My second Susan Scarlett and at first I thought it was going to be too sweet for my current mood - then along came Freda. 😜 It became a page turner as I raced to see whether her evil plans for our sweet protagonist Annabel would materialise!
A really fun read and I love that we see snippets of early 20th century life that I‘d never heard about. Imagine giving your staff a wee glass of port to help them through a long work day!

Great timing for me to be reading the audiobook of James just as it won the Pullitzer!
I wanted to give a shout out to the narrator Dominic Hoffman. He really is fantastic. I listened to him narrate Homegoing years ago and that book is now burned in my brain. (Please listen to it if you havent read it yet!) He has a gorgeous voice and made the differences in James‘s use of two languages have such an impact on me. This book is thought provoking ⬇️

Look at this! My daughter crocheted me a cover for my Kindle. Hopefully this will get me reading the many unread books I have on there 😊

It turns out one of my favourite crossover genres is mystery-fantasy. (Although maybe this is mystery-scifi? There is no magic but the tech is all plant based)
Anyhow! Everything i love in a mystery with a Holmes style detective plus a strange new world with unusual tech. Our protagonist is Kol, he‘s the level headed Watson to Ana, the temperamental investigator. Ana wears a blindfold and usually stays indoors, to better focus, ⬇️

One of my favourite books is Han Kang‘s novel Human Acts about the Gwangju Uprising and the violence and torture that occurred. In her new novel the protagonist is a writer, Kyungha, who is tormented and depressed by the research she did into a massacre. I wondered how much this reflected Han Kang herself. Kyungha makes a journey to her friend‘s hometown of Jeju, a place with a history of a massacre.
The writing here is incredibly beautiful, ⬇️

Into the foggy streets of Victorian London strides Bridie Devine, a highly competent female private investigator, more than a little experienced with examining dead bodies since she spent her early orphan years travelling with a resurrection man. If that sounds like your thing, let me add in a helpful ghost and a possible mythical water creature. Kidd is an excellent writer - setting and character are fully developed. A joy to read (but TW below)

This is a soft pick. It is incredibly well written, in parts it was over my head with cultural & historical references, sometimes fascinatingly so & sometimes it began to feel too much & meaningless. It did some truly interesting things with form in the second half of the book - with repetition & alternating pov between paragraphs - giving you real time variances between the two protagonists. But the relationship! I felt so disturbed ⬇️

I‘m kicking myself because i had almost finished this book and then the library insisted i bring it back 😂 But it was probably the best collection of short stories I‘ve ever read! That is - if you like authors like Barbara Pym, Anita Brookner, maybe Penelope Lively. These are frequently bittersweet stories where the main character is a woman, often an older woman, and they focus on love and grief and ageing and mistakes and chances lost and ⬇️

I bought this book because I love an octopus and yes, i loved Marcellus. But.. and it‘s not you, book, it‘s me… this was a little too sweet for my tastes and I could predict almost every event in the book a long while before it happened. Would have liked a book 100% from Marcellus‘s point of view! But if you liked The Storied Life of AJ Fikry i think this is a similar level of sweet plus an octopus 🙌 so don‘t let me put you off!

Odille lives in a strangely confined town. Over in the next valley lies Odille‘s town twenty years in the future. To the west in another valley lies the town twenty years in the past. Borders are patrolled relentlessly.
SAH considers the fear created by the fact that any escapee from one valley to the next could create a change obliterating the current existence of the next valley. ⬇️

This was a lovely, quiet and thoughtful book. Reading it felt like a meditation on grief and human connection. Beautifully written and very atmospheric.
Photo is a bunch of miniature roses from a friend 😍

This book was loved by so many friends last year that I didnt think it could live up to the hype. Well it more than did that. I‘ll be surprised if this isnt the best book i read this year. Glorious writing and complex characters, a sprawling old house and a spiralling tension. I thought it was PERFECT.

