I‘ve seen this compared to Where the Crawdads Sing, but in Colorado and I can see why, though the courtroom drama isn‘t present in this novel. Lonely young girl, nature, etc. Read for IRL book club, this will prompt interesting discussions. I found the book heartbreaking and moving, though not without issues. The pacing was a bit off for me, the ending seemed rushed. A great read for historical fiction fans. Also, I cried at least twice.

Patric Gagne is an accomplished author, podcaster, wide, mother, author, and a sociopath. She tells the story of her life, realizing she was different than others as a child—she couldn‘t find it in herself to be sad when a pet died. This led her on a quest to figure out her own mind and landed on the definition (or lack thereof) of “sociopath”. She dedicates her life to finding out more about this condition and is now helping others.

Set in Maine, a book about mothering teenagers, guilt, trauma, and the need to carry on with day to day life. Readers are in the head of a mother of “wolves” as she thinks of her high school-aged sons. Her husband is a rugged fisherman who‘s had an accident and in the hospital so she‘s dealing with the boys‘ issues alone. A great read!
I highly recommend the audio version of this book, it‘s read by the amazing Rebecca Lowman!

I mostly listened to the audiobook, which is a fast paced listen. A young man is literally stuck in the belly of a whale during the whole novel, no spoiler there. On a quest to know his father and make him proud, a diver searches for his father, both physically and metaphorically. Felt super manly… I‘m not the audience for this one, but it was propulsive and different. I found it over the top and silly at times but memorable.

I love this author! Amanda Montell, please keep writing these books that illustrate larger issues and topics with down to earth stories and relatable content!

“Overthinking” could be my middle name these days so I related to this so much. But I think many would find the “notes on modern irrationality” not only entertaining but also enlightening. Loved it!!

J Dana Trent grew up between two trailers, one in Indiana, the homeplace of her father and the other in rural North Carolina, her mother‘s home. Though her parents started out together raising their daughter, things quickly became untethered between the couple, as both suffer from mental illness.
This surely is dysfunctional—the book begins with Dana‘s memories at age 4, preparing drugs to sell for her father‘s employer. But hopeful in the end.

May plans! Several with Maine vibes!

April really went off the rails and I‘ve been finding myself mood reading more often than following a plan. Bookspin bingo worked so well for me all last year and the beginning of this year. However, this season has been busy and I‘m restless, so we shall see how faithfully I stick to this board 🤷‍♀️

I listened to this as an audiobook. This is a difficult one for me to review because I liked the audio production and loved the protagonist but felt lost in the action of the story. The world as we know it is over and people must make their own way of life to survive. Rainey and his wife end up on a boat but tragedy strikes and a quest ensues. Many people and places feature along the way but I had trouble finding the meaning behind it all.

This is every bit as good as all the reviews claim! I was so impressed with the way Abdurraqib eloquently described growing up in Columbus, Ohio (on the wrong side of town, he says) and how meaningful basketball was to him as a kid, and those in his circle. LeBron James features prominently as Abdurraqib came of age around the time of LeBron‘s ascent. More than a sports essay collection, this is about heartbreak, passion, and life itself.

Sadly, this one didn‘t work for me. I think it was mostly because I tried to read it during a super busy time and I needed to dedicate more attention to the nuances in the three separate timelines. These three interconnected stories feature women who are at the mercy of the men in their lives, and take place over centuries. I may revisit this sometime since it was an #auldlangspine pick from the trusted @TheKidUpstairs

I can‘t enthusiastically recommend this one, unfortunately. Regan, a Michelin star chef, writes about her childhood, gender and sexuality, and then there‘s much about relationships that come and go and I got lost in that muddle. There‘s a lot in this section about substance abuse and reckless behavior but then I became interested again in the restaurant scenes. And when she eventually becomes a chef and writes about food I was hooked.

Emba covers the sexual revelation, media portrayal of sex, the sexual college experience, dating apps, etc to show how the way we think about sex may be harmful/inaccurate or at least leave some people feeling uncomfortable about their sexual preferences. Focused only on heterosexual relationships with sex, as disclosed at the beginning, the book makes the case that casual hookup culture is not for everyone and we should reconsider sexuality.

This book is based on the podcast of the same name. Hosts Josh and Chuck use a conversational tone to explore a wide range of topics with plenty of asides. Topics covered in this are as wide ranging as income taxes to demolition derbies. The history of the topics are often presented and applications for today as well. I listened to the audiobook which I think is the way to go. Read between several other titles as a palate cleanser.

We are headed to Maine next month! I‘m so excited and of course I want to read books set in Maine. Fiction, nonfiction, memoir—> send them my way!
I‘m planning to read:
Empire Falls
The Berry Pickers
The Road to Dalton
Landslide (Susan Conley)
What else should I read?

Splinters is Leslie Jamison‘s divorce memoir. I read her book about her struggles alcohol addiction, The Recovering, so I assumed this would feature some of those themes, but no. This was strictly focused on her marriage to the author Charles Block, the birth of their daughter, the fallout of their marriage and divorce, and relationships she engaged in following the separation. The real love story here is to her daughter.

