https://lonslibrary.com/blog daily 0.75 2023-09-13 https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-night-eaters monthly 0.5 2023-10-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/e2b7e38a-efb6-4b2e-ba43-aaf83bc522be/PXL_20221204_055129384.jpg All Reviews - The Night Eaters - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Well it’s official, I do enjoy horror. She Eats the Night is the first in what I believe will be a trilogy and wow! If you enjoy the Monstress series you’ll love this, and if you want to like Monstress but can’t quite get into the complexity you’ll also love this. Focusing on Chinese American twins in their early 20s who are trying to figure out how to make their mark on the world, we get to watch as they get parented by a cranky mom and laid back dad. Oh, and there may or may not be a demon eating people in the abandoned house across the street. Marjorie M. Liu absolutely nailed the family relationships, mixing humor and snark as all the best families do. They all clearly love each other, but between the kids trying to prove that they’re functional adults and Milly’s personality being a little too similar to her mother’s for comfort, there’s plenty of bickering to go around. Balancing https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-little-prince monthly 0.5 2023-10-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/087b3f6b-378b-460d-a945-fff105cb1500/PXL_20230104_032731685.jpg All Reviews - The Little Prince - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A little kid will read The Little Prince and be impressed by his adventures across the universe. A young adult will read it and be impressed with how deep it feels, the impression that this slim book has many of the life lessons you’ll need going into true adulthood. As an adult I’m fascinated primarily by the parallels between the book and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s life. The Little Prince is named for its extraterrestrial visitor, but the central character is a pilot who remembers what it was to be a kid but is currently very, very stranded in the middle of a desert with no clear way to get out. Saint-Exupéry was a lifelong pilot who had a successful civil flying career with a minor blip of getting stranded in the Libyan desert for 3 days after a plane crash. He was seriously injured in a second crash a few years later, and joined the https://lonslibrary.com/blog/you-sound-like-a-white-girl monthly 0.5 2023-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/ea6069a8-0999-4375-abdb-989452fe2a23/PXL_20230830_014939707.jpg All Reviews - You Sound Like a White Girl - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ You Sound Like A White Girl is a well-written mix of personal memoir and Latinx history. While I enjoyed learning about Julissa Arce’s story, I’ll admit I was much more interested in the Latinx history and her thoughts on the implications of minority cultures aiming for assimilation into the dominant (white) culture of the US. I had never realized how little I actually know about Mexican and Latinx history, especially in regards to their contributions to the US. This book was a great introduction, and I’m looking forward to finding more books that will let me dive deeper into this specific topic in history. I read this for a bookclub, and it was one of the more intense discussions we’ve had - turns out everyone had a lot of thoughts when it comes to cultural appreciation vs appropriation, and assimilation vs integration. I have suspicions that discussions like this would be best done with a moderator (luckily we had a good one) or with some sort of accompanying reading to help make sure everyone is working from the same baseline understanding. That being said, it really was a great book for discussion and a fairly quick and easy read. I definitely recommend it if you want something you can learn from but that won’t feel like a slog while reading. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven monthly 0.5 2023-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/9fe17ed9-81ce-4010-8038-15e4a4c4c9f2/PXL_20230403_013626359.jpg All Reviews - 5 People You Meet In Heaven - ⭐ Ok look. We aren’t all going to love all books. Sometimes one person will hate a book that their friend found deep meaning in. Or at least that’s what I kept telling myself while reading the five people you meet in heaven. Because genuinely, what is the point of this book? The idea is that after death you meet five key people from the course of your life, and they will help you understand the meaning of it all. But the emotional punches just keep coming, and the author seemed much more focused on emphasizing how much the main character suffered than in making an actual point with the book. There are few things I have less patience for than pointless misery. Focused on Ed, an old man who lived a small, sad life, the book lets us get to know him through 5 people who were important to his life in one way or another. As much as I disliked the heavy-handed https://lonslibrary.com/blog/sundial monthly 0.5 2023-04-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/f9922468-6b01-4d69-8586-dfe13dae71d4/PXL_20230403_003221753.jpg All Reviews - Sundial - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ There’s so much I want to say about Sundial, but I don’t want to spoil anything! Since the joy of horror is in the discovery, I’ll keep everything high level. It’s definitely safe to say I’m deeply in love with Catriona Ward’s writing. I was solidly hooked and physically uncomfortable from the very first page. (I highly recommend listening to a horror audiobook when you have to deep clean your house. The nervous energy never stops flowing.) Ward alternates between the viewpoints of a mother and her pre-teen daughter. The mother is locked in a terrible marriage and is convinced that not only has her husband turned her eldest daughter against her, but that something is very wrong with the girl. The daughter, in turn, doesn’t understand why her mother likes her younger sister so much more, and is beginning to believe her mother may actually wish her harm. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/empire-of-pain monthly 0.5 2023-04-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/b84339d7-9efa-404a-9e4b-7567a4ba6738/PXL_20230328_011327741.jpg All Reviews - Empire of Pain - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “It is a peculiar hallmark of the American economy that you can produce a dangerous product and effectively off-load any legal liability for whatever destruction that product may cause by pointing to the individual responsibility of the consumer.” Empire of Pain is a carefully researched deep dive of investigative journalism into the Sackler family empire. If you aren’t familiar with the Sacklers, you’ve definitely heard of their products - OxyContin for our generation and Valium for our predecessors. Patrick Radden Keefe starts off with a brief history of what seems like a family achieving the American Dream - a rags to riches story of Arthur Sackler and his two younger brothers getting by on grit and entrepreneurial spirit as they rise from near the poverty line to three successful doctors/businessmen taking New https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-left-hand-of-darkness monthly 0.5 2023-04-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/2e1aa428-7b50-4236-aa4d-7d96ccc671ea/PXL_20230328_014639163.jpg All Reviews - The Left Hand of Darkness - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I read this the first time and found it slow, verging on boring. I finished it because my mom loved it and I trust her judgment. I read it a second time and started picking up on the political undercurrents and subtle communication between characters. This is basically a world where all past disagreements were solved through lengthy discussion. But recently a deadly new weapon has been introduced and some political factions have begun pushing Patriotism at the expense of logic or reason. (Sound familiar?) As the reader you get almost all of your information from the perspective of the human ambassador, so I enjoyed this more the second time through when I had a better idea of what was happening behind the scenes. The third time I was finally able to fully appreciate it https://lonslibrary.com/blog/a-prayer-for-the-crown-shy monthly 0.5 2023-04-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/de8da4bd-de58-43fb-abe2-fcda957531c4/PXL_20230325_182240775.jpg All Reviews - A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Some books are comfort reads the way chocolate or ice cream is a comfort food. I’m stressed and trying to avoid something, or I’m rewarding myself with a sweet treat. I won’t feel great after binging, but I rarely regret it. A Prayer For The Crown-Shy brings a different kind of comfort. It’s the soup your mom makes when you’re sick; you can feel its rejuvenating power with every bite. It’s the ice-cold water you chug right after coming inside on a hot day, the wave of refreshment coursing through your body. It’s the nourishment your soul needs to pick itself back up after a long week, a little smarter and a little stronger than before. Similar to its precursor A Psalm for the Wild-Built, there’s just enough plot to keep things moving but never enough to detract from the comfort and contemplation Chambers is offering. (You can find my review of the first book here.) She has a https://lonslibrary.com/blog/princess-academy monthly 0.5 2023-03-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/b8497167-3fd9-4894-8f40-371ee18cac8c/PXL_20230313_025951391.jpg All Reviews - Princess Academy - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I would have been obsessed with this book as a preteen! It hits the perfect balance of having real consequences but never feeling too stressful or hopeless. The main character is a young girl who has always been small for her age and wasn’t allowed to join the rest of the village in the mine as a result. She feels ostracized from them, but the separation leads to her making a discovery that improves everyone’s life in the end. The fact that the girls are technically competing for a prince but largely didn’t give two shits about him brought me so much joy! They just wanted the escape route or educational access that winning him offered - the amount of effort several put into teaching themselves macroeconomics made my nerdy little heart so happy I can’t even tell you. I also appreciated that a lot of the distance between the main character and other girls was caused by https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-case-of-the-spellbound-child monthly 0.5 2023-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/e3dbd7a8-4822-48ed-a9c5-1044ee3de05e/PXL_20230313_024726713.jpg All Reviews - The Case of the Spellbound Child - ⭐⭐⭐ Mercedes Lackey used to be one of my all-time favorite authors. I would religiously scour each used book store for any of her books, often binging my finds later the same day. Unfortunately my standards have shifted over time, and I think she’s lost some of the sparkle her books used to have. The Case of the Spellbound Child is #14 in the Elemental Masters series, and while it was enjoyable I kept having flashbacks to an old Whitest Kids You Know sketch. To be clear, I don’t think the book was bad. I still enjoy the creativity of the world and magic systems Lackey has developed, and the villain for this book was satisfyingly creepy. But the plot felt formulaic, and the addition of Sherlock and Watson feels awkward. This could be because I haven’t read the books in order, so I missed their intro to the series. But it seemed like not enough Sherlock for https://lonslibrary.com/blog/on-earth-were-briefly-gorgeous monthly 0.5 2023-03-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/10e28494-054a-45c1-b280-c1b3a1016705/PXL_20230305_213755215.jpg All Reviews - On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a beautifully uncomfortable book. It sits somewhere between poetry and prose, with a fragmented narrative structure that lets the reader explore the lives of Little Dog, his mother, and his grandmother. He touches on subjects ranging from Alzheimer’s to the opioid epidemic, from the impact of war on the ability to communicate to the layered complexity of mother-child relationships. The overarching themes always come back to connections - spanning cultures, generations, or even just across the deep gulfs trauma can leave within. Ocean Vuong is a gifted wordsmith and creates evocative scenes that push the reader fully into each emotion he wants you to sit with. I spent some time looking for the perfect quote to showcase his writing style and the feel of reading the book. There were so many that struck me for different https://lonslibrary.com/blog/im-glad-my-mom-died monthly 0.5 2023-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/3a1e2acd-bfd1-437d-af59-7b2efc0b7d37/PXL_20230113_032637660.jpg All Reviews - I’m Glad My Mom Died - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I love reading memoirs - people are endlessly fascinating, and the ‘behind the scenes’ aspect of celebrity/actor memoirs especially. Jennette McCurdy was a good actress, but she is an excellent writer. She kept a delicate balance of being open enough about her life to give the reader a clear picture of her childhood while infusing a surprising amount of humor throughout. To me that was the biggest indicator of what a skilled writer McCurdy is - she was able to drive home the severity of the abuse she was put through along with her major battle with her mental health while giving the reader breaks with wit and flashes of humor. Trying to do both could easily have come across as unbalanced or given the reader emotional whiplash instead of ensuring the book never got too heavy to read. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/knot-again monthly 0.5 2023-01-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/9288333f-f060-49f4-a178-6b59620b82a0/PXL_20230113_031311541.jpg All Reviews - Knot Again - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Revisiting the boys at Strong Knits was a mixed bag in the second book of Kwana Jackson’s Real Men Knit series. The brothers are all still absurdly attractive and have a great sibling dynamic - I’d love to see a Bridgerton-esqe adaptation of these books for the screen! Jackson also improved a lot of the things I was frustrated with in the first book, reducing (somewhat) the number of times women were harshly judging other women, and smoothing out the arc of get together/big fight/resolution as we follow Lucas and Sidney through their story. I went back and forth on how much I liked Sidney, Lucas’s childhood crush returned. On the one hand her family dynamics were also very well done, and having her trying to find her way out of a bad marriage was a solid complication for the plot. But on the other hand she didn’t treat Lucas very well for most of the book, and it wasn’t always totally https://lonslibrary.com/blog/better-off-wed monthly 0.5 2023-01-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/84f5e3bd-120d-469a-a029-1941e0ab3db6/PXL_20230109_013604575.jpg All Reviews - Better Off Wed - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Think Robin Hood but make him a young woman from the upper class of a regency romance. In Better Off Wed, Susanna Craig plays with the reluctant allies/fake marriage tropes, bringing together a young woman who has been acting the part of a vigilante and gotten in over her head with a young man trained as a spy for the crown. The two realize the only way either will achieve their goals is by working together, and they slowly grow to love each other despite themselves. Craig creates the exact type of semi goofy regency romances I want. The relationship is written well enough that I’m fully invested in the character’s happiness, and the plot is dramatic enough to be a lot of fast paced fun without ever feeling rushed or overwrought. That’s a difficult balance to achieve! https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-age-of-agile monthly 0.5 2023-01-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/c26c8aef-19c4-47ea-b1ab-da66ff00acbc/PXL_20230108_235545438.jpg All Reviews - The Age of Agile - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ It’s a little weird to give a random business book 5 stars but hear me out. Probably two-thirds of The Age of Agile is a useful but entirely standard primer on what Agile methodology is, why you should apply it to your company, and tips and tricks on how to do so. If that were the entire book we’d be sitting at a solid 3 stars and a very short review. But tucked into the middle of the book is the sharpest critique I’ve seen of the shareholder-first, profits-over-people mentality that has driven the business world for decades. I’m not entirely sure why it's in the book but WOW did I enjoy reading it. I may even go buy a physical copy to go back through and annotate. Denning carefully and methodically lays out the expectations people had of what would happen when companies first started going public, and again when they started https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-metamorphosis monthly 0.5 2023-01-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/f93972e9-691e-4234-b9c0-6d083bf7aac6/PXL_20230108_230756037.jpg All Reviews - The Metamorphosis - ⭐⭐⭐ This book is not particularly enjoyable to read. It starts depressing and just gets worse. I’m going to have spoilers today, but to be fair the book came out over a century ago. If you aren’t familiar, The Metamorphosis follows Gregor, a salesman miserable in his chosen profession who wakes up one day to find he’s turned into a human-sized roach. Unsurprisingly, neither he nor his family handle this well. The initial reactions are on point - screaming, crying, existential dread, and bargaining all come and go as everyone tries to understand what’s happened. Stage two is what killed me - Gregor just… pines, hoping his life will revert but making no real effort to adapt to or change his new circumstances. Similarly, his family gets trapped by indecision - they’re too afraid of his new form to comfortably live with him but too family oriented to force him https://lonslibrary.com/blog/one-thing-leads-to-a-lover monthly 0.5 2023-01-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/a1a043dd-79a2-4bef-8c65-9f9d0be0a352/PXL_20230108_211410087.jpg All Reviews - One Thing Leads To A Lover - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Susanna Craig might be my new go to for stress-free romance fun. She does a great job balancing both a budding relationship with strong chemistry and a just-complicated-enough spy plot without it going off the deep end. Often in series like this the books will start strong but escalate wildly later in the series, seemingly just because the author was running out of ideas. There’s still time for the Live and Let Spy Series to go wrong, but Craig hasn’t disappointed me yet! In One Thing Leads to a Lover, we get to watch Amanda, an overly-sheltered widow with two young kids slowly fall for Major Langley, the charismatic but anxious intelligence officer who has intruded on her quiet life while trying to retrieve vital information for the crown. Amanda is painfully aware that this may be the most exciting thing to happen for the rest of her life, so she grabs onto https://lonslibrary.com/blog/youve-changed monthly 0.5 2023-01-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/36d4f0a6-6172-46de-b12c-3f0c65f95fcd/PXL_20230104_031040658.jpg All Reviews - You’ve Changed - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pyae Moe Thet War has written a beautiful collection of essays about life, multiculturalism, gender, language, and mental health. She explores a wide range of topics and her writing throughout the collection is absolutely beautiful. I found myself consistently stopping to reread or just appreciate her phrasing. I increasingly appreciate writers who write in English but have a different mother tongue. We know language shapes how we think, and that’s never more obvious to me than when reading something like this. Pyae Moe Thet War would phrase things in entirely novel ways, or come at an old topic from an entirely new direction. Until I get fluent enough in any other language to read books not written in English, I just have to appreciate authors like this who are willing to share their worldview. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/razorblade-tears monthly 0.5 2023-01-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/f871b606-f7e0-48d3-be41-c3eeb4874276/PXL_20221231_011920765.jpg All Reviews - Razorblade Tears - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Razorblade Tears is not my usual fare. A fast-paced thriller about two fathers hell-bent on revenge against their sons’ killer. It’s the darkest buddy cop style drama I’m likely to ever read, but the sheer charisma of the mismatched dads trying to figure out how to work together made it hard to put the book down. Ike has been on the straight and narrow for 15 years, but has never forgotten his violent past. Buddy Lee was never as successful as Ike on either side of the law, but damn if he doesn’t know how to get shit done. Both are trying to learn how to navigate a world where they’ve abruptly run out of tomorrows in which to make peace with their sons for being gay. They always assumed that sometime in the nebulous future they’d have a better relationship with their boy, and are forced to confront their own issues head-on while tracing the last steps their sons made before they were killed. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/love-that-story monthly 0.5 2022-12-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/bf8990ba-4cb2-4b5b-be5d-9af4d4e9a6e2/PXL_20221231_001752256.jpg All Reviews - Love That Story - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Creating a legacy of joy is important to me.” says Jonathan Van Ness in his second book, and damn if he doesn’t deliver! I have never watched or read anything he’s been part of without it bringing a smile to my face. Love That Story is a series of essays rather than a memoir like his first, so it’s somewhat less personal than Over The Top was. That being said, JVN is still willing to dig deep into his own life as well as the various topics he chooses to write on. Each essay was thoughtful, well-written, and incredibly entertaining. I read it on kindle but I think that was a rookie mistake - the obvious choice here would have been to listen to him narrate the audio version. Go get this book and save it to read or listen to a chapter at a time at your favorite coffee shop or bar. Whether JVN is focused on harder topics such as the rise of transphobia or simply his style https://lonslibrary.com/blog/patriarchy-blues monthly 0.5 2022-12-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/f6789db6-1c18-4ce2-a300-d291c9a8574c/PXL_20221229_053902457.jpg All Reviews - Patriarchy Blues - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I wish I’d listened to the audiobook instead - Patriarchy Blues was a mix of prose, poetry, and essays that felt like they should be performed as monologues. No matter the format, each chapter was beautifully written and covered difficult topics with grace and empathy. It’s not escaping me that I - a white woman - am writing a review about a book in which the author - a black man - spends a lot of time talking about the importance of intersectionality and especially how white women often feel entitled to share our opinions about other (read: more) oppressed groups as if they were fact. Frankly, there’s nothing I can say about this book that Frederick Joseph doesn’t cover in one of the chapters, and far better than I could hope to. Instead I’ll just say that books like Patriarchy Blues are why I participate in a stupid number of book https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-starless-sea monthly 0.5 2022-12-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/ce4f6504-94e4-4b46-b21f-b2bfc0843336/PXL_20221228_214759709.jpg All Reviews - The Starless Sea - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ This reminded me of Scheherazade’s tales - many beginnings, a few middles, and, more or less, an end. The writing was beautiful and the voice narrators were fabulous. I can’t recommend the audio version enough - it felt less like listening to a book and more like I’d been invited to sit down at a stranger’s campfire and share in the evening’s tales. If you prefer plot-driven books or require endings that tie everything up neatly this may not be the book for you. But if you’re ok following along as the main character realizes a little too late that he’s stumbled into a funhouse where he can never quite get his bearings? It’s a winner. The action starts off when Zack stumbles upon a strange old book only to recognize himself in it. Morgenstern then alternates chapters of Zach’s life with chapters from the book he has found. Nothing is spoon-fed https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-invisible-life-of-addie-larue monthly 0.5 2022-12-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/53dc42b2-8230-42c3-80bf-416b3d95a2c7/PXL_20221221_234216402.jpg All Reviews - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Never pray to the gods that answer after dark.” So goes the warning to Addie, a warning she ignores in a moment of desperation. Determined to escape a life she does not want, she makes a bargain with a being she does not understand. In the classic tradition of all such deals the consequences are immediate and far worse than she could ever have predicted. But Addie is far stronger than she is given credit for; slowly, painfully, she learns how to survive in her new reality. The characterization of the god she made the deal with was beautifully done. Never predictable, he seems perfectly human in one moment only to transform into a monster of old the next. The fear he provokes has less to do with any specific threat he makes and far more to do with the repeated reminders of just how powerful and inhuman he truly is behind the smiling veneer. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-old-woman-with-the-knife monthly 0.5 2022-12-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/13190796-bd21-47f9-9ffd-70b635e6e1d8/PXL_20220824_234922647.jpg All Reviews - The Old Woman with the Knife - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I went into this blind and let me tell you, it was a great choice. If you’re in the mood for a tightly wound thriller, stop now and just go get it - you can come back and let me know what you think after. The Old Woman With The Knife follows Hornclaw, a senior citizen who is getting to where she’s about ready to retire from her long standing career… as a contract killer, or ‘disease control specialist’. She’s noticed her reflexes are starting to slow, and her joints hurt more than they used to. Even worse, she’s not sure she can trust her own mind anymore. Add to the mix a young buck chafing to prove his mettle, and you end up with a fabulously stressful tale balanced on a knife edge. Hornclaw might be locked into the fight of her life as the next generation aims to supplant her, or maybe the young rising star in the office is just rude. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-empire-of-gold monthly 0.5 2022-12-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/c30808d3-dfae-478c-b97b-986feab6ecaf/PXL_20221221_030412940.jpg All Reviews - The Empire of Gold - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ SA Chakraborty did not disappoint with the third book in the Daevabad trilogy. The Empire of Gold weaves together each loose thread from the first two books into an intricate tapestry. I absolutely loved how all of the characters developed over the course of the series! We got to see how war and politics age those trapped within, and the terrible trade-offs that are made as a consequence. Particularly interesting was watching the different branches of the royal family as they each tried to figure out how to balance their personal love of each other with their political duties to tribes and alliances. One note for lovers of romance - Empire of Gold is a great fantasy book, an interesting political book, but an average romance at best. Read this for the betrayals and epic finale, not because you’re hoping for a love story for the ages. Since it also https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-kingdom-of-copper monthly 0.5 2022-12-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/824d4107-47db-48b0-81c7-3598568330a0/PXL_20221218_184908257.jpg All Reviews - The Kingdom of Copper - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Picking up 5 years after the dramatic conclusion to The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper resolves most of my frustrations with the first book of the series. Most of the worldbuilding had previously been introduced, so I was able to focus more on the actual plot and politics than on trying to remember which name corresponded to which magical being. S.A. Chakraborty also retained my favorite aspect of the first book; the incredibly complex politics and relationship dynamics. I really enjoy books where the author is able to skillfully balance multiple factions vying for power against each other without having a black and white good/evil dichotomy. Some characters are more idealistic and others more selfish, but most are just trying to survive or doing what they feel is best. My absolute favorite is when different groups we’re rooting for end up at odds with each https://lonslibrary.com/blog/digital-minimalism monthly 0.5 2022-12-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/56911709-66af-4127-aff3-a042c961afd7/PXL_20221216_022042368.jpg All Reviews - Digital Minimalism - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Digital Minimalism is a book that argues we are much happier and more fulfilled as humans if we make an effort to focus on fewer things for longer periods of time. It also argues that an effective way to do this is to dramatically reduce the amount of time we spend with and on our smartphones. So of course I read it in 3-5 minute snatches on my phone. But that’s exactly why I picked this book up - lately I have found myself increasingly unable to separate myself from doom scrolling the news or getting sucked into the black hole of auto-play reels or tiktoks. I could feel my baseline anxiety rising and my attention span shortening. I didn’t pick up Digital Minimalism to learn if or how the constant incoming stream of notifications was harming my quality of life. I picked it up because I wanted to https://lonslibrary.com/blog/harrow-the-ninth monthly 0.5 2022-12-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/54fccb84-d01a-44b8-818a-feb340124b9a/PXL_20221215_020030921.jpg All Reviews - Harrow the Ninth - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “‘Genuinely sad, bordering on very funny,’ said God.” And now for something completely different. Harrow the Ninth takes most of the first book and turns it upside down or inside out. We don’t follow Gideon as the primary narrator, don’t have a linear timeline, and the character we do follow knows she is insane. In short, we don’t know any more than she does, and it is not much. Had I read this immediately after Gideon the Ninth I think I would have loved it, but the multi-month gap combined with my inability to remember names meant I was once again struggling to track who was who. I was also slow on the uptake for the new book, and briefly thought I was the one losing my mind. It’s not often a writer gets me that effectively! https://lonslibrary.com/blog/a-psalm-for-the-wild-built monthly 0.5 2023-03-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/b1eda5e1-f758-46b0-848f-702763845a90/PXL_20221212_002018717.jpg All Reviews - A Psalm for the Wild-Built - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.” I love science fiction. I love how it invents entirely new worlds and allows our imagination to run wild, and I love how authors so often use it to shine a bright light on the flaws in our own society. I love how sharp they make their points, how uncomfortably the reader must sometimes sit with the awareness that things are going terribly wrong, and if we don’t all act soon we’ll be stuck in the dystopian future laid out so neatly for us. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/under-the-whispering-door monthly 0.5 2022-12-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/39a097b5-791a-4d89-8f66-847250e1c9c4/PXL_20221211_014002675.jpg All Reviews - Under the Whispering Door - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What happens when your coming of age story doesn’t happen until after you’ve died? In Under the Whispering Door, an angry lawyer who lost touch with his emotions long ago wakes up dead and is taken in by a reaper, a ferryman, and a crotchety grandfather to help him reconnect with his humanity before he goes into the light. For the best reading experience, just stop there and go get the book. Come back afterwards to the review and let me know if you agree with my thoughts. I don’t have any real spoilers below, but I loved the experience of discovering a couple plot elements blind rather than knowing what to expect. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-last-graduate monthly 0.5 2022-12-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/5fb82b86-0517-4dc6-9630-11711d8322d2/PXL_20221210_022829102.MP.jpg All Reviews - The Last Graduate - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Naomi Novik has achieved what so few can manage - a five star second book in a trilogy. Picking up immediately after the events of the first book in the series, The Last Graduate manages to maintain momentum while still raising the stakes for the kids. I was very impressed with how smooth it was - Novik maintained the tension so that I struggled to put the book down, but didn’t raise the stakes so far that it felt over dramatic or absurd in any way. Her writing style for this series feels more YA to me than her other books I’ve read, which had a much stronger fairytale vibe. (Spinning Silver, Uprooted). I’ve heard mixed reviews on those from friends who struggled to connect with the floral writing, but don’t write the Scholomance books off because of it. Novik maintains the wonderful storytelling skills but through a much more straightforward style. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/ruby-fever monthly 0.5 2022-12-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/9c3b5074-7139-4bc4-b1c3-c5c80a35e388/PXL_20221119_015748325.jpg All Reviews - Ruby Fever - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Another bingeable book from Illona Andrews! I got lucky and won an advance copy from Goodreads, although I would have bought a copy otherwise - no way I wasn’t going to read this wrap-up to Catalina’s story! Ilona Andrews is actually a married couple writing team, and their writing is very similar to the New York sour I paired the book with. I consume both faster than I should and don’t necessarily feel great afterwards, but I will absolutely do it again. (I don’t love the gender dynamics inherent in their books, although I accept that it’s part of the genre.) Ruby Fever gets a solid 4 stars for the drama and the sheer speed I ripped through the book. I loved all of the family dynamics, both within the clan and between the various Families. The way the politics between the magical and non-magical sides of Houston play out was really interesting, and its an https://lonslibrary.com/blog/such-a-fun-age monthly 0.5 2022-12-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/74ae2019-1143-4301-8dbf-b0c9331bf6e1/PXL_20221123_002813397.jpg All Reviews - Such a Fun Age - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Would you believe me if I told you that going into this I thought it was a nonfiction parenting book? Oops. I read this as part of a bookclub at work, and checked it out from the library without reading the blurb. So when the book kicks off with a young Black babysitter’s grocery store encounter with a free-range Karen and her security guard lackey, I was not prepared. Of course, neither was Emira the babysitter so at least we had that in common. The author, Kiley Reid, jumps perspectives between Emira and her employer Alix Chamberlain. Alix is a wealthy white woman who has made a career out of feminism. She prides herself on her successful career, having a diverse set of friends, and having successfully reinvented herself after a bad experience in high school. Emira on the other hand doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life, and is largely content to enjoy her 20s hanging https://lonslibrary.com/blog/just-as-i-am monthly 0.5 2022-12-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/a82c167e-1872-4987-8922-2091bee051eb/PXL_20221206_054732293.jpg All Reviews - Just As I Am - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ You can’t read the memoir of a wildly successful actress in her 90s and not give her 5 stars. Hot damn. Cicely Tyson was a powerhouse, and helped pave the way for future generations. She was born at the perfect time for a front row seat to a society in flux, sharing memories of the exact moment she hears Dr. Martin Luther King had been killed to her reaction to the death of Ahmaud Arbury all too recently. She balances heavy moments with lighter memories of how she got her start in acting and the various characters she met over her decades in the biz. I was surprised how frankly she shared some things, such as her off and on romance with Miles Davis. As with any high quality memoir, I didn’t always agree with how much (or how little) Ms. Tyson was willing to share on various topics, and I didn’t always agree with her choices. But who am I to https://lonslibrary.com/blog/stim monthly 0.5 2022-12-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/bafb42f8-05a7-4d1e-aaef-7a457b72f53a/PXL_20221205_052346208.jpg All Reviews - Stim - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A perfect bookclub pick. Per the official description, “This insightful and eye-opening collection of essays, fiction and visual art showcases the immense talents of some of the UK's most exciting writers and artists - who just happen to be on the spectrum. Here they reclaim the power to speak for themselves and redefine what it means to be autistic.” As such the pieces range wide in both format and feel. I do think this is a book to read physically, as I couldn’t appreciate any of the visual art on my black and white kindle. Luckily, the essays and short stories were more than worth it on their own. Almost every piece either made me pause to think after reading, and/or I deeply enjoyed reading. I made brief notes on each piece immediately after reading, and the phrase ‘fav so far’ was repeated more often than usual. There was a piece that reminded me of https://lonslibrary.com/blog/quarantine-in-the-grand-hotel monthly 0.5 2022-12-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/3c8d85af-3fc9-495e-a09f-1919e1d83c1a/PXL_20221204_040509782.jpg All Reviews - Quarantine in the Grand Hotel - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Often I pick up a book and I can see how it was influenced by the titans in its genre that came before. Rarely do I get a chance to read something that feels it was the influence. Quarantine in the Grand Hotel was first published in 1939 and it felt like a precursor both to pulpy murder mysteries and goofy humorists like Terry Pratchett. Quarantine is old and it feels like it - the writing is a little hard to understand at times and some of the humor and gender dynamics are definitely out of date. But most of the wit holds true and I loved the faintly absurdist characters. Despite occasionally losing track of who was who in the large cast, it was a lot of fun to try and figure out what was likely to happen next at each step of the way. I bought this in Budapest because I like getting books from local authors, it had a beautiful cover, and it was in English. If I’d known how much I was https://lonslibrary.com/blog/clockwork monthly 0.5 2022-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/421c1fe5-5436-4ddc-a97b-78c6582386f8/PXL_20221202_033747104.jpg All Reviews - Clockwork - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Some stories are like that. Once you've wound them up, nothing will stop them; they move on forward till they reach their destined end, and no matter how much the characters would like to change their fate, they can't." Clockwork is a tightly wound novella that doesn't waste a word. The creepy tone is established in the preface and the story marches on, switching viewpoints in an occasionally disorienting but impactful journey that holds true to the feel of a dark fairytale. It felt very much in the vein of Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane if it had been written for children. It's so short that it’s only about an hour to read, but I highly recommend https://lonslibrary.com/blog/behave monthly 0.5 2022-12-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/b31e3230-3355-4e06-82a8-455f11eb6f0d/PXL_20221202_011258954.MP.jpg All Reviews - Behave - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ As Robert Sapolsky says in Behave, “You don’t have to choose between being scientific and being compassionate. ”Turns out you also don’t have to choose between engaging writing and textbook-level detail. Starting with what causes an individual’s behavior in the moment - what neurons are fired or pathways triggered - Sapolsky slowly lengthens his focus. He first reached back in time, looking at what impacts our decisions in the days, months, or years leading up to them. He stretches back generations to the dawn of humanity. You’d think once Sapolsky covered the whole timeline he’d call it good but no - instead he widens the focus, starting with the first hints of civilizations all the way back to how modern day familial, social, and governmental structures impact how decisions are framed and made. To be clear, this book is dense. If it isn’t used in https://lonslibrary.com/blog/delilah-green-doesnt-care monthly 0.5 2022-11-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/9b7d1929-9846-40a4-a24c-66c275f3e07f/PXL_20221119_015624508.jpg All Reviews - Delilah Green Doesn’t Care - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Delilah Green is an awkward review to write purely because I left too long of a gap between reading and reviewing. At the time of reading I loved it - I gave it an enthusiastic 5 stars and recommended it to several friends. Coming back to it now to review, I find I didn’t write myself any notes about WHY I enjoyed it so much. So I’ll stand by my original overall impression - this was an excellent romance, and I’ll recommend it to any romance lovers out there! Since I don’t want to risk accidentally making things up, I just want to talk about two smaller pieces that stuck with me. The first is the sibling relationship between Delilah and Astrid. It felt so well done