#jolabokaflodswap HELP

I didn‘t receive a match email and I thought I didn‘t get signed up for this in time - but today I received a package! I need to get this sorted out ASAP so I don‘t leave my match hanging 😭

#333Challenge

Auto-buy (I don‘t buy books, so let‘s say “auto-add” to my library holds):
Liane Moriarty
Candice Millard
Connie Willis

Want to read more of:
Charles Dickens
Hampton Sides
Terry Pratchett

Want to read for the 1st time:
Valérie Perrin
Han Kang
Tea Obreht

#SnowedIn
Swamped this week, so a bit late posting my review. This book was the perfect read at the perfect time. A quietly mournful tale of two people building a life on the frontier when their familiar life becomes unbearable. I didn‘t mind the magical realism and elements of ambiguity around the child. I loved that the story centered on the female experience, contrasting Mabel, Esther, and Faina‘s relationships with society, but also ⬇️

Excited for #auldlangspine2025!

Is it overkill to check out all these now? Yes. But it feeds my winter hoarding impulse, so I went with it.

I might (will) have to cheat and start Frozen River before Jan 1, because it has a list of holds. (I‘m honestly surprised I got it already.) I figure this is allowable because ~technically~ it wasn‘t on your official #auldlangspine list 😉

Didn‘t get a photo of the box itself, but my #LCS package is in the hands of the US Postal Service and on its way to Michigan!

#littlechristmasswap

#december reading plan. Finished the tagged book today for my Brunch+Book club. It was cute - about halfway through, I was starting to get frustrated that it was kinda cliche and predictable. But in the second half, the plot picked up and I found myself enjoying it more. It was indeed predictable, but Pooley is laugh-out-loud funny and sometimes you just need to let go and embrace the cheese.

Tonight‘s read: The Haunting Season 👻🎄❄️

Thank you again @monalyisha for putting this event together! This list from @CBee looks very promising 🤩 Three of them I‘ve already read, and four are already on my TBR.

Looking forward to digging in and seeing what‘s available from the library and what I might want to ask Santa to bring me 🎅🏼

#auldlangspine

#monthlywrapup #bookreport #november

Happy Thanksgiving @Texreader - here are your #snowedin selections!

#whereareyoumonday Tonight I‘m in Luang Nam Tha, Laos, 1978. China has just invaded Vietnam, causing complicated political ramifications for Laos…

I wasn‘t gonna do it again but then … I did

#auldlangspine2025

Went to a used book swap this morning. How‘d I do?

I love you Frankie but babe, get an editor

This was a little softer and more lightweight than I expected. It was sweet and cozy and all the characters were fun to root for. The mystery doesn‘t really get going until the second half, maybe the last third of the book. The plot is mostly predictable, though she does bring a twist out of nowhere, and the resolution of the mystery doesn‘t quite stand up to scrutiny. But that‘s ok, it‘s not a book to scrutinize. Happy endings for everyone. 👑🖤

Posting my fifth and final #trappedinaspookyhouse review just in time for #snowedin, haha.

This was fun and I enjoyed it, but somehow it felt a little flimsy to me. The gimmicks and wordplay were great and the worldbuilding was very creative, but the plot and particularly the love story needed a little more polishing. Maybe the later books in the series do better with this? Let me know. Anyway I‘m glad I read it; it‘s been on my TBR for years.

#TuesdayTunes

Today I‘m listening to a new-to-me record from the Fever Dolls, an indie-rock group from Vermont. I was quite taken with the album cover - thought the #NancyDrewBR gang might enjoy it as well!

#hyggehourreadathon

With the darkness falling earlier, it‘s easier to get into my hygge space by 8 pm!

My final selection from #trappedinaspookyhouse

#weekendreads

#bookreport October wrap-up

A great batch of reads!

4⭐️
And Then There Were None
Ordinary Grace
Things in Jars

3⭐️
The Motion Picture Teller
The Island of Sea Women
All the Sinners Bleed
The September House

#trappedinaspookyhouse

Been putting off my review of this one because I don‘t quite know what to say. It was good; I enjoyed it. Thought-provoking and left me wondering if I‘d missed some of the symbolism (no, actually - I‘m *sure* I missed some). I liked the idea of the strange world “Piranesi” inhabits and the book does a good job of contrasting the motives of the different characters who come to see him there.

#trappedinaspookyhouse

The tone was a little bit sillier than your usual haunted house tale. The MC has accepted the presence of a slew of ghosts (mostly murdered children, mostly harmless) as the price of living in her dream house. When her husband goes missing, her daughter shows up to investigate, throwing all her careful routines for coexisting with the ghosts into chaos. But … why isn‘t she more curious about her husband‘s whereabouts?

#5joysFriday #fivejoysfriday

📚Finished two books that were both pretty good
💻 Book club meeting for Ordinary Grace
🎸 Nada Surf concert at the Troubadour!
🧬 My latest Nature Biotechnology article came out
🎃 Fall weather is here

#firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl
“An old woman sits on the beach, a cushion strapped to her bottom, sorting algae that‘s washed ashore.”

It‘s autumn outside but it‘s the heat of July in my book. Blazing through this compelling story of the events of summer 1961 in New Bremen, Minnesota. A mystery, a coming of age tale, a historical fiction - whatever it is, I want to see where it‘s going. #hyggehourreadathon

#weekendreads Finished Things in Jars for #trappedinaspookyhouse (and September #bookspin). It took me a bit to get into the authors style and the Victorian setting, but by the end I was really impressed with how the plot threads wove together and events played out. It wasn‘t much of a “mystery” - the reader knows exactly what happened from page one - but that doesn‘t detract from the suspense. 4⭐️

Starting Ordinary Grace for my live book club …

Tonight for #tuesdaytunes I‘m checking out the new album from Good Looks, an Austin-based indie band. It‘s my first time listening to them and - they‘re really good! The new album is called “Lived Here for a While.”

