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Emily C Gardner

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The Wondering Years by Knox McCoy
25 Bunny Books perfect for Spring
17 Wintery Children’s Books
A Bible Literacy Book Flight
An Epistolary Book Flight

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Forever putting library books in danger... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The closest we got to traveling this weekend was a trip to the creek to wade around and cool off. Hope y’all were able to fend off the heat! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ My second @lucyknisley novel was a delight. An Age Of License is named after a French saying for “the time when you’re young and experimenting with your lives and careers.” Knisley deftly captures that sentiment in this travelogue which documents a trip through parts of Norway, Sweden, Germany and France. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Where French Milk (review on the feed) was more of a collection of snapshots, An Age of License had a distinct narrative arc to propel her musings forward. Knisley’s anxieties about work and love and privilege were infinitely relatable. And if I can’t go there myself, armchair traveling is the best. Aesthetically, I loved the addition of some color vignettes sprinkled throughout. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

When there’s an excessive heat warning all weekend and you have a sick kiddo, you plan to leave the house a mess, let your kids watch too much Busy World Of Richard Scarry and read a graphic novel a day. That’s the plan anyway 😏. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I enjoyed Lucy Knisley’s debut and can tell I will like her later books even better. French Milk (3⭐️) documents Lucy’s and her mother’s five week trip to Paris. She turns 22 on the trip and has all the wild anxiety and exhilaration of a girl on the cusp of post-school adulthood. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Lucy combines black and white photos with her sketches to create a travel diary of sorts. She mostly documents all of their delicious food, items she buys, the museums they visit and her occasional angst. There isn’t much of a narrative push in French Milk, but as a Francophile, I just liked getting a little peak into their trip. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Today’s plan: The Age Of License.

“Maybe this is a hallmark of privilege: certain well-bred young ladies simply cannot conceive of the possibility that somebody will not be along shortly to rescue them.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Have you ever been uncertain what you think of a book only to have the author’s note turn your ambivalence into appreciation? That’s a little how I feel about City of Girls. There was no author’s note, but the last third of this story saved me from disliking the book. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The first part is one big romp - a romp through New York, a romp through the theater, a romp through the bedroom. Vivian is a young, affluent and experiencing true freedom for the first time while staying at her aunt’s midtown playhouse where she puts her sewing skills to good use as the self-appointed costume director. I didn’t care fore the details of her many dalliances (just a personal preference not a judgement on other reader’s steam tolerance) but enjoyed the dizzying peak into 1940s, moneyed New York. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Vivian makes a painful mistake that thrusts her out of the city and shortly thereafter America is catapulted into WWII. The tenor of the book becomes more melancholy and sober which I found easier to connect with. I may not see eye to eye with Vivian, but appreciated her reflections on life and love in her later years. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Due to some personal preferences as a reader, this is a 3.5 ⭐️ book for me. But I will say that Elizabeth Gilbert has a way of sculpting words into fiercely bright scenes that belie the effort she most certainly put into crafting her prose.

I’ve got about 20 pages left in City of Girls and then I need to attack this library stack. I blame @stephaniereads for all of those Lucy Knisley books and after LOVING The River, I couldn’t pass up another of Heller’s books. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ What do you have coming up in your TBR?

A couple solo hours at Starbucks this morning (in which I should have been working...) and my sights set on an evening at Longwood Gardens. I think it’s going to be a good weekend. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ City of Girls - I may be too much of a prude in my reading life for this to work. Time will tell.

Last week at the lake... abandoned a reading guide selection and immersed myself in the world of Eleanor Oliphant. Finished this morning without the watery view. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I now know why people adore Eleanor. Her story is a hard, sweet, funny exploration of loneliness and social awkwardness born from tragedy. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ What’s gift of a novel from Gail Honeyman.

Jack and Wynn, best buddies from college, plan the canoe trip of a lifetime. But it goes awry when a raging forest fire threatens to overtake them. It goes even further of course when they glide past am arguing couple and then only one person emerges from the fog. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ One of my favorite books of the year thus far. I will be acquiring my own copy so I can read it again. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ What I loved: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ • Heller’s ability to construct a plot that was both heart pounding (I can still conjure the ominous vibe I felt while reading) and heart wrenching (I cried). ⠀ • The delicate treatment of human nature and friendship. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ • Such tight, technical writing that still managed to be lyrical. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I’m under no illusion that this is a universal 5⭐️ book (is that ever the case?). But, at the very least, you’d have to acknowledge that it’s written with precision and a palpable sense of place.

THE GOWN was a bit of a let down for me. I was intrigued by the subtitle: A Novel Of The Royal Wedding and thought the seamstress angle was clever. But you know something is off when you aren’t compelled to stay up late to read a book... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Overall, I really enjoyed getting a glimpse into the life of a seamstress but felt the pace was a bit plodding and the way some info was revealed in the future before it was addressed in the past made it a bit boring. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The Gown wasn’t bad, just not compelling. I think I like my historical fiction to pack a more walloping punch and this was more of a beach take on historical fiction.

What’s as evergreen as my sandal tan? Yup... Jane Austen. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ As a high school reader, I think I was enamored by the idea of Austen’s love stories - that her heroines always end up with these gallant, upstanding men despite scheming relations and societal norms. And I think that’s an okay reason to like Austen novels. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ But one of the reasons she is a go-to reread author for me is because her work unveils itself more as I grow as a reader and a person. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Northanger Abbey is the Austen I’ve reread the least, so I was pleased to have a chance to jump in again alongside @erindotsmith, @idlewildreads and @sunnystateofbooks. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ What struck me on the reread is that Catherine’s romance with Henry Tilney is a mere side story, resolved in the last three pages. What we really have is a guileless, and sometimes fanciful, young girl gaining some life experience. Plus a brother-sister villain duo worthy of Bachelor Nation. I don’t think I’ll overlook this one again when I want to reread some Austen.

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