⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Been in a slump. Came across this while wandering Litsy for the first time in awhile and really liked it! Licking her wounds after her husband‘s affair and subsequent divorce (and a pandemic) Phoebe books a room at a fancy Newport hotel where she plans to kill herself. Instead she connects with a bride, gets folded into to her 6-day wedding extravaganza, and finds new, more honest ways to live, and things she wants to live for.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ I was thoroughly charmed by The Guncle, and figured I probably wouldn‘t like this as much, and I was right. I found this one uneven with some sudden plot changes (not twists so much as just odd decision making), and I ended up just being annoyed by the MC for a bunch of it. If this was the first book, I wouldn‘t have sought out a sequel. Between a pick and so so.

⭐️⭐️💫 Meh. I liked Jimenez‘s latest book so I‘m trying her earlier stuff. This was her first and my least favorite. MC is immature and deceitful (for reasons, but still), love interest is nice but also has some toxic touches “bitches be crazy” attitudes early on, and the middle 2/3 was basically manipulative relationship sabotage because MC can‘t have an adult conversation. But I did get through it in a couple of days. 🤷‍♀️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Collection of Lepore‘s New Yorker essays. Unsurprisingly, they were all really well written. I‘m amazed at her mastery of so many different topics related to law, politics, and history. My favorites were the couple of more personal essays at the beginning of. The only downside is that since the topics covered are so broad, they can wander into territory the reader (listener) may not have picked (e.g., waterboarding). Overall great.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 24-year old Cushla is a Catholic teacher who lives with her mother and works in the family pub near Belfast during the troubles. The book weaves her affair with an older, married, Protestant barrister, and also her relationships with the troubled family of a young student. The affair was really predatory, and the story took awhile to get into, but I ended up liking it. Bit of a slow burn for me. Soft pick.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ I liked most of this well enough but the last couple of chapters had me rolling my eyes so hard. These were mostly likeable characters that just seemed so immature and dopey (particularly January) toward the end. Why have an actual conversation about this emotional issue that‘s bugging you when you could assume the worst and end up in unnecessary turmoil?? It was a soft pick but the last couple of chapters took it to a so-so.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Probably would never have picked this one up if it wasn‘t for #CampLitsy, but it was a pick! Even right before the end I wasn‘t sure what was going to happen.

⭐️⭐️💫 Frustrating. Background on the development of Semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) was fine, but he seemed to use his experience of being overweight (eating so much KFC employees gave him a card for being their best customer) to paint every overweight person with the same brush. Never attempted to disentangle what health effects were from behaviors that also lead to weight gain from the excess weight itself. Seemed like a big miss.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Great, light palate cleanser after some harder books. Follows the stories of the staff of a newly renovated hotel over their first summer season as they attempt to get an elusive “5 key” review from an anonymous online travel blogger. The characters had more depth than I expected from a beachy read. Definitely enjoyed.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Important, well-researched, and well-written book weaving together the history, sociology, and politics of the crack epidemic with the stories of several people caught up in it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I enjoyed this. I tend to agree with her critiques of marriage and the expectations it places specifically on women‘s labor. Her marriage and ex husband both sound awful, (so much so that I actually thanked my partner for not being a condescending tool while reading it). I totally support finding fulfillment on one‘s own, but it is also possible to find a fulfilling partnership with someone who is not an entitled jerk.

Trite self-satisfied self-help word salad. Did you know that the way to start is to start? I bailed when it got to “do or do not, there is no try.” I just can‘t.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Part dissertation on the intersection of crosswords and feminism, including profiles of several women and LGBTQ+ folk; part memoir of a young woman crossword constructor who worked as an assistant to Will Shorts, including her recovery from anorexia. Parts are thought provoking, but there are a lot of different and not obviously connected threads that sometimes weave together more effectively than others.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really interesting look at the politics and sociology of the Nixon era. In previous biographies and Watergate books I‘ve read there‘s some sympathy for him as an awkward outsider. Not here. Perlstein goes all in on the vicious tactics he used to get and keep political power (like prolonging the Vietnam war to help his election 🙃). Looking forward to more Perlstein, but this was a #chunkster at 881 pgs, so maybe after a break…

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Oof—this guy (Dalio) come off as a psychopath in this book. I read his book Principles a few years ago and remember finding it interesting, although I couldn‘t tell you what any of the principles were. This portrayal is rough. In addition to him being an abusive boss, the lack of any validation or testing of the tools he touts as the keys to everything is just 🤯. Worth a read if you like investigative journalism, esp. around business!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 I‘ve read a few of Newport‘s books, and this is the one I found to be the most realistic and actionable, by far. I‘ve been trying to rethink the way I approach work for the last few months, and a lot of that is in line with the advice here about doing fewer things, working at a reasonable pace, and focusing on quality. I‘m hopeful that as I get better at that, work will feel both more manageable and more fulfilling.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Cute, gay, enemies to lovers romance

