I‘m going to use an ARC for May‘s #ThematicCozies theme of Flowers and Plants!

This is a cute series and I can‘t wait to dive into the next one!

Whitney‘s construction company takes on the job of remodeling an old boarding school into a retirement community. But the old headmaster‘s house had a murder suicide long ago that she finds impossible to ignore.

A very twisty mystery, but overly tell & descriptive of actions that I was getting a bit bored. & I still don‘t get the point of the cat‘s POV chapters. But I really liked the characters, & I loved the architecture details. 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑

Oh I‘m so excited for this round of #Roll100 !

The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan, The King‘s English by Betsy Burton, and Rising Strong by Brené Brown.

A powerful collection of poetry following Vuong‘s journey of grief after the loss of his mother.

Incisive and sometimes brutal, this is a wonderful collection. But for me, Dear Rose was the strongest poem, by far, and actually brought me to tears & ended up with me texting my mother to let her know I love her. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

After her brother‘s death, Frances decides to join the Army & serve as a nurse in the Vietnam war. She discovers a camaraderie w/ the other nurses that she needs when they return from war.

I get the hype, but it didn‘t land completely for me. Frankie‘s struggles are real, & the stories of service members returning from war to a lack of support or outright hatred need to be told. But I think this would have been stronger as a multi POV. 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

My lilacs are blooming, my hydrangeas are up. And the roses are budding! I am so ready for spring.

This word also has a chemistry related definition, used to describe the process of a substance loosing moisture and turning into a fine powder, but I like the first one better.

#WeirdWordWednesday #WeirdWords

I just did my best impression of a tea kettle just now. I was so sure I wasn‘t going to get this, but I did! #NetGalley #ARC

This was so wonderful to see after the day I‘ve had.

Megan‘s got a job as an extra in a movie about rock climbing. Things get complicated when the star of the movie is found dead at the base of the rock wall. At first, it seems like an accident. & then the second body is found.

Fun. It got a little overly technical w/ rock climbing details, & there were way too many characters to keep track of. But it did keep me guessing, & I liked all of the characters & the friendships involved. 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑

Four dissimilar women come together for a holiday in a small castle in Italy. And find they have a lot more in common than they thought.

Very, very slow story, & very character focused. Not a lot happens, but the way the setting was described was so gorgeous I just had to keep reading. Very much of its time, but I appreciated how changing their surroundings helped each woman reevaluate their lives. 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑

#WeeklyForecast

I‘m so excited to get to start the next Discworld book this week!

#BookReport

I had forgotten how much I enjoy the Incryptid series. I can‘t wait to dive in again.

After the death of her parents, Fern continues her father‘s work of studying & raising magical plants. Her next job is complicated by the fact that the mysterious vine is carnivorous & magically connected to a rare dragon.

Lovely! I adored almost all the characters, the magic was interesting, & I loved the discussion of the power of stories & what makes a life have worth. A bit predictable & the world building could have been deeper. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

A buddy read I‘m doing with a friend of mine!

I don‘t care too much for most of the characters, but the perfectly lyrical way Von Armin is describing the blooming of the flowers, the scent of the ocean on the wind, makes me want to book a flight to Italy immediately. 💖

#SundayFunday If you celebrate Easter, I hope it‘s a happy one! And everybody else have a wonderful day and don‘t forget to tag me!

Verity‘s dancing persona is invited back for a season of Dance or Die. Unfortunately, the show becomes quite literal when eliminated contestants start disappearing.

I love my popcorn urban fantasy series. It‘s so campy, but so delightful. Verity is such fun, the introduction of Grandma Alice made me cackle, & the Mice continue to be a goddamn delight. I was disappointed in the end, but I loved the world expansion & the side characters!🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

An in-depth historical and folk lore exploration of twenty murder ballads.

This was so fascinating! I knew some of these songs, but not all of them. And a lot more of these were traced back to historical, documented incidents than I was expecting! I loved the illustrations! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Dinner and movie night! #DinnerByTheBook

And I got a lot of reading done while the sauce was simmering for three hours! 😂

Orchid has settled in a new town as her mother recovers from cancer. She‘s got a job tending the orchids & a new husband. But there‘s something lurking in the rivers, looking for revenge.

