CampLitsy2025

Woodworking | Emily St James

pick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Wow I read this in a day! Partly because it was due on Libby tomorrow and partly I just got so into it.

Erica starts to realize she might be trans later in life and doesn‘t know who to turn to. She‘s a teacher at a high school, she‘s divorced, and she‘s numb. The story jumps between her POV and that of Abigail a trans student at the school.

Engaging story, though a bit predictable

#campLitsy2025
#lgbtia2025
#transrightsreadathon2025

Butterfinger Being a teacher, I keep shaking my head and saying NOOOOOO. Even if it is innocent, you have to protect the reputation. But, there was an incident in my county. A few, in fact, but one relationship ended in suicide (the teacher). I didn't realize the close, intimate relationship would be a trigger for me. I just finished reading the part where Swee reads the texts between the two. She had the right reaction - TO PROTECT THE CHILD!!! ALWAYS. 1d

Butterfinger Sorry, I just set the book down and still had anxiety when I opened Litsy. One part of my brain realizes they need each other, but then the other part sees a train wreck coming because a teacher should not ever develop a relationship with a student. Hopefully, it's all out of my system. 1d

Kitta @Butterfinger oh I completely agree! There was a teacher at the junior school when I was in highschool who was caught with hundreds of child porn images and he fled to South America and also died by suicide, I believe. It was awful. Very triggering to read about their friendship here and not have anyone do anything?? I thought someone should act. I had a weird friendship with a teacher and cut him off when he was getting too close to me. 1d

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Kitta @Butterfinger He was young for a teacher and I was close to graduating but I felt it was weird even if he didn‘t teach me directly. I don‘t think it was nefarious, I just kept running into him when I was out drinking (underage oops) with my friends or skipping assembly to get coffee. I was going to add commentary about how that aspect of the book made me feel but there wasn‘t space. 1d

Kitta @Butterfinger I think it was uncomfortable and not at all good that Abigail acts as Erica‘s trans mom, given their situation. It‘s not fair on Abigail to keep that secret and be responsible. I don‘t know if it‘s realistic? I chose to believe it was possible though. I thought Erica didn‘t stress enough about how it looked, although she does stress a lot. 1d

Butterfinger @kitta exactly. She is too young for that responsibility and Erica should know that. 1d

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Kitta

Death of the Author: A Novel | Nnedi Okorafor

Re posting @Suet624 ‘s image - my copy is the same!

Different covers on the book jacket and hardcover! So cool and clever. I didn‘t even notice until she mentioned it.

Anyone else have the deluxe edition as well with this?

#camplitsy2025

ChaoticMissAdventures I am now sad I got mine through the Aardvark book box!! So cool 2d

TEArificbooks Mine is that way too. Very well designed book. 2d

BarbaraJean My library copy was the same way! 2d

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Kitta @ChaoticMissAdventures I ordered mine from my local independent bookstore since it wasn‘t available on BOTM, I was so surprised! I hate the colour of the sprayed edges though haha. It matches the blue of the cover and hurts my brain. 1d

Kitta @TEArificbooks yes! I feel like it‘s setting the bar high for others. 1d

Kitta @BarbaraJean I ended up buying it because I wouldn‘t get it in time at the library lol. I mainly use Libby and the wait time would have taken me too long (past September I think). I need to start getting physical books out from the library too. 1d

ChaoticMissAdventures @Kitta yeah, cyan. Every time she says it is her favorite color I cringed a bit. 1d

BarbaraJean @Kitta I‘ve started doing what I think of as “library roulette” for in-demand library books: I put all three versions (print, digital, audio) on hold, and see what comes first! Print usually shows up first. This one came through in May and I didn‘t dare turn it down because the wait time on Libby was so long. I struck out with the first two for Camp Litsy, though—Wild Dark Shore is only just now on its way to me. 1d

Kitta @BarbaraJean I got two from BOTM, two off Libby, and two I bought at my LBS. I need to go to the physical library though. It‘s not even far lol. I love my kindle and the convenience and I worry I‘ll forget to return them if they‘re print books! Also Wild dark shore was great! I hope you enjoy! Audition… was not for me. 1d

BarbaraJean Going to the physical library is dangerous for me—I have to walk by the new releases shelf to get to the holds shelf 😆 And it‘s books like Audition that make me get these from the library! I snagged a 7-day skip-the-line checkout for it on Libby at the midpoint of the Camp Litsy discussion and it‘s for sure not one I needed to buy! Interesting to discuss, but frustrating to read. I‘m glad it was so short! 24h

Kitta @BarbaraJean 😂 yes that‘s the danger. I‘m glad I got audition on Libby too, very frustrating read for me. You‘re right the discussion was good though! I love CampLitsy!! 23h

33 likes11 comments

BarbaraBB

Kastanje a/d Zee | A.F.Th. van der Heijden

#WeeklyForecast 29/25

I started Woodworking for #CampLitsy2025. I am 100 pages in and enjoying it. No more reading time today however, as I am going to a Kendrick Lamar show in a few minutes 💃

Next will be the tagged one, a Dutch author.

