So many great quotes in this book. What beautiful writing.

It‘s a beautiful holiday weekend and I‘m not moving until I run out of books or cheese.

“And now it was over, and something else had begun, for me, which was the delicate business of being the survivor.”

I have no doubt this will be one of the best books I read all year! As I finished, I literally said, “Wow…”

A family finds themselves living atop a cliff known for suicide attempts and take it upon themselves to be the savior of those “visitors.” Told from the perspective of the son, switching from the present narrative to the past (his childhood on the cliff), it really is about how the past holds on to us and us to it. Brilliant book.

Combing science and history and told through a climate change lens. But isn‘t all doom and gloom, there is a lot of focus on what we can still do. Every chapter features a scientist or researcher and the work they are trying to do to turn back the clock. I enjoyed the chapter detailing controlled burning and how indigenous peoples all over the world have been practicing this long before recorded history.
Good for fans of The Sixth Extinction.

It‘s basically required to read this outside. 😁🐝🌻

Very interesting so far, and I‘m learning a lot.

Finished the first of the three stories. The narrator is dealing with the disappointment that her adult son did not turn out to be the man she hoped, as well as the realization that at her age her work is becoming less important, less original. It all seemed very realistic.

Side note: this is an interesting one to read in public. 😂 Anyone else read something that makes people look twice?

Just finished re-reading Brooklyn. Ready to dive in!

I‘m fascinated by cognitive biases, so this was right up my alley. She covered how these biases show up when we interact with social and digital media & how we interpret everyday things in person. I was really interested in her discussion of positive thinking and cancer. She talked about the need to be positive and put on a brave face, but that actually gives a false impression of just how difficult treatment is or how well people are coping.

Loved this. The narrative voice is amazing, really enjoyed the characters. It reminded me quite a bit of Derry Girls in its tone and humor.

What an ending! Wow.

Her writing about motherhood, in both this book and in The End We Start From… just amazing.

“You can put ideas on and off just like moccasins. You can wear them and set them aside, hold on to those you find meaningful … someone telling you that you‘re wrong and only they know the truth. Such boasting is evidence of a fool, perhaps a dangerous one.”

I really enjoyed Goodbye Vitamin, so I was excited to read her new one. This one is much longer, more sweeping. It‘s a multigenerational story told from multiple points of view, from the reeducation during Mao‘s Cultural Revolution to modern day US.

We broke 80 degrees for the first time ever for February today. Seems like a good day to start a book about the climate.

A Prince quote in the epigraph. Love it!

We don‘t walk down the same street as the person walking beside us. All we can do is tell the other person what we see. We can point at things and try to name them. If we do this well, our friend can look at the world in a new way. We can meet.

Some of my favorite non-fiction from this year. When Crack was King definitely hit the top of the list!

Some of my favorite fiction from year. Absolutely loved the scathing, yet hilarious, Erasure. Can‘t wait to see the movie!

Book delivery day! Gift cards mean you open presents twice! Definitely starting with Skippy Dies- have never read it and The Bee Sting was my absolute favorite book from this year.

There were stories here I really enjoyed. Jack's dad - the reason that drove him to Facebook to find Jack, his radicalization and how that ended. Jack & Elizabeth's path from young idealism to (sub)urbanity.
But, there was so much going on that I think it took away from these stories. I don't know that the whole Kate & Kyle thing was necessary to highlight how "sad" the other relationships were; just more side characters I wasn‘t invested in.

“She was happy. That was the trouble. She was so happy that she forgot to be sad.”

Great book talk today at Homestead National Historic Park.

Fields of goldenrod blowing in the wind…

I love pretty endpapers 🥰

As the parent of a physics major, this gave me a good chuckle. The kid agrees, btw 😂

Love this!

If we are not in someone else‘s memory, do we even exist at all?

Interesting book. This takes the murdered woman trope and flips it on its head. Set in a not too distant future (she doesn‘t tell us, but technology is familiar, yet advanced), it‘s a bit speculative fiction, a bit mystery. Fast paced- I easily read it in one sitting yesterday afternoon.

“The first weapon I ever held was my mother‘s hand.”

What an opening line!

Taking advantage of a rare 50 degree February day!

I have mixed feelings about both this book and The Passenger. McCarthy is a hell of a writer, there is no doubt about that. There were phrases in both books that made you stop an appreciate his skill. I appreciate McCarthy's curiosity, but I really related to the psychiatrist in Stella Maris. He frequently responded to Alicia's musings with "You lost me" or "I don't follow". Yeah dude, you and me both.

Favorite fiction part II. Read a handful from the Booker shortlist and enjoyed them all, particularly The Colony.

Favorite fiction part I. The Trees was probably my top book of the year. The Feast I picked up after seeing it here on Litsy and I‘m so appreciative of those that posted about it.

My favorite nonfiction this year! Particularly enjoyed We Don‘t Know Ourselves and Orwell‘s Roses.

I read Hamnet in January and absolutely loved it. Picked up Heatwave and Esme Lennox. Loved those too! So I just grabbed the rest 😂 Finished the last one just in time for her new one next week. (Hamnet is definitely my fav)

Congressman- “All I know is that we just spent a lot of damn time learning nothing of consequence except what it feels like to get your ass handed to you by a goddamned librarian!”
I love that the hero in this story is a librarian!! 🥰

Bookstore haul!

Phenomenal book! The story and characters were great, but I also learned so much about deaf culture and deaf history. In the Author‘s Note, she writes that she hopes this book to be rallying call for allies and I think this novel can achieve this.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Olivares details his experience working with families separated at the border in 2018, interspersed with his own experiences as an immigrant. He does a great job explaining complex intricacies and history of our immigration system.

Walked into the bookstore today and picked up four intriguing, but unknown to me, titles. Can‘t wait to dig in! Where to start??

Don't miss this captivating look into the Exodust movement, as freed African Americans established Black communities across the Great Plains during the late 19th century. At once a look at the diversity of Great Plains history as well as an opportunity to consider history as a catalyst for art, author and professor DeMisty D. Bellinger explains how these migrations informed her forthcoming novel, New to Liberty.
(National Cather Center)

Entertaining and thought provoking, just like her last collection. The essay on self care is so on point- definitely my favorite in this book.

Really enjoyed this one on audio- each story uses a different narrator, with Levar Burton reading the first one! Loved the title story and “Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse”.

Read these amazing books this weekend and while they could not be more different, they are both ultimately about plagues. One biological, one social.

Wasn‘t sure what to read next so I went with a color theme. 😄

If war has an opposite, gardens might sometimes be it…

So dark and weird and hilarious. And the commentary is spot on.

Every man you ever meet is nothing but the product of what was withheld from him, what he feels owed.