Carter Bays has a true gift for telling a story that zigs and zags and weaves through a large cast of characters. When you think there's no way all the plot points will tie together, they do. This book is a glorious look into what it meant to be a human in 2015 and the specific idiosyncrasies of being a human online and on a phone in 2015. A comedy of manners that has Buddhist monks, AI, model trains, and political intrigue, what more do you need?

This book takes time travel tropes and makes something new, not an easy task. Emma Straub has added to that canon in a profound and beautiful way. This book touched me more deeply than I could've imagined.

Aaaaaahhhh, this book wrecked me! It is a love letter to gaming, friendship, and collaboration. It's messy, sad, brilliant, and beautiful. It made me laugh, it made me weep, it really made me want to play Donkey Kong in a pizza place. I loved how the narrative style changed to reflect the state of Sam and Sadie's evolving relationship. Sometimes how the story was told was as important as what the story was.

Book club reading commitments are done for the month, now I can focus on some ARCs.

It‘s time for the Savannah Book Festival again and yesterday I had the pleasure of escorting Mateo to speak at a local Savannah school. He‘s a true delight and the kids loved every minute of it.

Just so much yes

Another fluffy mystery series centered around Jane Austen, but other than a couple of references to events and people in Jane's life, this could really be any generic regency mystery. The inclusion of Jane Austen prompted me to read it, but it really has very little to do with her. A few of the twists were easy to figure out and the villain reveal was a little ridiculous, but I was entertained and that's all I was looking for from this.

Birthday done right

My favorite decade in essays by one of my favorite writers…pure catnip!

Who waited until a week before book club to start this 500+ page beast? Guilty…

A lazy Sunday with Jane Austen and my reading buddy, Prudence = perfection.

After having to cancel our event with him last year due to Covid, finally got the honor of hosting Grady Hendrix. Do yourself a favor and find out when he‘ll be in your town. He‘s so much fun!

This is the type of history book that I love. It's easy to digest, written in an anecdotal style and I learned several things I didn't know. In a homage to Travels with Charley, Philbrick takes his dog, Dora, (and his wife, Melissa) along for his recreation of Washington's tour of the country. He paints a full picture of Washington and the founding fathers, not glossing over their flaws but instead portraying them as men doing the best they could.

My god, she‘s brilliant.

I'm definitely late to the party, finally reading this now. It's hard to think of what to say about this book that so seamlessly entangles fiction and nonfiction, philosophy and physics, life and death. This was a book so unlike anything I've read before. It was challenging and enchanting.I'm not sure I've encountered a book that has such beautiful moments set against such disturbing descriptions of bullying and suicide.

Myrtle‘s best investigation to date. I loved learning more about Myrtle‘s mum and can we talk about the cover? Miss Judson!!

Rereading this this weekend for next week‘s Jane Austen book club. I thoroughly enjoy this series, it‘s just light and fun.

The Secret Garden meets Stardust is a pretty accurate description, but throw in the creepy factor of Coraline and you get Gallant. This wasn‘t an original idea but Victoria Schwab‘s writing always grabs me.

The one bonus to finally reading a book you had on your shelves since 2014 (the receipt was still inside) is that the follow up is already out. Instant gratification…7 years in the making.

I basically loved everything about this book. It was everything I wanted it to be.

This just isn‘t for me right now.

I absolutely adore the Timmy Failure series and this graphic novel is everything I hoped it would be and more. It‘s ridiculous, it hilarious, and there are nods to Pastis‘ other work. The world need more squirrels helping chihuahuas and cats find true love. ❤️

All my book club commitments are up to date so I can sneak in some ARCs

For this month‘s Jane Austen book club

Finally have had a few days away from work and responsibilities so I‘m getting to read things that I‘ve been looking forward to.

This was just simply delightful.

“At last it‘s time and you file in to watch the contact video.”
#FirstLineFridays

This month‘s sci-fi & fantasy book club pick

This arrived today and I‘m stoked.

For this month‘s sci-fi & fantasy book club.

I‘ve been slacking on this round of #lpmbc

Finally getting started…

For this month‘s Tequila Mockingbird book club. I find myself appreciating Hemingway now that I‘m older. I really disliked all of his books when I read them in my late teens and early twenties.

For this month‘s graphic novel book club.

I‘m going to be in conversation with Ruth in a couple of weeks for the Savannah Book Festival so I‘m reading through her work. I thought this was good for a debut. I knew who the bad guy was pretty early on, but enjoyed learning the why. This was also a nice take on the unreliable narrator.

Grady Hendrix is back with another unique take on the horror genre this time giving agency to final girls, the last one standing in murder sprees that have inspired slasher flicks franchises. Grady has a unique talent for writing believable female relationships and the idea of all of these women being in group therapy with each other is fascinating. I definitely did not see the twisty ending coming.

One of the things I really love about science fiction is the ability to explore issues in a way that almost feels safer than in regular fiction. This book takes the emotional intensity of the refugee situation presented in Moshin Hamid's Exit West and ups the magical realism to full blown alternate realities. This is a book that I'll be thinking about for a long time and will need to sit with for a while to really process.

Grady‘s books are always a good time and he‘s just a nice human so I‘m excited to dive into this ARC

This book isn't what it appears to be on the surface, its much more. From the brilliant structure, where the present day portions happen over the course of just one day and the quick jumps back and forth to pivotal moments in both Elle and Wallace's lives, to the handling of some really dark topics, this book won't let you put it down. I found the ending to be really interestingly ambiguous. Miranda Cowley Heller knows how to tell a story.

A perfect Saturday with perfect reading buddies

April‘s Tequila Mockingbird book club pick is my first ever Forster.

Hoping to get this finished to meet the Indie Next deadline on the 29th...

Now onto this month‘s Jane Austen book club pick for Tuesday

Time got away from me and I ended up having to read this month‘s sci-fi and fantasy book club 517 page pick in a day. Fortunately, I really enjoyed it! Great world building and interesting characters made this fly by.

Yep, incredibly weird. Most of this just did not work for me. I did love Ellis‘s dads, Gus and Steve, and their rubber ducky designs though.

I promised one of our sales reps that I‘d read this even though it sounds extremely weird.

I'm not sure why I went into this expecting a lighthearted romp, this book is not that. It's packed with well-researched history and broken characters. This was not the story I expected, it was much better.

Been eagerly anticipating this one!

This one had me laughing out loud so much, my husband decided to read it after me based solely on that. Jen Spyra is clearly a disturbed individual in the best possible way.

I‘m not sure how I feel about a book where Joe Goldberg is seemingly the most well-adjusted person in it.

What a weird and hard to define, yet fascinating book. Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is part memoir, part treatise on loss, part nature essay, and part history book all wrapped up in one slim volume. Frank's writing is beautiful and evocative, and the story he tells is heartbreaking.