Welcome to Litsy!

My reading was too erratic to choose a favorite book for each month, so here's my #BestandWorstof2025 wrap-up. Another winner by Ruta Sepetys whose writing consistently gets a 4+ star rating from me.
Cheers to a fun year of reading in 2026! 🎉📚🥳 I suspect many of us will need the distraction and relaxation that diving into a good book provides. 🤗

Another YA from the TBR pile. this was stark and unrelenting in its portrayal of the experience of life for those forcibly removed from the Baltic states by the USSR during WW2. Lina is a wonderfully drawn protagonist - at times selfish, at times incredibly brave she is well rounded esp for a YA even if I did want to shake her! If I had a criticism, it‘s the end. Incredibly abrupt with a postscript as though the author ran out of steam or words

Thanks to Litsy encouragement, I surpassed my goal of reading 12 books. Started the tagged book on Monday ~ the writing is easy to read while the content is heartbreaking. 🩶

4 stars

The fuzzball is my brothers dog. He‘s my reading buddy a lot of times #pets #dogs #readingbuddy #kindle #libby

@Readergrrl The wrapping paper was rich! The delicate sunflower bookmark is one of a kind. I‘m thrilled with the sunflower book sleeve. I‘ve wanted to read Where the Lost Wander for some time. Discovering that Ruta Sepetys was born & raised in Michigan was a sweet surprise. I am desperately looking forward to reading the tagged book, acknowledging it will cost me emotionally 😔#FallingForFallSwap

#CoverLove

A favorite #Gray book. 🩶

Book number 4. Wow. I‘ve had this sitting on my shelf for nearly a year. I picked it up and read it in one sitting. Sepetys is an incredible historical fiction author and you can feel her character‘s thoughts and emotions bleed of the page. A part of history not often talked about but so important. 8/10

I love this book!!! It was beautifully written!!! I found this story an emotional ride!!! I loved the characters in this book!!! I added this book to the #ISpyBingo challenge for a leaf on the cover!!! I rated this book a 5 out of 5 stars!!!

"Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother's was worth a pocket watch". This was not an easy book to read(or listen to), but it definitely is an important book to read. There are so many books about the atrocities of Hitler and the Nazis but so few books about the atrocities of Stalin during this time. Ruta Sepetys does a beautiful job of showing the humanity of Stalin's victims.

Ruta Sepetys‘ does a wonderful job of using flashbacks to carry the weight of giving the reader valuable insight into the main character's motivates, which made for an intriguing story that truly needed to be told of a forgotten people during World War II.

I've been meaning to read this book for years. It was available to listen to immediately on Libby so I borrowed it and I'll start listening to it tomorrow.

#2022Book110
This will likely be one of my favorite books for the rest of my life. This is the sixth time I've read it and I still find something new to love every time. I just taught it for the fourth time and the students loved it as well.

Thank you so much for the surprise book mail @Sleepswithbooks ! It really made my day ☺️ #LitsyLove

📚 Tagged
🖋 Leigh Bardugo
🎞 Bednobs and Broomsticks
🎤 Billy Joel
🎼 Bitter Sweet Symphony

#manicmonday #LetterB @CBee

Once again learning about aspects of WWII I knew nothing about from Ruta Sepetys. This time, the deportation, imprisonment, and extermination of people from Baltic nations (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) by Stalin. When the NKVD come to their house in the middle of the night, Lina and her mother and brother are whisked away to Siberia where they are branded as criminals and forced to work under deplorable conditions. A heartbreaking read.

"They took me in my nightgown."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwls

Immediately downloaded another Ruta Sepetys book after finishing Salt to the Sea. Also put another one on hold 😂

I finished this book a day ago, and I must admit... I have been procrastinating against writing this review. Nonetheless, I am here! Coming to the book, I think that it was a brilliant book that portrayed the struggles of WW II in an excellent manner. Usually books about WW II focus on Hitler, but this one also included Stalin. At parts, this book might make you uncomfortable, and I‘d give a warning to the light hearted...
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Was it harder to die, or harder to be the one who survived?

“I've wished for death since the first day, and yet I survive. Can it really be so hard to die.“

“Look at me,“ whispered Andrius moving close. “I'll see you,“ he said. “Just think about that. Just think about me bringing your drawings. Picture it, because I'll be there.“

“Tadas told one of the girls that hell is the worst place ever and there's no escape for all eternity.“
“Now why would Tadas be talking of hell?“ asked Papa, reaching for the vegetables.
“Because his father told him that if Stalin comes to Lithuania, we'll all end up there.“

“My point is that we are dealing with two devils who both want to rule hell.“

(Not part of the quote but the 'devils' refer to Stalin and Hitler)

Their faces sang songs of defeat.

