This YA series has been a bright spot in my reading year. Artistic Marguerite, who has spent her childhood surrounded by scientists, travels the multiverse with technology developed by her parents and their two (of course) handsome research assistants. The world-building is a bit fragile at times but I loved the glimpse into each universe Gray created along with a romance angle that digs into fate, destiny, and ethics in tightly nested universes.

What a well-drawn character is Stevens! This is a bit of a somber, reflective story of a man in the twilight of his career who sacrificed everything to serve as butler in the house of a great man. As he takes an unusual vacation to reconnect with a former housekeeper, Stevens reflects on matters of dignity and greatness and wonders if it was worth it. This reads like a classic in the best kind of way. #authoramonth #bookspin

An eerie thriller that mixes science, bioethics, and murder - this scratched a fictional niche itch I didn‘t even know I had. What happens when a wife, famous for perfecting cloning technology loses her husband to a clone …of herself? How deep do secrets go when that tech is misused? Xe Sands narrates in an emotionless way that emphasizes the main character‘s predominantly analytical nature which adds to the eerie mood of the book. Excellent!

My pre-Paris read. I didn‘t love it. think maybe I was expecting it to go a certain way and the way it went was actually weirder. When Pierre-Francois Chaumont purchases a portrait of a man who bears a striking resemblance to himself, he is disappointed that his loved ones don‘t see the resemblance. Soon his life as he knew it unravels, but the portrait‘s secret may lead him into a different life altogether. Well written but a bit unbelievable.

November #bookspin

An interesting Hawaiian mystery with a main character who is a distinct callback to Miss Marple. While it did a good job of digging into indigenous issues and had a great suspicious cast of characters, the pacing of the plot felt a little off which made the mystery reveal a little unsatisfying. #netgalley #bookspin

I actually switched the hard copy for audio and enjoyed listening to David Sedaris read. His humor is a little quirky and I think hearing it definitely adds something. At first I thought it was a little *too* quirky but by the time he arrived in France and began to struggle with the language, I was rolling. There will definitely be more Sedaris books in my future!

I‘m not ready! I still have 100 pages to go in my September #bookspin and it‘s already time for October! 😱 Anyhow, here‘s my list. Here‘s hoping I find a way to catch up in this busy month!

This novella featuring a girl from a reclusive, homebound people leaving home to accept a place at an intergalactic university has a sympathetic, unique main character and great world building. My only complaint is that the conflict seems to resolve altogether too easily. #authoramonth

Found a good reading spot in our vacation rental. 😁

One of the characters mentions that people‘s pasts are more interesting than their futures, and this book is told with that in mind, introducing the characters after World War II and telling their stories in reverse. I had mixed feelings about this format, but Waters‘ writing is, as always, in top form, her many characters and often bombed late-war London are brought vividly to life.

Happy September! Here‘s my #bookspin list.

My copy included I Am Legend and some short stories. I Am Legend is supposed to be the star, but I found Matheson‘s take on a vampire story to be kind of tedious. The short stories had some highlights including Mad House about a house that becomes so destabilized by its owner‘s anger that horror unfolds. Young girls conduct a war of the imagination in Witch War, and the narrator of Dress of White Silk is a perfect blend of innocent and scary.

This is a quietly told story of an American professor and his Italian family who are living out their days in a dying town. Hugh, still grieving the loss of his mother and wife, welcomes his Italian sabbatical but finds himself pulled into family drama as the mystery of his grandfather‘s death reveals itself and the town‘s dark World War II legacy comes to light. A good story, but it‘s the subtle beauty of the writing that makes it sing. #bookspin

This was OK, but I didn‘t love it like I expected to and I‘m having a hard time pinpointing way. The writing was good, the audiobook narration is great, but maybe there was just too much going on? It markets itself as an immigrant story and is one, but the focus quickly moves to Detroit, abuse, crime, racism, police violence, etc. so maybe it was just all a little much going on to make a cohesive, satisfying whole? Still a soft pick.

Aww, hey, look, it‘s my Litsyversary! 💗

Somebody needs to slow this year down. How am I already posting a #BookSpin list for *August*??

Loved the premise of this one. The main character‘s best friend disappeared from her hometown, La Cachette, a bayou backwater that is the refuge of an enclave of psychics. Each character had a unique psychic power. Grey‘s return the summer after Elora‘s disappearance is welcome but also fraught with mystery and grief. Sain brings the town and its secretive denizens vividly to life, and I couldn‘t put it down until the mystery was revealed.

