Ludovica never liked having to face the sky.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

I had another thought about book technology. See #SundayFunday thread. There is one book-related tech I use every day. It's not an app tho. It's a browser extension called Library Extension. Add it to your browser & then when you're on a book-related site (goodreads, storygraph, amazon, B&N, bookshop, scribd, libro, etc.) it will show you if that book is available in your local library.

I know it's not Sunday anymore, but I use some apps that I haven't seen mentioned so I thought I would post anyway.
1.litsy, gr, storygraph, YouTube, ig, and TikTok among others. I've just started trying out an app called Likewise and one called Tertulia (iOS). These are both mostly just discovery apps from what I can tell.
2. Litsy, gr, and storygraph pretty much every day. I want to make the jump from GR to storygraph and abandon the Amazon ⬇️

I know many people here admired Colson Whitehead's book The Nickel Boys. I saw this book in some promotional piece this past weekend. It's the real story of the Dozier School that Colson Whitehead's book is based on. Told by the forensic anthropologist investigating the deaths and identifying the bodies. Pub day is supposed to be tomorrow. #NewBook #PubDay

Finally getting around to posting my #bookspin and #doublespin selections for the month. More #chunksters! Not surprising. They take up a huge part of my #TBR.

I will say though that the Physics book goes back to the very start of my #Goodreads list from 2008. One of the very first books I #TBR'ed there. The very first book I TBR'ed on Goodreads was the 3rd book in the Name of the Wind trilogy by Patrick Rothfuss. Still waiting on that one. 😊

📷 by @DavidDrexler on Instagram.

#ThinkPositiveBePositive @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

My brother, who loves photographing street art, captured this sidewalk stencil.

Thanks #NYRBBookClub for another really good read! This is definitely not a book I would have picked up on my own. While it's hard to say that this story is “enjoyable“ I did enjoy the feverish paranoid quality of the characters stories and imaginings. I started out trying to sort out what was true and what wasn't and then realized it would be better just to go with the flow. A truly unique and mesmerizing read.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

My #Bookspin for June looks exactly the same as my #Bookspin for May as both spin numbers were “renewables,“ or in other words, stories of my choosing. Still working on my chunksters from earlier in the year! Looking forward to June's Spinning Wheel of Book Fate! 😃

@TheAromaofBooks

This was a fun and fast read. In this book of haiku for the modern age everyone will find at least one haiku they can relate to and many more that will amuse. It‘s a pick because some of these are snort out loud funny. 🤣

People were eager to see "the Big Indian" as soon as he returned to America. He was a celebrity now, a global sensation, after winning two gold medals at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, where the dapper king of Sweden was said to have called him the greatest athlete in the world.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

My #BookSpin for May was a story from The Big Book of Science Fiction. If the spinning wheel of book fate keeps this up I'll have this 1160-page book finished in no time! ha! This month's story was Mechanopolis from 1913 by Miguel de Unamuno; translated from Spanish. It's a very short story. A man travels to a world where there are no humans, just machines. ⬇

@TheAromaofBooks

"This morning I got a note from my aunt asking me to come for lunch."

Sounds ominous.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

I am so far behind in posting reviews! Just reading like a fiend + life getting thrown in my face = not. enough. time. sigh.

I did finish this book in April the #AuthorAMonth author for April. I had been warned that it was a really good book and that I would need a box of kleenexes. I didn't. I found it more melodramatic than dramatic with sparse detail given it was supposed to be an historical novel. ⬇

@Soubhiville

I received a complimentary ARC of this book courtesy of Netgalley and Random House in exchange for a fair review.

Woman of Light is a multi-generational story about the Lopez family which starts in 19th-century New Mexico and follows their migration to 1930s Denver. The story centers mainly on Luz who is a seer, but also includes her brother Diego who entertains and hustles with a snake charmer act.

My #Bookspin list for May. Wait. . . what month is it again? 😲 There's no stopping 2022, I guess.

Not that I needed anything new to read, but just look at what came in on my library hold list today. 😍😳🍀 Both of these books are going straight to the top of the #TBR list.🎉🎉😊

1. Finishing up a book called Basali! for #readingafrica2022.

2. I like both, but don't read much in either format.

3. I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett.
#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

Today's best find was this boxed set of Richard Russo short stories. #bookcrawl #score! I've been looking for this to purchase for a long time!

