I‘m excited for this month‘s TBR. I am trying in November and December to catch up on my BOTM backlog (which is very long lol). Really looking forward to to both my #Bookspin (Thistlefoot) and #Doublespin (tagged). I hope I can ride my reading momentum in October through the rest of the year!

Better late than never on posting my final October #Bookspin board. Tagged book I didn‘t quite finish in October, but I am almost done with it. I had a really strong reading month in October, and I did come really close to getting a couple bingos.

I read a lot of long books and a high percentage of nonfiction in September.

I was in a bit of a slump the past few months, so it was nice to finally have a fuller reading month.Top read of October was the tagged nonfiction.

November #BOTM picks, including my free birthday add-on.

October #BookspinBingo card put together. Five Broken Blades is my #Bookspin - after finishing the Mistborn trilogy it‘s probably overly optimistic that I will actually finish this one in October. My #doublespin Slewfoot has been on my TBR for a long time and I thought it would be a perfect October read.

September reading wrap up from Storygraph. I had a funky reading slump in the middle of the month, but I came back strong at the end to finish 2 books right before the cutoff. I didn‘t read anything spectacular, but I did enjoy Kate Quinn‘s new historical fiction The Briar Club and Mythology by Edith Hamilton (on my TBR for too long to count!).

Wrapping up my September #BookSpinBingo card. Will be switching up a lot of titles for next month to focus on cozy, witchy, spooky vibes in for the fall.

Another month goes by without my reading any of the #BOTM books I already have, but that never stops me from ordering more!

These are my October picks, both of which seem right up my alley! And hopefully will also be good fall reads 🍂

One of the best nonfiction books I‘ve read recently. Really well written and researched. I knew very little about this conflict, and I feel like I learned a lot. I wouldn‘t say this is a flaw, but the book doesn‘t aim to be a comprehensive history of the Troubles. It focuses primarily on the culture of secrecy and fear that the IRA cultivated in Northern Ireland, highlighting several key figures. The backstory of the cover image is amazing.

September #BookspinBingo board! My #Bookspin this month is Blue Sisters (BOTM box supposed to be arriving today!) and #Doublespin is Mythology by Edith Hamilton (which I‘m currently reading on Kindle). I‘ve got several books in progress already, so I‘m hoping I‘ll have a better reading month in September.

Loving these new monthly wrap up graphics from Storygraph. You can really tell I had a major reading slump during the middle of the month, which resulted in me only finishing 4 total books in August. My top read was Say Nothing (will post a separate review soon!).

Horrible reading slump in August. Although I did finish two TBR books and am in progress on 2 others from my #BookspinBingo card, I just didn‘t do very much reading this past month. It‘s been a crazy summer - both my husband and I changed jobs and my MIL came to visit for 10 days. Hoping to get back on track for September!

#Betterlatethannever Finally posting my July #Storygraph wrap up. I had a good reading month, but a lot of the books I read were in that kind of meh > it was okay range.

My husband is finally catching up to where I am in our Mistborn buddy read, so I‘m looking forward to continuing with the 3rd in the trilogy (but maybe not for another month or so).

August #BookspinBingo board is finally ready!

My #Bookspin is Rogue Heroes and #Doublespin is Bleak House.

I‘ve been reading Bleak House for what feels like literally forever (3 years), so hopefully this will be my impetus to finally finish! Rogue Heroes I have been excited for since watching the Apple TV series based on the true story of the SAS.

I‘ve got a couple others in progress already, so I‘m hoping for a good month of reading!

I finally got a bingo!

Final #BookspinBingo card for July. Technically I‘m still reading my #Bookspin (Not in Love), but I marked it off since I‘m about halfway and will definitely finish. 9 total books finished in July, even with a weeklong slump during the month.

I realized today that not only have I not finished a BOTM challenge since 2020 (which I may or may not have cheated a bit on 😉), but I am not even close to completing this year.

I have done a pretty good job knocking books off my Kindle TBR so far in 2024, so my goal for the rest of the year is to focus on my #BOTM backlog. I‘ve only finished the tagged book halfway through the year!

My August #BOTM pick!

NYTBR came out with their Readers Choice list of the 100 best books of the 21st century, and this feels much more in line with what books people actually read. I have a problem with calling a list “the best” when it includes so many obscure selections (how can they be the best when hardly anyone has read them outside academia/publishing?). The original list I only had read 9 from, but this list I have read 53/100! Just in the top ten I‘ve read 7!

Very surprised by the selection of books in this list. First, why are we already canonizing the best books of the 21st century after only 25 years? Second, I get that the NYTBR is very high brow compared to the taste of the average reader, but I was still confused by the not insignificant number of books in translation that were originally published prior to 2000, but translated after.

Plus, The Goldfinch was ranked way too low in my opinion!

Honestly, now that I‘m writing a review, I can barely remember what this book was actually about? But I did binge it in 3 days, so it was entertaining and cute enough to engage me. FMC Niamh is a magical seamstress, who ends up falling for the Prince she has been hired to create a wedding wardrobe for. I already can‘t remember what the rest of the plot conflict is about (something about magic and Royal politics). I do love the illustrated cover.

I got both of these from Libby and binged them in just a couple days. Premise is sort of a YA Silence of the Lambs meets Mindhunter, following two young FBI recruits who are assisting on an investigation connected to both of their pasts. While some aspects did strain credulity (18 year olds being sent to interview juvenile serial killers), the tenuous but burgeoning relationship between the main characters makes me excited to continue the series.

I liked this book. Sager is no literary genius, but he does deliver consistently entertaining mystery/thrillers. Considering this is a genre I read very little of, the fact that I keep coming back for his trope-bending books is notable. The crime trope being riffed on in this book is the missing/abducted child phenomena, especially prominent in the 1980s/90s (the book flips between dual 1994-present day timelines).

This was a cute rom-com, exactly what I‘ve come to expect from Christina Lauren. The premise is very silly (a marriage of convenience during college leads to unintended consequences 5 years later) and some of the plot contrivances did make me roll my eyes (one of the love interests just happens to come from a family of billionaires), but it was entertaining and the developing romance worked for me.

I was pretty disappointed with this. I did enjoy when it focused on the actual premise (cultish language), but the author goes on a lot of tangents with personal anecdotes that really distract from that in an only 300 page book. The author also seemed more interested in vilifying cultish aspects of MLMs like AmWay & making a connection to subcultures like SoulCycle and CrossFit than exploring the cognitive dissonance inherent in true cults.

I‘ve felt ambivalent about the 3 Awad books I‘ve read. I appreciate her commitment to truly bonkers plots and skewering of niche subcultures (MFA programs in Bunny, skincare/wellness industry in Rouge, theatre kids & chronic pain in All‘s Well), but the magical realism elements didn‘t work as well in this one. Absolutely love the cover/title, reflecting both the college Shakespeare production & FMC‘s debilitating invisible pain.

July #BookspinBingo board all ready! My #Bookspin is Not in Love and my #Doublespin is This Time Tomorrow. I have a lot of books in progress currently, so I am hopeful to make a dent on the bingo board this month!

I‘ve had a strong first half of the year in reading. If I‘m able to keep up this pace, I should be back on track to finish 100 books again this year, after a dip in my reading in 2023.

My favorite reads in 2024 so far have been:

Mistborn
Ruthless Vows
Bright Young Women
The Shepherd King Duology
A Letter to the Luminous Deep
Emily Wilde‘s Map of the Otherlands

I finished 9 total books in June, including my #DoubleSpin All‘s Well. I was not enjoying my #BookSpin (tagged), so I DNF‘d at 6%. I might pick it up again someday, but I couldn‘t get into it, and it‘s a very long book, so I might need to be in the right mood.

I can‘t remember the last time I actually had a bingo LOL.

Additionally, I not only forgot to post my June #BOTM, but also I did not read any of these last month.

My #BOTM choice for July. Sounds great!

Loving the new monthly wrap up collage from Storygraph! I ended up having a strong end to the month, finishing 9 total books, although only a couple of my June reads were standouts. Need to post individual reviews still for everything I read this month!

Serious question: does this book get better?

I am 6% in, and that much was a struggle. This is a 700+ page book, so I need to know if it‘s worth powering through. I bought it on a Kindle deal, so while I‘d like to not let it go to waste, I also wouldn‘t feel that bad about DNF‘ing if it‘s not actually worth it.

This was a huge improvement from Sanderson‘s 1st book Elantris. It starts out as a pretty typical fantasy heist story, but through the intricate plotting, extensive world building, and complex but endearing characters, the book becomes an excellent first entry into a fascinating new fantasy series. The very unique magic system is physics based, which adds a lot of dynamism to the fight scenes. There were also some genuinely surprising twists!

