I love this author‘s unique blend of horror and social commentary. Given the current political climate this book felt even scarier to me. I spent a significant amount of the book all hopped up on blind rage at how the girls were treated. I wasn‘t nuts about the depiction of the witches - that felt as it played into the stereotypes that got women burned to me. But once again, as is so often the case in his books, the humans are the problem.

This month‘s FOTL book was a fun little read. I probably wouldn‘t have picked it up on my own so I‘m glad it was chosen for the book club. If you‘re an Austen fan and looking for a short, escapist brain candy of a read maybe give this a go.

Every time I finish a Fredrik Backman book I‘m sure it‘s my favorite. This one was no different. While some have found it convoluted, I found the grandmother‘s stories incredibly worth the time once their connection to the real world Elsa inhabits was revealed. I also loved Elsa‘s references to super heroes and fantasy series - she reminds me of my own wee girl when she was small. This one hit me in all the feels, y‘all. Five stars from me!

This series. Ooooff. I actually finished the trilogy at the end of last year and I‘ve been digesting it ever since. It‘s been a really long time since a book grabbed me by the soul and shook me about so. Even though set in Sweden, it bears a striking thematic resemblance to the rural America I grew up in. Backman does an extraordinary job writing complicated characters. This trilogy is so good but it could cost you emotional energy.

This was a rare book that I visited twice - once to read, another to listen. If you are a fan of Dame Judi Dench or Shakespeare even in the slightest, I recommend this book. Due to her failing eyesight, Dame Judi‘s participation in the audio book was kept to recitation of Shakespeare passages she knows by heart. Barbara Flynn‘s (Cracker, Return to Paradise) interpretation in the audio is superb and her voice bears a startling resemblance. 👇🏻

👀👀👀🤢🤢🤢 Ewwww, Henry IV had royal coronation cooties.

Excellent little novella! I‘ve had it for ever but never got around to it until this week. I love stories that bust up the traditional fairy tale tropes and this one certain does that!

#feminist #lgbtq

I caught this on the Libby app amongst the available audiobooks. I liked it fine, but it almost feels like a period piece now. It was interesting to catch dialogue that Ephron lifted from this book and used in other screen plays. Meryl Streep performing the audiobook was great, especially as she was in the movie adaptation almost forty years ago.

This is a beautiful anthology. Poems, lyrics, quotes, stories, and essays from a wide range of contributors. Radiohead, Ursula K Le Guin, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Ada Lovelace, just to name a few. I found much of this book oddly comforting. It‘s not necessarily a read “cover to cover” all at once book. It can be one you visit here and there when you want to ground yourself in thoughts of nature. It may not be for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

What are the odds, indeed. I‘m pretty sure a significant number of stories told in this book are heavily embellished at best or outright lies at worst. It would be a vaguely entertaining read if he weren‘t such a charlatan. This book had a cover that would change as you moved it side to side, so I grabbed screen shots of both images. Strange book to say the least

Apparently I started a new series the wrong way round. 😂 This is book 3.5 in the Dr Greta Helsing series. It was a daily deal on Audible and gave it a go since it sounded interesting. It was good! Guess I‘ll go back to book one and start the series properly.

Another fantastic cast of characters that I can‘t wait to follow! I snagged this on Audible to keep me company whilst gardening and it did not disappoint. Nicola Walker‘s performance was wonderful. If you like the Thursday Murder Club books, this will probably enjoy this as well.

This was so good! It was wonderful to catch up with these beloved characters a few years later. I love that it includes the complexity of healing from grief and how that ebbs and flows even years later. Moving on and allowing one‘s self to experience joy again can come with mixed feelings. Letting new people love you can be tough and this book handles these themes with grace, beauty, and all the feels - often with laugh aloud humor. Wonderful!

This is Dame Judi Dench talking about playing Gertrude at the National Theatre in Richard Eyre‘s production of Hamlet in the late 80s. The Dan in this passage is Daniel Day-Lewis. In the question before this one she said he “gave the most phenomenal performance.”

This was a fun little book! I wouldn‘t have chosen it for myself so I‘m glad our FOTL club did. Cozy, bookish read set in small town Scotland. Think a Hallmark movie type storyline that has just a wee bit of racy spice to it. Relaxing brain candy!

If you enjoy medical history, this could be a book for you. This tells the story of Dr Harold Gillies, who was a WWI surgeon and a pioneer in plastic surgery. If listening is your preference, the audiobook is read by his three times great grandson, The Originals actor Daniel Gillies (Audible has him listed as a nephew but IMBD, which is controlled by the actor, has him listed as a grandson). Seriously fascinating if this is your thing!

