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@mostlybookstuff

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My October @bookofthemonth box has arrived! Birthday month is the best month. #bookofthemonth #botm by @mostlybookstuff

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6 days ago

I’ve never done well with stories of bikers or witches but put them together and I’m suddenly the kombucha girl meme. #CRONE by #keithrosson made it into my first full @aardvarkbookclub box because it looks so hardcore. Violence, especially gang violence, can feel repetitive on paper, but this ex-detective story is elevated with the violence of witchcraft. It’s something fierce, exacting, and immensely satisfying. Witches also usually convey a certain whimsical aesthetic that I cannot get into, but this #aardvarkbookclub pick boasts a creature that is awesome and terrible. Like, this is a witch I can work with!

Thirteen years ago, Eli’s teenage daughter went missing and his small life was made even smaller. Eking out his days as a reluctant enforcer for the Crooked Wheel, Eli is still searching for answers he may never find. When his boss’s son is brutally murdered, Eli has no choice but to investigate; dredging up the past and his personal failings along with it. The pacing is excellent and I really enjoyed the bleak setting of the Oregon coastline. I wonder if this is what my previous read called “rural horror”, which sounds like a genre I could get into. #CRONE is also an early release and celebrates its #pubday today! by @mostlybookstuff

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17 days ago

This @aardvarkbookclub pick is a scathing takedown of our obsession with stories gay, sad, and dark. The storyteller is as much a part of the story as the characters they create; so why does a writer choose to write a particular story? What is their underlying connection? The discerning reader is also its own conundrum. We want authenticity and a whole lot of drama. We also want something familiar and validating, but delivered in a way we haven’t considered before. It’s been seven years since Mallory’s runaway hit and all she wants is to write again. After a fruitful Reddit search, she crosses paths with a young addict named Leo and begins to put his story to paper. Her CREATIVE FLARE has been set ablaze. She’s not stalking anyone, just OBSERVING. And her editor loves it! The words are flowing as long as Leo is around.

And that is just the tip of the synopsis. The most exhilarating part of #FRUITFLY is when Mallory escapes the cage of Crouch End and roams around London, involving herself in Leo’s life. When she is at home, she’s caught in something insidious. Her husband unsettles her, but Mallory puts a permanent smile on her face to keep things LIGHT and FUN. She is great at avoiding pain. Meanwhile, Leo is drowning in it. His life is excruciating, but it’s his own until it isn’t. #FRUITFLY by #joshsilver sticks a finger into the very rot of the publishing industry, examining our complicity in selling and consuming traumatic stories. This #aardvarkbookclub pick cleverly lets us know that readers will always get what they want. by @mostlybookstuff

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21 days ago

#MAZYWOOD by #tananarivedue is about a child actor who became a real star “if only for a gasp of time”. Mazelle has always believed she could make it in Hollywood; in her short seven years, she was a part of her family’s traveling troupe until her parents had enough of being on the road. If Mazelle had a friend, they could perform together forever. Enter Scout the Wonder Dog! This dog knows her whole heart, her thoughts, and all her secrets. He does exactly what Mazelle tells him to do. It isn’t too long before the Washingtons move from Gracetown, Florida, to Los Angeles, where Mazelle begins her career as Little Mazy; thus providing for her family as the sole income earner.

Wishes go bad in this @aardvarkbookclub pick. Mazelle’s celebrity is short-lived when her contract ends and Scout disappears. When Mazelle resurfaces again, she is eighteen and an extra on the set of Gone with the Wind (1939). She finds a mentor in Hattie McDaniel, who commiserates with her about what the industry is like for Black actresses. But Mazelle knows her worth even as she loses out on roles to the likes of Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge. She falls back on a piece of advice that Charlie Chaplin once gave her and dedicates her brilliant self to physical comedy. She makes a lot of money playing Lazy Mazy the maid, ultimately securing her legacy, even if it’s not the one she wanted.

