A Work in Progress

A Baker's Dozen for Summer (or Beyond)

I love reading plans like this: The 20 Books of Summer (open to interpretation, which for me I managed to whittle down to a baker's dozen of 13).   Of course if you asked me to create another stack of books next week there would be an almost completely different set of books, but most of these have been high on my TBR.  For me, this many books even in the 'carefree' days of summer is unlikely to be read.  But it's fun to think about all the books I want to read (not thinking about those in progress books or library holds that are on the hold shelf or soon to be available...).  If I can manage five or six books from these stacks I will consider it a big goal accomplished.  Some have been on my TBR for many years and others very recent additions.  Not shown is the book I have picked up and started to read:

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (International Booker Prize winner)

The other hopefuls:

Second Self, Chloe Ashby

Bright Young Women, Jessica Knoll (crime)

Only Every Yours, Louise O'Neill (dystopian)

Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Fannie Flag (Fried Green Tomatoes was a much loved read)

The Leviathan, Rosie Andrews (a much anticipated gothic novel)

The Chatham School Affair, Thoma H. Cook (a reread--he is such a great crime/mystery storyteller)

Shutter, Ramona Emerson

Drowning Ruth, Christina Schwarz (another reread)

The Trespasser, Tana French (love her novels and it's been a while)

The Strangeness of Beauty, Lydia Minatoya (another long held TBRer that I keep looking at and picking up)

Secret Identity, Alex Segura

The Last Days of Leda Grey, Essie Fox

Honestly, I think this is just an excuse for me to start yet more new books. (Blink blink).  Are you reading anything in particular for summer?  A special project, something studious or just pure escapist?

April 5 Weekend Reading Notes

It's rare that I find new releases that look so interesting on the library's New Books shelves, but when I went to pick up two holds, I found two that jumped out at me.  Almost always now, any new book that you want to get your hands on when they are ready to circulate, you really have to have gotten in line for before the actual publication.  I have learned all the tricks to curating my holds list, my for later lists and how to manage so many holds in order that they don't all arrive at once.  But there is a lot to say about the serendipity of finding a new book that you had not come across just sitting on a shelf waiting to be discovered!

The top two books are my 'discoveries'.

Why Did You Come Back Every Summer by Belen Lopez Peiro, translated by Maureen Shaughnessy -- This is translated from the Spanish.  "A fractured account of family abuse, secrets, and the cost of pursuing the truth."

I do not generally tend to gravitate towards science fiction/speculative fiction, but I am probably missing out on some good reads.  Calypso by Oliver K. Langmead. This one is not only a beautiful book (the endpapers are gorgeous), but there is a cover blurb from Sarah Waters (one of my most favorite authors).  "A ground-breaking, mind-bending and wildly imaginative epic verse revolution in SF. A saga of colony ships, shattering moons and cataclysmic war in a new Eden.  Truly unforgettable and richly lyrical eco-fiction."

And two holds I have been looking forward to: Rowan Beaird's The Divorcees and (actually this just sounded interesting and a recent request) Anna by Mia Oberlander, translated by Nika Knight.  The latter is a graphic novel.  This is what caught my eye: "Drawn with delightful exaggeration and formal inventiveness, Anna is a tongue-in-cheek, modern-day fairy tale about being "too big" for a narrow-minded world."

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And a few other reads that I've been hoarding over the course of the week to try and get to this weekend ...

The MIllions Most Anticipated 2024 Spring book preview!  (For an even longer reading list).

Writers Talking Writers (Emily St. John Mandel on Irene Nemirovsky and Sarah Rose Etter on Tove Ditlevson.

Chantal Akerman is one of my favorite film directors, so this looks very interesting (and I will be looking for the books mentioned in the article.

I have long wanted to read Alan Furst's spy novels and here they are ranked by another reader (who has already read all his books).

Have you heard about the sudden closure of Small Press Distribution (SPD) earlier this month?  I find that worrisome since I am a fan of small presses.  They can be very hard to find in bookstores and I am often ordering them specially at my local indie.  Now what happens?  Here is the list that were previously distributed by them.  Maybe this weekend will be a good time to go direct and support them by ordering online from them?

This weekend's watching will include Andrew Scott's Ripley (I have heard many good things about it!) and I cannot wait to see Wicked Little Letters!

Have a great weekend everyone!

A Reading List Inspired by The Women

My library has a three week check out for books, and I am now well past the midway mark until that looming due date (the holds list is remaining at a steady 440 or so people waiting), but I am not quite at the midway mark of Kristin Hannah's The Women.  I am very much enjoying the story and writing and can see why she is such a popular writer as she is a very good storyteller.  However, I need to step up my game this weekend (and really the book does read pretty fast), as I don't want to hold on to the book too far past that due date.

Along with the novel, I requested the first season of China Beach through interlibrary loan (I love libraries!).  Once again, I only have a two week window to get through six episodes plus the pilot.  It is interesting to have visuals to go along with my reading and will see how the two compare.

I have been thinking a lot about this period and my curiosity, of course (this happens to me a lot), has extended to other stories.  I have been adding to a list of other books about the period, though have broadened things a bit from 'women nurses in Vietnam' to other stories set there (though with women as more of the focus) as well as related stories peripherally set in that era.  So here is a mishmash of a list of books (fiction and nonfiction) with a very few movies thrown in.  Most of these are just books I have come across that sound interesting, but I admit I have not read most of them--they are books that I found in my library catalog or that struck me as books I want to try and look for and peruse/read.  I am happy to add to the list if other suggestions are made!

Novels:

A Catalog of Birds, Laura Harrington

In Country, Bobbie Ann Mason

Absolution, Alice McDermott

Haven Point, Vrginia Hume

Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Viet Nam, Susan O'Neill (written by a nurse who served there).

Ru: A Novel, Kim Thuy

If I Had Two Lives, Abbigail N. Rosewood

Spearfield's Daughter, Jon Cleary

Signal Flame, Andrew Krivak

Between the Battles, Helen Nolan (this is fiction, but it appears to be based on her experiences there).

Nonfiction:

Close-Up on War: The story of Pioneering Photojournalist Catherine Leroy in Vietnam, Mary Cronk Farell

War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam, Denby Fawcett

Girls Don't: A Woman's War in Vietnam, Inette Miller

Round Eyes: An American Nurse in Vietnam, Diane Klutz

Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War, Kara Dixon Vuic

Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam, Lynda Van  Devanter

Donut Dolly: An American Red Cross Girl's War in Vietnam, Joann Puffer Kotcher

Movies:

I know there are many movies about the war, but these are two that I have seen and really loved and were memorable to me.

Coming Home (1978)

Dogfight (1991)

I know there has been a LOT of books written about the war, many classics of literature (Tim O'Brien is a favorite and his The Things They Carried is literally one of the best books I have ever read), so this very brief list is a mere pebble drop into an ocean.  I hope I can add more books in the future (and hope to read much more about women in this era).

Happy weekend everyone.

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Edited (4/4/24)

Books mentioned in Kristin Hannah's acknowledgements section in her book The Women:

Healing Wounds, Diane Carlson Evans with Bob Welch

American Daughter Gone to War, Winnie Smith

Home Before Morning, Lynda Van Devanter

Women in Vietnam: The Oral History, Ron Steinman

A Piece of My Heart, Keith Walker

Also:

After the Hero's Welcome, Dorothy H. McDaniel

The League of Wives, Heath Hardage Lee

In Love and War, Jim and Sybil Stockdale

The Turning: A History of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Andrew E. Hunt

A few Reading, (and watching, and borrowing) Notes

Last week when I tried to post here Typepad would not let me in, better luck today.  Apparently there is also an ongoing issue with adding books to the sidebar current reads list as well.  I still hope to migrate to a different platform--I wonder if Typepad is simply aging (I think they no longer take new subscribers).  Ah, the joy of technical problems for someone not inclined to too much technical savvy.

In that vein, I listen to podcasts on my android phone using Google Podcasts and that is also going away at the end of the month and I still need to sort that out.  Any suggestions for another service (free if possible) that I can easily use to listen on my phone?

Last weekend my turn came up (quicker than anticipated) for a copy of Kristin Hannah's The Women.  I think when I got in line I was about #144 and thought that sounded like a long wait, but when I checked out my copy I noticed that the line behind me has extended to well over 450!  That means there will be no renewing the book.  I have paired it with a book I own, You Don't Belong Here by Elizabeth Becker, which is a biography of three women journalists who reported from Vietnam.  This is the first Hannah book I have read and so far I am very much enjoying it.  It's interesting that it has become quite the hit with readers--maybe having a period of history that is not much written about (in fiction--women's history in the war that is) has struck a nerve for readers.  I wonder if this will begin a trend?

