After 12 years of dating and 3 years‘ engagement, my partner and I have finally set a date for a wedding next fall. Let the wedding reading begin!

“But here is the real problem. Most people — even those who have read all the literature, who know the facts, who agree with the facts — will refuse to wear a mask on the back of their heads. Even when it could save their lives!”

Copyright date of this book, and its magical realism stories, is 2018. 😷

Oh how lovely! I read lots of #middlegrade but very little in translation, and I was utterly charmed by this Japanese import. Fifth grader Kazu sees a girl in a white kimono emerge from his house one night— why doesn‘t he know her, like everyone else in town seems to? Is she a ghost? What secrets does his neighborhood hold? He‘ll spend his summer vacation finding out!

What a deliciously creepy audiobook! 11 year old Ollie finds a book with the story of The Smiling Man, little suspecting they‘ll come face to face on her school field trip…

Today still felt like summer (86 degrees F) but you can tell fall is on its way, and I am ready for the spooks 👻

Spent this month rereading this, sometimes in print and sometimes on audio as narrated by Wanda McCaddon. I tried SO HARD to keep up with the #pemberlittens chapter a day read along… and then last night, I caved and finished the last three chapters. This morning I woke up and listened to the audio version of those last three chapters.

🤷‍♀️ I just really like this book, y‘all.

Have you ever found a book that works like it was written for you, that one that just speaks to your soul? Because I have, and it turns out to be a chapter book about a chihuahua who dreams of being a butler but ends up as a nanny for an adorable baby shrub.

It won‘t be for everyone, but it sure is making me laugh this crummy week.

I‘m definitely not the target audience for this #middlegrade mystery anymore, but it‘s reminding me of what I expected (but didn‘t get) from The Mysterious Benedict Society. Awkwardly brilliant kids, adults behaving suspiciously, a saintly teacher figure, puzzles to solve, lots of library research, and featured art facts. Plus it‘s about 200 pages shorter than TMBS, which is a major selling point for me.

Had the day off today, so I spent the afternoon poking around a local plant store. I decided I really needed a pilea, and couldn‘t really put my finger on why… until I got home and saw the top book in my library stack. I am nothing if not suggestible, apparently 🪴🪴🪴

I‘m out of the habit of reading middle grade, but this short story collection was a delight. All stories centered around a powwow in Michigan and authors obviously collaborated so that characters reappeared and perspectives changed cleverly. A great contemporary #middlegrade read.

This book is so morbid and I am loving it 🧟‍♀️🧟‍♀️🧟‍♀️ 🧙🏻‍♀️

Liked but didn‘t love this manga about a teen who moves into a haunted house. While her dad is away on business she meets Moro, a spirit who helps others pass on back to the spirit realm. I had a little trouble keeping track of all the spirits and the different roles they play. Great for kids and teens who like reading about self-sufficient peers living without adults.

#currentlyreading Two women open up a marriage bureau in London after WWII, and then one of their clients is ostensibly murdered by another. It‘s been a while since I flew through a book like this: started it this afternoon and I‘m already halfway done!

My fiancé got me some bath bombs, my coworker gave me a bottle of wine, and I have this book I know I read multiple times as a teen but have absolutely no memory of... let‘s do this Friday night ✨ ? ✨

Updated to add: that water turned Very Purple from the berry bath bomb ???

Eagleman presents 40 different ideas of possible afterlives in 2-3 page vignettes. Maybe it‘s because I‘ve been interacting with a lot of beautiful media about death lately (see my last post), but I found the content of this one somewhat shallow and repetitive and longed for something deeper. If you like this narrative structure try Lightman‘s Einstein‘s Dreams (about time) or Calvino‘s Invisible Cities (about cities).

A hospital chaplain goes through her experiences of one night shift, including flashbacks to her own childhood, her views on the soul, and near death experiences. An odd little book of dogs & spirituality but I was utterly absorbed and will seek out more by this author.

I spent very little of last month reading and most of it playing the video game Spiritfarer, where I ferried souls on to the afterlife, so this felt liked a continuation of theme.

Today‘s library lunch reading: a kids‘ graphic novel based on Mayan legend!

Love the historical detail of this #ya #mystery, which follows the life of a girl indentured by the police force in Korea in 1800. There‘s a lot of fascinating stuff about gender, family, class, and religion, but the unrelenting brutality of the book made it hard to truly fall into. I skimmed a large chunk of the middle because I wanted to see what happened, but couldn‘t handle the violence at that slow pace. I would try this author again, though.

I learned how to make a Dutch Baby from this cookbook, and my weekend breakfasts will be forever changed. I mean, it‘s basically less-labor-intensive crepes!

Have yet to try any of the projects on a weeknight, though, and see if they live up to their name.

Yeah, I‘m bailing on this. It probably has some useful points about how we make our spaces and our minds “cozy” to be comfortable in our worlds. But the tone of this book has set me on edge from the first page in a way I can‘t quite put my finger on, and 40 pages in I don‘t foresee that changing. Cutting my losses and moving on.

As a children‘s librarian, I‘ve done a lot of professional development and continuing education courses, webinars, and reading in the last year, but this book is probably the single most useful resource of the lot. The final chapter may have single-handedly saved the outdoor storytime series I‘m planning to start next month. Now if the ALA will ever learn to price their books reasonably, I‘d recommend this to everyone I knew.

The weather‘s finally warm enough for porch reading! With blankets, still, since Olive and I like to be cozy. I‘m really enjoying this hard boiled detective novel about two women PIs in 1940s New York. I‘m trying to decide if it‘s too hard boiled to recommend to my mom...

Finished listening to this book in my own jigsaw room. What a delight of a mystery and a novel! A retirement community, multiple murders, decades-old secrets, and, of course, the Thursday Night Murder Club. I bought this for my dad for Christmas, and I can‘t wait to chat about this with him. There‘s also a lot of musings on mortality, morality, and dementia, so fair warning.

@Kenyazero thanks for the tag! I read a lot of comics and graphic novels, especially for kids and teens, but I think this collection of short stories is my favorite. A group of diverse neighborhood kids invent alter egos/personas and build elaborate costumes in their own Cardboard Kingdom for the summer. Plus, there‘s a sequel due out this year! #comiccomfort

Today‘s books and cookies are a bit more grown up: chai, ginger snaps, and teen ghost fighters #ya

It‘s Saturday, I had a long week at work (and next month promises even more long weeks), I already went to the grocery store today, and I just got an email from the library saying I‘ve rented this book too many times and can‘t renew it any more 😬 So I‘m curling up with some #middlegrade portal fantasy and milk and cookies and having a weekend 🍪

Today‘s library lunch break. Kids‘ graphic novels are the perfect length to finish in one sitting...

Read this #kidlit comic over lunch at the library today. Dog (Crackers) and cat (Butter) are skeptical when a new puppy joins the family, but they warm up eventually and show him the ropes. The author names Peanuts as a favorite of he‘s growing up, and you can definitely see the influence of Snoopy and the gang. A fun romp for animal lovers.

A beautifully drawn #ya #graphicnovel about Grace and Flor, a runaway and an outlaw in Civil War-era New Mexico. Grace is trans and running away from conscription into the Confederate army, and Flor is looking for one last heist that will let her leave this outlaw life... A sweet LGBTQIA adventure with lots of historical details. I only wish it was longer.

Lazy morning breakfast in. (Lazy for me, anyway: my partner made the eggs.)

I‘ve been plugging away at this book for a few weeks, mostly to calm down before bed. It was mentioned somewhere as a readalike with Wintering, which I really enjoyed. This is more focused on the idea of slowing down and the creativity and satisfaction in doing nothing. A good idea, but a book that refuses to be hurried, and I‘m not very good at reading slowly.

Finished up this romantic story of a 29-year-old realizing she was too scared of making waves to ever really live... and throwing that all out for a chance to find herself. The book is almost 100 years old, so her acts of rebellion may read a bit tame at this point, and her methods of self-activation a bit conventional, but the whole thing is still very cathartic.

Working from home and preparing Zoom storytime today. (Will that ever not feel weird to say?)

The bitter cold has finally caught up to us in Pennsylvania, and let me say, I am not a fan. This is my third cup of tea today. At least I switched to decaf at noon.

This is my #bookspin book for the month, but I have so many library books out I really wasn‘t sure if I‘d even make it to this one. Tonight I picked it up just to see... and looked up fifty pages later 🤷‍♀️ Guess I‘m hooked!

What a delightful Valentine‘s Day read: a story of a young woman (late twenties) inheriting a house from her cousin and coming into her own. A bit of witchcraft, a bit of romance, a few delightful animals and precocious children, a bit of space for self-discovery. What‘s not to love?

I‘m apparently still in the mood for mysterious YA reads, since I started this one this afternoon. It‘s less mystery and more issue-book than I expected, but I‘m still enjoying it.

When Moira nearly fails out of her senior year of high school, her parents realize her grief at her best friend‘s death isn‘t going to just go away. They send her off to The Castle School, which sells itself as a therapeutic experience but seems to be hiding secrets...

