#latepost #BlitsyHMS #BHMS @sweetpealsd thank you so much for the beautiful and thoughtful gifts! I am so, so sorry that I totally flubbed being your swap buddy this year. Hopefully the package arrives today and you have a wonderful belated opening day! @Chelleo thank you as always for hosting, and for your added help this go round (and sorry again for causing such a headache!) I hope everyone had a lovely Black History Month & swap! ❤️🖤💚

Finally made it to mail my #BlitsySwap package! 😅 Should be arriving by Friday. #BHMS

Beautiful. The best and most real book about friendship that I‘ve read in a long time, or quite possibly ever. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️+

Our next pick for #ItsLit VBC!

Super excited for this month‘s #itslit VBC pick!

Nothing beats coming home on #openingday! Thank you so much @EchoLogical for this amazing #Blisty swap package! I love everything so much, and I‘m so thrilled you included my favorite vegan treats! 💗 Happy Black History Month! Also, thank you @Chelleo for continuing to be such an amazing host for this swap- I literally look forward to our #BHMS all year! And thank you for the beautifully thoughtful card & bookmark.

Happy mail is heading your way 🎉 @LeshaMac @Chelleo #BHMS #BlitsySwap

Whoa. That was a doozy!

Overall really good. Fast moving and creative stories, very interesting mythology and fantastic world building per usual. CW: graphic depictions of sexual violence (especially in book 2) almost ruined this one for me but I ended up being glad I stuck with it.

Incredibly, unexpectedly brilliant.

It‘s Lit! VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB

Our next #ItsLit VBC meeting will be a discussion + watch party for the upcoming Netflix film. (Film trailer: https://www.amazon.com/Passing-Nella-Larsen/dp/1614270007/ref=nodl_)

Meeting scheduled for Nov 19th 5:30pm PT/ 8:30pm ET via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87176299528?pwd=TmNwSXJtbFBIWXNldFI4NWh2TzFTdz09

Update: the September meeting for #ItsLit VBC has been moved from 9/17 to Friday, 9/24 5:30pm PT/8:30pm ET.

This month‘s selection is Want by Lynn Steger Strong (tagged).

Please let me know (and provide an email address) if you‘re interested in attending & being added to our Google calendar invite.

Here is the meeting link to join: https://meet.google.com/pon-hhjz-pgq

Recently read and really enjoyed this book- it‘s on Kindle sale today for $2.99

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GFN3PX4/ref=nodl_?ascsubtag=amzn1.ideas.3J94XXYSQO5...

#wondrousWednesday

I. Currently 2, plus the eBooks on my phone.
II. I‘m not sure, I‘m currently keeping a roughly 1 book per week pace, which feels pretty good, I would like to read more just because there are so many amazing books out there, but I‘d worry about rushing and not fully absorbing them if I did/could.
III. David Wong, Khaled Hosseini, Lydia Kang, N. K. Jemisin
IV. Coffee, family, space to explore and find myself

#LastCurrentNextchallenge! Please tag me if you decide to play along 😄

#lastcurrentnextchallenge

Nature was fierce in her efforts to cover the dead with life, rooting them down without mercy and preventing them from haunting the living.

A lot of good quotes, but ultimately I can‘t say I enjoyed this read… it was relatable in its recapping of nearly every semi-woke, angsty, older-millennial-surviving-late-stage-capitalism-and-climate-crisis narrative voice but without any truly likable characters, engaging plot elements, resolution, or even comedic relief this one just left me feeling heavy and blah and anxious for it to end…

Happy National Book Lovers Day, Littens! 📖

BlerDCon book haul

Our next pick for #ItsLit VBC- Want by Lynn Steger Strong. Meeting again on Friday, Sept 17th 5:30pm PT/8:30 ET

#BFC21 May/June update

May was great for fitness goals, but I fell off a bit with reading and lost some of the lead I had over my 1 book/week challenge so I‘m hoping to get back on that in June (I‘ve already completed 2 books so far and so I‘m at least back on track there)… fitness & self care wise I‘m going to try to drink more water (80-120oz/day), and keep hiking weekly, and run 12.5mi/week!

Good luck to everyone!

Loved this one, but holy cow was James so incredibly intolerable.

Super excited about this next #ItsLit VBC pick!

OMG! Sooo cute!

