May #bookspin is here already!

I cannot believe we are a third of the way through 2024!

Women's Prize For Nonfiction long listed 2024

3.5⭐ This is good. I do not recommend it on audio - too much jumping timelines, too many Marys and (K) Catherines. It is much easier to understand in physical form.
While I thought it was interesting and well written it was a bit hard to keep track of everything, I fully understand that Nancy Goldstone has ruined me for these sorts of books all Empress books I compare to hers. Good not great.

5⭐ for the devastation.
I knew about 10 pages in that this book was going to wreck me. A beautiful but brutal book about war and love. Winn's writing and storytelling is so gorgeous there were multiple times I read a sentence that stopped me in my tracks due to how heartbreakingly it was.
This will be a top book of the year I loved everything about it.

Low pick. 3.5⭐. I was a bit disappointed in this. I love Groffs writing but my brain while reading this kept comparing it to a very lyrical survivor type show. I think it wasn't given justice b/c I was also reading In Memoria at the same time. Overall this was fine. I am glad it was short I don't know if I could handle much more of the girls struggles. It is a gorgeous and harrowing book just maybe not for me.

Good timing for this quote as the Internet also debates what is scarier a man or a bear?

"She would leave this place as soon as she could; she would put as much land as it was possible between herself and the men or the bear; she did not know which to fear more, man or bear or perhaps her own small starved feverish self."

*mug does not represent my feelings for this book.
I really enjoyed this. I didn't find any of the revolutions surprising but did have a warm cuddly feeling throughout. Thought there was a good balance what could have been a too sweet story has a couple scenes of spice and excitement. The actions of the characters throughout made a lot of sense and I enjoyed spending time with all the characters.

Gaunt hears Ellwood quoting poetry to a boy in his room. The boy does not even know what the words are from.
"He [Gaunt] knew the lines Ellwood had quoted. They were from Shakespeare's Sonnet 20. Ellwood had written them in pencil on the wall above Gaunt's bed, and Gaunt had hoped they meant something."

40 pages in and I can tell this book is going to destroy me.

One of my top picks for the Women's Prize For Fiction 2024. I really enjoyed this. It gripped me right from the jump, and I sped through it, engrossed with Alice and her journey.
I don't normally gravitate to books about motherhood, but this is woven with cultural, and mental health topics and heavy on the magical realism. Alice is a sympathetic character (I didn't like the husband from the jump, it gave Yellow Wallpaper vibes)

@bookmarktavern #SundayFunday
I used to work for Barnes and Noble, I also am lucky to live by the largest indie bookstore in the country, so have been to many, many signings. So I have “=met probably a hundred authors or more. Some of the nicest - Rene Denfeild, Patrick Rothfuss, Neil Gaiman, Aiden Thomas, Jodi Picoult, Brandon Taylorm Curtis Sittenfield (terrible would be a shorter list)
RIP to my favorite Carlos Ruiz Zafon he was an angel

The Short List announcement is in 3 days!
(April 25 - 6 books will be chosen)

What are your Top Picks for it?

I still need to read 4 books (will not get Soldier Sailor from the library until the SL is announced) but I have a rough list of what I think I would like to see on it.

This was great. One of the better Women Prize books this year. The story of a troubled family slowly unravels. Each person is interesting and tortured in their own way. At the heart of the story is a horrible something, and a terrible reporter. The writing is solid and the book is heavy but intriguing.

One week until the announcement of the short list!!

Making my way through, I am starting A Trace of Sun and And Then She Fell next.

I have decided that I am not going to read The Blue, Beautiful World since it is in a series and I have not read the others.

I am shying away from Nightbloom also - I am really really tired of rape being a plot device. So unless it is on the short list I am skipping it. That leaves 4 for me to get through...

4⭐ #WomensPrizeFictionLongList

Another good but not great read for this years prize. I think at this point it is just my attitude that is the problem. This book has all the right things - lots about language, social, financial diversity and analysis. A girl half American, half Chinese trying to figure out the world as she is raised in China by her American single mom. Something just fell flat for me, I struggled to care about picking the book up

I read both the physical and audio of this because of the use of language through.

