I have managed to read several books for my Novella November, but not as many as I hoped.

The Diesel is a fantastical story of a transgender person in UAE, hard to make sense of. The tagged was a retelling of Shakespeare. Memory is dense and more non-fictional than I liked, but several chapters were completely engrossing. In Sicily is a picture of it's time. And Sacrifice was enjoyable and also forgettable.

Up next, I think, is Hard Times.

I was surprised to find a cookbook for #FoodandLit #Chile in the library. So many tasty looking recipes, but I settled on just making ensalada de repollo con zanahoria, crema de garbanzos, tortilla de lechuga, and the irresistible chupe de mariscos.

After finishing Clarissa (and Julie, or the New Eloise), I need to read some sort works. I've been thinking of some sort of "Novella November". So, I've chosen 11 books under 200 pages to read this month.

#Novellaember ? Hmmm, must work on the hashtag...

Belated Weekly Report:

There finally was a nice day with morning sunshine for my picture 😊

I have read the amusing meta-fictional The Age of Goodbyes and finally! finished #Clarissa 🎇🎆🎉

So, of course, I have started another 18th C epistolary novel, Julie or the New Eloise 😳🙄 For something completely different (that I can carry on the subway), I am also reading the tagged book.

Weekly Report

Almost done with Clarissa! So, of course, I've started another 18th century epistolary novel 😂 This one is overwrought. Also reading the quite meta Age of Goodbyes. And because my hold from several months ago came through, I read Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

I may have gone a little overboard at the Brooklyn Book Festival....

16 books from 14 different indie publishers

Occasional Weekly Report:

Finally finished the Rushdie. Excellent, wordy and I should have read it during a vacation. Also read Ivory Pearl which was delightful until it abruptly stops because the author never finished it. And read, start to finish, very quickly the love letter to NYC that is The World We Made.

Always reading Clarissa and about to start Love in a Fallen City and/or The Great Believes.

🤣 I ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 N.K. Jemisin.

Weekly Report

I've finished the tagged #CostaRica book of short stories and Fugitive Telemetry.

The rest of my books are long and slow going 🫤

Clarissa continues, the Rushdie reads much slower than I thought it would, and I'm having trouble getting into the Kesey.

Weekly Report

I had a productive reading week. I've finished How the One-armed..., In the Forest, Born into This, and Eclipse of the Crescent Moon.

Clarissa is ongoing, as always. And I think I will start The Grind Benefit Her Feet next.

It's been awhile since I've finished a book or posted a weekly report. I'm reading some long ones and so keep starting others that I hope will hold my attention!

The tagged is a Hungarian classic from the #1001Books list. Clarissa, of course. In the Forest has a darker subject than I wanted and Born into This is short stories that are good for subway reading.

August's #TitlesandTunes took some thought. The somewhat absurd “Pulling Mussels (from the shell)“ with it's beach holiday images seemed a nice counterpoint to the (probably violent) noir story of a war orphan turned photojournalist (with the help of a rich man) taking a break in Cuba. In 1956.

I've substituted the actual Shakespeare quote above for #TheWorldIsMyOyster. 😊

@Cinfhen @BarbaraBB

Not too bad! The goals were:
60% owned-TBR
40% Women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+
33% translated works
51% published before 2000 😒
33% 1001-Books

I am behind in #ReadingtheAmericas (want to read a total of 18 for the year) and just where I should be for #FoodandLIt.

I so rarely read non-fiction anything above 1 book is a success. 😂

For #TitlesandTunes I may not get to this story of “love, death, and rock 'n' roll“ in July (and save it for August's #AuthorAMonth), but I do want to read it soonish. Who doesn't love an Orfeo retelling?

Too many #sexdrugsandrockandroll songs to choose from, but “Rock and Roll Lifestyle“ by Cake has been stuck in my head for several days now. You're welcome?

