Totally enjoyed this bookish whodunit/family story with an endearing main character. Loved the data privacy/surveillance angle (and also loved how my timing of this read coincided with this excellent Zeynep Tufekci piece covering the same: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/opinion/privacy-technology-data.html - so disturbing but also weirdly comforting that the burden of data privacy shouldn‘t be/can‘t feasibly be on each of us individually).

I feel like this one may not be for everyone. BUT, if you're interested in following an eclectic group of people getting to know each other better while thinking about what their progressive church means to them, with lots of food talk and levity and some plot sprinkled in, this indeed might be for you, as it was for me! I thought it was fun and thought-provoking and a bit suspenseful, even. My first Huneven but not my last!

I really loved this and will follow Lucy‘s journey of self-discovery wherever it goes. I‘m so glad that I just reread My Name Is Lucy Barton bc it made it so fun to revisit Lucy and her family! And I got a kick out of recognizing sentences in this that served as quick summaries of important character development stuff from the first book. Maybe I should indulge in rereading series books more often? (Now whether to reread Anything Is Possible…)

There‘s so much going on in this one, and I liked it all. The way Cooper Jones wrote about philosophy, identity, embodiment, and disability felt really fresh and taught me lots. The book is dense with insight but never feels weighed down by it, because she keeps things moving with vignettes from her life and little character studies of the people in it. Her writing is outstanding - hope to read some of her feature/travel/sports articles.

What a refreshing book about cleaning, self-care, etc., all understood as “care tasks.” Davis‘s philosophies are so in line with many other books/ways of thinking that I appreciate (Laziness Does Not Exist, Health at Every Size, anti-perfectionism, and much more). And the careful inclusion of diverse experiences is so great. How liberating to realize that our (in)ability to do care tasks in any season of our lives is “morally neutral.”

I believe this was my first Strout, and I remember thinking it was just okay. I‘ve read her lots since and love her now, so I‘ve wanted to reread this before reading Oh William! As suspected, I liked this a lot more the second time around. (And now I must check out the audio production of the play with Laura Linney!) An unintentionally well-timed reread bc of the complexity of mother/daughter relationships that comes up for many today.

This was so lovable and witty that it could almost be TOO sweet, if it wasn‘t just perfectly salty and bitter, too. Annie Hartnett has a special knack for that, I think. Thoroughly enjoyed the audio version and was really touched by these words from the author's note at the end: “This book is about rooting for everyone“ - ❤️!

Took me a bit to get into this one, but once it flashed back to a mom‘s juicy origin story, I was hooked and ended up loving it. It felt very Don-Winslow-does-The-Sopranos to me, in a good way. He's been an auto-read author for me for a while, esp. bc his books are those rare titles that my sometimes-reader husband and I both enjoy (and that Winslow is a local author for us is a fun bonus). Glad we‘ll have more of this series!

I was lucky enough to get a copy of this from the #LibraryThing #EarlyReviewers program back in 2020, and I‘m so glad I finally picked it up. A moving family memoir but even more remarkable for the gorgeous, dense writing and for its meditations on California. I now have a long list of things about my state, past and present, that I need to know more about! I will absolutely read more from Atleework if she writes it.

This was fantastic! A compelling read with some great characters that also teaches so much about what it's like to be part of the deaf community. (Not sure all will love the nonfiction-y interludes on audio, but I really did!) I super appreciated how much the author focused on deaf identity and culture and how they can collide with the expectations and values of others. Fun to have finished it during #DisabilityBookWeek too. ❤️

This was a liked-but-didn't-love for me, and I‘m not entirely sure why! I thought I remembered feeling much the same about Philpott's first collection, and revisiting my Litsy post for that confirms it. That said, I really have nothing negative to say about this one and think I enjoyed it a bit more than her first. I like her candor, and she‘s relatable for me at times (especially re: the kids‘ health stuff). Great cover, too. 🐢💗

Pretty great! Loved how it was both over-the-top in the satirical parts (ranging from hilarious to horrifying!) and cringeworthily real in so many other ways. And the grad school setting is one that I enjoy. Lots of well-written and insightful observations, including about how painful it can be to acknowledge and care about injustice and inequality - like when main character Ingrid says she sometimes longs for “the soothing balm of apathy.”

So fun, funny, nerdy, and lovable, and an exceptional experience on audio. Plus a new character to add to my all-time favorites list (not the main character! But he‘s great, too.)! ❤️

Interesting, well-written mash-up of memoir/study of ancestry as a scientific, social, personal, and spiritual phenomenon. The memoir part was intense; all ancestors and family histories are full of imperfections, but Newton‘s were...extra. I appreciated that she was upfront about how hungry she was for her biological ancestry to have a deeper meaning and enjoyed following the journey she took while seeking that.

Was super curious about this based on online chatter re: the supposedly awful things Havrilesky wrote about marriage/her husband in it. The “controversy” seems silly to me after reading - this was great! Loved the bracing honesty, found it quite funny (even if her style of humor can at times be a bit biting for my taste), and liked how she conveyed that deep love for your spouse can coexist with acute awareness of their faults (and your own!).

