1. Sitting. My glasses don‘t work otherwise. 🤓
2. The tagged book is classic Smiley - great writing, interesting characters. I‘m just a few chapters in, but loving it. Also reading Train Dreams which is very atmospheric, and Traveling with Pomegranates which I haven‘t made up my mind about yet.
Thanks for the tag @TheSpineView
Want to play @TheBookHippie ?

Very much an issues novel, this was just ok for me. Not horrible, but not one I‘ll remember for long. One of my April #ReadYourKobo selections. @CBee

May‘s picks for #readYourKobo. We‘ll see how many I actually get to this month. 🙄

Mini book haul. My husband was playing an outdoor gig and there was a church yard sale going on next door, so I _had_ to go visit it, right?

Caleb Carr is weird, but he loved his cat, a beautiful Siberian Forest Cat, who survived some truly amazing adventures. For my book club this month, and I‘m curious to hear what others have to say about it.(Pictured is my beloved monster.)

@Sace See what I mean?

Does anyone know how to get StoryGraph to graph books by year of publication without entering that as a tag? The date is part of the information they show about each book so it seems like there ought to be a way, but I‘m not finding instructions anywhere. Thanks. #storygraph

Thanks for the reminder @CBee ! Here‘s my list for May. #readyourkobo

1. Yes, 2,894 currently, but I have a book on order, so . . .
2. Highly recommend the tagged book! If you want to play, consider yourself tagged. #two4Tuesday
@TheSpineView

I can honestly say this is the first string quartet with didgeridoo I‘ve ever heard. And the first Sculthorpe. Not really good for “background music at work” today, what with the barking and all. 😀

Here‘s my I-can‘t-believe-it‘s-almost May #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

Hilarious without being trivial; factual without being stuffy. If you like Mitchell, or history, or things English, you should read this book. If you don‘t like those things, you should read this book and maybe you would. Favorite quote below.

I loved this short novel so much that I bought another of Wolff‘s. Masquerading as a coming-of-age story, it is really about truth and honor and identity. The prose is sublime and the characters so true I had to double check that it was a novel, not a mémoire. #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

Went to get our Senior Lifetime Park passes, and we were so close to Pittsboro we couldn‘t resist stopping at Circle City Books. (And the chocolate shop next door.) #sorrynotsorry

Loving this novel, which is deep and quiet and thoughtful. Just my type of book.

A birthday present from my Mom who taught me to love birdwatching, this is a lovely memoir, nature observation, artwork filled book. The birds are west coast species which reminded me of my years in Utah. Tan‘s imagination comes through too. A restful book. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

What a way to grow up! For a guy who had so much trying to hold him back - apartheid, poverty, abusive step-father - he has gone far. But this isn‘t a “look what I did” book. It‘s a love letter to his mother. #readyourkobo @CBee

This is one of those historical novels I‘m glad exists because it brought a historical figure to my notice. And I finished it because it‘s for book club. But there were no sentences than sang to me, and the characters didn‘t quite come to life as of their time. Not many anachronisms I could be sure of (notable exception- a counter in a kitchen, which would have had a table and perhaps other furniture, but nothing built in.) 👇🏻

Not a recipe from the tagged book, but I went to the farmers market today, and it‘s supposed to get cold again this week, so I made soup. Now I don‘t have to think about dinner.

I started this because the author was born at the same time and place as one of my great great grandfathers, but their lives have moved in different directions and there‘s still a are still literally hundreds of pages of self-congratulatory florid prose to go. I‘m bailing so I can remove it from my profile!

An in-depth look at the making of the movie version of The Color Purple, rather than the author memoir I was expecting. I enjoyed this look into Walker‘s psyche. I confess I never saw the movie (we were young and poor in the late 80s and didn‘t go out much) but 👇🏻

While I‘m preparing for April, here‘s my #ReadYourKobo list for April.

April #bookspin, homeless books edition. These are all books that don‘t have homes on my shelves, with the exception of one that‘s for my in-person book club. @TheAromaofBooks

Such melodrama! With hints of #Clarissa, except the heroine is less good. The villain is a caricature and the hero is not particularly appealing. But it did keep me reading and there were moments of humor, so I‘ll give it a weak pick. #readyourKobo @CBee

More a memoir than an instruction manual, but a heartening and inspiring book for our times. #BeBrave Thanks for coming along for the ride @kspenmoll @Deblovestoread @Bookwormjillk

I‘d say 99% of this book is silly foolishness, poking fun at the “bright young things” and the establishment equally, but that last 1%, the final chapter, is pretty grim Chastity‘s fate was unsurprising but still sad, and Adam ends up just as poor and aimlessly as he began. But for 99% of the book it was just the laugh I needed.

