Here's my #Bookspin list for December. Thanks Sarah😘
@TheAromaofBooks

#BookReport for November. Not a great reading month for quantity but not bad for quality. Love and Virtue was the best for the month and one of the very best for the year.
@Cinfhen

Quick, easy and fun read. I kept seeing Tea Leoni rather than Hillary, but that was ok😆 I'll be discussing this with my book group tomorrow night, should be good.

I first encountered Nancy Mitford's books via the 1980 TV series Love in a Cold Climate which combined the stories of that book and this one (The Pursuit of Love). It left a deep impression and I can't read these books without seeing and hearing those actors. Uncle Matthew in this illustration from my Folio edition looks enough like Michael Aldridge to make me happy.
@LeeRHarry

Easy reading #Romantsy that I enjoyed but I miss the spark of Lily Morton's first few books. Not yet in the Listy database.

Spent a peaceful weekend on the shores of Lake Eildon with some bird friends. The book was pleasant and undemanding although I wish it had more depth to its treatment of one of its plot lines. #ozfiction

My #AussieSecretSanta and #Jolabokaflodswap parcels went in the post today! Hurrah!! Even with our currently ridiculously slow postal service they should reach their destinations before Christmas Eve 🤞🤞🤞

@thegirlwiththelibrarybag @MaleficentBookDragon

A story about female friendship and the challenges of moving beyond young adulthood into full-blown adult life. An enjoyable read.
#Doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

#NewYearWhoDis2022

Some great titles on your list @AmyG ! These are the 3 I plan to read on January.

@monalyisha

Well, that wasn't quite what I was expecting! Overall I found it an engaging read. I was pleased to see Quentin finished up pretty much where he deserved. I enjoyed the dotty great aunt & her devotion to questionable causes, but a campaign against coffee drinking? That's beyond the pale!
#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub
@LeahBergen @Ruthiella @Cathythoughts @erzascarletbookgasm @batsy @quietjenn @rubyslippersreads @BookNAround @Sarabellum @SamanthaMarie

"The temp agency's application was only four pages long, but somehow Bev hadn't managed to fill it out."

As promised @Lizpixie ?

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Follow @LitsyEvents for all the latest in what's happening in Litsyland. If you are running a swap, readathon, reading challenge, buddy read or any other event you want Littens to know about tag @LitsyEvents for a repost.

Repost for @LitsyBirthdays

Hard to believe December is almost upon us and with it the time to celebrate all these wonderful Litsy friends!❤❤❤

If you'd like to be added to the @LitsyBirthdays calendar, please send your Litsy handle and your birthdate to litsybirthdays@gmail.com

The #birthdayfairies and Litsyland look forward to YOUR special day! 😊😊

@KarenUK @Crazeedi @robinb @julesG @squirrelbrain @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Getting started
#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub
@LeahBergen @Ruthiella @Cathythoughts @batsy @erzascarletbookgasm @rubyslippersreads @quietjenn @Sarabellum @BookNAround

Wow! What a brilliant book! The experiences of scholarship student Michaela in her first year at university provide a backdrop for exploring issues of power, privilege, class, consent and what makes a "good" person. There are no answers, this is all about the shades of grey. It would make a brilliant book club read, there is so much to think and talk about. #ozfiction
#bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

My #Bookspin and #Doublespin books for November.
Thanks @TheAromaofBooks It's so good of you to keep this game running

#BookReport for October. I loved the Pyms and enjoyed the Cleeves a lot too.
@Cinfhen

I hadn't read any of this series for a while so it was nice to be back with Jonty and Orlando in pre WWI Cambridge. Not a bad mystery but the real joy is in the characters.

Here's my list for #Bookspin and #Doublespin for November. Thanks Sarah😘
@TheAromaofBooks

I finished one book yesterday and bailed on another this morning. I'm supposed to be reading The Winter Road for my book group but after 2 chapters I am seriously not interested in it. I've got literally thousands of books to choose from but right now I am undecided.

I'm going to a dinner party on Saturday night with people I don't know😰 Wish me luck!

Vaccinations

Thanks for the tag @Lizpixie #WondrousWednesday
@Eggs

I've been trying with this for the last couple of weeks but it's now time to admit defeat. While the style is very reminiscent of Red White and Royal Blue the story has none of the charm for me and I'm sorry to say I'm finding it a bit boring. I hate to bail on my #Bookspin but I can't waste any more reading time in this one.
@TheAromaofBooks

Thank you for the rec to read this one next @Ruthiella it felt like a companion piece to Excellent Women. Although I think Mildred would be a little shocked by Catherine, I suspect they would be friends. And Tom (the cad!) was, in many ways, the anti- Evered Bone. I don't know why I hadn't read Pym years ago. It won't be long till I read another one.

This one is from the bottom of the bedroom pile. Written in the late '40s and even then nostalgic for earlier times, it evoked for me the New York of the old movies I used to watch on TV when I was a child. And the writing is beautiful.

This is Sarina Bowen in top form. A feisty heroine and a charming hero both with complicated family dynamics engage in entertaining banter while developing convincing connection, the 🔥 is sizzling and well placed in the story and both the jeopardy for the relationship and its resolution are believable. Might be my favourite #Romantsy this year.

Great interview with Penelope Lively in The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/16/penelope-lively-i-was-a-traumatise...

Another book uncovered from a stack I'm moving out out of my bedroom. Four middle aged men, friends since their youth, living lives that have not made them happy. Not a bad read, but there didn't seem to be a lot of point to it.

