

Bear's Best of 2015!
As we start to wind down 2015, I've been seeing a lot of best-of lists. You know I need everyone to know what I think. So here are mine. My favorite books published in 2015. I'm ready for you, 2016... come at me, brah! Have you ever read a debut novel by an author and saw in stunning clarity the respect and awards in that author's future? Chigozie Obioma's first novel gave me that vision from the first paragraph. [read more] The greatest and most transformative moments i


Finding your people... Book Riot Live
Last Spring, I was staring at a website... obsessively refreshing even though I knew registration didn't open until 11am. And my c̶r̶a̶z̶i̶n̶e̶s̶s̶ persistence paid off when at 10:58am, I was able secure my spot at Book Riot Live. Book Riot has felt like my book spirit animal since shortly after it's inception. Finally a book site that wasn't trying to be highbrow, snobby or ironic. No hipster beards, manbuns or JFranz lovers here (alright, alright , I'm okay with the bear


The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
The minute I was made aware of this book's release, I knew I needed it in my hot little hands. So I found the library closest to me that was in-processing it and managed to grab the first hold spot. And then I ran out of audiobooks and knew I was getting dangerously close to the 14 day lending timeframe my library has for new books... so I ended up listening to it on audio instead. I still ended up owing the library 15 cents for it... because, I'm me. This book hit so close

Too big for my britches
So, because I've been nailing 2015... reading-wise (not so much diet or exercise or life-plan wise), I think I recently got wayyyy too ambitious. I'm reading Selected Letters of Dawn Powell for my challenge... I'm listening to Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer... I took out Horrorstor (too lazy to figure out umlauts) by Grady Hendrix... I took out Delicious Foods by James Hannaham... I just picked up The Turner House by Angela Flournoy from my hold at