Shakespeare has entered the chat! Caroline spends the evening with Hortense and Robert, and Coriolanus becomes the driver of romance, admonition, and maybe a bunch of foreshadowing?? Will the citizens rebel and will Moore refuse to heed their suffering? Will he be overthrown? Will a female family member push him to be peaceful at last?? Anyway, cast your vote for your fave bloody general of the 4 above - McKellen, Hiddleston, Fiennes, or Branagh?

We have a LOT to unpack in today's chapter! We meet Moore's self-important sister, Hortense who venerates her brother but hates the local villagers. To be fair, they laughed in her face when my good sis rocked up to church in her finest wooden clogs. But in between the family talk, we see that Robert engages in the practice of the day of hiring literal CHILDREN in his mill and also is maybe hitting on a child, 17 year old Caroline Helstone. 😬

These dudes, with their love triangles, infighting, and grudges! Don't ever let anyone tell you men are not full-on bringing the drama all. the. damn. time. We learn more about Yorke today, and you know what? I mostly love him; I can hardly ever resist a "rebel and blasphemer". Alas, he also succumbs to the drama and the chapter ends with him angrily throwing everyone out of his house. These men - so emotional! #HashtagBrigade

Helstone and Moore go to rescue the men bound on Stilbro' Moor and fight about their opposing political views the whole way. This comes after our narrator becomes a disappointing apologist for Helstone, the "warlike" parson. He may be "without sympathy; ungentle; and prejudiced" ...but any criticism for that is just "poisonous rancour". ? The bar for men has always been in Hell! Anyway, the translation for the chapter's French dialogue is above.

It's the last Saturday of the holiday break, it's snowy outside, and this is my entire plan for the day! #Proust2026 #HashtagBrigade #WanderingThroughWutheringHeights #CurrentlyReading

Chapter 2 is a doozy! I love any narrative that reminds us to reflect on labor history and the rights of workers and this chapter is IT. The Luddite uprisings are in full swing and the pitiless capitalist known as Robert Moore is bringing in new machinery, which the workers cannot abide. Despite how the term is used today, the Luddites were not explicitly anti-tech; they were pro-worker, which included highly skilled craftspeople, i.e. artists.

I'm being very ambitious this January and have added this month's #HashtagBrigade title to my reading. I love a lesser-known Bronte and haven't yet cracked this copy my husband bought me last Christmas, so off I go! Chapter 1 is full of eye-rollingly argumentative faux-religious bros who live for roasting each other and not doing much by way of ministry. Check the comments for the hashtags; I think I'm really going to enjoy this one.

Happy 2026, and here we go! I've attempted In Search of Lost Time before but never completed it. Here's hoping that #Proust2026 keeps me on track! #CurrentlyReading

Not a bad reading year‐ I managed 152 total, and more than half were new to me (the only real goal I set every year). My top picks are pictured here: Doreen was a lovely and poignant #PersephonePick and Finding Hester was a testament to art and the power of storytelling. The Employees was hugely powerful, but the read of the year for me, hands down, was Kristin Lavransdatter. I'm so grateful to the #KLBR for being the reason I picked it up!

Sneaking in one last read to end 2025, and holy shit, is it a banger. Inspired by artwork from Lea Gulditte Hestelund and by conversations with the artist, this novella is ostensibly a sci-fi story about a crew on board a ship millions of miles from earth. Of course, it's really about so much more - humanity and technology; the nature of art; memory and nostalgia; the passage of time and mortality; and the insidious nature of corporations. 👇👇👇

I love these days and nights at the end of the year. I'm settling in tonight with a cozy throw (a gift, so appreciated) and a title that's been on my TBR for far too long. I'm so grateful for the chance to let time slow down, let obligations go, and just READ. #CurrentlyReading

I started 2025 with Emily Wilson's translation of The Iliad and it just felt right to close it out with her take on The Odyssey. Sparse and precise, I love her considered choice to render the story in iambic pentameter for a modern, English-speaking audience. Her work has its fair share of detractors (rooted primarily in misogyny, let's be so for real), but I love it. New interpretations get an emphatic YES from me, and I really enjoyed this one.

