I had wondered if I turned the wifi off and put my phone in flight mode… if I‘d be able to finish listening to my audiobook in the morning…

Happily, it turned out that I was able to renew it (so another copy must have become available just in time for me to be able to keep it)

“And so we have entered a strange era of human history: A preventable, curable infectious disease remains our deadliest. That's the world we are currently choosing.“

I didn‘t have a book about tuberculosis being my most anticipated read for the year on my bingo card but I‘ve never felt more invested in following John Green down his TB rabbit hole.

I wanted to love this because the concept of night librarians and book characters trying to sneak out of their books because they are tired of their stories is great… I just didn‘t care? Also naming twins Page & Turner should be a jail-able offence.

It‘s been years since the Melbourne Writer‘s Festival remembered that not all readers are into Lit Fic! I‘ve booked in for Kaliane Bradley and Lev Grossman - quite excited! Now to read the books 🤣

https://mwf.com.au/program

TBD if this little haul is “a reasonable amount of reading material” (just kidding, I‘m not even going to try to cram this into my carry on - I have a checked bag for the trip home)

The (millennial) child pop stars are not alright.

This was a really raw account of addiction (her own and her parents), being the breadwinner from a young age and being screwed over by record labels… as well as what it does to a person to be continually chasing after the music success that they had as a teenager.

This was every bit as devastating a read as Britney‘s book. Really glad that she seems to be in a good place now.

Very in character for me to read a Sleeping Beauty reimagining - the theme for February‘s #fairytalereadingchallenge at the end of March… it kept me company on the train from Canberra to Sydney. I love Alix E. Harrow and this was enjoyable BUT calling girls who love Cinderella best vanilla right at the start. Ouch! The Disney version features the art and colour palette of Mary Blair AND Gus Gus! 😐

Vanilla! Those are fighting words!!!

Book 7 sure had a bit of everything! Mass kidnapping, fae artefacts, shifting alliances, assassins for hire… and my personal favourite, Mercy learning more about being a Walker. The Princess Bride reference was also quite good. This brings me to the halfway point of this series and I‘m still having a fantastic time!

I‘ve made it to the ACT! Taxi driver monologued about how much he hated Melbourne on the drive to the hotel (happily a short drive). Gonna leave my little stress ball travelling companion and go and see the Pompeii exhibition.

“A reasonable amount of reading matter” 🤔 I need more information

I‘ve had a friend tell me that I need to read this book for years… but I hated its creepy cover so I put that recommendation on the back burner until I stumbled across a copy at the library with a less creepy cover! And she was right, I did like this odd little book!

Its appeal lies in how unreliable a narrator Merricat is and how open to interpretation all the events are. It‘s a quietly, unsettling read that I suspect will stay with me.

I‘ve been having such a blast listening to this series, and this outing was no different even though it‘s plot (such as it was) meandered, the action adventure part came out of the blue AND the epilogue!!! We had to wait till the epilogue to see the gang back together! I‘d be more annoyed if I didn‘t know more books were coming.

Not yet in database.

I‘ve yet to read an Alix E. Harrow short story that won‘t haunt me for days, weeks, months after I‘ve read it.

This reminds me a little of the movie Ladyhawke but set in a dystopian future where a happy ending is perhaps not what you‘d expect it to be.

Spent my evening in a union zoom meeting where we had to throw out the entire agenda because management completely lost their minds this week and dropped a series of stunningly awful policy decisions that attack flexible working arrangements and staffing levels…

May their find out era be swift in arriving

Finally made it into the city to see the Kusama exhibition - I‘d heard that it was magnificent and always crowded so we bought tickets online and arrived before the gallery opened to join the queue - which meant we were able to walk straight in AND we loved it all! This was my favourite room but they were all glorious!

Even my beloved water window has had a Kusama makeover.

This is my second K.J. Parker book and I just love the situations he puts his characters in. Unhinged. Devious. Hilarious. Very don‘t hate the player, hate the game (and Saloninus plays it oh so well)

Didn‘t realise this was the middle book when I started - don‘t think it matters hugely - there was some references back but I didn‘t feel like I was missing information that was relevant to this story.

