A few really good ones, a lot of good ones, and a few disappointments. I read all three of my February #aardvark choices in the month of February! 🎉🎉

Probably my lowest reading month in 5 years! But there were a few I loved. Really enjoying Rachel Harrison! The other two are novel-in-stories type books that fit my short story theme this year.

It‘s going to be a good month!! #aardvark

Well, in keeping with the theme of things going wrong this year…

I had put my membership on pause, but when I saw this Bourdain-adjacent book I have been following for a year was a pick, I unpaused. But it wouldn‘t let me add any more books like Liquid, which sounded cool, or Wild Dark Shore. So I ordered and called an hour later when customer support opened to see if I could add to my box. Nope label printed done and done. ⬇️

So it‘s been a rough year so far, but March is my birthday month, and I‘m hoping to take a day trip to Nashville or Louisville. I‘d like to get to one of the longer books in my TBR read this month (All the Colors…, Playworld, My Friends, etc.), so I threw a spot for that on. If I don‘t pick a February aardvark, 20 will be a wildcard spot. The hints are pointing at some books I‘m interested in, though! #bookspin #doublespin

I loved both my #bookspin and #doublespin this month. Summerwater has rightfully received a lot of love here. Shanghailanders also in that novel-in-stories vibe with the story of a Chinese/Japanese parents with three daughters living in Shanghai after the parents met as young adults in Paris. The story is told in reverse chronological order. I don‘t think that plot device added anything, but the novel was still great! Life update ⬇️

I did do a #bookspin list at the beginning of the month and never posted it. I saw that Summerwater (an old fave from my #roll100) and Shanghailanders (a new find at BN) were chosen.

Things are still crazy here. We‘ve gotten Dad mostly settled in the nursing home (after his second major stroke), and Mom or I is visiting every day. Today, I got clearance to bring Molly, and she came with me. It‘s just still a lot logistically and emotionally. ⬇️

Rare that I see my hometown mentioned (even obliquely) in a book! We‘re known for barbecuing mutton, and I think we have the best burgoo in the South. It‘s a type of hunter‘s stew that generally has 3 meats - a small mammal, a large mammal, and a bird. (A common combination is venison, pheasant, and squirrel (or rabbit).)

In the midst of chaos, there are always books. My dad has had another stroke. It is a long story that I am still too exhausted to tell fully. Mom and I are working to get him in a nursing home next week. Idk guys. Life is never fair.

Filled my @AardvarkBookClub box 💜💜 #aardvark

@BarbaraBB and @squirrelbrain I‘d love to hear from you if you have time, but I can‘t promise a quick reply. 😘😘

Couldn‘t pass up the Ivy! BOTM, have you sucked me back in?

I‘ve mentioned a couple of times that I read all of Bourdain‘s books last year. His still photographer is doing a sale of these fairly reasonably priced prints ($120 US shipping included), and I ended up buying 3 (at his writing desk) and 4 (the iconic middle finger). After all that time with him last year, it‘ll be nice to have him near my bookshelves! Sale ends tomorrow.

http://www.davidscottholloway.com/bourdain-print-sale

Thank you @TheAromaofBooks !! 💜😃 what a great #bookspin prize! Thank you for continuing to keep Litsy spinning.

I had just said to @BarbaraBB in a DM that I wanted this to be the year or the short story, so I am very excited to have this!!

I reworked my #roll100 list earlier this month, and boy am I happy about it!
1-50 is short story collections I‘d like to reread - like Summerwater and Faraway World.
51-75 is new short story collections on my TBR shelf.
76-100 is other books I‘d like to reread. Aesthetica is an early @AardvarkBookClub selection that I‘m excited to revisit. I hope I can get to all/most of these next month!

Oh yeah! Hendrix delivers way more than a horror novel with this one. It‘s an indictment of the treatment of pregnant teens prior to the 1990s couched in a horror framework. He empathetically tells the story women forced to relinquish their children. When four of these teens meet a witch at the bookmobile, they get more than they bargain for while enacting revenge on the owners, doctors, and staff at this home for weyward girls. Flew through this!

