I enjoyed this short story collection set in Mobile Alabama. There is a charm to Michael Knights writing that echoes back to the past. 3 🌟

I loved Creatures of Passage so much I picked up Morowa Yejide first novel, Time of the Locust. Some beautiful lyrical writing but I found that the plot got muddled in this novel. Worth a read. She is an author that I am excited to follow and will read whatever she writes. 3.5 🌟

Everything I look for in Epic Fantasy. Great world building and characters that I care about. Can't wait to see where this story goes. Wonderful audio book with a strong cast. 4 🌟

4.5 🌟 the writing in these stories just flows. There is an ease and grace in these realistic and gritty stories. Highly recommend. I know I am late to this party, but I am so glad I read this collection finally. Thank you @TheAromaofBooks #DoubleSpin

A reread for me, loved it even more on the second listen. Now on to book 2, Fevered Star. 4 🌟

Loved this modern vampire novel of a mixed race young woman finding her power. 4 🌟

5 🌟! I listened to the audio book and will buy this in physical form. So many beautiful lush quotes. King Lear is a favorite play of mine and I loved revisiting this world. Recommend for folks that enjoyed Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell.

Oh dear! What happens when I go to pick up one book at the library!

My May TBR from all the various TBR games. Love starting the month off this way. Thank you @TheAromaofBooks
If I stick to this pile (which I will not) I could get a bingo and the double spin. Time will tell.

I have owned this for years and finally got it read! I found the afterward the most interesting part of this novel. It tells of the origin of the story and I wish I had that information before diving into the novel. I found that it dragged in places, but a good read all in all. A story of love in all its forms and the importance of women having a voice. First May read!

April Reads
🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Creatures of Passage: Morowa Yejide 🎧 Womens Prize
🌟🌟🌟🌟
Sorrow and Bliss: Meg Mason 🎧 Woman's Prize
The Swimmers: Julie Otsuka 📖
🌟🌟🌟.5
Remote Passage: Catherine Chidgey 📖 Women's Prize
Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine Anna Reid 📖
Crying in H Mart: Michelle Zauner 🎧
🌟🌟🌟
Junket: Lauren Groff 🎧
Pure Color: Sheila Heti 🎧
🌟🌟
One Italian Summer: Rebecca Serle 🎧

Published in 2000. Very readable history of the conflicts in Ukraine over the centuries. Great basic overview.

May #Bookpin # doubleSpin #BookSpinBingo
@TheAromaofBooks

Love this challenge!

Wow! 5 🌟. Beautiful. Reminds me of The Prophets, Beloved, The Water Dancer. Mystical and mythical. Trigger warning for child abuse and sexual assault. The best of the Women's Prize long list that I have read so far. I can not imagine any of the others being better. Best book I have read so far this year.

Autofiction about a writter who is losing her mother to dementia. Beautiful and heart breaking writting. 💔 4.5 🌟

Novel about mental illness and love. Also about forgiving your own cruelty. So glad it eneded the way it did. I would be happy if this was in the short list for The Womens Prize. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks
I finally read the book spin book in the right month!

Historical fiction about a German work camp during WWII. Skillfully told from 4 POV. Moving and straightforward story telling. Not my favorite from the Womens Prize list but close to the top of the list of the ones I have read so far.

Philosophical, metaphorical, and surreal. Not for someone that is looking for plot. I am interested in reading her other work. This ended on a very sweet note. 3 🌟

Beautiful setting but a bit disappointing. About a mother and daughter and not losing your sense of self when you become a parent. 2 🌟

Beautiful description of love for mother combined with great food writing. 3.5 🌟

March 2022 Wrapup
5 🌟
Popiso (Best of the womens prize long list that I have read so far)
4 🌟 Ghost in the Throat
3 🌟 Open Water, The Fell, Cassandra at the Wedding, The Paper Palace, and The Book of Mother.
One DNF: The Love Songs of WEB DeBois.
#bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

No bingo this month.

April #BookSpin

1 The Magician
2 A Swim in the Pond in the Rain
3 Buddha in the Attic
4 Norma
5 Eveningland
6 The Sentence
7 Crying in the H Mart
8 Peony in Love
9 Lincoln and the Bardo
10 The Wonders
11 Remote Sympathy
12 Small Country
13 The History of Bees
14 French Exit
15 Mrs Death Misses Death
16 Build Your House Around My Body
17 The Lions of Al Rassan
18 Sorrow and Bliss
19 In Five Years
20 Kitchen Confidential

A novel about a highly dysfunctional mother from her daughters point of view. Told with great love. 3 🌟

3 🌟. A very readable book. Straightforward story of a highly dysfunctional family. Content warning for sexual abuse. I did not like how the abuse was written about. Mixed feelings on this book. Feels like it will be a Netflix series in the future.

I love her writing. This felt a little underdeveloped, but still enjoyed this slight novel. 3.5 🌟

Fantastical, suprising, delightful, and utterly unique. I loved this book. It was at times confusing and startling but a wonderful reading experience. 5 🌟. I hope it wins The Womens Prize for fiction.

"This is a female text." Poetic memoir of motherhood and scholarship. Beautifully written. Highly recommended. 4 ?

Read this slowly over the course of a month. Told in 2 timelines, 1900 and the late 1990's. I much prefered the 1900 time line. Slow plot with lots of political discussion. Loved the settings. 2.5 🌟

Loved this time of year, like bookish Christmas. Love the Womens Prize. I have read 3 on the list and have these 6 to read. There are 7 I can not get my hands on yet.