@Cinfhen, @BarbaraBB

Occasional Weekly Report:

I just got back from a chill family visit, reading almost a book a day. So, I've finished The Romantics (quiet, bittersweet), The Restless (interesting structure), After the Death of Don Juan (longish postscript of a well known story), The Tree of Man (stoic view of Australian frontier), and Laidlaw (early Scottish noir).

Still reading Clarissa and almost done with the tagged book.

Perfect book for a quiet, contemplative day at the lake.

😳😳😳

#Clarissa

Just bringing a little light reading to the roof deck for a sunset drink.

@TheHeartlandBookFairy

As always, waiting until the last minute because I kept changing my mind. These are 14 owned books that I am planning to read before Labor Day. #14books14weeks2023

Some #1001Books, Some books for #ReadingtheAmericas2023, a bookclub book, and some just because.

My reading seems to have slowed down lately, I can't figure out why....

😹😹😹 #CatsofLitsy #Bert

I've finished Three Lives and Baba Yaga. And then started I the Supreme. Doctor Thorne and Clarissa continue....

I finished The Hidden Palace, a fun read and have started a couple of other books. Hoping to finish Three Lives today and continue slowly working my way through Doctor Thorne, Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and as always, Clarissa.

Belated Weekly Report.

I've finished Salt Crystals and have started reading a few other books. The Hidden Palace for bookclub, Doctor Thorne, and of course there is the every present Clarissa. Tagged book is not pictured, but is a pleasant interlude from the others.

BEFORE the reader is introduced to the modest country medical practitioner who is to be the chief personage of the following tale, it will be well that he should be made acquainted with some particulars as to the locality in which, and the neighbours among whom, our doctor followed his profession.

#FirstLineFridays

And I'm off, on an early start #Trollopeing through Barsetshire.

Love how the #IslandVibes goes so well with #ReadingTheAmericas2023! Oddly, I chose one of my few non-Caribbean books for this month, though -- a book set on a Colombian island.

#TitlesAndTunes

@Cinfhen @BarbaraBB

Occasional Weekly Report:

I've recently finished the pictured books. Of course I am still reading Clarissa and I need to settle on the next read. Probably the tagged for bookclub or wait to see what BookSpin chooses for me.

Weekly Report

Still reading (surprise) Clarissa. And Dog Years. I've started The House of Broken Angels so I can have something lighter where I can see I'm making progress. 😂

I am making some progress on my reading goals. But it's time to trade off: more 1001 books and therefore fewer female authors.

And maybe I should read a nonfiction book? Or maybe I should have chosen a more cheerful color to make it more encouraging?

(Almost) Weekly Report

I've finally finished The Rainbow! Very dense writing. I've also read A World of Love and The Silentiary.

And because I'm me I have immediately started another big, difficult book. Also, always, trying to keep up with Clarissa.

It finally feels like spring - a day with beautiful sunshine and warm temperatures!

I've been eating lunch from the tagged #Syria cookbook all week for #FoodandLit. As I am feeling too lazy to plate it properly, here is a picture of my many lunch containers. 😆

Itsch Salad – Bulgar Salad
Baklava (store bought)
Shorbat adas – Red Lentil Soup
Lob el kossa – Zucchini with Garlic and Mint
Foul ma‘ala – Fava Beans with Cilantro and Garlic
Zahra – Spicy Roasted Cauliflower

@Texreader, @Catsandbooks

#Clarissa is no fool? 🤔 Time will tell.

Weekly Report

I've finished The Silence and the Roar and read Elena Knows. The Rainbow and Clarissa continue and I also started A World of Love.

... It was a sort of romantic situation that she knew so well in fiction she hardly understood it in fact.

Weekly Report

I finished Nana and am still (always) continuing with #Clarissa and The Rainbow.

I've started The Silence and the Roar, set in #Syria for #FoodandLit.

Weekly Report

Continuing on with these three biggish books. Nana continues to entertain, #Clarissa to rile up, and The Rainbow to expound.

I obtained a copy from the library, just to get a sense of how the book is laid out. From the table of letters, I now understand why the dates all go awry -- characters enclose other people's letters, written/received much earlier, in with their present day letters.

