I think I‘d like to explore Frances Gies‘ series of books on medieval life next year. Apparently my 2018 self had the same idea, because I bought this book on a $1.99 Kindle deal back in March 2018, but never read it. I was just reminded by Amazon that I already own it. So, Merry Christmas to me, I guess!

I tried to read this book when it was first translated into English in 2020, and I couldn‘t. 2020 was too stressful a headspace for me to read this. I was sure it would give me nightmares. I‘m giving it another try now, and while it is still a nightmarish premise (humans raised and slaughtered for meat…not a spoiler, just a warning for the squeamish), the book is also well-written and beautifully translated. But I can only read it in small doses.

I‘ve been wanting to read this since it came out years ago. I finally got around to it thanks to a Goodreads challenge prompt. This was more violent and difficult to read than I expected, but it was very good. Trigger warnings: untreated mental illness, multiple gory physical injuries, domestic violence, and a dog dies horribly near the end. The audiobook recording is well done. It was a good way to experience the book.⬇️

I have a day off from work! And I spent some time reading! It‘s such a gift, I never get to do this! Today I finished up this book, which has been lurking in my Kindle Unlimited queue for maybe two years? I enjoyed it. Writing was better than expected - good job of unpeeling the story layers. The story took a turn away from what it first seemed, always a plus. I was pleasantly surprised, and will read Minka Kent again! #readyourkindle

I found this audiobook on Everand, and it is really good. It‘s about a trans man who successfully lives as a man and becomes a famous jazz musician in the UK starting in the 1950s, and the fallout after his death when his biological sex is revealed. I‘m about halfway through.

Another excellent book. This one focused on themes of family. How lucky is Mma Ramotswe, to be married to a man as good-hearted as Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni? I love those two.
For anyone curious to try Mma Ramotswe‘s red bush tea, I Googled it and came up with rooibos tea, which I found at my supermarket. I like it. My box is by Twinings. ⬇️

It‘s a stressful week with the kids starting school and everyone adjusting to a new, earlier schedule, so I‘m comfort reading. The No. 1 Ladies‘ Detective Agency series is very calming. I‘m up to book 7.

I‘ve finished seven chapters so far. I just have to say, this Dr. Gaul character? What. The. FLIP. She is insane and dangerous, and allowed an influential position over the early Hunger Games? Oh, okay then. The Island of Dr. Moreau has nothing on her nightmarish mutant creatures, and she just giggles over them. What a scary freak. No wonder the Hunger Games became so terrifying.

I‘m seeing disappointed reviews on Goodreads for this one, but I liked it fine. I guessed at the twist at the end, but I predicted the wrong person, so it was still a reveal to me. Despite one reviewer saying that believing the twist required a “total suspension of belief,” I didn‘t think so, and I love psychological suspense novels where the whole story is revealed in tiny bits. I liked the writing, am moving on to The Maidens next.

“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives,” she wrote.

This book has been on my to-read list since it came out. Why did I wait so long to read it? It was wonderful! I couldn‘t stop reading to see how all the human pieces would fit together. It made me happy cry a little at the end. My only complaint is that I wish there had been more of Marcellus the octopus! It‘s rare that a feel-good book can pull off a happy ending without getting too treacly, but this book does it. #readyourkindle

I was gripped by this memoir about the author‘s recovered memories of sexual abuse by a teacher at her middle school, and how she dealt with it after recovering the memory in adulthood. She‘s a few years younger than I am, and we grew up in different parts of the state, but Texas in the 80s was Texas in the 80s. Everything she described was creepily recognizable to me. This is a quick read, and impressively well written.

I see that a lot of people didn‘t like this book, but I did. I enjoyed the twisting and meandering plot, with all the misdirection and the bit by bit reveal. It really felt like the way someone with faulty memory would uncover pieces of the past, and I liked the character development that the length of the book allowed. And I loved the narrator‘s various Irish accents. I find Irish accents appealing.

I‘m re-reading this book after 40+ years. It‘s still well written. I need to get my kids to read it too -such a classic!

Realizing that I need to jump on board with #readyourkindle in July. I‘m a sucker for knockdown Kindle deals, and then I never read the books I bought. So many unread good books in my Kindle library!

This book is turning out to be not what I expected, but I am here for it. The writing is so good! Not the most sympathetic main character, which is always interesting. I‘m also loving the Irish accent of the audiobook narrator.

This has been on my list for awhile, and a reading challenge prompt spurred me to get to it. I really liked this feminist retelling of the myth of Atalanta. How did I not know that she sailed with the Argonauts? Patriarchy, man. 😉 The ending might not be what everyone would consider happy, but I thought it was perfect for Atalanta, whose greatest desire in life was to be free and entirely herself.