to me, complete with stupid misunderstandings and an absolute inability to resist being bratty to each other. We get both perspectives in the book and it was an excellent https://lonslibrary.com/blog/my-own-words monthly 0.5 2022-11-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/16d5397e-613e-4526-a6c1-03d924095d65/PXL_20221128_030236596.MP.jpg All Reviews - My Own Words - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a genius and an icon. Her collection of speeches and writings in My Own Words is a masterclass in communication and debate. Unfortunately like many others I wasn’t paying enough attention when I first picked this up, so I assumed this was a biography or memoir. I’ll admit I ended up skimming some of the speeches/briefs because I’m not a lawyer and simply didn’t have the context to understand. That being said, I didn’t need to be a lawyer to get value from most of the writings. RBG’s biographers also did an excellent job adding context before each piece to give the reader an idea of where she was in her life and career at the time, as well as what the political environment looked like. I was partway through My Own Words when Roe fell. I struggled to keep reading it afterwards; a https://lonslibrary.com/blog/harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince monthly 0.5 2022-11-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/6cc0f09b-4944-467d-a33c-38947756e44e/PXL_20220707_180549152.jpg All Reviews - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince https://lonslibrary.com/blog/everyone-you-hate-is-going-to-die monthly 0.5 2022-11-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/84dcaa55-1eea-4501-8380-b9c98ee7c79f/PXL_20221116_004000605.jpg All Reviews - Everyone You Hate is Going to Die - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Daniel Sloss is a standup comedian widely known for his specials Dark and Jigsaw on Netflix and X on HBO. He walks a narrow line, dancing right on the edge before bringing it back with a joke or a pointed observation. In his first foray into print, Sloss stays true to the dark and pointed humor he’s known for. I read the first third or so of the physical book then borrowed the audiobook from my local library. Unsurprisingly, comedian’s humor translates better listening to them than it does on the page. If you’re already familiar with Sloss’s specials you’ll probably enjoy the book. Everyone You Hate covers most of the same material, although in more depth. He shares his thoughts on relationships, kids, holding friends accountable, grief, and more. It's an interesting mix because while Sloss often has excellent takes on various https://lonslibrary.com/blog/talking-to-strangers monthly 0.5 2022-11-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/cb241394-a755-4fa7-b23e-5707c6c182f7/PXL_20221107_010915711.jpg All Reviews - Talking to Strangers - ⭐⭐⭐ Malcom Gladwell's writing is as clear, concise, and engaging as ever in Talking to Strangers. He strips each case he looks at down as much as possible to avoid overcomplication, and ensures at all times that he is driving towards a powerful story. While reading it I felt alternately validated and surprised by various conclusions, as his narration forced me to confront some of my own biases about how the world should work. For all that, it should get 5 stars. However. In Gladwell's effort to simplify and streamline, a lot gets left by the wayside. In his past works I was largely fine with that, as no introduction to a topic will ever be able to include all of the information. But in Talking to Strangers Gladwell focuses specifically on horrible, horrible moments in https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-alchemist monthly 0.5 2022-11-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1667604341317-ROB5446A2K12RM5Z67LO/PXL_20221104_231617343.jpg All Reviews - The Alchemist - ⭐⭐ "And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." What do the 1 and 5 star reviews of The Alchemist have in common? They all start with the quote above. If you aren’t familiar, The Alchemist is an inspirational self-help book written like a parable. Its been a perennial favorite since its initial publication in 1988 and has been recommended as life-changing by people ranging from Lebron James to Madonna. Unfortunately, the lessons it aims to teach are simplistic at best. I suspect there’s a reason so many celebrities have listed this as a must-read; it feels designed for the people who genuinely believe CEOs deserve to be paid over 300 times what the average worker makes. You do have to work hard to succeed, I’m not arguing that. But hard work is only one factor in success. I hated the implication https://lonslibrary.com/blog/stamped-from-the-beginning monthly 0.5 2022-11-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1667412961618-TRKRLBYZUAB9UREVI7T3/PXL_20221030_233415014.jpg All Reviews - Stamped from the Beginning - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A decent nonfiction book will give you some information to start building context. A good one will show the full picture. A great one like Stamped from the Beginning will go beyond pure facts, pairing the incentives, actions, and direct quotes of a time to help a modern reader better connect the threads underpinning 200 years of history. As Ibram X. Kendi takes us from Europeans first discoveries of the African nations to modern day America, he does a great job juxtaposing the actions and statements of leaders throughout US history to show who walked the walk and who only paid lip service to the ideals they pretended to support. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/flower-confidential monthly 0.5 2022-11-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1666927106062-4SLC2YJ9CBD4GWVEC8NC/PXL_20221022_182835141.MP.jpg All Reviews - Flower Confidential - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ It’s hard to find a good balance when trying to answer questions that range from ‘why hasn’t anyone created a blue rose’ to ‘how can we eliminate worker exploitation in a billion dollar business?’ Amy Stewart does her best, covering the past, present, and future of the flower industry with an empathetic and non-judgemental eye. It would be easy to fall into an almost salacious approach juxtaposing the beauty of cut flowers with the industry’s seedy underbelly but Stewart steers clear. She starts with the history of the Star-Gazer Lily, a flower that kicked off the modern era of designer flowers. It acts as a convenient entry point to a topic most of us are only vaguely aware of. Did you know that cut flowers have lost their scent over time as they’ve been bred to last longer in the vase? Or that the increased trend of out-patient surgeries has put a noticeable dent in https://lonslibrary.com/blog/emma monthly 0.5 2022-10-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1665595297535-G5UKAR5UEBVIVI4NV7KG/PXL_20221012_165040293.jpg All Reviews - Emma - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Classics are hard to read, so I don’t pick them up as often as I feel like I should. The trick I’ve found is that I need to read each twice - the first time through is to get used to the language and start getting the names. The second time I can actually settle into and enjoy the story. This was my first read of Emma, so gets a tentative 4 stars that will likely get boosted on the next pass. Once I clicked into the older rhythm and started retaining people’s names I really enjoyed the story of excess. Emma is well-intentioned but over-indulged. What she lacks in lived experience she makes up in confidence, and she’s one hundred percent convinced she knows how everyone around her should be living their lives. Austen does a great job quietly cluing the audience into people’s actual intentions while leaving Emma happily oblivious, leading to second-hand embarrassment reminiscent of Parks and Rec. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/reasons-to-stay-alive monthly 0.5 2022-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1665427717432-F3BS5Q24YFGCBR9HNAIJ/PXL_20220826_012242430.jpg All Reviews - Reasons to Stay Alive - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “There is no standard normal. Normal is subjective. There are seven billion versions of normal on this planet.” Reasons to Stay Alive is Matt Haig’s extremely personal account of his struggle with mental health over the years. The book felt more like a collection of essays than a memoir with a single overarching flow, but each chapter was engaging and well written. People who struggle with anxiety or depression will likely resonate with many of Haig’s descriptions of his own journey, and those who have been lucky enough to avoid those particular challenges may get a better understanding of what it's like. I’d recommend reading it rather than listening to the audiobook - one chapter is mostly a list of reasons his twitter followers have for staying alive and while it’s sweet, https://lonslibrary.com/blog/a-quick-and-easy-guide-to-they-them-pronouns monthly 0.5 2022-10-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1662675126186-SA2AN09JCK3L386S634I/PXL_20220826_012845898.NIGHT.jpg All Reviews - A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ So if we’re being totally honest I mostly picked this up because it’s skinny and I was wildly behind on my reading goal for the year. I’m going to have to go back and get more copies to give away. Pronouns can feel like an especially fraught topic - they show up in everyday conversation in a way that sexual ortientation or gender identity generally don’t, and for the folks who don’t have a gender nonconforming person in their lives (trans or nonbinary) it can feel like the rules are constantly changing. The people for whom this is their lived experience get stuck in the unwilling role of teacher, and we end up with the tense discussions where both sides feel attacked - trans and nonbinary folk are tired of having the same conversation over and over and over and feel disrespected that the rest of us can’t get our shit together on a fairly simple language update. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-once-and-future-witches monthly 0.5 2022-09-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1662496528404-YYGGOKIPX0GZQ82M877L/PXL_20220825_235132285.jpg All Reviews - The Once and Future Witches - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Witching and women’s rights. Suffrage and spells. They’re both…” She gestures in midair again. “They’re both a kind of power, aren’t they? The kind we aren’t allowed to have.” Alix E. Harrow has written an alternate history of the south around the time of the suffrage movement. We’re introduced to a world where magic was once real, but was driven out during the witch-hunts of old. Instead we’re left with a world where (mostly white) women are fighting for the right to vote and the city doesn’t see race… because it’s pushed all of its black residents to live in a separate quarter. Old aunties and grandmothers pass down whispers of spells that may or may not work, but the punishment for being caught knowing magic far outweighs the benefits. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/ill-be-gone-in-the-dark monthly 0.5 2022-11-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1661467424832-HAFKUFO3V4CXQ6FBY8NB/PXL_20220825_005332370.MP.jpg All Reviews - I’ll Be Gone in the Dark - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Bittersweet. The name of the cocktail I paired with I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and the primary emotion flowing from its pages. The primary author, Michelle McNamara, passed away unexpectedly while working on this book. Her lead researcher and a close colleague worked to piece together the unfinished chapters using her extensive notes, occasionally adding their own commentary or explanations introducing chapters they left in the form of her original notes or pulled from other writings. McNamara shared her life with the reader as she worked on the book, adding in descriptions of working from her daughter’s room in between detailed explanations of the killer’s patterns and methods. This glimpse into her life - along with the knowledge that she passed before the killer was found and brought to justice - made the book that much more difficult to read. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/whos-that-earl monthly 0.5 2022-08-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1661370641622-ZZAH5YYH6DNPKLYV7V5S/PXL_20220824_021241025.jpg All Reviews - Who’s That Earl - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ We all know how a romance book will end, but sometimes authors will pull out all the stops on the plot and emotions to make sure we still can’t put it down. Who’s That Earl is not a nail biter. It’s stress relief in book form - likable characters with the absolute minimum required plot. Jane and Thomas had a short-lived affair years before the book begins, but life circumstances drove them apart. As they come back into each other’s orbit now, both are hiding secrets. Jane is a successful author publishing under a male pseudonym (scandalous), and Thomas is a spy! But somehow more distressingly, he’s also the Earl. I haven’t gotten to read a second-chance lovers trope before, and I really enjoyed it. It spread a lot of the ‘we can’t be together’ angst out over the first part of the book rather than concentrating it at the end, and made for a very fun re-introduction. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/fevered-star monthly 0.5 2022-08-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1661204198000-UMQ308ZS3CJEZXS7EBZF/PXL_20220822_023320723.jpg All Reviews - Fevered Star - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Coming off the frankly incredible series introduction in Black Sun, the bar was set very, very high for Fevered Star. I’m not entirely sure it could live up to my hopes and expectations, but it came close. We were introduced to several more factions in the political landscape, and I really enjoyed watching the various allegiances shifting over time. Rebecca Roanhorse did an excellent job writing morally grey characters who were all entirely committed to their own courses of action but who may or may not line up well with the usual ‘good/evil’ dichotemy. Some I loved, some I loved to hate, either way I can’t wait to read more about all of them! https://lonslibrary.com/blog/black-sun monthly 0.5 2022-08-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1661033383474-7VKB2YZR277MZH6QZ9JU/PXL_20220820_204500481.jpg All Reviews - Black Sun - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Ok first thing first: Look at this cover. It is a work of art! I’ve been ‘accidentally’ leaving it out around the house just so people have a chance to see and comment on it. I may have to get a new shelf just to display it properly. I think it’s my favorite cover of all time! How is a god born? The first chapter of Black Sun focuses on the moment in a boy’s childhood when his mother sets him irreversibly on the path to godhood. The first time I read this book I barely made it through. Everything is told from the boy’s perspective, but with enough hints from Roanhorse to let the reader know what’s actually happening despite the boy’s naivete. The scene isn’t gory or even violent, exactly, but the sheer intensity of the emotions underpinning the mothers actions and her son’s love for her were hard for me to read. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/one-last-stop monthly 0.5 2022-08-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1660705221205-X0OBZN7D1TMOPS7C3UCM/PXL_20220817_004106960.jpg All Reviews - One Last Stop - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Somewhat less angsty than Red, White, & Royal Blue, McQuiston’s second novel is a comforting exploration of found family and the spark of love across a crowded room. (Or subway car.) The novel kicks off introducing August’s new roommates. They’re an enjoyably odd bunch. Immediately endearing, its obvious they’ll quickly transform into a supportive found family. I would have read the book just for that! Then we meet Jane, the coolest woman August has ever seen and object of her immediate, raging crush. I’m new to LGBT romance so I don’t know if the ‘idiots in love’ trope is a common one, but I quite enjoyed the supporting cast’s reactions every time they learned more about Jane and August’s interactions. (Idiots in love basically means one or both members of the prospective couple are the last ones to figure it out - something obvious to everyone observing with half a brain.) https://lonslibrary.com/blog/blood-and-ash monthly 0.5 2022-08-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1660452163615-VV6GDO0NLIE3M8B62ZTJ/PXL_20220814_040651917.jpg All Reviews - Blood and Ash Series (1-4) - ⭐⭐ Buckle your seatbelts friends. I binged this so fast I can’t remember what happened when, so we’re lumping the first 4 books together. (5 isn’t out yet.) I give it 2 stars; as opinionated as I was while reading it I could not put it down. But much like reading Divergent after The Hunger Games, reading Blood and Ash after A Court of Thorns and Roses leaves you feeling like some small but key piece was lost along the way. I’ve kept this as high-level as I can, but there will be some spoilers below. Read at your own risk. We have the heroine Poppy, a woman somehow so tiny that every time she borrows clothes they’re comically large on her, but also so big that she’s plagued by constant insecurity. She’s grotesquely scarred but so beautiful that every man who sees her falls in love. I will give the author points for one https://lonslibrary.com/blog/gideon-the-ninth monthly 0.5 2022-08-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1660105123180-QBBTGB8Y28X8TVG84G6D/PXL_20220810_030934174.jpg All Reviews - Gideon the Ninth - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tamsyn Muir is an author to watch y’all. If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be pining for the next book in a necromanc7 series I would have laughed in your face. But with Gideon the Ninth Muir has set up a sprawling future universe that seems to be in decline. It was totally different from anything I’ve read before, and I’m looking forward to learning more about the magic and mythology as the series progresses. The book opens with Gideon locked in a power struggle with her childhood rival, but right when she thinks she’s finally won the game changes and their world expands. I really enjoyed reading a hotheaded, verging-on-dumbass teenage girl who’s most focused on how hot/kissable other characters are and how to best piss off her nemesis at any given moment. This is a personality combination usually reserved for young men, so I found it odd at first but then refreshing. (To be clear, she isn’t perving on everything that moves. No creepy vibes, just hormones and angst.) https://lonslibrary.com/blog/my-evil-mother monthly 0.5 2022-08-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1659808201611-LJX623OPTJBSKQ73LT7J/PXL_20220806_041423899_exported_1297_1659807959024.jpg All Reviews - My Evil Mother - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Is there anything more complex than the mother-daughter relationship? Set in the 50s, Atwood’s short story follows the course of a daughter’s life as she grows up in the shadow of her mother - a picture-perfect housewife who may or may not have turned her husband into a garden gnome. Our narrator can never quite decide if she believes her mother is telling the truth about her witchery, and that uncertainty transfers seamlessly to the reader. This uncertainty bubbles to the surface every time the narrator has to decide; do what mom is asking, or rebel? My favorite part by far was at the very end, when the narrator is suddenly trying to parent her own 15 year old. I don’t want to say much more because its a wonderful story and only about 30 pages, but definitely go track it down to read. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/red-white-and-royal-blue monthly 0.5 2022-08-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1659588239099-PDEK8GZYCWNQU16MPM87/PXL_20220804_023936697.jpg All Reviews - Red, White & Royal Blue - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “On purpose. I love him on purpose.” A little sweet, a little spicy, and full of angst, Red White and Royal Blue is the fluffy romance I didn’t know I needed. It’s a solid execution of the enemies-to-lovers trope topped off with a hidden relationship. This was my first introduction into LGBT romance, and I’ll be finding more soon. Gender is obviously still a big part of the conversation, but it was nice to read something where the gender politics within the relationship matter less. (At least compared to my introduction to the genre of Regency romances, where everything is defined by the Man/Woman binary and the roles each must play.) https://lonslibrary.com/blog/giovannis-room monthly 0.5 2022-08-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1659451631970-HLGPAGXZOHD81GTIMGJD/PXL_20220730_030446464.jpg All Reviews - Giovanni’s Room - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A masterpiece of lyrical prose, Giovanni’s Room is a work of art that feels just as relevant now as it did the day it was written. The obvious storyline in the book is David’s struggle with his attraction to Giovanni while his fiance is away traveling. Baldwin adds depth to this by intertwining David’s fragile masculinity with his fear of his attraction to David, and his desire to fit into society and live the life he ‘should’ with his relationship to his fiance. On its own this would be enough to make Giovanni’s Room a once in a lifetime read. But what really stood out to me was David’s approach to life. He floats through with miserable passivity; never happy but self-medicating with booze or sex instead of trying to make real changes. To quote David at one point in the book, https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-city-of-brass monthly 0.5 2022-08-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1659223631487-RRWMBQ5Y3ZNZYS1DRRG1/PXL_20220730_025020263.jpg All Reviews - The City of Brass - ⭐⭐⭐ The City of Brass is not for the faint of heart. It leaps straight into a high-drama political fantasy based in Middle Eastern culture and mythology. If you’re already somewhat familiar with this context it's not too bad, but if you’ve never heard of Djinn, Nahids, Shafit (or more) the book doesn’t do a lot to clue you in. There is a glossary in the back but I don’t like flipping back and forth. I was mostly able to keep up, but I’m previously familiar with at least a few of the nonhuman variations. If you’re in the mood for complexity, S.A. Chakraborty delivers. She balances human/Daeva, Daeva/Daeva, and Daeva/other magical creature politics as we slowly learn with the main character where current factions stand and the long history filled with intrigue and betrayals. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/all-that-is-secret monthly 0.5 2022-07-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1658968659730-WH994DRQLKAWAQXZS1CL/PXL_20220727_041542597.jpg All Reviews - All That Is Secret - ⭐⭐⭐ All That is Secret is a murder mystery set in Denver, CO during the 1920s. I’ve been getting increasingly interested in local history, so this seemed like a fun way to ease into the topic. Patricia Raybon didn’t pull any punches in her portrayal of the city. As much as Denver tries not to acknowledge it, we had a huge and active chapter of the KKK. The challenges Annalee faces specifically due to her race and gender almost feel like a subplot of their own - she can’t just react to anything, every choice she makes has to be carefully filtered through the lens of how society might respond to her actions before she can go for it. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/isnt-it-bromantic monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1658758077986-036G7XB699QNR22RTLPR/PXL_20220724_195454287.jpg All Reviews - Isn’t It Bromantic? - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ We’re back up to 4 stars, because this book absolutely hit the spot when it comes to vaguely ridiculous plots and characters. Was it believable? No. Did I at any point care about that? Of course not. We got a book about the Russian! Turns out he’s an absolute sweetheart with a heart of gold, locked into a marriage of convenience with a girl from his childhood hometown. And the worst part? He’s head over heels in love with her. Right when it seems their marriage is finally over for good, Vlad ends up in the hospital and Elena comes to nurse him back to health. Both are trying SO HARD through the entire book, and both have an absolute gift for saying everything in the worst possible way to make sure the other misunderstands what they’re trying to say. I was impressed by Vlad’s characterization since he’d consistently been two-dimensional comic relief in the earlier books. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/crazy-stupid-bromance monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1658518046029-EC1A0CU0SFJN8TZHZ2ZY/PXL_20220722_041135818.jpg All Reviews - Crazy Stupid Bromance - ⭐⭐⭐ It can be a challenge for authors to keep a romance series going strong, as they have to find a balance between keeping the same feel of the first without getting repetitive or too over the top. Crazy Stupid Bromance is the third in the series, and it stumbles slightly. The mean rooster from the previous book has been replaced by a mean cat, and instead of an overprotective rich businessman we have an overprotective hacker. (At least he’s reformed.) I would guess this one came during the peak of the Karen discourse online, as a subplot in the book is about a petty neighbor literally named Karen who hates the café Alexis owns. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-helm-of-midnight monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1658365968745-QNJB2R1RXRYBEIV224WU/PXL_20220720_032910786.NIGHT.jpg All Reviews - The Helm of Midnight - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ An elf, a dwarf, and a man walk into a bar…. Marina Lostetter neatly side steps old fantasy tropes, fusing an innovative magic system into a plot that feels more horror/mystery than fantasy. The book jumps between three different times and characters - a young woman newly arrived to the city, a junior detective (not the title but that’s basically the role) charged with tracking down the killer stalking the streets, and the man who would become the most famous serial killer the city has ever seen. Lostetter does a solid job balancing multiple viewpoints and timelines, although she doesn’t quite solve the pacing issues that often crop up in books of this format. Occasionally we discover something with one character that another character desperately needs to know, and then we have to just…. Wait for them to eventually figure it out. If you’re enjoying the world enough this isn’t a problem, but if you prefer plot-driven books this will likely be a source of frustration. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/undercover-bromance monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1658159977801-Q4IT6L1DMVY6XNYAUAVL/PXL_20220717_000439067.jpg All Reviews - Undercover Bromance - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you loved The Bromance Book Club you’ll enjoy Undercover Bromance, but if you were ambivalent the series may not be worth sticking with. The fun is still there, don’t get me wrong. We get a solid dose of silly from the side characters such as the Russian or Liv’s very angry rooster. But somewhat surprising to me was the weight of the plot choice - the plot centers on Liv trying to expose a sexual predator for what he is, and the Bros all end up helping. I thought the book just barely held the balance between the goofy moments and the serious subject matter, but for some it could read as insensitive. (Much like Liv at several points throughout the book. Wow is the woman self centered at times.) https://lonslibrary.com/blog/new-suns monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1657856041534-DGR43AGXWBE5GW9Y0L1E/PXL_20220712_004628070.jpg All Reviews - New Suns - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Anthologies are hard to review. Do I focus on each individual story, or on the flow of the collection overall? One of my favorite aspects of anthologies is the mystery of going in blind, so today let’s just look at the collection as a whole. (Let me know in the comments if you would prefer a story-specific approach in future!) This is a fantastic bedside or coffee table book, hanging out and waiting for the days when you have half an hour of free time and don’t want to start something you won’t be able to finish. Next time I read through this collection I’ll pair it with a local pear brandy, an incredible sipping drink that I really enjoy for exactly one small drink a night. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-bromance-book-club monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1657669691030-T3YTAVBODP1PR8L9E3I6/PXL_20220712_003543225.jpg All Reviews - The Bromance Book Club - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ You know when the world is just a lot and you need something that 1) is guaranteed to have a happy ending and 2) is never going to be particularly stressful but 3) is still interesting enough to actually read? I’m almost always going to recommend romance books to fill that particular niche, but The Bromance Book Club is particularly satisfying. All romance readers can agree that one of the best parts of (well written) love stories is the character growth - when a person not only finds their soulmate and says, ‘you make me want to be a better person,’ but also follows through and actually puts in the work. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/you-sexy-thing monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1657557184446-2ZGQB7WWRWXU5A7G11SV/PXL_20220711_032250181.jpg All Reviews - You Sexy Thing - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I picked up You Sexy Thing based on a recommendation from an online friend. I had never heard of the author, didn’t read a synopsis, and by the time it came off hold at the library I couldn't even remember who had originally recommended it. Turns out the title references the name of a rich guy’s spaceship, and this is an adventure, not a space romance. The initial setup felt almost like Douglas Adams meets The Hobbit. Straight off the bat we learn two things: the crew is facing a quiet threat of reabsorption into the ranks of the (probably evil) Holy Hive Mind’s military, and their restaurant is prepping for a food critic’s arrival to give them a shot at a “Nikkelin Orb”. These two things are treated with the exact same level of importance. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/harry-potter-and-the-order-of-the-phoenix monthly 0.5 2022-11-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1657225211252-4KWJKY3L704EYAFWOAZ8/PXL_20220707_180444309.jpg All Reviews - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix https://lonslibrary.com/blog/there-there monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1655303881699-2GWKB3LVRARMWHWULH26/PXL_20220615_124658177.jpg All Reviews - There There - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ There There is Tommy Orange’s debut novel, and he is a writer to watch. Usually for an author’s first novel I hope to get excellent characters, an interesting plot, or a unique/engaging writing style. If I get two the the three I consider it a good debut. Tommy Orange hits it out of the park on all three counts. The novel focuses on the stories of urban Native Americans, reminding the reader that 1) they exist and 2) Native stories and experiences are not a monolith. We follow 12 different characters in the lead up to the Big Oakland Powwow, and Orange fits in a remarkable amount of character development considering the number of interweaving plotlines. Each character is working on (or avoiding) their own issues, and as we learn how the stories overlap we get an honest but often painful reckoning of how generational trauma, addiction, and lack of resources can impact a community. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-pain-gap monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1655137384017-KTXYR61QLJUFIAYALK6Y/PXL_20220608_010940777.jpg All Reviews - The Pain Gap - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank goodness I listened to The Pain Gap as an audiobook because the frustration while reading it was real. I couldn’t sit still while reading it, so I ended up fueling my weekly runs with indignation. No fault of the author - Anushay Hossain did a great job laying out a multitude of issues impacting women's health and explaining the context surrounding each. My frustration stemmed from the constant underlying fact that sexism kills. Examples in the book ranged from women's pain being discounted during labor to women being excluded from medical studies because our hormonal cycles make it 'too complicated' to use the results. (What? That sounds suspiciously like testing new methods of setting broken arms on unbroken limbs, because the variety of breaks is too high to see if the new method would work across them all.) https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-city-we-became monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1654548522495-HNIH5U4UIBD1V0SZ18YA/PXL_20220404_013115644_exported_920_1649036205550.jpg All Reviews - The City We Became - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The City We Became is an excellent escapist fantasy - I had no idea where the story was going to take me, and heroes and villains alike felt entirely fresh. Almost too fresh - I struggled to click with the primary character so much in chapter 1 that I nearly put the book right back down. So glad I stuck through! We follow the plot through 6 different character viewpoints - the first person (New York overall), and then a person who embodies each borough. They have been conscripted to fight... something. Like one of Lovecraft's eldritch horrors, the 'big bad' is vast beyond understanding, and we only ever see a piece of it at a time. I’ve been meaning to read some of his work for a while now, and will dig further into his (remarkably racist) themes when I do. In the meantime, better writers than I have written a lot about his stories and their underlying themes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1654615577966-0R0X2HEF8BA2EA6YMT6D/PXL_20220404_012756582.jpg All Reviews - The City We Became https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1654615577681-K99FB3NEO3ANO40KXIMH/PXL_20220404_012757556.jpg All Reviews - The City We Became https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-outsiders monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1649697896768-4SQV04WFL6VHWU3OTDKK/PXL_20220404_001745222_exported_555_1649031518360.jpg All Reviews - The Outsiders - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I did not want to (re)read this book. It was required reading in 5th grade, and all I retained was that someone dies. Well, that and the fact my friends couldn’t agree on who the cutest boy in the book was. When a friend recommended I revisit it as an adult I wasn’t thrilled - why would I come back to a book if I didn’t love it the first time? Turns out my 11 year old brain just hadn’t experienced enough life to appreciate the adult themes of The Outsiders, and it was a real heavy-hitter this time around. This time the foreshadowing was clear and I could see the inevitable off in the distance, but also better understood the character motivations and the ‘why’ of it all. https://lonslibrary.com/blog/how-the-word-is-passed monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1648847632327-YPROIEQULQZYU58XMXSS/PXL_20220329_031005953.jpg All Reviews - How The Word Is Passed - Project Hail Mary https://lonslibrary.com/blog/some-things-i-still-cant-tell-you monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1648654958350-8EWBHWL9ILVNNAPDLZIX/PXL_20220329_021830414.jpg All Reviews - Some Things I Still Can’t Tell You - Project Hail Mary https://lonslibrary.com/blog/osama monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1648429254968-I05889AIK4XEUHD89DQ7/PXL_20220326_210214251.jpg All Reviews - Osama - Project Hail Mary https://lonslibrary.com/blog/project-hail-mary monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1648425138957-B88YTCQZ1SNY3UJLBKIG/PXL_20220326_204615332.jpg All Reviews - Project Hail Mary - Project Hail Mary https://lonslibrary.com/blog/harry-potter-and-the-goblet-of-fire monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1648141273862-TBH8TA4Z9FEH62KQDCHQ/PXL_20220324_164417770_exported_1129_1648140272403.jpg All Reviews - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire https://lonslibrary.com/blog/harry-potter-and-the-prisoner-of-azkaban monthly 0.5 2022-03-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646093769687-XMZCNQIBMOUKVUFJ226T/PXL_20220228_220005629.jpg All Reviews - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban https://lonslibrary.com/blog/monstress monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1645715772355-QA1BYTIEIIGI3UUNIBUR/PXL_20220223_160154023.MP.jpg All Reviews - Monstress https://lonslibrary.com/blog/see-no-stranger monthly 0.5 2022-07-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1645251521010-L084BGECLXKBVLQIW50Q/PXL_20220217_191410227.jpg All Reviews - See No Stranger https://lonslibrary.com/blog/the-last-house-on-needless-street monthly 0.5 2022-04-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1644899653046-V09Y6XCEPYNRZ11EVA8Q/PXL_20220215_040121205._exported_1196_1644897703171.jpg All Reviews - The Last House on Needless Street https://lonslibrary.com/blog/harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-secrets monthly 0.5 2022-02-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1644865603155-VYYCU3W828RTWI66R29H/PXL_20220214_185958720.jpg All Reviews - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets https://lonslibrary.com/blog/braiding-sweetgrass monthly 0.5 2022-02-09 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About - Welcome! I travel a little and read a lot. Mostly fantasy/sci-fi, but sometimes just whatever’s within arm’s reach. Since I’d be on Hoarders if I kept everything I read, this will serve as a virtual library of my literary adventures. P.S. - I’m always looking for more recommendations. Have a book you think I should check out? Send me a note! https://lonslibrary.com/contact-1 daily 0.75 2022-01-09 https://lonslibrary.com/home daily 0.75 2022-02-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847323266-72NWHRF1QFUTULW9BR18/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847322796-4GQWUIJZ69E1XBVGEYUY/Large+JPG-20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847322171-2YHNWSTDQVJZWG6BB8MJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847321447-1IJTU4ZDFUYJYXJTERFM/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0010.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847320238-2VZQPV9ELGH1BFG69Q8J/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0393.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847319534-81UFWBJ847PXRDO7CHWE/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0380.jpg Home https://lonslibrary.com/gallery-5-1 daily 0.75 2022-02-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618499940057-NOSVTAF5RUJ93L845Q7V/20140301_Trade%2B151_0124-Cropped.jpg Gallery 5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618502539595-SQVFPHXO9PZ30YYYQ1LK/Large%2BJPG-20140228_Trade%2B151_0046.jpg Gallery 5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847758762-K3GBXS5IJOG1B9FHF8T2/Large%2BJPG-Aro%2BHa_0428.jpg Gallery 5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847767761-J2M1HI20BXRQ9XCR0HUD/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg Gallery 5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847733469-ZUCJB9XJMBYPFUY56TKA/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Gallery 5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847734709-V24FMDXQJHL7KMBJF1BS/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Gallery 5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847733251-RBMKZJPZSVYWAZLWQ1U8/AroHa_02.jpg Gallery 5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847734411-SZUK9WILA1UPRU4TZVGR/AroHa_02.jpg Gallery 5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847732989-Z69Q9QA468G3C0O3CY30/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Gallery 5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847734145-FZ3C1ZE7VTH98K87BOZO/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Gallery 5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847731939-IPGT5M4PEUD5P45B5TG4/Aro+Ha_0010.jpg Gallery 5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847733865-FY4RV6HGFBQ8ZYU4ZHLH/Aro+Ha_0010.jpg Gallery 5 https://lonslibrary.com/2021-nonfiction-recommendations daily 0.75 2022-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646160283861-60R7QFB5N1Y6E5KVP4BR/PXL_20220301_155359641.jpg 2021 NonFiction Recommendations - How to be an Antiracist In How to Be an Antiracist each chapter is broken out with a definition of a term relating to racism, an anecdote from Kendi's life, and a discussion on a concept relating to antiracism. It is meticulously researched and notated. It tends towards the academic which I enjoyed but some people might find dense reading. I specifically loved two parts in the book: 1) Racist is a verb - not an insult - and it is based off of your impact rather than your intentions. Because of this, there is no 'colorblind' or not-racist. There are people who are having an anti-racist impact by actively working to dismantle racist systems or educate racist individuals, and there are people who are having a racist impact by actively OR PASSIVELY upholding racist systems. It doesn't matter if you believe a person's worth is only based on how hard they work - if you're supporting racist policies such as Stop and Frisk, you're having a racist impact on the world. 2) Systematic racism means that racism has been built into the system in such a way that filling it entirely with non-racist individuals would still result in a racist outcome. Think of the racist housing/ mortgage practices throughout recent US history. Even just the practice of legacy admissions - harmless on the surface, but the great-grandfather of today's legacy was a rich white landowner. Nobody is claiming that admissions offices are being actively racist/prejudiced by continuing the legacy admission practice, but its equally inarguable that this policy has a racist impact, because today's legacies are passively benefiting from the active racism of decades past. This would be a great book to use as a monthly/weekly discussion group focusing on a single chapter at a time. I read this book on kindle which was great for highlighting some of my favorite passages, but I plan to reread this periodically in future, so I will be buying a physical copy to keep on my bookshelf as a visible reminder. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646162285298-6M0DUYQIE8QLS8L4JR2I/PXL_20220301_155605400.jpg 2021 NonFiction Recommendations - See No Stranger “Love is more than a rush of feeling. Love is sweet labor—fierce, bloody, imperfect, and life-giving. A choice we make over and over again.” Kaur’s book is heartfelt and beautifully written, laying out the case for a return to the ‘love your neighbor’ ideal of days past. Not in a rose-colored-glasses sense though - Valerie Kaur argues that in order to love your neighbor, you must understand them. She follows through in her book, taking the reader from the 9/11 memorial to the site of the first post-9/11 hate crime and all the way out to Guantanamo Bay. She repeatedly learns that most hatred is fueled by fear, and fear eats at the one holding it as badly as it affects those they turn their hatred upon. Kaur also did an excellent job finding a balance between difficult topics and heartwarming anecdotes, making the book much more pleasant to read than I was expecting. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646674110749-DN8RDXLXYRBQOC3PI776/PXL_20220301_155005998._exported_1689_1646149849533.jpg 2021 NonFiction Recommendations - The Lemon Tree This book should be required reading. It's a meticulously researched look at the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict with a focus on two families that lived in the same house at different times. The book bounces between broad context of the overall history of the region and the hyper-specific impact on two families, one Israeli and one Palestinian. Its incredibly dense - going in I assumed it would read similar to historical fiction but this feels like textbook that includes a thread on the families. The back and forth between the macro and micro levels added exponentially to the book's impact. The broad context and history are needed to understand political environment, government and military motivations, and economic affects. Visiting the families in turn brings an emotional understanding of the real impact. You as the reader become fond of both families, and empathize with them as they each deal with various hardships caused by the conflict. It allows for a much deeper understanding not only of how terrible the conflict really is, but why each side is so committed. One other note I want to add: This book may be written like a textbook, but the author holds on to one key detail for a dramatic reveal at the end. It was so well done I had to put the book down and just process for a bit before I could finish reading. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646674423860-826BNCVLWONIQ105Z952/PXL_20220301_155504306._exported_1073_1646159422894.jpg 2021 NonFiction Recommendations - A Woman of No Importance “It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls. —Robert F. Kennedy” Virginia Hall's life is so incredible it almost defies belief. She faced down sexism and facism with the same unflappable determination, and was so committed to serving in the field that she just... didn't mention she had a prosthetic leg. Virtually all of her accomplishments in the war were achieved despite the ‘help’ from her own command, who refused to promote her to the level at which she was operating. Deployed to France as a radio operator at a time when the average life expectancy for the role was 6 weeks, Virginia Hall spent over a year almost single-handedly setting up a spy network and running safehouses. The detached journalistic writing style and heavy topics make for a slow read at times, but I’m so glad I read it. Definitely pick this up when you get a chance. I recommend the audiobook as the narrator did a wonderful job. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646684207761-64C8A520NG91HP94SSEQ/PXL_20220301_155223382.jpg 2021 NonFiction Recommendations - A Slip of the Keyboard I love Terry Pratchett's style, and it turns out that style holds true regardless of genre. Reading Pratchett's collected essays was exactly what I needed to kick my love of reading back into gear when I hit a slump earlier this year. I'm not sure which I love more, his dry British humor or the deep rage he feels looking out at a world that could (and perhaps should) be so much better than it is. Either way, these essays have the perfect blend of wit and insight, and serve as the ideal palate-cleanser when trying to get out of a funk or just take a step back from the world for a minute. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646684452445-VS40TB531GI84VY8BCNS/PXL_20220301_155815099.jpg 2021 NonFiction Recommendations - Work A Deep History, From the Stone Age to the Age of Robots Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination, and as long as you keep that in mind you'll enjoy Suzman's Work. He starts the book at the very beginning of human history and slowly works forward to the present day. Honestly the first 2/3 or so of the book were my favorite - I had no idea that early hunter/gatherers only actually worked a couple hours a day, or that money wasn't needed until farming became widespread and required the concept of debt. (I'll buy goods now and pay you back after harvest). From a stylistic perspective the writing was clear and fairly engaging, and I enjoyed the potshots he took at economists throughout the book. The only real complaint was in the attempted wrap-up at the end of the book. I wish he'd split this into two books; pre and post industrial revolution, as the level of complexity he needed to address kept escalating. The book also didn't have a clear thesis at the end - the final chapter was almost a list of ideas for what the thesis could be without a lot of time spent on any individual one. Overall a good read, especially to listen to while driving or doing chores. Not life shattering but could provide good discussion topics if you read it with a group. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646684761553-SCHFRS5WB41E4T5Q649Q/PXL_20220301_182841999._exported_412_1646159372616.jpg 2021 NonFiction Recommendations - Shrill Notes From a Loud Woman I read this as part of a bookclub and it made for a solid discussion. The first half of the book feels like a pretty classic comedy memoir, the second half of the book focuses more specifically on Lindy West's experiences trying to balance comedy and feminism. Its a tough read on occasion, but incredibly well written and makes its points clearly and effectively. Just plain fun for any woman to read, and hopefully and enjoyable eye-opener for men. https://lonslibrary.com/2021-fiction-recommendations daily 0.75 2022-03-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646774427080-RTM29G5IXR7DRLMCRF2L/PXL_20220215_040030830.jpg 2021 Fiction Recommendations - The Last House on Needless Street Horror Catriona Ward single-handedly saved a genre I’d written off. I have a hard time with how gender is usually portrayed in horror, and rarely choose to read books that I know from the start won’t have a happy ending. Especially in a genre that seems to hate women so much. Ward has created a gothic horror masterpiece that’s downright uncomfortable to read. I can’t wait to get ahold of her next book to see what she comes up with next! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646798978144-AOIBBDE3VNO6MNL5RAFP/PXL_20220309_040457730.jpg 2021 Fiction Recommendations - The Kiss Quotient Romance Gender-swapped Pretty Woman with a dose of neurodiversity? I wasn't sure what I was getting into with The Kiss Quotient but I ended up really enjoying it. The main man is almost too good to be true, and the woman has Asperger's and hates physical intimacy - partially due to how her brain works, partially due to her incredibly shitty past experiences. I loved the setup of her hiring an escort to learn sex, and as a result this is a very spicy book - if you don't like explicit romance novels this is not the book for you. The miscommunication leading up to the big fight seemed a little weak, but it wasn't bad enough to actively frustrate me. Overall a fun and spicy read! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646800703747-GVL6K0KLC0M3LFI6GYCL/PXL_20211120_163305880.jpg 2021 Fiction Recommendations - Stories of Your Life and Others Short Stories A solid collection with stories landing somewhere between sci-fi and speculative fiction. One asks, "What if we knew God/Heaven/Hell were real, how would that change our behavior?" (With the premise that hell is more like the Greek afterlife than the fire and brimstone most Christians imagine.) A non-religious man's wife dies suddenly and her soul ascends to heaven, so the man must choose between finding a way to love God or spending eternity without the love of his life. The problem is that he only wants to get into heaven to be with his wife, so any good deeds he might do are tainted by the motivations. The entire concept was fascinating to read, and the twist at the end was so good I literally had to get up and walk it off. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646804948530-8JH934UL294XZFBNEM8P/PXL_20220309_053114888._exported_1046_1646803887696.jpg 2021 Fiction Recommendations - Get a Life, Chloe Brown Romance This is my favorite of the trilogy. Most authors can write a good meet-cute and lead up, and Hibbert doesn't disappoint. But she also nails the sister dynamics and the cranky attitude of a person with chronic pain who's ended up on the wrong side of their limits (again). The conflict at the end was sudden, but I loved it for the simple fact that even though one of the people in the fight could see exactly what was going wrong, they're still human and said all the wrong things in the moment. Both people after the big blow up realized that it was less about the other person and more about themselves, and DID THE WORK instead of just demanding forgiveness. It was a messy and unnecessary fight but still a completely believable one, the balance of which I think is where many romance authors stumble. Really excellent book, definitely go buy it when you're looking for your next romance. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646804671696-772AL58QJCHVAUBYMTXM/PXL_20211013_160533973.jpg 2021 Fiction Recommendations - Nothing YA Horror You know that moment where you watch a kid start spiraling out of control and you know its going to be ok, but they don't because that moment is the worst moment of their much-shorter lives? That's Nothing. 13 year olds are pretty much as smart as adults, but they lack the life experience to help temper emotions or manage stressful moments. Nothing has an odd set up - a kid climbs up a tree in a fit of nihilism and refuses to come down for months. Where are his parents? Any adults? They seem content to ignore him and let the kid figure it out on his own. Everything past that, however, feels distressingly plausible. The other kids in his class decide something must be done, and wow do they commit to process of figuring out what. It reminded me of the book The Power by Naomi Alderman. You feel in your soul very early on that its not going to end well, but you just can't put the book down because you have to know. Nothing is a short book, but don't read it at night, and make sure you read it before giving it to a teen. It would be a very good discussion book, but I think it has to be a discussion book if reading it under a certain age. I know I didn't sleep well the night I read it. Definitely read it though. 10/10. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646841156816-PTTP20RJDA520RXOGAQZ/PXL_20220309_154807058.jpg 2021 Fiction Recommendations - Nation Adventure I did not want to read this book. I checked it out from the library and returned it unopened several times, because while it is Terry Pratchett it is not Discworld, and I had some vague idea that meant it wouldn't be as good. But then I read a collection of essays by Pratchett and he mentioned Nation as the best book he's ever written, and talked about how much he loved it. I immediately tracked it down again, and I'm so glad I did. This book isn't just angry. This book takes a look at all of the injustices in the world and rages at them. Its a tale of colonialism told from both sides, and a tale of children forced to step into grown up roles. I wish I'd read this as an angry 13 year old hitting adulthood. I wish I'd read this as an angry 19 year old starting to discover the real world. I will be finding a physical copy of this book to add to my shelves, because I will probably add this to my rotation of annual reads. https://lonslibrary.com/2021-scifi-fantasy-recommendations daily 0.75 2022-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1646972268999-R4RQG5K5H7WU089W77WJ/PXL_20220311_040820280.jpg 2021 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recommendations - Black Sun Rebecca Roanhorse I LOVED this book. It may have been my favorite of the year, because I certainly couldn’t stop talking about it. The first chapter was intense enough that I had to put the book down for a couple days. (Not gory but emotionally loaded for reasons I won't spoil.) Once I picked it back up however, I couldn't stop reading. The characters were both vivid and completely distinct from the 'usual' cast you'd see in fantasy, and thanks to Roanhorse pulling from the cultures of pre-Columbian Americas, the magic, mythos and general background were also entirely new (to me) and absolutely captivating. Separate from how good the story overall was - look at that cover! The gold just glows in person. It was worth buying hardcover because it now lives in a place of pride on my shelves as art. Possibly my favorite cover of all time. Go find this book. Right now. You need it in your life. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1647025807669-LX91XK433KLXYERHNBR6/PXL_20220311_163221708.MP.jpg 2021 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recommendations - The Broken Earth N.K. Jemisin One of the best trilogies I've ever read. The writing style won't click for everyone, and you have to commit to the full trilogy - books one and two pose more questions then they answer. That being said, the characters, world building, and foreshadowing of twists are all incredible and this is a series that you should absolutely buy and read asap. I'll be re-reading it again sooner rather than later. Two items that really stood out to me - There was an ongoing theme of people harming others "for their own good". Parents hurting children, authority figures hurting their charges, all in the name of strengthening them or making them understand that “this is how the world works”. This is something we see in real life more than we should, where everyone will acknowledge that society is failing in some key way but won't make an effort to change, or will even actively enforce it because 'this is how it is'. Watching not just one but multiple characters slowly realizing that they didn't have to follow this pattern was wonderful. Three cheers for self-improvement and breaking cycles of abuse/ generational trauma! Diversity and representation - No individual character's gender identity or sexual orientation matters to the plot. Instead we just get a rich cast of characters both major and minor with some of the broadest representation I've seen. Straight, bi, gay, cis, nonbinary, trans, able-bodied and disabled, I loved it. It makes the world feel so much more real to show the full range of the human experience rather than just focusing on one thin slice. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1647026350896-8NNVEZ44WKZFAUBOY6DW/PXL_20220310_021854728._exported_618_1646970743514.jpg 2021 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recommendations - Binti Nnedi Okorafor Incredible. Binti is comprised of 4 short stories that come together into a cohesive whole. Each can stand on its own, but I don’t know why you’d resist reading them all together. Okorafor does a wonderful job balancing a futuristic sci-fi feel with technomagic - not real magic, but technology so advanced that it may as well be. Binti was my first introduction to the subgenre of African Futurism, but wow! I immediatly went out and bought another of Okorafor’s books, and can’t wait to explore more of this genre. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1647026908323-20J7YRYSIDDN4G8OWXFX/PXL_20220310_021806723.jpg 2021 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recommendations - Uprooted Naomi Novik Uprooted triggers strong opinions - you either love it or hate it. I loved it. There is little I like better than an author starting with a well known fairy tale, adding in a large helping of local folklore (eastern European I believe), and then going rogue. The writing style was a pleasure to read and every word felt as though it had been carefully chosen. I deeply enjoyed the slower pace, as it felt very in line with a fairytale being passed down around the winter fire, reveling in the details because what else are you going to do when its so dark and cold out. There’s a lot of underlying commentary on the intersection of gender and academia throughout the book, which was absolutely top-notch. There’s also an age gap relationship which I didn’t love, but have chosen to ignore/accept since I enjoyed the rest of it so much. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1647029852303-LQ32034AE6C0F5J8E1OK/PXL_20220310_021828831.jpg 2021 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recommendations - The Ocean at the End of the Lane Neil Gaiman I love Neil Gaiman's writing. It consistently hits the sweet spot between 'excellent creepy fantasy' and 'I totally believe this could have actually happened'. His characters always feel so real it seems more like I'm reading memoirs than make-believe, and this book is no exception. I particularly liked the twist of having the adult character remembering the story from his youth, as it gave Gaiman the chance to have several 'layered' scenes, where he could tell it from a child's perspective with the adult in the background pointing out what he realized about those moments after the fact. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1647030711676-V25PV6Q21LO5HWYPW9V3/PXL_20211130_171238839.jpg 2021 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recommendations - All the Murmuring Bones A.G. Slatter Mermaids are real in A.G. Slatter's world, but how I expected. This was also my first exposure to gothic fantasy, and I loved it. The creepy background environment, twisted family relationships and traditions, and elements of various fairy tales woven throughout created an intense atmosphere while reading. The book is first person POV which not everyone will like, but I really enjoyed it. Getting to hear her internal narrative as she grows to meet the challenges coming her way was very satisfying. I especially liked the fact that she isn't 'good', and the woman who set events in motion wasn't entirely 'evil'. Instead we get to follow a morally grey character as she does the best she can to escape a shitty situation set up by other desperate people trying to salvage their own scenarios. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the prose as well - the writing itself flowed beautifully and would make the book worth reading even if it hadn't also nailed interesting characters and vivid ambiance. If you like fantasy, go get this book. If you like dysfunctional family stories, go get this book. If you like horror, go get this book. If you like beautiful prose, go get this book. Basically, go get the dang book. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1647031805299-WAJYLGNIH9RWPP9S3619/PXL_20220311_193352162.jpg 2021 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recommendations - Thud! Terry Pratchett Who watches the watchman? What happens when trusted figures of authority begin to abuse it, even if they think what they're doing is for the common good? Hidden under twin investigations of theft and murder is excellent commentary on progress vs tradition, with Terry Pratchett taking aim at gender norms, racial conflicts, and blind trust in authority. This is one of the best Discworld books, although if you care about reading in the ‘correct’ order start with Night Watch. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1647034631721-NC8E64MKJIY29NS0PMZI/PXL_20220311_193408483.jpg 2021 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recommendations - A Deadly Education Naomi Novik Harry Potter meets Hunger Games, with a dash of enemies to friends thrown in for good measure. A Deadly Education has a slow ramp-up during the initial worldbuilding, but boy is it worth it once the action starts going. We follow El as she tries to navigate her education at the Scholomance, half school half murder-dungeon: the school will provide you with an education, but only if you survive its near-constant attempts at murder. El was born with the natural talent to be the next dark overlord, but... doesn't want to be. Instead she spends half her time trying to convince the school to give her effective cleaning spells instead of yet another spell to flatten a city block. Woven into the underdog story is a solid examination of the impact of generational wealth/class systems in a 'fair' system. The book is excellent as pure escapism, but it also offers a great look at the impact of systemic biases on the 'have-nots'. Watching one of the privileged students slowly figure out that his experience isn't universal was excellent character growth and very satisfying to read. I have two Novik books on the list this year - they have very different styles so don’t write off one if you don’t like the other. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1647035240104-XFFSUC5BP8OVOVBLUB9V/PXL_20211122_164753402.jpg 2021 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recommendations - Coraline Neil Gaiman "Despite herself, Coraline nodded. It was true: the other mother loved her. But she loved Coraline as a miser loves money, or a dragon loves its gold. In the other mother’s button eyes, Coraline knew that she was a possession, nothing more. A tolerated pet, whose behavior was no longer amusing." Its quickly becoming a Halloween tradition for me to read and then immediately watch Coraline. Both the book and the movie are absolutely incredible. Gaiman doesn't waste a single word, and has crafted a story that gets creepier with age. As a kid its a fun adventure similar to Alice in Wonderland. As an adult its uncomfortable with a constant undercurrent asking, ‘what makes a healthy relationship?’ As a parent I suspect this book would give me nightmares. If you've been wanting to check out Neil Gaiman's work but aren't sure where to start, Coraline is a great entry point to his work. https://lonslibrary.com/rsvp-1 daily 0.75 2024-01-20 https://lonslibrary.com/annual-book-trackers daily 0.75 2022-03-01 https://lonslibrary.com/annual-book-trackers/2021-book-tracker monthly 0.5 2022-03-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1647979998890-RANZI0SWABBMEVEOZKTL/PXL_20220322_144827870.jpg Annual Book Trackers - 2021 Book Tracker An 8x11 notebook lays open on a dark background. The pages have 12 hanging shelves drawn on them, 6 on each side. Each shelf has a bookspine drawn on it for each book read in that month. There are 100 books total https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1647981152151-Y2N2HCXOMAAJ5IX9CE0H/PXL_20220322_144818194.jpg Annual Book Trackers - 2021 Book Tracker Close up of the first 6 bookshelves for 2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d8d0cd763b370d5057cadd/1647981232626-K3OSAVZ1H69H8JTUVOX1/PXL_20220322_144803401_exported_0_1647979484886.jpg Annual Book Trackers - 2021 Book Tracker Close up of the last 6 bookshelves for 2021. https://lonslibrary.com/portfolio-2 daily 0.75 2022-03-22 https://lonslibrary.com/portfolio-2/project-six-tef47 monthly 0.5 2020-05-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847421455-8JW2CPL3ZB56F2Z8ACLN/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Six https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847422112-G7ETRT5C07KF9PHFAV96/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Six https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847420762-AGPM8HHB51L8F01AAZN7/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Six https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847420322-U8QPDYBOD6HXYRSL8QW0/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Six https://lonslibrary.com/portfolio-2/project-five-gxf8n monthly 0.5 2020-08-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847419260-TLMPOGZEKRIR09EDXNAA/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Five https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847419968-YLRD4TYV9QU8K9LW04SP/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Five https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847418911-D6BSPWP8P3O9YAF5R3SO/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Five https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847418431-66X2HHF6ZNWKOC9VHLZI/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Five https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847417789-TGDSX064I3PZELTJI8Q1/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Five https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847417384-6R65UAAJW6EW4KUCUT6U/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Five https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847416982-R2067X6OPKY3MG304FSJ/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Five https://lonslibrary.com/portfolio-2/project-four-aptlz monthly 0.5 2020-08-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847905386-9EM9GLHE12726EXM68S4/image-asset.jpeg Portfolio 2 - Project Four - Make it stand out. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847906050-Q37PFW075QZ6YU9179YP/image-asset.jpeg Portfolio 2 - Project Four - Make it stand out. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847907929-YZFF0BD112Q9PF2G1BK6/image-asset.jpeg Portfolio 2 - Project Four - Make it stand out. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://lonslibrary.com/portfolio-2/project-three-6p8h9 monthly 0.5 2020-05-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847411947-BSOTI2122B2HLPAP3XSL/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Three https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847412609-54WSVSAFRMKZEQTXDKB9/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Three https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847411502-9D27YNIMALNIHZYQ1CMG/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Three https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847410901-NW4BE1NIG86WQS26D48L/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Three https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847410514-YTA75TP5M5NY1DD11BB2/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Three https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847409407-NH9B3VB0PQWBG5LZEU5P/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Three https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847408362-3VSTKTYIWN0INM638YVD/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Three https://lonslibrary.com/portfolio-2/project-two-axfzd monthly 0.5 2020-05-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847407784-0ZWK2VWHWVEO87VQWTE3/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Two https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847407287-985X24W2BPAEHHISD0C0/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Two https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847406849-K0MEB56K6G4CEGRZ4D2J/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Two https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847406249-J4HYEHES6F6UCY5TVM2A/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Two https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847405591-FZUNRUAT1SR1PVIL5TA8/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Two https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847404849-JBKU84SJXZL5LDL554SL/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project Two https://lonslibrary.com/portfolio-2/project-one-facrh monthly 0.5 2020-05-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847404387-JU309UFEWQ1YR946FJVD/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847403763-CNHK66ERZAP3FARA51ND/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847403305-VJDKJA1VO786FIOO83WE/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847402884-2RBITFZTNVLDS1AJEKXW/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847402453-A0LKCHP0YA7NLI2E0WJA/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847402040-WALQWA4IM1JBBHBJZ731/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Portfolio 2 - Project One