Rating: 4/5 | All You Can Ever Know is Girls' Night In Club's February book pick, and I really enjoyed it. I listened to the audiobook, which was well narrated. Nicole Chung is a really great writer, and her storytelling sheds light on experiences that many people do not often see or understand. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | This book spent quite a while on my to-read list, and I'm so glad that I finally picked it up. As always, Jodi Picoult gives us a brave, thorough, empathetic, well-rounded story about one of the most controversial topics of our time. The book's unique format makes it even more interesting to read, and I felt it was just so well done. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 3.5/5 | I read Joyful as part of my subscription to the Next Big Idea Club, and it was really, really interesting. Ingrid Fetell Lee is a designer who's spent years researching the aesthetics of joyful things (like confetti and balloons and the Rockettes). Then she goes into how you can bring the same aesthetics into your own surroundings (short of throwing confetti around your home). (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | I was very excited to read Living on the Borderlines because I grew up in upstate New York, not far from where many of these stories take place. I know a lot of the small towns, highways, and landmarks referenced. That always makes for a fun reading experience. But beyond that, I loved the stories themselves. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | Such Good Work was really, really good. Lichtman's writing is introspectively profound and yet straightforward and simple. It made for a lot of underlined passages and a hard-hitting story. There's also some sort of story-ception going on here, which was a delightful surprise and still has me mulling this whole thing over. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | I. Love. This. Trilogy. Chakraborty has built an impressively intricate universe with a terrifying political climate, deep characters, a rich history, and a suspenseful storyline. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | Wow. Wowowow. This is exactly the kind of exciting, beautiful, diverse, badass fantasy novel I want in my life. It kept me humming and hawing about what was going to happen, and the ending was so well done — the perfect amount of excitement, heartbreak, answers, and new mysteries. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | The Gilded Wolves is an exciting, pull-off-an-impossible-heist-to-save-the-world story with multiple POVs. So, basically, if you liked Six of Crows, this is for you. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | Anyone who reads a fair amount of nonfiction will tell you: Too many nonfiction books say pretty much nothing new. Refreshingly, When is not one of those books. I read it as part of my subscription to the Next Big Idea Club. It taught me new things about myself and about the world and gave me real-life takeaways that I can implement. I only wish that it had been longer! (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 3.75/5 | The Night Tiger was my January 2019 BOTM pick. It was an intriguing, magical look at colonial Malaya (now Malaysia) with a little bit of something for everyone. An innocent little hero? A mind-itching mystery? Themes of destiny, fate family, and love? You got it. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4.5/5 | I love a well-written memoir, and this did not disappoint. Stephanie Land always knew she was meant to be a writer — she was right. Maid is well constructed, well written, and impactful. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | I read this book because it was the Girls' Night In January book club selection, and I was not disappointed. This is the perfect book for a book club — there's a ton to digest, to ruminate about, to discuss. Themes of siblinghood, death, destiny, magic, and love. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 2/5 | I read this book as one of the selections of the Next Big Idea Club, which I highly recommend if you like to read nonfiction. Unfortunately, though, I just didn't really get into this book. Maybe it's because I'm not at the point in my career where I'm looking for advice on how to become a CEO, but it just didn't hold my attention very well. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4.5/5 | There are a lot of nonfiction books out there, and so many of them are just okay. They put forth an idea in a book that could really be a long-form article; much of it is fluff. The Art of Gathering is NOT that. This book was refreshingly original, useful, and gosh darn interesting. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | I may be a little late to the party, but oh man — am I glad I came. I do read memoirs regularly, but this was unlike anything I've read before. It's hard to describe why, but it's just good. It's just really well written, really engaging, really fascinating, and really emotional. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | That was...intense. There's no other word for it. I read the second half of this book alone on my couch on New Year's Eve, and I couldn't have had it any other way; if my husband had tried to talk to me during that time, I might have blown up. Literally. At one point my Apple Watch told me that my heart rate had been "over 100 bpm when you appeared to be inactive for 10 minutes." LOL. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | I picked this book up because in case you haven't noticed, everybody and their mother read it this month. It was catchy and sweet and surprisingly relatable. I sandwiched it between a couple of heavier books. It was a great lightweight read for winter. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | This was a fast read, but it was really engaging. When he sent it to me, Greg compared it to The Giver. I was skeptical of that statement, but it was actually a pretty good comparison, at least in style and subject matter. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | I checked this audiobook out of the library because it was Girls' Night In's December book club pick. Abbi narrated it herself, which is always great. (I highly recommend listening to memoirs when the author reads them.) The book was really personal, totally real, and a true delight to listen to. Oh, and definitely very funny. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | Full disclosure: Books like this were made for me. I love feminist fiction, and I really love retellings — especially Greek mythology. Madeline Miller is my jam. This book is also my jam. I loved every page. (Click the post to read more.)