I loved each one of these poems and found this book to be really uplifting. It says so much about what it's like to be a woman and how we survive and thrive by making poetry out of the judgment of others.

I really loved this! I knew just a little about Ali‘s work and personal story, so it was cool to learn about the depth and complexity of both - many serious ups and downs in his fortyish years! His analysis of and hope for America are wonderful, his writing is excellent, and he‘s really funny. I laughed out loud quite often. Also enjoyed his casual and conversational audiobook narration. Thanks to #NetGalley for early access to this one!

A chilling read! The school part was kind of standard dystopian fare but well done, and it made me ponder the awfulness of teaching parenting skills (or anything!) from a place of judgment instead of from a place of support. For me, the true horror came from the narrative outside the school, where mothering and womanhood were subjected to a super creepy Panopticon of surveillance in service of one definition of perfection. Feels too possible!

The glowing #Reggimendation for this was the push I needed to finally pick it up! I'm with @Reggie - great book. The dystopian setting + indigenous perspective was super powerful, as was how the author integrated the theft of dreams and forced relocation to “schools“ [shudder]. The standard YA dystopian brutality-alongside-teen-identity-and-relationship-stuff - which I like! - was there. But with extra depth and stellar writing. On to Book 2 soon!

This was wonderful and reaffirms how much I love reading Ann Patchett. One of my favorite things about this book was how it included little details about all of her other books - really makes me want to go back and read the several still on my TBR. (Marketing genius, perhaps, but I appreciated it! 😆) Other highlights were anything/everything about her family, publishing, bookselling, her connections with other writers, and her writing quirks. ❤️

This was the last book I read in 2021, and I liked it quite a bit. Excellent writing and a really interesting main character with relatable strengths and issues and good intentions and missteps. Loved the mother-daughter relationships and the ways in which aspects of American women‘s history/waves of feminism were explored and brought to life through them.

May you expect so little of yourself that you can be super proud of the smallest of accomplishments.

May you expect so little of the people in your life that you actually notice and cherish every small lovely thing about them.

May you expect so little of the supply chain and the service industry that you notice more of what you do get and less of what you don't and then just tip really well anyhow. ⬇️

I wanted to wait until I was quite sure that these were my favorites of 2021. (Still a few hours left until 2022 where I am, but still. :)

Wishing each of you a joy-filled New Year!

#Top21of21
Thanks for the tag, @Nute !

This might be the perfect book for this day of the year and this moment in time. It was, at least, for me. So much wisdom within, and so much hope in the face of struggle and pain. It was also sweetly personal, noting some of Lewis's favorite things like strawberry and vanilla milkshakes, old books, and being with his cats. I loved every minute of it and highly recommend the audio.

FINALLY got to this one, after being sold on it via endorsements from my library's personalized recommendation service, so many book podcasters, and countless folks here! And I've recently heard several educators praise its relevance for those of us working with college students, so that was a bonus push. It, of course, was great! I look forward to continuing the series soon.

This was great! Been wanting to read Marcy Dermansky for a while. The main character was weird and problematic and appealed to me a lot. 😆 One thing that stuck out to me throughout was how often Dermanksy didn‘t use contractions when I felt like most people would have. Wonder if there‘s deeper meaning to that within this book or if that‘s just part of her writing style? Guess I‘ll find out when I read more from her (which I do intend to do)!

My credibility as a reader and a Californian was questionable because I‘d never read Joan Didion. Was so sorry to hear of her passing but appreciated learning more about her via its coverage. This collection was Libby-available, so I went with it. Glad I did, because the long foreword taught me a lot about Didion and her writing, and I enjoyed each piece. I‘ll read more of her work and am especially eager for more of the CA-focused stuff.

What a beautiful way to start the day! I am so thrilled to receive this much-hoped-for book and yummy chocolates and other sweet things - thank you so much, @guinsgirlreads !!!🎄❤️ #JolabokaflodSwap

She‘s just so good. Beyond the inaugural poem, I‘m biased to adore her because of her background studying sociology, which I see everywhere in her writing. I LOVED her pandemic-related poems in this collection and how she names and analyzes some elements of that in new and brilliant ways. I also love that my assumptions of what “Call Us What We Carry” might be referencing were totally wrong.

Can scarcely stand to post a teaching-related book bc I‘m SO happy to be on break right now. 😆 But this was good. Some pieces resonated more than others; many good tips and insights throughout, and I appreciated the sense of community among contributors. I think I‘d prefer the print, but at least the info got into my brain!

My #JolabokaflodSwap package has arrived! Extra special to see it comes from a previous swap match. 🎄📚❤️

This was smart, funny, a tad over-spicy in parts for me (am I a romance wimp?? I think I might be. 😆), and an overall very good read for a busy and sometimes heavy time.

I forgot to take a photo of my #jolabokaflodswap package as I sent it off. It would have looked like this but with a label and stickers and less empty. 😁📚📦🏝🔜🏔

I‘ve read very little of John Green‘s fiction, but I‘ve come to appreciate his educational YouTube videos a lot. This was fun and deep and delightfully nerdy. His COVID-related essays were among my favorites. A really nice end-of-year read.

Super fun book! I love Mallory and the Reading Glasses podcast and have also been known to enjoy a libation, so I was really looking forward to this one. Full of cool facts, and I appreciated that lots of sociological/intersectional feminist analysis was included.

I loved this a lot. Really interesting art style, and such a powerful memoir and analysis of race, identity, family, politics and how they all intertwine, joyfully and painfully.

I really enjoyed this! Felt like the perfect audiobook for one of the most food-focused times in American culture. It had a wonderfully feminist tone (and was written by a man! Yay, we should all be feminists!). I appreciated the diversity of women represented, including those with disabilities. And I loved Tovah Ott's vibrant, sometimes passionate narration.

Yesterday‘s library holds haul with bonus pleasing fall color scheme. ❤️🧡💛 Hoping I can get to some of these over my already-going-by-too-quickly Thanksgiving break (the cookbooks and graphic novel, at least??🤞).

This was just fantastic. Unforgettable main character, super bookish setting with lots of book name-dropping, and skillful navigation through 2020 topics. Erdrich has become a huge favorite of mine - read her in my Minnesota college years but didn‘t pick her back up until The Round House in 2012, and since then I jump on each new book of hers. (Bonus points for a title with multiple meanings that are frequently and overtly noted throughout! ❤️)

This was a really sweet novella. Glad I read it. The main character was great, and his story will stick with me. (Wondering if Kawakami‘s work ever gets adapted? I could see this being excellent on-screen.) Onto the TBR Breasts and Eggs goes!

What if institutionalized ways of subjugating women in Christianity aren‘t actually Christ-like (or even biblical) at all…? 🤔 What if it's about patriarchy and power? Duh, but this book does an excellent job of explaining the historical context of it all. More hermeneutics in this than I have a taste for, but others might appreciate that more. My teenaged self would have been 🤯 and also consoled and empowered by this.

Took me a minute to get into the groove of this on audio, but I ended up really enjoying the experience! It's a weird and lovable book. I frequently cackled at the silly genius of certain lines and their delivery by an excellent full cast. I'll also now often want to use “dusty stick“ as a reaction to things in life, but I'm not on Slack and nobody (like pre-reading-this-book me) will get it...sigh.

Glad to have finally read a Jung Yun book, as I've let Shelter sit on my shelf unread for years! I thought this was great - loved the setting and main character, and there were several stopped-me-in-my-tracks sentences. Pretty heavy in terms of the many intersecting inequalities it lays bare, but I loved it for that. This really makes me want to read some nonfiction about the North Dakota oil boom (I‘d love recommendations, if you have them!).

Good stuff. Love how he weaves wisecracks into his writing, even when the topic is deep or serious. Bonus that he wrote fondly about two of my former homeplaces: Santa Cruz and Wisconsin (and about a random encounter he had with a guy from my particular home region of WI, a guy that now lives in my current CA city! This basically means that Nick [and Megan🤞] and I are friends now, right?). I‘ve read all of his books and will read all future ones.

Thank you so much for the incredibly thoughtful, fun, and generous #HHS box, @Nessavamusic !!! The books are perfection: the one that I wished for, a favorite author TBR title, and another that‘s new to me but sounds fascinating! And so many fun treats - the BEST book sleeve 🧙‍♀️💜; cutest socks, stickers, card, and coasters (how did you know I love coasters but didn‘t have Halloween ones??); the queen of all 🎃🍫; and ⬇️

This was a powerful read. Stewart's writing is creative and emotional, and in this he very effectively conveys what it's like to try to survive and thrive in a white supremacist society. I loved the way he wrote about his journey both into and away from white evangelicalism and the vision he has for a more loving and empowering Christianity (which is deeply inspired by lots of Black writers across genres).

This was sweet and funny and includes many wise words about living and dying. I loved the memorable characters, especially Grandma. (This was not the cover of my library audio version, but I strongly prefer this cover! STRONGLY. 😬) I really like Toews‘ writing and am so happy to still have backlist of hers to read.

A week late in posting this since it‘s from last Sunday‘s print edition, but my book nerdery made it to the pages of the Chicago Tribune! I follow the author of the tagged on Twitter (mostly for higher ed content) and responded to his offer to send the last five books I read for a recommendation. Didn't realize he had a Tribune column! 😂 So this was a fun bonus. Plus the book he recommended was already on my (mental) TBR, so I think he nailed it.