OP is obviously ragebaiting, but not gonna lie, I burst out laughing at this response. #PemberLittens

As the forward is quick to note (and as the title should make clear), these are stories for Winter, not for Christmas. But still, it feels like the right time to read them, with lovely lights on the tree and a mug of hot cocoa and the wind blowing outside. ❄️ #CurrentlyReading

Happy birthday to the author who has enriched my life beyond compare! I'm celebrating today by writing letters (well, holiday cards), taking a turn about the room (all the rooms, as I'm working from home), and finishing off this book about Jane's so-called wild ways. How are you marking the grand occasion today, #PemberLittens?

It's fair to say that this book is outside of my typical pattern- a mystery-thriller with a bit of the supernatural about it would never be my go-to, but my book club selected it so I tried to be game. And what a great reminder to read widely! This was fast-paced and engaging with intriguing characters and vivid moods, and it kept me guessing throughout. So all that to say: make sure you read something out of left field sometimes! I'm glad I did.

When you wake up in the morning and the social media algorithm is absolutely clocking you. 🤣 Who else here has an embarrassing dalliance with this book in their past? #ItsJustFanFic #IWas13OKAY #ButIReReadItToThisDay

I hate to see a long weekend go, but at least I got to spend this Sunday wrapped in a blanket reading this powerful, important novella. It is one of the few books about Stalin's Great Purge written during the actual events and centers on the experience of an everyday woman in Leningrad. It was written and hidden away by the author and a number of her friends, published first in France but not in Russia until nearly 50 years after it was written.

"Woe is me! What have I done to deserve not being the center of attention at all times?!" (#TomKitten when I try to read.) #CatsOfLitsy

It's been a loooong year with this book! Kelly's ideas offer some real ups and downs- the undercurrent of violence and unrest in P&P, sure; but Northanger and the danger of pregnancy? Half siblings in Wickham and Darcy, Harriet Smith and Jane Fairfax? I have to laugh. The chapter on Persuasion is bland by comparison, framing the novel as commentary on the uncertainty and malleability of all things, from great empires to the human heart. 👇👇👇

Stopping for mid-morning tea and time to finish Deresiewicz's excellent reflections on Austen. I've always really enjoyed this book, and it was fun to read it this year chapter by chapter after each associated work. In Persuasion, he focuses on the meaning of friendship and chosen family. After all, Anne didn't have much love from her family circle but "she found, at Lyme, what she did not know she'd been searching for: something to belong to."

Maybe there are people who can visit the Drama Book Shop and walk away without making a purchase, but I wouldn't know anything about that! New reads alongside a week's worth of Playbills; nothing like a solid theatre trip! #SeeMoreTheatre

This gorgeous Cranford edition saw me through the last week of Persuasion, through the necessary tedium of Mrs. Smith's backstory and into the sheer stomach-churning joy of Wentworth's letter. Truly, nothing I've ever read in any romance comes close to the power of that entire chapter, culminating with *the greatest* letter any man, fictional or living, has ever put to paper. Do not fight me on this, I will live happily in the hyperbole forever!

Another week of Persuasion has come! We're really flying through it now- the Lyme trip, complete with Louisa's unfortunate flirting accident, has come and gone, and now the fam is onto Bath. Anne is resentful and resigned but mayyyybe Mr. Elliot will make things a little better? And then again, as we (and Anne) start to see, maybe not. 🙃 This week's copy is the stunning painted edition by Harper Muse Classics which I'm obsessed with. So gorgeous!

Sorry I'm not showing off the edition I've been reading (the Annotated Persuasion, highly recommend!) but I need to geek out over my weekend trip up north and visits from chickadees that will eat right out of your hand. 😍 Making good progress on the story, though- Anne is shipped off for a time to wait on her spoiled hypochondriac sister Mary, and of course, Wentworth starts coming around! It is painful and awkward and I love every second of it.

