It‘s nice to start a weekend trip with a new book!
It‘s nice to start a weekend trip with a new book!
Add me to the list of those who just couldn‘t bear to stick with a chapter a day! WOW! I pretty much didn‘t see any of that coming, and yet it all made perfect sense. Du Maurier was a master. #PemberLittens #hashtagbrigade
What a gorgeous book, rich with historical detail of Spain under the Inquisition in what I would usually call the Elizabethan era. The characters are equally rich and complex. I adored Luzia, Hualit, and Santángel, came to love Valentina, and feared all the villains. The plot took numerous turns I did not expect. Despite an irritating pet peeve toward the end, Leigh Bardugo remains an autobuy author.
Augh! Why?! Such lazy writing. Just tell us the demands.
And then it never comes up? It isn‘t relevant to the ending? Why bother with the secrets?
I am HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS of this costume suggestion Danny has provided. Did Rebecca always dress as this portrait? Or will Jan look like Rebecca when she is dressed up? It‘s too easy… something awful is going to happen. This is a long chapter! #hashtagbrigade
Wow.
I didn‘t know anything about this book going in—I just knew I had to read it since I‘d loved her Winternight trilogy—and I‘m glad, so I won‘t say too much. It‘s about the horrors of war and other horrific things, and of things beyond war. It‘s about love, both family and romantic. It‘s not like the Winternight trilogy at all. I may even recommend it more highly.
Gandalf‘s opinion is not as high, but what does he know? He‘s a cat.
Today‘s lovely #booknlunch—the weather is beautiful!
Becky Chambers has such a beautiful imagination. I‘m glad she chooses to share it with us.
Lily is a Chinese-American girl growing up in 1950s San Francisco, worrying about friends and Communists, and eventually coming to the realization that she is a lesbian. This book is rich in historical detail and provides a different view of the 1950s than what I usually see. I liked Lily and my heart ached for or leapt with her. I can‘t call this a happy book but it isn‘t too depressing either.
Whew, it was tough narrowing my March reads down to two! I‘m very happy for the bonus slots! #ReadingBracket2024
That is the creepiest book I have read in some time. T. Kingfisher is a genius.
I‘m so glad I read A Haunting on the Hill before reading this, so I can listen to “Hares on the Mountain” (I wasn‘t previously familiar with the song), in particular Fern Maddie‘s version, which Hand references in her author‘s note. I was already super into the song and Fern Maddie‘s music, and it‘s a perfect creepy accompaniment to this delightfully creepy book!
Pretty typical YA fantasy. Gwen goes to a school for magical people descended from mythological warriors and doesn‘t understand why she belongs there, despite her own magic powers. She‘s kind of an idiot who can‘t put two and two together, but it doesn‘t help that people keep telling her she‘s there to learn things and then not even trying to teach her. I liked that her power is psychometry and the development of her friendship with Daphne.
I enjoyed this witchy retelling of Jane Eyre very much. I have some quibbles with the retelling-ness (I didn‘t see why she should have changed Jane‘s pre-Lowood backstory and everything happened too fast) but the story, romance, witchcraft, and twist on what happened with Mr. Rochester‘s previous wife were all very satisfying. I‘ve always wanted a witchy Jane Eyre! I‘ll be on the lookout for more by this author.
Well, that certainly is a story I‘m glad to have finished 😆
Funny, but boring—the funny parts did not advance the plot and dragged on. Evelina is a sweet character, but I really didn‘t understand the attraction the men had for her, or her for Lord Orville. If Jane Austen read this and thought “I can do better,” I can see why! #RandomClassics
What a wonderful book! It‘s like Good Omens meets The Golem and the Jinni, plus labor organizing and gangs… and a whole bunch of queerness. I have a feeling it‘s going to be very difficult to pick a favorite book of my March reads!
I suppose the fake Miss Belmont and Mr. Macartney will have a happy ending now—they‘re not really brother and sister so they can get married! And if Belmont makes Macartney his heir, that‘s a pretty good outcome for the fake Miss Belmont. #RandomClassics
So it seems like Evelina‘s mom‘s friend passed off a different baby as Sir John Belmont‘s daughter??? 🤯 That‘s so much more dramatic than him abandoning 3 different women and picking a random one to be his heir! (But still, why won‘t he acknowledge Macartney? I‘m sure this will all be sorted out by the end! I have 4 more issues to go on Serial Reader!) #RandomClassics
I am very happy with this follow up to one of my favorite books of all time. A playwright, her musician girlfriend, their sound engineer friend, and a washed-up actress get together to rehearse a play in Hill House. Hill House doesn‘t want them there… or maybe it really, really does. There‘s a number of highly satisfying callbacks to the original novel. It‘s not as subtle, but I think it‘s stronger for not trying to precisely emulate the master.
I love the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, but didn‘t care for the other two books they‘ve put out. Still, I wanted to read this book because I adore the character, so finding it at the #littlefreelibrary was perfect!
I‘m really into this book so far, but finding the wide spacing between lines really annoying! Thankfully I didn‘t cancel my ebook hold when I found it in paper at a different library, so if that hold comes in before I‘ve finished the paper book, I can switch.
I‘m sure there is some good stuff in this book but I just can‘t get past her coinage of “resulting” meaning “falling prey to outcome bias.” It makes the book too hard to read.
This book has everything: inspiring introduction, short lesson in embroidery, stitch dictionary, symbol library, brief lesson in color theory and composition, a bunch of project ideas, and a number of patterns. Every page is gorgeously illustrated, almost all with clear photos of actual, stunning embroidery. I am so inspired! This was a library borrow but I am definitely going to buy my own copy to have on hand.
