this is exactly my type of eldritch nightmarescape, but I wished for more of this story. the ending could have been the start of a second half!

There's a hard theme through this book of men needing to hear something from a male counselor that their wife has been telling them for years and the presumption that marriages should not end no matter what is going on.

I don't regret reading this for the sole, simple reason that it's helpful to remember that there are actually people who think like this. Full review www.goodreads.com/xtinalea

Storytelling style and audiobook performances are amazing but man what is this story

My creepy cover for this very timely read with the #hashtagbrigade !

Doing some reading to prepare for teaching my bernese mountain dog how to pull a cart for competitions and parades 😂. He's a good dog and I think that he will love it but whew this is a lot of information 🫣. Any draft dog parents out there?!

I am surprised about how much that I liked this book because this is a dark subject for this long of a novel; however, the writing is engaging and I felt the author's love for the subject and ended up racing through it. Also there's a spooky element that both illustrates the violence of the novel and adds a lighter, unreal element that makes the whole thing a bit more palatable.

Whew the review describing this at 2013 tumblrcore is on the nose. The entire memoir reads as extremely young, and I really don't understand what the point of this was except to write a book. I was with AMT on her criticisms of men, but she's reading out sentences from her hospitalization records in order to dispute them and I mean damn, I feel like she's going to regret writing this when she gains a broader education about the underlying issues.

Definitely an interesting storytelling style but idk, too much flesh for me

A pretty read with the #hashtagbrigade but not my favorite novel. It felt like a play with strange vignettes of an odd vacation.

This is a moving story with dark undertones and a world of difficult decisions. It is a quick read and the prose is so nice that at times it reads like poetry.

I loved this book. I learned so much about the growth of the two main AI firms, DeepMind & OpenAI, and the philosophy and financing behind their operations. It was really interesting to me to put all of the headlines about AI over the last few years into context, and to flesh out my understanding of this complicated topic. And the author Parmy Olson is amazing. Highly recommend.

You had me at "feminist psychological horror," and "graphic feminine revenge horror." I am apprehensive w the horror genre that a book may not actually be that scary and not worth my time, etc., but I was actually suffering through some of these pages, like our girl Monika Kim needs HELP. It's also beautifully written and I killed it in one sitting -- but primarily , just a wonderful horror story, so well done.

I always feel bad about dnfing an arc but when you're at 40% and feel no connection to the plot or characters it's like, eh, there are too many good books to read to dwell on this one.

Got behind but finally finished this after the #hashtagbrigade and I must say, I loved this book. It's from 1863 & is the first mainstream novel w a "fallen woman" heroine so you know this thing is devastating, BUT I got the point and always think it's cool when someone from the mid-nineteenth century writes a female character that goes against the grain.

Although I didn't love The Only One Left, I bought this at the airport because I was hoping that it would be entertaining for a ten-hour flight. I crushed it ?. I like this one way better - the creepy vibes are impeccable and it got a few "oh damn I didn't see that coming" moments out of me.

Showing off my Goldsboro edition of The Warm Hands of Ghosts because it's as beautiful as the story inside 😍😍

I really love these dark, beautiful books, but I suppose that it doesn't matter as it doesn't look like we will be getting the rest of the series....

It's been such a pleasure to listen to Salman Rushdie perform his beautiful prose the last few mornings on my walks. I particularly enjoyed the fictional interview with The A. -- I cackled, and loved the manipulation of language. I watched Mr. Rushdie's interview on The Daily Show about this book and I just love him and appreciate the way that he discusses this vicious attack, the fatwa, The Satanic Verses, and his fascinating life.

I've been rearranging the front room while listening to the tagged book all day and I'm pretty pleased with it (ignore the bernese mountain dog tail/butt... he's always in the way 🙄)

All of my #botm books are unpacked & on the same bookcase! I've read 67 but still have 25 or so 🧐... I'll get around to them eventually. I found some of my favorite books through botm and will probably continue w it despite the forever backlog

Out of order I finished these cozy, adorable stories. They each follow a Penhallow bro in their respective romances.The Wedding Witch was my favorite (Bowen is the best Penhallow, no question) but they were all cute, they stand alone but tie together in satisfying ways, and I am sad that there are only 3 bros. (Perhaps a cousin, eh..?)

Also I just learned that the author studied gender and sexuality in Victorian literature at Auburn, which rules.

This is a beautiful, dark story of magical realism and internal struggle. I loved it. Sad that the third hasn't been translated yet.

