Almost every sentence in this book seemed like it carried a double meaning that I didn't catch because I don't know enough about East German history/politics. And without that subtext it just becomes an increasingly weird romance between a student and a married man 39y older that goes: insta-love - unhealthy codependency - completely toxic and abusive. I enjoyed the glimpses into culture and daily life, but the main story just had me bewildered.

Wth?! I'm five pages into this book the narrator seems almost manically weird. And that's saying something considering I'm also 500 pages into the ditzy word association game that is Ducks, Newburyport.

A lot of people rave about this book, but I've also heard some things that make me hesitant. About to find out for myself.

#InternationalBooker

Soft pick. Not really SK at his best. Most of the short stories were enjoyable enough, but not memorable. The line editors and/or researchers could have done their jobs better, because there are some glaring mistakes in several stories. That said, the two novellas were solid. One of them (featuring a character from Cujo) really creeped me out. And there were a couple of other stories that might linger for a while.

I haven't actually updated my #ReadYourKindle list since February. It doesn't matter much because while I have read Kindle books only 2 of them have been from the list 🤦🏻‍♀️ This month's numbers are looking good though. I hope to manage at least two of these, probably starting with The Sword of Kaigen.

@CBee

'"The sky is blue,' he said, 'the grass is green.' Looking up, he saw that, on the contrary, the sky is like the veils which a thousand Madonnas have let fall from their hair; and the grass fleets and darkens like a flight of girls fleeing the embraces of hairy satyrs from enchanted woods."

(Orlando tries, and fails, to purge himself of metaphor ?)

'But worse was to come. For once the disease of reading has laid hold upon the system it weakens it so that it falls an easy prey to that other scourge which dwells in the inkpot and festers in the quill. The wretch takes to writing.'

This was surprisingly fun and surprisingly grisly. First in a series but works as a standalone. Has both trans and ace rep. And a mad scientist apprentice who is skilled at body disposal and making hot chocolate. Great book for when you want to read a whole story in one go.

Taking a break from my Big Books to find out if this much shorter book is a "one sitting" kind of read. Somehow it is due back to the library in two or three days. How did almost three weeks pass already? What even is time? Almost half the year gone! How?! Where did it go?

Three pages of just listing types of sandwiches, desserts, cocktails, and artificial additives. Whyyyyy? 😩

#DucksBuddyread

the fact that, by my calculations, if you removed every instance of the phrase "the fact that" from Ducks, Newburyport the book would be 109 pages shorter

#DucksBuddyread

My current #audio
Really interesting and a lot more accessible than I expected.

#WomensPrizeNF

Overly long and slow buildup and even when it accelerates towards what looks to be (metaphorically) a four lane pile up with a train hurtling through the crash site, it still manages to give us more flashbacks. Still, it pulled me in and it would have been a pick if not for the ending which is an affront to the reader.

Everett addresses every thought, objection, and want I had when I read Huckleberry Finn. And then some. I wasn't a fan of every choice Everett made, but that just gives me more to talk about in #CampLitsy24 And yes, you can read this without having read Huck Finn first, although I did enjoy seeing the differences in PoV. But the book takes a sharp turn in the second half, a choice I fully endorse!, and becomes its own story.

Soft pick. Had to ponder my feelings about this one for a while. The writing is gorgeous, but so lyrical and mesmerising that I felt removed from the characters. Which might be a blessing due to the trauma and misery inflicted upon them. I liked the whole spirit angle, but this is another book where I'm not sure about the magical realism label because it could all be in her head. The ending left a lot of loose ends, but didn't feel abrupt.

The Spouse asked me if we have any plans for the long weekend.
The pic is my plan 😅
All three of these are due back in seven days and can't be renewed. 😬 So I'll be reading James in advance of #CampLitsy

Charity shop find. I love these old dust jackets. This one appears to be from 1948.
And inside I found tucked a page from a letter dated 1959 and a black & white photo of a man in old timey khaki uniform with floppy beret and a woman holding a bouquet of flowers. Since I'm nosy as hell I had to buy the book 🤣

Had to google this painting as it isn't printed in the book, and the description fascinated me. Memorial portrait made by siblings Gerard and Gesina Ter Borch after the death of their youngest brother, Moses who fell in battle against the English. Look at that hair! The pose! The pieces of his armour! The time pieces! The snake! The random skull and puppy and huge conch shell. ❤️💔

My top six #WomensPrize2024 fiction books (in random order because I have trouble choosing between them). I think maybe The Wren The Wren will get shortlisted, but the question is will we get a triple Irish? I think no, and went with the other two.