The results of today's #bookcrawl. Such a great day. The sun was out for a change. I haven't been out for real book browsing in almost 2 years! Finish off with lunch at Five Guys and the day is pretty much perfect.

Next stop on the #bookcrawl The Book Deal! 📚📚📚💜

It's #bookcrawl day! 😊📚📚📚 Starting at the friends of the library pop-up book sale. 💜

Is there such a thing as #readingsynchronicity? I ended up reading these 2 historical novels of Korean 20th-century history at the same time. While the Sea Women focused on a particularly strong subset of Korean cultural community, Pachinko, also focused on strong women, told more about the Korean diaspora in Japan as a result of the colonization of Korea before WWII. Both highly recommended! 4 ⭐ each!

I‘m quoting an entire paragraph because I love this.

“Basali literally translated into English is “women,” but its meaning as an exclamation on Sesotho is rich with humor, affection, and women‘s connection. Usually exclaimed by one woman to another, often delivered with a laugh, an amused shaking of the head, or a clapping of hands, Basali! strongly evokes Basotho women‘s love and respect for one another. ⬇

This also ticks a couple more boxes on the #Pantone2022 challenge list.
#FragileSprout
#SuperSonic
@Clwojick

Catching up with March #AuthorAMonth. This was totally different from the only other Lisa See book I've read-Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. The women portrayed were incredibly strong & resilient. This was a VERY brutal story of colonization & war set against the story that centers on these women trying to preserve their culture. The fiction is heartbreaking but I found the history to be fascinating.
#AuthorAMonth
@Soubhiville

Late (again!) but not forgotten. My #bookspin is an as yet to be determined short story (or essay!). My #doublespin is another #chunkster. It's almost as if the wheel of spinning book fates does not care that I'm already in the middle of three chunksters. 😲

@TheAromaofBooks

This was a wonderful read. A sweet story that didn‘t quite go the way you might think. I loved the striking difference between the inner dialogue and what the characters actually say out loud. I know I‘ve seen this movie before but I can‘t remember how close the movie is to the book. While reading the book I felt Harold Pinter sure got the movie dialogue right! I want to watch it again but can‘t find it streaming; I‘ll have to find the DVD. 5⭐️

This was a difficult read, both because of the style of writing and because the dystopian future thing feels over done. But this is the book that supposedly started all the others. It influenced Orwell when he was writing 1984 (indeed a glowing review by Orwell is included in my edition, bookended with an Intro by Margaret Atwood). This is a real “under his eye“ type story set in a clean, symmetrical glass-built city.
#NetGalley #ARC

I did not read the book, just the one story, Death of a Traveling Salesman, for this month's #Bookspin pick. I chose this one from a list I've been following on Lit Hub of 20 authors' first published stories. It is an amazing achievement for a first published story. The atmosphere is grim and disorientating. Nothing is quite as it first seems. Loneliness as a symptom of the South turning more modern. 5⭐
@TheAromaofBooks

So it seems that people either love or hate Johnathan Franzen & feel similarly toward his books. That said I think the book was worth the time invested. It's a pick if you don't mind JF. If you don't like him, this won't change your mind. It's still very Franzen-y.

I'm going to put this on my #ChunksterChallenge2022 list also! Nearly 600 pages and it's the start of a trilogy! I guess that makes it a #SeriesRead2022 also!
@Amiable
@TheSpineView

This will also check a nice box on the #Pantone2022 challenge list!

#SnowWhite
@Clwojick

This is a tick on the loooong list of books for #ReadingAfrica2022. Partially set on Réunion Island which is situated to the east of Madagascar. First published in 1832, this first solo novel by George Sand is the story of a young woman married to much older and indifferent man when she falls in love with her handsome neighbor. In this day we'd say she was targeted for seduction by her neighbor! ⬇
@LibraryBelle
@BarbaraBB

I just don't know enough about Maya Angelou; this was a good start. The first in a series of 7(!) autobios, this covers from her first memories to early adulthood. Despite all odds being against her, I believe the key to her success was strong & consistent parenting from her grandmother, even tho that only came in spurts. I call this more autobio than memoir; someone retelling stories, not searching for deep meaning.
#AuthorAMonth
@Soubhiville

Here is my #WeeklyForecast for March. I was close to finished with several books at the end of Feb.; I finished 3 books in the time it took me to put this forecast together! There are some half-finished books making a return engagement on this list also!

Top 4 left books are MUST reads for the month. Everything else applies to current challenges, clearing the #TBR, or meeting my #ARC commitments.
It's going to be another busy month!