Iris answers the phone one day to find that she is the family contact for her grandmother‘s sister, Esme, who she has never heard of and has been institutionalized for most of her life. From the points of view of Iris, Esme, and Esme‘s sister Kitty who is partially lost to dementia, O‘Farrell peels layer after layer from characters until their heartbreaking stories are laid bear. Love Maggie O‘Farrell and the way she tells stories. #authoramonth

My #doublespin for this month is a bail. Wooden characters and a weird attention to detail in describing bodily functions with no actual reason for it. 🤔 Next!

Jury‘s still out on the book, but I love the epigraph! 💕📚

#BookSpin chose for me this very advance NetGalley that comes out March ‘24. It‘s the sweet story of a girl with VACTERLs learning how to blend her would-be “normal” life with her actual normal life with the disability. Lots of important stuff here about autonomy, privacy, healthcare system failures, speaking up, and being heard embedded in a different sort of coming of age story with a narrator who is frustrating at times but also so believable.

I was ready to not like this one because I hate when a bunch of short stories get together, throw on a trench-coat, and pretend to be a novel. Luckily, these interconnected stories of people who are weathering life‘s struggles and tragedies but finding that bit of sweetness on the other side started getting to my heart in the last half. It‘s a little too on the nose at times, but both reads easily and captures the essence of being human. #bookspin

Loved getting immersed in the fantasy world of Camorr where Locke and his small gang of thieves use planning, wits, and humor to fleece the ruling class out of their money with elaborate schemes. A long book but a major page-turner as Lynch ratchets up the tension when Locke and his friends are faced with an enemy who wants to destroy the city‘s fragile peace. Great world-building, great characters, excellent read.

Haven‘t quite finished my June #bookspin and here it is already July. Hopefully I‘ll finish June‘s book tonight, and then I‘ll be ready to go for July‘s picks!

I liked but didn‘t love this historical offering from Christina Baker Kline. I enjoyed learning more about Australia‘s penal colony beginnings from the perspective of women sentenced to “transport.” Kline made a bold and unexpected narrative choice around the midpoint of the book and I…didn‘t love it. A good and enlightening read, but that weird choice about where to take the story makes this a soft pick for me.

Ah, it‘s good to have the fresh air back. The Lies of Locke Lamora is probably the longest book I have attempted to read in quite a long while, but I‘m definitely enjoying it so far!

Review is late but I did manage to finish this 18 hour audio tome for last month‘s #bookspin and #aam

Larson covers the first year of Churchill‘s leadership and the British experience of World War II in all encompassing detail from a surfeit of primary sources. Larson‘s writing is approachable and paints a compelling portrait of Churchill in the context of the Blitz. Did I enjoy this? Yes. Was 18 hours of it a bit much? Also yes.

June #bookspin

This was a surprise hit for me. Each of the members of the dysfunctional Rabbit family is desperate to be seen and understood. When middle son Charlie vanishes, his family begins to spin out of control, each member stuck in their own bubble of pain, unable to connect. Overett draws realistic characters in the midst of such profound turmoil that it is almost painful to read, but the emotional payoff is worth every minute. #bookspin

A scared young Jewish boy growing up in Nazi Germany transforms, with boxing lessons, into a braver version of himself as conditions in Germany worsen. I didn‘t love this one, and I think it‘s because I felt no emotional connection to it. Its reach is limited by narrator Karl‘s naive, youthful perspective that, in my opinion, remains unrealistically naive even after what should be his coming of age.

Happy May! #bookspin

I‘m probably the last person alive to read this but if there are any of you left who haven‘t, believe the hype. Starr and her family members are all vivid characters living in a neighborhood that is dangerous but also home. Thomas manages to work the many layers of the US race and police violence issues into a story that leads to deeper understanding without ever being heavy handed or preachy. Bahni Turpin brings it home with fantastic narration.

This one was disappointing. I loved the concept of two people (a “hero” and a “villain”) with extraordinary powers meeting somewhere ordinary and becoming allies. The first half pulled me in. The second half dragged badly with reiterations of known information and pacing issues that made the finale anticlimactic. I also was never sure of the tone. The beginning was more serious but the end took aim at some humor that fell mostly flat. #bookspin

This is a sweet f/f romance with a bit of mystery, a vulnerable and lovable MC, and a great behind the scenes look at set design for movies. My one quibble is how much older than her age Emi seems, living nearly independently and fully employed in the movies despite just graduating high school. I‘ve discovered that I love Jorjeana Marie narrating first person YA narrators. She lends the MC the little extra innocence she needs to add realism.

This was a great story of Steinbeck‘s road trip around America. While it dances on the line between fiction and non-fiction, it succeeds beautifully in capturing both the essence of wanderlust and a telling snapshot in time of the US. At times I wished I had read this in print so that I could highlight some of its many memorable passages, but then I would have missed this excellent feat of narration by Gary Sinise. #AuthoraMonth

Happy April! I‘ve been doing pretty well with #bookspin this year so far. Here‘s my next list!

