I guess this just wasn‘t for me! I‘m not a mystery reader at all—murder just ain‘t my cup of tea, no matter how cozy! But I‘d heard picturesque Three Pines was populated with lovable characters I‘d want to visit again and again, so I thought I‘d give it a try! Unfortunately, I just didn‘t connect with the characters and I found the mystery scintillating enough to finish this one but not enough to read further books.

Those disappointed to learn the sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet doesn‘t star the crew of the Wayfarer won‘t be disappointed long. I think I fell even more deeply in love with Pepper and Lovelace in this standalone novel. Becky Chambers‘ optimistic form of sci-fi is the ultimate in self-care reading, and Rachel Dulude is the perfect narrator. I can‘t wait for the next!

This meditation on grief and wildness and memory is gorgeously written. I think there‘s something about grief that we imagine will be heartwrenching and cathartic to read about but is so deep and intimate that it remains slightly aloof all the while. H is for Hawk captures that and the strange and completely individualized ways we deal with the inescapable reality that those we love we will lose someday.

Blue and Red are elite agents on opposite sides of the time war. When Blue leaves Red a cheeky letter on a battlefield, an unlikely correspondence begins that could get them both killed. With Garden closing in on one side and Commandant on the other, Blue and Red must put all their training to the test to save each other. This fun, fast, and poetic novella traces humanity to its possible extremes and finds the common thread that holds us together.

It‘s New Years Eve 1984 and Lillian Boxfish, aged 84(ish), is taking a walk through Manhattan. Formerly the highest paid advertising woman in the country, Lillian looks back on the highs and lows of a long life and career as she meets the diverse denizens populating a 1980s NYC in decline. Lillian‘s perceptions of the city and its people, both past and present, are so authentic, full of wisdom, generosity, and a welcome touch of the bitter.

This one may have been one I should have read rather than listened to, but it just felt a little dry to me. What was most fascinating to me was the story Higginbotham tells about the cultural and socio-political factors that led to the nuclear disaster and how that in turn contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. Higginbotham contributes much to the understanding of this catastrophe both as a series of events and as a historical moment.

Alexievich‘s distinctive, Nobel winning history writing is immersive, oceanic. Submerged in the historical moment, voices arise like tides, and each story, full of the exhilarations and horrors of humanity, carries you away. This is a fascinating study of those left behind in the wake of the USSR. These stories left a deep impression on my understanding not only of history but of how humans cope with the creation and destruction of an idea.

I‘m not the target market for this one, but I was curious about Garden and Gun contributor and Southern icon Julia Reed. I did enjoy this collection of her essays, but there were some tedious parts, and Reed isn‘t a natural at audiobook narration.

I think I may be too old for this one...or maybe audio just isn‘t the right format for it, but I just couldn‘t get that into any of the characters in this classic mystery! I‘m glad I finally know the story, though!

Worthy of all the praise and the Pulitzer, The Overstory is the environmentalist novel of our times—moving, inspiring, and teeming with life.

SO MUCH FUN. Read this for the dizzy delightful fizzy effervescence of it all and for the perfect summer read! I also want to note that listening to this also improved my mood and worked as a form of self-care. As our heroine Vivian grows from girl to grand dame, her realizations about herself and the world helped me gain perspective, cultivate a healthy humor, and practice compassion for myself and others. But also did I mention SO MUCH FUN!

Listened to this on a long drive with my ten year old niece. We laughed frequently and really enjoyed this silly story!

Not what I expected from a middle grades hit at all! This is definitely the most literary novel I‘ve ever read for that age range. Slow, quiet, and emotionally wrenching, I‘ve continued to think about this for days after finishing. Michael Curran-Dorsano is an excellent narrator as well if you‘re considering the audiobook!

There were some interesting ideas, and I can see why so many people count it among the most influential self-help books. This book wasn‘t for me though, probably for the same reasons it‘s so popular—the writing and ideas are really simple and direct, which can be powerful for some and boring for others.

