Misty!!! What an amazing box of Happy to return home to after a looong week!! I adore everything so much and I can‘t tell you how much I‘m looking forward to reading “The Women!!!” Thank you for being the sweetest man ever, wonderful Friend that you are! Love you!
#Litsylove #BookLovers #HappyMail
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
I finished 13 books in March. Lots of middle grade and graphic novels, because that‘s all I could mentally handle. The Spear Cuts Through Water was my favorite, even though it took me two months to read. It was so worth the effort. Both of the Swifts books by Beth Lincoln were delightful. #marchwrapup
I‘m really hoping that the #bookspin gods are kind to me and pick books that are already on my March TBR. Between library books with due dates that can‘t be extended, books clubs/buddy reads, NetGalley books that publish this month, and my library system‘s annual Community Reads program, my schedule is already packed. In fact, looking at this makes me so stressed, I may bail on everything and just watch Netflix. 😂
pickThings I love:
-The pacing leaves plenty of room for emotions to develop.
-The perspective shows both the frustration of the US medical system and the wonder we can access when knocked out of our unconscious narratives.
-The writing, beautiful without being sappy.
Things that don't quite work:
-The extended treatises on poetry and music go on too long for my taste.
-The meticulous detail, which gets tedious.
Soft pick for a #tob25 longlist title
This is the start of Small Rain. It‘s something, I think, anyone who has been to a US ER with chronic illness/pain would recognize. I was just there going through this the week before Christmas.
so-soThere‘s something stingy and mean in this collection, characters putting up barriers in self-preservation mode. But a few lovely ones: tender tourist in Hyderabad, urban tent housing vs. luxury safari tents, sentimental AI in Mall of America, Paul Yoon‘s mini-epic “Valley of the Moon,” Lori Ostlund‘s bubble family in “Just Another Family.” Preferred 2023 collection edited by Min Jin Lee. 2024
pickI loved this. The MC, a poet, ends up in the ICU after a sudden, devastating, medical episode.
The medical bits were a tough read, and quite upsetting at times but still weirdly beautiful. The rest of the book was also full of beauty, as the MC reflected on music, art, love, poetry and dogs. ❤️
I highly recommend this, from the #toblonglist - it should have made the shortlist.
pickSet amidst the Covid pandemic, the narrator experiences sharp pain but waits 5 days to seek medical attention.He ends up hospitalised while the doctors are trying to figure out what caused the tear in his aorta.In less able hands this could have turned into a dull disaster but Greenwell is a poet, wonderful writer and his insights, memories, poetry analyses and observations are a pleasure to read. I didn‘t love all of it but it is a pick for me.