I sure do love my county library system and their generous recommendations limit and rad book buyers. 📚😍 Now I just need to bust out of my I'm-too-busy-to-read slump and actually read some of these!

You know you‘re loving a multigenerational family saga when you shout “Nooooo!!!” bc the time period shifts and you realize you‘ll have no more time with the characters at certain ages/parts of their lives. 😭 I adored this. Having admired Min Jin Lee as a person and for her online presence for a long time, it felt pretty ridiculous that I‘d never actually read her books! This exceeded high expectations and taught me a lot.

This worked for me in a big way. Relatable characters and excellent writing, plus an academia-yet-also-rural-working-class setting is catnip for me. A fave of 2022 (so far), for sure. I liked Michael Crouch‘s narration enough to poke around on Libby looking for more of him and realized I‘ve liked some of his other work, too. (Also added to my holds list a Crouch-narrated Kevin Wilson short story collection that I didn‘t know existed!)

My sweet local library branch hasn‘t been open indoors in over 2 years, but I‘ve gratefully picked up hundreds of holds outside of it in that time. And their outdoor book sales have endured! Loving today‘s purchases.

Pachinko was my most fated find, since I‘d decided yesterday it‘d be next up after my current read. (Between the upcoming TV series and Min Jin Lee‘s incredible op ed yesterday/her general excellence online, it‘s well past time!)

This was quite good. Written by a journalist but super grounded in a whole bunch of social science research. I like the framing of first showing how bias works and then examining some bias-countering practices that have actually worked in areas like education, policing, the workplace, and healthcare. I read this via audio and highlighted key passages in an ARC that I was fortunate enough to receive from #LibraryThing. The author ⬇️⬇️

Echoing the great reviews of this one already here on Litsy: amazing, brilliantly constructed story, and Zadie Smith‘s excellent intro worked best for me when read after reading the story.
Adding: audiobook was fantastic. Bahni Turpin! ❤️ And I loved Smith‘s narration of her intro, too.

Yay, and yum!! My lucky day. 🍪🍀 #netgalley

Wow - can‘t remember a book opening that captured my attention as much as this one! 😳 Made all the more riveting by the exceedingly gentle tone of the author-narrator‘s voice. What followed kept me engaged and made me think. Highly recommended if you‘re interested in healthcare, mental health, criminal justice/prison reform, true crime media production, and/or complex personal stories well written and told.

Glad Litsy put this one on my radar. Sad that it feels so relevant again/still. It‘s a timely reminder of how impossibly brave acts of protest and resistance often are.

This is super accessible and will affect the way I discuss social media, echo chambers, polarization, and more with my Intro to Sociology students. The “let‘s all act more moderate online!” vibe is hard for me, but there‘s lots of good research-based stuff about how we can communicate better across difference. The author‘s Polarization Lab at Duke has some cool tools to play around with - www.polarizationlab.com/our-tools

Really don't know why I've never read Ferrante before...some vague notion that she wasn't for me. Well, I loved this. The writing, tone, characterization, etc. all pleased me, so if this is representative of her work, I've got some catching up to do! Thanks for adapting this book, Maggie Gyllenhaal, because of course wanting to watch the film is what got me to check it out.

Thoroughly enjoyed this! Something in it for everyone: family drama, music, mystery, history, and honestly a pretty great primer on systemic racism. Perfect JD Jackson narration. The brilliant author‘s note at the end was even better than all of that. ❤️

I‘m appalled by the senseless banning of this but very grateful to have read it. I‘ll be sharing with my kids and students and many others. ❤️

I loved this! It just worked for me in every way. Loved the simplicity of the writing even as it was also elegantly interweaving a bunch of stories across generations. Though we spent a relatively small amount of time with many of the characters, I felt like I learned a lot about most of them. Loved how many social issues were addressed because many social issues very much affected these characters' lives and identities. ❤️

Lots of good stuff about why we should maybe let much knowledge work stay remote. They argue convincingly that the old “normal” of work is not an entirely good thing - for the individual or society. Mostly one realizes how many of our systems need to be revamped for this to work well and how those revamps would probably be great for more than just knowledge workers. I love Anne Helen Petersen and wish she'd co-narrated the audiobook. But ⬇️

This is like a nightmare smorgasbord of our recent and current societal calamities and dysfunctions and worst people. 😳 And some of it feels overwrought, even as it all feels possible and true. And there were oddities of structure and audiobook production. But I was into most all of it! 🤣 (Minus some musings on empathy that felt reductive.) A good read if you're in the mood for grim + punchy + philosophical.

So impressed by this thoughtful, well-researched book. The first part is all memoir/reflections on trauma, recovery, mental health, etc. (and a whole lot about her Christian identity/faith). The second is jam-packed with data about gun violence and laws, presented in a wonderfully accessible, succinct way. Loved how she detailed her journey from pro-gun to pro-gun reform and her honesty about how hard it is to change minds - others and our own.

