We rambled today: a walk on the beach, a walk in the woods, a brewery hang. We got rained out when we tried to chill in the backyard, so now we‘re inside while my husband plays Expedition 33, a role-playing video game inspired by Belle Epoque France. From what I‘ve gleaned, it seems to be about warring factions of storytellers & illustrators/painters, with one family‘s experience of grief & loss at the center. There are worse background tracks.

“It felt to Elle like they were entering a new era. If their twenties had been about girlish freedom, and their thirties had been about establishing themselves as women, their forties felt like an unknown proposition. Truly grown ups. They knew themselves now. But what to do with that knowledge?”

Did you know that Sylvia Earle, (oceanographer, explorer, diver, ocean advocate) is sometimes referred to as “Her Deepness”?

If that‘s not the coolest title, I don‘t know what is!

The Skunks is about a recent college grad who moves back to her hometown without a plan or any sense of direction. She‘s got a childhood friend, Ellie, and a crush, Eli. Like a lot of new college grads, she has a host of cobbled together jobs: house-sitting for Eli‘s parents, temping as a receptionist at a yoga studio, and babysitting for a precocious kid named Cecilia, who is the mustard-yellow star of the story, as far as I‘m concerned. 👇🏻

I loved Sleep as much as you can love a book about an impossibly hard topic—which is to say, a lot.

In her review in the NY Times, Fiona Maazel writes, “What surprised me was that out of its careful, orderly prose — every word neatly placed as if on a well-set table — grew an exceptionally moving novel.” Jones sets the table but she also performs the magician‘s trick of pulling the tablecloth out from underneath with all the words still set.👇🏻

While I enjoyed this prequel enough to not be mad about it, it‘s got a different vibe from the rest of the series. Set in 1536 in the court of Anne Boleyn, it‘s obviously missing the Millennial pop culture references that are plentiful in the other books. As an elder Millennial, I‘m biased, of course…but those references are doing a lot of work. Without them, the tone felt oddly humorless. I need the levity of a Spice Girls quip, I guess. 🤷‍♀️

I just preordered my friend Liz‘s book and you can, too!

25% off today (through a local indie) & you‘ll get an EXTRA fairytale — in the form of an exclusive zine!

Can you believe she got a deal with Norton?! What a freakin‘ rockstar!

https://heartleafbooks.com/book/9781324106333

*Exactly* what I want from a cozy romantasy. I cried tenderly over the casual reveal of emotional truths more times than I care to count. This is a treasure of a found family story. 👇🏻

August felt weird, temporally.

Glad to be in a new month, though I hope there are still a few beach days left now that we‘ve entered the quieter off-season here in Rhode Island. 🌊

I had a few writing projects this past month, which diverted my focus away from reading. Now, it feels like a slump may be looming. But anything‘s possible! We‘ll see what September brings.

#AWreads2025
#personalreadingtracker

Clam Down was too singular to NOT win August.

The Wedding People also gets high honors…but not high enough to replace Eight Bears as the Wild Card.

…Bears, and clams, and Moomin. Oh my!

#ReadingBracket2025
#2025ReadingBracket

“It was, and there was no other word for it, scary to live under a ruler who wrote the rules as he went…It was unprecedented and unnerving. She understood why the king was so popular; the people saw his blatant disregard of the established order as an opportunity for their meagre, humdrum lives to magically improve. They were fools if they thought that. The king served only himself, always. The empire was an extension of his self.”

A fun premise with an average execution. I appreciate the sensitive topics that the story puts “out there” (emotional abuse, gaslighting, the loneliness the comes with being a caretaker — especially at a young age when caring for an ill or dying parent). The writing, however, is repetitive and lacks subtlety & finesse, e.g. “He pulls me into a kiss. It‘s slow and long-awaited…and tastes of tongue.” WHAT. No, thank you.👇🏻

Celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary today! 🥳

Typically, we jointly forget which day we were even married. Us every year: “Was it the 28th? 29th?” But 10 years is a big one!

I went to a used bookstore with an enabler. 😅🙈

I‘ve read (and loved) everything under “Everything Under.” The rest were on my TBR…and if they weren‘t, they are now!

What service do you use for audiobooks — and why?

I know about/use Audible, Libby, and Hoopla. And I‘m aware of Spotify, to some degree. I‘m sure there‘s a world out there I know nothing about. Meanwhile, I‘m paying a sucker fee to the enemy. BUT! I commute *and* I‘m a mood reader. So, having fast access to a wide array of titles exactly when I feel like reading them is important if I want to stay sane. Sane-ish.

TIA! 🙏🏻

If it didn‘t feel like such an obvious and natural conclusion to this volume (despite the fact that I didn‘t guess the ending, even with all of my doubts & uncertainty in place), I‘d be really mad that this ends on a cliffhanger. I despise cliffhangers. But I love Juno Dawson‘s writing. She‘s smart, & soft, & tough in all the right ways. Her plots feel thoroughly storyboarded. I‘m eager to see where Book 3 takes us!

“Every wedding, even a successful wedding, is a waste…But…”

I‘ve been thinking about weddings a lot, as I write my sister‘s wedding ceremony, with my side hustle as an officiant & my husband‘s profession as a photographer, in the full swing of wedding season. It‘s also our 10th wedding anniversary next week! And let me tell you, the above quote is 100% true. But so is the “but.” At least, that‘s what I tell myself to justify the waste. 😅👇🏻

I picked this up for the nun content and had no idea that the author was a comedian in her past life. Turns out, she regularly got up on stage with The Groundlings and told jokes alongside rockstars like Jennifer Coolidge, Cheri Oteri, and…Mo Willems?! She even had an anecdote about how Sarah Michelle Gellar couldn‘t be bothered to shake her hand at a party once. 😅

Anyway, this was a very wholesome, earnest, & straightforward read…

Got my hair done today. Jett was very uninterested in staying still for a selfie. 😅

At first, my feelings about this book were as inconstant as the tides: did I hate it? Did I like it? My opinion came in, and went out. I landed on glittering, phosphorescent love.

Chen says she‘s interested in form and it shows. Her memoir (?), in which she transforms into a clam in the aftermath of a divorce when her mother tells her via typo to “clam down,” is wholly unique. She writes about herself (“the clam”) in third person,…👇🏻

Such a pretty little stack. 📚

You are what you eat.

Is Sara Beth Durst‘s writing sometimes a little saccharine? Picture me answering this with a Yarrow-like shrug that means, “yes.” But I‘m not mad about it. Her books are total wish fulfillment *and* they show characters working through emotional trauma to reach a healthy place. Who‘s going to complain if that place is one with tiny dragon pollinators…👇🏻

I keep thinking, “I‘m going to have to figure out a way to explain myself!” because all of my most trusted Litsy friends told me I‘d love this and…I‘m finding it a bit of a slog. I don‘t know what the deal is, pals!

I need to return it because it‘s way overdue. Will put it on hold and try it anew when it returns to me. It‘s entirely possible that I‘m just burnt out with work and unable to lend it my quiet focus.

*Gorgeous* cover art.

ACAB narratives are challenging for me. My stepfather, who has always ensured that I‘ve felt loved and cared for, who *is* my primary father figure and who has filled the role with gentleness and humor, is a police officer (ditto his brothers, my uncles, as was his father). I was able to afford college (sort of…ha!) where I learned to heighten my critical thinking & question corrupt institutions, partially due to a scholarship from the police.👇🏻

Looking at my selections for the bracket, I‘m feeling pretty decently about my reading year. Who wants to be my #AuldLangSpine partner? Too soon? 😜

Death Valley handily stole the show in July. 🌵

July was my slowest reading month yet, and that was absolutely because I downloaded the Scrabble app. Don‘t worry: I‘ve since deleted it and have taken back my life. 😅

Death Valley was my favorite July read followed by Blue Sisters. A strong fiction month, which has been rare this year!

#AWreads2025

“Who the fuck wants their hands to smell like blueberry pine-scented vanilla anyway? What kind of fucking smell is that? That‘s a fucked-up donut somebody left in the woods!”

This obvious dig at Bath & Body Works earned itself a gleeful snort. 😆

At the broken (and healing) heart of this story are family dynamics and, more specifically, the hidden, tremulous, and deep-seated feeling that you don‘t belong — that your family may love you but that they don‘t really like you. It‘s an awful anxiety, too tender to poke at, and maybe one that we‘ve all felt. I know I have. I know my husband has. I know we‘ve talked about it and fought about it. In the words of the poet Philip Larkin…👇🏻

Our first ripe tomato of the season (discounting all the little heirloom cherry tomatoes). This one was a Jet Star, which we grew because of its name. The puppy insisted.

Yes, Emily! It IS tricky! Why did she deny us the family tree she so *clearly* knew we needed?

Brat. 🙈😅

Because I don‘t have a particular interest in stand-up comedy or Hollywood history, parts of this dragged for me (especially chapters about The Silver Circle clubs in Nevada). It was, however, an excellent homage to Charlie Hill, “the first Native American stand-up comedian,” whom I knew nothing about & who seemed like the real deal (funny, cool, political, generous, etc). I was also fascinated by the bits of American indigenous history…👇🏻

I never read The Pisces, which had a lot of hype, & I was worried that I was starting with the wrong Broder when my book club selected this as July‘s title. I shouldn‘t have wasted my time with anticipatory disappointment because I was FAR from disappointed! I might just be basking in the glow of finishing a book I truly loved but this could be my favorite novel of the year. Funny, bizarre, & whip-smart. It tells grief (& love) but tells it slant.

We‘re memorializing our beloved bun today, gone a whole year. I‘ll share here what I wrote otherwhere, as some of you knew Moxie (through my posts), as well.

Modern sound machines offer a vast array of sounds to dream to. Ours, which softly glows to rouse us from sleep, in shades that mimic the sun‘s gentle rise in the morning sky, also offers the reverse, a “sunset simulation for a relaxing bedtime.” 👇🏻

A prayer (halfway into Death Valley), inspired by what I suspect will be my Holy Trinity of the year: Samantha Allen, Melissa Broder, & Krystelle Bamford.

Give me surrealist snark & the earnest, plumbed depths of depression. Give me something remarkably feminine & simultaneously subversive. Give me something beastly & something tender. Give me deserts & woods (be they Pacific Northwest or New England). And thank you for your gifts. 🙏🏻

“Love floods into me: oxytocin, dopamine, sticky souls, the cleave of spirits, norepinephrine, bone and light, a covenant behind the ribs — whatever love is made of.”

🎨: Georgia O‘Keeffe

I found the ideal tree hollow to nestle my book in. I had to pull over to the side of the road, put my hazards on, & cross the street for this shot. It was just a rambly little back road leading to the beach. So, not a high traffic area. But still! That‘s commitment!

I want you to know that it would‘ve been the perfect photo…if only I were 3 feet taller! 😅

Many of us are looking for ways to feel more rooted to our homes: to our communities, our landscapes, and to nature. This yearning is what makes Novik‘s homespun magic feel so sweet (though her characters battle great darkness); it‘s what we wish for ourselves, and what we might even believe (on our best days) is possible, if we keep fighting. Novik doesn‘t shy away from describing how exhausting the fight is, either.

Speaking of fighting…👇🏻

Novik keeps using “mustaches” to refer to one man‘s mustache, e.g. “his mustaches.” It‘s such a small detail but I finally caved and looked it up. This is why I‘ll never be a fast reader. 😅

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/is-it-mustache-or-moustache-mustaches-d...

I had today off in exchange for marching with the library in the town‘s tricentennial parade this past Saturday. So, I took myself to the beach. It was the right choice.

Capped it off with a pistachio ice cream with rainbow sprinkles in a waffle cone, which was also the right choice.

I‘m liking this book just fine so far…but I wish I loved it. If that were the case, I‘d be tempted to have this letter “A” (the first letter of my name) tattooed in scarlet over my heart.

Such flourishes!

What an ode to the book community, to grief, and to the love that precedes and (if you‘re lucky) follows it.

And, to sweeten the pot, you know it‘s a Josie Silver novel because there‘s a tiny seaside cottage in which the characters find solace, comfort, and purpose.

One Night on the Island is still my favorite of the author‘s books. But this one has a brief appearance by an Irish Wolfhound AND the line…👇🏻

I found the essays written when Rothfeld loves a thing (pasta, Melville, David Cronenberg‘s horror films, the comedies of remarriage from the 1930‘s & 40‘s, erotic sex with her partner) way more pleasurable than those when she writes about her hatred for a thing (minimalism, fragment novels, mindfulness). This is funny because Rothfeld herself draws attention to “the pleasure of hating,” a term coined by 19th century essayist William Hazlitt.👇🏻

“But why does Nehamas think we can‘t enumerate beauty‘s reasons? Is it because beauty‘s basis is metaphorically indeterminate? Or just epistemically elusive?”

I will never finish this essay collection and I regret everything.

Loved this! Blue Sisters isn‘t an easy-breezy summer read — it‘s about 3 sisters wading through their grief over losing the 4th — but it‘s certainly fast & (dare I say it?) addictive!

Such a tender & layered character study of imperfect people dealing with their pain, always with love at the center. If this sounds like it might be too much, please know that there are xylophone-playing chickens waiting near the end. It‘s not ALL tears & sobriety.

I‘m reading while my husband gardens. Here‘s a blurry photo of his butt for your viewing pleasure.

The dog is behind me trying to eat bugs.

We‘ve all got our hobbies. 😜

On a (short-ish) road trip & decided to stop at a brewery instead of just grabbing fast food. The puppy is pleased.

It‘s a shopping plaza, so of course the sunset is bonkers gorgeous: vivid pink & neon peach. Parking lot sunsets are the best and the worst of us.

…America is a parking lot sunset.

I didn‘t count these in my midyear ratings because they feel incomparable. But I‘m deeply in love and so glad I finally checked them out! They‘ll be in the upper echelon of my 2025 favorites, for sure.

Halfway through 2025 round-up!

I‘ve had a super strong non-fic year. I‘ve read so much that I‘ve loved. 36% of my books have been NF. Here are my favorites:

1. Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel
2. Eight Bears by Gloria Dickie
3. Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
4. The Witching Year by Diana Helmuth
5. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green (audio)

Titles tagged below!

It‘s officially the mid-point of the year!

I‘ve read 59 books thus far. 64% have been fiction titles. Here are my Top 5, which I‘ll tag below.

1. Idle Grounds by Krystelle Bamford
2. Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen
3. Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley
4. Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher (audio)
5. Her Majesty‘s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson (audio)

I should make it a point to read more fantasy. It seems to be working for me — but I‘m so picky!