Welcome to Litsy!

This penultimate (for now) book in the series examines the dark side of....Morris dancing. Yes the traditionally twee pastime involving dressing in a costume, with bells, & banging wooden sticks together! I might have been more incredulous had I not read a book earlier this year (or last year) about the old practice of wassailing & its more sinister side.

Pratchett's satirical look at news, politics and “the truth“ seems frighteningly representative of today's world, despite the fact that it was written a quarter-century ago and involves some hilariously ridiculous situations.

#OokBOokClub @julesG
#BacklistReadathon @clwojick @TheAromaofBooks
#SeriesLove2024 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView

Slight but fun collection of memoirs and opinion pieces about Christmas, with a few darker-edged short stories that have more... ahem... meat on their bones. The tale of sweet Timmy the Turkey is hilariously awful, as is a descent into madness caused by a Christmas lunch. As an American, I enjoyed all the British-isms.

#WinterGames Team #XmasChaCha
#GingerbreadJourney
#ChristmasAtoZ Letter A

Still reading Jonathan Strange... and listening to Thank You for Listening. So didn't exactly get a bingo. Pretty good month though.

#BacklistReadathon:
“Metal Like Blood in the Dark” by T. Kingfisher
“Glamour” by Anna-Marie McLemore
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

#TBRTarot book, S for Shaina: Strong Female Protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan

Captain MacMasters & his wife return from their vacation & find the body of their 16-year-old daughter. Brutally assaulted & murdered, Deena went through hell before she died, & her parents want Lieutenant Eve Dallas as lead. As the team start to look for the perp, he seems to be one step ahead: fake ID, avoiding CCTV, uploading a virus into the victim's security system, & it looks as if Deena may not have been the only victim he has lined up.

I've signed up for three 2025 #readingchallenges already, and it's not even December! #WickedWords is a given of course if it's running, #ISpyBingo I very much enjoy, and I like the look of the prompts for #booklistqueenchallenge25 too. And I'll be running Four Fours again, hashtagged #fourfoursin25 this time.

What are you thinking of signing up for? Or running?

#readingchallenge #2025readingchallenges

Oooo, so dark and creepy! It starts off cozy and then turns on you. A very disturbing read that has many possible interpretations.

#BookSpin #BacklistReadathon #10BeforeTheEnd Number 3

Not tagged book, I'm not sure if this one's been translated into English.

If this was my first Ogawa, I wouldn't have read any other of her books. Hiroyuki is way too perfect, which makes a dull character. Then there whole plot is too “male-centered“, even though we have different female characters the book would not pass the Bechdel test.

#DoubleSpin @TheAromaofBooks
#BacklistReadathon @Clwojick

2024 Review:

Reading these books through again 5 years later is very revealing. I missed a ton of 'Kerwent' subtext the first time around, & knowing what I know about Derwent now, I can see how a lot of his banter & toughness is a front. The case also was a lot more interesting this time around & I've bumped my rating up by 1 star. 4🌟

17-year-old Persephone (Persey) struggles to live up to her perfect older brother, so when she is the first player to solve a supposedly unsolvable escape room & is invited to take part in the ultimate competition to win millions of dollars, she hesitantly accepts. 8 contestants are flown to Las Vegas to take part in the contest, & tension is high with the prize money at stake. (continued)