I thought this would be a 5 star read for me. A generational story set from 1908 and 2038 in Canada, focused on timber, trees & forests. A family‘s relationship to them as timber barons, forest protection activists, carpenters. Beautiful writing, some characters I loved. But a little too much telling than showing. Some actions by characters not believable. Some forest science totally off the mark. Did he not read Finding the Mother Tree?

I thought this would be a 5 star read for me. A generational story set from 1908 and 2038 in Canada, focused on timber, trees & forests. A family‘s relationship to them as timber barons, forest protection activists, carpenters. Beautiful writing, some characters I loved. But a little too much telling than showing. Some actions by characters not believable. Some forest science totally off the mark. Did he not read Finding the Mother Tree?

Interested in diving into this one after hearing an interview with the author on Fresh Air. About how the electricity of cells affects our health and mental acuity. As a person in remission from breast cancer ( but likely to return) I‘m especially interested in the research showing cancer cells have different electrical pulses than normal cells, and what research is looking like for cancer therapy. Fascinating.

My #BookspinBingo for June. Looking forward to some great books. #Bookspin #Doublespin. @TheAromaofBooks

Everyone else is still asleep. I‘m enjoying this novel that I just started. Watching the sparrows and hummingbirds while my border collie Action Jackson stands guard at the end of the driveway to thwart squirrel interlopers on the bird feeder. My sweet dog who requires no fence or leash.

Contemplating Matrix while watching my ladies take a group dust bath. It is their absolute bliss. An all female order ruled by Gilda, the black and white in the middle. For those who have read Michael Twitty‘s book, she is a Dominque. Heritage breed that came over to America with the Pilgrims. And such a sweet girl. She comes to the kitchen door to ask for cheese treats. I oblige.

Oof. A book about power, women claiming power, wielding power. Set in a 13th century abbey. Marie is a badass. Let‘s raise a hand to the Maries of the world. First book completed for #20in4. @Andrew65

Oof. A book about power, women claiming power, wielding power. Set in a 13th century abbey. Marie is a badass. Let‘s raise a hand to the Maries of the world. First book completed for #20in4. @Andrew65

So last readathon I didn‘t make 20 hours. It was 20 minutes. Seriously. 🙄. Hoping for better stats this time.
Goals are to finish Matrix and Greenwood, catch up on some New Yorker short stories. And whatever I choose after that! @Andrew65 #20in4 #readathon

Waiting for a friend, enjoying a quiet moment in one of my favorite bars with a book Im enjoying more than I expected. Nice end to a rough day.

Exceptional graphic memoir. Nova Scotia native Kate Beaton worked in the Alberta tar sands for 2 years to pay off college loans. She explores the effect environmental destruction, dangerous working conditions, isolation & lack of social structure has on workers, how many men there become the worst versions of themselves, and the impacts on women working there. It‘s both a sledgehammer of a book and also a very thoughtful, nuanced memoir.

So different than The Trees. A professor struggles to come to terms with a young daughter dying of a progressive dementia disease. Ends up heading to New Mexico to save some Mexican women imprisoned in a sweat shop. It‘s about falling short for our loved ones, perhaps doing the best we can, are equipped to do. And looking for redemption. Everett‘s novels seem so wildly different from one another. I look forward to reading more.

“People, and by people I mean them, never look for truth, they look for satisfaction. There is nothing worse, certain painful and deadly diseases not withstanding, than an unsatisfactory, piss-poor truth, whereas a satisfactory lie is all too easy to accept, even embrace, get cozy with, is a bit of all right.” Loving my next Percival Everett novel! #Firstlinefridays

I love Ada Limon. A beautiful collection of poems, as usual.

Good NYT article on Gaiman's adult books. I still haven't read anything by him! https://www.nytimes.com/article/neil-gaiman-books.html

Good profile in the NYT: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/may/18/sue-lani-madsen-neighborhood-commu... Looking forward to this read.

When you are watching guilty pleasure Ted Lasso and Coach Beard is reading the same book you are. 😂😂😂

Rhubarb upside down cake. Not from the tagged cookbook but delish. I love rhubarb season.

I started this months ago and then got distracted by shiny new things. The science in it is not new to me—grew up in a logging town which turned me into a forest conservation activist. Learning a few things, but the memoir part really has me sucked in. It struck me pretty quickly that Simard is the inspiration for the female forest ecologist in Richard Power‘s The Overstory. Flipped to the scknowledgements and sure enough, they are friends.

Busting out the rhubarb recipes! Roasted rhubarb compote. Rhubarb shrub. Strawberry rhubarb pie. Rhubarb upside down cake. Pork with rhubarb sauce. Rhubarb syrup. Rhubarb-fenn infused vodka. Rhubarb jam. Rhubarb!!!

Loved this very personal collection. Karen is a leader in the Spokane WA arts community and does a lot of work on public art. I‘m working with her right now on an effort to protect natural areas in the city and in our Parks from development. She‘s a treasure and a fellow cancer survivor. Looking forward to her next book exploring that trial.

Next up! My craft whiskey sour kind of matches the book cover! A good omen.

#poetrymatters

There can't be a book of cartoons out there more perfect for Littens. I laughed. I guffawed. I snorted. So bookish and silly and at times dorky. Love love loved. The attached cartoon is one of my favorites NOT in the book. Published in The Guardian.

A week late posting, but I got my second ever #Bookspinbingo ! I have a few books I‘m pretty excited about for May. @TheAromaofBooks

For my IRL book club. At times a beautiful reckoning of the love of a mother told by varying viewpoints: son, daughters, husband and mother. What they regret as they realize what they really didn‘t know about her. But the writing fell flat for me at times.

My very messy #Bookspin Bingo board. Hoping to get some quality reading in amongst the spring flowers! @TheAromaofBooks

Really enjoyed this atmospheric novel set in Belfast area during The Troubles. Still, is there an Irish novel with a happy ending? Asking for a friend….

Glad for my #Bookspin and #Doublespin picks for May! Matrix is my IRL book club read and I started Finding the Mother Tree several months ago. Was loving it, just got distracted by shiny new things. Thank you @TheAromaofBooks !

I love a bookstore dog!!! This is Elvira of Big Nerd Books. Such a great used bookstore (with some carefully selected new books) in Spokane WA. Funky art, subversive books, a well curated classics section, fiction, excellent fantasy, science fiction, horror and poetry selections. And crazy crazy art!!! Happy Independent Bookstore Day!

Happy Independent Bookstore Day! I went to my favorite used bookstore in Spokane WA and purchased two books from very different genres. I went in looking for Adrienne Rich. At least found Susan Griffin. Plan to read more Rich and her contemporaries #sundaybuddyrrad And another SGJ! Question: I know there‘s a way to tag a bookstore like one tags a book title How? #GiantNerdBooks

For #20in4 I plan to finish these 2 books and find a good audio for gardening. Will count doing audio of New Yorker short stories and long form journalism that I am behind on! @Andrew65 Oh and finish perusing Revenge of the Librarians which is total bookworm writer nerd hilarity.

I really enjoyed this novel! Thank you #Pemberlittens and @BarkingMadRead for the chapter-a-day readalong. I liked Tenant at Wildfell Hall more, but I found this one a refreshing change from the bleakness of Villette.

Featured on the CNN website today, relevant to our discussion. The documentary is excellent. Women supporting women. I live 35 miles from Idaho. Far North Idaho's only hospital has quit providing labor and delivery services because the doctors and nurses are afraid of facing jail time for providing care. Women will have to drive minimum an hour to reach a hospital https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/23/health/abortion-lessons-jane-wellness/index.html

Short powerful novella on the dark secrets communities keep, the horrors they collectively let continue. Set in a small Irish town circa 1985, where one man chooses not to turn away from the ugly horrors happening at the hands of the Catholic Church--and really, the commnity-nd instead face them. I'm amazed by Claire Keegan, who puts you right into a community, a scene, tells such a powerful story with so few words. She's a master.

