Featured

Oct 9, 2018

A review of the three-month subscription box from Page One Books. Mine is called “For the Foodie,” aka my dream sub box!

Oct 9, 2018

Sep 30, 2018

The September R.E.A.D. Report

Sep 30, 2018

A wrap-up of all my favorites, all the fun activities I did this month, and lots of fall-related things!

Sep 30, 2018

Sep 25, 2018

Best Books to Read in the Fall + My Autumn TBR Stack

Sep 25, 2018

Sep 11, 2018

My Instagram Intellectual Property is Not Your Free Stock Photo

Sep 11, 2018

Let’s talk about permission, giving proper photo credit, and, in general, not using Instagram accounts as free stock photos.

Sep 11, 2018

Sep 4, 2018

The Spines' Most Anticipated Autumn Reads of 2018

Sep 4, 2018

I cannot wrap my brain around how many amazing books are coming out in September, October, and November. Read about the most exciting 11 here!

Sep 4, 2018

Aug 23, 2018

365 Days of Bookstagram

Aug 23, 2018

Featured

Oct 15, 2018

The House Swap by Rebecca Fleet

Oct 15, 2018

The flowers in the bathroom, the song on the CD player, the aftershave in the cabinet— When Caroline and Francis put their home up on a house swap website, the idea was to escape their past, not be reminded of it at every turn.

Oct 15, 2018

Featured

Oct 7, 2018

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

Oct 7, 2018

Featured

Oct 3, 2018

Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance // Ruth Emmie Lang

Oct 3, 2018

Weylyn Grey has never been normal. Taken in by wolves at a young age and able to communicate with nature since birth, he lived an unusual life filled with living on the land and stopping major storms in their tracks. Everyone who spent time with him has a story …

Oct 3, 2018

Featured

Sep 12, 2018

Lake Success: A Novel by Gary Shteyngart

Sep 12, 2018

A deeply narcissistic anti-hero and his doomed hedge fund, a cross-country bus trip through middle America, 2.4 billion dollars of assets under management, and a Yale-educated lawyer turned affluent wife and mother: Lake Success is like a car accident—you can’t help but watch as everything bursts into flames.

Sep 12, 2018

Featured

Sep 2, 2018

Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood

Sep 2, 2018

Patricia Lockwood left her home and her Catholic upbringing behind when she turned 21, met a stranger on the Internet, and married him. When circumstances require them to move back into her parents rectory, the couple experiences the very unusual, married Father Greg Lockwood

Sep 2, 2018

Featured

Aug 21, 2018

The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

Aug 21, 2018

If you could have dinner with any five people, living or dead, who would you choose? For Sabrina, the answer is her estranged father, her ex / love of her life, her best friend, an old professor, and … Audrey Hepburn.

Aug 21, 2018

Featured

Aug 8, 2018

The Honey Farm // Harriett Alida Lye

Aug 8, 2018

A drought, a beekeeper, and a simple advertisement for an artist's commune on a remote honey farm brings Silvia, a recent graduate without a path, Ibrahim, a painter who needs space to be an artist, and a motley crew of other creatives together. ..

Aug 8, 2018

Featured

Jul 30, 2018

Legendary by Stephanie Garber

Jul 30, 2018

A sequel to the popular novel Caraval, Legendary takes us back into the world of games and make-believe with a new narrator and a darker undertone.

Jul 30, 2018

Hello! My name is Megan. 90% of life is books: face behind @the_spines, publishing professional, and all day reader. So glad you're here!

