The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

Title: The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

Author: Abbi Waxman

Publisher: Berkley 2019

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 333

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Random TBR; Monthly Keyword - September

Meet Nina Hill: A young woman supremely confident in her own...shell.

The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.

When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They're all—or mostly all—excited to meet her! She'll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It's a disaster! And as if that wasn't enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn't he realize what a terrible idea that is?

Nina considers her options.
1. Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likes her hair.)
2. Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee).
3. Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)

It's time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn't convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It's going to take a brand-new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.

Another recommendation from Anne Bogel and I’m completely in love with this book. Nina might be another version of me. At first, Nina is a great quirky character comfortable in her life. I loved seeing her life get up-ended in many ways forcing Nina outside of the box. In some ways, this book is a romantic comedy, but I see it more like a great character study. Just in a light-hearted way. I love Nina’s interactions with her newly discovered family members, especially brother Archie. I would love to read a sequel to this book focusing on Nina’s growing relationships within her new family. I want to see more of Peter and Millie, even Lydia (will she ever come around to Nina?).

Next up on the TBR pile:

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

Title: Ayesha at Last

Author: Uzma Jalaluddin

Publisher: Berkley 2019

Genre: Romance

Pages: 366

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Random TBR Pick

Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn't want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid, who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and who dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.

When a surprise engagement is announced between Khalid and Hafsa, Ayesha is torn between how she feels about the straightforward Khalid and the unsettling new gossip she hears about his family. Looking into the rumors, she finds she has to deal with not only what she discovers about Khalid, but also the truth she realizes about herself.

Another pick off of Anne Bogel’s Summer Reading List. I quite enjoyed this modern romance set in Toronto. It was lovely to get a diverse couple to play off of. I most liked the sections of the book that really dove into the various beliefs and lifestyles of the characters. Ayesha was a great voice to follow along. I loved following her story and watching her grow more comfortable in her identify throughout the book. I can see the similarities to Pride and Prejudice, but find it to be a completely different story for me.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

Title: Once Upon a River

Author: Diane Setterfield

Publisher: Emily Bestler Books 2018

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 464

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Random TBR Pick; Popsugar - Based on folklore; Dancing with Fantasy and Scifi - Uncommon Fantasy Creatures

On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed.

Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless.

Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son’s secret liaison stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson’s housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone’s. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl’s identity can be known.

I finally got Diane Setterfield’s new book and loved every single sentence of it. Setterfield’s writing meanders just like the Thames, but I savored every turn. We follow a beautiful yet haunting story of three lost girls who may or may not have come back. The lives of three families are affected by the events of the Winter Solstice. We spend the next year following those families and the various characters around the village. My favorite storyline was following Rita as she tends to the people around her, especially the little girl lost. This is not the book for those readers that love a fast moving plot. But it is for those that love a haunting story that may or may not have magical elements. My absolute favorite part was the legend of Quietly. Perfection!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Title: Between Shades of Gray

Author: Ruta Sepetys

Publisher: Penguin Books 2012

Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Random TBR Pick; Popsugar - Based on a True Story; Historical Fiction

Fifteen-year-old Lina is a Lithuanian girl living an ordinary life -- until Soviet officers invade her home and tear her family apart. Separated from her father and forced onto a crowded train, Lina, her mother, and her young brother make their way to a Siberian work camp, where they are forced to fight for their lives. Lina finds solace in her art, documenting these events by drawing. Risking everything, she imbeds clues in her drawings of their location and secretly passes them along, hoping her drawings will make their way to her father's prison camp. But will strength, love, and hope be enough for Lina and her family to survive?

