My #1 (maybe only) reading goal for 2026 is to knock accused sex offender Neil Gaiman off my top authors.
I tend to read 90% literature books, and the authors I love the most do not have a ton of books. So this has been a struggle I have thought about all year
I have 12 Gaiman books so I must have authors with 13 or more books. Kurt Vonnegut is already out ranking him. I want to stick with women and BIPOC authors.
I need 9 authors to bump him

Feeling a bit overwhelmed with the challenges I set for my reading self. This stack of honkers are what I need to read to finish up challenges.
I am not going to make it, and I think that is okay!
I had it in my head I would donate any I didn't finish on challenges but I still very much want to read these, maybe not all just now.
I am 200 pages into Books of Jacob and am really struggling with the writing.

#lifeofareader

👍👍
This was fun! A bit of a rom com feeling. Vanessa is the head of a crime family (Mob) and Nick is a math teacher. What happens when their meet-cute turns to a disaster first date? Likeable characters, a mystery (that is too easily guessed at, but I am just here for the ride)
I couldn't stop listening! Very addictive I liked the addition of a tiny teacher's dog.

Fresh board!

November was maybe my best reading month of the year.
4.5 ⭐
Change the Recipe
Miss Major Speaks
The Message
4 ⭐
A Different Kind of Power
Who Killed My Father
System Collapse
Hungerstone
Frozen River
The Blob (tagged as my surprise like)
I Put A Spell On You
3.75 ⭐
Far from the Tree
The Storyteller
Once Persuaded, Twice Shy
House of Day, House of Night
Mad Mabel
Flesh
3.5 ⭐
The Future Is Disabled
3 ⭐
Time And Again
The Möbius Book
The Peepshow

I thought this was great! Perfect length, the author kept it moving and kept it interesting. There is some speculation throughout, but only because the people involved have not told anyone certain aspects of their crimes.
This also works well in audio
4/5⭐

While this was still enjoyable, it felt like maybe my least favorite Murderbot book. We are getting to where there are just too many characters for me to lightly keep track of which is bogging me down a bit.

I am still excited to read the next in the series, because I just adore Murderbot, but hoping for less side characters and more humor.

December day 1... And we are off
Full of confidence (and delusion) that I can read this in a month!

Back at it after the American holiday!

Does anyone else have a newspaper put out by the Houseless population in their area? I want to say it is only a PDX thing but I am not sure?

#WeeklyForecast

I have the tagged on audio
I started Ripley already and love being back with this little psycho.
Tomorrow is somehow December and I plan on tackling some big reads:
I read 20 pages of Sonia & Sunny last weekend and put it aside, but it is due back to the library next weekend and so I must get on with it.
The Books Of Jacob will take me all month, it will be my kitchen table book 900 pgs I need to read about 30pgs a day.

Finishing the tagged today, which takes me to 4 #BookspinBingos

I read by #Bookspin - Frozen River - but didn't get to my #Doublespin
December will be all about catching up on the books I put off all year.

December #TBR

Reading book 7 because I got an ARC of book 8!!

I technically finished, but I tried to listen to this today while cleaning and prepping food for a party and my mind kept wondering.
I think maybe I am just not smart enough for Ali Smith. The choppy sentence structure was difficult for me, and while I see her bigger argument I got very lost in the weeds.

This is no reflection on the book itself. Obviously she is a very popular and respected author. For sure a case of it's not you it's me.

This was okay. Many interesting ideas about time travel and how you would view the time before. I thought there were some ideas not explored enough (I kept thinking about smells which he barely mentioned). It is interesting to read something written 50 years ago that is a time travel book , you have to "travel" back to the 70s to think about what he would know and how different another 80 years would be.
Kindred ruined me for these types ?

I don't remember why I bought this book. I put it on my short list for reading this year. The copy I have is illustrated, lots of (not great?) sketches and some photos from 1880s New York.

I do find the idea of faces being more interesting in the past true and something to ponder that a writer in 1970 had observed this - I hear it called iPhone face now, people whose faces only fit in this time.

Last Bookspin.

I still have 3 to catch up on -
Anne of Green Gables
The Books Of Jacob (yikes)
Doctor Zhivago

I am going to be doing a lot of finishing up challenges so not sure how much of the bookspin I will get to!