Major mood this weekend ✌🏼 I woke up today wanting to head right to a coffee shop with a massive stack of books. Seeing as I’m currently reading something GIANT and I also have ... an entire book club book to read by next week (😂), it’s probably not the worst idea. I think I’ll be spending much of my weekend this way, and I’m not upset about it at all! 🤗 •
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Quick Q! 💭What books are you looking forward to reading this winter?💭 Definitely looking to add more to my winter TBR! ❄️ Old or new, I don’t mind either way. Leave them below! ☺️👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Happy Friday, friends! I don’t know about you all but this week has been absolutely insane and I cannot WAIT for the weekend. In an effort to slow down this morning before work, I took the nicest autumn walk and picked up all these perfect leaves and crabapples! 🤗❤️ Please never leave, outdoor fall weather. •
In other news, THE LOST QUEEN is getting better and better! Much to my surprise, there is a bit of a love story in the middle and our main character has already evolved quite a bit since the beginning. Already looking forward to this afternoon, when I can have some uninterrupted reading time...📖
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💭What’re you all reading today? 💭

[gifted] Currently reading: THE LOST QUEEN by Signe Pike. 👑 I don’t usually go this deep into fantasy because, frankly, I can’t deal with made-up names and fake swear words... 😂 BUT, I’m about 150 / 500 pages and it’s great so far! This book reads as a giant epic, and I’m just along for the ride. 📖✨
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💭Yay or nay on fantasy? 💭 I’d love to know because this genre is very polarizing. 😈

[ad] Defying gravity over here. 😉 I read Poe’s Cask of Amontillado from this book last night for the first time since high school and I loved it so much more this time. Some of my favorite classics have been things I angstily SparkNoted in school and couldn’t appreciate because it was assigned. (lookin’ at you, The Sun Also Rises!) I think I need to add a few more high school books into my life. 👀📖
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💭 What books should be on my “Required Reading” list? 💭 👇🏼👇🏼 leave me suggestions!
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Details: Wearing a Daniel Wellington classic bracelet here. ☺️ When your hands and arms are in most of your pics, having a quality, pretty bracelet is seriously necessary. // use the code SPINES for a 15% DW discount! #danielwellington #dwclassicbracelet

[gifted 📖] Hi y’all, happy Monday! Coming at you today with the ultimate cozy pic, featuring my new obsession with making cappuccinos at home, and a review of THE HOUSE SWAP by Rebecca Fleet. •
Mini review: This book was absolutely not my cup of tea. Do you ever read books where the writing is just fine, but you absolutely hate all the themes? This one is filled with marital problems, addiction, and cheating and, frankly, it was majorly depressing. I caught on to the twist at the halfway point, so the thriller aspect didn’t make up for the rest to me. ⭐️ ⭐️ Go see my full review on the blog for more details!
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💭What themes do you absolutely hate? 💭 I usually try to be more positive on Monday’s, but I’m very curious! ☺️✨

[gifted 📖] Having a cozy Friday complete with a cappuccino, a sweatshirt, and a thriller! I am about halfway through THE HOUSE SWAP by Rebecca Fleet and I’m still undecided on it. So far, it’s been pretty depressing and a bit confusing, but I can sense a good twist coming. Let’s hope it pans out, otherwise this will feed into my volatile relationship with thrillers ... 👀
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💭 What’s on your TBR for the weekend? 💭 I’m hoping to finish this one and also read a few more Poe stories! Tell me what you’re digging into! 🤗❤️

Currently obsessed with this teeny tiny adorable book bag and that bespeckled owl! 📖 Had no idea my book needed a bag, but now I take this when I go places to read to minimize distractions. Sometimes I sit down with a book in my hands and then somehow end up spending 40 minutes scrolling on IG, editing photos, laughing at memes on Twitter, and, in general, wasting so much time. Eliminating distractions is necessary and very good for my attention span! (Yikes 😂) •
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In other news, I’m planning a new book mail opportunity for you all! 📬 Last time it was 4 indie books to each winner, so 💭 what should the theme be this time? 💭 Tell me what your mailbox wants to see! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Isn’t this book beautiful?? It’s my “home book” right now because it’s a leather-bound edition of TALES OF MYSTERY, aka some of Edgar Allen Poe’s best work. It was published 1976, so I am taking very good care of it. (Aka not throwing it in my bag like I do with all my other books ... 😂)
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So far, I’ve read The Gold-Bug and The Murders in the Rue Morgue and loved both of them! Reading Poe has a transportive quality and it’s so fun to read something not written in this decade every once in awhile. •
💭 Classics you love? 💭 leave them here! I personally love Wuthering Heights, off the top of my head. ☺️👇🏼

The other day I hopped off the train and, being thirty minutes early for a book tour party, I took the long way around. The long way brought me right to the door of this perfect bookstore that I’ve somehow never seen before. What a ✨serendipitous✨ day! City perks are endless. 📖
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(ad!) P.S. I just updated the blog with my 100% honest review of the book subscription service, @pageonebooks , that has replaced my other book sub box. (I recently canceled with BOTM, which I explain more in the post.) Go see! 🤗
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💭 Do you get any subscription boxes? 💭 I kind of love them, it’s like getting yourself a surprise gift. I currently do a jewelry box, too! If you have any to recommend, I’d love to hear them. 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Can often be found sitting on steps, on stoops, on benches ... always with a book. ☺️ •
This picture was taken outside one of my favorite spots in Chicago, the @mcachicago. I don’t always connect with everything that comes through, but I can always appreciate an afternoon spent wandering through an art museum. I’ll post a photo of my favorite piece I saw yesterday in my story, actually, because it’s a poem and it’s lovely. ☺️
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💭 What kind of art do you like? 💭 My high-low perspective: I love surrealism in museums and I love to paint with watercolors at home!

Happy Sunday, friends! 📖 ☕️ I just wanted to tell you all that I finished THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PIE SOCIETY yesterday and ALSO attempted to watch the movie adaptation. I fell asleep during the latter, but not before I wrote & posted my review of the former! ✨Check the blog! ✨
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Mini review: At first I was skeptical about the epistolary format, but I quickly started to enjoy learning about our characters through the words they wrote to others. The book didn’t fully escape the confusion caused by this format, but it was, overall, a major delight. Not only did it make me want to sit down and write a long letter to everyone I love, but it also shed a light on acts of humanity during a time period that is mostly recorded through the inhumanities. Not perfect, but worth a read!
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💭 Have you read this book or watched the movie? 💭 I’d love to know your thoughts on both or either! 👇🏼👇🏼 The main character in the movie couldn’t be cuter, so I’m excited to finish it. 😍

Major mood today— all I want to do is read books and do something creative. And buy shoes... 🤣 •
BUT I’m currently reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and, even though at first I was VERY skeptical because books written entirely as letters are not my favorite, I am now highly invested and liking it quite a bit. I will definitely be watching the movie, which I’ve heard is also delightful. I’ll update you all when I finish both!
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💭Do you have any other books to tv adaptations to recommend?💭 Reading the book and then watching the movie / tv show is my favorite.👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

$I’m not sure if this is weird or not, but I always collect leaves when I go places during this time of year. 🍂 🍁 🍂 I’ve been taking every opportunity to walk & leaf-collect down the side streets lately, since it’s getting darker and cooler here. Chicago really has the best neighborhoods ever, filled with stately apartment buildings, sweet dogs, and massive trees that send their leaves my way. • • While we are on the subject, walking is an appreciation I’ve grown into as an adult. As a kid in rural Michigan, everything happened by car and walks were an event that happened down the same road every time. When I moved to Chicago in my late teens, I learned the art of wandering for entertainment and discovery. Then, I moved to Sicily for awhile and began to appreciate my body and the knowledge that if the bus stopped running, I could walk home, or walk to the sea, or walk really anywhere when time wasn’t an object. I’m always thankful for the hikes and the that nights on the island that gave me some perspective. • • I wasn’t expecting this caption to go here, but, alas, here we are. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 💭 So, what’s an everyday thing you’re especially grateful for?💭$