Fancy cup and Fantasy kind of morning while waiting for the temp to finally go ⬆️ It‘s been such a cold week here. Looking forward to some sunshine! #52bookclub23 #featuringaninheritance

Last minute February #bookspin picks! @TheAromaofBooks

@LeslieO Your #muglove23 package is on the way!! 💌☕️❤️📬 It should be there by Monday!! 🤗

I started this years ago, but after loving Evelyn Hugo so much I wasn‘t fully into it. Decided to give it a go again, since the show is coming soon. Listening to the audio of it too. A little over halfway & liking it much more. #52bookclub23 #abookeveryonehasread

I was also really sick this past week, so have not felt much like reading at all. And have been missing all of you! ❤️ Ready to get back on track.

I have had this one on my shelf for so many years. Giving it a go for #setinthecityofdublin About 20% and it‘s interesting enough so far. Hope it lives up to the excellent reviews.

My third Jane Harper in as many days and I have NO SHAME! 😅 I think the thing I love most about her books is how Australia and the Australian Outback feel like an additional character. So completely tangible! I‘m only halfway through this one, but really loving it. 🇦🇺 #52bookclub23 #abookaboutsiblings

I liked this one, though not quite as much as the 1st in the series. Something about the characters in this story didn‘t grab me as much as those in hometown Kiewarra in The Dry. But I‘m definitely enjoying my new obsession with Jane Harper! Can‘t wait for Exiles at the end of the month. #52bookclub23 #relatedtothewordmurder

Really, really enjoyed this one! I don‘t read a whole lot of thrillers, but saw this one suggested in a #52bookclub23 group for #setinaustralia and it was a page-turner! Well, whatever an audiobook page-turner is. The characters are so interesting & the pacing is great. Quick without being confusing, even when the flashbacks are mixed it. And the author does a great job of making pretty much everyone seem like a suspect. I loved it!

Finally starting my #bookspin book today, and it seems like the perfect day.

Date night last night to see A Man Called Otto! It was so good! I had been looking forward to it since I knew it was being made. It seemed to get almost everything from the book right! Thought Tom Hanks did ‘Ove‘ well. I watched the Swedish film a few years back as well. They were both good in their own ways. #bookintomovie

Worked hard getting both trees & all the Christmas decor packed away (ugh) so now it‘s time for lazy reading & football watching. 🙌🏻 This my first Octavia E. Butler! Thoughts? Only a few chapters in, but intrigued.
#52bookclub23 #abookbyOctaviaEButler

Signed up for #muglove23 last week & I‘m super excited! I‘m sure my husband doesn‘t think I need any more mugs, ha! But I love coffee, and therefore I love mugs! ☕️😅 And I love sharing the love!
Thanks so much to @TheKidUpstairs and @Cinfhen for hosting! This is going to be great!

Sign-Up: https://forms.gle/E5rReLZ5bBn4ALaJ8

Working on getting caught up on this #sundaybuddyread after hearing several of you talk about it! Should be ready for week 2 discussions. I‘m on chapter 10 right now and REALLY enjoying it! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

@TheBookHippie

While I felt the weight of the story dragged at times, I was highly invested in all the characters. Tales of witchcraft, the Underground Railroad, and forbidden love woven seamlessly. I fully admire Isobel‘s backbone and grit! There were a few surprising twists, and I rather enjoyed the ending.
#52bookclub23 #titlestartingwiththeletterH

Needing a comfort read today. It‘s dreary outside and I‘m feeling pretty dreary & down too. My daughter bought me this collector‘s edition for Christmas so it‘s just the thing I need. Plus, it‘ll work for #52bookclub23 #typographiccover so win, win.

“That's the choice. I love him, with all that, because of all that. On purpose. I love him on purpose.”

New Years plans include finishing up Hester & starting the tagged book for my #lastfirst. Tagged book count towards #52bookclub23 #acityorcountrynameinthetitle and #booked23 #propernounintitle

@BookNAround

One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year! A surprise from my cousin. She knows how much I love Christmas ornaments and collect them from wherever I travel. #notoriousrbg

The promise of a brand new reading year! Is there anything more exciting? I can‘t wait! Getting challenges in order, and #bookspin and #bookspinbingo are first on the list. Thank you, thank you, thank you @TheAromaofBooks for always doing this!

Probably my favorite read of the year. I just really feel blessed by all of these characters in this book. Made my heart so happy! 🐙❤️ #bestof2022

Local bookstore #booktree that was pretty cool. Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday & blessings for lots of reading in the new year!

Finally time at the very last minute to get my #bookspin list up! January was a blur, but excited to start another fun month of reading! 💕

It‘s a beautiful afternoon for a little romance! 💕

Glad I finally got around to reading this for #booked2022 #Novelsetinanonpatriarchalsociety I had heard good things for years and I quite enjoyed it. String leads, good secondary characters, and an interesting twist that I really didn‘t see coming.

I try to give this a listen annually but have failed the last few tears. Likely when I would have needed it most! Glad i found the time today.

"...justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

“It was a mistake to believe that other people were not living as deeply as you were. Besides, you were not even living that deeply”
t‘s not so much that I loved this, but it is going to stay with me for some time! It is designed, I believe, to make each of us very uncomfortable. At how ridiculous we are. But also how important we are. Poking at the scab of our faults, then telling us to maybe give ourselves (& everyone else) a little slack. ⬇️

These boys kept me company while I finished this last night. And it was EVERYTHING! I loved it so much! What an epic tale, so well-spun, so much heart. Highly recommend!

Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4469199793?book_show_action=false

#doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

Determined to finish this one tonight. Only about a hundred pages left, but I am so in love with these characters and all their stories! 💙💛

“But for me, your mother, just remember that, for better or worse, we can be described as survivors. Okay? Know that we‘ve always kept on living. What else could we have done?”
Finishing up my #bookspin book & watching the championship game. I liked this one, but I didn‘t love it. It‘s an important read, I just didn‘t fully connect to it. Plus, short stories often aren‘t my thing. Looking forward to more reading now that football is almost over.

Monday, after a holiday, first of the year in the pharmacy is T-O-U-G-H! Relaxing just a little with a #bathandabook before I crash pretty early tonight. This is one harrowing listen so far!

ETA: Finished and really liked this one! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4451095850

Hoping for some success with my first #bookspinbingo board of 2022. Pretty excited for a lot of these!

Ready to start the new year off right with @TheAromaofBooks and some #bookspin #bookspinbingo

Yep, it was that good. The pace is slow, which is what makes it real. Which is what makes you feel it. The impossibility of it all. The lengths we will go to to protect our children. I can‘t imagine this not becoming a movie or a limited series at some point.

Hoping for something quick, romantic, and fun. Don‘t know if this will deliver or not. Mixed reviews plus I tend to roll my eyes at a lot of romance these days, so we shall see...

Hoping for a much calmer May so I can actually have time to post/review what I read. As always, looking forward to #bookspin and #doublespin books and trying for that elusive #bookspinbingo

Edit: added #bookspin and #doublespin books

April was just the craziest month! I‘m sitting here trying to get my May layout ready in my journal, and realizing that I needed to write something about my April #bookspin book. I had grand plans to write a review, because I loved it! But it‘s just not gonna happen. But it was one of my favorites of the month. I‘ll have my May list together soon, I hope I hope! 😬

I‘m on a serious Jason Reynolds kick after finishing his Stamped Remix (which I haven‘t been able to put into words how phenomenal I thought it was, listening straight through twice). This is the story of two high school boys, one black, one white, dealing with the fallout of police brutality. This & the events of this last week reminded me yet again how many more names could be added to this protest sign from last summer. It‘s heartbreaking.

Shuggie and Sunshine. Finally finished this one today, out back while enjoying a few rays before we get another freeze. Most of this was on audio for me. 18 hours of dark & tragic heartbreak. While I thought it was a very good book, it was a VERY tough read. It shows how very bleak it is to love someone so much who will never, ever be able to help themselves. Even if, at times, they truly believe they are going to try. 💔#doublespin

Happy April 1st! 💕 Can‘t wait for another month of #bookspin #doublespin and #bookspinbingo 🥳

“Love comes paired with failures, apologies for deficiencies. The only remedy is compassion.”

This is my favorite of 2021 so far! ⬇️

So close to a #bookspinbingo this month, but not enough time to finish Anxious People. Can‘t wait to try again in April!

My #doublespin book is going to have to be a DNF for now. I got a little over 1/3 of the way through and had to pause. It is very good, but very dense. And hard to read/listen. While I enjoyed it, I am not in the right reading mindset at the moment. So I‘ll think about it & try again at a later time.

“Little brother” Ray-Ray said, “there are enough monsters in this world.”
This is a story of destruction. The power that monsters found in this world to destroy an ancestral people, and the power that grief finds to destroy a family. It is also a story of attempted recovery. Overall, I loved the themes of the book, even if I didn‘t completely love the magical realism of the spiritual journey that most of the characters were on.

#bookspin

Playing catch-up on some reviews for March. Finished this one on St Patrick‘s Day with our annual Irish red ale, so it seemed pretty fitting. This is the harrowing tale of life inside a Dublin maternity ward in 2018. We are smack in the midst of the Spanish flu pandemic, World War I, and the Irish Uprising. It all seemed eerily familiar and often times hit way too close to reality for our lives in 2020. It is also feels very personal to anyone ⬇️

Two things that I adore: pie & birds! But still, without #booked2021 #bakedgoodsoncover I probably never would have picked this one up. Magical realism is a genre that is pretty out of the ordinary for me. But it was a light, airy, and fun read too, so I quite enjoyed it!

Keeping Miss Percy company today after her spay surgery & some icky post-op complications. Hoping she‘s on the road to feeling much better. Also, really enjoying this choice for #booked2021 #mustacheonthecover so far!

“On the island of By-the-Sea you could always smell two things: salt and magic.”

Well, when the prompt calls for #beach I have to go back almost 2 years to the last real vacation we had. But desperate times and whatnot. Hopefully someday we‘ll all get to travel and see loved ones again! Until then, we‘ve got photos & books. And photos of books! 🤣🤣 #litsyspringbreak

Excited for another round of #bookspin #doublespin #bookspinbingo

This little girl wanted to stop me from finishing the last 40 pages of my 2nd #bookspin book. She didn‘t succeed, and I‘m so glad. This book was beautiful from beginning to end!
Side note, I am so thankful to @TheAromaofBooks for hosting Book Spin! It has been the one thing that has finally helped me focus my scattered TBR thoughts. It has been enormously helpful & I feel so accomplished to get through these 2 every month! Review in comments ⬇️

Last Wednesday we were buried under 9 inches of snow & sub-zero temps, this week I got to read barefoot outside in almost 70° temps. Got to love OK weather! But I adored this book, both the audio & print versions. Highly recommend!

“What people wanted to be, but never could, traveled along beside them. Company.”

Finished this #bookspin book tonight, and I need some time to process. It was an enjoyable, though tough to stomach, climate change-esque novel. It was also a scathing review of the generations that have come before the narrator. Of which, I think I‘m a part of? I don‘t know. It‘s gonna take some time to wade through my thoughts. But I didn‘t hate it!