I read Conversations with Friends a few weeks ago, but wanted to review it after watching the HULU adaptation. I am really curious about how I will feel about Sally Rooney’s latest Beautiful World Where Are You, which I definitely plan on reading, seeing as how there’s no adaptation to flesh things out for me.😆 
There’s something about her books that people seem to love or hate. Maybe it’s the lack of quotation marks, or the character driven plot, or (I suspect mostly) the sense of intellectual, slightly condescending, navel gazing particular to young adults that can put people off. However, I can bring my mind back to those days and headspace, I usually find my rhythm quite quickly without quotation marks, and enjoy a character driven story.
As with Normal People, I honestly landed in the middle (liked, but didn’t LOVE) until I watched the show that absolutely brought it to life. Francis and Nick felt a little dispassionate, aloof, and unknowable. I didn’t really feel for them until I watched the show with such excellent performances that portrayed their passion and vulnerability. Though I DO think the book is compulsively readable, almost ominous in the way I wanted to know how their illicit relationship would unfold. There is something so truly intimate and hypnotic about Rooney‘s writing. Her talent is undeniable.

“my body felt completely disposable, like a placeholder for something more valuable. I fantasized about taking it apart and lining my limbs up side-by-side to compare them.”

I’m certainly late to the party on this one, but if you haven’t read Conversations, I’d definitely recommend the experience paired with the show!

Book lovers! Adding another pic of this book to your feed! I thought it was a sweet romance story, very cute and cozy - very intentionally like a Hallmark movie. (I’ve never watched one, but I get the gist.)
Some of the problems/drama felt a little forced, though most romance reads roll this way. Though, I find it makes it difficult for me to immerse myself in the story when I’m not wholly buying into the characters motivations. But the hilarious banter, excellent sense of place, and Emily Henry’s amazing way with words (particularly when she describes the reading experience) made for a very enjoyable read.

“Some books you don’t read so much as live, and finishing one of those always makes me think of ascending from scuba dive. Like if I surface too fast I might get the bends.”

Y’all certainly don’t need me to recommend this book, since pretty much everyone I know has it! Though I recommend it nonetheless: perfect summer reading.

Heartstopperrrrrrrrr 💖 What can I say about this graphic novel that hasn’t already been said!? It’s as ADORABLE as everyone has been saying. Now I am ready to dive into the show, with which I am sure I will become obsessed, and have the rest of the series on hold at the library.
The tipping point in finally picking this up? My daughter bought it and I borrowed it ASAP! The hangout spot for our kids includes a Barnes and Noble, and books are always coming home. I’m not mad about it!
So, if your child is at the age where they decorate their room with those green vine things? (It’s a THING.) I bet they would like this book.🍃And also for those of us pushing 50, too.

favorite book of the year so far, hands-down! A book that is equal parts whimsy, heart-rending, and inspiring is quite a combination. But @bonnie_garmus_author (a debut author, no less) pulls it off. I’m so glad that I grabbed a copy on independent bookstore day after reading everyone’s glowing reviews, because I wasn’t entirely sold on the premise or the cover, to be honest. Alas, I ended up wanting to hug this book several times and I’m so glad I have it on my shelves.
As with all books I love so much, it’s difficult to articulate why. What I can say is that the narrative felt cinematic, the pacing was excellent, I loved the feminist message and the characters so much.
This story of an independent woman navigating the world of science, motherhood, and societal expectations in the early 60s with her sidekicks (a precocious daughter and dog) is full of heart, wit, laugh out loud humor, and heartbreak.
I cannot wait. Can. Not. Wait. For the Apple TV adaptation because I think Brie Larson is perfection in casting.

I was hesitant to pick up Bomb Shelter, because I was in the minority in not loving Philpott’s first essay collection: I Miss You When I Blink. One of my chief complaints with it was the lack of real vulnerability or personal detail. When I heard her latest centered around the emotional whiplash that is parenting teens, and always “waiting for worry to materialize.” Well… I am in the thick of that right now - exactly the same space as where her book begins, with a 15 year old son and a daughter in middle school.
She articulates the complex feelings of this wild time with such clarity, giving words to feelings so eloquently. I appreciated her “going there” and being vulnerable in telling more of her personal stories this time around. All were so compelling, real, sharply tied and layered together (the book could not be more perfectly named), and felt so timely (even included some Covid anecdotes).
I REALLY enjoyed this one. Especially on audio! Perhaps that’s how I should have read her first book… Might go back and do a re-read that way.

Sometimes when my kids are frustrating me, I’ll download one of these types of books to make me feel better about the fact that they are just acting normal for their age! A lot of the stuff is not new, since I read a fair amount of these along with parenting articles in the news. Though it is endlessly fascinating to learn about the way our brains work, adolescent or not. It does get a little bit in the weeds with science at times. It’s also chock full of fear mongering stories, and may have gone a little overboard. Not just one or two stories about dead children from various bad decisions (usually around alcohol) but several. And I get it. We need to be repetitive with our children about the dangers of alcohol and impaired decision making - but I don’t think you need to tell the adults more than once or twice for the message to instill gut wrenching fear. Overall interesting and I would recommend.

