This holiday romance is just oozing candy canes, gingerbread, and hot cocoa. I liked our protagonists. I loved the afterlife bureaucracy. The plot was a bit meh. Read for Christmassy vibes.

Dishy and so much fun, Hornak is able to dash between 5 character POVs seemingly effortlessly. We care for every one of these family members, even while seeing their glaring flaws. Read for Giant Family Secrets!

A sad meditation on grief following Didion‘s husband‘s sudden death. Don‘t look for answers on how to move on. Very powerful. Read it slowly.

A beautiful snapshot of a 1980s Christmas in a depressed Ireland village, with no punches pulled. I would imagine this would be a great audiobook (although I don‘t do audio).

In turns a fever dream and a slog, this is by no means the worse King I‘ve read. Long sections were pretty entertaining. Super icky body horror.

This novel is one year (1903-04) in the life of a middle-class family in St Louis. Each chapter is a vignette, focusing on one member of the family. The family consists of the parents, five children, grandpa, and a maid. The kids are age 6 to 18. Benson based the family on her own family and the warmth she feels for her characters comes through. Some of the writing is so beautiful. The novel culminates with the opening of the World‘s Fair.

The mouse and his child are clockwork windup toys joined at the hands. Purchased as Christmas toys by a family, they are eventually broken by the family cat (LOLOL the most real event in the book) and thrown away. This is where their adventure begins.

Themes of self determination, redemption, and community.

This is a coffee table featuring photos of gargoyles and grotesques from cities across the US accompanied by an essay by Stephen King.

The stars of the show here are the photos, some of them beautiful and some truly creepy. I like the idea of gargoyles and grotesques hiding up in the skyscrapers of New York City. I‘ve been there. Did I notice any of them? Nope. But I‘d sure look now if I went back.

King‘s essay is long-winded at best.

Luke and Danny have the ultimate best bro relationship and I am here for it always. (Also, Luke‘s interactions with Jessica Jones and Danielle are perfect.)

In the Sweet Christmas Annual, Krampus is going to take over the world with demonic toys! Who better to help our duo save Christmas than Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan himself? Harried new mom Spider Woman also makes an appearance. This was just so much fun.

I enjoyed the Victorian history touches that feature around the romance storyline. Things like retrofitting a mansion for gaslight (and even potentially installing indoor plumbing!) and a scene where the ladies are doing their hair in preparation for the ball (Victorian hairspray??) made this book a worthwhile read. But I did find the romance a bit lacking in spark.

Paige is a professional hit woman who is more than ready to off her target, an obnoxious millionaire tech bro type. But when she breaks into his mansion one night to do the deed, she is shocked to find his young daughter in the house. She retreats, much to the displeasure of her Company. She should have killed them both, but you know, morals. 🤷‍♀️ Now she has to figure out a way to survive the hit her Company has put out on her. Enjoyed this.

Dash is wandering the stacks in the Strand when he comes upon a red notebook. He opens it and reads, “I‘ve left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page.” Lily, who is having a bummer of a Christmas, has left this notebook at the Strand in the hopes that her future soulmate will pick it up and play the game. The two teens pass messages and dates back and forth via the red notebook in a very grumpy/sunshine-holiday spirit kind of way.

This is for the hardcore Beatle/McCartney fans only. An exhaustively researched tome covering McCartney‘s career during 1974-1980 (this is the Wings era). I ate this up. My only complaint is that the footnotes (of which there are a ton) are weirdly difficult to read; instead of your standard asterisk, they are noted by a tiny pinprick of a dot that the eye goes straight over.

This novel is weird and funny and original. I love the alternate-universe Cambridge and how Kuang incorporates different mythologies and literary traditions into the way Hell is built and how it operates. I also really enjoyed the relationship between Alice and her rival, Peter.

I already knew about the Ellen and William Craft and their escape, although only in a one-sentence history sense. Even though I generally knew how their story turned out, the twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat. I also enjoyed learning about other people in the Crafts‘ social circle who had also emancipated themselves via some very daring and ingenious plans. And Woo‘s research is immaculate.

A dual-timeline western magical realism revenge story! The 1895 timeline follows Antonio, a Mexican bandit bent on revenge against a couple of Texas Rangers who have done him dirty (that‘s an understatement). The 1964 timeline follows Jaime, Mexico‘s biggest A-list actor who is handed a mysterious book about his ancestors and a supposed family curse. And in both timelines is a mysterious shadow figure who has his own agenda.

