so-soI found an old volume of mystery stories & novels while antiquing a couple weeks ago. The first novel in the collection was The Maltese Falcon, which I have never actually read. It had some good twists but wasn't amazing. Overall this only gets a so-so.
pickThis is definitely a book that'll linger for a while. My mind keeps returning to the story - was it a single story in 2 parts, or was it a dual story? Where does it start/end? The ambiguity feels intentional and IMO makes this book work. I also enjoyed the exploration of a woman's identity - what is gained/lost by choices made? (Also, it's been a stressful day so picture is my stress relief this evening. Ice cream makes everything better, right?)
Just started part 2. Seren's face says it for me. Definitely intrigued and ready to see where this goes.
Edgar and I tried to read a bit this evening but were too tired to get far. Enjoying the diversion so far though!
I'm going to hell. So excited for this one!
pickI appreciated the mix of essays along with the poetry. Definitely going to check out more of Hollie McNish's work.
A solid July in the books! Top read of the month was definitely Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
Next up. “...it all started with a podcast.“
On this Saturday afternoon I read, and they watch from above.
Saturdays are for reading in the park. I'm very intrigued by this one!
pickI absolutely love V.E. Schwab's writing, which never fails to hold my attention. With toxic lesbian vampires and themes of freedom and power, obsession, hunger, grief, and control, this one gets all the stars from me. From V.E. Schwab: “Each of my stories can be distilled down to a few important emotional beats... For Bones, each of the women was defined by a word: head, heart, hunger.“
June Wrap. StoryGraph has a cover collage now, or maybe it always did, and I just missed it? Dream Count and I Have Something to Tell You, which bookended the month as my first and last books completed in June, were also my top books of the month. House of Hollow follows closely.
Much needed book and coffee date. Diving into V.E. Schwab's newest!
pickThis book was a slow read. It felt like I was waiting for something to start for most of the book. I do love the lore surrounding Mercy Brown and actually had visited her burial site in RI a few years back. This one is a soft pick me.
“Isn't time strange? Time is not linear but a deck of cards that is continuously shuffled.“
“I think time is better represented as a house of cards, an unimaginably large castle of cards, one in which rooms and entire wings collapse and are endlessly rebuilt. Those collapsed rooms and wings hold memories, both personal and collective. That card house is forever haunted by the lost memories and by the ones that are retained but changed.“
“...seems to me more'n'more that the trick to getting by in this world is to hold to your principles, but not so rigidly that you can't move with circumstance.“
pickI was immersed immediately and enjoyed this one. I've seen many reviews that balked at the loosely connected stories, but I found it works here looking at the book as a whole. I recommend reading the author's note: “Novels are never really about what they are about.“ Also, I think Edgar is glad I'm home.
Visited my mom for a few days this week and spent a fair bit of time playing with these guys. Now I'm home and plan to get a lot of reading time in over the next couple of days.
pickI was intrigued by the intro describing Rosalind Belben's books as hard to read but impossible to forget. After reading this one, I'm not sure I agree with ithat statement. I found this book easy to read. Parts are memorable, but I don't feel it'll be a lingering one for me. Belben writes both plainly and with a poetic quality. Overall, it's a slight pick.
Days were yellow in the middle.
Days were mud, paddocks, kelpies, sheep.
Days were helping Jack stir molasses into the feed for the rams.
Days were lemonade scones.
Days were weather.
Time for a reread in preparation for the upcoming adaptation on appletv.
“We went wherever the day took us.“
Best kind of plan sometimes is to have no plans and wander.
April wrap! Another great reading month in the books. Louise Erdrich's The Sentence definitely stood out last month.
pickWrapping up the month with Notes to John. This one is hard to review. It feels a bit intrusive and a bit wrong to say enjoyable. But Didion's writing is always gold and this was definitely an interesting read.
Someone's interested in my book haul on indie bookstore day. There's a couple more books not pictured since Seren was too busy inspecting the goods 😂. I was glad to finally get a copy of Diavola, which I've been wanting to read, was thrilled to grab a copy of book in the Firefly verse, and Catwings was too cute to resist. Plus I think the niblings will love it.
Sunday morning reading, and I'm thoroughly enjoying this book!
Love this section of the book and brings me back the wonder I had upon being introduced to the library as a kid.
“Books everywhere.
So many books, more books than I'd ever seen all in one place. The backs of books, in rows that reached up to the ceiling, books and books and books, at every level, high and low, piles of them, shelf after shelf of them.
Wherever my eye went, books.
Oh! I said.“
Whenever I travel to corporate, a stop at Toadstool Bookshop is a must. Snagged these two books. I love the Murderbot Diaries and want to do a reread soon.
And it's wrap time. March wrap courtesy of StoryGraph.
Unwinding from a travel day with a new book and a fresh veggie sandwich on sourdough. Perfection.
Just a little local library love this evening. 📚☕
so-soI wanted to love this one, but it fell a bit short for me. It's more of a so-so than a pick. But I did enjoy time with my Edgar-cat.
pickEdgar says I am not journaling right now about the best book I've read so far this year. I've read several books (both fiction and nonfiction) by Sarah Moss, and damn, can she write! This was definitely her most vulnerable, and if you choose to read, proceed with caution. It's a hard subject, but she handles in well. She's sharp, intense, and brutally honest even questioning her own unreliability as a narrator of her own story.
“You need a reverse ghost here, a present voice to haunt the past.“
I don't go to many concerts, but I couldn't miss the chance to see Paris Paloma on her US tour this month. And, of course, I had to participate in her book swap, which is part of the tour. I took Naomi Novik's Uprooted and got the tagged book. So now I have a book from the little library of Paris Paloma, which is embossed on the title page. The concert was fantastic too!
Seren and I had a cozy evening with this memoir. Reached about the halfway mark, but now I need to get some sleep!
