New library borrow, and the library bag a quilter friend made me #litsycrafters #pokemon
I won four Firsts and four Seconds in my state Royal Show! Everything I entered won a prize. Here are some of them. #litsycrafters
I've started a new blanket - this is Poppy by Ineke Mooijenkind. #litsycrafters
Reading: Champion, a graphic novel about a high school basketball player who starts to discover a wide world of art and social justice while working on a project about the author.
Just checking in, because I've had a Pan or two lately, to say that I'm halfway through this sapphic Jupiter murder mystery and absolutely loving it.
panI don't get the hype. The translation was clunky, & it's repetitive & overexplained. Every single story involves women sacrificing themselves and their own lives & interests for others.
I guess that's what I get for breaking my guideline by reading a male author who doesn't come very highly recced by people I trust. And for reading SF by a non-SF author.
It did fill the swap shelf prompt in #urc2025 #URC though! @Faranae
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I never updated on that GenmaichaTea Shawl - it's done now!
Tagged is my current read (via Libby)
#crochet #litsycrafters
With Gouda Friends being the obvious fill for #dairyfairy, I'm done for #fourfoursin25 !
I‘m ashamed to say I know more about Tuskegee than about these abuses in my own backyard. Library borrow.
Plucked out of my Little Free Library. Thanks, unknown book friend!
On my hook: Marinus blanket in Sultan Pastello gradient cotton #litsycrafters #crochet
September is done! #WickedWords @AsYouWish
Best: Gouda Friends was a pretty fun romance.
Worst: Road Trip, URGH.
Graphic novel well worth checking out: The Puzzling Fate of Millicent Graves: this is really fun. Read it for yourself or gift it to a middle grade person in your life.
pickSurprise fill of the last prompt for September! Wait, how is it September already??
#WickedWords @AsYouWish
Well I got through 224 pages of Gouda Friends while we were at the emergency vet with this fellow tonight, so I'd say it's pretty good. Friends to lovers, and yes there is cheese.
Why vet? The elderly Mr Darcy took an awkward fall off a table and jarred his arthritic hips badly. No fractures thankfully and we took the opportunity to run bloods which were all good. He's on 3-5 days of bupe, nsaids and pregabalin then review
Cathy Yardley hasn't let me down before, so fingers crossed for this unicorn chaser. Hard to go wrong with cheese.
OK, Road Trip does have one redeeming feature, which is that the title is Damson colour, completing my New York autumn/winter #Pantone2025 #readingchallenge !
panHow is this book a snoozefest that also makes me furious? How are people calling it a “cute romcom“?
It features no chemistry btw MCs, dual timeline that doesn't justify itself, a road trip that doesn't make sense, miscommunication trope, a stalker, alcoholism, and an attempted rape. Every man in this book, the MMC included, is absolutely irredeemably toxic and should never be allowed a woman ever again. I loved The Flatshare, but hated this.
This was a cute little graphic novel about three monsters who are trying to fit in (and not be killed by monster hunters). Some allegory going on about systemic violence and the Klan, but I'm not sure how well it worked. Also found family, be yourself, yadda yadda.
#Mask #WickedWords @AsYouWish
This is a highly original take on Three Fates myths - I really enjoyed it!
#email #WickedWords @AsYouWish
Also done #FictionalTraveler already! September is English-Speaking and I read a greatly-updated graphic re-imagining of the Huckleberry Finn story. It's excellent. @julieclair
Off and racing with #MonthlyNonfiction2025 for September - this graphic nonfiction book about the Redbone rock band. It was just so-so for me, but interesting in parts.
@julieclair
Finally some movement on my #fourfoursin25 #fourfours reading challenge! My first prompt fill for months, #picketcricket . Only one to go!
How's your challenge going? @thebacklistbook @clwojick @TheAromaofBooks @lizpixie @AbigailJaneBlog @CoffeeNBooks @ReadingRachael @mcipher @AbigailJaneBlog @PageShifter @Jas16 @willaful @bekakins @ImperfectCJ
#WickedWords wrap for August. I think my pick would be Lost in the Moment and Found, though Ballad wins in the Exceeding my Expectations (which were low) stakes. @AsYouWish
"Happy birthday, Haymitch!"
#firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl
Working on a GenmaichaTea shawl in this very fine and soft Sultan Deluxe cotton. #showandtelltuesday @Catsandbooks
pickAnnnnd... once again I just plain adore an Olympus, Inc book. This one's a sapphic (both MCs are bi) romantic suspense. It's set in an island festival, with the romance being between a single-mum burlesque performer and a fallen-from-grace influencer/photographer. It's body positive and sex work positive and fun. Also, there are murders.