Steph doesn‘t just want to work for NASA, she wants to be The First Cherokee Astronaut. We follow Steph over 30 years as her tenacious determination to fulfill this dream casts a ripple effect on every person in her life.

Steph is messy. With every terrible choice she makes to get her closer to space, I was loving her and rooting for her even more. And the side characters all felt so real. I was sad when it ended. Fantastic debut.

This 1987 novel opens on a haunted house in Ohio. The entity in the house is “full of spite.” Each family member deals with its presence in their own way. But the arrival of an old family friend antagonizes the spirit and ramps up the action.

Beloved is a horror novel. The horrors of poltergeist haunting and demonic vampirism layer with the mind-wrecking grief of child death and the nightmare of a life under slavery.

👏👏👏 to Lamar Giles who wrote a pitch-perfect Bad Batch standalone that slots into the last season of the show in the few days before…that terrible event broke all of our hearts in ep 16. There is no Echo or Crosshairs in this novel, but plenty of our other characters, including lots of heartwarming (and agonizing!) Tech/Phee interactions. The new minor characters and villains are also well-rounded. Loved it.

John Green has a succinct, conversational way of writing that also somehow manages to be beautiful and heartwrenching. This is not a history of tuberculosis. This is a musing on Green‘s process of learning about TB and how all the big problems human society has—capitalism, racism, class inequities, corrupt governments—cause thousands of deaths every year from this disease, which is 100% curable.

This has a stream of conscious style narrative that I enjoyed. The highlights are the Chinese myth bedtime stories the narrator tells her kids. Her best friend and her dog add some levity to the situation.

This is exactly what the subtitle says: a history of Westeros. It‘s like reading a textbook, but with the addition of some pretty illustrations. If you‘ve read Fire & Blood, that is all reiterated in the first half of this book. A lot of this is boring, tbh, but if you‘re a GoT completist and you like pretty pictures… AND if, like me, you believe we won‘t see A Dream of Spring until Mr Martin‘s watch has ended, you might as well read it.

Rage: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Long Walk: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Roadwork: ⭐️⭐️

The Running Man: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Although I enjoyed this book quite a lot, the title is misleading. The actual escape is only covered in maybe the last 50 pages or so of the book. The rest of it is a history of Alcatraz with a focus on its use as a prison. What makes this book so interesting as a historical document is that it was written while Alcatraz was still operational.

Set in the Red River Valley in North Dakota, this novel is about a sugar beet-farming community that is suffering through the 2008 housing recession and just living their day-to-day lives. Crystal is a trucker who hauls sugar beets. Her husband has left her after seemingly committing a financial crime. Her daughter is 18 and engaged to one boy, but is in love with another (but is she really?). I loved it.

Have y‘all done your literary duties and watched the trailer for the new Wuthering Heights adaptation? I know the novel is messed up in all kinds of ways, but this film looks UNHINGED. 😆

Super excited for my September Book of the Month! 🌙

A couple of Little Free Library finds from my bike ride this morning. 🌹

This is a dual-timeline space opera involving politics, war, a very noir-style mystery, and stellar (lol space joke) characters who I really just cared about way too much. This is like if Firefly had been written by Arthur C Clarke. I also think horror fans would enjoy this book; I‘ll say that without giving too much away, but there is some dark and creepy stuff happening here. I can‘t wait to get to the second one.

Mostly mediocre short stories cobbled together by the publisher from other sources (magazines, etc). King provides an Introduction and Notes with some insights on many of the stories. The novella anchor, The Mist, has a great premise--a bunch of acquaintances from a seasonal summer town are trapped together in a grocery store while *something* outside gets closer and closer--but completely fails to deliver.

I orchestrated my read of this book to coincide with a trip to Galapagos. I also read Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle and Origin of Species beforehand. This all contributed to my enjoyment of this book.

The Beak of the Finch is focused on the Grants, a family of scientists studying Galapagos finches. Highlighting their work, Weiner illustrates visible evolution that is occurring around us right now, not centuries from now.

From tonight‘s reading

My 16yo and I have agreed on a reading challenge: We will each read 20 pages a day of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. If we do that, we will complete the book before we leave on our trip to the Galápagos Islands in a few weeks. And this (somehow?) will enhance our trip. At page 206, am I having regrets? Perhaps.

