"All around them was death, and Kathleen had never been more in love with Virgil in her life."

Well. I have 2 days of jury duty. Let's see how much reading I can get done. We are currently one lunch during day 1 and I am finishing this one up. I am liking it way more than the GR reviewers.

This is fantastic. Peters knows how to weave a story. I find it so interesting how she placed the stories, there are a few stories that relate to one storyline and it is mixed up chronologically making for an onion layer reveal between that are strong stories and the one novella (title story). My only complaint is that novella was a bit too long.
TW for one brutal animal scene that is upsetting in a story called The Chaser.

Yesterday some friends and I got together for lunch and a theater showing of the Keira Knightly Pride and Prejudice! This weekend is the 20th anniversary if you can believe it! We had a ball, I sometimes forget how incredible the cinematography is in this film, seeing it in theaters really shows you what an amazing job they did. And goodness everyone in this is gorgeous 😍

Starting this one today feels serendipitous after the highly publicized "flight" this week. I have so many thoughts and feelings.

I was in the first grade when the Challenger tragedy happened and I still remember the shock of it all. I have heard good things about the this one and think it is a perfect time to read it.

I was turned on to this during wishlist talks for the Women's Prize for Nonfiction this year. Before this I had never heard of Pamela Churchill Harriman. What a fascinating woman she was! From a fat frumpy teen running around the Mitfords to the wife of Winston Churchill's son, to socialite and finally to a US democratic fixer. Told with an obviously great amount of research this story is captivating, Pam was a complex woman. 👇

I found this book on lists of hopefuls for the Women's Prize for Nonfiction long list. and honestly so glad I did. If you want to dip your toes into who Pamela Churchill Harriman was there is an excellent New Yorker article about the book. I personally had never heard of her before -
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/23/kingmaker-sonia-purnell-book-revie...

“Pamela, who lived and died in the twentieth century, believed that a superpower that did not protect the vulnerable was not worthy of the name."
She died during Clinton's term and I cannot help but wonder what she would think of us today.
Pamela is one of the few old school political people who enjoyed favor with both sides of he aisle, but she seemed to always (after her teens) have a firm moral compass.

Photo -Pamela 1995 from britannica.com

Book 2 in the series, you really have to read these in order. Rosalie has been adopted into the Corbin family and she is quickly becoming the center of three men's lives.
This is much spicier than the first novel and I am still scratching my head and annoyed that Trump supporters are mad at Rath for her saying she doesn't want them near her (the reason I picked up the books)
Overall a great read - plenty of plot and character growth.

I have read 65 (I am counting some series even if I only read the first)

Favorites:
P&P
Beloved
Sirens of Titen ties with Hitchhikers Guide

3 I do want to read:
Anne Green Gables
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Another Country (one of the only Baldwins I have not read)

#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe

Harmon who? We know who the winner was in this situation.

Trying my luck with Pango, I started listing today, so if anyone in the US is shopping for some new to them books - often I get books then listen to them on audio so many of the ones listed have not even been read!

If any Pango sellers have any advice would love to hear it!

You can see the books here: https://pangobooks.com/bookstore/chaoticreadingadventures

Who's this? New profile photo, same person. 😁

I truly dislike this part of it. 😂

The sun has come to Portland for the afternoon 😍☀️💗📚

One of my favorite things about my neighborhood is spring, we have over a thousand cherry blossom trees and it makes my daily neighborhood walks a total pleasure.

Listening to the tagged, at the point where Pamela is making friends with Kick Kennedy and trying to stay clear of the gross Ambassador Kennedy. Would have loved to have seen him go through #MeToo

Wow. Fantastic! 4.25/5

This is everything I had wished that awful Alex Michaelides was. Jane is having a breakdown and her psychiatrist is lost on what is going on or how to treat her and the mystery keeps growing. The writing is spot on, I loved seeing everything from his notes and her journal. I don't want to spoil anything so if you had read and want to discuss spoilers below.

Article from 2023.
Do you ever read a throw away line in a book and think "say what now?" I don't know anything about Bardot beyond her name and that she was an actor/model and somehow I missed that she is a god awful terrible person! This article from VF has me saying jezus multiple times. A supporter of Le Pen, Bardot encapsulates right wing bigotry and hatred.
I am glad I know now.

