Just started this last night and I‘m completely hooked. I love this family.

This was utterly charming. A perfect fit for a theatre-loving middle schooler. A delightful read.

#readharder #graphicnovel #LGBTkids

A teenage girl gets sucked into a group of Ethiopian immigrants who come under the influence of a charismatic leader. A story about coming of age/unwittingly being drawn into a cult/cultural identity. The premise is interesting and parts of it are good, but it just didn‘t grab me. It hangs somewhere between so-so and pick, but I think if I hadn‘t been listening to Bahni Turpin narrate the audiobook, I might have bailed.

I read so, so many fantastic books in September!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Hollow Kingdom
With the Fire on High 🎧
Evolving in Monkey Town
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Washington Black 🎧
Gender Queer
Evvie Drake Starts Over 🎧
Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Would You Rather
⭐️⭐️
This One Summer

#SeptemberReads #readharder

Read this for Banned Books Week. Wasn‘t crazy about it. Not even quite sure who the target audience should be. I would think adults would appreciate it more than teens. Just not my thing I guess.

I absolutely ADORED this book! Quirky, insanely creative, beautifully written, and the funniest book I‘ve read in years. A domesticated, foul-mouthed crow teams up with a goofy, good natured blood hound to go beyond their backyard to find out what‘s happening to all the humans. Their owner Big Jim is behaving strangely, and soon they discover that something is clearly amiss with all humankind. It falls to the animal kingdom to set things right.

This was terrific. The story of Emoni, a teen mom finishing high school with her grandmother‘s support and love. She‘s working hard, nurturing her passion for cooking, and trying to be the best mom she can be. But graduation is nearing and she has some big life changes coming. Heartwarming and real.

Acevedo has become one of my favorite narrators and the audiobook for this one is top notch. I‘ll read anything she writes or reads!

Great audiobook. Charming and enjoyable.

Reading this after the author's death has made me mourn her loss all the more. It is hard to believe this fiercely intelligent, compassionate, brave woman is gone. I have no doubt her work will live on to influence and comfort questioning believers for years to come. But I am heartbroken that we don't get to hear more from her. Her thoughts are so similar to mine and her books are a balm to my soul when I am restless and doubting.

I loved this book. The ending didn't quite live up to its initial promise, but still one of the best books I‘ve read this year. The prose is gorgeous - the vivid imagery, the perfect dialogue, the way Edugyan captures the awe of the natural world. Part coming-of-age story, part travel adventure, it was a pleasure to follow Wash's journey and lean in to all the conflicting questions he has about his identity and his place in the world.

This is a really terrific graphic memoir about Maia‘s own journey coming to understand and articulate what it means to be a nonbinary person. I‘m planning to give it to my oldest child who is also nonbinary. I think it will give us a lot to discuss together. It‘s a very candid, honest, sensitive book.

Visiting Landmark Bookstore in downtown Franklin for our Nashville area Litsy Meet Up. The tagged book was based on this lovely old book store. The owners were awesome and gave us a personal history lesson. Learned so much about the incredible southern writers from here in Tennessee. Now we‘re off to lunch! Love all my fellow readers!
#nashvilllelittens #tenesseemeetup #booklovers #localbookstores

A quick, enjoyable read. So many of my LGBT friends knew they were gay/trans from an early age, but I also know that there are plenty of folks that take a more meandering journey to embrace their identity. So this was helpful to see what that may look like for some. I also appreciated the humor and warmth, and was glad to read about someone who had plenty of acceptance and support as she came out.

This was loads of fun! I‘ll definitely read the next one.

Loved this retelling of Pride and Prejudice in modern day Brooklyn featuring the Afro-Latino Benitez family. When the wealthy Darcy family move into the newly renovated house across the street, the Bushwick neighborhood will never be the same. Elizabeth Acevedo narrates the audiobook and it‘s marvelous.

An entertaining character driven mystery featuring a clever 68-year-old private investigator. Céline is intuitive, smart as a whip, skilled with firearms, and has a better track record than the CIA when it comes solving cases. A fun quick read.