Opioid crisis nonfiction is definitely in my wheelhouse, and I flew through this one, thanks to a well-written narrative and lots of interesting detail. I hadn‘t realized that I already knew a bunch about this company‘s story (must have been from a doc or podcast?). Some despicably memorable characters, for sure. All that being said, mostly I found this book exhausting and sad. Thinking about how our systems perpetuate ⬇️

I loved each one of these poems and found this book to be really uplifting. It says so much about what it's like to be a woman and how we survive and thrive by making poetry out of the judgment of others.

I really loved this! I knew just a little about Ali‘s work and personal story, so it was cool to learn about the depth and complexity of both - many serious ups and downs in his fortyish years! His analysis of and hope for America are wonderful, his writing is excellent, and he‘s really funny. I laughed out loud quite often. Also enjoyed his casual and conversational audiobook narration. Thanks to #NetGalley for early access to this one!

A chilling read! The school part was kind of standard dystopian fare but well done, and it made me ponder the awfulness of teaching parenting skills (or anything!) from a place of judgment instead of from a place of support. For me, the true horror came from the narrative outside the school, where mothering and womanhood were subjected to a super creepy Panopticon of surveillance in service of one definition of perfection. Feels too possible!

The glowing #Reggimendation for this was the push I needed to finally pick it up! I'm with @Reggie - great book. The dystopian setting + indigenous perspective was super powerful, as was how the author integrated the theft of dreams and forced relocation to “schools“ [shudder]. The standard YA dystopian brutality-alongside-teen-identity-and-relationship-stuff - which I like! - was there. But with extra depth and stellar writing. On to Book 2 soon!

This was wonderful and reaffirms how much I love reading Ann Patchett. One of my favorite things about this book was how it included little details about all of her other books - really makes me want to go back and read the several still on my TBR. (Marketing genius, perhaps, but I appreciated it! 😆) Other highlights were anything/everything about her family, publishing, bookselling, her connections with other writers, and her writing quirks. ❤️

This was the last book I read in 2021, and I liked it quite a bit. Excellent writing and a really interesting main character with relatable strengths and issues and good intentions and missteps. Loved the mother-daughter relationships and the ways in which aspects of American women‘s history/waves of feminism were explored and brought to life through them.

May you expect so little of yourself that you can be super proud of the smallest of accomplishments.

May you expect so little of the people in your life that you actually notice and cherish every small lovely thing about them.

May you expect so little of the supply chain and the service industry that you notice more of what you do get and less of what you don't and then just tip really well anyhow. ⬇️

I wanted to wait until I was quite sure that these were my favorites of 2021. (Still a few hours left until 2022 where I am, but still. :)

Wishing each of you a joy-filled New Year!

#Top21of21
Thanks for the tag, @Nute !

This might be the perfect book for this day of the year and this moment in time. It was, at least, for me. So much wisdom within, and so much hope in the face of struggle and pain. It was also sweetly personal, noting some of Lewis's favorite things like strawberry and vanilla milkshakes, old books, and being with his cats. I loved every minute of it and highly recommend the audio.

FINALLY got to this one, after being sold on it via endorsements from my library's personalized recommendation service, so many book podcasters, and countless folks here! And I've recently heard several educators praise its relevance for those of us working with college students, so that was a bonus push. It, of course, was great! I look forward to continuing the series soon.

This was great! Been wanting to read Marcy Dermansky for a while. The main character was weird and problematic and appealed to me a lot. 😆 One thing that stuck out to me throughout was how often Dermanksy didn‘t use contractions when I felt like most people would have. Wonder if there‘s deeper meaning to that within this book or if that‘s just part of her writing style? Guess I‘ll find out when I read more from her (which I do intend to do)!

My credibility as a reader and a Californian was questionable because I‘d never read Joan Didion. Was so sorry to hear of her passing but appreciated learning more about her via its coverage. This collection was Libby-available, so I went with it. Glad I did, because the long foreword taught me a lot about Didion and her writing, and I enjoyed each piece. I‘ll read more of her work and am especially eager for more of the CA-focused stuff.

What a beautiful way to start the day! I am so thrilled to receive this much-hoped-for book and yummy chocolates and other sweet things - thank you so much, @guinsgirlreads !!!🎄❤️ #JolabokaflodSwap

She‘s just so good. Beyond the inaugural poem, I‘m biased to adore her because of her background studying sociology, which I see everywhere in her writing. I LOVED her pandemic-related poems in this collection and how she names and analyzes some elements of that in new and brilliant ways. I also love that my assumptions of what “Call Us What We Carry” might be referencing were totally wrong.

Can scarcely stand to post a teaching-related book bc I‘m SO happy to be on break right now. 😆 But this was good. Some pieces resonated more than others; many good tips and insights throughout, and I appreciated the sense of community among contributors. I think I‘d prefer the print, but at least the info got into my brain!

My #JolabokaflodSwap package has arrived! Extra special to see it comes from a previous swap match. 🎄📚❤️

This was smart, funny, a tad over-spicy in parts for me (am I a romance wimp?? I think I might be. 😆), and an overall very good read for a busy and sometimes heavy time.