That Percival Everett was able to craft a novel which honors the good in Twain‘s original masterpiece, while also rectifying many of its flaws, is no small feat.

But it‘s that this novel can also stand entirely, remarkably, on its own, that takes things to a whole other level.

5 stars.

Picked it for looking like a good Valentines-y read, but it was also very appropriate considering all the SNL 50th content I‘ve watched in the last few weeks.

I was wary of reading this, having had issues with other Hannah novels. But the premise pulled me in, especially since it felt so reminiscent of a play I was in during college (A Piece of My Heart).

I wish I‘d skipped it. A bad soap opera masquerading as historical fiction, it forfeited the depth & nuance the topic deserved in favor of cheap & tawdry “twists.”

I know she‘s a popular author, but I just can‘t take the melodrama.

Thinking about time travel makes my head hurt.

Reading this made my heart hurt.

I loved every second of it.

Wrong opinions about The Beatles aside, I loved Adina and her observational reports on the human experience.

Their scope and her sensitivity. Even the way that loneliness looms throughout, and the underlying feeling that life is both too much and not enough.

I love books that make me laugh and cry. Even more so when they also make me ponder and reflect.

My first 5 ⭐️ read of the year.

Was constructing one of those red-yarned detective boards in my brain the entire time I was reading this one…trying to keep up with the mystery‘s twists and revelations, the narrator‘s supplemental memories and observations, the layers of added complications from a pandemic backdrop, a nonspeaking witness, etc.

Oh, was this a journey — I feel like I traveled the 1500 miles (in the wrong direction) with Emmett and Billy. And I‘m now in an absolute tangled mess over the final act — feeling every which way about where characters ended up and the choices they made.

All this to say, it was as engrossing and affecting as I always hope a novel will be.

Didn‘t expect something with such a bright cover and punchy title to venture into nuanced, shades-of-grey topics like opioid addiction treatments, sex worker advocacy, etc.

But it navigates Margo‘s money troubles (plus legal troubles, family troubles, and more) with humor and empathy and large helpings of food for thought.

Like the protagonist, I am the daughter of a successful high school basketball coach who has passed away. It was fun to relive my experience as she described the sounds & smells of growing up courtside, if also a little painful to be reminded of some of the downsides…like those milestones missed for occurring within the basketball season.

Beyond the nostalgic appeal, it‘s also an enjoyable romance + a little feminist revenge for good measure.

I know I am like 10+ years behind on this, but it lived up to the hype.

While I‘m grateful to have had something so absorbing to read while bed-bound with COVID the last few days, I also worry some of the scientific elements (and their philosophical adjacencies) were beyond the reach of my foggy brain…

But even with my uncertain level of understanding, this book was very enjoyable — also ambitious, thought-provoking, and distinct.

A few years ago, I went to see Tommy Orange speak about his follow up to There, There. When asked about books he‘d recently read and loved, this was one of his recs.

And now I know why.

Needed some post-election comfort, so chose to visit with several beloved characters via a reread of The House in the Cerulean Sea (on audio this time) …and then devoured the recently released sequel to stay with them a little longer.

The second book struggles a little with pace (and too much monologuing?), but it more than makes up for its technical or editorial misses with its big beautiful heart.

Hope to spend more time in Marsyas soon.

Finished this earlier in the week as a leftover from October.

It edges past a so-so mostly because I find Grann‘s writing to be consistently compelling, but I definitely prefer a long-form deep dive over this collection of independent (and previously published) articles that just happen to have the common thread of humanity‘s darkness.

#HauntedShelf total was 2616

I‘m relieved I did a bit better in the back half… though, at close of every October, I think I will always wish I‘d managed to squeeze in just a bit more spooky.

Thanks @OriginalCyn620 for leading Team #DeadSerious!

And thanks @PuddleJumper for organizing a month of fun!

Oooh I was so spoiled — and by a fellow Buffy fan at that!!

Thanks so much @Lauranahe (from me AND my pups), it was like opening up a box of pure and spooktacular joy!!

