⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Becky Chambers is a delight - she's a sensitive and respectful writer, and her storytelling is terrific. With this next volume in the wayfarer series, I initially missed the rest of the crew. But learning more about Pepper's past and following Lovey's progress was ... lovely. Many of the traits and themes from small angry planet are present here and we get a bit more depth on family and belonging. I am definitely a fan!!

⭐️⭐️ -- Disappointing read. The voice was so stilted and detached that it was a challenge to feel engaged.

I'm not sure any explanation is needed. 😀#Booktober #Day28 #CharacterIdDressUpAs

I don't really have a lot of #CreepyCovers in my library, but these two might qualify. 😀 #Booktober #Day27

#Booktober #Day26 #Rereads -- apart from classic lit., I very rarely reread books, though I do keep books I love with the intention of reading them again. Michael Crummey's Galore is quite the exception for me. I think I have read it 5 times since it published. Dang, I love this book!!! Hard!! 😀📚❤️

#Booktober #Day25 #iLikeBigBooks - no word of a lie!! I ❤️ big books. A lot! The higher the page count, the better. These are a few of my favourites (Middlemarch, Infinite Jest, Wolf Hall, Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, Anna Karenina, Kristin Lavransdatter, and A Fine Balance), though I could probably fill several collages with all of the great big books I've read. Not to mention those on Mt. TBR! 😀📚📚📚

#booktober #day22 #immigrantstories There are so many great novels out there that explore the immigrant experience. Adichie's book still sits with me very strongly and it's one I often recommend.

Rose and Ruby Darlen, conjoined sisters, have been #UnforgettableWomen in my reading life. #booktober #day20

Holly Golightly immediately comes to mind!! #booktober #day19 #bestcharactername

Seems like the perfect time for this #PairedRead. Hoping to be fully immersed in great storytelling!! 🎃🕸🔮📖

Finally getting to this meaty bit of historical fiction - that's been on my shelf for years! Huge fan of Moby Dick, this is proving an interesting, if peculiar, companion.

This has been an interesting read - one I can't help but read through the lens of a certain personality running in the #USElection

#Booktober #Day14 #mancrush -- Colson Whitehead has been a huge lit crush of mine for years. He's so smart and talented. (Huge respect for CW, not intended as objectification!!!)

So... suffered major concussion the other day and it hurts to do everything, and especially things involving my eyes ?- which is, you know, everything. (And I am being bad in using my phone just now; le sigh.) Brené Brown kindly includes some lovely illustrated quotes using larger fonts. This is my favourite.

#Booktober Day 5: #DebutNovel -- I decided to choose a debut novel that I felt flew under the radar in 2010/2011, The Gin Closet by Leslie Jamison. This is a very, very good book. It's urgent, raw and compassionate. This is a work that is heart-achingly beautiful. I hope you will seek it out.

Excellent book mail today!! Sam Maggs, Margaret Atwood, Ami McKay! (Moth is back in The Witches of New York!!!) #ReadWomen

#Booktober Day 4: #bookmarks -- as book lovers we probably all have bookmarks coming out the wazoo. 😀 Though I do have a few pretty ones, my general go-tos are the publisher or bookstore freebies. My current read - The Lonely City - is an ebooks so no physical bookmark during this read. (I do love my silver owl head, picked up on a trip to NYC and the MOMA!!)

#Booktober Day4: #bookmarks -- I don't use this bookmark very often because it's too special. Haha. But I love the quote and Middlemarch is one of my favourite novels.

#Booktober Day 3: Text-only book covers These are a few of my 2016 reads that are text-only covers. The UK edition of The Nest is different than your US edition. Which do you prefer?? 😀

Awesome book mail today!! Won a #CrazyForCanLit contest from Canada's #GillerPrize, and was sent this 2016 longlisted nominee. 🇨🇦📚🙌

#Booktober Day 2 - Set in South America: From my shelves, 2 books. One I loved (oh, HELLO Ann Patchett!), and one I wanted to throw across the room (which was such a bummer because so many people love 100 Years).

I love (LOVE!) Kyo Maclear so much, so was thrilled to see her again today AND score an ARC of her upcoming memoir (and a little Penguin swag too). Thanks to #PRHCFallPreview. Also loved seeing my friend @Penny_LiteraryHoarders for a few hours!!

