Welcome to Litsy!

This mystery (and more) was a craftily layered treat. Read my full review here: https://debbybrauer.org/#bellweather-rhapsody

Litsy has my December #tbr branching out to many books I would otherwise never know to connect with fellow readers here. I think it‘s perfect for this time of year. 😊

Happy to be reading along with #sundaybuddyread / @TheBookHippie and #shesaid / @Riveted_Reader_Melissa as well as reading after #NewYearWhoDis buddies @erinreads and @monalyisha. Also, my #wintergames team #mistletoemaniacs 🎄

I‘m so ready for this! @erinreads Your list looks awesome! I‘m planning on reading Bellweather Rhapsody before the New Year officially starts since a little birdie (. @monalyisha ) told me it connects to Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts. I‘m also planning on reading the memoir you suggested; I don‘t read enough nonfiction. Finally, I loved Migrations by McConaghy. So that‘s on my tbr to be sure! 💗

#NYWD22

Bellweather Rhapsody is a strange and wonderful book and the perfect read for me to kick off the new year! I love when a location is one of the main characters in a story and is immediately a place you can vividly imagine and want to go to (even if the Bellweather Hotel is compared to the hotel from The Shining 😬)! I loved the mild suspense in this one and one reveal actually shocked me, so that‘s always fun. Now I‘m ready for Tuesday Mooney!

New year, same scene. I can‘t complain. 😻 Happy New Years and new reads, everyone! 🍾 #catsoflitsy

Diving into this one before I start the other Kate Racculia on @monalyisha‘s #NewYearWhoDis list. I have an audiobook in progress and I‘m also finishing up the Anne of Green Gables series, but wanted to officially kick of my 2021 reading!

This has been on my TBR for a while and I couldn‘t have picked a better month to pick it up. Deliciously funny and creepy.

A solid addition into my top ten writers. Kate Racculia took me through another bananas adventure - this time she took me back to band festivals combined with a few ghosts and a bit of horror. Her stories are always filled with such heart and the ability to find joy and love in the midst of tragedy. I fall in love every time and weep because the book ends.

This was a twisty turny and totally fun murder-mystery-ghost story. Weird words for violent stuff, but id even call this one a "romp" with funny characters and real humor. And a little close to home on the details of state band!

Suggested by a podcast, Strong Sense of Place. Will give it a try! Anyone read it?

I enjoyed the characters and the story line. Looking forward to reading more from this author!

Delightfully odd? Misfits and dreamers and foes? I'll give it a try!

I had so much fun reading this - it is a mystery set in a Stephen King like setting of an isolated and dilapidated hotel during a major snowstorm (major “The Shining“ vibes). There are historic “crimes“ that have bothered some of the staff for years and now a young woman has gone missing during a high school music festival - and her roommate is sure she saw her dead body...but nobody can find it (or her) now. Highly recommended.

I do enjoy a good melodrama, when done well as this one was. The wild, over the top stuff was centred on a good amount of heart. But I did feel that something was keeping this good novel from being great. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something needed to be tightened up. An enjoyable read, nonetheless, and the descriptions of music and its ties to emotion were fabulous!

#NewYearWhoDis @MeganAnn @monalyisha

This book has been on my tbr for soooo long. And now it‘s on my Kindle! Thanks so much, Amber!❤️

#kindlitsy

Just OK

Congrats on your Litfluence achievement, @DivaDiane - & thanks for your #2x2giveaway!

My favorite musical book is “Bellweather Rhapsody” by Kate Racculia. It‘s a coming-of-age story, a murder-mystery, & a beautiful ode to the healing power of music (with wonderfully quirky, realistic, flawed & damaged characters). 💖🎶

Page 246 = HOLY FREAKING PLOT TWIST, BATMAN! 😱

1. “Bellweather Rhapsody” by Kate Racculia
2. Wilco / Jeff Tweedy
3. Probably also Wilco. I saw them at an outdoor show in Vermont, & as they played, the sun went down behind them & a full moon rose up over the mountains. Hard to beat. But I also love seeing “They Might Be Giants”; sometimes they use puppets. 😂
4. Maybe “Swept Away” by The Avett Brothers. It was our first dance at our wedding. Also, “Foxglove” by Murder by Death.

#manicmonday

#freakyfriday Book 3
This is the kind of mystery I enjoy best! Each character is well developed, holding their own secrets. The Bellweather hotel is a vivid backdrop to the statewide music conference, a disappearance, a ghost story and the twists and turns that reveal themselves slowly until the players secrets are released. This isn‘t just a mystery though. It‘s about youthful talent and those who used to be talented in their youth 👇🏻(cont‘d)

Ironically page 13 was where I stopped reading last night! I chose “Statewide” as my favorite word on this page. It brings to mind preparing for music contests for both band and choir and competing to get to the state competition which I did more than once. The competitions were always like a big high school celebration because after performing, we got to hang out and make friends from other schools. #freakyfridaychallenge #freakyfriday

Next up is book three for #freakyfriday
Love this cover! ❤️

Came home to #freakyfriday #bookmail today! I ordered these from thriftbooks since my local library didn‘t have them. I cannot wait to start reading this stack on April 1st! ❤️📚 @monalyisha I totally used your previous photo of my favorites as inspiration for this picture 😉

The Bellweather Hotel is full of many #dangerous things- ghosts and secrets and band geeks and aspiring actors- but it still manages to be a place I wish I could visit. #ReindeerReads

#LitsyPartyOfOne Let's do this!

Plan to finish this novel tomorrow night during #LitsyPartyOfOne. 😊 It's the easy read I've been needing.

Here are a few of my faves that I think could use a little more love.
😍Underground Airlines - overshadowed by concurrent release of Underground Railroad

😍Bellwether Rhapsody - band geeks, haunted hotel, snowstorm

😍Lexicon - bonkers thriller about mind control

😍The Emperor's Edge - totally fun steampunk fantasy series

#anditsaugust
#needsmorelove
@RealLifeReading

Yeah, I bought 5 books today. Don't give me that look. #bookhaul

Overall this was a fun quick read. At times it did "jump the shark" for me. At least it was entertaining overall.

Sometimes I look up from my book.

I am here for anything '80s!

The blurb on the front cover says that this book is "delightfully odd." I can't think of a better way to describe it. The characters are so interesting and endearing. I will be sad when this one ends.

This book was super strange but I really enjoyed it. Told from a host of different characters POV while staying at a hotel similar to the one in the Shining where it is the anniversary of a murder-suicide and the statewide festival for high-school musicians. This one won the Alex Award, an adult book that can be read by fans of YA. 4 stars. #read2017 #librarybook

Upon finishing, my 1st thought was "Well, that ruled."

This book is a lot of things at once -- tender & twisted, dark & witty. It's about a bunch of talented high-school musicians snowed in at an old hotel, where a murder (or is it a suicide?) occurs on the anniversary of a murder-suicide.

The characters are broken & full of pain -- unwilling to suffer alone & unable to contain it. The writing sings. Extra points for nods to Bowie & Weezer. ?

Natalie opens her eyes to see blood rising between the (piano) keys, rich red blood pooling around her fingertips, and she is too afraid to scream, too afraid, even, to move.

"Play" [he] says..."Play it anyway."
"I can't, it's full of blood."
"It always was. That's why you fell in love with it."

"There's a kind of beauty in accepting the possibility, if not the plausibility, of everything imaginable."

"She was not happy, exactly, but not unhappy either. Mostly what she felt was safe, enclosed, a girl who'd opted to be locked high in a tower surrounded by a forest of deadly brambles, who would turn away any rescue attempt with a curt 'Not interested, get the hell out of my brambles.'"

Important chapter heading. 👌🏻

"Alice felt the two sides of her heart leap from her body in opposite directions, one toward and one away from [him], far away, as far as it could get, so he would never be able to say such things to her again. Her heart tore itself in half, ripping into two jagged hunks of meat straight down the middle, unable to function."

Rainy New England morning.

Using my morning off to dive into Kate Racculia's "Bellweather Rhapsody." I essentially turned this tiny nook into a candle-laden altar to knowledge. Let the light in!

Someone described it as Glee meets Agatha Christie and I can't disagree. It fully captured the high school music festival vibe--having attended many, myself. It's a twisty turny mystery with unusual and mostly unlike able characters, I was hooked!

#aprilbookshowers #firstline this is cheating--this is chapter one, and not the prologue. But any chapter one that starts with the marking "Andante Misterioso" deserves some applause. So far I am LOVING Bellweather Rhapsody.

#cheapthrills today come in the form of a day off of work and these #thriftstorefinds Pretty happy with my less than $10 #bookhaul! 📚🤑 #lyricalapril

Double duty here. Bellweather Rhapsody is a beautiful song of a book. Murder, a grand but dilapidated old hotel, madness, secrets, love, and the beauty of music. Compelling POVs. Loved it! Also loved this adorable, tiny bookstore in Williamsburg, VA. Mermaids were all over inside the store as well. Williamsburg oozes charm and character anyway and this little gem was a highlight, as was the book bindery and printer in the colonial area. #litsyAtoZ

Bring it on

Heard about this via @bookriot. Sounds quirky and fun! #tbr

The Westing Game meets Wes Anderson. Only $1.99 for Kindle today.

I have no idea how this got on my TBR, or when I got it. But I am SO glad it found me!
A hotel on the brink of ruin in the Catskills; a pack of teenagers ricocheting off each other; a psychopath in their midst; and ghosts everywhere... What's not to love? Racculia builds the suspense of this tale like a symphony. And it's pitch-perfect.
PS - you'll be humming Life on Mars? for days🎶
#nextup: a story from McSweeney & a buddy read with @Jenn1

When you come across a character with the same name as one of your best friends ❤️📚