Wow. This was not at all what I expected. At all. I follow the author on social media because he‘s hilarious and witty so I wasn‘t expecting this fantasy/horror hybrid gem of a book. This was free with my Audible account and read by the author so I tried it out. There‘s not much I can say that isn‘t spoilery, so I‘ll just say if unique horror that makes you stop and say “wait. . . What?!?!?” is your jam maybe give it a go.

I think this is a good little overview for beginners. Sure, it‘s not an “end all, be all” reference to end all references, but it‘s a good place to start that won‘t overwhelm someone that is new and curious. Beautiful photography and great resource list! Fun way to spend a morning off work. 🪴

I tend to enjoy Ruth Ware books and this was no different. I felt anxious most of this book due to the situation the characters were in so it took me a little longer to get through than her books typically do. If you like feeling the stress along with the characters this one is for you! Another excellent read 😊

Found this fun little gem on Libby when I was looking for something to listen to during kitchen chores. The author‘s mother is Judith Miller (of the British Antiques Road Show), so she grew up around antiques and decided to meld that experience to her love of murder mysteries. Fun little brain candy mystery, though bless her heart, Emilia Fox‘s American Southern accent is comically horrendous. Oh! And there‘s a second book on the way! 😊

Not a bad little audiobook to pass the time while doing chores. If you‘re looking for a brain-candy romance to rest your head, this could fill some time. It‘s narrated by the author, who did a wonderful job. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is the Project 2025 you‘ve been hearing so much about. I‘ve been following it for a couple years now. I read this from a giant 922 page pdf I downloaded. If you search “Mandate for Leadership” it is not terribly hard to find. Much of it reads as boring policy-wonk navel-gazing, but if you really stop to think of the consequences of even the boring bits, it‘s quite terrifying. I marked as so-so because it should be read or skimmed.👇🏻

WOW!!!! Excellent return to this series! The story picks up when twins Becca and Pip are 6 and the Congregation wants to test their abilities as they turn 7. We learn lots more about Diana‘s family history and get to see Matthew learn to ‘belong‘ in his wife‘s world for once. It also feels as if there could be another book at the end. 🤞🏻If you are a fan of the books (or show) you will probably want to give this a go!

I stumbled upon this in my Libby app and decided to give it a go. The author read the main character and the ridiculously talented and entertaining Juliet Stevenson performed the other characters. This was a fun little bubblegum listen with flawed, neurotic characters. Not bad to pass the time in the garden!

I can‘t believe I didn‘t read this book sooner! It was such a comfort read for me. I took it slowly and even listened to some of it because the author performs the audiobook beautifully. This is one I will absolutely revisit in sections from time to time. Beautiful book!

This is a really great book if you are baffled by the weird turn some evangelical churches have taken toward hard-right politics and against women‘s rights in recent years. I was raised in the Southern Baptist church so a lot of this rings true to me. I saw this turn towards Christian Nationalism decades ago so I got out. Anyway, this book has a lot of good historical context for what we are seeing now.

Awww, damn.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/05/25/caleb-carr-author-alienist-...

This was a good if somewhat sad historical fiction short story. It imagines a possible arc for a real Culper Ring female agent about whom almost nothing is known. It incorporates some lore and the author is very clear in her afterword that the story is built around the known contribution of Agent 355 but is, alas, conjecture in her story. I felt sorrowful at the end, but glad I heard it nonetheless as so many of women‘s stories are lost history.

Myron Bolitar #12 did not disappoint! Holy page turner, Batman! I need to go to bed early tonight because I was up too late the last two nights getting my Windsor Horne Lockwood III fix.

If you like this series I‘ll bet you like this one, too.

Found a great addition to my old school Modern Library collection while sorting books at our FOTL charity bookshop today!

Wow. Rampant domestic abuse. Kidnapping. Spousal rape. Sincerely gross chid abuse. An absolutely WTAF ending, but not in a good way in my opinion. This was our FOTL book this month. I started reading it but had to switch to audio to get through it by the meeting. Rather clever but the ‘ick‘ factor was too high for the lack of realistic payoff in the ending. I‘m not a prude by any means but gratuitous shock is not my jam either. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!!

https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/pierce-brosnan-helen-mirren-thursday-murder-cl...

Installment #5 in the Horowitz & Hawthorne series is another fun one! I listen to these because I adore narrator Rory Kinnear‘s performance. This one had a bit of a send up to some classic murder novels, which was fun. At the end, the author read the acknowledgments and said he had SEVEN MORE BOOKS planned for this series! Hopefully Mr Kinnear will be able to continue performing the audiobooks, too.