How‘s everyone doing with this? I‘m six chapters in, and I think the title might have been more accurate if it were Learning to Be Brave. I‘m enjoying reading about Bishop Budde‘s journey, but I was hoping for more practical advice, I guess. Thoughts? #BeBrave @kspenmoll @Deblovestoread @Bookwormjillk

This morning we welcome Wynn Ashley, our third grandchild and our son‘s second daughter. She‘s my reason for hope and a way to find beauty in this world. Which is much needed right now!

Twenty pages in and already laughing out loud.

Random House started out by acquiring The Modern Library, so it seems appropriate to picture this memoir alongside my ML collection. I enjoyed Cerf‘s meandering reminiscences and the advantage of knowing which of his authors is still read and which not doesn‘t detract a bit. His humor isn‘t mean, even when “telling tales” on famous people, and it was a dose of lightheartedness I very much needed. And #letterA for #LitsyAtoZ & #doublrspin.

For everything you criticize, I challenge you to offer at least one suggestion for making it better.”
#BeBrave @kspenmoll @Deblovestoread @Bookwormjillk

My husband took me to a book sale about an hour from here for my birthday. The tagged book was a present from my sister, and the rest are the #bookhaul from the sale. And my daughter gave me a bookshop.com gift card, so I am a happy camper today!

I‘ve read the intro and first two chapters already, so I am not going to be able to stretch this out over the 40 days of Lent. 🙂 Thurman is an author/theologian I have read, but Buddy is adding to my list with other quotes and references, so I still think it a good Lenten choice. The above quote succinctly expresses my frustration with the “Christian” Right and its co-opting of Jesus. Any thoughts yet? @kspenmoll @Deblovestoread @Bookwormjillk

My Lenten discipline this year involves reading this book. Would anyone like to join me in a very unstructured buddy read? Let me know and I‘ll tag you in my posts. #BeBrave

It‘s here! My #kobo came today, and I started East Lynn for my #readyourKobo I can‘t believe how light it is! @CBee
Getting definite #Clarissa vibes from this one, and I‘m only 3% in.

I needed more humor and less thriller, so reading my #doublespin before my #bookspin this month. Also #letterA for #LitsyAtoZ. @TheAromaofBooks @Texreader

Amélie is expressing my opinion of the ending. An early novel, this shows the promise of what Cash will become. But it‘s not there yet. It does a great job of evoking its place, and I want to love some of the characters. But they‘re not totally believable. Still a good escapist read. It‘ll be interesting to hear my non southern book club members‘ opinions. #LetterL #LitsyAtoZ @Texreader

Loved the Kyrie this morning! Although I can‘t say the same for Ockeghem‘s hat. 😂 @AnnCecilie @kspenmoll

My February stats. Proud Shoes was the highest ranked, but the tagged book is so important right now.

My #readyourebooks list is ready, now that I‘ve downloaded and converted my ebooks. @CBee

I took the final steps today to totally disconnect from Amazon. #kobo on the way. #HitThemWhereItHurts #resist

There‘s a lot to unpack in this slim novel, and I will be puzzling on it for a while. Sparkling bits of humor and quirky characters set against personal tragedy and absurd yet unsettling politics make this a dense read. Beautiful writing and the ability to portray a very different time and place make this worth the effort.

Calling all #Kobo users! I‘m switching away from Amazon (and all the oligarchs) so I‘m ditching my Kindle Paperwhite and looking for a Kobo. Which one do you like best, and why? My preference is for lightweight and small enough to fit in a purse, but I‘m flexible. Convince me that your version is the best one. 😀

Just going to leave that there. 😂

The writing was very stilted feeling, who‘s is perhaps more on the translator than the author, but I lost interest 17% in.

Here‘s my #bookspin for March, trying to fill in some #litsyatoz prompts at the same time. 😀 @TheAromaofBooks @Texreader

WTF did I just read? This seemed like it should have been a poem instead of a 434 page novel, as it was all symbolism and no plot or character development. Unless you read Spanish, French, and German (with a little Latin) reading it on a device with translation capability is helpful. And a knowledge of Peter Loree‘s filmography, post-WWII politics, and Mexican geography would also be helpful. Glad I pushed through and finished, but 👇🏻

Pauli Murray - lawyer, civil rights activist, Episcopal priest, poet, friend of Eleanor Roosevelt - grew up in Durham NC. This is the story of her grandparents and great grandparents, their different backgrounds and races, and particularly their time between the war and Jim Crow when people thought it was going to be a more direct route to equality. Highly recommend. It‘s engagingly written and immersed me in her world.

Beautiful writing, without any sensationalism or exaggeration, telling what it was like to live through 1943 & 44 in Italy, first far enough from the fighting to be considered a safe place to evacuate children, then literally the front lines. Fleeing at a moments notice, on foot, with 4 infants, 23 children under 10, and various adults. Dealing with partisans, fascists and Germans, all armed, all wanting to take whatever food, clothes etc.

We have no room on our bookshelves, but also no self-control. 😂 We spent this rainy day in two secondhand book stores and came away with these treasures. #bookhaul