Absolutely amazing novel. My favorite of the year!

I have read a copy from the publisher and will post my review in September when the book is released, but it was marvelous! I loved it and can't wait to recommend it to everyone! Ann Patchett meets EM Forster (Howard's End). Just wonderful. I am still thinking about these characters and their lives, which is always a good thing!

Fantastic novel--I love getting this excited about a book!

A disturbing study of a woman who escapes slavery only to destroy her life when she believes her children will be taken from her and enslaved. This is a very sad, disturbing, and mysterious novel. Not always easy to read—both for the content and sometimes for her writing style. Her often chaotic prose reflects the atmosphere of 124, the house where the possible haunting takes place.

Tina and Anders have two completely different lives but are brought together by their common interest in the Tollund Man in Denmark. She‘s English; he‘s Danish. They‘re both going through a mid-life crisis of sorts. This is an epistolary novel (think Guernsey Potato Peel Pie and Literary Society). Sweet, short and enlightening.

WONDERFUL! I really loved this and enjoyed reading. Juliet is now one of my most favorite characters ever! Brave, smart, cheeky and independent. The storyline jumps from England in WW2 to post war England. Atkinson is so clever and her characters leap from the page. Intrigue and spies, everyone here is unreliable! The story is super compelling and fun. Don‘t miss Atkinson‘s afterword either. I can‘t wait to recommend this to my customers! ❤️

Please read this book. It‘s for anyone who considers themselves a feminist of any age or gender.

I really like Abbott‘s writing. I also like the way she had portrayed her main subject matter in both this and the previous book I‘ve read by her: women. She is smart, honest, and realistic in most of her portrayals. And she‘s especially good with young women. Set almost completely in a research lab, this unsettling novel has given me lots to think about.

Seriously.

Read this with my book group and was slightly underwhelmed. I‘ve heard Ms Levy interviewed several times and was looking forward to this, but it just didn‘t impress me as I had hoped. It was still a powerful memoir of grief and evolution. It just didn‘t leave me with any stunning insights.

I read this while on vacation and it was a great disaster vacation novel. Very well written with a dash of intrigue to make you think. If you enjoyed novels like Fierce Kingdom or Do Not Become Alarmed , you‘ll like this one.

Really enjoyed this novel, set on the North Fork (mostly) of Long Island. Great summer read and I started it while I was on vacation...on Long Island! ❤️

Fun summer read about an incredibly over-regimented 39 year old woman who thinks she is in complete control of her life when in reality, she only thinks she‘s got a handle on everything, including herself. Some very funny and entertaining writing!

This is one of those gems that I missed the first time around. In some ways, it‘s comparable to To Kill A Mockingbird. Antonio is so young, and accepts everything with a wide eyed optimism and belief that reminds us what it‘s like it to be so innocent. I gave this to my 17 year old to read now. I think he‘ll appreciate it.

Part ghost story, part grief story, The Shades introduces us to a family that is separated and parted because of their grief for a member lost to young. Rachel died in a car accident. Her surviving twin brother Rowan is broken by the loss; no one understood him like his sister. Parents Michael and Catherine blame themselves and each other for her death. Odd things happen when we let grief isolate us. Very readable and a bit spooky.

I just left Long Island, so I‘m reading this thoroughly entertaining book about summer on the East End. Fun fluff. And a very expensive watch...wealthy, cultured, dysfunctional people!

I adored Cold Mountain. I wasn‘t so wild about Nightwoods, and had no interest for some reason, in Thirteen Moons. But Varina is beautifully written glimpse into an amazing character. Varina was Jefferson Davis‘ second wife and they lived much of their lives apart, both before and after the Civil War. Frazier brings Varina and her personality to life. Challenged and brilliant, she lived life on her terms. Was she a Thief of Life? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Alternating perspective chapter tell this story of a psychopathic child and the harm she inflicts on her mother. I wish this book felt more realistic. Suzette has emotional baggage and a severe physical ailment, but her life with her perfect husband still seems too, well, perfect. Even how the book ended left me saying, wait—insurance would pay for that? A fast paced read that will appeal to fans of the current domestic thriller craze. It‘s ok.