#SeptemberWrapUp | 6 books | 2209 pages | 4 #fiction | 2 #nonfiction | Favourite read: Commonwealth (so, so good!) #BringOnOctober

#FunPhotoFriday A recent re-read for me, this book held up as wonderfully as I had hoped. If ever the word "romp" was used well to describe a novel, it would be for this one. This book is epic and grand, fun and sharp. And for all its literariness, there is an interesting mystery. 'Solomon Gursky' is a great read from a #CanLit master.

Serendipitous passage while reading during #BannedBooksWeek!!

The "iconic duo" thing went a bit cuckoo on twitter. This duo immediately came to mind - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. OMG I love them so much!! So I thought we could do an #IconicDuo #LiteraryEdition here @Litsy Who is your iconic literary duo??? This is so much fun to think about!! Can't wait to see everyone's replies.

#3FictionalCharacters #LiteraryEdition I guess it would be easy enough to contemplate this forever, but this might be very, very close. (Though I am still contemplating Lisbeth Salander.) 😀. Minerva McGonagall, Harriet the Spy, and Cordelia.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published #OTD in 1962.

#3Authors: Miriam Toews. Flannery O'Connor. Michael Crummey. I cannot count the ways I love and admire these three writers. The abilities they have with language and conveying emotion on the page are incredible. A little dark and twisty sometimes, but funny, smart and all heart! For me, they are a true gift - and not just to my literary life. They have given me so many wonderful hours of contemplation. Who are your three authors?

"The past is more alive to her than the present, she realizes, and the thought is suffocating." - Dominic Smith, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

Jane Smiley, #BOTD in 1949.

The 6-book #GillerPrize shortlist was just announced. Checkout some great #CanLit. Winner of the $100,000 prize will be announced 07 November. website: scotiabankgillerprize.ca

F. Scott Fitzgerald #BOTD in 1896.

Up and down read for me. Story has so much potential, and there were moments of wonderful writing, though there was much to like and appreciate it was too inconsistent. Loved the settings! And I loved Hong. Pacing and ending were awkward.

#ExpectoPatronum #Rottweiler #Ravenclaw

What I find Patchett does exceptionally well are the nuances and dynamics of family and the excavation of responsibility. She's an insightful writer. She's also very funny, albeit sometimes it's a dark-funny, which I can fully appreciate. And when themes get heavy or sad those moments of levity are terrifically welcome moments. I hugely respect how Patchett creates complicated, messy characters. She seems to have huge empathy for her creations.

#CurrentlyReading and it is sooo good. Patchett is fantastic with the dynamics of family.

Nearly finished this read - finding it a peculiar mixed bag. Have you read it?

For many reasons, Wilkerson's book should be required reading. She did a tremendous job harnessing the wealth of research. I loved the studies and statistics Wilkerson included in her book, helping to disprove so many wrongly held beliefs about Southern Black Americans.

The Parker family is one hot mess. But aren't all families in at least one way or another? Jones does a wonderful job with tensions and frictions in family, the things that go unsaid and bubble just below the surface, and the different ways people are never fully known to others. Kind sensitivity shown in charting Kate's - the Parker family matriarch - path

Keen for this, though how will I empty my head of the JSF-Natalie Portman brouhaha?? HOW??? 😋

Stupid-excited to have this in my hot little hands today!!! (And the design is fantastic!)

Banner does a lovely job bringing to life the island of Castellamare, and her characters - though not deeply drawn - are vivid and easy to imagine. The hardcover edition is gorgeous! NPR (Annalisa Quinn) had a review that perfectly captures my feelings: http://www.npr.org/2016/07/20/486223703/the-house-at-the-edge-of-night-is-a-comf...

Gyasi is clever in how she structured this book. While epic in span and settings, the page count is not - though I would have gladly devoured an 800 page novel. Gyasi's talent is hugely evident in this debut!

Gyasi is clever in how she structured this book. While epic in span and settings, the page count is not - though I would have gladly devoured an 800 page novel. Gyasi's talent is hugely evident in this debut!

Summer reading, cottage edition. This novel has been a fun and entertaining vacation read!

Ferrante truly has a handle on the emotionally dark and twisty natures people possess.

"Armchair" bibliotherapist training about to commence! #BookNerd

I got so much enjoyment out of this novel - I found it smart, insightful, entertaining and emotional. The book was also a whole lot of fun!

Loved the first ¾ of this book but felt the last ¼ veered into the farcical, and detracted from what had been a solid, engaging story. 7th book read from Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction longlist.