The look on her face...so relatable.

I'm glad this wasn't as dark as the cover suggests. Chloe, a popular high school girl, thinks her autistic older sister Ivy is yearning for a boyfriend -- but her attempts to set her up have unexpected consequences, both bad and good.

Although I don't love books about disabled people that don't center them, I did appreciate how caring and accepting Chloe is, even if she's not always wise. And I related to her a lot.

This is a section from “Reasons for Staying,“ my favorite poem from this. You can read the full poem here: https://griffinpoetryprize.com/poem/reasons-for-staying-vuong/

I definitely didn't get all of these poems, but even the bits and pieces I did were powerful and evocative.

#QueerBC #NationalPoetryMonth

Exciting, engrossing historical fiction about three women who worked at Bletchley park during WWII and the impact that time -- of personal freedom on one hand and intense secrecy on the other -- impacted their lives. It is on the melodramatic side but interestingly, some of the most astonishing elements were drawn from true stories. (I was a little uncomfortable that Prince Phillip is a major character.)

One of the characters is almost (cont)

I found this in my TBR for #TBRTarot. It's a fairly straight -- or rather, straightforward ;-) - retelling of “the Goose Girl,“ but about a Prince on his way to marry another Prince. A pleasant short read with no steam but some violence.

My #DoubleSpin for April is a soft pick. It has a lot of good points and is very readable, but the romantic chemistry between the leads just didn't gel into something wonderful.

More thoughts here: https://willaful.wordpress.com/2025/04/22/into-the-woods-by-jenny-holiday/

@TheAromaOfBooks

•favorite genres : Romance, classic/middlebrow fiction, memoir, books about being queer.

•desert island reads?: Lord of the Rings, Miss Pym Disposes

•What‘s your go-to reading snack? pecans

•Weirdest or most interesting place you‘ve read a book? The Andes mountains. My husband was so annoyed with me!

•What do you do when you‘re not reading? Housework, listen to my kid's drama, dance, garden, write political postcards, fret.

#BibliologistBio

This camp has *cabins* -- there is literally not a single mention of a tent in the book. So what do they put on the cover? HARUMPH!

#ISpyBingo

... he has lost his temper. He was really very fond of his temper, and rather enjoyed referring to it with tolerant regret as being a bad one and beyond his control -- with a manner which suggested that the attribute was the inevitable result of strength of character and masculine spirit. The luxury of giving way to it was a great one.

#PersephoneClub

Halp!

I read about a graphic novel here and stupidly wrote down the call number at my library without the title. Of course I couldn't find it. It's shelved in YA here and the author's last name begins with BUT. Anyone have any idea what it is?

This was a *lot* -- and kind of tough to read during this time when real life is the same. But Bardugo did a beautiful job of tying all the series' loose ends together for a very satisfying conclusion. Her plotting is so clever! I'm surprised to see that others think another book was being set up, but I certainly won't complain if it happens.

#AllergicToChunksters
#SeriesLove2025

Unlike others, I liked this more than the first book, probably because I find YA about type A students kind of tiresome. Also, it's so relatable in its depiction of the highs and lows of beginning college. I really liked how it interrogated what the HEA looks like for a very young couple, with honestly and hopefulness.

More at my blog: https://willaful.wordpress.com/2025/04/16/tbr-challenge-past-present-future-by-r...

#SeriesLove

A darker, more cynical version of one of Streatfeild's “shoes“ stories, in which an exceptionally beautiful girl achieves success and adoration without having a spark of human kindness in her soul. The title is a biting commentary on what society values in women. A pick because it's entertaining and has a fascinating “illicit“ relationship in it, but be warned, it's deeply sad.

#BookSpin
@TheAromaOfBooks

1. Six of Crows & its sequel, The Prospects by KT Hoffman, Past Present Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon and Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (again!) About the characters and the insights for all of these.

2. There are 11 I bothered to note down. I'm regretful about Compound Fracture, which has such an interesting main character. The others I was just meh about.

1. That's the one financial thing my husband deals with and he got it done promptly. We've already gotten refunds.

2. Revitalization.

An enjoyable memoir/literary dive about the ways that reading Jane Austen helped the author mature, discover his core values, and find happiness. I was a bit put off by his gender essentialism at first, which seemed to belittle Austen even as he was trying to praise her, but as he grew up in the pages, the book grew on me. Not sure I'll ever agree with him on Mr. Woodhouse though. 😉

#PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow

A few pics from my recent vacation. I am, of course, reading in that hammock. 😁

Today I'm partially in Manhattan, partially in Boston, and occasionally in Seattle, navigating the complexities of the first year of college and long-distance love.

#whereareyoumonday

@Cupcake12

The risks we take...

Really interested in the main character but I couldn't take the awfulness of the situation.

#Roll100 #36
#QueerBC

Like many others, this was my favorite of the series so far, despite my having some serious critiques. There are three mysteries involved and at least two aren't satisfactorily solved; there are so many plot holes, especially in the resolution of the story from The Brutal Telling. But at this point in the series probably most of us are reading for the characters, and oh, it's tragic and beautiful.