We recently had the pleasure of stopping in Franklin, Indiana to visit Wild Geese Bookshop—a charming little bookstore named after one of our favorite poems, “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver, which inspired the owner to leave her career as a lawyer and follow her dreams as a bookseller! Thanks to bookseller John who helped us by holding the book for this #bookfacefriday! #undergroundbookfaces

A transgender doctor reluctantly falls for a leader in AI who just may be a mad scientist. A divorced man living with his mother makes a fortune manufacturing sexbots. A cryogenics facility in Phoenix stores the dead. And Mary Shelley writes in 1816. From Jeanette Winterson comes this whirlwind thought experiment on love, artificial intelligence, and the future of the human body. My mind felt pleasantly boggled once I‘d turned the last page.

A son writes a letter to his illiterate mother, and beauty and trauma rushes out in poetry. There are times when this poet-written novel perhaps veers too far into poetry, into abstraction I should say, but it doesn‘t detract too much from the brilliance of this book—its best lines still awe. This is a visceral and soaring meditation on generational trauma, sexuality, the written word, and the bond between mother and child, a groundbreaking work.

She was 25 when she arrived in Tanzania to teach marginalized Maasai girls. This memoir of that time juxtaposes the fish-out-of-water experience of an earnest foreign teacher with the powerful stories of her students, surviving forced marriages and genital mutilation to learn. Cutler‘s love & respect are evident for the school community, whose work will remind you of the possibilities that arise when we rise bega kwa bega, “shoulder to shoulder.”

This is the funnest, tenderest, most lovable space romp you‘ll ever take. There‘s some plot but the real reason to read this book is the crew of the Wayfarer. Fair warning: You‘ll want to follow them anywhere! With inter-species romance, plenty of pronouns, and space-age wisdom, this book made me feel more tender to our own young species of Homo Sapiens and to myself. Highly recommend for fun, for fans of science-fiction, and for self-care.

With a following compared to LotR, GoT, and Harry Potter COMBINED, it‘s wild that this is just now being published here. I‘ve never been into kung fu fiction (wuxia) but with all the hype, I had to try. A Hero Born is just so much fun. The fights are thrilling, the writing riveting & historical, the characters complex & engaging. I can‘t wait for the rest of the series, blessedly coming out over the next two years. Wuxia has won this reader over!

Alan Watts was one of the foremost teachers of Eastern thought to the West. In The Book, he explores how ego is a myth. We are not isolated, defined, independent selves, but the universe as well. We are all “God” who is “playing the Game of Black-and-White,” playing as opposing forces, playing hide and seek. It‘s heady stuff, but this book did encourage me to not take myself so seriously and to try to appreciate life and work as serious play.

Sagittarius Justine, in love with Aquarius Nick, meddles with the horoscopes at her paper in hopes of encouraging him to follow his dreams. But Nick isn‘t the only Aquarius in Australia who reads the stars! With a structure akin to Love Actually, this novel brings in a lot of other story lines that eventually tie in tidily! A Capricorn, I wasn‘t sympathetic to Justine‘s failure of journalistic ethics, but this was a fun, satisfying, & clever read!

Berlin, 1941. With her husband killed by Nazis and reduced to feeding her daughter a “Hardship Soup” of cabbage and water, Hanni Kohn will do anything to save her Lea, and so she dares to beg the rabbi for a golem, a soulless creature made by man to do his bidding. It is Ettie, the rabbi‘s daughter who obliges, however, propelling three young women forward in a fight for survival that will require sacrifices from them all.

Mortician and death activist Caitlin Doughty takes us on a journey through death rites, sites, and trends around the world in this riveting follow-up to her memoir of the death industry, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. This is an even tighter and more confident meditation on what we get right and what we get wrong in caring for our dead and ourselves in times of death, and it will give you so much to meditate on. 💀🌸

For a year, poet Ross Gay wrote a short essay on something that delighted him each day. The Book of Delights is a delight to read, that‘s no surprise, but so many of the delights are surprising ones and every single one is poetry and every single one is contagious.

