Sample Saturday – a new friend, a librarian, and a crash

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with Elizabeth McCracken, Julie Buntin, Noah Hawley, Sample Saturday February 25, 2023

Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye. This week, all three samples are ones I’ve had for eons. Continue reading →

The Top 54 from the Best Books of 2022 List of Lists

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2022, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Akwaeke Emezi, Amy Bloom, Barbara Kingsolver, Bonnie Garmus, book list, Celeste Ng, Charmaine Wilkerson, Cormac McCarthy, Douglas Stuart, Ed Yong, Elif Batuman, Elizabeth McCracken, Elizabeth Strout, Emily Henry, Emily St. John Mandel, Gabrielle Zevin, George Saunders, Hanya Yanagihara, Hernan Diaz, Hua Hsu, Ian McEwan, Ingrid Contreras, Jennette McCurdy, jennifer egan, Jessamine Chan, Joanna Quinn, Jonathan Escoffery, Julia May Jonas, Julie Otsuka, Kate Atkinson, Kate Beaton, Kathryn Schulz, Kevin Wilson, Leila Mottley, Lydia Millet, Maggie O'Farrell, Margo Jefferson, Meghan O’Rourke, Morgan Talty, Moshin Hamid, Namwali Serpell, NoViolet Bulawayo, Ocean Vuong, Olga Tokarczuk, R. F. Kuang, Rachel Aviv, Rob Delaney, Sarah Thankam Mathews, Shehan Karunatilaka, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Stacy Schiff, Tess Gunty, Xochitl Gonzalez, Yiyun Li December 22, 2022

Presenting the 2022 Commonly-Agreed-by-the-People-Who-Publish-Best-of-2022-Book-Lists-Before-December-31 top 54 books.

(This is my annual community service to book-bloggers – a list of the books that appear most frequently on the 52 lists that I listed on Best Books of 2022 – A List of Lists – enjoy!). Continue reading →

Six Degrees of Separation – from The Naked Chef to The Recovering

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with cooking, Elizabeth McCracken, Eowyn Ivey, gin, Hetty McKinnon, Jamie Oliver, Leslie Jamison, memoir, Robert Putman, Six Degrees of Separation November 5, 2022

It’s time for #6degrees. Start at the same place as other wonderful readers, add six books, and see where you end up. Continue reading →

The Top 50 from the Best Books of 2019 List of Lists

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2019, Adrienne Brodeur, Ali Smith, Ann Patchett, Ben Lerner, Bernardine Evaristo, book list, Bryan Washington, Candice Carty-Williams, Carmen Machado, Casey Cep, Casey Mcquiston, Chanel Miller, Colson Whitehead, David Wallace-Wells, Deborah Levy, Elizabeth Gilbert, Elizabeth McCracken, Elizabeth Strout, Esme Wang, Helen Oyeyemi, Helen Phillips, Jacqueline Woodson, Jami Attenberg, Jason Greene, Jennifer Weiner, Jenny Odell, Jia Tolentino, Jodi Kantor, Julia Phillips, Karen Russell, Kevin Barry, Kevin Wilson, Kristen Arnett, Laila Lalami, Lauren Wilkinson, Leigh Bardugo, Lisa Taddeo, Lori Gottlieb, Lucy Ellmann, Margaret Atwood, Marlon James, Max Porter, Mira Jacob, Miriam Toews, Namwali Serpell, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Ocean Vuong, Olga Tokarczuk, Patrick Keefe, Rion Scott, Robert Macfarlane, Ronan Farrow, Saeed Jones, Sally Rooney, Sarah Broom, Sarah Moss, Stephen King, Susan Choi, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Tamsyn Muir, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Tea Obreht, Tony Chiang, Tressie Cottom, Valeria Luiselli, Yangsze Choo, Yoko Ogawa, Zadie Smith December 16, 2019

This is my annual community service to book-bloggers – a list of the books that appear most frequently on the 56 lists that I listed on Best Books of 2019 – A List of Lists. Continue reading →

I’m waiting for… 2019 edition

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2019, Angela Savage, Carrie Tiffany, Catherine Knepper, Christos Tsiolkas, Dani Shapiro, David Nicholls, Deborah Levy, Elizabeth Gilbert, Elizabeth McCracken, Elizabeth Strout, Elliot Perlman, Emily Nussbaum, Erin Somers, Halle Butler, Heather Rose, Heidi Diehl, Helen Oyeyemi, Ian McEwan, Jen Beagin, Jennifer Down, Leanne Shapton, Leslie Jamison, Lindsay Stern, Mary Laura Philpott, Maylis de Kerangal, Naja Marie Aidt, Nora McInerny, Polly Rosenwaike, Siri Hustvedt, Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Tessa Hadley, TJ Stimson, Yara Zgheib January 14, 2019

Seems there’s lots of good reading to be done this year (have I ever started a year not thinking the same…? No). Continue reading →

2016: What I Read

Posted by Kate W in Fiction, Non-fiction, Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2016, AWW, AWW2016, book list, Elizabeth McCracken, Elizabeth McKenzie, historical, Jonathan Safran Foer, Kent Haruf, memoir, reading challenge, Rebecca Harrington, Richard Flanagan, Sara Stridsberg, TBR, thriller, young adult December 30, 2016

Here’s my year in books (with thanks to the Goodreads record keeping tool): Continue reading →

Two books, both difficult to review

Posted by Kate W in Non-fiction and tagged with 2016, American, book review, Elizabeth McCracken, Katherine Boo, memoir, nonfiction, review September 16, 2016

I’ve thought so much about two excellent books I finished this week – Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo and An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken.

They’re very different books – one is about the slums of Mumbai, in India; the other an account of the author’s pregnancy and subsequent stillbirth. Both books are painfully honest, emotionally raw and made me look away. Both tell the story of a death, yet the circumstances around those deaths couldn’t be more different. Both are confronting. Continue reading →