Mazelle’s grandson faces a similar predicament in present day. Johnny is sixty and has outgrown his Frat House Haunting horror franchise. At his wife’s urging, they take an ill-advised trip to Mazelle’s mountain lodge with the children. The place is a time capsule, enticing and terrifying, especially for Johnny, who only knows Mazelle as a violent and abusive woman. As the family settles in for a snowy night, something else joins the reunion too; a forsaken creature who still harbors Mazelle’s rage and pain fifty years after her passing. This #aardvarkbookclub pick was one chilling and bittersweet read; I loved the isolated setting and historical romp through Old Hollywood. #MAZYWOOD is also an early release and it comes out NEXT WEEK. by @mostlybookstuff

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24 days ago

Happy Saturday! I’m currently making my way though my September @aardvarkbookclub picks. I am the most excited for MAZYWOOD, which wasn’t on my radar two weeks ago but is now actually giving me life. #aardvarkbookclub by @mostlybookstuff

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a month ago

#UNDERSTORY by #chloebenjamin dives into the story under the story. The book essentially begins with one story, and by part two we’re underneath that story. We will then remain there for the rest of the book. But first, the story: Laurel Salter once had a promising career as a mycologist. She spent years researching what intelligence looked like in fungi. She was also a wife and mother. Now Laurel is alone and desperate to change her life. She applies to be a kitchen steward for a research station in Antarctica. It turns out to be a happening place; there is an anomaly out on the ice that has captured the interest of the scientific community. Laurel’s ex-husband, a physicist, arrives shortly after. Eli’s life work in proving the existence of the antiuniverse (where time flows backward) spurs Laurel to take some “spooky action” of her own. If she can find a portal to the other side, she’ll be able to get back everything she lost.

And now, the #UNDERSTORY: Laurel and Eli cross over in 2017. In their universe, their son died in 2014. But now, they have three years until his birth. In the antiuniverse, a mentee becomes a mentor and a child raises their parents. The fungus also composes and a human is born from the soil. We are as bewildered as Laurel and Eli are when they pick up the threads of their old lives. Their plan is to retrieve their son and then find a way back home, but things rarely turn out as expected. Just like THE IMMORTALISTS, we are carried away by what ifs and if onlys. The world building here is unbelievably immersive as well as nostalgic, especially when we leave the 2000s for the 1990s. Everyone really ought to experience the antiuniverse for themselves. So grab your copy today and discover the grief and joy of a tomorrow that is “already written” and a yesterday that is still “yours to change”. by @mostlybookstuff

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a month ago

Katie is the ultimate baby woman in #KITTEN by #staceyyu. She is newly twenty-two and still a nonperson, having “basically just broken up” with her mother only a year ago. She is currently on the rebound with James, a fully functioning adult who has planned a getaway to his childhood home in upstate New York in honor of Katie’s birthday and their half-year anniversary. His family pet, a cat named Silver, is also coming along. At novel open, Katie is immediately taken with Silver, both of whom lack potential and life plans as well as the desire to do anything about it.

This debut may appear cat-oriented; does Katie want to be a cat or, specifically, her boyfriend’s cat? Thankfully, this isn’t a book about metamorphosing. Katie is simply a sad girl who misses her mother. I was in my feels, especially when she delivers an in-depth analysis of the tragedy that is Mamma Mia! (2008) as it pertains to her own mother. By inviting all the men from her mother’s past to her wedding, Amanda Seyfried’s character was actually trying to figure out who her mother was the whole time. Katie’s mother has always been unknowable too. And now Katie has truly abandoned her, and it’s so hard to be your own person when your mother is mad at you.

As Katie relishes her time with Silver, the cat, in turn, forces Katie to confront all the ways she could do better. It’ll take baby steps (and some baby speak), but Katie may well be getting somewhere on her own after all. I read the last third of the book slowly, so I could savor the adulting. Readers might also find that Silver behaves quite bizarrely for a cat. I think #KITTEN is weird cat lit, a subgenre about a delightful creature that blesses those around her before returning whence she came. by @mostlybookstuff

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a month ago

I’m celebrating my six year #bookstaversary today! I have always considered September to be the true start of the year. I feel the most settled around this time; simultaneously looking forward to big releases but also trying to wrap up reading goals. That said, I’ve had the bestest luck this year acquiring some highly anticipated reads on @pangobooks. Here are my finds so far! This #bookstack also includes my shortest and longest reads of the year. #checkingin #pangobooks by @mostlybookstuff

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a month ago

Barr Pennington is cooked. He knew it the moment Luna looked him in the eye and said she smelled meat. Luna is a dog, by the way. #LUNAPHOENIXQUEEN by #julieorringer follows the “emergency egress” of a woman who travels to Dublin to accept a literary prize on behalf of her husband and then falls in love with her best friend. This slip from the established and accepted, from placing the demands of her husband and children above her own, brings Dava unparalleled joy even as she begins to experience the charred ruins of memory loss. It’s not too long before Svetlana stops arguing with Dava about their future when all that remains is the present. Meanwhile, Barr is weary from playing the caretaker. When he discovers Dava’s manuscript detailing her love affair, he publishes it under his name to great acclaim. The accolades mean so much and the proceeds have since helped tremendously with their debt. Barr has always believed that he was meant for an exceptional life. Was this not a confirmation of that truth?

