#PoetryMatters Day 18: #Undertone

#StorySettings Day 18: Perhaps a #Train is needed to go on The Road To Dalton? Our #EuropaCollective title for June! Ready for it! 📚📚📚

#StorySettings Day 17: The adorable dog, Ike LaRue is running for public #office. I really like how the entire series is a celebration of the unruly, respect for the occasional disarray, and the grudging admiration for Ike‘s capacity to extricate himself from trouble and redeem himself with such panache, humor, and word play. My review back in 2011: https://wp.me/pDlzr-Gr

#StorySettings Day 16: These are the books we are reading as part of my #College book club called GatheringReaders. I just realized I have FIVE summer book clubs: two on Litsy (1) #CampLitsy24 and (2) #EuropaCollective. Then I have three face-to-face ones (3) this #College group with doctoral students and faculty (4) Emirates Lit Foundation book club, and (5) book club of two read-aloud with 22 yo daughter coming home for the summer!

#StorySettings Day 15: I felt that I was in an #ArtGallery when I visited the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair several weeks back before we flew to Norway. It was magnificent.

#StorySettings Day 14: Where there is a #graveyard, there be ghosts. 💕

#PoetryMatters Day 13: #Underground

#StorySettings Day 13: There is a gingerbread-house-in-the- #prairie quality of this cottage in the snowy woods in this wordless picturebook by Fernando Krahn. How would you feel if you see giant unknown tracks right outside your door – out in the middle of the woods during winter time? It is not surprising then that the father in the story immediately turned to his rifle hanging firmly on the wall. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-19D

#PoetryMatters Day 12: #Underfoot

#StorySettings Day 12: #HauntedHouse reminded me of this illustrated story I reviewed back in 2010. Kate Culhane, was haunted by spectres that she had no choice but to go through each of the quiet sleeping houses with a ghost whose “weight was heavy as a sack of stones” until they found a house with no holy water in the house. My full review here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-lc

#StorySettings Day 11: It is the first time that Sona is attending an Indian #wedding, with her elder sister as the bride. While immensely excited about the festivities, she is also somewhat annoyed by her little cousin, Vishal, who “thinks he knows everything” primarily because he has attended a lot of Indian #weddings, compared to Sona who is a newbie at all this. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-hh5

#PoetryMatters Day 10: #Undercut

#PoetryMatters Day 9: #Undercover

#StorySettings Day 10: Here are some award-winning stories from the #Desert - photo taken when we went to the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair before we left for Norway a week ago. Posting in advance as we will be traveling back home yet again.

#StorySettings Day 9: #Snowstorm - this was shared by Fats who lives jn Ohio back in 2020. Here‘s the GatheringBooks link: https://wp.me/pDlzr-lBI

#PoetryMatters Day 8: #Underbelly

#StorySettings Day 8: Inside a #Skyscraper you will commonly find workplaces as seen in the cover of this award-winning graphic novel. Hope to get into this soonest.

#PoetryMatters Day 7: #Uncharted

#StorySettings Day 7: #Attic - bought this back in 2021 when we were still doing our #NYRBBookClub with @vivastory

#PoetryMatters Day 6: #Uncertain

#StorySettings Day 6: Our entire conference on reading has #Seaside by the fjords as our setting here in Bodø Norway. First keynote speaker today is rhetorical unparalleled Frank Serafini whose academic work has impacted and informed mine in countless ways.

#StorySettings Day 5: The #River Nile plays a prominent role in the final book of the Daevabad trilogy. Did not bring it with me to Norway because (1) too thick and heavy (2) don‘t want the story to end so thought of prolonging it til I return home next week.

#PoetryMatters Day 4: #Unbind

#PoetryMatters Day 3: #Unbending

#PoetryMatters Day 2: #Unbeaten

#StorySettings Day 4: #Mountain. I appreciated the juxtaposition of the poetic descriptions of each mountain and/or national park. I love how the essence of each place is captured by a few words – just four deceptively-simple lines – that speak of beauty, joy, wonder. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-pC1

#StorySettings Day 3: #AirportOrPlane - posting in advance because will be in an airport and plane (3 in total) tomorrow as we travel Abu Dhabi ➡️ Doha ➡️ Oslo ➡️ Bodø just like tomorrow‘s prompt. Over and above this picturebook providing a detailed description of what to expect in airports, the “diverse” element is a given rather than explicitly articulated or pounded over the head of the reader. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-dfD

#StorySettings Day 2: I hope reading in a #Cafe applies too for today‘s prompt lolsss. 💕

#PoetryMatters Day 1: #Unbearable

#StorySettings Day 1: Reading at the Leland #SkiResort Park in California back in early 2020. One of my great fantasy reads.

#PoetryMatters Day 30: #Unaware

#SpringSkies Day 30: perfect example of #NFIndigenousPpl. There are seven Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people featured in this book – most are fearless freedom fighters, forgotten thinkers, heroes and rebels in the country known now as Australia. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-ovI

#PoetryMatters Day 29: #Unable

#SpringSkies Day 29: My #FavBkOfMarch or #FaveBookOfMarch - our #EuropaCollective pick.

#PoetryMatters Day 28: #Umpire

#SpringSkies Day 28: Here are #2BksWithSimilarTitle ##2BooksWithSimilarTitle - the one I am reading is paired with cheesy seafood tagine - absolutely delish.

#SpringSkies Day 27: There are #Secrets yet to be revealed in this final installment in the Daevabad trilogy. I am sure I will miss the characters once I am done.

#PoetryMatters Day 26: #Umber

#SpringSkies Say 26: Definitely one of the most #Poetic journals out there - just released and naturally I had to have it immediately! 🤗💕🌸🪽🪶

#PoetryMatters Day 25: #Ultra

#SpringSkies Day 25: #BreakInTitle - from my Big Bad Wolf book hunting haul here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-pZ2

#SpringSkies Day 24: Iseult qualifies as #Neurodivergent because of her stutter believed to be unbecoming of a Threadwitch – who is supposed to be calm (stasis), clear, and collected. My review of the novel here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-eGB

#SpringSkies Day 23: #LieInTitle - I enjoyed seeing how the book-story diverged from what I have seen on TV. But the female dynamics was strong, the friendships credible, and the self-flagellation and insecurities very real – with a layer that provided a deeper perspective, even while it tried to not take itself too seriously. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-kdE

#PoetryMatters Day 22: #Ulcer

#SpringSkies Day 22: It‘s a #Tragedy to tell stories wrong. Lols. Book presents given to me by my PhD student who came to visit from Sharjah. The absolute sweetest.

#PoetryMatters Day 21: #Ugly

#SpringSkies Day 21: This one is an #AwardWinner - the lotus ice cream cake and the book both which won the Goodreads Choice Award for Fantasy. Loving it so far and I am trying to prolong it as much as I can so that I don‘t get to leave the Daevabad world yet. 😭

#PoetryMatters Day 20: #Tyrant

#SpringSkies Day 20: #2NdChanceRomance #SecondChanceRomance feels with Nahri here, or so I hope. 💕

#SpringSkies Day 19: #Fall in title. My handwritten book log for our #DecolonizeBookshelves2022 reading theme. There were striking themes that fit into the decolonize nature of our reading theme, especially the portrayal of biracial characters who do not seem to fit in anywhere, forever outsiders across their two cultural backgrounds. Full review here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-ofx