Finished this w my husband last night. We liked, but didn't love, this collection of comedy spanning Jerry's career. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Ellen Atlanta explores the intersection of the beauty industry and technology in this beautiful book, but also dissects girlhood and tells a story that we all know even if we have not yet seen it in print. She encourages us to share this book in the closing chapter to expand this conversation, and so this is my attempt to do so. I absolutely loved it. I listened through a nail appt and a lash fill, so points were taken 😂😂

This was fun but I read these out of order (they can each stand alone) and what I loved most about this story was the mentions of the characters in The Wedding Witch, who are vastly superior to these 😂😂

Forever chugging through my #botmbacklog and I greatly enjoyed this one. B/w Caste and The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson has taught me much about America. I agree with the criticism that this one is a bit light on the research and I felt the rawness of post-2016 election night throughout, but a timely, well-written project that compares America's caste system to that of India and the Third Reich is worth consideration.

Maggie O'Farrell is a brilliant writer; I'm struck by how clever she is. I prefer her later novel The Marriage Portrait, but this is another example of her fascinating style of historical fiction in which she takes a limited record about an obscure historical figure and gives breadth and depth to their short life (here, Hamnet Shakespeare, rather than Lucrezia de Medici). This one is about loss, and it is poignant.

This book is set in 16th century Spain and it reads like an El Greco painting. I wasn't sure what to expect from this adult standalone by Leigh Bardugo, but her beautiful writing and creative storytelling had me hooked.

I was intrigued by the premise and curious about the outcome throughout, but parts really stretched credibility

Mine came! Excited to get to know Ruth with the #hashtagbrigade

This novella has been out for a few years, but I just got an ARC of the audio and WOW that was a weird flight with this as the audio 😂😂

Another day, another work flight, another book titled The End of Love pubbed in 2024. This one was by far my preference ✌🏼

I was with the author on many of her observations about gender. I was going to give this 3-4 stars for being kind of interesting but limited in scope and unfounded in conclusion, but holy "Masterbation Generation/s" chapter. The fetishization of trans people. The weird thing about her friend's son. The ... correlation between those concepts? I can't.

Don't read this on an airplane when you're getting married in 2 wks I CRIED five stars no notes

Our Princess Floralinda is locked in a tower waiting for a prince to save her -- but what if princes are, in fact, useless??

I went so long w/o a 5 star and now I'm overwhelmed with them - I guess that reading new-to-me books by my favorite authors was the solution 😂. I wondered where this was going for a minute, but I was not salty about it bc of how much I love Tamsyn Muir's writing; however, the ending of this story is perfect. Just perfect.

The mc is great, and the relationship between her, her mother, and Falada is ... unique, interesting, extremely well-done. Slowly discovering that your mother is a sorceress and that's why you're so afraid of her is quite the premise. YET. Most of this book is supporting characters chitchatting and I never had a good handle on the setting because the haunting tableaus of T Kingfisher's other books weren't present here. So idk. Kind of recommend.

Haunting and beautiful historical fiction about Thomas Gainsborough's daughters 🔥🔥. The author writes young girls well and ages them naturally, giving their development a role in revealing this story's secrets. Gainsborough's paintings are referenced through the girls' memories of sitting for them and seeing them in their homes. I loved the writing, and gasped at the twists - also worth reading the bit about the art inspiring the plot at the end

I cried my eyes out tbh, but in that happy "why is a book even this good" kind of way

this book is sooo beautiful 😍😍

I love when I am sitting down to read a book and I've read everything on the "Also by ... " list ? (and loved every word)

I'm not sure what to say about this, except - LG is one of the greatest living writers. I was having a great morning but now I'm just standing here in my kitchen watering my plants and contemplating my own mortality idk

Quick and practical, this was a great listen for early morning walks. I would compare this favorably to Hidden Potential by Adam Grant, which I got bored with when I realized how targeted towards the majority it is. I'd rather think remarkable ;)

I have the unfortunate job of relaying the news that this short story collection is extraordinary and Em may be at the vertices of "beautiful" and "brilliant" on a graph of those categories. This is highly unfair, but also means that I can love her unconditionally because why would I even bother being toxically envious? We are different species.

And yet. What struck me about all of these stories was just the relatability of her experience.

Absolutely loved this, as I loved There's Going to be Trouble. Jen Silverman gets me.

A great book and absolutely delightful reading experience - Katy Hessel starts from the top and tells the stories of the women who did and did not make the survey texts. It brought me back and inspired me to keep learning.

Finished this #pemberlittens read a bit late 😌😌. The concept of this book is extremely compelling but I found it confusing and slow 😴

I enjoyed this better than the first, and I'm looking forward to the third 😌

About to read both The End of Loves for a bookclub this June and I'm pretty stoked 😌

You definitely get five stars for changing and enlarging my perspective so much that I am no longer the same person.

I L O V E D this.

Once upon a time, I low-key also got a political science degree (even though I'm always shouting about art history) and so actually I've learned a bit about cognitive biases in an academic setting -- and yet, Amanda Montell should have been the one to teach me everything, because now I actually understand ??

I loved the concept but did not enjoy this and dreaded reading it 😂. Would've dnfed but it was for book club 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️