World Of Books #bookhaul
A few older books that have been on my TBR for years. Hoping to get to them soon!

#doublespin for May @TheAromaofBooks

This was well done. The language is a bit dated - written in the 1980s there are a lot of "golly gee" conversations but juxtapositioned with talk of security guards and drugs in public schools.
This was groundbreaking when written and the story still holds up well. I enjoyed it.

Wow this was so good! Only on my list due to winning The Women's Prize for Fiction a couple of years ago, and it was well deserved!
The writing is solid and the storyline takes a few twists that I didn't see coming.
An often heartbreaking story of family love and loss, but not overly heavy.
It is nice to find an adult fiction work set in the UK with Muslim characters that are complex and real.

I loved this. The writing is gorgeous. The story original and compelling. I also love that there is a theme running through it that will make cis-men very uncomfortable 😏

I am so glad this was on the Women's Prize List so I got to it quicker then I would have.

How does this series keep hitting themes hard and still stay so adorable?
I love Charlie and Nick ❤️

TW on this one for eating disorders along with homophobia

"On the first anniversary of his wife's death, Xavier Redchoose got up before light and went downstairs to salt the cod"

#FirstLineFriday
@ShyBookOwl

I have a thing for McEwan. More than once he has pulled me out of a reading slump and I love that about him.
This is an older book, and it is honestly a bit of a mess. The characters were boring and I kept losing track of where the story was going.
But evye with all that I was curious about it and interested enough to read to the end. So it was fine.

BOTM

Please tell me I am not alone in this. Got home, saw my BOTM box, and for the life of me I cannot tell you what books are in this box!!
Absolutely zero memory or what I ordered.

Stretch goal since I am commuting into office this week, but I do have the tagged on audio so that should help.

#weeklyforecast

This was good! Cute and philosophical, short but I think the right length for what it is.
Much prefer this to the Alchemist and will start convincing people to read this instead 😆

"It is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it"

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain
1) A Psalm For The Wild Built; The Hacienda; Sweet Tooth (Mcewan)
2) star jasmine
3) Unfortunately work, then watering the plants and reading

I am so incredibly impressed with Stacey Abrams. The things that she gets done!
This book is a trip, it is also a soft pick for me. The language is a bit hokey and the storyline a bit too convoluted, but if you can suspend belief in all this .ain character is able to do (which we see often in men and not enough in women characters) and just enjoy the quick ride it is fun.

I cannot remember the last time that I read a book and immediately went to the bookstore to pick up the next one. Honestly, it might have been around 2008 with Charlene Harris.
I am utterly in love with this series. It is heartwarming and happy but not delusional. I cried, I smirked, I smiled, I felt GOOD after reading it.
I am excited to see what comes next for Charlie and Nick

So glad this was on the Women's Prize for Fiction list, I had never heard of it before that.
This isn't an easy book. TW for incest, child abuse, domestic abuse, infertility
The topics are heavy, but the book contains hope, friendship and strength, and though some pages were very hard overall it felt real and hopeful. I enjoyed getting to know Athelea and watching her overcome her upbringing and be supported by so many.

#bookspinbingo with @TheAromaofBooks

Love a clean board! So many possibilities.

Okay! A book I have been a bit intimidated by.
Excited for my #bookspin and #doublespin for May
@TheAromaofBooks

#bookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

April Bookspin -
Read the Bookspin but didn't get to the double,
2 Bingos!

Not a bad month. Ran out of spaces because I kept going off list.

I was on vacation so wrap-up is coming a bit late.

I had some serious hits and horrible misses in April.
4.5 ⭐
Caste
The Prophets
Heartstopper
4 ⭐
The Bread The Devil Knead
Wahala
Creatures of Passage
Blacktop Wasteland
3.5 ⭐
While Justice Sleeps
The Lost Book of Saints
3 ⭐
Just Like Home
American Prison
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker
2 ⭐
The Silent Patient
The Female Persuasion

A little off book topic staying in an Airstream on the Oregon coast, there are wild bunnies and s'mores! Along with lots of hikes and time watching the waves.

Still on vacation but here is what I am reading this week

A book for Americans who are scared today to order immediately.
I have my copy at home but I am out hiking and doom scrolling tonight. I hope tomorrow I will have no service so I can enjoy nature for a bit.

I had intended to finish this ARC before the release date but it is a SLOW read. I am not seeing any reviews yet that talk about how incredibly slow the beginning is. I am 50 pages in and it isn't holding my attention. Will be interested to see what others say when the BOTM boxes start rolling out.