I have been looking for other novels about the period (preferably with women characters) and have come across a few, so I will share my list soon.

There are a number of books on the Women's Prize longlist that I find appealing and hope to read, and I have finished the first, which had already been on my reading pile.  Claire Kilroy's Soldier Sailor is a visceral reading experience and quite well done.  I could literally feel her (very emotional) pain.  I do not have children but I could empathize with the attitudes about mothering.  I dog eared pages as the narrator's observations, and her struggles and fears and hopes were so very astute.  Next I have picked up Isabella Hammad's Enter Ghost.

I was lucky to be able to grab a galley copy of Colm Toibin's Long Island from the bookstore I help out occasionally.  I recently reread Brooklyn, which I loved just as much the second time around as the first.  I plan on watching the film again, too.  I loved Long Island and it cemented my appreciation for Toibin's writing in general.  His prose is very straightforward and almost simple, yet he writes in such a way as to really capture the feelings and inner workings of his characters.  I find Eilis really interesting and sometimes, I thought, sort of prickly.  But the more I think about her, and how she always keeps her cards close to her and not reveal things in a hasty manner, the more I admire her.  Toibin presents small town Ireland and the closeness of families and how they present themselves to each other and the world at large, absolutely pitch perfect.  I feel like Eilis, despite the period and being a 'foreigner' in America and with her large Italian extended family, and then a now 'foreigner--American' upon her return visit to Ireland as someone who actually has a lot of agency.  She navigates it all so well, if not always perfectly.  There are a couple of 'love?' triangles going and the complexity of how they all orbit each other was riveting.  I am only disappointed that the ending leaves many things unresolved.  I do hope Toibin is at work on the rest of the story!

As for my watching, my Sundays are generally dedicated to PBS in the evenings, and now I have two new shows to follow.  I love Alice & Jack, though it is very different (not in a bad way) than I was expecting.  I like the three main actors and find their story really fascinating.  It is the sort of story I want to find a book just the same to read for a similar experience.  Nolly is also great fun and how could it not be with someone as talented as Helena Bonham-Carter!

A few links I had been saving up and had planned to share previously:

I am looking forward to reading Xochitl Gonzalez's new book, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, and here is a review.

I think Pat Barker's books have inspired me for some 'paired' books reading (as in reading two of her three set books--more on that later, too).  I read Up the Junction a few years ago and this makes me want to revisit the book.

More books to explore on the Carol Shields Prize Longlist.

I wasn't sure about a remake of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, but I do love Andew Scott and maybe it will be worth a look when it comes out after all.

This looks yummy and I want to try this, so I leave you with a mug of chocolate cake!

Happy reading everyone.

A Few Reading Notes . . .

Hello from the beginning of Prize season!  Can you tell what was just announced this week?

This is just a little place holder, interim post, mostly to thank you for comments (always appreciated) and book suggestions (also very appreciated).  I feel like I am again falling behind a bit (aside from being here and adding to the conversation, I owe a few people emails, too).  It is all definitely on my mind and I do plan on catching up very soon.  

I have assembled a few books (I had a few already on my TBR) from the Women's Prize for Fiction longlist--I lucked out and one was a galley copy that the bookstore owner where I help out was kind enough to let me grab and read, and the rest are library copies.  The books I own I, of course, want to read and the others are interesting-sounding and I will peruse.  I did start And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott as the book is about a young woman of the Mohawk Tribe, which is set in Canada (Toronto, but it works for me!).  That seemed serendipitous!

I finished reading The Road to Belhaven by Margot Livesey and loved it!  I hope to explore more of her work now.  Typepad is still giving me error messages on the backend as I try and do some things, including adding to my book list on the sidebar, but more on my current reads in the next day or two.

I am still interested in reading about the Vietnam War through the eyes of women and their experiences, so I appreciate the book suggestions and I am not averse to male authors, if the stories include women characters (in order to broaden the choices).  I will say progress is being made as I am now at #66 in line!  Since I have a stack of other potential reads staring me down at home, I can afford to be patient.

I hope everyone is reading something really good!  More news very soon from me!

In Search of a Book...Suggestions Welcome

Typepad has not been playing nicely, so we'll see how this goes.

You may know this about me, or you may find it very relatable anyway.  I am very much a mood reader.  I think that is why I always have a stack of in progress books.  And I hate to admit that while I may be happily in the middle of a read and thoroughly enjoying it, on the outer periphery of my attention there lies a desire to read...some other story.  It can be a difficult choice sometimes on what to grab from the in progress pile to drop into my tote bag for my breaks at work and my bus rides to and from and then my daily gym time (reading a book while walking the track or working out on the elliptical is a great motivator).  The nice thing about an in progress pile of books, I can choose what fits my mood that particular day.

So, lately I have been thinking of a place and then a particular period in time I would like to read about.  Two different kinds of books.  For the place, I am contemplating a proper vacation to Quebec, Canada in the fall and it goes without saying that whether it happens or not, Montreal or Quebec City are fantasy destinations at the moment.  Any recommendations, in particular for Quebec City (I read that it feels 'more French'?) would be welcome.  I do have a few authors and books in mind.  Mavis Gallant's short stories would work.  And I have an epistolary novel from the 18th century by Frances Brooke called The History of Emily Montague on my TBR. I also found a copy of Louis Hemon's Maria Chapdelaine in my library that was written in the 1920s and translated from French.  More about those later, but any other books of any sort would be of interest to me!

The period of time is the Vietnam era.  The story behind this?  I have heard good things about Kristin Hannah's The Women.  And so has everyone else.  I try and avoid buying hardcovers (they take up space, have become very expensive and are not always fun to carry around--especially chunky books).  I am currently something like #144 in line for a library copy, so my wait might be lengthy.  In the interim surely there must be some other novel about women in Vietnam as nurses or reporters or experiences here in the US?  I was looking through my own shelves and found very few about Vietnam in general and if I did come across a book, inevitably it was a story about men's/soldier's experiences (like the wonderful Tim O'Brien).

If you have any ideas on either topic, please do share.  And if not, I am always very happy to hear what your current mood is for stories.

Reading, Watching, Listening, Misc Notes

The women's Prize for Fiction longlist is coming shortly.  I will likely have not read a single book on the list, but I am always curious about what might show up.  I might have some books on my TBR or am waiting for them at the library.  Mostly I am always happy to discover a few new books to add to my wishlist (or buy or borrow now list). 

While I am not one to even guess at what might be listed, I do like seeing what other readers are predicting.  Although I don't subscribe to any Youtube bloggers (vloggers?--I think they are very courageous to put themselves out there, which I could not imagine myself as an introvert doing), there are a handful I will click on if I see a new post.  Sometimes when I am doing some tedious data entry at work it is fun to listen to them share their bookish discoveries, or in this case their predictions.

Mostly I jotted down titles of books that I have not heard of or that are somewhere on the outer edges of my radar that maybe I should take a close look at.  So, whether they will make the cut or not, I am now going to add to my wantlist:

Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy.  I have an earlier book by her and this one, about motherhood, has been getting a lot of attention of late.

Lagos Wife by Vanessa Walters comes out in the US in May in paperback.  I like a good story of suspense, and this one sounds very promising. "Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a handsome husband, a palatial house in the heart of Lagos, and a glamorous group of friends. She left gloomy London and a troubled family past behind for sunny Lagos, becoming part of the Nigerwives--a community of foreign women married to Nigerian men.  But when Nicole disappears without a trace after a boat trip, the cracks in her alleged perfect life start to show."

My library has a copy of Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie, and I think my request is waiting for me at the library now.  This is a story of women's friendship, which sounds at times fraught but ultimately a strong bond in the end.  I suspect I will have a little stack of new library finds to share at the end of the weekend ...

And I did order two new to me books that I could not resist so have some good book mail coming in the next few weeks from the UK.  Cathy Sweeney's Breakown, is a splurge but I can't easily resist Irish writers these days.  Should I admit that I find this story somewhat relatable in my own way?  "One winter morning on an ordinary day in contemporary Dublin, an ordinary middle-class woman wakes up in her ordinary suburban home. Her husband is next to her in bed, her teenage children sleeping nearby.  Without thinking much about it, she walks out the front door and never comes back. She travels first by car, then train, then ferry. Along the way, she finds herself in service stations and shopping centres, hotel bars and hairdressers - and in the beds of strange men.  Finally, forty-eight hours later, alone in a cottage in Wales, the woman faces up to what she has been ignoring inside herself, her family, modern society: signs of breakdown."

And, although new to me, this book has been getting a lot of hype in the UK it seems.  I am eager to get a copy of Jennie Godfrey's The List of Suspicious Things.  One blurb calls it a " superb look at childhood, at growing up, at starting to see the world around you", and another " A touching paean to lost innocence and the comfort of friendships."  The setting is 1979 Yorkshire.  I am a sucker for a good coming of age story for sure!

*****

This weekend's new release movie is one I have been looking forward to.  Perfect Days, directed by Wim Wenders has gotten very good reviews and the film is one of the International nominees for an Oscar award.  

I think I am very late to the party, but I have started watching the fourth season of True Detective: Night Country.  I am a great fan of Jodie Foster and I have heard lots of good things about--suspense and supernatural.  Going by the first episode, I think this is a show I will need to give all my attention to and not just have it on as background viewing.  I have not watched any of the previous seasons but will have to backtrack as a friend said it was one of the best TV shows they have come across in general.

*****

As for listening, I am a fan of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast.  If you have already watched True Detective you might be interested in listening to this (beware, they share spoilers, so I will go back to it later).

And keeping on theme the newest Read or Dead Book Riot podcast is also about this new True Detective season and they give reading suggestions for after you finish watching.  (This will be weekend listening for me).

*****

I'll be visiting the library for my holds.  

And as I have finished a few books, I get to pick a couple of new ones.  I am trying hard not to continue starting new books pell mell which always gets me into trouble (as in too many books on the nightstand to reasonably think I can read at once, but I still continue to try!).  But more about that later.

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

February Bookclub Reads

For a long time now I have gotten away from in-person bookclubs, instead I have a few very good virtual friends with whom my reading tastes overlap and we have picked books or short stories to read in tandem, which I thoroughly enjoy.  It's a way to connect with friends and broaden my reading horizons and always it is a very laid back way to read and chat about books.

However there is a local bookstore I frequent and where I buy my books, which is a charming place with lots of personality and a dedicated clientele.  I have become a member of a few bookclubs that the owner organizes.  Often the books chosen are not necessarily books I might generally reach for; this is not a bad thing to read outside my comfort zone.  To be honest, I think the bigger draw for me is to be around a pleasant group of readers whose passion for books matches my own.  So it isn't only about the books but about the social experience, too.  For an introvert, it is like having my own safe space.  

I tend to overextend myself too often when it comes to books, but it is hard not to be drawn into the possibility of a story that will captivate me.  These days, if a book doesn't work for me and I know it early on I will let it go with few qualms, but I still enjoy hearing the discussion.  More often than not, however, I do finish books and have come across some really wonderful new authors and genres.

So my eagerness occasionally gets the better of me (maybe that is true of all the members), so for February, we are tackling (three different groups mind you) several novels!  Sometimes we select a book that is part of a set or series and then we try and read all of them.  This does not always work well for me, being a very slow reader who is constantly grazing when it comes to books ... but I am always willing to try.

Our choices (made last December) that we will be meeting to talk about at the end of the month are: top to bottom:

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods is a gentle sort of read, a mostly enjoyable bit of escapism, though I found the storytelling maybe a little bit uneven.  It is narrated by three characters in two different timelines.  The story is set in Dublin and opens in the 1920s when the bookshop was established by a woman who fled an arranged marriage first to Paris, where she learned the bookselling trade from non other than Sylvia Beach, and then later to Ireland.  Her own passion was the Bronte family, in particular she hopes to find evidence of a purported manuscript written by Emily.  Fast forward to the present where a young woman flees an abusive marriage for Dublin and finds work as a sort of maid/helper to an eccentric older woman on an unusual street called Ha'Penny Lane.  Just the spot where there is rumored to have been a bookshop (the lost bookshop) that a British grad student is trying to locate.  The author manages to touch upon some difficult subjects in a way that is not too distressing that gets to a happy ending. 

Lyla Sage's Done and Dusted is perhaps not a book I might have gravitated to on my own.  I am more a reader of fiction--mysteries--historical novels that are big on characters and plots with a dash of romance that is more swoony than super spicy.  So I surprise myself in saying I quite enjoyed this cowboy romance.  The story is set in Wyoming where a young woman returns home after a bad fall from a horse.  Her plan is to work her family's ranch and not fall for her brother's best friend she grew up knowing but would not have imagined falling for (since most of the women in town already had).  But you know how that goes.  Sparks fly and some of them are quite sizzling.  I liked Clementine's spunky best friend who is likely to get a book of her own and I might have to pick up if I come across it.

