Exactly what I‘d expected, which is a good thing. Quintessential late-90s thin not-quite-a-girl, not-yet-a-woman poetry, and I loved it.

I expected this to be good and it turned out to be fantastic. I cannot praise this enough. The setting was a great choice to explore as the site for an act of domestic terror. I couldn‘t put this down and was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and I powered through it in a day. If you‘re even mildly interested in this, you should go for it.

July‘s #booksthatmatter box has arrived!

I think my expectations were too high on this. While I enjoyed it, there‘s something about it that soured it for me. Top flags I use for entire poems, but side flags I use just for specific lines and I think that context helps the photo illustrate what my feelings about this were. Poetry tastes really vary widely so I don‘t mean want to dissuade anyone from this, but I personally found it to be pretty mediocre.

As always, very excited about my #botm box! Finished my reading challenge, and looking forward to seeing what this little “trophy” smells like. After seeing rave reviews of Untamed by @rather_be_reading I decided to add it in ☺️

Kamala Harris is someone I admired before reading this, and this only deepened that. She has a fascinating life, the daughter of immigrants who grew up in a vibrant multi-cultural environment, and whose strength and ambition were built from the very beginning of her life. This book showcases some of her biggest career accomplishments, giving the details that show how hard she has worked, and will continue to. She earns all respect and admiration!

If these are “selected poems”, I shudder to think how much wasn‘t included. These should have been significantly whittled down. It took me months to finish this, because frankly it was so repetitive and thus boring. She does a good job writing nature poetry, which I tend to really like, but I don‘t want to read essentially the same poem 100 times. A more aggressive editing of this collection would‘ve done it a huge favor.

Finding out there‘s a new Tana French novel on the horizon has made my day!!!

This was one of the best books I‘ve read in a long time. Liz Moore weaves an incredibly compelling narrative, telling several different stories at the same time. This was barely a thriller, and more a story of family dysfunction and humanity. Moore writes characters that are so real: flawed, with depth and dimension, and utterly human. Her character-building was reminiscent of Tana French‘s In the Woods. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Unleashed: Poems by Writers‘ Dogs
As with all collections, some were better than others. This was a fun and unique prompt to have all these writers explore, and their results ran the gamut from a very human voice to pure onomatopoeia. Most of the pieces were accompanied by photos of the dogs themselves, which was a really great inclusion. This was definitely cute, and would be a good gift for a dog lover.

I‘m super far behind so will be catching up with one per day until I‘m current!

This was a fun romp with engaging characters and really interesting settings. Not going to change the world or anything but still enjoyable. Twists were pretty unexpected.

We were JUST talking about this tonight in True Crime Book Club.

This month‘s True Crime Book Club pick. Reading this showed me I knew NOTHING about Ted Bundy‘s crimes. A must read for any fan of crime writing.

I‘m going to bet the problem here is me. Most of these poems were totally beyond my grasp. I also just may be kind of burned out, this being the fourth book today. My brain feels mushy.

Really don‘t like reading about casual sexual violence, and especially don‘t appreciate that #BotM didn‘t give any warning. At least it was a fast read.

This collection left me feeling strangely unsettled. Some of the poems were lyrical and evocative, while others soared over my head. There were those that stuck to poetic norms but others were completely outside of them. It felt very inconsistent. For some this may be an enjoyable read. For me, overall, it was not.

I‘m a woman who neither wants nor likes kids. The amount of flak I‘ve caught for this has helped cement resentment and deepened this dislike. Reading this book was absolutely necessary for me to undo much of that and regain perspective. This taught me an incredible amount and has helped me become a more sympathetic person, which was absolutely necessary.

For anyone who was looking for the perfect Valentine‘s Day poem, I found it.

And I sat on the floor and ugly-cried years worth of tears.

It‘s going to take some time for me to nail down how I ultimately feel about this book. I don‘t think it was amazing writing, but once the narrative gained steam I began to enjoy it. It was definitely no CrawBADs but the lesson here may be that I‘m not a fan of popular fiction, I‘m more of a genre reader. For those who are the opposite of me, this is definitely the book for you. I can understand being really taken with this book.

...she wouldn‘t offer THIS girl any drugs. Linda‘s uptight too, but in a disheveled way. Her wires are crossed and split and her energy flow is a mess. Psychedelics would just loosen her death grip on normalcy, and seconds later she‘d be screaming, naked, in the street.

The past is the same as the present to her, as precious and as close at hand. After all, if you think about one memory most of a day, is that not your present?

For B&N Book Club. I‘m going to read to the end because I am not a quitter, but this is already giving me Where the CrawBADs Sing vibes...

My mom asked why I read this, and why I‘m reading everything from her this year. As she sees it, it would be too depressing. Reading this had the exact opposite effect for me. It reminded me that we still have incredible minds thinking deeply about how to solve the problems of our nation. Yes, it‘s heartbreaking to me that she isn‘t president. But, while we lost her from filling that role, we didn‘t lose her brilliant mind. She can still teach us.

Not what I expected, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Powerful grief over the passing of her mother, alongside some very candid and insightful observations of how people hold and assert their power.

Spent the day at my absolute favorite used bookstore in Virginia, #RiverbyBooks, and also #ChopSueyBooks. Thrilled with these finds!

I read Thrall last year and was blown away. Trethewy writes softly but powerfully, and this collection that intertwines personal loss and historic black experiences during the Civil War exemplifies her talent. The quotes she chose, especially the one she led the collection with, were perfectly selected.

One of my goals specific to 2020: read all of Hillary‘s books. I think/hope the catharsis will serve as a salve for the whole awful mess that is this election year. Starting number 2!

We busy ourselves trying not to be lonely, trying to find purpose in careers, and lovers, and children, but at any moment, those things we work so hard to possess could be taken from us. I feel better knowing I‘m not alone, that the whole world is as fragile and lonely as I am.

Fighting was the sandpaper that smoothed out the first years of a relationship. Sure, there was still plenty of lifelong grit after that, but the fighting stripped everything down, let the other person know what was important to you.

First #BOTM selection. Not sure what a “domestic thriller” is but I‘m ready to find out!

After trying to work through this for more than two years, I finally finished it. Extremely painful but absolutely necessary.

First book of 2020