I love the main character of this book, but sadly the toxicity he encounters is way too familiar from my own experience as a child in the 70s, and I just can't stand reading about it.

You have always tried to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but that doesn't work when you want to obliterate yourself.

“You just said that you couldn't complain, and I thought, really? You can't find something to be mad about right now?“

“I think if I let myself get mad,“ Clay said, “I wouldn't be able to feel anything else.“

This had a lot of potential, with some lovely writing and a fun background of working in a television writers' room. But I got intensely bored with the endless sex scenes and could really have used seeing more of the characters falling in love -- especially since they have huge strikes against them. The relationship ultimately comes off as co-dependent, especially for the male main character, who gets less growth.

Sharing books sparks love and new life choices for two college students. A cute bookwormy romance, though I got tired of Ben making the same mistakes over and over again.

Possibly my most reread book ever.

The Holly Black is a reread, still awesome.

“Come on, it'll be fun, and it'll get you out of the house.“

Why is being in the house always considered a bad thing? Houses are a comfort zone of Internet, sofas, cushions, toast. They're really an embarrassment of riches in a cruel, indifferent, and largely toast-less world.

Another dark yet tender fantasy from Wiswell, for the lonely monster in all of us. Who might Heracles have been if being turned monstrous by a pissed-off, impulsive Hera had only made him more empathetic to others? Someone who wears the whole Nemean lion instead of its skin...

It's maybe a bit too long and repetitive, but overall a lovely rejection of toxic masculinity and an embrace of unconditional love and forgiveness.

#BookSpin

“Where is Purrseus?“

Logy says, “He wasn't listening.“

“What?“

“Have you never had a cat before?“

I'm in Ancient Greece, which is smelling considerably better since Heracles has cleaned out the Augean stables. 😷

#WhereAreYouMonday @Cupcake12

A divorced socialite finds herself working at a newspaper that reports on the paranormal, but real life turns out to be even weirder than her co-workers. Very fun story, with lovable, awful, and lovably awful characters.

This series won a “best audio award,“ and no argument here. The narration is fantastic, effortlessly distinguishing a very large cast of characters and adding to both the goofiness and sense of unease.

1. Going to visit my mom today.

2. Daughter's hormone levels show improvement.

3. Even though there's nothing to celebrate, I still love fireworks.

4. So many free trials right now, there's always something to read or watch.

5. Traveling to see some cool things soon.

Enjoyable look at Takei's life and many accomplishments. Every success had a sting in its tail though, because of his being fearfully closeted. He finally came out at 68 and life just got better and better!

I was a little wigged out by the depiction of his first sexual experience, as a child with a camp counselor. 😬 I get that it's a good memory for him, but that doesn't make it right and I think it could have used an asterisk.

to feel badly but calmly about what is spiritually deforming is the mediocre norm; to rage against it is to become an instrument of revolutionary change.

Don't know if I'm gonna get a lot of reading done this month, because I hope to do two items on my Bucket List! Those who read From Dust to Stardust with me for the #SundayBuddyRead might be able to guess what one of them is. 😁

Nice to not have any “meh“ weeks. A great reading month.

Five bingos! I confess, I read a couple of picture books for the covers... but I couldn't not have a rainbow book for June, right?

I'm really happy with how many of my #BookSpin books I managed to read or try this month! Just 6 titles left!

Absolutely hilarious collection of short science fiction. Not much plotwise, more satiric vibes. The gossip of intelligent machines was a high point.

#AuthorAMonth

When the yogurt took over, we all made the same jokes--“Finally our rulers have culture,“ “Our society has curdled,“ “Our government is now the cream of the crop,“ and so on. But when we weren't laughing about the absurdity of it all, we looked into each others' eyes with the same unasked question--how did we ever get to the point where we were, in fact. ruled by a dairy product?

An old, not very findable book, but it taught me so much about reading and writing.

“Having read a book means nothing. Reading a book may be the most tremendous experience of your life; having read it is an item in your memory... We don't apply the same principle elsewhere: We don't believe in having heard Mendelssohn's violin concerto...I say, don't read the classics -- try to discover your own classics; every life has its own.”

I read some, then skimmed some and then read the ending, and I do think Alderton did something really interesting here, but I just couldn't force myself through the incredibly depressing part to read the book as a whole.

Also, as with another book I read that was set right before lockdown, I found myself worrying about how the characters would manage with this horrible new challenge in front of them. Why do authors do this?!

#BookSpinBingo

Almost bailed because the narrator's immaturity really got up my nose, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Former child star Jane has some heavy emotional baggage that makes her hide behind facades, but when she's teamed up with quiet, artistic Dan to try and get a movie made, he makes it all too easy to be her funny, quirky self. There's good growth arcs for both and a lovely romance that's not very steamy, but so descriptive it's a sensory delight.