This book is rough! But ultimately it’s an amazing story of a facet of WWII that I don’t think many people know about. Lina’s story is so incredibly heartbreaking. I loved her as a character and the interactions that we see with her family at the beginning. I was constantly hoping for the family to be reunited, but I know how WWII stories go. The book itself is well written with a lyrical quality even in the harshest of passages.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Merry Spinster by Mallory Ortberg

Title: The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror

Author: Mallory Ortberg

Publisher: Holt 2018

Genre: Short Stories - Fantay

Pages: 208

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Random TBR Pick; Women Authors; Dancing with Fantasy and Scifi - Library

From Mallory Ortberg comes a collection of darkly mischievous stories based on classic fairy tales. Adapted from the beloved "Children's Stories Made Horrific" series, "The Merry Spinster" takes up the trademark wit that endeared Ortberg to readers of both The Toast and the best-selling debut Texts From Jane Eyre. The feature has become among the most popular on the site, with each entry bringing in tens of thousands of views, as the stories proved a perfect vehicle for Ortberg’s eye for deconstruction and destabilization. Sinister and inviting, familiar and alien all at the same time, The Merry Spinster updates traditional children's stories and fairy tales with elements of psychological horror, emotional clarity, and a keen sense of feminist mischief. 

Readers of The Toast will instantly recognize Ortberg's boisterous good humor and uber-nerd swagger: those new to Ortberg's oeuvre will delight in this collection's unique spin on fiction, where something a bit mischievous and unsettling is always at work just beneath the surface. 

Unfalteringly faithful to its beloved source material, The Merry Spinster also illuminates the unsuspected, and frequently, alarming emotional complexities at play in the stories we tell ourselves, and each other, as we tuck ourselves in for the night. 

Bed time will never be the same.

This slim volume of fairy tale inspired stories was a recommendation from the podcast Reading Glasses. I finally picked it up at the library and sped through it in an afternoon. I loved the twists and modernization of classic stories. My favorite story was definitely “The Daughter Cell” based on The Little Mermaid. There’s a cheat sheet of influences in the back of the volume, but I loved piecing out each story as I read them. Ortberg has a wonderful talent for nods to the readers and our modern knowledge while keeping us squarely in the fairy tale realm. Really enjoyed this collection!

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Next up on the TBR pile:

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Title: Norse Mythology

Author: Neil Gaiman

Publisher: W.W. Norton and Company 2017

Genre: Mythology

Pages: 304

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Random TBR Pick; MMD - Backlist of Favorite Author; Alphabet Soup - G

Neil Gaiman, long inspired by ancient mythology in creating the fantastical realms of his fiction, presents a bravura rendition of the Norse gods and their world from their origin though their upheaval in Ragnarok.

I finally picked this one up to read and loved all the re-imagined stories. Gaiman is a master at creating a beautiful turn of a phrase. I savor every sentence he writes. Beyond the writing, I really enjoyed his updating/condensing/retooling the Norse myths. I re-learned a ton of the stories. This was the perfect before bedtime book. I read a few stories every night. Just enough to get some quick interesting reading done, but not too much.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Title: The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1)

Author: N.K. Jemisin

Publisher: Orbit 2015

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 496

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Random TBR Pick; Women Authors; Dancing with Fantasy/Scifi - By a Woman of Color

This is the way the world ends...for the last time.
A season of endings has begun. 
It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. 
It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. 
It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. 
This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy. 

It took me years to finally pick this one up, but my goodness, why did I wait so long? This was just amazing. I was sucked into the world and the story within the first few pages. Jemisin creates a compelling world. I immediately had to know what was going on and what was going to happened. I fell for Damaya, Syenite, and Essun and had to know them more. I loved how each woman’s story progresses and we learn more and more as the pages go on. The reader is thrown into the world without much preparation, but Jemisin make is easy to understand what is happening. (There’s also a small glossary at the back of the book to help the reader) The last 75 pages of this book I read in one sitting, not being able to wait to find out what happens. The next book in the trilogy is going on my shortlist.

The Broken Earth:

• #1 The Fifth Season

• #2 The Obelisk Gate

• #3 The Stone Sky

Next up on the TBR pile: