We are halfway through the year. How did that happen?

Looking at the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year, I am doing pretty good! I am almost done with my book count goal (86/100) and am holding steady on my read count (57% done). I am keeping up on reading non-US books (currently at 38% US)
I have these books I am trying to prioritize this year, and I hit the half way mark recently.

It has been a long time since a book has kept me up past my bedtime, but this YA romance did it.
I adore Henry and his fun family, and though I thought Len a bit of an ass all the way through I also felt it was realistic.
The pacing on this was great and the side characters added to the story and the vibe. I do wish the third act was a bit more flushed out. There were words that should have been said.
4.25/5⭐

This was a bit of a disappointment. I have read Kann before and really like her book Romantic Agenda, but this time around I was just annoyed with most of the characters. Our MC felt super juvenile - she is in college but I am reading an actual YA of boys set in HS and they are acting more mature than this.
I thought everyone around her was awful including her best friends & love interest which is always a bummer
Overall this just wasn't for me.

Friday #Pride book recs!

Ace and Intersex books are not very common. Here are three each I recommend.

Ace = A-sexual this is such a scale! Angela Chen's nonfiction book Ace helped me so much to understand that range. I really recommend it.

**I originally added a book that after more research (I read it years ago before I knew better) appears to be harmful. This is an updated graphic.

At a party: "Why did I agree to this? There aren't even any cats."

Starting this one tonight.

Carrie Fisher was his BFF and sometimes roommate. Joan Didion was his aunt. He is an actor, directed one of my favorite comfort movies (Practical Magic) and his family is incredibly tragic. Mostly swirling around his sister's murder in 1982 Dunne's book tells the complex story of growing up in a Hollywood family. It is a bit crude but also funny & heartfelt. I didn't recognize his name when the book came out but his stories here are memorable

3 favorites:
Cat's Cradle
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Bell Jar

3 on my TBR:
Once and Future King
Wide Sargasso Sea
Master and Margarita

3 books turned movie/show I liked
Breakfast at Tiffany's 😍
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Nurse Ratched (spin off of One Flew Over The Cuckcoo's Nest)

@dabbe #TLT

I am thinking about this book, and what our conversation on Saturday will look like, and there is an NPR interview with Kitamura that is super interesting. She talks about how she wants the 2 halves of the story to sit along side each other, and the idea of this image comes up.

Is it a rabbit or a duck?

NPR article here: https://www.npr.org/2025/04/16/nx-s1-5243214/katie-kitamura-says-a-solution-is-n...

Okay my poetry fans!

My 11 year old niece is obsessed with Emily Dickinson. She loves how "soft" her words are (her description) I am on the hunt for other - age appropriate - similar poets. I keep picking up and putting back things when I see a lot of violence (or randomly the word clitoris in a sentence it has no business be in? Is that an adjective now??)
All suggestions appreciated! ❤️

#allhailthebail
This is my #bookspin and I am bailing. But I only made it 20 pages in so not marking it as traditional review bail, just realized this language is not for me. It is super intense Irish and 20 pages in I haven't understood anything. That is totally on me. I am sure my annoyance of the McConaghy book earlier today isn't helping. I just want a book I can sink right into that makes sense.

#WeeklyForecast

I have started the tagged. So far it is great, recommend for people who find Hollywood and Joan Didion fascinating. Lots of famous cameos but the root of the story is the Dunne family of 5.

Well of Loneliness is chunky I need to get cracking on
I grabbed The Pairing on audio for my daily walks
Thunder Song needs to go back to the library next weekend
Henry Hamlet's Heart looks like a quick read and is my #doublespin

3⭐ I am an outlier on this author. This is my third book of hers, and I am only reading it for #CampLitsy25. I could have skipped it and saved 2 days of reading...
I just don't understand. I find the characters, their motives and actions, utterly silly and unbelievable. I think that the language she uses is good but the way others gush about it I just don't feel the same (there is nothing I want to take a highlighter to).
👇

#sumdayfunday @BookmarkTavern
The list is so long.
James Baldwin, always more Baldwin.

Ocean Vuong (Tagged)

I would like to start reading Alan Hollinghurst (his books are huge so intimidating)

My main focus this year though is Patricia Highsmith, I am having a lot of fun with her this year.

At a cafe reading #CampLitsy25 book 2 which is due back tomorrow thinking about our conversation earlier today about if a character felt judged by the waiter as I overhear a conversation by 2 women that started "Well when my dad left my mom for your mom...." ?. I am a nosy cafe person!

Low pick
This is my first Henry, I for sure should not have read it directly after Giovanni's Room. I spent the first bit super annoyed at the rich white people. Then scared a coworker when I tossed my headphones off when a characters "nipples pinched" when she saw someone ?. The story grew on me until the end then I was annoyed again. I guess I see what others see, it just really isn't for me. I have one more of her books in my office...

