In The Margins
A place for literary musings, bookish blurbs, and deep dives any bibliophile will love. I promise you it will be weird & wonderful!
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Every book related website, whether curated by professional writers, publishers or booklovers, is awash in some variation of "100(ish) Books To Read Before You Die". After perusing many of these lists, I can say with confidence that they are heavily redundant, somewhat elitist, and likely comparable to the most boring assignment you have gotten since high school. Surely there must be a better list of books I can recommend you keep company with in your dying days. So, here goes!
If you like your tales twisty, you are my kinda reader! These reads you keep you guessing at every turn and reading way past your bedtime. Trust me, they are worth a little less shut eye!
When I'm reviewing a book, I always think back to something I read once…Sometimes you read for the story, sometimes you read for the characters and sometimes you read for the writing. The master wordsmiths manage to excel at all three. It's those incomparable talents and their best works I have gathered for you here, as well as some new masters for good measure!
Most of my friends get excited about summer for the pools, the patios and the people watching. Me, I can’t wait for all the amazing books that are coming my way! I have culled through dozens and dozens of titles and curated a list that is sure to please! Happy Reading & Happy Summer!
Stephen King confides that most of the time he doesn’t really know where his ideas come from. That usually he catches a glimpse of something or hears a snippet of conversation or maybe a song lyric and if it comes to mind when he sits down to write, he just see’s where the story takes him. I’m not sure how to feel about the fact that his potent imagination is as much a surprise to him as it is to his readers…comforted? Terrified? Awed? He is peerless in describing the goings on inside a characters mind, where true terror lies. Alone in the dark and the quiet.
There is something about reading a microhistory, a book that is laser focused on just one subject, that makes me a little giddy. Apologies, sometimes it's impossible to tamp down my inner nerd. Looking for tales of the toilet, backstories about butts, portraits of pockets, snippets about sugar...here you'll find deep dives into niche subjects you didn't know you were interested in! Reading should always be this fun!
So, in other words…my people! Rejoice fellow consumers of content created in the book world, have I got a book list for you! Set in libraries, bookstores and even book mobiles (remember those!?!). Some with magic, mystery or even horror. Whatever your imagination could come up with, these reads will not disappoint.
In recent years, writers have stretched our preconceptions of the archetypes, subverting our expectations and turning them on their heads. What fun! Read on and find out more about the elderly master, the bossy pants, the nerd, the lovable rogue, the trickster and more!
I hope you don’t think less of me when I tell you that I have a secret love for fictional spins on true crime stories. Maybe it’s just that I can justify my fascination with the claim…it’s not true. Silly rabbit. In these picks both truth and fiction grace the page. Which parts are which are to be found in the reading…
Say what you want about the romance, but these books are overwhelmingly written by and for women, where women’s desires are given center stage. And increasingly they are inclusive, smart, savvy, and sexy! So, allow me to cue up a stack of steamy(ish) novels fit for a ravenous binge. Bon Appetit!