Inspired by some recent TV experiences that I really liked (Lovecraft Country, Squid Game, Midnight Mass), I finally tried some Grady Hendrix. This was so good! Great writing, characters, and setting, and I of course was way into the social commentary. (Also my beloved Bahni's narration was perfection.) I‘ll read more Hendrix for sure and am surprised by yet enjoying my apparent lean into horror content lately.

This is a powerful and quick read that illustrates how narratives of white supremacy have been/are embedded in white evangelicalism and highlights many of the figures and moments in American evangelical history that brought us to this political moment. She pulls zero punches speaking directly to white evangelicals in her conclusion, entitled “Whom Will You Serve?” 🔥 (I generally love Dr. Butler - she‘s excellent in webinars & media appearances.)

I loved this very much. I signed up to read it for my college book committee‘s nomination process. The art style didn‘t grab me at first but grew on me quickly, and I deeply appreciate the way she told her story of growing up Filipino/Egyptian American in SoCal. It‘s funny and sweet and a truly great analysis of the American Dream, identity, and more.

If Gabrielle Union writes it, I will read it. I love how she‘s a lifelong learner in many areas and that she‘s so willing to share about her struggles and growth. And I really like how she connects her own experiences to the big societal picture in this one. She's of course always amazing on audio.

This audiobook is exactly as charming as you think it is. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Brilliant. I hold Groff in high esteem, but her books can be hit or miss for me. This is easily my new favorite of hers (and one of my most-enjoyed books this year)! Loved everything about the main and supporting characters, setting, language, humor, commentary on religion - just all of it. And Adjoa Andoh‘s audiobook performance is EVERYTHING. My library loan expired before I could finish, so for two weeks I would check ⬇️

My #HHS box is off on its cross-country journey! ✈️📬📦📚👻🎃 #hauntedhollowswap

Lucky me to have already received my #HauntedHollowSwap box! Thanks, @Nessavamusic ! #HHS #HHS21 @wanderinglynn

Beautifully written and narrated memoir. Burke is remarkable. In telling her uniquely compelling story of how she became an activist, she also lays out truths that could apply to anyone hoping to fight for social justice and change (listen to your inner voice, draw upon your own lived experience, be vulnerable). And I love the cover so much! Can't stop looking at it. Planning to pick up her book with Brené Brown soon.

All too relatable, sometimes. 😂😭 (Really enjoying this so far!)

Great! Another excellent @Reggie recommendation (…Reggimmendation? 😁). The audiobook was good, and cute: bleeped curse words, the author smiling with his voice/chuckling, etc. But, as @wanderinglynn noted, this one begs to be highlighted, so print might have worked even better for me. Among my lessons learned:
- OMG I‘m a logic bully!
- Vaccine whisperers are a thing and why haven‘t we deployed thousands of these?!
- There‘s joy in being wrong.

Sometimes Michael Pollan annoys me, but I can‘t quit his books and always enjoy them. I like his recent explorations of mind-altering substances at least as much as his food writing. Lines like these keep me coming back for more: “I came to see how integral caffeine is to the daily work of knitting ourselves back together after the fraying of consciousness during sleep. That reconsolidation of self - the daily sharpening of the mental pencil.“

This was pretty great! Super unsettling, loved the writing/setting/attention to weird details. (I share with Mrs. March an obsession with olive bread, loved how much it was referenced! There‘s also a bit about The Lawrence Welk Show near the end that spoke to my soul bc I watched so many reruns of that as a kid with my older parents; the way it was used in this book slayed me.) Great on audio, too - just the slump-buster I needed this week!

Been having a slumpy week, despite physical and virtual piles of great library books. I did at least make it through the first half of this EXCELLENT series. (Part of why I checked it out was so I could listen to the companion podcast featuring one of the show‘s writers and Ashley C. Ford - it‘s great, too!) Wondering now if I might like the book despite my horror wimpiness…

This one really is THAT good. Brutal but also funny and endearing and unearbudremovable (has someone coined a better word for an unputdownable audiobook? 😆). Bonus of a motorcycle gang component that I didn't expect (guess I still miss Sons of Anarchy!). Loved the audiobook performance, even though it did make the plentiful yucky graphic violence parts even more vivid! 😬 Characters and story will definitely stay with me. 💔❤️

I liked The River just fine and liked this a bit more. The fishing and scene-setting and sense of impending doom were probably my favorite parts. Oh, and the cover. Surprised to discover that I‘m apparently digging COVID-adjacent fiction now - any suggestions for more?

I haven't read nearly enough bell hooks since grad school. This was a practical read for me that ended up also feeling transformative. ❤️
This quote exemplifies why:
“There are times when personal experience keeps us from reaching the mountain top and so we let it go because the weight of it is too heavy. And sometimes the mountain top is difficult to reach with all our resources, factual and confessional, ⬇️