Mostly Dead Things

The cover of this book is so eye-catching! I’ve had it on my list for a while because of that, in a sort of backburner capacity, but I have to be honest and say I didn’t really know what it was about. Quite recently, Arnett published a second novel, With Teeth, that has been getting a…

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House

A few months into working at my local library, I found the stash of ARCs we’ve been sent that are “free to a good [employee’s] home” and it’s been hard to not grab them all and run, honestly. I try to be judicious about what I take, so that there are options left for other…

The Thirty Names of Night

I read Joukhadar's first novel, The Map of Salt and Stars, a few years ago and LOVED IT. It made my Top Ten Reads of 2019 list, actually. So, I was freaking PSYCHED to see his second novel get published. And, this cover is gorgeous. That's about all I have to say about this "I knew…

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…

Hamnet

This book was not really on my TBR, to be honest. I had it on my radar, but just didn't think I was going to be feeling it...really ever. But a few things happened in conjunction that basically made me feel like I was going to have to give it a try. First, and mostly the…

All My Mother’s Lovers

I’m not sure what pulled me to this book. Perhaps the title? I think the idea of someone’s mother having lots of lovers was really fascinating to me, as generally once people become a mother, they sort of lose an individual personality and start to get characterized only in their relationship to someone else, their…

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

I have realized over the last few years that the fairly new Aspen Words Prize, focused exclusively on fiction with a social impact, is one of my favorite literary prizes. I am by no means an expert in literary prizes, but what I can say is that their long and short lists are wonderfully diverse…

How We Fight For Lives

I’d seen a couple reviews for this memoir that said it was very powerful, and I was interested in reading it, but I can’t necessarily say it was super high on my TBR, objectively. However, it was one of the books I managed to grab in my last library haul before the closures for COVID-19.…

The Little Paris Bookshop

I picked this novel up at a used bookstore a few years ago and never got around to reading it. It just sounded sweet and the cover is super cozy looking, but for some reason it never called out to me as my “next read.” During the last meeting for my long-distance book club, I…

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

This first novel by Ocean Vuong (who has previously published a collection of poetry that has been on my TBR for years) is the most recent book that I’ve seen sweeping the reading community. I’ve seen nothing but amazing reviews and recommendations and so I knew that, eventually, I’d want to read it. But I…