Charles Dickens is one of my favorite classic authors. I can completely understand why he wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. His stories are long and meandering. They're often very similar to one another so they can seem to blur together if you've read several of his works. But when it comes to character work and social commentary in industrial, Victorian England, he was a master. I also love his wordy writing style, but that's just me. When I heard that Barbara Kingsolver's acclaimed 2022 novel, Demon Copperhead, is based on Dickens' influential work, David Copperfield, I immediately knew I had to read it and suspected it could be a new favorite. 

"The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between." --Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

I think that reading books about books is a very special experience for all book lovers. It's comforting to see an author portray their own ode to the bookish life through their work. It's so meta, but through them, readers can feel understood and appreciated. I've read many stories about books, bookshops, and readers, and they always inspire me to read even more.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin is a beautiful example of a book about books, and I adored it. It's a heartwarming story about a cranky, lonely bookseller who unexpectedly finds himself having to raise a child who was left at his doorstep.

| goodreads | ★★★★★

It's been a very very long time since I've read a book that was able to pull me in and capture me completely, until I picked up Sourdough by Robin Sloan.
This was a book I found randomly. I very rarely just browse at the library and pick a book I've never heard of. I'm typically committed to choosing reads from my TBR. But for whatever reason, this book caught my eye. I started reading it. And I couldn't put it down.

This is one of the most unique and just plain weird stories I've ever read. All about a mystical, magical sourdough bread starter the main character, Lois, inherits from two brothers who come from a mystical, mysterious culture.
The reader is kept guessing about the significance of the bread starter and where it came from. And even though it's strange, I grew pretty emotionally attached to the bread starter.

I adored Lois and watching her grow confidence throughout the story. She pushes herself out of her comfort zone a lot, despite her fears and insecurities. I felt like she was extremely relatable.

One thing I really appreciate about Robin Sloan and his books is the fact that he incorporates a bunch of technology into his books. In Sourdough and in Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, there is a theme of old traditions, such as physical books, and bread making, and contrasting them with the complicated technology that's developing in the modern era. This is shown in Sourdough with the main character being a coder for a robotics company. It's extremely fascinating to read about, even though it's hard to understand at times.

This is a book that is hard to place under one genre. I would describe it as an adult contemporary, with the feel of science fiction with all the technology that's incorporated into it, and the slightest hint of magical realism.

Honestly, I feel like I could rant about this book and about how much I deeply loved it for forever. It's a book that leaves you helplessly craving sourdough bread with the special spicy soup. It's a super quick read that could be finished easily in a day without effort.
Overall though, I believe it would be best to go into this book mostly blind, without any expectations or preconceived ideas. To just accept the story for what it is, and not question it. But I do highly recommend it. It's made it to my list of favorites for sure!

I have come to believe that food is history of the deepest kind. Everything we eat tells a tale of ingenuity and creation, domination and injustice-and does so more vividly than any other artifact, any other medium. ― Robin Sloan, Sourdough

| goodreads | ★★★★

I like to think that I am the type of reader who can read and love anything. And for the most part that's true. But I don't read a lot of contemporary books. I just have the hardest time finding contemporaries that I actually love. For some reason, though, I found myself actually craving a cute, fluffy, romantic, contemporary book to read.
I stumbled upon Eleanor & Park at my school's library. Since it has been on my TBR shelf for forever, and since I've read and enjoyed Rainbow Rowell's other young adult book, Fangirl, I figured I wouldn't totally hate it (like I typically do with contemporaries).

Guys. This book was all kinds of adorable. The relationship between Eleanor and Park was probably one of my favorite parts of the book. It wasn't the strange, unrealistic case of insta-love that I expected. In fact they can barely stand each other at the beginning. The development of their relationship is nice and gradual. They bond over a shared love for music and superhero comic books, becoming close friends before eventually starting a real romantic relationship. And if you're a helpless romantic (*cough* like me), you can't help but gush as you read it.

I also really enjoyed the setting. The story is set in the 80's, so it is filled with cultural references that give a cool atmosphere to the whole book. It makes you feel like you're reading a book based on an old 80's film, honestly.