Alidade and Lewis live in a rustic village under the rule of the Night Coats who would prefer that the villagers did what they were told… but Adidade has questions, & she won‘t be deterred from asking them… especially after she finds a tree with a door handle in the woods and a map that a magical talking bird flies out of. Lewis would prefer to follow the rules but he chose the wrong bestie for that. This is a series opener, & was rather charming.

I‘ve been going through a box of old cards and letters and found this one from my Mum! Pretty sure all grey hairs were caused by my younger siblings! 😇

I had such a crush on Daniel Radcliffe. Pictures all over my (very carefully curated) pinboard.

The front of the card is drawing of two dolphins - I was firmly in my 🐬 obsessed era.

Mixed week in libraryland - I‘ve finished my 7 day sprint with the high of witnessing a child accidentally spin all the DVDs off their stand (hilarious, iconic. I‘ve never been happier to have been shelving early readers), to the lows of a malfunctioning AC (it was 35°C/95°F today) and a patron going OFF on a rant about people asking her how she was (all I‘d said was hello)

I also spotted this mug in the staff kitchen! ?

The character growth in this book *chefs kiss* it took me awhile to warm to Kathy and Connor but I feel a bit bereft now that I‘m at the end of the book and have bid them adieu.

Definitely lives up to the promise of its title.

I‘m pretty sure I read this as a teen but I just can‘t get into it now - I hate the writing style. Accepting that it‘s a BAIL because it‘s been more than a month since I picked it up. (I ended up reading a short story to meet the prompt instead) #fairytalereadingchallenge : January: Snow White & Rose Red

Not my favourite- Cassie really struggles with the morality of what the Animorphs are doing (and to be fair, they‘ve all gone through a lot of extremely messed up stuff & they are just kids) but I feel she‘s stressing about the wrong stuff.

Not all doom and gloom though, the termite morph went about as well as expected (terribly) but we had some fun with skunk scent (couldn‘t have happened to a nicer Visser) 🦨

Ooh! This was rather delicious - had me nervously wondering if Thomas & Andrew were going to survive the telling of the tale.

I‘m a long term admirer of CG (highly recommend their Instagram @ paperfury) but first time reader and have to say love the forestcore horror vibe with an unreliable narrator with plenty of secret to reveal, twists to unravel and events (and beautiful sentences) that make you go like this 🫢

The humour in this one stems mostly from Ax‘s curious tastebuds and a fairly disastrous trip to the movies (in which Ax eats popcorn, the box it came in and other people‘s chocolates) but the serious notes deal with the weight of responsibility that Ax feels to Andalite law and customs and his new human friends. Will they hate him if they know the truth about Andalites and Yeerks? Or will withholding knowledge drive a wedge between them?

I‘m not sure which part I found the most charming/entertaining - a witch who traps princesses in towers for the art of it, a princess who eventually realises that violence is the answer and a bottom of the garden fairy with a penchant for science, tactics and explosives. This was my first Tamsyn Muir - and I loved how this unfolded so I suspect - not my last.

This book was beautiful - at its centre is the Chibineko Kitchen which specialises in remembrance meals. I can‘t seem to get enough of gentle, interconnected stories and this one was a driven by people dealing with the recent loss of loved ones and grappling with what to do, how to carry on without them.

I might not have gotten to experience the absolute delight that this story is (also genuine anxiety when Greta walked determinedly into danger) if the audiobook had the same cover as the bland paperback version that I turned my nose up at a year or so ago.

It‘s a glorious blending of several fairytales - most prominently Hansel & Gretal and Snow White & Rose Red. And it‘s one of those books that could have been written, just for me.

I feel this in my soul

Until there was uproar about the feature disappearing, I wasn‘t aware that you could transfer “via usb” kindle titles onto your computer… but since I love a challenge - I decided to transfer my kindle library before the cut off date - because in this era of extreme book bans, I would indeed be unhappy if my kindle library suddenly disappeared.

5 and a half audiobooks and 3154 titles later - I am done! And headed for bed!

“Angry women raise daughters fierce enough to fight wolves.”

I loved this tale of friendship, loyalty and betrayal told through the lens of female rage. Women who refuse to be broken by circumstance - one sold into service by a poverty stricken family and the other a beloved princess trapped in a political marriage with a hostile court. Unlikely friends and allies - their story is both inspiring and deeply sad.

