This was good, though I didn't connect with it as much as some people have. I found the writing to be good, albeit a little sterile, and I had a had time getting emotionally invested in the story. The narration of the audiobook felt very 90s- the narrator had a good, kind of generic voice that I don't feel like embodied the character very well. All in all though, I'm glad I finally got to this one!

I thought this was totally fine. Way more religious than I was expecting going in, which wasn't a bad thing, just surprising. The audio was pretty good and went by quickly. I'm looking forward to reading what comes next from Kelsey McKinney.

Meh, parts of this were creepy, but I found the end to be really disappointing.

I have now read all of the Women's Prize shortlisted books for this year, and this one was as excellent as the rest. TW for substance abuse.

Super cute, fun autumnal vibes. A good little palate cleanser to wrap up the #readathon .

5⭐ Incredibly moving, wonderfully written. Devastating and important.

Waiting for my breakfast and reading this wonderful book. #readathon #reversereadathon #deweysreadathon

My first book for Dewey's Reverse #readathon is Malibu Rising on audiobook while I fold laundry!

Flew through this. Note that I am out of blue tabs- because those were what I was using to remind myself of things I had forgotten! It's a quick read, and I skimmed many parts. 3.5⭐

This was so rad. 600 pages in less than 48 hours good. Can't wait to read the next one.

I started this last week and I've barely read 5 pages. Might have to put it down for now and move on to something else, maybe come back to it another time.

Filler stories, extras, not a part of the overall plot. A little unnecessary. If volume 1 was an Oscar winning movie, this was a made for basic cable TV movie. It was fine, but I expect so much more at this point.

This book put me through it. I don't know if it portrayed this disorder accurately (not going to say what is going on because spoilers), but it did something well. An intense, co-dependent friendship/relationship between two high school boys turns dark (literally the pages get darker as the story goes on) as one of them begins experiencing more and more intense hallucinations. 5 stars.

This book floored me, made me feel uncomfortable, made me look at myself differently, made me laugh and cry and highlight. My only complaint was the character of Marla didn't have much depth, and it was glaring when all of the other characters were so rich in difference and change. She was just the worst, beginning to end. This is only a small complaint, and otherwise I loved it. 4.5 stars!

This is the first Murakami that I just feel flummoxed by. I feel like the end was supposed to be this big “duh duh DUH“ reveal moment, but I was only confused. Some Murakami stories have this effect on my, but in those cases I'm usually distracted enough by the gorgeous setting and atmosphere that I'm happy to be on the journey. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case here.

Read for the #readingrush “read the first book you touch“ prompt.

omgggggg I loved this so much. So pure, so lovely. I need volume 2 in my life asap. 5 stars.

Read for the #readingrush in the “read a book completely outside your house“ prompt!

Read for the #readingrush prompt “read a book in a genre you've always wanted to read more of“, in this case, self-help. Sadly, this is not the genre for me, or at least this book wasn't. It's a little cringey, and is a big fan of therapy homework, which is not my jam. If you love comic books and are looking for a self-help journey, maybe give this a try.

Litsy fam, I have like, 7 books from this week that I haven't posted reviews for yet. Should post each one individually, or do a group post of all of them?

(Pic is of my niece, who is so cute)

I will have the heebie-jeebies forever from this book. Very Stephen King... but possibly better???

TW for graphic animal abuse. Very not joking.

A delightful story about a woman in Japan who is very literal, doesn't feel or express emotions the way those around her do, and who doesn't feel the need or the urge to do what is expected of her- she doesn't yearn for a family, or a career, or anything like that, until she takes a job at a convenience store. There, the rules and expectations are very clear, and she is happy. I listened to this on audio and it was very short, but very good. 4.5⭐

I'm a little meh on this one. Parts of it were crazy and wonderful, other parts were weird and kind of off-putting, and other parts were just confusing. I think one of the reasons why the movie works so much better for me is the character of Roy Baty, who is lovely and tortured in the movie but is barely in the book at all.

Read for the #ReadingRush, read a book that inspired a movie you've already seen.

Read for the #ReadingRush2020 for the birthstone challenge (it is very garnet appropriate with the multiple shades of red on the cover!). This was occasionally problematic but overall excellent, and I'm excited to see where the series goes from here. 4.5⭐

Day 1 of the #ReadingRush and I'm starting by reading Scythe for the birthstone challenge. There's definitely red on the cover for garnet!

Here is my potential stack for this week. For every page I read, I'm donating to CORE Response, an organization that brings relief when disaster strikes... for example, right now they are bringing covid-19 testing to communities that have been heavily impacted. ❤️

I love her writing, and I loved this book. I think this format of interconnected short stories really hurts home for me- another one of my favorites is told this way (Visit From the Goon Squad)- I just love how you get this wide view of everything that's happening, and I love following all of the different characters. Her sentences are so gorgeous, this is going to stick with me for a long time. 5⭐

Listened to this fascinating true crime audiobook about a young English woman, Lucie Blackman, who goes missing while working as a companion in Japan. Her family tries to work with the local police to find out what happened to her, and the insight into the cultural differences surrounding the justice system are fascinating to read about. I was totally unaware of this story before reading the book, and was totally engrossed beginning to end. 4⭐

This was fine, not my favorite by Ann Rule, but creepy enough that my coworker startled the hell out of me while I was listening to it! I gave this 3⭐.

