I've submitted grades for all the classes I teach (🎉 🥳 💃) and so am thrilled to be shifting focus to all things Christmas, festive, and fun!! One thing that buoyed me during these last few busy weeks was reading this fantastic pick from @Deblovestoread 's #AuldLangSpine list!!! It was so very good. I don't know what I thought this book was about, but it was nothing like what it really was about. A truly lovely read. Thanks, Deb!! ❤️

Received and sent my #JolabokaflodSwap packages over the past few days. This swap is such a blessedly reliable joybringer! Thanks as always to @MaleficentBookDragon . 💚❤️

Adored this and would put it right up there with the (many) other Erdrich books I've loved. Totally invested in the characters, loved the setting (time and place), and her writing just works for me every time.
This would absolutely have made my #AuldLangSpine list had I not finished it the day after filling out the form, @monalyisha !!

I love Clint Smith‘s writing. This includes some of his keen and straightforward social analysis, always with an eye on historical context. But also a lot of sweetness about young fatherhood.

One of the most meaningful, empowering, and visionary books I‘ve read in some time. It was in part a call to action re: 2016, so it‘s….super relevant. Valarie Kaur is an important voice for right now, and always. Looking forward to reading her recently published book soon (tagged in comment ⬇️).

I‘ve always liked Ina. I enjoyed watching a feminist perspective inform her personal and professional growth. But this is a light pick for me. I think I just wasn‘t the right reader for this book, at least not in this moment in time/history.
Further thoughts in spoiler comment below! Not spoilers per se, but I wouldn‘t want to mar anyone's experience of escaping into this one, as the food (and many other) aspects are delightful!

This was a shockingly perfect escapist read for me over the weekend! Enjoyed it so much more than The Plot. Something about spending time with the unhinged female protagonist, perhaps...

This one exceeded my expectations! Liked it a lot. My review would echo pretty much everything @ImperfectCJ recently posted about it, including that I've never seen a single episode of One Tree Hill (but now I'm kind of contemplating it as an age-inappropriate comfort bingewatch...??). I also relate to elements of the author's Christian upbringing and her Broadway musical nerdery.

Finally finished a book after completing ZERO (😭) in October, mostly due to work and also consuming so much news. Still very busy at work, but I‘ll have more time for books since I‘ll be avoiding the news for the next few weeks/months/years…😭😭😭
Anyway, this was great! My first Chuck Wendig, had to try due to the apple theme. So many hours on audio, but I was engaged throughout. Got super invested in the characters! I‘ll read more from him.

Doing so little reading lately thanks to so much working! 😣 But this lovely bookmail from Mariner certainly makes me hope some free time magically appears soon!! 😍

I‘m listening to Colored Television right now (so far so good!) and realized I didn't review this one, which I read earlier this month. I loved it! Instantly a fan of Senna's writing. I even enjoyed the ending, which I understand many didn‘t. Fun to have a new beloved author (who's married to another new beloved author 😁).

Still deciding how I feel about this one! Certainly thought-provoking, and I loved the characters and many aspects of the story/ending. What I can say for sure is that I really enjoyed Alam‘s writing, as I did in Leave the World Behind, and I‘m hopeful to check out his backlist.

Also was delighted to see @Sara_Planz featured in a Riverhead email about this book! ❤️

Highly recommend this newish release by one of the most effective public scholars in my field (sociology) right now. Calarco went somewhat viral a few years ago with her quote “Other countries have social safety nets; the U.S. has women.” This book expands on that and features great analysis and insights from extensive research/in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of American women. It‘s SO readable, too. (And it happens ⬇️

Great read with many standout journalistic pieces about true crime as a part of culture. Loved the audio, very well-narrated by Xe Sands, but needed my own copy for highlighting. Worth reading just for Rabia Chaudry‘s smart introduction, which includes gems like this: “I have found nothing more effective than popular true crime media to both educate myself and others about systemic injustices and challenge our own deeply held misperceptions.”

A beautifully written memoir about the often challenging younger years of a gay man who had an unstable upbringing (financial and otherwise) in Appalachia, attended an Ivy League school, and navigated a really fraught relationship with his mom. I read via audio and am sorry he didn‘t do the narration, because I bet he would‘ve been brilliant.
(He was wonderful on @kdwinchester ‘s Read Appalachia podcast!)

One of our neighborhood library branches dubbed (by me) The Branch with THE Best Books for Purchase Selection living up to its name once again. ($5 total.)