I haven‘t made much progress with Cleo and Frankenstein. I‘ve been reading it next to Shark Heart and compared to that one, it really falls short.

Megabooks, squirrelbrain

sarahbarnes Have fun at the show! I was disappointed in her other book unfortunately.

Blue Sisters

Suet624 Have a great time!!! 3d

AmyG Oh wow. Have the best time. I am so jealous. He is amazing. 3d

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squirrelbrain Have a great time! @sarahbarnes - I really liked Blue Sisters. I read Cleo before that and liked it, but not as much. 3d

Billypar Hope the show is amazing! 3d

Megabooks ENJOY!!!!! I liked Blue Sisters more than Cleo and Frank. 3d

Lesliereadsalot Ooh…a concert! Have so much fun! 3d

BarbaraBB @sarahbarnes @squirrelbrain @Megabooks I was disappointed in Blue Sisters but Cindy said this one would be better. Not sure though. But who knows, I am not halfway yet! 3d

BarbaraBB @Suet624 @AmyG @Billypar @Lesliereadsalot thanks! He is so cool, a great show. Crowd went crazy. And Sza was very good too! 3d

75 likes9 comments

Kitta

Death of the Author: A Novel | Nnedi Okorafor

so-so

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This has all the things I should love in a book but it just didn‘t hit the mark for me. I was frustrated a lot and although the ending was interesting, I was kind of annoyed by it.

I will add some spoiler comments below.

Read for #camplitsy2025.

Kitta Anyone else keep thinking Zelu was going to die the whole time? The constant peril she is made me keep thinking she would meet an untimely death - the autonomous cars, swimming, the kidnapping in Nigeria. It frustrated me. 4d

Kitta As mentioned in another post, the genetics was just wrong. This always irks me. 4d

Kitta The writing style when the robots were talking sounded a bit… simplistic? I preferred the chapters from Zelu‘s POV. The interviews were also strange and I‘m not sure what they added besides some background. 4d

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TEArificbooks @Kitta yes I kept waiting for her to die. I think it‘s the title. Needs a better title 4d

Kitta @TEArificbooks I understand why that‘s the title - I think it‘s about the death of humanity (as humans are the authors of stories) in the robot version of the world. So it‘s sort of about Ngozi‘s death as she was the last author. But it made for frustrating reading. 4d

Ruthiella I didn‘t love it either. I don‘t think I jive with Okorofor‘s writing style. Overall I liked the ideas but found the execution a little boring. 🥱 4d

JamieArc @Kitta @TEArificbooks The title of the book was mentioned by @ChaoticMissAdventures as possibly coming from an essay by Roland Barthes using the exact same phrase. Reading about it, the title makes perfect sense to me. 4d

Kitta @Ruthiella yes exactly that. There was a way to do this and make it more interesting throughout instead of just a twist ending. Reading the blurb I thought there would be more blending of her life with the book not just the last chapter when she goes to space. 3d

Kitta @JamieArc so funny, I mentioned I was reading Death of the Author to someone last week and they assumed we were discussing the Barthes essay! So I read up on it then but if I‘d known about the essay beforehand I would have understood better. I agree the title makes sense, but before I read about the essay and read the ending, I assumed she would die and that kind of ruined the experience of reading it for me. It changed how I viewed everything. 3d

Kitta @Chrissyreadit rotating shelf in the background! 3d

Chrissyreadit it looks amazing- is that a light attached to it??? I‘m leaning toward getting one- where did you order yours? 3d

Kitta @Chrissyreadit the light is separate! It‘s just sitting in front of it from this angle. I have some boxes hidden by the book lol or I‘d take a picture from another angle. I love mine, even if it‘s become a climbing tower for the cats haha. 3d

Kitta @Chrissyreadit I think I got it from Flycity via the TikTok shop when they were on sale. Mine is the gold 5 tier. It has sorta fake wood and gold bars. I don‘t mine the fake MDF wood because you don‘t see it much with the books on it, and the dark colour gives a nice contrast to the gold. It was easy to put together! 3d

Chrissyreadit love it!!! I‘m laughing because my cats race across the bookshelves in my house- they are 7 feet high! 3d

Kitta @Chrissyreadit haha I‘m pretty shocked when she jumps up and it doesn‘t fall over tbh. She loves being up high. I wish I could get some of those climbing shelves for her. 3d

40 likes15 comments

DebinHawaii

June | Lori Copeland

So, I‘m very behind in reviews for June & procrastination has continued its hold on me but until I get them done, here‘s my June recap. Work, life, a dead Kindle & family visits mean I didn‘t get as much read as I wanted, but I ended up finishing 12 books + 3 more in process.