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 I love biographies as a way of learning more about history and culture. This was a good, and provided some of that, but it really read like an authorized biography and leaned toward hagiography, especially about Tupac‘s mother, Afeni. That detracted from it for me, but worth checking out if you‘re otherwise interested.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thoughts, musings, experiences, loves, fights, and infatuations of Boy George. It was fun hearing him laugh at his own stories and observations on audio, but the storytelling part was sort of all over the place. I wasn‘t always sure who some of the people were or what their history was when he was telling stories or talking about falling out with someone. A soft pick—If this looks interesting to you, it‘s worth a shot.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ When I see my retired aunt and uncle I ask what their book club is reading to get ideas, and this was one of those books. ☺️ I enjoyed this one—I find stories of people building something from nothing and hearing what went well and what was a struggle to be really interesting. Everyone wants to present themselves in the best light, but I felt like this had a decent amount of humility and didn‘t sugar coat the struggle.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Story of forbidden love between two women married to men who are faculty in the same department in a college in the South in 1953. Months liked and rooted for the characters but found the carelessness/cluelessness of one exasperating. Mostly left so thankful to not have been born 60 years earlier, because the treatment of women generally and gay women in particular was garbage. #LitsyToB24

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Coming of age/friendship story of queer friends at a Quaker school in NYC in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. I was initially a little put off by the obnoxiousness of the MCs, but grew more sympathetic to what they were dealing with in terms of friendship and identity, especially 20+ years ago. #LitsyToB24

⭐️⭐️ I can get down with Royal and Royal-adjacent books. I understand the Queen‘s life was different from anyone else‘s, but a photo shoot with rain clouds above is not actual suspense I care about. It was interesting hearing about some of the clothes but this was just so silly.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A recently widowed woman invites 4 close friends from different parts of her life to join her on Nantucket for a “five-star weekend”. Current and past individual and interpersonal drama unfold. A fun, beachy read with enough next to make it interesting.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I haven‘t been on the Peloton in a bit (SO happy to be back in the in person gym!), but Cody was always my go-to when I wasn‘t in the mood. He always made it fun, affirming, and entertaining, and the book is like several hours of that, but without the sweat. He also goes more into his story, which was way more difficult than I realized. Loved it—recommend for anyone in need of a “fix your wig” fix!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ I think there‘s a really good and clever book in here, but I also feel like I only followed about 20% of it and probably missed a lot. I think I needed some Cliffs Notes or an explainer of some sort to keep everything straight (or to have a better grasp on Korean history to be able to pick up the alternate history in here). #LitsyToB24

PSA—Kindle version of All the Sinners Bleed is $2.99 today… #LitsyToB24

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9KWRYKP?_bbid=197433254&tag=bookbubemail1-20

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Fun, quick novel told from the POV of a mountain lion living in the hills above LA, his inner thoughts, drives, and interactions with humans.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was excellent . I expected it to be sort of “rah rah—if we all get out the vote it will all be fine” but instead it was a history of our uniquely American history and flirtations with and reactions to facism. I was familiar with a lot of the discrete bits of history but she connected things in ways I hadn‘t before. Highly recommend.

Starting this one tonight. Thoughts and prayers, please. 🙏 #LitsyToB24

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Coming of age/young adulthood story of an Irish woman and, her gay roommate/BFF and and a unique set of circumstances they (mis)manage leading to the “incident”. I‘ve seen this compared to Sally Rooney‘s books, but I found these characters more sympathetic and the situations more interesting and morally ambiguous. I enjoyed it! #LitsyToB24

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I enjoyed this novel about a family reacting to the father going missing and what‘s uncovered while searching for him. I found the middle 70% or so the strongest—it was a little slow to grab me and then meandered toward the end, but overall I liked it and appreciated some of the things it left me thinking about related to disability and language. I probably wouldn‘t have picked it up if not for #LitsyToB24, but I‘m glad I did!