A research assistant adopts a dog and is confronted with how precarious her life is. Evie left California for Illinois because her father is dying and her mother cannot keep up with the medical bills. There is also a missing brother that she ought to do something about. Alas, Evie spends her days running errands for Professor Pennington while trying to complete her thesis. When she finally requests what she is owed, Evie tumbles into an “emergency egress” of her own. I liked how the dog can represent blinding clarity to one character and uncertainty for another. Besides symbolism, I also appreciated references to classic novels, from Dava purchasing Night and Day by Virginia Woolf at the airport bookstore to the late-night sledding scene which brought to mind Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. This one is for all the bookish #dogue lovers out there. Thanks so much to @aaknopf for sending me this ARC. #LUNAPHOENIXQUEEN comes out 10/13/2026. by @mostlybookstuff

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a month ago

A promising young woman becomes a punchline when she is invited to stay at the country estate of a legendary film director. #GIVEMEEVERYTHINGYOUVEGOT by #imogencrimp is an unsettling excavation of the self. It’s akin to your personal effects being strewn about and you’re holding up pieces of yourself for praise and approval. You laugh to fill in the silence when nothing is funny. You offer anecdotal tidbits which are greedily seized upon only to be discarded in an unrecognizable state. Ruby is thirty years old and fresh out of a breakup when she arrives on Ellen’s sprawling property. For the next two weeks, she hopes to complete a script under the guidance of her mentor and perhaps assist with Ellen’s own creative endeavors too. Ellen’s daughter, Lara, is also spending the summer at home, ostensibly working on a personal statement for her application to Oxford. All told, it is expected to be a productive time.

Reader, it was not. Ruby is unable to get any writing done in the oppressive heat. Mother and daughter seem to be playing a game with her, which not only irritates Ruby but leaves her feeling jealous. The house is also much too big. In an attempt to leave the grounds one day, Ruby realizes she has been barefoot for a long time and cannot recall where her shoes are. Even when it is obvious that there will be no real feedback on her script, Ruby is still infatuated with Ellen and agrees to look after Lara when Ellen leaves for London. Beguiling Lara, who can’t stop wanting and follows an entirely different set of rules from her mother. In the end, it’ll take Ruby everything else she’s got to get away with it. I found this to be a proper horror novel, as someone who doesn’t read horror lol. It was rife with social gaffes and sweat-drenched sheets. If you’re experiencing a heatwave where you are, you should definitely pick this one up and read it indoors! by @mostlybookstuff

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2 months ago

#BRAWLER by #laurengroff goes round for round in a series of stories that delve into what it means to contain both divinity and darkness. Each one felt like a sucker punch regardless of whether it was the animal or the god that prevailed; sometimes I wasn’t even certain which did. The most astonishing stories for me were THE WIND, BIRDIE, WHAT’S THE TIME, MR. WOLF?, and ANNUNCIATION. My favorite lines held a heavy finality, when something would no longer occur again in this lifetime (a woman refusing to forgive a dying friend who wronged her) or being duty-bound at great cost (a young boy accepting that “everything had been decided for him long before he was born” and ending up on an unsuitable life path). Some stories unfolded like a juicy secret while others left me kind of queasy. All in all, this was a very compelling collection and I’m glad I finally checked it out! by @mostlybookstuff

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2 months ago

#BEGINNINGMIDDLEEND by #valerialuiselli is about starting over at the finish. A woman divorces her husband and her world is “cloven asunder”. In the ensuing chaos, a mother and daughter depart on a book tour, living out of suitcases until they reach Catania, a port city that sits at the base of Mount Etna. Here they find some respite and a good wind. This is where their tale begins, in front of a bookshelf filled with ancient classics.

The mother is writing again, about a mother and a daughter as well as a grandmother and a great-grandmother. The great-grandmother is from Philosophiana, a place not far from where mother and daughter currently are. When she left Sicily for Mexico, the great-grandmother brought with her a means of metamorphosis. It passed onto the grandmother and then to the mother. And now the daughter is determined to return it, to restore what was to bring about what could be.

And that is the plot! It’s a little bit of human drama amidst “the much greater epic of the natural world”. It’s about how memory and imagination meet in the middle to create a “not-fiction”. I love the structure of this novel, told from both mother and daughter. It is “reinventive”, where we learn that to invent isn’t to make something up at all. Thus, to reinvent is to come upon, once more, a thing “that was already there”. And that is the story! by @mostlybookstuff

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2 months ago