Hard Return

100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025 The idea of 100 Notable Small Press Books was born November 2024, after The New York Times’s annual 100 Notable Books list featured eighty-two books from the Big Five publishing houses (Pengu…

💙📚
#BookSky #Indie #SmallPress #Books

I hold up a hardback book in my living room. Lamp, television, and other living room things are seen around it. The book is “A Silent Treatment” by Jeannie Vanasco. Its cover looks like the back side of an aged, browned envelope with the flap slightly lifted.

This was a miss for me. I think the way it is written is very clever, but there is no real growth in my view.

Anyone feel the same? Or differently?

⭐️⭐️.5/5 Rec: 👎
💙📚🖋️📚💬📖

#BookSky #Memoir #BookReview #BookRec #Books #MondayReading #Reading #Abuse #Trauma #Literature #Family

It does. A beautiful sad, but definitely leaves you with a heaviness to hold and consider. I would have needed to put it on my “Paused” list a few months ago. When you are feeling ready, it is a book that does not opt out of discomfort with a serendipitous plot trick or anything.

I forgot all about Magic Tree House! These are great, thank you!

Thank you!

Oo! Do you mind saying why? This is on a list and I keep putting it off.

A pink, vintage ornament hangs in green Christmas tree foliage. White strand lights glow around it in an off focus way.

Do you have book recommendations for middle and elementary school kids?

It’s time for holiday shopping and this Auntie doesn’t know where to start!!

💙📚🖋️📚💬📚🎄🎅
#BookSky #YouthFiction #KidLit #Fiction #Literature #ChildrensBooks #BookRecs #Reviews #Books #Gifts #Shopping #Holiday #TBR #Kids

TDR

Holy moly. What a great read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5 Rec: 👍

Dystopian but not overly so. Mystery. Thriller. I can’t say much more bc I hate even teeny spoilers. It’s so, so good.

💙📚⏳📚🖋️📚⚡️📚💬
#BookSky #Books #Reviews #TBR #BookRec #LitFic #Reading #Fiction #Literature #Love #Thriller #Mystery

Thank you. I wanted to learn how to design one so the book blog was started! I’m out of the habit of writing longer form reviews there but it was a great way to learn design skills.

TBR all of them. 😂

My left hand holds a hardcover library copy of “The Book of Guilt” by Catherine Chidgey. Morning light on a bedroom wall and household clutter peeks behind the book. The cover itself mostly blue sky with green sumner clouds. At bottom is green grass rolling down to the right at a soft decline. A blonde haired boy lays on the grass with the top of his head toward us, booted feet and knobby knees to the sky and askew. He could be cloud gazing and wiggling as kids do or in a kind of somersault down the incline. Above and across the sky, the title is written in a coordinating blue and looks like it was written with a brush.

Loving this library find! Dystopian mystery/thriller.

TBR

TBR

My left hand holds a hardcover library copy of “The Book of Guilt” by Catherine Chidgey. Morning light on a bedroom wall and household clutter peeks behind the book. The cover itself mostly blue sky with green sumner clouds. At bottom is green grass rolling down to the right at a soft decline. A blonde haired boy lays on the grass with the top of his head toward us, booted feet and knobby knees to the sky and askew. He could be cloud gazing and wiggling as kids do or in a kind of somersault down the incline. Above and across the sky, the title is written in a coordinating blue and looks like it was written with a brush.

Just over halfway. How am I not seeing this book everywhere?! So glad my #library displayed it bc this was a book I picked up for the cover.

💙📚🖋️📚⏳📚
#BookSky #Dystopian #Fiction #LitFic #Literature #Mystery #Literature #AmReading #MondayRead #Books #BookRec #Review #Love #Reading

Books We Love Here are 380+ great reads from 2025 handpicked just for you by NPR staffers and trusted critics.

I’ve read 6 (so far). Better than 5 last year. At this rate, eventually, I’ll have a year when I read them all.

#BookSky

apps.npr.org/best-books/?...

A paperback library book sits on a white, cube shelf. It is “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich. It leans against a prayer plant with deep green leaves painted with bright red veins. “Shelfy” items are seen around it. A frame sits against the wall behind, more library books and a pink ball of yarn with circular needles in it are seen on the shelf below. The book cover itself is white. A woman stands on the left half of the image, ankles together and arms tight to her sides. Long black hair blows straight out to the right across the cover. Every part of her from one eyebrow down is obscured by a bright red color that imitates fabric. It also trails straight out from her body across the cover filling most of the image. Title and author are in black and white across the red.

Absolutely recommend this book! A fab story of childhood, mystery, murder that immerses the reader in indigenous culture, religion, and history.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Rec:👍👍👍

💙📚⏳📚🖋️📚💬

#BookSky #Literature #Fiction #Mystery #Novel #LitFic #Books #Review #AmReading #Love #HistoricalFiction #BookReview #BookRec

Wow!

A paperback, library copy of “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich lays on the edge of a round coffee table. I snapped the photo from directly above. Closer to camera at top of image are deep green leaves of a polka dot Begonia, they have large white spots as the name suggests. The table is a walnut tone and in the bottom right corner a snatch of orange floral carpet is furthest from camera. The book cover itself is white. A woman stands on the left half of the image, ankles together and arms tight to her sides. Long black hair blows straight out to the right across the cover. Every part of her from one eyebrow down is obscured by a bright red color that imitates fabric. It also trails straight out from her body across the cover filling most of the image. Title and author are in black and white across the red.

Half through “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich. This is my first of her books and I’m a fan so far!

💙📚🖋️📚💬
#BookSky #Indigenous #Stories #Novel #Historical #Literature #Fiction #Mystery #Books #AmReading #BookRec #Review #Love #Friday #TGIF #WeekendReading

😂

Finished. Wow. Thank you for the advice. It got so good!

I did keep reading and so glad I did. Thank you for the encouragement. 💛

My eReader lays in a white countertop with grey marbling. Bright, white sun sprays across the screen through a water glass (well, a jar) next to it. The reader has a skin that is white with a floral wallpaper style print featuring blue-ish foliage and pink roses. The face of the reader shows a blank and white rendering of the book cover for “The Bee Sting” by Paul Murray. Simple block letters name the title and the author. Between them, center of screen is a drawing of a bee, flying or falling at a downward angle. Trailing from his stinger in cursive script is “a novel.”

I’m glad I finished this!! The last quarter picked up such a momentum my heart was racing in the final pages.

The way Murray uses the literary toolbox (foreshadowing, symbolism, metaphor, etc) are just masterful.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Rec: 👍

💙📚🖋️📚💬📚🌱
#BookSky #BookReview #Love #Reading #LitFic #Literature

Did you enjoy this read?

Agreed. Feels like it really only tries to be a sci-fi in the last quarter of the book and then with a lot of odd holes and weirdness. “Weirdness” in that it left me feeling strange and like I’d picked up a different book that didn’t really make sense.

favorite one of these author scam emails i have gotten lately was on last tuesday the subject was 'readers arent noticing lucky day' and i thought 'i dont know about that, robot, it was nominated for a goodreads award today what else do you want from me?'

🤦🏻‍♀️ Yep. So obvi now. Thank you for explaining.

Oh man! I felt like the constant comments from this account were off.. but how do you tell that it’s fake?