Hard Return

@ahardreturn.bsky.social

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Personal and book review blog. (Sometimes.) A one-woman book club. Posting books I read. Muting writer self-promos. 💙📚💬 AI free. I do not use AI to read, post, or review books. My content is my own. www.aHardReturn.com

I’m holding a hardback copy of “I Cheerfully Refuse” by Leif Enger in front of a pot of pink geranium. This is a truly gorgeous book jacket. The image is an oil painting by Franklin Carmichael titled “Bay of Islands” (1930). Sainted in deep emerald greens and navy blues, the image is of a bay surrounded by hills with more island stretching toward the horizon of blue and green clouds. A single, small sailboat floats in the foreground. “He wore woven huarache sandals and a loose cream linen shirt like an old man remembering women.” -from the book “Rubicons get crossed for all kinds of petty reasons.” -from book
“A Note Before Beginning: Stories have a way of finding us at just the right—or sometimes the most fragile—moment. This one is steeped in history, woven with grief and longing, and tangled in the complexities of the human mind. It explores the weight of silence, the ache of the unseen, and the shadows that linger in the spaces between what is known and what is lost. If you find the pages growing heavy, if the emotions press too hard against your heart, please know you have permission to set the book down. Step away, take a breath, and return only when you are ready. Stories will wait. May this one meet you in your time.” -Meagan Church introduction to “The Mad Wife”
A paperback copy of “The Mad Wife” by Meagan Church lays on my sage green bed in very warm, weird light. (Courtesy of the wildfires.) The cover features an artist rendering of a 1950s woman in a full dress, pearls, hair and makeup with an apron over it all. She’s standing in a pink suburban kitchen of that era. The woman is posed and smiling right to the viewer like a Good Housekeeping model. A stark, black bar (think redacted words) goes right across her face to hide her eyes.
Two paperback books lay on a white garden table in bright sunlight. Deck boards and some greenery can be seen below. The books are a bright blue, mass market copy of “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville and “The Last Chairlift” by John Irving. That is a trade paperback size and features a sunrise sky seen through the silhouette of a chairlift over a ski slope.
Holding up a paperback copy of “Pastoralia” by George Saunders from a reclined position on a couch. A light grey couch and tall windows with blue sky are behind the book. Its cover is white with black type on the bottom quarter. The rest is a photograph of what I think is an antlered deer with the foot of a mountain stretched out behind him. At least I think it’s a deer but could be elk or antelope or something else with antlers?
A hardback copy of “Mad Mabel” by Sally Hepworth sits in the sunshine on a white garden table. Flowering things can be seen below. The book is a gorgeous cherry red with a stylized image of half of a woman’s face down the right side. She wears her red hair in a loose chignon, a white blouse, and green cat eye sunglasses.
Photo of an eReader on a blanket with patches of pastel colors. The reader has a skin on it that is pink with red strawberries and white daisies. In black and white on the screen is the cover image for “The Ending Writes Itself,” by the writing duo named Evelyn Clark.
My left hand holds up a Signet Classics paperback copy of “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville. A green flower garden is out of focus in background. The book is a striking cerulean blue with the silhouette of a whale in white. The title is written over that in thick navy blue block letters. I started out reading this with a copy of the Norton Guide version but eventually got frustrated by the footnotes distracting me so I swapped to this version and let go of needing to perfectly understand every reference. It was the right move because the book came alive when I did that.
My left hand holds a paperback copy of “How To Read Literature Like A Professor” by Thomas C. Foster up to the camera. Beyond is a hazy sky, and a pair of teen feet in a grey Adirondack chair on a deck. The book cover itself looks like a book lying open on a wood sesh with a green rectangle over the open page as background for the title.
A paperback book lays on a griege wood floor. The book is the Third Norton Critical Edition of “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville, edited by Hershel Parker. The book has a stylized image of a seaman with a wooden leg rendered in brown and white tones. He looks directly out at the reader in a haunting way. The bottom third of the book used blocks of color to make the title and author info clear to read. They are a bright teal for the title, a black, and a grey box below. Note: I chose this edition after perusing Reddit. I wanted something with a lot of contextual footnotes and that is what this one is. Might look for a different copy if not wanting to be bothered by multiple notes in each page.
