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      Book Review: Take Me With You When You…

      August 8, 2022

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      Review: The Guncle by Stephen Rowley

      August 6, 2022

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      Review: War and Me by Faleeha Hassan

      August 4, 2022

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      Review: Fox & I by Catherine Raven

      August 3, 2022

      Book Reviews

      Review: The Boys by Katie Hafner

      July 26, 2022

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      What We Read in July 2022

      August 1, 2022

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      4 YA Books Set in the Middle Ages…

      July 29, 2022

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      5 YA Books Featuring Characters with Bipolar Disorder

      July 10, 2022

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      What We Read in June 2022

      July 6, 2022

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      5 Funny Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels: Humorous Reads…

      July 3, 2022

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  • Book ReviewsHumorLiterary FictionTranslated Lit

    Review: The Peacock by Isabel Bogdan

    by Catherine June 24, 2022
    by Catherine June 24, 2022

    Take a dilapidated castle in the Scottish Highlands, add a peacock gone rogue, a group of bankers on a team building trip, an overwhelmed psychologist, a housekeeper with a broken arm, and an ingenious cook, get Lord and Lady Macbeth to try and keep it all together, and top it off with all sorts of animals – soon no one will know exactly what’s going on.

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  • Book ReviewsHumorSci-Fi/FantasySuspense/Thriller

    Review: If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe by Jason Pargin

    by Joli June 16, 2022
    by Joli June 16, 2022

    Today we’re welcoming a new guest contributor to LQ: Joli’s husband, Colin! He has read every book in the John Dies at the End series and was very excited to read the forthcoming 4th book in the series, If This…

    Read more
  • Book ReviewsHumorMemoir/Biography

    Book Review: Little Weirds

    by Liz March 3, 2020
    by Liz March 3, 2020

    Every once in a while, you find a book that knocks you to your knees and shakes you to your core. A book that teaches you valuable life lessons and makes you rethink the way you view yourself and the…

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  • Book ReviewsFictionHumor

    Review: Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners

    by Becky October 17, 2018
    by Becky October 17, 2018

    Story: Violet Baumgartner has worked her entire life to keep her family’s reputation spotless and shares each year with friends and family via the annual holiday letter. When one fateful evening brings her world crashing down around her, she finds…

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  • Book ReviewsHumorMemoir/Biography

    Review: Shrill

    by Annie September 3, 2017
    by Annie September 3, 2017

    Shrill is a hilarious and poignant memoir about Lindy West’s experiences with sexism, work, dating, the internet, and being overweight. She has an incredibly strong authorial voice that makes the book so enjoyable to read. She is confident and strong,…

    Read more
  • Book ReviewsHumorMemoir/Biography

    Review: The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo

    by Bekky May 9, 2017
    by Bekky May 9, 2017

    Amy Schumer is labeled a “sex comic” because she writes jokes that discuss sexual activity which, apparently, sets her apart from her male counterparts who frequently talk about sex. Like any woman in the spotlight, she’s had her fair share…

    Read more
  • Book ReviewsHumorMemoir/Biography

    Book Review: Wishful Drinking

    by Kathleen March 16, 2017
    by Kathleen March 16, 2017

    After Carrie Fisher died in December, I read many tributes to her witty and affecting literary voice. It seemed a shame that I’d never explored her work, so I put Wishful Drinking, her well-reviewed 2008 memoir, on hold at the…

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  • Book ReviewsHumor

    Continuing Education: Garden Gnomes Have Issues

    by Becky January 24, 2017
    by Becky January 24, 2017

    Please note that this short message is intended as continuing education for those that have read my review of How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack. While the information that follows is still beneficial, it is best to prepare yourself to…

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  • Book ReviewsHumor

    Audiobook Review: Be Frank with Me

    by Kathleen December 8, 2016
    by Kathleen December 8, 2016

    I’m doing this thing where I’m reading debuts. I’m doing it because I’m trying to write my own first novel, and it seems like a good idea to read the first novels of other people. You know, the novels of people…

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  • Book ReviewsHumorMemoir/Biography

    Audiobook Review: Born Standing Up

    by Aubrey October 24, 2016
    by Aubrey October 24, 2016

    Steve Martin is one of my all-time favorite comedians and actors. As a 90s kid, I grew up watching Father of the Bride (Parts I and II), Bowfinger, and more. I love Martin as bumbling detective Clouseau in The Pink…

    Read more
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    Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Spring 2021 TBR

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    Earbud Confidential: 5 Captivating Audiobooks

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I just started Last Summer on State Street last night and almost stayed up too late. I couldn't put it down! Happy to have nabbed this one in a @goodreads giveaway.

Synopsis:
Even when we lose it all, we find the strength to rebuild.

Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens is living with her vigilantly loving mother and older teenaged brother, whom she adores, in building 4950 of Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. It’s the summer of 1999, and her high-rise is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. She, with the devout Precious Brown and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin, form a tentative trio and, for a brief moment, carve out for themselves a simple life of Double Dutch and innocence. But when Fe Fe welcomes a mysterious new friend, Tonya, into their fold, the dynamics shift, upending the lives of all four girls.

As their beloved neighborhood falls down around them, so too do their friendships and the structures of the four girls’ families. Fe Fe must make the painful decision of whom she can trust and whom she must let go. Decades later, as she remembers that fateful summer—just before her home was demolished, her life uprooted, and community forever changed—Fe Fe tries to make sense of the grief and fraught bonds that still haunt her and attempts to reclaim the love that never left.

Profound, reverent, and uplifting, Last Summer on State Street explores the risk of connection against the backdrop of racist institutions, the restorative power of knowing and claiming one’s own past, and those defining relationships which form the heartbeat of our lives. Interweaving moments of reckoning and sustaining grace, debut author Toya Wolfe has crafted an era-defining story of finding a home — both in one’s history and in one’s self.

#bookfeature #bookstagramfeature #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #booksbooksbooks #bookblogger #bookobsessed #bookhoarder #goodreadsgiveaway #readersofinstagram #readreadread #lastsummeronstatestreet #amreading #currentlyreading #currentread
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Breaking my summer hiatus for this fantastic memoir! It was so very good. It reads like immersive fiction, and I was so invested in Faleeha's life. I can't believe some of what she went through, and how she's been able to put it all into words. This book is so unique in that I've not read any other accounts like this of life in Iraq during the war and subsequent embargo. 

The whole thing is fascinating, brave, and inspiring. I highly recommend War and Me! 5 full stars.

Put it on your TBR now! It did take me a chapter or two to get used to the translation, but it worked. Just pick this up, her story will have you rapt.

Thank you so much to @otrpr for having me on the War and Me book tour!

#bookreview #warandme #faleehahassan #5stars #memoir #bookrecommendation #bookrecs #amreading #currentread #currentlyreading #bookstagram #bookstagramfeature #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookishlife #bookblogger #bookblog #readersofinstagram #readreadread
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Look look 👀 at what someone left in my Little Free Library today 🤩😍! The Vanishing Half has been on my TBR list for ages!! I better try to read it soon so I can put it back in there 😁.

#littlefreelibraryfinds #littlefreelibrarystewards #littlefreelibrary #bookstagram #thevanishinghalf #amreading #booksbooksbooks #booksbooksandmorebooks #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #readreadread #bookish #bookishlife #readinglife #tbrlist #tbr #bookworm #bookwormlife
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My library started keeping a big shelf area of newer releases and it gets me juuuust about 90% of the time I'd say 😅. I remember seeing GOD SPARE THE GIRLS on bookstagram and being intrigued 🤔. Anyone have read it or nah feelings on this one?

Synopsis:
A mesmerizing debut novel set in northern Texas about two sisters who discover a dark secret about their father, the head pastor of an evangelical megachurch, that upends their lives and community—a coming-of-age story of family, identity, and the delicate line between faith and deception.

Luke Nolan has led The Hope congregation for over a decade, while his wife and daughters patiently uphold what it means to live righteously. Made famous by a viral sermon on purity co-written with his eldest daughter, Abigail, Luke is the prototype of a modern preacher: tall, handsome, a spellbinding speaker. But his youngest daughter Caroline has started to notice the cracks in their comfortable life. She is certain that her perfect, pristine sister is about to marry the wrong man—and Caroline has slid into sin with a boy she’s known her entire life, wondering why God would care so much about her virginity anyway.

When it comes to light, six weeks before Abigail’s wedding, that Luke has been having an affair with another woman, the entire Nolan family falls into a tailspin. Caroline seizes the opportunity to be alone with her sister. The two girls flee to the ranch they inherited from their maternal grandmother, far removed from the embarrassing drama of their parents and the prying eyes of the community. But with the date of Abigail’s wedding fast approaching, the sisters will have to make a hard decision about which familial bonds are worth protecting.

An intimate coming-of-age story and a modern woman’s read, God Spare the Girls lays bare the rabid love of sisterhood and asks what we owe our communities, our families, and ourselves.

#bookfeature #librarybook #hclib #bookworm #bookwormlife #bookblogger #bookreviewer #bookish #bookishlife #bookobsessed #bookhoarder #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #amreading #librarylove #godsparethegirls #amreading
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Historical fiction lovers, I've got one for ya! A Dress of Violet Taffeta was full of Gilded Age fashion and history, and reading about fashionista Lady Lucy Duff Gordon was a blast. My full review is on the blog - link in bio!