I'm always surprised at how Rainbow Rowell is able to also incorporate some pretty heavy topics along with her cutesy romance. There are serious sub-plots that go on in this book, about bullying, working through bad family situations, etc. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will admit that, while this book starts off fairly happy and carefree, the ending was able to make me tear up. It left me with a mild book-hangover when I was done, which hardly ever happens to me with contemporaries.

The only thing that got on my nerves was that Eleanor could get kind of angsty. I tried to be understanding, since she she had a hard life. But there were too many times where her confidence would shatter and she would worry that Park didn't love her anymore because of her weight or whatever, whatever, whatever. It got a bit annoying. Which is probably why Park was my favorite character.
Park was so sweet and understanding and a total nerd. He genuinely cared about Eleanor and didn't want her to get hurt, even if it meant possibly losing her, and I just thought it was adorable.

I forgot how much I love Rainbow Rowell's writing, and now I'm finding myself wanting to reread Fangirl. She is so so good at hooking readers to keep them reading and interested until the very end. Even people like me, who have trouble finding gems in the contemporary genre will become invested.

“Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.” 
― Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park

| goodreads |

For Charli Blake, being seventeen is a tough gig.She's been branded a troublemaker, her reputation is in tatters and she's stuck in Pipers Cove, a speck of a town on the coast of Tasmania.Thankfully, it's temporary. Her lifelong dream of travelling the world is just months away from becoming reality. All she has to do is ride out the last few months of high school, which is easier said than done thanks to a trio of mean girls known as The Beautifuls.When Adam Décarie arrives in town, all the way from New York, life takes an unexpected turn. His arrival sets off a chain of events that alters her life forever, convincing her of one thing. Fate brought him to her.

The Pre-Sloane Emily didn't go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn't do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—the one who yanks you out of your shell. 
But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just… disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try… unless they could lead back to her best friend.
Getting through Sloane’s list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she’ll find?

| goodreads |

I've never been a huge fan of contemporary fiction. I always seem to have trouble finding books in the genre that aren't incredibly cheesy and predictable, with characters that are actually enjoyable. I've tried my hand at reading several of the popular books, but none have ever impressed me much.
So, naturally, when I picked up Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson, I was not at all expecting it to impact me as much as it did.

It started out as a nice, cute, funny, summery read, but towards the end it began to really touch on things I've been struggling with in my own life.

I don't know why. You would probably read this book and think "how in the world did this change Hannah's life?" Disclaimer: it didn't change my life, it just made me realize some things about my life I need to change.

There are two types of people in the world: the Emilys and the Sloanes.

The Sloanes are the outgoing people who everybody loves, they don't mind being different and don't care if other people don't like them, they do what they love anyway.

The Emilys are the people in the background, too scared that they'll mess up to do anything too spontaneous and crazy.

And I realized through reading this book that I am an Emily... and a Sloane. It's hard for me to explain. I sort of feel like I am a Sloane stuck inside an Emily. As Emily went through the list that Sloane sent her, I started feeling more confident myself. And the end was my favorite, but I won't spoil it.

I loved all the characters, Frank and Collins and Dawn, and, of course, Sloane and Emily. They all had their own distinct personality, and it was perfect. The character development in this book was phenomenal, and not just for Emily. Every character changes by the end.

The whole list was so unique too. I kept getting excited for what crazy task Emily would do next.

There were also playlists scattered throughout the story, like when Emily was running. It was a nice little touch that I really liked. I almost wished I didn't have to give the book back to the library so that I could find a time to look up all the songs on the playlists.

The chapters were a bit longer than I usually like (each of the chapters were all mostly close to a hundred pages). Each thing on the list had it's own, personal chapter, but I felt like it could've been broken up more. Even though I did love the story, I found it hard to read because I never had time to get through the long chapters. But that is a seriously minor problem.

If you are a big contemporary fan, or not-so-much, I'm sure you'll enjoy this book. :)

P.S. some of the letters on my keyboard have been sticking. I apologize for any letter-less words you might stumble upon.