Extra kudos to Healey for writing an X book to finish off my #LitsyAtoZ #LitsyAtoZ2025 @TexReader #LetterX
This is an absolutely superb graphic memoir of George Takei's life. I learned a lot more about his political activism, and about the forces that led to him leading most of his life closeted. The book brilliantly balances this sadness with fire and hope and joy.
Reading George Takei's second graphic memoir. It's very good, albeit with the pervasive sadness of him needing to be closeted.
Library haul: local "Indigiverse" graphic novels by Scott Wilson and Molly Hunt. These new superhero stories are based in First Nations lore and language.
Another instalment in the Wayward Children series that I absolutely loved. No surprises there.
And the last word for August! #WickedWords @AsYouWish
Continental Drifter is an excellent graphic memoir about a childhood spent between Bangkok and Maine, and the search for belonging.
And it has a lighthouse on the cover, so that's July done! #ISpyBingo #ISpy @TheAromaOfBooks
Also. Bangkok is Somewhere Hot @julieclair #FictionalTraveler
Fully up to date with my #goodreads Summer Challenge! Are you participating? How are you going?
Great title, but a disappointing read. Lack of formatting was very offputting. But my biggest critique was pacing/plot. This felt like a poorly-edited first half of an overlong book. There were threads I expected to be part of a denouement, like certain recurring social media commenters, but the book just tailed off half-heartedly at the end instead of anything happening or any significant personal growth occurring.
I‘m really enjoying the art in the new Wizard of Earthsea graphic novel . Atmospheric and beautiful .
Found the sixties in this graphic memoir! #WickedWords @AsYouWish
Also my August nonfiction for #MonthlyNonfiction2025 @julieclair
Is this a cheat? Nah, it's a flexible challenge! #WickedWords @AsYouWish
I picked this up for the Goodreads debut challenge, and I'm quite enjoying it so far.
Cute, magical, queer graphic novel.
#WickedWords @AsYouWish
I was tentative going in, but ended up really enjoying this! It's not super pace-y or anything, but I thought Collins adeptly trod the balance of writing a character who we all know turns out terribly.
#WickedWords @AsYouWish
Finally found #lightning ! And I have a book out of the library with a piano on the cover.
#ISpyBingo #ISpy @TheAromaOfBooks
#dogsoflitsy
That is all
Finally found a Z book! #LitsyAtoZ #LitsyAtoZ2025 @TexReader
Only X to go now, and I know what I'm reading there (XO, Xena by Kate Healey)
This was a sweet, magical graphic novel. Good fun.
The 2nd half of the #Pantone2025 #readingchallenge is HEEERE!
This challenge is based on Fashion Week seasonal trend colours, this time for the northern hemisphere Autum and Winter. Please note there are TWO grids - for London (orange border) and NY (mauve border).
To play, just find a colour in a book cover, then plonk the cover into the grid. There are no other rules! Colours are listed in text in comments. Share and enjoy.
@litsyevents
The 2nd half of the #Pantone2025 #readingchallenge is HEEERE!
This challenge is based on Fashion Week seasonal trend colours, this time for the northern hemisphere Autum and Winter. Please note there are TWO grids - for London (orange border) and NY (mauve border).
To play, just find a colour in a book cover, then plonk the cover into the grid. There are no other rules! Colours are listed in text in comments. Share and enjoy.
@litsyevents
Another entry for the lettering hall of shame, but I am excited about this new project on the hook. Malduguns Fen Fire Sweater by Linda Skuja. I'm doing it as a light cotton top. #litsycrafters
I'm not sure what to say about this, except that I don't think it's as clever as it thinks it is.
Words springing to mind are “leaden“, “trite“, “superficial“, and “gimmicky“, but if I said all of that you'd think I hated it. I didn't. It was just meh.
I think I just like my books about stereotypes and marginalisation to have at least a smidgen of intersectionality. A tiny nod. A soupçon.
BUT it did fill Acclaimed Titles in my GR challenge.
Beautifully illustrated book of creation stories from the Yindjibarndi people of northwestern Australia.
#MonthlyNonfiction2025 @julieclair
![[tagged book]](https://image.librarything.com/pics/litsy_webpics/icon_taggedBook@3x.png){kind=icon}
