I love visiting indie bookstores when I travel to other cities. When I lived in Pasadena, Vroman‘s was my bookstore of choice. I recently visited again and it‘s still fabulous! Sadly, it‘s now up for sale 😢. Here‘s to hoping just the right buyer comes along 🙏🏼🤞🏻

I really liked this one! A compelling story of American women in Saigon in 1963. This is beautifully written, powerful, and thought-provoking. The pretty cover is a bonus.

Looking forward to another #BookSpin. Can‘t believe it‘s February already.

This is brilliantly structured by featuring four mothers and four daughters, across four sections and sixteen chapters; similar to the structure of the Chinese game of mah jong. I‘m late to the party, but so glad I finally read this. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Artistic and deceptively simple, this is about work and creativity and love. It‘s a slim novel of interconnected short stories. This has been on my TBR shelf for a couple of years, but thanks to #BookSpin I can now move it to my Read shelf! This was my #DoubleSpin pick ✅

This is an unique, unusual, and haunting read. Very well-written and structured. I went into this completely blind and it took me 130 pages to get into it. I was compelled to finish because so many people rave about the ending and it does come together. Overall this is a soft pick for me though I see why people love it.

I discovered Pym last year and absolutely have fallen in love with her novels. Reminiscent of Austen, Pym writes of comings and goings, contented middle-aged spinsters, vicars and curates, rejected proposals—and I‘m here for it. (Alas, this one does have a few sections that haven‘t aged well.) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Taking place on the same date across three years - 2019, 2020, and 2021 - this is a story of an untraditional family who face struggles and limitations. Full of literary allusions, this is brilliant writing. (The Hours is still my favorite by Cunningham.)

My January reading intentions have been stacked! I may have bitten off more than I can chew, but I love options. This includes my #Bookspin and #DoubleBookspin picks for the month (Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr & Fair Play by Tove Jansson) and my personal Author A Month choice (Amy Tan). Cheers to a new year of reading everyone!

My review page didn‘t show my favorite 5 star reads, but that‘s okay! I love this feature of StoryGraph. I had a great reading year in 2023 and looking forward to a new year. Cheers! 📚

A great last book of the year! A funny and touching memoir.

86 | This is one for those who love books, for sure. An established book publisher overcame challenges to open a bookshop during the pandemic in the tiny Tuscan village where she grew up. Diary entries are from January to June 2021 and list the books sold on each day. Swoon!

My list for the January #BookSpin. This is going to be a great year!

The writing in this is excellent… a story of a woman‘s life from birth to death told through her own point of view, her friends and family, letters, and photographs. I had a goal of reading 12 Pulitzers this year and this was my 12th. ✅ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

82 || Breathing Lessons, Anne Tyler
“It was amazing, Ira often said, how people fooled themselves into believing what they wanted to.”
This one made me laugh and cry. A story about family and love that persists despite imperfections.

Overall this is entertaining and it‘s a quick read, but it wasn‘t really my thing I guess. More spoiler-y thoughts in the comments. I‘m not a huge rom-com person so this was just okay for me.

❄️ A perfect read for this season. Cozy and heart-warming, even if a bit too perfect. Will definitely read another Pilcher. “The air was cold, but the sun beamed down upon them, and in the shelter of the house there was no breath of wind.”❄️

Love this collection of essays on winter, darkness, and nature. It‘s very short and a quick read. A perfect fit for the season. 🕯️

A perfect cozy morning to read Harry Potter! A fire in the fireplace, pajamas, ambient scene with magical music… chefs kiss ✨

We found the best bookstore in Vancouver! Picked up a couple of complimentary ARCs and a couple of used books, too! The pictured stairs lead up to their art and nature sections. Swoon…

Starting the weekend off right with a book about cowboys! I have high hopes for this since I‘ve heard so many good things about it.

Really liked this! It‘s an engaging read and I‘ll likely read others in the series.

Got to see the Boxtrolls at the “Films of Laika” (Coraline, etc) exhibit at The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle today and it was amazing! Probably time for a re-read!!

This is such a comfort read! I‘ve loved watching the PBS series and the book is just delightful. Highly recommend!

I love this series! Reading a middle grade between denser, heavier reads is one of my favorite ways to cleanse my reading palate. 🌳

🌳 Whenever I‘m in a reading rut, or even a personal rut, I turn to Mary Oliver. This one is as beautiful and tender as her others. A breath of fresh air. 🌱

Love this bookstore! I‘ve visited the nearby Munro Books, which is also lovely, but this was my first stop at Russell Books and it did not disappoint. Two floors of previously owned, vintage, and new books. Swoon!

📚5-13-23 || Starting this one today! The Pulitzer announcement bumped this one to the top of my TBR.

📖 3-8-23 || Another delightful collection of connected essays from Katherine May! I think Wintering may still be my favorite of her three, but this is a close second. Highly relatable.

🎧 2-25-23 || Juliet Stevenson knocks it out of the park again with her narration. This is a re-read for me and it‘s been close to 30 years since I last read it so everything was new again. I‘d forgotten how poetic Woolf‘s writing is. It truly is a masterpiece.

📖 2-11-23 || This is a soft pick for me. Pulitzer winner, dark humor, quick read. I can see why this gets mixed reviews. So many say they find Less unloveable yet I think that‘s entirely the point here. It‘s a story of Less coming to fully accept himself and his life in midlife and I suspect this is somewhat autobiographical.

