I bought a new plant. And I keep taking pictures of her. I think the cats are getting jealous. Not related to the tagged except that it's the book I keep looking up from to admire the plant.

This is my second Sally Rooney, and I like it quite a bit more than I did that first. This one took me a while to get into, but once I got the hang of it, I enjoyed the meandering pace at which these characters navigate grief, love, family, and societal expectations. It's interesting to see how each character doing what they want affects everyone else and how balance comes from unveiling secrets and being honest with themselves and others.#tob25

I went to the library to pick up a hold and was seduced by the "blind date with a book" display. I almost don't want to open it, the anticipation is so sweet! Any guesses about what it is before the big reveal? The clues: It's satire, "dark, unsettling, and nerve chafing," and about 1/2 inch/1 cm thick.

Just over halfway through February, I've finally posted about my January reading! (And also about my cats.)

https://imperfecthappiness.org/2025/02/18/bookends-january-2025/

I've been really digging this song lately:

https://open.spotify.com/track/56bVCBk20LrKXdADA4qWaA?si=0yvA55TGRsK58QRfF-irgQ

#tuesdaytunes @TieDyeDude

I'm on my third month of reading to two UTK classes, and it's turning into a highlight of my week. The (mostly) unfiltered energy and enthusiasm and wonder is a balm to me. And I think they like my visits, too. :-)

"What kind of truth would require this many lies to tell?"

I love this take on the role of fiction. It reminds me not only of how I experience fiction (lies told to convey a truth) but of the likely apocryphal stories traditionally told about US presidents to convey the ideals the American people valued in their leaders (which in itself feels like a lie these days, but employed for a different reason).

I kind of love this novel. It is not at all what I expected, and it's engaging enough to reach me through a reading slump. It's essentially a coming-of-age story with quite high stakes and brushes with bureaucracy. It explores what makes someone a "good person" and the inconsistent way our capitalist society promotes and reacts to that concept. Definitely glad it made the #tob25 shortlist.

I started this morning on my last #tob25 shortlist title, but I'm still having trouble focusing on reading. I'll see if I can make progress on the audio while making dinner. If I can't, at least I can enjoy the sunset. (It doesn't look like this from my house, but this is only about 3 miles away, taken after an early dinner last night.)

I didn't read very much this week, but of the two I finished, this was the one I liked better.

#WeeklyFavorites @Read4life

This one is a soft pick for me. I enjoyed the exploration of the inner workings of the Larkin family, but I'm disappointed that we didn't see more of some of the family members, especially Lexi. I'm also not totally on board with the brush with fame Alec had and the influence that had on his actions. #tob25 longlist

Photo: Not a wolf but a gray mammal at the table (Silo feeling betrayed that we didn't share Thanksgiving dinner with him).

Valentine's Day gift for my spouse. Slightly self-serving because I REALLY want him to read this so I can talk to him about it.

Maybe it's an "it's not you; it's me" situation, but I never really got into this novel. I laughed a few times, but it doesn't feel like "good material," I can't imagine it being a funny comedy show, and the MC---a man---doesn't read like a man to me. I finished it, so I didn't dislike it, I just didn't love it, either. A #tob25 longlist title that I don't mind not making the shortlist.

I did better on this one than I expected to! I would like to thank my Romantic Literature professor, whose name I do not remember but without whom I would never have read and completely forgotten all details about The Rape of the Lock.

Faves from this list:
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Trial
The Remains of the Day

I can't believe this is the last list!

#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe

I'm not feeling this one right now. I suspect I added it to my TBR for my kids at some point because it's more their thing than mine. Maybe I'll revisit it at some point, but I'm setting it aside for now. One down for #Roll100! Not a very satisfying way to mark it off, but it does get it off my TBR.

Am I in a reading slump? I feel like I might be in a reading slump. But for me that looks like audiobooking (the tagged) but not constantly and not really getting into any of my print books for...gosh, like 5 days. Maybe it's too early to declare a reading slump, but it feels slumpy for me.

#WeeklyFavorites @Read4life

A little delayed, but here I am with the best of the week. February is going much faster than January so far.

Some bookish quotes at the library. It's on the other side of a window so the reflections make the photo imperfect, but I think you get the idea.