It is terrible when parents use their children for fame and income from social media. Shari‘s mom led the family‘s popular YouTube channel and mined every family moment for content. Then her mother fell in with an aspiring Mormon cult leader around Shari‘s departure for college. Four of her siblings still lived at home through the nightmare of her mother‘s descent. (She‘s now in prison.) I respected Shari for leaving her minor sibs out of it, ⬇️

Just a great full-cast audiobook. Lots of enjoyable reveals. Characters to love and hate. Not a perfect book but one worth reading

Cate Kay is the pseudonym of an author running from her past. When she cuts ties with a manager, she finds her literary agent wants her to step out of the shadows and lay it all out. This is her memoir told from her perspective and also by people who have loved her, hated her, and manipulated her.

Some books are just plain inspiring, and this is one for me. It‘s the companion to Don‘t Cry for Me. In DCFM, Isaac‘s father writes about his parenting mistakes as a traditional Southern Black man in the 1970s raising an effeminate son. Here, Isaac explores the ways his father supported him that he didn‘t realize and appreciate during his father‘s lifetime. It‘s a really beautiful companion set of stories. Highly recommend! ⬇️

The organ recipient getting involved in the donor‘s family‘s life is an enjoyable trope for me, so it was no surprise I rated this highly!

Rosie is a romantic and when she loses a long-term bf, she‘s heartbroken. But she finds out she‘s developed cardiomyopathy, too, and needs a transplant. Her donor is the wife of a local author. She starts corresponding with him by anonymous email, but his wife‘s death may not have been an accident. #aardvark

I went in with expectations a bit too high because i just gave her last book (tagged below) 5⭐️ in the Fall. This book deals heavily with suicide as about half of it is a woman trying to write the correct suicide note to her friends and family. Some reveals in the second half 🤐 negatively changed the way I saw the characters, and I think that contributed to this being a more mid-range pick. I do want to reread knowing what happens at the end.

McCorkle is an experienced and talented short story writer. These contained all the elements that should make a great short story. But despite the competent writing, these didn‘t really sing to me. There was nothing particularly memorable or special about them. Low pick.

This is the start of Small Rain. It‘s something, I think, anyone who has been to a US ER with chronic illness/pain would recognize. I was just there going through this the week before Christmas.

What Chuck Klosterman did for The Nineties, Shade does for the 2000s, which she counts from 1997-2008. She looks mainly at pop culture trends, but she looks deeply at them and how they were shaped by national and global forces like the fall of the Soviet Union, the rise of big tech, and the lead up the global recession. Highly recommend!!

It‘s rare that an author can pull off a funny thriller. Give me a Weekend At Bernie‘s element, and I‘m sold!

David goes on a wonderful date only to wake up next to a dead man. He enlists the help of his literary agent to deal with the body, but all she sees is good material for his next book. Once they find out more about his date, they realize they‘re in deep sh!t!!

5+⭐️ I always worry about overselling a book here, but this #toblonglist choice is one of the best books I‘ve ever read. Ten years of PhD research about Allende‘s and Pinochet‘s regimes in Chile culminated in a novel that perfectly captures the fates of an American boy and his Chilean girlfriend when the coup happens. The story is told in sections with three MCs that each illuminate different faces of survivors and their families. Just read it!

5⭐️ count me among the Littens heaping praise on this #tob25 choice! A perfect linked short story collection bringing together New England‘s past and present.

There is still snow here, and it is snowing again! Very unusual for west Kentucky. My friends with kids are going stir crazy as Christmas break just keeps going. Snortles the Snow Pig is starting to get a bit tired of it, too!

This one hit close to home. Like Maddy, I was diagnosed with bipolar in my 20s. While my manic episodes weren‘t quite so crazy, I related to the isolation she felt and (now that I‘m older) the fears her mother had. Once again, Genova hits the perfect note as a neuroscientist and novelist.

Maddy is a student when she starts having bipolar symptoms. She develops an interest in comedy, but her manic episodes make her family fear it‘s not realistic.

I did not know much about Gypsy Rose until I watched The Act on Hulu several years ago. What terror she must‘ve lived through as her mother slowly took her body and stunted her mind through Munchausen by proxy. She wrote about how that isolation made her think there was no way out besides leaning on her violent internet boyfriend. It‘s sad that she felt more free in prison than out. I‘m glad she has supportive family around her now.

Probably because I don‘t care as much about beauty as pop culture, this essay collection didn‘t have as much impact on me as Tacky, but if you want to reflect on how beauty trends affect women, this essay collection is for you. Written by an Allure beauty editor, she separates the hype from the more timeless, the dangerous from the worthwhile, and looks at things (as an Asian-American) with an eye towards positivity and inclusivity.

Fantastic love letter to all things tacky. King looked at some of the tackiest pieces of pop culture in the 2000s (like the Canadian teen soap Degrassi: Next Generation I have on streaming now and my strangely beloved Jersey Shore and ANTM) and expounds on their cultural impact and impact on her own life. If you secretly love trashy shows and still dress as a guidette for Halloween, this is the book for you!

This book about a controlling cult for yuppie Manhattanites was my first read of the year (and I‘m reviewing it on the 10th 😬). It started good but quickly became dull. I think it came down to a lack of concrete examples of the bad behavior of the leader. It somehow got caught up in the tedium of daily life and lacked any kind of punch. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Find me on the storygraph! Same handle. 👍🏻😁

Molly, who we‘ve renamed Snortles the Snow Pig, is enjoying the weather, but it‘s really been difficult for the rest of us. My Wednesday surgery will have to be moved, and we were without help for dad all weekend. I‘ve been reading and even finished one of the best books I‘ve ever read (Short War by Lily Meyer) and another 5⭐️ (History of Sound). Bodes well for the year! Reviews soon!!

Loved this literary thriller! While I knew who the culprit was for most of the book, the excitement was in seeing what they would do next.

A teacher plays favorites among the students in her class, and she‘s so cool that everyone wants to be teacher‘s pet, but when items start to go missing from the classroom, everyone begins pointing fingers with some students more on the outside than ever.

This was a huge surprise hit of the #tob25 shortlist, but it is loooong! Finding out January LaVoy was the narrator pushed me to listen to 23.5 hours of audio, and I don‘t regret it.

It‘s a complicated plot involving three teens who are brought back from death through a key they‘ve found. They find themselves tugged between forces who need the key for themselves. Loved the characters and not YA at all.

Wow did this book suck! Even Molly was frightened of it when I tried to snap her picture with it! The blurb sounded so good, but I could barely care about the characters and the plot was ridiculous in an un-fun way. Beats out Rejection for my new worst of the #tob25 shortlist!

This harness was one of Molly‘s Christmas presents. She hates having her picture taken! We call this chair her throne because it‘s her spot for looking out the window. 😍

I‘m going to try to read my own books again in January! I‘ve almost finished The History of Sound, which is really good. I‘m not sure what‘s up next, though. 🤔 There are like five I sort of feel like reading… #moodreaderproblems #bookspinbingo

Good month for #bookspin. I‘ve got a #toblonglist book and my choice from #botm. If my box were here now I‘ve grab the new Lisa Genova, but it‘s still in Illinois! 👎🏻

Last wrap up post! I started and ended the year with some #tob reads. I‘ve already finished my first book of 2025, but I hope to get to some of my missed reviews tomorrow. The tagged is my best nonfiction of the year. The Wedding People is my best fiction; although I developed a new appreciation for Fates and Furies. Here‘s to a great bookish year! 🎉🥂 May your 2025 be filled with more amazing books! 🫶🏻💜

December wrap-up! Slow Dance was great as was my reread of The Change. I've got to give big thanks to @barbarabb for gifting me Pet for my birthday earlier this year! What a great literary thriller! (Hopefully, I'll review it soon.) December is a difficult month for me health-wise due to my poinsettia allergy, so I was happy to escape into fiction and rereads for most of the month.