A friend recently clued me in on the fact that Placentia Library District allows ANY California resident to sign up for a virtual card online! If you are an ebook or audiobook reader, this is a perfect way to support yet another public library! I filled out the application form online, and I had my library card number by the next morning. Thank you, Placentia Library District! 💖

New bookstack! ☀️ What is everyone reading this long weekend?

The illustrations are what make this edition so special. The art highlighting the text drives home everything Snyder is trying to say with his 20 lessons.

In the back of the book are notes about each illustration. The descriptions of the photographs in particular are often heartbreaking. And the Krug integrates the artwork with the text is beautiful.

So before you decide if you should read this book, google Relf v Weinberger. This novel is inspired by that case. 😬

Our protagonist is Civil Townsend, a brand-new Black nurse in her early 20s who has secured a good gig with a federally-funded family planning clinic. She realizes that the instructions she is receiving about two of her very young patients are highly suspicious.

In the early 2000s, Lenz, a devout Christian, joined a Hollywood Bible study group mostly for some camaraderie. She quickly found herself sucked into “the Family” cult, giving them access to all her money and eventually marrying one of their own.

I would never call what Lenz experienced “harrowing,” but I definitely found myself thinking, “oh, girl, no…” many times as she was coerced into making choices advantageous to the Family.

Incredible research, insider sources, and engaging writing combine to detail the creation and rise of the Wagner Group and its leaders. This is some dark and horrifying stuff, y'all. If "war crimes" is on your content warning list, take care. I did not anticipate how jumpy this book would make me during my nighttime reading. Really gripping. For nonfiction fans and readers interested in current events and Russian history.

Heavenly Tyrant picks up pretty close to where Iron Widow left off, although it took me a few pages to figure that out because from the get-go this book is a hot mess.

Iron Widow was a brilliant story of feminine rage with unforgiving sharp teeth. The novel is grounded in the Zetian/Yizhi/Shimin relationship. Not only is that triad torn apart in Heavenly Tyrant, we are introduced to a new love/hate interest for Zetian, which I had 0 interest in.

This is a dual-timeline novel, one timeline taking place in Pakistan in perhaps the early 2000s, and the other taking place in California “now.” Our two California characters are Salahudin and Noor, teenaged best friends who have had a falling out. Our Pakistan POV character is Misbah, Salahudin‘s mom (hopefully this is not a spoiler; you find this out quickly within the novel). She is telling the story of her marriage and move to California.

Lauren lives with her family in the hellish California dystopia of 2025 where everything is on fire and the president of the US is an oligarch fascist.

Spooky, no?

Lauren also dreams of traveling north where life is better (supposedly) and starting a new religion she calls Earthseed. I‘ll try to spoil as little as I can in my review.

Unpopular opinion alert… I did not love this book. But I am curious enough to read the second one.

I worked our county‘s Pride event a few days ago, and I was happy to see a booth for the Queer Sacramento Authors Collective there. I had to pay them a visit, of course! It was hard to choose which title to get, but I really liked this cover and the author was cool, so I got Surviving Sentience 2040 by Sharon A McDonell.

May reads…so far 🌸

Fitz is smiling because my hold finally came in. 😸

This brief werewolf tale was a total treat. The conceit of each chapter being one month of the year was clever. I loved the illustrations, and was genuinely shocked at the werewolf identity reveal. I do have to take away a star, though. I‘m sad to report that I‘ve realized that 1980s SK suffered from a terrible case of fatphobia. I do not see this in his later novels, but it‘s so obvious in these earlier ones. (And I‘m reading Thinner next. 🤦‍♀️)

New #bookstack 📚

Who has read these?

This short comic is Stephen King‘s homage to the pulp horror comics of the 1950s with all their goofy gory gruesomeness. Our guide, the Creep, takes us through five stories of terrible people and their horrible demises.

There were a couple of panels that did make me giggle, but overall the book is pretty meh. The first and last stories are the strongest.

If by some chance you are super into those old horror comics, you‘ll probably like this.

In 1932, a pregnant Margret Wittmer moved with her husband and young stepson to Floreana, a small island in the Galapagos. They believed that getting out of the city and going back to nature was the only way to cure their sickly child. This is her memoir of how the family managed to survive then thrive on this basically uninhabited (at the time) island. This is a story about strong people who had more courage and fortitude than I could ever have.

I take such pleasure in a historical fiction novel as expertly written as this. And I really love a multigenerational drama. So this story of one family during Japan's occupation of Korea and beyond was wonderful perfection. I can't wait to read more of Lee's work.