A photograph of graduating seniors at a commencement ceremony. Photo taken from behind so there are no faces showing. You see the backs of heads, black and white graduation gowns, and the flat tops of their mortar boards with tassels. Furthest from camera but centered in frame is the first row of students, standing so we see them shoulders up. In the center and flanked by students in white cap and gown, is my child in black cap and gown. Just above them a flag waves in the distance and the top of the photo is all green trees. My student graduated in the top of their class with so many honors and awards I can’t keep track. So say I’m proud is true but more than anything I’m so damn happy for them.
My hand holds a paperback copy of “The Colony” by Annika Norlin. It is an off white cover with a single, black ant drawn near center. Title and author are in red block letters above and below. Norlin uses individual and group perspectives to tell this story of how people can take different paths into groupthink and cult environment… including that of the person to whom they forfeit their agency. Just an incredible read.
Holding up the April 2 issue of London Review of Books. Showing the front cover which is a pencil sketch in grey and red of a woman facing away from viewer. A disheveled bun sits low on her neck, hand on hips, feet slid into slippers and, and a button open at neck of her dress. Her hands are on her hips and body language is tired and maybe contemplative. The image is framed by a solid teal frame around the whole cover and the heading “Patricia Lockwood reads Willa Cather” in red.
An eReader lays on my wood desktop showing the cover of “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans on its screen. The reader has a decorative floral skin of pink roses and in the upper left corner there’s a glimpse of a pen and a table top sun lamp. The book cover is a greyscale version of what might be a water color illustration. The image is of a pair of birds turned toward each other on two wood fence posts.
Holding up a library hardcover in front of white doors. The book is “The Dream Hotel” by Laila Lalami. It is a purple cover with a red rectangle going vertically up the center. The rectangle looks like an opening leading to darkness with red walls, floor, ceiling. In its bottom right stands a very small silhouette of a person whose shadow stretches into the darkness.
March 26th 2026 issue of The New York Review. Cover features art of a person’s hand holding a coat closed against the cold just under the chin.
Hardcover copy of a library book lays on a white cast iron table in natural light. Book is “The Firekeeper’s Daughter” by Angeline Boulley. The art on the cover is a beautiful, complex image of two women’s faces in profile and nearly nose to nose. Their faces make up the inner edge of butterfly wings, the familiar veining of wings climbing up their cheeks. Centered behind the butterfly is a yellow orb of sun. Far below is an image of a fire. Stretching down from around the butterfly to wrap around the fire image are intricate designs of flame, feathers, and birds. This pattern scoops in at the center to make a sort of hourglass shape. It’s very intricate, stylized art in strong colors of black, dark red, orange-red, and sky blue. The jacket art is credited in the cover to Moses Lunham.
Hardcover library book held up to the camera. Book is “The Firekeeper’s Daughter” by Angeline Boulley. The art on the cover is a beautiful, complex image of two women’s faces in profile and nearly nose to nose. Their faces make up the inner edge of butterfly wings, the familiar veining of wings climbing up their cheeks. Centered behind the butterfly is a yellow orb of sun. Far below is an image of a fire. Stretching down from around the butterfly to wrap around the fire image are intricate designs of flame, feathers, and birds. This pattern scoops in at the center to make a sort of hourglass shape. It’s very intricate, stylized art in strong colors of black, dark red, orange-red, and sky blue. The jacket art is credited in the cover to Moses Lunham.
Holding up my copy of “Concrete Botany: The Ecology of Plants In The Age of Hunan Disturbance” by Joey Santore. The book is white with black lettering. Its background is a line drawing of a brick wall and from the center grows a “weed” drawn in green.
An eReader lays on a cream woven fabric. The cover of “Bunny” by Mona Awad is shown in black and white on its face. A silhouette image of a rabbit sitting up on its hind feet makes up the cover art with the title and author info written in white chalkboard writing across the front. The eReader has a decorative skin around its face that is a white background with floral print of pink roses.
A blue tile with the following quote by Kurt Vonnegut in white type: Those were vile people in both cities, as is well known. The world was better off without them. And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes.
Holding a library paperback of “Mother Night” by Kurt Vonnegut in sunshine. It’s a navy blue cover with a cartoonish drawing of some sort of submarine looking vessel (maybe I’ll understand what I’m seeing after I read further into the book). Behind the book you glimpse my lap, a wood deck, and a Bluetick Coonhound whose booty is out of frame but warming my feet.
On a blue background in white text: “… there’s a vast underground network for goodness at work in the world — a web of people who’ve put reading at the center of their lives because they know from experience that reading makes them more expansive, generous people and makes their lives more interesting.” - George Saunders
Holding up a paperback library copy of “The Old Man and The Sea” by Ernest Hemingway. Picture taken in my car before dropping in the library return. The cover image is a of the sea with the sun coming up or going down at the horizon in center of the page. Silhouetted agains the orb of the sun is a small boat with a single man in it wearing a fishing hat. The colors used are black, teals and peach tones.
A paperback copy of “Slaughterhouse-five” by Kurt Vonnegut lays on my dark, wood coffee table next to a plant and knick-knacks. It has a bright red cover with a skull and crossbones in yellow. Out of right side of the book are many tabs marking pages.
A paperback copy of “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut lays on deck boards in sunshine. The cover is red with a yellow spine. Writing on the cover is in yellow and in black. The only art is a scribble drawing of a skull and crossbones in black and filled in with yellow.
Holding a paperback copy of “Fathers and Sons” by Ivan Turgenev up in the sunlight. Beyond and out of focus are deck boards, melting snow with patches of yard then field, and finally, clear blue sky. The cover has a painting of a group of people listening while another reads aloud. They sit in the shade of trees while sunny Russian countryside stretches beyond them.
Holding a paperback copy of “Fathers and Sons” by Ivan Turgenev up in the sunlight. Beyond and out of focus are deck boards, melting snow with patches of yard then field, and finally, clear blue sky. The cover has a painting of a group of people listening while another reads aloud. They sit in the shade of trees while sunny Russian countryside stretches beyond them.
A paperback copy of “1984” by George Orwell lays on a light pink waffle weave blanket. The book is bright red with a simple image of an eye at the center and the title and author in white around it. Kind of an oversaturated quality to the image due to warm bedroom lighting and the intense red of the cover.
A paperback copy of The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is laying on a sage green chenille spread. The cover is a black and white photo of a many-gabled house with two chimneys and a very New England style. A little picket fence runs close to it against the sidewalk and a shop door that opens at top and bottom independently opens directly on to the walk.
Holding up a 4x6” Penguin Classics paperback of Rainier Maria Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet.” It is a simple black cover with letters in white and the Penguin Logo on a white band across the middle. I’m holding it up in bright sunshine and close to my favorite bedroom plant, a variegated Hoya. Some sheer curtains can be spotted in the background. Now that I’ve typed out this post… I’ll finished the page I’m on and then head back to where I left off watching the Bleakening Christmas episodes.
A paperback copy of “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway lays on a brick colored knit cap atop a worn table the color of honey. The book is white with imagery of a bull stampede up the front. The silhouette or shadow of a matador is under their feet at bottom. All the print and the art are in warm tones of orange, yellow, and dark brown.
A gorgeous cafe breakfast sits on a wood tabletop next to a paperback copy of “The House of The Seven Gables” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The book has a black and white photo of a wood-siding, three-story house with many gable peaks and multiple chimneys. The title is written on a cream square at top. To the left of the book is a cup and saucer with an oat milk late all golden and frothy on top. In the bottom of the frame is a bowl of the most delicious granola I’ve had anywhere with walnuts, a balsamic reduction, rose colored and flavored Greek yogurt, Zaatar, and edible orchid in oat milk. It’s half-eaten but still gorgeous.
A paperback copy of Elif Shafak’s “The Island of Missing Trees” lays on a white and grey countertop. The book is a vibrant sky blue with the image of a fig tree cutting on the front in saturated colors. From and around the leaves are butterflies, a ripened fig, and a tropical bird. Lettering is across the front in white litters, the word at center is “of” and the “oh” is formed into an evil eye. The book is laying in a slanting rectangle of sunlight with deep shadowed around and trailing the edges of the book. Lots of dark and light. Note: I read the book as a hardback library copy. Because it was so good, I purchased this paperback and transferred my tabbed notes into it to keep.
I’m holding up a mass market paperback edition of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises.” The lighting is low. The cover is white with a mildly cartoonish drawing of stampeding bulls going up the cover. In the foreground, the silhouette of a man is trampled underfoot… or perhaps just a man’s shadow. The colors are restricted to dark brown, orange, and yellow.