Very unlike me to be reading something off a prize long list but when i heard it was set in Tudor times I was drawn in. I absolutely loved these characters. Tibb is amazing, foul mouthed and free spirited with uncanny insight. The first few pages of this novel are possibly the strongest and most captivating start to a novel that i have read in a long time. I do have a quibble - i felt the “adventure story” aspect ⬇️

As others have said this is not the book i expected it to be and it hit me harder because of that. I expected a book about tyranny causing violent revolution but what i got was the way that tyranny with one act unmoors and exiles and causes long term trauma. To me so much of this book is the loneliness of exile, how an 18 year old is supposed to somehow forge a life away from his home and family knowing he is watched, knowing he cannot speak.

This book was SO good. A cross country train in 1920s Canada. A young black man - Baxter - is night porter, fighting a lack of sleep, money & food as he attempts to placate a bunch of white passengers & hide his queer identity from the other porters. This novel puts you square in Baxter‘s shoes & its so full of heart, you will root for him to make it. The cover looks a little romantic but this is very realistic, much more about poverty & racism

I absolutely loved this. I think because the character of Adina felt very real to me - a loner, an outsider, living near the poverty line w her solo mum, a child who feels alone & alien growing into an adult that struggles to make more than one or two deep connections. Is Adina really an alien? - she faxes her mother planet with her wry and poignant earth observations. Little nuggets of insight that punctuate the story. ⬇️

Firstly - this photo is from the Christchurch Art Gallery - not the Met Museum! - but on theme 👍

This book is a lovely contemplative piece by Patrick Bringley about being a guard at the Met Museum, about the impact of art on the soul and about specific works of art and what they came to mean to him. Its also about being a guard, one of so many, and behind the scenes at the museum. Beautifully written and incredibly thoughtful. A joy to read.

This was a sweet little book and just what i needed. A little bit like A Man Called Ove but a shorter, simpler read. I seem to be reading a lot of books about elderly people finding connections!

Photo: a lot of folk in the water this weekend for Junior Surf Club.

Elizabeth Strout can do no wrong. Each chapter is a tiny gem of wisdom. So many characters circling around Olive, their sadnesses, their weaknesses, but also often their ability to connect with each other, redirect themselves after grief or make peace. And Olive herself - irascible but truth loving, blunt to others but hardest on herself - and all the people she has impacted 🙌 - youve got to love Olive!

I loved Longbourn by Jo Baker & so i picked up her new book pretty quick. Its an engaging historical fiction set around the Blitz in London. Baker takes what at first seems like a typical English “office girl” (Charlotte) and slowly fills in her background until we realise she is not typical at all. As C goes through the loss of friends & workmates she gets caught up unravelling a mystery and gets into real peril. A good read 3.5 stars

Wow - this book 🙌 I was reading it thinking how sad and harrowing it was to be experiencing Elena‘s Parkinson‘s and her grief at her daughter‘s death. And then Pineiro knocks you out as both Elena and the reader‘s eyes are opened to the underlying truths - the story behind the story. This is the sort of novel where you dont realise how clever it is until the end.
Photo: subterranean tunnel Waiheke Island

I remember first reading the scene with Clytemnestra in the Iliad and thinking WTAF!! 🤬 (i wont say why because spoilers) I couldnt believe that the narrative continued on barely acknowledging the abuse (imo) - so i was always going to read this book. It‘s engaging and propulsive but dark and violent too. Women in the myths were horribly mistreated and misrepresented - I‘m glad to see a retelling that puts Clytemnestra‘s experience first.

Inhaled this book in one day as i found it so interesting. However im not sure its going to stay with me. The form is that of a notebook being passed from one person to the next so you dont stay with any one character for long. In a future world a nanite technology recreates all your human cells so that you can survive a terminal illness. But are you still human? Do you still have a soul and does it wish to remain forever in this ⬇️

Rachel Cusk wrote this memoir (almost a series of essays) about becoming a mother in 2001. Cusk talks about motherhood in both an intellectual way & a personal way - theres a little humor but theres a lot of distress in here. For me it is the first book ive read that captured some of the trauma & undoing of self that i personally felt going full speed from a difficult birth into a severe lack of sleep & feelings ⬇️

@CarolynM Today was a beautiful day for a picnic! We got to solve clues & find parts of our picnic at different cafes and bakeries. We did a central city version so we got to spend time in parks and parts of the viaduct that we havent visited for a LONG time. And there were DONUTS 🙌 (i forgot to photograph the food but i found the donuts on insta - will be going back there again!) Thank you so much for the gift that we finally put to good use. 😘

This is a difficult book to review in that its more interesting than enjoyable. Nate and Keru are a married couple vacationing in a rental house. Her parents stay for one week, his parents stay for one week. We see each person‘s complicated & barbed familial relations & how their partner is affected. Wang contrasts the families and what they strive for - as well as the couple. Can such different people respect each other, ⬇️

Randomly reading this biography from 2000 with one of my favourite bookmarks and then i realised … OH! Well played bookmark gods.

I‘m interested in this period in Hollywood and the studio machinations behind the scenes - and man, Judy Garland was treated so badly. Her mother had her on amphetamines at the age of 10 😱😱 So I really enjoyed this - but it does have its flaws. ⬇️

This is a quirky feel good kind of book. Emma, a young woman unsure of her future, is called home to a small town bc her father is dying. His brain disease has him acting in strange ways - talking to ghosts, seeing animals in strange places & obsessing over a missing person case. There is a bittersweet humour here & quirks - eg some narration from the ghosts in the local cemetery. I loved the occasional thoughts from the dog and the fox 💕

This is my tenth Louise Erdrich book - and as always i loved her writing. Her characters are so real, and even though there are many characters and i get mixed up between some at times, its an education and an experience to be immersed in this community she creates. Its timely to read this and think about indigenous/First Nations history and treatment. Erdrich also presents plenty of insight into intimate relationships and gender roles here too ⬇️

I finally read an Angela Thirkell and it was such fun!

And i saw this china poodle in a second hand shop which made me think of you Leah - because i think you have a china poodle? Maybe not such a snooty one? 😆

I had to post this photo for the gardeners out there - i dont often see a cactus flowering - so i grabbed a sneaky pic of someone else‘s garden 😉

I am probably the last on Litsy to read this book! My second by Valerie Perrin and i thoroughly enjoyed it, got very wrapped up in the “who done it” aspect and read way past my bedtime 😆 Definitely will be reading more Valerie Perrin!

A slow start to my reading year but I flew through this one super quick. I do just love Ann Tyler. This story of a dysfunctional family all impacted by each others anger or bitterness has a quiet vein of hope throughout. There are some lovely moments where each one (not all but most) finds a spot of peace, love or happiness within their grasp. I do wish we had seen more of the daughter Jenny though as that piece felt a little less resolved.

Well its actually 22 books but lets call it my #top24of24
Top half is literary fiction, bottom left is non fiction and bottom right is SFF. My top 3 are - North Woods, Cantoras and Other People Manage. I think Cantoras needs more readers and lots of Littens will love it. Other People Manage might just be a Me book. 💔

This is a ROMP. Basu says in acknowledgements that he started off retelling the Aladdin story in a spec fic setting but it ended up as something else. You have a city in poverty & crime ruled by colonisers, oligarchs & crime lords, then the family of a disappeared revolutionary find a piece of alien tech. Lots of battles, lots about political systems and the difficulties of revolutions & just fantastic world and character building. ⬇️

Really enjoyed this story of Ray and Kip, both divorcees, now engaged to be married, going on an earlymoon (a pre wedding honeymoon). Id call this a relationship novel rather than a romance, because rather than wondering “will they get together?” you are wondering “will they break up?” as over their holiday all their differences get exposed. I got SO mad at one of them, wanted to slam some doors myself! 😂 Thank you for the great read @Reggie

Finally had a chance to finish this after a hectic Christmas Eve/Christmas morning. I enjoyed this - I liked the fact that Espach takes what is essentially a rom-com/commercial fiction set up but treats it in a more contemplative way. I think appreciating Phoebe‘s “awakening” to her own power to decide, to act or influence others, is the crux of liking or disliking this. Without that some of the unrealistic elements would have put me off a little.

