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Where the Truth Lies by Anna Bailey My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was a rich, atmospheric mystery read. When a girl disappears in a small, religious town, everyone's secrets slowly start surfacing. Not a lot of likeable characters in this story but they were all very 3-dimensional and I like that there weren't plot twists just for the sake of shock value. View all my reviews

A Million Things by Emily Spurr My rating: 5 of 5 stars What a gem of a book. This story of a girl who has to fend for herself for 55 days while her mother is gone is an absolute gem. It's full of heart and it will break your heart and slowly put it back together. It's a fantastic read, highly recommended. Grief, coping, friendship, companionship, loneliness. View all my reviews

No Hiding in Boise by Kim Hooper My rating: 4 of 5 stars What a fantastically well-written mystery of a novel. This is about the aftermath of a bar shooting. You get to experience the perspective of those who die, a survivor, the mother of the shooter, and the wife of an injured party. The characters are rich and well-done. The story is layered and engaging and creates room for you to empathize with each character. Beautifully done. View all my reviews

The Break-Up Book Club by Wendy Wax My rating: 3 of 5 stars super-fun light read about several women who, for different reasons, are experiencing break ups, separations, divorce or widowhood. They are brought together by a book club at their local book store and they support each other. Very enjoyable. View all my reviews

Trusting the Gold: Uncovering Your Natural Goodness by Tara Brach My rating: 5 of 5 stars Tara Brach is right at the top of my list of people whom I can never read enough. I've listened to her classes for years, I've read all of her books and I've learned something new each time. I'm reminded of things I'd learned and forgotten already and things that I know I need to hear again and again. She never ever disappoints and I cannot recommend this book enough. It's a distillation of a lot of her stories, thoughts, encouragements, and lessons. As always, it's told in her gentle style and it's gold. View all my reviews

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr My rating: 0 of 5 stars I am not going to rate this one because I don't feel like I've read enough of it. At the 25% mark, which is about 160 pages in, I finally decided to put it down. I loved Doerr's previous book and could not wait to read this one, but it just isn't the book for me. At least not right now. I found myself skimming large chunks of it. The story switches around between times, genres and characters too much for me to get invested in any one character and I find myself feeling confused constantly. Many people loved this book so maybe I will give it another try in the future. with gratitude to edelweiss and Scribner for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. View all my reviews

Jacket Weather by Mike DeCapite My rating: 3 of 5 stars She said “I’d like to get even closer to you, but I can’t.” “I know. If it were up to me, we’d sift together like sand, until we were inseparable.” This is the story of Mike who runs into his old flame, June, years later in New York and they get together. The story is written in a very disjointed manner, that, for me, was hard to follow and consume. It's bits and pieces of their life as they navigate this relationship and New York City and try to figure out aspects of their lives and who they are to each other. To Tere: “I call her at work it’s like I’m talking to a different person. It’s whiplash, from how she is on the weekend to how she is Monday, which is all business. On the weekend, I’m reassured by her tone, if not by what she says. During the week, I’m out here on my own again.” There were many sentiments, observations, thoughts I loved in the book. Little sentences here and there th...

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout My rating: 5 of 5 stars "Truly, it is as if I do not exist, I guess is the closest thing I can say. I mean I do not exist in the world. It could be as simple as the fact that we had no mirrors in our house when I was growing up except for a very small one high above the bathroom sink. I really do not know what I mean, except to say that on some very fundamental level, I feel invisible in the world." I adore Elizabeth Strout. She simply does not disappoint. Her characters are so real, so three-dimensional and textured and layered and flawed and yet perfect. Her writing is so simple, so profound and so quiet. Her writing and story in this book felt like cotton to me, it felt like it was holding me and being so very gentle with me. “Whenever I don’t know what to do, I watch what I am doing.” I loved the two previous Lucy Barton books so I was excited to have more of her. This one is about William, her ex-husband...

The Magician by Colm Tóibín My rating: 5 of 5 stars He liked the idea of traveling with someone whom he could not trust completely. It would encourage him, even more than usual, to share no secrets. Although I've wanted to, I've never read a book by Colm Tóibín before and nor have I read any books by Thoman Mann, so I am not exactly sure why I requested this ARC when I saw it but I am so glad I did. This is the story of Thomas Mann from when he was a young child to his death. It covers decades of history contextualized within Mann's life. It covers his family dynamics for his family of origin and then his relationship with his wife, his children and more. It has a lot of backstory about his books and how they came to be. How they were received, what they meant to him and his life. More than anything, he wished to live intensely in the voracious moments before this, in the sure knowledge that it would happen. It also has a lot of the poli...

The Stepsisters by Susan Mallery My rating: 3 of 5 stars Two step-sisters come together after a long time in order to help their sister and have to walk through their issues from the past. I enjoyed this novel, especially the flawed but genuine characters who grow and learn during the book. View all my reviews

All Together Now by Matthew Norman My rating: 3 of 5 stars I enjoyed this story of a wealthy man bringing together his friends one last time now that he has a terminal diagnosis. I liked the imperfect multi-dimensional characters and I liked how marriage, friendship, and love were all portrayed with the complexity they have in real life. A week or two later, not much of this book has stayed with me, but I still remember the warm feeling it gave me when I was reading it. View all my reviews

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars I put off reading this book 20+ times and I had given up on it when a friend recommended it to me so I picked it up again. This book has a lot and there was much that I could easily have skimmed but in there there are also a lot of gems. “scrolling through the feed...many things in there seem important but the sum total is nonsense and it produces not understanding but a dull and stupefying dread.” This is a feeling I have often. I feel this with podcasts, magazine articles and short episodes too. I don't enjoy bite-sized information nearly as much as truly sinking my teeth into something. Getting attached to the characters, the story. Caring deeply. I think that's why I enjoy novels so much more. I am glad I finally read it. View all my reviews

Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars Another well-done and character-driven mystery. The wealthy parents of three siblings is found murdered and as the book unfolds, we get the backstory and perspective of each kid and their caretaker to see if we can figure out who did it. Even though none of the characters are likable, with the exception of the father, none of them felt comically evil to me and I could totally see any of them doing it. I enjoyed the time I spent with this one. View all my reviews

The Shimmering State by Meredith Westgate My rating: 3 of 5 stars I thought I wasn't going to like this book as it sounded like it wouldn't be my cup of tea but I decided to try it anyway and I ended up liking it. I got attached to Lucien and Sophie as they navigated their lives and loneliness and the questions around memory and what we remember, what we wish we remembered, and what we wish we could forget. An interesting read. View all my reviews

Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens My rating: 4 of 5 stars A fantastic literary mystery that is about a small-town where a black woman goes missing and a bunch of money is embezzled at the local plant. Boady, a fifteen year old boy living with his single mom, starts befriending the son of the new black family that moves into the neighborhood. The book tackles issues around being in a small town, racism, and what it means to grow up in a town like that. The mystery is there but this book is so much more than that. Fantastic read. View all my reviews

Dear Me by Robin Alexander My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was a quick, light read of a new-to-me author. I enjoyed it plenty. I don't think it will stay with me but it's a lovely read. View all my reviews

For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars well this was a wild ride. None of the characters in this book were likable in my opinion. So many of them were self-centered and narcissistic and trying to get revenge from each other or stab each other in the back. And yet it was an accident you couldn't look away from. I could not put it down and yet when I finished it I was annoyed at myself for spending my whole day reading it. View all my reviews

Maybe This Will Help: How to Feel Better When Things Stay the Same by Michelle Rial My rating: 4 of 5 stars I really loved the way this author wove her sad story with chronic pain into this beautiful book with charts and graphs and art. Even though the charts were humorous and light, the message of the book is anything but. The suffering is palpable and made me feel so much empathy for the author and I really admired her skill of being able to balance the light and heavy. I really loved the combination of the visuals and the text. with gratitude to edelweiss and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. View all my reviews

Fresh Paint: Discover Your Unique Creative Style Through 100 Small Mixed-Media Paintings by Flora Bowley My rating: 5 of 5 stars Fresh Paint is a wonderfully inspiring book by Flora Bowley & Lynzee Lynx based on a workshop the two have created online. The book is a journey to discovering your own style through creating 100 small art pieces. As you embark on the journey they give you different perspectives and ways of approaching the journey. There's a short section on supplies but unlike many other books, the encouragement is to use your own stash and even experiment with unusual ways to make marks like vegetables, etc. There's a lot of encouragement in this book to spend time exploring your world, your roots, your own natural way of being and adding joy to the process of creating. They take both an outside in and an inside out perspective to discovery and research. The two authors have differing styles and so do many of the students whos...

Create Beautiful: A Glam Creativity Workbook for a Vibrant Life and Home by Lola Sanchez Herrero My rating: 3 of 5 stars 2.5 stars rounded up In my opinion, this book's audience is a beginner crafter who loves gold and glam. The first half of the book has several projects that are really, really simple and also look elegant. Then there are some coloring pages and finally some collage/template pages at the end. If you're brand new to most of this and the authors' style really resonates with you I think you will enjoy the projects and really appreciate the beginning section with an explanation of a wide range of supplies. If you are a crafter already, I don't think this book has much to offer you. For me, there was nothing new here at all. I still enjoyed looking through it but didn't learn anything. with gratitude to edelweiss and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. View all my reviews ...

Listening Still by Anne Griffin My rating: 4 of 5 stars I loved and adored Anne Griffin's previous novel: When All Is Said. It was absolutely magnificent. So I couldn't wait to read this one. This is the story of Jeanie Masterson who, with her family, runs an undertaking business. But they are no ordinary undertakers. Jeanie and her dad can hear the dead. They can speak to the dead briefly after they pass. And they've been doing so forever. Jeanie's life looks lovely on the surface: she is married to a kind man and they both work for the family business and live with her parents and brother. But as the story unravels, the reader gets to see the choices she made along the way and the ways in which everyone in the story feels trapped in their own life in small and big ways. This is a story about how we give up pieces of our lives and dreams when we feel like we have obligations to the world or to our family. Or when we're too scare...

Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis My rating: 4 of 5 stars What a sweet and delightful novel this is. Noelle and Sam meet in a stroke of luck for eight hours while their cars are next to each other in a blizzard. She figures she will never see him again since he lives far away in Oregon. But they they keep running into each other again and again in the most unusual moments. This beautiful story is a novel about coming home to oneself and the people who support and encourage us along the way. It's about regrets, about visible and invisible connections we have with people in ways we don't always understand. It's about family and supporting each other and sacrifice. And of course it's about love. I loved the time I spent with this sweet story. with gratitude to netgalley and Atria Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review View all my reviews

The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was a slow burn for me, it took me a while to get used to each of the characters and by the end I cared deeply about each of them. Each of them is flawed and imperfect and yet they show up in the best way they can and slowly find their way through the hurdles. It's really lovely. View all my reviews

Rock the Boat by Beck Dorey-Stein My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars I really enjoyed this novel about what it means to go back home to a life you never wanted to go back to and discover how much (and how little) has changed and finding pieces of yourself in the process. View all my reviews