For this post I picked out some of my favorite audiobooks from this year so far (these books weren’t necessarily published this year). They range from very serious to just for fun – I think audiobooks work best for really emotional topics, and are often perfect for lighter, atmospheric books like romances, horror, and mystery. I…
I get annoyed by all the copycat book covers out there. Publishers seem to want every book to look like a knockoff of the latest hit. I realize it’s helpful for bookstores to have clear indicators of where to shelve a book, and for people to easily find the latest book that’s just like the…
July began great, with my first plane trip in a year and a half, and I got to see two of my sisters this month. It looked like things might be getting back to normal, but of course now we’re going back to masks, and I know of two people who have gotten COVID recently…
Which books would you want if you were stranded on a desert island? That’s the subject of this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It immediately made me think of long, weighty books that you can spend a lot of time with. It also made me think about the books I…
As we’re halfway into the year, I’ve been thinking about how I’m progressing on my reading and blogging goals. Reading: In my New Year’s Resolution Post, I wrote about my reading goals for the year. At the end of June, I’d read 56 books, roughly half audiobooks. According to The StoryGraph, most of thee books…
June was a month where I concentrated on taking care of myself — I’m doing yoga, meditation, and generally trying to keep anxiety levels at a manageable level. I’m working on appreciating my life more and worrying less about things I can’t control. Easier said than done, but I’m learning some good approaches. Here’s what I…
I love novels that are so steeped in history, they meld fiction and nonfiction. These are most often historical novels about real people who did noteworthy things, where the author builds the story around both fictional and nonfictional characters and dialogue. The best of these novels are deeply researched, and by the end I’ve experienced history in…
A few months ago I posted about the 2021 Women’s Prize longlist. At the time I had only read two of the books, Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (both excellent). Since then I’ve read four more of the books from the longlist: Piranesi, Luster, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps…
There’s no shortage of summer reading guides, but one of my favorites is issued by Modern Mrs. Darcy, also known as author/reader Anne Bogel, and this year is the Guide’s 10th anniversary. I find her recommendations really useful, mainly because I’ve relied on them in the past with much success. I also think she has…
May was a good month for a lot of reasons. I got vaccinated, made plans to travel and see friends, and enjoyed the warm weather in my garden. I read two books this month from the Women’s Prize longlist (winner to be announced in July), but mostly kept it on the lighter side with some…
I’ve generally been avoiding reading lists lately, except for this one. I love everything about summer, including thinking about what I want to read. Cathy’s 20 Books of Summer challenge is simple — it’s just a list of 20 books we plan to read over the next three months. This is coming in a bit…
In the last month or two, I seem to have gravitated towards books about mental health issues, both fiction and nonfiction. This seems fitting, since May is Mental Health Awareness Month. In nonfiction, I read David Chang’s memoir Eat a Peach, Jenny Lawson’s fantastic Broken (In the Best Possible Way), and I’m currently reading Bessel…
The Book Stop 