Is it weird that I didn‘t have many thoughts about this? Not much plot, and I didn‘t feel as if I knew the characters well. That said, it was very interesting as a glimpse into Nigerian Igbo way of life just before and just after the white colonialists began to force their ways upon them. Interestingly, Achebe doesn‘t obviously judge the Ibo or the Christians, only notes how easy it is for culture to fall apart when pressed. Soft pick. #bookspin

I loved parts of this book but it didn‘t come together as a whole. Domingue vividly imagines an afterlife for ghosts and shows us Razi‘s tragic history as she haunts another couple marked by tragedy. The intermingling of Razi‘s memories of her romance with Andrew in the 1920s with the present is deft. Unfortunately I cracked the twist earlier than expected and at times it seemed like overdone prose got in the way of the story. Soft pick. #bookspin

Wow, this is bizarre. This is the literary horror story of a piano prodigy who falls on hard times and ends up working for Holistik, a high end store for organic beauty products and treatments, only to discover the dark underbelly of a corporation focused on a singular “objective” standard of beauty and pursuing it at all costs. The writing has beautiful moments of profundity balanced with the grotesque. A #netgalley and my March #doublespin

Wow. I don‘t think I liked this quite as much as all the people raving about it, but it still definitely packs a punch. I found my jaw dropping as McCurdy recounted the stories of her mother‘s abuse masquerading as love and you can‘t help but root for her as she struggles to recover. Another one where the audio was definitely worth the wait on the library hold list.

I (like everyone?) loved this SO MUCH. The wise, trouble-making octopus, the older woman trying to determine what course her life should take after the death of her husband, the perennial screw-up searching for his mother and a place to belong. Pretty sure I clutched this book to my chest after weeping through the end of it, so if you‘re one of the four people who didn‘t read and love it last year, don‘t let it pass you by! 😜🐙📚

Still have a few more pages to finish my double spin from last month, but here it is already time to post a new #bookspin list!

I‘m starting to feel like Matthew Quick has a bit of a formula, and I like it. Person undergoes seriously traumatic event - person is lifted up by a whole unlikely community that cares for them. Pat Peoples lost years of his life and his wife to a trauma he can‘t recall but which leaves him ready to fight whenever he hears a Kenny G song. His family, an army of Eagles fans, and a woman recovering from trauma of her own help him heal. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I didn‘t love this quite as much as I was hoping to. Evelyn is a star who unabashedly does anything to get what she wants which often has the effect of making her difficult to like or even sympathize with. That said, I loved the old Hollywood setting, the many complex characters, and what feels like a very genuine depiction of a famous life that doesn‘t flinch away from the ugly parts. #AuthorAMonth

I finally actually *read* a Sarah Addison Allen book, instead of just collecting. A small town story about a magical family with a magical garden. This would have been a fluffy read were it not for the dark reason that Sydney returns to her hometown to embrace her sister, the emotionally damaged Claire, and the Waverley family legacy. Excellent characters and a lovely dose of magical realism make this one a winner!

Tom narrates his own memoir with self-deprecating humor. I thoroughly enjoyed the stories of his early acting career and the many on-set stories behind the scenes at Harry Potter. His honesty about his substance abuse and mental health problems and the stories of the people who helped him when he was hitting rock bottom put a bow on this excellent memoir. The audio was worth my long wait on the library hold list. I laughed, I cried. I loved it.

Sometimes I go to bargain bag day at the end of the library book sale. I do this, not to score a big bargain ($5 a bag!), but in hopes that I will find little or nothing I‘m interested in buying among the picked over remains, what with how my mortal life will probably end long before I‘ve read all the books I already own. Considering the stack pictured, it is safe to assume that this approach works for me approximately🤔…0% of the time. #BookHaul

I DNFed not one but two NetGalleys this week for just being…too weird. I feel bad not finishing, but there was a 0% chance of a good review for either and I‘m not getting any younger. Skull Water is a bit like reading a choppy, Korean folklore-centric fever dream and The Blade Between was both weird and I was so turned off by the introduction to the main character that I moved on pretty quickly. Blade Between is my #bookspin for Feb.

Anya lives in a Soviet factory town that spends much of the year in polar night until she gets her big break to train as a gymnast to bring glory to the motherland. Anya, her family, and friends are all compelling characters and this book exposes the dirty underbelly of state run sport that chews up athletes and spits them out, not to mention the perils of sacrificing everything for political ideals. Great read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️