The previous owner of our home was in the monuments business (making headstones) and repurposed a lot of raw marble for his porch, countertops, and fireplaces, so I felt this was a fitting backdrop for this memoir turned manifesto for death positivity! I found this funny, bold, thoughtful, and hard to put down even through the uncomfortably descriptive parts! Overall a fascinating and important introduction to the business of death in America.💀

Stavia lives in Women‘s Country years after The Convulsion. Men live outside the city, training to be warriors, allowed in only during carnival or if they choose to leave warrior life. All is peaceful until Stavia meets a boy who wants all the secrets of Women‘s Country, no matter the cost, secrets that will shake the foundation of all Stavia knows. This wild, morally complex work of late 1980s feminist sci-fi will give you much to mull over!

It was so lovely to return to Avonlea after so many years through Rachel McAdams‘ narration of this classic! I love and admire and could use a lot more of Anne‘s enduring optimism, expansive dreams, and big eyes so ready to see beauty in everything.

This book is just so much fun. Follow rock band Daisy Jones and the Six through their meteoric rise to fame in the 1970s. This book has all the drugs and drama you‘d expect, but also complex, human characters whose loves and losses you can‘t help but be moved by. The audiobook is full cast and full production and truly blew me away. I can‘t wait to see Reese Witherspoon adapt this for a limited series and for this book to get even bigger.

This sci-fi classic, with its wild, rangy plot, holds much of what I love about the genre, namely that by flying us far from our world, science fiction brings us closer to the truth. Grass brings Marjorie Yrarier and family to the titular planet Grass, alienated by its esoteric class structure and unfathomable creatures, to find a cure for a human-ending plague and ends up posing answers to questions of environmentalism, morality, and theology.

There There follows twelve seemingly unrelated urban Native Americans as their lives and connections converge at the Big Oakland Powwow. I came to feel deeply for each character, each is so vividly and confidently written, and Orange skillfully depicts the impact of history on each life. I maybe wish a little bit that the ending wasn‘t so literary and a little more satisfying plot-wise but this is a brilliant work that deserves all the hype.

This twist in Joshilyn Jackson‘s writing is nothing compared to the twists and turns of the dark, delicious, and suspenseful Never Have I Ever. Mom, friend, diving instructor Amy finds her life on the line when a stranger comes to book club who somehow knows every detail of a past long buried. You‘ll gasp, you‘ll laugh, you‘ll never guess what‘s coming next, as both Amy and her blackmailing femme fatale foe Roux‘s secrets run deep as the ocean‘s.

I listened to this audiobook as it was free for booksellers for the month on libro.fm. Some of it was interesting as I didn‘t know much about Wicca, but after finishing it...I still don‘t feel like I know much about Wicca. A lot of the book was just lists, lists of deities, lists of holidays, lists of crystals, etc. I‘m marking it so-so instead of pan because I can imagine it would be practical for someone serious, but I wanted more depth.

The central argument in this rich exploration of native religion is that tribal religion is spatial, rooted in specific place and the ties of community, and western religion is temporal, rooted in nonspecific time and the concept of history. Understanding the difference is ever more important as we face an earth riven by climate change. This is a worldview-altering read for anyone interested in how religion impacts humanity & the world around us.

I feel like this book could have been a fantasy or a romance but instead it didn‘t really get off the ground on either count for me. As other readers have said, there‘s just not enough of the actual titular binding or the system of magic behind it. As for the key relationship, it felt very YA to me, which may not be an issue for other readers! The audiobook production was excellent though and narrator Carl Prekopp shows incredible depth and range.

This ain‘t your usual zombie apocalypse! For one thing, our surviving hero is a domesticated crow with a foul mouth and a heart of gold by the name of Shit Turd, his sidekick and steed is the slobbering bloodhound Dennis, he thinks humans are also called “mofos” and Cheetos are the highest form of culinary art, and he‘s going to have to embrace his true nature as a feathered thing if he‘s going to keep alive the mofo traditions he loves.

