide to 99 of the most terrifying ways to die and how to avoid them from an emergency medicine doctor.
Dr. Ashely Alker is a self-described death escapologist—or, in more familiar terms, an emergency medicine doctor. She has seen it all, from flesh-eating bacteria to the work of a serial killer to the more mundane but no less deadly, and her work outwitting the end has uniquely prepared her to write this book.
Dr. Alker manages to shock readers while making them laugh, educating them on how to outsmart a wide range of deadly situations and conditions. Many of the chapters include stories from her experiences in life and medicine, at times heartwarming, others heartbreaking. Sections include explorations of sex, poison, drugs, biological warfare, disease, animals, crime, the elements, and much more.
An Anthony Bourdain-style greatest hits tour of death, 99 Ways to Die is entertaining while it informs. Full of valuable advice and wild stories, this riveting read might just save your life.
Review
I was attracted to the “hilarious” in the blurb but after slogging through 1/3 of this book, I have to say that “darkly funny” is more accurate. I also agree with other reviewers who have said that this is not for the armchair reader as it’s technically heavy and more suited to people with some background in medicine. I have that and found myself a little bored as Alker repeats stuff before going off onto rants about healthcare around the world and figuratively shaking her finger at greedy drug makers and governments. I can’t disagree with her about how poor people get shafted but this is not what I signed up for. It’s also probably a bit too much for any reader who is squeamish. Sadly DNF’ing this one.
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The Tree of Life by Max Telford
Taking readers inside one of science’s most ambitious projects, a leading evolutionary biologist offers a definitive portrait of life’s family tree.
Are humans really fish? Why are we the only animals with chins? How much of our DNA do we share with the trillions of bacteria in our bodies? For centuries, scientists have chased the secrets of how life on our planet arose, how it assumed its dazzling diversity of forms, and how we humans are related to everything else on earth. With increasingly sophisticated genetic methods now bringing us ever closer to answers, leading evolutionary biologist Max Telford takes us inside one of science’s greatest quests. In the intellectually thrilling The Tree of Life, Telford shows how reconstructing the web of relationships between all our planet’s species, from birds and butterflies to mushrooms and moose, allows us to unravel the epic history of life on our planet.
In Telford’s hands, the many-branched evolutionary trees that biologists assemble—from Charles Darwin’s first sketches to the vast computer-generated diagrams scientists are building today—become time machines that take us on a vivid journey through four billion years of life’s history. We meet long-lost ancestors, picturing them in the environment of a much younger earth, and discover where we first acquired our backbones and nipples and, conversely, where we lost our tails. We learn how insects are “actually” crustaceans, and how dogs and wolves are more closely related to whales than to the recently extinct Tasmanian wolves they so resemble. Far from a dry representation of the dead, the tree of life is a living, shifting thing that constantly alters our perspective on the past, present, and future of life on earth.
For any reader fascinated by evolution and natural history, The Tree of Life is an essential portal to the distant past and a window onto our collective origins.
Review
From all descriptions and the blurb, this should have been my jam. I ought to have loved it. Instead I find myself, after five chapters of reading, floundering and losing interest. It’s not that the writing is bad – in fact it’s often humorous as well as explanatory. The author clearly knows his stuff and yet, I feel as if I’m banging my forehead against a wall trying to keep myself on track with reading it. I think it might be what another reviewer mentioned. The chapters are episodic and, IMO, seem to hop, skip, and jump around. Sadly I will be putting this down for now, maybe to return at a later date and try it again. Currently DNF
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Every so often I select a run of disappointing books. At least I’ve stopped being a “finish what you started” reader.
@LML: I gave up on forcing myself to finish books a long time ago. Life is just too short. ☺
These all should have been my jam. Thanks for waving us off. As you said, life is too short.
@Darlynne: Just think of me as an LSO.
Well, drats on all the DNFs, @Jayne! I do hear you on all of these sounding appealing. I send good wishes for a run of enjoyable reads.
Always disappointing when books (or movies, or TV shows, or whatever) sound so good when summarized but then turn into DNFs when you try to read or watch them. Perhaps April will bring better luck – and if not, at least the weather is better for taking walks outside to clear your brain.
Oh no! you had a bit of a bad run with these