"Truth is, we are as fluid and diverse in our sexuality as anywhere else. But church and state run hard-line conservative values and stories you know. To win votes."
"Well, write that."
"Okay."
"It sounds like America."
"Where there's God-men, women are repressed," she said....

#sunday

This was fun! Bookish Minerva needs to get to a geology symposium and she convinces rouge Colin to take her. This is #2 in a series, I didn't read #1 and you don't need to. They all start in the same town, but are all stand-alones. I found this to be funny and charming so much so I am going to read #4 also (the other 2 are centering military and that is not for me)
A nice historical romance with a smart women MC.

2 seconds ago this cafe was so crowded you could barely move. Now the quiet sets in.

Reading the new Torrey Peters

#ReadingWrapUp February
5 ⭐
My Friends -Backman
4.5⭐
The Book Censor's Library
A Body Made of Glass
Private Rites
4⭐
Wandering Stars
Divine Rivals
The Echoes
Rejection
The $12Million Stuffed Shark
The Beautiful Ones
Shy Creatures
Freedom - Markel
3.5⭐
Vanishing Treasures
Autocracy, Inc.
3⭐
Universality

Welcome March and The Women's Prize!!

So somehow I read 15 books in Feb. but only got one Bingo.

I read my #Bookspin but didn't get to my #DoubleSpin It is in the queue still though. I will get to it, I know it is really good.

Do you ever finish a book that is getting rave reviews and you just don't really get it? And you wonder if it's you or if the reviews are just going off the synopsis and didn't actually read the book? This started well for me, it had Eleanor Catton Birnam Wood vibes, but each chapter shifts, and POV shift I felt a bit more at sea and a bit more bored.
If you are super into British politics and hearing from "anti-woke" characters you might like it

I am not sure, not being a German, how she is viewed in her home country. But as an American I find her book to be incredibly level headed. She strikes a balance between defending her actions and being humble of what she sees as errors she made. The book lags a bit in the middle (one awful chapter where she alphabetically lists all her meetings, yikes, should have been scrapped) but the beginning & end clipped along well.
4/5

Last weekend was the perfect time to read this book set in a future London where it rains, and rains. It is a story of 3 sisters in a drowning London, and there is an ominous tone throughout - though my one critique is that this could have been ramped up a bit. I liked that the sisters are not great people but also not terrible, you never wish bad for them but you also can find them a bit frustrating (in I thought a good interesting way)
4.25/5

This is our now at your local bookstore, it should be required reading for all Westerners. El Akkad talks about not just Palestine but about many other countries and how the west puts money over people.

Essential reading.

I wish I would have come across this new release before I put together my women's prize hopeful list! This sounds so good, and like a women's prize book - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/763802/tilda-is--visible-by-jane-tara/

Really excited for this list. This award always expands my reading - in country, culture, and style of writing. I am most excited to get to the tagged (as soon as I am done with the women's Prize madness)

On Storygraph I noticed I had read 4 books they categorized as “Sad“. I clicked to see if Fredrik Backman was there (the only book this year that made me cry) It was not but some I would consider Depressing were. Thinking about words and meanings. Sad is not what I would call the tagged book. Depressing is though. Sad sort of feels a bit trite for the fact that we are destroying habitats/ killing animals to extinction.
What do you think of SAD

My predications / hopefuls for the #WP25 long list! I have such a huge list going of things I would love to see on this. my TBR has exploded! I even have a couple I am storing away to add to #CampLitsy hopefuls.

"Irene had at one point found herself typing 'I basically think the one job you have as a parent is to give your kid a childhood they don't have to recover from' and then wondering why on earth she was saying this to someone she barely knew"

#WP25

Women's Prize for Fiction getting together my wishlist. There are so many amazing books, I am hoping to also get some ideas for #CampLitsy25

@BookmarkTavern #SundayFunday

I am a bit of a Negative Nancy when it comes to self help. I think most of the books can be super harmful, and are filled with junk (if filled at all). But I do love podcasts that rip these books apart!