Just as good as the first one. I love the characters and the North Devon setting. I'll be hanging out for the next in the series, and probably reading some other Ann Cleeves books in the meantime.

I was in the mood for a crime novel so I thought I'd try Ann Cleeves new series. It was a good choice - decent writing, interesting characters and a satisfying mystery. Think I'll read the next one now.

Excellent book. I'm tempted to leave it there, but I need to add what a delight the whole thing was and how much I liked Mildred. I'm absolutely a convert to Pym and I will definitely be reading more.
#Doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

"...if I ever wrote a novel it would be of the stream-of-consciousness type and deal with an hour in the life of a woman at the sink"
I didn't know the idea of "kitchen sink" as a style came from Barbara Pym, I thought. I looked it up and it's attributed to a male art critic in 1954, no mention of Pym who published this book in 1952. ?

Another book I unearthed while reorganising my stacks. Lovely story of family and grief. I enjoyed the characters and the setting - there aren't many books set in Canberra, especially non-thrillers. #ozfiction

Here's my October List. I'm in for #Bookspin and #Doublespin
Thank you @TheAromaofBooks

Sorry the picture looks a bit strange - my ipad decided this morning that it won't load Litsy any more so I'm having to do it on my phone. Hope I can sort the ipad out😬🥴

#BookReport for September. After Story and Apricot Sky were my favourites this month.
@Cinfhen

I've been reorganising some book piles in my house and I came across these 3 short books. They couldn't be more different - dialogues between Irish drinking buddies discussing the news; diary excerpts from a National Trust envoy visiting British stately homes during and soon after WWII; provocative vignettes on modern life from an unrepentant Aussie stirrer - but they are all similarly amusing and entertaining.

😳 Can any of my US friends tell me if this is common usage, unusual or just a printing error?

The six poets are Thomas Hardy, A.E. Housman, John Betjeman, W.H. Auden, Louis MacNeice and Philip Larkin. Bennett introduces them with a brief biography and indication of their generally accepted place in the world of poetry, then adds his own ideas about them as he comments on the poems he has selected. Interesting and enjoyable and reinforced my liking for these poets, especially MacNeice.

Oh wow, I just loved this! An Aboriginal mother and daughter on a 10 day tour of literary sites in the UK, provide dual perspectives on what they are seeing and the people they are travelling with and dual perspectives on their family history and relationships. I loved the characters and I loved the way it challenged some of white Australia's assumptions about history, art and culture. Just wonderful #ozfiction

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub
Here's my suggestion for our November book. It's about a bookseller who pretends to have found Lord Byron's supposedly burnt memoirs, then sets about creating a forgery. Hope this is ok with everyone.

While I was fine with the romance (I rarely have a problem suspending disbelief for "Troo Lurv"?) the rest of the story didn't make much sense to me and the half baked ideas about the rights and wrongs of distribution of wealth in the 18th century were somewhat incongruous, if well intentioned. Not one of Cat Sebastion's best. #romantsy

YA story about a teenager recovering from depression and acute anxiety in the aftermath of a campaign of bullying by girls at her school. An enjoyable quick read, although I found the controlling mother extremely irritating.

What a marvellous summer holiday I've had in the West Highlands with the MacAlveys. Such lovely people (pity about the daughter-in-law). I've sailed to the islands with the children, inspected the renovations at Larrich, heard all about Mrs Leigh's tribulations, visited the local gentry, spent a heavenly day on Skye and attended a beautiful wedding - there was never a dull moment! And soon wedding bells will ring again!
#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

When her son is gaoled for life, Erica moves to a tiny beachside settlement to be near the prison and begins to think about building a labyrinth on her land. The book explores issues of parent/child and sibling relationships and the power, both positive and negative, of the artistic impulse. I found it strangely compelling although I'm not sure, in the end, what it all meant. #ozfiction

A delight from start to finish. Took me a minute to get the joke about Joyce's Instagram username though😂

#Booked2021 Winter prompts completed, form submitted. Thanks hosts😘😘😘

#Booked2021 #SFWrittenByAWoman
Grimspace is a kind of extra dimension that allows rapid travel through space but can only be navigated by specially trained carriers of the J-Gene such as Sirantha Jax, formerly a star of the Corp, now on the run. There's space travel, weird life forms & environments & hocus pocus about the joys/perils of Grimspace. Also romance. Jax is a great character, but not enough to overcome my lack of enthusiasm for Sci-Fi.

Tagged. Stacked on the recommendation of @BarbaraBB
Cherries 🍒 Love them!
I've just started one I had been eagerly anticipating - The Man Who Died Twice. Looking forward to All's Well and Something Fabulous early next year and hoping for new books by Sulari Gentil and Gary Disher.
Sunshine☀️ and spring flowers 🌷

Thanks for the tag @Mavey and @Lizpixie
#WondrousWednesday

While Three Pines and its inhabitants were as warmly welcoming as always, I'm really not so sure about this story. I can't quite put my finger on what bothered me about it, it just all felt a little off somehow. Still a pick, but with intangible reservations.

Outside with my book for #AustralianReadingHour

Acerbically funny tale of a group of elderly upper middle class Brits who get themselves worked up over intimations of mortality from a voice on the telephone. There is much discussion of wills, some attempts at blackmail and the discovery of secrets old and new. If you squint you can see a #MustacheOnCover #Booked2021

And this finally arrived yesterday.

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub