At first, it was difficult to understand what was going on and get my bearings in the narrative. Once I got the gist of what was going on, I fell for this book, and I fell for it hard. It was like reading a Judy Blume book for aliens, and really what a perfect metaphor for how one feels in their body as they come of age. This was such a poignant way of examining humanity, my favorite kind of sci-fi novel.

“Being physically present in one place while your mind is in another is loneliness.”

“Every human dies. But the bad news is that every day they act like they don't know they're alive. They lie or behave inconsiderately or cheat: Each one is a little death. Humans experience many little deaths before the final one.”

I decided to put this book on hold on hold when the whole Kate Middleton brouhaha was happening and I found it compelling, but ultimately just so sad. I can’t even imagine being a part of the royal family and how it is anything BUT a family. There’s a lot of material to mull over about the role of the British press and how they use it to wield as a weapon and as a salve.  If you keep up with royal happenings, there’s not a ton of new material here.

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for the gifted copy of The Marriage Sabbatical!
This book came at the perfect time when I needed a light, engaging, and fun read. Yes, it explores the idea of taking a break from a marriage and opening it for a short time, which could end up being a heavy topic. Instead, the tone was escapist - as if Elin Hilderbrand and Eat Pray Love had a book baby, complete with excellent sense of place and sumptuous writing about food. I now desperately want to visit Santa Fe and I appreciated the pretty spot-on Pacific Northwest descriptions of my neck of the woods. I do feel as if this novel will mostly resonate with the Gen X crowd, very niche music/pop culture references and midlife situations - ailing parents, menopause, empty nest, etc. So your mileage may vary.
This is the first novel I have read by Dolan and I definitely will pick up another, perhaps for summer reading!

I love sci-fi novels that read more like literary fiction, and was excited dive into Spaceman of Bohemia after seeing it had been adapted for the screen (the trailer starring Carey Mulligan and Adam Sandler looks SO compelling). This novel has uncanny things in common with Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, which I won’t say more about to spoil either book. (After some googling, I learned Spaceman was written first but if you read both - it’s abundantly clear they have no other connection and apparently this is not a new commonality in sci-fi fiction!) Suffice it to say, I love Andy Weir’s work more, and felt that Kalfar’s was just a little bit too meandering and philosophical for my liking. I could generally get into the themes, but they just didn’t pack as emotional of a punch for me as I would’ve liked, and the tone was so doleful. Even though it is originally written in English, the authors first language is Czech and I wonder if there might be something that got lost for me in between.
Overall, I’d say it was thought-provoking and completely bizarre, with some real zingers that rose above all of the other philosophical musings.

“The greatness of a nation is in its symbols, its gestures, in doing things that are unprecedented. It's why the Americans are falling behind - they built a nation on the idea of doing new things, and now they'd rather sit and pray that the world won't make them adapt too much.”

The description and cover of North Woods does not do this novel any justice! I put off picking it up for the longest time because a story about a home in the woods told over hundreds of years didn’t grab me, and I thought the cover was weird. Now I GET IT. I’m glad so many trusted readers gave it such glowing reviews. This book was shocking, visceral, witty, humorous and un-put-down-able. I love that there was a slight spiritual and otherworldly thread that pulled it together. All around excellent book!

“the only way to understand the world as something other than a tale of loss is to see it as a tale of change.”

This book started off strong with a great premise (a woman taking on a solo ‘great American road trip’), it’s funny, I love hiking and I enjoy national parks. I also appreciated the good, bad, and the ugly context with regards to the environment, how the parks came to be, and how their existence is fraught with colonialism. Even though I am in agreement with her political views 100%, I think they veered into didactic territory and probably turned readers off from the message rather than getting them on board. I wholeheartedly enjoyed learning about parks that I have never visited and googling them as I listened to the book. Overall, entertaining, but your mileage may vary!

At first, this mystery/thriller was giving me The 13th Tale vibes, which I am here for. Then it took a bit of a sci-fi turn, which I am also into and was expecting from this book. However, it just seemed to lack any kind of depth and the characters felt very one dimensional. The insta-love plot line threaded throughout was not at all believable, and the writing felt repetitive and facile. There is an intriguing twist at the end, but I don’t know if it is worth the journey to get there.

I haven’t been a regular viewer of Saturday Night Live in many years, and Colin Jost isn’t widely known outside of it, so I didn’t think i would get much out of his book. But after seeing so many great reviews, I decided to check out this memoir on audiobook, and what an absolute delight! He is just as funny as you would hope and expect him to be,  and seems like a warm person with a pretty interesting story to tell. I especially appreciated the way he talked about his mother and her 9/11 efforts, as well as the bit when he gets high on a date and freaks out and calls her to come get him. I nearly peed my pants laughing. He does get a little bit too self depreciating and overly concerned with his weight. But I guess that goes to show that the 90s did a number on men as well as women in regards to fat shaming. Anyway, if you didn’t think that this book was for you, either, I would definitely rethink it!

After reading Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s excellent New York Times Magazine piece on Taylor Swift, I remembered the buzz around this novel and thought I’d give it a shot. The dense and expository writing was a lot to process at first, but once I settled in, the story was compelling. Chiefly, ‘where did  Fleishman’s ex-wife Rachel disappear to?’ and ‘how she could abandon her children?’ was the driving force of the plot. 
I felt like I absolutely should have seen the twist of this story, the misogyny laid bare, because one cannot help thinking about how powerful career woman Rachel would have been viewed differently if she was a man and vice versa for Toby the caretaker. It was like reading a much more entertaining version of Fates and Furies. The premise, the narrative choice, and the prose is so thoughtful that I won’t soon forget this book.  There is so much to chew on, and would make the perfect book club choice.
In the end, the excessive introspection on the narrator’s part becomes a little didactic and read more like one of Taffy’s essays. I was immediately reminded about her appearance on The Daily podcast after her Taylor Swift article was published, because the story she is telling coincides with Libby’s in such a way that one can’t help wonder about how much of this story is her lived experience. I definitely plan to check out the adaptation on Hulu, and will probably pick up Taffy‘s new book that’s coming out later this year!

This was a fun and timely read at the end of February, as the story centers around a leap year, and includes some magical elements therein. I enjoyed Williams sharp sense of humor and the recognizable elements of a cinderella story, including magic, three evil sisters, a fairy godmother, and of course the prince who has been looking for his great love. I do find the ‘oddball girl with gumption who strikes out on her own’ theme a bit tiresome and the reinforcement of that narrative got a little repetitive. But overall the story felt fresh and entertaining. I definitely need to go back and read Seven Days in June!