Has anyone started this month‘s selection yet? My hold came through on Libby yesterday and I‘m already about a third of the way through. Super cute, fun, and easy read so far! Hope you all are enjoying it too! 😆#itslit

Niavrien says thanks you, Katelyn ( @MicrobeMom ) for these lovely #allagesswap goodies! He really loved the books and candies you picked, and was especially excited about his new sketchbook! 💗📚 thanks for hosting @Chrissyreadit

If you have Amazon Prime, make sure you sign in and get your pick of up to 10 free books from authors all around the world for World Book Day on 4/24.

Thanks for the tag @Chelleo #wondrouswednesday

1. Fort Benning, Georgia
2. The incomparably gorgeous state of Washington
3. A sister and brother both a decade + younger than me
4. I can‘t definitively say (maybe The Little Red Hen?) but, I do vividly remember crying in elementary school because I wanted to check out Owl Babies in the library but another kid grabbed it first.

Picked these beauties up during our spring break adventures! We also completed our shopping for the #allagesswap so now we just have to make it to the post office this week!

Today‘s Beach read.

If I didn‘t read [...] I wouldn‘t know how to believe that there was more to the world than this.

I have mixed feelings about this book. There were elements of the story I really wanted to like, but too many things just felt rushed and I felt like the author introduced too many elements and left them unsatisfactorily resolved. I also had a hard time connecting with many of the main characters and felt annoyed when their stories were centered over more interesting POVs, especially as the story drew to an end. 2.5⭐️/5 rounded up to 3 on GR.

Our next It‘s Lit! VBC pick. We meet again May 21st, 5:30PT/8:30ET. Meeting link: https://meet.google.com/pon-hhjz-pgq

Just passing on a great article a friend of mine shared with me on race-fishing book cover art and other appropriative marketing strategies that are hurtful to efforts to grant diverse authors a well deserved and too long overdue seat at the publishing table: https://www.themarysue.com/race-fishing-book-covers-is-not-only-problematic-it-d...

Current read. I picked this one up on Libby after finishing with Convenience Store Woman. I‘m really enjoying Murata‘s storytelling style. Can‘t wait for the #ItsLit virtual book chat on the 19th.

When something was strange, everyone thought they had the right to come stomping in all over your life to figure out why.

@sweetpealsd thank you! Thank you so, so very much. I don‘t even know what else to say. I cried opening this gift, everything is so thoughtful and perfect. I can just feel the love. I appreciate you so much.

🖤Happy Black History Month and Beyond! 🖤

#BHMS #BlitsySwap #BlitsyHistoryMonth

Godspeed little box of goodies! #BHMS #BlitsySwap #BlitsyHistoryMonth

Ooooh @sweetpealsd thank you! I can‘t wait for opening day!! #BlitsySwap #BHMS

Just... wow!

I can‘t hardly wait!! Don‘t forget to preorder and show some love! 💗 #BGMDE

Day 10: Not sure this counts as very much of a full catalog flex, but in light of some super exciting news from the author this week I decided to post a pic of these first edition copies of BGMDE, which will soon be retired as we make way for the new editions being published by Harper Perennial. 🙌🏽 #Blackliteracyisrevolutionary

Day 9: There are just so many to choose from for books that transcend into a total experience, but I decided to go with Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson because I love the way that she handled shifting between different characters‘ perspectives to the point where you really become immersed in their lives and ways of thinking even though they are all so very different. I also love the opening scene! #Blackliteracyisrevolutionary

Day 8: books from across the African Diaspora #blackliteracyisrevolutionary

Day 7: a book by an author I look forward to reading for the first time. #Blackliteracyisrevolutionary

Catch up post from Day 6 of the #Blackliteracyisrevolutionary books that helped shape my world view.

Not pictured: The Condemnation of Blackness by Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr Joy DeGruy, and Xenogenesis Series by Octavia Butler.

I don‘t have pics of a literal book stack to share for today‘s Black Boy Joy prompt because I just wasn‘t up to weeding through my son‘s bookshelves but here are some of our recommendations all the same.

1. Jaden Toussaint: The Greatest series by Marti Dumas
2. The Wizenard and Época series‘ created by the late great Kobe Bryant in collaboration with Wesley King & Ivy Claire respectively
3. Anything by Ben Phillipe

#Blackliteracyisrevolutionary

I frequently find myself recommending books by Victor LaValle, especially The Changeling and The Devil in Silver. I love his books for the way he captures the beauty and quiet dignity in the daily lives of people, especially working class and people of color. There‘s this way he has of telling their stories that makes the smallest details feel anything but ordinary. #Blackliteracyisrevolutionary

When a love affair is so delicious, but you know there‘s two more books and it‘s probably not going to end this way so you just have to pause wishing you could freeze the story right in this moment.