Holly Black has done it again! Not that there was EVER any doubt. I could barely put this down and it was so satisfying. Love Oak and Wren (and Jude and Cardan and all the rest)!
Gah! There‘s a reason I don‘t read thrillers. Too many twists, not enough characterization, I rolled my eyes so many times. And, of course, it leaned heavily on my pet peeve of the character knowing something without revealing it to the reader. I only read this because I like Crime Junkie—I‘ll know better in the future!
I waited to take this picture until I had a different cat in my lap. Magrat was not a fan of being used as a Kindle prop 😹
Very excited about this book!
Another fairly quick choice for #readingbracket2024… Much as I loved Galaxy and it warmed my heart, the long and magical search for Lyra‘s father has a tight grip on me. The Secret Commonwealth might end up grabbing one of the bonus slots, too. In fact, I think the only reason it didn‘t get the top slot is that it ended!
Once again, Becky Chambers manages to make a disaster cozy and sweet. Five people of four different alien species are trapped in a small waystation for several days. They are forced to get to know one another and learn to understand one another‘s species. Despite early prejudices, they all become friends.
Yes, I‘m spending a lot of time in a bathrobe with a cat on my lap lately 😂 Chemo takes it out of you!
Well, if I‘m not allowed to get up, I may as well finish a book!
I enjoyed this, though I didn‘t love it as much as I hoped. It was a fun, pleasant read. It did hit one of my pet peeves a couple times (it seems all the books I‘m reading right now are doing that). I liked all the characters. I will be reading the prequel.
I‘ve had this new phone for almost 2 months but apparently I‘m still not good at taking screenshots with it 😂 Anyway, I really enjoyed the sequel to The Brilliant Death. Teo and Cielo are wonderful, rich, complex characters—as are most of the minor characters. The worldbuilding is similarly rich and complex, though sometimes that was a drawback as I got confused. I will definitely be continuing to read everything A. R. Capetta publishes.
What a fascinating look at the earliest draft of a beloved novel! This is very different from the eventually published version of The Last Unicorn. The unicorn is basically the same character, and the butterfly appears, plus a few lines are the same, but that‘s about it. A demon accompanies the unicorn for much of her journey, and it just sort of ends—nothing is discovered. The most fascinating part to me is that instead of the Red Bull…
And it‘s illustrated by one of my favorite artists!!! What a great choice.
Stopped by the library today and they had blind dates with books! Of course, I couldn‘t resist! Any guesses before I open it up?
I won this book in Naomi Novik‘s holiday giveaway on Instagram! As you can see, I‘m very excited. So many great authors! Plus it‘s signed!
What a powerful and heartbreaking book! I feel that some of the sad parts were overdone for the story, but maybe it was necessary—Stowe certainly doesn‘t get as explicit as she very well could about some of the horrors of slavery. I can‘t fault her choice to show the best Christians rather than the worst experiences. (And some of the worst experiences are certainly implied.) I‘m glad it had the effect intended, raising sentiment against slavery.
What‘s with all these creepy men who are obsessed with Evelina even though she is kind of rude (in smart ways) and barely talks?! Obviously after letter 21 Sir Clement is the chief creepy creep of them all, but wow.
All the jerks and idiots poor Evelina is surrounded by are funny, though, for sure! I suppose the women of the Mirvan family are lovely, but they hardly get any page time. #RandomClassics
I really enjoyed this but it just stops at the end! Argh! I need book 3 now! 😨😨😨
I‘m so pleased that I was able to get this book before going off on a long-weekend trip! And now that I‘m looking at it on Litsy, I see I already have it stacked, thanks to @BarbaraTheBibliophage
Not that I‘m going to have much time to read on this trip. My sister is getting married tomorrow! Book pictured here with the lobby decor in the fancy hotel where we‘re all staying for the wedding 😄
I‘m going to try to do #readingbracket2024. I was inspired by the fact that I barely had to think about it to pick a favorite book of January!
Oops. I was searching for something else at the library (don‘t remember what) and this came up in the search results. I thought it sounded like fun so I put it on hold. Today I took it out to start reading and noticed the “author of” a book with a suspiciously similar name on the cover. Sure enough, this is book 2 in a series. Why don‘t they just say that in the cover/subtitle? 🙄 Thankfully my library does have book 1 so I have it on hold now!
I thought about skipping this book club selection because I was pretty indifferent on the last Alice Hoffman book I read, but I love fairy tale retellings. Unfortunately, while the fairy-tale elements kept me going through the story, I didn‘t connect with this book either. The main character really irritated me and I didn‘t understand most of the other characters‘ motivations either. I‘ll complain/CW (personal to me, and spoilery) in a comment.
This book tells the fascinating story of the development of Herceptin, a targeted antibody treatment for breast and ovarian cancer that attacks a specific receptor called HER-2. Herceptin is one of the treatments I am receiving, so this was very personally relevant! It‘s an amazing treatment that fights cancer directly without real side effects, unlike chemo. The book tells the stories of the scientists and biotech companies along with many women
Does anyone know what Eva is dying of? Is it meant to be a specific illness (tuberculosis?) that readers of the time would easily identify so it doesn‘t have to be named, or it is just Overly Good Literary Character Syndrome like Beth?
#RandomClassics
Solid book of relationship advice for all kinds of relationships, including polyamorous ones. I listen to the podcast so most of this isn‘t new to me, but it is definitely easier for me to remember in written form!
Well, I loved this. Soon I will read the second book and then I guess I‘ll spend a long time being mad that the third one isn‘t out yet.
I am amused that I assumed the titular Savage Beauty was Lyra, but no—she‘s a baby in this book, and La Belle Sauvage is (as I can see now from looking closely at the cover) a boat.