I expect The Watsons would have been a lot of fun if Jane Austen had finished it. Emma Watson is a wonderful heroine—kind, curious, and wise—and Tom Musgrave is a hoot! I‘m glad Austen shared her intended ending, but I wish we could have seen all that happened along the way. The image above comes from this post: https://www.janeaustensummer.org/post/the-watsons-an-abandoned-manuscript-by-jan...

This was my July #DoubleSpin pick.

Grace Lin never fails to wow me with her beautiful art and excellent storytelling. In this book, she shares the “real legends, real myths, and real histories” behind a feast of Chinese dishes, as well as many cooking/serving techniques and traditions. From
her author‘s note: “Chinese American cuisine is the flavor or resilience, the flavor of adaptability, the flavor of persistence and triumph. Above anything, this food is the flavor of America.”

Here‘s my September shelf, full of my #BookSpinBINGO reads. My #BookSpin is Raising Demons (for a Shirley Jackson study I‘m doing with a friend) and my #DoubleSpin is The House in the Cerulean Sea (for the #AuthorAMonth challenge). I have a great month of reading ahead!

Happy September! #BookSpinBINGO

August was a pretty good reading month for me. #BookSpinBINGO 📚💖🥳

Looking forward to these great reads this August. ☀️

#BookSpinBINGO

Lots of good reading in July, including both of my #BookSpinBINGO picks— and two from earlier this year. 📚💖🥳

Look at any list of ALA youth media awards, and you‘ll likely see Carole Boston Weatherford‘s name. Her nonfiction picture books for young people are wonderful. I especially love how she uses poetry to tell stories of important people and events in American history. In this book, Weatherford shares her persistent search for the stories of her ancestors, using the poetic form again to great effect.

This was my June #BookSpin pick.

July‘s TBR shelf/#BookSpinBINGO list. I‘m really pleased with my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin picks for this month: Kate DiCamillo‘s Ferris and Jane Austen‘s The Watsons. Thank you, @TheAromaofBooks !

Ready with my reading list for July!

#BookSpinBINGO

June was a great month of reading. (Now I need to get better at posting book reviews!)

#BookSpinBINGO

I loved many things about this book: learning fascinating words from Ivar‘s language which helped me understand the island‘s landscape, following John Ferguson as he fell gently into Ivar‘s life, and cheering Mary on as she continuously surprised and delighted me.

Thanks to #CampLitsy24 for the great discussions, and to @BarbaraBB @Megabooks and @squirrelbrain for being awesome camp counselors!

This title won a Batchelder Award Honor which put it on my radar. It‘s a uniquely told story: using both comics and prose pieces, it almost feels like a journal. I was slowly charmed by it, and the ending was exactly right.

So happy this one finally came in for me at the library! Halfway through, and looking forward to reading the #CampLitsy24 posts about it.

And here‘s my June #BookSpinBINGO bookshelf. It was fun to put together this variety of reads!

Here‘s my May #BookSpinBINGO reading. Busy month, but I got to some wonderful reads!

Great pairing this month for my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin picks.

My June #BookSpinBINGO list is ready!

Here‘s my #BookSpinBINGO bookshelf for May, plus a few I have on deck for the rest of 2024.

I‘m back to making a list of specific titles for #BookSpinBINGO. Happy May Day!

April was a busy month. I didn‘t read as much as I would have liked, and I didn‘t get to my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin picks yet. But I am in the middle of several great books right now. Plus, I finally got a bingo!

#BookSpinBINGO

This is the story of Bug, who, when looking in the mirror, thinks, “It looks like someone‘s idea of what I look like, without me behind it.”
This is a ghost story, a grief story, a growing up story. This is a story about finding yourself.
This is a beautiful middle grade novel.
I loved it.

I mostly listened to the audio version which was well done.

I adored this graphic novel—both the print version and the audiobook. How is it possible to make an audiobook from a graphic novel? Listen to it and you‘ll find out! Mexikid was a big winner this year: Newbery Honor, Pura Belpré Award for both author and illustrator, and an Odyssey Honor for the audio version. All well deserved. Hurra for Pedro Martín! (These great photos of his family are from the book‘s backmatter.)

The Last Pick trilogy is a great graphic novel series for middle schoolers. Author Jason Walz, a special education teacher, understands the importance of representation; in a note he explains the main theme: “Whatever the world sees as ‘different‘ is exactly what the world needs.” I don‘t think it‘s a spoiler to say that kids turn out to be the heroes. 💖

It was no surprise to me that young Shannon‘s favorite game was making up and acting out stories with her friends. Her middle grade graphic memoir, the first in a series, was both a joyful and painful exploration of real friendships and family relationships. I loved it. 💖

I just learned it‘s the #AwesomeApril Readathon! I‘m in the middle of a few books and hope to finish them over the next nine days. And I‘m adding another goal: posting at least one book review each day on Litsy. I am way behind but inspired to catch up and share what I‘ve read. 📚🥰

I put together my April #BookSpinBINGO TBR shelf last night, and realized I‘d skipped number 7 when writing out my list. Oops! Corrected now, so I‘m ready to go. 😊

Here‘s my March #BookSpinBINGO board. I read some great books! However, I still need to read my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin picks.

