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Instead… which leaves me with a super cool clean closet and a full freezer but only part way through a goofily glorious new read Is it back-to-school? I think it’s back-to-school. I blame September for the fact that I, a person who reads tons of books all the time, it’s practically my whole personality, instead read very little. Admittedly I’m savoring and giggling over my current read (Apprentice to the Villain; think The Princess Bride but make it feminist and […]

And DO NOT add homework before enjoying James…   I should start with the big thing: you a watch the first two episodes of The Chicken Sisters this week! IF (sadly it’s a kind of big if) you have Hallmark Movies, soon to be Hallmark Plus. OR if you want to do a free week trial and see if maybe you’re in enough to go for streaming the next six episodes… plus a real reality TV show (as opposed to Kitchen Clash, […]

Forgive me while I go a little “inside baseball”–or grab Summer Romance and read that instead.   Hey crew—you know me. This is usually all books all the time around here. I sometimes forget to even remind you that I AM a writer (Go buy my books, please.) And yeah ok there are a few books at the end of this. Three. Or 19, depending on how you count. But I’m a writer, even if it’s maybe been a couple […]

This belongs on your #tbr! Plus, the book so not-for-me that I actually RETURNED it on Kindle and a book bandwagon you’ll be glad you hopped on.   Truth: once again, I’m in a reading slump. This time, we can put it down to two things: first, I’m at the point in a revision where much of my story energy is going in another direction, which means I’m reaching for non-fiction before bed, and second, I’m a bit slammed on […]

It won’t run out of battery. It won’t. I’ll be FINE. (maybe one print book just in case?) Plus: 4 guaranteed in-flight reads in 4 genres   I’m going away for a week. Paris and Madrid (how awesome does 12-year-old me think that sounds?!). So one overnight flight. 4 assorted short connections, one all-day-shouldn’t sleep flight over the Atlantic back home. Time to read, yes—but also a definite requirement that I travel light. As in, none of my usual put […]

I thought this wildly buzzy debut would break my reading slump. I was wrong. Kids I’ve been in a bit of a reading slumpity slump. And I had an advance of a book sitting here that’s had ALL the buzz. People are super excited about it! And based on the blurb and the title I thought, yeah, ok, this is IT. This is gonna break through. I won’t be able to put this baby down.Reader, I put it down. Don’t worry, […]

Or maybe just the one you want next Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve been off thrillers for a while. I choose them VERY warily, demanding that I’ll be completely engrossed but not utterly panicked. I cannot handle serial killers. I don’t want anyone to shoot a puppy. There are a few other plot tropes that I won’t even list here because they’re just too much (okay they involve airplanes and schools). But I really do want to lose myself […]

I love a good reunion book–but I also love a reunion. my friends don’t. Why?   So, to start off, I read the BEST rom-com about a high school reunion situation last year. It wasn’t out yet, so I waited to share. Then I couldn’t remember the name of it, so I resorted to Google. The following string of search terms got me there: romance book reunion bet divorce lawyer writer best friends he believes in love she does not […]

You know you want to read a list of 36 reasons I’m all GET OFF MY LAWN today   I’m vaguely grumpy today and I think it’s because I read the news before I went to sleep last night. And for a lot of other reasons, which I will list below because I’m in that kind of mood. BUT FIRST, BOOKS: I have listened to some of the new Taylor Swift songs and I liked them but I didn’t listen […]

and romance and sci fi don’t worry there are books too

Do I take a lot of trips? I do! Do I take a lot of books? HECK YEAH I have a horror of ending up on a plane without a good book. Yes, my ereader mostly should have relieved me of that problem BUT STILL. What if it suddenly didn’t really download even though I checked it three times? What if the battery goes “poop!” What if I sit on it or drop it in the seat and then try […]

[fill in book type blank here] For me, the end of that sentence is “werewolf-vampire romance” and even when Ali Hazelwood (whose trio of science-y romances I have quite liked) dropped one, causing me to express incredible delight over the sheer PROPS of her, to say “want another best-selling science-y academic romance? Then publish this first, witches”—still, I didn’t think I was gonna read it. But I did, and reader, I loved it. Bride was pure solid fun from beginning to end, and although […]

Indulge your bookworm fantasies with these 12 strategies for adding more reading to your life   HEY! Have I been reading? I have. More on that next week—because one of my very favorite writers is letting me share her strategies for reading more, and I thought you’d love it. Below is a post from Vanderhacks, a short week-daily email from Laura Vanderkam about “doable strategies for making the most of your time and your life”. I LOVE IT. So here is […]

I’m reading. But I’m just not feeling it.   Witness, if you will, my actual bedside table. (Why am I displaying a chocolate bar? I don’t know. That’s my phone stand but somehow now it’s my chocolate stand? I’m not sorry. Possibly better to grab in the middle of the night anyway.) I’m slightly more than halfway through The Well of Ascension. I love it. I have book three waiting. (It’s Book Two in the Mistborn series and there is a reason why […]

I’m crap at keeping my reading spreadsheet but I did manage to use the asterisk key. Last week I offered you the starred reads from the first half of 2023 HERE. Not the “best reads” (what would that even mean?). Maybe not even my favorites. Not sure. But the reading experiences that made me want to hit a little “star” key once, twice, sometimes multiple times. I do that in the “whelm” column of my reading spreadsheet, which also has columns […]

IMO Good reading experiences are better than “best books”. Part one of two I read approximately 130 books last year. That’s not a brag, it’s why you’re here, right? I zoom through the pages because it’s what I do, then I tell you enough so you’ll know if they’re worth your time and $$ and hopefully we’re BOTH happy. I’ve recommended a LOT of good stuff this past year. But what follows is essentially a partial list of my faves. […]

Some books and also some thoughts… This is a weekly-ish email about books. But it is also a weekly-ish email about me, the reader and writer behind the weekly-ish email about books. If you vibe with my books, it’s quite likely, that you will vibe with, well, my general vibe. Thus, below, a bit of a riff on 2024 and what I want to bring to it. But if you’re just here for the reads, no worries, I got you! […]

A few dirty little secrets of author life plus 4 fun holiday rom-com reads Tl; DR: Make sure your bookstagrammer has read the book! Scroll down for this week’s recs. Some time ago—long enough now that I don’t feel any worries about anyone wandering through the way-back machine and thinking I’ve dissed them—I wrote a list of books for a thing that was not this email. (Note: I have written MANY such lists over the years.) Because I felt that […]

And mine may be… eccentric.. Hello, my name is KJ and sometimes when I’m anxious I like to re-read books about cleaning things. Not necessarily clean the things, although after four solid weeks of being sick (I’m bettter now!) I finally got off my sickbed and managed to do a little of that too. No, I just read some books about it, like Gretchen Rubin’s Outer Order, Inner Calm. And bought a book but didn’t read it, Minimalista. And considered re-reading Marie […]