Today was hard due to a myriad of small things. There were good things too. Unexpectedly get a dinner with a book on a Saturday night. Claire Keegan is exactly what I needed and I can‘t wait to dive in. At the super divey Chinese joint in my neighborhood—The Happjness Lounge!

Impulse read after hearing a short piece by Bloom on This American Life. Recommend this short memoir on audio read by the author. Bloom recounts how she and her husband navigated his Alzheimer‘s diagnosis, his decision to end his life on his own terms, which involved them traveling to Switzerland for legal assisted suicide. A beautiful snapshot of a loving marriage with all the complications between complicated people.

I‘ve enjoyed the lively discussion on Litsy re this book! I loved it. Maybe I wanted a little more out of the ending but oh this novel rang so true. As a long time social/environmental activist the dialogue rang so true. I guffawed so many times. I also appreciated that despite the skewering, Catton casts an empathetic lens on most of the characters. Will be one of my top reads of the year.

I can barely put this book down to do my work and chores. Such well drawn characters, hilarious skewering of individuals involved in a guerilla gardening collective, wringing their hands over their privilege, and a riveting storyline to boot. As a conservation/political activist, I have met all this people…🤣🤣🙄. I‘m only halfway through but I know this will be one of my top reads of the year.

Well-written memoir about Chung's experiences being given up for adoption by her Korean parents,growing up with conservative Catholic parents in rural Oregon and finding her birth family as an adult. An emotionally honest exploration of wrestling with identity, adoption and family. I am picked this up after not being able to get my hands on her newest memoir, A Living Remedy, about dealing with navigating the decline and death of her parents ⬇️

Vilette was my March #Bookspin. I just wasn‘t invested enough in this one. Maybe some day I will come@back to it. Otherwise I had a great reading month. Percival Everett‘s The Trees was by far my favorite read (my #Doublespin) followed by Foster by Claire Keegan and The Poet X. No #BookspinBingo as usual. @TheAromaofBooks

I have some great novels and nonfiction stacked for April. My #Bookspin is All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung, an adoption memoir. My #Doublespin is the novel Please Look After My Mom by Kyung-Sun Shin, IRL book club pick. Two authors with Korean heritage! #BookspinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Totally under the wire. #BookspinBingo @TheAromaofBooks Maybe this time I will get the unicorn Bingo! ☺️☺️

It‘s my birthday week-end so various activities happening, but I‘m gonna try for 20 hours! Want to finish Manhattan Transfer, either finish or bail on Vilette. Make a lot of progress on Kingdoms of Savannah and start East of Eden. #24in4 #readathon @Andrew65 thanks for hosting!

Next up for my audio book. Also have the E-book to follow along with. I‘m intrigued. Crime mystery delving into the hood, bad and ugly of Savannah and based on real history.

I was overly amused that these were the two books waiting at the library for me! Heal the trauma! Bring on the trauma? 😂😂😂

Spending 2 weeks in Ireland in August. Dublin, Cork region mostly. Looking for advice/suggestions on bookish places—Trinity Library!—as well as good history books. Curing up the Tana French and Claire Keegan backlists…have read Say Nothing.

#UnpopularOpinion. For me, this felt like a bit of a hot mess. I‘m sure it would have been a more fun trip down memory lane if I wasn‘t 15 years older than the protagonist. But if I‘m going to read about privileged New York people I need a more interesting story. Having helped my parents through their final hours, I needed a better story to make it worth reliving. Same on having to face cancer this year. And how old was that cat anyway?

Soft pick. Outside my usual reading spectrum. I don't read much fantasy unless it skews more sci-fi. But an enjoyable fairy tale. While not totally my jam, always glad when Litsy gets me to read outside my usual spectrum. And what‘s not love about a bone dog? Enjoyed the feminist take on princess tales. Might join next month! #whimsicalreads @katereadsYA

I wanted to like this more. It is an important topic and author does a great job of laying out the research & statistics on why women have such a higher hill to climb in the professional world. But at my age I‘ve experienced all the crap. I wanted more insight into “what can we do about it.” There was nothing new, though all good ideas. I give it 5 stars for young men/women entering college, the professional world⬇️