Dying at every bit of this, from the costume to the caption to the #NYRB response. 🤣😭

Week 1: Just two chapters in on my weekly Sunday Persuasion round-up! We get tea on the whole Elliot clan from vain Sir Walter to his disappointed, deceased lady, and his three daughters: Elizabeth (hot but shallow), Anne (sensible and sweet, but ignored) and Mary (semi-important because she married rich, BUT not titled). They're in dire financial straits so time to up sticks and move to Bath! Notes on the pictured edition in the comments. 👇👇👇

It feels so right to be ending a year of Austen's novels with Persuasion. It's probably my favorite of her works, and as such, I have 10 copies to choose from. 😭 (I have a problem!) This time I'll be cycling through some choice editions and posting a weekly recap. Maybe next year I'll meme my way through it, but for now, I'm going let it all wash over me and just enjoy a dose of my favorite Austen during my favorite season. 🍁🫖📚🧡

I'm counting this as an Emma-adjacent read, as Persephone's edition dates from 1816 when Emma was published, and they often recommend it to Austen lovers. It was fun to read and imagine what would resonate with our characters: for Robert Martin, certainly the sections on keeping livestock; for Mr. Woodhouse, the part about recipes for the sick; and as for Emma herself, as the lady of the house, how much do you think she consulted on menus, etc.?

I really loved this queer YA take on Emma! Emmett has a large friend group and no interest in having a boyfriend...but that doesn't mean he can't make the people around him happy. The loss of his mother looms large in this one and this Mr. Woodhouse's concern for Emmett's health is actually kind of disturbing, but overall I think the spin works well. And check out the cover underneath the dust jacket- swoon! 😍 #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow

"Go ahead and move me. Just try it." #TomKitten stops me reading at every opportunity. ? #CatsOfLitsy

Finally catching up to reflect on the #BetsyTacyConvention! *Seven years* after committing to do the thing and being thwarted by the pandemic, it was a joy to finally make it happen. 200 fans converged on Deep Valley to see the houses, walk through Emily's slough, visit Lincoln Park, and connect with new and old friends. I'm so grateful and so tired and most of all, so thankful for Maud's writing and the gift of these beautiful stories. ❤️

Minnesota Littens, I've been having quite a month in your state! After a week in Mankato for the Betsy-Tacy Convention, I came back to Minneapolis for a work conference and have been having too good a time at your bookstores (Birchbark, my love!) and at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (swoon!). Pictured are some new titles I'll be taking home along with so many photos of your gorgeous cities in the fall. Can't wait to visit again soon!

"The present of a friend." ❤️ #BetsyTacyConvention #VisitDeepValley #MaudHartLovelace #BetsyTacyAndTib

#iykyk #BetsyTacyConvention #DeepValley #MaudHartLovelace #BetsyTacyAndTib

My September was filled with pop culture-related audiobooks! The Spiderman musical was a disaster none of us could look away from and I appreciated the inside scoop. I loved Jeffery and Cole Casserole back in the day, and Jeffery Self's memoir is crushingly honest and hilarious. Harvey Fierstein is a legend and his memoir is a must for everyone, while anything related to Spinal Tap, one of my favorite movies of all time, never fails to disappoint.

It's the "Now" time of #JaneAustenThenAndNow and I'm challenging myself to tackle a whole pile of Emma adaptations and retellings! I'm hitting more movie and TV versions than ever, as it's been years since I've seen most of them, and I threw some new-to-me titles on this list as well. What are you taking on this month, #PemberLittens?

1. This was my 9th or 10th reading? I can't keep track anymore! My viewpoint hasn't shifted too much over the years; Emma has always been low on my Austen List but I've found new things to appreciate each time through.

2. It's complicated! Its a coming-of-age story so of course we have to see how she grows and God knows I regret things I did and said at 20...! But at the same time, her shallow snobbery grates on me. 👇👇

On Emma: Kelly suggests Knightley is in the process of enclosure, or privatizing formerly common land. After all, the "gipsies" were hanging about the lanes which must mean that their usual campsite was inaccessible, and the incident of turkey theft in the last chapters means that more villagers of Highbury are going hungry. Honestly, her ideas intrigue me, but then she also mentions that Harriet and Jane Fairfax are half sisters and girl, what?

