Recommend. Straightforward, poignant stories aimed directly at your heart.

Stephenie Meyer owes Butler a lengthy acknowledgement, at the very least. I was a little creeped out by the childlike vampire here, but this a solid, interesting, smart book.

This was an uncomfortable book and uneven, but the best bits are a smack in the face. It was blurbed by Junot Diaz, and the feelings Bulawayo creates are similar to his writing.

Misnamed. Not untold history, but history through the lens of class.

I surprised myself by liking this. It's a deliberate book, sometimes difficult to read, but hopeful.

I didn't love these stories, but I respect the talent behind them. Three stars.

Solid three stars. Guerrero tells her family's story of immigration and deportation, division and hope, simply and honestly.

Not everyone is going to love this book's structure, though I found the pieced together bits of facts and dialogue fascinating and effective. Saunders is brilliant at capturing emotion and showing the humanity of even the worst of us. The passages in which Lincoln struggles under his great responsibility feel especially relevant.

I just didn't care about Eleanor and her problems.

In the first Make America Read Again newsletter, I shared that Men We Reaped is the book I'd like everyone to read this year. The next newsletter comes out this week, and I'll be sharing a discussion guide for Swing Time. Sign-up link in bio!

Valentine's Day reading recommendations, picked with love in mind.

This is an uneven collection of stories, but I'm still telling people to read it because the ones that are on point -- Only Once and The Happy Family, in particular -- are heart-shattering.

Damn straight.
This book is what we should be reading now. The call to action at the end is so timely and fortifying and hopeful.

Go read this, if only for the story Only Once. I'm sitting here in a diner waiting for a meeting, and I feel like someone just yanked out my heart.

Saw Brit Bennett speak tonight. She's as bright and interesting as her book cover.

If we policed frat parties, how different would our political scene look?

Back to social justice reading ...

Dreamy and hopeful, this is a solid three-star book.

This is the second time the 7yo has read this charming, funny book, and the 9yo and I loved it just as much.

Literary beach read, that's what Patchett always can be counted on for, and this is no different.

Stories from Rust Belt America. Campbell is brilliant at capturing despair and hope.

Needed a bookmark, found these notes scribbled during Coates' visit to Cincinnati this fall. Think this is going to be my bookmark for the duration.

Set in Bangladesh in 1971 and revealing my lack of knowledge about the country's War of Independence. I have some research to do.

Quick and compelling.

So many American stories. What would you make required reading?

I really liked how this translation of the poems left the Arabic script mirroring the English. Seemed particularly fitting for these poems about home and roots and how it feels to leave the land you came from.

The cure for what ails you ... always.

Personal and political

It's amazing the stories we never hear in history classes.

Weekend reading

I'm sure some might disagree, but this was a mostly satisfying end to the story and world Johansen created. Also, it felt really relevant.

These are the books Stephens wrote and Catherwood illustrated. I found them on the shelves of The Mercantile Library, a private library in existence in Cincinnati since 1835. I'm the first person to check them out since 1958.

The work of democracy has always been hard.
- President Barack Obama

Seems fitting to read the first volume of this powerful story tonight, as we reflect on Obama's presidency. Wishing I'd picked up the second volume so I could continue the story tonight.

This is MLK speaking to a young white man.

I don't normally read two books at once, but maybe it's appropriate here.

Quick, honest, poignant

Thoughtful book with a sweet ending.

I'm giving myself 30 minutes before I start work.

How we wait for his brother's basketball game to start.

In contention for best book I read this year.

"Momma! The book IS better than the movie!"

And he's started Prisoner of Azkaban.

"... what he will remember later is not just the river like a snake but also the city crowding it, and what a city! A queen rising on seven hills over her Tiber, ringed hills forming the circlet of a crown."

Next up. 25 pages in and I can tell this will be a book that makes it hard to get anything else done.

Funny and heartbreaking, wholly engrossing.

Loved this epic history and its mix of love and feminism and folklore.

Death, about to be interviewed by Satan, smells of history and formaldehyde.

I didn't expect this book to be amusing.

The book gets bogged down with the backstories of Stephens and Catherwood, but the history of their exploration of the Mayan ruins is fascinating.

Catherwood's illustrations of the Mayan ruins are amazing, and I laughed aloud at the scene of him, ankle deep in mud and wondering how he'd capture these images, being laughed at by monkeys.