Between Shades of Gray

This is the book we voted on for March in my long-distance book club. Honestly, I have had it on my shelf for years, meaning to read it, so this is awesome. I originally was interested in it because I'd read that it was by an author of Lithuanian descent, writing about the Lithuanian experience under Russian and/or German (depending…

How We Get Free

This book was chosen by a friend as the first book of an Anti-Racist Book Club that she started. I know that the reactions to white people, white women, starting book clubs like this to address racism is very understandably skeptical as an empty gesture that will soon be moved on from… All I can…

The Darkest Part of the Forest

I have had “read something by Holly Black” on my TBR for years. I have a huge soft spot for fairies in fantasy and that seems to be her sweet spot. I actually have had The Cruel Prince on my shelf since it was published, but I get weird about trilogies and have kinda been…

American Spy

I am not sure how it ended this book ended up on my TBR, as (to be honest) thrillers aren’t really a genre I read a lot of. However it got there, I was even more inclined to pick it up after seeing that Obama had put it on his list of favorite 2019 reads.…

This Is How You Lose the Time War

To be honest, I originally was interested in this book because the title made me think of Doctor Who. #nerdalert But even after I realized what it was actually about (completely unrelated to Doctor Who, for the record), I was very interested in it. And then it got chosen as the January book for my…

White Teeth

Last year, around this time, I read my first Zadie Smith novel, NW. To be honest, as I said at the time, it was not my favorite…I was a little disappointed by it, after hearing so many amazing things about Smith. However, she has written so many books and I knew someday I would try…

Royal Holiday

I read The Wedding Date last year, Guillory’s first novel, and it was so good! I enjoyed the heat and the focus on food and the story in general, especially how strong and ambitious the female lead was. But when her second book, The Proposal, came out, I wasn’t as interested (sports based romance isn’t…

The Radium Girls

This was the July book chosen for my long-distance book club. Basically, one of our members just really wanted to read it and we all voted to go along with that. Haha. But honestly, I’m super happy that’s how it happened. I had heard of this one, but I know for sure that I would…

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

I grabbed this one at a used book sale a few months ago, after seeing tons of positive reviews for it. It’s been sitting on my shelf since then. Last week, I went ahead and posted on #bookstagram a stack of books that I am hoping to get to this summer, with a call for…