📚 Sometimes I have to start a book several times before it holds my interest. A GAME OF THRONES was like that, but eventually I caught it in the right moment for me and A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE became one of my favorite series. What’s a book you had to start several times but ended up loving?

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[A brass navigational tool and a Tyrion Lannister Funko Pop figure sit on top of a stack of books.]

I carry a tote bag around my house as I move through my day. I never know what I’ll be in the mood to read if I have the time to, so I usually have at least a couple books in there. This is my stack from the beginning of April 2020. How many books do you carry around with you at a time?

Want to read: How to Fail at Flirting by Denise Williams 📚

📚 Right before I started my Grishaverse catch up, I went on a dark academia spree. These were three of the books I read as part of that. They’re each very different from the other and each excellent. I highly recommend any of them. IF WE WERE VILLAINS has classic dark academia vibes with undergrads in a Shakespeare conservatory covering up a shared secret. BUNNY is a surreal and beautiful story set in a graduate writing program. THE HISTORIAN is an epic novel of following Dracula’s story and a family of scholars as they unravel mysteries from New York to Romania, with stops in Istanbul and Hungary along the way.

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I have Mona Awad’s next book, ALL’S WELL, in my @netgalley queue and am excited to read it. What’s a book you’re looking forward to reading soon?

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[Three books are stacked on a coffee table in front of a brick fireplace.]

📚 Remember how I said my hammock was my favorite reading spot? Here’s a flashback to me reading SIX OF CROWS in my hammock a few weeks ago. The purple thing is @the_book_seat, which has changed my reading life. I have chronic pain and sometimes my wrists hurt too much to hold up a heavy book like this one. The Book Seat does it for me. (This isn’t a paid endorsement or ad. My husband got me the Book Seat for my birthday last year. I just really love it.)

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[A copy of SIX OF CROWS is open to Chapter 30, a Jesper chapter. Green trees are in the background. The edge of a purple cushion is in the foreground.]

Want to read: Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope 📚

Want to read: Anya of Ark by Kristian Joseph 📚

Post-graduation reception.

Tassel turned! (The gown and hood were too itchy to keep on with only a sundress underneath.)

Let’s get this virtual graduation show on the road. [My son and I smiling. I am wearing doctoral regalia, including a dark blue PhD hood and velvet tam. A lightsaber blur is in the bottom right corner.]