Been reading through these on ye olde webtoon at a quick clip. Funny, surprisingly dark, ridiculous.

The kind of work I would like injected into my veins. Tiana Clark is a poet I am already longing to return to. These are electric poems that are vibrating with life. I can't tell you anything else, it's just to be felt. Go forth and read.

While I'm not a contemporary or sports romance reader, I did find this to be a cute, fun romance. The author is local to me and our shop hosted her launch so I may be a lil biased but still think this one was a fun romp.

Sometimes memoirs are fascinating due solely to the life lived by their subject; sometimes the lyricism of the prose is what propels you through. But then, you get a book like this and are just slammed by the unbelievable writing, galvanized by the force of life. This memoir, grounded in Roy's relationship with her difficult mother is a fascinating look into an activist writer's life unlike any you have read. Intimate and uncompromising.

A memoir, a message, and a deeply felt paean to history. Inspired by a trip to the NMAAHC, Roberts begins a journey of diving into the sea to uncover the stories of sunken slave ships. She weaves her personal narrative into the depths of the history she shares all the while highlighting the reasons these sites go underresearched and stories untold. Moving, inspiring, and essential reading!

As lush, dense, and layered as Rice gets. This is her deep dive into the gens de couleur of New Orleans in the years before the Civil War. Melodramatic, broadly populated, and phenomenally detailed. I took my time with this one and read it in chunks, as much as I enjoy Rice's prose I do find I start to drown in it when reading too much at a stretch. The richness of character and setting is well worth the push.

An unsettling and interesting read! I love Jackson! Merricat's bizarre witchy rituals, Julian's stilted rememberences, Constance's utter isolation - it's all so deeply uncomfortable. We can never know the truth, we can never trust anyone, we are all ultimately completely alone. But you have to forget those things, everyday, in order to move forward. And damn if Shirley Jackson doesn't just slap you in the face with how tenuous it all is.

I shared Radical Candor with my manager and she shared Think Again with me. We have different styles but are in fundamental alignment as our reading choices show! I enjoyed this one and will definitely revisit (also picking up Grant's podcast). Think Again functions as a book of reminders, why would should embrace humility, curiosity, and a willingness to be wrong. I vibed with it.

Radical Candor (which I am currently rereading) was very helpful to me as an employer; I often veer into Scott's designation of Ruinous Empathy. Just Work is a great companion to her earlier book. Great to revisit and very grounding as we build at formal policies at the bookshop.

This was fine, very pleased with its own cleverness, but fine.

I will surely reread this in a few years and remain mystified and awed by Lockwood. She can be so weird and profound and vulgar and vibrant. This novel feels like a working through, ruminating in a similar vein to No One is Talking About This but ultimately more muddled and not as powerful. Still brilliant and full of unforgettable prose.

Parts of this book I absolutely loved. Ramsey‘s writing about California forests, wildfire seasons, and the camaraderie among hotshot crews is great. Where it falters for me is in the shift to her personal history, while the strain on her marriage fits thematically, the reflections on her sexual history felt less integrated and underexplored in terms of what the memoir was trying to say about gender, labor, and identity. Ultimately a soft pick.

Folklore, magical realism, family secrets, lush nature writing, and a dual timeline - a perfect moody read. This one unfurls slowly and then absolutely crashes the satisfying ending like a wave on the sand. Highly recommended for Katherine Arden readers, it's an Australian cousin to her novels.

Early work, mostly pseudonymous, heavy on holiday stories. If you're a fan, I don't have to tell you to read it. If you are not yet a fan, don't start here.

Imagine you are so anxious and OCD that your intrusive thoughts lead you to behave in such a way that the police think you might have killed someone and you maybe start to think that too but like you def did not, you would remember and that's crazy but I mean what even is reality so maybe? Anyway, that's the vibe and I felt called out but also weirdly comforted.

Sadly dnf'ing this one that I bought years ago and apparently waited too long to read. Maybe I gave up before the subjects got deep but what I did read was just the slight petty kind of judgments told with flair and wit sure, but I expected more. I follow Luvvie across social media and she's a great writer and thinker - this one just didn't do it for me.

Fairy tales but with a millennial bent. Irreverent and rooted in global folklore but I ultimately dnf'd about halfway through because the author's asides became more and more intrusive. People will def like this, just not me in this particular case.