The tagged is the book from the podcasters who do By The Book where they live by a book for a week and judge it. I also love If Books Could Kill that deep dives into the people and ideas in popular SH books.

The Fiction long list is dropping in 9 days!!

Do you have any hopes? Any particular books you would like to see? Any guesses?

I am going to put out my prediction list today as soon as I can narrow it down, there are so many great books on my radar this year.

Angela Merkel is such an interesting woman. Considered a conservative in her country, as an American I am so impressed with how she handled the (as she calls it) immigration crisis. Germany had an increase from 60k to 800k refugees a year in a few years time. She was criticized for this picture - a selfie she agreed to with a refugee at the height of the crisis. She is still baffled by the public reaction.

Best of luck on the move @thearomaofbooks hoping everything goes smoothly!

#Bookspin for March is my normal March, all about the Women's Prize! NF list is out and I am slowly working my way through, the fiction longlist will drop on the 4th.

This is lovely. Can you say that about a book that centers a woman having an affair with a psychiatrist and a man who has been locked away from the world for decades? I am not sure, but there is something so sweet and caring about this. I love how Chambers writes, I always fully believe she is writing from and we are in the mid 20th century.
Helen is a morally grey character but one I really enjoyed and I loved the onion layers of Williams life

"A full stomach is the best defensive against infinity."

Humm #WPNF25
I do not read many current affairs books. Mostly b/c by the time they are written & published the world has moved on. I find that still to be a sticking point for me. The couple of times she mentions Bashar al-Assad like he is a key player I see in my mind the sacking of his palace. As an American it u. Interesting to read this from her pov which was obviously before our last election. I have lots and lots of notes.
3/5 CH notes 👇

Bravo Libby App Media team 😂 ❤️

There has been a lot of talk in the states about why and What do you mean Google just changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico on the map? But we really need to understand that tech companies are not resistance machines.

This paragraph is how different tech companies helped with authoritarian censorship in China

Does anyone use, or know anyone who uses the term "cottoning on to"?

Never in my life have I heard this phrase. It appears to mean to begin to understand. I am finding many of the phrases and words Applebaum uses throughout this book to be ones I rarely if ever have heard before; which isn't making this dense book an easy one to read.
#WPNF25

Starting this one today. I am excited to read about her life growing up, and hope she tackles being one of the few women in the G7.

I enjoyed this. It does feel a bit YA. Nina, Hector and Valerie make an interesting love triangle, the story is realistic with a bit of magic on the periphery (both Nina and Hector can move things with their minds) I wanted a bit more of the society the synopsis says Nina is looked down upon for her gifts but that is hardly mention at all in the story. The love stories are sweet and I loved the almost regency vibes but set in Mexico.

Grab your tissues Backman has a book coming 5.20.25 - Pictured here the day I read in public and hit page 60 and decided I would only be reading at home
No one else writes with such humor and charm and utter tenderness. The word "tenderness" kept floating through my brain as I was reading this absolutely lovely book. No other author can have you laughing at kids fart jokes one paragraph then tearing up over those kids futures the next like him.

It has only been a couple of days since the announcement but have your read any yet? In the process? Waiting for any to come in via bookshop or library?

Which are you most excited to get to?

I read Fish Don't Exist before the list dropped, and have picked up Private Revolutions to get started next.

#WPNF25

Crampton talks a bit about Austen and her personal life with a hypochondriacal mother, and all her characters. Makes me wonder who is her best hypochondriac? Mrs. Bennet and her nerves, Mr. Woodhouse and his constant fear of illness, or Mary Musgrove and her "illnesses"?

Psychology Today even has an article
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-elusive-brain/201907/jane-austens-...

I read this hoping it might make the #WPNF list, unfortunately it didn't which is a bummer because this is very good.
Crampton takes on a lot in this book about hypochondria - history, popularity, medically how is the illness treated and seen throughout history into the present. She has laid the book out very well moving back and forth through time. Bringing in everyone from King Charles VI, Jane Austen, to Elizabeth Holmes (as a quack) 👇

The Women's Prize For Nonfiction 2025 Long List has been announced!

How exciting!
Have you read any already?
Are there any books you predicted (I got 2) ?
Any books you are especially excited for?
Any of the you are surprised made it?

I know many are waiting for the fiction list to drop and might just skip around on the NF but I know a couple people are super excited for this list, there are a few I am already in line for at the library!

Mrs Wolf spitting facts up in here.

Time to get excited One more day before the announcement of the #WPNF25 Longlist

I live on the west coast of the currently terrifying US so I will be asleep when the list drops at 8am London time. But I will post a few hours after.

This was apparently a debilitating delusion he acquired during a war, where he ran from the.battlefield and was taken home where he suffered from the delusion for quite a while after.

The tagged book is covering fascinating history.

The Onion

😂🤣😂

People: how are you holding up?

Me: let me check my reading so far this year...oh. Not well. Thanks.

I was thinking maybe 150 books this year. I am trying to slow down and really think about what I am reading. But this isn't really happening

Most people know this disorder as hypochondria but clinically doctors have moved to calling it Illness Anxiety Disorder - Semantics make but this IAD term makes more sense to my clinical brain, while I agree with the author in the use through this book of hypochondria which is a must more recognized term.

This was written in 2008 so it is a bit outdated, but it is a book that gives a lot of thought to art - what is art, making, selling, owning, and value. Much to think about. How does a work become "worth" $12M and what is worth? I found the section on auctioneers most fascinating since I have become interested in Sotheby's auctions. Also found throughout the competition and unity of Sotheby's and Christie's really interesting.

Went to pick up my library hold and am having a very Lucky Day!

#ToB25
One day read

This was .. interesting. It for sure will not be for everyone. It will help if you have a very "online" vocabulary - Especially for story "Our Dope Future" which I found to be the funniest and most interesting. I love interconnected stories of messy people and this delivered. Each of the stories are about relationship (romantic or sexual) rejection and people being a bit dim. A pick from ToB for me I found it interesting

"If he's going to be a doormat, he should at least be a welcome mat."

Ohhh boy these characters are a bit bleak!
#ToB25

3/5⭐. I think I was hoping for something similar to the gorgeous Amy Stewart dangerous creatures books, and this just didn't in any way live up to those books. It is a great concept but much too thin on everything. Each "treasure" gets a couple of pages where she spins a fun fact or a personal antidote and it just all fell a bit flat for me.

Last year started my HUGE crush on Sotheby's auctioneer Phyllis Kao. That has lead me to this tagged book.

She is not featured in it, but it does give a history and look at current look at art houses and sales, it is interesting to think about what is art, even though the idea of this much money makes me sick to my stomach.

A wonderful addition to the There, There world. This is a generational story told from the mid- 1800s through present day with a bit of a jump where There, There fits which I think is creative and a great way to tell the story of the Star family. This is a pretty heavy read, but Orange's gorgeous writing helps to propel you through. I love the language which reminds me of my Mohawk grandma weaving family histories.

This didn't really work for me, which is a bummer because I think there were 2 good ideas here that were combined and it caused neither of them to be as effective as they could have been alone.
I loved the idea of Max as a ghost watching as life moves on after he passed, though I disliked the glimpses we see of predeath Max, what an a'hole. I think the point was to show generational trauma being passed down but with all the time jumps 👇

I liked this much more than I thought I would - I am not generally a "romantasy girlie".
I thought the premise of magic typewriters was great, I don't know if I fully understood the gods war aspect, but rival journalists gunning for the same job I enjoyed.
I thought the writing was solid and not overly cheesy. It was a fun romp I might even read the follow up (I don't read many seconds in a series!)
3.75/5

#ToB25
I really enjoyed this one! A translated work from Kuwait that is for book lovers. A great book for now with the book banning that is happening everyday. I love how Al-Essa weaves classics through the story, and how she shows what books can do for a person.
This was a super quick read that I tackled in 24 hours, highly readable and fun.