And thanks @wanderinglynn for organizing the fun!
#HHS #HauntedHollowSwap #HHS24

Book Scavenger Hunt: Pumpkin ✔️

#HauntedShelf
Team #DeadSerious

Book Scavenger Hunt: Cold ✔️

#HauntedShelf
Team #DeadSerious

Book Scavenger Hunt: Night Sky ✔️

#HauntedShelf
Team #DeadSerious

Largely set in a haunted bookstore, the actual ghost is but a fraction of what looms over and around Tookie… addiction, incarceration, “rehabilitation” vs isolation; generational traumas both cultural and personal; the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd.

It‘s a lot to unpack.

But worth the emotional time and effort.

I really loved this one.

Four octogenarians (or thereabouts) kill time and stay sharp through amateur* sleuthing. The result is solved crimes, unlikely friendships, and boundless charm.

(The amateur descriptor is perhaps misleading…even if it is by hobby rather than trade, they are certainly effective detectives!)

Amidst the historic play-by-play, Roach takes the time to really focus on 6 specific women of the trials: How did they each come to be living in Salem, 1692 (indisputably a WRONG place & WRONG time)? What fears, hopes, misunderstandings could‘ve led innocent women to confess? What traumas & biases, left to fester, could have brought about such hysteria?

This book doesn‘t pretend to have all the answers. But it‘s important to ask the questions.

Shipping out my #HauntedHollowSwap package!
#hhs #hhs24

Ended up at 728 for the first two weeks. I am pretty bummed that I didn‘t even break a thousand — but I am going to ramp things up for the back half!

#HauntedShelf
Team #DeadSerious

A haunted tale set 30 years after Ichabod disappeared from Sleepy Hollow.

It took an interesting angle on Brom Bones. While I think Irving‘s original legend left a lot of room for interpretation regarding the characters, most adaptations I‘ve encountered limit Brom to a brawn-over-brains bully. In this story, centered on his grandchild, he‘s far smarter & better-natured than most his neighbors. It makes for a fresh ride through a familiar wood.

I really love Harrow‘s writing — and her growing list of sharp, feral, magical characters.

(I also appreciate, as a fellow Kentuckian, how well she captures the feeling of simultaneously judging (harshly) and loving (deeply) the place you call home.)

Book Scavenger Hunt: Baked Treat ✔️

#HauntedShelf
Team #DeadSerious

As it alternates between three women‘s stories — women of separate times but shared blood — the novel shows each at their lowest, most desperate moments…and then follows their ascents, each also rising up to find their strength and embrace their power (witchy and otherwise).

Something wonderful arrived today!!!

(I always want spooky season to last forever, but now I‘m also looking forward to the end of the month…)

#HHS
#HHS24
#HauntedHollowSwap

Book Scavenger Hunt: Hot Drink ✔️

I spy a litttle teapot!

But honestly, it was much harder than expected to find a qualifying cover in my sizable home library. Especially considering the volume of British literature (and therefore references to tea) it includes.

#HauntedShelf
Team #DeadSerious

Book Scavenger Hunt: Autumn or Fall ✔️

(I want to live in this cover, lounging on a bright autumn day with Anne and Diana, gazing at coppery leaves in the distance… le sigh.)

#hauntedshelf
Team #DeadSerious

Book Scavenger Hunt: Orange ✔️

#HauntedShelf
Team #DeadSerious

Several trigger warnings apply to this one.

It is DARK. As much from magic-less men wielding societal power & privilege to prey on others, as it is from supernatural monsters or the nefarious rites & spells.

But Alex Stern comes out swinging, against the world‘s darkness & her own, & that‘s one of my favorite kind of protagonists. The ones that aren‘t sure they can win, but plan to put up a helluva fight all the same.

I‘m tragically indecisive, but I‘ll try…

1. Vampires
2. Love both, but “Thriller” wins for the video/dance
3. Pumpkin Spice
4. Funny Costume, particularly those that rely on word play
5. Chocolate wins by 0.01%
6. Pumpkin Patch
7. Both. I will not choose. You cannot make me. #cozyclothesforever
8. Hayride for sure
9. Handing out candy

#HauntedShelf
Team #DeadSerious

Read this early in September as part of my “dark academia” theme for the month and highly recommend it for folks who like historical fiction AND thrillers. The final reveal truly caught me off guard, which is actually pretty rare anymore.

(The fact that one of the main characters happens to be an imagined version of Edgar Allan Poe during his West Point years is a very cool bonus.)

