I came to the Peanuts comics long after they‘d stopped being published - I‘ve always loved grumpy Lucy. I‘m new to manga style biographies but I really enjoyed this, it lays out Charles “Sparky” Schulz life in a simple manner, concentrating on his major milestones both at work and with family. I especially enjoyed learning how diligent he was, and how far in advance he completed his work - he never grew out of being anxious about being late.

Caspia from Maine starts to soften towards Brooklyn when she discovers a stash of old letters between sisters at the apartment her parents have rented for the summer. Each letter contains a clue about a plant and before long Caspia is set on an adventure towards solving riddles, falling in love with nature and making new friends in the neighbourhood. All in all - just a feel good time!

In which Rachel makes a series of bad decisions starting with causing a fake distraction at the zoo so that she could rescue a small child who‘d fallen into the crocodile pit and ends with her completely losing control of her morphing anytime she feels strong emotions aka at the most inconvient times possible. Marco hits peak annoying boy several times (bless him 🤣).

There‘s something rather charming about the idea of the recently deceased stopping in a magical photo studio to help create a photo lantern, made with a photograph from every year of their life. Then there is also the chance to revisit a moment from their past, to take a photo of a moment that they really treasured - they are guided in this by Mr. Hirasaka.

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Words I didn‘t expect to read in a picture book in general and in a Snow White retelling featuring minature ponies in particular : “I‘m a tax attorney” 🤭

I listened to this while taking a walk and it made me snort laugh more than once. It‘s a time travel adventure that starts with a somewhat delusional plan to steal a bug fighter to land it on the White House lawn to prove to the world that Yeerks exist but very quickly derails into a time travel adventure… when they get into a fight with Visser Three‘s blade ship and tear a rip in the space time continuum.

My supervisor approved this display on the condition that I wouldn‘t refer to it as CliFi 🤭 (I wasn‘t going to - I was just saying!! 🤣)

I was quite pleased at being able to curate a list of 55 titles for this display. I think the list would have done better if it had been on the catalogue (rather than just in one branch) but there has been a bit of movement.

Happy Earth Day! 🌎

It was mostly the Barbara Streisand effect that led to me looking up to see if I could get the audiobook of this from the library… The Zuck getting a court ruling to prevent the author from promoting her book?? Interesting choice.

Well worth the read.

My first SFF cozy murder mystery and it‘s a swift moving series opener featuring Dorothy Gentleman as a retired ship detective who finds herself abruptly returned to duty and a body (not hers) after an electrical storm causes damages to some memory books.

Looking forward to further adventures!

It was the premise of the rainfall market itself that drew me in - an invitation to go to a magical market to try and find your dream life… say less. It made me think of the Magic Faraway Tree.

I really enjoyed the magical realism elements, and the shopping component of the market but it‘s marketed as as adult fiction but really read as something more on the younger side of the YA scale. Which is fine, but adjust your expectations accordingly.

Last weeks book chat books… I‘m trying to read more nonfiction books this year - so I was quite pleased to talk about 2 this month. Was super pleased that Everything is Tuberculosis sparked a great conversation with more than one attendee revealing that they had a parent who‘d survived TB… the colleague I‘ve done book chats with for the last year - her contract is finishing - I‘m going to miss her!

Ultimately, this is a book that I thought I‘d devour but it ended up taking me ages because it wasn‘t quite what I was expecting. The premise is fantastic but the supporting characters are undeveloped and under-utilised so it was hard to really care one way or the other about how everything unfolded.

That said, the writing itself was beautiful, and I will definitely be trying another Allison Saft book at some point.

My resolve to not pay any attention to the library deletions giveaway trolley dipped FOR A MERE MOMENT and I came home with these two k. j. parker novellas… no regrets!

🤭

The Animorphs just keep finding themselves in situations! This time it‘s because Marco wants to sneak into an outdoor concert in dog morph and spots an old school friend who curiously doesn‘t smell human… which COULD MEAN NOTHING but obviously doesn‘t because this is an Animorphs book!

Love all the ethical dilemmas that are getting woven in to these stories - I just know that there is going to be a ripple effect of consequences down the line.

Took my sister‘s dog, Hugo, for a walk this morning - and couldn‘t resist putting him in jail 🤣

Not a lot of reading happening this week - but I did listen to a couple of chapters of Careless People at work today.

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.