This one had me at the Oscar Wilde quote in the front of the book. While it's a little superficial at times, the humor is excellent and tempered well with moments of authentic-feeling connection. I enjoyed laughing out loud and then tearing up, and I appreciate what Rowley has to say about the role that acting can play in giving one the opportunity to feel, explore, and express difficult emotions in a controlled environment.

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

1) Coffee date with my home-for-spring-break college student.
2) Successful and uneventful dental cleaning and mani-pedi for Miss Camille (who is so funny coming off of anesthesia).
3) ToB kickoff!!!
4) Rain!!!!
5) Watching my younger teen build critical thinking skills quickly in the current political atmosphere. We're having great discussions! (Silver lining to watching the possible collapse of our democracy.)

It took me a while to get into the world of this novel, and I'm not sure that I ever completely got my bearings. The writing style is lighter than the story, which is continually unsettling. It reminds me a little of Poor Deer and other novels narrated by children navigating grown-up worlds. I'm not sure I was in the mood for another dystopian novel, but these days, I want to know that life goes on even after things we take for granted fall apart.

"And I realized that I'd brought you into life at a time when everyone else's debts had come due. Only, the debtors weren't around anymore to pay up. So it'd be you doing the paying."

Oof. I have had this same thought many times during quiet moments since my children were born.

Trying to share a quote without sharing spoilers...

"It was just a trick. That's all the thing was. Tricks and lies, all of them cheap, all of them ugly. They only worked because nobody cared about the truth."

Feeling this right about now, in our putative nonfictional world.

I liked this one better than I liked Manhunt, but Felker-Martin doesn't present a very well developed, cohesive idea of who the villain is, which, given the nature of the main antagonist, might be a silly thing to write. The characters are more developed in this one than in Manhunt, and I cared more about what happened to them, but I still found the novel wordy overall and tedious at points, especially in the second half. #ToB25 longlist

Current situation. Reading has stalled, but I'm getting a great belly massage as Camille makes biscuits on me.

Camille just got home from a dental cleaning, and she's all about the pets as she comes off of her anesthesia, which means I might need to hang out and give her some snuggles while hopefully finally finishing the tagged.

Well, I liked this one quite a bit! I find it amusing how Poirot has started acting a little like Miss Marple in this one ("Now, what does that remind me of?"). The political intrigue subplot felt unnecessary and a little like Red Scare Era propaganda, but otherwise, this mystery was delightful to read. #doublespin

March #bookspinbingo card! I forgot to leave space on my #bookspin list for my #Roll100 titles, so I have them on a separate list outside of my bingo card, and I'll put them in free spaces if I read them.

@TheAromaofBooks

Wow, all #tob25 for this month's favorites. It either says something about the quality of the longlist, or it's just a reflection of the fact that I read most of this month's books from the longlist so my favorites are statistically more likely to be from among those titles.

#WeeklyFavorites @Read4life

I managed to get myself a bingo on my February #bookspinbingo card! Lots of progress on #tob25 longlist titles, but I didn't do quite so well on my #Roll100. I need just to bite the bullet on The Glass Bead Game. It just has so many PAGES!

I hope the move is going well, @TheAromaofBooks !

My book club's pick for March, so I gave it a go. Bailing 45% in. It's not bad, it just jumps around, and I alternated between uninterested (not really interested in reading a detailed account about buying boots in Paris) and fiercely jealous (free outdoor exercise spaces within 5 minutes of every resident??). Although I do feel even better about being mistaken for French while I was in Spain. Perhaps I'm less unstylish than I thought.

Pre-kids, my spouse and I set about watching as many of the Best Picture winners as we could find in the local video store. We made a decent dent in the list before we got bogged down and video stores closed.

Some of my faves, only one of which is from that "trying to watch them all" period:
-All About Eve
-Terms of Endearment (which I liked better than the book)
-The Silence of the Lambs

Thanks for the tag, @dabbe !

#ThreeListThursday #TLT

Although I enjoyed this novel, and I like reading a story about a hero at the FDA (they do so much to keep us safe), I found the story itself to be a little flimsy. The motives of the bad guy never quite ring true for me. It seems more like a collection of elements and character types mixed together than it does like a cohesive story. I found it fun to read while I was reading, but I don't think this one is going to stick with me.

Oops! I lost track of time and am posting this a few days after the fact. Better late, etc., etc. The March image going up reminded me. February is a very short month this year.

