My bookshelf is ready for a new month! February‘s #BookSpin pick is also the #PersephoneClub pick (yay!), and my #DoubleSpin pick is a genre I don‘t usually read. (My alma mater is hosting a book talk on romance novels, and this is one of the titles they‘ll be discussing.) Looking forward to both!
#BookSpinBINGO
January was a slow reading month for me, but I also attended three book club meetings (one brand new) and five book events (three in person, two online)… so it was still a book-filled month! #BookSpinBINGO
My bookshelf is ready for the New Year: filled with my January anticipated titles, and stacked with past & future reads.
Finally, here‘s my #BookSpinBINGO list for December. I would love to get to all of these—plus three #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin picks I missed from previous months. Wish me luck!
pickI don‘t think I‘ll ever get tired of Isabel Dalhousie. This 15th book in the series is exactly what I‘ve come to expect—Isabel pondering & philosophizing, Isabel trying to help others she‘s only just met, Isabel‘s daily life with her family and friends in Edinburgh. Always a treat.
I read fewer books than usual in September, but it was still a good reading month. (I forgot to include Foster by Claire Keegan here.)
#BookSpinBINGO
pickI expect The Watsons would have been a lot of fun if Jane Austen had finished it. Emma Watson is a wonderful heroine—kind, curious, and wise—and Tom Musgrave is a hoot! I‘m glad Austen shared her intended ending, but I wish we could have seen all that happened along the way. The image above comes from this post: https://www.janeaustensummer.org/post/the-watsons-an-abandoned-manuscript-by-jan...
This was my July #DoubleSpin pick.
pickGrace Lin never fails to wow me with her beautiful art and excellent storytelling. In this book, she shares the “real legends, real myths, and real histories” behind a feast of Chinese dishes, as well as many cooking/serving techniques and traditions. From
her author‘s note: “Chinese American cuisine is the flavor or resilience, the flavor of adaptability, the flavor of persistence and triumph. Above anything, this food is the flavor of America.”
Here‘s my September shelf, full of my #BookSpinBINGO reads. My #BookSpin is Raising Demons (for a Shirley Jackson study I‘m doing with a friend) and my #DoubleSpin is The House in the Cerulean Sea (for the #AuthorAMonth challenge). I have a great month of reading ahead!
Lots of good reading in July, including both of my #BookSpinBINGO picks— and two from earlier this year. 📚💖🥳
pickLook at any list of ALA youth media awards, and you‘ll likely see Carole Boston Weatherford‘s name. Her nonfiction picture books for young people are wonderful. I especially love how she uses poetry to tell stories of important people and events in American history. In this book, Weatherford shares her persistent search for the stories of her ancestors, using the poetic form again to great effect.
This was my June #BookSpin pick.
July‘s TBR shelf/#BookSpinBINGO list. I‘m really pleased with my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin picks for this month: Kate DiCamillo‘s Ferris and Jane Austen‘s The Watsons. Thank you, @TheAromaofBooks !
June was a great month of reading. (Now I need to get better at posting book reviews!)
#BookSpinBINGO
pickI loved many things about this book: learning fascinating words from Ivar‘s language which helped me understand the island‘s landscape, following John Ferguson as he fell gently into Ivar‘s life, and cheering Mary on as she continuously surprised and delighted me.
Thanks to #CampLitsy24 for the great discussions, and to @BarbaraBB @Megabooks and @squirrelbrain for being awesome camp counselors!
So happy this one finally came in for me at the library! Halfway through, and looking forward to reading the #CampLitsy24 posts about it.
April was a busy month. I didn‘t read as much as I would have liked, and I didn‘t get to my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin picks yet. But I am in the middle of several great books right now. Plus, I finally got a bingo!
#BookSpinBINGO
pickThis is the story of Bug, who, when looking in the mirror, thinks, “It looks like someone‘s idea of what I look like, without me behind it.”
This is a ghost story, a grief story, a growing up story. This is a story about finding yourself.
This is a beautiful middle grade novel.
I loved it.
I mostly listened to the audio version which was well done.
pickI adored this graphic novel—both the print version and the audiobook. How is it possible to make an audiobook from a graphic novel? Listen to it and you‘ll find out! Mexikid was a big winner this year: Newbery Honor, Pura Belpré Award for both author and illustrator, and an Odyssey Honor for the audio version. All well deserved. Hurra for Pedro Martín! (These great photos of his family are from the book‘s backmatter.)
pickThe Last Pick trilogy is a great graphic novel series for middle schoolers. Author Jason Walz, a special education teacher, understands the importance of representation; in a note he explains the main theme: “Whatever the world sees as ‘different‘ is exactly what the world needs.” I don‘t think it‘s a spoiler to say that kids turn out to be the heroes. 💖
pickIt was no surprise to me that young Shannon‘s favorite game was making up and acting out stories with her friends. Her middle grade graphic memoir, the first in a series, was both a joyful and painful exploration of real friendships and family relationships. I loved it. 💖
I just learned it‘s the #AwesomeApril Readathon! I‘m in the middle of a few books and hope to finish them over the next nine days. And I‘m adding another goal: posting at least one book review each day on Litsy. I am way behind but inspired to catch up and share what I‘ve read. 📚🥰
I put together my April #BookSpinBINGO TBR shelf last night, and realized I‘d skipped number 7 when writing out my list. Oops! Corrected now, so I‘m ready to go. 😊
Here‘s my March #BookSpinBINGO board. I read some great books! However, I still need to read my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin picks.
I‘m happy with my #MarvellousMarch readathon results: four books completed (1 mystery/thriller, 1 YA novel, 2 audiobooks that won Odyssey honors last year) and two more begun. Thank you, @Andrew65 !
It‘s April already!Although I‘m feeling behind, I‘m looking forward to a fresh #BookSpinBINGO start. Off to check the numbers. 😀
I‘m working on this book stack for the #MarvellousMarch readathon. I‘d also like to get back to posting reviews here; I am very behind!
At the start of every month, I put together my To Read bookshelf based on my #BookSpinBINGO list, but I missed posting it in February! Here‘s what was on my shelf at the start of last month.
pickJust finished for #AuthorAMonth, and I loved it. Took me awhile to warm up to it, but once I understood the rhythm of the storytelling, I was captivated by Marie and her sisters.
pickHeartbreaking, compelling, upsetting, and extremely moving. I was shocked by some of the turns the story took. I felt like I was sitting right beside Susan Selky, there in the late 1970s in her Boston home. I kept turning the pages, feeling like the more quickly I read, the sooner I might get some answers for Alex‘s mother. I quite admired her, and I appreciated the peek from Detective Menetti‘s perspective as well. (continued)