Book club read. Based on a real woman from 1500s China. A doctor, wife, and mother. Lady Tan kept a diary of her patients and treatments which See used to create this fictional story. This novel is female-centric—Tan‘s grandmother was a physician and passed the knowledge on to her. Shocking how male doctors were to preserve their female patients‘ modesty at all costs—“examining” them behind a screen and communicating only with her male chaperone.

Crossings is an eye-opening and incredibly thorough look at the way the human-created roads are affecting everything from deer populations and monarch butterfly migration in North America, to kangaroo roadkill and orphaned wallabies in New Zealand. Goldfarb lays out ways humans are correcting our mistakes—building land bridges for crossings and planting milkweed for butterflies. Is it enough? Can we do more?
I loved this book!!

A nice palate cleanser between all the nonfiction and memoirs I‘ve been reading recently. This is the hardback, but I mostly listened to the audio addition which is the way to go. A trademark Lisa Jewell domestic story:
Who is lying? What are the motivations?
But this time, it‘s packaged as a podcast-turned Netflix docuseries. An entertaining read.

One of those books that the tagline is super interesting — a memoir from an adult who participated as a child in the Block Study. Though this is a thread that runs through the book, the author has few memories of participating and has little access to files, so there‘s not much to go on. What we end up with is a memoir about a detached mother and horrible marriage. I didn‘t hate it, but it certainly doesn‘t deliver on its promise.

This woman is out of this world and I‘ve been totally consumed by these DOUBLE albums Taylor Swift dropped on 4/19. THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT AND ANTHOLOGY 31 songs of heartbreak! Sooo much to unpack. And she‘s getting literary, a clashing of my favorite things: Taylor and literature! Apologies as this is a music interlude but it is book adjacent! What do you all think of the album?

I started listening to this book on a whim, unsure if I‘d finish it. It wasn‘t long before I was cackling and completely hooked by the hilarious stories and over the top reverse-catfishing Becky Holmes uses on scammers. The oil rig worker who‘s in love with you in your DMs is desperate, not for your love but for your money. While this is humorous, Holmes gets serious with profiles of women affected by this and also the catfishers themselves.

This is a great read so far! 🌼

Nominations for #camplitsy24
Really looking forward to this event again! Want in? Head over to see @BarbaraBB ‘s post!
Thanks to @BarbaraBB @Megabooks @squirrelbrain for organizing!! 🏕️ 📚

A compelling memoir from Lara Love Hardin. We meet “Mama Love” when she‘s arrested, follow her through her experiences in prison and how she dealt with the situations she found herself in following her drug addiction. Readers follow Mama Love from rock bottom to being exulted by Oprah. I listened to the audiobook which was great!

I jumped on this one as soon as I saw Lydia Millet had written her first work of nonfiction and it‘s about our natural world. This didn‘t disappoint and I loved the way she weaved facts of nature and human impact on it with stories from her own life. Though I did learn some new information, this is more of a meandering and observational approach to the wonders of the world we have the privilege to experience.

Nguyen‘s family left Vietnam for the US when she was an infant, but her mother stayed behind. Now, Beth and her mother are estranged. She works hard to get to know her (birth) mother in adulthood, but the effort is rather one sided. Recollections of standoffish conversations and memories but nothing really substantial here.
This didn‘t really work for me. The writing was nice but the book lacked a flow and cohesive thread.

I was reminded that I hadn‘t read the last book in the Aaron Faulk series after all the #AuthorAMonth posts from March. Though the hardback is pictured here, I mainly listened to the audiobook which is my favorite way to consumer Harper‘s books. That narrator is perfect! This one was a nice wrap up for Faulk‘s storyline and the mysteries of what happened to not just one small town resident, but two, were both convincing if drawn out.

I‘m incredibly behind on reviews, so here we go.
Loved this book! It‘s a really fast read on the background of the biggest MLMs (multi level marketing companies), most of which are still operating today: avon, Tupperware, Mary Kay, Amway, LuLaRoe. We also get chapters about the US govt‘s roll in attempting to stop these as “pyramid schemes” but also specific presidents‘ involvement with the companies—profiting from them. (Pic before eclipse)

Waiting on the total eclipse in Yellow Springs, Ohio! Nearly there! 🌞🌚

I dislike negatively reviewing memoirs, though this one didn‘t click for me at all.
It felt much more preachy than I expected it to be and that‘s definitely not something I seek out in my reading life. Anna writes candidly about her bipolar disorder and the way it impacts her life and subsequently her relationship with religion. Some really horrible evangelicals drove her out of their church because of her illness. She found God on her own.

Aomawa Shields engages in two very different and adventurous careers: she‘s been an actress and an astronomer. She‘s had a bumpy road to get to where she is today, from leaving an astronomy program right before earning her degree to working for NASA, acting school, working as an actress and then returning to a Ph D program. Aomawa works hard at everything she does and eventually her dreams come true, as she becomes a wife, mother and astronomer.

