#Top25of25
It was another year of, honestly, very dark books. But that is what I like, so not shocking. And there is some variety: Medium dark (Lucy, The Safekeep), funny dark (Hell of a Book, The Devil's Larder) and dark dark (When We Cease to Understand the World, The Bluest Eye). One not dark: '60 Songs That Explain the 90s'. Full list in the comments: *audio, **re-read, non-fiction (nf), story collection (sc), poetry (p); the rest are novels

#AuldLangSpine #Cheers! @monalyisha
Turns out almost all the photos of me drinking involve books (Litsy may be the only place where this is true for others). I drink black coffee every morning, and my typical fun drink of choice is IPA (Oktoberfest beers are 2nd maybe). I also really like whiskey, bourbon, or scotch, with just a little water. I never had a favorite cocktail until my birthday this past year when I tried a 'rusty nail' - delicious!

#AuldLangSpine About Me @monalyisha
-My partner Linda and I met at a party in Long Island that I almost didn't go to, and somehow, 14 years passed. The upper left pic is from a Halloween party this year, me as a deranged emoticon, points for ID'ing Linda's character (think early 2000s TV, and not usually painted blue)
-I know it looks like we have a 2-headed cat, but this is Jem (left) & Scout (right), brothers as cute and cuddly as they come 👇

This is my longlist based on @monalyisha 's fantastic #AuldLangSpine list. I like the harsh wilderness theme running through Hagstone, Death Valley, and Idle Grounds (and I guess Moominland too? ☃️). There's a nice variety of nonfiction, including memoir, mythology, and food. Nettle and Bone seems like the popular kid of the bunch, and Deep Cuts has a 90s music theme, which is always tough for me to pass up. Lots of fun in store for January!

#AuldLangSpine list courtesy of our fearless leader @monalyisha
I have read 0 of these books, and I think just one author (Tove Jansson). Bite by Bite was tagged on my essay collection shelf. But going in blind is perfect for me. I'm also looking forward to all the nonfiction because for some reason 2025 was kind of a dud year for nonfiction for me (I think I had 3 on my list? But it's half of my reading). More thoughts on early choices to come!

It took me a minute to get into this. Snippets of alternating fake historical source notes and ghost narration? This wasn't what I was expecting. I should have had more faith because I became so absorbed in this fantasy world where ghosts can read the thoughts of humans by stepping into their bodies, which reminded me of the act of reading. This effect made the funny parts more funny and the sad parts more poignant. Maybe my favorite read of 2025.

The short plot description of this novel, 'a mostly mute young person of unidentified gender or race with memory loss is taken in by a family in a small southern town' doesn't begin to describe the experience of reading the novel because of how we view the events through that person's perspective. Instead of Pew being the focus of a mystery, we see various characters spreaking to them in long unanswered portions that almost remind me of a play, 👇

I'm all signed up for this year's #AuldLangSpine event! If you haven't participated before, I highly recommend it. @monalyisha matches you to another participant based on a list you submit of 7-20 of your favorite reads from the previous year. So you get recommendations of favorite reads from someone with similar reading tastes - a really fun way to connect with other readers and try something you may not have picked up otherwise.

I first heard the term 'thin places' from the priest at my 1st wedding describing those occasions where the boundaries between living and spiritual realms 'wear thin'. In this essay collection, Kisner examines how this concept applies to a variety of past experiences & niche social gatherings, exploring the ways people reconcile blurred boundaries. It's what many think-pieces attempt and fall short. Easily my favorite nonfiction read of the year.

One way I like to define good writing is: the more you want to read it with the least amount of story. It's not that nothing happens in this novel about a young woman who arrives in NYC from the West Indies to be an au pair for a wealthy family, but not a lot happens. I devoured it like a thriller. The voice of the main character telling the story in first person is so distinctive, I can still hear her in my head (and I read this months ago!)

The simple concept in this ghostly novel - getting stuck in a liminal space between life and death - was evoked in such perfect, creepy detail that it kept me engaged even as the plot crawled along slowly for the first 2/3 of the novel. It reminded me of those days where everything feels a little surreal and dreamlike for reasons that are hard to describe. Not the outright scary Halloween read I was hoping for, but great atmosphere and characters.

Took a recent trip to Lancaster, PA for a quiet anniversary weekend that included a visit to Pocket Books Shop and Dog Star Books. Tea, McCullers, and Pavic will all be first-time reads for me. I never heard of Dictionary of the Khazars before, but apparently, it was a bestseller in 1983. Weirdly, there is a 'male' and 'female' version that are the same except for 17 lines? Could be a weird gag, but sounded interesting otherwise.