List locked in I hope! #bookspin #bookspinbingo

New month for #aardvark and once again I filled my box! (My excuse that I‘m having surgery next week and may not be able to get to the library.) I couldn‘t miss out on The Reformatory again even though I‘m a bit worried about the length. The other two are mystery/thriller tropes that work well for me. What did everyone else pick?

I enjoy picking up this challenge again every December, and I think I‘m going to do it in January, too. Three bingos all with one DNF (over 50 pages in). I‘ll take it!

Best = Slow Dance
Worst = The Extinction of Irena Rey

#bookspinbingo

Thought I‘d try my hand at #roll100 again! (Can you add me to the tag list @PuddleJumper ?)

I‘ve added some books I‘d like to reread this year, so that‘s going to be fun. 96 and 57 are rereads but 62 is new. Wonder what this mood reader will pick! 🤷🏻‍♀️

Happy New Year y‘all!!

I just wrote to @Hooked_on_books that #botm is that good-kisser ex I keep slithering back to and always feel a bit ick about. My main issue with them is the whole main pick versus add-on thing. I thought Rats or Maddy would be a main pick, but I had to rejoin to find out they weren‘t. 😡🙄 But I loved Daniel Black‘s last book, so I rolled with this box. Plus I hate that you have to be a “friend” to get a decent add-on price. Sigh. #botm

Great contemporary fiction following the lives of teachers in a large busy high school in Houston. Each chapter focuses on a different person weaving together the year. Lots of tough topics like death, abortion, immigration, and book banning but somehow the book is really uplifting. An excellent choice if you needs a hopeful book with substance!

I knew I was saving this for a reason. It was the perfect Christmas Day book. Her characters are so real. She is one of the best dialogue writers I‘ve ever read. Nothing felt forced or artificial about this friends-to-lovers contemporary fiction.

Shiloh and Cary were best friends in high school but grew apart after graduation. Brought together years later at a friend‘s wedding, divorced mom Shiloh and Naval officer Cary reconnect.

@Chrissyreadit thank you thank you!! This was the book I most wanted from my list, and I love this adorable box full of Reese‘s!! It is definitely staying and getting used next year for something, and I‘m truly happy to have a food that is safe for my celiac and MCAS! Merry Christmas to you!! #JSwap24

@MaleficentBookDragon thank you for bringing this wonderful tradition to litsy year after year! Merry Christmas!! 🎄🫶🏻

I never thought I‘d do this, but I‘ve fully switched to a Libro.fm membership now that they have a two-credit option. There‘s a small bookstore in a nearby town that I can‘t get to often enough, so I‘m happy to be able to support them. I guess I‘ll miss the audible-exclusive titles, but I‘ve had my membership on hold for three months and really didn‘t miss it then. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It‘s a sunny day here, and a great day to be completely spoiled by @BarbaraBB !! Wow!! Two great book AND a Persephone pouch! 😍😍 Awesome bath and beauty items! And a Gladstone‘s pencil plus page flags!! (One day I‘ll get to go myself. 🤞🏻🤞🏻) Thank you so much, B!! Merry Christmas!! 🎄❄️

I loved this comic book thriller! From the comics pages as part of the story to the good guy versus supervillain showdown in the end.

Annie grew up loving comics with her best friend Danny. As adults, they work for the same comic book company. When they both quit, their lives go in opposite directions. When Annie is given the chance to revive a favorite discontinued character, she gets more trouble than she bargained for. #aardvark

Taffy is so good at teasing apart family relationships and finding what makes characters tick. I wish the ending hadn‘t wrapped so quickly, though.

A wealthy father is kidnapped and tortured for a week. He comes back a broken man to his wife and young children. It affects each of the three kids differently into adulthood. When the family money dries up, they have a reckoning with what their lives have become.