Jan > Recent Status Updates

Just noticing this title on the Aspen Words Literary Prize 2025 long list, so I’m bumping it up my January reading list.

Listening to this to reacquaint myself with the details of Twain’s story before reading Percival Everett’s reworking of it in James.

Another Appalachian winner from Sharyn McCrumb, this one a well-researched murder mystery/ghost story set in rural West Virginia in 1897 and 1930. Reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead set me up to enjoy this story as a follow-on.

A fun if annoying beach read set among the rich and famous of Malibu. Not as well done as Daisy Jones and the Six, and there were a few too many dead parents used to advance the plot, but the mix of wealth and everyday problems made for a light summer read, even if I did read it in Npvember.

I’ve had this in my audiobook queue for years. Now, with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, seems as good a time as any to give it a listen.

This book starts out with clothes and glitz, but turns into something more interesting. A nice, quick read with fat girl empowerment messages along the way.

So I've now read the entire Women's Prize short list and all but one of their long list (I skipped How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee). My favorite is Hamnet, although = The Mirror and the Light is a close second. My long list favorite that didn't make the short list is Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara. Lots of great reading this year!!

Anyone else want to share their favorites?

Reading this for my IRL book group.

Desperate times call for some serious brain candy.

I just finished Angie Cruz's Dominica and since I've had the audio edition of Oscar Wao (read by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo) in my queue since it came out, this seems like a great time to listen to it. Plus Oscar will be in the 2020 Tournament of Books' Tournament of Champions. Now could the world just go away for the next 10 hours?

Orringer evokes the WWII setting so completely that when a plane flew low over my house as I was reading early this morning, I was momentarily thinking I needed to run to the bomb shelter.

This book requires concentration but I am still loving it, especially as Serpell braids different story threads together.

Jessica Francis Kane was a fun part of the Tournament of Books this year, so I'm excited to start her new book.

--20 pages in and I am In Love With This Book.

20 pages in and I am In Love With This Book.

20 pages in and I am In Love with this book.

RIP, Rachel Ingalls, author of the wonderful Mrs. Caliban.

https://bookmarks.reviews/remembering...

Nothing like some Miami Noir to get me in the mood for an upcoming trip to the Sunshine State.

Time for some brain candy while I recover from knee surgery. Cain’s newer series is off to a great start!

What a challenging and amazing book! Five absolute stars for glorious language, riotous details and a beautiful-horrible story of 20th century India.

Rounding up from 3.5 stars. A mother-daughter story with two timelines, showing each woman in her late teens working through a crisis against a backdrop of secrets, class issues and immigrant cultures, in this case Lithuanian and Albanian. From the Center for Fiction Best Debut Novel long list