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Making: The best part of a holiday weekend is all the time I get to play play play.
I’ve discovered @willa.wanders this year by taking her class on lettering which was life-changing for me. I then signed up for her journal making class which gave me endless amounts of joy. Now I get to practice lettering in my Willa journal daily. #art #lettering #quotes #collage 
Writing: I just finished the June Five Things class by @lizelayne and have loved waking up to her invitation to pause and her simple and yet thoughtful prompts and her inspiring links every morning.
I was on such a roll that I decided.to continue my daily list making by redoing the prompts she’d shared for the February edition. If you haven’t taken her classes before, I highly recommend them. Loving doing them in my @willa.wanders journal. #art #collage #fivethings
This is a different and interesting book on how to structure your sketches for a scene with buildings and landscape. It focuses less on how to draw the bits of a building but more around how to make decisions around where to frame the elements of the scene, how to get the proportions and perspective right and then how to break down the structures of the drawing to get the scene to match what you’re looking at. It’s unlike any other book I’ve read on this topic and I think for that reason alone, it’s a valuable addition to your library of art/sketching books. with gratitude to Tuttle Publishing and edelweiss for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
3.5 stars. This is a well written story that has the most interesting premise. I think the blurb doesn’t do this book justice as the mystery at its heart doesn’t really unfold until way too late in the story and it’s not really a mystery story. I think this would be much better marketed as a speculative literary story. I thought the ending was also rushed and not clear. But I still enjoyed the writing and it’s unlike many other books I’ve read.
What a gem of a novel. If you’re looking for something uplifting and joyful and sweet, this is the book for you.
William Kent Krueger’s “This Tender Land” was my favorite novel of 2019. I then read “Ordinary Grace” and loved it as well. So I was extremely excited to read “The River We Remember” and worried it would disappoint me. I needn’t have. Krueger’s stories have the perfect balance of rich atmosphere, layered and flawed characters that you can’t help but love, beautiful and funny dialogue and they are just heartbreaking and tender all at once. And this one is no exception. On its surface it’s a book about murder and solving the mystery behind it. But, of course, it’s about so much more. It’s about family and love and a small town, and rights, and repressing others, and immigration and assimilation, about hatred and bigotry. It’s about coming together to save each other. It’s stunning and it will stay with me for a long time as all his stories do. with gratitude to netgalley and Atria Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
Nathan Hill’s “The Nix” was my favorite novel of 2016. I laughed so hard and I loved every moment I spent with that novel. Even so, I was worried about requesting “Wellness” since it’s more than 600 pages and what if I didn’t like it? After a lot of hemming and hawing I requested it any way and slowly started reading it, hoping it wouldn’t be too hard to get through. I spent the next three days of my vacation wanting to do nothing but read this book. I fell in love with the characters. I laughed, I cried, I was touched, I was mad. I loved following every single meandering thread of story Hill took me down and I exclaimed with joy when he brought it all back and tied it with an awesome knot. This book singlehandedly made my vacation ten times better than it already was. I came home feeling full of joy and could not stop talking about the book to everyone I saw. I am absolutely confident it will be my favorite read of 2023. Nathan Hill has done the impossible and his sophomore novel is even better than his breakout novel and his story is funny, meaningful, thought provoking, and tender. I loved and cherished every single minute I spent with it. I cannot recommend it enough. Now I really hope he hurries up and writes another novel. with gratitude to netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
3.5 stars. I am so glad this story exists. I am thankful to Page for telling his story. We need more stories told, we need more leaders in this space. At the same time, I thought this particular book was not as well paced and structured as it could have been. It wasn’t clear what deep story it wanted to tell. I still really enjoyed reading it and I really hope it paves the way for many many other stories.
I find Ali’s novels to be eminently readable. I enjoy them and like falling into her worlds. They are my little happy place.
This is the story of four friends who decide to take a road trip to confront their old Speech Team coach years later after another one of their friends commits suicide and they all realize that the words the coach used with them has broken each of them in different ways and has stayed with them all these years. So they decide to confront him. Each of the characters is multi-layered and richly designed. The story is heart warming and at the same time honest to itself and to how the world is. It makes you mad, sad, warm, happy, joyful, thoughtful and it renews your faith in humanity and our ability to take care of ourselves and each other. Reminds you that there’s hope for all of us. with gratitude to PENGUIN GROUP Viking, Viking and netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars This was interesting but for some reason not as captivating to me as it seems to have been to everyone else.
Here’s another really unusual book if you’re working on sketching like I am. Unlike many books that focus on how to get every line right and how to create clear and well done sketches, this book focuses on how to create drawings that invoke meaning and a story with the most minimalist lines possible. It’s a super interesting way to approach sketching and I really loved the authors multiple interpretations of the same scene. He’s clearly an amazing artist and at the same time he was able to make this book really accessible and feel doable for a beginner like me. Super interesting. with gratitude to Quarry Books and edelweiss for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review |
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