Every Book a Winner or Came Close!

 

    North Woods by Daniel Mason is a fantastic book. It is filed under historical fiction but contains a ribbon of magical realism that gradually becomes apparent. The book starts with two Puritan lovers who run away to Western Massachusetts and proceeds through history until the present day, changing narrators with each chapter. It took a while to understand what was going on, I think, intentionally. As the filaments of stories coalesced into whole cloth, I was captured. I like a mind-bending story, and North Woods is that.

🌲🏚️👻🌳

 Good, Sad, Hopeful

    James McBride's award-winning book, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, is worth every minute spent reading it. The book opens with the discovery of a body in a well with a Mezuzah. The police go to the only Jewish person left on Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, to find answers. The rest of the book, jumps back to the 1920s to explain the mystery. McBride vividly paints each character in his large cast, often giving their origin story. The reader comes to know Chona, Dodo, Nate, and others richly and is invested in their struggles. Because it is the 1920s and the characters are primarily black and Jewish, they face many hardships. McBride paints a painful picture of intricate relationships fueled by kindness, power, and the struggle to flourish.

🎶🕎🕍🎺

    I've been laid low this week with a stomach bug and sought comfort in fantasy. A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross was a great choice. It was nominated as Goodread's best fantasy novel of 2022. Ross builds an intricate web of a world. Jack Tamerlaine is summoned home by his Laird from his training as a musician on the mainland. Young girls are being stolen from the Eastern side of the divided island where the spirits of the water, earth and wind are both kind and cruel. Magic surrounds the inhabitants, but there is a steep cost to using it. River Enchanted meets all the requirements of a fantasy series: reluctant hero, strong heroine, love, rivalry, danger and mystery. It is also part of series, so I now I'm waiting for the next book to become available.

😕

🎶🧝‍♀️🌬️🌱🌊🔥

🎭🏺🏛️Greek Tragedy and 2 Fun Fantasy Books 🧙‍♀️🐲🦇🎨🖌️

 

    When the main character is famous for killing her husband, the king, because he sacrificed their daughter to the gods, you're prepared for tragedy. Costanza Casati's novel Clytemnestra balances the tragedies that Clytemnestra faces with her fierce intelligence and strength. As a warrior princess of Sparta who rules Mycenae while her husband fights in the Trojan War, Clytemnestra is a wonderfully complex woman. I found this book captivating and couldn't stop reading it except to occasionally go and look up a character to see what happened to them--like Aeschellus, Orestes, and Menelaus. 

🎭🏺🏛️

    Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon was a humorous middle-grade fantasy book. Ursula Vernon, also known as T. Kingfisher, is an author I'm crushing on currently. I'm willing to read anything she's written. Vernon writes delightful characters that you want to succeed. This book has an ensemble cast of minions like a goldfish, bat, and donkey/dragon, but the main character is a twelve-year-old trying hard to be a wicked witch. There are many secrets and "time bombs" that propel the story along. Castle Hangnail is aimed at middle-schoolers, but I was caught up in the story and had difficulty putting it down at bedtime.

🏚️🧙‍♀️🐲🦇 

    Illuminations by T. Kingfisher is a fantasy middle-grade book about an Italian Renaissance family who makes illuminations that give magical protection to the things they are painted on. Rosa Mandolini accidentally releases a Scarling--an evil mandrake who steals magic from illumination--who seeks to destroy the family's livelihood. As things go wrong, Rosa's family blames her for the damage. Afraid to tell her family, she needs to recapture the Scarling. It is not a job she can complete alone. To help her, she has a thieving crow and her no-longer-best friend. Kingfisher is a suspenseful, gifted storyteller.

🐦‍⬛🎨🖌️

Christmas🎄, Horror 💀, Fantasy 🧚‍♀️, and Black History Month

    I reserved this book in December, and it only became available this week, but I'm up for keeping Christmas in my heart all year! Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley is a holiday romance book placed during the rare intersection of Ramadan, Hanukkah, and Christmas. Two main characters, Maryam and Anna, are on the same flight to Canada when the weather grounds them in a small, picturesque Christmas town. Even though the book is full of holiday romance tropes--meet-cutes, mistaken identity, being snowed-in, let's do-a-show, and a nod to Dickin's Christmas Carol--it is delightfully done. 

