This book overtly states from the beginning that it is not one of those transcendent “kid dying of cancer” books, and it isn‘t. Main character Greg is a hopelessly awkward not quite lovable goofball who finds his social strategy of being universally forgettable destroyed when forced by his mom to re-befriend Rachel, a girl fighting leukemia. The book is funny, honest, but also so unsentimental that the driving tragedy of it seems hollow.

Honestly this book was a bit insane, and I loved it. Romance author Jenn Lanaro finds herself at loose ends when her marriage fails. She absconds with her screen addicted children to the beach town where she grew up, determined to “win points” in the divorce. Chaos unfolds as her childhood best friend emerges from the waves and sea monsters good and bad arrive on scene. Jane does a beautiful job of marrying the honest and the absurd. ⬇️

Wrote my list weeks ago, numbers were drawn last week. Guess there‘s no time like the present to remember to actually *post* my March #bookspin list! 😆

This is a challenging read about racism, bias, and ethics featuring Ruth, an L&D nurse who, caught between her white supremacist patient‘s wishes for her not to care for their son and the baby‘s urgent need for treatment, finds herself accused in the face of the baby‘s death. Picoult explores the perspectives of Ruth, her white public defender, and the baby‘s hateful father. ⬇️

I‘m hit or miss with short stories, but I enjoyed this collection. Donoghue imagines and brings to life moments in the lives of real people from actual historical accounts. The stories were excellent and being given a window into the historical inspiration for each made them even better. Paperback shown here but I actually enjoyed the audiobook which featured different narrators for the different stories to great effect.

This is a sweet cozy fantasy about 3 seer sisters who run a tearoom where they read tea leaves for their customers. Positive the tearoom and home is their future, all 3 are surprised to find themselves called to different pursuits just when it seems they most need to be united to the job of helping elder witches find their life tasks. Leans hard on the “failure to communicate” trope but is ultimately a satisfying story about finding your own path.

Eddie is an African immigrant in London who has written a tour de force of a play about the immigrant experience but can‘t get in the door at any agencies. Hugo is a white guy feeling stifled by his future in law. When the two strike up a friendship that has Hugo posing as the playwright, will it be a success or will it spin out of control? The answer is…yes. ⬇️

Cressida, a fashion designer; her spoiled niece Violet; and Grace, the vicar‘s daughter are thrown together when Cressida‘s home and fashion house are bombed in the Blitz. The three come together with other local women to repair wedding dresses to be shared by women impacted by rations. It‘s a sweet story with a strong message of choosing to live the life you want but the focus on romance made it a bit too twee and predictable for my tastes.

My neglected Kindle got a turn with January‘s #doublespin - I thought this got off to a great start, a pitch perfect modern urban fairytale. Then it became a more pedestrian story of the early days of parenthood. Just when I thought it was about to lose me, the dark fairytale came back with a vengeance. LaValle peels back modern day New York to reveal timeless evil with a few plot twists I wasn‘t expecting. Glad I persevered for this unique read!

Almost forgot my February #BookSpin list!

Finally, my first SJM! I liked it but I didn‘t love it as much as everyone seems to. In the first 300 pages, despite mysterious killings in the castle and death defying tests for Celaena to become the king‘s champion, there seems to be no narrative urgency. Not to mention the idiosyncrasies of mentioning our heroine causing her door hinges to squeak as protection but then being surprised by everyone stopping in unannounced for pages afterward. ⬇️

Was not expecting this to be my favorite book of the month so far. This story about an autodidactic Cuddle Bunny robot bought by the mercurial Doug for his pleasure made my skin crawl from the start. Annie is intelligent but childlike as she learns, and Doug‘s jealousy and self-loathing make him casually abusive. Exploring dynamics of AI, ownership, and humanity, this book could have gone a lot of ways but I‘m glad ultimately went the way it did.

Listening to Lindy West roast the hit movies of my young adulthood was hilarious. I often found myself cackling, regardless of whether I‘d actually seen the movie in question or not. 100% recommend listening to the audiobook. West narrates and it‘s that much funnier for it. My first read for #auldlangspine - thanks @thebacklistbook 🙂

Got off to a rolling start with #bookspin for the year by bailing out of this book (and so also the series) after only 60 pages. So much multi POV angst and so little action. I read YA because it tends to hook me sooner and read faster but this was not doing the job. I‘m sad the second book didn‘t live up to the promise of The Beautiful, but other than that, I think I‘m good with moving on from this series.

Jane Flanagan returns home to Maine to lick her wounds after steamrolling her life and career while under the influence. There she reckons with her mom‘s recent death, her family‘s legacy of alcoholism, and the unexpected history of a house she “adopted” as a teen. There is a lot going on in this book between Jane‘s story, diversions into indigenous history, and first person deep dives into historical characters with connections to the house. ⬇️

Once a builder and a family man, Tom Lowe Jr finds himself approaching rock bottom after falling from a roof. Unable to work, Tom lost his wife and his son as he spiraled into addiction and has crash landed in subsidized housing feeling angry and useless. When the bottom rises up to meet him, Tom…bounces. With his eyes opened to the people around him, he begins to learn to play the hand he was dealt. ⬇️

I got a bookish planner for Christmas that has one perfect blank lined page for each month to use for my #bookspin list. It‘s like it was meant to be. I‘m all listed and ready for January‘s spin!

