New #bookstack 📚

Who has read these?

This short comic is Stephen King‘s homage to the pulp horror comics of the 1950s with all their goofy gory gruesomeness. Our guide, the Creep, takes us through five stories of terrible people and their horrible demises.

There were a couple of panels that did make me giggle, but overall the book is pretty meh. The first and last stories are the strongest.

If by some chance you are super into those old horror comics, you‘ll probably like this.

In 1932, a pregnant Margret Wittmer moved with her husband and young stepson to Floreana, a small island in the Galapagos. They believed that getting out of the city and going back to nature was the only way to cure their sickly child. This is her memoir of how the family managed to survive then thrive on this basically uninhabited (at the time) island. This is a story about strong people who had more courage and fortitude than I could ever have.

I take such pleasure in a historical fiction novel as expertly written as this. And I really love a multigenerational drama. So this story of one family during Japan's occupation of Korea and beyond was wonderful perfection. I can't wait to read more of Lee's work.

A pretty short and very enjoyable science book about the Galápagos Islands and everything on them (including the people). I think if you‘re going to the Galápagos (yes, I am doing that), this book is a must-read primer for understanding the formation of the islands, all the life on them and in the ocean around them, and exactly why they are so unusual.

Okay, to get this out of the way... The dog does NOT die!

This book was too dense and too long. The whole book was slow. I thought the sex scenes were pretty ew and the ending was a cop out. The major point the entire plot pivots around was frustrating to me. And it was not at all scary.

However, I was always glad enough to pick it up and keep going, I wanted to know what was going to happen. So I guess I just have to give it a solid Meh rating.

This very simple and charming story is about a girl who is sent back to the islands of her birth to live with her grandparents. She has vague memories of her time there, but one very strong one: her baby brother being swept out to see in his boat-like cradle. She is determined to find out what became of him.

I've been meaning to read this since 2017, but kept putting it off. I had to wait awhile for my library hold to come in. So many people are reading this right now. 🤔

This is a succinct list of 20 lessons we (should) have learned from the last century on how to turn away from fascism and tyranny. I feel a need to keep running this info through my brain, so I have also placed holds on the audio and the graphic novel versions of this book.

It‘s fun to come across a bookshop I‘ve been to in a novel. If you‘re around Oakland, CA, Marcus Books is well worth a visit!

Library hold attained! 😱

#books #bookrecommendation #bookstagram #booknerd #bookobsessed #currentread #booklover #bookcommunity #librarylife #bookstack #bookhaul #bookclub

This book was respectful, beautifully written, exhaustively researched storytelling at its finest. Even though I knew how things were going to end up, this was still a nail-biter. I caught myself thinking, wow, I really really really hope they call off this launch… It might not seem like a glowing recommendation to say, “Read this! It gave me nightmares!” but it really is one of the best nonfiction books I‘ve ever read.

It‘s okay, Steve. They can‘t all be winners. The cover is rad. 🤷‍♀️

Sunday morning read

This is exactly the kind of book I would have been super into as a kid. Genuine sweetness mixed with true peril and darkness. The illustrations are adorable. This is a story about family, responsibility, and loyalty. I loved it and can't wait to read the second one. (The movie is also very good, although different in some key ways.)

I was not excited about picking up King's 1981 nonfiction book about the horror genre, but his engaging style of writing made this read super enjoyable. I would have given it 5 stars, but for the fact that is is really outdated. Which is, of course, not the book's fault. Most of the writers/filmmakers discussed are white men. There are a couple of white women. Zero creators of color (again, 1981). But overall an enjoyable book.

Morning read ☀️

As much as I liked Harlem Shuffle, I loved Crook Manifesto. This is really more like three novellas, and Pepper is as much a main character as Carney (maybe even more so). Fast-moving, dark, and funny, big recommend from me.

It's been a loooooong time since I read the og 6 Dune books. And I've been avoiding these non-Frank Herbert sequels and prequels because I just kind of did not care, even though Dune 6 ended on a cliffhanger, then FH died. But I enjoyed the latest Dune films and am enjoying the series Dune: Prophecy, so I thought "could be fun to get back into that world."

"Fun" is not the right word, unfortunately. This book was fine bordering on lame. ?‍♀️

My current reads 📚📚

✨ Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin is an absorbing cradle-to-grave bio of the writer. I am loving it.

✨ Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson is book 7 of the Dune series, the first that was not written by Frank Herbert. While it‘s nice for me to be back in the world of Dune, the writing and plot are terribly mid. I‘ll probably finish it, but I‘m not sure that I‘ll move on to book 8.

Feminist Book Club delivery day! This month‘s theme is The Cosmos. 🪐🔭

When your current book stack is accidentally color coordinated. 💙💚

I must admit that I was a bit bored during the first quarter of this book. (Where were the standard romance tropes? Where was the angst?) But after that I was all in. Emmett and Luke were really sweet and I absolutely loved the subplot "mystery" involving Luke's grandma. This felt like an authentic teen relationship. Loved it.

Me: I know everything about Chernobyl now. I'm like an expert.

16yo: Tell me the names of all the people who were involved.

Me: ...Um...Russian names...a lot of them...

I was really pleased with this traditional Sherlockian pastiche, even if the ending did not quite satisfy.

It took me about 25% to get into the story. I really liked the 1960s storyline. I did NOT like the 2010s storyline. I think if it had been axed and Chamberlain had just gone with the past storyline, incorporating the few threads that popped up in the 2010s storyline that moved the plot along into the 1960s storyline, that would have worked much better. I enjoyed learning about the SCOPE project, which I had never heard about.

Good little story in the middle of the Enola Holmes series. An enjoyable easy mystery for Enola to solve, with some high stakes. What makes it so good is the seemingly effortless way Springer always writes Enola's totally charming first-person character and the vivid descriptions of Victorian London street scenes.

I would have done this as 3.5 stars if Goodreads would allow it.

This is a hard book to review. I found it interesting and compelling, but of course Herman is really preaching to the choir here. There are anecdotes that are jaw-dropping and infuriating. I was glad to "meet" women in power past and present I had never heard of before.

Such a boring cover and cheesy title (what does it even mean?), but such a great fantasy! I loved the world building, complex magic system, and dark court intrigue. If you like fantasies that skew a little darker (think His Dark Materials), you‘ll also like this.

As the last person on earth to read this book, I am happy to verify what I've been hearing for the past five years: This romance is 100% delightful in every way. Is it unrealistic? Yep. Don't care. Is it too long? Probably. But I would read a whole series with these guys, so the 421 page count is just fine with me.

Not quite as fun as the previous two installments in the series. It does pick up at the end, and there is a sort of cliffhanger. I think the setting being away from the school detracted from the boarding school atmosphere that I enjoy.

A low-stakes novel about a woman who falls into working for a toxic influencer. Based on the author‘s real-life experiences. I had a couple issues with the plot and pacing, but mostly thought it was pretty enjoyable.

When Scanlon was in college in the '90s, she had a mental health crisis. She checked herself in to a state-run mental facility and lived there for the next four years. A really great read.

Teen girl with severe OCD navigates school, a new love, her friendship with her bestie, all while trying to solve a dark mystery. The author's own OCD diagnosis gives this a high level of authenticity and the strong friendship between Aza and Daisy at the center gave this one 5 stars for me.

If you took the weirdest Kurt Vonnegut novel and inserted a dose of dark stuff, complicated writing, made it way too long, and also took most of the fun out of it, you'd have this book. There are parts of it that are engrossing. There are many parts of it that are overwritten and almost unbearably complex. I'm not ashamed to admit that I had no idea what was going on in the first chapter. I had to google it.

Don‘t read this book unless lots of animal death and racism don‘t bother you and you‘re just super into Victorian science. I‘m Brooke H on Goodreads if you want to read my full review. (And yes, I did read this entire book to prep for a trip to the Galapagos. Of which there was one chapter. So.)

The long-lost identical twin is a ridiculous unbelievable trope, but it was Elyse and Paula's reality. Separated when just infants and adopted out to different families, the two sisters found each other when one of them wrote to the adoption agency asking for information on her birth mother. The two eventually discovered that they were part of a sketchy psychological nature/nurture study by a doctor at their adoption agency. A fascinating memoir.

Not gonna lie, this one is a struggle. Might DNF. 😝

Wow, I really disliked this book. I predicted almost every twist. The dialogue was early ‘90s made-for-tv-movie bad. The sex scenes were so cringy. I would have bailed on it if I hadn‘t been reading it as part of a read along.

A cradle-to-grave bio of J Robert Oppenheimer. It was fine, I guess.

HAHAHA KIDDING. I'm literally obsessed with this book. I would like to offer a sincere thank-you to Covid, who allowed me the time to sit down and read like 90% of the thing over the course of just a couple of days. The word "engrossed" doesn't even begin to touch how I felt while reading. And also, yes, the book is better.

I liked the early parts of this memoir, where Robbins discusses her troubling early life and later starting a PR firm. But any potential connection I could have had with her gets lost after she marries the wealthy film producer. Then it's all personal medical professionals, yelling at her maid for literally just doing her job, her "divorce therapist" (I guess if you're wealthy finding a good therapist quickly is a snap), her $2k handbags...

Although beautifully written, I found Mr Stevens so aggravating and Miss Kenton‘s love for him so baffling, I can‘t say that I enjoyed this.

Our unnamed narrator has just given birth and returned home from the hospital with her baby. Her husband is given zero days off for parental leave. She struggles not only to care for her baby alone, but also to try to discover who she is now that she is a mother. This little novel is relentless in its depiction of PPD, so if that's something that will bother you, stay far away.

An adult fetch quest fairy tale centered around 1920s Mexico and Mayan mythology. I absolutely loved the imagery of the gods and the darkness of Xibalba, which is the Mayan death realm. Although I thought Casiopea and Hun-Kame could have been more fully fleshed out, I ultimately really enjoyed this fantasy.

Finished! 🎉

Having a little readathon day to see if I can finish The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. I have around 400 pages left. 🤞

Full of every predictable & tired fantasy trope. Slow as hell. So why did I enjoy it so much? 😂 (One note tho…I read this as part of a romance group. This book is NOT a romance. Def squarely in fantasy-land.)

This is the perfect novel for readers who enjoy sweet coziness, but with a little dark edge. Also, it's just the perfect novel in general. No notes. Violins, donuts, lots of descriptions of food, soul reaping...Loved every page.

My up-nexts. Also, it‘s apparently my Litsyversary today! 🎉

Happy California Library Day AND National Library Day! 😎📚 Where are my lunchtime readers? Tell me what you‘re reading today!