At first I was a bit … um, I guess, underwhelmed would be the word. It felt like just more of the same (but not in a good way) and I was just going through the motions. But then suddenly it began moving like a freight train and I was hanging on for dear life and hurtling over the finish line. And I was like, damn, Louise. You got me again. I can‘t quit you, Gamache or Three Pines. I‘m in for the long haul. ❤️

I‘m late to the party, but HOLY HELL this was a fun ride! And not just because I‘m a reader of a certain age.

Finished this and immediately put my name on the library waitlist for book 2, which comes out in March.

So excited and thankful to @CBee for tipping me off to the suggestion of ordering John Boyne‘s “Elements” series directly from Blackwell‘s since I couldn‘t find them here in the U.S.! Free shipping right to my door —at a very reasonable price, too!

It‘s funny… but it‘s not. 😖

Completed my #AuldLangSpine2025 pick from @JoeMo . This memoir is a gloriously acerbic, brutally honest look at the restaurant business in the early days of Anthony Bourdain‘s career. It‘s a bit repetitive, but I absolutely adore his voice. And now I know how to make a breast of chicken and mashed potatoes “tower like a fully engorged priapus.” So there‘s that. 👍🏼👍🏼 Thanks, Joe!

@monalyisha
#AuldLangSpine

Slowly making my way through this book, and just reached Part 4. Stumbled upon this phrase that made me literally laugh out loud. And also wish I could read Russian so I could enjoy it in the original text. 😄

#kareninawinter

@TheBookHippie @Cuilin @julieclair @kspenmoll @MemoirsForMe @Librarybelle @PurpleyPumpkin

Day 12 of #12Booksof2024

@Andrew65

My stack for the various challenges I am attempting to tackle:

1. Tolstoy: #kareninawinter, #chunksterchallenge2025 (848 pgs) and #fictionaltraveler (somewhere cold)
2. Dissolution: ##BookedInTime (Tudor England) and #fictionaltraveler (somewhere English)
3. Bourdain: #AuldLangSpine2025
4. The Cancer Factory: #DiseaseoftheMonthBookClub
5. King: #Nonfiction2025

Day 11 of #12Booksof2024 is my favorite nonfiction read of the year

@Andrew65

Goodreads reading challenge completed for 2025! 🥳🎉

@Hooked_on_books : my son was visiting for the holidays, so Brady wanted to send greetings and best wishes for 2025 to his doggie Doppelgänger! Woof woof, Bindi! ? ?

Day 10 of #12Booksof2024

@Andrew65

Day 9 of #12Booksof2024

@Andrew65

I laughed way too hard at this one. 😄

Raising a glass (I mean, a mug) of tea and a cardamom bun to @JoeMo as I kick off #AuldLangSpine2025 with this pick from his list.

#AuldLangSpine

I WAS planning on starting this puzzle to work on throughout the month, but my rocket-scientist son came home and completed it in 24 hours. So, um… yeah. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Day 8 of #12Booksof2024
A trio of excellent nonfiction reads

@Andrew65

Well, this is it —that‘s all she wrote (or rather, read) for 2024! I‘m not going to finish anything else tonight so might as well wrap it up. Feeling very pleased —I managed to smash my goal for “total pages read.” That‘s the one I aim for so I‘ll pick up the longer books.

Stats for December: Finishing the month with a few more completed reads than I expected, given the holiday season!

#2024ReadingBrackets I read a lot of really good NONFICTION this year. The tagged book was my pick for December. However, after the dust settled in this category I had to give the nod to “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space” by Adam Higginbotham. Higginbotham managed to keep me on the edge of my seat – even though I knew how the story ended. That‘s a master journalist right there.

#2024ReadingBrackets are complete! My top selection for December was “North Woods“ -- it's magnificent! This would have been my top choice – if it had not been forced up against “Stoner” by John Williams. That book captured my heart in July and never let go. My FICTION pick for 2024 is “Stoner” – with the strong recommendation to also read “North Woods.”

Day 7 for #12Booksof2024. This book grabbed my heart in July and has stayed there all the rest of the months since.

@Andrew65

Tomorrow I‘ll post my end-of-year reading brackets with my top reads of 2024. These are the ones that made the “top of the bottom” list.

Have you always wanted to tackle War & Peace, Les Miserables or any of the other giant books that double as paperweights, but the page counts intimidate you? Join us for the 5th annual #ChunksterChallenge! It‘s structured with levels to help build up your stamina to take down those super-sized tomes and claim the bragging rights. Because the secret to completing the Colossal Chunkster is simple math – one page at a time!

#ChunksterChallenge2025

Soft pick. This book is very black-and-white: the horrible characters are really horrible, and the good ones suffer nobly. In other words, it‘s very clear who you are supposed to hate and what you are supposed to think and feel and root for. Which also makes it very predictable (and I haven‘t even read “Mansfield Park,” of which this is apparently a retelling. So I didn‘t know the plot). I prefer more nuance in a book.

Day 6 of #12Booksof2024

@Andrew65

Day 5 of #12Booksof2024. Two memoirs about death and grief and how to continue living in the aftermath. Both very well written and pack an emotional punch.

@Andrew65

Day 4 of #12Booksof2024

@Andrew65

Literally, heaven. 🥰

This speaks directly to the mood reader inside of me. 😍

Day 3 of #12Booksof2024

@Andrew65

When your kids know you very well … Christmas gift from sons is an “Author Clock.” It tells the time with literary quotes for every minute! 😍

A friend gifted me this mug for Christmas —it‘s imprinted with the titles of banned books. She said when she was buying it at the bookstore and told the staffer it was for a friend, he asked if the friend was a librarian. She replied, “No, she‘s a lover of books and the idea that everyone should be able to read them all.” 😍 💙💙

“At the end of each interview, I asked the final question: ‘Are people going to die?‘ This was something we could see clearly. All the evidence was in front of us. This was a story of health care denied; there was only one natural outcome. Every time I asked, clinic staffers, doctors and reproductive health researchers gave the same unequivocal answer: Yes. People will lose their lives because abortion rights are gone.” 😩🙁😡

Day 2 pick for 12 Days of Christmas

#12Booksof2024
@Andrew65

Totally implausible plot but it‘s a weirdly addictive ride that finds you rooting for the sociopathic main character.

Happy to participate in #12Booksof2024 —thanks for the tag, @Andrew65 ! Here‘s my pick for January.

What a wonderful #Jolabokaflodswap package from @Jess ! The book from my wishlist AND a bonus book from my TBR! Plus a pile of chocolate and a beautiful bookmark. Thank you so much, Jess! Happiest of holidays to you and your family. 🙂 And much gratitude and holiday joy to @MaleficentBookDragon for organizing. 😘

Another book that I'm eagerly awaiting in 2025. Ron Chernow? Writing about Mark Twain? TAKE MY MONEY, PLEASE.

Am I right, @ginakbutler? 😃

🔥YOU GUYS!! There's a new S.A. Cosby book coming out in June!! 💥

My God, this book is magnificent! I had literal chills by the end of it. A sprawling work that encompasses multiple genres and centuries and characters, with entanglements and intersections that move forward and backwards and demonstrate how we are all connected to the environment and to history —and it to us. This would have landed on my #AuldLangSpine2024 list if I‘d finished it in time, @JoeMo

Received the book from your #KrampusNacht giveaway, @WildAlaskaBibliophile and @TieDyeDude ! Thank you so much! The illustrations are gorgeous. 😍 It fits nicely in with my husband‘s collection of creepy German nutcrackers, too. (There‘s a whole box of them in the basement, too. I only let a few of them out at a time.) 😀

My #JolabokaflodSwap package has arrived! 🎅🏼🎄🎁

Read a detailed, minute-by-minute narrative about how nuclear war would likely unfold and destroy life as we know it just a few weeks before America‘s love child of Caligula and mad King George retakes the White House? Sure, why not? I already wasn‘t sleeping.

It‘s here! Opening day of #StuffedStockingSwap Thank you so much for the fun package, @KadaGul ! The teas, the candles, the books … and I‘ve never seen a furry tea mug before —I‘m obsessed! Happy holidays to you and yours, and happy reading in 2025. 🙂 And thank you again for organizing, @Avanders

Hit my page goal with a few weeks to spare! 💪🏼💃🏻🕺

The sequel to “Brooklyn,” the events in this book take place 20 years later. Eilish discovers that her husband has impregnated another woman —and intends to bring the baby into their family. She returns to Ireland to ponder her future, but finds the past patiently awaiting her arrival. A book about the choices we make, the paths we don‘t take and the people we hurt along the way. The ending is ambiguous and leaves room for a 3rd book.

Our department has a magnetic Scrabble game for the fridge in the kitchen. Every week or so someone starts a new theme. Thought @WildAlaskaBibliophile and @TieDyeDude would appreciate one of my contributions. 😀

#krampusnacht

My #JolabokaflodSwap package is on its way, like Santa on his sleigh! 🛷 🎅🏽🧑🏼‍🎄

This book, the sequel to “Parnassus on Wheels,” follows Roger and Helen Mifflin to their brick-and-mortar bookstore in Brooklyn. It‘s a weird mash-up of a mystery punctuated by Roger‘s lengthy harangues about the state of the world. Not as charming as the first book, but still a pick for me because Morley‘s prose is almost hypnotic. I love the way he can turn a phrase.