Opposite Ends Of The Crime Genre

The #MeToo movement, created by Tarana Burke in 2006, exploded on social media in 2017 following sexual abuse allegations about Harvey Weinstein. It’s been years and we are still living in a rape culture. What the movement did was publicly speak on how prevalent sexual assault is, the failings of our system to stop or punish perpetrators, and it helped victims feel less alone. This memoir moves us out of the US’s rape culture and takes us instead to Japan. Shiori Itō shares with us how she got into journalism, her studies, her pursuit of a job and how that led to her sexual assault by a fellow journalist promising to help her get a job. She takes readers into what she remembers of the assault, going to the police (being assigned a traffic cop and having to then explain it again to a detective), and all the ways the system fails victims of assault. Her goal with writing this memoir and sharing her story is to discuss trauma more openly, fix the legal system (she points out many places where a different option, type of help, and/or process could have helped her), and to end rape culture. As an American reader I couldn’t help but see the differences and similarities in our rape cultures, legal systems, and victim advocacy groups. It’s not an easy read, I spent most of it infuriated, but it’s an incredibly important read.

(TW rape/ talks of suicide, thoughts in diary, detail/ sexual harassment/ child public groping/ PTSD/ panic attacks)

This cozy mystery became a great audiobook pairing with jigsaw puzzle-making when my brain was just oozing out of my ears at the end of the work day. Hayden McCall is a teacher and blogger who goes home with a go-go dancer who accidentally kicked him in the face. After a night of just cuddling (it’s a cozy) McCall discovers that Camilo Rodriguez is no longer there, which is strange considering it’s Rodriguez’s home. Then the police knock on the door looking for Rodriguez and soon McCall is in a full blown mystery of finding where his one-night cuddle buddy has gone off to. He finds Rodriguez’s social circle and ends up joining with his friend Hollister to follow clues to figure out what was going on in Rodriguez’s life to make him leave his car abandoned and disappear. All the while McCall keeps coming up with ideas and writing blog entries—think Carrie Bradshaw but a short, redheaded gay man trying to solve a missing person’s case.

(TW mom passed away from cancer in past)