Knitting socks, thatching roofs, and jury rigging a composting toilet are “practical life skills”? I was intrigued by the premise and delighted to get an ARC, but this is a strange novel...is it supposed to be tongue in cheek? Lol. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is an alternate cover (designed by Brianna Hardin) and I think it‘s very appropriate! Much of this book is a musing on Michel de Montaigne and his essays. It‘s also about Hampl‘s upbringing, her lost love, her travels and other day wasters! But really, I am so inspired to read some Montaigne, I ordered an older Penguin edition as soon as I finished reading. This is a beautiful and enjoyable memoir; Hampl is an exceptional writer.

So much of this novel is a conversation and it‘s wonderful and lovely and sad all at once.

Out of sorts...the woman referred to here is Virginia Woolf. Hogarth Press.

Michel Dr Montaigne, the inventor of the personal essay. Students from the Sorbonne across the way from this Paris statue rub his foot for good luck.

Fun fact: Varina Davis wrote an etiquette column for the New York World while she lived there in the 1890s. This is the same paper that the villain in Time and Again by Jack Finney works for! Varina also enjoyed a daily carriage ride through Central Park. When she died in NYC at age 80, she received a funeral procession through the streets of NYC before her coffin was taken by train to Richmond, VA for a burial with honors by Confederate veterans

Ha!

Loving this book. So many gems.

4* I will fully admit to being attracted to this book because of its gorgeous cover. Then I saw a little blurb here and there about it. So I decided to read it. It‘s a book about friendship, love, belonging, and grief. The Big Chill meets King‘s The Body for Gen Xers. A group of friends grows up together and reunite for a funeral after the suicide of one of them. Secrets and desires are revealed. Very moving and honest. I loved Mikey.

5* Another lovely novel by one of my favorite authors of all time! Full of insight and realizations, Tyler‘s characters often seem charmingly unaware of their own selves, or disturbingly self conscious. Willa is a thoughtful and kind woman who finds herself (get it?) slightly lost when she receives an odd phone call from Baltimore from someone who thinks she is a child‘s grandma. Transformation ensues. ❤️ Love this novel! Love the UK cover, too.

No cover yet?! Here‘s what the ARC looks like! I sure was excited to find this first thing at work this morning! Love me some Anne.

4* Not my favorite Quindlen novel, but a goody. Many of her observations about life and having grown kids hit home with me. And in this novel, NYC is as much a character as her children are! A story of conflicts: between neighbors, friends, employers and employees, and husbands and wives. I enjoyed reading this. Nora isn‘t perfect, in fact no one is in this novel, which is partly what makes it so relatable as well.

5* This is one of those books that I am kicking myself for not reading sooner. Like 7 years ago! But that‘s the wonderful thing about books: they wait for us. While we grow and change, they don‘t. I enjoyed this book immensely. I related to it. And was stunned at the end. They are so young. ❤️

I always like to have a pertinent image for my reviews. This is David‘s beach house, the Sea Section, where much of this book takes place. This is very much about the Sedaris family now: after the deaths of both his mom and his sister, Tiffany. David is so honest AND entertaining. I wish I was part of this family. Disarming, sometimes shocking, much of this book was included in his talk last fall. Fantastic. I hope I see him again!

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy April, Happy Spring. However you celebrate. ❤️🌸📚🐝🌼

This link will take you to a story by David Sedaris posted today in the New Yorker FB feed and it is the exact chapter I fell asleep on last night! If you want a taste of this bittersweet collection...I just love him. That‘s him in the glasses behind (I‘m betting) his sister Amy and with their mom. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/why-arent-you-laughing?mbid=social...

A chapter about Carol! ❤️

This is one of the parts that makes me get weepy...oh my poor husband. It‘s gonna be a long night!

I am sitting in a parked car in the local Sam‘s parking lot (I forced my husband to go in alone so I could read!) laughing like a lunatic! I so needed this book today. He makes me laugh and sometimes, cry a little too. Love his family.

I just got this today and I dropped the other great books I‘m reading because I love him so much and I NEED to laugh! It‘s working.

4* The format of this novel is a faux ancestral research project. The author finds documents, including a “memoir” written by his ancestor who was imprisoned for murder in Scotland in the 1850s. There are newspaper reports and doctor‘s reports as well. But it still manages to read mostly like a novel. It‘s also an observation of the unfair feudal type system that the poor in Scotland were still subjected to a the time. I really enjoyed it!

Gosh, this is so true to life. It‘s weird how there are these kind of people (usually men) who do seem to make it a personal project to force you to like them and their most annoying behaviors. Especially when they think the rest of the world thinks they‘re cute and funny...

My book group impulsively chose this immediately after LeGuin‘s death. I‘ve had 2 months to read it and I‘m only about a third of the way through—book group meets tomorrow night and I simply don‘t see it happening. It‘s a very cold sleeping pill kind of a book for me. I understand it‘s a profound study on alien anthropology and gender, but it is clearly not for the likes of me.

4* This is a charming little book. Tim's mom, an Austen expert and aficionado, asks her son to step in for her at a Jane Austen "camp" at a college in North Carolina. Since he read Austen early on, and spent part of his childhood in the UK, this isn't a stretch, but he does quickly learn how in-demand a male presence as a Janeite event is! Tim makes great observations about Austen fans of all types. It also made me want to get a bonnet...

4* This book is almost written like a true account of an actual event-(but it is a novel). Cameron, paralyzed by a bomb in Afghanistan, miraculously (or not) regains the use of his legs spontaneously while sitting outside the local Biz E Bee in his wheelchair. We get perspectives from all sorts of folks involved in his life, before and after his wounds and his recovery. It occasionally drags at time, but I ended up really enjoying it.

I LOVED reading this memoir. I met Kelly a couple of weeks ago at the Southern Voices festival here in Hoover, Al, and I got to hear her speak as well. She‘s an amazing person—articulate, intelligent and lovely. She made me cry and so did her story. And she finally got to see a photo of her mom as an adult and she looks just like her. ❤️ Some people have so many obstacles to overcome and do so with grace and love and Kelly is one of those people.

Just a favorite quote from one of my favorite books. I love Emma.

This was a very compelling read. It has its flaws; in particular a plot twist that seemed both unlikely and unnecessary. But mostly, it was a good read. You get to know Celestial and Roy from being in their minds and reading their POV via letters and alternating chapters. They are passionate, selfish, vain, self centered, but most of all, they are Americans. Their story is both about adversity and hard work.

Not a terrible book. A lot of anachronistic language. I enjoyed the perspective. A teenager volunteers to be Lady Jane Grey‘s lady in waiting after she is thrown off the throne. She grows close to both Jane and Guildford. Loved the ending. I feel like this would make a great stage play with some changes to the

I felt compelled to read this novel, even though it has a fairly upsetting subject matter—it explores the aftermath of a school shooting from the POV of a 6 yo child. What a roller coaster ride! Zach is a wonderful narrator. He is honest and explores his own feelings. He is smart but not overly precocious. Seeing his parents and others through his eyes reminds me of how perceptive young ones can be. Have tissues handy: I cried a few times!

McDermott usually explores Irish-Americans‘ lives, and often their faith. Here we meet an order of nuns in early 1900s Brooklyn that serve the poor and disadvantaged. They are truly compassionate and helpful, despite the patriarchal society that controls them and the many women and children they help. This is also the story of the life of Sally, who is—almost—raised by the nuns. Beautiful and meaningful. AM‘s prose is always a pleasure to read.

This book...have tissues.