Welcome to Litsy!

My #ReadOrDonate choice for February is Kunstlers in Paradise, which has been calling out to me for a year or so now. This is the month!

What will everyone else be reading/donating?

All are welcome to join.

The link to the optional StoryGraph challenge is: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/efdc1ad1-dea0-414f-abeb-38ea1d0...

What would the new normal look like? The windows and doors would be suddenly thrown open and humanity would totter back out into the world, hesitant at first. He imagined euphoric crowds taking to the streets and impromptu carnivals as people embraced with joy. But he would not be one of them.
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I'd not realised this was a #Pandemic novel.

Tagged was my first read this year. It's a difficult book, & unlike Blue's other full books, it's not all ages: it's a graphic novel w/ explicit on-page BDSM sex. Blue's author's note is extremely helpful in understanding the comic, which I think is underdeveloped & too fragmentary, but it also makes sense that it is. I wouldn't suggest it to straight people at all because it's very much written for a queer audience. #SundayFunDay @BookMarkTavern

This was such a tense and melancholic read. Moss perfectly captures those first months of Covid and lockdown and all of that uncertainty. I‘m not sure I could have got through it had I read it closer to pandemic times. I really felt these characters thoughts and feelings.

#12Booksof2024

I read a lot in December due to time off work. Most of my favorites I‘ve already posted about for challenges. I want to highlight this title because I love Kunzru as an author. It didn‘t delve into the fantastical like others from him but it‘s still a crazy story. I appreciated Kunzru‘s intelligence and questioning of reality-why we value what we value. In large part, it‘s about art; what isn‘t art; how society commodifies art.

I loved rereading this. The audiobook was wonderful. I started it New Year‘s Eve and on January 1st I caught COVID for the first time. It has made reading this (her book about COVID) far more interesting! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Just made it.
Happy new year!
January 2, 2025

I‘m having a lazy, post-Christmas day. Reading (and napping) with my dog close by. Good book so far!
December 27, 2024.

My second to last #10BeforetheEnd book. I think I might make it!

This was an interesting look at art, capitalism, privilege, racism, etc. A lot of big ideas but Kunzru pulls it off, IMO. Jay was a performance artist who disappeared at the height of his career. Now, delivering groceries during the Covid pandemic, he encounters former friends from his art school days. We flash back to their friendship and then catch up to their uneasy present.

@ShyBookOwl Here‘s the “geode” simile done better!