My new chunkster adventure! With the dreamscape & magical realism elements, the wine is a necessary reading aid. 😅

A book nerd thing only you all will appreciate.

I was staring at this box set in the “library/TV” room where my daughter was sitting and I was telling her I wished she‘d read them. (No chance.) I pulled the tagged book out, opened it up and BAM ☄️ I was rushed headlong back in time by the very unique scent of the paper in these editions. I could live inside them.

Happy sweet memories. 🥰

With some distance now I have an even greater appreciation for this behemoth. With so many themes I can‘t even begin to relay them all here. But one I especially appreciated was that of the invisible & everlasting connections between people, places, events, ideas, beliefs, etc. They are the “sparks” Olga gathers in this book.

The Prologue & final scene doubles down on this theme in a most delightful way I can‘t spoil!

This book is very well researched on England‘s new divorce law, court, and the people orbiting in & around it. Other reviewers have noted Mrs. Robinson serves as a model trope for victims of patriarchy and sexism. So absurd now that everything sexual was the result of a defect or disease of some sort. “Womb complaint”

IMO the degree of detail about extraneous individuals was a distraction from the Robinsons‘ story.

Just because I can‘t stand the dull a moment longer! I don‘t care if I have to bring it in at night like a baby. First pot of the season. 😊

The JP Morgan library celebrating 100 years and giving due credit to Belle. 😄 Gorgeous collection - hope to see it someday.

https://youtu.be/2hMrbtZQWxo?si=Cg8tVcodd_aRCnA9

Policy of preventative deterrence = death by Sonoran desert.

Funneling migrants through the desert is intentional and cruel. Common sense suggests until the root causes of the migration are addressed it will not end. When migrants say they would rather die on the trail than remain in their home countries it speaks volumes.

Jason‘s second book focusing on human smugglers is even better because it really lays bare the complexities of the issue.

If I wrote something with this premise it would be chalked up to a morbid imagination.🥹 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjwvl93ywlpo?utm_campaign=YouTube+April+1&utm_...

I need this mug.

Got myself a western spoof! 🤠👏🏾 Everette is such a fantastic satirist that I‘m looking forward to it when I get there.

Another #PersephoneClub pick gobbled up! This one is rather melancholy, but the characters are so well drawn I felt like a fly on the wall to the family gossip. None of them are perfect or cardboard cutouts, which made them relatable. Belle was a real piece of work!

At the end, knowing the war was inevitable, left me feeling sad for them.

Oh, the delicious melodrama! (Insert fainting couch here.) I loved every minute of it! ❤️

It would make a stunning, visually beautiful film.

#PersephoneClub

“Try not to think.” 🤣🤣🤣

#PersephoneClub

Next IRL book club pick 🔥😈

We have three translations in the house, but I‘m going with Pinsky since he‘s a poet. 🤞🏾

IRL bookclub pick. The ocean IS a brilliant abyss! However, the structure of the book didn‘t work and as a result I won‘t remember much, except for the crabs that eat slimy strings of bacteria, bone eating worms, and the polychaete female who houses dwarf males in her body.

Any reader of this book won‘t need the conservation & preservation message.

Cranberry orange soda bread 😋 from the tagged book. Super easy, but don‘t expect it to be dessert sweet. My kids will wonder where the sugar is, same with scones. 🙃

Stab in the heart to see photos like this……I fell down a rabbit hole.

“The Court itself was old, and many gabled and mellow-red and fine. Rosalie had learned from no precedent as yet, but houses of its kind may represent the apotheosis of discomfort and dilapidation within, and only become more beautiful without.”

Oh Rosalie, I fear you are in for a rude awakening. 🥹

#PersephoneClub

A story that epitomizes complicated parent/child relationships. The illustrations made this graphic memoir work for me, otherwise it would have been just okay. (Not a huge fan of memoir.)

Throughout I really wanted the perspectives of the other family members to compare it with Alison‘s. Alas, that‘s not going to happen. 😏

I just saw in the blurb this is favorably compared to Keegan & Donoghue? That‘s marketing for you. 😑

The writing is accessible & the characters are believable to the point you want to shake the MC. However the kids were an annoying distraction in audio version. Toddler voices, unless they are real, aren‘t cute.

It‘s not a deep read and doesn‘t have penetrating or lyrical prose. Satisfactory for entertainment purposes. I‘d give it 3⭐️

Memoirs are a hard sell for me, but this one worked because the focus here is on hares. Beautiful nature writing!

But, is it prize worthy? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Were all the flags and annotations necessary? Yes! Was it worth the 10 weeks of effort. Absolutely yes!

Can I even begin to coherently articulate why yet? No!

This is one of those books I will have to sit with to settle the swirling thoughts.

5 ⭐️ for the content and engaging style.

Very valuable in helping to understand the mechanisms of migration in Latin America. Jason spent 6 years among and studying the culture of human smugglers.

The word “hope” in the subtitle is misleading. It‘s not hope for the crisis ending, it‘s the hope both migrants and many smugglers have of escaping desperate poverty & violence.