This novella felt like prose poetry, & I loved it. The real life horror of abusive, power hungry men paired w/ mythological creatures waiting was so well done. I would have loved for this to be expanded a bit more as the resolution felt a bit abrupt.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Be the hope you want to see in the world. ❤️

#WeirdWordWednesday #WeirdWords @CBee

I‘m at 60%, one of the characters is trying to pry into the big mysterious scandal at the center of the book, and I‘ve realized that I just don‘t care about whatever it is or whoever is involved. 😅 I‘m just bored.

Which is a pity because Hollinghurst is excellent at grounding his stories in a time and place. I think I‘ll have to try a different book by him at another time.

#WeeklyForecast

I am so excited for all three of my next reads! ❤️

#BookReport

I think Afia is going to be my favorite read of April. 💙

Afia wants a life outside of her isolated home. & one day she follows an enigmatic carver into the woods, only to find a kingdom w/ a ruthless queen, where nothing is as it seems.

Delightful! A wonderful, West African influenced twist on Alice in Wonderland. A story of self discovery, where curiosity can take you, what you leave behind, & what you can move towards. Afia was a wonderful protagonist, & the illustrations were all gorgeous!🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Movie tie in covers. I dislike them so much! And intellectually, I understand that they might be useful in enticing someone who has only seen the movie to pick up the book.

But if I wanted something for the movie, I would buy the movie. Let the books be separate, please! 😂

#SundayFunday Hope you all have a safe and happy day, and don‘t forget to tag me in your posts!

The princess is cursed to die by a spindle, she is stolen away & raised as ordinary. But her fairy gifts cause problems, & there is still the curse to worry about.

The scene setting is unparalleled, as I expected from McKinley, but lord the plot is glacial. I think I would have enjoyed this better as an audiobook as the writing is lush & lyrical. & I wasn‘t invested in the romance. I kept thinking Rosie & Peony should get together.🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

Poppy seed and lemon is one of my favorite flavor pairings, so I had to try these muffins!

And the leftovers will make for great breakfasts when I‘m in a hurry out the door!

#DinnerByTheBook

Visiting family always results in new books for me! 💖

After being informed of the mysterious deaths of her parents in Egypt, Inez finds she has inherited a fortune & a mystery. She travels to Egypt to find out what happened to her parents.

So disappointing. I was excited by “The Mummy meets Death on the Nile” & instead got weird pacing issues, inconsistent characters, & a romance I was actively rooting against by the end. Would have been a so-so, but the epilogue pissed me off too much. 🌕🌗🌑🌑🌑

Vanja has finished serving Brunne, & is now fighting against injustice where she can. But then someone starts murdering royalty & leaving her calling card. & she has to clear her name.

A worthy end to this trilogy! Amazing character growth, so much folklore woven in, & non stop action! My heartstrings were pulled so much, but I did have to take breaks as I was too stressed 😅. Probably should have reread the first 2, lots of references.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

#WeeklyForecast

My hold on my book for #QueerBC came in over the weekend, and I‘m so excited to start it!

#BookReport

I really loved the finale to the Kingston Cycle! Soulstar was so good!

My hyacinths are blooming! Which means spring is here!
#BookSpinBingo #BingoBoard

#BookSpin Chaos Choreography, #DoubleSpin Spindle‘s End

#Roll100 The Joy Luck Club, Aftertaste, Spindle‘s End

#OokBOokClub Guards! Guards!

#BobWhiteBuddies Mystery of the Blinking Eye

#BeyondTheYellowBrickRoad The Road to Oz

#QueerBC The Sparsholt Affair

#ThematicCozies Sent to Death

#AuldLangSpine Wonderland

This past week has been pretty busy, with spring cleaning for family visiting. But I finally got my #MonthlyRoundup put together!

Give me your favorite heists!

The tagged book is probably one of my favorites. It gave me big Leverage vibes but YA fantasy, making me think everything‘s gone wrong.

Also, bonus points for a truly amazing full cast audiobook!

#SundayFunday I hope you all are having a wonderful day, and don‘t forget to tag me in your posts!