SYNOPSIS
Lucy Duff Gordon knows she is talented. She sees color, light, fabric, and texture in ways few other people do. But is the world ready for her? A world dominated by men who would try to control her and use her art for their own gain?

After being deserted by her wealthy husband, Lucy is desperate to survive. She turns to her one true talent to make a living. As a little girl, the dresses she made for her dolls were the envy of her group of playmates. Now, she uses her courageous innovations in Belle Époque fashion to support her own little girl. Lucile knows it is an uphill battle, and a single woman is not supposed to succeed on her own, but she refuses to give up. She will claim her place in the fashion world; failure simply is not an option.

Then, on a frigid night in 1912, Lucy’s life changes once more, when she becomes one of 706 people to survive the sinking of the Titanic. She could never have imagined the effects the disaster would have on her career, her marriage to her second husband, and her legacy. But no matter what life throws at her, Lucile will live on as a trailblazing and fearless fashion icon, never letting go of what she worked so hard to earn. This is her story.

#bookreview #bookfeature #historicalfiction #lucyduffgordon #adressofviolettaffeta #bookreviewer #bookblogger #bookworm #bookwormlife #amreading #readersofinstagram #booksofinstagram #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookishlife
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I cleaned off my desk (which fits in a corner and has shelves) and made a shelf just for my @theglossbookclub books 🤩. It's fun to be a host and give away a book at every meeting 😊. 

July: The Guncle
August: The Ten Thousand Doors of January
September: The Messy Lives of Book People
October: The Bohemians

Are you reading anything awesome for a book club?

#bookclubreads #bookclub #bookclubsofinstagram #bookclubpick #amreading #bookstagram #theglossbookclub #booksofinstagram #shelfie #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #readreadread #bookobsessed #bookworm #bookwormlife #bookish #bookishlife  #booklover
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Well this book is just stealing my whole gosh dang heart, and today is its pub day!! I highly suggest adding this one to your TBR, book friends, if you're into quirky, big-heaeted, character-driven stories. I have only about 50 pages left and can't wait to see how this ends! The writing is superb, too. Thank you so much to @katiehafner, @spiegelandgrau, and @ehpmarketing for the ARC of THE BOYS.

Synopsis:
When introverted Ethan Fawcett marries Barb, he has every reason to believe he will be delivered from a lifetime of solitude. She fills his world with a sense of adventure, expanding his horizons beyond his comfortable routine. Because Ethan fears becoming a father, one day Barb brings home two young brothers, Tommy and Sam, for them to foster, and Ethan immediately falls in love with the two boys. When the pandemic hits, he becomes obsessed with providing a perfect life for them. But instead of bringing Barb and Ethan closer together, the boys become a wedge in their relationship, as Ethan is unable to share with Barb a secret that has been haunting him since childhood. Then Ethan takes Tommy and Sam on a biking trip in Italy, and it becomes clear just how unusual Ethan and his children are. This hauntingly beautiful debut novel—a bold and original high-wire feat—is "a treat with a surprise inside” (Publishers Weekly).

#bookreview #bookfeature #amreading #currentread #currentlyreading #bookstagram #bookstagramfeature #bookblogger #bookworm #bookwormlife #bookish #bookishlife #booklover #booksbooksbooks #readreadread #readersofinstagram #booksofinstagram #bookobsessed #arcbook #pubday
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Little Free Library find alert! Two Nights in Lisbon by @chris.pavone is now available! Thank you @littlefreelibrary for the opportunity to share this hot recent release with my community 🤩! Won this #thriller in their giveaway 😄

#twonightsinlisbon #littlefreelibrarystewards #littlefreelibraryfinds #lfl #amreading #booksbooksbooks #booksharing #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #readreadread #bookworm #bookwormlife #bookish #bookishlife #readinglife
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Literary Quicksand
  • Book Reviews
    • Book Reviews

      Book Review: Take Me With You When You…

      August 8, 2022

      Book Reviews

      Review: The Guncle by Stephen Rowley

      August 6, 2022

      Book Reviews

      Review: War and Me by Faleeha Hassan

      August 4, 2022

      Book Reviews

      Review: Fox & I by Catherine Raven

      August 3, 2022

      Book Reviews

      Review: The Boys by Katie Hafner

      July 26, 2022

  • Book Lists
    • Book Lists

      What We Read in July 2022

      August 1, 2022

      Book Lists

      4 YA Books Set in the Middle Ages…

      July 29, 2022

      Book Lists

      5 YA Books Featuring Characters with Bipolar Disorder

      July 10, 2022

      Book Lists

      What We Read in June 2022

      July 6, 2022

      Book Lists

      5 Funny Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels: Humorous Reads…

      July 3, 2022

  • Browse by Genre
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