"Most of the customers can't speak real words; the Friday Black has already taken most of their minds. Still, so many of them are the same. I grab 2 medium fleeces w/o anyone asking for them b/c I know someone wants one. They howl and scream: daughter, son, girlfriend, husband, friend, ME, daughter, son. I throw 1 of the fleeces towards the registers and 1 towards the back wall. The crowd splits."

This is the Black Friday activities in this house. Until we get up and clean this place up.

I am still trying to decide if I liked this because I liked it or if the bad reviews just gave me super low expectations.
Vi is a super unlikable MC. She is listless, unambitious, rude. Floating around with no direction for no reason (her parents seem great) then she molds a man out of a blob. I got Awada Bunny vibes from this but hesitant to say that, it is not as weird and the writing is not as strong (GR commenters are mad at the comparison)👇

#TOB
Well. That is a book.
I do not believe this is a book to tackle on audio. There is a monotone to the narrator, mixed with a stream of consciousness that makes it hard to digest. This is going to be a book I have no memory reading even though this very short read took me three days - I turned it off each time my mind started to wonder
Not for me

@squirrelbrain @BarbaraBB @Deblovestoread @Bookwormjillk @Chelsea.Poole @sarahbarnes

Women's Prize long list book that I am just getting to. This was fine. I want to be a True Crime Girlie but I just don't think I am. I need more focus on the victims. This I think fails in marketing, the book is much more focused (IMO) on journalism. What information is given, how it is relayed. I think there are a lot of interesting tid bits in here but overall I didn't find the book itself interesting, it seemed a bit direction less.

This is my first Hepworth. I am a bit confused if the "Twists" are supposed to be twists? I wasn't 3 pages in before I saw one and then quickly another (they are not "revealed" until the end). I also hope this isn't the final cover, it doesn't fit the book in the slightest
Even so I thought this charming. Mabel who goes by Elsie now was Australia's youngest murder, but did she do it? Is she a serial killer like some think? She is 80 now & talking

#WeeklyForecast is "Too many books, too little time"

Tagged needs to go back to the library soon so have started it, I am 30 pages in and unsure.

Private Revolutions is a Women's Prize long list and I am still in Nonfiction November so going to get through that. Time and Again doubles and both a #10BeforeTheEnd and #BookedInTime read.

We will see how the US holiday week goes!

#10BeforeTheEnd Week 5

How is everyone doing??

I am glad I put enough nonfiction on here to get me through Nonfiction November! All the NF is ticked off (finishing Peepshow today) I now have some chunksters while I also look at #ToB

Anyone else feel like they are running out of steam??

When I rate memoirs I rate on readability, structure and if the story is easy to understand. I do not decide what I think the author should tell me.
Simone's bio is fairly linear with not much back and forth through time which I appreciate, I also really enjoyed how she seemed to place herself in the time, not hinting on what is to come later.
For all this I think this is a great bio.
On a personal note 👇

"Is it normal to be ashamed of loving?"
Louis asks many questions throughout this book. He analyzes growing up poor and gay with parents who were unsupportive and often violent. But the title of the book is not a question. Louis knows who is killing his father.
As someone who doesn't know much about Frances politics beyond who is PM this was very revealing for me. I see the universal hatred of the poor here.
A quick but deep read 4/5⭐

The 4 #ToB books I have already on my shelves to be read.

I have read 11 off the list. 70 is far too many for me to think on so I am going to read the ones already on my TBR and read through the list and see if anything catches my fancy. Many of them have very low reader ratings and I just don't want to waste my time.

@bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

I liked this, not as much as I have seen others here but it was a well paced, keep you reading ride. I have a fear of pregnancy and birth so midwife takes are not my go to but I liked how the story really revolves around the community and centers on a murder.
I thought it was fascinating that our MC has an adult son she doesn't really seem to like,in a time of raise them correctly they will molded the way you intend.👇

I recently learned that the block of the park closest to my office was designed as Men Only back in the early 1900s.

There is a similar block 2 streets down that was for Women. I am glad we were equal (? At least they are the same size and both have bathrooms) but it really makes me determined to sit at the closer male side whenever I can. It's a good attitude for Nina Simone.

