August ended up being a slower reading month than anticipated, but I‘m pleased to have crossed of three #TOB2025 books. Waiting on The Wedding People and Martyr from the Library.

This book is a reminder of the things you should hold dear. The things that truly COULD make us great, or at least could reinvest in real patriotism. It is an expanded listicle of 20 “lessons“ from the twentieth century. If you feel you lack courage to resist, throw this tiny book in your bag and take it out and reread it as you wait for the bus.
Make eye contact and small talk (#12).
Start somewhere.

“History does not repeat. But it does instruct.“ #FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Short version: “Ambivalent“ is the right word to describe how I feel about this book. There were parts of this book I LOVED and parts I really did not love.
Suzie? I kept forgetting she existed and then she'd pop up like a game of whack-a-mole. The mushroom “scene“ was off the rails--these types of things made the plot feel like a game of yo-yo. Jinx was a GREAT character. Full review in comments. #TOB2025

It isn't just simply “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as told by Jim.“ The messages aren't subtle, but it is an invitation to think about an old character (or actually old characters--Huck, too), in a new way. There are parts that drag a bit, but overall the novel illuminates the privilege of “adventures“ and how characters can reclaim and change the archetypes to which they've been relegated. #TOB2025

First book I ever blogged— 20 years ago!

Fred Rogers was, by all accounts, a hugely decent human being who used his primary platform (Mister Rogers' Neighborhood) to address pressing issues in a subtle way. Long is careful not to glorify the man, and reveals tensions between Betty Aberlin and Rogers when the latter refused to move beyond subversive messaging about the Gulf War. His friendship and professional relationship with opera singer Francois Clemmons receives some nuance.

This is a remarkable book that manages to combine "memoir with marine biology" as the podcast Science Friday put it (which was the impetus for me to put the book on my reading list). What keeps it from a full five stars for me is the whiplash between the two. Often, it is the passages focused on the sea creatures where Imbler offers their most potent observations. There are passages that brought me to tears.

“You are about to begin reading a new book, and to be honest, you are a little tense.”
#FirstLineFridays. @ShyBookOwl

Here for my grandpa‘s memorial and I always score something great from Mutual 16‘s lending library. And yes, I‘ve left books too!

“I considered the northern white stance against slavery. How much of the desire to end the institution was fueled by a need to quell and subdue white guilt and pain? Was it just too much to watch? [. . .] I knew that whatever the cause of their war, freeing slaves was an incidental premise and would be an incidental result.” (286) #truth

I care not a whit about wrestling, so I could have skipped that aspect of this book, and I also had the murderer figured out very early in the game, but still, this was very entertaining. This first book in the series hooked me, mostly through the protagonist who navigates both his demons and the quirky characters of his small town with a certain amount of earthy skepticism and hard-won good-naturedness. #firstpost

3.75 stars This gives us a better look at the Knoxes and the Bardos, the latter familiar from the previous book. The book opens with the grisliest murder yet in the series, and we soon learn that relativism looms large as we see a whole lot of "wrong place, wrong time" and "in over his head" sorts of explanations for bad behavior. There is a definite red herring, but it turns out to be a bit more interesting than usual.
#firstpost

One of those rare occasions where the second in the trilogy is better!

I got a new backpack, but I‘ve already had these catch on things and fall off, so I‘m reluctant to transfer them to the new one!

#Series firsts are hard -- the author has to hook you on the characters AND tell a good story. Greenwood deftly uses the dancer Sasha and the impressionable Dot to help show us Phryne's character, but also as pivotal plot pushers. Phryne is hedonistic, yes, but not just that, and it is ultimately a pleasure to get some insights beyond her roaring 20s persona. The whirlwind sometimes overwhelmed, but overall I'm happy to continue with the series!

Since it doesn't yet have a post:
These men confront not each other, but the issues of apocalyptic perspective, abortion, women in the Church, violence and much more. They recognize these issues not as polemics to be tossed back and forth for endless bantering, but as fundamental to outlining a definition of “humanity.“ Both men are scholars and people of faith, aware of the cultural and social millieu around them. Also, short! #firstpost

This is dystopic sci-fi, but it is also a “coming-of-age“ novel. And a declaration of faith. “Embrace diversity or be destroyed.“ “God is change.“ Butler celebrates the power of poetry--no matter the source. And she even recognizes the limits to her protagonist's agency, as Lauren must disguise herself (figuratively and literally).

And the book is remarkably prescient. A #favorite !

I have given this book a lengthy review elsewhere (GR, my blog) substantiating my “pan”. But while I think roughly half of the book is a great reference for the actual (his)story of sushi, the sensationalism and hypersexualizing of Kate (alongside other fixations with women‘s bodily presence) was a huge turn off. That, paired with the “see Spot run” style of writing made this a no-go for me. Watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi instead.