In 1973, Maurice & Maralyn set off for the adventure of a lifetime- having sold everything they have to finance a yacht that they plan to sail from England to New Zealand - at first all is grand but one morning, they wake to find that a whale has struck the yacht and it‘s going down. With no radio, and a boxful of flares that fail - things seem grim - and yet after 118 days, they are rescued.

Continued ⬇️ 🐋 🐢

Laughing forever at Brie saving herself (and the world) by giving a very detailed rundown on the intricacies of the omegaverse to an increasingly scandalised being bent on world domination.

I‘ve only got one more full length book to go in this series - and that feels a little sad.

Reread. I‘m on a mission to finish series that I‘ve started - and I‘ve been listening to the main books on audio and I just knew that Alexis the sword had more backstory… so here I am - having a lovely time reacquainting myself with the lore. Hopefully Lucca & Ruby appear in the main books at some point.

Funniest damaged book story ever! Kid threw the book into the washing machine… he looked maybe 4 years old but came up to the desk (with parent) to apologise. Sometimes it‘s hard to keep a straight face 🤭 the cover was all that remained.

Lauren Graham is just one of those actresses who I can‘t help feeling fond of (I watched Gilmore Girls at a formative age) and while I‘m forever saying I‘m not much of a NF/memoir/essay reader… it‘s almost the end of February and I‘ve read 3 books by Lauren Graham…

Works brilliantly as an audio book as it‘s read by Lauren herself.

I don‘t even know where to begin to start with this book - there is unhinged and then one really big step up the ladder is this book.

Listened to most of this book like 😦🤭🫢

Loved it. No notes.

It‘s the first book chat for the year - it‘s staff led (and I‘m staff) and I‘m feeling a little nervous! I know it‘s going to be fine… people have always shown up… and I‘ve never forgotten the plot of the book I‘m talking about (I tend to wing book chats and hope for the best, I don‘t prepare notes 🫣 I did read the books)

I had confused this with the Empress of Salt & Fortune - but a happy mistake as I found this absolutely hilarious. It starts with a brawl in a coffee house ending with the waitress, a nun of the order of the pure 🌕 reflected in water tracking down a group of bandits & angrily asking to join them on their travels. Trouble is never far behind - I did get a little lost in the names (there is a handful of bandits to keep track of) in the audiobook.

My return trip to Kyoto and the Kamogawa Diner was a delight! I‘m a vegetarian but all of the dishes are described so mouthwateringly. Cosy in all the right ways! I love how Nagare & Koishi work together as food detectives - they have a beautiful father-daughter dynamic.

I saw Isobelle Carmody last night and she‘s just so charming… but most importantly she confirmed that she‘s almost finished writing Darkbane (there was cheering!) I had started this awhile ago but it got buried in a little landslide of half read books but I‘m feeling inspired… so hopefully I‘ll get back to it soon.

Dedication reads : To Sharni, guard your precious dreams.

Adam and Mercy get married and leave for their honeymoon AND manage to have a few carefree days before otterkin and an ancient river monster ruin their fun. Mercy learns some unexpected things about her father and Native American heritage.

I really enjoyed this one. No one getting kidnapped was a nice change of pace…

👀

Almost forgot this was on my #netgalley shelf… which would have been bad since I‘m trying to raise my feedback ratio and letting this expire would not have helped me to achieve that goal…

🐈‍⬛ 📦

This book!!!! My high school self buried the emotional trauma of the ending and my adult self is considering reburying it.

John Marsden had such an ability to capture teenagers (some of the language is a bit dated - I‘m still chuckling at fair dinkum) - the highs and lows of being young and figuring stuff out.

I‘ll be thinking about Trace & Mandy for awhile.

Buddy read with @Rissreadswithcats - hope I didn‘t leave you too many messages 😅

The result I expected but still 😭

Went to see the Scottish play last night at the Botanic Gardens. Took my book because my friends are incapable of arriving on time.

All hail the Cheese Queen! While this absolutely did test the limits of me not giggling while listening to this at work… I had an absolute blast rereading this (as part of my plan to actually finish a series I‘ve started)

After reading this (taken from Garth Nix‘s website) I have no idea how I pronounce Sabriel… and it‘s freaking me out a little bit 🫣😬