I feel terrible, but I read fully half and then just couldn't go on. I was so bored! Almost every conversation was cringingly lifeless! 😩 😭

#OokBookClub

A powerful, necessary book. I appreciate that it was fairly short and easy to read, because it's such an intimidating topic.

#MonthlyNonfiction2025

Kingfisher says that she wanted to write a fluffy romance, but wound up with a few too many severed heads and rotting corpses. I'd still put it in the fluffy, and formulaic category. Luckily it's also sweet, relatable and often funny, with a nice slow burn.

#SeriesLove2025

A soft pick. I really enjoyed the details of intimacy coordination work and the characters reinventing themselves, but the slow burn romance fizzled out instead of blazing.

(Can't complain about three #ISpyBingo squares for my first book of the month though!)

Four old favs, and one I'd like to read.

#ThreeListThursday #TLT @dabbe

Can someone remind me of the title of the book we read for #SheSaid about how neighborhoods closed down swimming pools and public areas rather then desegregating them?

@Riveted_Reader_Melissa

An adventure romance that reminded me of On The Island -- and honestly, I'm a lot older now than when I read that and I wasn't always sure my heart could take it! 😂 The adventure section is excellent but I felt the ending hit some false notes that took away from the authenticity of the rest. The audiobook is very well narrated.

A decent month, if not the best.

Quite a good month, even though one cover really let me down! (Into the Woods had a tent instead of a cabin, even though there are literally no tents in the story, and the MMC's painted fingernails are not depicted!)

I'm an outlier but 250 pages of Talking It Out was a bit much for me.

Inside his decision-making software there were two subroutines in the shape of wolves, and one insisted that he stay, and the other insisted that he could not stay. Neither of which seemed to be natural behavior for wolves, but Uncharles could only assume this was another aspect of his undiagnosed defect.

He let them fight until one ate the other.

#BookSpin @TheAromaOfBooks

The look on her face...so relatable.

I'm glad this wasn't as dark as the cover suggests. Chloe, a popular high school girl, thinks her autistic older sister Ivy is yearning for a boyfriend -- but her attempts to set her up have unexpected consequences, both bad and good.

Although I don't love books about disabled people that don't center them, I did appreciate how caring and accepting Chloe is, even if she's not always wise. And I related to her a lot.

This is a section from “Reasons for Staying,“ my favorite poem from this. You can read the full poem here: https://griffinpoetryprize.com/poem/reasons-for-staying-vuong/

I definitely didn't get all of these poems, but even the bits and pieces I did were powerful and evocative.

#QueerBC #NationalPoetryMonth

Exciting, engrossing historical fiction about three women who worked at Bletchley park during WWII and the impact that time -- of personal freedom on one hand and intense secrecy on the other -- impacted their lives. It is on the melodramatic side but interestingly, some of the most astonishing elements were drawn from true stories. (I was a little uncomfortable that Prince Phillip is a major character.)

One of the characters is almost (cont)

I found this in my TBR for #TBRTarot. It's a fairly straight -- or rather, straightforward ;-) - retelling of “the Goose Girl,“ but about a Prince on his way to marry another Prince. A pleasant short read with no steam but some violence.

My #DoubleSpin for April is a soft pick. It has a lot of good points and is very readable, but the romantic chemistry between the leads just didn't gel into something wonderful.

More thoughts here: https://willaful.wordpress.com/2025/04/22/into-the-woods-by-jenny-holiday/

@TheAromaOfBooks

•favorite genres : Romance, classic/middlebrow fiction, memoir, books about being queer.

•desert island reads?: Lord of the Rings, Miss Pym Disposes

•What‘s your go-to reading snack? pecans

•Weirdest or most interesting place you‘ve read a book? The Andes mountains. My husband was so annoyed with me!

•What do you do when you‘re not reading? Housework, listen to my kid's drama, dance, garden, write political postcards, fret.

#BibliologistBio

This camp has *cabins* -- there is literally not a single mention of a tent in the book. So what do they put on the cover? HARUMPH!

#ISpyBingo

... he has lost his temper. He was really very fond of his temper, and rather enjoyed referring to it with tolerant regret as being a bad one and beyond his control -- with a manner which suggested that the attribute was the inevitable result of strength of character and masculine spirit. The luxury of giving way to it was a great one.

#PersephoneClub

Halp!

I read about a graphic novel here and stupidly wrote down the call number at my library without the title. Of course I couldn't find it. It's shelved in YA here and the author's last name begins with BUT. Anyone have any idea what it is?

