8 weeks.

8 WEEKS!!!

#10BeforeTheEnd

This hit the spot!

I absolutely love Jane Austen's Persuasion, so spin offs make me nervous but this was so good! I am a bit annoyed about the Taylor Swift references but I thought this was great. It is a small town romance with lots of quirky characters, but didn't feel like a Hallmark that demonizes working women - in fact Anne is the hardest worker (for obvious reasons)
I thought this was charming, and lived the goose!

The feeling when:

You take your eye off the library hold list for one minute and everything comes rushing in.

Full on Murphy's Law.

Coffee break

#10BeforeTheEnd

"I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. But I am here, so I might as well fucking enjoy it, and help my community if I can"

Words to live by!! Miss Major passed away last month. She was an inspiration as she says many times here, not many Black Trans people get to live to be in their 80s, what an amazing life she has had. Not easy, but amazing. I like how she spoke of Trans rights reminding us to be good allies by not assuming ?

"It's like being on a road, it doesn't matter if it's the yellow brick road, or pavement, or gravel. It's still a road and where it takes you is where you're going. And I think the journey is how you use that road- if you stay on it and the path that it's leading you down, or you venture off and do something else and create a path of your own."

I think this might be my last Aardvark box. I joined last year to get a few books that I had wanted to read, and I have honestly done very well, only buying books I had already read and enjoyed or books that were already on my TBR. The last few months I have struggled to find anything I had really wanted to read.

I think that $16 would be better used at the food bank, or going to World Central Kitchen.

#NonfictionNovember is here!
#WeeklyForecast

I am halfway into the tagged would like to finish tomorrow.
I am planning on reading one chapter from Far From The Tree a day, there are 12 chapters but I am looking realistically at a full 2 weeks I understand it is a dense one.

Supplementing with the brilliant Ta-Nehisi Coates and the inspiring Jacinda Ardern

"I didn't get to eighty years old being sweet and gentle. I'm no flower. Fuck that. I'm a cactus - get over it "

4.5⭐

Chef Jose Andres' is an inspiration. This is a short book.(Under 200 pages) About his life, the lessons he has learned and of course about food. It isn't incredibly deep on details but it is filled with quotable inspiration and a fantastic surface look at how he got to where he is and what philosophies keep him moving forward. Highly recommend.

The end of this honors the 7 WCK volunteers who were killed by Israel in Gaza. It is heartbreaking and infuriating that no justice has happened for these amazing people who were just trying to feed people.

This is a small book, a book about Chefs life and an inspirational look at food, but it is incredibly powerful and I am crying listening to Andres delivering the eulogy in DC for these 7. You can listen to this eulogy on Spotify.

Some of the chapters:
You don't need everything to be happy
Seek Out Simple Pleasures
Say yes to help
Commit to what matters
You're a player not a spectacular
You really don't know everything
Act with the fierce urgency of now
Serve something greater than yourself
Time is your most valuable ingredient
Your purpose is finding your purpose

What the perfect book to read after one about how horrible the Facebook people are.

"...listen not just to the policymakers but to the people on the receiving end of those policies. Just because you mean well doesn't mean that you'll do well. Just because you're doing good doesn't mean you are doing smart good."

An incredible inspiration, one who is alive, thriving and willing to pass on knowledge. We as a world need more Jose Andres'

November TBR

I have grabbed a few short nonfiction books from the library to balance out the tag and dive into #NonfictionNovermber

2 weeks in!
2 books down!

#10beforetheend

I am starting the tagged today, but it is a big one and might take me a minute so I am going to try to fit in The Message also this week.

November #BookspinBingo

#Bookspin = The Frozen River
#DoubleSpin = Classic (Doctor Zhivago)

October Reading
5 NF
8 countries (US, England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Trinidad & Tobago, India, Spain)

4.5 ⭐
Prophet Song
The Correspondent
4.25 ⭐
Scammer
Love Forms
Lucky Day
4 ⭐
Careless People
All In Her Head
Hole In The Sky
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
3.5 ⭐
The River Has Roots
Middlemarch
Edinburgh Twilight
3 ⭐
The Last Gifts of the Universe
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Boulder
2.5 ⭐
Murderland

September's #BookspinBingo

Bookspin ... oops.... soon!