FANTASTIC book - absolutely one of my faves of the year so far. A brilliant and open-hearted perspective on grammar and how it relates to culture/context, and super educational-yet-fun! I now know I'm a “wordie” — someone who loves words and grammar rules but also kind of loves breaking the rules and viewing them as flexible and dynamic (as opposed to a “grammando“ [self-defining! 🤣], which I tended toward when I was younger). ❤️

I thought this was outstanding. Incredibly readable and so respectful of the humanity and complexity of its subjects. Valuable in its demonstration not only of how people fall into conspiracy belief systems, but also of the vital importance of strengthening our empathy skills — and our mental health support structures/resources.

Another thoughtful addition to the escape-from-Christian-patriarchy memoir canon (generously sent to me by Eerdmans Publishing). And the first one I‘ve read that‘s partially set in Hawaii, which was super interesting! Lots to admire about West‘s writing, and the print book itself is lovely — gorgeous textured cover and surprisingly heavyweight in a pleasant way despite being under 250 pages.

Great book! 😬

Hype-deserving, for sure! Loved the mystery and setting, but more than that loved the female characters and how their experiences, though constrained in a few times and places, were so expansive in what they conveyed about being a woman. Excited for Liz Moore and about the well-earned praise she's already getting for this!

I will always read and love Anne Lamott. This one was delightfully all over the place, as is her way, and, as is also her way, full of humor and honest self-reflection (including about her foibles and mistakes) and nuanced thoughts on religion that make me revisit my own baggage and rethink my related assumptions.

Loved this!! So funny and clever, pulls no punches yet heartwarming and hopeful (if idealistically so). It‘s also full of compassion and recognizes the humanity of and forces that shaped each and every character (and their culture). Great January LaVoy narration, too. 🩵

Sweet graphic novel that was nowhere on my radar until seen on a list of nominees for our College Book program. Taught me some new things about Buddhism (albeit basic ones - I need to learn more!). And as a casual meditator, I appreciated a new-to-me metaphor for those thoughts that always pop up - like a leaf falling on your head that you can gently place into the river and watch float away.

Moving and well-written, and well-narrated by the author. It made me realize I‘ve come to expect memoirs by those who‘ve left (or at least are critiquing) Evangelical/fundamentalist cultures to also be deep dives into the specifics of those cultures and their institutions. This really isn‘t that, and of course that is 100% okay. It‘s her story to tell exactly as she wanted to, and I admire her openness about the many challenges she's faced.

Almost set this aside because Part 1 was painful! Hearing so much detail about how an accomplished, intelligent woman (who shared my career field) fell hard for a manipulative creep in an online dating setting was rough. But I‘m glad I kept going because the story overall was riveting (and infuriating), and Akbari is a great writer. In the end, definitely a pick!

I really enjoyed this one! Lots to say about social class, and such an interesting intersection of worlds (community college, pro wrestling, OnlyFans, a little bit of church sprinkled in) and life experiences. Great writing, quite funny, and fantastic audio narration by Elle Fanning. Certainly looking forward to seeing her play Margo in the series alongside Nicole Kidman!

I am both very much looking forward to this one and also intrigued by this cartoony cover on a memoir that I know will be tackling some tough topics. New trend?

Overall a fun read! A lot of Tosi‘s ideas around food, joy, and the unique pleasures and powers of dessert resonate with me - as I suppose might be true for anyone who would choose to read a book with this title! 😁 I wasn‘t as into some of the self-help/business-y parts but loved the memoir elements and bits of Milk Bar history, and especially the theme of how dessert often connects us to the women who raised us.

I know this might not “count” as a book, being an abridged version/dramatized production, but it will be only my second book of May, so I need to take the win that it‘s listed here on Litsy! 🤣 It really was excellent and a nice refresher since I haven‘t reread this one since 2017. (Also very excited that my hectic university teaching quarter will be ending in a couple of weeks - will absolutely feel the thrill of summer reading this year!)

Loved it. Really I love reading anything she writes (though I'll admit I still haven‘t read Wordslut!). I‘ve seen reviews grumbling that in this she just gathers well-known social science concepts in one readable place…and?! That‘s a great thing to do, in my book! Furthermore, these are not well known by everyone, and having a nicely organized compendium of such concepts blended with reflective memoiry bits is just a good, thought-provoking time.

An impressive find in one of my neighborhood Little Free Libraries!

Thoroughly enjoyable!! I raced through this one, laughing all the way. I found it quite suspenseful at times and heard myself shouting “Get in the attic!!!!!“ more than once. 🤣 Adored the ending and the audiobook narration, too.

This was a like more than a love for me, probably at least partially because of my slumpy state (I hadn‘t finished a book in almost a month!! 😱 Just work interfering, but still.) Three things I did love about this were (many of) the characters, all things library/librarian, and the Midwest setting.

I‘ve received some really amazing ARCs and bookmail lately. (Now if only I could find the time to read them! 😆) This one‘s at the top of my list! Sounds fantastic, and the book itself is a very lovely object - such a pretty cover and surprisingly heavyweight for its size. Looking forward to starting it soon (and/or seeing reviews of it here)!