Tweets About Emma, Part 2: I love Brandon Taylor. ? I'm so here for the distinction between "favorite" and "best", because YES. And the follow-up tweet is petty snark at its finest. Where is Emma on your Austen favorites list, #PemberLittens? #JaneAustenThenAndNow

I love a rainy night and hot apple cider, with Deresiewicz's meditation on Emma: "These things matter because they matter to the characters themselves. They made up the texture of their lives and gave their existence its savor...those small, "trivial" everyday things, the things that happen hour by hour to the people in our lives; that, [Austen] was telling us, is what the fabric of our years really consist of. That is what life is really about."

Tweets About Emma, Part 1: What resonates with you, #PemberLittens? 😂 #JaneAustenThenAndNow

I've been speeding through this one and was coming to the close when a chance day hike came my way. What a pleasure to end as I started, surrounded by the gorgeous outdoors! I've read Emma many times and in many humors, and this time I really tried to notice the character's finer qualities. Obviously her change of heart is deeply felt and her care for her father drives nearly everything she does- but I will still never truly love this book. 👇👇👇

Emma being asked to comment on Mrs. E and only responding that she is "very elegantly dressed" is the original Shady Aretha moment and it absolutely sent me. ? Anyway, we're starting to see Emma's growth now. Mrs. W and Knightley hint that she hasn't been behaving well toward Jane and Emma internally agrees. She also recognizes that though she dislikes the Eltons, its her role as a leader in society to throw them a dinner- and she does! Progress!

I'm reading ahead, but I can't stop! Mrs. E brings a new energy to the book when she appears and I love how much Emma detests her. And even though I know she's set up to be vulgar and unlikeable, I always feel a strange empathy for her at first in being transplanted to a new place. And is her condescending "adoption" of Jane Fairfax in the coming chapters so different from Emma's relationship with Harriet? Where are you on Augusta, #PemberLittens?

I loved re-reading this classic on my own September vacation this year. Though mine wasn't a fortnight (hooray for the USA 🙃) it was such a needed getaway. I was again struck by the small, beautifully rendered details of the book, and how, along with the general break in routine and surroundings, it was the time and space to be on their own that was the true means by which each family member was able to refresh and refill their mental energy.

Frank actually shows up in Highbury! Emma is charmed by his easy gregariousness but Knightley sizes him up as an affected, preening fop. Meanwhile, the Coles are throwing a party and Emma is dying to reject their invitation - but then it doesn't come?! How absolute dare! When it belatedly shows up, she actually agrees to grace them with her presence and even condescends to sing and play for them. And then Jane performs after her and *crushes it*.

What news! Elton is engaged to one Miss Hawkins of Bristol. He swans around in triumph over his hot, rich wife-to-be, but Emma clocks the truth ‐ she's pretty enough but she has no real class or connections, and worst of all, her family money was made in some totally dubious way. The narrator throws some shade here and I'm curious about your thoughts, #PemberLittens - does the new Mrs. E have slave-trade connections? (Article link in comments!)

Today's chapters give us the backstory on yet another orphaned kid from Highbury, Jane Fairfax. Niece to the chatterbox Miss Bates, Jane is being raised and educated by friends of her father, the Campbells. Emma suspects some drama between Jane and the husband of her foster sister, but Jane isn't spilling any tea. Worse, she knows Frank Churchill and *refuses* to gossip about him, offering only vague generalities, which Emma finds unforgivable.

So much happened in Emma while I was in the woods! Most recently Frank Churchill still hasn't arrived to celebrate his father's marriage. Mr. Knightley tears him to shreds while Emma's all, "Lay off, he's sure to be charming!" To be fair, Emma knows a thing or twelve about "tempers to manage" and cuts Frank some slack. After managing her entire family's emotional load just a few chapters ago during the dinner from Hell, her outlook totally tracks.