Short poetic story of a boy that holds a lot of pain and rage. I could only get the audio but would love to read the physical book one day. His use of language is brilliant. Lanny is still my favorite book of this authors. 4 🌟

What a perfect fall read. A classic dark academia novel with echos of The Catcher in the Rye. Loved it! 4 🌟

October Reads!
5 🌟
In Memoriam: Alice Winn📖
Empire of Pain🎧
4.5 🌟
Black AF History: Michael Harriott🎧
The Bee Sting: Paul Murray📖
The Vaster Wilds: Lauren Groff 📖
3.5🌟
Beyond The Door of No Return: David Diop 📖
3 🌟
The Great Reclamation: Rachel Heng🎧
Learned By Heart: Emma Donoghue🎧
Do Tell: Lindsay Lynch🎧

Charming, readable debut novel about 1930's Hollywood. 3 🌟

Most of my #bookspin #doublespin #bookbingo November list. More Nonfiction than normal for Nonfiction November. @TheAromaofBooks

Beautiful hearbreaking novel set in Senegal in the 1800's. Story about how even the love of white men kill the black africans. The book had a narrative structure that I found awkward. 3.5 🌟 He is an author I will read again.

Well written gay coming of age historical fiction novel. I am just not the right audience for this book. Like The Pull of the Stars, this reads (to me) like a YA novel. 3 🌟

Amazing history of this family that has profited from the Opioid epidemic. It is a page turner. Highly recommended! 5 🌟

5 🌟. I read this slowly because it was y I did not want it to end. A novel about love, war, and survival. Amazind debut. So very happy I read this. It is one of the top reads of 2023 for me.

Metaphysical novel of a young servant girl's life in the "new" world. A meditation on human connection as well as our connections with nature. Beautiful. 4.5 ?

Required reading for all americans. Educational, eye opening, entertaining, and humbling. So glad I read this book. 4.5 🌟

September Reads. Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl and Tom Lake by Ann Patchett were the outstanding reads of September.

October #bookspin! I'm excited to see what numbers come up. @TheAromaofBooks

Why is this on the #Booker longlist. It's a fine book, but nothing I have not read before. Novel about the loss of a mother and the impact it has on her daughter. I had to push myself to finish this one. 2.5 🌟

A delightful graphic novel for kids. Loved the word play and the art style. I was gifted this beautiful book. I dont think I would have read it otherwise. Was a joy to read. 4 🌟

After reading Tom Lake, I had to go back and revisit Cherry Orchard. I first studied this play in high school. Was great to read it again.

I love Ann Patchett. I don't love stories about the theater. I enjoyed most of the novel set on a Cherry farm in MI during the pandemic in which a mother tells her three daughters about her long ago affair with a now famous actor. The Chekhov references are everywhere in the novel. It was when "Cricket" told the last encounter with Duke without the maternal fliter that the book worked for me. Not my favorite Patchett, but well worth a read. 4 ?

I so wanted to like this novel. I have loved some of Alice Hoffman's other work, but this didn't work for me at all. Read like a YA romance with an overbearing feminist message. 2 🌟

An achingly beautiful essay collection to be savored. I am so glad I read this beautiful book slowly. This is a highlight of my reading year so far. 5 🌟. This is the first of many books that I hope to read of Margaret Renkl. Highly recommend!!

A good book of connected short stories. Not #booker23 worthy, in my opinion. Ok, not great. 3 🌟

This is a love story that continues beyond life and life and survives war. Reads like a ghost story. The afterward is as interesting as the novel. So glad I read this author and am interested in reading more from this author. 4 🌟

An uneven reading month. In Ascension did not work for me. The East Indian was also not my cup of tea. Old God's Time was beautifully crafted but hard to read due to the subject matter. Solito was a top read of my year so far! #bookspin #booker23 @TheAromaofBooks

The state of my reading this month. Starting books rather than finishing the ones I am reading. My goal in September is to finish what I have started and to carry on with the #booker books I can get my hands on! @TheAromaofBooks #bookspin #doublespin

5 🌟, must read! A poet tells of his journey to the USA as a 9 year old boy. Beautifully written. Highly recommend. The audio is read by the author, and since I do not speak spanish, I was glad to listen to this memoir.

Love her writing. This is an epic tale of one young man's journey through WWII. I think the prewar section could have been cut back. The author seemed to be in love with her research at times. Like most war novels, it is heartbreaking at times. 3 🌟

Trigger warning for child abuse. I hate books about children being hurt! This was a novel of survivors and the harm they live with. It is a testimont to the beauty of Barry's writing and his skill at plotting this novel that I finished. There is much to be admired here...if not enjoyed. 4 🌟

This was not for me. I loved the beginning and was lost by the end. 2 🌟

I love her writing. This reads like a thriller. Literary fiction but with a pulpusive plot. Set in Londan after a pandemic. 4 🌟

Short diverting fantasy read. The author established a full world in a few pages. Fun read. 2.5 🌟

August is all about #booker. Long list announced August 1.
1 Booker
2 Booker
3 Booker
4 Booker
5 Booker
6 Booker
7 Booker
8 Booker
9 Booker
10 Booker
11 Booker
12 Booker
13 Booker
14 BuzzWord ( Weather ) Wolf Winter
15 Simon Savage Pick ( Between the Wars) The World And All That It Holds
16 Book Spin (YouTube)
17 TBR Jar (Fates and Furies)
18 Library
19 Library
20 Library
@TheAromaofBooks

Beautifully written novel about a small island community off the coast of Main that are forced off the land. I admired the writing more than feeling the story. 3 🌟