I really love this series. Can‘t wait until Leigh Bardugo writes another Alex Stern book. This second book kept me even more hooked than the first one, so much so that I alternated between the ebook and the audiobook so I could finish it sooner! Dark, magical, and kind of weird. I‘m here for it. It does get violent and gory in parts, so don‘t read it if you don‘t like that.

I have this marked as read on Goodreads, but I remember absolutely nothing about it, so I‘ve been rereading it. Wow, it‘s a trip. I must have marked it as read by mistake, I don‘t think I could forget this! I am enjoying the audiobook immensely.

Wow, this one was heavy. I can see why it was a finalist for the Pulitzer. Family saga that spans the second half of the 20th century. And really, what‘s more American than baseball and serial killers? 😂 This family keeps having eerie brushes with serial killers over the course of their life struggles,of which there are many. I listened to the audio, and I think the matter-of-fact narrator suited the material well. This is a good one.

I finished this audiobook today. First finish in 2025! This was a lovely short book, about a child who is temporarily fostered due to family overwhelm and economic circumstances. I read too much true crime, so I kept waiting for something horrible to happen, but it didn‘t. Poignant, though. Restored my faith in good people. I‘m on the waiting list at the library for her other books, and I look forward to them.

I finally jumped on the bandwagon and started this series. Full of tropes - unreasonably feisty heroine, good at hunting with a bow, pretty enough but fairly ordinary except for her feistiness, is sentenced to fairyland a la Beauty and the Beast. Incredibly hot male fairies find her irresistibly attractive. She has to save the fairy realm against impossible odds using cunning and bravery. The fresh writing made it all enjoyable. On to book 2!

This was lovely. A fun, gentle novel about a department store that sells dreams, and only to people who are asleep in their own worlds. I loved it.

I‘m loving this book. Just the kind of lovely escapism I need right now.

I‘m slowly making my way through this one in 20-minute bites each night, while my kids do their evening reading time for school. Wow, Henry Ford was such a crank. And SO SO SO on the autism spectrum. Between him, and Dr. Kellogg up at the Battle Creek Sanatarium…what the heck was going on up there, Michigan? Also, Ford reminds me of H. Ross Perot, but with antisemitism and paranoid xenophobia. #readingtheamericas #brazil

I have other books I need to finish right now, but I made the mistake of cracking this one open tonight. I am captivated. Those other books may have to wait.

I blew through this quartet quickly - just kept reading because I enjoyed the universe that the author created. I love a good dystopia. These stories are related, but can be read as stand-alone books. It had been years since I last read The Giver, and I was pleased to discover the other books. All good.

I‘ve been bingeing the old episodes of the My Favorite Murder podcast lately, so I decided it was time to read the hosts‘ book. Fun, fast read, with autobiographical stories. If you like the podcast, you‘ll like the book too!

I FINALLY FINISHED! I was doing a group read of this book earlier this year, hosted by @Lindy , but life intervened and I got bogged down around part 16 of the book. But I kept plugging away and I did it! Well worth the time to read it, I learned so much about post-partition India. But…even though I pretty much knew who Lata would marry, I was unhappy with the choice. Girl deserved better. Too bad she couldn‘t stay single.

This was entertaining and wryly clever right up until the end. I want to read the rest of the trilogy now. And I also want to visit Finland. They have an odd, almost absurdist turn of mind there, I think I‘d like it 😊 If you are not familiar with Finnish quirkiness, try this trilogy, or a book in the genre of “Finnish weird.” That‘s a thing. Johanna Sinisalo is a good author to start with.

Extremely complicated and not as satisfying as I hoped it would be, but still interesting writing. It‘s still a pick, I was just hoping to love it rather than like it. I listened to the audiobook. Because of the twisty plot, I wonder if I would have enjoyed this book more in visual form.

“The last time I was here was with Lizard Man and AK. Both men tried to kill me but ended up killing themselves instead.” Oh, is that all? 😂 This is the e-book for July at my library - unlimited copies, no waiting. I am enjoying its extremely wry Finnish humor. The fact that the abnormally serious and logical main character (autism spectrum?) has inherited a kids‘ theme park is amusing in itself. Now I want to read the first book in the series.

Late to this one. Like everyone else, I have some quibbles about which books ended up on The NY Times list of 100 best books of the 21st century. For me, “A Little Life” should have been on here somewhere. And where is Margaret Atwood? I was surprised that I‘ve only read 24 of these books, but so many are on my endless TBR 😂 I‘ve been meaning to read them, truly!

EDIT: The readers‘ favorite list is up now for comparison. A Little Life is #11.

https://www.listchallenges.com/litsy-rolling-stones-best-songs-from500to401

I‘ve heard 71/100. I am sadly deficient in hip-hop.

Top 4 faves - couldn‘t get it down to only 3
- Midnight Train to Georgia, Gladys Knight and the Pips - absolutely my favorite song on this list!
- Passionate Kisses, Lucinda Williams
- Uptown Funk
- California Dreaming

#tlt @dabbe
I hate tagging people, sorry. Everyone play, it‘s entertaining!

Still not loving the narrator, but I am hooked on the story anyway. I can‘t stop listening. If only they had chosen a calm female voice, like the woman who narrated Station Eleven. That would have been perfect. The omniscient narrator in this book is an AI who‘s referred to as female, for goodness sake! What was the publisher thinking with this fussy male audiobook narrator? Anyway, enjoying the book and all the sci-fi twists!

I‘ve just started this audiobook, and I HATE the narrator. Terrible choice. They should have picked someone altogether less histrionic. I may have to start over with a non-audio version. This guy sounds like he‘s used to narrating arch but cozy mysteries set in the English countryside, not dystopian fiction.

I loved this book! What fun! A team of four retired female assassins in their early 60s suddenly have a hit taken out on them, and now they‘re on the job again to eliminate the threat. They kick all kinds of ass, they are smart, fearless, and still in pretty good shape, they can still kill with the best of them, and they can MacGyver themselves out of any situation. And they‘re snarky and funny. Jason Bourne, eat your heart out.

I loved this book! It‘s been on my TBR list since 2017…once I started it, I couldn‘t put it down. The writing was beautiful, and the story was unusual and dystopian. I love a good dystopia. The author‘s descriptions of how the bees experienced scents and pheromone signals were incredibly vivid. I understand Laline Paull was on the 2023 Women‘s Prize shortlist. Not surprised, she is a compelling writer. I want to read all her work.

Interesting and entertaining, this book focuses on cultural attitudes about menstruation, particularly during the 19th-20th centuries in the United States, with a heavy emphasis on advertising and marketing of “feminine products.” This is not a heavy scientific book, more a book that shows how advertising/culture has reinforced the idea of periods as negative, sometimes weirdly. Illustrated with vintage ads for feminine products!

I‘m enjoying this audiobook. It‘s like Daisy Jones and the Six, but with more cultural relevance. Somebody please make this a movie and cast Lupita Nyongo/Viola Davis as Opal!

I‘m enjoying this. Cozy English mystery, where the dog‘s thoughts are part of the narration. He‘s a failed police dog named Rex Harrison who is not terribly obedient 😂 His owner is a retired police detective who gets involved in solving crimes. I have a Shepherd mix named Carter whose thought process reminds me a lot of Rex. Smart, with a mind of his own. 😉 He enjoys taking up 2/3 of our couch. Shown with Lilly, our beagle/pit mix.

Well, that was weird. It was clear all along that something bad was going to happen, but I wasn‘t expecting something so visceral, and for the book to end so abruptly. Three stars out of five for the beautiful writing alone. Now I really must track down the movie that was made of this and watch the stellar cast interpret this story (Christopher Walken, Helen Mirren, Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson!).

I‘m about halfway through this audiobook, and I really need someone to hug me and tell me it‘s going to be okay. 😢 That Leonie…good grief, such bad judgment! With every new bad decision, I groan, and then feel sad for her poor kids ☹️

I‘m not sure I can narrow it down to three!

This Is Spinal Tap
The Breakfast Club
Pretty in Pink
Say Anything
Twilight Zone: The Movie
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Moonstruck
Fast Times at Ridgemont High

I see why friends have been telling me to read Maisie Dobbs. The first book is so good! It‘s a trope I‘ve seen before (plucky wartime nurse comes home to England after the war, solves mysteries), but I‘m OK with that. I‘m not so sure I‘ll be into the espionage themes in later books, but I enjoyed the first book so much, I‘m willing to try the rest of the series.

I‘ve been wanting to read this one for a long time, and it doesn‘t disappoint. The Christopher Moore snarky humor vibes are strong.

Just started. This is the best first chapter I‘ve read in a long time!

Tag, everyone!

1. Flying to Texas to see my mom, returning on Easter Sunday to eat candy with my kids :)
2. I haven‘t really had one yet, but several three-star ratings. The level of the sex scenes in The Kiss Quotient was way too much for me, though. I‘m not a hardcore romance fan.
3. Little Women! I read it over and over again, and also several of Alcott‘s other books. I still have my Little Women series hardbacks from childhood.