Idle Grounds

Idle Grounds | Krystelle Bamford

This is my longlist based on @monalyisha 's fantastic #AuldLangSpine list. I like the harsh wilderness theme running through Hagstone, Death Valley, and Idle Grounds (and I guess Moominland too? ☃️). There's a nice variety of nonfiction, including memoir, mythology, and food. Nettle and Bone seems like the popular kid of the bunch, and Deep Cuts has a 90s music theme, which is always tough for me to pass up. Lots of fun in store for January!

BarbaraBB I loved loved loved

Deep Cuts

monalyisha Top 3 from your longlist are: Giving Up the Ghost, Death Valley, and Moominland. Excited to see what you think! Good luck! 🤞🏻 4d

monalyisha P.S. Nettle & Bone is great on audio. And Hagstone is definitely more vibes than anything else but…they‘re vibes I really dug. 4d

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Billypar @BarbaraBB Three 'loves' sounds very promising 😀 4d

Billypar @monalyisha Perfect: I was considering all three of those as definites. And I will check out Nettle & Bone on audio - thanks for recommending. For ALS, I usually break my general rule of reading fiction in print only, so I can read more of the list. Though Death Valley will almost certainly be a physical copy because it's about a 5-month wait for the audio. 4d

Billypar @monalyisha Oh and on vibes novels, that is how Brutes is described by so many reviews (that and its resemblance to The Virgin Suicides). One of my favorite vibes on steroids novels is tagged.

The Gloaming

(edited) 4d

monalyisha @Billypar Oh, good! Which book is vibes on steroids? 4d

Billypar @monalyisha Oh weird I could have sworn I tagged it. I just added it - Melanie Finn, The Gloaming. 4d

monalyisha @Billypar Thanks! I recognize that cover, actually! 3d

37 likes9 comments

lauraisntwilder

Idle Grounds | Krystelle Bamford

pick

I read about half of this in one day. The following day, I got some really distressing news (see my previous post about my sister) and I didn't come back to it for a while. I didn't want to color my impression of a book I was enjoying with horrible, real life. Horrible, fictional life, like this, is much more enjoyable. Her writing had me completely hooked. It was funny, brilliant, poignant, and absurd. I loved it.

lauraisntwilder Also -- this was my #bookspin for August. 4mo

25 likes1 comment

monalyisha

Idle Grounds | Krystelle Bamford

It‘s officially the mid-point of the year!

I‘ve read 59 books thus far. 64% have been fiction titles. Here are my Top 5, which I‘ll tag below.

1. Idle Grounds by Krystelle Bamford
2. Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen
3. Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley
4. Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher (audio)
5. Her Majesty‘s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson (audio)

I should make it a point to read more fantasy. It seems to be working for me — but I‘m so picky!

monalyisha

Idle Grounds

5mo

monalyisha

Patricia Wants to Cuddle: A Novel

5mo

monalyisha

Deep Cuts

5mo

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monalyisha

Nettle & Bone

5mo

monalyisha

Her Majesty's Royal Coven: A Novel

5mo

ChaoticMissAdventures I loved Patricia too!! It has such a low score on GoodReads which is criminal! 5mo

monalyisha @ChaoticMissAdventures Staying under the radar…makes sense, thematically. 😅🌲 5mo

65 likes7 comments

Sapphire

Idle Grounds | Krystelle Bamford

pan

Much like audition, the altered perception of reality over a tragic event just didn‘t sit with me. I didn‘t find it engaging or illuminating in any way to make up for the jarring story telling. I hope this style isn‘t a new trend like the switching pov every chapter.

16 likes

monalyisha

Idle Grounds | Krystelle Bamford

No surprises here! May‘s winning title is tagged. I‘m pleased to be adding more fiction to the bracket.

#Readingbracket2025

CSeydel

CSeydel Very nice! 6mo

50 likes1 comment

monalyisha

Idle Grounds | Krystelle Bamford

pick

The best (adult) novel I‘ve read all year (no way to measure it against Moominland; they are different soft, round, or zig-zaggy beasts). A child goes missing. Her gaggle of cousins goes looking for her in the thick, viscous, fecund wood.

One might complain that there are too many similes and metaphors but that one would also be forced to admit that 95% of them are so creative and fantastic that the complaint isn‘t really a complaint at all. 👇🏻

monalyisha 1/2: Besides, something being LIKE something else, but not *actually* something, represents that disquieting resistance to being pinned down that horror has. You can‘t quite look at it directly. Or you don‘t want to. You can‘t grasp it or understand it or reason with it. It eludes you, and that‘s uncomfortable. Figurative language is the best we‘ve got. 7mo

monalyisha 2/2: Owen with his precious eggs is my favorite part. Such a clear symbol for how everything is so delicate and vulnerable, and how the outside world is implicitly threatening and dangerous. And, what‘s worse (in the case of Beezy, especially) is that sometimes your interior world is no better. This is a book about generational trauma. It perfectly captures humanity‘s capacity to be there for one another, and — crushingly — not. 7mo

monalyisha AND I DIDN‘T EVEN MENTION THAT IT‘S FUNNY! 🤩🤯 7mo

lauraisntwilder I just bought this on Sunday on a whim and hadn't heard anything about it. Love your review! 7mo

monalyisha @lauraisntwilder I hope it strikes you the same way it did me! 7mo

57 likes4 stack adds5 comments

monalyisha

Idle Grounds | Krystelle Bamford

Me, in the face of this book‘s 3.30 ⭐️ Goodreads rating.

ChaoticMissAdventures I have loved so many 3⭐ reads from GR. I always feel like people have zero clue what they are reading, they don't know how to pick books for themselves and then get mad that it isn't perfectly tailored to them. 7mo

CatLass007 I generally don‘t pay a ton of attention to ratings and reviews. I read the description of the book and if it sounds good I‘ll borrow or buy it. 7mo

monalyisha @ChaoticMissAdventures I just said the EXACT same thing to my husband! One of the Storygraph reviews said, “These kids were literally walking around for ages and I just don‘t love novels centered on kids.” 😂💀 7mo

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monalyisha @CatLass I tend to read them afterwards to see how other readers‘ impressions compare to my own. 7mo

ChaoticMissAdventures @monalyisha honestly this might help me 😂 I too don't normally enjoy books centered on children. But I think you have to read the synopsis, understand what you are going in for and then (IMO) rate the book on the writing and how effective the storytelling is. So many people have so many different ideas in what goes into their ⭐ rating. 7mo

monalyisha @ChaoticMissAdventures Ha! I mean, we all get it wrong sometimes. But that‘s when you‘ve got to reflect and say, “This wasn‘t for me.” I love meandering narratives (and coming of age stories). 7mo

5feet.of.fury @monalyisha lmaooo I finished a book recently, liked it a lot and then headed to the reviews and 1/2 of the 3 star or less reviews were “I don‘t like YA” 😩 …like??? This was so avoidable. 7mo

monalyisha @5feet.of.fury Right? Do your research! 😜 Granted, sometimes my hand is forced (book clubs, etc). 7mo

44 likes8 comments

monalyisha

Idle Grounds | Krystelle Bamford

“He was wearing a polo shirt with fat, colored stripes and a white collar which made him look like a formal caterpillar.”

Aims42 Love that description 😂 A++ 7mo

Bookwormjillk 🤣😂🤣😂 7mo

57 likes2 comments

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