#weeklyforecast

December push is here. The tagged book is one of 2 I have left on my GR TBR from 2018. Must finish it so I can read and get Black Sun back to the library!

I enjoyed this. 2 guys in a boy band fall for each other and fight the producer Man.
Zach and Ruben are delightful characters, and are well rounded. The story is told from their alternating POV.
Overall this was just too long. Normally a book of this type takes me a couple of days to read, this took a week. While it was good it needed a bit of editing and tightening.

#bookspin #bookspinbingo @thearomaofbooks

Three seems to be my magic bingo number this year, this is the 5th month in a row!

Fairly good reading month, I DNFd 2 books, one being my #doublespin not because of the books so much but they were just much too heavy for me.

I didn't get to my #bookspin but I am hoping to get there this month.

December #TBR

Final push of the year!!!

I am most excited to tackle
Children of Time (which won a Hugo for best series this year)
Land of Milk and Honey (nominated for a slew of awards!)
Project Hail Mary, Legendborn, and Black Sun which I am constantly hearing great things about!

What are you looking forward to this month?

Last Bookspin of the year!!

I am trying very hard to focus on the first 10 on my GR list, this will take my TBR down to 2022! So I have set this spin up to hit those titles 3 different times (this might be cheating?)
Also have a few books out from the library, and Daughters of The Winter Queen is one I tried to finish for #NFNR but only got about a third of the way through, work has been a beast.

#bookspin @thearomaofbooks

#NFNR is over!

Did people get some non-fiction books read? What was your favorite?

I read 10 and my favorites were
They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us,
Fuzz and the new King: A Life biography.

All three were excellent.

November #ReadingRoundUp brought to you by anxiety and insomnia!
I read 17 books this month.
4.5 ⭐
They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us
Opinions - Roxame Gay
King
4⭐
Belly of the Beast
Running in the Family
FInding Me
Passing
The Charm Offensive
Open Throat
Fuzz
3.5⭐
Erasure
The Guest
The Three Mothers
Dear Senthurian
Enemies of the State
3⭐
Queers Were Here
Napolean: A Life Told in Gardens and Shadows

A collection of essays written by Gay over the last 10 years. Most of these I had read before, and it is great to have them all compiled!! I loved revisiting her essay about The Fast and Furious franchise!! I also love these movies and though I have read it before it still had me giggling.
This would be a great holiday present for the feminist and literary people in your life.

I listened to this on audio and I don't think that is the way to go for anyone like me who doesn't have a framework for the era. I got lost at times and wish I had the book to go back and understand what had happened. The author stretched themselves a bit to make this book work, it didn't feel there was solid evidence to point to Napoleon and gardening so the entire book felt as if she led you through his life saying "look he was by a garden!"

"It's 5:00 a.m. The sky is still black, the Milky Way at maximum milk. A half dozen men from a road crew mill around in the headlights of trucks, carrying bags of Austin Powder Company explosives."

I love Mary Roaches writing, and how she can find poetry in everything she sees, including groups of loggers in the woods.

I just got out of this film and am going to need TIME to process. Not only process the film but process why I am drawn to such twisted Rich White People movies 😳

I went by myself because I was scared what people would think if I invited them 🤣

Apparently this is a very twisted take slightly inspired by Brideshead Revisited I can see the connections.

Last few days sprinting to the end of November! Hope everyone is getting all those amazing Nonfiction books read for #NFNR

My latest tagged, also my book for Napoleon era in #bookedintime @Cuilin @dabbe

Weekend plans
#booked

I have been trying to read Fuzz all month, hoping to make a dent in it this weekend. Somehow I am interested but also avoiding it?

I am so glad this book is making the lists this year. It really is a remarkable read. Eig gives us a detailed, well researched, and balanced look at King's life. The good and the bad. His health struggles, his misogyny, his hope and his commitment to the cause.
Even if you don't believe in his tactics this book is a fascinating look at his life and reasoning. Most importantly it is a look at how we have sanitized his image.
4.5⭐

"In another conversation, King and [Abby] Mann were discussing the broad outline of their potential movie on King's life. Mann asked, somewhat in jest, how the movie should end.

'It ends with me getting killed.' King said

'He smiled,' Mann later recalled, 'but he wasn't joking.'"

The idea of the civil rights leaders just knowing that they will be murdered, and yet continuing on fighting for our rights. It is powerful and heartbreaking.

"On December 5, 1955, a young Black man became one of American's founding fathers."

#firstlinefriday
@ShyBookOwl

I loved the writing in this. Hoke has a lyrical way with words and I will be watching out for more of his work. The structure is sparse and the story propels you through the pages. It is a bit weird, and I don't normally go for animal toys stories (that one about the dolphins this year I couldn't get into at all!) But this was just right in the balance of whimsical but with something to say.

"if you feel alone in the world

find someone to worship you"

I love the use of language in the book.

I am DNF'ing this #DoubleSpin, taking it off my TBR. It isn't the books fault.
W/ the state of the world, this is just too much. The death, people standing by ignoring, activists screaming for attention. I have read much about this story &while I am in awe of ACT UP I just can't read it at this time
I feel a big reading slump coming on and think this next month is going to be hard while I struggle w/ the remaining books I wanted to read in 2023.

Highly recommend this on audio, I started to read it then heard that he makes commentary throughout the audio that gives more context to some of the essays. Though each of the essays are short there is a wide depth to the topics - from Carly Rae Jepsen to Serena Williams, from Fall Out Boys to Jack Harlow, Marvin Gaye to Carly Rae Jepsen. The essays are interesting and thoughtful and really explore the culture of not only music but Americana.

#NFNR
How is your Non-Fiction November Reading going??

I have read
Belly of The Beast
Finding Me (Viola Davis)
Running in the Family - Michael Ondaatje
The Three Mothers - Tubbs
Dear Senthuran - Akwaeke Emezi
Queers Were Here - essay collection.

I do feel like I am making progress in my TBR. But I have so many more!
Reading the tagged plus
Fuzz - Mary Roach
Let The Record Show - The History of ACT Up

M/M romance centering a widowed American president and the head of his secret service. I stumbled on this through TikTok and saw there was a 2 months wait at the library so had to get it. It was fairly cheesy, the characters have deep themes but that isn't the point. There is a bit of action but mostly it is about overcoming life and loving someone. I rolled my eyes a bit too much, but it definitely kept my attention.

As usual, Emezi challenges me. Which I think is great. It is interesting to listen to their journey both with publishing and their body.
I did find my mind wondering a bit but overall I enjoyed this.
3.5⭐

"So death stalked us. So what? There was a bottomless 48-ounce bottle of vodka in the freezer and laughs to be had."
This book isn't widely known, I found it at a little indie store in Calgary, there are different essays that are varied in their writing skill, some are very good some not at all - which always makes rating a book difficult overall pick this up if you see it but don't go out of your way to find it.
I do love the cover though.

Obsessed! I read this in 2 days, Charming is the only way to describe it. I loved Dev and Charlie and their romantic journey. Mental health was addressed so well. I don't watch dating reality shows because I am a pessimistic scrooge but I am over the moon for this book of behind the scenes reality show book.

I went into this thinking that it was from the POV of the woman passing, so it took me a minute to adjust to it being told from the woman's childhood friend - which I think is a much more interesting POV. It is a short but impactful book, and that ending! I was not prepared.

#weeklyforecast

I took out the tagged in audio to help me along with it. It looks huge but is really only 700 pages with 50 of that being appendix.

I read half of the Charm Offensive yesterday, hoping to finish it today, I am really enjoying it.

Contestants:

Lauren L , 25, Dallas, professional cat cuddler

😻😂😂🤣😂😹😻

"'Nice to meet you [....] you are not where you are supposed to be right now.'
'Sorry.' He stares at her hand but doesn't take it. 'Uh, you.... also meet.'
'Does he think that was a sentence?' Jules asks Dev. 'God we're screwed.'

No one warned me this book is charmingly funny. I just caught myself giggling in public.

Excited for this!

I have read a bit about MLK, Malcolm, and Baldwin and how their lives overlapped and intersected so I was excited to pick up this book about their mother's. I feel a bit let down, and now that I look farther at the cover the fact that the women's names are not even here tells me something about the book. There didn't seem to be enough information for Tubbs to work with. Moments I felt significant get a few sentences. The focus on the boys 👇

My #10BeforeTheEnd

I have been working all year to get all the books 2019 and before off my Goodreads TBR, and I feel like I am doing really well! If I can get to these 10 I will not only finish 2019 but also 2020.

They are all book I am excited about but just keep putting off for one reason or another.
7 weeks to go so must tackle about 1.5 of these each week.

#10BeforeTheEnd

A trend going around Tiktok!

What are 10 books you are hoping to get to before the end of 2023?

This is a tough read. I love Viola Davis and I didn't realize the extreme poverty she was raised in. Her family life was a struggle, and reading about it was hard. The way we as a society allow children to live, no one helped them and it is so frustrating. Luckily for Davis through so much hard work she has a happy ending. This book gave me so much more respect for her and her craft.

I really loved this! I picked it up on a whim in a used bookstore in Canada because Ondaatje is Canadian, it turns out he is also half Sri Lankan - most of his family is from and still lives there. Focused on the history of his family & it is everything you could ask for about a 1920-40s eccentric family the stories are amazingly outlandish and pure fun. You can tell there is a cover of nostalgia but the writing is delicious enough to forgive it.

Weekend Reads
#NFNR

Reading about MLK, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin's mothers. And a short history about Queer Canada this weekend.

#NFNR
Get ready to grow your TBR with this one. Harrison looks at anti-Blackness and the cross section with anti-fatness. Remarkable insight and a broad range of topics. I think I might have missed some parts of the book. At 256 pages the audio book is only 3 hours. But overall it is an excellent listen with a lot to think on and understand.

I can see why others are not enjoying this. It is a meandering novel, 1 with a highly unlikable, and unreliable main character, there isn't much of a plot. Alex is in the Hampton's floating through life and leaving disaster in her wake.
I enjoyed this. The writing was a bit sparse, and you want to reach through the pages and shake Alex, but the book kept me engaged and thinking about scammers and frauds, how someone twists themselves to fit in.

"Both my grandmothers lived cautiously, at least until their husbands died. Then they blossomed, especially Lalla who managed to persuade all those she met into chaos. It was Lalla who told us that the twenties were 'so whimsical, so busy - that we were always tired.'"

This is an interesting collage of a novel, I picked it up because the movie trailer looks fantastic. In the trailer an author sees a Black woman gets a ton of money for a "ghetto" book and he tries his hand. The book is more about Monks family. I didn't love how bits of this novel were random conversations of characters not in the book, and a huge chunk is bits and pieces of the "author's" novels. Overall I enjoyed this though.

This book I bought on a whim at a used bookstore in Edmonton, Alberta and only 35 pages in I am delighted. Michael Ondaatje (known for his novel The English Patient) talks about his family and particularly his father who seemed to be a terrible 1920s rich troublemaker. Engaged multiple times - a few overlapping- he finally married Michael's mother.
The wedding almost doesn't happen because the bishop is a terrible driver.
#NFNR

#Weeklyforecast

NFNR books tagged and The Three Mothers (about MLK, Malcolm and Baldwin 's mother's) I also have on audio Viola Davis' autobiography Finding Me.

Fiction needing to read and get back to the library - Emma Cline's The Guest and The French Goncourt Prize winner - The Most Secret Memory of Men which I am incredibly excited for and have high hopes. It seems to be a Senegalese -French Shadow of the Wind 😍

Who is reading some nonfiction this weekend?

I am headed to a very wet book festival, where I am cursing whoever decided that November in Oregon was the perfect place to make people stand in queues for hours outside was a good idea. But I have the lovely Roxane Gay's new Opinions to distract me for the times I am in line without my friends - when we want to see different panels.
Excited to see Curtis Sittenfield and Naomi Alderman today.

Well this one is easy, since our main character is named for Thelonious Monk!

I have been listing to him and I think Monk‘s Dream (Take 8) fits the vibe of the book best.

#booknotes @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

“My journal is a private affair, but as I cannot know the
time of my coming death, and since I am not disposed,
however unfortunately, to the serious consideration
of self-termination, I am afraid that others will see these pages.“

Getting this one read before the movie comes out!

#firstlinefriday @shybookowl

For those wanting to participate in Nonfiction November - I follow an amazing BookTuber page named abookolive and each year for NFN she gives prompt words, this is this years!
The words can be bent and stretched in any way for example - Capital can be set in a capital city, about government for the capital of a country, it can be about money, or grammar all have something to do with Capital.

#NFNR
Nonfiction November Readathon!

I have created a small bingo board if you would like to join the challenge.

@Riveted_Reader_Melissa has a larger board you can find under the tag #Nonfiction2023Template

I am also hosting a readathon all month long! All nonfiction books, all of the time (or occasionally?) !

If you are interested in getting some of those nonfiction books off your TBR join me!

#bookspin #doublespin #bookspinbingo Bingo Board!
@TheAromaofBooks

And November is off on a slow trot!

#bookspin The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease

#DoubleSpin Let The Record Show: A Political History of Act Up

2 very important books about activism and society in the US. I am excited to get to both of them.

Thanks @TheAromaofBooks

Phew, it was a good reading month! November #readingroundup
4.5 ⭐
The Weight of Blood
Woman in Me
4 ⭐
All the Sinners Bleed
The Mercies
Out There Screaming
Into the Drowning Deep
The Only Good Indians
Lessons in Chemistry
Stars in Your Eyes
Half a Soul
Mrs. March
3.5 ⭐
Interior Chinatown
Self Made Widow
Patricia Wants to Cuddle
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
3 ⭐
Princess and the Grilled Cheese
Heart Shaped Box
Turn of the Screw
2.5 ⭐
Real Murders

It's November!
I am holding a readathon all month long for nonfiction! #NonfictionNovemberReads or #NFNR
I would love to be tagged & hear about all the nonfiction you are reading this month I head into each year thinking I am going to read more NF, and always fall so short, so Nonfiction November is always a great end of year push for me to clear those shelves and TBRs of NF books - anything goes science, history, sports, biographies! Join me!