It’s May, and I’m enjoying the spring, though I’ve been impatient with the cold weather and I’m anxious to begin planting my garden. April was a mostly-good month, with a visit from my sister-in-law and niece and nephew. The Women’s Prize shortlist was announced, but the only book on it I’ve read is Ruth Ozeki’s…
I’ve loved all of Kingfisher’s books, and this one didn’t disappoint. Her books always seem original, even when they are playing on well-worn tropes, as this one does. Kingfisher blends really dark topics with humor and sarcasm in a way I always enjoy, just as she blends fantasy with modern-day realism. In Nettle & Bone, Marra…
Recently I discovered I no longer fit with the book club I’ve been in for 2-3 years. I love the theme of the book club, which is reading books by women around the world, and I’ve loved many of the books. But over the last six months, I’ve felt really out of sync with the rest of…
Stuart has written a second pull-your-heart-out-and-stomp-all-over-it book, one that did not disappoint for a minute, even considering how much I loved Shuggie Bain. Stuart manages to write about very ugly things so beautifully. These two books are similar in a lot of ways, so if I can criticize anything it’s that Stuart isn’t breaking new…
I’ve been interested in this book about introverts for a long time. Cain’s premise is that U.S. culture, from workplace to politics, prizes the qualities of extroverts over introverts. And as someone who’s pretty far on the introverted spectrum, that makes a lot of sense to me. It’s easy to oversimplify when you’re talking about…
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is about authors I haven’t read yet but want to. In fiction, here are some of the authors on my TBR list: Amor Towles: Rules of Civility, A Gentleman in Moscow, The Lincoln Highway – I keep hearing great things about these books.…
I loved Egan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, although now, nearly 12 years later, I didn’t remember much about the book. Maybe I should have reread it before reading the sequel, The Candy House, but instead I read it much like a stand-alone book. Maybe that’s why I had trouble connecting with it. Both…
I was offered a review copy of Stacie Murphy’s new novel, The Unquiet Dead, a historical mystery set in 1893. Since it was a sequel, I decided to read A Deadly Fortune first. I loved both of them and highly recommend them for anyone who likes historical mysteries. A Deadly Fortune, Murphy’s debut novel, introduces…
Hello readers! March was a blustery month, with snow and storms and plant-killing temperatures (I know better than to plant this early, I got impatient). But spring is nearly here, and the trees are blossoming everywhere I look. This winter felt very long, but I’m already excited just to be able to sit outside on…
This will seem an odd choice to some readers – read about doing laundry? I’d heard rave reviews of this book, especially from Modern Mrs. Darcy, so I picked it up. Not only is this a surprisingly fun read but it’s incredibly practical. I found myself highlighting, bookmarking, and re-reading. Then I made a shopping list, went…
This is the kind of historical novel I love – it’s a decades-spanning family saga that builds on the author’s own family history. In this debut novel, Fu tells a story that parallels that of her father, who is born in China during the Japanese War of Aggression in the 1940s and the Chinese Civil…
I don’t do a lot of “book tag” posts, but the book club in my office sent around this survey to identify future books, and I’m shamelessly lifting it. There’s no cute theme here; just good questions that got me thinking. It’s an interesting approach for a book club, because I don’t know how they’ll sift…
"From that time on, the world was hers for the reading." - Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
My meanderings through life and writing . . .
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Based in Romania, reading all over the world. Mostly fiction, some memoires and a little bit of poetry.
Celebrating stories by diverse voices and their impact on the world
The literary journeys of a 20-something, bilingual, elementary school teacher.
a book blog
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The Book Stop 