Amazing myself (and perhaps my seatmate but probably not because she didn't know me and so had no historical context), I spent nearly the entire flight reading the tagged book! It helped that none of the available movies seemed compelling.

This novel covers a lot of ground: grief, family dynamics, generational trauma, illness, addiction, income inequality, immigration, racism. I appreciate the writing and the characters, but like others, I found following the story to be a challenge. The format and timeline feel true to life and therefore a little unsettling to me. I wonder if I go to fiction because a tidy narrative helps life seem more manageable. (This isn't a tidy narrative.)

28/100 for the third AP Lit list.

Some faves:
1) A Prayer for Owen Meany
2) Middlemarch
3) Oryx and Crake (I need to re-read this trilogy!)

@dabbe #ThreeListThursday #TLT

Planning for a long weekend: 1 physical book, 4 audiobooks, and 10 books on my Kobo. Why does this not feel like enough?

You're right. I should probably add another small physical book. The tagged should work. And there are always bookstores.

(Photo of spring blossoms last weekend.)

An inspiring and informative story with incredible illustrations. I've spent several hours helping create read-aloud resources for volunteers who will be reading this book in classrooms of students from UTK to grade 3 (ages 4-8-ish). It feels like a huge responsibility to come up with reading questions that are relevant and honest but that also don't feel too overwhelming for students this young.

Although I don't quite buy the motive(s), I like the characters in this one quite a bit. Miss Marple is always a delight. I've been reading through Christie's novels for several years and have been reading English lit for decades, and this is the first time I really realized that, unlike with novels set in the US in which I can follow the action on a fairly detailed mental map, I have only the vaguest sense of the geography of UK-set novels.

I made the mistake of reading the news for too long too early today, and it totally threw me off my game. I did a few tedious chores then I retreated into bookish self-care and organized my bookshelves while listening to the tagged audiobook. I've got all of my physical TBRs in the same place now, the read fiction organized by author name, and the nonfiction (mostly) organized by topic. And I have a nice stack to give away, too.

I have been very much enjoying novels centered around middle-aged women reevaluating their relationships. I especially like that this one doesn't focus on the hormonal stuff. Normalizing perimenopause rocks, but it fatigues me when a person is reduced to biology. Of course, this MC is a little young for perimenopause, which might be why it's not a main character. The novel is a little too perfectly laid out, but it feels honest, and I like that.

Audiopuzzling this very shiny puzzle that my brother-in-law and his wife got us for Christmas.

My February #bookspin list. I started The Wedding People first thing this morning, and so far I am loving it! Looking forward to seeing what my Groundhog Day #bookspinbingo card looks like tomorrow.

@TheAromaofBooks

In January, my focus was on doing what I felt like and not feeling guilty about it. Mostly I succeeded, which means I read a lot of books and played a lot of piano and only felt a mild undercurrent of guilt. #tob25 has been treating me well, even when I disagree about a couple of titles that I think should have made the shortlist. Only finished #doublespin, not #bookspin, but no (well, little) guilt!
#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

#WeeklyFavorites @Read4life

I have read some great books this week, but The History of Sound is the clear winner. Is it the best of the month? Quite possibly.

I love this collection of loosely connected stories. Not only is each story compelling on its own, but the arc of the set of stories as a whole is very satisfying. It's also interesting to read stories set in a part of the world where I lived and where I tried for several years to belong but didn't succeed. Another from the #tob25 shortlist.

"...children seem to me a remarkable race. They want so much to murder so many people, and they so rarely murder anybody at all."

This book is slow going, but there are so many delightful lines in it.

#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe (Thanks for the tag!)

38/100 this time, most of which I read post-schooling. At one point, my favorite authors were Ernest Hemingway and Charles Dickens.

Faves:
1. The Haunting of Hill House
2. Housekeeping (although I prefer her Gilead)
3. Kafka on the Shore

A short book of very short, very off-the-wall stories. These stories each take a little random idea and answer the question, what if this little random idea happened in real life? Delightfully bizarre.

The sense of isolation and the double-edged sword of obedience are strong in this novel. The sound of the waves comes through the writing. The pace is slow, and the interactions are frustrating as we follow the development of relationships through hardship. I appreciate the reflective nature of this novel even as I'm not sure I would recommend it except in specific circumstances.

Photo: Somewhere near Half Moon Bay, California, 2005.

Sky water! And I'm reading an appropriately titled book for a downpour. Not thrilled to have to drive in it, but I'm very happy to get precipitation. It's been a ridiculously dry rainy season.

More live music! I enjoyed reading the tagged during the quiet parts (and napping in the car between our son's two concerts...staying up late reading the night before hours of orchestral music isn't a great idea, apparently).

I irritated my spouse and confused my teen and the cats by staying up very late to finish this one. It's not that it's spectacular, but I did find it gripping, and I just didn't feel like stopping reading. Yes, the men in this are all douchebags (at best), and it is annoying how much the women put up with, but it feels not-untrue to me the way that people contort themselves to meet expectations and to try to stave off rejection.

Really?

Started this book today. After just the Author's Note, the Prologue, and this quote, I think I'm going to have fun with this one.

I have read some great books this week, so it was tough to choose, but the tagged edged out Poor Deer and Martyr! by just a little (even with how grouchy the ending still has me feeling).

#WeeklyFavorites @Read4life

I have very strong, mixed feelings about this novel. On the one hand, it's beautiful, focused yet expansive, easy to get lost in. One section had me in tears, which rarely happens for me when reading. On the other hand, I feel cheated. I will not go into details, but I do not like how the story wraps up. So, 99% I loved, 1% really pissed me off.

#tob25 longlist

A poignant exploration of how a child reacts to tragedy and draws conclusions about responsibility and the role that adults play in this process. My family experienced a loss when I was just shy of 4, and the ways in which Margaret attempts to make sense of her loss and the ways that it reverberates through the years feels true to me, although the circumstances were quite different.

Photo: A deer (in maybe Colorado?) in 2015.

The wind is blowing like crazy, and I'm trying to distract myself from worrying about fires. Playing piano has been soothing (grateful that after a year of playing, I have enough skill so it can be something besides frustrating), and I'm enjoying reading the tagged, but it's increasing the sense of foreboding that started with the wind and the news. I might resort to housework to expend some of the restlessness if this keeps up.

#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe

34/100
Not as awesome as it might have been had I made more progress on my TBR, but my English degree plus homeschooling plus the Classics Club challenge helped. That and my love of Margaret Atwood and Toni Morrison.

Faves:
1. All the Light We Cannot See
2. Brave New World
3. Beloved

There is a lot going on in this novel. I'm not totally convinced of the motivations for some of the characters' actions, but it's a diverting story to read. I'm intrigued by the trope of the insidiously close-knit village. I see why authors keep coming back to it (and not just because it gives them a controlled environment with a limited cast of characters). It's interesting to explore how people justify their actions and defend/blame one another.

I had a busy day today---listened to the tagged while driving to and from reading to preschoolers and to and from piano lesson. Then I recorded, edited, and submitted four auditions. I felt productive, but perhaps not as productive as Silo, who built a little nest out of my son's dirty socks.

The photo doesn't do the stew justice, but it was SO GOOD. I couldn't find fresh habañeros*, so I used a jalapeño and a few dashes of habañero hot sauce. Caribbean-Style Swiss Chard and Butternut Squash Stew from the tagged.

*About 20 years ago, I had a habañero plant in a container on the balcony of our apartment in North Carolina. It grew to about three feet tall and produced at least a hundred habañeros. And now I can't find one pepper. *sigh*

There's not a lot I can say about this one without giving spoilers, but I can say that I really appreciate how it's written, and I'm looking forward to discussing the ending with my book club. It's not my favorite from the #tob25 shortlist, but I do like it.

Although it ate into my reading time, I enjoyed spending half of the day exploring a bit of my lovely city, situated in the most biodiverse county in the United States. Hopefully, in the years to come, we can make choices as a community to help support this biodiversity while also helping the humans of this ecosystem to live healthy, happy lives, regardless of what happens on a national level.

"She had spent too many decades of close observation to be cowed any longer by the prohibition against anthropomorphism. What began, centuries ago, as a healthy safeguard against projection had become an insidious contributor to human exceptionalism, the belief that nothing else on Earth was like us in any way."