Giving space to the five revolutions allows readers two gifts: the invitation to embrace awe and the permission to accept all that we may never fully know. Vaudo reckons with both beautifully. This is deeply complex subject matter, offered with a conversational tone that welcomes the reader into knowledge rather than overwhelms. A lovely work for those of us that aren't astrophysicists.

I expected this to be great; did not expect it to be so deeply personal. Perry travels through the south engaging with history and culture to reflect upon the ways the multifaceted communities throughout the south have shaped the nation. The question of what the south is arises, as well as the exploration of whose stories are usually told. All of it considered with a depth of curiosity that has the approach of a memoir. Phenomenal!

I did not dislike this one as much as it's companion but I think this series is just not for me. Not a dark romance girlie. I'm going to keep reading them because they are short and I bought the bundle so we'll see how this goes.

Only Annalee Newitz could write this! Cozy scifi that's grappling with ethical questions about AI consciousness while tapping into real-world xenophobia and the beauty found in community. All told through a group of robots (and their token human) that just want to make good noodles.

What do you say about a story this iconic? I knew the beats but I'm so glad to have finally read it. The absolutely unsettling tone created within such sparse text is such an unbelievable achievement. I get why this is still such a culture shifting work. I may have felt the need to journal through my feelings for like an hour after reading; will be processing this one for a while.

I don't know how to feel. Maybe audio was the wrong format for this one? Just did not land for me. The ambition inherent in the form (pairing fiction and nonfic to excavate something deeper) fascinates me and I'd love to read further authors playing in this mode. I read the memoir bit first and it was fine, the fiction section didn't land for me at all. I think it's a fascinating conversation to be had but in this instance it did not resonate.

Politics-driven high fantasy with all the classic tropes: royal intrigue, deep lore, and an epic tournament. Add a sacred animal companion with no patience for human nonsense and you've got me! It's tropey, it's epic, it's a ride.

SPCTR is not in the litsy database, but it was a super fun scifi webtoon that absolutely deserves a trade release!

Finally made my way to this classic because a friend wanted to watch the John Wayne adaptation (it couldn't hold a candle to this novel, if you were wondering). The dialogue is every bit as delightful as you've always heard and Donna Tartt's narration is phenomenal. A book I could revel in but it was so engrossing I ended up finishing it in a day. Here's to the rereads to come!

A memoir in essays through the lens of fairy tales. Audio was not the right choice and I may try again in print. Mark is grappling with the heaviness of our world (she's covering the pandemic, climate anxieties, blm and the fear inherent in raising Black boys). There's a depth of honesty here that is not always pleasant but I don't know that gazing at our faults without actually examining them is the open bravey so many memoirs purport it to be.

Gorgeously illustrated, this anthology is an intentionally intersectional feminist collection exploring gender identity through poetry. Like all anthologies, not every piece was for me but the added context of endnotes and guided questions for each poem kept me engaged in every one.

I hope Lee continues writing novels about the Gardin women. This is book two and I'm invested in their foibles and miscommunications. Rosey Lee is trying to get us all to go to therapy and actually work through our trauma. She's really doing us a favor with these cozy, emotional family novels.

Delightful historical romance! Just dummies in love. I love it.

I made it through! Honestly, I do not see how this novel works after being scrubbed of the fic. The emotional weight of it relies entirely on feelings readers bring to it from HP. Genuinely, nothing here for me. Very curious to see the wider world's reaction to Alchemised but I don't think I'll be reading it. I don't trust that the publisher invested in the editorial work this would have needed to stand on its own (if that edit were possible).

Roy's style is everything I've ever wanted in a novel. From the fractured timeline to the repeated thematic phrasing to the bleak outlook that culminates in the bliss of being human - everything struck me here. Roy's novel moves through colonialism, abuse, criticisms of caste, and the many ways that love can be understood (and misunderstood) by children. I was struck by this one and look forward to more from Roy, starting with her upcoming memoir!

Chen processes her divorce, the perceived failure of her early intellectual promise, and her father's professional downfall all through shell metaphors precipitated by her mother's mistyped directive to Clam Down. This experimental memoir is excellent; it's a meditation on ambition and legacy that's as innovative as it is profound. Chen weaves memoir, metaphor, history, just all of it. The soup of life is here (and it's a chowder).

