About

Hi!  I’m Laila. I’m a life-long voracious reader who wants an outlet for my passion. I’m branch manager of a small public library branch in a medium-sized Southern city. I have a few core library customers with which I can discuss books and recommend titles, and I used to belong to a fun, smart book group. (I recently took a break from the group to pursue more of my own reading whims.) I realized that I need another way to share my love of reading.  So here it is.

I read pretty widely – literary fiction, mystery/thrillers, non-fiction, memoir- but there are definitely still gaps in my reading. I read a lot of backlist titles. I want to stretch myself, but I also know what I like.  I want to read more authors of color and more works in translation. I’m not hung up on genre anymore, but I don’t really read a lot of Romance or Christian Fiction. Just not my thing – at the moment. Who knows, maybe my tastes will change? I’m open to the possibility.

Some of my favorite authors include Margaret Atwood, Kate Atkinson, Marlon James, Barbara Pym, Jess Walter, Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Connelly, Jane Austen, and Ruth Rendell.

Review policy: I don’t accept ARC’s, simply because I have way too much on my TBR list as it is and I don’t want the added pressure of a “due date” for a review.

My favorite books of:

2014:

Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel

the Area X Trilogy – Jeff Vandermeer

Bad Feminist – Roxane Gay

2015:

A Brief History of Seven Killings – Marlon James

Dept. of Speculation – Jenny Offill

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie

2016:

Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi

The Book of Night Women – Marlon James

Mr. Splitfoot – Samantha Hunt

2017:

The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead

Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders

At Mrs. Lippincote’s – Elizabeth Taylor

2018:

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman

Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood – Trevor Noah

An American Marriage – Tayari Jones