This was a good book, and definitely worth reading. But I don‘t think that I‘m quite as crazy about it as everyone else seems to be. It‘s overly long and would‘ve benefited from some paring down. I listened to the audiobook and it was really well done. I was invested in the family story and definitely wanted to know how things would end up for Cyril.

Another good one from Kate Atkinson. Loved having Brodie back again!

New post up at @bookriot today. I‘ve compiled a list of fantastic fiction featuring older women. Check it out!

https://bookriot.com/2019/07/30/novels-about-older-women/

Reading Party on a Friday night at my house. My hubby, daughter and I are all reading together and it makes me happy. Excited to finally read Kate Atkinson‘s newest Jackson Brodie novel!

Excellent book. I remember hearing about this incident on the news and it was interesting, and moving, to hear how these teens and their parents‘ lives were changed as a result. Valuable insights into nonbinary/gender fluid identities and the juvenile criminal justice system. Also provides a fascinating look at how race, childhood trauma, and privilege all play into the opportunities and pitfalls facing the kids involved.

Clever and not quite what I expected- in a good way. A quick, interesting read. Love the cover!

This haunting novel was inspired by a true account of a boys reform school in Florida that was closed down after over 100 years of brutal treatment of the boys in its care. Whitehead tells a harrowing story with insight and care, without being overly exploitative in the telling. The story is structured in a way that cleverly holds some surprises. The last 50 pages had me gasping and exclaiming out loud as I watched the end of the book unfold.

I‘m enjoying this Hawthorne series. This wasn‘t quite as entertaining as the first one, but it‘s a fun mystery and I‘d be happy to see another installment come along.

Nashville Pride was today and I‘m home because I‘ve been sick. In honor of PRIDE month, here‘s a post I wrote for Book Riot last year on Coming Out Day. If you are a parent/family member/teacher of an LGBT kid or young adult, here is a reading list to help you learn more and support them. Looking forward to the day when LGBT folks enjoy full equality and acceptance everywhere.

https://bookriot.com/2018/10/10/books-for-parents-of-lgbt-kids/

I absolutely LOVED The Girl with All the Gifts, especially The excellent narration on the audiobook by Flinty Williams. So I was thrilled to listen to this companion book/prequel. It isn‘t quite as perfect as the first one, but it was pretty fantastic. Sat in my driveway to listen to the ending.

So many great quotes in this book.

This was just marvelous. Sort of heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. The writing is fantastic, the dialogue just perfect, and the parallel story lines compliment each other beautifully.

I have so many feelings and there‘s too much to say. This is definitely the best book I‘ve read so far this year and I was completely swept up in the lives of these people. What a moving, funny, engrossing book. Loved it.

New post on @bookriot today for all my fellow theatre people getting ready for the Tony Awards this Sunday!

https://bookriot.com/2019/06/07/tony-award-winning-best-plays/

#theatregeek #tonyawards #bestplays #amwriting

If Beale Street Could Talk 🎧 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Word is Murder 🎧 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Normal People 🎧 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Weed That Strings the Hangman‘s Bag 🎧 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Felicity ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
And Then There Were None ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Of Mess and Moxie 🎧 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
It‘s Only a Play ⭐️⭐️⭐️

#MayReads #audiobooks #readharder

I‘m not big on cozy mysteries, but these Flavia De Luce books are pretty great. That Flavia is a total spitfire! Fantastic audiobook.

Beautiful and heartbreaking. Real, raw, and incredibly moving. I cared so much about theses characters and longed for their escape from a terrible situation. The whole book felt like a tug of war between desperate hope and the crush of reality. Written almost 50 years ago but still so timely. Listened to this one and Bahni Turpin‘s narration is amazing.

#audiobooks

This is a good book. It‘s a slow burn, depressing kind of book, but I generally like that sort of thing. I‘m not sure I‘m quite as blown away as some folks, but this was SO hyped that it was a lot to live up to. It was compelling and I was invested in the couple‘s journey and wanted to know what would become of them. But it also wore me out a bit with their endless come and go relationship. Definitely worth reading though.

