And here's a blank template for #FourFoursin25

@thebacklistbook @clwojick @TheAromaofBooks @lizpixie @AbigailJaneBlog @CoffeeNBooks @ReadingRachael @mcipher @AbigailJaneBlog @PageShifter @Jas16 @willaful @bekakins @ImperfectCJ
 @litsyevents

Now launching the #FourFours #readingchallenge for 2025!

#FourFoursin25 is a flexible year-long challenge.

Easy mode: Pick 1 word; match a theme, event, character, cover pic, or vibe. So for 'Frisco Disco, you might read a book set in SF. Picket Cricket might suit a book featuring a cricket match.

Hard mode: Both words. So for Yellow Cello - maybe a yellow cover with a a cello player MC.



Comment for an add to the tag list!

@litsyevents

Banned Book Club, set in 1980s Korea, feels more relevant than ever. Do not normalise autocracy.

And with that #lighthouse in the background on the cover, and featuring heavily in the book, I've also ticked off the last square in #RippedBodiceBingo for 2024.

I re-read this #childhoodfavourite via audiobook. While the Anne series was never unfeminist, Anne's House of Dreams is where Montgomery started to lean in a little on the social commentary about how women were misused by men.

And that's my No Shame Reading Challenge done for 2024!

#NSR24 #NoShameReadathon24 @Nessavamusic

I've finished #fourfoursin24 after a four month hiatus between prompt fills!

And I've just about finished finalising the prompts for next year's #fourfoursin25 - so stay tuned, and let me know if you'd like to be added to the tag list. #readingchallenge #readingchallenges

I was re-reading Anne's House of Dreams for Childhood Favourite and Lighthouse prompts in other #readingchallenges, but there it is, finally, my last prompt fill for #fourfoursin24 ! Yay! #garretparrot

Audio crocheting with Libby and the fifth Anne book. #litsycrafters

Guess which book has a ski hill on the cover? This Gen X ski-resort romance does! And that's a full house on March #ISpyBingo #ISpyBingo2024

That's eight months completely full, six prompts to go in the monthly challenges and 3 in the bonus challenges.

 @Clwojick @TheAromaofBooks

This graphic novel had some spookiness, but there was an overall cosy vibe. Onward to the D1 square of #FrozenSick but I'm not 100% sure what “Newest“ means - newest book on my TBR?

 @Puddlejumper

This is a gorgeous sapphic YA romance graphic novel. A Black disabled cosplayer and a Latina bisexual cooking fan who is mourning her mother bond over a manga book club and a quest to obtain all the manga books in an out-of-print series. The disability rep is fantastic and the character and relationship exploration is nuanced.

#FrozenSick @Puddlejumper

Splorfed my tea.

My first #FrozenSick entry! @Puddlejumper


Come As You Are could have filled either prompt, since it's set in a Montana ski resort. But I've chosen to Explore The Town, because I'm just that kind of adventurer. Off to D3!

#readingchallenges

OK people, the #Pantone2025 #readingchallenge is ready! This is a challenge based on the seasonal trend colours from Fashion Weeks.


Please note there are TWO grids - for London (blue border) and NY (green border). Later, two more grids will be released for the autumn/winter trend colours.

To play, just find a colour in a book cover, then plonk the cover into the grid. That's it, you're done.

(and yes, White Grape was in both!)

@litsyevents

OK people, the #Pantone2025 #readingchallenge is ready! This is a challenge based on the seasonal trend colours from Fashion Weeks.


Please note there are TWO grids - for London (blue border) and NY (green border). Later, two more grids will be released for the autumn/winter trend colours.

To play, just find a colour in a book cover, then plonk the cover into the grid. That's it, you're done.

(and yes, White Grape was in both!)

@litsyevents

It's my EIGHTH #litsyversary

!!!

Library pickup today - a high school Twelfth Night retelling graphic novel.

I've signed up for three 2025 #readingchallenges already, and it's not even December! #WickedWords is a given of course if it's running, #ISpyBingo I very much enjoy, and I like the look of the prompts for #booklistqueenchallenge25 too. And I'll be running Four Fours again, hashtagged #fourfoursin25 this time.

What are you thinking of signing up for? Or running?

#readingchallenge #2025readingchallenges

And here's my November roundup for #WickedWords @AsYouWish

Every one is a graphic story this month! Gay time travel romance, Ohio cult horror, a graphic memoir by a Wuhanese-American, true crime nonfiction, and a charming spooky graphic novel with a Ghibli vibe.

This didn't quite know if it wanted to be porn, a sweeping time travel story, or both, but either way it was a little too hot-mess-y for me. Not terrible, not great.

It did finish off #WickedWords for November, though! #turkey @AsYouWish

I placed a hold for this graphic novel long before I knew “Midwest“ was gonna be a #WickedWords prompt, and up my hold just came! I'm only a bit into it, but so far it seems to be a stifling serial-killer horror GN set in a twentieth-century Ohio town in the grip of a cult.

@AsYouWish

More mishmash than Mismatched.

This graphic novel LGBTQ Emma adaptation tried too hard to include every storyline from the novel, instead of adapting the story appropriately to the times and the format. The art was cute enough, but the plot was choppy, the MC too nasty, and overall it failed to live up to its promise.

Petty high school drama needs a bit more charm and humour to give it a lift. Clueless did it better. 


Austen has an autoimmune syndrome that means her body can't accept any bodymods, be they fashion, cognitive, or medical. She advocates fiercely for herself but struggles to find her path. Sunati has a dream of going to space - but is she too focused on making everyone else happy at her own expense?

This is a lovely duology of Australian cosy sapphic slice-of-life-ish science fiction graphic stories. The art is glowing and gorgeous. Enjoy!

Pet peeve time: I beg of you, graphic novel creators, either get a professional letterer or just use an off-the-shelf readable typeface. I don't mind reading the odd hot mess of a story, but when the lettering itself is a hot mess also, it's a no from me. I'm not interested in your first draft.

As someone who dropped more than this at Hobbii mere hours ago... I feel seen

#litsycrafters

I love graphic novels where I also learn something about a period of history about which I know nothing. This book is set in South Korea in the eighties.

It's slim pickings down here at the arse end of the year, but with rain on the cover, I've just finished all of October #ISpyBingo @Clwojick @TheAromaofBooks #readingchallenge

I am determined to finish this whole thing, and I WILL read picture books to do so if I need to (actually, I really like picture books, so that's all good). Ten prompts to go in the monthly challenges, and four from the bonus ones.

#litsycrafters

True crime graphic novel, written by the child of one of the detectives who spent decades on the case.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

Also crime scene tape on cover - for a difficult-to-fill #ISpyBingo prompt. @Clwojick @TheAromaofBooks

Third #wickedwords for the month. This was a good spooky-season fantasy graphic novel.

@AsYouWish

Reminder to folks that the On Tyranny graphic edition is readable and just as information-filled as the text one

There's no stopping the climate apocalypse now, let alone reversing it.

But hey, maybe bird flu will take half of us first.

Messy Roots is a pretty terrific, nuanced, always engaging graphic memoir of a queer Wuhanese-American woman in Texas.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

Library haul

I do love a boarding school book!

That's a wrap on October! A real mixed bag this time - a historical fantasy romance novel, a YA sports graphic novel, a novel about WWII Navajo code talkers, a memoir of a 1980s nurse, and essays on crafting.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

Lightweight but quite fun essays about crafting.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

I'm continuing my year-long graphic novel/graphic nonfiction binge here, and have just cracked the 300 books mark! On track for 350+.

Halfway There is an excellent graphic memoir by a “Hafu“ woman - half Japanese, half American - who travels back to Japan to study Japanese language at university, hoping to 'find herself'. Content note for significant mental health struggles and lots of (challenged) racism.

I picked this book up for the #dogtags prompt in #ISpyBingo
Glad I did, it's excellent so far and also filled a #WickedWords prompt.

@AsYouWish@Clwojick @TheAromaofBooks

No book content on this one, but some of you #litsycrafters might appreciate this gift from my husband!

Birthday book haul!

#fairytale #retelling #crochet #litsycrafters

Two books in my TBR were left in my Little Free Library this week! #bookhaul #serendipity #littlefreelibrary

#relatable

And with a birdhouse on the cover of A Restless Truth, that's September! I've now completed half of this year's cards. #ISpyBingo @Clwojick @TheAromaofBooks

I'm in two minds about reading this graphic novel adaptation (I've read the novel), but YOLO

On my hook : Wulf sweater for husband for Xmas.

This book is better than the cover and title might suggest!

It's an honest memoir of nursing training in the UK in the 1980s, by an author who was brought up poor and not expecting to have a career at all. There's a little nostalgia involved in me picking it up also, since I did my medical training in the 1980s.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

Now that I'm finally into this Edwardian magical romance, I'm enjoying it. It took me a good 85-90 pages, though. Pushed through because I've heard so many enthusiastic reviews from friends.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

Random dog shot. We were waiting for my GP appointment

#dogsoflitsy