I picked up this book partly because I saw Zauner interviewed on the Daily Show, and partly because it was recommended in Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Summer Reading Guide. I was intrigued by the title and the subject — it’s a book about family and loss, about being biracial and the daughter of an immigrant, and…
I wasn’t initially a fan of Chambers, but after Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, I’ve come to like each of her books more and more. This one was no exception. Psalm is a novella and the start of a science fiction series about man and robot. As a novella, there wasn’t as much…
I have so many mixed feelings about this book, but in the end, Emily Henry told a story where I cared deeply about the characters. I can tell I’ve reacted emotionally to a book when I’m thinking about the characters in the days after I’ve put the book down. It’s a combination of missing the…
I really enjoyed this story about a week in the life of a young woman in Northern Ireland. Majella is in her mid-twenties and lives with her mother in the very small fictional town of Aghybogey during the time of “The Troubles”. Her day to day life is ordinary – she cares for her mother…
Angeline Boulley is a former co-worker of mine, and though I don’t know her well, I was excited for her first novel to come out, and even more excited to receive an advanced review copy. I hoped I wouldn’t be disappointed, and I wasn’t. In fact, this book was everything I could ask for, with…
As I began reading Eve Brown, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like it as much as Hibbert’s previous two books, which I loved so much I read twice (rare for me). Eve is an event planner who’s just finished a wedding where a few things went seriously wrong, so her latest career…
I was excited to receive an advanced review copy of Imbolo Mbue’s newest novel, because I loved her debut novel, Behold the Dreamers. This novel is very different from that one, and unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it as much. The story is slow-paced and didn’t have the depth of emotion I saw in Behold the…
I had mixed feelings about this book, which generated a lot of buzz when it came out, but I continue to think about it. It’s an unusual blend of character-driven horror, something like Station Eleven. It’s a book where not much happens, but it’s still terrifying. I would have liked it more except that sometimes…
Dear Miss Kopp is the sixth book in the Kopp Sisters series by Amy Stewart, and I was thrilled to receive an advanced review copy from NetGalley. This is one of my favorite historical series, and if you haven’t read it, I strongly recommend picking up the first book, Girl Waits With Gun. What makes…
The first time I heard about this book, I was struck by how much it sounded like my own family. Neumann grew up in Venezuela, but her father was born in Czechoslovakia. He survived the Holocaust but never talked about it, and she grew up not knowing any of his family, except for her father’s…
I loved this book. I already thought Schwab was great, but this book combines so many things I love – history, travel, France – and it’s really character/relationship driven. The story is complicated, and there were lots of times I found myself trying to poke holes in the logistics of it all. But it’s worth…
These lists seem to come out earlier every year, but I guess that way people can add them to their wish lists and give them as gifts. And this year is a better time than ever to 1) support your local bookstore and 2) hunker down and read. You can find the New York Times…
There's always room for one more...
I read, breathe, and live in bookish worlds.
Book Reviews
"Books are a uniquely portable magic" - Stephen King
*somewhere to collect my (mostly) bookish thoughts*
"She had read novels while other people perused the Sunday papers" - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
"The world was hers for the reading."
Thoughts on Literature, Expressing Creativity, Being Authentic
books, libraries, life
