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bell7

bell7

Joined March 2018

Librarian and avid reader. I read eclectically but fantasy is my go-to genre.
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bell7
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I only have a few pages left in my current journal, so of course had to buy myself 2 new ones on my latest book store run. Which one shall I use first?

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bell7
The Hands of the Emperor | Victoria Goddard
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Pickpick

This was a reread for me and if anything I loved it even more the second time around. Who knew a 900 page book about a paper pusher in the government could be so riveting? But it is, because the characters of the emperor, Artorin Damara, and his Secretary, Cliopher Mdang, are wonderful. The friendship between them and others in the emperor's household, as well as Cliopher's governmental reforms (maybe TOO perfect) are just a delight to read.

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bell7
The Hands of the Emperor | Victoria Goddard
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Perfect reading set up...dogsitting and books this weekend!

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bell7
The Sympathizer | Viet Thanh Nguyen
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Pickpick

Our unnamed narrator begins with the fall of Saigon and the escape of South Vietnamese refugees to America, where he lives and works while working as a spy for the Viet Cong. This is a book in which no single word is wasted, its meaning important and often double, beginning with the title itself. As a result, I'm rating it a pick even though the violence, while fitting, was too much for me at times. Great book club pick!

21 likes1 stack add
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bell7
Front Desk | Kelly Yang
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Pickpick

It took me awhile to get into this episodic story of Mia Tang and her family, immigrants from China who run a motel for the cheap and mean Mr. Yao. Mia's friend Lupe and Mr. Yao's son Jason, and the "weeklies" who live at the hotel and pay by the week, are all excellently drawn secondary characters. Before I knew it, I really cared about what happened to the Tangs and loved seeing how everyone came together in a positive way in the end.

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bell7
Kaleidoscope | Brian Selznick
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Mehso-so

Short stories of different times and places, but always related to the friendship between the narrator and James, as well as James' death, interspersed with detailed pencil drawings like looking through a kaleidoscope. This complicated little book was hard to follow. Every new story had recurring images and characters: they're not interconnected, yet each vignette doesn't really make sense on its own, either. Clever, but not entirely enjoyable.

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bell7
Firekeeper's Daughter | Angeline Boulley
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Pickpick

Daunis Fontaine is 18, a white and Ojibwe woman who's unenrolled,, and her identity is complicated by her constant bridging of two cultures. When meth production (and addiction) threatens her community, FBI investigators ask her to be a confidential informant, and Daunis must navigate helping them and lying to her family. Reese's book club put this one on my radar, and I'm so glad because it was FABULOUS. Give me more by this author soon, please!

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bell7
The Hidden Palace | Helene Wecker
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Mehso-so

The golem, Chava, and jinni, Ahmad, return in this sequel. They are friends, meeting at night to walk and argue. But as time goes on, Chava realizes that people will start to be suspicious of her as she never ages, and Ahmad keeps everyone at a distance. Reading was okay, but I felt vaguely dissatisfied. Events just kind of meander along, the narrative of characters all separated pulled me in disparate directions, and the ending was heavy-handed.

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bell7
The Reading List: A Novel | Sara Nisha Adams
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Mehso-so

Two lonely people meet and bond over a shared list if books. I have read a lot of "books about books" and have high expectations for them. An early scene in the book takes place in a very depressed library where a 17-year-old listening to music and playing with her phone at the circ desk is called a "librarian", so it started off on the wrong foot for me and never really fully recovered after that. Just an okay read for me.

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bell7
Beloved | Toni Morrison
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This is an intricate, challenging, beautiful, and heartbreaking exploration of the legacy of slavery in the lives of one family and their community. Whether Beloved is really the ghost is left open for debate, but her presence ultimately changes Sethe and Denver as they grapple with the past. A deserved Pulitzer Prize winner, and just as worth reading now as when it was published in 1987.

31 likes1 stack add
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bell7
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Pickpick

This memoir has been getting a lot of press lately, where much of the focus is on the fact that Ashley's father was incarcerated. But... it's really so much more. It's about her relationships with family members that she loves but who are imperfect. It's also about memories - those we want to forget and those we want to imprint indelibly. And it's all wrapped up in lyrical writing that was an absolute pleasure to read.