How much you like All Fours may depend on whether you see a hidden thesis statement about relationships in middle age. But I don't think July wrote any lessons - in fact, it probably took a concerted effort to avoid them. The strange journey the main character takes, if not objectively realistic, felt true to people's struggles to reconcile sexual and relationship needs when they diverge. And way more interesting than the usual cheating narrative.

In honor of Labor Day, I wanted to get your input on choosing a longer book. I get restless easily, and even if I like the book, I get tired of being in the same world if it takes me too long. But every now and then, I like going down the rabbit hole of a longer work, especially if it's a little weird. These 3 have been on my list for awhile: are any of these favorites of yours? Or did any disappoint, even if you usually like the author?

This novel's Goodreads rating is 3.14. Most reviews say something like: "Reminded me of Virgin Suicides, but it was all vibes and no plot." There's little chance I would have picked this up on that basis if it wasn't a book club pick, which would have been a shame given how rare a find this novel is. I think sometimes superficial similarities (e.g., several teen girls, dark, tragic) can make people look for one book when they're getting another ?

I've read three novels from Ishiguro now and each one (tagged, Remains of the Day, and The Buried Giant) have been so different that they don't even seem to me like they're from the same author. For this one, it seemed like he was doing a Margaret Atwood impression - not in a copycat way, just the themes and style of storytelling. And even though it's my least favorite of the three, that has more to do about the strength of the other two 👇

This was my first time reading Garza, and even though these stories were challenging, they also really run the gamut and I love it when authors try to push ideas to weird limits, even if I couldn't follow everything. Two favs were City of Men and Strange is the Bird that Can Cross the River Pripyat. Both are fantastic worlds but not what you expect. Definite Borges vibes.

Want to see the angriest Ann Patchett has maybe ever been? Check out her rebuttal to a recent NYT op ed by David Brooks suggesting that literary fiction has lost its edge: https://youtu.be/tPrH7kqGKCY?si=S0lRArX-JaRQyu3y

I thought maybe it was an overreaction, and then I read the article and...nope, she's 100% right. Brooks' take is embarrassingly lazy. I'll sum up before linking to it, but I can't recommend Patchett's response highly enough 👇

A lot of the discussion on this refers to the hazy boundaries between fiction and nonfiction: most of the book's sections focus on a 20th-century physicist or mathematician and become increasingly fictional as they go. So what starts as an almost textbook-like description of scientific breakthroughs for lay persons becomes more focused on the scientists as people, with insanity becoming an occupational hazard as they isolate themselves to work 👇

After reading five other novels of hers that cover such varied territory, it's interesting to read this classic debut and think about what I like most about any Toni Morrison novel. I think one of the apparent contradictions that makes her work so compelling is how the reality of any given scene is so unquestionable that you feel like a bystander watching it all happen. Yet there are also strategic moments where she sets the realism aside and 👇

This collection of personal essays by former rapper turned comedian Jean Grae released back in March didn't get the attention it deserved imo. I love memoirs, but it's nice to get away from a chronological life story and dive deep into a variety of influential life experiences. We get to hear what her childhood was like after immigrating from South Africa, the trials of having a tough to pronounce name (not 'Jean Grae' at the time obviously)...👇

I spent 3 days in LA thanks to a work conference, so in addition to brief visits to Venice Beach, Little Tokyo, and Los Feliz, I tried a few literary tourist sites. The lower center & upper right pics are from the beautiful downtown library that I remember reading about in that Susan Orlean book. The others are from The Last Bookstore, an old bank vault reimagined as a bookstore with a design concept that felt to me like 'haunted house'? Very fun!

#tuesdaytunes @TieDyeDude
I always felt a little guilty for using Spotify given the little to no pay that artists receive. But Pelly's book details a long list of other problematic behavior. I never listen to the Spotify-made lists much, but they are a huge part of their business model. Artists get added to them based on less than transparent ways involving their record labels or sometimes from the artists themselves paying for the privilege 👇

This collection of 64 very short stories centered around food may be my favorite of the year. The longest story (and inspiration for the outrageous cover 👄😂) is 10 pages, but most are 1-3, with a few flash fiction appetizers of a paragraph, and one that is 2 words. The stories are all somewhat dark but run the gamut in other ways: funny, gross, magical, disturbing. Crace's humor and gifts for elevating his spare prose is the main course 🍳🍇🍎🍴

I missed independent bookstore day yesterday but picked up these two today. I loved the first two Téa Obreht novels, so very excited for this one. And the 2nd is two novellas that are sci-fi (or sci-fi- adjacent?) from an Argentinian author I've never read. It continues a trend where I buy a book and later realize it's from New Directions Publishing, so I guess I must be their target audience? 🤷‍♂️ They put out great stuff.