Happy Pride Month! Last weekend I did classic, classics of Pride - which because they are older skewed very male. This weekend I want to do some ladies with Modern Classics (published after 1980)
All of these are FANTASTIC and worth the read.
Stone Butch Blues was written by a trans author it is novel about a lesbian that is heartfelt, sad, and for many an informative look at what being Butch in the 50-60s was like. Please check TW
5 ⭐

#14books14weeks

I have somehow lost track if we are still on week one or if we are in week 2? Either way I have finished 3 books! The tagged has been my favorite.

Up next Anne of Green Gables.

Book mail!

Disappoint Me and Death of the Author from Aardvark book box

Box from Blackwells with Ocean Vuong Emperor of Gladness and Baldwin's Just Above My Head

Pango box contained John Lewis' Across That Bridge and 2 more Baldwin's Go Tell It On The Mountain and Going To Meet The Man

🏳️‍⚧️
4⭐

This was a bit predictable, things that felt like the author were setting up to be a twist too early and easily identified. But overall I enjoyed this. There was some depth - but Charles and James having family drama and a sense of not being seen. I enjoyed the writing and really liked the ending.

#TLT @dabbe

Favorites
Baldwin (Giovanni & Go Tell It)
Invisible Man (should be required reading)
Talented Mr Ripley

Some I own but have yet to read:
Zorba
Cry Beloved Country
Dr Zhivago

"One day I'll weep for this. One of these days I'll start to cry."

5⭐

This is maybe my 4th time reading this and (my memory is not good) each time I am in awe of Baldwin's language and how he weaves the story of Giovanni, Jacques, Guillaume, Hella and David.

This might be my perfect book. I love the heart, the tragedy, the setting is visceral and the characters are incredibly realistic.

"'Somebody," said Jacques, "your father or mine, should have told us that not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour--and in the oddest places!--for the lack of it."

#Baldwin

Out according to GR on Aug 5, 2025

I thought this was cute and original. A group of robots fresh off a war that breaks California from the US start a noodle restaurant. Some are passionate about the noodles some just need to make their servitude payments. While some awful topics are touched upon (war, robot slavery, robot phobia) the book stays mostly light hearted as the motley crew try to figure out how to run a biz & who is review bombing

I fear this book is the victim of my expectations based off Murderbot which I absolutely adore. Wells' use of world building, her use of gender and fluidity is all done so well. But this felt a bit too slow and I found myself really struggling to pay attention which then caused me to lose track of who everyone was (it felt like a lot of characters)

Overall this was just okay for me.

Well. This was just lovely. I wish it had a different cover, I think I would have picked it up sooner.
The Berry's and The Marsh's couple of years living next door to each other their lives so intertwined and yet not at all. This book is about the power of a chosen family. I loved how each POV reveals a different look at all of their lives and the slow unraveling of how everyone got to where they are. I really loved the language Elliott uses.

Here we go!!

Happy June!
Happy Pride!

#Bookspin
#BookspinBingo
@TheAromaofBooks

#Bookspin = At swim, two boys

#DoubleSpin = Henry Hamlet's Heart

So excited! They both look excellent in different ways and have been on my bookcase for over a year

@TheAromaofBooks

I am almost finished with the tagged. That and WDS need to go back to the library next weekend so those are priorities - after Giovanni's Room

Happy Place I grabbed on audio and is part of my #25in25 & #14in14 so want to ✅ that off. It will be my first Henry.

Marsha - this looks incredible and I am looking forward to it, trying to read one NF a week this Pride

And then A Gentleman's Gentleman for pure fun!

It's PRIDE month!!

Here are 5 classic books I think everyone should read at least once.

Chorus of Witches was recently found and re-published. It is the first known book about Drag Queens. Written in 1959 by British author Paul Buckland, it is set against the backdrop of a traveling drag show, and a set of parents that don't know what their son is getting up to.
The secondary characters banter and behind the scenes scenes are the best!

I am so excited Aardvark has Nicola Dinan's new book!! I was able to read an ARC of it, and absolutely loved it. She is fast becoming an auto buy author of mine.

Also thrilled that Nnedi Okorafor's book is still in stock so that I can grab it for #CampLitsy25

#AardvarkBookBox

I read my #doublespin but didn't get to my #bookspin... will get to it this summer though. I am determined.

5 Bingos!

#Bookspinbingo @thearomaofbooks

May reading (I have about 60 pages left of Flamingo so I am counting it for May)

It was a lot of good not amazing books.