#WeeklyFavorites @Read4life

I wonder if this novel would have hit me quite like it did if I'd read it before January 20, 2025. Because right now it feels practically prophetic. But in addition to being prophetic, it's also a beautiful story of persevering through hardship and maintaining integrity (defined in this case as acting in alignment with one's core values) in a world geared towards profit and self-interest at all costs. #tob25 longlist

"But this was clear...he could not tell left from right. Which in itself was not the problem. The problem was that when he turned, and the world turned round him, he could not adjust. The evidence was not enough. He had no compass of his own, yet wouldn't follow the one before him, its trembling needle pointing out directions for anyone with eyes."

This quote hits hard, especially at this time in history.

Things I love:
-The pacing leaves plenty of room for emotions to develop.
-The perspective shows both the frustration of the US medical system and the wonder we can access when knocked out of our unconscious narratives.
-The writing, beautiful without being sappy.

Things that don't quite work:
-The extended treatises on poetry and music go on too long for my taste.
-The meticulous detail, which gets tedious.

Soft pick for a #tob25 longlist title

I goofed and made my March #bookspin list without leaving space for my #Roll100 titles for the month. But being that I'm way behind on January and February #Roll100, it probably works out. This month I'm hoping to make a dent in the small stack of ARCs I'm way overdue on reviewing. We shall see.

@TheAromaofBooks @PuddleJumper

"Lark and I once took life a year at a time. As the world shifted we went to a month at a time, later a week. At this point an hour would do. I'd take twenty minutes in the sun."

Does this novel stay devastating? I love it, but it's breaking my heart.

I bought a new plant. And I keep taking pictures of her. I think the cats are getting jealous. Not related to the tagged except that it's the book I keep looking up from to admire the plant.

This is my second Sally Rooney, and I like it quite a bit more than I did that first. This one took me a while to get into, but once I got the hang of it, I enjoyed the meandering pace at which these characters navigate grief, love, family, and societal expectations. It's interesting to see how each character doing what they want affects everyone else and how balance comes from unveiling secrets and being honest with themselves and others.#tob25

I went to the library to pick up a hold and was seduced by the "blind date with a book" display. I almost don't want to open it, the anticipation is so sweet! Any guesses about what it is before the big reveal? The clues: It's satire, "dark, unsettling, and nerve chafing," and about 1/2 inch/1 cm thick.

Just over halfway through February, I've finally posted about my January reading! (And also about my cats.)

https://imperfecthappiness.org/2025/02/18/bookends-january-2025/

I've been really digging this song lately:

https://open.spotify.com/track/56bVCBk20LrKXdADA4qWaA?si=0yvA55TGRsK58QRfF-irgQ

#tuesdaytunes @TieDyeDude

I'm on my third month of reading to two UTK classes, and it's turning into a highlight of my week. The (mostly) unfiltered energy and enthusiasm and wonder is a balm to me. And I think they like my visits, too. :-)

"What kind of truth would require this many lies to tell?"

I love this take on the role of fiction. It reminds me not only of how I experience fiction (lies told to convey a truth) but of the likely apocryphal stories traditionally told about US presidents to convey the ideals the American people valued in their leaders (which in itself feels like a lie these days, but employed for a different reason).

I kind of love this novel. It is not at all what I expected, and it's engaging enough to reach me through a reading slump. It's essentially a coming-of-age story with quite high stakes and brushes with bureaucracy. It explores what makes someone a "good person" and the inconsistent way our capitalist society promotes and reacts to that concept. Definitely glad it made the #tob25 shortlist.

I started this morning on my last #tob25 shortlist title, but I'm still having trouble focusing on reading. I'll see if I can make progress on the audio while making dinner. If I can't, at least I can enjoy the sunset. (It doesn't look like this from my house, but this is only about 3 miles away, taken after an early dinner last night.)

I didn't read very much this week, but of the two I finished, this was the one I liked better.

#WeeklyFavorites @Read4life

This one is a soft pick for me. I enjoyed the exploration of the inner workings of the Larkin family, but I'm disappointed that we didn't see more of some of the family members, especially Lexi. I'm also not totally on board with the brush with fame Alec had and the influence that had on his actions. #tob25 longlist

Photo: Not a wolf but a gray mammal at the table (Silo feeling betrayed that we didn't share Thanksgiving dinner with him).

Valentine's Day gift for my spouse. Slightly self-serving because I REALLY want him to read this so I can talk to him about it.

