The Deserter’s Tale
by Nathan Dylan Goodwin

I hope there are more in this series…have very rarely read a series straight through. Will look at his other series as well.
 
 

The Deserter’s Tale
by Nathan Dylan Goodwin

I hope there are more in this series…have very rarely read a series straight through. Will look at his other series as well.
 
 

The Deserter’s Tale
by Nathan Dylan Goodwin

I hope there are more in this series…have very rarely read a series straight through. Will look at his other series as well.
 
 

Big Nate Out Loud
by Lincoln Peirce

????
 
 

We Begin At The End
by Chris Whitaker

Thirty years of secrets, crime, love, and betrayal tear up the lives of a handful of former high school friends in a California seaside town. At the heart of it are Walk, the town’s longtime sheriff who sees the good in almost everyone and wants keep the town same as it has been, and 13-year-old Duchess, who parents both her 5-year-old brother and her doomed mother. Three murders, arson, a missing gun, a drowning, a missing surveillance tape, and a botched trial make this a real page-turner. Would have given this five stars except for the glaring errors in geography. If an author uses real place names then they ought to make sense on the map.
 
 

The Anxious Generation
by Jonathan Haidt

I read this for a book club with other elementary schooler moms and it was excellent fodder for discussion. Parenting in the digital age is a different ballgame than in the free range childhood of my youth. There’s a lot I can relate to in this book as well as a lot of reinforcement for the anxieties I harbor as my daughters make decisions about engagement with social media. There’s lots of takeaways from this book including graduated exposure to screen time and no social media before age 16. This book has interesting perspective on letting kids loose to play freely and untethered from overbearing parents and over-monitoring and over-scripted socialization. While largely this is a well-researched thought-provoking book, I took issue with some less founded assertions about gender diversity. I do appreciate the invitation to learn more through his website online. This is a very timely book that I listened to on audio via Libro.fm.
 
 

Glory Days
by Simon Rich

3.5 stars. I listened to this audiobook via Libby. I am not as familiar with Simon Rich, but his SNL connection is apparent in the sketch-like feel of this satirical collection of short stories. He cleverly twists folklore and fairytales into contemporary social commentary. These are brief but smart, which I appreciate but not quite my style of humor so I was a bit disengaged hence the lower reading. The audio narration is performed by John Mulaney which was fun but also a bit abrasive at times. I can see this being a much higher rating for its target audience.
 
 

What Does It Feel Like?
by Sophie Kinsella

This short book is a stunner. Grab a box of tissues and pick up a copy! While Sophie Kinsella is known for her Confessions of a Shopaholic series and other romcoms with happily ever afters, this book is a beautiful and tragic deviation. She has promo’ed this as largely autobiographical (and even details that in the afterward author’s note), which makes it even more powerful and stinging. In this book author Eve finds a great dress, has a loving family and attends a premiere before her world comes crashing down and she wakes up in the hospital with essentially no short term memory and a bandage on her head. Her loving husband Nick tells her anew everyday that she just had a glioblastoma resected, and she goes through the grief of this diagnosis while physically recovering in anticipation of returning home to her five children. While this sobering book brought me to tears, it also gave me hope. The love story between husband and wife is so pure and true- I just loved it. I read this ebook as an ARC from NetGalley and may also revisit it when the audiobook is released. I’ve already talked about the impact of this book with others and it will stay with me for a long time.
 
 

Black girl you are atlas
by Renee Watson

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: - I love thee for the celebration of Blackness and womanhood; for the joy, smiles and laughter despite the sorrow - I love thee for the variety of poems including new-to-me formats like an etheree, a pantoum and a tanka - I love thee for the gorgeous, bold and colorful illustrations by Ekua Holmes, for the physical book I found on the library’s shelf - I love thee for the Portland setting, which gave this Portland reader a feeling that my neighbor penned this - I love thee for the coming of age moments - I love thee for the powerful title poem - I love thee for the audiobook (listened to on Libby) narrated by the author poet with all the intended inflections and cadence - I love thee for the poem King and for this older brother’s love and goodness - I love thee for the sobering tributes to Renisha McBride and Breonna Taylor This is a fantastic book of poetry that is worth a read, a reread and a place on your bookshelf.
 
 

Tangled Up in You
by Christina Lauren

3.75 stars. I read a signed(!) physical copy of this book that I purchased at the Hillsboro Barnes and Noble release event where I got to meet(!) the hilarious author duo that is Christina Lauren. I have been anticipating this book for ages as I’ve read the other books in the Meant to Be series and this installment is by one of my favorite auto-read romance authors. In this Disney Princess retelling of Tangled, the sheltered Rapunzel character Ren hails from a remote Idaho compound. She goes to fictional Corona College in the very real city of Spokane, Washington and encounters Fitz- a bad boy with brains. There’s so much about this spin on the fairy tale that I got a kick out of given my own Idaho background with Spokane ties. I did feel like this was a but of a caricature love story that lacked a sense of truth or depth… but I’ll allow it given the overarching context of the book and series. If you want a fun book that won’t make you think too hard but will make you crave a road trip and a steamy hot tub first kiss, then this is the book for you!