Starting today.

Next read. I‘m not blown away by the writing so far but I‘ve heard good reviews so I‘m hopeful.

I‘ve been away for a bit but I am going to try posting here again. This year, I hope to read 40 books again but also to read more thoughtfully. I want to read for craft a little more which is differently from how I normally read but I want to improve my writing and also to read more deeply. What are your reading goals for 2023?

Current read. Such an interesting writing style. Galgut is able to smoothly move from the mind of one narrator to another and it feels almost stream of consciousness but of a family rather than an individual.

I loved the setting of 1920s China and the author‘s efforts to make the city feel real to the reader but I didn‘t care for the monster plot or the main characters really or the writing style. Still, a great first novel with good observations about colonialism and identity, so I‘ll look out for what she publishes next.

I picked this one in impulse at the library, not knowing much about it but knowing I‘ve seen the book around. It is not what I expected from the title. The year is 1158 and a young girl is sent to a faraway abbey. She doesn‘t want to be a nun and has little religious feeling but she is an orphan and her pedigree is troubled. I didn‘t think it sounded particularly interesting at first but the prose brings it alive and the story moves fast.

Loved. The book is set in an alternate world that has a very similar history to our own. It‘s the 1890s when women are fighting for the vote but magic is real and outlawed and all the fairy tales are just a little different. I loved how witching was used as a metaphor for will and agency, how it was tied to the suffragist movement, and magic wasn‘t quite what the women thought it to be. A richly imagined world and beautiful story.

Current read.

I love Louise Erdrich but unfortunately could not get through this one although I made it close to the end. It is a sad book about loss and healing. Beautifully written but the book felt a little directionless. I liked Josette and Snow. I skimmed the end because I felt the need for a fresh start for the new year. I recommend instead Love Medicine or The Round House.

A romance but one with a lot to say about class, religious doubts and conviction, and workers rights. I liked John Thornton a lot and Margaret grew on me even though she starts out quite the snob but she is 19 and she grows up throughout the book.

What a fun book! I love murderbot! The opening line is great. It‘s a quick, fun read with a lot of action - even though Murderbot would really, really prefer a quiet existence so she could watch her shows instead.

Enjoying surf, sun, and a good book. I‘m not sure I want to read his further adventures but Tom Ripley is an interesting, complex character.

The story was so compelling I stayed up in the wee hours of the night to read it. It's part science fiction, part fantasy, part spy thriller and morality play (but not preachy). I loved it. The narrator is imperfect, smart, relatable, and conflicted. The post apocalyptic world North creates is imaginative and multi-layered and the characters are well developed.

Starting this one courtesy of Netgalley, which I am trying out for the first time. I picked this one because I enjoyed The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. I am only a few pages in and the world kinda reminds me of David Mitchell when he writes about post-apocalyptic societies. #netgalley

I think if I had read this one when it came out, I would have liked it better because I was closer to being in college at that time. There are some darkly funny moments in this book but the characters are unsympathetic and unreliable. I found Henry and Bunny to be interesting characters but had a hard time understanding why the narrator made the decisions to go along with the group the way he did. A little frustrating at the end.

This is such an odd book and I‘ve barely begun. I have no idea if I will like it but it is definitely making me think about women‘s relationship with their bodies and gender.

I was unsure of this book at first due to the contempt the children have for the parents but the writing was so rich and well done. Just looking at the contradictions and tensions between the kids and nature in the first few pages was enlightening. It was an interesting journey to understand the children and and then see how the narrator begins to pity the parents. It‘s an indictment of our generation‘s complacency in the face of global disaster.

Beautifully drawn middle grade graphic novel about an Indian American teen curious about her mother‘s home country and life in India. The use of colour is particularly vibrant and lush.

Starts off bleak and a bit gruesome but the author captures the intensity, the dreams, the family myths that build up in an immigrant family as they search for a place to call home. Zhang depicts the children‘s curiosity and romanticism of their parents‘ home country well and also the sense of being separate and disconnected from both old and new lands. I have mixed feelings about the end but didn‘t see them getting a happier ending....

I don‘t feel like I should actually review and rate this because I skimmed rather than read this but I made it through to the end. This one reminded me of A Man Called Ove but this one felt too light for me and didn‘t have the humour that Ove did. It didn‘t help that I knew where the story was going to go and I felt it was predictable. Perhaps I wasn‘t in the right mood for this one or maybe it just isn‘t the right book for me.

Just started and enjoying it but a little worried about how bleak it may get because the premise is pretty grim: 2 siblings, children of Chinese immigrants, on the run during the American Gold Rush. My daughter just studied the gold rush last year so will be interesting to see how it compares to another book we read about a Chinese immigrant searching for gold.

Next read. Just got this on Libby.

I was hesitant to read this one but I like Strike and got curious. It was a good mystery with shades of Agatha Christie, and Robin and Strike's relationship is slowly developing. I liked how the detectives slowly unravelled all the threads and didn't mind the long detours from the mystery because it filled out the characters more. I've never really liked Robin but found her much more relatable in this book.

Such a fun, witty take on fairy tale tropes. Loved the humor and the touch of horror. A quick, satisfying read that had me chuckling throughout.

Just started but I am having so much fun with this very funny, self aware fairy tale take. A princess is locked in a monster filled tower but the princes who come to rescue her don't make it past the first level so she needs to rescue herself.

This one is a holiday novella which I didn't get from the library until now. I read it in a single sitting and it's really sweet. Lovely Christmas story.

Gripping YA novel in verse as a teen rides down an elevator contemplating whether to go through with killing who he thinks murdered his brother. The elevator rides takes only a few minutes so using verse was particularly compelling and illuminating. Great book.

This is a pick if you're into romance because the main characters are cute and very relatable. I read this for Malala's book club and was expecting something not quite this light. But the premise while contrived was set up well.

This one was really fun and was a nice mix of light historical fiction and romance. I liked that the characters had more on their minds than marriage or seduction or parties, had actual intellectual pursuits or occupations, and their concerns seemed real rather than made up hurdles to the main couple getting their HEA. Fun read.

Picked this up while browsing Libby not knowing much about it. So far, it is pretty good. Also in verse which I am enjoying.

Not my usual sort of novel but I got pulled through this tragic story of a a sensitive soul that everyone loved but few understood. Heartbreaking.

This was such an odd a little book but charming and full of wonder. Very little explanation is given in the beginning but the story unfolds slowly, darkly, and beautifully. It's a little sad yet hopeful. Very different from Clarke's other novel, too.

Current read from the latest library haul. Pulled me right in.

Another contender for next book and the likely one. I joined Malala's Book Club on Literati. This one is a middle grade novel written in verse. Will be interested to see how the discussions will go.

Trying to decide what to read next. These two are the current candidates. The first is a botm selection and I'm very behind on reading those books - and the other is a recommendation I received from a bookseller at a local shop my family loves.

This was a really fun fantasy of New York City. A love song to cities and to NYC in particular, looking at cities as complex organisms rather than constructs. I am more familiar with Manhattan and Brooklyn but I loved how it got into the characters of the different burroughs. I wonder how readers from Staten Island will feel about the book but this is the first in a trilogy so we will see how the characters develop.

I wasn't super thrilled with the #botm choices this month but I only had one more box to reach BFF status and next month is my birthday so I decided I would take a chance. Next year, I am going to try to slow my book buying so I can cut my TBR pile down so I'm being a little indulgent this December.

Current read. Only a few chapters in but it strikes me as a love song to New York. I love NYC so looking forward to seeing what Jemisin does with it.

Two story lines: one in a German occupied French village during WWI and another set in modern day London. I found the WWI heroine and storyline so compelling and mostly skimmed the modern day romance/legal battle. Interesting issues regarding restitution of art. Moyes does a good job of showing how nothing is as cut and dried as one might expect. A pick simply because I thought the WWI story so good.

Netflix is releasing the new Bridgerton series so I decided to check out this first book in the series. If you like Regency romance with a slight modern twist, Quinn is good. Her characters are believable and the family relationships are funny. I thought Simon's issue with having children was kinda dumb but I mostly liked his and Daphne's relationship. If you like reading romance, this is a pick.

I started this awhile back then stopped and I'm starting again and hope to finish before the year is out because I already wrote it in my bullet journal book tracker and figure that's as good a reason as any to get back to it. 😂 I did like what I read before so I'm happy to return to this one although it has a sad premise.

And the syringes pictured are ones I use for fountain pen ink but I figured why not use as a prop?

#botm

So impressed that a 20 year old wrote this. The writing is confident, funny, and philosophical. The characters, while cartoonish in some ways, have a lot of layers. She tackles the idea of shared histories, immigration, heritage, identity, fate, scientific innovation. That said, there were parts I loved and other parts that I had to make myself read on because it felt jumbled and I didn't really like the characters. Between a pick and a so-so.

Parts of it have been funny and parts have been slow. Right now I'm in a slow part where a new family has been introduced. I'm hoping we get through the Chalfens quickly because I would like to know more about Irie and about how Magid has turned out.

Such a fun book. The heroine was hard to like at first but she is smart and stubborn. It's dark for YA - the school is Hogwarts meets Hunger Games arena plus horror - and Novik outlines the different social castes within the school well. Will definitely read the next in the series.

This one was a slow start - the separate threads took a while to get woven together - but I loved it. Beautifully written and thought provoking on so many levels. I loved how the trees were eerie, ancient presences without turning the novel into fantasy. I was shocked at what inhumane acts people would undertake to cut more trees - and all based on real events. I loved the Hoel chestnut and Mimas. Tragic yet hopeful.

Current read. Lovely writing but not a quick read - and I think not meant to be read quickly. Still waiting for the characters to meet up because he keeps introducing new ones and I'm 100 pages in.

First chapter book that my 8 year old has read entirely on her own. She is looking forward to the next book in the series. Got this one from #literatikids

What an amazing book. I love Morrison's writing but really didn't like the main character, Milkman Dead, because he is a deeply flawed character with very little to recommend him. He's selfish, spoiled, drifting rather aimlessly through life, and just as I was about done with him and the book, Morrison has him head South and everything that went on before in the story made much more sense and the end made the book worth the parts I hadn't liked.

This one was a slow burn but just as I began to worry that nothing would happen, the story suddenly hit full swing. My only quibble was that I didn't really buy the romance but I enjoyed the book overall. A fun, post colonial take on the British gothic novel.

#botm #summerreading #2020books #horror

Received my #botm. Just started.