april: 9, 10, 11 & 12

war and peace, by leo tolstoy (arron and i loved this book, which we read from late november to early april, about 75 pages a week.  we had weekly book club talks over dinner.  i read a short companion guide along the way.  this book is both pretentious (did we read it because we felt like educated people have read this book?  yes we did) and an actually great book (the character development was brilliant and the observations about humanity were spot on).  if you have a 1,400 page book in you, i would like to recommend this one.)

portrait of a thief, by grace d. li (i read this for the adult battle of the books competition i've joined, and it was fine and relatively enjoyable but not worth recommending to others.)

when women were dragons, by kelly barnhill (veronica recommended this book to me and i really enjoyed it - a world in which women in the 1950s spontaneously turn into dragons instead of accede to patriarchal demands, and then the implications for those they leave behind.  really intriguing premise and had enough plot to keep it going.  i'd recommend this!)

dungeon crawler carl, by matt dinniman (well, now i'm obsessed.  i alternated between listening (in the car and on walks) and reading (in bed) and then as soon as i finished i forced arron to listen to it and i listened to it all the way through again.  i love carl and princess donut.  i loved the audiobook narrator.  i didn't think i would enjoy a litrpg book but it turns out i really did.  read this book!)

march: 5, 6, 7 & 8

not my father's son, by alan cumming (i listened to the audiobook and it turns out i read it before!  thanks, blog for reminding me of that when i got halfway through and was like I HAVE DEFINITELY READ THIS BEFORE HOW ELSE COULD I KNOW WHERE THIS WAS GOING.  loved it - great memoir - would highly recommend if you have any interest in alan cumming.  he reads the audiobook, which is excellent!)

imbeciles: the supreme court, american eugenics, and the sterilization of carrie buck, by adam cohen (this was not a light read but was an important one and i was glad to dive into this (really problematic) era of american history.  i definitely recommend this to people who like reading nonfiction.)

isola, by allegra goodman (i read this because we were considering it for a summer reading book for students; we ultimately decided not to pick it but i am glad i read it - historical fiction that was pretty interesting and compelling.  well written.  i'd recommend!)

the road to tender hearts, by annie hartnett (i looooooved this book and have added the other books by this author to my list.  funny, touching, compelling - i really wanted to know how the storyline was going to play out.  my version of an excellent beach read that you could read in a weekend!)