Holding a stack of books on my left hand for the camera. Behind is a wall mural rendered abstract by how close it is. Colors are white, peach, terra cotta, and brick red. The books held up are from the library or purchased from second hand sites and mostly paperbacks. Top down the stack contains: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 1984 by George Orwell The Book of Hours by Rilke The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne Glyph by Percival Everett The Island of missing Trees by Elif Shafak
A single daffodil faces the camera above a collection of green shoots. Its face opens out in the top right corner of the image with creamy white petals (or maybe they are something other than petals) and a deep orange interior flower cup with frilled edges. Filter winter light come through a crack in curtains to the left of the flower and beige linen curtains form its background.
My hand holds up an eReader displaying a black and grey cover of Karen Russell’s “The Antidote.” The image on the cover is of a dilapidated little house and weathervane on a treeless expanse of prairie. Vision is obscured by a cloud of dust across the sky. I’m hiking the reader up to a library window in a city. Urban architecture and blue sky frame the ebook.
My left hand holds up a hardcover library book. It is “The Island of Missing Trees” by Elif Shafak. The book cover is Sky blue with a cut branch of a fig tree taking up the front. Butterflies and a bird are arranged on and around it and a fig hands from the cut branch. I’m holding the book up in the drivers side corner of my truck so you see black car interior, snowy wet windows, and city buildings stretching out behind the book.
Holding up “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë in a dim living room but under a reading light. The book is a special print I found at Half Price Books. It’s approximately 5 by 7, cloth binding in bright cherry red. Title and author are imprinted on the front in white with a wreath of flowers around the title.
A thumbnail image of cover art for Wounded by Percival Everett. A black cover with the authors name and in white, the title in red and at the very bottom, just a sliver of the side of a horse’s face in black and white, just one eye looking out, as though the viewer were looking up from below the horse and seeing dark sky above it.
Image of an eReader held in left hand. Bedroom wall and comforter seen beyond. The screen shows an all black page with the title, author, and press listed centered on the page. “Wounded” by Percival Everett - Greywolf Press
In pink glow from holiday lights, my eReader shows the cover of “The Safekeep” by Yael Van Der Wouden. The image is in greyscale of an oil painting. The image is of bedsheets and a woman’s legs.
My eReader lays on an unfinished holiday puzzle with lots of green, red, and gold colors. The reader has a floral skin with pink roses and the cover of the book “Flesh” by David Szalay in greyscale on its face. The book has title at top, author name at bottom, and the center of the image is an apple eaten all the way around its core.
A collage of data generated in my StoryGraph profile shows some of the books I’ve read this year. It’s gives some stats including: 76 Books Read 26,245 Pages And top rated authors of mine were R.F. Kuang, Isabel Allende, and Wendell Berry.
My left hand holds up an eReader with the title page for a library copy of “Jill The Reckless” by P.G. Wodehouse on the display. The reader has a floral skin of pink roses and I’m resting it on a white fuzzy pillow. My sage green bed and a beige sleeping puppy are peekable behind the reader.
My left hand holds up an eReader with the title page for a library copy of “Jill The Reckless” by P.G. Wodehouse on the display. The reader has a floral skin of pink roses and I’m resting it on a white fuzzy pillow. My sage green bed and a beige sleeping puppy are peekable behind the reader.
I hold a paperback copy of “So Much Blue” by Percival Everett up to the camera. The book is a deep color of blue with a stylized drawing of a woman sitting at a counter with her back to us. She has shoulder length blue-black hair and is in a blue strappy cocktail dress. The title is written in stark white letters that could almost be brush strokes. Around the book holiday lights and a Christmas tree glow in the background.
A cartoon by John Atkinson of Wrong Hands is titled “All of the Author Reindeer.” Below it has a chart of 12 identical reindeer dressed differently to represent an author listed below them. Reindeer “Shakespeare” wears a large ruffle around the throat. “Austen” wears a wedding veil. “Dickens” wears a scarf and cabby hat like Oliver Twist in the movies. “M. Shelley” is green with neck bolts like Frakenstein. “Stoker” has a fang and cape. “Verne” is in a metal diving helmet with his antlers poking out the top. “Hemingway” is actually a cow drawn in the same style. “Alcott” wears a cap like Little Women. “Tolstoy” wears a fur cap and fur collar. “Atwood” wears the white cap from the show imagery, obscuring its face the same way. “Joyce” has a four leaf clover in place of each antler. “Kafka” is a roach. Haha
Holding up a paperback copy of “Tramps Like Us” by Joe Westmoreland at my dining table. The cover has a black and white image of a 1970s city street but in blue ink. Imposed over that is an image of a shirtless man with short hair and a mustache. The man is orange with shadows and definition in red. Above him, the title is in big block letters of the same orange with red borders.
