The only downside of this was the number of times I had to explain it‘s not about a nerdy guy falling in love. But seriously: a really great, albeit absurd, read!
The only downside of this was the number of times I had to explain it‘s not about a nerdy guy falling in love. But seriously: a really great, albeit absurd, read!
This book was fascinating. Written in a dual timeline, we follow the lives of several people from a traveling circus in the 17-1800‘s up through today. The main group being a maternal line of mermaids, or divers that can hold their breath for 10 minutes…but who all end up dying by drowning on July 24th.
Monthly Reading Tracker
FEBRUARY
(8 books)
The Book of Speculation 4.25 ⭐️
Transient & Strange 4.25 ⭐️
The Celebrants 4.0 ⭐️
This Is How You Lose the Time War 4.0 ⭐️
Astrid Parker Doesn‘t Fail 3.75 ⭐️
Enchanted to Meet You 3.5 ⭐️
Everybody Come Alive 3.5 ⭐️
Mislaid in Parts Half-Known 3.0 ⭐️
I‘ve had a great reading month! The Book of Speculation takes the February slot. It couldn‘t not. It felt tailor-made for me. The collection of memoir/science essays by Nell Greenfieldboyce, Transient & Strange, was pretty fab, too, though! If I had to guess right now, I‘d say T&S may end up snagging one of the bonus spots for the first half of the year.
Turtle Diary could sweep the whole board. It‘s pretty singular. 🐢
#ReadingBracket2024
It's #CarnivalDay. The day when we can be something else🤡👹
We were Minnie Mouse and Gabby, we went from house to house from doors to doors (our phrase for trick or treat)...and it was fun day.
#carnival #motheranddaughter
You know how you can sometimes just sense that someone is your kind of person?
I read this in Swyler‘s bio AFTER declaring my love for her. When you know, you know. 🐇
Swyler describes her own book as being “difficult to explain: a dual narrative in two time periods, an abundance of plot threads, circus, tarot, drowning, horseshoe crabs, a house falling off a cliff, all as told by a reclusive librarian.”
I know this book isn‘t for everyone but it was absolutely for me. I love Erika Swyler‘s writing, her sensibilities. I can‘t say how much I enjoyed this heartbreaking and salt-stained novel.
#UnpopularOpinion
“There‘s a solid sureness to fingernails, the shell over the tenderest parts of us.”
“And then I am in the black relief of night swimming. Below is life, tails twitching against shells, above is water, then sky — in the in-between there is only me. I swim farther into the dark.”
Pairing this quote with a Michael Stipe valentine (singer of R.E.M.‘s “Night Swimming”) because I found it today and it‘s too good not to share.