I take out True Story and read a few scenes for comfort. Those characters showed up flawed and fell in love anyway. Their connection is the kind of love I never understood, the kind where the love is the reward for being yourself. It's *This is who I am* followed by *I'll take it!*

A fairly typical #Roll100 month for me... I only read numbers that *weren't* chosen! 😂 Hey, it's five books off my TBR.

Started on part two of Wild, Dark Shore last night and of course I was up to 3 a.m. finishing it. What was I thinking?!

#CampLitsy

In some ways this is just as silly as When the Moon Hits Your Eye, but it has so much more sweetness and heart. A reread for me, and just as good as the first time.

*#AuthorAMonth @Soubhiville

Not finding this very engaging and wondering if I should bail. @Faranae do you have an opinion?

#DoubleSpin

Cute interactive book along the lines of “The Monster at the End of this Book.“ Though do you really want to train your child to say “no“ to everything? 😂

#ISpyBingo Negative word

Cool that I finished this in June! Does anyone remember who the creator of these cards is?

#LGBTQIA2025

This is *not* the intergenerational friendship story the blurb promises; I think the marketing dept. had no idea what to do with it. It's pretty dark, but also tender; I was thoroughly engrossed but left going “I don't know how to feel“ by the end. The messages about loving books and the vagaries of fandom are very mixed. (Perhaps inevitable for an book written in these times.)

#BookSpinBingo

I didn't expect to like this as much as I did, because there's something about Poston's style that I don't quite jibe with, and I'm not a big fan of the sweet, small town romance subgenre this celebrates. But I do love me a high concept story and this was very clever and pretty touching.

#BookSpinBingo

This satire on our weird times makes excellent use of terrible cheese puns and is also very schadenfreudelicious... I half wondered if Scalzi wrote it as therapy. It suffers from not having a main character to follow and root for and inevitably comes off feeling insubstantial, like the lightest cheez whiz instead of a solid slab of cheddar. Just fine, if that's what you were wanting on your cracker. Pairing: Martians, Go Home.

I liked the first book in the series but I *really* liked this one. The plotting is tighter, the writing very clever, and the characters so endearing, I was much less bothered by moral ambiguity.

(Can you guess why I chose this image to illustrate my blurb?)

#SeriesLove

“You're not going to shoot us?“ says Joyce.

“Not if you behave yourselves,“ says [ ]

“Not really our specialty,“ says Joyce.

People from history have been reappearing, and down-on-his-luck music producer Darnell finds himself enlisted to help Harriet Tubman make an album--a new voice for a new generation needing new roads to freedom, like Darnell himself.

A quiet personal odyssey; I confess I was expecting something more fabulous. The author's narration is surprisingly amateur, though the two songs are the end are great.

#lgbtqReads

The overworked head of a school for magicians is deeply suspicious of the handsome prince who keeps stopping by, and who always seems to know exactly how to fix his problems... A charming short romance, with lovable, caring characters. This is a prequel to Magician but may be better read after that, since you get to see Lorre in his heedless, quixotic days and he is so much fun.

It was her mother's most unnerving trait. She could pinpoint with breathtaking accuracy the areas where you were perfectly secure, and then undermine them with reassurances. The Ludens, of course, were fairly immune. As Indiana had once remarked, unless you made it a major project, you could only work emotionally stable people over if you started young enough.

My mother always instilled in me the importance of our history but somewhere along the way I stopped listening. I had a hard time accepting my Blackness because my Blackness had a hard time accepting me. My mother also instilled in me the fear of God, and I‘ve spent my entire life learning not to be afraid.

My #ReadOrDonate book; I did read about a third of it. Megan Chance wrote intense, interesting, dark romances but a lot of their value was in how different they were for their time, and that's no longer a big draw for me. Neither is 400 pages of stress.

A married couple adjusts to being back together after the reporter husband does a short stint in prison for refusing to identify a source. The story is mostly vibes, and pretty dated ones, although the political elements aren't: he's committed to free speech as a child of Hungarian immigrants. But it's mostly about the relationship, and though I usually love how LL writes them, this came off as too purple. A soft pick.

#BookSpinBingo

It will be very dull when I shall have killed myself, as it were, and live only in trying to do, and to be, as other people like. I don't see any end to it. I might as well never have lived.

A humorous expose of negging techniques that's a reasonably funny short listen, though probably more fun in its original tiktok form. To make for a longer audiobook it has a section of the author and his mom interviewing each other, which was heavy on “you know, like...“ and then an advice section which was pretty entertaining. I'm not a big fan of prank humor, so it wasn't really for me.

#BlameItOnLitsy #MonthlyNonfiction2025

I've never encountered this feature for a kindle book before! Very cool, especially since I DNF'd book 2. 😂