I hold a hard copy library book at arms length for the camera. The book is “There Are Rivers In The Sky” by Elif Shafak. The cover is an image of ancient Nineveh under a striking blue sky. The title runs up the image in black font. Metallic gold swirls overlay the cover in the form of a river coming down from the sky. Around and beyond the book in my hand is a snowy morning scene. A line of pine trees stretches across with white sky above. A clip In slow motion shows the snowflakes that are falling across and around the book.
Holding up a hardcover library book in warm bedroom reading light. The book is “There Are Rivers In The Sky” by Elif Shafak and shows an image of a Mesopotamian city under a blue sky. Over the entire cover are gold metallic lines winding up like water in a river.
I hold up a hardback book in my living room. Lamp, television, and other living room things are seen around it. The book is “A Silent Treatment” by Jeannie Vanasco. Its cover looks like the back side of an aged, browned envelope with the flap slightly lifted.
A pink, vintage ornament hangs in green Christmas tree foliage. White strand lights glow around it in an off focus way.
My left hand holds a hardcover library copy of “The Book of Guilt” by Catherine Chidgey. Morning light on a bedroom wall and household clutter peeks behind the book. The cover itself mostly blue sky with green sumner clouds. At bottom is green grass rolling down to the right at a soft decline. A blonde haired boy lays on the grass with the top of his head toward us, booted feet and knobby knees to the sky and askew. He could be cloud gazing and wiggling as kids do or in a kind of somersault down the incline. Above and across the sky, the title is written in a coordinating blue and looks like it was written with a brush.
My left hand holds a hardcover library copy of “The Book of Guilt” by Catherine Chidgey. Morning light on a bedroom wall and household clutter peeks behind the book. The cover itself mostly blue sky with green sumner clouds. At bottom is green grass rolling down to the right at a soft decline. A blonde haired boy lays on the grass with the top of his head toward us, booted feet and knobby knees to the sky and askew. He could be cloud gazing and wiggling as kids do or in a kind of somersault down the incline. Above and across the sky, the title is written in a coordinating blue and looks like it was written with a brush.
A paperback library book sits on a white, cube shelf. It is “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich. It leans against a prayer plant with deep green leaves painted with bright red veins. “Shelfy” items are seen around it. A frame sits against the wall behind, more library books and a pink ball of yarn with circular needles in it are seen on the shelf below. The book cover itself is white. A woman stands on the left half of the image, ankles together and arms tight to her sides. Long black hair blows straight out to the right across the cover. Every part of her from one eyebrow down is obscured by a bright red color that imitates fabric. It also trails straight out from her body across the cover filling most of the image. Title and author are in black and white across the red.
A paperback, library copy of “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich lays on the edge of a round coffee table. I snapped the photo from directly above. Closer to camera at top of image are deep green leaves of a polka dot Begonia, they have large white spots as the name suggests. The table is a walnut tone and in the bottom right corner a snatch of orange floral carpet is furthest from camera. The book cover itself is white. A woman stands on the left half of the image, ankles together and arms tight to her sides. Long black hair blows straight out to the right across the cover. Every part of her from one eyebrow down is obscured by a bright red color that imitates fabric. It also trails straight out from her body across the cover filling most of the image. Title and author are in black and white across the red.
A gif from Arrested Development. Gob hugs Michael forcefully saying “taste the happy, Michael” referring to his tears.
My eReader lays in a white countertop with grey marbling. Bright, white sun sprays across the screen through a water glass (well, a jar) next to it. The reader has a skin that is white with a floral wallpaper style print featuring blue-ish foliage and pink roses. The face of the reader shows a blank and white rendering of the book cover for “The Bee Sting” by Paul Murray. Simple block letters name the title and the author. Between them, center of screen is a drawing of a bee, flying or falling at a downward angle. Trailing from his stinger in cursive script is “a novel.”