🎄❄️❤️

    I am relatively new to the author T. Kingfisher, but I'm a fan. Her book Nettle & Bone was my best book of 2023. This week, I read two of her books, A House with Good Bones and Thornhedge. A House with Good Bones leans into her horror side. Sam, a thirty-something archeological entomologist, returns to her childhood home for an unexpected extended stay with her beloved mother. Something is not right. Her mom is jumpy and terrified. The formerly cozy home is returned to its uptight decor of her grandmother. And why are there buzzards watching the house? It is a good blend of suspense, mystery, and Southern Gothic.

🦴🐞🪶🌹🏘️

    Thornhedge is a fantasy novella. Stolen by the fairies as a child and raised by toads, she is tasked to return to her family to save them from her changeling replacement. Kingfisher's characters are not superlative when it comes to beauty or bravery. This makes me root for them because they don't have advantages. They have to overcome themselves as much as the problems presented to them. I recommend this and everything I've read so far by T. Kingfisher.

Here are previous posts of some of her books: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=T.+Kingfisher

🧚‍♀️🐸🍄

    Why make a special to read black others one month a year? I would like to read widely about different genres and ethnicities all year. I try, but I find it beneficial to prioritize reading black authors one month a year. That makes it sound like I have a list ready to go. I do not. This is where I look to my library or Goodreads to help me find books. Here is a link to Goodreads's list of 100 Essential New Works of Fiction by Black Authors. https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2723?ref=ed_ads_1_24_bhm

 

    Leslie F*cking Jones by Leslie Jones is a lot. I listened to the audiobook by Leslie Jones. The word that describes this book to me is intense. Leslie Jones powerfully tells her dynamic story. As she narrates, she stops and gives advice. The advice springs from hard times and having to figure Hollywood, comedy, and finance out on her own. Jones is a yeller. She is. I cringe when someone yells at me, and sometimes, I felt overwhelmed by all of Jones's yelling and f-bombs. However, she is hilarious and fierce.

🤣🎤😂

A Large Helping of Sci-fi 🤖and Fantasy 🧚‍♀️with a Dollop of Historical Fiction⛓️

 

    The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, edited by Jonathan Strahan, is challenging to review because it is about the pieces rather than the whole. Truthfully, I skipped a couple of stories, but for the most part, I enjoyed the variety and creativity. A stand-out fantasy story was "Probably Still the Chosen One" by Kelly Barnhill. An eleven-year-old girl enters a magical land under her sink and finds she's the chosen one. The priests train her and send her home, promising to return for her when the time is right. So, she waits, wonders, and grows up. On the science side, "Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance," by Tobias Buckell, featured a rogue AI saving the day. Many of the science stories featured some form of AI. I appreciate a well-crafted short story, and many of these stories are that. It was an excellent book to read while watching three granddaughters for a week. I could finish an entire story and feel like I accomplished something! 

🤖🧚‍♀️🐉🧌👽🛸

    River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer is a historical fiction novel. Rachel is a slave on a sugar plantation in Barbados. In 1834, England ended slavery. However, the plantation owners say that even though they are no longer slaves, they are now apprentices, unable to leave for at least six years. Rachel runs away to find her missing children, who were all sold. Eleanor Shearer draws on family history and her studies for her degree in Political History. It is lush with tactile detail and a formidable struggle. Rachel reminds me of a mythical hero facing enormous odds as she moves from understanding the world as a runaway slave to living as a free woman. 

