I‘m about 100 pages into Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. I can‘t believe I let this one languish on my TBR shelf for so long..!

What are you reading this week? 📖

#mondayreads #currentlyreading #booksandbreakfast #teatime #pachinko

Was too sleepy to post this last night — my final time count for #24in48, and a picture of the three books I finished in print. Not pictured is the one audiobook I finished (Chatter) or the other one I started (The Warmth of Other Suns). Really enjoyed this readathon!

I probably only have an hour or so of reading left in me for tonight, though I am enjoying Catherine House. It‘s strange and dark, and I think I know where it‘s going, but can‘t be sure.

#24in48 #readathon #litfic #sundaynight #amreading

My next #24in48 read. I‘ve seen this novel compared to The Secret History, so my expectations might be a tad bit too high. Hoping it lives up to them!

#readathon #literaryfiction #weekendreads #newbook

While the subject of this one — what the voice in our head is means and how to control it — was interesting, it never really captured my full attention. I think if I hadn‘t started it during the readathon, I might not have finished it. 🤷‍♀️

#24in48 #audiobook #audioreview #readathon

Just finished this short, unexpectedly powerful novel — the second print book I‘ve finished for this weekend‘s #24in48 #readathon

Alma is a mother and homesteader in rural Vermont who spends her days feeding sheep, stoking the wood stove, and shuttling her small children back and forth to school. The monotony begins to wear on her, an she soon finds herself driving through the night toward New York City and the promise of a different life.

Good morning! It‘s day two of the #24in48 readathon — what are you reading?

I‘m finishing up the last 50 pages The Shame, which I‘ve been pleasantly surprised by. I didn‘t expect to love it as much as I do.

#shortnovel #coverart #weekendread #literary #litfic

Took a bit of a break to watch a documentary and am now cozied back up with The Shame. #24in48

#readathon #booksinbed #readinginbed #pages

On to my next #24in48 book! I‘m only a few minutes into The Shame, but so far it is strange and compelling.

#hour6 #readathon #24in48readathon #amreading

Just finished my first #24in48 book. I can‘t say I liked this Poirot mystery. It felt exceedingly disjointed, and I wasn‘t surprised to learn that it started as short stories that were combined into a novel. Despite being action-packed, the plot was far-fetched even for a Christie—a powerful, international cabal called The Big Four orchestrating murders across the English countryside—and it featured a lot of gross, old-timey racial stereotyping.

My #24in48 book stack! My to-read stack is tiny because I signed up last minute, so these are two of my TBR books (Catherine House and Shame), one Agatha Christie from the library, and a reread I‘m really excited for — An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good!

I‘ve started with the Christie and am one hour in. What are you readathoning?

#readathon #24in48readathon #bookstack #bookpile

Spending a boring Saturday night with a decidedly non-boring mystery 🕵️

#readtheworld #mystery #detectivenovel #departmentq #saturdayreads

Brought a book to keep me company in the early voting line 🗳📖

#vote2020 #yaagyasi #readtheworld #readdiversely

I wanted to love this one as it explores parkour (which I‘ve been practicing for about five years). But the frame narrative about a resistance mission in WWII Crete didn‘t fully tie into the other points McDougall was making about natural movement disciplines, so it felt disjointed.

In fact, in the acknowledgements, he said he originally wanted to write two books on these separate topics and combined them instead...

#audiobook #parkour #crete

This is a fun, light listen with a lot of concrete advice for how to handle difficult situations at work, both for employees and managers.

#audiobook #advice #businessbook

This was a quick listen about Leslie Schwartz‘s short stint in a county jail for DUI, and the books that helped her pass the time and work on her recovery from alcoholism. It has some lovely moments about the power of reading and her friendships with the other inmates — almost all of whom have seen much worse circumstances than her.

#audiobook #memoir #nonfiction #booksaboutbooks

I read this in print years ago, and just decided to revisit it on audio. Was looking for a light listen for a stressful week and this definitely fit the bill!

#audio #nonfiction #travel #happiness

I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this fast-paced novel about the aftermath of a private plane crashing into the Long Island Sound.

Suspenseful and character-driven, it has one of the most realistic endings to a thriller I‘ve ever read (though no less horrific).

#thriller #coverart #beforethefall #suspense

First audiobook of 2020 finished! This history of the lost Roanoke Colony also explores the modern-day obsession with discovering its fate. The first half was a bit slow at points, but I enjoyed it overall.