"I wonder if accepting moral complexity is a sign of my poor standards"

I am in love with Dinan. This is her sophomore novel and I cannot decide which I liked more. I do know I will be internet stalking her waiting for her next book. Her writing is wonderful, I love her morally great struggling characters, and how their daily life is never boring even if I cannot concisely articulate what exactly the plot is.
4.5/5 ⭐ I love this.

I fear these may be too obvious, but I would love to get to all 4 of these soon.

#CampLitsy25 @BarbaraBB @squirrelbrain @Megabooks

I love a lil quiz! Purple Reader is The Unbound Innovator—a bold, unconventional thinker who thrives on experimental storytelling and genre-defying narratives. They read to challenge norms, stretch their imagination, and fuel radical creativity. After finishing a book, they want to feel intellectually awakened and creatively invigorated, as if they've glimpsed a new way of seeing the world

Every single time.
😂

I think I am going to bail on this for now. I have read 30 pages and it isn't pulling me in. I know so many enjoyed it, but it is due back at the library tomorrow and so many people are waiting. There is no way I am going to push through it all today. And obviously I have plenty to read from the library.

😂😂

It's funny because it's true.

Edited to add: Solabees in Portland Oregon, they have an Instagram if you want to see more of their beautiful work!

Not book related...but my best friend just passed her licensure for therapy and I have picked her up these flowers from my favorite florist in my town.

Are they not gorgeous 🥰

I originally checked this out from the library, got 2 chapters in and ran to my bookstore and bought a copy. This book is amazing. It is written with such care and tons of research. The 5 women it focuses on each have small chapters woven into the narrative. Their struggles are glaring on the page, the way they controlled their bodies while struggling with so much racism and socioeconomic challenges.
4.5/5 this is wonderful.

“She wanted to be like her childhood heroes Ginger Rogers and Natalie Wood, emerging from limousines onto red carpets to snapping bulbs, the plot of her life playing out like one of the feel-good Million Dollar Movie films she loved to watch on her family‘s black-and-white television.”

Photo of the 5 beautiful ballerinas featured in the book

The man behind the company.
The first Black dancer at the NYC Ballet.
Arthur Mitchell started the Dance Theater of Harlem. He is both a monster (yelling at the women for eating or not being loyal enough to him and the company) but also seen as a father figure. The women talk about how his death in 2018 crushed them. A complex and interesting look at a teacher relationship.

While this book is about the women of Dance Theatre of Harlem, there is tragedy in how the men of the company were abandoned by government. They died of AIDS
“'I witnessed and entire male ensemble pass away.' Sheila Rohan says of the epidemic. She was working at Alavin Ailey in those years. 'These were our Black gods. Prima donnas of the dance world. And then you had to see them decline. At least 25, 30 of them, 1 right after another dropped.“

South Korea
I had such high hopes for this, the synopsis was great. Unfortunately the storytelling didn't live up to it for me. The characters are annoying. What do you mean you move into an apartment building where you are required to have more kids and you are upset that you might be hearing sex noises? Then the character finds out it is a husband beating up his wife and she is annoyed they kept her up at night? Whiny and not flushed out.

The Booker International shortlist is out!

Time to start reading! I have Big Bird and am reading it this week, are there any others people would recommend?

I am on a hold list for Leopard Skin Hat but my library hasn't received any copies yet.

You logophiles and Francophiles might like this story:
I was at my coffee shop in this sweater today and the barista asked me what it meant
After I taught him to pronounce the word I say "Ennui, French for sort of morose..."
Him: "Isn't morose French?"
Me "It is but this is like, more so, but without the anger."
?
Let me be your French teacher! I am on the ball

😂🤣😂 I feel this every day.

#weeklyforecast
I am feeling incredibly indecisive right now. So many books so little time.
I am finishing Disappoint Me this week (so good!) Under the Eye of Big Bird is due back to the library by Friday so need to get on that. Also chipping away at Swans of Harlem and I Captured the Castle.
For my daily walks I have the tagged

What are you reading this week?