Poetic writing about falling love and being black in Britain. The book was most effective for me when focusing on the narrators life outside of this love relationship. I am not the target audience for this novel but appreciate the craft of the writing.

February 2022 Wrap Up
4.5 🌟
Assembly: Natasha Brown 📖
4 🌟
Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was : Sjon 📖
A Girl is a Body of Water: Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi 📖
Fruit of the Drunken Tree: Ingrid Rajas Contreras 📖
3.5 🌟
The Performance: Claire Thomas 📖
Goodnight, Nobody: Michael Knight 📖
The Sea, The Sea : Iris Murdoch 📖
3🌟
The Lincoln Highway: Amor Towles 🎧
2.5 🌟
The Book of Form and Emptiness: Ruth Ozeki 🎧

Reminded me at times of Steinbeck, only without the poetry. A grand adventure story. Easy read. 3 🌟

Amazing writing! Condensed, poetic writing. I read this book in one sitting. Powerful. Highly recommend!! 4.5 🌟 I hope it is eligible for The Womens Prize.

March #BookSpin

1 Open Water
2 The High House
3 Buddha in the Attic
4 Writers & Lovers
5 Five Tuesdays in Winter
6 The Map of Love
7 Idaho
8 Peony in Love
9 Lincoln and the Bardo
10 Fingersmith
11 The Shell Collector
12 The Gustov Sonata
13 The History of Bees
14 French Exit
15 Mrs Death Misses Death
16 Popisho
17 The Lions of Al Rassan
18 Sorrow and Bliss
19 In Five Years
20 Kitchen Confidential
@TheAromaofBooks

My first #BookSpinBingo!! 5 great reads. I even read the #bookspin this month! Bingo includes A Girl ia a Body of Water, The Performance, The Book of Form and Emptiness, Fruit of the Drunken Tree and Moonstone. @TheAromaofBooks

I am loving the #12Women12Countries project. It prompted me to pick up a book that has been on my shelf for a couple of years. Fruit of the Drunken Tree is set in Columbia and is a coming of age story written in the shadow of Pablo Escobar. Beautifully written. Highly recommend. 4 🌟

So glad that I finally got around to reading this wonderful novel. A coming of age story in 1980's Uganda. Wonderful writing about women and how we fit into the patriarchy. I am excited to read her other novel. 4 🌟, well worth a read. I read this for #invisiblecities, #bigbooks and #bookspinbingo.

I had a great reading experience with this novel. I read it slowly over a month and was always happy to return to this world. I laughed out load several times and was often suprised by turn of events in this novel. A delight. 3 🌟 Read this as part of the Big Book Challenge.

4 🌟 story of a gay boy in Iceland during the Spanish flu. Read this in one sitting. The writing can be very realistic (graphic at times) and also surrealistic. Loved the final image.

This is what happens when I watch a bunch of Booktube! Library haul. At least they are all on the short side and I can fit them in along with the Big Book Challenge I am doing this year.

An enjoyable short story collection. I found it easy to read and it evokes a strong sense of place. It reads a bit dated now, published in 2003. I look forward to reading more of this authors work.

@TheAromaofBooks I read the #bookspin book for Feburary...in the first week of the month! Loved this very introspective novel. We get the interior life of three diffrent women watching a Becket play while wild fires rage outside the theater. Loved that we had women of various ages and diffrent concerns. Highly recommend. Reads like a much longer book 4 🌟

No bingo, but I have so much fun with #bookspin #doublespin #bookbingo. Thank you @TheAromaofBooks I am really getting to my physical TBR!

January Read Books
5 🌟
Nightbitch: Rachel Yoder 🎧
4.5 🌟
These Precious Days: Ann Patchett 🎧
Intimacies: Katie Kitmura 📖
Salt Slow: Julia Armfield 📖
The Island of Missing Trees: Elif Shavak 📖
3 🌟
Love After Love: Ingrid Persaud 🎧
When The Sky Fell Apart: Caroline Lea 📖
The Ocean at the End of the Lane: Neil Gaiman 📖
2.5 🌟
Catherine House: Elisabeth Thomas🎧
2 🌟
A Spell of Winter: Helen Dunmore

4.5 🌟 this book got me in the last chapter. I was enjoying the book and learned a lot about Cyprus. Beautiful novel that suprised all the way to the end. Highly recommend.

1 Island of Missing Trees; The Sea, The Sea; The Book of Form and Emptiness.
2 Nightbitch (5 🌟)
3 The Map of Love

4 🌟 I loved how the author played with the time line to share this story of a family that left Iran after the revolution. The narrator, the gay youngest daughter, tells the story of her family in all it's complications and love. I learned a lot about Iran. Don't know why I put off reading this great novel for so long.

Loved this collection of surreal short stories. The author has a great voice. I am excited to read her first novel when it is published. 4.5 🌟 highly recommend.

1 The Island of Missing Trees
2 Goodnight, Nobody
3 Fruit of the Drunken Tree
4 Lincoln and the Bardo
5 The Performance
6 Fingersmith
7 The Shell Collector
8 The Gustov Sonata
9 Holding
10 French Exit
11 A Deadly Education
12 Fruit of the Drunken Tree
13 The Lions of Al Rassan
14 Sorrow and Bliss
15 In Five Years
16 A Map Of Love
17 Cold Earth
18 Norma
19 The Power
20 Unsheltered

Feburary #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks