It’s been a bit since I’ve posted, and the change has been good for me. Today, I’m sharing six February releases, that I very much enjoyed. A couple releases that didn’t do much for me, I’m not bothering with. I’ve also been listening quite a bit and will be back next week with three great audiobooks from February, including one nonfiction (my first of 2021). How’s your reading been going?…

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It’s the last day of the year. FINALLY! Enough said about the woes of 2020, so I’ll move on to five 2020 books that I’ve read in the last month or so.  Most are books I missed earlier in the year, and one is a book I returned to after quitting on last summer. (Something I never do.) These won’t be my last 2020 books to share. As I write this I’m listening to another 2020 book, but for the most part I’ve moved on to 2021 releases which I’ll begin sharing next week. Next week I’ll also be looking at My Year in Books 2020, My Goals for 2021, so stop on by and see how I did. Now let’s get on to today’s reviews!…

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Yes, there’s still a week to go in November, but with Thanksgiving only a few days away, and special end-of-year posts filling December, it seems like the perfect day to share the book reviews I’ve yet to share this month. I may finish another book or two before the end of the month, but who knows. (I just started listening to Barak Obama’s memoir, A Promised Land and at 29+ hours, I KNOW I won’t finish it this month.) Most of my November reading time has been spent with books I missed earlier in the year. I’m happy to be sharing some very brief thoughts on those today. Of the six books I’m covering, three I can highly recommend, one I thoroughly disliked and the last two were good enough to entertain.

One bit of exciting news! Be sure to download Sarah’s Book Shelves Live! Podcast on Wednesday where I’ll be her guest for a 2020 Year-End Special episode. We’ll be talking all things 2020 books, including those we loved, a few we didn’t, and some fun superlative categories. And finally, may everyone have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving, even if it’s like none you’ve ever had.

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With the start of school I knew my reading time would not be quite what it was in the summer, but I still manage to read eight (or maybe nine) books this month. Writing posts, however, has been difficult. Truly, school is all consuming right now, so as much as I’d like to spotlight some of these in their very own book reviews, I just can’t find the time or energy right now. I also know that your time is probably limited, too, so maybe these shorter reviews will work for all of us!…

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I have no idea why, but July 7, 2020 was  huge publication day this year. Originally, I had a total of eight ARC’s to be released that day, which is crazy. Of those, one got moved to September, another (Bonnie by Christina Schwarz) I just couldn’t finish, and the other six I’m sharing some brief thoughts on today in this month’s edition of mini-reviews….

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Much like April, I was able to read quite a few books in May, but didn’t get a lot of actual reviews done. I had a couple “special” blog posts including Beach Bag Books 2020, my summer reading guide, and Summer Preview 2020, a look at new releases for June July and August. I’ve also still been in that weird place where my level of satisfaction has been all over the place (often times within the same book). I don’t fully trust my own opinions right now, so please consider that when reading through my May mini-reviews….

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The last couple months have been a weird time. A very weird time. As I write this post, most of us are starting our seventh week of social distancing and largely staying at home. The first couple of weeks my mind was bouncing around all over the place and reading was HARD. As April began, I settled in and reading came back to me as a comfort. Writing, however has remained difficult. Part of it is time, since teaching from home is so much harder than I’d ever imagined, but most of it is just mental head space. So now, at the end of April, I have six books I’ve yet to review, and am going to take care of them all in a series of very short reviews!

As I do so, I want to clear something up. I’ve had comments about books that I give a grade in the B range to as not being a book I liked. That’s far from true. A grade in the B range is a book I gave 4 stars to on Goodreads. It’s probably not a book that’s going to end up on my Best Books of the Year list, but it is still a book well worth reading. An A book has to completely blow me away and leave me with a book hangover, but a B book did its job. It entertained me and I think they’ll do the same for many others!…

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With another week left to go in October, I’m finding that I’m severely behind on writing reviews. I usually wait until the very end of the month, but thought it was time to shine a light on these October releases. Each of the four books is unique and a little unsettling, but all in very different ways. Some I enjoyed, one I decidedly did not! So, let’s get to my October mini-reviews for all the gritty details….

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Sometimes it amazes me the amount of little coincidences you find in books. You might read several books in a row set in the same city, or an unusual character name appears in back-to-back stories. I’ve thought before about trying to make a chain of at least one thing that connects each book I read to the one before it. I still might do it, but not today! Instead, I’m sharing two books coming out next week, linked by their titles, One Night……

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Since I was traveling at the start of the month, I didn’t read as many books as usual in April, but wow! I read a couple of stunners that I’m still thinking about.

• The Other Americans by Layla Lalami (my review)
• Normal People by Sally Rooney (my review)

With the end of the month here, I have three unreviewed books from April and one I never got to back in March. Two I read in print and the other two I listened to. It’s time to clear the shelves!…

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