I did manage to finish books for #SundayBuddyRead #NancyDrewBR #EBBR #BobWhiteBuddies #FictionalTravel #SeasonalCozies #CampLitsy2025 #AuthorAMonth & 2 #Roll100 books ⬇️

Megabooks, Riveted_Reader_Melissa, TheBookHippie, Librarybelle, squirrelbrain, BarbaraBB, Ruthiella, TheAromaofBooks, PuddleJumper, julieclair

DebinHawaii … with 3 books I‘m finishing up in July including ones for #SheSaid & my final #Roll100 pick + one for Leadership at work. My top 3 favorites were Starter Villain, Wild Dark Shore & Ash, although I think that I Who Have Not Known Men will be right up there. Hopefully I‘ll get the reviews posted soon, along with my July TBR. 1w

Librarybelle You still read well for June! 1w

Ruthiella I agree with @Librarybelle ! Good results despite the challenges. 👍 1w

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! Fantastic month!! 1w

julieclair Still a good month! I didn‘t get to Starter Villain in June. Hoping I can fit it in to July. 🤞 1w

54 likes5 comments

GatheringBooks

Death of the Author: A Novel | Nnedi Okorafor

#JuneSpecials Day 28: Loads of #Foodie references in this novel which I thoroughly enjoyed reading - super want to taste jollof rice now! Finished it for #CampLitsy2025 and very much looking forward to the discussion. Some Dennys goodness while in ‘Murrica with family.

Eggs, Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

ChaoticMissAdventures Jollof rice is super yummy!! If you don't have any West African restaurants near it isn't very hard to make (I say as someone who hates cooking). The key is the spices added before the rice cooks. But I always recommend a professional if possible 😀. There is a big debate throughout W. Africa of which country makes it best I personally cannot decide. 2w

Eggs Excellent 👌🏼 2w

BarbaraBB @ChaoticMissAdventures Great suggestion about the adding of the spices! I remember another book too about where the best Jollof comes from but I can‘t remember what book that is. 2w

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Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Looks delicious 😋 2w

Bookwormjillk @BarbaraBB was it

Americanah

BarbaraBB @Bookwormjillk Of course! Such a great read that was! 2w

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GatheringBooks

A Reaper at the Gates (Ember Quartet, Book 3) | Sabaa Tahir

#JuneSpecials Day 26: Can stand for #ChocPudding #ChocolatePudding but more like Chilis molten chocolate cake - paired with the third book in the Ember in the Ashes quartet which I simply devoured while in Seattle a week ago. I am not starting Book 4 yet so I can prolong my stay in Sabaa Tahir‘s world. Will get to the #CampLitsy2025 and #EuropaCollective titles first.

Eggs, Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Eggs Oh I remember this cake from Chilis! It‘s been 15+ years… 3w

42 likes1 comment

PaperbackPirate

Death of the Author (Deluxe Limited Edition) | Nnedi Okorafor

This science fiction story takes place in the United States and Nigeria.
4/10 countries for #ReadTheWorld2025

Thank you @GatheringBooks !

#Nigeria

GatheringBooks I am actually reading this one right now with #CampLitsy2025 and enjoying it tremendously 🥰 3w

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AnneCecilie

Audition | Katie Kitamura

pick

A book of two parts where I loved each part individually. She writes beautifully, but I‘m not sure I understand their connectedness even reading all the comments from the #Camplitsy2025 discussions

I read her previous book and will read more of her in the future

Teresereading Great cover art 4w

squirrelbrain At least you‘re one of the few people who enjoyed it! 4w

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Butterfinger

Audition | Katie Kitamura

so-so

Left me wondering about my lack of sanity. Is middle-aged syndrome the reason for my actions? The continuity changed so much; I didn't know if I was coming or going. #CampLitsy2025 @squirrelbrain @Megabooks @BarbaraBB

kspenmoll Yup! 😀 1mo

Megabooks I think we are all going to have very different thoughts about this one. I can't wait to read everyone's theories!! 1mo

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