Another adventure through strange and random lands. Another thing that is pretty dark if you think too hard about it, which Baum clearly didn‘t intend the reader to do. The characters were fun, and while I‘m getting pretty sick of the way Baum correlates beauty with goodness/friendship, at least he subverts that a little in this book.

This starts out slow—the witchcraft takes a while to show up—but builds to astonishing intensity. The real-life horrors of the Home for Unwed Mothers combine very well with the magical horrors. There are some extremely intense depictions of childbirth that I could feel viscerally! I truly felt like all the characters were real people. The epilogue fell a little flat for me, unfortunately.

I won this book in an Instagram giveaway. I‘m so excited to read it! Look at that cover, those sprayed edges, the stickers the author included! 😍🫀

I don‘t think I‘ve ever seen a fictional depiction of pregnancy rhinitis before. It‘s not a well-known side effect, and it was one of the worst parts of pregnancy for me—my nose just running constantly. So it‘s really cool to see this main character also having to deal with it!

I really enjoyed the world of this book, the dead and missing gods and the way the magic worked—primarily, controlling (or at least trying to control) the essence of death. I felt at a remove from the POV character much of the time, since it was clear she was hiding information about her own past, even from the reader, but that didn‘t annoy me too much since she was also trying to keep it from herself. I loved the twisty plot.

Today‘s #libraryhaul—I returned one and picked up two so I‘m behind again 😂 I think I heard about Rosewater on a podcast and I don‘t remember what it was about but it sounded incredible. But Not Too Bold references a nice creepy fairy tale and the back said “dark fiction” and “Latin” and “sapphic” so there was no way I was leaving without it.

Love a #littlefreelibrary haul!

What a delightful book! Oddly paced, for sure, but worth the time it takes to get there. I‘m glad I finally read it.

I‘m reading this as an ebook, but I just had to share the gorgeous copy that my library has. The page edges are shiny gold! 🤩

“I don‘t think one has much option about keeping a cat,” Laura said. “If it wants to stay with me, it shall.”

It seems the Cat Distribution System was in full effect a hundred or so years ago! (Featuring: Magrat!)

And here‘s my #bookspin list for April! @TheAromaofBooks

There‘s nothing wrong with this book. I just don‘t have any enthusiasm for it. And why bother spending time on books I‘m not enthusiastic about?

This is a very fun read. I loved how Rae embraced her villainous character. It irritated me how she kept believing (or trying to convince herself) that things would happen the way she half-remembered them going in the book, even though her very presence in the plot massively changed things. The ending was a great twist! I think book 2 comes out soon and I‘ll definitely be reading it, but I‘m not running out to buy it.

Lots of fun craft ideas in this book, mostly using old sweaters or other clothes you can buy at a thrift store. I liked the cute illustrations but at times they made it unclear what to do. I‘m sure I could work out what to do if necessary though. Also unclear at times were the British words unfamiliar to this American 😂

Murder! Conspiracy! Intrigue! That was a great deal of fun, made even more so by reading it with the #hashtagbrigade. It has its issues due to the time period, but the characters are surprisingly complex—even the villains, while being over-the-top evil, have real depth. Thanks as always to @BarkingMadRead for being our hashtag queen!

Very fun and silly story! It reminded me of a couple of the Narnia books—I wonder if Lewis had read it. Dorothy, the Wizard, a boy named Zeb, a horse named Jim, and a kitten named Eureka travel through many lands under the earth, each dangerous in its own whimsical way. The Wizard is kind of a badass in this book. It irritated me that it took Dorothy so long to come up with her solution. But at least her speech didn‘t have so many apostrophes.

For my Grady Hendrix fans: one of my favorite witchy podcasts did an interview with him! I haven‘t read any of his books yet but after this interview I definitely will. When he starts off his discussion of researching witchcraft with “it‘s complicated” you know he really did the work.

https://newworldwitchery.com/2025/03/14/episode-258-witchcraft-for-wayward-girls...

Did I need two new library books? Absolutely not. Did I pick some up anyway when I went in to make returns? Indubitably! #libraryhaul

This book is exactly what it says it is: techniques, patterns, and samplers for blackwork embroidery. Unfortunately, it doesn‘t have any information about doing blackwork on clothing (as it historically was), which is what I really want to do. But I suppose I can practice on Aida and figure out the rest myself.

What an absolutely spectacular book. Alix E. Harrow is officially an auto-buy author. In fact, I was six pages into this when I decided to buy A Mirror Mended (I already have A Spindle Splintered) so I can read alllllll of her books.

What a gorgeous, wrenching book! I‘m sorry it took me so long to read it, and grateful to @BarkingMadRead and the #HashtagBrigade for moving it up my TBR. I don‘t know if it would have been even better to read when I was a teenager or if it would have been a little *too* relatable then.

Got my #bookspin list ready to go for March! Will this be a month that I read both my picks? Probably not! 😂

Quick and informative book on embroidery, including a wide variety of historical styles. There didn‘t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to the different styles described (one of the contributors‘ bios has a lot about her being a sashiko expert but there‘s no sashiko?) and I think many of them could have used more description, but I really liked being introduced to some styles I‘d never heard of. With modifications, I may try some of the projects.

I enjoyed this, though not as much as previous books. Dorothy is really obnoxious in the beginning and it annoyed me a lot how Baum wrote her pronunciation, especially since it‘s a change from the first book. But it‘s funny (albeit quite dark at times, in a way the narrative doesn‘t seem to acknowledge) and the characters—Billina the talking hen, Langwidere the lazy princess with her heads, Tik-Tok—are delightful. #BeyondtheYellowBrickRoad

I considered bailing on this during the first few chapters, but decided to stick it out until the title happened. I‘m so glad I did! The dull, frustrating first several chapters are important to set up why no one wants to listen to or help Iris. I figured out the mystery fairly early on but reading along to see how the characters would figure it out and the mental tortures Iris goes through along the way was very enjoyable. Movie is on Hoopla!

I forgot to review this when I finished it! I loved it so much. It was like a cross between The Secret History and Pamela Dean‘s Tam Lin in many ways—so it felt derivative, but in a great way. In the second half, though, it pulls away from those comparisons and becomes much more its own thing. Heartbreaking and gorgeous. I just wish I were more familiar with Julius Caesar (the play).

Fun story. The characters felt pretty flat and, well, cartoonish—especially the villain. I thought everything came too easily to the main character. The idea of body paints that confer superpowers is very cool.

The art is incredibly fluid and vibrant. I felt like I was watching a really well-animated movie (Lilo and Stitch came to mind) instead of reading a book at times!

@Ellie_H #AuldLangSpine @monalyisha

I kept expecting some exciting twist and it never showed up. Which I guess is the point? I hope it isn‘t that I dislike cozy fantasy. I adore Becky Chambers. I‘m sure a big part of it is that Baldree likes to use my biggest bookish pet peeve.

I did adore Satchel.

Nobody here guessed it but my bestie (who got me into Shirley Jackson) did! 🥰 One of my favorite books.

What do you think it could be? I‘ll open it up in a few hours and find out! If someone guesses right they win a trophy. An emoji trophy 😂

This book is aimed at organizers, but I highly recommend it even if you (like me) don‘t intend to do any organizing. It‘s full of information, both actionable and philosophical. This is a book we need in this time of terrifying fascists destroying our government.

This book is gorgeous and informative, but it‘s too dang heavy and the font is really small and cramped. For a book that has so much emphasis on design, they really didn‘t design that aspect well.

#bookspin list for February! @TheAromaofBooks

You may note the inclusion of “a zine” at the bottom of the list. I have a bunch of zines that I want to get around to reading. I‘m pretty sure I even know where they are on my shelves. However, I simply have not bothered to pull them off the shelves (no spines!) to get their titles, so if no. 20 is picked, I‘ll just grab a random zine.

I liked very few of the projects in this book. I would definitely not call all of them upcycled, and many of them needed more detailed instructions. Also, the author seemed really arrogant. But there are some good ideas and useful tips (like what kind of glue to use), and I think one of the things about upcycling is it‘s hard to say “here‘s a project you can do” because it‘s so dependent on what materials you have at hand. Borrow, not buy.

Sorry, #HitchtoScreen. I just couldn‘t stand to be with these people a moment longer.

This book takes two hands and that‘s not permitted at the moment.

I‘ve been sick the last couple days and Let This Radicalize You is just too much for my tired brain to take right now. This seems like it will do the trick instead.

Fun, twisty murder mystery—it just never really grabbed hold of me and I found being in Pippa‘s head a little annoying. I definitely didn‘t see the ending coming and it all clicked together! I did love that the intro has her capstone project proposal and the teacher says “whatever you do, don‘t contact the families.” I immediately hoped she would contact the families and that‘s the very first thing that happens 😂

First #AuldLangSpine @Ellie_H

What a cute book! This is my first time continuing the series past the first book. It was fun to revisit the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, and all the other characters are funny. I loved how the girls with knitting needles were able to conquer the Emerald City! I didn‘t like how beauty is equated with goodness, but the ending made me very happy nonetheless. I wonder if the rest of the wishing pills will be discovered as the series continues.

😂😂😂

#BeyondtheYellowBrickRoad

This book is part memoir, part writing instruction/inspiration. I didn‘t think the two aspects were well connected, and I wasn‘t enthusiastic about either one. The memoir was interesting, but it was told in such a non-chronological way that I was frequently confused. The writing part seemed shallow at first, but as it continued I did find some gems.

I was a HUGE fan of FLB‘s teen books when I was a teen, so maybe I expected more.

I‘m disappointed not to have liked this more than I did! A sapphic sci-fi Sherlock Holmes?! Yes, please. And all those aspects were great. The worldbuilding was so creative and fascinating. But I never felt a connection to the characters or the chemistry between them. I never felt the importance of Pleiti‘s profession and the ending fell pretty flat because of that.

#doublespin for January @TheAromaofBooks

Last week I got into a conversation with a coworker about Jane Austen because she was wearing a sweatshirt with Wentworth‘s letter to Anne on it. Today she gave me this sticker 😄

I enjoyed this a lot. It‘s violent and heavy-handed but the characters and story are fun. Some of my complaints definitely seem to be assuaged by the ending and I will be reading the next book.

Also, I can now be even more enthusiastic about my hopes to knit the Chrysalis shawl, designed by disyarning inspired by this book 😄

I have no idea why Storygraph thinks Little Women is longer than The Mysteries of Udolpho. 😂 But here‘s my 2024 wrap-up!

Squeezing in my #booskpin list for January! You‘ll see that the final three are from my #auldlangspine list from @Ellie_H !

The tagged is my top book for December 2024. But, as soon as I read Braiding Sweetgrass, I pretty much knew it was going to be my top read for the year. *Maybe* if it had gone up against the entire Rook and Rose trilogy as a whole (as you‘ll note both the first and third books of that trilogy were my favorites for their respective months)… but that‘s not the case.

I feel really good looking at this. So many wonderful books read! #BookBracket2024

What a beautiful, intense, wrenching book. Aberg-Riger puts together words and images so creatively to tell stories from America‘s past, mostly about the ways people have been oppressed. Many of the stories I knew, but didn‘t know all the details, or had never seen them from the angles she shows. There were also stories I didn‘t know. Highly recommended.

The best thing I can say about this book is we probably wouldn‘t have Northanger Abbey without it 😂😂😂