#HauntedShelf
Team #DeadSerious

My October TBR (plus the tagged book via audio) for #HauntedShelf.

Team #DeadSerious

There are great, even illuminating points & themes in here, but the intertwining narratives felt flat.

Despite engaging characters, & the absolutely fascinating context (the first female healer in an indigenous community that saw the role as a man‘s), it read like the recap of what would have been a compelling story.

Absolutely loved the pictured quote though.

Word-nerds are rarely depicted as fervent rebels, or at least not the kind who might believe the sword is mightier…

But it makes sense here, as a multi-national cohort at a fictional Institute of Translation reckon with the ways they (and the global population at large) are manipulated and exploited by the seekers of empire. But their refusal to participate in the status quo (as always) has consequences.

Totally absorbing.

I wish I could have talked Shakespeare with these characters, unabashedly pretentious as they were. (Before the murder part, of course).

It was dark — showing rage & fear & envy taken to the extremes, plus the consequences of such. But was also still so much a story about love & devotion & the desire to protect what we hold most dear.

Highly recommend to any fans of Shakespeare, Dark Academia, or emotional mysteries.

I‘ve started this book on 4 separate occasions, but this week it finally took…& I devoured it.

Similar to Caleb Carr‘s The Alienist, it mixes real persons of the past (Edgar Allan Poe & several West Point officers) with created characters to solve (and/or be suspected of) mercifully fictional crimes.

The result was a dark & twisty mystery with enough historical nuggets to keep me bouncing between the story & a research rabbit hole.

My last read of #AustenianAugust & the perfect non-fiction follow-up to the novel Miss Austen. It provided historical context & clarification around Jane & Cassandra‘s lives, temperaments, & unbreakable bond.

Examining Jane‘s life specifically through the lens of her various residences & her want for a sense of “home,” this also had me itching to reread Austen‘s works to look for that longing reflected in her heroines. A project for next August.

McBride writes the “7-layer dip” of novels. At first “bite,” you just get interesting characters, maybe the hint of a mystery. Next scoop starts to give a little social commentary, or the specific taste of a time & place. But once you‘ve dug a little deeper — maybe 150 pages or so — it all starts to come together. The layers all blend into something more distinct & complex & satisfying.

In imagining what might have been contained in the letters famously destroyed by Jane Austen‘s sister Cassandra, this novel is truly a tribute to sisterly love and devotion.

It‘s incredibly rare to have a story that allows a platonic (and non-parental) relationship to be the most treasured and important to a character. Especially while also showing unmarried women who have full and contented lives. This was worth reading for that alone.

Kicked off my annual celebration of #AustenianAugust with the latest addition to Claudia Gray‘s Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney mystery series. I loved that this one featured several side characters from Pride & Prejudice.

A would-be-murder mystery, Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney are summoned to discover who is attempting to take Lady Catherine‘s life (because such things will not be borne).

After rereading Beartown & Us Against You over the last few months, I was finally ready to find out if Backman stuck the landing of his hockey town saga.

He did.

I could not read this book fast enough. & while I was repeatedly (if unsurprisingly) wrecked as the story unfolded, I cherished every word on every page because it made me think & feel so damn much.

I will carry these characters with me for a long, long time.

The story of a young woman‘s fight for survival against devastating hunger, the dangers of a foreign wilderness, disease, despair, and unfathomable loneliness.

I savored this story of a life well lived, told in a series of delicious morsels over the course of 30+ years.

In the making of friends, and family, and in the mastering of one‘s circumstances, The Count is a delight and an inspiration. For some limitations are no match for an open heart.

Judging this book by its cover worked out fine — the tale was as fun and epic as the artwork suggests. Retired pirate and single-mother is forced to get her ol‘ band back together for a rescue mission across the sea (or Indian Ocean more specifically). Real magic and ancient legends are both help and hindrance. It was a wild ride (sail?) and I could practically feel and taste the salt water spray…

I know what this book is supposed to be about.
Or at least, what the reviews and interviews claim.

But the “point” didn‘t really land for me.

Absolutely gripping. Nearly un-put-down-able even, my reading fueled by rage and frustration…and the prevailing hope for some sliver of justice.

I‘m sorry I didn‘t read it sooner. And I have now put the rest of Grann‘s works on my TBR.