#WomensPrize

Surprisingly funny and entertaining for a book that's also pretty sad. Also very life-affirming for a story that deals with suicide, eating disorders, domestic abuse, depression, generational trauma and more in a completely non-moralising way.

#WomensPrize2024 #WomensPrize

This book stressed me out so much I had to take breaks to calm down. I teared up towards the end, and there were times throughout that scared me more than any other book outside the horror/thriller genre. Absolutely superb. Highly recommend.
A book about grief, identity, mental health, addiction, family, motherhood, indigenous heritage, racism, storytelling, choices, and so much more.
#WomensPrize #WomensPrize2024

My nominations for #CampLitsy24

@squirrelbrain @Megabooks @BarbaraBB

Family buddy read. Finally the series is complete. We've waited years!

#24HourReadathon #Deweys #readathon

This must be the weirdest book on the #WomensPrize longlist. It reads like a Kafkaesque fever dream. When you finally understand what's going on it hits hard, but the way there feels really long for such a short (just shy of 200 pages) book. The humour and the side eye given to everything from missionaries to news stories would have carried the book if the journey hadn't been so confusing and exhausting to both the reader and the MC.
#WomensPrize

#Bookhaul
The greyscale miniature edition 😂
I didn't actually realise when I ordered them that White Nights was such a slim volume or that I was colour coordinating my purchases 😆

Gorgeously written.
I was worried about the subject matter of this book, dead child & child killer, but it wasn't at all what I feared. No trauma porn. Quite the opposite.
"Us Vs Them", gossip and finger pointing, unscrupulous tabloid reporters, and a very human family making bad decisions. Definitely shortlist material.
#WomensPrize2024 #womensprize

These holds came in at the same time 😱 I read non-fiction at a snails pace, and now I have to read two(!) in three weeks? 😵 (In addition to 7 more fiction longlist books in two weeks 😅)
Well, I hope these read faster than Doppelganger at least. 😂

Only marginally a standalone. Readers who haven't read the first two books will struggle to orient themselves or feel invested. Lots of characters from previous books, allusions to events and people that are only relevant if you know the backstory. I read these back to back and I still found it messy. Soft pick for me but fully understand if others bail in confusion.
#WomensPrize2024 #WomensPrize

Coming-of-age story in time of political upheaval, centered on the nephew of the MC of The Best of All Worlds. More planets, a wider scope, but once again character focused. Features a competitive team sport that's similar to parkour but with gravity that changes direction and strength. Ends with some loose ends that makes me think that the book longlisted for the #WomensPrize2024 is not really a standalone. Soft pick, hint of middle book syndrome

The 3. book in this series is on the #WomensPrize2024 longlist, and while it is allegedly a standalone I've heard that a lot of the world building takes place in the first 2 books. Book 1 introduces the reader to the different types of humanity in the galaxy through a diplomatic/humanitarian hail mary on a homesteading planet that is a melting pot of cultures. Expect telepaths, empaths, diplomacy bordering on mannerpunk, and a slow burn romance.

This is the only book I've read from the #WomensPrize non-fiction shortlist, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wins. Important book that attempts to explain the right shift/turn to conspiracy theory that has happened in the Western world. Slow going in parts, because there is a lot to take in. Difficult to summarise.

Inspired by a real murder case.
A man who had it coming.
Two female suspects.
A supporting cast of bawds, bigots, and shocked relatives.
I found the first half a bit dull, (because you know what's coming and just get on with it already and what a shame the local Reverend didn't bite the dust too) but it then had twists and turns and a solid, if drawn out, ending.

#WomensPrize24 #EasterCrime #WomensPrize

An only very slightly exaggerated portrayal of life with an infant. (Her husband was almost unbelievably useless, and she was definitely enabling his behaviour in the worst way.) Emotionally intense, funny in places. Entirely accurate about the equal parts love and terror involved in having a child.

#WomensPrize #WomensPrize2024

Starting my Easter crime reading with this book. Join me this Easter, be an honorary Norwegian, do crime (reading)! Tag me in your crime reading and use the #EasterCrime 😄🐣🐇
For info on this Norwegian tradition watch my video here:

https://youtu.be/H8G_88_ufco?si=s-qgCTff9YqjkcyQ

Compelling story in a messy format with a superfluous framing device. In parts horrendously brutal with terrible things done to girls and women in war time, but fortunately the book moves on too quickly to linger on graphic detail. While I'm sure some version of everything in this book happened to people, there's no way they all happened to one person. The MC is one badass survivor though.