I have a soft spot for meta-fiction where the book appears inside the book. I know some think it's gimmicky, but Mott knows what he's doing in this case. It's the perfect choice for a story about an author on a book tour who has a condition that blurs the line between fiction and reality. It satirizes how the American publishing industry capitalizes on police killings of black citizens in a bitingly funny way, but also...👇

I think a lot of authors of 'experimental fiction' hate the label because it sound like they're playing around instead of breaking norms with a goal in mind. But even if it's a bad label, I do think we should call books like this something: you might pause and consider if you really do want to read about loosely connected vignettes involving intellectuals in 1970s NYC. There's zero plot, but it is often funny and an interesting time capsule.

#poetrymatters #warm @TheSpineView
This is the second poetry collection I've read this year from Kiki Petrosino, and it is just as amazing as the first. This collection features several poems that are part of series with subjects as varied as allergies, a racist statement by Thomas Jefferson, and elevated Chinese dishes. Of course, these themes are really just jumping off points, and each poem has an entire world of associations all its own.

Up until last year, only the 1st book of Ashour's trilogy on the expulsion of Muslim people from 16th century Granada had been translated into English. Luckily, Kay Heikkinen translated all 3 novels, which were released in one volume from AUC Press. Historical fiction that immerses you in the gorgeous detail of Islamic Andalusian society and chronicles the heartbreak of people made to abandon their culture before being forced to leave their home.

#AuldLangSpine @JamieArc @monalyisha
Brandi Carlisle wrote her memoir in 2020 during the pandemic, but it happens to be a soul-soothing book for the soul-sucking political crisis underway in the U.S right now. She has a gift for setting the scene of each part of her story, and her advocacy for LGBTQ rights is inspiring and urgent as ever. I loved hearing how she connected with her childhood idol, Elton John, and now they've got an album coming 👇

I don't know how to review poetry collections - I haven't read enough of them, so I can't articulate the ways this one is unique. I'll just say that when I read poetry, the thing that hooks me is the imagery that certain phrases conjure. The poems I like make me read and reread phrases over and over, my brain sticking on the images. That was true for just about every poem in this collection, even if the larger meanings were tougher to identify...

#AuldLangSpine @JamieArc @monalyisha
I devoured most of this book on a plane ride from Newark to San Diego and wondered when I was passing over the Mississippi, where the action of this excellent novel plays out. I've been reading Huckleberry Finn at the same time, and what a complicated relationship there is between the two novels. I like how Everett didn't feel constrained to follow the original step by step, as a lot of retellings do. 👇

#ThreeListThursday #TLT @dabbe

Lots of good ones, but these three were clear standouts for me. They're each wacky in their own way:

1. Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
2. Orlando, Virginia Woolf
3. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

I had a b-day weekend recently, and my choice for a weekend getaway was Northhampton, MA. Why? Because I recently learned that Kelly Link opened a bookstore in neighboring Easthampton in 2019 called Book Moon, which was just as delightful as I imagined. Kelly co-runs Small Beer press, so I parked myself in front of that shelf for over an hour and picked out 2 story collections and an anthology. The staff were lovely, and my fiancee was patient! 😄

#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe

I'm excited to see one of these on Thursday and be able to post on the right day 😄

Top 3 Favs:
1. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
2. Kindred - Octavia Butler
3. Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

#AuldLangSpine @JamieArc @monalyisha
This was intense! This story of a woman grudgingly agreeing to take in her brother's girlfriend while he is away for a month is a unique blend of anxiety and passion. It explores what happens when personal space is violated both willingly and unwillingly. The descriptions of touches, racing thoughts/pulses, and other visceral sensations had a totally immersive effect: I often forgot I was reading a book.

#AuldLangSpine @JamieArc @monalyisha
This is my third Ann Patchett, and like the other two that involved semi-utopias cut off or estranged from the outside world (e.g., opera hostages or Amazonian tribe/scientists), Tom Lake features two: a Michigan cherry farm during the pandemic and a theater community by the lake of the title. There's always trouble threatening paradise, but unlike most of her literary peers...👇

At the start of the last 4 years, I've taken a picture of my TBR shelf to track how it's changing over time. It's clearly expanding for one thing 🤔 And there is some overlap between years: even though it's not too much to read in a year, there's still e-books and others I read right away for challenges or readalongs. I try to read everything within 2 years, but Jim Crace's The Devil's Larder has remained for 3, so I'll have to get to it soon!