Margaret Atwood applies her trademark wit and expansive mind to the subject of debt, touching on literature, religion, mythology, environmentalism, and history. A lively and fascinating contemplation on a subject a little too familiar to us all, Payback is a read for the curious. It‘s more likely to fill you with a couple more questions, rather than an answer to the one you started with. Very Atwoodian!

This novel is definitely true to its title, made up almost entirely of women talking—illiterate Mennonite women of a remote colony who have recently realized that the nighttime terrors the men of the colony have told them are dreams or demonic possessions or punishment for sins were actually these men, their relatives and neighbors, tranquilizing and then raping them. Inspired by real events...👇👇👇

Three Women takes the pulse of female desire through the lives of a student in a relationship with her teacher, an Indiana housewife seeking human touch, & a restaurateur whose husband watches her with other men. I read this in a sitting, unable to tear away from the emotional complexity & narrative force of these women‘s lives. It reads like fiction—sex, love, betrayal—but always with the underlying, even unsettling resonance of recognition...👇

Another unlikely book club read for me! I don‘t know if I have the exact sense of humor for this book, but I did enjoy Eleanor‘s very engaging journey of discovery—of herself, of the possibilities life offers, and of the love and support community brings.

If biography has traditionally been the craft of drawing out the line of a life from the cobwebs of history, in Figuring, Maria Popova traces each thread of silk in the web of thought that connects her subjects of study. This rich, enlightening journey through feminism, transcendentalism, environmentalism, and philosophy could only be penned by the author of Brainpickings and is sure to break your heart even as your mind soars with every page.

Leading cultural critic Rebecca Solnit‘s first book for children expands the familiar fairy tale of Cinderella into a story of equality, choice, and meaningful work—beautiful dress and magical glass slippers included!

Rough Magic, the debut memoir from the youngest and first female winner of the toughest horse race in the world, is spellbinding. How a book can be so heady with poetry and yet make you read sitting straight up with adrenaline is certainly a feat. Prior-Palmer bares her loneliness, competitiveness, and frequent ridiculousness so freely you almost feel you‘re cantering through the Mongolian wilds beside her, and after reading this, I‘m ready to.

Nedda is 11 & space-obsessed, when Challenger explodes over her town. Her father, a scientist grieving his infant son, Nedda‘s fleeting youth, & the degeneration of his hands, alters time in wondrous & tragic ways after Challenger. Years later, Nedda is flying toward a distant planet when a dire malfunction makes her reckon with her past. LFOS is a thrilling journey through space & time & a moving exploration of the bond between parent and child.

In clear, considered, and vivid prose survivor Hédi Fried answers the questions we all have inside us about the horrors of the Holocaust. In this time more than ever, accessible books on this subject are so necessary.

Honestly, I am not the person yet to enjoy this book, but I‘m glad it exists.

This snappy little collection of essays by American Housewife author Helen Ellis is the perfect pairing for a bath and a bottle of wine after a long day. Bright, bubbly, charming, and just the right amount of naughty, Helen Ellis is a high Southern sun above the skyscrapers of Manhattan.

When Ivy Gamble, private eye, is hired to investigate a mysterious murder at a magical school where her estranged sister teaches, she finds more than murder. Prophecies, secrets, lies, and romance ensue as Ivy finds stories, real and imagined, in sealed off stacks in the library, under enchanted lockers, and in the space between sisters. This is such a fun, imaginative debut, and Sarah Gailey is a writer to watch.

In this follow-up to Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond shows how nations have overcome crises through methods individuals often practice. Through historical study and examination of current crises, Diamond reveals how certain factors like honest self-appraisal can help predict resilience. This is a fascinating and informative read that gave me a new perspective on the crises facing our country and our world today.

My eyeballs hurt from crying. In this book is all the triumph and tragedy of life, the trauma and the tenderness. There‘s a line late in A Little Life: “What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.” This is a definite exception. There‘s nothing pretty about A Little Life—only a beauty that will tenderize your heart like a meat mallet.