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0ba3O2a1JNxb3oXbF74KcG?si=5YQml4WmS6y8Z85zOte7uQ

Another solid thriller from SA Cosby. If you‘ve read his other books, you know what to expect: this one is equally violent, dark, well-plotted, and evocative as his previous novels. This one follows a small-town sheriff trying to track down a serial killer found operating out of his town. Sheriff Crown must simultaneously navigate racial tensions in his town and demons from his personal and professional past as he circles closer to the killer. 3⭐️

My #trappedinaspookyhouse starts NOW! This epigram gives me that feeling like the moment when the roller coaster starts up the hill … I know I‘m in for something terrifying!

Pretty good month.
To Say Nothing of the Dog - 5 ⭐️
Normal People #bookspin (August) - 4⭐️
The Man Who Died Twice - 4⭐️
The Woman Who Wouldn‘t Die - 4⭐️
The Husband‘s Secret - 3.75 ⭐️
Night Bird - 3⭐️

#ReadingBracket2024 #BookBracket2024

Connie Willis can be a little wordy, I admit, and there are times that what starts as running gag can start to feel a little dragged-out. But these are minor complaints in an overall well-written, cleverly plotted, ingeniously imagined scifi/historical fiction/romance/humor - let‘s just say, GENRE DEFYING - novel.

#humor #memes #funny #bookclub

#trappedinaspookyhouse
@Texreader @PuddleJumper

Your spooky house awaits … oooOooO …

Ok @Texreader here is my list to choose from:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2351262?shelf=trapped-in-a-spooky-house&so...

Let me know if you have any problem viewing it and I‘ll see if I can share it another way. And send me your list when it‘s ready!

@TieDyeDude #TuesdayTunes

I‘ve been binging the new Nada Surf album, “Moon Mirror,” since it came out Friday. It‘s so good! Here‘s how good it is: after one listen, I went online to see their tour schedule & bought tickets to see them in October.

“There were five of us—Carruthers and the new recruit and myself, and Mr. Spivens and the verger.”

#firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl

#whereintheworld
#whereareyouMonday
@Cupcake12

Cheating a bit because I‘m reading my nonfiction (The Anxious Generation) right now with breakfast, but it‘s not really set in a particular locale, except broadly the USA. So I‘m going with my fiction selection, which is set in and around Oxford UK.

#europacollective

I wasn‘t quite prepared at first for the precocious adolescent narrator, and it took me a little while to really get into the story. Once I gave it a chance, I really enjoyed the slice-of-life picture of growing up in 1940s England. I especially appreciated seeing the class differences through Jessica‘s eyes. Beautifully written and vividly imagined. Many of the issues Jessica grapples with map well onto 2020s adolescence. 4⭐️

#hyggehour
#hyggehourreadathon

Not feeling very “hygge” this weekend as we are coming up on our fourth day in a row of 100+ temps. It‘s hard to get cozy (or sleep) when it‘s still 85F at 11:00 pm!

But I AM enjoying traveling back to 1880s Oxford with Connie Willis. Bonus graphic of The National Parks album which I‘ve been binging all week!

My fiction and nonfiction reads this long weekend

#weekendreads

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Slash and Burn by Colin Cotterill

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A Long Way from Verona by Jane Gardam

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

⭐️⭐️ L.A. Weather by Maria Amparo Escandon

⭐️⭐️ Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo

#readingbracket2024 #readingbracket #BookBracket

Slash and Burn is the 8th book in the Dr Siri Paiboun series, and I just love these books. This one had the main characters all together on an away mission, working with a group of Americans, which was a fun change of pace. The humor is right up my alley, the mystical element adds a certain eerie flair, and I always enjoy the 1970s Laos setting. Highly recommend!

I was disappointed by this one. The tone of the story never really gelled into anything coherent - based on the events of the plot, it seemed like a telenovela, but it lacked the wacky, over-the-top feel that would be needed to carry such an absurd collection of events. Instead everything was taken more or less straight, which felt jarring as characters repeatedly made stupid decisions. Also, the theme of “men are awful” got tiresome quickly.

Another well-crafted, highly satisfying thriller from Gillian Flynn. I devoured it! The characters were incredibly frustrating, but I enjoyed following the twists and reveals as Libby reluctantly investigates the horrific murders that shaped her life. Naturally, the plot relies on some wild coincidences, but everything feels at least remotely plausible, and the psychology of the characters lands solidly. 4 stars!

My #bookspin from APRIL, lol

September #bookspin list. Summer is flying by!!

#Top25of21

My top 25 books of the 21st century so far. I had to leave so many great books off the list that I‘m probably going to make this “part 1” and do a Top 50…

#HyggeHour #HyggeHourReadathon

“It doesn‘t matter who remembers what, I guess, as long as somebody remembers something.”

I enjoyed this one but it didn‘t grab me in the feels quite as much as Evelyn Hugo or Malibu Rising. The interview format worked really well since there were so many characters. I think the weakness came from not being able to hear and feel the music; so much of the plot revolved around the songwriting, and the songs were integral to the emotional study of Daisy in particular, but Billy as well. I just felt a step removed from the emotion.

My August #bookspin list

You‘ve heard of CSI:Miami. You‘ve heard of NCIS:New Orleans. This book is OMITB:Austin

Seriously, it would make a great show. There are some absolutely laugh-out-loud scenes - Tintera has a great sense of comic timing. The writing overall was a bit pedestrian, but the suspense was well-crafted. The book lurched this way and that as various characters fell under suspicion, and it seemed like the twist might be something truly original, but…