Featured

Mar 6, 2019

Most Anticipated Spring 2019 Book Releases

Mar 6, 2019

Feb 12, 2019

My Top 25 Favorite Podcast Episodes

Feb 12, 2019

I’ve listened to a lot of average podcasts, I’ve listened to a handful of bad podcasts, and now I’m going to recommend to you all the best podcast episodes that have really stuck with me.

Feb 12, 2019

Feb 5, 2019

Love Stories to Read in February

Feb 5, 2019

The perfect time to read love stories is February! Here are some of my favorites.

Feb 5, 2019

Jan 15, 2019

How (and Why!) I Take All My Own Instagram Photos

Jan 15, 2019

Want to step up your IG game? Today I’m teaching you exactly how I take my own photos for the ‘gram!

Jan 15, 2019

Jan 3, 2019

My 2019 Goals

Jan 3, 2019

Dec 30, 2018

Top 10 books of 2018

Dec 30, 2018

This is my very favorite list to make, so I’m very excited to present my Top 10 books of 2018!

Dec 30, 2018

Featured

Mar 19, 2019

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Moore

Mar 19, 2019

It’s April 1942, and Lale Sokolov is forced to board a train from his homeland of Slovakia to one of the most infamous concentration camps in Germany: Auschwitz .

Mar 19, 2019

Featured

Mar 11, 2019

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Mar 11, 2019

A story split between two times, The Great Believers on one hand delves deep into the AIDS crisis sweeping Chicago in the 1980’s through the eyes of Yale and the gay men and friends that make up his chosen family.

Mar 11, 2019

Featured

Feb 28, 2019

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

Feb 28, 2019

As Selin, daughter of a Turkish immigrant, begins her first year at Harvard University in 1995, she embraces the freshman benefit of testing out many areas of study, connects with her classmates via email, and meets people from all over the world in her dorm and classes.

Feb 28, 2019

Featured

Feb 25, 2019

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Feb 25, 2019

When Stella’s mother and her coworker separately tell her it was time to start dating and practicing being with a man, she takes the task seriously.

Feb 25, 2019

Featured

Feb 13, 2019

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

Feb 13, 2019

In a college town called Santa Lora, California, life is playing out as usual until one day, a young woman never wakes up from her deep sleep.

Feb 13, 2019

Featured

Feb 7, 2019

Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman

Feb 7, 2019

Dr. Frankie Burke, a scientist and evolutionary theorist, arrives at the doors of the Foundation ready to put her hard-earned MacArthur grant money towards studying the mating patterns of the bonobos within …

Feb 7, 2019

Featured

Jan 31, 2019

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

Jan 31, 2019

Anna Fox spends much of her time enjoying a glass (or bottle) of wine, chatting with fellow agoraphobics online, and staring through her Nikon camera into her neighbors homes.

Jan 31, 2019

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!

Hi friends! I’m not actually lounging on my couch wrapped up in this blanket and ignoring work right now, though that does sound quite nice ... 😉 I’m actually working on a blog post I think you’ll all find very fun! My interests have been skewing towards design lately and especially the role of aesthetics in publishing, so there’s a hint for ya.. 👀✨
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💭 What’s been piquing your interest lately? 💭Things that have sent me down rabbit holes lately include: spring fashion trends, Chicago labor laws, how Nerd candies are made, and celebrity home tours ... (idk 😂) Tell me the random things you’ve been googling! 👇🏼👇🏼

$Hi friends! It’s new review time and today we are talking about THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris. 📖 A lot of you were very curious about this one, because it’s very popular and has received some very strong criticism. My full review is over ✨on the blog✨, but here’s the mini for you: • There are two things I liked about this book. First, the actual interviews and research Morris did with Lale to record and share his unique perspective were important for us all to know. And second: To provide hope in a time without any is an act of heroism, and Morris lifts that up above all throughout Lale and Gita’s story. On the other (more dominant) hand, the book itself is not a sophisticated or well-written work of fiction and I think for this reason, many people have criticized it for romanticizing the events of the Holocaust. While I can see where those people are coming from, I don’t really agree. In my opinion, the book has very good intentions, but simply fails in execution. The author struggles to connect on a deeper emotional level through her prose, and as a result even her main characters lack depth and events transpire in an oddly linear, even rosey at times fashion. Morris wrote this story as a screenplay originally, and the writing does not hide this fact. Overall? I commend the author for finding this unique perspective of the Holocaust and sharing its message of hope and perseverance with the world. However, it is undeniable that Lale and Gita’s story is sold short by bad writing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ • 💭 So, what do you think? Have you read this book? Do you disagree or agree with me? 💭 let me know below! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼$

