"But when I was up, I was feverish without fear, in love, my body passionate and full of stars. Higher than any leap could bring me, any rush of performance. I was in love with the world, with the horniness, the meanness, the grandeur of the city crawling beneath my skin. I saw nothing ugly."

"Nine robed figures dressed all in white. Heads covered with softly pointed hoods. Against the black of night, a single wooden cross blazed. Reflections of peppery-red flames shimmered across the otherwise dark surface of Kilkenny Pond."

So begins the RoscoeBooks middle grade book club pick for February. Unfortunately timely in its discussions about the KKK and racism, I'm so glad this book exists for younger readers.

Pre-flight entertainment....Twin Cities bound.

Hi, yes. Please read this.

"I had been thinking of her as a hero. Joan. The way we've all been trained to understanding that word and idea. Bound to a story that is not only man-made, but man-centered. How does that change when the terms of the story come from the body of a woman who is unlike any other in human history? A body tethered, not to god or some other pinnacle of thought or faith, but to energy and matter? To the planet."

This book is ??. Out in April.

Middle grade book club prep, January '17 edition. This was one of my fave middle grade books growing up, so I'm excited to chat about it tomorrow.

Oof. A wonderfully written but brutal novel about a family ravaged by the cycle of personal pain and domestic violence, and the wild savagery that emerges from it.

Not entirely sure what this book is doing yet, but I'm here for the ride.

So here's the thing. I enjoyed this tale of a love unmoored by war, migration, and time. I really loved the threads of magical realism as well. But. I never really got *enthralled* by this book. Something about the writing was too restrained for me. This is maybe because I've been reading a lot of first person narratives. I'm sure this book will be super popular, as it should be, so someone else read it and let's talk.

My top five favorites of 2016. 💓

This is a caustic and hilarious and horrifying gut-punch of a satire. Definitely not for everyone, but I zipped through it. Kate Zambreno, I'm coming for your other novels!

"I am tired and wish to see clearly, a gaze that is knives and scissors, an incision into what really is. That's how I want to see, and how I want to be seen. It'll be a mess, a filthy mess. Disorder everywhere, disappointment as far as the eye can see. But you. And me, who sees you. Maybe it's more than enough, maybe it's all you can ask for."

This book is killing me in the sweetest way.

"Ulises better imagined maps of the fallen empire or vague sketches of the boundaries of the Mediterranean than he did colossal temples attacked above stone or wine-dark water. Olympus itself was more cloud than mountain, and it was the first time in Ulise's short life that he felt truly displaced and uprooted. The language of the ancient world was a field he'd plowed for years, and yet there he was, unwilling to taste the soil in his mouth."

Happy #indiesfirst, everyone! Don't forget to shop small today. 🎉📚📚📚📚📚📚📚🛍

"Too tired to believe any of that--the heart or the soul. Too tired to hate or care or rage, because how could you hate if you didn't care, and he had cared too long already. He was burnt out on it. He didn't have a name for it--this feeling out beyond the orbit of the tiresome rage and he didn't have the time. His feet were growing restless. He'd already been here too long. Time to go; to go; to go."

I keep coming back to this poem.

Middle Grade Book Club prep this month means revisiting a book I haven't read since elementary school. I'm not hating it.

A+ Sunday.

"'You can be cynical all you want, but many a life can be saved by poetry,' he says.
I scour his face for a sign that he's joking, but no--he really does believe it. Which is sweet. Also stupid. But mostly sweet."

"First, I'd like to state that my head floats about two inches above the top of my neck, detached from me. From that position, it's easier for me to observe the irritating texture of days."

I think I'm going to like this one. ?

At just over 100 pages, this novel centers on a woman named Elise, who is besotted by her philandering husband (he's sleeping with her sister 😑) and in an attempt to win back his affections, becomes his confidante and gives him advice on how to maintain his affair. Like many early feminist novels, Elise is a woman who doesn't know her own options and ultimately comes to a heart-wrenching end. Read the stellar intro & endnotes too.

Prepping for Middle Grade Book Club and read this one straight through. A great, semi-spooky tale about the power of storytelling and courage. Looking forward to discussing it with the kiddos tomorrow!

"And they'll ask: doesn't it hurt to remember?
without being deceived by the lightness around?
But names from the past burst into my memory--
beautiful--like old weapons."

Litsy doesn't have this title yet...anyone know how to add books?

I've had worse reading perches.

Making a solid effort to read more in bed.

"On the other side of the curtains, the sky was changing colour. I wanted to follow her into my father's past and yet I didn't trust it. People could walk away towards illusions, they might see something so entrancing they would neglect to turn around. I feared that, like my father, she would no longer remember the reasons for coming home."

Curses, blood sacrifices, mind control...I haven't read YA fantasy in a while, but geeeez. This spin-off of Romeo and Juliet is surprisingly dark and intriguing.

"from what we cannot hold the stars are made"

Happy birthday, W.S. Merwin. ✨

My #FunFridayPhoto... a Southern peacock! I have loved O'Connor's wicked humor, imagination, and sharp insight since reading "Good Country People" in high school, and love selling her books to those who haven't read her yet. ❤

Happy #nationalcoffeeday! Haven't been reading as much as I would like due to other projects, but really digging TRAINWRECK and trying to find time this rainy Thursday to finish it.

"Necessity
is not a weaver,
there is no spindle

in her hand;
it is a woman
wearing a steel

collar, wearing
a stiffly pleated
dress, which lifts

to reveal nothing
but fabric where
her body used to be."

Prepping to lead Middle Grade Book Club @RoscoeBooks! Have I mentioned I love my job lately?

"So I ask again, what is wrong with being too much? With being too big...with having "no calmness or content except when the need(s) of individual nature were satisfied," as Martineau wrote of Wollenstonecraft--or even with being openly unhappy? Only this: Insisting on the needs of your individual nature...requires that you have an individual nature to begin with. And it requires that you not be ashamed of it."