I started this the morning before Alice Wong passed, so it took me a bit longer to get through, it was sad and inspiring to hear her mentioned so often throughout LLPS's book. This is hard to rate. It isn't really about the future, it is mostly about 2020-2022 and how GD hard it was. I think this is a good read for people who want to understand the community and life more, but overall it is a bit meandering

My current co-worker

Tis the season. My therapist is out sick, the appointment is already on my work calendar so I am taking a moment away.

Reading about the incomparable Nina Simone

A new Murderbot is coming in May!!

I am actually one behind so I have to get on this series!

#WeeklyForecast

#10BeforeTheEnd this week is Peepshow
#Bookspin The Frozen River
And a couple of small nonfictions one very local about the Oregon cheese industry and one about the amazing Nina Simone

#10BeforeTheEnd
4 weeks in

I am right on track - wishing I was a bit ahead. Going to tackle Peepshow (from the Women's Prize Long list this last year) next.

This is why I follow the Women's Prize each year more than any other.

This is a great look at Ardern's life to this point. Such a compassionate and thoughtful woman. It was interesting to hear how she overcame feelings of inadequacy and how she worked through so many life altering crises. I love QE2's advice to her when she asked about raising kids in the public eye and doing public work "You just get on with it."
I thought this was well written and paced, easy to read and relatable - she is quite funny

"It turns out the end of the world is easier to read about in a book, then to know how to respond in real life "

Calamity says "Men, ?"

Ardern says: Fl"For years, my love life, if you could call it that, had been beset by both minor humiliation and consistent failure [......] Or the lovely journalist who decided to move to Africa - or at least I think he moved to Africa."

Ardern is just as cheeky and relatable in this memoir as I had hoped

I enjoyed this. As others have said the writing style is paired down and sparse. I think that reflects both the idea of the Eastern European and the Man. This is a character study and can be taken quite philosophically.
It is also a bit depressing! István goes along to get along and that leads to some really unfortunate situations. I really appreciate how Szalay portrayed mental health in aan we would assume avoids it.

The world has lost a great one.
It is strange how you don't know someone but you might feel a connection. On Thursday I was thinking "I haven't seen posts from Alice Wong in a while" and yesterday I started a book that was heavily influenced by her (The Future Is Disabled) and today I wake up to the news that she passed away.
A sad day for the disabled community, and a sad day for all of us to lose her voice.

This was everything it promised, Gothic, sapphic, a bit twisted and well written.

Lenore is a wonderful heroine. She is unraveling, but you can empathize and pull for her. Her husband is both weak and horrible

It has been a long time since I have read a book with such a satisfying ending.

@dabbe #TTT #TAKETHREETHURSDAY

I am not a big holiday movie person, but child me LOVED A Christmas Story, adult me usually watches Love Actually (shaking my head the whole time at how bad it is) and The Holiday (no way Cameron and Jude made it more than a year!)

Low pick, pick w/a caution
This was entirely too long. I think it would be just as impactful and would reach a larger audience if it was half the length.
With that I am impressed with Solomon's research. I also think he is a study on how to slip yourself into a book. When he spoke of his own story it never felt intrusive and always was there to relate to a point.
While the book itself is too dense, his writing at the sentence level is not and 👇

"On my name day it began to rain, so we moved the chairs into the hall to sit it out until the rain stopped. But it never ended; it came streaming down relentlessly, obscuring the horizon. Not in drops, but in stair rods."

I really loved this musing on rain and I am glad I read this in the fall the perfect time to absorb the beauty of her writing.

While I really enjoyed this I do think it is a bit too long. I really ran out of steam the last 50 pages or something.

Something Tokarczuk does so well is weave stories into one book that make you feel like you are sitting on a porch while neighbors drop by and tell you gossip. You have the story of the villager who walked up the mountain to see his childhood home, the story of a saint - and the monk who wrote her story, the story of the man 👇

It is a GORGEOUS day for a walk with an audiobook

Listening to the tagged

While I have mostly moved to Storygraph (because I hate the man who owns GR - eat the rich) I do love a vote!

Anything anyone is excited to vote for?

#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the mysterious sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior (one of the great lakes) Gordon Lightfoot has a great folk song about the sinking (The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald) and the tagged is on my TBR to read more about this mystery. Here is a short article about the basics:
The Edmund Fitzgerald sank in the Great Lakes 50 years ago: NPR https://share.google/BptHhPyCJOdUV0kDq