Following up Agent Zo with another book about forgotten Women. These are 5 of the Black ballerinas that came before Misty Copeland

@BookmarkTavern #sundayfunday

I don't read many books about heists, for some reason I would rather watch them. I LOVE heist movies - Baby Driver, Inside Man, Usual Suspects, but mostly the franchise I am obsessed with is Fast and Furious. People are often thrown off by this when they learn. I have a group of friends we all get together for cinema nights when they come out and text each other when we travel and one is playing on cable 😂

🎧 was not the best way to read this. Unfamiliar with Polish names and I struggled with keeping people straight. But. What a book. This is a feminist look at not only an amazing woman also war. I had never heard of The Silent Unseen - Polish paratroopers trained in Britain and dropped behind enemy lines in Poland Zo's story is both fantastical and frustrating as the Soviet punished Nazi fighters and men refuse to recognize women's contributions.

Intense. Be careful going into this on, lots of TWs. It starts with a bang as narrator 1 decides and goes through a misoprostol abortion on her own, the last story that focuses on a best friend murder but is at its heart about femicide in Mexico was incredibly powerful.
My only criticism is that the voices of each narrator were the same, I would have liked to have seen more language and cadence variety.
You can tell a poet helped translate 👇

Sunday reading with coffee and cats

(Cats- Mayhem, Calamity, Serene)

This is a tough book. But also very poetic

"I was dead. Those fucking mayates had killed me. I held my bloody hand and cried for a while."

#BookerInternational

I picked this up after a rant by Dr Rath on Tiktok where she told Trump supporters not to read her books, and I am very happy to find out I really enjoyed this! It is called a slow burn, I would call it a snail paced burn 😂 the book is 460 pages and there are 3ish sex scenes. I loved the character development and the scene, it is isn't really believable but it is fun!

"But even though my great- grandmother, grandmother, and mother were all pioneers who broke the glass ceiling so women could hold the offices where decisions are made, amigui, I'm not really into public service or politics, myself. I don't want to wield power, I want to marry it. Know what I mean? Zero Angela Merkel, all Michelle Obama."

The point of feminism is that women have choices, but if she thinks MO had no power she doesn't understand

Listening to the tagged on my neighborhood walk where the cherry blossoms are blooming

A poem for the poor tariff targeted penguins.

(Found on Blue sky)

Viva le pingüino!

And that is that. I used Blackwells all of the time to get UK books (because they were not yet available in the US or because I liked the UK cover better) I am glad I guess this happened after the Women's Prize, but just so bummed. It is a little thing compared to how much housing and food is going to crush us but I feel like we can still be sad about the smaller things that are being taken away from us.

#Bookspin
#DoubleSpin
#BookspinBingo

Well here we are!!

I know people are going to be annoyed All Fours is on here, I don't mind so much - I love a book that makes people incomfy and gets people talking.

Good Girl and Fundamentally I had waffled on both being on the prize.

I guess the judges this year I just don't jive with.but I am incredibly glad Adichie didn't make it. I think it is down to Safekeep or Strout for the win.

Oh this one hurts! RIP Iceman.

When Top Gun came out I was immediately obsessed, so much so my dad destroyed the VHS because he couldn't handle having it on one more time 😂

Be my Huckleberry - Tombstone

What is your favorite Val Kilmer?

Trans authors you should read! This is a very American based list. I think it is very cool and important to read Sarah McBride now that she is the first Trans senator! Read her life in her own words as you see her making headlines for wanting to use the toilet at work....
Others to read who I love:
Akwaeke Emezi - Vivek is my absolute fav
Imogen Binnie
Nicola Dinan
Janet Mock
Aiden Thomas

Yesterday was Trans Visibility day, and in the spirit of we should be reading trans author all year round I wanted to make a post for 6 books I intend to read this year by Trans authors!

I am SO excited for Disappoint Me, I loved her Bellies and I have the ARC I have already started, Stag Dance is up next I really enjoyed Detransition Baby and Peters latest interviews, I am impatiently waiting for Gentleman's Gentleman!

Who are you reading?