🏝️⛓️🏞️

Growing Old Wisely 🧠 and Hiking 🥾

 

    I have waited several months for From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur C. Brooks. I am in the second half of my life and want everything the title proposes. Brooks' book is well-researched and thoughtfully written. I learned much about fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. If I suspect that my mind isn't as nimble as it once was, I'm correct. Cognitive decline begins after forty, as does physical strength, which is not the best news. But he balances that with the fact that the older brain is better at making connections and seeing significant patterns. The book is aimed at hard-charging career types, which I'm not, but I still found plenty to chew on. It is more fulfilling in the second half of life if you have close friends, less attachment to material things, and develop a spiritual life. That last one surprised me, but it's based on research. He's given me lots to think about. 

👵🏻🧠👴🏻

    I've read Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed before and didn't like it. I tried to analyze why as I read it this time for book club. She is a terrific writer who makes a 1,100-mile trek on the Pacific Crest Trail fascinating. She is vulnerable about why she's walking--the end of her marriage, the loss of her mom and cohesive family, and her struggle with drugs. A theme of her book is loss. It's painful to experience it with her. She communicates it viscerally. It is a well-written book that ends on a happy note, but it leaves me sad. 

🥾🌄🏕️

Dystopian Sci-Fi 🦊🐰and Baking Show Murder Mystery 🍰

 

    In The Future, Naomi Alderman displays some of the best aspects of science fiction. She takes known facts and builds them into future possibilities. And she does it very well. This book was chilling. It is a multi-character story told by different people: a survivalist blogger, a cult leader’s escaped daughter, and tech billionaires whose primary concern is how well-stocked their bunkers are for when the time comes. The Future debates the questions of cities versus agrarian and hunter versus gatherer in an informed and complex way. Alderman had me guessing what would happen next, and I frequently guessed wrong. She draws from religion, economics, and computer theory to create an intelligent, provoking story I will be thinking about for a while.

“They laughed as children do when they are thrown high in the air. We are all falling, all the time, from the half-understood past to the unknowable future. The other name for falling without fear is flying.”
― Naomi Alderman, The Future

🦊🐰🏝️🏙️

    The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell is head-spinning. There are many characters to track and remember their motives and secret backstories. Maxwell works hard to individualize them, but I sometimes got a bit lost. Maxwell does an excellent job of classic mystery twists, turns, and red herrings, plus bringing a baking vibe that made me hungry. The closer I got to the end, the faster I went because I was curious about who the murderer was. 

🔍🎂🥮💀🍰🧁

Surreal🦣, Bookish 📚and Historic👑🇬🇧

 

    Describing a Jasper Fforde book is difficult because his plots and characters are as surreal as a Dali painting. That's why I like them. Here is an indescribable Dali painting:

    Now, I will describe Jasper Fforde's book, Early Riser. It is a humorous sci-fi novel about good versus evil, but it is difficult to tell who or what is good and/or evil. The winter is so harsh, and few can survive it without hibernating. People are shamed for not being fat enough to survive the long sleep. When someone oversleeps, it could be by weeks, not hours. Charlie is a novice facing his first awake winter as a Winter Consul--someone who watches over sleepers, keeping them safe from evil villains and the cold. He can't protect them from a viral dream that leaves them as brain-dead entities that feed on anything and anyone. It gets only gets weird from there. As an extra bonus to me, I get to use the Wooly Mammoth emoji for the first time. Win!

🧟‍♀️😴❄️🦣

    I found The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt in a Books About Books list. This is the first thing I've ever read by deWitt. Bob Comet is a bookish, solitary person. It opens with his retirement from the library at seventy-two, and he is at loose ends. He starts volunteering at a senior center he discovers when he helps an elderly woman with dementia who has escaped. He finds a diverse community where he almost fits in. The book is a blend of melancholy, comfort, and contentment. I thought it would be about Bob's twilight years, but it recounts how hebecameo the quiet solitary man he is. It asks the question, can a small life be a good life? Spoiler Alert: yes, it can. It made me want to read more by deWitt. 