I am now reading and very much enjoying the YA novel Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross.  Another genre I don't tend to pick up often is fantasy, but I was pulled into this story from the start.  There are gods and goddesses who have reawakened and have gone to war while raining down violence and fear on the humans who are in the way.  The rivals are two journalists who are competing for a position as columnist on a prestigious newspaper.  What I love about this story is the way the magic of the fantasy is quirky and charming and maybe not so otherworldly that it feels entirely foreign.  The rivals are connected to each other through their typewriters that magically send messages back and forth.  One of the rivals does not know who she is talking to and the other has already fallen for her and I fear he is setting himself up for some grief when she discovers his deceptions.  There is a sequel called Ruthless Vows and the idea was to read the pair of books by bookclub night, but I suspect I will be doing good to just finish the first book.  I do want to read the sequel, however.  Eventually.  

Bookclub is always an adventure!

Inaugural Women's Prize Nonfiction Longlist

I've been looking forward to the announcement of the inaugural Women's Prize for Nonfiction longlist.  Every year I eagerly await the fiction list, think I'll tackle reading some of the titles that are listed, buy or borrow more than a few, but then am lucky to read one or two!  Typical of me, I want to read everything but never enough time and my attention all over the place.  

So for this list, I am curious and am happy to discover some new books and maybe I can manage to read one or two ... ?  The thing with nonfiction is I can usually only manage one at a time (as opposed to a whole stack of novels on the go at once).  I always want to read nonfiction slowly to take in as many details as I can.  I do have a couple of nonfiction starts on my nightstand, but they have been woefully neglected for weeks now.

So, here is the list of possibilities:

The Britannias: An Island Quest by Alice Albinia

Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom by Grace Blakely

Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon

Intervals by Marianne Brooker 

Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century by Joya Chatterji 

Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death by Laura Cumming

Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in the Philippines by Patricia Evangelista

Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder

Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood by Lucy Jones

Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

A Flat Place by Noreen Masud

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

Code-Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI by Madhumita Murgia

The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes who Created the Oxford English Dictionary by Sarah Ogilvie

Young Queens: The Intertwined Lives of Catherine de’ Medici, Elisabeth de Valois and Mary, Queen of Scots by Leah Redmond Chang

How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir by Safiya Sinclair

I'm familiar with only a few titles, had previously checked out Anna Funder's book from the library (but being slow had to return it unfinished -- it comes out in paperback in the UK in March, however, so easier to tote around and read slowly without due dates).

I follow a couple of Booktubers and they have interesting videos about the longlist, if you want to hear more about the titles:

LouiseSavidgeMuses (along with her son, Simon, also fun to listen to) And the Lonesome Reader.

Any favorites, interesting-looking books or must reads?

The Joy of New Library Books

It's always exciting to find yourself finally at the top of the queue at the library for books you are anxious to get your hands on.  I have been waiting for these three (I generally have my holds maxed out--we can get in line for 40 books and yes, I am in line for that many, though many are not yet published titles).  Top to bottom:

Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan -- "When a 10-year-old child is suspected of a violent crime, her family must face the truth about their past in this haunting, propulsive, psychologically keen story about class, trauma, and family secrets."

The Road to Belhaven by Margot Livesey -- I have wanted to read her for ages and this is my first foray into her writing and I am already completely engrossed in this book.  "Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small child that she can see into the future. But her gift is selective—she doesn’t, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family. As her “pictures” foretell various incidents and accidents, she begins to realize a painful truth: she may glimpse the future, but she can seldom change it.  Nor can Lizzie change the feelings that come when a young man named Louis, visiting Belhaven for the harvest, begins to court her. Why have the adults around her not revealed that the touch of a hand can change everything? After following Louis to Glasgow, though, she learns the limits of his devotion. Faced with a seemingly impossible choice, she makes a terrible mistake. But her second sight may allow her a second chance."

Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang, and Leuyen Pham -- I am a great fan of graphic novels.  I am pretty picky about them, however (much like audio books).  I am particular about the type of illustrations and storytelling, but this one looks quite promising.  "She was destined for heartbreak. Then fate handed her love.Val is ready to give up on love. It's led to nothing but secrets and heartbreak, and she's pretty sure she's cursed--no one in her family, for generations, has ever had any luck with love.But then a chance encounter with a pair of cute lion dancers sparks something in Val. Is it real love? Could this be her chance to break the family curse? Or is she destined to live with a broken heart forever?"  This sounds delightful.

The Livesey is underway and I will be dipping into the graphic novel as soon as tonight!