I love a trinket shop so much, especially when it’s full of beautifully curated books. 📖 A lot of this store has been picked up in Europe and brought back to Chicago for collectors to enjoy. I’d say this is about as close as you can get to being a real life treasure hunter! (if you read the sign in the last photo, it tells a very fun origin story about a defunct supply warehouse in Rome ... 👀)
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💭 Have you ever found any treasures like these? 💭 I know lots of you collect certain editions and covers of books, I want to hear about them!

Sunday accessories ✨ 🕶 📸 👟
📖 // STAY UP WITH HUGO BEST by Erin Somers
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I also did a mini closet clean-or yesterday because I’ve been seeing so many capsule wardrobe videos. I got rid of a bunch of things I don’t wear enough and also found some things I forgot I had! Like these weird, fun lightwash joggers. 👀 yay for spring clothes!
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💭 Are you a closet minimalist or maximalist? 💭 I’m the second, trying to become the first. 😂

Happy Friday, friends! This giant smile is exactly how jazzed I am for this weekend. Also visible in this photo is my utter failure at being a plant mom. 🌱 🌿These herbs were THRIVING for two months. And then I got overzealous and they got overwatered.... 👀 Rest In Peace, oregano. If you have any plants that can withstand basically a natural disaster (me) and can deal with no direct sunlight, lmk! 😂
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💭 What’re you up to this weekend?💭 my family is in town AND it’s st. Patty’s day weekend, so I’ll be very busy and very well-fed!

My mess of a workspace is a pretty accurate representation of my brain today. 😂 I had to abandon my routine this morning, so I’m still working my way back to the my usual organized chaos. •
I’m also reading this book, THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris this week and, oddly, the overwhelming sadness of the book took me by surprise when I first opened it. I know that sounds strange, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I wasn’t prepared because of the cover. This romantic image of two people standing together, looking out at an abstract sunset isn’t exactly indicitive of the Holocaust, let’s be real, so I was thrown off when I began reading. I’m not totally sure if /how this will affect the rest of my reading, but ill certainly keep you updated. •
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💭Does cover design have an affect on your impression or reading of a book?💭 lets chat about it! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

[gifted 📖] Hi friends, happy Monday! I’m so happy to bring you a review today of a new favorite book. THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai has been suggested to me a million times and now that I’ve read it, allow me to join those people in tell you to read it, too. 🙌🏻 •
This book has followed me around for the last two weeks while I was reading it and, still now that I’m done, is constantly on my mind. Makkai scooped up a stretch of time and place and carefully, respectfully held it out for a reader to dive into. The two things I took away from this book really say everything you need to know: one is compassion for those who lived through this time in 1980s Chicago and an awareness of a disease I was largely ignorant of and two is a sense of hopefulness about the way we are heading now, both in medical advancements and in acceptance. Such a great, important book. My full spoiler-free thoughts are ✨on the blog!✨
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💭I’d love to chat about this book! What’d you think about it? Have you Chicago people read this one?💭 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Weekend, hurry up!! I’m working hard at my favorite table in my “home office” aka coffee shop (♥️🙌🏻) this morning on a huge To Do list, but when 4 o’clock hits, this will be my view. 😍 I’m enjoying the book I’m reading SO MUCH but I’ve had no extra time to pick it up the last two days! Really can’t wait to spend a lazy morning with THE GREAT BELIEVERS tomorrow. •
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💭Can you sum up the book you’re reading and how you feel about it in the comments??💭 (I love emoji reviews! This is mine, so far: 🚨🏙😭👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨💉🙌🏻)

These two stacks represent just how MANY newly published books I can’t wait to read in the next three months, so I’m clearly going to have to cancel some plans to make more reading time. 😂 My Most Anticipated Spring 2019 books are up ✨on the blog!✨ Some standouts include ROUGH MAGIC from @catapult , and THE DARK FANTASTIC from @nyupress and of course DAISY JONES AND THE SIX from @penguinrandomhouse. Go check it out and tell me below which books you can’t wait to read!! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼
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Sock game always strong. 👀✨
🧦// @urbanoutfitters 👞// @dsw