I usually enjoy the ‘finding out secrets about your parents’ trope, but this moved at a snails pace and then too quickly at the end. It seemed like the author was was trying to pack too much into the story: not just about discovering family secrets, but about relationships between mother and daughter, middle age uncertainty, life after divorce, corrupt governments, etc. The pacing was off and it felt scattered there were a lot of details that didn’t serve a purpose that I could discern. It had a lot of potential to be a book that worked for me, with some good shock value, but ultimately didn’t pay off.

Why is it always so hard for me to review the books that just blow me away? I inhaled this (albeit slim) novel in less than 24 hours, and would have in one sitting if I didn’t have to parent and stuff.
I am such a sucker for books that straddle different genres (literary, sci-fi, dystopian?) and probe existential questions in an accessible way. I also love when authors weave together seemingly unrelated stories, where the connection between the characters is unclear until a very well plotted reveal.
This was the first novel I’ve read that incorporated the 2020 Covid pandemic (The Anthropocene Reviewed did excellently in memoir form❤️), and I was glad for it. I felt seen by Mandel’s words and it gave me perspective and some peace.
This novel felt reminiscent of my much beloved Cloud Cuckooland (done in about a tenth of the page length 😆), Meet me in Another Life which deserves way more hype, and a few favorite films that I won’t mention because they might actually be spoiler-y. Maybe Google Terry Gilliam films if you are curious…
I read Station 11 so long ago, and really liked but did not love it, so I skipped reading The Glass Hotel given the mixed reviews. Now I definitely want to read it and maybe even go back and reread the former! Or, at the very least, sit down and watch the dang HBO show.😁
If you’ve read this one I’d love to hear your thoughts and and I hope many of you picked it up during independent bookstore day this weekend! If not, definitely check out this @barnesandnoble exclusive edition with blue edged paper.😍

Another book that sounded perfectly in my wheelhouse (A book about books! The library!) but this month’s #evergreenreaders book club pick ultimately fell flat for me.
It had a promising start and had me curious about all of the characters that were being introduced, and about the mystery behind who wrote the “reading list” that brings different library patrons together as we learn their stories. But then the list author identity felt obvious, the characters seemed two dimensional and saccharine, and the plot like a Lifetime movie.
The cutesy cast of characters and emotional manipulation reminded me of A Man Called Ove, a much beloved novel of which I was not a fan. So, for the MANY readers who enjoy Backman, this one might appeal!
Either way, the plot device really bothered me. If you have not read The Time Travelers Wife, do not read this book until you have done so. Firstly because it is one of my absolute all time favorite books and it should be prioritized over The Reading List, and secondly the author absolutely spoils it at the outset. I feel like it is quite a choice to flesh out the plot of your book by utilizing the plot of so many beloved books, of which many people might not have read yet. So those readers find out spoilery things and probably can’t fully understand the connections being made. Although, having read every book discussed (with the exception of A Suitable Boy) it clearly didn’t help me connect! Alas!

Thank you, @bibliolifestyle @harperperennial for the review copy of Sorrow and Bliss!

“Everything is broken and messed up and completely fine. That is what life is. It’s only the ratios that change. Usually on their own. As soon as you think that’s it, it’s going to be like this forever, they change again.”

To me, Mason’s book felt reminiscent of my other beloved UK writers like JoJo Moyes, Marian Keyes, and Helen Fielding: novels that usually center around a loveable, but extremely flawed, main character with a big family presence and an abundance of colorful supporting characters.  With compulsively readable bite size chapters and exquisite dry British humor, I flew through the pages with an aching heart, but more often with tears of laughter - despite the ever present and heavy subject of mental illness. The exchanges between Martha and her sister Ingrid are *chef’s kiss* perfection in the comedic ways we interact with those closest to us. 

This novel stands out among its contemporaries with a unique structure as it weaves back and forth in time, seeming to start at the end, and slowly reveals the heart of the matter with Martha. At first, I felt frustrated by the narrator’s elusive nature in revealing information. But it is absolutely necessary to understanding her plight, and the last 75 pages or so of this book were revelatory. Not only in the literal sense of the plot, which were page turning, but also the way in which the author communicates the struggles of mental illness. REVELATORY.

It’s one of those books that when I finished it, I immediately wondered if it is autobiographical. Martha’s interior world is so vivid in its intimacy. I was blown away. Just… Slow clap for a beautifully written book I wanted to hug when I was done.

“…I hadn’t known you could choose how to feel instead of being overpowered by an emotion from outside yourself. I said I couldn’t explain it properly. I didn’t feel like a different person, I felt like myself. As though I had been found.”