2-4-23 || I‘ve tried to lean into the season this year by reading this slowly over the past couple of months. It‘s divided into 50 short chapters and also features 50 of Bentley‘s famous snowflake photographs. There are sections on everything from Estonia‘s ice roads to the Icelandic word for “snowflakes big as a dog‘s paw“ to the Kilimanjaro glaciers. A perfect read for this winter season. ❄️

📖 2-3-23 || I have mixed feelings about this one… I totally can see why this is so popular. Loved, absolutely loved, the writing which pulled me in so much that I cried. However, I didn‘t love some of the characters, the ending, or most of the parts about gaming. Overall it‘s a pick for me and I will most certainly buy her next book.

🎧 1-27-23 || I love Lucy Worsley‘s biographies, and this is no exception! She handles Christie‘s disappearance with sensitivity and is very thorough in her research. I especially liked listening to this one at the same time as I read one of the Miss Marple mysteries. 🔍

📖 1-27-23 || My second Christie and just my first Miss Marple. I was a little disappointed that we didn‘t see more of Miss Marple herself in this one. But it was still fun to guess and to see how it would all come together in the end.**This was the January pick for the Comfort Book Club of my favorite bookish YouTuber, Miranda Mills:
https://youtu.be/7pHYp34y3d0

📖 1-21-23 || This is the year I‘ve discovered Barbara Pym! Why did I go so long before picking this one up? It is a pure delight… funny, subtle, and reflective.

These podcast episodes have added to my appreciation:
The first has snippets of audio from her interviews - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/backlisted/id1063252175?i=1000471273492
Another favorite -
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/slightly-foxed/id1441881918?i=100055768427...

🎧 1-22-23 || This was my read for #AuthorAMonth and I really liked it. I think it would be a good companion piece or alternate to Little House on the Prairie. Sensitive readers should be aware that It does have some traumatic events.
I‘ve also read The Sentence by Erdrich and really like her writing.

🎧 1-21-23 || This felt like a bit of an over-share but what was I expecting? I‘m now most interested in the Pulitzer winning ghostwriter JR Moehringer, and after a bit more research on *him*, I want to read his other books including his own autobiography, The Tender Bar.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64217330.amp

📖 1-9-23 || What a masterpiece. This is just stunning and I won‘t forget it. It‘s a retelling of Dicken‘s David Copperfield but you don‘t have to know that story to love this one. This is compelling and unputdownable. All the stars. Also, this podcast episode goes into the mechanics of how Kingsolver structured and wrote the novel and I find it fascinating:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-book-case/id1621128813?i=1000589361856
🐍🏈💊

Happy New Year! ✨ And we‘re off… This is going to be a great reading year! This game is one of my favorite parts of Litsy. Thank you, @TheAromaofBooks ! #Bookspin #DoubleSpin

📚 12-31-22 || Final book of 2022 🎉 I ended up really liking this one, though the first quarter seemed to drag. The last half flew by and this author is now an auto-buy for me. A group of women in London become friends while mending wedding dresses to loan to brides during WWII. “An uplifting read that‘s as soothing as a warm cup of Earl Grey on a gloomy morning” (Booklist) 😊🫖

I love the StoryGraph charts! My top 20 genres from this year are all over the place… and I have another twenty genres on the board (but they didn‘t all fit here.) What‘s your favorite way to track your books read?

One of my reading goals for the upcoming year is to visit more independent bookshops. I live in a bookstore desert where the closest shop is more than a 45 min drive away. I got a jumpstart today and came away with this book haul from a magical small indie (tagged)✨📚

This makes my Gen-X heart so happy! I highly recommend the audio of this as Bono weaves his personal story of faith, love, and reconciliation through 40 of U2‘s classic songs. With snippets of original recordings, this is my favorite audiobook of the year (just under the wire)!

I hear these are Santa‘s favorite Chocolate Chunk cookies… 🎄✨🍪

https://smittenkitchen.com/2015/04/salted-chocolate-chunk-cookies/

📖12-19-22 || One of my 2022 reading goals was to expand my poetry horizons by reading a book of poetry each month. I missed two months this year so I‘m quickly catching up. I figured this is an appropriate choice as we approach the winter solstice. I can‘t say I “get” all of these but I do like Rilke and this is a very concise volume.

📖 12-19-22 || This is a soft pick because though I enjoy Benedict‘s writing this one dragged a little. I was disappointed to realize that the MC is completely fictional. It‘s apparent that Benedict did thoroughly research Carnegie and his transition from industrialist to philanthropist, as well as the immigrant experience of the Irish in the later 1800s. I enjoyed The Personal Librarian and still plan to read other books by Benedict.

This just makes so much sense to me! 📚📚📚

🎧 12-11-22 || I‘m not sure why I didn‘t pick this one up earlier but I‘m glad I did now. The end of the year holiday season seems like just the right time. On the advice of another Litsy reader, I listened to this one; it‘s delightful, with music and nature sounds and bonus commentary from the author. 🎧✨

📖 12-10-22 || Love this just as much as I did when I read it in 4th grade (decades ago!). I love this special edition so much with the original illustrations, the photos of the author‘s correspondence with the editor, and invitation to the Newbery award ceremony in 1968.