#audiobook #nonfiction #roanoke #history

Forgot to post this last week — these were my last two print books of 2019. The Agatha Christie is The Mysterious Affair at Styles (the first one featuring Poirot).

I finished 2019 by just barely hitting my goal number of books read (finished my last book around 9:30pm on New Year‘s Eve!) In 2020, I‘m scaling my goals back just a bit so I‘m putting less pressure on myself in the last few months of the year.

#print #2019reads

Last audiobook of 2019! I mostly enjoyed this on audio but it felt really scattered — more like a long interview about everyday topics with the occasional pre-written essay thrown in.

I truly have no idea how this book could work in print, because I think it would lose all the charm from hearing them banter.

Happy New Year, everyone!

#audiobook #nonfiction #memoir #lovestory

Really enjoyed this true story of a Salvadoran fisherman who was dragged out to sea by a violent storm — and then spent more than a year adrift in the open sea.

#nonfiction #readtheworld #audiobook

No Beast So Fierce recounts the dangerous hunt for a tiger that killed more than 400 people in Nepal and India in the early 1900s.

Though parts of the book are gripping, there were too many places where the author seems to be basing the storytelling on assumptions rather than historical sources. (“Surely, he would have felt...” / “Next, the tiger likely...”)

#audiobook #nonfiction #audio #soso #2019reads

This book was a bit of a disappointment; it‘s described as a travel book about a cross-country trip the author takes in honor of his truck driver father. But in reality the travel part was brief impersonal, and the remainder of the book was more like a lecture on American foreign relations.

I would have bailed early if it wasn‘t short with a solid audiobook narration.

#audiobook #travel #nonfiction #shortbook

This short audiobook was surprisingly gripping. It explores the flight of a man in northern Alaska and the strange story he tells when he‘s finally apprehended — that he has encountered the mythical tribe of Iñukuns in the wilderness.

It‘s narrated well and structured more like a long podcast, with recordings of interviews and the trial.

#audiobook #audible #nonfiction #alaska

Collection of essays about modern Cuba by a Canadian professor. It has some interesting moments and insights.

#audiobook #nonfiction #essays #cuba

What a heartbreaking, important book. Highway of Tears tells the story of the dozens of indigenous women who have disappeared or been murdered along a remote stretch of road in northern British Columbia.

McDiarmid lays out the history of the area, the lack of attention given to the missing women, and their families‘ struggle to have their stories heard.

#nonfiction #audiobook #canada #history

This was fantastic on audio. Thrilling and tragic, Ruthless River tells the true story of a young couple who set out on an adventurous honeymoon and end up stranded in a flooded offshoot of the Madre de Dios River in the Bolivian Amazon.

#audiobook #nonfiction #audio #libby #lovedit

This was just okay. A heartbreaking story, but the writing and the author‘s audio narration were both quite flat.

If you want to learn more about the FLDS church and the power of religious brainwashing, this will be interesting. But if you‘re looking first for an engaging memoir, I‘d skip it.

#triggerwarning #memoir #audiobook #audio #religion #cult

A powerful, eye-opening memoir about the ways in which Saudi women are silenced and oppressed in their homeland. Manal Al-Sharif became an unexpected activist for a woman‘s right to drive — facing prison time and the loss of her livelihood for speaking out about the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia.

#audiobook #nonfiction #memoir #bookrec #readtheworld

My reading slump continued all through October, mostly due to working so many extra hours that I only made time for audiobooks. But November will be different! Work should be slowing down a bit and I‘m going to deliberately carve out time for reading in my schedule.

I may not end up hitting my reading goals for this year, but I think I‘m okay with that.

#readinggoals #readtheworld #bookstack

Really enjoyed this memoir, though that feels odd to say as it‘s so sad. Tembi Locke narrates the story of her marriage to Saro, a charming Italian chef, and his long battle with cancer. After his death, Locke goes back to his native Sicily to keep his memory alive for their daughter. Heartbreaking and beautifully written.

(Also, had no idea until well into the book that her sister is Attica Locke — too much talent in one family!)

#audiobook

Interesting memoir about Scorah‘s time as a Jehovah‘s Witness missionary in China, and how she began to question what she was preaching. A bit light on details in parts, and the end felt too rushed to me.

#audiobooks #leavingreligion #memoir

Loved this one — and it‘s the rare book that I think I would have felt lukewarm about it in print. The full cast recording does the story of a 1970s band rising to fame and glory to such excellent justice that the characters truly come alive.

#audiobook #audio #pick #theend

Just started reading this yesterday — it‘s Elizabeth Gilbert‘s portrait of Eustace Conway, a twentieth-century survivalist and conservationist.