Finished this book on Christmas Eve and it was a good end of year book. It is a gently told story of Irish immigrant Eilis Lacey who seems to passively greet most of the happenings in her life, both good and bad. While she can be frustrating at times, I think that‘s because Toibin draws her so realistically, flaws and all. His writing is utterly absorbing and made Eilis‘s experience very vivid. I think the sequel will find its way onto my TBR!

Infamous hitmen Charlie and Eli Sisters have been sent by the Commodore to dispatch one Hermann Kermit Warm, but on the way Eli begins to have an existential crisis. Finding himself with empathy for his bum horse, Tub, and a growing conviction that he might better enjoy life as a shopkeeper, Eli considers retirement. An unexpected final reckoning might make the choice for him. Richly drawn characters and a dose of dark humor make this one shine.

Made quick work of my December #bookspin pick by…not finishing it. I knew this was headed for the DNF pile when I had to look up 10 words in the first few pages, and the unstable mother displayed a penchant for speaking in Shakespeare quotes. I have nothing against learning new words, but it felt very much like a book that was going to prioritize style over story, and I just don‘t have the energy for that kind of thing right now. Next!

Evie Porter, professional imposter and con artist finds herself on a job that feels different than those that came before. When it starts to unravel, she has to cook up a scheme not just to save the job but also herself. This is a fun, twisty thriller that weaves around in the time of Evie‘s employ for the shady Mr. Smith and kept me guessing all the while. Recommended!

I really enjoyed this book about intrepid Jean Paget who leads a group of imprisoned women around wartime Malaya, comes into some money, and makes a life for herself in Australia. This is a quiet love story, but mostly Jean‘s story, and you can‘t help but root for this practical, can-do character who in building a life for herself also builds a town for her life.

I missed a tag from @Sace last week, so it‘s #SundayFunday today instead. In a brick & mortar store, I‘m definitely a browser. My immediate area is sadly bereft of indie bookstores so whenever I‘m out vacationing in the world, I try to patronize the indies I don‘t have and will pick up whatever sounds good or they recommend. I actually picked up a copy of Orbital from a store rec early this year before it started getting all its award attention!

Excited to be participating in #AuldLangSpine this for the first time. I usually miss the sign ups and then get all jealous of everybody and their fun lists, but I have a fun list of my own this year from @thebacklistbook ! I think this may be the nudge I need to finally start reading the Throne of Glass series. I‘ll have to start with # 1 but hopefully will make my way to # 3 later in 2025! ⬇️

It has definitely been the autumn of the audio YA. I promise I‘ve read some books written for grown-ups, too. 😆 I LOVED this one. Emoni is a strong, well-written character - a single teen mom trying to figure out her future. I loved her voice and her journey of following her dreams, however difficult, and learning how to balance them with her reality. Highly recommended!

I‘m not sure how this happened, but it appears it‘s already time for the final #bookspin list of the year. I love using this one to get “surprised” by my own TBR pile so it‘s no big shock that I‘ve read most of my picks this year. Hoping for another 2 good ones to wrap up the year. Thanks again to @TheAromaofBooks for hosting! 😀

Separated from his mother and twin brother in childhood, Li Jun and his father are exiled from a land where martial arts are restricted to a land filled with schools who hope to win glory by training the Guardian of the Scroll, the best martial artist in the country. Jun defies his father to compete and finds himself entangled in power struggles beyond his imagining. This is a good if unevenly paced start to a new series. Hits shelves Jan 2025.

Many thanks to @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks for this great little collection of books from her fill a box giveaway! Looking forward to some excellent reading. Thanks so much!! ❤️

Hazel and Ben live in Fairfold where humans and fae live side by side and a mysterious fae boy sleeps in an impenetrable glass coffin. When someone frees the boy, Ben and Hazel and their friend Jack, a changeling, are pulled into a fae battle for power, and the secrets they keep from each other and themselves may prove deadly. Loved the main characters, the rich imagining of a town rich in fae magic, and the new love stories for both characters.

When Hannah‘s husband Owen disappears, leaving her with her stepdaughter, Bailey, and a cryptic note saying, “Protect her,” Hannah is plunged into the high stakes mystery of husband‘s hidden past. Heavy with suspense and claustrophobic with “who can I trust?” anxiety, Dave has written an engaging thriller with believable protagonists in Hannah and Bailey, who are learning to navigate each other while uncovering the secrets of the past. #BOTM

Almost time for the next #bookspin - here‘s my list!