“A guilty conscience is not worth extra food.“

I remembered papa talking about Stalin confiscating peasants' land, tools, and animals. He told them what crops they would produce and how much they would be paid. I thought it was ridiculous. How could Stalin simply take something that didn't belong to him, something that a farmer and his family had worked their whole lives for? “That's communism, Lina,“ Papa had said.

Why did boys have to be such idiots?

“There,“ I said, finishing the drawing. “What do you think?“
“What's that?“ asked my father, pointing to the paper.
“My signature.“
“Your signature? It's just a scribble. No one will recognize it's your name.“
I shrugged. “You will,“ I said.

“Our sense of humour.“ said Mother, her eyes pooled with laughing tears. “They can't take that away from us, right?“

This was such a good book. I couldn‘t bring myself to put it down! It‘s about a girl named Lina who is being moved from her home to a Russian camp. She learns life lessons, finds love, and it all means that her life will never be the same again.

From my neverending TBR, here's one for #snow . 🤦
#wishesandblessings
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs

#2021Book86
This will likely be one of my favorite books for the rest of my life. This is the fifth time I've read it and I still find something new to love every time. I just taught it for the third time and the students loved it as well.

While WWII rages in other parts of the world, Lithuanians are being torn from their homes under Stalin‘s rule. Though not as well known or as publicized as other aspects of the war, this was nearly as horrible. A sad but important part of history that many people, including myself, knew nothing about. The book was better than the movie (of course), but I finished both yesterday.

In the 1940s, Lina and her family is taken by the Soviet police and placed under arrest for 20 years only for the reason of being Lithuanian.

I‘m in love with this author and her stories. I never thought I would like historical fiction but the way she writes makes me want to read her stories a thousand times.

“We‘d been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean. I realized that if we boosted one another, maybe we‘d get a little closer.”

I love this quote. I think we all sometimes feel like that.

Ruta Sepetys‘ novels expose us to the worst acts perpetrated against the powerless, but also stand as powerful monuments to hope. In this novel we share the the horrors of Stalin‘s Balkan deportations, perpetrated to “purify” the new Soviet state; 1/3 of the population of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia died. We see these horrors through the eyes of young Lina Vilkas and her family. A painful story, but one we must read to honor the dead.

4.25 stars
Review: This was an amazing read. It was moving and powerful. The focus of the story, how life was affected by the Siberian work camps in 1941, is also such a unique placement and setting for WWII historical fiction. I definitely think that Sepetys has a way of writing WWII historical fiction that, while fitting in well with the genre, also stands out on its own apart from the rest of the genre. I definitely recommend this book.

WW2 novel, 15 year old Lina and her mom and young brother are taken from their home by Soviet soldiers and deported to Siberia and the harrowing experience of the journey there and the deplorable conditions she has to live in and the things she goes through in the camp paint a picture of the war a lot of people probably don‘t know about.
Historical fiction has been so important to teach me more than my history high school classes ever did.

Just finished this book. I started it today with 53% to go and I couldn‘t stop. I truly love when that happens. This story was very moving and chilling because it happened to so many innocent people. #100YEARS100BOOKS #72 #BookSpinBingo #DS18 I‘m not doing so well this month, but I did get my #DS read!

Look what came came in my email today📧 Two new novels from Ruta Sepetys! I'm particularly interested in the book set in Romania under the Ceausescu regime.

Simply but beautifully told, Between Shades of Gray sheds light on the true story of Lithuanians and other Baltic citizens, including young children, in the 1940s who were rounded up overnight by the Soviet police under Stalin‘s orders and sent to labor camps and prisons in Siberia for years, sometimes decades. As harrowing as it is affirming, this is one of the most powerful young adult novels I‘ve ever read and one that will stay with me.

A beautifully written story, but also immensely heartbreaking. Presents a historical story with grace & realism. The use a YA protagonist is such a smart choice. Like middle grade has Lois Lowry's Number the Stars, young adult has Between Shades of Gray. The quiet romantic story line gives hope & some normalcy in an awful situation & is handled quite tastefully. The ending does come up quite abruptly, but this story is perfect all the same.

“Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness.” ...

Ebook on sale today

#ThankfulThursday

✈️ I miss my mother-in-law. She lives in TX, and we are in MD. We haven‘t seen her in 2 years! I hit the jackpot with my MIL, and I miss our afternoon chats and day trips when she would spend the summer with us. I love her dearly. ❤️

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦👨🏼‍🤝‍👨🏻 I am thankful for my family‘s health this week. This covid surge has me a bit worried; my two oldest (college students) work in retail. I‘m so thankful we are all healthy.