Happy to be starting this series! I love Madeleine L‘Engle and we had a dog-eared copy of The Young Unicorns growing up that I read pieces of, but I‘ve never read the rest in the series.

Loved this! I am totally a moody reader.

#currentlyreading Halfway through and completely astounded by this book. Thanks for rec, Littens!

This was fantastic! If you know a kid in 5th or 6th or 7th grade, get this book in their hands. This is the kind of book that I wished I‘d had back in the day to help me make better sense of friendships in those weird pre-adolescent years.

“Simply punishing the broken—walking away from them or hiding them from sight—only ensures that they remain broken and we do, too. There is no wholeness outside our reciprocal humanity” (290).

“There is always more than one way to see the world. Those who claim otherwise would have you dwell forever in the dark.”

Can anyone explain the anti-Irish “jokes” in this passage to me? I understand it‘s some kind of anti-Irish sentiment, but I don‘t see the connection to being upside-down.

The prose reminds me so much of Priestdaddy! Not quite as funny, but the language is delightfully playful.

This was kind of a slog for me. I appreciated her beautiful nature-writing, but the characters didn‘t do much for me. Kya‘s character in particular seemed like wish fulfillment for a nature writer—her Shy, Damaged, But Brilliant Wild Girl the cousin to Beautiful But Doesn‘t Know It, and Klutzy But Cute. The most engaging scenes for me were the courtroom ones, which seems an awful waste.

I‘d read this author‘s nonfiction about marshland, though!

My fifth Kinsella this year. New baby=not enough brainpower and too much Real Life to enjoy literary fiction. All I want to read are (is?) funny love stories. ❤️

Littens who have read this, help! I thought this book was fantastic, but I probably shouldn‘t have read so much of it in the middle of the night while nursing, because...what was the killer‘s motive?

“Women were likely, as women, to take the next generation‘s part, not this one‘s; they wove the links men saw as chains, the bonds men saw as bondage.”

I‘m going to be sad when this series is over.

It's a funny retort, but that's precisely the attitude toward children and families that keeps companies from providing men and women paid family leave. "It's a personal choice," "nobody asked you to"—as if having kids were the same as going on vacation. We should create policies that don't deter hardworking people from having families.

*steps off soapbox and returns to this otherwise charming book*

Usually French's characters are spot on, but I feel like Stephen Moran's voice is all over the place. At least it's consistent within each book, but it's different from book to book.

This series is still fantastic though.

This was the best one yet. The thing I love about this series is how much the detectives are changed by the case; it's never just about the whodunnit. Also French has such a knack for voices; every one of her narrators comes alive for me. Few books really put me in a scene, totally immerse me in sensory and psychological details the way that French's do.

I hardly ever read series anymore. But I can't help gobbling these up. On to Broken Harbor!

Such a curious structure for a book. The first chapter reads like a prologue and the remaining chapters like a long epilogue. Which is so smart, considering how preoccupied the book is with the structure of stories. But how did she do that without making it excruciatingly boring?

Ann Patchett is a smarty pants.

Littens, I need your help! How do I keep my #Kindle app from automatically syncing? I keep losing my #Overdrive library #ebooks! I've tried turning off the wifi when I launch the app and turning whispersync off.... Any tips from one ebook junkie to another? 😬

"It was easy to figure out how people ought to behave out in the world if you never went out in the world yourself."

My first Anna Quindlen. Really impressed so far.

"...it seemed to be in the nature of human beings to spend the first part of their lives mocking the clichés and conventions of their elders and the final part mocking the clichés and conventions of the young."

Kirby perler bead ornament sneakin' a peek.

I didn't expect to love this one. I've been thinking about it since I finished it, especially about the way media not just shapes our understanding of events but sometimes—in a non–conspiracy theory sense—CREATES events.

Anyway, something about the unlikely blending of the MMORPG, mother-son relationships, and woes of English professorships all coated in a healthy dose of satire really did it for me.

This is a seriously gorgeous cover.

I enjoyed the history, esp. the focus on the deprivations women suffered at home in WWII. But the prose was sometimes melodramatic, and there were some plot holes/narratively purposeless deaths.

Overall this reminded me of the unspeakable horror of WWII and also of the strength of those who died and those who lived. However, the story had enough emotional weight on its own; those moments that tried to foist emotion on me were distracting.

#BOTM

#BOTM! #BOTM! Why is it so exciting to get #bookmail that someone else selects for you? These were my picks for December.

I'm trying to decide whether I should get Alexander Chee's Queen of the Night next month. Has anyone else read it? Would you recommend it?

Some excellent reads this month! I Let You Go was the most Novembery of the bunch—chilling and atmospheric.

It's like what would happen if Cormac McCarthy suddenly learned how to write women and girls. Post–Civil War lawless Texas. Prose that PUTS YOU THERE and rewards focus.

A slim volume that reads like scripture (as another reviewer put it): by turns plain and poetic, but always True.

Beautiful illustrations (okay, illuminations), fascinating details about religious tensions in medieval France, funny, insightful. One of the best children's books I've read this year.

Ultimate comfort combo: Liane Moriarty and Dark Chocolate Peppermint Joe Joe's. If you haven't tried either, do yourself a favor.

"Know what a symbol is?....Shit that stands for shit."

THIS PROSE, Y'ALL ??

"Long bright crawls of water slid across the livery stable floor and took up the light of the lantern like a luminous stain and the roof shook with the percussion of drops as big as nickels."

Getting major Cormac McCarthy vibes.

#NBAwards

"Grief was not a line, carrying you infinitely further from loss. You never knew when you would be sling-shot backward into its grip." #BOTM

I am in love with this book. I decided to read it before the rest of the books in this #bookhaul, and I'm glad I did. But it's such a pleasurable read that I'm reluctant to finish so I can move on to the others!

After Gone Girl, I needed to read something that was its polar opposite. This was that book.

And it was charming enough—a frothy British getaway of a book. The secondary characters were well-developed; however, they outshone the central relationship between Bex and Nick, which was disappointing.

I got Regina Spektor's new album around the time I read The Assistants. The TA reminded me of one of my fave tracks on it: The Trapper and the Furrier. They're both about the way the zeitgeist has taken advantage of the poor & disenfranchised, but where Regina is angry, The Assistants comes across to me as sometimes whiny.

If you're in the mood for a romcom/chick lit/caper or have a need to vent some Millennial spleen, this book is your man.

"The key to our success is to give people ninety-nine percent perfect experiences. Make them ALMOST happy, and they'll keep buying."

Loving this collection of short stories so far.

After only a few pages of this John Cleese autobiography, I'd already laughed out loud so much I had to keep reading. It turns out he's funny.

The most interesting part isn't his comedy career; those chapters fall flat compared to the enchanting way he sketches his childhood. He paints the flawed characters from his youth with charm and love.

Cleese says he's always felt himself to be more writer than actor; this book made me believe him.

Every review I've read of Dark Matter talks about how difficult it is to review without spoilers, and they're right. So I'll just say this: it was the smash hit of the summer for a reason. Well, no. Lots of reasons.
.
Read it if you're in the mood for a sci fi thrill ride laced with existential speculation and a story about married love, none of which is heavy-handed. Perfect for fans of sci fi like Fringe or Interstellar.