Holy Cliffhangers Season Two! This Webtoon is a delight.

Please forgive my lack of review and embrace this heavily edited quote from the novel that bled my heart dry:
'a story about nature, change, and chasing your own heart's desire in spite of everyone else's expectations...about the games we play along the cliff edge. About nature encroaching in the places that people have left behind...about the trade-offs between security and self-determination, and [the] struggle to find a way to have both.'

A nice read but not a mind blowing one. Flint blends personal narrative with cultural criticism to express her individual story and champion the need for diversity in the arts. Again, a nice listen but nothing that set me alight.

Another banger in the Norton Shorts series. Race is absolutely made up (a social construct, if you will) but the repercussions of said construction are deeply meaningful and affect nearly every facet of our lives. Bliss uncouples genetic ideas of race from social ones as the means of getting to the truth about race. A wealth of information in a tiny package. As usual for this series, the citations may send you on a deep trail of further learning.

Reviewing the author's new title under his previous one because I stay annoyed with litsy.

Inhumana is White's response to his family's trial through the American healthcare system, specifically Medicare with his elderly mother. It's funny and angry but lacks the emotional core of his previous memoir. Like many books put out to capture a moment, this one could have cooked a bit longer.

Moved through this one so slowly - I always relish work from Solnit. This collection isn't her strongest, but there are standout pieces for sure.

Very helpful for managerial types, prompted many conversations with team leaders on staff. I loved the way the book was organized, Frei and Morriss stop the reader at crucial points with a prompt that says “move forward when you are ready to [implement idea discussed in text]“ - I used these reflection points as journaling tools and shared my thoughts with coworkers - much more effective than just speed reading through and hoping something sticks.

Another unfinished webtoon but it was so cozy and kind that I don't even mind. This one was a very welcome daily dip.

Spent the last month reading this one on and off and I'll be processing it for a while. I can't decide how I feel about the ending but mostly I feel disheartened. There's a dark humor here for sure but ultimately such a bleak outlook at the crushing weight of systems. Excellent writing throughout though.

There's history, deep focus on key pieces, notes on just how overwhelming the museum can be along with practical advice for those who may visit. But more importantly Sciolina touches on the broader cultural questions of stolen art and appropriation. There's a lot here and it's all very well balanced between reverence for what the museum has facilitated and acknowledgement of where it (and people responsible) have failed or could do better.

Totally fine celebrity memoir, but I honestly expected more from an accomplished lyricist. The final chapter, The Most Tender Love, about horses, power, feminism, and freedom was the strongest by far and felt like the crux of what Case was trying to say throughout.

I am living for these nonfiction reads - I'm on a solid pick streak! I'm not particularly an Austen fan but I've followed Romney's dive into Romancelandia and was excited to get into this adjacent work. While this is absolutely an insight into the lives and writings of authors with whom Austen would have been familiar, it is more interestingly a look at a studied collector's process and a personal look into a rare book professional's reading life.

An overview of female artists and their use of the body in art. But beyond that too, what does it mean to be a woman making art in a world that appreciates female bodies as art but not female beings as creators of art? Early in the text Elkin posits that her title reflects both 'art monsters' as noun and an art that 'monsters' as verb. I was so struck by this idea which she ultimately reaches back to in her final section on art as decreation.

Just absolute catnip! I was utterly charmed by this vintage historical romance. You've got to go in knowing it is old school, but it's such a fun ride! English bride wed to a Scottish laird, every requisite culture clash is there but our heroine is just so tenacious she charms everyone she meets, including the reader.

Not at all for me. I'm not a dark romance person and the stepsister thing was too much for me.

Haven't read the Nana Malone book yet, so withholding judgement there but I think the entire series may end up being too dark for my tastes.

I need everyone to read this. If you are neurodivergent, read this. If you are neurotypical, read this. I don't have autism but move through life as a high masking person (anxiety, mental illness, sensory sensitivity, yada yada yada) and this book was absolutely illuminating! It also helped me to have some grounding conversations with coworkers that will help us in the workplace. Genuinely affirming and life changing information in here.

Every day I remain grateful for Ross Gay.