Compiled a list of novels about marriages on the rocks. Makes for some juicy reading. Check it out!

https://bookriot.com/2019/05/16/books-about-complicated-marriages/

@bookriot #amwriting #amreading #recommendedreading #mustreadbooks

3 1/2 stars. Some parts I loved, some not so much. Enjoyable, fun, and touching.

I don‘t read a lot of mysteries but really enjoyed Horowitz‘s Magpie Murders, so I thought I‘d give this a try and I LOVED it. So glad there‘s a sequel to this. The audiobook was perfection.

#audiobooks

In honor of all the awesome single moms who are parenting solo, I put together a list for @bookriot of 10 novels featuring single mothers. I salute those amazing women!

https://bookriot.com/2019/05/08/novels-about-single-mothers/

#amwriting #mothersday #singlemoms

Heartbroken to hear the news that Rachel Held Evans died this morning. She was a favorite author of mine and her book Searching for Sunday meant so much to me as I was reevaluating my own faith in recent years. She spoke for so many of us who love Jesus but have wrestled with questions of faith. This book was a lifeline for me and I am so sad that she is gone. I know her work will continue to impact people for years to come.

In the poem Storage, Mary Oliver writes about her freedom in emptying a storage closet.

I feel seen.

#poetry

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
On the Come Up
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Convenience Store Woman 🎧
Young Jane Young 🎧
Zone One 🎧
Milk and Honey
Lucky Boy
⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Kiss Quotient 🎧
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning 🎧
Marriage of a Thousand Lies

#AprilReads

Another great book from Angie Thomas. I think I like this one even better than The Hate U Give. I love Bri‘s family, especially the relationship with her mom. And Thomas writes such terrific dialogue. Really great.

#currentread

At 22, Aviva Grossman finds herself the central figure in a political sex scandal. This story tells how this pivotal event changed her life and the lives of three other women connected to her. Each one tells their own part of the story. Clever, amusing, and thoroughly entertaining.

I LOVED the first 2/3 of this book, and then the plot seemed to cross into less believable territory and I was less thrilled with it. It was good though, and I was pretty invested in seeing how things would turn out. Tackles some very interesting and timely subjects - immigration, infertility, adoption, foster parenting.

Also, bad title.

I read this for the #ReadHarder Challenge, a translated book written by and/or translated by a woman. It was really terrific and totally unexpected. A quick read, it was a funny, sad, intriquing book. The story follows a young woman who has spent 18 years working in a Japanese convenience store and why she has such a connection to that space even though her life as a single, part-time store worker does not fit the norm for Japanese society.

New post on @bookriot today about how much I‘ve learned by reading fiction. Any other fiction lovers out there?

https://bookriot.com/2019/04/18/what-ive-learned-about-history-from-reading-fict...

#amwriting #booklove #fiction

I read this for the #ReadHarder Challenge for a book by/about someone who identifies as #neurodiverse. Hoang is on the autism spectrum, as is the main character Stella. I‘m not much of a romance reader, so I don‘t know how this compares to other books in the genre. But I‘m guessing romance as viewed by a person with autism is not super common. It was interesting to see dating and sexuality through that lens. Pretty graphic though.

Here‘s one for all my audiobook peeps. Made a list of some of my favorites over on @bookriot today.

https://bookriot.com/2019/04/15/audiobooks-with-theatrical-narrators/

#audiobooks #amwriting #amlistening

A plague has converted half the country into zombies. By this point, most of the undead have been contained. Mark Spitz is part of a team helping to sweep Manhattan of the stragglers, making it possible to reinhabit the city. In flashbacks, Mark remembers life before the plague and trying to stay alive while the devastation spread across the country. The book is worth reading, but the audiobook is just so-so. I‘d read it instead.

Lucky and her husband Kris are both gay, but married in order to appease their traditional Sri Lankan-American families. They each date on the side, which works just fine. Until it doesn‘t. Lucky wants more. She wants to be herself. This book wrangles with the dilemma that so many LGBT folks have to face. Do you come out if it means losing your family? What is the cost of freedom?