Welcome to Litsy!

This beautiful MG novel was the perfect way to kick off my #AuldLangSpine reading. The story follows one kid who thinks she messed everything up—and fills in the context as the events of one evening unfold. There‘s such wonderful emotional depth here. Add a small community of found family (including dogs, cat, and seagull) a dash of magic, and gorgeous illustrations: this is definitely a pick.

After spending time with my #ALSpine list and my library‘s catalog, I‘ve picked the above books for my January TBR. I‘ll be out of town for 2 weeks starting the 6th, so I‘ve been looking at digital version availability! My plan is to start the year with Keeper (a library print copy is in transit to me), then switch to digital for the others as they become available. But there are several others I‘ll build into my reading for the rest of the year!

YA. When Nailer and Pima find a ship after a storm, all they can think about is the scavenge for wealth. Instead, they find a human who changes their view of life, making them the richer for it, but not before they learn that Ship Breaker and Swanks can work together without fear and hatred.

Read for my Young at Heart Book Club. It was my 2nd time reading, a decade later, and I loved it even more than I did the first time around (which was quite a lot to begin with!).

Gorgeous, tender writing; vivid small town/island setting; with found family, two lovable dogs, LGBTQ+ characters, & a dash of mer-mythology.

A perfect MG novel. Also great for gentle-hearted grown-ups who are doing their best, despite life‘s hardships, to stay soft.

I read this book to prep myself for our family reunion in Rosemary Beach and I found the book to be incredibly readable and fascinating. Definitely recommend if you enjoy history!

Scenes from a hurricane: board games by the light of my Jane devotional candle… #janeausten #authors #GulfCoast #writermama

Now that the sidewalks are covered in yuck, here's some shots from when I walked into Boston for the first time since last March to return my library book. I took my sweet time with this book. I wasn't familiar with this part of America, nevermind what it was like there in 18th century. But I learned a lot and appreciated the different perspectives of the author's subjects.

#history #louisiana #florida #nonfiction

Thanks for the tag @Ireadkidlit Anyone else want to play? I tag all of you!!!
1. Nope. From Queens NYC and live in WV - you can take the girl outta Queens...
2. I‘m grateful for my family, home, garden and books.

DuVal brings attention to a little-known (at least to me) aspect of the Revolutionary era: events in the area that surrounds the Gulf of Mexico. She also covers the involvement of diverse types of people: Native-Americans tribes, the slave Petit Jean, negotiator Alexander McGillivray who was Scots-Creek, and others. Sometimes I‘d lose the thread of the overall history when she‘d zoom into one of these individuals; but overall enlightening.

This kind of reminds me of now 😓. Especially the last few words here.

Not shown here is the passage about smallpox inoculation and how controversial it was at that time — Washington insisted his troops be inoculated even if they tried to resist. However, the Creeks didn‘t have access to inoculations.

This book is an overview of the area around North America‘s Gulf of Mexico during the Revolutionary era.

(Pages 165 and 166 of this book).