Finished this up during lunch on this wonderful spring day. This was a read some/listen some because I just had to hear them tell some of these stories! If you like the comedy antics of these guys , you‘ll probably get a kick out of this book. I snort laughed aloud plenty!

The Litsy reviews for this book have been brutal but I really enjoyed it. I was entertained! Considering he‘s been working with Harlan Coben so much in the last several years, it felt as I expected it to: fast paced page turner requiring some suspension of disbelief, but hey, it‘s brain candy! I‘d certainly give another if his books a go.

Holy $h!t this was good! And anxiety inducing. And infuriating. This felt almost more horror than thriller to me. I couldn‘t put it down / turn it off. It was a read some, listen some for me because I couldn‘t just read all weekend. So glad a friend on IG posted about it since I‘d never heard of it before.

There‘s not much one can say about this book without divulging spoilers. I enjoyed it. It‘s a classic “unreliable narrator” story, which is obvious early on, so I don‘t think saying so gives anything away. If you like this author‘s other books, you‘ll probably like this one as well.

Very informative read! I knew so little about Harper Lee that I found the section on her biography really interesting. The sections on the subjects of the ‘true crime‘ book she was attempting to write were fairly engaging as well. I had no idea about her friendship with Truman Capote, so it‘s timely to run into that nugget while Feud: Capote vs the Swans is currently running on FX. If you ❤️Harper Lee and historical books, maybe give it a go

Wow! Just WOW! I searched for “thrillers by authors of color” for our library‘s winter reading challenge category “author of a different race/religion from you.” This book came up. If you like southern noir crime fiction, definitely give this a go! It‘s disturbing but if you like authors like Greg Iles who are honest about social issues in their crime writing, SA Cosby is another voice in that vein. I sure hope we see more of Titus Crown! 5⭐️s

This was my first James McBride but it certainly won‘t be my last. I am so glad our FOTL group had this selection for our January read. This was a great snapshot into a different place, time, and culture from my own with just a wee touch of magical realism. Fantastic book!

This is wonderful! Definitely audiobook it if you are a fan - both her performance and storytelling are sublime! If you are uncomfortable with frank language and casual sex talk, perhaps skip this one. If you get a kick out of her bawdy, naughty turns on Graham Norton you will probably enjoy this.

I listened to this today while de-Christmasing the house. I liked it, but I think there were parts that would have bored me trying to read it because of all the necessary moving parts to tell the story. Like some Grisham stories, it left me feeling torn at the end. Definitely worth the time if you liked Mitch and Abby McDeere in The Firm and would like to root for them again!

This was December‘s FOTL book club read. Entertaining and touching book. Polly is real character! A widow who found out she was pregnant at 58 after the death of her husband, Polly is brought to vivid life through the account of her youngest daughter, Willow, who tells the story. This gave me strong Fannie Flagg vibes, which isn‘t always my jam but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Kicking off the my first time participating in a local library challenge with the tagged audiobook. I adore Miriam Margoyles!

Binging the Netflix adaptation of the tagged book while thinking about this year‘s reading goal. 2023 was not my best year by far, and consequently my TBR stack is way out of control. 😆

Final book of the year. . . Oooof. . . . This one was a doozy. But it was SO good. So many feelings and so much thought on this one. It left me with a helluva book hangover. I look forward to seeing what the author writes next.

This may be my favorite Alix Harrow yet. I really loved this mix of realism and fantasy Harrow painted into the story. This author is so good at that. There‘s really not much that I can say that wouldn‘t be spoilery. If you like modern magical fantasy set in our world and time, maybe give this a go!

I am super behind on posting my reviews! I just read this little ditty yesterday. It‘s a stand alone novella featuring FBI agent Kimberly Reynolds, and set in Wisconsin, with a very brief appearance of our regular Rivers of London hero Peter Grant and his spunky cousin Abigail. I enjoyed this, but I really love Aaronovitch‘s Rivers of London world.

Thank you, thank you @alexus_sb !!! I am so excited to start this book - Ann Patchett is one of my favorites! And I‘m also loving the local to you chocolate you sent. I absolutely love it when they have a cause ? Happy Jólabókaflóð !

#jolabokaflodswap

I finished listening to this soapy little gem of brain candy whilst doing cooking chores today. It kept me company and my brain busy through many boring and time consuming tasks so PICK!

Also, Merry Jólabókaflóð , ya nerdy animals!