I‘ve read three journalist-who-grew-up-Evangelical nonfiction titles in the past six months, but this is the first by a woman (yay, finally!). I enjoyed it and think the subtitle “Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church” fits well, because this book considers all of those things in relatively few pages and therefore doesn‘t have space to dig super deeply into any (and this may just stand out to me more because I do ⬇️

The hype is to be believed re: this one - just extraordinarily good. And Dominic Hoffman‘s audiobook narration is brilliant (thanks to #LibroFM for the ALC!). I‘m tempted to listen to it again right now and curious about the experience of it in print, too.

Was slumping a bit so shopped my own shelves. This was great! My second Dermansky and I liked it at least as much as the first. I‘m still unsettled by the almost total lack of contractions (and Litsy confirms that I was whining about this with The Red Car, too! 😆). But I did just google it this time and learned a bit about why she doesn‘t use them, which soothed me. I did a hybrid read of this + the (excellent, full cast)
audio.

Lovely surprise bookmail! Been meaning to read this one for so long. One of my kids keeps carrying it around the house because he can‘t stop admiring the baby mammoth‘s cuteness. ❤️ Thanks, @RiverheadBooks !

Thanks for the tag, @monalyisha ! At first I misread the prompt as “your 3 favorite” and thought “An impossible task!” bc I love so much nonfiction. But really it says “3 of your favorite,” so that‘s easy! 😁 Here are three that spring to mind:
- If You Want to Write - I‘ve reread this multiple times, but I think it‘s time for another reread since all I remember is that it's lovely and inspiring,
- The Sum of Us - One of the best and most

I‘ll admit that I picked this one up for the Lando of it all, but what an interesting man/life! He had a fascinating, art- and culture-immersed youth in NYC (and more than once referred to himself and his peers being part of the “Black bourgeoisie”), followed by far more accomplishments on the stage and screen than I‘d realized. He‘s very intellectually engaged and shares a lot about his (complicated and sometimes almost contradictory) ⬇️

Delightful, funny, super-quick read. Loved Zimmerman‘s voice on the page and narrating the audio (available on hoopla). Hope he writes more books!

Really excellent essay collection! Wasn‘t familiar with Jenn Jackson but am an instant fan of theirs after reading this. Super accessible and engaging introduction to some important Black feminists and their work, with references to many others, connected beautifully to Jackson‘s own fascinating personal and professional experiences. Great author-narrated audio, too. Definitely one I will be sharing with/recommending to students!

Just fantastic! Fascinating exploration of identity, growing up Vietnamese American, navigating tough family times, finding oneself in books/music/subcultures. Wonderfully written and narrated by Tran. I really loved it from start to finish. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I thought this was really great! My first Everett. Biting, disturbing, but with characters I cared about. Probably should have chosen The Trees from @Deblovestoread ‘s #AuldLangSpine list, but of course I couldn‘t resist this one because of the movie. But I absolutely hope to read The Trees and other Everett titles soon. EXCELLENT audio narration by Sean Crisden.

This was lovely and another total win from @Deblovestoread ‘s epic #AuldLangSpine list. I wondered a bit at the ending and enjoyed the thoughts about it and more that Keegan shared in this brief Q&A (with schoolchildren! How sweet.): https://www.juliangirdham.com/blog/claire-keegan-on-foster

I had picked up and put this one down a while back for reasons I couldn‘t remember, so I was intrigued to retry based on @Deblovestoread ‘s #AuldLangSpine list. I ended up thinking it was quite good. I liked the writing, and after getting off of my “I don‘t want to hear the backstory of the murderer” high horse, I just went with the flow of the story and in the end appreciated each part of it. Thanks for the great pick, Deb!

New opportunities in my teaching career have been interfering with the blissful January of full immersion in @Deblovestoread 's #AuldLangSpine list that I‘d anticipated! 😝 However, I did already make time to read this and am so glad! Fantastic. I‘m not sure what I was expecting but this was far different and better than that. I especially loved the science-y bits about the mutations and some of the family stories. Thanks, Deb! 🦈❤️

I enjoyed these experts‘ take on how to talk about race, racism, and various identity- and diversity-related issues. I was impressed by how they embrace the idea that we can all change and grow, suggesting that a “calling in” rather than a “calling out” approach can often be most effective (while also acknowledging that this approach will not work for everyone or always be appropriate). Great tips and a solid grounding in social science research.

It was a lovely year of reading, made all the lovelier by sharing it with each of you! Happy New Year to all, and may 2024 bring many good books and happy moments! ❤️💚🍾📚 #Top23of23