#WomensPrize2024 #WomensPrize

I disliked almost everything about this book. I disliked the writing style, the narrative choices, the audio narration, and most especially the main character.
I should have bailed.

#UnpopularOpinion

There are (at least) two sides to every story.
The first narrative in this book was entertaining but felt a bit lightweight. The second narrative elevated the story to a critique of sexism and women's standing in the family and in society in Ghana. This book reads super fast, but be aware that Bad Things happen. However, every female character in this book is a powerhouse (for good and for bad).

#WomensPrize2024 #WomensPrize #longlist

The first unequivocal pick for me from the #WomensPrize2024 #longlist
Read it and weep.
About the Sri Lankan civil war, but with a focus on family and moral dilemmas. The opening draws you in immediately, but then there is a long, slow build-up. It's worth it. The second half I could barely put the book down.
My favourite so far (but plenty to go).
#WomensPrize

Fictionalised account of the life of the author's grandmother. Dolly is an unyielding and not very likeable character, but she was a product of her time and circumstances. Made me very happy I wasn't born a century earlier and in rural Australia. A quick read. Plain story and plain prose, but interesting. Lacked that 'little extra' for me, even though it says something universal about being a woman.

#womensprize #longlist #womensprize2024

Generational trauma, daddy issues, unsafe kink exploration and abuse, poetry, birds, flowers, mother-daughter POVs, gorgeous prose, slow, not the most accessible read. Soft pick.

#womensprize #longlist #womensprize2024

Bali was ahead. Nell would not ring today. She was lying in the future darkness, sleeping through a night that was moving slowly towards Dublin, that was yet to arrive. Nell had been overtaken by the planet's turning, and Carmel wanted to reach through time itself, to pull her daughter home.

The recollections of an older man are different from those of a young man. What seemed vital at forty may lose its significance at seventy. We manufacture stories, after all, from the fleeting sensory material that bombards us at every instant, a fragmented series of pictures, conversations, doors, and the touch of things and people. We delete most of it to live with some semblance of order, and the reshuffling of memory goes on until we die.

This was exactly as good as I thought it would be.
Grief. Guilt. Wasted opportunities. Redemption through personal growth and vengeance. Great one liners.

Ok, it was a bit over the top with the action movie villains, but whatever, I loved it. I even got really emotional at the end.

#weekendreads
The Stand is an on and on-going read. 😅
Razor Blade Tears is due back to the library on Monday ⏳
The ridiculous Ilona Andrews title is a fun sized reprieve from the heaviness of the other two. 😄 🧹

@rachelsbrittain

I'm sure I haven't caught half the name jokes in this book, but that one's kinda on the nose. It seems... a bit weird, for a book where the theme is racial (in)justice. 🤨

Identity, sexuality, family secrets, activism, representation, culture, language. So much is packed into this (mostly) queer coming of age story following 3 gen. of American-Iranian men. We move between LA and Tehran in 1939, 1978, and 2019. I felt like some of the side-characters were a bit 2D stereotypes, but all the MCs are well done and I found all three narratives gripping. Classic YA tropes were deftly turned into something else. Recommended

I absolutely adore Richard Armitage, and I respect his refusal to use a ghost writer, so it is with a heavy heart that I say that maybe he should have taken on a writing partner. This was... not great. I would have bailed but I needed a book set in a landlocked country. Plus RA's voice. Even when he's talking rubbish 😆 It could make an ok-ish mindless entertainment B-movie, I guess, so maybe he should have tried script writing instead.

Getting a late start on my new SK project this year (due to taking January to finish off last year's project). I still hope to average one a month and get through the 24 books on my extended Dark Tower list by the end of 2025. However, this utter brick of a book will take as long as it takes! I'll catch up later.

The short story collection that gave us Brokeback Mountain. And what a bleak bunch it is. Although some of the stories have a bit of humour to them, they're basically showing how many ways you can die by disaster or misadventure in Wyoming. Makes for great reading, but it is definitely not selling Wyoming as a place I'd want to live, or visit, or even pass through 😆

My #ReadYourKindle selection. Looking forward to @CBee drawing the numbers for February. 😁