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#ReadingBracket #BookBracket2025

Starting strong with a clear winner for January slipping in just under the wire before the month‘s end. This is a book I already know I‘ll re-read because it‘s full of gorgeous description and characterization. By turns hilarious, poignant, bleak, heartbreaking. #auldlangspine

January's wrap-up. I tried to catch up on my BOTM books and am now in the middle of my annual comfort reread of Twilight. Also finished my first #AuldLangSpine and am halfway through my 2nd one.

An unexpectedly strong reading start to 2025. #auldlangspine and Litsy reviews drove a lot of my book choices this month. I also discovered my library has all of The Apothecary Dairies light novels which sent me into a reading spree one weekend.

#bookspin: The teller of small fortunes
#doublespin: Raised by a serial killer

@TheAromaofBooks

#weekendreads #auldlangspine

Frozen River is a historical fiction about a real midwife, Martha Ballard, in colonial Maine. A woman is raped; later, one of the two men accused of the crime is found dead. Politics and fingerpointing ensue.

How to Age Disgracefully is a fun little British story about an eclectic assortment of people who cross paths at a community center in a lower-middle-class neighborhood. So far it‘s funny and charming.

#JumpStart2025 #Read2025

I got behind in posting reviews for January so, I‘ll try to get them all in today.

From the #AuldLangSpine list of @JacqMac this book kind of wrecked me. I wasn‘t planning on reading it this month but my library e-book hold came in & so it jumped the line. I think my mistake was reading it the weekend before the inauguration & the dystopian story of the effects of totalitarianism & civil war on a family in Ireland, ⬇️

#auldlangspine recap
8 books read, all 4-5 ⭐️ reads
Favorite is Margo‘s Got Money Troubles… I‘m still thinking about it weeks after finishing. It will likely make my favorites list for the year.

A Woman is No Man is next up on my list as it is already on my shelf, but I prioritized library reads first.
First Lie Wins: I plan to get from the library later when I‘m in the mood for a thriller.
Five Little Indians: I still have to track down a copy.

Just realized I never put up a review for Slewfoot which was my second book read for #AuldLangSpine I really loved it. Peak feminine rage. Would be a great read for spooky season.

I found 3 of January‘s #WickedWords in Slewfoot and the other 2 in How Not to Die Alone aka Something to Live For.

#auldlangspine Book 8 was another excellent choice by @Zuhkeeyah

This was such a fantastic take on a classic. It was full of the adventure you expect from a Huckleberry Finn retelling, but manages to say so much more about slavery and the way a Black person was required to move through the world. While I wouldn‘t call this a light read in any way, the sense of adventure did bring a bit of levity to it I wasn‘t expecting and loved. ⬇️

My January #BookSpinBingo board—with no bingos. I didn‘t realize how close I was until yesterday, but my reading slate is so full right now I probably wouldn‘t have been able to squeeze in that one center square anyway (I‘ve been too free with the library holds lately!). With four read for #AuldLangSpine including my #DoubleSpin, plus #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead, #OokBOokClub and keeping up with the #HashtagBrigade, it was a good reading month!

The tagged book was a heartwarming tale of adventure and friendship. I adored the idea of bison being the wise ones everyone reported to in the park.

A big thank you to @MeganAnn for an outstanding #auldlangspine list. I read 6 books off her list so far and plan to keep going. I have full confidence the rest of the list will not disappoint.

Thank you very much @monalyisha for hosting and organizing #auldlangspine!