What a stunning, thoughtful, exquisite gem of a book. Following the death of Emily Dickinson, the women in her orbit attempt to continue their lives amidst the shadow of grief. They live, love, and find small joys while finding their own ways to honour the woman they loved and admired, and to preserve her singular voice.

cont'd in comments

#CarolSheildsPrizeforFiction #Shortlist

Two sisters disappear from a city on the Kamchatka peninsula. Over the following year, the ripples from this event pass ever outwards through the lives of the women of this isolated landscape. This is not a traditional mystery, but rather a study of a place and its people, its women in particular, and the various ways violence - physical, sexual, societal, patriarchal - touch their lives. Beautifully, thoughtfully rendered.

cont'd in comments

When she thinks of Emily, Gilbert, or her cousin Sophia, who died at age fifteen, Lavinia sees them as they were in the spring or summer of their lives, carefree as puppies. But she knows that the truth is entirely different, more marvellous still; their fragile flesh has broken down, their bones are as smooth as piano keys, their hair is like spider silk, their hearts, their lungs, the whites of their eyes...

cont'd

When the book is just too good to stop, but you have to leave for school. Teaching kiddo the second how to read and walk safely.

#LikeMotherLikeSon #RaisingReaders

#WhereAreYouMonday @Cupcake12

I've been bone watching more than reading lately, my brain is just not up for it, but when I do read I'm loving this one, set on Russia's isolated Kamchatka Peninsula

📷 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky from The Lonely Planet

•What are your favorite genres? I always say Literary Fiction, because it's so vague I feel like I don't really have to decide. I like messy stories, grey areas, and people just trying their best.

•What are a few of your desert island reads? I'm a mood reader, so this is a bit of a torturous question. Becky Chambers' Robot and Monk books, The Bell Jar, Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, Hamnet, and Never Let Me Go

#BibliologistBio @monalyisha

Congrats on your milestone @dabbe so glad to have you as part of this community ❤️

I grounded my mood board with a forest, because that's where I always turn for grounding. And took inspiration from the local beavers who are knocking things down to build something new, the bright and hopeful first flowers of Spring, the wise words of Bill Watterson, and a cursing horse. And always, always tea in my tired hands.

#moodboardcontest #mbc

“Emily's poems are bolts of lightning, flashpoints on which Susan burns her hands and her eyes. She spends the morning and then the afternoon slowly reading them over, sometimes holding the same lines cupped in her palm for twenty, thirty minutes, squeezing so tight that she feels blood beating in her fingertips.
They form the short verses of a secret gospel. They are magic formulas...

cont'd

Definitely my favourite of the Brodie series so far. A train derailment, a critically injured Brodie, a missing woman with a past, and a teenager trying to find someone who will listen. I adored Reggie and Sadie :)

Slowly making my way towards @CarolynM's selection for #AuldLangSpine - two more to go until I'm ready for the Rook!

Totally cheating here, because I already posted my four nominees for #CampLitsy25 but I just read about this upcoming release and it sounds like such a great one to read with this wonderful group! So if I'm allowed to sneak in a fifth nomination....

@BarbaraBB @squirrelbrain @Megabooks

Forget Angel vs Spike. #TeamGiles Forever! Library Power!

Waiting on a washing machine repair tech (5 people in a house with a broken washing machine - the piles are taking over!). "Sometime between 9 and 1." I know I could be doing other chores, but it feels like if I start on something, I could be interrupted right away, so instead, I read.

Super excited for another year of #CampLitsy25 Thanks to the always wonderful hosts @BarbaraBB @Megabooks and @squirrelbrain

I was prepping my list earlier this week (it was a VERY quiet night at work), so I'm all set to go! Tagged one, will tag the others in the comments! Happy Camping! Can't wait to see what everyone nominates, apologies to my overloaded TBR 🤣🤣🤣

"Somewhere, in some Utopian nowhere, women walked without fear. Louise would sure like to see that place.

Give medals to all the women."

I had a rough day. So hubby is taking care of dinner with the kids, and I'm starting a new book with a giant tea... I might even have to go back for a second cup...

What a book. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. Wait has a gift for crafting complex and engrossing stories that really get under your skin and make you think and feel deeply.

Single mother Stephanie gets drawn into the fold of a self-proclaimed "Prophet" and brings her daughter, Judith, to live with his isolated cult. Cont'd in comments...

In my quest to catch up to Death at the Sign of the Rook before years end, I'm starting on the third Jackson Brodie title. So far, so good, but I have to ask: what's with all the 'J' names? Jackson, his ex wife Josie, his ex girl friend Julia, now Joanna (and her late siblings Jessica and Joseph). They're all a jumble in my brain!

"... the personal, intimate parts of people's lives matter every bit as much as the famous, dramatic, narrative defining ones."

Another wonderful selection from the #wpnf25 long list. An interesting, engaging history of the Viking Age told through everyday objects and everyday people. Barraclough's narration is excellent, I highly recommend the audio!

This book has such potential. I was fully invested in the beginning, in what seemed to be a family story of a group of complex women who have been taught to strive for wealth and position over genuine human connection and love. But the book seemed to stall after the first half. It just never went anywhere, there was not really any character development (and what was there, wasn't earned). In the end, I just don't get the purpose. #wp25

It was a good day to stop at Dollar Tree!!!

"I watch the four women I work with and it is like an epiphany, discovering a waterfall during a walk in the woods, witnessing a secret smile. The men pretend not to notice, but I take pleasure in it, better than any party. There is beauty in small but radical exposures. I remember the women at Kian's - those long-haired revolutionaries."

A beautiful little novella about connection, distance, familial love, the pull of home vs the joys and possibilities of independence. Thoughtful, lovely, bittersweet.

A daughter leaves home in Brazil to attend a small Liberal Arts college in Vermont. She speaks to her mother regularly over Skype, savouring those “blue light hours“, while beginning to picture the possibilities of a life in America, and asking how to exist in both lives at once

Yes! One of my local indie bookstores (tagged) runs amazing book events, and a wonderful festival, Book Drunkard, in the fall. I get to volunteer at a lot of the events, which include signings. So far I've met: Fredrik Backman, Ann-Marie MacDonald, David Robertson, CS Richardson, Michael Crummey, Alissa York, Holly Hogan, Heather O'Neill, and Jane Urquhart.

@BookmarkTavern #SundayFunday

It's very important to match your donut choices to your book covers 🤣🤣🤣

This is a book you could read seven times and get something new each time. A woman leaves her life behind to live a quiet life at a priory, although she herself doesn't share the nuns' religious beliefs. The beauty and solitude of her daily life are haunted by her past and her grief. The creeping, claustrophobic feelings presented by an infestation of mice on the property play with these themes and keep the reader as unsettled as the narrator.

An author in a writing/confidence/romance slump wakes up next to a dead body. Instead of calling the police, he calls his agent, and together they hatch a plan to move the body across NYC.

It is chaotic, thrilling, a little bit goofy, thoughtful, and ultimately just the right touch of sweet. A fun diversion that I very much needed!

"A heavy spring frost this morning. Crossing the grass I made a clean track of footprints, deep green on the white spread of the lawn. It returned me to my childhood, to the sense of secret authority, imprinting one's presence into a place with those clear, sharp prints. I exist. The private, pleasurable sound of the finest layer of ice breaking beneath the weight of each step."

The usual wilderness, over-the-top, wild and crazy, palate cleansing visit to Haven's Rock. Whipped through it in 24 hours.

Happy St Paddy's Day! ☘️☘️☘️

I started my day with a couple stories from the tagged while drinking tea my parents brought back from their last trip to Ireland 🇮🇪 before jumping into the kitchen to bake soda bread to go with tonight's dinner. Next, on to Dublin Coddle while the music plays! If you're looking for a playlist today, I love this one: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0GpyyMiGai1OHwfmkSEG6c?si=P7_wQtDjQ_mvsSdrPqua...

In 90's Edmonton, Molly MacGregor dreams of a life worthy of her adored Penguin Classics and of writing The Great Canadian/Edmontonian Novel. But summers selling shoes at West Edmonton Mall and semesters with pretentious English Lit profs don't seem to be cutting it. But this year, she just might find truth and beauty in the place she finds herself.

Charming, witty, and thoroughly delightful. I loved spending time with Molly. Highly recommend!

This showed up on my FB feed this morning, and I thought of all you #NancyDrew buddy reading Littens! 🤣🤣🤣

It's Me!

"Last night, I found myself perusing the shelves in our family library the way one might gaze reflectively into the refrigerator looking for that perfect bedtime snack."

Another excellent selection from the #wpnf25 long list. Centering on the ups and downs and legal manipulations of a Supreme Court decision, Nagle explores Indigenous Land Rights in the US. It is sad and infuriating, with occasional glimmers of hope.

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

This week was March Break, which means chaos and family fun.

1. My eldest's first speed cubing competition
2. Family movie day - Dog Man!
3. Bowling 🎳
4. Sunshine-y Ski Day!
5. Cobs Scones...mmm...

"What's weirder," Eugenie asked, "that Maureen has so many shoe-store guys after her or that they're all named Gordon?"
"Being surrounded by Gordons does seem to be a distinctly Canadian occurrence."

#InGordWeTrust #CanLit

It's possible I have too many books checked out from the library at the moment....

I just love these women. Such fun palate cleansers, I hope she writes more!

My eldest is competing in his first speed cubing competition today 👏👏👏

We're in the waiting stage, so he's off checking things out and making friends, and I get time with some book friends.

Who doesn't need another longlist to expand their TBRs, right? The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction announced their longlist on Thursday. I've read a few, been wanting to read another few, and the ones I've never heard of are definitely intriguing!

https://carolshieldsprizeforfiction.com/

First awarded in 2023, the Carol Shields Prize is for works of fiction written by women-identifying and non-binary authors in the US and Canada.

Sharp, thoughtful, and darkly funny. Nadia is an academic who heads to Iraq to work with the UN on the deradicalization of ISIS brides, but also to run away from heartbreak and grapple with her own history with religion and rebellion. Fundamentally tackles ideas of religion, racism, belonging, bureaucracy and systemic failures within the foreign aid systems without prescribing answers, 👇 cont'd in comments

#MondayMood

@talkthattalk_rarity on Insta - Spoken word that puts a fire in your belly. Highly recommend.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEtYQfGJz5J/?igsh=MTF6OXE2azZ1MjhuMA==

🔥🔥🔥👏👏👏

Pitch dark interconnected stories of women's lives and violence in Mexico. Stories of violent women bleed into those about violence against women, revenge and rage intermingle with ironic teenage posing and sarcasm. Most of these stories work. There were some that I just wanted more from, to delve deeper, but sometimes the true weight of a story was felt as connections were made in later tales. The last few stories were, IMO, the strongest.

"There is no room of one's own when men think our bodies belong to them."

I love that Yang chose to profile four regular women in China, this book really does provide a glimpse into a very different kind of everyday life. The challenges of work, family, and independence made for fascinating reading. There were some things that I wish were addressed (*see comments) but overall another great #wpnf25 read. Very impressed with this year's list so far!

"Life's a bitch. That's why you gotta rattle her cage, even if she's foaming at the mouth."

Happy #InternationalBooker Longlist Day!

Which have you read? Loved? Loathed? Which are going on your TBR? I won't be reading the whole list, but I'll check out what I can get through the library, starting with the tagged. I'm also looking forward to The Book of Disappearance and On a Woman's Madness, both of which I can get through hoopla.

#IntlBookerLonglist #IntlBooker25 #BooksinTranslation

Today's Monday Night Hockey is The Jets vs The Sharks. So now I have this stuck in my head: https://youtu.be/twbuT1V5mFE?si=OZWRSdfkL4zPu_v6

#TheatreNerdsUnite

It is difficult to read and review a book like this when, less than a year after its publication, it is already out of date. Applebaum lays out many of the ways autocracies work in the modern day to undermine democracy, truth, and morale. In that way it is important reading, and I found it quite accessible to listen to. Cont'd in comments

#wpbf25

What an absolute triumph of a book. #wpnf25

In the summer of 2017, 9 year old Keira was killed in a tragic car accident. Her family's decision to donate her organs led to her heart being transplanted into Max, also 9. Dr Clarke writes the story of Keira and Max, their families, and all the incredible people who contributed to this heart's journey with such compassion and humanity.

Cont'd in comments.