Now downloading his first book which is focused on migrants.

I was tempted, except nobody but me would see them under my pant legs. 😜

34% in and I can tell this is going to be a very memorable and informative book.

Violence is the handmaiden of poverty.

🫣 What wild satirical ride on the Victorian Horror Bus! Imagine the Bronte sisters unleashed & unhinged.

Loved it as a spoof! 😳

Wow, what amazingly beautiful prose! Has that very southern story telling tradition vibe about it. I‘m am going to pick it up in print when I find it to read the other stories in this edition.

I really enjoyed listening to this family mystery, particularly because the secret unravels in a nonlinear fashion. The ending is also not unnecessarily drawn out or wrapped up in a shiny bow. My favorite type of ending!

@Cathythoughts you might check this one out. 😊

A reckoning of two people and a marriage in a pool. Well done!

Page by page! 😅 Definitely can get bogged down in this giant middle section, but there are spectacular nuggets here & there. OT has ratcheted up the tension at the end of book 5 so we‘re definitely headed somewhere. 😬

Tepid pick for IRL book club. The narrative starts out strong and the ending is good, but the middle meanders with descriptions of other worldly beings and landscapes without much character development or plot.

The best line was the MC realizing he couldn‘t trust alien shepherds because after all, the cyclops were shepherds too. 🤣

Was using the foil of sci fi for spiritual philosophy a new thing? (1938)

For me, this is one of the rare instances when the film was better than the book. The film was more intense from minute 1 and you can‘t beat the gorgeous cinematography & acting which made it so visually appealing and compelling.

Hands down my favorite baking book.

Make this coffee cake, you won‘t regret it! Here is a link if you don‘t have the book.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/our-favorite-sour-cream-coffee-cake-rec...

Super cringeworthy!

I‘m torn because I appreciate the creativity and the fact it‘s thought provoking, but the writing lacks nuance and gets repetitive. I feel like a broken record when I say it would have made a better novella. Also, the end was silly given what we know about Doug‘s character.

I wonder if this will be made into a film?

Oh, my. I‘m only 26% in and it‘s really uncomfortable! 🫣

The third audio narrator of the series is introduced with this installment. I liked the previous two, this one not so much because the voices aren‘t as distinct. The pronounced French accent meant distinguishing among the several French names was difficult to track, but that‘s no fault of the narrator.

This story sprawls across many locations and characters, and as a result there was too much explanation of connections rather than showing.

What could be better than going with my daughter to listen to my husband play with a jazz singer in a venue selling books? It was in celebration of African American history month. Fun! 😄 My daughter got to chat with the singer about SZA & Lamar, so it was a win for her.

Loved this interview! Fascinating - I didn‘t realize she was such a student of history. https://youtu.be/vNvVsl5OZ7o?si=MZKRupR7TAuD_Bhy

Halfway mark! 😅 If you want to build your vocabulary, look no further than this monument to words.

“In the beginning was The Word” - no joke. It‘s all about letters, words, and language and communication and perception, or lack thereof.

Light thumbs up. It‘s hard to go wrong with the friends of Three Pines, but this one was just okay.

Reread with IRL club and it was a raucous good time, lots of fodder for laughter and discussion.

Once again struck by the highly relatable themes. Humanity hasn‘t fundamentally changed.

😢😭

Oh the the sick & sad irony re: a raiding officer had 1984 in his hands and didn‘t know what it was about, had to ask the shop owner.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5294328/israel-raid-bookstore-east-jerusale...

Okay, the “torturous” initiation rites of the Bogomil sect wherein they are subjected to pagan plays made me laugh. (All things earthly and pleasurable are sinful.) Such as those featuring Lady Baubo, who is the ancient goddess of mirth & obscenity & laughter.

Oh the evils of hedonism! 😂 Google to get the full pic!

IRL bookclub pick. One member bailed and “hated” it, the rest of us agreed Oyamda effectively achieved her purpose in describing the inane dehumanizing impact of the corporate world.

Don‘t expect high action or deep character development. That is not the point. 😉

“Trying would be their life‘s work.”

So very good! 💔How can we recover from our mistakes, even those most ordinary of human failings? We all think we‘re special in or miseries and joys. But are we?

This one falls under the feel good balm category.

Robert Seethaler is an auto buy author for me. 👏🏾 If you enjoy understated, spare, quiet, reflective & all those similarly lovely adjectives, you‘ll appreciate his writing style too.

I‘ll be living with Olga for awhile. (10 weeks as a read along) Slow going because I have to make a note or look up a word every other minute.

What a ride! Halfway thru Book 2 and I‘m a bit nonplussed by the mysticism of Kabbalists. “The air is full of eyes…” 👀👀👀👀

I wanted to like this, but it is coming off as pretentious. Maybe it‘s my mood. Just not invested and I‘m 61% in.

Continued on with the series. It‘s entertaining enough to listen to during workouts. I won‘t likely remember it. 😏