[gifted by ALA! 📖] Current read update: I am loving THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai SO MUCH. I’m only about 150 pages in, but I was almost late for work this morning because I got so immersed in it. 👀 This is a read-on-the-train-even-though-I’m-standing kind of book and I feel so connected and invested in every single character. The two settings couldn’t be more perfect if I actually tried: Chicago on one hand with the casual mention of my favorite bookstore (hi @unabridgedbookstore !✨) and Paris on the other, which is making my Francophile heart so happy. I know I’m basically telling you all that the sky is blue, since this book is award-winning and well-loved by readers everywhere but SORRY I’m just behind on this one!! 😉 Cannot wait to keep reading. •
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💭Any thoughts on this book? Favorite characters?💭 I absolutely love Yale so far. Let’s chat below! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Have you ever thought about just how challenging it can be to translate personality and authentic self through photos? I’ve been thinking about this a lot since hearing it on a podcast earlier this week and it really is true! All of these faces, all the silliness, even all of my intensity can occasionally get lost in the Instagram “game” of likes, comments, algorithms, and hashtags. We’re all focused on creating perfect images and saying the right things that we can get distracted by it at times. So I just wanted to say hi from all these sides of myself to all of the sides of you. 👋🏻If no one has said it recently, I want to see more than your book life. I’m interested in the weird and funny parts of you, too!
In fact, we’ve all built ourselves the most beautiful houses here on Instagram. They’re built up on our strengths; for me, on my honest reviews, my words, and my insane passion for reading and having conversations. It’s furnished with personal style and aesthetic and it’s held up by you wonderful humans. But, I realized I forgot to leave the door open. I forgot to build in space to grow, to expand what I know and what I love, and to give the many sides of me a place to shine. Personally, I’m ready to find inspiration in unusual places, to step outside the box I’ve so carefully and accidentally built for myself, and continue learning, exploring, and creating. If you’ve ever felt boxed in, I hope you’ll join me in stepping out a bit. 🤗♥️
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(Oh, PS? I took all these photos as an experiment to learn how to properly light portraits and I am SO incredibly surprised and delighted with the results. Come learn cool things with me on Skillshare! code igamb2671 = two free months. ✨ #partner)
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💭 Have you ever felt a little boxed in on IG?💭 I’d love to know what things inspire you to create and step outside your comfort zone! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Hi friends! I don’t know if you all agree, but I absolutely love when starting a new book coincides with starting a new week. 📖☕️Actually, I view my reading life as segmented into weeks and weekends. I’ll often read a fast-paced thriller or a light romance on Saturday and Sunday, then switch to literary fiction when Monday rolls back around. For example, I finished a fantasy book yesterday and picked up a much-lauded award winner today!
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💭 Do you read different genres on the weekend or during the week? 💭 I’d love to know if this is weird or not! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Isn’t this the prettiest old book? I love how well-loved pages age. I picked this one up at a book swap from someone who had read and enjoyed it, so I’m very happy to give it another life! 😍📖This photo pretty much sums up my weekend: lots of snow, no city, a bunch of layers to stay warm, and a bit of reading this little book! •
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💭Are you enjoying your weekend? What’d you do?💭 tell me below! 👇🏼👇🏼 Personally, I went skiing for the first time all year and hung out with my family. ✨

Happy Friday! I’m currently in the middle of my very first Ursula K. Le Guin book, A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA. I’ve been intrigued by her forever, so I’m excited to see how I like this one. So far I’m finding it entertaining and the magic to be really fun, but it’s actually a little hard to get into. 👀📖 I’m also going on a road trip, so naturally had to pack two more books for those two days, just in case. 😉
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💭 Ever read any Le Guin, or any other more classic fantasy?💭 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Hi friends— It’s monthly wrap-up time over here, so this is the stack of books I got to in February! I’m blaming the smaller-than-usual stack on two things: 1. Short month (duh 😉) and 2. That slowish, long book on the bottom of the stack! My full reviews for these books can be found on the blog, but here’s the emoji version:
THE KISS QUOTIENT // Helen Hoag: (🥵) 🔥👀💑🤫🤺
THE VILLA // Nora Roberts: (🔂) 😍🍷 🇮🇹 👩‍👩‍👧🙌🏻
THE DREAMERS // Karen Thompson Walker: (🤔) 💤🧠👫⏳
THE IDIOT // Elif Batuman: (📉) 🗺🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️📧🧠👏🏼
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💭 Have you read any of these? Curious about any? 💭 let’s chat below! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Hi friends! This face I’m making here perfectly represents my curiosity about the question I’m about to ask you ... 👀 Lately I’ve been thinking about classics and how I haven’t read any in a very long time. (I’ve been swept up in modern books, what can i say!) BUT I‘d love to compile a list of required reading type of books and iconic classics so I can change this trend a bit over the next few years. 📖 To start off this list, some books I read in school that have really stuck with me include:
-THE SUN ALSO RISES by Hemingway
-THE GREAT GATSBY by Fitzgerald -
-WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Brontë
-lots and lots of EDGAR ALLEN POE
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💭What classics did you read in school or read in general that stuck with you and that you would like to give the label ✨required reading✨?💭 let’s make this list below! 👇🏼👇🏼

New week, new review! 📖 This weekend I obtained and immediately started reading THE KISS QUOTIENT by Helen Hoang. 👀 This has been so highly recommended and has such a strong, unique story, so I was very curious about it. But, friends, we have some things to talk about with this one ....
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Overall, I liked this book but didn’t love it. Stella, our main character, was an absolute joy to read about. The author took the task of writing an authentic, accurate character with Asperger’s very seriously and I applaud her gumption and sensitivity. I loved Stella and thought her approach to life was something we could all take a note on. 😍 On the other hand, our male main character, Michael, was fun to read about at times, but I found him to be a pretty idealistic, semi-flat character overall. His backstory is always lurking around the corner, ready to come beat the reader over the head whenever the opportunity presents itself (and even when it doesn’t ...), which got genuinely annoying. I also CANNOT stand for a poorly written villain, which Phillip most certainly is. Sorry ‘bout it. Go check out my ✨full review, linked in my bio,✨ for my full thoughts (& more villain shade) on this book!
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💭 Have you read this one? What’d you think? Am I wrong?☺️💭 Tell me below! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Happy Sunday! As promised, these are all the books I picked up yesterday at a Chicago bookstagrammer book swap. 📚 It was so fun to meet some fellow book lovers at @openbooksltd AND I picked up a bunch of books I’ve been wanting to read:
-MR. DICKENS AND HIS CAROL // Samantha Silva (for next Christmas!)
-THEN WE CAME TO THE END // Joshua Ferris (an office humor + heavily advocated for!)
-HAM ON RYE // Charles Bukowski (first of his books 👀)
-THE KISS QUOTIENT // Helen Hoag (mostly because of @thebibliotheque ‘s love for this book)
-A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA // Ursula K. LeGuin (so excited about this mini)
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💭 Can you guess which one I’ve already read over half of? 💭 👀👇🏼👇🏼

Recipe for a good Saturday? a rainy afternoon spent in a coffee shop with good friends. ☕️ While we were sitting here, the power went out in the cafè and ... no one left. That’s how you know we are all too comfortable lounging in coffee shops. 😉
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Cheers to you all, hope you have a wonderful Saturday!

Hi friends! Here’s a very real, no makeup / crazy hair look at my Sunday morning. 🤗📖 As lots of you know, one of my 2019 goals is to learn Turkish and this is one of the ways I’m teaching myself! I bought Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (or Harry Potter ve Felsefe Taşı ✨) and, as you can see, it takes me ONE FULL YEAR to “read” one sentence. 👀 But usually Murat is my personal dictionary and tutor, so someday I’ll be able to read it all by myself! It’s basically the most fun way to read Harry Potter ever because I know exactly what’s happening, I just have to fit all the words I don’t know into place. [#thespinesreads ]
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💭 Are you or have you ever learned another language?💭 I’d love to know how! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Follow me on Instagram! @the_spines

GOODREADS CHALLENGE:

12/60

Follow me here!

the spines I megan r. prokott

RT @BobbyBigWheel: CHILD: I love Hagrid! JK ROWLING: Sadly he died from autoerotic asphyxiation in a Bangkok hotel room
about 3 days ago
the spines I megan r. prokott

(Me, leaving the bar last night): Find me on IG! (Person I had befriended): I don’t have IG, find me on Snap! (Back… https://t.co/cmxCuBAIxH
about 4 days ago
the spines I megan r. prokott

This might be the day that the other people find out Twitter is the best social media app :/
about a week ago
the spines I megan r. prokott

Question. Why are people my age on spring break. That’s really not fair.
about 2 weeks ago