4.5 ⭐
By The Fire We Carry

4 ⭐
A House For Miss Pauline
Hula
Conversations w/Friends
Flamingo

3.75 ⭐
A Master of Djinn
Deep Water
I Think They Love You
Some Desperate Glory

3.5 ⭐
A Leopard-Skin Hat
Colored Television
The Dark Maestro
The Phantom of the Opera
The Chromatic Fantasy

3 ⭐
Crazy Rich Asians
By the Book

Oh. Oh no .. 😂.

June TBR bookcase I have a few library books I need to get through, but mostly my focus is the books up top. Pride Month🌈

I have been reading Giovanni's Room in June for the last couple of years so wrapping up what I am reading now and then starting that. I hear Matt Bomer reads the audio if you have not read the book and would like to do it on audio!
The stack on the back left is my #14in14 which I am 1.5 books into!

#bookspin
#bookspinbingo
@thearomaofbooks

It is Pride month!! I have thrown in a few of my #25in25 and #14booksin14weeks that are not LGBTQ to keep up my momentum but for the most part everything I read in June is always all Gay.

"He is cross-legged on the floor of the public library, deep in cookery, holding a book of old recipes, gripping it tight, his tears tapping out the code of how lost he is on its sun-bleached cover "

#FirstLineFriday

I am starting my weekend early and this is the vibe (except Saturday when I am volunteering most of the day for a city evening parade)

Books: Flamingo & Witch King
Drink water with lemon
Cat shown: Serene
Candle as always Voluspa Mokara

20! #TLT @Dabbe

So glad to see some Black authors finally!
I think I need to read a Dorothy Sayers?

Favorites
The Razor's Edge
Rebecca
Native Son

#WonderousWednesday @Eggs

1) I always wanted a name people know how to spell. Like Jane. Easy Peasy.

2) My first pet a dog named Frisco I was 5 and named him after my favorite General Hospital soap opera character 🤣

3) I always loved the name Phryne Fisher from Miss Fishers Murder mystery

Always fun to see how many I checked off in the month!
I need to remove Anne of Green Gables, even though I didn't get to it it was my booksping this month, so it is hovering on my TBR and I will get to it soon!

A gothic thriller on this hint of summer day? Yes please. I really liked the pacing of this, you keep moving quickly forward. The mystery is interesting, but I felt the characters were far away I didn't feel connected or informed about any of them. Overall it is a pick, a quick read for a classic (1910) it kept my attention but I cannot imagine ever reading it again.

The "Opera Ghost" keeps signing his letters OG which has a whole new meaning 100+ years (and American audience) on
Every time I see it I giggle. Ghost is causing havoc like a real O. G. ?

I have no idea why but I started this book (my first time reading it) and I had a visceral memory of my mom watching this Beauty and the Beast show when I was a kid. The show ran from 1987-90 and I remember it being unhinged. Does anyone else remember this show??

A low pick mostly from the unbelievable standpoint of some of the story. I just don't buy the idea of party planners being these media darlings, it was all a bit much. I also HATE that Braylon comes back from 4 yrs in London with an accent (I tried the audio of this and couldn't do it) and the competition. BUT even with all that I enjoyed the bones of this second chance + fake dating romance. Denz is a believable and sympathetic character. 👇

Unhinged rom-com thought

Do NOT reward a person who went on a couple years exchanged to a foreign country and came back with an accent by sleeping with them.

😂

This plot point is the most randomly annoying 🤣

3.75/5

I enjoyed this. The world building is exceptional. The characters are likable and well drawn. I love the idea of djinn just living and abiding by rules in our world.
The mystery and reveal were well thought out and I really love how strong Clark has made the women in the book, it is not often men can write such strong self assured and believable women.

I love this cover. The details and steampunk vibes are gorgeous 😍

#Weeklyforecast
I have this week off work so I am hoping to make a dent in my TBR. My library checkouts have gotten out of hand so pausing everything and trying to get things back.
I am a little over half into the tagged and I read 100 pgs of I Think They Love You yesterday then will move onto Phantom and Flamingo before tackling #CampLitsy25 2nd book and Witch King is high on my list b/c I have early access to the sequel.

This is SO not my normal genre but if you like a little romance with a bit of magic I just flew through this fun series. Violet, Rose, and Olive are triplets, there gran is head witch of NYC, and they are surrounded by supernatural people. Their best friends are a succubus and a guardian angel, and their hookups are people they don't see coming. Each book in the series focuses on 1 sister. I really had a fantastic time with these
Photo: B&N IG

"Was it true? Was she making it up? It doesn't matter."

Small but mighty. This is not a tiny book you can race through. The language is gorgeous but incredibly dense, I often had to reread entire pages, I would get to the end and not remember what I had read. Possibly this was too smart for me.

But I still enjoyed it, the mystery of the relationships, the aspects of mental illness were done well, also love the cover.
3.75/5⭐