Welcome to Litsy!

#5JoysFriday Thank you for the tag @DebinHawaii @TheSpineView

1. Birthday week cake
2. My little family
3. A birthday greeting from my favorite local author solicited by a library friend …🤭
4. A wonderful hike with a friend
5. Two lunch dates.

Strangely my joys remind me I‘m not all introvert, I find joy in people too 🤣

Tagging @Kshakal @BethM @AmyG

This one was fun to make. Getting ready to be shipped as a thank you gift to one of our relatives.

Quickie book and lunch break. Is there anything better than a punny cozy title? 😂 🍕

I don't think this is Butler's best, but it's still a pick for me. His characters are always so real and his books are never even slightly pretentious. (Not that I don't like pretentious novels, of course. I often do.) I think my criticism of this one is that there were a few too many plot points and not enough character development. Having said that, I read it incredibly quickly (for me! I'm slow!) and found it engaging.

At the start of the weekend I realized I wasn‘t enjoying any of the books I was reading and bailed on them all which was so not like me. I made it through 50% of this audiobook before admitting that I just didn‘t care about any of it- the characters, the plot, the fact that nothing they did made sense to me. I thought about continuing because I have liked Butler in the past but I was honestly relieved when I gave myself permission to stop.

I made it to page 106. Charlie and Vivian were married for 4 years 40 years ago and they have now reunited. In the 100 pages I read, their reunion was problem free and without any meaningful postmortem of their lives. When Vic‘s adult daughter meets Charlie, she says hey, I hear you have a drinking problem, let‘s open these expensive bottles of wine and drink them. I just didn‘t like the characters or the way this book was written. #hailthebail

Somehow I can get to the library embarrassingly early and still sit behind a big furry hat. (It is zero degrees so I‘ll give the lady a pass)That said, it was about the conversation with the author, Nickolas Butler - which was so powerful, vulnerable and just plain cool. He is such a regular guy, I love his work.

💘 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 👨‍🦳👩‍🦳

𝐀 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐊𝐢𝐬𝐬 is an entertaining & charming second chance love story. Author 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐬 𝐁𝐮𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐫 imbues it with insight, credibility, & appreciation of his flawed but completely credible, mature characters. Have they grown enough to forgive, respect each other's needs, & keep their union from imploding this time? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This story was so good. So deep and light at the same time. How to deal with a lost love... Forty years later.

Full five star review: https://lsmoore49.blogspot.com/2025/02/a-forty-year-kiss-by-nickolas-butler.html

Pub day!! Love this local-to-me author, and the book is a delight, a slow and steady rekindling.