Finch Nobles was burned badly as a child and as an adult lives alone as caretaker of her parents‘ graveyard with only the dead for company. But what company they are - oddly lively and vivid, Reynolds‘ dead manage nature while they tell their stories and wait to get light enough to rise. Atmospheric, mysterious, with a unique main character who is prickly but lovable, this short book made for an unexpectedly good spooky season read. #bookspin

On a planet overwhelmed by climate catastrophe, 3 children search for their aunt after their parents disappear from their dying seaside village. Their mother is stolen into slavery for a society of sun worshippers. A man is forced to abandon scholarship to take on his father‘s legacy of wool production to earn a ticket to escape the drought stricken city. After Whiskey When We‘re Dry, I was hoping for another powerful character study. ⬇️

What a sweet story about hapless, rule-abiding Linus Baker who gets sent on a four week assignment by the Department in Charge of Magical Youth to an island with a most unusual orphanage. As he observes and engages with the island‘s unique denizens he finds unexpected joy, acceptance, and himself. The messaging is heavy handed at times, but I fell in love with the characters and this feel-good story of found family and choosing the life you want.

Trying a little something different for October #bookspin These are officially the oldest 20 books on my TBR. I figure it‘s about time they either get read or get re-homed before they‘ve officially been on my bookshelf for an amount of years that‘s too embarrassing to admit. Or maybe they‘ve already achieved that dubious honor… 😬

This is the most immersive book I‘ve read in a long time. Kapoor brings modern India to life with the haves, have nots, and those who have way too much. Starting with one tragic event, Kapoor peels off many layers of the story surrounding that event from the perspectives of several characters, which is something I love in a book. Characters who are not necessarily lovable but real are another and Age of Vice is full of these. Lives up to the hype!

Trying to read on vacation, but the lovely scenery is so distracting! 📚🤷🏻‍♀️

Actually *reading* some of my books from #BOTM this year. This was a beautiful story about connection and healing for two families struck by tragedy who find their stories being unexpectedly interwoven. Big thoughts about time and space and our place in them wrapped up in a very human story. 4.5 ⭐️ August #doublespin

Time marches on and here is September #bookspin

This book was a surprise. First, that the story of Willis Wu, a “generic Asian man” who dreams of being “King Fu Guy” is written in script format. Second, that the format proves so adept at weaving fiction with reality and humanity with stereotype. Yu draws out the Asian immigrant experience with humor and insight in this creative format that will have you hoping that Willis finds his way out of being generic Asian man and into being so much more.

Stranger is a damaged character seeking redemption for himself by making the clients who rent his time happy. When a client threatens to upend his carefully constructed set of rental identities, he is forced onto a collision course with…himself. Well-written but a bit soulless, this is a book that has something to say about relationships and the risk and value of love. This is not the fluffy book the cover would lead you to expect. Soft pick.

This might be my token romance read for the year, and it was a winner. A sweet friends to lovers romance about Poppy and Alex, polar opposites who become friends in college and vacation together every year. Loved the summer flashbacks, the sense of humor, the slow build-up of romantic tension, and the extra depth of both characters unpacking the emotional baggage that‘s been holding them back. Super satisfying!

Got both my #bookspin and #doublespin for July read. Guess that means it‘s time for a new list!

This book written by a therapist about 5 of her patients who survived jaw-droppingly horrible childhoods was fascinating. Gildiner illustrates the therapeutic process with skill and honesty about her own failures and struggles in the process. These are some very powerful stories well-told. #bookspin

Agh, I‘m so behind on my reviews, but I finally finished the Red Queen series. The finale wasn‘t perfect but it was a fitting end. There were some added POVs that didn‘t seem to add much, but I loved getting into Evangeline‘s head and her arc. I loved the depth of Aveyard‘s world building and how she didn‘t shy away from politics and strategy to make it all about romance, but the romance piece was still nicely done and realistic. Great series!

When you skip two months of #botm to “get a handle on things,” and then here comes this month…. 🏔️📚🤦‍♀️

#BookSpin July!

A serial killer thriller that reminded me of a Criminal Minds episode, except that it is layered with the story of Titus, former FBI agent turned sheriff of his SE Virginia county. Racism still runs rampant there, complicating the lives of its citizens and its first Black sheriff. Except for a little bit of overdone prose at the beginning, I was totally wrapped up in this twisty, turny thriller with its nuanced MC and stayed up late to finish!

Vampires were so huge in YA for a while, and it turns out I missed them! Ahdieh brings 1870s New Orleans to life as equal parts danger and excitement. Impetuous Celine, arriving from Paris, hopes for a fresh start but instead finds herself courting danger and followed by murder. She is a bold, clever MC and her romance with the smoldering Bastien has the perfect amount of tension. The ending felt a little sloppy, but I‘m still on board for book 2.

Denton Little is about to die, but it‘s OK, he‘s always known his life will be short because everyone knows their deathdate. When a strange man appears at his funeral and a purple splotch on his leg goes rogue, Denton‘s carefully planned death festivities take a wild turn. I‘m glad I listened to this. The author does a great job with the narration, and I think the format kept me from taking it too seriously. A fun romp of a book! May #doublespin