What a delightfully complex world. There is a map as well as a Dramatis Personae! Loved the characters. I hope this is a start os a series. It's a great fantasy read. 3.5 🌟

Great audio book read by the author. A philosophical meditation on being alive while impoverished. This book is in conversation with Poverty By America and Demon Copperhead. Loved it. 5 🌟

What a call to action! I listened to this book and will buy it in physical form also. He outlines direct actions we can take to be active in the elimination of poverty in America. So compelling. A must-read! 4 🌟

I loved this book. My favorite of the trilogy. A book about death that is bursting with life. A delight. Wonderful on audio. 4.5 🌟

Charming, hopeful, cozy fantasy. Just what you would expect from this author. Loved it. He says in the acknowledgments that this was not the book he wanted it to be. That the book he wanted to write the world was not ready for. I would love to read that book also. 4 🌟 #52bookclub23 # startswithI @LauraReads @KarenUK @britt_brooke @CarolynM @Smarkies @LeeRHarry @Clwojick @BookBelle84 @jennifer80 @Librarybelle @triplem80 @Read4life @Bluebird @

I am a fan, not objective about Debra Levy's writing. I was captivated by this short novel, read it in one sitting. I did not understand all of the plot, but it did not matter. I understood her main character and all the feelings. Beautiful. 5 🌟 ( I do hate the cover!)

Scathing book about the publishing industry. Ouch! Well written, but I found it hard to be with an unlikable narrator for the entire novel. 3 🌟

A Charles Dickens like tale of a free black man in 1700's England. Was longlisted for the Walter Scott prize. Loved the world building and the sweep of the story. Such a great audio book. This started as a play and was read by the actor/author. 4 🌟

I like books about witches. This follows three generations of abused women coming into their power. I enjoyed it, but it did not break new ground with this narrative. 3 🌟 #bookspin #52bookclub23 #publishedbyMcMillian @Bluebird @LauraReads @KarenUK @britt_brooke @CarolynM @Smarkies @LeeRHarry @Read4life @squirrelbrain @BarbaraBB @ravenlee @Deblovestoread @jlhammar @MicheleinPhilly @Clwojick @BookBelle84 @jennifer80 @Librarybelle @

A cradel to grave story about a girl growing up in Florida as climate change destroys the state. 3 🌟 #52bookclub23 #enemiestolovers @LauraReads @karenuk @britt_brooke @CarolynM @Smarkies @LeeRHarry @Read4life @Bluebird @squirrelbrain @BarbaraBB @ravenlee @Deblovestoread @jlhammar @MicheleinPhilly @Clwojick @BookBelle84 @jennifer80 @Librarybelle @triplem80 @AshleyHoss820

May 2023 Reading Wrap Up. Late again!

5 🌟
You Could Make This Place Beautiful: Maggie Smith 📖
4.5 🌟
The Dance Tree: Kiran Millwood Hargrave 🎧
Maureen: Rachel Joyce 🎧
4 🌟
Birnam Wood: Eleanor Catton 📖
3.5 🌟
The Bandit Queens: Parini Shroff 📖
The Faraway World: Patricia Engle : 📖
A Tidy Ending: Joanna Cannon 🎧

Amazing skill! I admire the poetry and structure of this award winning novel. The story is relentlessly brutal. 3 🌟

18 The Glass Hotel
19 The Witch's Heart
20 Fire Rush

#bookspin #doublespin #bookbingo June 2023 @TheAromaofBooks

My first time reading this author, loved the writing. I flew through this literary thriller. I did not love the ending. I am so looking forward to reading The Luminaries next! 4 🌟

This book did not work for me. I know that with Oyeyemi, you just have to let the writing wash over you, and there will be times you have no idea what is "happening" in the plot. This novel was true to form in that regard. I found the use of Shakespearen and Mythical names heavy-handed. I still enjoy her writing, but this novel was a miss. 2 ?
#buzzword #52bookclub23 @LauraReads @KarenUK @britt_brooke @CarolynM @Smarkies @LeeRHarry @Bluebird

Cleaver and engaging mystery. Something I dont usually read. Reminded me a bit of Elenor Oliphant is Completely Fine, only more sinister. Fun on audio. 3.5 🌟 #52bookclub23 #murder @LauraReads @KarenUK @britt_brooke @CarolynM @Smarkies @LeeRHarry @Read4life @Bluebird @squirrelbrain @BarbaraBB @ravenlee @Deblovestoread @jlhammar @MicheleinPhilly @Clwojick @BookBelle84 @jennifer80 @Librarybelle @triplem80 @AshleyHoss820

Very well written. Each story is like a novella. It takes me forever to finish a short story collection. I miss a narrative thread to carry me through the book. This is well worth a read. 3.5 🌟

What a surprising delight. The third of the Harold Fry series. I have not read the second book in the trilogy but want to pick it up now. A hopeful book about forgiveness at any age. Just loved it. 4.5 🌟 #52bookclub23 #contemporary @LauraReads @KarenUK @britt_brooke @CarolynM @Smarkies @LeeRHarry @Clwojick @BookBelle84 @jennifer80 @Librarybelle @triplem80 @AshleyHoss820 @Read4life @Bluebird @squirrelbrain @BarbaraBB @ravenlee

Loved this historical novel set in Strasbourg during a heat wave in 1518. The author uses this nivel to talk about pregnancy loss, racism, and anti-gay violence. She does all this while still making me believe in the historical setting. I loved The Mercies. This novel is similar in tone. 4.5 🌟 #52bookclub23 #meanttoreadin22 @MicheleinPhilly @jlhammar @Deblovestoread @ravenlee @BarbaraBB @squirrelbrain @Bluebird @Read4life @LeeRHarry @Smarkies