Up next 😍

Going through a deep bout of insomnia while reading this which is sort of perfect. I cried a bit at the end which I am unsure if it was the book being great or me being exhausted. Either way I think that the mental illness (unnamed) described was so real and accurate it made Martha incredibly real also.
Great, sad story and such a good Women Fiction Prize Long List choice.

You are going to need a drink for this ride!
The drama, the suspense, the friendships they made and bridges they burned along the way!
This was so good I was riveted, you know someone is a terrible person right off the bat, and then the other 3 start doing terrible things and it becomes like an incredibly well written train wreck that you cannot stop reading.

List for bookspin!
I am out of town for a few day so get to do my April wrap up and bookspin items on the 5th!

@TheAromaofBooks,

#bookspin with @thearomaofbooks
May list

More books for my overwhelming physical TBR!

I listen to this on audio and that didn't work so well for me. I was distracted and found the story hard to follow, I know I would have enjoyed this much more had I read it - the writing is good the storyline is solid and the tone is just right for the topic.
Just don't recommend the audio.

Complete days #bookhaul

#bookhaul day book I am the most disappointed in the condition - I always choose great quality category and expect them to be a little but beat up but this HUGE sticker that will not come off the front cover? Super disappointed.
I have already read this and loved it, it will go into my little library for someone new to enjoy.

#bookhaul day file this one under Why did I order that??? Zero memory of why, or putting it in cart, I do not read kids books this looks like a middle grade maybe? It's tiny though.

#bookhaul day editions I am the most excited to get! I am embarrassed I have never read Highsmith before but with these gorgeous editions I will fix that soon!!

#bookhaul day!! I gotta bunch today in the mail most from Thrift books (used) but this one! I was so excited I pre-ordered
The book I got that I am the most exciting to read!

#weeklyforecast
Final April push

Current read distracted by the coffee shop conversation going on beside me
Her: I see you are reading a book on polygamy. I am very interested in polygamy
Him: Mormon polygamy or regular?
Her Regular in my own life but like reading about Mormon, the books are often pretty wild
Spoiler alert - Rachel and Tom are going on a date on Wednesday.

There is a tag for it!!!
This week's reading
#vote

#ThinkPositiveBePositive

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Pinterest quotes

50 books read.
As always my moods are reflective and emotional, but I am reading more and more mysterious books and look at that I have thrown in a few inspiring/hopeful reads this year!

🎧
Well written. There are not a lot of these types of books out there - A Black southern man who is half criminal, half family man, & trying to balance 2 lives that cannot be separated or combined.
Beauregard is an easy to understand &empathize w/ character. The other characters are more 1 dimensional, but I did enjoy how the story of his father was woven through & u can see the generational trauma & repetition.
TW: violence, murder, fat phobia

Adorable and filled with emotion. Goodness do I miss teen crushes or absolutely love that I never need to go through that again?
Volume 1 ends on a bit of a cliffhanger so very glad past me was smart enough to buy 1 & 2 together

"You do not yet know us.
You do not yet understand."
A complex and rich story. There is trauma but also so much love. Jones is a gorgeous storyteller.

This week's covers are Blue 🔵

Original, well written, exactly why I love the WPFLL the books this year are so different from each other! This story was less about Nephthy and her haunted taxi then I was hoping for, and TW for pedophilia and hate crimes. But honestly this is not scary the haunting is clever and helpful or benign. While the elements of the story are dark there is a lightness and hope to the storytelling that makes this a quick and engrossing read.

Bringing in the Dolly mug for #weeklyforecast
Going to tackle 2 Women's Prize Long List books this week, I am way behind on them and will be far from finished when the short list is announced but that is my normal with this prize, too many books too little time.

A memoir in essays but the essays are so interconnected it could be just called a memoir.
I always find it difficult to rate memoirs, especially ones where I can never understand their life. There R some great moments here, told w/passion
The writing is a bit rambling, often I was not sure the point of an individual essay (maybe the reason I think I should just be called a memoir). The misogyny/misogynoir was heavy as was the use of the N word.

3⭐
I had big hope for this, but mostly it fell between flat and a bit annoying. I appreciate and think Bauer did well in talking about the history of the US prison system by his continued references to The Stanford Prison Experiment - a defunked and discredited college experiment.
I also was a bit floored that Bauer tried to compare himself getting a job as a prison guard to Nelly Bly having herself committed to an asylum with no way out.

Keeping going on aggressively pink covers this month. This was something that had been on my shelf for a couple of years, and I am sure deep down I knew it was going to scream White Feminist issues and so I put it off. Sort of wish I had just donated it instead of reading it.
The big issue is I am sure most white feminists will not see all the problematic things in this book. Token lesbian who gets screwed over, one line for a Trans character 👎