@Cinfhen

1. This weekend I'm working on finishing up Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen.

2. I almost never go to the library anymore. (Is that sad?) I put the books I want on hold and my husband, who works at the library, picks them up for me. It's a good system that always leaves me overwhelmed in books!

3. the last disc of season 2 of Succession! Woot!

#WeekendReads
@rachelsbrittain

“When I was three and Bailey four, we had arrived in the musty little town, wearing tags on our wrists which instructed--“To Whom it May Concern“--that we were Marguerite and Bailey Johnson Jr., from Long Beach, California, en route to Stamps, Arkansas, c/o Mrs. Annie Henderson.“

Can you even imagine? 😳

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

February #Bookreport. I did not get a ton of stuff read this month. Too many chunksters on the list! Still working through most of them. Hopefully March will be more impressive. There were all good and I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite. Probably Katalin Street or Drive My Car or The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araujo.

@Cinfhen

I'm late with my spinny list, but it's basically the same as last month. My #bookspin is a short story. I think it will be Eudora Welty The Death of a Traveling Salesman because I'm already a couple of pages into that one. And #Doublespin is Hilary Mantel Cromwell #3! Hallelujah!

@TheAromaofBooks

So I wait until the very last minute to start my #bookspin for the month. Next up in The Big Book of Science Fiction is a short story by Alfred Jarry who's writings are widely regarded (apparently) as a precursor to Dadaism, Surrealism, and the Theatre of the Absurd. Suffice to say the story “Elements of Pataphysics“ is a DNF for me. Weird, dense, nonsensical, and certainly requiring more brain power than I have this evening.
@TheAromaofBooks

I'm just reading along when all of a sudden THIS happens:

"Language is a prostitute queen who descends and rises to all rôles, disguises herself, arrays herself in fine apparel, hides her head and effaces herself; an advocate who has an answer for everything, who has always foreseen everything, and who assumes a thousand forms in order to be right."

?? ?

So many lovely, and appropriate, colors in this cover!

#Pantone2022
@Clwojick

I enjoyed this episode of the Wayward Children. Good to get to know some of the characters we haven't seen so much of and to travel to the different worlds!

This my #DoubleSpin for February.
@TheAromaofBooks

This isn't even everything! It's most of it though. It's a short month so I wouldn't place any bets on how many of these I get through.

@Cinfhen
#WeeklyForecast #February

#Pantone2022 Poppy Seed
@Clwojick

When the book summary said this book started with the reading of the 387-page will of Senhor Araújo I thought it was going to be a satire. But mainly it was about the life of one man, how a person is knowable and how they are unknowable. How the self-important pipsqueak we start out knowing becomes a totally sympathetic character by the end. There's a lot contained in this short book.
4 ⭐
#ReadingAfrica #capeverde
@LibraryBelle
@BarbaraBB

Last Sunday when @ozma.of.oz posted her #SundayFunday game about #bannedbooks, this is the book I stacked as having been banned in the last year.

Since it was a quick picture book read, I checked it out and read it right away. I enjoyed it thoroughly! I gather there's a whole series of Marlon Bundo books now. He deserves it. Marlon seems like a really nice bunny.

A solid pick with no stinkbugs for me! 😄

The reading of the last will and testament of Sr. Napumoceno da Silva Araújo ate up a whole afternoon. When he reached the one-hundred-and-fiftieth page, the notary admitted he was already tired and actually broke off to ask that someone bring him a glass of water.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(I cheated a bit because the second line was also quite good! 😄 )

The Day of Spinning has arrived! The Spinning Wheel of Book Fate has decided to be kind to me this month; short stories and short books! 👏 😊

I think both of these can be easily done and will put another notch in one of the #bookseries I am reading as well as the #ebookTBR.

#bookspin #doublespin
@TheAromaofBooks

I got through three books for #ReadingAfrica2022, so that kind of surprised me. Some good reads, some meh reads. Started the month with a DNF so I did not expect too much from reading after that. So it all turned out pretty well in the end! 😊

#BookReport for all he weeks in January.
@Cinfhen

I've been watching Around the World in 80 Days on PBS with David Tennant. It's excellent! But it is so far off from the source material! About the only thing the same is that there is a wager and some people are traveling around the world. haha! 🚝 🚢 🐘

So then I realized that my own understanding of the source material might be a bit off as I believe I've only ever read the Classics Illustrated version, eg. the comic book. ⬇