January 2019 selection for the Kidliterate Book Club at Charis Books in Atlanta. We‘re a group of adults who love to read and talk about interesting middle-grades and YA books.

“‘When you write a story, you‘re telling yourself the story,‘ he said. ‘When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are _not_ the story.‘”

Started listening today to this California female coming-of-age novel, originally published in 1979. The cover image that RBdigital has slapped on it seems not the slightest bit apropos for the setting. An enjoyable listen so far.

I am re-reading this as the January 2019 selection for my general-interest adult book group at the library. It was suggested by a member, and I‘ve been trying to reassure some other members that it is A) not scary; and B) an interesting read, even for those with no writing aspirations (raises hand).

I just finished an audio re-read of GIRL, having gotten to the end of BOY and realized I wanted to revisit the events of the first book. Absolutely exquisite world-building and storytelling. Highly recommended.

First mystery read of the new year, the January 2019 selection for my Monday Morning Mystery book group at the library. My first outing with Ann Cleeves (aside from loving the “Shetland” TV series).

Instead of weeding this from the library collection for not having circulated in ~7 years, I‘m keeping it & putting it on my To Read stack, because it sounds interesting.

“Three times in my life I‘ve wanted to slap faces and once in my life I‘ve wanted to hit someone in the face with a gun. I did do the gun but I have never slapped anybody.” - p. 301

That might have been true or might not have been true, but the chip shop thought it was true and, in that moment, surrounded by all these people with their minds made up, I thought it true as well.