Lockwood and Co Series by Jonathan Stroud

Doubts, like ghosts, gain strength in darkness

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksJune 16, 2023Fantasy, favorites, series

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Men find it easier to believe they have been swindled by a witch than outwitted by a woman.

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksJune 2, 2023Fantasy, favorites, magic, series, new releases

A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales

A Most Agreeable Murder feels as if Bridgerton and Agatha Christie came together, with a sprinkling of Twilight, and made a book.

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksMay 30, 2023new releases, ARC, mystery

Everything's Fine by Cecilia Rabess

Sometimes it’s better to be happy than right.

The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self by Michael Easter

Scientists are finding that certain discomforts protect us from physical and psychological problems like obesity, heart disease, cancers, diabetes, depression, and anxiety, and even more fundamental issues like feeling a lack of meaning and purpose.

Nonfiction BooksBeguiled By BooksMay 23, 2023recommended, informative, Philosophy, Psychology

Coward: Why We Get Anxious & What We Can Do About It by Tim Clare

Anxiety works by anticipating and inhibiting. It says: Don’t do that, you’ll get hurt. Don’t do that, you’ll be disappointed. Don’t do that, you’ll embarrass yourself. Anxiety likes routine. It likes predictability. It likes knowing outcomes.

The Bookbinder by Pip Williams

If you shrink yourself to the smallness of your circumstances, you’ll soon disappear.

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksMay 16, 2023favorites, historical fiction

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Words are our tools of resurrection.

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksMay 12, 2023favorites, Book Gifts, Five Stars, historical fiction

Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May

There is no one predator from which to escape; there are many. We are in the business of running now. It is all so urgent. Every year, it seems we must run harder. There is no other solution. We can only run, and panic, and chatter out our fears to others, who will mirror them back to us.

36 Lessons after 36 Years

It’s not been an easy year, but I’m so incredibly fortunate. Please enjoy my annual list of things I’ve learned.

PersonalBeguiled By BooksMay 5, 2023Goals

Through Smoke and Sand by Corrie Hathaway

What if we could handle the hard things better if we soaked up magic and wonder the rest of the time?

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksMay 2, 2023Fantasy, magic, new releases, Family

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

Wasting talent like yours is like burning a pile of money in front of a poorhouse. It’s cruel and it stinks.

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksApril 28, 2023new releases, Contemporary fiction, ARC, children, YA (young adult), kids

Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright

Imagine if our negative feelings, or at least lots of them, turned out to be illusions, and we could dispel them by just contemplating them from a particular vantage point.

Nonfiction BooksBeguiled By BooksApril 25, 2023recommended, informative, Philosophy, Psychology

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman

Hearts may break, but hearts are the toughest of muscles, able to pump for a lifetime, seventy times a minute, and scarcely falter along the way. Even dreams, the most delicate and intangible of things, can prove remarkably difficult to kill.

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksApril 21, 2023Fantasy, favorites, magic, anthologie, short story, poetry

Outlive by Peter Attia, M.D.

Perhaps my biggest takeaway was that modern medicine does not really have a handle on when and how to treat the chronic diseases of aging that will likely kill most of us.

Nonfiction BooksBeguiled By BooksApril 18, 2023recommended, informative, science, Health Wellness

Half Bad: The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself by Sally Green

And, once that’s done, winning the peace, as they say, will be much more problematic than winning the war.

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksApril 11, 2023Fantasy, magic, series, magical realism, urban fantasy, YA (young adult)

In An Orchard Grown From Ash by Rory Power

My young friend here is using a dull knife when a sharp one would be better.

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksApril 7, 2023Fantasy, magic, series, new releases

In a Garden Burning Gold by Rory Power

She could protect him, or she could do what was right. But she was sure now that she could not do both.

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksApril 4, 2023Fantasy, favorites, magic, series, new releases

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

Be you man or machine, death awaits us all.

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksMarch 28, 2023favorites, new releases, Sci-Fi, LGBTQIA+, adventure, ARC Comments

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Where the ice and the fire met the ice melted, and in the melting waters life appeared: the likeness of a person bigger than worlds, huger than any giant there will be or has ever been. This was neither male, nor was it female, but was both at the same time. This creature was the ancestor of all the giants, and it called itself Ymir.

Fiction BooksBeguiled By BooksMarch 24, 2023favorites, magic, recommended, history, mythology