I‘m happy with my #MarvellousMarch readathon results: four books completed (1 mystery/thriller, 1 YA novel, 2 audiobooks that won Odyssey honors last year) and two more begun. Thank you, @Andrew65 !

It‘s April already!Although I‘m feeling behind, I‘m looking forward to a fresh #BookSpinBINGO start. Off to check the numbers. 😀

I‘m working on this book stack for the #MarvellousMarch readathon. I‘d also like to get back to posting reviews here; I am very behind!

Here‘s my TBR bookshelf for March, arranged in order of my #BookSpinBINGO list.

Here‘s my March #BookSpinBINGO list. Now I can check @TheAromaofBooks ‘s picks for this month. 🥳

I read some great books in February!

#BookSpinBINGO

At the start of every month, I put together my To Read bookshelf based on my #BookSpinBINGO list, but I missed posting it in February! Here‘s what was on my shelf at the start of last month.

Just finished for #AuthorAMonth, and I loved it. Took me awhile to warm up to it, but once I understood the rhythm of the storytelling, I was captivated by Marie and her sisters.

Heartbreaking, compelling, upsetting, and extremely moving. I was shocked by some of the turns the story took. I felt like I was sitting right beside Susan Selky, there in the late 1970s in her Boston home. I kept turning the pages, feeling like the more quickly I read, the sooner I might get some answers for Alex‘s mother. I quite admired her, and I appreciated the peek from Detective Menetti‘s perspective as well. (continued)

I‘m looking forward to reading more about this one in the Tournament of Books. I had a hard time with it, as I was so upset by Sammie‘s college “friends.” I think that‘s part of the point. Plus, capitalism is painful, too. The ending was a relief. Go, Sammie!

Ever wonder why the Mona Lisa is so famous? Sure, it‘s a rare painting by Leonardo da Vinci, but its theft in 1911 brought it directly into the public eye and imagination. Nicholas Day alternates between the story of its unbelievable heist and the life of its incredible artist. I was especially impressed with how Day made connections to issues relevant then and now: conspiracy theories, myth vs. truth, and the importance of critical thinking.

Here‘s my February #BookSpinBINGO list. I liked the approach I took in January, so I‘m doing it this way again. (I already have titles selected for most of the categories, however!)

My January #BookSpinBINGO board is pretty full. But no BINGOs! 😂 I did read both my #BookSpin (Hello Beautiful) and #DoubleSpin (Brooklyn) picks, and enjoyed them both.

I‘m counting chapters/stories for the Shirley Jackson & Alice Munro books; I‘m doing them with two different friends as a deep-dive/study. I‘m also counting each chapter I complete of The Artist‘s Way.

What a pleasure it was to spend time with Jane Austen again! Lady Susan is a fantastic character; I sort of wish Austen had revisited this one again, once she had more experience writing novels. However, its silliness is charming. I finally watched the Whit Stillman film (because book-before-movie), and I think he got the tone just right. So funny! I highly recommend it. #AuthorAMonth

I‘ve been looking forward to this one, and it‘s finally out! A beautiful story and a great collaboration. I adore Gene Luen Yang‘s work, but I think this is my first LeUyen Pham. (I should read Real Friends next!) Bought this as a gift, but read it before giving it. (That way I can discuss it with the giftee! 😉)

I‘m a couple of days late with my #JoyousJanuary wrap-up, but look! I made a thing! And I read a lot! I completed four books (1 novel, 1 middle grade nonfiction, 2 graphic novels) and started three more. (I actually finished Lady Susan, but now I want to also read The Watsons and Sanditon, likely over the next couple of months.) Reviews coming soon. Thank you, @Andrew65 !

I really enjoyed this quiet book about leaving your home and family as a young adult, through little choice of your own, and coming of age in an unfamiliar community. The small details made the time & place feel beautifully clear. Tóibín‘s writing has a gentleness and subtlety I loved, and that felt just right for this story.

This was my #DoubleSpin pick for January. #BookSpinBINGO

Here is my book stack for the #JoyousJanuary readathon. I hope to finish the tagged book tonight and then finish at least three of the others this week.

Who is Huda (the author)? She is funny and wise and a great comic artist and a Muslim and an American. I adored her graphic novels! More Huda please, dear Huda. 😊

My mom read this one before I did, and she loved it. I always trust her opinion. However, she didn‘t warn me that I would cry so soon into the story! 😉Napolitano created beautiful, flawed, vulnerable, and strong characters that felt real to me. I was rooting for them all, all the way through. This is one of the #LitsyToB24 picks. 💖

Visited a library book sale this week, and picked up a book that‘s been on my TBR list (tagged), and a favorite to put in a Little Free Library (The Days of Rondo).

A friend and I are reading these Alice Munro stories, one at a time, getting together to discuss each one. 💖 We just finished “The Progress of Love.”