This was a *lot* -- and kind of tough to read during this time when real life is the same. But Bardugo did a beautiful job of tying all the series' loose ends together for a very satisfying conclusion. Her plotting is so clever! I'm surprised to see that others think another book was being set up, but I certainly won't complain if it happens.

#AllergicToChunksters
#SeriesLove2025

Unlike others, I liked this more than the first book, probably because I find YA about type A students kind of tiresome. Also, it's so relatable in its depiction of the highs and lows of beginning college. I really liked how it interrogated what the HEA looks like for a very young couple, with honestly and hopefulness.

More at my blog: https://willaful.wordpress.com/2025/04/16/tbr-challenge-past-present-future-by-r...

#SeriesLove

A darker, more cynical version of one of Streatfeild's “shoes“ stories, in which an exceptionally beautiful girl achieves success and adoration without having a spark of human kindness in her soul. The title is a biting commentary on what society values in women. A pick because it's entertaining and has a fascinating “illicit“ relationship in it, but be warned, it's deeply sad.

#BookSpin
@TheAromaOfBooks

1. Six of Crows & its sequel, The Prospects by KT Hoffman, Past Present Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon and Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (again!) About the characters and the insights for all of these.

2. There are 11 I bothered to note down. I'm regretful about Compound Fracture, which has such an interesting main character. The others I was just meh about.

1. That's the one financial thing my husband deals with and he got it done promptly. We've already gotten refunds.

2. Revitalization.

An enjoyable memoir/literary dive about the ways that reading Jane Austen helped the author mature, discover his core values, and find happiness. I was a bit put off by his gender essentialism at first, which seemed to belittle Austen even as he was trying to praise her, but as he grew up in the pages, the book grew on me. Not sure I'll ever agree with him on Mr. Woodhouse though. 😉

#PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow

A few pics from my recent vacation. I am, of course, reading in that hammock. 😁

Today I'm partially in Manhattan, partially in Boston, and occasionally in Seattle, navigating the complexities of the first year of college and long-distance love.

#whereareyoumonday

@Cupcake12

The risks we take...

Really interested in the main character but I couldn't take the awfulness of the situation.

#Roll100 #36
#QueerBC

Like many others, this was my favorite of the series so far, despite my having some serious critiques. There are three mysteries involved and at least two aren't satisfactorily solved; there are so many plot holes, especially in the resolution of the story from The Brutal Telling. But at this point in the series probably most of us are reading for the characters, and oh, it's tragic and beautiful.

A thin book of commencement speeches of the “obvious graduation gift“ genre, but with Minchin style... I got a chuckle thinking about fond grandparents buying it for high school graduates not realizing there's an illustration of a ridiculous sex act inside. 😂 I do think his thoughts are powerful and worth reading and I'd love to read a full memoir by him.

Yes, it was England--England. It was the England of Constable and Morland, of Miss Mitford and Miss Austen, the Brontes and George Eliot.

Book blurb: “A retelling of the story of Poseiden and Icarus.“

Me: “huh?“

Oh my, this is a distressing read. I hope we will soon get the heroine we need.

#PersephoneClub

Guess what I'm doing this month?

Well dang. From the cover and size, I was expecting a graphic novel. It does have pictures and visual ephemera but is mostly of the “take a public domain work and add something weird to it“ subgenre and that's just not my thing. Seeing Austen's actual words mixed up with new ones bugs me.

#JaneAustenThenAndNow #Permberlittens @Crinoline_Laphroaig

Ugh, so awful. A lot of his books still hold up but this is very much not one of them. I need some brain bleach.

Hey, a whole bingo! 😁

5 DNF's -- Hail the Bail! (Actually, at least 6.)

I got somewhat derailed from my plan by the #TransRightsReadathon, so some extra books around the sides. Plan to read Making Money for my upcoming vacation though.

@Read4Life

#BookSpin @TheAromaOfBooks

Perhaps my favorite historical romance by this author, a Loretta Chase-esque starchy hero/headstrong heroine story, made especially affecting by how perfectly they match. He's responsible and careful, burdened by his late father's scorn, she's an artistic dreamer with a “busy brain“ (ADHD) and they both help each other as they fall wonderfully in love.

I can see why others loved this, but the relationship between the main characters felt off to me and when I peeked ahead, I could tell the backstory was going to freak me out, so I bailed.

#TransRightsReadathon

#FirstLineFridays

Gene Ionescu has always loved every detail of baseball, but none quite so much as its near-complete indifference to the body.

“I knew it,“ Ernie says. “You are always looking at his ass.“

“What can I say?“ Gene asks. “I like 'em clenched.“