I was utterly delighted by this puzzle-based mystery of rich people behaving badly and teens who are too smart for their own good. I‘m not sure how I‘m going to wait until this fall the sequel, though... 🔑

Started this one last night and I am HOOKED! It‘s like a teen version of Knives Out, with less murder and more cute boys. I find the cover a bit misleading (it looks generic fantasy to me rather than mystery/thriller/puzzle) but it does bring in a lot of elements from the book.

Great fantasy novella about the power of poetry and storytelling, cultural sensitivity, and queer love. Oh, and man-eating tigers, too 🐅

I‘d never been a fan of barstools in the kitchen until we moved into this house. Now, sitting at the pass-through window into the dining room with a beer, reading a book and watching my fiancé cook dinner... pretty perfect ?

I loved this Afrofuturism novella that manages to meld science fiction and the tone of a folk tale. A young girl wanders the countryside alone. The people of towns and villages give her whatever she wants, even though they obviously fear her. She could never be one of them. I don‘t want to spoil any of it, but what a gem of a book! 💫

I made tea and scones to go with today‘s stack of highbrow literature from the library 🤓 Truly, anything can become a series in the world of kids‘ comics!

I made homemade marshmallows last weekend and had just a delightful time delivering them to friends‘ porches. I got photos all weekend of friends having cocoa ☕️❤️ (Note to self: Martha Stewart‘s recipes are for entertaining 60 people, not home cooking in the time of quarantine!) Now I‘m finishing off the last marshmallow with some cocoa of my own and an appropriately cozy #arc

Read all three of these last night, and found them interesting but unsatisfying. Echo is a modern Métis high schooler who finds herself in historical events when dreaming or zoning out. These books assume a certain amount of knowledge of Canadian and First Nations indigenous history that I, an American, don‘t have. As a result I found them a bit too disjointed to follow easily. The modern timelines and art are great, though.

Well this was super fun but I‘m not sure how much of it I understood. Two time travelers on opposite sides of a battle to control multiple timelines across a multiverse start writing each other letters. And... fall in love? Or maybe betray their causes? Or just lure the other onto the dark side? It all gets a little vague and I don‘t want to spoil anything, but I loved their communications and letters. ❤️💙❤️💙

Wrapped up this short follow-up to Addison‘s much-longer fantasy tale The Goblin Emperor. Both books are a very specific type: ultimately hopeful stories of good people trying their hardest to do right by their calling in an intricate fantasy world that cares very little for them. My only complaints feel like quibbles. If you like the first book, this will scratch the same itch, which means it‘s just what I needed.

#Netgalley users, has anyone else tried the new audio review copies? This one is a “voice galley” rather than the upcoming audiobook: it‘s just a synthetic voice reading the galley aloud. I‘m... interested, but not sure I‘ll use them regularly. It‘s nice to make a dent on my Netgalley tbr while doing housework (aka how I do most reading currently), but also the synthetic voice is VERY synthetic, and I‘m spoiled too high quality audio these days...

Tonight I put on an old school doo-wop playlist and read this collection of romance short story comics. It‘s a mix of genres, including high school shenanigans, historical drama, sci-fi and fantasy, and it didn‘t all land with me, but I enjoyed myself. 💕💕

Allie Brosh has been through some stuff since her last book, so this one is often sadder and more disjointed than the last. I still laughed out loud a lot, though. I don‘t understand how her weird little MS-Paint pictures of dogs manage to capture canine personalities better than anything I‘ve ever encountered.

As a longtime lover of fairy tale retelling this #graphicnovel was STUNNING. Tiê‘n is 13 and reads fairy tales from the library with his Vietnamese mother to practice their English. The tales interlace between mom‘s memory of fleeing Vietnam, Tiê‘n‘s struggles at school, and his decisions about coming out. The author uses color to differentiate those stories and adds extra explanation about his art decisions in the back. My first 5⭐️ read of 2021.

Still working my way through the Chrestomanci books! Listened to this audiobook while working on this puzzle. I think this series is bringing me around on Diana Wynne Jones, who I always had very mixed experiences with in the past. Conrad‘s Fate is both a departure from and a continuation of the rest of this series. This book wasn‘t perfect, but it was fun and absorbing kids/YA fantasy when I needed it this week.

I made a list in this year‘s journal of all the books I own and haven‘t read... it takes up three pages 😳 Time to buckle down on reading from my shelves! I‘m using the first twenty titles for this month‘s #bookspin and #doublespin, and if it goes well I‘ll continue next month with the next twenty. Starting with the tagged title tonight.