#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude
Feeling a little frazzled in the New Year? I would give Lex Amor a listen. She's a London rapper/producer/DJ with deft lyricism and creative beats. The music is slow and hypnotic but won't put you to sleep because there's too much going on. She has a monthly email newsletter where she shares playlists, poetry, and words of wisdom. The image is the cover art from her first album, and she just released her 2nd this fall.

#Top24of24
Here are my favorite reads from 2024. This overlaps 83% with my #AuldLangSpine list, but I still want to memorialize another fantastic reading year. The top 4 spots go to Winterson's The Passion, Butler's Kindred, Awad's Rouge, and Murata's Convenience Store Woman. I read 3 of those 4 in the first three months of the year, so hopefully that means I'm due for some early favorites in 2025🤞🤞

I devoured my last read of 2024, a strange sort of page turner where the plot in a nutshell is a couple who lives on a marsh invites an artist to stay at the 'second place' they built and...drama occurs. This is such a good book club book that there must be a way to make one materialize so that when someone like me finishes, an instant discussion is scheduled next Tuesday at 7. I'm open to ideas on this front...there's just so much to discuss! 🤓

A strange story of a boy growing up in late 1970s Somalia, and after being passed from his adopted mother to his wealthier aunt and uncle, must choose between the university and fighting in the insurgency against Ethiopia. His mother is originally from Ethiopia, making for some interesting dynamics where the person he is closest to is identified as 'the enemy'. Weirder still is how the close quarters of their housing affects their relationship 👇

Calling all Marlon James fans! His first step into writing/ producing television is a detective show where the title character is after a missing child. It's a 5-episode limited series that James uses to take all the detective/police show tropes he likes while throwing away anything predictable or stale, leaving only the good parts. It's intense, with a killer performance by Tamara Lawrence. On Max or Channel 4 in the UK. I highly recommend!

#AuldLangSpine @monalyisha
Here are the top 7 of @JamieArc 's wonderful list that I will be seeking out. I finished format-strategizing based on my library's availability, so I'm going with North Woods, Tom Lake, and Broken Horses on audio and the rest in print. I really only knew about the center column going in (and Everett + Patchett are the only authors I've read before), so I'm excited to try the others. Can't wait to get started! 😃📚😃📚

#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude
I know I've fallen off of the TuesdayTunes posts lately, but after checking out my most played songs, I found a few recommendations from these posts pop up (The War on Drugs, Gina Chavez). The results are always a little weird for me since I listen to albums and self-made playlists more than specific songs. So over 40,000 minutes, but my most-played song only had 8 plays (Aphex Twin, boosted by a Halloween playlist 😅)

#AuldLangSpine2025 @monalyisha
@JamieArc thanks for creating this excellent list! I haven't read any of these. It looks like we both exchanged Percival Everett picks - I'm excited to read James based on the buzz it's been getting. I have some ideas about which I'll choose - definitely North Woods and Tom Lake. I've never read Due, but I just bought The Between last month. Also intrigued by #s 9 and 10. Can't wait to get started in 2025!

So, I'm reading a Kelly Link anthology with the story 'Most of my Friends are 2/3 Water', and when I Googled it, this AI summary popped up...🤔

Nashawaty frames this as a story of how the summer of 1982, with its 8 now-classic sci-fi/ fantasy/ horror releases, was an inflection point that changed how future blockbusters would take over. It actually reads more like 8 interwoven stories of how these films got made after the sea change of Star Wars and the films that followed. But making the stories come together without becoming a doorstop is impressive by itself (it's only 304 pages)👇

My first read from this author has two of my favorite things from a novel: 1) a memorable, darkly comic style and 2) having absolutely no idea what was going to happen. In the opening pages, the main character buys a home in North Carolina only to see it destroyed by a hurricane a week and a half after she moves in. Unfortunately, things get even worse from there, in a series of events that give new meaning to the word 'exploitation'.

This novel is deceptively easy to sum up - classic gothic horror in a new setting. Even if true, it doesn't do justice to the truly outstanding part of this novel: how effectively Moreno-Garcia gets under your skin with her unnerving horror writing. The first half is a slow burn, like an eerie rewrite of Jane Eyre, but the tension mounts and the payoff is gory perfection while staying true to its twin thematic horrors of colonialism and misogyny.