This is a remarkable book that should be savored and read carefully. Anyone who has a mixed or blended family will likely relate to much of the book and even those that don't should appreciate the multi-dimensional, heart-wrenchingly human characters.

While slow in places, this is a very beautiful book, reminiscent in ways of Agee's A Death in the Family--not in terms of the story, but in the way it reveals so many characters. I love that Patchett doesn't resort to chapters headed by the characters' names but just shifts seamlessly through the hearts and minds of the different family members.

The part of the book that is "a horror story story about loneliness in a fiercely competitive industry" is fantastic. It would have made a great Twilight Zone episode. But the length of having to endure Juniper's horrific behavior overpowered the narrative of loneliness--of Juniper, of Athena. I suspect there's just too much to say about the motivations behind plagiarism and appropriation, so I'm sympathetic.

Somehow, Erdrich manages to mix historical account, a coming-of-age-story, and an intriguing story through a rich cast of humanized characters -- from the Mormon missionaries to the Washington senators. Most of the characters are multi-dimensional and fairly well developed, but the pace of the story (stories, really) moves in fits and starts and occasionally we lose track of some threads in deference to others.

Unlike other books garnering a five star review from me, this wasn't a book I "couldn't put down" but more of a book I "had to pick back up." I only read a few pages at a time (largely because I read before bed and I'm middle-aged), but I always looked forward to tuning in the next night. I was disappointed to say goodbye to the Count, but also pleasantly sated--a rare feeling with books these days.

Read this one back in 2006 but figured I‘d share some faves here. This is a book to be read slowly, a little at a time. Every anecdote and vignette is a life lesson in miniature, but the book never resorts to pontification or blithe nostalgia. It unites believers and non-believers, old and young, men and women in an exquisite tapestry of the human condition. #Pulitzer

Well, I tried. I had a really hard time relating to the relentless onslaught of the narrative. I felt like I was a therapist, and I was simply reading a transcript of sessions of a woman in an unhappy marriage. As a child of divorced parents, it did make me think a bit, but mostly the book just tired me out. I needed more shape and direction. #TOB2025

“I began to understand what a story is. It‘s a manipulation. It‘s a way of containing unmanageable chaos.” Finally something resonates in this book. #TOB2025

This novel tries to be a lot of things, and it is, but it feels like there is a lack of pacing because of it. A worthwhile read, but I suggest lowering expectations for the "mystery" aspect, and allowing the reflections on how we co-exist to be front and center.

Picked up this non-fiction book about “identity and belonging in Xi Jinping‘s China” somewhat randomly from the library and it was definitely one of my favorite July reads. I learned a lot, and Emily Feng‘s journalistic storytelling style is very effective.

I‘m in a test of wills with this book. Just renewed it for a week because I‘m determined to finish it, but I‘m 70% there and EXHAUSTED. Sorry—unpopular opinion, I know. 😢#TOB2025

Tonight I went to a wonderful “Reading Dinner” where we sit around and read (I brought James) for awhile and then have dinner. Such a pleasure to discuss #TOB2025 books with smart people.

The guests were silenced by a painful mixture of Schoenberg and Russian folk song, derived from musically obtuse Styrian peasants, who had absorbed their atonality along with their mother's milk. The sound hurt; but it could not be ignored. Too much of it, Phryne was convinced, would curdle custard. (69)

It is a good book--and with some of the detritus cleared and perhaps a bit more interest in the trajectory of narrative, it could have been great. Certainly it was enough that I'll be curious to read what comes next from Cunningham, and I hope there is a “next“! #TOB2025

I am glad I read it, and there were definitely parts of the book I thought were glorious in prose and imagination. But at the end I felt I had finished putting together a piece of furniture, and found myself looking at several screws and bolt or two that were “left over.“ #TOB2025

Al-Essa's “looking glass“ is perhaps more than it seems, and we are easily manipulated into caring for characters even though they bear titles, like stock figures, rather than names. The “Everyman“ approach keeps a strange distance, until we come to understand the power of our own imaginations with an ending that has been described as a “narrative rupture“ or a “twist worthy of Kafka.“ #TOB2025

Senna does excellent work layering the texture with tension. First and foremost, there is Jane's own mixed-race identity and how it does/doesn't interact with both her personal and professional life. The book is more a tragicomedy than anything else, and the humor is sardonic. #TournamentofBooks2025 #TOB2025

No book or project could ever be comprehensive when it comes to exploring and capturing the history and legacy that began in 1619, when enslaved Africans set foot on the shores of North America, a year prior to the arrival of the Mayflower. However, as a reclamation of American History, this book is a chronicle, a celebration of poetry, art, and writing, and a call for understanding and moving forward.