I cannot believe June is here already!!
Lots of LGbRQAI+ books for Pride on my list for the month.
#bookspin #bookspinbingo @thearomaofbooks
I cannot believe June is here already!!
Lots of LGbRQAI+ books for Pride on my list for the month.
#bookspin #bookspinbingo @thearomaofbooks
#weeklyforecast
Listening to the tagged on audio.
I have a couple of days off this week so hoping to get all of these done before end of month!
For my PDX friends and visitors next week! Powell's is having it's first ever warehouse sale!
I will be there! I am honestly 50/50 on getting books and just wanting to see their warehouse.
This was not a book for me. I in general do not love books on motherhood (not being a mom myself). But I know some women who have had similar painful first years with their children and useless husbands. As always I want to know where her community is? She has no friends or family to help? This is such a terrible reality for so many women, it was painful to read here.
#womensprizeforfiction #shoetlist
👇
"When I was twenty -one it was already too late, I'd already lived too much "
This is incredible. If more history was taught this way I think so many more people would be history buffs. Well researched and fully engaging.
I really enjoyed this.
“ It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.“
I am re-reading this so that I feel more prepared to read Julia next week. I had completely forgotten how immersive and enthralling this book is. It is wasted on high school students who cannot appriciate it!
#FirstLineFriday @shybookowl
"If Ida B Wells had one gift, it was that she was born with what scientists now identify as the genetic marker IDGAF. Wells' uncompromising stance combined with her inability to compromise on even the slightest bit of racism and discrimination is what made her one of the fiercest truth tellers in the history of America."
Setting up my exercise bike to ride towards my TBR corner.
Motivation or Foreboding?
4.5⭐ Gorgeous, unique, wonderful.
I was not expecting this. It took me about 3 (short) chapters to get hooked. I do not know anything about playing music, or the violin, but the minute I met a family of aliens making donuts inside a book about a woman gathering souls for hell by offering them violin fame I was blown away. I have never read a book like this and I was entranced by all of the characters, there is just enough levity to balance 💔
#WeeklyForecast
I am about 40 pgs away from completing Light/uncommon stars SO good!
I am listening to the tagged on audio, I wish my history classes were taught like this in school!
#BookGoal is to finish my last 2 #WomensPrizeForFiction short list reads they both look incredible but very heavy, if I can get through them next week will be much lighter reads.
I reread a handful of stuff each year! I probably would if I read less but I always think after 100 new books I should be able to reread some favorites. I also have a terrible memory so often it feels like I am reading it for the first time 😹
Some I have reread the most -
Persuasion -Austen
Shadow of the Wind - Zafon
This year I plan to reread some Saramago books I am most looking forward to a third read of Death With Interruptions.
Apparently this is a debate I never thought about!!
Where do you put your bookmark?
It appears that some people place the bookmark on the last page they read, others (me!) put the mark on the next page to read.
For example here I would place the bookmark on the page where the next chapter begins so I do not reread where I am finished, and do not need to open then turn the page to begin reading again.
Where does it go? 🛑📑📚
"Tomorrow is tomorrow. Over there is over there. And here and now is not a bad place and time to be, especially when so much of the unknown is beautiful."
"There was shit on the heel of Emily's shoe."
Starting with a bang today.
#firstlinefriday
@ShyBookOwl
Good but not great. I can both see why this made the women's prize long list and why it didn't make the short list. Similar to Wifedom I thought there was too much of the author in this book. The time she is choosing to talk about is fascinating and it didn't need personal story embellishments. I feel like authors do this when they cannot find enough source material. The book itself is gorgeous, and I did learn a lot so it is still a pick!
Great title for a second chance romance. Rosemary and Logan hate each other or do they? Add in a dying mentor and a road trip and this book has a lot going on.
I enjoyed this, but not nearly as much as I adored The Charm Offensive by Cochrun. I think Logan was too mean for me, and I didn't like it when her and Joe teamed up against Rosemary. I found the ending to be more emotional than I expected.
3.5⭐
"I cannot get enough Dutch art. You can turn to this other world - and it is a picture world as no other, a whole society visualized through time and place, seasons and generations, moment by moment - and live inside it in your thoughts."
The painting that starts the book.
"We see pictures in time and place. We cannot see them otherwise. They are fragments of our lives, moments of existence that may be as unremarkable as rain or as startling as a clap of thunder."
#weeklyforecast
I have the tagged on audio for this week,
I am already a few pages into each of these. I wasn't too interested in Uncommon Stars beginning then 20 pages in we meet donut shop aliens and now I am all in 😍
Thunderclap is a Women's Prize long list for non-fiction I am struggling with it, but the book is very pretty great quality pages and photos of the paintings she talks about - recommend the physical book if it is on your list.
Finished while waiting for my niece to get out of gymnastics class! I really want to love Stephen Graham Jones but I think I am not enough of a cult horror fan. The book is good but I was forcing myself through the second half. I was very confused at the first part - if it was a dream, a fantasy, or real.
I did like the main characters, and the setting was perfect for the story. The writing is solid but the story was just not for me.
3⭐
#bookspin#bookedintime #YearOfSaramago
Continuing my Saramago reads with this biblical tale. A satire that follows Cain after his fall from grace. I think it is helpful to know the old testament to understand the story here and see the critique he is making, but if you are just looking for a romp through that time this is also a good one for that. Cain is an interesting character to follow and the book is darkly humourous and thought provoking
I think this might be a timing issue for me. I love the cover and the idea. There are too many characters and I cannot find it in me to care about them or the story. This lovely edition is signed, I am going to keep it and maybe try again later.
This is one for the people who enjoyed Eleanor Catton's Birnam Woods. It has the same vibe, and the writing is similar.
#weeklyforecast
I am about half into Cain and I Was A Teenage Slasher, both quick reads. At 1/3 on The Future which is also a lot about religion which I wasn't prepared for, that is going a bit slower. Hoping to wrap a couple up and start on Light From Uncommon Stars in a couple of days.
I have found myself to be a Keegan outlier. This is my second of her books, this on a small short story collection, and I am always left a bit meh about them. I want so much more than she is willing to give us. I guess I am just not suited for a well written slice of life story? I need more to grab into to keep me invested. I have one more that I bought that I will try later hopefully that one will hit the mark for me.
An incredible book. So glad it was on the Women's Prize long list for non-fiction. It wasn't on my radar before it was listed. I learned not only a lot about Duterte and his murder squads, but also about the Philippines as a country.
Evangelista is a bad ass. Most reporters in the Philippines are women, covering horrific stories and keeping the public aware. I am in awe of her.
The book itself is not only well written but also well laid out.
“In the aftermath of the Edsa Revolution, Thai protesters filled the streets of Bangkok. Another man stood before another tank at Tiananmen Square. The Berlin Wall fell, with Germany thanking the Philippines for showing them the way. Once upon a time, we were heroes.”
I had never heard of Edsa before this book. I am very impressed with the Women's Prize Non-fiction list this year, I am learnig so much.
“Dead is a good word for a journalist in the age of Duterte. Dead doesn‘t negotiate, requires little verification. Dead is a sure thing, has bones, skin, and flesh, can be touched and seen and photographed and blurred for broadcast. Dead, whether it‘s 44 or 58 or 27,000 or 1, is dead.”
“Slaughter dressed up in bureaucratese dulls the senses, and over time can anesthetize an entire population to the horror happening right where they live. Objective reality is winnowed away by each succeeding government report. The dead perish again, into nonexistence.”
This book has been extremely enlightening, especially around langauge and the Phillipeans. They were colonized by the Spanish and the US which has created a unique use of words
Alex Hall's books are my book candy. They are always things that should not work for me - 1 character is always an a-hole that I wouldn't tolerate in other books. The plot holes are gapping, literally having me say "But why?"
But. I absolutely devour these books!! I love how Hall writes. I find everyone charming and I stay up way too late reading. This one reminds me of 10 Things but is different enough to be enjoyable
Let's Go!!
May #BookspinBingo
I can feel a book slump coming on so I hope I can turn the tide with some books I am excited about after a fairly disappointing Women's Prize Longlist.
#Bookspin #DoubleSpin
Classics! I wanted to re-read 1984 before I tackle Julia, so getting it for Bookspin is great! #BookedInTime for May is Biblical Fiction, which is also great because I have fallen off my author of the year books reading Jose Saramago's Cain this month - and probably a couple of others by him as they are past BookSpins I didn't get to.
Excited to knock these books out!
I took the afternoon off for a haircut, getting some cafe reading time in with Stephen Graham Jones newest!
Some really great books this month.
I think the In Memoriam is pretty much perfection, I checked it out from the library originally, but have ordered a copy from Blackwells (I like the UK cover better than the US one)
Ordinary Human Failings, In Defence of the Act, and And Then She Fell were some of my top Women's Prize for Fiction books this year (along with Brotherless Night from last month)
I also really enjoyed How To Say Babylon.
For some reason the list itself didn't post when I tried to post this a couple of days ago.
Really looking forward to getting some back list off my TBR now that I am almost done with Women's Prize 2024. I still have 2 fiction and 3 Nonfiction I am wanting to read, but now that the short lists are out I am sailing to those.
#bookspin #bookspinbingo
2 #bookspinbingo
Read #bookspin
but didn't get to my #doublespin
I was trying to get through the #WomensPrizeLongList before the short list came put didn't quite make it, have 2 books from there to read next month.
Overall an okay month. 13 books read.
#weeklyforecast
We are going red and orange this week.
Listening to the tagged on audio.
May #bookspin is here already!
I cannot believe we are a third of the way through 2024!
Women's Prize For Nonfiction long listed 2024
3.5⭐ This is good. I do not recommend it on audio - too much jumping timelines, too many Marys and (K) Catherines. It is much easier to understand in physical form.
While I thought it was interesting and well written it was a bit hard to keep track of everything, I fully understand that Nancy Goldstone has ruined me for these sorts of books all Empress books I compare to hers. Good not great.
5⭐ for the devastation.
I knew about 10 pages in that this book was going to wreck me. A beautiful but brutal book about war and love. Winn's writing and storytelling is so gorgeous there were multiple times I read a sentence that stopped me in my tracks due to how heartbreakingly it was.
This will be a top book of the year I loved everything about it.
Low pick. 3.5⭐. I was a bit disappointed in this. I love Groffs writing but my brain while reading this kept comparing it to a very lyrical survivor type show. I think it wasn't given justice b/c I was also reading In Memoria at the same time. Overall this was fine. I am glad it was short I don't know if I could handle much more of the girls struggles. It is a gorgeous and harrowing book just maybe not for me.
Good timing for this quote as the Internet also debates what is scarier a man or a bear?
"She would leave this place as soon as she could; she would put as much land as it was possible between herself and the men or the bear; she did not know which to fear more, man or bear or perhaps her own small starved feverish self."
*mug does not represent my feelings for this book.
I really enjoyed this. I didn't find any of the revolutions surprising but did have a warm cuddly feeling throughout. Thought there was a good balance what could have been a too sweet story has a couple scenes of spice and excitement. The actions of the characters throughout made a lot of sense and I enjoyed spending time with all the characters.
Gaunt hears Ellwood quoting poetry to a boy in his room. The boy does not even know what the words are from.
"He [Gaunt] knew the lines Ellwood had quoted. They were from Shakespeare's Sonnet 20. Ellwood had written them in pencil on the wall above Gaunt's bed, and Gaunt had hoped they meant something."
40 pages in and I can tell this book is going to destroy me.
One of my top picks for the Women's Prize For Fiction 2024. I really enjoyed this. It gripped me right from the jump, and I sped through it, engrossed with Alice and her journey.
I don't normally gravitate to books about motherhood, but this is woven with cultural, and mental health topics and heavy on the magical realism. Alice is a sympathetic character (I didn't like the husband from the jump, it gave Yellow Wallpaper vibes)
@bookmarktavern #SundayFunday
I used to work for Barnes and Noble, I also am lucky to live by the largest indie bookstore in the country, so have been to many, many signings. So I have “=met probably a hundred authors or more. Some of the nicest - Rene Denfeild, Patrick Rothfuss, Neil Gaiman, Aiden Thomas, Jodi Picoult, Brandon Taylorm Curtis Sittenfield (terrible would be a shorter list)
RIP to my favorite Carlos Ruiz Zafon he was an angel
The Short List announcement is in 3 days!
(April 25 - 6 books will be chosen)
What are your Top Picks for it?
I still need to read 4 books (will not get Soldier Sailor from the library until the SL is announced) but I have a rough list of what I think I would like to see on it.
This was great. One of the better Women Prize books this year. The story of a troubled family slowly unravels. Each person is interesting and tortured in their own way. At the heart of the story is a horrible something, and a terrible reporter. The writing is solid and the book is heavy but intriguing.
One week until the announcement of the short list!!
Making my way through, I am starting A Trace of Sun and And Then She Fell next.
I have decided that I am not going to read The Blue, Beautiful World since it is in a series and I have not read the others.
I am shying away from Nightbloom also - I am really really tired of rape being a plot device. So unless it is on the short list I am skipping it. That leaves 4 for me to get through...