I really like when books talk about language, how it is formed, the origin and meanings of words. All things Lexicology, Etymology and Linguistics especially when it crosses and compares languages.

4⭐ I enjoyed this. Makes total sense why the Women's Prize put this on the long list, it looks at the Australian life in the turn of into 1900s and through WWII. Dolly is somehow an unlikable but relatable character. She wants so much more than she was born into and being a woman severely limits how far she can climb.
I liked that she was a complex character, she is a terrible mother, but she is ambitious and I still was rooting for her.

3.5 ⭐

The narrator for this was a bit too much for me. He leaned heavily into a 1950s characterization of a NY report voice and it got a bit grating. But the book itself was good. I was pulling for Nick and Andy from the jump. The situations are believable and I liked the authors afterwards that explained the climate at the time.
Both characters are lovable and the writing is solid.

Hallelujah I found it!! I have been tearing my house, car, office apart for 2 weeks now trying to find my ereader. I finally found it wedged between the nightstand and mattress on my partners side of the bed. Why was it even near there? I have zero clue. But this does reaffirm my belief that owning many physical books is better.
I am glad to have it back, it is easier on the eyes at night before bed, and I get to read the fun tagged book now.

#WeeklyForecast
I am half into River East and Ordinary Human, I am not going to get through the Long list before the shortlist is announced, many of these picks this year have been underwhelming and it has slowed me down. So far I am enjoying OHF but it is a bit heavy.
I also have the tagged on audio to liven things up. With the state of the world I might be bailing on these heavy WPF books and reading lighter happier books.

#CampLitsy24 @Megabooks, @squirrelbrain @BarbaraBB

4 Nominations
Published January 1 to June 15 2024

I know Ours is a Chunkster, but I am hearing such great things and I think it is one I would like to discuss with others.

I tried to pick books that spanned lots of topics, I am so excited to see others picks to add to my unmanagable TBR!

This book is the fictionalized life of the authors grandmother.
A photo of the real Dolly is in the back of the book.

These endpapers are so gorgeous, it makes picking up the book delightful. I wish more publishers would do this. It would cause me to buy and keep a lot more books.

"And she always came back to the same thing: she'd rather go on being a married woman, no matter how hollow the marriage was.
She was forty -five. The prime of life for a man, but on the downhill slope for a woman."

Yikes! As a happily divorced woman edging 45 this is harsh ? Picture with Serene because what would Dolly think with me and my cats! ?
#WomensPrizeForFiction
#WPFLL

Movie/Book news!!

"But a girl was stuck on the flypaper of being dependent on a man unless she can support herself. And there was something else too, something beyond the nuts-and-bolts: it was about not being trapped in a world of small thinking that was all most women had access to."

I see why this is in the women's Prize long list, such a reflection on women's rights and the limitations of being a woman in the early 1900s of Australia.

We are 2 weeks away from the announcement of the short list.

I am currently half into Restless dolly Maunder

Overall I am a bit underwhelmed with the selections this year. Broltherless Night is staying as my top pick so far. I did enjoy In Defence and I think if I was not judging books by past years The Maiden and 8 Lives would have been more enjoyable. I just don't think they held up against what I was expecting from this prize's long list.

4⭐
I found this to be fairly powerful in topic and writing. Jess was a relatable and realistic main character. The story is multi-layered and heartfelt. This is one of the better Women's Prize Fiction long list books this year.

#WomensPrizeFiction #Longlist

4⭐
This was interesting. I spent much of the time wondering why the book was organized the way it was. It didn't make a lot of sense to me how the story was told. I am not sure if this story will really stick with me. I wonder if I put too much pressure on WPF long list books to really blow me away. But overall I liked the story and the writing.

"I forgot to bring my book today, so instead I pick up one of the magazines the carer tends to leave lying around. I rarely read women's magazines anymore, and I'm surprised anew by the number of ways it is possible for a woman's body to be wrong."

4.5⭐
Safiya is gorgeous - her name, her face, her writing. I learned so much from her biography. Rastafari is not a well known culture in my area. It makes sense that it was created in the 1930s, I just didn't realize how frowned upon it is in Jamaica. Reggae gives us such a different view outside of the area. An intense patriarchy religion with a lot of isolation. Safiya gives her story of breaking free. Fantastically written I enjoyed this.