A thin book of commencement speeches of the “obvious graduation gift“ genre, but with Minchin style... I got a chuckle thinking about fond grandparents buying it for high school graduates not realizing there's an illustration of a ridiculous sex act inside. 😂 I do think his thoughts are powerful and worth reading and I'd love to read a full memoir by him.

Yes, it was England--England. It was the England of Constable and Morland, of Miss Mitford and Miss Austen, the Brontes and George Eliot.

Book blurb: “A retelling of the story of Poseiden and Icarus.“

Me: “huh?“

Oh my, this is a distressing read. I hope we will soon get the heroine we need.

#PersephoneClub

Guess what I'm doing this month?

Well dang. From the cover and size, I was expecting a graphic novel. It does have pictures and visual ephemera but is mostly of the “take a public domain work and add something weird to it“ subgenre and that's just not my thing. Seeing Austen's actual words mixed up with new ones bugs me.

#JaneAustenThenAndNow #Permberlittens @Crinoline_Laphroaig

Ugh, so awful. A lot of his books still hold up but this is very much not one of them. I need some brain bleach.

Hey, a whole bingo! 😁

5 DNF's -- Hail the Bail! (Actually, at least 6.)

I got somewhat derailed from my plan by the #TransRightsReadathon, so some extra books around the sides. Plan to read Making Money for my upcoming vacation though.

@Read4Life

#BookSpin @TheAromaOfBooks

Perhaps my favorite historical romance by this author, a Loretta Chase-esque starchy hero/headstrong heroine story, made especially affecting by how perfectly they match. He's responsible and careful, burdened by his late father's scorn, she's an artistic dreamer with a “busy brain“ (ADHD) and they both help each other as they fall wonderfully in love.

I can see why others loved this, but the relationship between the main characters felt off to me and when I peeked ahead, I could tell the backstory was going to freak me out, so I bailed.

#TransRightsReadathon

#FirstLineFridays

Gene Ionescu has always loved every detail of baseball, but none quite so much as its near-complete indifference to the body.

“I knew it,“ Ernie says. “You are always looking at his ass.“

“What can I say?“ Gene asks. “I like 'em clenched.“

Love the great range of disabilities and body types shown here. Although the main focus is on physical limitations, a lot of the advice is applicable to other kinds of disabilities too.

#TransRightsReadathon (author is genderqueer)

Bardugo was already on my list of authors to catch up on, so I went to town this month! I read Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, King of Scars, The Language of Thorns and DNFd The Lives of Saints. This has me caught up with the “Grishaverse“ except for Rule of Wolves, which I'm saving for next month. A very enjoyable series, exciting and emotional and romantic without sappiness.

#AuthorAMonth

@Soubhiville

Bardugo's “Grishaverse“ is inspired by world history and mythology, and here she takes some of the classic tales of our world and shows how they might have played out in hers. The prose is gorgeously and emotionally fraught; although not really any darker than the originals, they expose the darkness in different ways.

#AAM

Soft pick because this is a frustrating, sometimes painful read. It's a great illustration of the phrase “don't be your child's first bully,“ though the mom certainly isn't the worst; she doesn't put her child in conversion camp or pray over him or kick him out, just refuses to accept his name and identity. Just.

It's certainly a valid story and she does learn and grow, becoming a “SuperAlly!“ in the end. Includes a letter from the son.

You fear that Alex will be marginalized, but the first and foremost marginalization is family rejection.

This is a cis girl and her trans girlfriend but it reminds me a lot of accompanying my daughter to the women's bathroom. 😂 Very cute graphica memoir about how Sara's “boyfriend“ decided to transition and they stayed happily together.

#TransRightsReadathon

This is the self-defeating logic of anxiety; it makes us truly believe that the only way to feel safe is to never feel safe.

Didn't love the art style and *really* didn't love how relevant all the political content still or again is 😭 but this is a funny and warmhearted collection of comics. A group of queer friends, all with their own complicated identities or lack thereof, find their way through money problems, dating disasters, terrrible laws, and terrible decisions, with each other to lean on and learn from.

#TransRightsReadathon

#BookChain 2025 - books 1-20.

@TheAromaOfBooks

#TransRightsReadathon

A transgender man winds up back in his home town and makes a lot of discoveries... including his former teen self, somehow. A soft pick, but I'm disappointed I didn't like it more. The book feels kind of unfinished to me, like a really good editor could have fixed a *lot* about it. There are some excellent moments but they don't jell into an excellent book.

#TransRightsReadathon Book# 1

I think, for a second, about just saying fuck it and telling Michael the whole truth, as wild as it sounds. Tell him I'm a time-traveling existential crisis with gender feels and just see what he does.

Started my first #TransRightsReadathon book. This isn't transition focused as I expected, more of a “can I fix what went wrong in my life?“ story, and I think maybe a romance is coming. I'm not disappointed! 😂

Dryly -- and even wetly -- funny political satire, with heart to it. (As always with Wiswell.)