Finished:

Growing Things And Other Stories, by Paul Trembly

Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman

Started:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, by Haruki Murakami

Finished Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynn Jones via Audible. I loved the story and the narration, and I don't think the movie deviates much from the book. 5/5

Started The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, also on Audible. I love the fact that the author is performing her own writing in this version of the audiobook.

I'm also working on The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin on Kindle. So far, I'm very engaged with the way the story is unfolding.

Finished reading A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, by George R.R. Martin. I was captivated by it. I liked the shorter format of the novellas and I enjoyed reading the stories of Dunk & Egg and spending time in the world of ASOIAF. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys medieval fantasy.

Nearly finished reading Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I'm a big fan of absurdist humour, and the book makes for a really palatable read. I can already see myself re-reading it in a few years.

Next: The Secret Barrister; Stories of the Law and How it's Broken, by the Secret Barrister, I feel like this has been a bestseller for ages and I'm interested to read it; All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, this has been on my reading list for years now, so it's time to get around to it; Howl's Moving Castle, by Dianna Wynne Jones, I'm a huge fan of the Studio Ghibli adaptation, I really can't wait to read this one; The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett, Good Omens is my first foray into Pratchett's work, I'm disappointed it's taken me so long to get around to Discworld.

Anarchy and the Sex Question by Emma Goldman I was really impressed by her ideas and how contemporary they sounded, considering The Second Sex was written decades later and wasn't quite as refined.

Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling Didn't realize it featured Dumbledore's commentary on each one, so that was neat. Not sure if I should both with Fantastic Beasts, though.

The Corner by David Simon and Ed Burns Holy shit this was amazing. The way they wove their sociopolitical commentary in with the stories of all these people was incredibly impressive. It never got boring. Better than Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets imo

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones Currently 100 pages in. Pretty good fantasy so far. I have no idea where it's going, but I'm excited to find out. Thanks to Neil Gaiman for recommending her

Usual disclaimer that I'm a teen librarian and mostly read YA and advance reader copies (ARCs).

Finished Last Week:

Spin the Dawn, by Elizabeth Lim - ARC

2/5 Stars - The beginning was great and the premise really hooked me, but it went downhill from there. The sewing challenge was less than half the book, and so all these side characters are brought up and then promptly discarded. There could have been one whole book of just the challenge! Because no time was spent exploring the world or the characters, everything felt very surface level. The writing felt oddly immature - like middle grade level - but there was a sex scene in it so I can't even recommend this to tweens at the library!

Serpent and Dove, by Shelby Mahurin - ARC

5/5 Stars - Okay, this is definitely New Adult. I wish they would stop marketing NA as YA. I loved this book, but there's a pretty explicit sex scene. Also the characters are both adults and married... so not relateable teen problems lol I'm not a prude about sex in teen books, but the scene felt like something I'd read in an adult romance. We are probably going to catalogue this as adult, just like we do with explicit books like ACOTAR. This book felt like what I wanted SJM to be - it's fun, it's entertaining, the world and magic system make sense, it's well written and edited. I didn't like SJM very much, but this was a huge win for me, and I think a lot of her fans will eat this up.

The Okay Witch, by Emma Steinkelner - ARC

4/5 Stars - This is a graphic novel. Adorable, witchy coming of age story. Takes place in New England in the fall - what's not to love?

Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

5/5 Stars - A reread. If you're a fantasy fan and haven't read this, you need to fix that asap! It's a classic for a reason.

Currently Reading: Storm Crow, by Kalyn Josephson - ARC

East, by Edith Pattou (my current nighttime audio book)

The Bone Houses, by Emily Lloyd-Jones - ARC

The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern - ARC

There Will Come a Darkness, by Katy Rose Pool - ARC

Started to read Howl’s Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones I love the writing so far!!

Continuing to read Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel

Finished Beauty and sadness, by Yasunari Kawabata

Continuing Last chance to see, by Douglas Adams and Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

Normal disclaimer that I'm a teen librarian, hence why I read so much YA and so many advance copies!

Finished Last Week:

Wicked Saints, by Emily A. Duncan - this was just okay. I felt so disappointed by it because I felt like it had so much potential and then there were parts that just fell flat. There were sections where the writing was super confusing, and I had to read and reread huge sections of it because I was totally lost. I didn't hate it, and it didn't inspire rage, but I didn't love it either. I just liked it, and I'm curious enough to read the sequel, but still just... meh.

Currently Reading:

There Will Come A Darkness, by Katy Rose Pool - ARC - this is meh... it's just Six of Crows but in ancient Greece and with a discount Voldemort as the bad guy.

The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern - ARC - loving this; it's a love letter to storytelling and libraries. It's in the same sort of "meta" books about books vein as Haroun and the Sea of Stories or Sophie's World.

Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones - I'm listening to this on audio, about 55% of the way through. I've read it and loved it before, and I needed something lighter to listen to this week, so this was perfect.

Spin the Dawn, by Elizabeth Lim - ARC - This is just okay. I'm about 75% of the way through right now. It's an easy, light read, but it reads oddly immature/young (which is fine, I like having YA to recommend to younger teens and tweens who want to read about older characters) but then there's a super cringe sex scene in it?? It's not explicit, but it's one of those that made me gag the whole way through because of all the euphemisms and crap about bodies melting together under the fading stars vomits forever I feel like 12-13 year old me would have liked this. This isn't YA with a ton of adult readability.

Reading Next:

The Storm Crow, by Kalyn Josephson - ARC

Serpent & Dove, by Helby Mahurin - ARC