I absolutely adored this book! Told in epistolary format (through letters, diary entries, text excerpts), a (supernatural?) mystery unfolds and a lovely relationship develops. The underwater society was such an interesting world to explore, and major kudos to the author for their incremental world building. I can‘t wait for the sequel to this book and to spend more time with this fascinating world and the endearing characters.

Thank you Suzanne Collins for giving us what we want!

June #BookspinBingo board. This month‘s #Bookspin is Empire of the Vampire and #Doublespin is All‘s Well. I have a couple of longer books still in progress, so to be seen whether I am able to start and finish another really long one before the end of the month.

Final May #Bookspin board. I finished 9 books in May, including my #Doublespin (Educated). I DNF‘d Yellowface at about 30% because I couldn‘t force myself to listen to the insufferable and un-self aware main character narration any longer.

This made for good beach reading. I love a cheap mass market paperback that you don‘t have to worry about getting beat up. I‘ve been reading this as a #buddyread with @hclaird and tracking our progress on Storygraph (awesome buddy read feature now!).

Allende‘s prose style is really beautiful, but the Dickensian coming of age story focuses less on an overarching plot and more on character sketches and episodic adventures in the MC‘s life.

Enjoyed a lovely week of reading on the beach! I finished Eva Luna in paperback and read 3/4 of The Seven Year Slip on my Kindle!

The best EH since Beach Read! Even though the premise and tropes seem a bit unrealistic at first glance, I thought that Henry somehow made the forced proximity, opposites attract, fake dating romance really work. I was rooting for the unlikely relationship between Daphne and Miles. The side characters are all so unique and add a lot of color to the story, and I even got a bit teary eyed towards the end!

This was an extremely well-written and self-reflective memoir. It was truly heartbreaking to read about the level of abuse and neglect that Tara and her siblings experienced due to their survivalist, fundamentalist Mormon parents (one of whom seemed to have severe mental illness). This just missed being a 5 ⭐️ read for me due to a few inconsistencies. While the author very effectively describes her childhood in vibrant detail, 👇🏼 (cont‘d)

I had zero expectations going into this audiobook, but found myself really enjoying it. The audio format worked really well with the narrative: alternating narrators for the dual POV and podcast excerpt sections. The romance was a bit rushed, but the tension and relationship still worked for me. The true crime Serial-esque podcast plot & coinciding road trip investigation was interesting to follow along with.

I wanted to like this book more than I eventually did, but overall still enjoyed it. Listened to the audiobook through my Spotify subscription. Being inside the mind of a sad, self-pitying 35 year old struggling comedian, who is reeling from a recent breakup, for 10 hours was frustrating at times. Probably what I appreciated most was the accurate depiction of mid-30s millennial life, when everyone around you is getting married and having babies.

I‘ve been a fan of Anthony Bourdain since the No Reservations days and have read all of his non-fiction (including a couple co-written with this author), so this has been on my Kindle TBR for ages. I was a bit disappointed with the Roadrunner documentary, so I was happy that this book delved a lot deeper into Bourdain‘s life before Kitchen Confidential and the early TV days before he was a household name. Unfortunately, 👇🏼 (cont‘d)

This was a fun palate-cleansing read. There‘s a lot going on for ~300 pages: pirates, assassins, flying houses, cartoonishly evil villain, secret identities, and extensive literary references to the Brontës. Based on what I was expecting from the cover and blurb, it had a surprising level of spice (which was pulled off well). While I had a fun time with this, it only gets 3.5 stars due to cramming in a bit too much plot for such a short book.

I enjoyed delving back into the world of literary criticism, reading and annotating this book, but I think my enjoyment was probably hampered by not being familiar with Smiley‘s books (which she references A LOT) and the inclusion of a sizable number of rather obscure novels. Smiley had a lot of insightful things to say about the art of novel writing & reading, but I did skim a lot in sections about books I didn‘t have personal experience with.

Finally put together my May #BookspinBingo card. Looks like I have two nonfiction in the queue for this month‘s #Bookspin and #Doublespin!

Final April #BookSpinBingo card. I finished my #Bookspin (tagged) and read 7 total books last month.

On paper, this should have been a 5 star read for me: historical fiction, lovely prose, siblings separated by WWI, PLUS fantasy & romance. While I did end up rating it 4 stars, there were a few things that didn‘t quite work for me in execution: Faland & his magical mystery hotel, the slowest slow burn romance(s) that don‘t come to fruition until literally the final chapters of the book, and some of the plot logistics of the climax and dénouement.