This was the perfect brain candy book to flip through in November. I enjoy following Chappelle on Instagram and find Taylor’s fashion style fascinating, and the author’s long history of researching all of the pieces Swift wears is commendable.  I love having this as a nice little coffee table book - it’s beautiful and put together so thoughtfully.

My opinion of All the Colors of the Dark might have suffered from some post election brain rot. But also, I was able to pick up a subsequent book that ended up being an absolute five star read (Tell Me Everything). Alas, I don’t think that this book was for me, even though almost everyone I know gave it stellar ratings.
The unique and quirky characters were endearing, and the fraught action scenes that set the central mystery of the narrative in motion were propelling in the beginning. But after hundreds of pages of the two main protagonists repeatedly making unfortunate choices with their tunnel vision, it just began to feel like a slog without any plot reveals to keep me engaged. Once the mystery comes together in the end, it’s so convoluted and didn’t live up to the epically long build up. There did not seem to be a great deal of growth, accountability, or self realization on any character’s behalf. 
I think the author was too busy piling on layers of metaphor and flowery language to romanticize the behavior of traumatized individuals to follow through on anything particularly meaningful to me.

This Three Pines installment was not a favorite - but, as always, I find it a great comfort to be immersed in Penny’s novels. The suspense in this one was almost entirely reliant on Inspector Gamache holding his cards close to the vest in order to fulfill his goal. I just don’t appreciate a plot device wherein the main character knows everything and isn’t telling us, especially when there’s an omniscient narrator. It comes off coy and slightly annoying. I really enjoyed how Penny expanded and extrapolated the lore of cobradors into the story, and the meditation on how much we humans are motivated by conscientiousness. On to the next!

I love Sharon Says So on Instagram (America’s government teacher!) and was excited to read her debut The Small and the Mighty. As much as I want to enjoy historical nonfiction, I just don’t think it’s for me. There was so much minutiae to keep track of and I did not enjoy the time hopping structure of the narrative.
I listened to the audiobook and her voice is great - but for long stretches, and in this context, it felt different. I would say like a teacher (because she literally IS a teacher) who’s overly earnest in trying to get your attention but it just makes you tune out more. And that is entirely my personal take. It just felt mawkish to me, especially when describing emotions of historical characters. Just kind of weird all around. I still subscribe to her newsletter,  watch allllll of her Instagram stories, and love what she has built!

Slow Dance is Rowell’s first adult novel in over a decade, and it has probably been that long since I read one of her books. I enjoyed vibing with her prose again: it has a comforting feel, as do her characters. Although there was something about these two protagonists that I just couldn’t wrap my arms around. The amount of self sabotage was a bit much, it felt repetitive and, indeed… slow. The tone of the story was melancholy and made me feel kind of depressed - not to say that it doesn’t have a happy ending like every romance should, but overall vibes were just kind of a downer.

I’m so glad I went right into reading Olive, Again right after reading her first book, because I think this is honestly the better novel of the two! I was hoping for more vulnerability from Olive: and the second book delivers. Her journey to self-awareness, the complexity of a second marriage so late in life, and her observations on dealing with difficult truths was really beautifully done. As always, I enjoyed all of the side characters and can see how we’re finally going to get the stars to align for her and Lucy, and I can’t wait to read Tell me Everything.

I picked up Hourglass by Dani Shapiro after enjoying Inheritance, another of her memoirs. She’s clearly a gifted writer and I was engrossed in her words. But I don’t know if I felt as if there was a cohesive flow in this story about marriage as much as there was a clear narrative (or as compelling of a hook to finding out her father was not her biological father) in Inheritance.

After attending an in person event with the author, I was so excited to dive into By Any Other Name. I love that it brought to light research I had never heard before, regarding the very strong possibility that Shakespeare did not write any of his attributed works. I am usually down with a dual timeline narrative. However, in the 1600s timeline, the material felt dense with so many historical figures as side characters and superfluous detail that took me out of the story. And the present day timeline was borderline cringe with the obvious (still commendable!) feminist themes, as Jodi is wont to do in many of her novels. I still love her and absolutely support the messages about feminism she’s shouting from the rooftops, as well as everything she has accomplished as a writer and advocate. This just was not for me.

Thanks to Penguin Books and Netgalley I was thrilled to get access to an early copy of When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson. I’ll Give You the Sun is one of my all-time favorite YA novels, and my expectations going in were pretty high. Maybe that’s why they were not met? The TLDR: this book was so overlong that it started to make me resentful towards the MANY characters and their increasingly repetitive inner monologue. Additionally, the structure of the narrative was not organized in a way that made it seamless to remember the complex connections of all these family members. Threads were dropped to hastily get picked up again a hundred pages later.
Upon first blush, I will say that was enjoying the very lovable and idiosyncratic characters that Nelson writes so well. Then the storyline, which included a little magical realism, pulled me in and I thought I was going to get a little bit of a mix between Rabbit Cake and Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance. And I would say that if that appeals, you might enjoy this book with the aforementioned caveats.
There was still lovely writing, and I did enjoy the plot threads coming together in the end. It will certainly not be the last Jandy Nelson book I read!

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro has been on my TBR for ages, ever since I read and loved Signal Fires, her most recent fiction novel. This memoir centers around the events that follow after she learns (randomly through a 23 and me test) that her father was not her biological father while well into her 50s and her parents are both deceased. As she looks for answers about her parents fertility journey (during the beginnings of such treatments), as well as the identity of her biological father and family, she grapples with so many thought-provoking conflicts that you can’t help but reflect upon about what makes us who we are, our faith, and what we owe one another.
The audiobook was fantastic and in some ways felt reminiscent of listening to Kelly Corrigan’s memoirs, so I have immediately queued up Shapiro‘s other memoirs on audiobook!