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!
February wrap
“Life isn‘t supposed to be lived as some kind of example to others; all it is, all it can be, is a crashing together of moments.“
And it's a wrap. At least January turned out to be a solid reading month in spite of the rest of the month's events.
“I wondered if the past rudely visited me, ghostly, uninvited,
or if I walked backwards, uninvited, to haunt it?“
pickListened to Heretic on audio while taking walks over the last week often finding myself at a cafe to scribble in my journal & gather my thoughts as much of this hit very close to home coming from a similar background and subsequently leaving the evangelical church when I was in my early thirties. It's a lot to unpack; even a decade later, I still find myself unpacking more and more. I appreciated hearing someone else's experience and perspective.
pickLit-fic meets sci-fi meets meta-fiction, Okorafor's new novel is my first 5⭐ book of 2025. The story is told from various POVs: Zelu, a complicated woman who refuses to be put into a box (& we're pulled deeply in her innermost workings), interviews from family members portraying how different aspects of Zelu are viewed by them, excerpts from Zelu's novel (Rusted Robots). ⭐Because sometimes a story really does have the power to reshape the world.⭐
“...Nothing really matches the atmosphere of the old Polaroid film. Except perhaps a poem, a musical phrase, or a forest hung with mist.“
Prepared to say inside as the snow continues to fall all day and then ushers in the subsequent cold this week.
I'm about halfway through this collection and enjoying it. Dark academia stories are a perfect winter read, and Edgar is the perfect reading buddy.
My StoryGraph 2024 wrap-up. It was a solid reading year with lots of fabulous books across many genres. Tagged book was my best of the year. Absolutely LOVE Joy Sullivan's poetry, and I read this volume repeatedly throughout the year and carried it with me for a couple months including across the Atlantic on vacation. Cannot recommend enough ☺️
...“everyday things are rare and exciting when they turn up in unfamiliar places.“
The comfort of little, unexpected things ♥️
pickSeren and I greeted the Winter Solstice lazily this morning. I also finished up Darling Girls, which did not disappoint. The use of both the before/after timeline and the POV of each sister worked very well and added to the story. Compelling and enjoyable read.
pickThis was a fun, quick read on my flights last weekend. And the cover art is gorgeous! #coverlove
pickInteresting voice and subject. Enjoyed reading this one and marked several passages to return to later.
Once again nerding out on StoryGraph's charts. November was a great reading month, and my top 3 are all solid picks. Mallory in Full Color is MG but I'd recommend for any age. Arrangements in Blue was beautifully written. Scorched Earth is collection of moving poetry. Note: this was an ARC; comes out March 2025.)
Up next. I've been looking forward to this one for awhile and finally picked up a copy this week.
The state of my desk right now scattered with my current reads.
pick12 y.o. Mallory is a people pleaser and avoids conflict as she struggles with the question of “Who am I?“ A self-portrait assignment parallels her confusion as she works on “patchwork pieces of a girl who had a million different words for who she was and still no face.“ With comic panels at the start of each chapter, a cause to help defend drag queen storytime from protesters, and a glitter cat, this is a fantastic MG book! Edgar approved.
This play was the perfect way to revisit a favorite. It was delightful to move from room to room watching as Jane Austen converses with her characters.
And that's a wrap. Still loving StoryGraph's monthly wrap up feature.
pickThis cover arrested my attention immediately, and I then was intrigued by the following: her name is not her name, her father is not her father, her birthday is made up, and she spends her days editing Wikipedia entries. Overall, it's a pick - an enjoyable and interesting story - but there could have been more depth and character development.
pickI enjoyed dipping in and out of this collection over the past week. A couple of essays just didn't generate my interest, and there were a few that stood out above the others; my favorite being Second Selves. Overall I found the book to be thought provoking and give it a pick.
pickAS King is YA surrealism at its best. Her newest novel is a deep dive into what domestic abuse is like from the inside. It's frank but handled with grace. And I loved seeing Jane's punk opera develop throughout the book.
pickIn addition to the physical history, Roland also discusses how notebooks were used throughout history - in accounting, art, natural history, writing, etc. and various ways notebooks were perceived. I.e., in the 1200s when clergy refused to use anything other than parchment being suspicious of paper's novelty and its infidel and recycled origins: “one opponent fulminated against the idea that the word of God could be written on menses-stained rag.“
September wrap! I usually read a decent mix of genres across both fiction and non-fiction, but September was a heavy NF month with some solids picks too.