A wonderful event with both Margaret Owen and Tricia Levenseller (both delightful people) at the Under the Umbrella bookstore in #SaltLakeCity ! #SLC #AuthorEvent

And shout out to Margaret for being the first person, when I introduced myself, to say “Oh, like the fairy from Ferngully?” 🥹🥹

The Bob-Whites next adventure includes spelunking, ghost fish, & a mysterious voice on the wind.

This was the 1 I remembered the best from my childhood. The description of the eyeless fish really freaked me out as a kid. There were some interesting side mysteries, & I loved the side characters in Andrew‘s lodge. Although I laughed out loud when Trixie said “when has my 1st impression been wrong?” & a last minute kind of pointless twist.🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

Miners are dying in the mountain. & as Bennie tried to investigate, a mysterious woman is pulled from the heart of the mountain. A witch, who knows that the mountain is waking up, & it is angry.

Wow wow wow. Industry vs nature, & the rural communities caught between the 2. Fascinating characters, queer representation, wonderfully creepy magic, & a fantastic grasp of the scene of Appalachia. An author to watch for damn sure.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

The Kingston Cycle comes to a close as Robin tries to work to create a fair representative government, while helping the wrongly incarcerated witches rejoin society.

God this was good, but this was such an emotionally taxing time to listen to it. I loved all the characters & the gaslamp fantasy. But I was so stressed.😅Listening to people try so hard to bring about democracy, dealing w/ corruption, police brutality. Worth it, but rough.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Happy April everybody! I‘m so ready for spring! 🌼🌸🌼🌸 #BookSpinBingo

#WeeklyForecast

I am so excited to start Holy Terrors! I‘ve loved this whole series so much!

#BookReport

I am loving Motheater so much!

Dorothy‘s visit to San Francisco is interrupted by an earthquake, where she falls into the earth. There, with her cousin Zeb, she meets up w/ the Wizard again through many adventures.

The way Baum writes animals suddenly realizing they can talk is always so funny to me. This 1 is very disjointed, w/ almost every chapter being a separate, contained adventure. I did love the fantastical elements of the lands under the Earth. 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

I love the Legendarium in Salt Lake City, Utah! A small, sci fi and fantasy focused bookstore, that creates such a cozy, welcoming, and inclusive atmosphere.

I‘ve taken all my family to it, recommended it to all my friends, and is one of my favorite places to just browse.

Plus, their teas are delicious! 💖

#SundayFunday Have a fantastic day, and remember to tag me in your posts!

My pick for #ThematicCozies this month! Hope I can get this in time! @julieclair

I‘m very excited for this line up!

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, Aftertaste by Meredith Mileti, Spindle‘s End by Robin McKinley

#Roll100 @PuddleJumper

When one‘s mostly reformed con artist needs a new challenge, it is remarkable timing that the invention of the steam engine & pushback from a violent minority all happen at the same time.

I think this one, more than any other so far, has made me mourn the stories we could have gotten. Pratchett‘s depiction of a small, angry, vocal group driven by fear to upend all they don‘t understand, it hits harder this time around. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

This was a fun one, thanks for the tag @dabbe ! I‘ve seen more than I thought I had, but there were definitely some classics I need to get to.

But my favorites!
1. Hello Dolly
2. Star Wars
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark

#TLT #ThreeListThursday

A choose your own adventure book for learning about gender identity, sexuality, & the differences between biological sex & gender identity.

Fairly basic, sometimes reductive & repetitive, & occasionally plays up stereotypes. But is also a fun starting point for anybody‘s journey into learning more about gender identity, while also briefly touching on the intersections of race, class, & disability & the difficulties facing those groups.🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

Darby returns to his small home town after losing his job. When he stumbles into the local bookstore & finds his younger self, he‘s forced to confront old choices & who he‘s become now.

I liked this liminal bookstore where Darby interacts w/ himself before he‘s come to terms w/ his identity, & “what would you tell your younger self”, but almost nothing else happens in this book.😅 Good characters, interesting relationships, but so slow.🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

Thanks for the tag @TheSpineView !

1. Walks, listen to music, text my sisters.

2. Poetry. Especially poetry about nature and finding the small joys.

#Two4Tuesday

#WeeklyForecast

Got the rest of my reads for the #TransRightsReadathon lined up for this week!