#DoubleSpin ✔
#BookspinBingo = 3

@Thearomaofbooks

My next up reads are very yellow 💛 and black 🖤

Really excited to get into this Ardern book, Andres is shorter so planning on flying through that this weekend

Andrew Jackson is his favorite president?? Having a favorite Roman Emperor at all?? This man. What a douce canoe.

Not much here was shocking to ma, maybe it is my pessimism or maybe I read too much news. I do think it is interesting to hear Sarah's experience, to see her disillusionment unfold, especially from a Kiwi. I thought the writing was good, the pacing worked, and her storytelling was compelling
4/5⭐

One thing I try to do every year is read less than 50% of books from the US. I want to read globally!

So far I am hovering at 45.9% which meets my goal but I feel I can always improve! I could for sure read a wider range of places, England is a big crux for me in this, some day I would like to be under 50% for both US and England.

Countries in black I have read 1-2 books from this year.

With only 9 (NINE!!!) weeks to go until the end of the year I am starting to look at all of the challenges I set out for myself at the beginning of the year.

One challenge I had was picking 25 books I had on my shelves that I wanted to read. Slowly getting there I have 6 to go,
I am struggling if I want to read Trace of Sun or not. The books does not call to me at all, and I might just skip it. The rest I often think about and do want to read.

My neighbors have finished their front yard just in time 🎃💀

We are now officially 9 weeks out from 2026.....

How are you doing with your #10BeforeTheEnd? I hope it is helping you complete the other challenges you had this year! And I hope everyone is finding amazing reads that they have been putting off, or waiting for the release.

Best of luck everyone on a fantastic 9 weeks of reading!

Reading the new Tokarczuk and she tells the story of Saint Wilgefortis (aka Kummernis or Solicitous) a 14th century nun whose father tries to force her to marry and she is "given" the face of Jesus to show how virtuous she was and how she was called to religion.

She is considered the Patron Saint of Intersex people specifically and the LGBTQ+ community in general.

Bailing too soon to make a "formal" review. I only got about 40 pages in. The language of olden times feels incredibly forced And the dark cult like vibes with abused children just isn't something I can stomach at this time. I cannot remember why I bought this but I am clearing it from my shelf.

Found on Pinterest 😂

Taking a walk. Supplementing reading the tagged book with the audiobook.

Photo: Neighbors Halloween decor! 🎃💀

Taking a mental health day. I had a bit of a crash out yesterday, you know those days were it stats getting out of the house late then getting stuck behind a school bus picking up kids, and then it snowballs? Everyone has them. I also had some bad health news I haven't processed I am lucky to have a job where I can take off with no excuses. So mental health day it is.
Cleaning house, exercising, reading the tagged and just getting back to okay.

#10BeforeTheEnd apparently my first because I read something over the weekend I thought was on my list but was not 😂

This was fine. I think if you are into Gothic crime you will like this. I am meh on it and was meh on this. I thought it was very well written and the characters well drawn I just personally struggled paying attention to it and I do not think it will stick with me.

Ready or Not

#Bookspin
@Thearomaofbooks

#weeklyforecaat

I finished 1 #10BeforeTheEnd looking to finish a couple more this week with Careless People, Edinburgh Twilight and going to try and start Anne of Green Gables. I know people love Anne but I have struggled all year to pick it up.

My oat milk latte didn't seem to come with espresso today 😂. So pale!

Hughes wrote a column in a Chicago newspaper of stories about Jesse Semple, a Black Harlemite in 1910-1920 people called him Simple. He is a drinking, womanizer who waxes poetic about life in America. Overall I thought it was good for the vibe and place in time but Simple was so annoying it took me a month to read b/c I just didn't want to hang with him

I am going to need to sit with this for a bit it was very intense. Such an interesting juxtaposition to read this on the weekend of Ireland's national elections. I think I could have separated this more if it was released and I read it in say 2020 now everything feels much to real and close.
I think a lot of people are struggling with the structure, but as a big fan of Jose Saramago I didn't have a problem there (Lynch even uses more punctuation)

Reading this feels like listening to Curtis during the NYC mayor debates?

