Hello readers!
This week’s newsletter brings you some new favorite bookish sites and a roundup of some recent reads ~ let’s dive in! It’s a long one ~ go grab your coffee and settle in!
I took this photo to prove to our insurance company that we’d painted this shed - they dropped our umbrella coverage because ….. the shed wasn’t painted??? Anyway, that’s what the photo was for, but then when I looked at it I noticed the SKY! It’s so pretty!
It’s been a bit since I shared favorite newsletters / blogs and I have two new ones to gush about! I found Bibliolifestyle through some random search for some forgotten book, BUT when I got there I landed on the winter reading guide which I absolutely loved. I subscribed to the site, and yay, the spring reading guide recently landed in my inbox! Victoria is a smart one ~ you have to subscribe to her newsletter to get the reading guides. It’s 100% worth it! I have really enjoyed the other content as well and highly recommend subscribing.
The other one I found on Substack via
’s newsletter and it has completely reinvigorated my dedication to reading more backlist! The Book Girls’ Guide has some amazing challenges going on right now ~ the ICYMI Backlist Challenge, the Decades Reading Challenge, and the Read Around the World Challenge. I’m not participating in the challenges, but I did become a Buy Me a Coffee recurring supporter so I could get all of their printables and use them for building my personal backlist reading lists. It’s helping me a lot with my decision to use Libby for audiobooks more often ~ since EVERYTHING on my library’s Libby has a long holds list, I need to keep my holds list stocked so books keep coming in. Having a deep backlist TBR is crucial!Yay for more book recommendations!
Please remember that I have decided to hold back my reviews of pre-release titles until their respective monthly release newsletters ~ that means my recent reads selections will all be titles that you can get your hands on immediately!
Whew, this last month has been a weird reading period for me. I got sucked into my adoption reading rabbit hole, abandoned a LOT of books I thought I’d like, read ahead for April releases (and accidentally also read a July release), got super sick and couldn’t read for days, and traveled for work (with my teens in tow) so my listening and reading time took a little hit. It’s all good, but my reading did look a little different!
The books I’m sharing today range from nonfiction about reading, to a nostalgic mystery icon, to young adult graphic novels, to a damn-near perfect middle grade adventure story. All of the adult titles shared today were experienced via audio and were excellent in that format.
I read and enjoyed Shannon Reed’s previous memoir, Why Did I Get a B?, so I knew that I needed to experience her February release as soon as I could. Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries and Just One More Page Before Lights Out is a collection of memoir-essays about well, exactly what the title says. I loved dipping into this between other audiobooks, but please know that it’s very much a memoir, and not a wide-reaching exploration of the topics in the title. Since Reed is a teacher and book lover, this one was a perfect fit for me.
Next up, some mysteries! I had already read the entire Alphabet series by Sue Grafton from A-Y, starting with a battered copy of A is for Alibi off my family's lake cottage bookshelf on a languid summer afternoon when I was in high school in the 90s, and completing the series with an advance review copy of Y is for Yesterday in 2017. I decided to revisit the series now that I have been recommending it for decades, but don't really remember much except the vibes.
I listened to A is for Alibi this time via Libby and the vibes are EXACTLY the same as I remember them (matter-of-fact, timeless, badass female, no-nonsense, California) and I loved it as much as I remember from my teens. I adored the audio, adore Kinsey, and I can't wait to revisit the next 24 over the coming years! This series is my gold standard for PI detective stories and the closest I’ve come in recent years is the Molly Madison series by Peggy Rothschild, although not *quite* the same. An audio note: I remember checking out the CD audiobooks of this series when I was in college and my early-mid 20’s. Having to change CD’s to continue an audiobook while driving is something that ended with my generation! And have you ever tried going running with a discman AND a CD case holding all 12 of the book’s discs? Yeah, no. Hooray for phones and AirPods!
On a VERY different mystery note, I was ecstatic to find the audiobook of Heidi Lucy Loses Her Mind by Gracie Ruth Mitchell on Hoopla! I listened to Mitchell’s previous book Juniper Bean Resorts to Murder and found it to be a fresh and modern entry in the cosy-ish amateur detective genre. Heidi Lucy Loses Her Mind is even better, IMO, because it takes place in a bookstore-cafe and features an author as one of the main characters.
I’m combining these two books even though the ONLY thing linking them together is the fact that they all have multiple, but connected narrators. Otherwise, NIGHT AND DAY.
We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride is a book I have had sitting on my bookshelf for years after a bookstagram friend sent it to me back in 2017. It was never *quite* the right time for it, though. However, in February I came across it on the recommended list of 2014 releases from Book Girls’ Guide and then found the audio available on Hoopla. The time had come. And wow. This book deals with a whole lot of tough stuff, but ultimately it's one of the most hopeful books I have experienced in quite awhile. The narration is stellar and really brings the story to life, and it helped imprint the story on my brain. This is a tale of Las Vegas, war, military, immigration, murder, PTSD, foster care, abuse and so much more ~ all of it tough to think about, but the way McBride tells the story is with such compassion that I was able to make it through the whole book with an ultimately hopeful feeling. As Glennon Doyle says, it's "brutiful." Some more of my Vegas reading is here if you’re interested!
The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan is currently my favorite of Sullivan’s works that I have re-visited in my now-seeming-strange project to re-listen to all of her books before her newest title The Cliffs releases this summer. I really just adored this novel about the history of the diamond engagement ring. It is told via interconnected stories about marriage and diamonds that span decades but ultimately and surprisingly converge. I don’t remember much at all about my first encounter with the book, but this one definitely left a warm and positive impression! Is it terrible to say it’s my favorite because it’s the least like her other books? I have so much more to say about JCS that will be coming soonish, including thoughts on her two others I listened to this month.
And I’m closing out today with YA and middle grade!
Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid by Ngozi Ukazu, Mad Rupert (Illustrator) ~ I’m currently living with a senior desperate to go to art school but despairing over financial aid, so I bought this one for both of us. It’s set in the freshman year of college but is very much a YA story. I loved it!
Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang, LeUyen Pham (Illustrations) ~ a unique and sweet YA romance about so much more as well. There are ghosts! And lots of thoughts on Catholicism! And I learned SO much about dragon dancing! A must-read for anyone who loves graphic format and/or YA romance. Very chaste, appropriate for younger than HS for sure.
Across the Desert by Dusti Bowling ~ This is my new gold standard for middle grade adventure stories! Accessible, but not immature. Fast-paced, but not totally unrealistic. Real life struggles that don’t shy away from tough stuff. I raced through it in an evening and will be raving forever. Grades 5-8.
All of these books are available to read now ~ I hope you found a title that intrigued you today!
Have you read any of these books? Have any of them on your TBR? Let me know!
If you liked this post and want to support my work, please consider sharing this edition of my newsletter with your reading friends, buy me a coffee, or upgrade your subscription to paid! Just sharing is a huge help, though ~ thank you ☺️
Did you miss my last recent reads roundup?
That’s all for this edition, my friends!
Thanks for reading,
I love to hear from readers, so please do reach out to me with questions or feedback at mindfullibrarian@substack.com . If we aren’t already connected on Goodreads, I would love to see you there as well!
I too read all of' 'The Alphabet Series'.
And I was sad that Sue Grafton died before she could work on the last book in the series.
But she left us with 25 wonderful books to read over and over. :).
Oh and speaking of her books, you might also like this one (which I also read): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15985400-kinsey-and-me
Yay for Dusti Bowling!! She’s on our short list for potential author visits for next year. Did I tell you we have DAN GEMEINHART coming in a week and a half!?