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

#weeklyforecast
Chipping away at Far From The Tree with mixed feelings, should finish this week.

Reading the tagged for a break from that. Hoping to get to Cheese War this week also. The stack behind is hopefuls for next weekend. I grabbed Frozen River on audio so might dive into that while on my walks (if I get walks it is insanely windy here!!)

This book has extremely high rating on GR. I think because mostly his fans are going to be reading this and predisposed to giving him a 5 also, memoirs are hard to rate. It is hard to not bring your own nostalgia in.
I rate memoirs only on 2 dynamics: sentence structure, and flow. I never go in thinking XYZ is what they should write about. For this I give Grohl's book a 3.5⭐ I enjoyed it. He can write allowing his voice to come through, but👇

"I am reminded of a friend who said that when she found out her husband couldn't fill her needs, she changed her needs." - No examples.

WTF. I am struggling with this book. There is a thread of misogyny in it that is really grating on me. I have noticed that in most cases he is introducing couples telling what the husband does but not the wife. And then the wife becomes a SAHM. SAH moms are great but let's give them more identity.

Booker readers!! I haven't delved into the list (I have Flesh from the library but haven't started it yet)
What book do you wish would win?
What book do you think will win?

I keep reading books from years ago lists...

I finished the chapter on Autism last night. This book was published in 2012 and it reflects the issue I often have with nonfiction, it is out of date when I get to it. Here it is okay, the past is still relevant and I am glad he was firm on vaccines. I have forgotten how brutal severe Autism can be. These days it feels like half the people I know are getting diagnosed and they are all "normal" with a small hyper fixation.
?

#10BeforeTheEnd - 3 Weeks In

I am 3 in, working slowly on Far From The Tree
Silly me I picked a lot of chunky books for this!

A once in a generation mind. Coates is always a pick. In this Coates strings together ideas from his travels - the slave trade out of Senegal, current day book banning in S. Carolina, Palestine occupation, and he some how threads them into a coherent telling on oppression
His cadence always blows me away, and how he can take subjects and make them not only lyrical but impactful.
Such important insights here. Should be required reading

8 weeks.

8 WEEKS!!!

#10BeforeTheEnd

This hit the spot!

I absolutely love Jane Austen's Persuasion, so spin offs make me nervous but this was so good! I am a bit annoyed about the Taylor Swift references but I thought this was great. It is a small town romance with lots of quirky characters, but didn't feel like a Hallmark that demonizes working women - in fact Anne is the hardest worker (for obvious reasons)
I thought this was charming, and lived the goose!

The feeling when:

You take your eye off the library hold list for one minute and everything comes rushing in.

Full on Murphy's Law.

Coffee break

#10BeforeTheEnd

"I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. But I am here, so I might as well fucking enjoy it, and help my community if I can"

Words to live by!! Miss Major passed away last month. She was an inspiration as she says many times here, not many Black Trans people get to live to be in their 80s, what an amazing life she has had. Not easy, but amazing. I like how she spoke of Trans rights reminding us to be good allies by not assuming ?

"It's like being on a road, it doesn't matter if it's the yellow brick road, or pavement, or gravel. It's still a road and where it takes you is where you're going. And I think the journey is how you use that road- if you stay on it and the path that it's leading you down, or you venture off and do something else and create a path of your own."

I think this might be my last Aardvark box. I joined last year to get a few books that I had wanted to read, and I have honestly done very well, only buying books I had already read and enjoyed or books that were already on my TBR. The last few months I have struggled to find anything I had really wanted to read.

I think that $16 would be better used at the food bank, or going to World Central Kitchen.

#NonfictionNovember is here!
#WeeklyForecast

I am halfway into the tagged would like to finish tomorrow.
I am planning on reading one chapter from Far From The Tree a day, there are 12 chapters but I am looking realistically at a full 2 weeks I understand it is a dense one.

Supplementing with the brilliant Ta-Nehisi Coates and the inspiring Jacinda Ardern

"I didn't get to eighty years old being sweet and gentle. I'm no flower. Fuck that. I'm a cactus - get over it "

4.5⭐

Chef Jose Andres' is an inspiration. This is a short book.(Under 200 pages) About his life, the lessons he has learned and of course about food. It isn't incredibly deep on details but it is filled with quotable inspiration and a fantastic surface look at how he got to where he is and what philosophies keep him moving forward. Highly recommend.

The end of this honors the 7 WCK volunteers who were killed by Israel in Gaza. It is heartbreaking and infuriating that no justice has happened for these amazing people who were just trying to feed people.

This is a small book, a book about Chefs life and an inspirational look at food, but it is incredibly powerful and I am crying listening to Andres delivering the eulogy in DC for these 7. You can listen to this eulogy on Spotify.

Some of the chapters:
You don't need everything to be happy
Seek Out Simple Pleasures
Say yes to help
Commit to what matters
You're a player not a spectacular
You really don't know everything
Act with the fierce urgency of now
Serve something greater than yourself
Time is your most valuable ingredient
Your purpose is finding your purpose

What the perfect book to read after one about how horrible the Facebook people are.