Just wanted to share that the current #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead is on sale on libro.fm. 😊

@BarbaraJean

My February #bookspinbingo card! My #bookspin is a YA (maybe middle grade?) Star Wars book called Out of the Shadows. My #doublespin is Matrix by Lauren Groff. Thank you, @TheAromaofBooks!!

Here's my (poorly photographed, in dim light) February #bookspinbingo list. @TheAromaofBooks

My completed #bookspinbingo card for January. A few hits and one big miss! My #bookspin was The Winners, which I LOVED. My #doublespin was A Strange Country. @TheAromaofBooks

I've read a lot of good Litsy reviews of this already, so I think I'll just mention how interesting it was reading about the deterioration of Elena's body and realizing that I don't think I liked her as a person. Or Rita either. They both seem unpleasant (especially to Isabel!), but you can't help but feel empathy for them.

I finished this yesterday and I'm still mulling it over. It didn't end the way I thought it might, but got darker than I expected--in a good way. Thought provoking and tender.

I don't remember ever reading a book where I was so incapable of picturing what was happening. There were paragraphs of beautiful language that said nothing to me. There's a battle happening & Clara is playing a piano. I don't know where the piano was or how it helped anything or who was even doing the fighting! All the main characters were standing around talking, but it wasn't like dialogue, more like they're all thinking aloud. I hated it.

I finished this just in time for the #kindredspiritsbuddyread discussion. I liked it okay, but because it was a prequel, I felt like it suffered from having to reach a specific ending. The beginning and middle were interesting, but the closer we came to Green Gables, it felt more and more constrained.

I love short stories and I'm trying to read a short story every day in 2023. I finished this amazing collection today. I've had this on my shelf for a very long time, so I'm happy to have finally read it. #storyaday2023

That blurry red shape out on the ice to the right is my son. I want him to read this series, but they're a lot longer than what he normally reads. I really never thought Beartown needed a sequel, much less a third book in the series, but I have loved all of them. Maybe I love them because I love hockey or because I love a boy who plays hockey or because of all the kids I've known who shine on the ice. Or maybe they're just really well written.

When Penguin and Random House merged, the NAL imprint switched to nonfiction only, leaving Tennessee author Jeff High's books without a home. Before I sold my bookstore, Jeff did several events there, including meeting our book club. He published the 4th Watervalley book himself and, while his books aren't 100% my taste (hence no rating), he's a good guy and I hope he's had success with this.

My son needed to annotate this book for class and wasn't feeling confident, soooo we're taking turns reading aloud and annotating as we go. I love seeing what things stand out to him that I don't particularly notice and vice versa.

My son is 13 and started playing hockey when he was 4. This paragraph hit me HARD.

I know it's used, but did they have to put the sticker RIGHT THERE?! At any rate, my copy finally arrived. 😊 #kindredspiritsbuddyread

My current reads, which I'm enjoying to *widely* varying degrees! πŸ˜‚ USPS says my copy of Before Green Gables should arrive today. 🀞#kindredspiritsbuddyread

Here we go! #Clarissa

My #bookspinbingo card for January! My #bookspin is The Winners and my #doublespin is A Strange Country, which is the sequel to the book I just finished on Saturday. Should be a good month!

Thank you, @TheAromaofBooks!

December was a LOT. I literally read all five of these books since Christmas and nothing else all month. #bookspinbingo

@TheAromaofBooks

My #bookspinbingo list for January.

@TheAromaofBooks

My 2022 reading bracket! I really did love Atomic Anna. 😁 I couldn't put it down.

Thanks to @chasjjlee for the template!

My last book of 2022. Totally by accident, I started and ended the year with Muriel Barbery. I didn't love this one, but I still want to read the sequel.

I wasn't sure I liked where the story was headed, but then it took a turn and surprised me. I liked the change of reading about characters who struggle with finances and literacy. The layers of secrecy were so life changing for Jeanie, but were small, intimate, and believable. Loved the ending.

This was my #bookspin for December.

My bookish haul from Christmas (the stack on the left) and my birthday (the stack on the right), which was yesterday.

It's always interesting reading memoirs from people so young. There were some interesting ideas here, and I think the pros outweighed the cons. Still, a lot of it reminded me of thoughts that occupied college-aged me and I wonder how long these thoughts will stay with Radtke. My college thoughts didn't stay with me, but our choices change what we value most.

I've read several Ginzburg books before and this one felt different. I still enjoyed it though (and it's so short, I would've pushed through regardless).

I think I'd like to read this one again, with the ending in mind. It had a slightly dreamlike quality to it, where everything made sense when I was reading, buy when I finished it and closed the book, I couldn't quite rebuild the story in my mind.

I finished this yesterday. It's my December #doublespin.

My #BookSpinBingo card for December! My #bookspin is Unsettled Ground and my #doublespin is The Emissary. @TheAromaofBooks

Here's my #bookspin list for December. @TheAromaofBooks

November was my second month of #BookSpinBingo and I'm loving how much it keeps me on task! I don't read fast and I have a tendency to read too many books at once, so it's a nice change of pace to be somewhat organized! I loved Emma and Howards End, which were my #bookspin and #doublespin. @TheAromaofBooks

I don't even know why I liked this so much. I love Helen and Margaret, and even useless Tibby. But, I don't really understand why Margaret loves Henry. I guess I see my husband's faults clearly and don't care, but Henry's faults seem totally at odds with Margaret's way of living. Everything ends up neat and tidy, but in a way that feels poetic rather than easy.

Emma, as a heroine, is fine, but her dad is THE BEST. And I love Miss Bates. I would love to spend an evening being safely kept out of drafts and away from open windows eating gruel with Mr. Woodhouse and Miss Bates. I hope Jane Fairfax is happy and never has to speak to Mrs. Elton again.

Wait, what? Dude. You were 29. This is not the way to overtake Wentworth as my favorite Austen hero.

This book was suspenseful and sometimes plain scary, but the parts I loved were the main character's observations about motherhood. My son is 13, so I miss those years when he was so closely tethered to me. I spent countless afternoons with him at the zoo when he was small, so this felt close to home, making it that much scarier.

My husband and I finished up this audiobook on our drive "home" for Thanksgiving. We've been listening to it whenever we've been in the car over the last few weeks. I've enjoyed talking it over with him as we've gone along.

I love this cover, but the book wasn't for me. Similar vibe to Before the Coffee Gets Cold, so it felt almost like a fable or an allegory.

I make my son a Christmas ornament every year, but last year he requested Bilbo Baggins because he read The Hobbit. It took me so long to decide how to do it, that I didn't get it done. I set the project aside and picked it up yesterday. I have all the pieces cut and packed so I can stitch him up on our drive to Tennessee for Thanksgiving. I can't wait to see how he turns out!

Hockey season is in full swing for my son, so I feel like there's never enough time in the week. I did manage to finish this over the weekend though and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Here's my #bookspinbingo card for November. My #bookspin is Emma (yay!) and my #doublespin is Howard's End. @TheAromaofBooks

Im starting this today and was thinking about how I didn't remember where I got it. I flipped through to count the chapters and found this bookmark. Dutton's North Hollywood was my first bookstore job. It was heaven on earth. My coworkers were warm and hilarious, the building was funky (in a good way), and I discovered so many books there. I had worked there about a year when the owners announced they were closing the store. (Continued in comment)

Here's my #bookspin list for November! @TheAromaofBooks

I got a bingo! This month, I finished Jane Eyre, The Night Circus, Atomic Anna (#bookspin), Fabulous, Among the Shadows, Northanger Abbey, Burnt Sugar (#doublespin), and The Clockmaker's Daughter. I didn't love all of them, but I didn't hate any either, so success! #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Not my favorite Kate Morton, but it was technically a ghost story so it was appropriate to finish today. I enjoyed being swept along for the story, even if it wasn't her best.

Burnt Sugar was book #50 for 2022. It's a big deal to me to finally meet my 50 books in a year goal, which I've had for about 15 yrs. I usually fall short somewhere in the 40s. I can't believe I met my goal two months early! I used to feel bad that I didn't read more books in a year, but I've gotten over that as I've gotten older. I'm grateful for the things that are taking up my time and keeping me from reading.

This was a low pick for me because I felt disinterested in the middle. I pushed through because this was my #bookspin #doublespin and I'm glad I did. The second half was great. I read this alongside Atomic Anna, which also dealt with grandmother-mother-daughter relationships. That added another layer I wasn't counting on.

This was my first time reading Northanger Abbey and I loved it. So funny with great, annoying villains and a perfect hero and heroine. Huge thanks to @sprainedbrain for leading the #pemberlittens read through!

Finished these today.

Among the Shadows was fine, just not as spooky (or memorable) as I would've liked. #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

Fabulous was a collection of modern retellings of fables & myths. Some of the stories were pretty good, but I found that I enjoyed them more when I was unfamiliar with the original story. A couple of them were so vague, specifically when dealing with magic or the divine, that they just didn't work.

"His departure gave Catherine the first experimental conviction that a loss may be sometimes a gain." ?? #pemberlittens

This was compulsively readable and had so many things in it that were right up my alley. I loved all the characters and the way everything was leading up to one date. It was a definite pick, but I think the last chapter was too short and I'm not sure I agree that things would have worked out that way. I'm particular about time travel stories and I needed a little more convincing that changing A still allows B to happen. Still a great book though!

Just noticed this stack of de-jacketed hardcovers, each a current read, looked very Christmas-y for late October.

This was my fourth attempt and I pushed through this time by speeding up the audiobook. It was okay, but for some reason, I just wasn't charmed in the way I think I was supposed to be. I was bored and it never felt like the love story had any tension or build up, it just...was. I flat out hated Water for Elephants, so maybe I have a circus aversion?