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bell7
The Final Empire | Brandon Sanderson
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Pickpick

This sort of epic fantasy with complex world-building, political maneuvering, and a large cast of fabulous characters is, quite simply, my kind of read. It was long but didn't feel that way, because I was fascinated by every new development. The story ended in a satisfying way still leaving some threads for further books in the series, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes from here.

19 likes2 stack adds
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bell7
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Mehso-so

Nevada Baylor runs her family's PI business, and gets called in to capture Adam Pierce and turn him in - alive - to his family. The only problem is Adam is a Prime fire magic user, and he doesn't want to be caught. Nevada realizes she's expected to fail, and then Connor "Mad" Rogan becomes a reluctant ally. He wants to rescue his nephew, Gavin, who got mixed up with Pierce. Good world building, but lots of set up to the series with no resolution.

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bell7
The Personal Librarian | Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
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Pickpick

The collaboration between Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray tells the fascinating story of Belle da Costa Greene, the woman who worked as J.P. Morgan's personal librarian, acquiring items to add to his phenomenal collection of manuscripts and art. She also had a secret - she'd been born Belle Marion Greener, a Black woman, but along with her mother and siblings is passing for white. A bit repetitive and clunky, but worth reading.

25 likes2 comments
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bell7
The Personal Librarian | Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
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Weekend reading! I took last week off, and this is the second book I finished. Review to come soon 😊

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bell7
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Pickpick

Esme grows up at the Scriptorium where her father works defining words for the new Oxford English Dictionary. Starting with grabbing a fallen slip for "bondmaid," she begins collecting words.

You know those books you sink into immediately, knowing they are perfect reads for you? This was one for me. I loved the historical details about the creation of the OED and the meditation on language, especially what gets left out.

16 likes2 stack adds
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bell7
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Pickpick

Three perspectives - Nella, Eliza, and Caroline - and two time periods make for a compelling read. It was fun to see how Caroline's discoveries matched up with the events in 1791. I loved the research scenes at the British Library, and if Caroline has a few coincidental discoveries, I could mostly forgive it. My only quibble was how closely certain events in the two time periods mirrored each other. A solid first novel; I'd read more by Penner.

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bell7
Project Hail Mary | Andy Weir
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Pickpick

A man wakes up from a coma and quickly works out that he's on a spaceship - but he has no memory of who he is and why he's there. Weir uses that memory loss to perfectly balance tension between what's happening on the spaceship and the events that led to Ryland Grace being there. The scientific details throughout the book lend credibility to even the most mind-bending events. It's a really fun adventure story and a satisfying read.

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bell7
Cloud Cuckoo Land | Anthony Doerr
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Pickpick

This complex book is difficult to summarize. The complicated structure of multiple storylines, characters and time frames takes patience to see it develop, but allows the reader sympathizes with everyone. At its heart, it's a story about stories - both their importance to humanity and also the coincidences that allow some stories to go on while others are lost to time and mold and neglect. Comes out September 28 - DRC from the publisher.

SamAnne I can‘t wait for this one. 3y
bell7 @SamAnne it's a good one! I liked ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE a bit better, but it's definitely worth the read. 3y
SamAnne @bell7 I really like his short stories too, esp. the collection Memory Wall. 3y
bell7 @SamAnne ooooh, I haven't come across that one, I'll add it to my TBR - thanks! 3y
21 likes2 stack adds4 comments
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bell7
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Mehso-so

How to summarize such a book? It's been called a mystery, and there is a mystery, but it's more of a character study. Janina narrates, and we come to know her in all her eccentricities: loving animals, convinced that astrology has the answers, and increasingly frustrated that her voice is not heard by those in authority. As a reader, I found her sympathetic, even in all her oddities, and the denouement was less of a surprise than an inevitability.

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bell7
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Pickpick

Amber Ruffin, a comedy writer and cast member on Late Night with Seth Meyers and the host of her own late night Amber Ruffin Show, and her sister Lacey Lamarr relay stories of sometimes funny but always appalling racism that they experience as Black women in America. I laughed out loud a few times, but mostly it was maddening 😡

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bell7
The Witness for the Dead | Katherine Addison
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Pickpick

The second book in the world of The Goblin Emperor does not disappoint! Celehar, the Witness for the Dead who helped Maia learn what happened to his father and brothers, is now serving in Amala. When a young woman washes up in town dead, he very quickly discovers it was murder, and begins his investigation, witnessing for her and learning about her life and death. A satisfying story that stands completely on its own.

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bell7
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Pickpick

This one is a little inside baseball, er, librarianship - but it's an excellent collection of thought-provoking essays that were previously published on a blog and as Library Journal columns. Stephens pushes librarians to think technology and outside of the box, but always brings it back to the central idea of meeting people's needs through library services.

9 likes1 stack add
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bell7
Untitled | Unknown
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1. My job, my family, my friends, my house...and that I'm only dogsitting another 3 days!

2. Probably how satisfying it was to get a large painting job completed at home, though I'm sure I'll forget it was this week/month exactly.

3. Back in June I traveled to my sister's to see my niece and nephew for the first time in a year and a half.

I'm a day late, but thanks @kspenmoll for the tag!

charl08 Sounds good to me! 3y
8 likes1 comment
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bell7
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Pickpick

In this essay collection, YA novelist John Green explores human life in all its richness, mundaneness, absurdity, and joy. Each gives a rating on such items as Kentucky bluegrass, sunsets, plague, and more. Many started as part of his podcast, but you don't have to be familiar to enjoy and relate to this excellent essay collection.

I forgot to take a picture of the cover before returning it to the library, so here's something I give five stars

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bell7
Washington Black | Esi Edugyan
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George Washington Black grows up in slavery on Barbados, but his life takes a turn when his master's brother Christopher "Titch" Wilde has Wash assist his scientific endeavors. Covering multiple years and continents, this coming-of-age tale explores the nature of relationships and how theirs could never be a true, equal friendship. Wash's adventures in the world fascinated me from beginning to end.

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bell7
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Bailedbailed

Welp, it was bound to happen eventually. Started this one evening and, 76 pages in, just wasn't invested and decided to move on. Slightly confused world building and awkwardness to it - I think I had the self-published version so I'm not sure if later traditional publishing worked out some of the kinks.

BookishMarginalia Life‘s too short! 3y
bell7 @BookishMarginalia that it is! 3y
14 likes2 comments
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bell7
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Pickpick

This one isn't out till September and the copy asked that reviews be saved for pub date, so let me just say it's a fitting second book in a planned trilogy and I loved every minute.

E-book review copy received free from the publisher. Thank you!

Chrissyreadit Im incredibly jealous. 3y
bell7 @Chrissyreadit I was honestly shocked when the request went through! But Sept 28 will be here before you know it 3y
Chrissyreadit @bell7 🤣 the countdown begins. 3y
11 likes3 comments
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bell7
The Perfect Couple | Elin Hilderbrand
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My library patrons LOVE Elin Hilderbrand, so I decided to try one of her books this summer. What I expected: light beach reading set on Nantucket. What I got: murder mystery and a cast of compelling characters with secrets. This was a fun read, I'll definitely try more of this author's books.

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bell7
Magpie Murders | Anthony Horowitz
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Pickpick

Clever mystery within a mystery, featuring an editor who searches for the missing pages of a manuscript, and referring to classic mysteries throughout. A fun read, and I'll look forward to checking out the sequel.

Aims42 I loved this one, and I actually liked the sequel a fraction more 😍 Definitely worth reading!! 3y
bell7 @Aims42 oh that's good to know! I'm gonna try to read in a few months, long enough that I don't get tired of the story but close enough the first book is still fresh in my mind 3y
Aims42 @bell7 that is A+ planning 👍🏻 I hope you like it!! 3y
18 likes3 comments
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bell7
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I just finished this duck this afternoon and I love it. (It's small, the body is probably about four inches.) Everything from the tagged book has been super adorable.
#knitting
#knittersoflitsy

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bell7
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Pickpick

I can see why this essay collection has been getting attention since its publication. The essays are topically very different from each other, but most reflect in some way on James Baldwin, race in America today, and in a sense it's a record of collective grief, responding protest, and looking forward with hope. An excellent collection that may just leave you fired up.

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bell7
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My weekend is all booked! And apparenly I'm seeing red ♥️

SamAnne I liked this collection a lot. The one misfire is the essay on Rachael Dolezal. So many inaccuracies and just not well written. Google Ijeoma Oluo‘s piece in The Stranger on The crazy story. 3y
bell7 @SamAnne the collection as a whole is excellent. I just finished the essay you reference last night, and it felt more like reading a series of impressions in no particular order than a super cohesive essay. I'll look up the piece by Ijeoma Oluo too - thanks for the tip! 3y
SamAnne @bell7 It's been awhile since I read it, but I remember really inexcusable factual errors--even maybe the city it happened in (my town, Spokane)? I don't understand why Oluo wasn't asked to adapt her The Stranger feature for the book instead. Although Oluo does say in her piece that she got tired of being asked to write about, comment on Rachel Dolezal. 3y
14 likes3 comments
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bell7
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Pickpick

The third in Sonali Dev's Raje romance series riffs on Sense and Sensibility but also is a story all its own. This one focuses on Yash Raje, who is campaigning for governor, and India Dashwood, a yoga instructor who isn't sure she wants to let Yash back in her life after he ditched her ten years ago. I enjoyed the characters and their back stories, as well as glimpses of the other couples in the series. Can't wait to see what Dev does next!

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bell7
A Master of Djinn | P. Djeli Clark
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A group of men are murdered by a man calling himself al-Jahiz, a notorious sorcerer who let djinn into Cairo. Fatma works for the agency that deals with this kind of supernatural event, determined to bring the imposter to justice. A fantastical steampunk 1912 Cairo is fully realized, and the characters of Fatma, her lover, Siri, her unwanted partner, Hadia, and other side characters are fabulous. Start with the short story A Dead Djinn in Cairo

11 likes1 stack add
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bell7
Thick as Thieves | Megan Whalen Turner
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This is one of those rare books that's even better as a reread! Kamet, the slave of the Mede ambassador fro THE QUEEN OF ATTOLIA gets his own story. When his owner dies, he takes an opportunity to escape, traveling with an Attolian soldier, even though he knows that their companionship will only be temporary. Start with THE THIEF, though, to really appreciate how the pieces come together in this series.

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bell7
Lost Children Archive | Valeria Luiselli
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Just getting started with THE LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE. The writing is gorgeous and slows you down reading to take in each sentence. Looking forward to digging into it more this weekend!

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I finished my library's summer reading program, reading eight books. All were good to excellent, though I think my favorite of the bunch was The Calculating Stars.

OnlyYoo I just got I was told it would get easier and I‘m so excited! 4y
bell7 @OnlyYoo I hope you enjoy it! I thought it was a fun read 🙂 4y
15 likes2 comments
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bell7
Paper Menagerie | Ken Liu
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Sometimes I'm amazed by the serendipity of what ends up side by side in my commonplace book.

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bell7
nightstand reader | Bob Brewer
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My current stack of library books... I may need a new nightstand! I'm #currentlyreading THE CITY OF BRASS. See any titles you'd recommend to read next?

arubabookwoman I loved Salvage the Bones and I loved the first Olive book and want to read Olive Again soon. 4y
bell7 @arubabookwoman that's the second vote I've had for Salvage the Bones! (The other was on Instagram) I'll hopefully get to it over the weekend. I'm reading another short story collection now, but when I finish that I should move Olive, Again up too and try to read a story a day. 4y
11 likes2 comments
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bell7
City We Became | N K Jemisin
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In this first of a new trilogy, the city of New York has reached the point where the city will become a living, breathing entity. It needs to be "birthed" with the help of a citizen who becomes its avatar. But an entity that doesn't want New York to live gains a foothold, and the five boroughs must come together to save the city they love. A celebration of diversity and life in NYC, this story is subversively Lovecraftian and a compelling read.

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bell7
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Pickpick

Getting a head start on National Poetry Month with Natasha Trethewey's first retrospective collection. She's one of by favorite poets, writing with artistry and yet completed accessible, whether she's talking about history, art, or her own life.

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bell7
Olive Kitteridge | Elizabeth Strout
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Thirteen short stories give us a multifaceted character sketch of Olive Kitteridge, a retired math teacher living in Crosby, Maine. The writing and structure of the stories is well-crafted, not always chronological, and introduces us to many of the people of Crosby. I reread this before picking up the sequel, OLIVE AGAIN, and was just as taken by the story and by Olive, who isn't always likable, but is fascinating.

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bell7
Readathon storybook: Oshindonga & English | Dorian Haarhoff, Linekela Shipindo Moshindonga, Sarie Maritz
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My weekend is booked, and l'll be participating in a readathon, but taking it easy and breaking up my reading with other projects. What's everyone reading today?

Prairiegirl_reading I‘m hoping to find something I can actually focus on! 4y
23 likes2 comments
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bell7
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Pickpick

Using questions he's received through his website, former NASA roboticist and webcomic artist of xkcd Randall Munroe here answers some outlandish "What ifs". The result is an entertaining Q&A that had me laughing out loud even when I couldn't follow the answer (I never did take physics). The audiobook is narrated by Wil Wheaton, and the book includes humorous stick figure cartoons, so whichever format you choose, you're bound to be entertained.

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bell7
nightstand reader | Bob Brewer
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The state of my nightstand... All the library books I am reading or want to read soon! Hopefully I'll have a review it two to post after this weekend. 📚📖♥️

Samplergal You are all of us. 😂 5y
15 likes1 comment
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bell7
The Golem and the Jinni | Helene Wecker
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We meet a golem who was created as the "perfect wife" for her master who then dies, and she has to find her own way in New York City, and a jinn that comes out of a bottle and lives with a Syrian immigrant tinsmith. The two could not be more different, but as two outsiders as magical creatures in a human city they meet and begin a friendship. This delightful story gives a unique take on the immigrant experience in turn of the century NYC.

Avanders I really enjoyed this one ☺️☺️ 5y
bell7 @Avanders wasn't it grand? Such a great blend of fantastical and historical fiction! 5y
25 likes2 comments
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bell7
Hairdo | Rachel B. Glaser
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Got a summer haircut and a ponytail to donate!

I honestly have been reading and just forgetting to post books 😂 I'll try to catch up a little on reviews over the next few days.

Texreader Looks great 5y
bell7 @Texreader thank you! I was excited to go short 😁 5y
Slajaunie So cute! Love your hair! 5y
See All 8 Comments
DaveGreen7777 Awww! You are so beautiful! 😊 5y
sprainedbrain Cute cut! ❤️ 5y
Lady_Tigana_20 You look great! 5y
bell7 @Lady_Tigana_20 thanks! 😀 5y
19 likes8 comments
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bell7
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Had a great time getting together with LT/Litsy folks at ALA! Good food & conversation, and hopefully successful ARC hunting as well. Looking forward to the next one! @BookFreakOut

charl08 Great picture! 5y
BookFreakOut Nice! I've started shelving a few things on LT (like...5 things but gotta start somewhere), and need to get connected with everyone there! My username is BookFreakOut on LT also. 5y
bell7 @charl08 thanks! It was fun 😊 5y
bell7 @BookFreakOut let me know if you start a thread in any of the challenge or book reading groups! You can find me as bell7 there too, and I'm active in the 75 book challenge group. 5y
drneutron @BookFreakOut - I'm active in the 75ers too, same user name. Stop by and visit us! 5y
22 likes5 comments
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bell7
Mehso-so

This book follows four main characters across continents as they find out that the Nameless One, an evil wyrm banished a thousand years ago, may be waking soon. Political intrigue, worldbuilding and a show burn romance are done well. Epic fantasy clocking over 800 pages that I unfortunately found a little too long and sprawling to be entirely satisfying.