Thank you so much for the Christmas gift @Rissreads This is the cutest Christmas card 💕The little fox! I am excited for both of these books and the bookmark is exquisite. You have spoiled me 😍 I hope you have had a lovely day and maybe spent some time with that cute kitten Earl! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! And thank you for this wonderful gift @CarolynM 💕 Look how gorgeous this bookish glasses case is! Brave New World and 1Q84 on there 😍 And i have been so keen to start the John Boyne series too. The soap smelt so good i have already started using it so it didnt make the photo 😂 Thank you so much and I hope you have had a lovely Christmas Day.

Cant reach my book without disturbing a Very Important Cat 😂😂

Spent most of today reading this on the sunny deck (sun has gone now!) Felt like being on holiday myself. Newman writes in a conversational style that is easy to read and i felt a lot of similarities (age, an adult child). So this telling of a family vacation where she is sandwiched btw one generation and the next while going through menopause was a delight. It also delves into some serious stuff so potential for a few shed tears here too.

I enjoyed this novel for its super interesting concept (time travel tested by bringing a handful of people from the past into the present) and its depth of characterisation. It has been described as a combination of romance & sci fi mystery/thriller. For me the romance/introspection portion got a bit bogged down and the thriller plot happened too quickly with not enough detail. But there is such good material here ⬇️

Sunny here while i read a snowy winter mystery set in Yorkshire. I love these Richard Jury mysteries even though there are tropes aplenty - usually a beautiful gentlewoman stoic & tragic, a feisty and friendless girl child, multiple women caving & telling all in the face of the good looks and quiet kindnesses of Richard Jury. But Grimes does settings so well and a ton of interesting side characters. Catnip for me!

I loved this - it made me so mad but also exposed some important truths. Annie is basically a sex robot, designed to be compliant & attuned to her owners emotions. As she becomes capable of independent thought her relationship with her owner becomes fraught. This book holds up a mirror to coercive relationships & issues of dominance & compliance (could be triggering for some) An innovative way to capture the experience of being dominated/coerced.

Read this in one day - just a fun page turner. Cordelia Black is a pharmaceutical sales rep with perfectly coiffed hair, high fashion clothes and bags, meticulously gelled nails. A woman like that couldn‘t possibly be suspected in the rash of missing men in South Louisiana could she? This is a light toned book despite the amount of blood and you‘re rooting for Cordelia as her perfect planned life suddenly goes awry.

Thank you for the gift of this book @CarolynM 💕Oh it broke my heart. Have you read it yet? Michael Cunningham is definitely one of my favourite authors. His insight into the human experience, interior thoughts, quiet but intense emotions - there are so many sentences that are divine. I did wish for a little more of the children‘s POV here as their changing characters were so fascinating. Just a beautiful book.

Just been in Christchurch visiting friends & then on the plane home a wonderful thing happened. I was reading a book & the woman next to me was reading a book. She then started a conversation with me about my book which she had already read & then we talked for 90 minutes about books!! And i told her all about Litsy so hopefully she will turn up here one day. We even exchanged phone numbers so we can meet up and talk books some more 😍

Thoroughly enjoyed this humorous look at the kings and queens of England up until the end of the Tudors. It‘s a solid bit of history - Mitchell has a degree in history as well as his career as a comedian (bright spark isn‘t he?). I learnt a lot and had plenty of laughs. I wished some parts were longer so i might start differentiating a few more Henrys and Edwards - but it‘s a long period to cover and he‘s done a great job.

I cant give you a photo of wild islands and massive shipwrecks but heres a yacht that ran aground locally for you! 😂
Like @Cathythoughts i saw that this is now a movie and thought i‘d read the book 💕 Amy returns to the Orkney islands as a recovering alcoholic. She explores nature while she contemplates her past life and possible future. Sometimes meditative writing can leave me cold but i just loved this.⬇️

A few of them have inscriptions - one from 1831 (but its in French and pretty faint).

My husband‘s parents just dropped off some family heirlooms for us to look after, including some antique miniature books. They‘re so sweet! (Some title pages to follow)