Squishy Tulips

I am determined to keep up on book reviews of the best books I read this year.  I have had pretty good luck with books so far in 2026.  How is everyone else fairing?

Here are my recent favorites:

This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page (Adult Fiction)

Libby Page also wrote The Lido, which I loved.

This was an incredibly sweet and cozy read despite the premise centering on a woman grieving the loss of her husband. The idea of a loved one buying a year of books to help their spouse process and survive their grief and even flourish, is brilliant. Libby Page takes this idea a step further with the found family and friendships that Tilly finds through the bookstore. How her relationship develops with the bookstore owner, Alfie (what a name!) is tastefully done and oh so sweet and genuine. Tilly's life changes multiple times throughout this book, and I was rooting for her every step of her multiple journeys.

The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (Adult Fiction)

2026 is turning out to have some very adorable, warm, fuzzy reads. Even if the cuteness stops right now, I would have enough to carry me through to 2027. In addition to being adorable, this book is also incredibly imaginative. I felt like I was right there in Shpelling with Aurelia and Certainty, sorting through the magical items, getting to know the people who lived in the village, and watching the unwanted magical items transform the village in a big way. I was initially a little horrified by the use of magic to help the villagers. I know it sounds terrible, but I'm a bit of a rule follower, and I wanted Aurelia and Certainty to succeed, so I thought for sure they were going to be in trouble! And they kind of were, but how it all played out, especially Certainty's job (HOLY MOLY WHAT A JOB!), made me realize this was one of those times rules were meant to be broken.

I loved being taken on a wild slingshot ride of both both foul and poetic language, cursing that was always hilarious, things like "typical guild cowshit," and "no matter what-what fuckery they forced me to sign," completely new words like, "Thaumaturgy," and many, many metaphors like this one:

"Shpelling looked as though the gods had picked up a handful of cottages and shops and trees, shaken them in their fists, and rolled them like dice over a game board of hill fields."

Oh and there's a catdragon named Hope! I love my dogs, but I'm ready to level up if anyone knows of any catdragons who need homes.

Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa by Marilyn Chase (Adult Biography)

I started out reading the physical copy, which was a little heavy and just large enough that dragging it to bed was too much of a workout. I bought the Kindle version, which was the right move, because this book is meant to be savored, pored over, and liberally highlighted. Ruth Asawa was an amazing woman. I read a children's biography of her, and I knew an obsession was forming. Not just for Ruth Asawa but also for Josef Albers, who was one of her teachers and was very focused on how colors change based on what other colors they are with and also how important it is to transform something in art but keep its roots intact.

Naturally, I checked out all the books I could find on both artists from the library and dived in. This particular biography is a treat for the soul. My only complaint is that Marilyn Chase would talk about something (like Ruth Asawa's wedding dress) and not include the picture. This happened a frustrating number of times.

No matter. What I hoped to glean from this book was Ruth Asawa's artistic practice, more information about her family's internment at the concentration camps and how it shaped Ruth, how much living she managed to cram into every day, her efforts to make art accessible for children, and anything relating to the different techniques she used. This book has all of this and in so much detail with so many artifacts such as letters (even the letters her family wrote to the government to free their innocent father, who was imprisoned in a different camp), it's staggering. I am now ready to purchase the hard copy of this book, so I can spend the rest of my life rereading it.

Here are my favorite moments:

"Albers's views on the relativity and interaction of colors were fresh and daring - he argued that colors changed when placed side by side, like people who change in relation to each other."

An excerpt from an interview with Ruth about Josef Albers: "One of the problems that he gave in school, was never to see anything in isolation; that you can define space and you can define an object by defining the space around it."

From a letter written from Ruth's husband, Albert to Ruth prior to being married: "I will take no more love from you until you have given your own work the love it deserves." How romantic is that?

Ruth even put Josef Albers's color theory to practice when making a red and green tomato sign for their roadside stand. "Putting contrasting colors of the same intensity side-by-side creates a vibration - making viewers blink."

A quote from Ruth: "Insomnia is nothing more than a fear of losing time."

Someone who received one of Ruth's sculptures wrote Ruth that "her new sculpture was mounted in her apartment, and breathing elegantly."

Ruth talking about bronze casting: "Ruth still adored the slow-motion ballet of found-rymen in silver fireproof suits, tilting the crucible to pour molten bronze heated to 4000°F into ceramic molds. After the shimmering heat cooled, and the bronze relief was cleaned of impurities, a rich coppery brown patina was applied and waxed for luster."

Ruth and Albert's ashes were incorporated into clay that was used for ceramic pieces for family members. "True to her teacher Albers, Ruth made sure her earthly matter was not destroyed but rather transformed until, in the end, Ruth Osawa herself became a work of art."