"Not only am I half dead right now from pneumonia, but everything else has happened to me! I have been cut, stabbed, run over, hit by a car, and tromped by a horse!....."(By the Goitti's)

A week in how are we doing?

Do you need motivation? Or are the books you picked flying off that TBR?

I have started 2, hoping to finish the first today. Which does not feel like much yet but I think I am gaining momentum!

9 weeks to go. ⏰✔️🤞

Come covers quite a bit in this, mostly the history of women in medicine, what "They" thought of us, how the medical institutions reflected the morals of the time, no matter what the evidence showed.
I wish she would have included Trans women more, she mostly ignores them beyond using a quote from Dylan Mulvaney and a few off handed sentencing at the end of a long chapter on HRT.
But overall I thought this was good she makes interesting points?

Rumor is we are headed for a storm weekend. With possible power outages (unlikely) and 3 inches of rain. So I am getting my reading sorted!

#10BeforeTheEnd

"A young man with unruly black hair stood upon the summit of Calton Hill in the wee hours of a Thursday in early February."

#Firstlinefriday @ShyBookOwl

#10BeforeTheEnd

I bought this book years ago at the Edinburgh airport. It's past time to get it off the TBR shelf!

Goodness Jackson is so good. At about 50 pages in I was a bit disillusioned but I pushed myself knowing I could trust her and it paid off big time. I loved the melding of cult, thriller, romance (not like that). Her characters are richly drawn and the situations infuriating. I love a book that makes me want to reach in and shake someone.

Listening to this audiobook while walking the neighborhood.
Look at this tree!! So red, so gorgeous 😍

I know it isn't the book. It must be me. But this felt very overwritten and I quickly became bored. This might be because I like Boulder have zero desire to be a mother, only I would have left Samsa and not gotten myself into this position. I thought this would be a quick afternoon read but it ended up taking me 4 days because I could not care enough to pick it back up. I am sure I am missing something.

Not really my lucky day when I pulled this 480pg book off the library shelf because it and I didn't get along. At all. I even tried using one of my Ever& credits for the audio and that was worst than just reading it with the narrator speaking at the slowest pace to ever be spoken and not being able to pronounce local names correctly. Beyond that the book wasn't good (IMO) too many threads - the author kept throwing herself and her abusive 👇

I was going to listen to the audio of this because the physical has become a super drag, but the narrator is saying local names wrong and nothing is more nails on the chalkboard then people who don't know how to say Willamette.
(Wuh-la-muht not Will-a-met, it is a first nations word.)

Question for the Litsy wise - if someone blocks you what does it look like?

I think it is funny (I am not offended) and I am just curious if my hunch is accurate, is it possible that if you try to tag them (for a prompt they started) they will not pop up, that I can click through from someone else's post, and get to their page but it says they have hundreds of thousands of points but no posts yet?

Also did I block them? Ahah How would I know?

Tagged is my first #10BeforeTheEnd book, Murderland I have started, but feels like it will be a struggle. Behind is my next ups.

#WeeklyForecast

A little horror for the season
Tingle is back and just as bananas as always. This book centers luck, probability and a world gone mad. At the center is Vera who is a sympathetic and believable character. I like Tingle's writing and even as the story get crazier and crazier his writing stays firm.
Some scenes are a bit graphic he describes things well, I was especially creeped out by his descriptions of people eating.

"We're all guests out here in the wild, passing through like we own the place and quickly discovering that nature has other ideas."

Chuck Tingle is known for his wild "gay horror" but I think people should talk more about how he is actually a good writer too.

This one is super wild! I am enjoying it.

Technically the 10 weeks begin on Wednesday, but lets get a head start! What #10BeforeTheEnd are you starting with??

I am starting with Careless People which is very overdue to the library.

If you would like to join just pick 10 books you plan to read before 2025 ends and get to reading. Good Luck to all who join.

This is a difficult book to "rate" I went in a bit begrudgingly. An American White Woman teaching us about Indian slums? I am cautious of profiting off the poorest of the poor.
Her writing is fantastic. It is a difficult topic and I think she does well telling you the facts while also being sympathetic. It is a tightrope telling such sad stories with care, but I think she did that well.
I don't know if I can rec it, but I am glad I read it.