I realize in my last review I claimed to never read YA, and here I am posting a review of a YA novel lol.
But truly, I have abandoned this genre for the most part and picked this up as a #transrightsreadathon audiobook. V reminiscent of Mad Honey (tagged ⬇️) though this was written first. Allows readers to put themselves in the shoes of the MC as she navigated teen social life with the added complexity of her trans identity.

April plans with my #bookspin bingo board.
You may notice at least three that have been appearing for months now 😂

March wrap up with #BookSpinBingo
Finished both #bookspin and #doublespin
4 bingos
6 NF
Top reads of the month:
— James
— The heat will kill you first
— Eve
— The Postcard
— In Memoriam

I went in to this novel with zero knowledge of the Sri Lankan civil war and I came away having an idea of the human impact. It was a difficult one to spend time with, as there‘s much suffering. A particularly horrid scene involving a pregnant woman will stay with me. A difficult read.

Just as adorable as the first two I‘ve read in the series. And this is coming from someone who NEVER reads romance and hasn‘t enjoyed YA content in over 10 years.

These books are just that good. They make me feel the feels I didn‘t think my hard heart could anymore 😂

This may finally be the month (year!?) I read this book as it was pulled as a #doublespin for April #bookspin

I‘m reading a few chapters during my son‘s tutoring session.

Look at this Harry bookmark my youngest son drew for me! 😍

Another book, another sport —
hello 👋 baseball season!!⚾️ (they are practicing in the grass due to saturated fields)

I reaallllyyy wanted to keep going with this MLM expose but I also didn‘t want to be the antisocial mom. So I *gasp* put the book down 😱

I‘m a sucker of an MLM takedown and this one is great so far!

This is familiar territory for me—I read Inheritance (tagged ⬇️) several years ago which is a very similar set up to Unearthing — the author discovers that the man believed to be her father was in fact not her biological father after his death. This book was different in the way it was told, discussing plants and seasons with many sections about her mother. A great memoir but one I couldn‘t help but to compare to the other mentioned above.

Was this a victim of overhype? Should I have read a print copy rather than listening to the audiobook? I‘m not sure but I feel like whatever the multiple nominating committees of various prizes found in this I missed. I appreciated the way squash takes center stage but otherwise was disconnected from the characters.

An entertaining audiobook featuring 20 something sugar babies, mainly Agnes, who stumbles into this scene with a group of friends. Agnes dates older (married) men for money. The arrangements are at times uncomfortable for me to read, but also, eye-opening for readers. I didn‘t love it and I‘m afraid it won‘t stick with me for long but it was a worthwhile and quick listen.

Meg Kissinger is from a huge family and many her siblings, as well as parents, suffer from mental illnesses. Depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and suicidal tendencies are all struggles this family struggles with for decades during a time when these topics weren‘t discussed as often as they are now. Probably for this reason, the family never addresses these issues with each other and suffers silently. A moving memoir but lots of TWs.

This is a mixed bag for me. I really loved so much of this—the characters were vivid and the 90s Florida setting was palpable. I was right there in CC‘s shoes as she navigated growing up in a tumultuous household. #dysfunctionalfamily lovers take notice! However! Parts of this fell apart and there was little to no ending. I even reread sections to make sure I wasn‘t missing anything. Nope, just several threads never mentioned again 🤷‍♀️

Pretty bizarre, but much more based in reality than some of the other books this has been compared to (Awad‘s specifically). A bit of an outrageous look at how grief and trauma can be dealt with in very different ways, in this case by winning the lottery and creating a reality to live inside the Three‘s Company world. I‘ve never seen the show but now I feel like I should watch at least one episode.
Reminded me a bit of Treasure Island!!! (Tagged)

What is magic but science not yet explained?

Coming of age, nature writing, and a look into what the future holds for our warming planet. A hurricane hits Florida and things are rapidly changing.

Happening over the course of Wanda‘s lifetime, I found the acceleration in climate disasters and collapse of society a bit of a stretch to happen so quickly, but believable otherwise!

Such an interesting read! Proulx‘s style had me re-reading sentences, googling definitions but then laughing out loud. This is one of those books that I am glad I‘ve read but also had such a hard time picking it up, as it wasn‘t a crackling page turner. I feel like some of the symbolism was lost on me, though the story is not one I‘ll soon forget. Full of quirky characters and tragic stories but hilarious moments, set in Newfoundland.

I started my Friday morning with my coffee shop‘s newest spring roast, a raspberry almond scone, and my newest read. #tgif

This book is exactly in my wheelhouse and did NOT disappoint. I love books exploring the origins of life/evolution using anthropology to explain the way things are…and do that with a female-centric approach like Eve has done and I‘m pleased as punch! Bohannon aims to explain how and why the female body has evolved into the form we know it today: giving birth, going through menopause, outliving men. So much information accessibly presented! Fab!

Berry uses the stories of wolves released and tracked in Oregon, along with fairy tales, and other wolf lore to compare with her own lived experiences with fear, community, family, belonging, and much more. She also may be trying to make a broader point about human nature and wolves but I think it got lost in these anecdotes. I love wolves but many of the stories weren‘t new to me and the book was too long and meandering without making a point.