It will be interesting to see how some of the characters get ahold of some of the other letters they include!

#Clarissa, @Lcsmcat

Weekly Report

I'm stuck in some slow (but good!) Books. I really am reading The Rainbow-- it's my subway book. Nana is my read at home book and I am beginning to get back into #Clarissa. I needed a "light" book and so I read Death.

Weekly Report

I finally acquired a complete copy and therefore finished Celestial Harmonies. I also read W Or the Memory of Childhood and Tentacle. I've started Nana and am closer to resuming The Rainbow.

Oh noes!

Weekly Report

I am reading a little of Celestial Harmonies each day and I think I'll restart The Rainbow as my subway book this week. I'm halfway through the Perec (tagged). I finished, a few days late, Kintu and then read The Sandman Overture. And somehow, not only have I not killed my plant, it bloomed!

Ten squares completed and I even managed a BINGO! Thanks for such a wonderful challenge, @TheAromaofBooks 😊

Structured as Cedar‘s journal to her unborn child, our knowledge of the impending genetic catastrophe is limited to what she knows/experiences, resulting in an undefined world and a novel with bad pacing. The first section slowly establishes the apocalypse as Cedar‘s world diminishes. The second part is tightly knit with a dramatic turning point followed by a disjointed and anticlimactic final section. Rushed to print, it needed better editing.

I finished Future Home of the Living God.

I'm still pretending to be reading The Rainbow and Celestial Harmonies and I've started Kintu.

A perfectly crafted monologue of a wealthy, elite San Salvadorian gossiping about her best friend‘s murder. I loved her tirades about the police‘s attempts to besmirch Olga Maria's impeccable reputation all the while detailing OM‘s extramarital affairs and mixed with barbed comments about the victim‘s husband, lovers, family and occasional snotty remarks about others‘ improprieties. The end twist was more unsettling than the one for which I hoped.

I‘m not a fan of “whodunit“ books and I suspect this is an even more plodding example than usual. In many places the author mistakes a list of facts/directions as plot. Written over years, it began as a series of anecdotes. There are too many ideas, none fleshed out properly. Despite this, it's not an entirely bad book. I did enjoy the 1940s NYC setting, the name dropping of the many artists, the multi-narrator structure, and the central mystery.

I was so looking forward this! It‘s engaging with snappy dialogue. It‘s fabulous to have a narrator who‘s brilliant and doesn't take any crap. Except, as a female chemist in the 1960s she‘s getting crap from everyone and no amount of smartness will overcome that. The situations described, all too present in the real world, seem ridiculous and exaggerated due to the simplistic representation. I disliked the mismatch between tone and events.

@BennettBookworm What a fabulous idea for your #20kgiveaway -- I can't wait to see the list of independent bookstore you compile!

I am fortunate to live in an area of Brooklyn with almost a dozen independent bookstores with “walking distance“. While I love McNally Jackson for their usefulness in various geographic reading challenges, the tagged bookstore (The Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, NY) is my favorite for browsing and discovery.

I finished She-Devil in the Mirror, which was delightful; Diverse Spines for which I need to go back through and add all the books to my TBR; and Endless Nights.

I am, of course, still reading Clarissa. This is my weekly reminder that I need to continue on with Celestial Harmonies and The Rainbow and I want to start Future Home of the Living Good.

Weekly Report

I've finished An Exquisite Corpse and Lessons in Chemistry and should return to one of my paused books: She Devil, Celestial Harmonies, or The Rainbow. Instead I'll probably read more Sandman. And the Clarissa year-long read, of course.

Weekly Report

I finished Cold Enough for Snow, my first book for #AuldLangSpine, which was lovely.

After more than a year of (mostly not) reading it, I finally finished Blonde

Currently reading An Exquisite Corpse for bookclub, so Celestial Harmonies, The Rainbow, and The She-Devil in the Mirror are paused.

Also slowly reading through the tagged, which is excellent.