📚🏠🚶🏼👴🏻

    Well, I thought I was getting a book by David Mitchell, who wrote Cloud Atlas. This is different from David Mitchell, but I already had Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England Kidns and Queens, so I went ahead and read it. It is a humorous look at England's monarchy. There is a lot of killing and marrying of cousins. Frequently, English kings declared themselves kings of France, but it never worked out. Sorry if that's news to you. I am glad I read this enjoyable book because I feel virtuous when I read non-fiction, and it was a snort-laughingly fun read.

🇬🇧🤴👑👸 🇬🇧

🐙🐻😷🐦‍⬛ A Walk, An Octopus, Cupcakes, and Witches

 

    I was excited to read Sea Change by Gina Chung because I've enjoyed several excellent books about octopuses. Sea Change is a good book, but I expected a different story. It is about a woman in her twenties who works at an aquarium- with an octopus named Delores- whose life is stuck. She is at a point where her life will change, either spiraling down or up. For most of the book, I thought it would be about her reuniting with her father or boyfriend. That either event would fix her life. Chung took me in a different direction, a better one. 

🐙🍷🍸🐟🚀

    A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson is the January book for my book club. (Reminder: we're doing travel books) I have read this before and enjoyed it. It is nice to travel through it a second time and see things I don't remember the first time like Bill Bryson is an anxious guy. He starts the book by telling you some worst-case scenarios he might encounter on the trail, like bears, ticks, storms, and injury. When you're preparing to hike, it makes sense to consider what you might encounter, but he seems overly invested. My Dear Husband and I have section-hiked the Appalachian Trail for over ten years. We have completed Maryland and West Virginia and are working on Pennsylvania. We have walked 5%. In our wildest dreams, we would like to hike the entire AT, but I prefer to sleep inside, so that might not be possible. What can I say? I'm addicted to indoor plumbing and beds. The first time I read this, I hadn't done any hiking, and now that I have, it makes the book more vibrant. I've encountered through-hikers with defined calves and giant packs. They usually pass me on steep inclines sweating, breathing hard, and contemplating my poor life choices like hiking the AT.

🐻🥾⛰️

    I heard about R. Eric Thomas on the podcast What Should I Read Next. His latest book is Congratulations, the Best is Over! The title does an exceptional job of capturing Thomas's humor. This book of essays describes his return to his hometown of Baltimore for his husband's job and his subsequent bout of depression. As he wades through tough topics like depression, the Pandemic, and racism, he can't conceal a golden thread of hope. Thomas doesn't want to have hope, but he does. Therefore, his book is realistic but not devastating.

😷🙁🏢

    I like a book with multiple timelines that initially seem unrelated and then converge surprisingly. Weyward by Emilia Hart is that type of book. Three women of the Weyward line, one in 2019, another in 1942, and the last in 1619, share magical abilities and the danger of being women. One of the messages of the book is most men are abusers and women are better off without them. It is a skillfully conceived and well-executed novel, but it was too dark for me.

🐝🕷️🐦‍⬛🌱🐛🪱

2023 Year In Review 📚📖

    I keep a list of what I've finished reading on Goodreads. I highly recommend it. I set a goal to read 100 books this year, and Goodreads says I read 138, but there might be some duplicates. 

Books that have stayed with me:

Most Poignant: Signal Fires Danielle Shapiro and Dear Edward by Anne Napolitano

Favorite Use of Multiple Narrators: Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal and Trust by Hernan Diaz

Insightfully Painful: Babel R. F. Kuang and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Favorite Captivating Title: I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Surprisingly Useful Book: The Art of Making Memories by Meik Wiking

Excellent Fantasy Series: City of Brass Series by S. A. Chakraborty

Octopuses are Now My Favorite Animal: Remarkable Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt and The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

Africanfuturist Science Fiction Horror: Binti Series by Nnedi Okorafor

Best Audiobook: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, narrated by Meryl Streep

Best Could This Really Happen: Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

Fictional Mind Blowing: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Mind Blowing Memoir: How to Stay Married by Harrison Scott Key

Favorite Book of the Year:

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

MY 2023 BOOKS

it was amazing

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really liked it

it was amazing

it was amazing

it was amazing

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really liked it

it was amazing

2x