The sections narrated by Arthens, which contain the titular rhapsodic descriptions of food, were beautiful (with the exception of a few ill-advised metaphors, such as comparing a ripe tomato to "plumpish" woman in a party dress). The alternating chapters were often too short for me to get invested. It felt like the book was arguing with itself over how much plot was needed.

The tomato sat "crimson in its taut silken finery, undulating with the occasional more tender hollow, with a communicable cheerfulness about it like a plumpish woman in her party dress hoping to compensate for the inconvenience of her extra pounds by means of a disarming chubbiness evoking an irresistible desire to bite into her flesh."

Yikes. I'm beyond "plumpish," but my goodness, I'm not a tomato! Definitely not trying to evoke that desire.

I read this because my nephew has to read it for American Lit in college, and he'd like me to look over his essay. Try as I might, I just don't enjoy reading Twain. I can't shake the feeling that he was his own biggest fan.

I haven't finished all the books I intend to finish in September yet, but decided to work on my October #bookspin list instead of reading. Oh well! 🎃 @TheAromaofBooks

Very much like Dear Mrs. Bird, this historical novel was a quick read that had just enough reality to not be too fluffy for my taste. I enjoyed the exploration into the lives of British women war workers. This was my #bookspin for September. @TheAromaofBooks

Lines like these are why I always liked Emily a little more than Anne.

I just started chapter 34 of my first reading, and I'm currently annoyed with everyone except Dr. Grant. 😂

I've been slowly collecting Europa Editions titles for years (probably starting with Elegance of the Hedgehog?), so I've been very much looking forward to our first #EuropaCollective read. This book did everything right for me. I'm drawn to fiction with a literally bleak landscape, and Litta was perfect. I was so shocked by the "bombshell" surprise at the end, BUT what Tommy said to Fiona at the end put everything in perspective so well.

Reading Bobbie Ann Mason's older works is like visiting the world I grew up in. She's from Mayfield, KY, which is only about 70 miles from my hometown in TN. She mentions locations I know well, and her characters use words and phrases I'd all but forgotten. They would be great stories without this sense of familiarity, but it does make me enjoy them even more. #storyaday2023 #doublespin

I know it's only September 2, but I'm already looking forward to what I want to read in October. Look at this beautiful blue stack! I have some witchy books, a ghost story, a murder mystery, and the next Emily book planned so far...

Here's my #bookspinbingo board for September! My #bookspin is Yours Cheerfully and my #doublespin is Midnight Magic. Thank you, Sarah! @TheAromaofBooks

My finished #bookspinbingo card for August. It was a very "up and down" month -- a couple really great books and a few stinkers. @TheAromaofBooks

This collection was beautiful. Set in El Monte, CA, these interconnected stories center around several recurring characters. I loved Hector and Lencho and I might have been able to come around to liking Benny if he'd been in one more story. #storyaday2023

All the blurbs refer to this book as a thriller, and I was starting to wonder why when BAM! the plot went in a totally unforseen direction. Not many books make me talk out loud to the characters, but this one did. So wild and unexpected.

I got this novel in poems at my local indie, which is only a short walk away from Mobile Bay, resting place of the Clotilda. I thought telling the story through poems was a successful way to get multiple points of view without confusing the narrative. Still, a lot of people had to be left out. I definitely want to read some of the nonfiction accounts available. Kossola was interviewed by Zora Neale Hurston, so that's worth seeking out, I think!

I've been having not-so-great luck with short stories lately, but this collection was fantastic. I can't say it better than the David Sedaris blurb on the cover! #storyaday2023

A better title for this collection would be "Different Ways Men Screw Up." There was one story I was really enjoying, about a teenage girl, and then she happens upon a middle-aged man, and it was downhill from there. Great writing, but it was a chore getting to the end. #storyaday2023

I read this last weekend and forgot to post about it. I expected to enjoy this because of how much I liked The Member of the Wedding, and I was surprised that didn't really. The titular story is by far the longest and it didn't appeal to me. #storyaday2023

Here's my #bookspinbingo list for September. I have 3 family birthdays in September, including my son, so I should really have been thinking about birthday gifts instead of planning this list! 😜 @TheAromaofBooks

I've read 10 pages or more of this book almost every day since July 1, and I'm really going to miss Maud. I think one day I might like to read her journals, but I'm fairly sure Rubio covers the highlights. I think my favorite detail is that it was a Globe and Mail Best Book, when long-time editor William Arthur Deacon was a total jerk to Maud. #kindredspiritsbuddyread

This was a quick read, with some really great dialogue. I read it for #GoldenAgeCrimeClub and I'm looking forward to everyone else's take on it. I really enjoyed it, but I actually didn't care who did it.

I may still read The Blythes Are Quoted & the Chronicles of Avonlea books at some point, but I think I'm done with Anne for a little while. This one was SO much better than the last 3 books! But there were so many things I wish had been included that weren't. How did things go for Diana during WWI? Or the girls from Anne's Patty's Place days? Davy & Dora aren't even mentioned! It struck me as tragic that Marilla died between books with no fanfare.

I have owned this book (& a novel by the same author) for so long that I don't remember when -- or why!! -- I bought them. There was one story in this that was okay, but the rest were...not great. One of the stories was literally a list of all the women the male narrator had made cry & then he'd fall in love with them. Barf. If you remember the "Lad Lit" subgenre, it was sort of like that, but not funny & kind of gross. #storyaday2023 #doublespin

I'm ready for August! My #bookspin is African Town and my #doublespin is Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir. Thank you, Sarah! @TheAromaofBooks

So many good reads this month! #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

One last book finished in July and it was a LOT. Suspenseful, yes, but so much more than that. Here's a story about a terrible man that ends up being about three women and the resiliency of women.

Overall, I liked this one. It's sort of weird that it's considered part of the Anne series, considering Anne is barely in it. While reading Montgomery's bio, I've learned that she was pressured for more Anne books long after she ran out of ideas for her. It was written before Anne of Ingleside, so I sort of understand why there aren't better descriptions of the Blythe kids in that book, even if today Ingleside is numbered earlier in the series.

Page 314. Will we ever be free of this man?! @BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks

Here's my #bookspinbingo list for August. Starting in May, when my son's school year got crazy and then ended, taking our usual schedule with it, I've gotten very behind in #Clarissa and my #storyaday2023 goal. My main focus for August is going to be getting caught up (I added 9 short story collections to this list). I'll also be reading the pick for #goldenagecrimeclub and #kindredspiritsbuddyread. @TheAromaofBooks

I enjoyed this one. I loved the descriptions of the countryside. I want to take a nap on a hillside in the heather! How do I sign up for that? SO many suspects and I honestly didn't know who did it. I was suspicious of all of them by the end. #goldenagecrimeclub

This was so atmospheric that it was almost easy to see how Frances got so wrapped up in Cara and Peter. The food all sounded absolutely amazing and I'm a sucker for a story with a big, old house.

I finished this up yesterday evening. It's interesting reading Lorrie Moore and Kate Morton in the same month. They're so very different, but I love them both. Morton's novels have all been epic and this one was no exception. I thought it was better than her last (Clockmaker's Daughter). So interesting to read about Australia at Christmas, aside from the intrigue of the plot. As always, she got me with the twist at the end!

Completely fantastic writing from beginning to end. Tevis details things that range from the horrific to the poignant: nuclear bomb testing, closed factories, floods, jukeboxes, Buddy Holly, and her own life. The juxtapositions are woven together seamlessly.

This was my #doublespin for July. @TheAromaofBooks

It was amazing to me that a book that's about an elaborate lie was written in such a way that it never made me anxious. I felt confident Shibata would figure out how to deal with everything. When things took a turn for the surreal, I became aware of my own hopes for how things would turn out and how conditioned I am to the traditional roles of women.

Lorrie Moore remains a wonder and a gift. She makes me want to write, as in, actually changes the way words form in my head. It's like she fires off all my neglected synapses. This amazing novel explores death and grieving and is primarily set in the upside-down year of 2016. All the trauma of 8 years seems somehow compacted down into a 193-page gut punch.

I guess this is a pick? The first 2/3 of it definitely was. The last third, I'm not so sure. It was a bit of a mess. I was originally interested because it's set in Galveston and I did enjoy the setting and the world of vaudeville and dance marathons. Without spoiling anything, the story took a turn that was uncomfortable and ended up feeling historically inaccurate. This was my #bookspin for July.

Here's my #bookspinbingo card for July! My #bookspin is Last Night on the Starlight Pier and my #doublespin is The World Is on Fire.

Thank you, Sarah! @TheAromaofBooks

My favorite book of 2023 so far is no surprise.

I'm SO pleased! I've always wanted to read more and I've finally found some habits/approaches that are working for me. I've had a 50 book yearly reading goal for ages and last year was the first year I met it. My final book count for 2022 was 62. I didn't want to change my goal for 2023 because I wasn't sure if reaching it in 2022 was a fluke.

I have a feeling this one is going to stay with me for a while. I always love a story where characters are thrown together and become a united group: passangers on a train, students in a dorm, etc. In this case, the characters are patients in a shared hospital ward. Their life stories are played out for each other in ways that are both poignant and cringeworthy. How do we touch each other's hearts in those situations? How do we move on? Loved it.

Here's my finished #bookspinbingo card for June. Not bad, considering there was a whole week when I didn't read anything! @TheAromaofBooks

A low pick. The children all kind of blurred together and there were at least three frustrating times when the characters or narrator made negative comments about how fat someone was. Still, I enjoyed characters from previous books making appearances here. My favorite part was when I got to Rilla and the cake and suddenly remembered my sister reading that part aloud to me when I was a kid. I could hear her in my mind saying, "burnt to a crithp!"

Here's my #bookspinbingo list for July. 😊 @TheAromaofBooks

I don't normally read spicy books, but this one came highly recommended by an indie bookseller so I gave it a try. It was half adventure, half romance, like a really good episode of "Poldark," if Ross Poldark was gay.

This was my #bookspin for June.

You know the murderer on page 1, but this still managed to be suspenseful. Seeing the world from the perspective of a sociopathic killer definitely called into question all the perceptions I had of all the characters. Was Madeleine really so bad? Maybe, maybe not. I felt sorry for Ivy, for sure. A great, but twisted read. #goldenagecrimeclub

I finished this one today for the #kindredspiritsbuddyread. I won't say too much ahead of our discussion, but I enjoyed this. Two thoughts -- 1, I wish there was a sequel covering Montgomery's adult life, and 2, the flowers on the cover should be lupines (this cover is pretty though).

I forgot to post that I'd finished this one. It was my first time reading it and I'd never seen an adaptation. The ending wasn't what I expected. I had something completely different in mind! In retrospect, *of course* it ends the way it does. Still, my version could have been good! 😂

155?! Diana is supposed to be fat. At 155. 😣 Nope.

I have barely read anything so far this month. I spent a week at Disney World with my husband and 13 yo son having so much fun and eating so many snacks! Then I had a week recuperating, feeling tired and sad that my vacation was over. I'm *woefully* behind on #Clarissa. I'll have the house to myself for most of next week though, so fingers crossed I'll get caught up and back to normal!