#bookspinbingo
#bookspin

@thearomaofbooks

Only one Bingo in March, it really wasn't a stellar reading month, but slowly trucking along.

I focused on the womens prize long list and a couple books for the trans rights readathon, so my bookspins took a back seat, I had thought I was going to get A Flat Place from the library, but my hold seems to have stalled there.

#bookspin
#bookspinbingo
@thearomaofbooks

I have always thought those pages at the end of books that are all "a note about the type" we're a bit weird I have never much noticed the font in a book, but I absolutely hate what was chosen here? I really hope it doesn't cloud my judgement of the book.

March Reads
#readingroundup

I read 5 of the #WomensPrize fiction long lists and 2 of the Nonfiction longlist

My #BookedInTime book Princes of Ireland was 775 pages so that slowed me down a bit.

I read 2 books for the #TransRightReadathon

My favorite read of the month is tagged.

I know this is not the point, and I am learning so much about Rastafari. But I keep looking at how gorgeous Safiya Sinclair is and how much I love her name! I might have a bit of a crush. Her writing is beautiful too.

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs
#springskies #bookclubread

The last book I enjoyed with a bookclub sticker

Today is International Trans Day of Visibility!

I read 2 books for The Trans Rights Readathon Both are written by Trans author focused on Trans people/characters I recommend both! -

A Trans Man Walks Into A Gay Bar - Harry Nicholas (nonficiton bio w/ lots of reflection)
Nevada - Imogen Binnie (Cult classic fiction book about a woman who breaks up with her long time girlfriend and goes on a search for herself)

April List!

#bookspin
#bookspinbingo
@thearomaofbooks

The perfect poem -

"When I see a frog

& It takes a hop away from me

It's like

What the fuck man"

#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe

1) Persuasion (my very favorite Austen I have read it over a dozen times)
2) The Vegetarian by Han Kang
3) Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

#BookedInTime peeps!
What are you reading/recommending for April?

I have done some googling and am not finding anything that is sparking an interest. I thought there would be more out there surrounding this time period!

@Cuilin

Okay so first of all I was totally attracted to this because of the title. I didn't know who Nicholas was before picking this up. I liked the format, a bit biography, a lot musing, with talk of art, music, and history throughout. Nicholas struggles throughout with gender and identity and sexuality, and a lot of sex talk. The book is frank and open and I really enjoyed all of it.
4⭐
#TransRightsReadathon

I didn't realize until I had finished this book that this was a nonfiction telling of a real tragic bus accident, and Abed is a Palestinian who opened himself up to Thrall, trusting him with his story. This is a great book to read for anyone who wonders about the area before October 2023. Thrall does and amazing job weaving Abed's story, the current (pre-October 2023 as this was published right before) and recent 30ish years of history.

Hilarious!
Thought this was fitting here with all the talk last week about this amazing (but not relaxing) story 😄

"We've not yet had the conversation about how invisible passing can make someone feel. Passing is an assumption about your life so far and how you have experienced and do experience the world and that isn't the truth. And transness is all about truth. Personally, I think we should replace the phrase 'pass as' with 'mistaken for' to get to the real root of the problem."

#SundayFunday @BookmarkTavern
#TransRightsReadathon

I am! I just finished Nevada (a cult classic) and am reading A Trans Man Walks Into A Gay Bar which I am really liking and up next I have either the biography An Apartment On Uranus or the novel Ponyboy both look excellent.

#TransRightsReadathon

I am so glad I finally got to this cult classic!

I enjoyed messy Maria. She has been living her truth for ten years and she still doesn't have it all figured out. So when she meets a young guy in Nevada who reminds her of herself before transitioning she wants to be an inspiration for him. I thought the message was on point, the book moved at a good interesting clip even with a lot of introspection. I enjoyed this.

"I was way too late in realizing, having never really gone through a heartbreak like that before, that what I really needed was Elton John. The first step on the road to recovery is - no, not acceptance or even anger - it's Elton."

The Trans display at my library! Just in time for the #TransRightsReadathon

This weekend we read pink! Weekend reads trying to keep moving with #womensprize books while also participating in the #transrightsreadathon.