"I like best to have one book in my hand, and a stack of others on the floor beside me, so as to know the supply of poppy and mandragora will not run out before the small hours." —Dorothy Parker

Me too, Dorothy. Add one in my purse and two or three in my Audible queue, and I'm a happy girl indeed. This year, I've resolved to read more and watch the news less. Seems like a surefire ticket to sanity. My current stack has me thinking 2017 is gonna be all right. We're all due for a good one, aren't we?  

What better way to start the year off right than with good reads? Our book club selection, Far From the Madding Crowd, has me enchanted at 119 pages in. Next up: The Orphan Keeper. Finally. Which I'll try not to race through too fast just to get to the reads below cuz I'm itchin to crack 'em open. I may have to resort to reading two or three (or all) at once. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

 Here's to a happier new year filled with the hope of good books.

This was just one of the delightful surprises in my Christmas package from Tray. With her spotless track record for picking great reads, this is sure to be a winner. One reviewer wrote of Bone Gap: "It is a rare book that sits comfortably on the shelf with the works of Twain, McCullers, Conroy, Stephen King, and D'Aulaires' Greek Myths—rarer still that a novel combines elements of these authors together." Sold.

The Snow Child was one of my favorite reads of 2015 (also a gift from Tray—do you see a pattern developing?). So when I saw Eowyn Ivey has spun another tale, you bet I snatched it right up. From the sound of this review of To the Bright Edge of the World, I won't be disappointed: "Ivey not only makes [this novel] work, she makes it work magnificently...The Snow Child (a lovely retelling of an old Russian folk tale), was a runaway hit, an international best seller, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her second work is even better.”

Not much of a science gal...okay, not one at all. No matter, the reviews all tell me that I'll still love Lab Girl. It's on just about every list of best memoirs of 2016, but Ann Patchett is the one who convinced me to give it a whirl: “Some people are great writers, while other people live lives of adventure and importance. Almost no one does both. Hope Jahren does both. She makes me wish I’d been a scientist.” 

Posted by Rachel