At seventeen years old, Conway left home to live on his own in the woods, and has been championing the natural world ever since. Very absorbing so far!

#nonfiction #paperback #elizabethgilbert #biography

Really enjoyed this one — it‘s always nice to find a suspenseful, well-written true crime book that doesn‘t focus on grisly murder(s).

#nonfiction #truecrime #audiobook

Picked up these beauties at the Saratoga Book Warehouse, where every single book is $1 and paying is by the honor system — you put cash in a lockbox as you leave. The three rooms of books are not organized in any discernible way, so shopping there is like a treasure hunt! 📚

#bookhaul #bookstack #usedbooks #toread

It‘s shark week! 🦈🦈🦈

Demon Fish is a fascinating book about how sharks are vital to our oceans‘ ecosystem but under constant attack by humans — from overfishing to climate change to the “delicacy” of shark fin soup.

Grayson narrates a single day in the life of swimmer Lynne Cox. One morning, as she swam along the shore, she became convinced she was being stalked by a shark, but soon realized it was a baby whale that had lost its mother. 🐋

I really wanted to like this one. It lives in that odd limbo of not-quite-personal-enough to be a memoir and not in-depth enough to be a useful guide. I think it‘s probably aiming for the new graduate demographic — very surface-level advice and a lot of self-deprecating (and parent-deprecating) asides.

#nonfiction #audiobook #finance #soso

I‘m signing off for the night at 19 hours total after reading just a few pages of At Dusk.

Thanks so much to the whole @24in48 team for hosting this fantastic readathon! Can‘t wait for the next one!

#readathon #24in48 #readtheworld #koreanlit

I really enjoyed this short novel set in Zimbabwe — the plot starts out relatively lighthearted and then amps up the stakes.

I have mixed feelings about the ending, which felt a bit abrupt and, in my opinion, wasn‘t fully satisfying in terms of consequences for one character‘s actions. Can‘t say anything else without getting into spoiler territory...

#24in48 #readathon #readtheworld #readdiversebooks #readdiversely

I learned a lot from this book, but didn‘t love the audio narration or the pacing. It‘s a bit too long-winded and repetitive for what I expect from true crime.

#truecrime #nonfiction #audiobook #24in48 #readathon #massachusetts

Awake and ready for day two of #24in48. Reached 10 hours last night and had just started The Hairdresser of Harare when I got too sleepy to continue.

24 hours seems pretty far off at this point, especially since I have a family obligation for a few hours in the later afternoon. But I‘ll try! #readathon

Loved this one — a strange but hilarious read. And at just 170 pages, it‘s a perfect readathon book!

#24in48 #readathon #hour9

This tiny book is so delightful! I‘m flying through its short stories about a murderous octogenarian.

#24in48 #readthon #hour8

I started the #readathon already halfway through this one, and just finished it. So good! I‘ll have to write a real review once I‘ve had time to process it, but I know the characters will stay with me for a very long time.

Next up for #24in48: An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten!

Current #24in48 audiobook! I‘m late to the @24in48 hour 12 challenge, but since it‘s all about #audiobooks, I can‘t resist.

These days I get all my audiobooks through Libby, using two separate library systems (my smaller local one and the New York Public Library, which is free to join for all residents of the state). I listen to nonfiction almost exclusively, with the rare novel thrown in if I‘ve heard that it reads more like nonfiction.

Made some pancakes while listening to The Trial of Lizzie Borden on audio; now back to reading in print.

#24in48 #readathon #breakfast #eatingandreading

Kicking off the #24in48 #Readathon! Here‘s my book stack for the weekend (plus two audiobooks out from Libby):

📖 An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good
📖 At Dusk
📖 The Dream of My Return
📖 The Hairdresser of Harare
📖 The Miseducation of Cameron Post
📖 Pachinko
🎧 The Trial of Lizzie Borden
🎧 American Fire

I‘m already more than halfway through The Miseducation of Cameron Post, so I‘m going to finish reading that one first.

My current #TBR stack! I posted back in January about my personal goal of having 100% TBR turnover from one year to the next. 2019 is more than halfway over and I‘ve read (or DNFed and removed) most of my 2019 TBR books. The ones I still need to read are:
📖 The Air You Breathe
📖 The Night Tiger
📖 The Cairo Trilogy
📖 Pachinko
📖 The Cartographer of No Man‘s Land
📖 Cuentos de Eva Luna
📖 The Door (not pictured)

#readinggoal #toread