User Profile

will i ever finish this book? unclear. do i actually want it to end? also unclear. definitely thinking about trees A LOT

I didn’t love this the way I did Diaz’s first book—this one felt a bit more obvious in how it was going to go about telling the story I could feel it wanted to tell about money. But it was also a good story, so I forgave some of its faults

I loved this! I did want to shake just about every single character for one thing or another but also I couldn’t stop reading it. This is much like how I feel about every Barbara Pym I’ve read, and I’m clearly going to need to read more. Extra points for being about indexers and writers.

Obviously had to read this after I read Jenn Shapland’s memoir, since I’d never read any McCullers, and holy hell is it good. Took me forever because it was so intense that I could only read it in bits.

This hit almost all of my sweet spots and I really enjoyed it. It's hard to find romances that stick with a nobles-are-bad perspective, but this one did.

My BookishBookClub chose this as one of our fiction reads and wow we did not like it, and wow do I feel badly for my Fisher Library friends. Just not how libraries work and even worse, really bad about depression, and everyone is mean. Also, did I mention that libraries don't work this way and her account of the key Plantin polyglot is just weird? two stars because there's some nuggets in there but ymmv

This was delightful, hits all the spots, if those spots are wanting to read a fun and sex-positive romance. One of the leads runs an art gallery and those details seem patently ridiculous, but the more important thing is that the other lead is a sex educator and they jointly inherit a failing sex toy shop. Will they fall in love? Will art gallery woman learn to enjoy sex? Will sex educator accept herself and her artistic talents? Of course!! And that’s one of the joys of reading this.

rereading Jane Austen, as one does, and I just adore this one. Choose your Jane fighter and I will always choose Anne Elliott.

(hi I remembered I hadn’t updated this since March and now am catching up, only mildly sorry for the flurry of activity, but indeed, mildly sorry)

This was good! I'm generally a fan of Hand. Loved the atmosphere--just gorgeous lush descriptions of Hawai'i's culture and wildlife--and enjoyed a protagonist who wants to be doing good but always feels like he's messing up. There's a Cass Neary-ish-ness to this, but a lot less gore. Also, a lot less mysticism than I usually expect from her

I’m pretty taken with these women, important rare book dealers and a tightly bound pair of friends. They’re the ones who dug about Louisa Alcott’s sensational pieces! Leona traveled to Strasberg by herself in 1936 to study books after Columbia refused to grant her a PhD! Their accounts of book rummaging and feminist takes on history are fun. Their family stories and their devoted friendship are delightful. Apparently they have a number of other co-written books that cover similar terrain. Good for book nerds and for asexual (and maybe aro?) companionship.

(I'm actually a quarter of the way through and it is not at all relaxing but ymmv)

I need to stop reading books about books to relax but here I am

Ok I made fun of the glitches but also I had fun reading the book, and that’s the big thing. Details into conservation work! A faux Huntington Library! A commune that sells wine! Ridiculously handsome and gorgeous people! Next up she goes to Scotland so I am of course reading that.

She just referred to a forgery of “the Marlowe folio” and that isn’t a thing? There’s no Marlowe folio, never has been. This is even worse than perfecting your lipgloss before eating breakfast