Furia

This book is a YA situation that appealed to me on a very deep level. I grew up playing soccer because my father played. And my brothers too, though they were younger than me, they started before me and I decided to try because, I don’t know, sibling FOMO maybe? Anyways, it turned out to…

The Office of Historical Corrections

My 10th Aspen Words Literary Prize 2021 longlist read! I’m two thirds of the way there – maybe I will actually make it! Anyways, this one was amaze-balls. As per usual, here's a quick note with reactions for each story, and the closing novella of course, with some final thoughts to wrap it up. The…

The Vanishing Half

I read The Mothers a few years ago and generally enjoyed and was impressed by the debut. Bennett did a wonderful job writing real, flawed, “regular people” characters in a genuine and interesting way. So, I definitely knew that I’d look into whatever she wrote next. And then The Vanishing Half came out this past…

A Children’s Bible

My 7th book on the Aspen Words Literary Prize 2021 Longlist and this is one that was neither on my radar at all prior to this list nor one that I read anything about before picking it up (or, to be fair, starting the audio...the narrator for which has a particularly grating voice, in my…

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

I’ve seen literally nothing but rave reviews for this collection. Some major bookstagrammers who always have the inside track on great new releases, as well as some smaller ones whose recommendations I’ve come to just really trust will line up with my own appreciations. So naturally I added myself to the library waitlist for this…

The Death of Vivek Oji

This is the 5th book of the Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlist 2021 that I’ve gotten to. I’m a third of the way through the list now! This is one I definitely was planning to read anyways, having read and been so freaking impressive by both Freshwater and Pet, so it’s nice that it overlapped…

The Yield

I made myself a goal for this year to be better about keeping track of which reviewers bring books to my attention/convince me to pick them up, so that I can give credit where it’s due in my reviews. Unfortunately, this book was put on my radar prior to that goal. So, I cannot properly…

Shuggie Bain

I spent months watching @dsweet_library hype this book up. I am not sure I’ve ever seen a reader go so hard for a novel before. It was awesome. So anyways, of course I added it to my TBR. Since then, it also won the 2020 Booker and was a National Book Award Finalist, so other,…

Transcendent Kingdom

Like many other people, I absolutely loved Homegoing. I read it a few years ago and was truly blown away. It’s actually one of the very first books I ever reviewed on my blog. (Also, looking back at the post to link it here, I had totally forgotten that I included recommendations for similar books…

Catherine House

My interest in the genre of dark academia, and in fact my knowledge of that as a sub-genre of its own in the first place, is totally due to @kiara.in.the.stacks. So, shout out to her! But for real, I am really feeling this dark academia vibe. I have read The Secret History, which was good…