This is so upsetting. Who would do this??

My reading for June! My two favorites are on the left, though Every Heart a Doorway could conceivably go there as well. Overall a pretty great reading month, lots of variety, and I'm surprised that I got to ten books- when I went to put this post together, I thought it would be half that!

This was weird, and delightful, and off-putting, and gross, and sickly-sweet, and I have no idea how much of it was actually happening and how much was made up or hallucinated by an unreliable narrator. Ironically I kept wondering if it was only a pretentious grad school type piece, or was it a really good and crazy Alice in Wonderland type adventure?

#summerfun question for anyone who can help- one of the boxes says to read Litsy Award winners, is there a place to get that list? I checked the hashtag, but was unsuccessful. Thanks in advance!
@4thhouseontheleft @StayCurious

This was boring and at times unbelievable to a point that I was just shaking my head. I don't love thrillers, and I found this fairly predictable. The end was the best part, and it bumped it up to a 3 stars for me. I'd recommend it if you love thrillers, because the concept is kind of interesting, but there's no reason to like, run out and buy a copy.

Home recovering from surgery, this was the perfect read for keeping my mind occupied. I loved this so much, I need the next one asap! 5/5 stars.

My name is pretty unusual, I was not expecting to see it in this context, and certainly not with my morning cup of coffee...

"Nothing ever happened in Woodview. Certainly nothing like the murder of a nice woman named Callie..."

?

I wish I could give this book ten stars. I wish it came with a soundtrack to listen to while reading it. It has everything I loved- magic, a crew coming together, a really amazing main character, beautiful writing. If any of this interests you, pick this one up!!

Listened to this on audio, it was fine, but not revolutionary. Certain sections were better than others. The audio quality was high and the narrator was good. 3⭐

Went on a bit of a shopping spree on book depository. I have more coming in from a couple indies that I love too... I'm very excited for all of these!!

Side note for people doing swaps- stick a Post-It in your books saying who sent them to you and what swap it was for! I've had so many instances of wanting to shout people out (like whoever here got me hooked on Death Note), but by the time I read them, I can't remember who sent them!

From last year. There's so much here that I miss- getting my nails done, going to the beach, reading this book...

#beachselfie #summerfun @4thhouseontheleft

Organized my "read but keeping" shelves today, and alphabetized by author. Took forever, but I'm pretty happy with the result! Now I need to tackle my TBR, which will be a bit more intensive... ?

I adored this, and highly recommend the audio. This story is going to stick with me for a long time. I loved Bri (Bree? Hard to know spellings when you're listening to the audio), her family (especially her mom Jay), and her friends. I'm really sad it's over!

The writing was gorgeous, and the message profound and powerful. I agree with Toni Morrison, who blurbed the cover; This is required reading.

Started this this morning. It's so great. Highly recommend the audio.

This was an additional short story tacked on the end of Pretty Girls, and is a prequel to that book. I can't see reading it without having read Pretty Girls first, but having read Pretty Girls, I found it completely unnecessary. It wasn't bad, just kind of meh.

Like I mentioned before, this reminded me so much of The Giver, plus George Orwell and Haruki Murakami. Very strange, very lovely, quiet and unsettling. This leaves you without a lot of explanations, if you need a lot of answers you will be left wanting. But it's so rewarding if you can enjoy the story and get swept up in the events that transpire.

But Callie, how can you be done at only 88%? Apparently there's also a short at the end of this audiobook of Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes, which is actually a prequel. I wonder if this was true in the physical copy?

This was really good, slowly unfolding and surprising me here and there. The main character can be frustratingly thick on occasion, but not to the extent that I grew too frustrated as things slowly occurred to her.

I can't remember where I saw this, but here is a great list of bookstores that can benefit from support right now. Just put in an order at Frugal Bookstore in Boston! If you posted this today, I am sorry for not crediting you! I need to be better about screencapping the OP.

ETA: please comment below with more! It's not my list originally so I can't update it the image, but would love to see more names listed. Thank you!!

My first Litsy challenge in a long time! Very excited!

See the organizers' feeds for more information, and sign up by clicking the link below:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdvL4BpgRoKr7LKvLH1iqFk481gLb6hnV2E5UHy...

Started The Memory Police this morning, and more than anything, it feels like a prequel to my favorite book of all time, The Giver.

My reading for May! Not a huge number of books, but some real chunkers on this list- Mistborn was almost 700 pages, Middlegame was almost 500, Shell Seekers was over 500. All were extremely excellent... except Jane Eyre, because I am apparently uncultured swine. Hated the audiobook, was so glad when it was over. Funny enough, I finished my audio and regular read today, so I'll get to start June fresh!

This was so good! My only complaint is that towards the end there is a bit of bouncing around in time that was not really indicated clearly in audio. Maybe there are visual clues in the actual book that make this more obvious? I thought I had fast-forwarded inadvertantly through a really important part. But overall, I loved it. 4.25/5 stars.

This was lovely, even though the end felt a little too tidy for me. I had secretly been worried that it was going to put me in a reading slump, but thankfully I couldn't put it down. Totally understand why it's my mom's favorite!