I don‘t know how to review this. The writing was beautiful. The subject matter was hard. I didn‘t particularly enjoy it, but enjoyment was not the point. I wasn‘t sure what the rules of engagement were for the magical realism part. The ending felt unsettled, like more of a brief pause for the MC, but I hope things work out for her. #LitsyToB24

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Novel written as the memoir of a middle aged woman caring for her best friend as she‘s in hospice dying of cancer. Overall really enjoyed it. Got exasperated with the MC 2/3 through but her dying friend telling her that yes, she WAS judging the MC for some of her questionable behavior helped.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really enjoyed most of this book about the discoveries and scientists behind CRISPR gene editing technology. The author uses Dr. Doudna as a way into the story but it really wasn‘t about her. It got bogged down a bit in repeating the ethical arguments for and against using the technology and in what cases it‘s appropriate, but overall it was really interesting.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ There were things I liked about this, but I think there were just too many subplots and side characters. I found myself half paying attention to a lot of it like “okay, okay, just get to the part that moves the plot forward”. I did love Dodo and Monkeypants. ❤️ #LitsyToB24

⭐️⭐️⭐️ I enjoy a certain amount therapy voyeurism, and this has some of that for couples. If that‘s your thing, give it a shot. Some of the insights were interesting others I sort of skimmed over. His narration wasn‘t great—to soft and not clear. Soft pick/so-so.

Here‘s #Bookspin Bingo list for February. I‘m coming for you, #LitsyToB24!! @TheAromaofBooks

Late to the party, but here is my January BookSpin Bingo board. Finished 9 books, mostly for #LitsyToB24 and some #AuldLangSpine recs from @JenReadsAlot Got my #doublespin but not my #bookspin. Going to keep working on both ALS and ToB, with some more of my old friend nonfiction thrown in for February. @monalyisha @TheAromaofBooks

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Not sure where I found this in my book wanderings, but it was fine. Sort of a self-helpy, motivational, “stop making excuses and put in the work” kind of message. He‘s pretty satisfied with himself, but he‘s also incredibly accomplished, so fair enough. Sort of like Jordan Peterson with more street cred and without the toxic masculinity.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Another great #AuldLangSpine pick from @JenReadsAlot ! I don‘t know what I expected, but this was not it! Totally different from what I usually read, but it was very well done. I loved the characters, especially Agnes and the tie-ins to actual people and events was so clever.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Enjoyed this bonus, nonfiction #AuldLangSpine pick from @JenReadsAlot about. Interesting and 😬 reporting from an author who was raised in a conservative home and media environment and who became fascinated by the cult-like dynamics of QAnon and the serious consequences for individuals and society. @monalyisha

⭐️⭐️⭐️ There were things I liked about this. I ended up liking and rooting for Jack and Elizabeth, and some of the psychological and relational insights they came to were deeper than in most fiction. But getting there was so tedious. There were so many overdone tangents that mostly just felt like the author showing off. He spent so long “showing” and then ended up “telling” eventually anyhow. Would have been great 30% shorter. #LitsyToB24

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH EXCRUTIATING DETAIL OF THE MOST TEDIOUS PARTS OF PARENTING SMALL CHILDREN??!! I mean, I get it‘s moving part of the story forward, but just like I don‘t want to actually fight with a toddler about eating something other than mac and cheese, I also don‘t want to listen to pages and pages of someone else doing it. #LitsyToB24

⭐️⭐️⭐️ I liked this more than expected, but I expected to LOATHE it, so not a high bar. Woman (Pulitzer winning journalist, actually) goes on a quest to set things right after an unauthorized biography is published about her iconoclastic artist late wife and gets more than she bargained for/comes to terms with ways her wife was a jerk. Setting is in an alternate reality US. Very creative and great narration but too long. Read for #LitsyToB24

⭐️⭐️ This one just wasn‘t for me. It ended up kind of getting somewhere related to issues of vanity, jealousy, and mother/daughter relationships, but the destination wasn‘t worth the journey. I have a hard time connecting with descent into madness POVs, and even at her best I found the MC dopey. This would have been a bail if not for #LitsyToB24

This #LitsyToB24 book is driving me batty. Listening to it is like being the only sober person out with a group of drunk friends who aren‘t making sense and can‘t keep up with what people are saying. Half of the dialogue is the main character repeating what someone else just said but in the form of a question. “The debts have been paid off.” “Paid off?” “I was under a different impression.” “Different impression?” 🤦‍♀️

I had a really strong December and I‘m going with a 3-way tie between Helmet For My Pillow (WWII memoir), All the Sinners Bleed, and Hello Beautiful to round out my #12Booksof2023.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Perfectly enjoyable and not challenging romance novel that kept me company while I was not feeling well and lying low for the last couple of days.

November‘s pick was Discipline is Destiny. I wasn‘t sure about it at first, but ultimately a lot of what he wrote resonated with me, so much that as soon as I finished I re-listened to it. But, November was a good month—strong honorable mentions to Stay True by Hua Hsu and Reagan by Bob Spitz.