Maybe it's an "it's not you; it's me" situation, but I never really got into this novel. I laughed a few times, but it doesn't feel like "good material," I can't imagine it being a funny comedy show, and the MC---a man---doesn't read like a man to me. I finished it, so I didn't dislike it, I just didn't love it, either. A #tob25 longlist title that I don't mind not making the shortlist.

I did better on this one than I expected to! I would like to thank my Romantic Literature professor, whose name I do not remember but without whom I would never have read and completely forgotten all details about The Rape of the Lock.

Faves from this list:
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Trial
The Remains of the Day

I can't believe this is the last list!

#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe

I'm not feeling this one right now. I suspect I added it to my TBR for my kids at some point because it's more their thing than mine. Maybe I'll revisit it at some point, but I'm setting it aside for now. One down for #Roll100! Not a very satisfying way to mark it off, but it does get it off my TBR.

Am I in a reading slump? I feel like I might be in a reading slump. But for me that looks like audiobooking (the tagged) but not constantly and not really getting into any of my print books for...gosh, like 5 days. Maybe it's too early to declare a reading slump, but it feels slumpy for me.

#WeeklyFavorites @Read4life

A little delayed, but here I am with the best of the week. February is going much faster than January so far.

Some bookish quotes at the library. It's on the other side of a window so the reflections make the photo imperfect, but I think you get the idea.

Amazing myself (and perhaps my seatmate but probably not because she didn't know me and so had no historical context), I spent nearly the entire flight reading the tagged book! It helped that none of the available movies seemed compelling.

This novel covers a lot of ground: grief, family dynamics, generational trauma, illness, addiction, income inequality, immigration, racism. I appreciate the writing and the characters, but like others, I found following the story to be a challenge. The format and timeline feel true to life and therefore a little unsettling to me. I wonder if I go to fiction because a tidy narrative helps life seem more manageable. (This isn't a tidy narrative.)

28/100 for the third AP Lit list.

Some faves:
1) A Prayer for Owen Meany
2) Middlemarch
3) Oryx and Crake (I need to re-read this trilogy!)

@dabbe #ThreeListThursday #TLT

Planning for a long weekend: 1 physical book, 4 audiobooks, and 10 books on my Kobo. Why does this not feel like enough?

You're right. I should probably add another small physical book. The tagged should work. And there are always bookstores.

(Photo of spring blossoms last weekend.)

An inspiring and informative story with incredible illustrations. I've spent several hours helping create read-aloud resources for volunteers who will be reading this book in classrooms of students from UTK to grade 3 (ages 4-8-ish). It feels like a huge responsibility to come up with reading questions that are relevant and honest but that also don't feel too overwhelming for students this young.

Although I don't quite buy the motive(s), I like the characters in this one quite a bit. Miss Marple is always a delight. I've been reading through Christie's novels for several years and have been reading English lit for decades, and this is the first time I really realized that, unlike with novels set in the US in which I can follow the action on a fairly detailed mental map, I have only the vaguest sense of the geography of UK-set novels.

I made the mistake of reading the news for too long too early today, and it totally threw me off my game. I did a few tedious chores then I retreated into bookish self-care and organized my bookshelves while listening to the tagged audiobook. I've got all of my physical TBRs in the same place now, the read fiction organized by author name, and the nonfiction (mostly) organized by topic. And I have a nice stack to give away, too.

I have been very much enjoying novels centered around middle-aged women reevaluating their relationships. I especially like that this one doesn't focus on the hormonal stuff. Normalizing perimenopause rocks, but it fatigues me when a person is reduced to biology. Of course, this MC is a little young for perimenopause, which might be why it's not a main character. The novel is a little too perfectly laid out, but it feels honest, and I like that.

Audiopuzzling this very shiny puzzle that my brother-in-law and his wife got us for Christmas.

My February #bookspin list. I started The Wedding People first thing this morning, and so far I am loving it! Looking forward to seeing what my Groundhog Day #bookspinbingo card looks like tomorrow.

@TheAromaofBooks

In January, my focus was on doing what I felt like and not feeling guilty about it. Mostly I succeeded, which means I read a lot of books and played a lot of piano and only felt a mild undercurrent of guilt. #tob25 has been treating me well, even when I disagree about a couple of titles that I think should have made the shortlist. Only finished #doublespin, not #bookspin, but no (well, little) guilt!
#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks